Episode #51:
Creating Prosperity on Purpose with Ellen Rogin

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Prosperity, generosity, abundance…what do these words mean to you as a business owner? Ellen Rogin, CPA, CFP®, Abundance Activist®, TEDx Speaker, and best-selling author has made her life’s work educating, counseling, and guiding people to grow their prosperity and to use it as a force for good in their lives and in the world. In this fun and unique episode, Ellen and Caterina discuss how entrepreneurs can infuse philanthropy so that it actually generates prosperity for them. This conversation will change the way you think about philanthropy and help you embrace a more abundant mindset in your business and your life!

 

Ellen Rogin, CPA, CFP® and Abundance Activist® has made her life’s work educating, counseling, and guiding people to grow their prosperity and to use it as a force for good in their lives and in the world.

She is the co-author of NY Times best-seller, Picture Your Prosperity: Smart Money Moves to Turn Your Vision into Reality.

Ellen speaks across the globe on creating success and abundance.

Chock full of “left-brain” credentials (MBA, CPA, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™), Ellen also walks on the “right” side, balancing values, big picture ideas, meditation and a sense of humor with her professional training. She’s as comfortable talking about the power of compound interest as she is the power of belief.

Ellen is a TEDx presenter, and her work has been quoted in such national publications as The New York Times, Money, Time.com, and Forbes.com.

Ellen also consults with people to enhance their relationship with money by tapping into her years of experience and intuition for personalized messages from money.

Connect with Ellen:

Expand Your Fempire Podcast #51 Transcript

Creating Prosperity on Purpose with Ellen Rogin

Welcome to Expand your Fempire with Caterina Rando, the podcast for women in business on a mission. Sharing ideas to support you to grow and thrive. Now here’s your host, Caterina Rando.

[00:00:29]Caterina Rando: [00:00:29] Welcome back to another episode of the Expand Your Fempire podcast. I am so excited today because we have an amazing guest Ellen Rogin. Ellen is the author of Picture Your Prosperity. Ellen and I have known each other for many, many years. We worked together many years ago when Ellen was taking her speaking to another level.

[00:00:57] She is all over. She’s a TEDx speaker and we also are in the same community of women with Laura Gisborne where I have seen her present many, many times. Ellen has massive value to bring, and I am blissing to have her here with us today. Ellen, thank you for being with us.

[00:01:20] Ellen Rogin: [00:01:20] Oh, my gosh, what an honor. And we have known each other a long time. You were very instrumental in me working on a lot of my marketing materials when I first got started being out there as a paid speaker and doing more speaking to build my business. So, just so grateful to know you and see all the beautiful things you do to support your community, Caterina.

[00:01:40] Caterina Rando: [00:01:40] Thank you. I am grateful to know you. I have not only learned many things from you. I have been uplifted many times by being in the same room with you. And of course, while I’m hearing you present. You have an amazing entrepreneurial journey.

[00:01:58] I would love everyone to hear your entrepreneurial journey before we dive into some prosperity super tips and ideas. Let’s hear about it.

[00:02:09] Ellen Rogin: [00:02:09] I spent most of my professional career as a financial advisor, working one-on-one with people to help them get from where they are, to where they want to be. And that was a business that we served our clients beautifully with, but I always had this inkling that I was meant to do something bigger and different.

[00:02:31] So I built that business based on what I know you teach a lot of your community and clients about was through speaking. And so that’s how I started to get my first clients when I was just starting out and realized pretty early that I liked speaking a lot more than I like being a financial advisor.

[00:02:50] So it took me a while. I grew my business and, you know, did very well for our family and for our clients. And after about 28 years, about three years ago sold my practice.

[00:03:02] And the idea being that at this point, I really know that my work in the world is to impact a lot more people, to help them create prosperity on purpose, whether that’s in their personal life or in their business life. And I honestly couldn’t sit by anymore and not do that. And so that was the impetus.

[00:03:25] Caterina Rando: And now you’re in a new chapter where you are full-time speaking, training, mindset coaching for women. This is wonderful. One of the reasons, Ellen, why you know I wanted to have you on is because you and I have the same value of philanthropy in our business. And you also believe as I, that we don’t have to wait until we are millionaires or we have everything in our financial life ideal before we start to embrace philanthropy.

