4 Limiting Beliefs Holding Back BIPOC Creative Business Owners
Limiting beliefs are more common than we think as creative business owners. Sometimes, we don’t even recognize the limiting belief around our work, creativity, or business because we’ve held onto them for so long.
And if you identify as a Black, Indigenous, and/or Person of Color (BIPOC) creative business owner - whew, systems of oppression have forced their ideologies onto us, holding us back, and keeping us small.
So before we dive into what is a limiting belief, let’s talk systems of oppression and how BIPOC creative business owners often struggle with “limiting beliefs” because the system(s) doesn’t want us to win…
Some systems of oppression that impact our beliefs can be:
Capitalism (making us think that we need to work ourselves to the ground to earn our money)
Racism (making us experience imposter syndrome, like we’re not “knowledgeable enough”)
Sexism and misogyny (creating dynamics where people might not take us seriously based on our gender)
And classism (that we don’t “have enough” to make our creative business thrive)
And because of those larger systems of oppression, they trickle into our personal structures and lives - impacting us in ways we might not be aware of.
Some of those more personal things could be:
Your family and upbringing
Being a first generation, child of immigrants
Lack of access to education on handling money
Living in poverty
Aaaaall the stress that comes with being “the first” in your family to pursue creativity and/or entrepreneurship, instead of a traditional career
If you’re reading this and nodding your head thinking “Oh what, that’s me…” - know you’re not alone. Many of our families did what THEY needed to do to survive. Sometimes they didn’t have time or space to consider limiting beliefs or how to overcome them - they just did what they needed to do to get moving.
Which then gets passed down to us…
What is a Limiting Belief?
In an article by Asana, they define a limiting belief as “a state of mind or belief about yourself that restricts you in some way.”
Habits of Wellbeing defines it as “a state of mind, conviction, or belief that you think to be true that limits you in some way. This limiting belief could be about you, your interactions with other people, or with the world and how it works.”
Taking what Asana and Habits of Wellbeing have shared, let’s apply our culture and systems of oppression to these definitions. Yes, limiting beliefs are a state of mind or belief that we hold about ourselves or interactions with others or entities; and digging even deeper into those beliefs, many of them are results of white supremacy, the patriarchy, ableism, and so many more structures.
Limiting beliefs can show up whenever we do ANYTHING but especially in business.
This could sound like:
“I’m not good with money…”
“Well, that’s just how the world works… the government is always out to take our money”
“I can’t record a podcast, I don’t have anything interesting to say”
“I don’t know how to run a business”
“If I don’t have the most expensive gear, no one will ever take me seriously”
The more we repeat these limiting beliefs to ourselves, the more they affect our success, growth, and opportunities to thrive with our creative small business venture and our ability to create.
4 Limiting Beliefs Around Money in BIPOC Business Owners
Did you know that more than half of the new businesses started in the U.S. in the past decade are minority-owned businesses? (“Minority Entrepreneurs”, U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship)
That means that there are currently 18.3% of businesses in the U.S. are minority-owned. (Annual Business Survey, 2021)
And even with a growing number of minority-owned small businesses cropping up and taking the market (and economy) head on - what does that look like in terms of success and growth?
In an article by The Network Journal, they shared:
“Overall, 20 percent of small businesses generally fail within the first year. About 50 percent make it to the 5-year mark, and 62 percent survive to be a decade old. For African-Americans, the statistics can be even grimmer. Eight out of 10 Black-owned businesses fail within the first 18 months.” (July 2021)
If this is the case, where are the tools and resources to help BIPOC Creative Small Business Owners identify their limiting beliefs, taking into account our culture, experiences, and upbringing?
“At You Belong Here, our focus is on providing the resources and tools for BIPOC creatives, startup founders, and artists with culturally aware resources and tools to help you incubate your creative business into a flourishing one. ”
We’ve talked with our community and found these are 4 common limiting beliefs around money and pricing that may be impacting BIPOC business owners from creating a flourishing and thriving business (well, that and systems of oppression making it difficult for us to grow).
“I don’t know how to price my services/offers/work.”
When you catch yourself saying or thinking “I don’t know how..” this limiting belief creates a definition of ourselves based on what we do or do not do.
When you say “I don’t know how…”, the other side of that conversation could mean that because you don’t know how to price your services you’ll never learn and you will constantly price your services wrong, leading to failing to sell your services at a fair price.
And usually when we undersell our work, especially as BIPOC creative business owners, feelings of frustration, resentment, and apathy start to creep in - making it even more difficult to change your belief.
Another common limiting belief tied to this one, is around how we judge ourselves. If you believe that you don’t know how to price your work, you might think that you’re not a “successful business owner” and if that’s the case, you “don’t deserve” to get paid fairly for your work.
This judgment then could manifest itself into judging others who DO know how to price their work - creating feelings of jealousy and misguided assumptions.
RELATED ARTICLE: Improve your Money Mindset with 6 Tips for Creative Artists
“Other people can’t afford my work.”
Oh! How many times have you thought about this one?! Trust me, I thought about this A LOT and still find myself with this limiting belief every time I raise my prices.
As mentioned before, our limiting beliefs can be about ourselves but we can also have limiting beliefs about other people - which limits us in a whole lot of different ways.
