I was at the gym the other day. A woman next to me said, “I love your nails - that colour is great.”
My response? “Thanks! Oh, they’re old, I really need to get them redone.”
Fifteen minutes later, someone else: “Your bum looks great in those shorts.”
For any woman who lifts, you know this is THE compliment. The one you’ve been working for.
My response? “Yeah these shorts are the best right!”
Then it dawned on me.
Deflection.
Before my brain even caught up, I’d already handed the credit somewhere else. The nails. The shorts. Anything but me.
I refused to own it.
And then it clicked. That’s exactly what business owners do when I first sit down with them. Different situation, same instinct - protect yourself from having to own something.
“I’m bad with money.”
“I don’t know what the reports mean.”
“That stuff is too hard for me.”
At the gym, I was refusing to own what I’d worked for. In business, they’re refusing to own the numbers.
If “I’m just bad with money,” then it’s not on me to own the outcome of my business finances.
Your finances can be shit, and it’s fine…because you didn’t look, so it’s not really your fault, it’s just how you are with money.
But the moment you look?
Game Over.
Because now you know. And now you have to decide what to do with what you know.
That’s the bit that scares people. Not the numbers themselves. The ownership that comes after the numbers.
It takes a surprising amount of courage to stand up and say: these are my numbers. I have control over them. And I’m going to do this better.
No more “I’m just not a numbers person.”
No more “my accountant handles it.”
No more “I’ll look at it next quarter.”
Just: this is my business. These are my numbers. And I’m the one who gets to decide what they look like next.
No more deflecting.
Just ownership.
Mini Challenge - This Week
This week, catch yourself in the act.
The moment you hear yourself say “I’m just not good with money” or “I’ll look at that later” or “that stuff is too hard for me” - stop.
That’s the deflection. That’s the out.
And in that exact moment, say this back to yourself:
I can do better. I have control. And I can do this.
Then open the thing you were about to avoid. The bank account. The P&L. The tax folder. Whatever it was.
You don’t have to fix it.
You don’t have to solve it.
But you do need to start.