Abundant + Aligned

Why your income grows but life stays the same

• Jess Martin

Share episode

Are you stuck in the $100k trap?.. Where your business income grows but your life stays the same? Same routines, same quality of life, same energy of survival running underneath it all.

In this episode, I expose the Truman Show effect of entrepreneurship; where you unknowingly build a bigger business inside the same invisible limits of your subconscious. I also explain the reason why your income grows but your life stays the same.

Specifically you will learn:

  • How your old “employee salary” became the energetic set point your subconscious keeps recreating.
  • Why more money won’t fix your quality of life and the new kind of work you should be doing to upgrade your lifestyle, not just your bank account.
  • Lots of practical steps you can take to program your desired lifestyle into your subconscious mind so you can experience it.

You’ll be ripping the fake sky down before you know it (IYKYK) 😉

If you’ve built success but your world still feels smaller than it should, this conversation will show you why, and how to expand beyond it.



Applications are now open for the HER Empire 2026 intake. The high-level business mastermind for established female entrepreneurs ready to expand into their next era of income, impact, and industry influence.


This is an application-only mastermind designed for women who desire continued growth, greater recognition, and the energetic and strategic support to create unlimited, effortless expansion.


If you’re ready to lead from a higher standard, apply now for HER Empire 2026 here.


🫦 The leading mindset academy for women in business - JOIN THE WAITLIST. 2026 waitlist here.


Further Resources:

  • Follow me on Instagram for daily mindset tips and lots of BTS content of my life (building a 7 figure business, living by the beach, my daily routines and travels)
  • Browse the free resources - meditations, manifestation tracks and more
  • See what's currently open for enrolment ...
SPEAKER_00:

Even though your money goes up, lifestyle stays the same. Because the subconscious only knows that lifestyle. It's only familiar with that lifestyle and therefore it's going to play it on repeat. Welcome to the Abundant and Aligned Podcast, a place where you will come to realise anything you desire is possible. I'm Jess, Mindset and Business Coach, and I'm on a mission to lead women to a life far from average. In this show, you can expect conversations around manifestation, subconscious reprogramming, entrepreneurship, and the daily habits of a woman living a life that is both successful and fun. Imagine a TED talk but over wine. My wish for you is that you experience an unlimited flow of money, a business that attracts your dream clients, and the freedom to spend your time how you choose. And if you stick with me, that will soon be your reality. I'm honored to be on the journey with you, so let's get into it. Hello everyone and welcome back to the Abundant and Aligned Podcast. I hope you're having a beautiful day, a beautiful week. Can I just say it from the get-go? I am so obsessed with this episode. The concepts I'm going to teach you guys, but the way it is going to be delivered is in a way that you have not heard before. So as always, volume up is open and let's lock in and get ready to learn a lot. I am going to share some concepts, some learning material with you all, and then as usual, I have lots of practical steps at the end because I don't just want to teach you some new stuff. I want you to know how to actually implement what I teach, actually create the change in your life. So at the end, I will be sharing some homework and some practical steps that you guys can follow. So when I was creating this episode, the person, the woman I had in mind, is the one who is making money in her business and she's making decent money, six figures in her business. However, the quality of her life hasn't really changed. You have the success on paper, but your lifestyle isn't that successful or the kind of success that you are desiring. Because I know you didn't start your business to be stressed and glued to a computer all day. You started your business for true financial overflow, European summers, the luxury car, the big obnoxious home on the beach with the household help. You started your business to have a bougie life. And that's why I love you guys. So why the hell, despite your income increasing, does your life still look the same? We're going to talk to that today. And then as I mentioned, I'm going to help you start to actually shift your lifestyle, not just the number you're seeing on a screen. Just quickly before we get into the brunt of today's episode, I wanted to remind you or announce for the first time if you haven't seen it on my social media or on the email. 2026 applications for her empire are open. It is my high-level business mastermind for established female entrepreneurs desiring expansion in 2026. Whether that is increasing your revenue, once again, working with a higher caliber, higher paying client, working on your brand visibility and recognition, andor just getting into a group of other women in business which is small and intimate. And this group of women will expand you, they will inspire you, they will motivate you, and most importantly, they will be alongside you celebrating what is going to be your biggest year in business to date. So I have linked the application in the show notes below. I go through and hand select each individual to ensure that you add to the caliber and the energy of this space. If you have any questions about her empire, if this is a fit for you, um, email, DMs, always open. You guys know the drill. But as for the episode, so as I've mentioned, let's talk about why, even though your income is increasing and even though you're maybe making six figures in your business, life for you is staying the same. And before we go into that, I want to just refresh you on some concepts that are really important to note as we move through today's episode. If you were an OGA, you would have heard this before, but again, it's a refresher. If you are a newbie and this is the first episode that you have pressed play on the Abundant and Align podcast, welcome, welcome, welcome. You have a lot to learn in this show. But as I've mentioned, two concepts I really want you to be aware of for today's episode. The first is the fact that your life is an illusion. Your life is like a video game that you are coding as you move through it. Your life is a mirror with a reflection. Your life is a movie screen, a big movie screen. And you experience your life through the filter of your subconscious program. So your subconscious program, we're not going to get into that today, but it's like a computer system that has been added to over your lifetime, and you're now viewing life through this filter. Therefore, every routine, every client, every number on the screen, your lifestyle is in accordance with that program. It's in accordance with whatever has been normal and familiar and therefore safe for you growing up. So we are really talking to, yes, you're increasing your income, but life is staying the same. Why is that the case and how to get out of this, what I call the six-figure trap? Before we get into that, I want to ask: have you ever seen the movie The Truman Show? If you have, I love that. If you haven't seen that movie, make it your homework this week to go and watch the movie The Truman Show. But very briefly, it is about a guy called Truman, and he lives in this perfect world that he sees and views and feels is very, very real. He has a wife, he has neighbors, he goes to a job, his life looks as normal as our life does. However, what looks and is a perfect, perfect world in life to Truman is actually just a TV show. So behind his world, behind his sky, is a studio with a team of directors and producers who are creating the Truman show. Truman is the only one who thinks it's real. So his wife is just an actor. His neighbors who he says hello to every morning are just actors. Everyone there is in the show and he thinks it's real. You are on the Truman show. You think your life is real. However, it is just a construction of your subconscious program. And this is why, even though you're making more money in your business, life is remaining the same because your subconscious is still producing the same scenery, the same reality. So in the Truman show, once you watch it or re-watch it, he wakes up every day and thinks it's a brand new day. He thinks it's a brand new life. He thinks that people walking past him in the street are strangers that he's probably never seen before. The birds that fly over are birds he's never seen before. But in actual fact, it's the same people, the same bird, the same scenery. The directors or the producers of this show are producing the same scenery and the same reality for him every single day. And that's what your subconscious is doing. Even though your money goes up, lifestyle stays the same because the subconscious only knows that lifestyle. And this is why I call the past, the part that you are in your business currently, the 100k trap. And when I say the 100k trap, it's also six figures in general. But the reason you're in the six-figure trap is because growing up, it's very likely you were told to go to go to school, go to university, and then go out and get a job. And usually, here in Australia, anyway, usually the salary, if you were an employee in a professional job, would be anywhere from 100K per year on average up to 200K on average. That's the typical salary for a decent professional job. That salary, therefore, produces a certain quality of life. And in today's day and age, that quality of life that that salary produces is really just survival. 100k, even 150K is enough to just get by, to pay your bills, to go on the odd holiday, to have some pleasure, get your nails done, get your hair done, do some stuff with the kids. But you aren't ex it doesn't provide this bougie lifestyle that you want to be experiencing. You don't really live in overflow when you're earning 150K per year. So this 150k salary, this six-figure salary, produces this certain quality of life, which is survival. Now, your entire life, you have been conditioned for this quality of life. And what has been normalized is this quality of life, the survival life. And so even though your business is making decent money, and it could even be making more than these in like these figures I'm mentioning, you're still living the 100k lifestyle. Because yeah, even though the income is greater than that, your brain only feels familiar and safe with the, again, we're calling it the 100k lifestyle. And so what is happening is income is going up, but then something happens to bring you back down to this energetic set point, to this 100k lifestyle. Because again, it's all your brain knows. Your brain only knows how to live in survival. Your brain only knows a version of success attached to adrenaline and chaos. And so it will keep creating the need to survive, even when you're making more money in your business. Now, if you are experiencing this, some common symptoms of this would include potentially making more than the 100K, 150K in your business. But the moment you almost get close to breaking that ceiling, something happens to bring you back down. So maybe you were about to sign a client that would have pushed you over that revenue figure, but then last minute they pulled the pin. Or maybe a pattern for you in your business is having clients constantly come and go. There's always white space that needs to be filled, and that client number continues to reoccur. Or maybe, like I said, maybe you are actually making more than those figures in your business. And so the revenue, the company revenue is quite high, but so are your expenses, or so is your need to subconsciously spend the money. And so therefore, the amounts actually landing in your account are sitting at that 100k, 150k mark to create the what we are calling the 100k lifestyle. So, yes, the business is going up, but you are subconsciously increasing your expenses. So maybe you feel the need to keep adding to your team or growing the team. Maybe you feel the need to increase your ad spend, increase your business expenses, like hiring out a podcast studio or doing branding shoots all the time, or just like spending your money, even though it's there, so that eventually you end up back still living the 100k lifestyle. And so what we are identifying here is this pattern that your subconscious mind is stuck in. Because if you didn't subconsciously spend, or if you didn't subconsciously experience these patterns to bring your lifestyle back down, your life would look very different. It would look different to how you were conditioned to live growing up. It would no longer be based on survival. And anything beyond the life that you've always known according to your upbringing, and if you were to get that salary as an employee, anything beyond that is unfamiliar, and therefore it feels unsafe to your brain. Even though you want it, even though the bougie lifestyle style is the desire, it feels unsafe to the brain. And so, again, income is going up, but your lifestyle is not changing. So, for someone like you who is experiencing this, your next goal shouldn't actually be an income goal. Your next goal should be an identity goal. We don't necessarily want to keep increasing the amount you're earning. We want to increase the quality of your life. And in order for that to happen, we need to program a different lifestyle into your brain, not just a different number. And perhaps what you've been focusing on is visualizing seeing that higher number, visualizing seeing those clients, visualizing seeing the increase in that amount, but what you're not doing is visualizing seeing the increase in the quality of your life. So, what we want to do firstly is just