If we believe that other people are more capable or are not capable of something, we start making assumptions and create stories of those people in our minds. Our mind loves creating stories to “keep us safe and small”, and the story that other people can’t afford our work is one of them!
Usually if you have this limiting belief, you struggle with fear of rejection, being seen as “selfish” for charging what your work is valued at, and oftentimes assume how someone is going to react to your prices before even telling them and thus, deciding for them what they can/cannot afford.
“I’m a bad person if I say no.”
Ever catch yourself saying “yes” to something you don’t really want to do, because you don’t want to be seen as a bad person, ungrateful, or be disliked?
*sigh*, me, too. (You did say you’ve done that, right?)
This limiting belief has us saying, doing, agreeing to, and living out things we don’t usually want to do because we’re fearful of being disliked or being seen as bad.
What this limiting belief does, instead, is actually create a lot of stress for us.
Here’s an example from my own work. One time, a client asked if I offered a type of service that I don’t offer at all. Instead of saying “no” and sticking to my zone of genius, I got scared and said yes.
My yes came out of:
Fear that I’d lose the client if I didn’t say yes
Fear that they’d think I was less professional and wouldn’t want to work with me
Fear that I’d never make money if I didn’t say “yes” to everything a client asked for
Ultimately, I thought I’d be a bad content marketer or person if I didn’t say yes.
In my mind, saying “yes” to what a client asked would open up opportunities for me, get me paid more, and thus… making more money! And that’s where I was very wrong.
Because I said yes to something out of fear, it took me so much longer to do the work, I felt frustrated by it, and it wasn’t the highest quality that I could offer because I really had no idea what I was doing.
In the end, I probably made the situation worse by saying yes, than if I had just said no and set boundaries.
RELATED ARTICLE: “Cultivating Self-Worth in a Capitalist System”
“I need to take care of the community, they don’t have the resources.”
Oof, so this limiting belief is a difficult one to share because I GET IT.
I get that we want to take care of our communities, give back to them, amplify them, and help in any way we can. I get mutual aid and how important it is, but I also want to share that this limiting belief can quickly be tied to martyrdom - something many BIPOC folx unintentionally lean towards when it comes to getting paid and our work.
This limiting belief is rooted in our values, culture, norms, laws, and community that constrain us on what we can and cannot do.
But the thing with this limiting belief is that not all of these beliefs are mandatory and some are just plain limiting. To truly help our communities thrive, we don’t need to martyr ourselves with our work and businesses - that doesn’t help anyone!
If you think that “you need to take care of your community because they don’t have resources”, this robs YOU of the opportunity to make a fair earning through your business, talent, and skills and robs your community of also making the choice for themselves.
RELATED ARTICLE: “How to Reduce Overwhelm as a Creative Business Owner”
Affirmations for Limiting Beliefs
While limiting beliefs continue to pop up at every stage of our business (and life, who are we kidding)... one of the anecdotes we’ve found that help us manage the (negative) stories we tell ourselves are affirmations.
If you’ve never worked with affirmations before, they are short phrases or sentences that affirm something. You can use them to counter limiting beliefs or negative thoughts about yourself, people, or the world around you.
Instead of creating affirmations around the 4 limiting beliefs, we shared, holding back BIPOC creatives - we’re passing the virtual mic to musician Toni Jones.
Toni Jones is a Detroit native who’s using affirmation music to spread the message of mental health and conscious well-being across the world. One of her songs is called “Work Ethic” and it covers the limiting beliefs we’ve mentioned here, as well as, so many others that I’m sure we’ve all experienced before.
I picked out a few affirmations related to the limiting beliefs we mentioned, but if you’re interested in listening to the whole song, titled “Work Ethic” - I highly recommend it to start your day or as a grounding moment in a chaotic or busy schedule.
To practice affirmations, you can repeat them to yourself as part of your morning routine, journal on them, or meditate on them! Here are a few she sings:
“I ask for help despite my mental stories of being told no”
“The relationship between my work ethic and my wellbeing is a healthy one”
“I know and I learn my numbers for my business, or I find someone who can”
“I’m clear on my strategy to be powerful, impact people, and profit”
And my absolute favorite in this song…
“I trade in my work ethic, for my worth ethic”
RELATED ARTICLE: “Fighting Burnout as a Creative Business”
Wrap-up and Conclusion
A limiting belief is a state of mind, conviction, or belief that you think to be true that limits you in some way. Limiting beliefs can be about you, your interactions with people, or with the world and how it works.
And while many people deal with limiting beliefs, BIPOC creative business owners have their own layers of limiting beliefs tied to culture, systems of oppression, and othering that we often experience.
These are 4 of the most common limiting beliefs around money for BIPOC creative business owners:
“I don’t know how to price my services/offers/work.”
“Other people can’t afford my work.”
“I’m a bad person if I say no.”
“I need to take care of the community, they don’t have resources.”
What are some other common limiting beliefs around money that you’ve run into in your creative small business? Let us know in the comments below!
Want more resources and tools to help you move past your limiting beliefs? Subscribe to our email newsletter to be in the know of upcoming You Belong Here and community events, programming, and so much more!
Enter your information below: