Book Club Review: We Should All Be Millionaires by Rachel Rodgers

A Book Club for freelancers? That’s us. Part of the Being Freelance Community.

The author of this book, Rachel Rodgers, was due to speak at a conference a lot of us were going to… would we have read it otherwise?

Most agreed that the title would have actually put us off. 
It didn’t sound like it was for us.

“We Should All Be Millionaires: A Woman’s Guide to Earning More, Building Wealth, and Gaining Economic Power”

Hmm… But... earning more? Building wealth? 
Hang on. Let's give it a chance...

WHAT Is ‘We Should All Be Millionaires’ actually about?

At the heart of this book is a drive to get women to change their mindset about money.

And that's no bad thing for all of us right?
Who's ever felt guilty about charging too much? Earning too much?

Who hates the phrase 'six-figure-freelancer', yet would actually quite like to earn six figures thanksverymuch?

Our discussion brought up interesting feelings around money. The book is aimed at women, the book club this time around only had one bloke in it. (Me - Steve F - Though I’m not opposed to wearing a ‘Rich Lady Kimono’ as Rachel suggested). 

There was a lot of agreement or understanding around hang ups and imposter syndrome, the emotions around money, rates, pay gaps, thinking small and shame. Crikey.

“Women need to define success on our terms and go after our goals in our own ways, even if it seems crazy or risky or unusual at the time.”

But how can we really become millionaires?

Okay. Let's say we're on board with the idea.
One of the issues, is that you get the impression to become a millionaire, you need to perhaps be like Rachel.

She’s a lawyer with her own boutique law firm. 
Started creating products.
Invested in property. 
Set up a coaching company around the We Should All Be Millionaires theme.

Is the only way to be make a load of money to be a lawyer?
To build a company?
To teach other people how to make a load of money?

Who's gonna write the book "We should all be cynical so-and-sos"?

Maybe this book made us realise that yes we'd like to earn more.
Yes, we'd like to be financially secure. But success isn't just about money. (Although, yes, we'd like it.)

Not just a difference between men and women?

Throughout Rachel highlights the difference between men and women and their relationship with money.

But we wondered whether there’s also a difference between the USA and the UK.

In this particular Book Club we were all UK based readers. 
Rachel is American.
Are attitudes toward money, goals and ambition different in the UK than the US?

Is an un-ease of even talking about these things baked into Brits?

Is that why we flinch when a book proudly suggests we should think big in its title?

We can't possibly read that in public. We're British.

(Side note: our freelancer community has members from all around the world, but this particular conversation was 8/9 Brits).

Is ‘We Should All Be Millionaire's’ a good book for freelancers?

Did we like it?

We liked its use of stories. Action Steps. Chapter summaries to roundup the takeaway points.

Although some of the quotes that started the chapters were a bit dubious.
When Michelle Obama said ‘When they go low, we go high’ - pretty sure she was wasn’t talking about her day rate.

But this book has lots of good stuff. And it does speak to freelancers.

Choosing yourself. Betting on yourself.

Making ‘big hairy’ goals. Money mindset.
RAISING YOUR RATES. Hiring help.

And a core part of the message is that you can’t do this alone. To surround yourself with likeminded, determined people - your community, your 'cheerleading squad' is “not optional”.

BFF* high five.
Though we need to work on our cheerleading tower building and back flips.

(*Being Freelance Friends - you find them in our freelancer community)

“The answer is being liked by a group of people of your choosing.
A group of people who support you and accept you and love you for exactly who you are. 
A group of people who believe in you, want more for you, and inspire you to go get it.”

Would our Book Club recommend ‘We Should All Be Millionaires’?

Whilst most weren’t sure they’d recommend it (mainly because of that title again), some of us couldn't deny it had made us think and act differently already.

Don’t just read, take action

One BFF had experimented with doubling her rate as suggested. She did it on a particular service. And people are still buying it. She was earning double the money. How’s that not a win?!

Raising rates is one thing, but the book culminates with a challenge to make $10k in 10 days.

Would we do it? Could we do it? 
Some of us were kinda intrigued (but struggled to admit it because damn-we're-so-British).

To clarify. It doesn't have to be 10k. Just pick a number... and then add 30%.
It should be a stretch.

But maybe you need an audience to do something like that. Maybe you need to be a coach?

CONCLUSIOn - WE SHOULD ALL GIVE OUR FINAL THOUGHTS

Moral of the story 

It feels like Rachel’s heart is in the right place. She shares her story: she was born poor. She’s now a millionaire. She wants us to be too.

She essentially believes that more ‘good’ people, given the chance, would do ‘good things’ with money if they had it. Don't feel bad about earning lots of money - feel bad if you waste it on bad things.

Nobody brought up the fact Rupert Grint spent some of the money he made from the Harry Potter films on his own ice cream van. But personally I think about this a lot. GOALS. See? Being rich is cool.

We can get side tracked by Rachel's talk of dream homes and private chefs; the core kick-up-the-arse (or 'ass' in a New Yorker accent) we need to stop limiting our own selves, is a great message.

Maybe we don't need to all be millionaires.
But maybe we don't need to be so cynical and talk ourselves out of wanting more in our lives either. 

Rachel writes, 

“Moral of the story: You think you can't, but you can.
You are more powerful than you can even imagine.
There's always a way to make it happen.”

You think you can’t.
But you can.

Maybe someone should print that on a T-shirt for freelancers.
And sell them for $10k a pop.

Right. Off to see if this kimono needs to be hand washed or can go in the machine.

Our Business Book Club for freelancers is part of the Being Freelance Community. Join us and join in!

Thanks to all of those who took part in this one.

This summary was written by me, Steve Folland - I’m a freelancer without a private chef, the bloke in the bottom right corner of that image and host of the Being Freelance podcast.