create some awareness. Are you stuck in the 100k trap? Are you making decent money in your business, but your lifestyle still looks like your parents did and their parents before that, and the average household? If so, let's identify three recurring patterns that bring you back to that lifestyle set point. So again, it's whatever's been normal for you growing up, the quality of life. Identifying three recurring patterns that bring you back to that. I mentioned a couple before. Maybe you get so close to breaking through to that next income ceiling, but then a bunch of clients pull the pin. Maybe you are already making more than the 100k, 150k, but because of your expenses, what actually lands in your account is the 100K to create the 100k lifestyle, to create the quality of life that is simply just survival. So coming through and identifying three recurring patterns that bring you back into the lifestyle. Once you've done that, I then want to ask you the question: if your life wasn't about surviving, who would you be? If your life wasn't about hustling for that next client, thinking about how you're going to pay those next expenses, worrying about money and just living in this 100k trap, who would you be without it? And I want you to figure that out. And again, this task isn't for you to keep focusing on increasing the number, we're focusing on increasing the quality of your life. Because otherwise, the subconscious just keeps creating the same scenery and the same reality, which is why your lifestyle currently doesn't match up to the amounts you're making. And you know what? This this episode, I'm I'm focusing on like the up to the 200k mark in your business. But this episode is really going to hit home for those who are actually making multi-six figures in your business, but the quality of life does not make sense for that. Again, on paper, super successful business. What you are able to actually experience in terms of your lifestyle, the 100k trap. Again, it's because the quality of life, this quality of life that you are living is all your subconscious knows, regardless of how much you're making. So as I've mentioned, the work for you, especially for you, isn't about increasing the income goal. It's about increasing your identity goal. So, along with firstly creating the awareness, three recurring patterns that always bring you back to that lifestyle set point. And then asking yourself the question: who would you be without this struggle, the need to survive, this chaos, this adrenaline rush that comes through success? I want you then to focus on increasing the quality of your life. And to do that, I want you to break one normal rule of your current life. What's one thing that you always do? Always abide by. Obviously, come up with whatever that is, but I have some recommendations to you that again isn't with the goal to increase your income, but it's with the goal to increase your identity, to increase the quality of your life, to show your brain this different quality of life is familiar and safe. Because up until this point, it hasn't been. You've you know you know, your parents lived in kind of the same house you live in now. The amounts you're making were kind of what your parents earn or what you were conditioned to earn. The way you spend your money was quite similar to how your parents did. The way you think about money was how your parents did. Even though you don't need to be thinking that way because potentially you're making decent money, you're still within the 100k lifestyle trap. But we're gonna break out of that and I'm gonna get you to start experiencing a different quality of life, one that wasn't normal for you growing up, which is why we're breaking the rule of your current life. So, some recommendations I have one, two, three, four, five recommendations, but obviously go away and create your own list of things that you can do to experience a different lifestyle, not just experience a different number. The number one is experience more luxury in your life. It could be booking a luxurious accommodation next time you go on a holiday. Maybe usually filter by price low to high, and you just book the cheapest one there. I really want to challenge you. Book the more expensive accommodation. You've got the money there, you can afford this. See yourself as worthy to stay in this higher end accommodation and just sit in this beautiful environment and be there and normalize it. You may want to start shopping organic groceries. So, again, instead of picking the cheapest item from the grocery store, even though you could afford the more expensive one, I want you to start to grab the organic groceries or start shopping from the farmers markets and just start to embrace this different quality or rule of life. Another recommendation is getting some household assistance. So maybe it's a cleaner or it's getting your car detailed every couple of weeks, some kind of household assistance where again it's in alignment with this increased quality of life, not the survival lifestyle you've always known. Again, you could get yourself into luxury, um, luxury environments. So maybe next time you are working, take your laptop and go and work from a high-end suburb in your area, or go and work from a hotel lobby bar of one of the most prestigious hotels in your area. Or Izzy and I recently went and did some work from a beach club that sits among the super yachts here on the Gold Coast. So we were sitting there and just looking out at the super yachts and in this beautiful location. So maybe finding some places like that that you can immerse yourself in this increased quality of life to start to normalize a life beyond just survival. And then my final recommendation is of course getting in rooms with people who have that upgraded quality of life, not just more money. And if I could, I would capitalize and underline that. Because again, we aren't going about this with the we aren't approaching this from the goal of increase your income. We're going about this with the goal of increase the quality of your life. So, yeah, get into rooms with people who do have and do experience that bougie overflow standard of living, not just those who make more money. Because I'm sure you can think of someone now who on paper has a lot of money, but their lifestyle doesn't really reflect that. Yes, they may be making the kind of money you would like to be making in your business, but when you look in at their life, it's not super inspiring. So for this particular task, they aren't the people I want you to follow and immerse yourself in. I want you to follow and immerse yourself in people who their quality of life is that increased standard. You know, the travel they're doing, the house they live in, the grocery haul they do, the clothes they wear, the decisions they make. It's in line with his increased quality of quality of life, not the 100k lifestyle. Again, another reason to get into her empire because these are the conversations these women are having. They're doing these things. So that's the first, no, sorry, the third step. Break one normal rule of your current life and get yourself into environments, make decisions, create a routine that increases the quality of your life, not just the number you're seeing on a screen. The next step is what I call sensory reprogramming. And if you are a client in my world, you would be familiar with this. But what we're doing is starting to shift your nervous system's blueprint towards a different quality of life. So at the moment, it's very likely success creates this feeling of adrenaline or chase within your body because the quality of life you are desiring isn't the quality of life you grew up in. It's not normal for your brain. So therefore, it feels out of reach. It's on the pedestal and it creates this adrenaline rush within your body. And you'll notice if you do this, if you get a new client, if you get all excited and you experience this spike of holy shit, I can't believe that happened. That's an indication that you don't have the nervous system blueprint to feel safe with the quality of life that you actually want. Instead, the nervous system blueprint is still attached to that was too good to be true, that was really rare, that was on the pedestal. So we really want to create this neutral feeling and sensation in your body towards expansion. And again, it's what we call sensory reprogramming. So notice next time you get a new client or you get that larger invoice paid. Notice what happens in your body. And it could be that holy shit, holy shit, I can't believe that just happened. It could be fear, it could be overwhelm, it could be stress. I want you just to locate that sensation in your body. And then we want to shift the sensation because that sensation is what's attached to success, which is probably adrenaline, a chase. And we want to program it to be more neutral. So again, next time you experience that rush, that adrenaline, that holy shit, I can't believe that happened, or that fear or that overwhelm. I want you to locate it in the body. And then using your breath, I want you to imagine that you're drawing that sensation up and out of your energy field. So locate the sensation in your body, and then using your breath, inhale through the nose and imagine you're drawing that sensation up through your central channel all the way to the top of your head. And once you've got the sensation in the top of your head, and you may even want to give this sensation a color, sometimes that's easier to imagine. Once it's at the top of your head, then exhale and imagine you're pushing this old sensation for expansion out of your head. So that now the sensory feel, the sensation, the sensory programming attached to expansion is no longer fear or anxiety or adrenaline, but instead it's just neutrality. And then we can come through and start to replace that old feeling. So once you've pushed it out the top of your head, come through and give yourself a new feeling. And ideally, we want it to be neutral. Like you've done this a million times before. Like the quality of life that you are wanting to experience is the quality of life that your parents lived in generations before you, and it's just so normal. You grew up in money. You were what people call a trust fund baby. The house, oh my god, you've lived in this house forever. Generations before you have lived in this house. This luxury standard of living, so normal for you. And if it really was normal, your body wouldn't react the way it has been. So we want to create this sense, this sensation in your body. So every time money comes in, or every time you get a new sale or a new client, instead of going, um, holy shit, that was so exciting and allowing that spike or that fear to come on. I want you just to pause and rehearse a new sensation. And again, ideally, we want it just to be lightness, neutral, expected. And each time you do that, you're literally rewiring that nervous system blueprint of what wealth feels like. And again, we want wealth to feel neutral, we want this new quality of life to feel neutral, not something that you are desiring or chasing. So that's sensory reprogramming. And then what I want you to do is what I call future self-forecasting. And that really just is the act of if I was already living the increased quality of life, what decisions would already be made? Because again, maybe you have a lot of money coming through the business, but you're still making decisions in accordance with the 100k lifestyle. Like again, even though you can afford the beautiful organic groceries, you're still chop shopping for the cheapest option. Even though you've got a lot of money in the bank, you are still staying in the dodgy shit motel. So if you were already living the increased standard bougie lifestyle, what decisions would have already been made? And this is just an audit that I want you to do regularly in your life. When you come to make a decision, if I already lived the million-dollar lifestyle, what decisions would I be making? And I always want you to act on at least one of those. So there's probably so many things that you would be doing differently if you already lived a millionaire lifestyle or a 500k per year lifestyle. But I just want you to pick just one that you can do immediately. And what this is starting to do is close that gap between imagination and evidence. And if you can do just one thing from that list, you're now starting to become and starting to experience the frequency of that new quality of life, not just make more money. And then finally, tying this back to the fact that you're just on the Truman show, and even though you're making more money, your subconscious just keeps creating the same scenery and the same reality. We're going to increase that threshold. So if you are jumping into her empire, you'll actually get a proper meditation to take you through this, which is really powerful. But take this away with you and put some music on in the background and do this. Imagine, close down your eyes and imagine or picture your current reality. So the home you live in, the kind of clients you work with, how you work with those clients, your routines, your your current quality of life. Not the amount in your bank account, not how much your business is making, the current quality of your life. Picture your quality of life. And then I want you to imagine that you're walking to the edge of your world. And then you're going to start to press your hand on the sky. Again, if you've seen the Truman show, he eventually realizes that his sky is fake and he rips the sky, and behind the sky is that studio of directors and producers creating the TV show. So that's what I want you to imagine your your world and your quality of life is like. And the the boundary that you think is there, the edge that you think is there is actually just pretend. And within this embodiment practice, walking up to the edge of your sky and starting to push it out, starting to increase the quality of your life. And then I want you to note, I want you to notice as you're starting to push the sky, feel or notice any resistance that comes on. It will come on, by the way. Because remember, you're only comfortable with the current quality of life, which is survival. And so if you didn't have a need to survive, and if you actually lived in overflow, it's going to create a quality. Of life that is not normal for you, so resistance will come on. But when the resistance comes on, I want you to see how far you get, and then just drop in and ask what reality sits beyond this edge. So this is as far as I can go until the resistance comes on. What sits on the other side of this edge? And what is this resistance protecting me from? And just allow those answers to come through. But again, if you're jumping in her empire, this meditation will be in your um portal so that you can actually do this. Um but yeah, we're we're beginning to push this imaginary edge and getting to know what's on the other side of this quality of life. Who am I without the struggle? Who am I without the survival? And that's actually a loaded question, which is why, again, your income's going up, but the quality of your life isn't shifting. Because if your quality of life shifted, you would become someone different because you would no longer be in the struggle in the survival, and that's really scary for your brain. So that's a little embodiment practice that you guys can do. But how is this feeling? Is this landing with you? Is this that holy shit moment of yeah, I am making decent money in my business, but lifestyle still looks the same as my mum and dad's did, and the same as their mum and dads did, and the same as the people I went to school with, and we're all just kind of in this illusion, even though we're making decent money, but life isn't really shifting. It's because for you, it's the identity work that's required, not just the income work that's required. So hopefully that has been helpful. Um, and as I've mentioned, go and do those tasks, like identify the three recurring patterns that bring you back to the lifestyle step point. Question who would you be without the struggle? Who would you be without the survival lifestyle? And then start doing some things that allow you to be in the frequency of a different quality of life. Tap into that sensory reprogramming, do your future self-feak forecasting and that embodiment, that embodiment exercise whereby you're imagining you're pushing out your world until you can see a reality that sits beyond this wall. And as always, let me know how you found this episode in over on Instagram. And if you are in the what we're calling today the 100k trap, if you not only want to make more money, but you actually want to shift the quality of your life and therefore do the identity work that's required for that to stay and be maintained, then potentially her empire is the room for you. Don't forget application is below. And quality of life. Increase it. Because again, I know that's why you started your business. One of the reasons you started your business was to have this beautiful, bougie, luxurious, successful lifestyle, not just bank account. Okay, I'm gonna leave it there. Thank you so much for tuning in as always, and I will talk to you in the next one. Thank you so much for tuning in to the podcast. I'm sure you're loving each and every episode. And if you are, I would be so grateful if you could take just a couple of minutes to leave your review andor rating. This allows me to connect with you as I read your comment or see the review, and it also allows me to grow the show, which means more impact, more powerful guests for you guys to learn from, and more women changing their life for the better. If this does align, send me a screenshot of your review or rating to hello at jessmartin.com.au, and I'll send you a copy of my ebook for free to say thanks.