[00:04:01] Will you share with our listeners how they can get started? Because some of our listeners may feel like they don’t have a lot of surplus and I would love for you to advise, how do we infuse philanthropy so really we’re doing philanthropy, but we’re not really feeling it on the bottom line?

[00:04:20] Ellen Rogin: [00:04:20] Yeah. I’ll talk about it way that really relates to how it can actually generate prosperity for you. So I believe that generosity proceeds prosperity. And that it really comes first.

[00:04:34] This idea of giving back actually rubs me a little bit the wrong way. I think you need to give forward. And let me explain it this way.

[00:04:43] When I was, um, in that the great recession, and I know it’s similar with, you know, whenever with the pandemic and when things have been difficult for people, there’s this fear, this scarcity fear that comes up for most people of ” I’m not going to be okay.”

[00:04:59] And if you can imagine grasping on to what you have with the energy of, “I’m not going to be okay, I’m not going to be okay.” And if you make a fist, you can’t possibly receive when your hands are clenched. And that energy goes around how you are in your business or with your money as well.

[00:05:16] And when you can loosen that grip a bit and start to give some of your financial resources, it opens the flow to more coming to you. Um, this is not just a metaphysical concept of “what goes around, comes around,” which I actually believe. And it’s foundational to how I grew my business before and how I’m growing it now.

[00:05:39] But the studies have shown that more generous people actually make more money. That countries that are more generous, like the United States, have higher GDPs.

…the studies have shown that more generous people actually make more money. – Ellen Rogin

[00:05:49] There’s an interesting thing that happens in our brains when we are financially generous, there’s something called a subjective wealth. So the way this works is if you, for example, we’re writing a $500 check to charity. In your mind, you’ve translated like, “oh, I must be wealthy to be able to do that.” And it feels as good as getting a $10,000 raise.

[00:06:13] So it’s this funny thing that happens in our brains. And it’s easy to feel like, “oh, I’m not okay” or “when I have more money, I’ll give.” Thing is, anyone listening to this is way better off than most of the people in the world, right?

[00:06:29] So it may be stressful. I’m not stepping over that. There may be difficult things. It can feel like that for sure. And there may be, um, challenges that are up. But what I know is when you give even small amounts, it starts to make you feel better. And when you’re feeling better, you’re going to be better in a sales conversation. You’re going to be better in front of an audience. You’re going to be better in front of a client to truly build your business.

[00:06:56] Caterina Rando: And Ellen, it sounds like what you’re discussing really is a prosperity mindset. Would you agree?

[00:07:03] Ellen Rogin:  A hundred percent.

[00:07:05] Caterina Rando: And this is the first thing I would say, that you would say, which is step one to embrace philanthropy and, and actually have more prosperity, embrace philanthropy, but also a prosperity mindset. Yes?.

[00:07:21]Ellen Rogin: [00:07:21] Yeah, for sure. And I call it more of a abundance mindset, but same thing, right? That there’s this way we can think of like, there’s more than enough to go around. When we can get really grounded in “I’m going to be okay.”

[00:07:35] Like, of course, you want to be more than okay.

[00:07:37] Caterina Rando: Right.

[00:07:38] Ellen Rogin: But what I’ve seen over the years is when people can get to, “I’m going to be okay,” then they can step over into, “so how much can I give? How can I truly make a difference?”

[00:07:49] And I can give a quick tip in terms of how to implement this in your life if that would be helpful. Okay.

[00:07:56] So most of you out there probably heard that you should pay yourself first. This idea of saving off the top. And that’s really a great strategy in your own business.

[00:08:08] You can set up all different kinds of retirement plans, anything from a simple IRA or Roth IRA to a SAP, or a SIMPLE plan or a 401k. And we know that works because when things are set up automatically, it’s easier.

[00:08:23] So I would say, on a similar note, to set up a systematic giving plan. To take money off the top, to put into a separate account, to be given away to charities or people or causes that speak to you.

So I would say, on a similar note, to set up a systematic giving plan. To take money off the top, to put into a separate account, to be given away to charities or people or causes that speak to you. -Ellen Rogin

 

[00:08:40] What I started to do when I wrote my first book, Great With Money, my coauthor at the time, Melissa Burke, had talked about how there’s this idea of taking money off the top and taking a percentage. And the cool thing about a percentage is that as your income goes up, you proportionately give more.

[00:08:59] If it were to go down, you give less, which is probably appropriate. And, um, what I started to do was just take money off the top. I did it quarterly because at the time that’s when most of my income came in. And I just put it in a simple money market account. Wasn’t any fancy charitable thing, which you can do down the road when you’re giving more money away.

[00:09:20] And it was taking it from my regular checking account to put it in this other account earmarked for giving did a couple of things.

[00:09:26] First of all, when I was chicken at the beginning about doing this and I started with 10% and I was like, “oh, that feels like a lot. I’m not sure.” It was just in a savings account in my name. I didn’t give it away just yet. I knew I could get it back if I needed it, which over many, many years, my husband and I have never taken it back. You know, that money that was earmarked, but it also let me do a couple of things.

[00:09:50] When I was giving it away from this separate account, it had me, first of all, knowing what I could give because I had a plan. There was money that was accumulating in there and I ended up being more generous.

[00:10:02] Because if someone was walking in a breast cancer walk or raising money for something, I found that I was making a bigger donation than I was before. Kind of giving them a standing ovation for their good work.

[00:10:13] And when it was something that was really important to my husband and myself, we knew what we had to give. Like, even if it seemed like a big number, like, “oh, we have more than that in our giving account.” So it gave discipline and also felt different than just giving money out of my checking account. So that’s an easy suggestion that I have for people.

[00:10:34] Caterina Rando: Ellen, I love that. In fact, yesterday I was listening to the book Profit First, when I was driving home from my massage and he was talking about having all these accounts set up and how you have things go in there automatically. And I was thinking to myself yesterday that this is exactly what I’m going to do. Because although we give on a regular basis, I don’t have a separate place for it, a separate account. And that way I can have that experience that you’re having, which is, “Hey, we’ve got plenty in there. Yes, we can do this. Yes, we can make a bigger contribution.”

[00:11:18] And the day before yesterday, I made a contribution for one of my clients who was having a fundraiser. And now that I reflect on it, I bet if I had this account, Ellen, I bet I would have given two or three or four times more because I would have had plenty of money in that account. If I had been putting it aside on a regular basis.

[00:11:42] I love this because part of my generosity plan, and I know you are very big on generosity, which we’ll discuss next, is to be an insta-yes whenever a client tells me that they’re having a fundraiser or raising money for a cause. And I know that that’s how you roll also.

[00:12:03] Let’s talk a little bit about generosity in business, because that is a place where we are very aligned.

[00:12:12] Ellen Rogin: Yeah. So in addition to all that you just said, one quick tip on the financial giving.

[00:12:17] What we did when our company was 20 years old, as I sent a letter to all my clients saying, “I’d like to donate a hundred dollars to your charity of choice,” and it did a couple of things. A, it felt good for us. B, they were like, “really like, you’re actually going to do this?” C, I learned what their favorite charity was.

[00:12:35] Which I had people’s tax returns cause I was a financial advisor, I probably could have discerned that, but I got what their favorite charity was. Not just places they gave money to. So that’s like a financial thing, but the generosity, which I know you know, cause you live this, is also Key in me building my business.

[00:12:53] And the generosity, I don’t just mean financial giving. So if I wanted more referrals, my goal was how many referrals can I give? How many referrals can I give? And the referral could be to someone logical as a financial advisor it might’ve been to an attorney or an accountant. Could have been to a massage therapist.

[00:13:10] Could have been that if I knew someone great, but didn’t exactly know how to refer to them… like I can think of some therapists I knew and it wasn’t always easy to refer, for me for them. But I could give them the gift or generosity of platform, and there’s a lot more ways to do that now. So the platform could be getting them on a podcast, could be sharing their social media. It could be liking it.

[00:13:35] It could be giving them a LinkedIn, not just that box you check, but an actual recommendation. Like, “oh my gosh, you should have Caterina on your stage. She’s amazing.”

[00:13:45] And so there’s ways you can be generous like that and not, which I know your people would know, but it’s not a “give to get.” Like old school financial services, it was like, “I’ll give you business, but you got to give it back to me.”

[00:13:59] I was never like that. If I give you business and you did a great job for my client or my referral. Yay. It will come back from someone else. It just works that way.

[00:14:10] Caterina Rando: I love this, Ellen. I love this, especially that you’re focused on getting more referrals for your clients. And of course, that will result in more referrals.

[00:14:25] This makes me very happy because I’m going to do this. I’m going to identify because we have lots of clients. I will identify though, every month, certain clients to put extra attention on for referrals. And I bet it will work because what you focus on is what you get, right? This is very exciting. I think this is a great practice for all of our listeners.

[00:14:49] Okay, great. Now, Ellen, I know you have a lifetime supply of more ideas around generosity and prosperity and abundance mindset. Let’s get a couple more from you before we begin to wrap up.

[00:15:06] Ellen Rogin: Yeah, I love this idea. What you just said about what you put out, comes back to you and energetically. So maybe we could just talk briefly about the difference between scarcity and abundance, because I think people hear those terms and they don’t actually know what that means.

[00:15:22] So, let’s start with scarcity because I think most of the world lives in this place most of the time. So this is most obviously aggressive competition.

[00:15:33] Like “there’s only so much to go around. For you to win, then I have to lose or the other way around.” And this idea of generosity helps move that part up to the abundance idea. Like “there’s more than enough to go around.”

[00:15:47] I always thought that in my financial advisory practice, there’s 311,000 financial advisors, okay? But there was always someone that was going to hire me and not the other person. I always felt like there was more than enough. So I would collaborate or share ideas with peers, not my competition. I never looked at it that way.

[00:16:06] It could be this like nagging thing that happens to all of us. Something good happens to someone in your life and instead of being super excited, you’re like, “wish that had happened to me.” Whether it’s they’re dating a great guy or they got this new job, or they got this great client that is a scarcity focus versus being so excited for them.

[00:16:26] And if we think about it… I’m reading this book now called the Trance of Scarcity and she talks about how it can be an embodied practice. Like you think about what it would feel like to feel scarcity. It’s restrictive, right? It’s like clenching versus the feeling of abundance, which is more expansive, right?

Like you think about what it would feel like to feel scarcity. It’s restrictive, right? It’s like clenching versus the feeling of abundance, which is more expansive, right? – Ellen Rogin

[00:16:48] And the abundance mindset is really, there is more than enough to go around. It’s this feeling of gratitude, you know, I know you know, and you share about how important it is to be grateful and how that energetically feels. It feels so good. It feels great when you’re sharing it with other people. And it’s clearly an abundance strategy, but I also see that generosity- to kind of bring this back to that – is a physical manifestation of your gratitude.

[00:17:16] So how can I be more generous as a way to show how grateful I am? Whether it’s directly to a specific person or just for what is flowing into my life. And when you can get to a place where you’re just thankful for what is versus always like grasping for more -not that you won’t get it, you will.

[00:17:37] But the weird thing is it happens when you’re not grasping for it. It’s when you’re really centered, you’re grateful for what is right now.

[00:17:45]Caterina Rando: I love that. Generosity is the physical manifestation of your gratitude. I like to say, Ellen, generosity feels great and stingy does not feel great, right?

[00:18:01] This is very, very important for everyone to recognize. And also, I always say there’s a lifetime supply of people to serve. That you, to whomever I’m talking to, have a lifetime supply of value to bring. And this attitude, or really philosophy, of abundance is a great way to run your business and run your life.

[00:18:31] Ellen, I want to say that one of the things that I see from you in addition to everything you shared and the amazing talks that I’ve seen you give, you infuse generosity and gratitude as one of your not only guiding principles, one of your brand attributes. Your marketing attributes or messages. I see this all the time from you. I’m always impressed when I get something from you.

[00:19:07] I would like you to share a little bit about how you infuse prosperity abundance mindset in your marketing. Now I know you’ve shifted to your new chapter. Even before that, though, when you were cento per cento financial planner. I saw that from you, too. Would you say a little bit about that?

