More and more people are coming to recognize the link between financial freedom and human spiritual potential – a connection that Leisa Peterson has spent her whole career unraveling. Standing at the helm of The Mindful Millionaire Community, Leisa possesses the unique ability to draw knowledge from various disciplines to create a deeper understanding of prosperity and the inner journey. In her book, The Mindful Millionaire, she explores the process she has created from this knowledge that allows her tribe of thousands to experience money breakthroughs and financial healings. Now that the world is facing a crisis that affects every aspect of people’s lives, people are increasingly resonating with her tribe’s core mission and message. In her conversation with Mitch Russo, we can take a look at how she started her tribe and how she leads a vast and rapidly-growing community through a paid membership model.
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The Mindful Millionaire Community: Changing Lives Through Financial Awareness With Leisa Peterson
Our guest is the CEO of the WealthClinic from Sedona, Arizona, who leads The Mindful Millionaire Community with over 3,000 members. Leisa Peterson is an author, business growth strategist, financial expert, and podcaster. She is an internationally recognized author on bridging the gap between financial freedom and human spiritual potential. Leisa has a unique ability to draw from biology, neuroscience, philosophy, spiritual teachings, and psychology to create a synthesis of knowledge that helps people understand scarcity and prosperity in profoundly affecting ways. She had the great fortune of witnessing thousands of money breakthroughs and financial healings as a result of the process she explores in her book, The Mindful Millionaire, and she’s here to talk with us. Leisa Peterson, welcome to the show.
Thanks, Mitch. I’m happy to be here.
Readers, I have to tell you, Leisa and I became fast friends after meeting for the first time. We’re like a soulmate that separated at birth and have just reconnected. It’s been wonderful. You, too, will soon feel the same way. I guarantee it. Leisa, tell me from the beginning, how did your tribe get started?
I love building community. I would have to say it’s probably one of my favorite parts of being in business. Hands down. When I was finishing up my book, I had been dabbling in different Facebook groups and communities that I’ve been building, but they were mostly oriented like a program that I was offering. What I realized I got super inspired about was the idea that as I wrote this book, I could create a place for people to come and share their stories as they went through the book. I got so excited about it. I didn’t want to wait for it to come out when the book came out. I started planting the seeds and encouraging people that had already been following me to join together and start to support each other around money and all this cool stuff.
What would you say would be the core mission of the tribe?
The core mission is around raising financial consciousness and how I define that is the inner journey, the relationship we have with money behind the scenes, combined with what we are doing out there in the world. It’s both parts, both ends. When people come in and they answer the questions about what I’m asking why you’re here, I hear over and over again, people want to find a like-minded community that is interested in how we bridge these worlds of our financial livelihood, combined with our inner journey.
Apparently, you’re doing something right because a lot of people are resonating with that core mission and message. How would you say COVID has affected what you’ve created and has it changed?
It has changed people’s attitudes. What I notice is there is a far greater interest in having the conversation about what’s going on inside than ever before. Of course, I didn’t know about a pandemic. I didn’t know what was going to happen when I was writing my book. From the way that I look at the world, I feel like the book and the message was guiding me to be ready to be in service when this time came. People are eager to not have these skeletons in their closet, not feel guilt, and not feel ashamed. Just be able to be like, “This is where I’m at.” I don’t want to hide that anymore. I want to be transparent. I want to be honest. I don’t want other people to feel the same way.
For a lot of us, we don’t know what affects us, particularly in a pandemic and times of great change. Some people have said that the pandemic is a blessing and is brought upon us a time of change that we never would have found any other way. How do you feel about that? How does your community feel about that when you bring that up?
A lot of people do feel like it has been a period of reckoning in various ways and for some, it’s scary like, “Things that I could get by doing were not working but I could make it work.” All of a sudden, that two-month period of everything shutting down caused people to have to look at the inconsistencies or the stresses, or the things that they worry about that maybe they didn’t need to worry about. A lot of people come to my work, even though they’ve got plenty of money, they’re still worrying about it. That time of shutdown causes people to reflect at a deeper level. For me, in all the work I’ve done over the past 20 years or so, I’m like, “That’s a good thing to look more and become more conscious of how we’re living our lives.” Overall, the community feels like, “This is probably time. I’m glad that there’s a place to go and talk about it.”
It’s great that the community is there for people because as you know, a lot of people have withdrawn both physically and emotionally from life because of this. A lot of people are scared. A lot of people lost their livelihood, which you might think plays directly into all of the issues that your community seems to address. Of course, that’s not a good thing. It is a place where they can now go, which is terrific. You mentioned that you have over 3,000 members. How long did it take to get to the point in the evolution of your community to reach that number? Is it growing? Is it shrinking? Tell us a little bit about that in terms of membership.
