How to Change Your Relationship with Money

Rob Dial opens this episode of The Mindset Mentor with a confession: his first memory of money is shame. He was four or five years old, crying for a toy called Gak, and his mother said they didn’t have enough money. She eventually gave in, but he remembers feeling guilty for making her spend money they didn’t have. That single moment, he argues, wired his subconscious to associate money with something bad. And for years, that association made it nearly impossible for him to earn money and keep it.

The Subconscious Story You Carry About Money

Dial’s central argument is that before you can build wealth, you have to uncover the emotional story you carry about money itself. He describes a coaching call with a woman who kept spending every dollar she earned. When he asked her to trace it back, she realized she believed “money is evil.” Dial pushed further: “What are your first memories around money?” She didn’t have an immediate answer, but he did.