[00:19:29] Ellen Rogin: And I would say it was really infused, so it was a little bit more subtle that people would know that was something I would, I loved that if people would think that about me, because first of all, from a business standpoint, A, it’s authentic, but B, people want to do business with good people.

[00:19:47] It puts a corporate halo around you to be known as a good generous person. So some of the ways we did it…

[00:19:53] Caterina Rando: …or an entrepreneurial halo…

[00:19:55] Ellen Rogin:  …an entrepreneurial halo, for sure. My favorite holiday is Valentine’s day, so we wouldn’t send like Christmas, Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa cards or Thanksgiving cards. I would always send Valentine’s day cards and I still do.

[00:20:07] And some of the strategy behind this is, first of all, I create a card that has a quote from me that someone would want to keep. So the one sitting in front of me says “generosity proceeds prosperity. -Ellen Rogin”. It’s pretty. I want people to keep this.

[00:20:23] On the back There’s always a donation to a charity that is important to either what’s going on right now. So during this last year we gave to food, uh, the global food network. I’m not sure that’s the right name. I’m embarrassed. I don’t have it right in front of me.

[00:20:39] But food insecurity is always been an issue, but more even an issue now. So that we gave with a blurb about the charity that says “Happy Valentine’s Day. On this Valentine’s Day, our heart is filled with appreciation and gratitude for our association. And in your honor, I’ve made a donation to whatever charity.”

[00:20:59] So that I do every year.  And it was not usually my charity. It was one that either I felt would be more global interest or to my audience.

[00:21:10] What else did we do? When I was doing client events instead of giving a mug that said my company’s name on it, which I did my first couple of years in business, like who wants that really? I started to do some kind of gift that had a charitable component. So for example, I’d send out gifts, like from there’s a organization called The Prosperity Candle. These candles are beautiful. They’re healthy. They’re made by refugee women. They come with a card with who made them.

[00:21:38] So people get a lovely candle and they feel good about it. So there’s always ways you can find gifts for people that have a charitable component to it. So those are a couple of tips.

[00:21:48] Caterina Rando: I love that. Ellen, I know there’s so much we could talk about. Any final thoughts, insights on generosity, prosperity for people before we wrap up today?

[00:22:02]Ellen Rogin:  A final thought is that you are so powerful when it comes to money and prosperity, and you just might have gotten bad information about that. If at some point you don’t think you are.

A final thought is that you are so powerful when it comes to money and prosperity, and you just might have gotten  bad information about that. If at some point you don’t think you are.    -Ellen Rogin

[00:22:15] One of the things that I started doing in the last year or so is really communicating with the energy of money and inspiring people to do that.

[00:22:24] So a little home work tip is to be journaling, at least try this for seven days, and write “dear money, what message do you have for me?” And it may sound weird or out there, but see what comes up. Because you have incredible prosperity-generating abilities. That I think sometimes people have just been taught something other than that.

[00:22:46]Caterina Rando:  I love that. Journal. Hey money, what do you want to tell me? I love that. That’s beautiful.

[00:22:52] Ellen, let’s let everyone know how they can connect with you because I know they’re going to want to read your book, Picture Your Prosperity, and stay connected because you always have great things that you’re sharing.

[00:23:07] Ellen Rogin: Yeah. So if you go to EllenRogin.com/bonus, there are some downloads that are free that I have for you, just some extra resources. There’s some meditations and some other things I think will be really helpful for you.

[00:23:22] And, yeah, that’s what I would say. Ellen Rogin, R O G I N.com forward slash bonus. And we can connect there and you’ll have all sorts of great ways to generate prosperity on purpose.

[00:23:36] Caterina Rando: Generate prosperity on purpose. That’s what I want for you listening right now. I cannot wait to be with you again on the Expand Your Fempire podcast.

[00:23:48] Make sure you’ve joined our Facebook group. Downloaded our app. Joined our Thriving Women in Biz Club on Clubhouse. Because the more you stay connected to other amazing women, the more, your prosperity and generosity will grow.

[00:24:05] Thank you, Ellen. Thank you everybody for being with us today and we will talk again very soon.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Expand Your Fempire with Caterina Rando.

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