People helping people is far more powerful than one person helping one person. Share on XIt’s been growing steadily because of the launch of the book because what I, fortunately, had with my publisher was they’re supportive of the idea of the community. Right when you open the book, it talks about, “Here are some resources that you get because you bought the book,” and it mentions the community. As the book has touched people’s lives, more people are coming for that reason. What I’m starting to see more of than when I started is more people inviting their friends, sharing it with other people. That’s one of those things that you don’t necessarily control. I’m not one to be constantly saying, “Share this.” I know that we’re doing good work when people are sharing it with their friends and inviting them in.
Is there a fee? Do you charge anything for people to be part of the community?
It’s free.
That begs the question of how do you monetize your community, or do you?
I wanted the access to be free and there’s no intention to change that. I did this fast after I started it because I had a product that I was getting ready to market and I realized that I hadn’t set clear expectations for the community. I went in and I created a video. I talked about the fact that I am a giver and I will do everything in my power to provide incredible value for people who come to the community. At the same time, I don’t run a non-profit. I run a for-profit business.
Part of their interest in being in the group is being receptive and open to the fact that there will be times when I have something that I’m offering. I want them to respect that and appreciate that this is how I support the business and keep it going. It felt like everything I wanted to be of high integrity. Not everybody probably even watches that video but I know it’s there. It greets people and it’s like, “I love you. Welcome. By the way, please be understanding that this is part of the journey in how I do my magic.”
Readers, we’re talking to the amazing Leisa Peterson. She is the CEO of The Mindful Millionaire Community and she is sharing with us many of these ideas and the success she’s had building it. Leisa, I know that there are other elements of having a community that benefits you personally. Let’s talk about that.
There are lots of cool things. The fact that I get to be in regular contact with people who have done the work in the past and they continue to come back and support other people on the journey is a huge highlight. For example, I’ll wake up on any given morning and there will be a post waiting for me to approve from a client I may not have talked to for a few years. They’re sharing intimate details about a breakthrough that they’ve had or some financial awareness that they’ve had. They’re wanting everyone to know not just how powerful this work is, but what’s happening in their lives.
People are respectful of what fits, but I also help to guide that sometimes. People will send me a message and ask me, “Is it okay if I post this because I’m feeling compelled?” The idea that it’s not just about me posting every day, but that it’s about other people sharing their journey. Also, when someone asks a question, I will purposely sit back and let other people in the community answer because they often have things that I would have never thought of that are so much better. I’m like, “Let’s make sure that it’s not just all about Leisa. It’s about the community.”
Would you also be able to work with people individually in a paid coaching relationship as well?
I have been doing that. Mostly, it’s oriented to group programs. In the branding of my company, I was going through some questions like, “What is the company? How do you help the people who come to you?” One of the questions I was working through was, “Is there anything that you’re doing right now in your business that doesn’t serve the mission that you have for the big picture?” Immediately, it was private coaching because it doesn’t align with my greatest goal, which is a community helping one another. It was easy because I’d already known I was moving in that direction. It was crystal clear. Of course, there are exceptions. It’s a different company when you realize that people helping people is far more powerful than one person helping one person.
It is a business and it is called Mindful Millionaire. Your core company, WealthClinic, is in fact all about helping people make money. Therefore, it wouldn’t come as a big shock to your members that you need to make money, too, which all community leaders need to take into account. This is why I’m bringing it up. You see, Leisa, a lot of readers of this show don’t have a community yet. Some have a small community that they want to make a large community. The goal of the show is to teach them and help them do that through talking to people like you who’ve done it. You are in an incredibly perfect position to create a mastermind as well, which would be maybe slightly philosophically against what you’re doing from a community standpoint.
Nonetheless, if you have people who have had enormous success with you and want to work more deeply in a shared environment with also other top performers. The mastermind format is one I recommend as well to community leaders as a way of getting deeper with their smaller group of their existing members and of course, creating enough income to continue to build a community. Let’s talk a little bit about the building aspect of this. Do you let it happen organically, or do you go through a series of deliberate steps on a regular basis to build your community?
I would say it’s a series of deliberate steps. I already talked about the book. I knew that it would plant seeds for those who buy the book. I also have an email list of about 14,000 people and that’s good to hear and share because not everybody is going to be interested in being part of a Facebook community but they want to receive my emails, for example. My goal was to make sure that on a regular basis, I was not selling people on it, but telling people about the resource in my email list that they could come and be a part of the community. There may be a reason why something I’m doing in the Facebook community would be a value to them to come and join.
Number two would be the book letting people know in my email list, and then number three, I have regular programs that bring people to my work. One of them is a quiz. Over 35,000 people have taken that quiz through Facebook. That is out there in the world. I pay sponsored ads for that quiz to reach audiences that would be interested in what I do. That quiz takes them to programs that I offer and on that page, they also can join almost a down-sell. You might not want these things, but here’s this Facebook community. There are multiple ways, those being the three biggest ones that people find out about it.
Quizzes are effective. If you built one already and it’s working, it’s an incredible asset because great quizzes are nourishing to people who take them. It’s like, “What kind of an X, Y, Z, are you?” Those types of quizzes get a lot of attention and are beneficial. Let’s go back to promotion. Do you have a regular social media system or a person that works for you either part-time or otherwise?
I don’t have somebody who does it. I’ve had people that have helped me over the years with Facebook marketing. My assistant posts on our Facebook business page. I post on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. We’re doing it. We could be doing so much more but we’re posting on a regular basis. We have big followings in most of those places. Instagram is the smallest number of people. It’s one that I resisted for a long time. I’m like, “We can do Instagram, too.” I’m doing a lot of it partly because I’m a slow learner and I need to be on something doing it, or I just don’t get it. I didn’t grow up with any of this stuff. I’m involved and that will probably change as we grow.
Just to make the comment, I feel like I’m similar in that. I don’t think of myself as a slow learner. I think of myself as I get annoyed too fast at trivial, detailed things. That’s why I think about it for myself. Instead of feeling annoyed, I’d rather hire somebody else who likes doing it and have them do it. To me, that frames it better, if you will, in my mind. I’m a great learner and I’ve accelerated my ability to learn as I’ve grown older and wiser and I think you have, too. I’m going to throw that out there. Calling ourselves slow at anything. Let’s talk about some help for our readers. Leisa, what would you advise if you are about to start a community and you had a burning purpose or mission, or even if you had a business that believes a community would bring people together for mutual benefit? Where would they start?
The thing that comes to me that I spent a lot of time on before I even reached out to others was thinking about the mission, vision, and core values of what it is I’m creating so that by the time I did put out that call of saying, “I’ve built something. I’m crystal clear of what it is that I’m inviting people to participate in.” That was the first step. The second step is, who are the people that I adore hanging out with and I enjoy being in the space of? If I can present them with that vision, mission and values and they want to be a part of it, then I know that I’m on the right track.
Do you think people should charge to be part of a community?
When you move into something beyond Facebook, and even the Facebook Terms and Conditions asked you to not just use Facebook for your membership that you’re charging for. Once you establish maybe a proof of concept or proof of idea, and then you’re ready to take it to a more paid membership, that is fabulous. Some people can do it a lot faster than others in what they tune into. I do agree that you get a different engagement level when money is being exchanged.
I told the community that I would use it to market my products and services. That was me saying this is the cost of admission because my programs aren’t $9 a month, for example. They’re not cheap. It’s a different equation. It’s important to know your business and know what problem you’re solving. One of the things I specialize in is around pricing. You want to be careful about how you’re structuring your pricing.
Be free of judgment to anyone, no matter their condition or circumstance. Share on XMake sure it is in alignment with the ultimate outcome that people are going to get from working with you. I came out of a program that taught a lot about memberships. It was so much momentum to go take action. I’m like, “Let’s be clear about what we’re building before we charge. Especially if it’s an ongoing thing, you’re going to be living this potentially for many years. You want to be strategic in the way that you decide how to move forward.”
I built communities for My Power Tribe teams for my certification program. One of the things that we start with is understanding the values of the CEO, of the leader in this case. Once we have a clear written understanding of that person’s values, and that process, by the way, for many people uncovers what their true values are, even unbeknownst to them. From there, what we do is we create a code of ethics around those values with the purpose of making sure that we are all fully understanding what the values and the code of ethics are for this community.
Once we know that people get it, in our case, it’s more of a business arrangement where they sign an agreement. As new members enter, they sign an agreement that says they’ve read and understood the code of ethics. At that point, there’s incredible freedom available because as long as you stay within the boundaries, you can do anything. It’s only without boundaries that people get in trouble and communities get in trouble as well. It’s one of the tools that I used that turned out many years ago to save my company.
I built a community without it first, and afterwards, I suffered the results of not having a clear cut set of values or those code of ethics. They evolved in 1989. They started there and have been evolving since. Every so often, it’s rare, but I find a new code that fits perfectly within my core code of ethics for my communities. Apparently, you have that. People do understand what the goals are, what your values are, and to some degree, what they can and cannot do within the community structures. Is that right?
Definitely. I love the idea of the code of ethics. I hadn’t thought of calling it that, but it makes complete sense. The other piece I’m curious about for you is the transparency that occurs as a result of the safety of the container that you’re creating.
It’s like a family and it has to be treated like family members. In a family, when someone acts up, you don’t fire them or arrest them. You deal with them and you take care of them. You nurture them and you get them past that point of whatever it was, disagreement or anger. You make a pathway back into the community in an accepting and loving way. That’s what a great community. That’s the test of a great community. I failed that test with my first one, which is unfortunately how I had to learn it.
In the end, when we finally rebuilt it the right way, it thrived. We grew to 350 certified consultants at the time and those folks became more valuable in many ways to me than my own employees because they were honest and they were loyal to the core. An employee may get a job offer for $1,000 a year or more and leave. Your community never leaves. Your community is with you because it’s you that they’re following, which leads to the question, do you see yourself as a leader?
Most definitely. When I started teaching meditation back in 2003 and helping people with personal problems, addiction, and other things like that, I didn’t realize that’s what I was groomed into. This place or this moment in time where I was like, “Not only am I just a business leader,” which I had been in my career for many years. That wasn’t important to me, but a leader when it comes to helping people navigate the challenges of life. Money being one of those things that people don’t often feel comfortable talking about. All the more reason for that code of ethics and all the more reason for a high standard of setting the tone. Those are the things that a leader needs to figure out to be in the place of helping others.
A leader is also one who will take control of a bad situation and work to solve it. Clearly, a leader must be fully present when building a community and committed to staying a leader throughout the process. I’m glad you brought that up. Tell me about your podcast. What’s the name of the show?
I have two podcasts. The first was Art of Abundance and I did that for over 250 episodes since 2015. In 2020, I started Mindful Millionaire so that I could take all those skills that I learned and then channel it into the topics that I’m exploring in the book. The first 250 episodes helped me write the book, and now I’m like, “Let’s share what I learned.”
What type of people do you like to interview for Mindful Millionaire?
I do try whenever possible to interview millionaires, people who have had quite a bit of financial success because there’s a lot of curiosity about these individuals and how they’ve gotten to where they are. I also will focus on the curriculum and the frameworks that I am inspiring people to think differently about with money. It’s a combination of interviews and conversations that I’m having with myself.
Is there any management of your community that requires software, databases, or other products or programs? Tell us a little bit about that.
We use a lot of different tools in my business. We moved to Thinkific for the education platform part of helping on all the courses that we offer. That’s one example of what you’re asking about.
For example, do you use a CRM system to track members and conversations and things like that?
Yeah. I’ve been using Infusionsoft for several years while it gets beat up a lot. I stayed with it because I came from the corporate world and I liked a certain level of professionalism in the way that everything comes together. Even though we scratched the surface in all the ways we could be using it, it has been a great tool. I also use Leadpages because what I found is, I like to try things out and see if they work. Leadpages allows me, my assistant, and my team to quickly put things together in a matter of an hour or two and test them out quickly without having to get a web person involved. I’m using WordPress quite a bit as well for the podcast posting and all of that stuff. Those are the big ones.
These are great places for readers to start by exploring these tools. I will say that for my own purposes, I don’t believe Infusionsoft is great for beginners. It’s also priced more for a production environment. There are other page builders that work as well in some cases better and for less money. Infusionsoft is a producer. It’s here to stay and it’s sophisticated. Leisa, we’re at the point in the show where I’m going to ask you the question that I already know the answer to, but I’m going to ask it anyway. When you think about your role in changing the world, how do you see yourself and where are you going?
I see myself, most importantly, in the role of someone who holds space for unconditional love in everything that I do. That is, to me, the most important thing that we can do as a human being. Meaning, being free of judgment to anyone no matter their condition or circumstance. I love holding people in that space because miracles happen when people feel that level of care and attention to their challenges. That’s the way that I lead and even though it may get messy or not completely clear at times, I am unequivocally certain that what I do may not even make sense from a financial standpoint many times. It matters in the big picture and it matters in the quality of the relationships that get created, which is way more important to me than all the money in the world.
Readers, Leisa has been kind enough to offer us a free giveaway. There is an incredible article on her website called A Practical Guide to Money and Your Chakras. Leisa, it has been delightful to have you on the show, talk to you, and have you share your wisdom with my community. I want to say thank you. I loved our conversation.
Thank you, Mitch. I’m glad that we’re connected in this way.
Me, too.
Important Links
- WealthClinic
- The Mindful Millionaire Community – Facebook group
- The Mindful Millionaire
- My Power Tribe
- Art of Abundance
- Mindful Millionaire
- Thinkific
- Leadpages
- A Practical Guide to Money and Your Chakras
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