Are You Sabotaging Your Own Business Success? (Probably. Here's How to Tell.)

A few years into my business journey, I did something that sounds impressive.

I won a six-month all-expenses-paid trip around the world with my husband. Luxury five-star hotels. The whole thing. I talk about it in my first book, Lucky Bitch.

And when we got home, I looked at my bank account and I had no money.

I was manifesting incredible things. I had genuinely started to clear my energy and shift my mindset. I was becoming a great manifestor. But my money blocks were still running the show underneath all of it, and they were making sure that no actual money was accumulating.

That's what self-sabotage looks like. Not dramatic. Not obvious. Just quietly making sure you never quite get there.

What self-sabotage actually looks like in business

Most people think self-sabotage looks like giving up or falling apart. In business, it's much sneakier than that.

It looked like this for me: a potential client would email asking for my prices. And I would procrastinate on replying. Not because I was busy. Because something in me didn't want to close the sale.

I'd resist writing blog posts. Resist promoting myself. I went into business to make my own money, and I was seriously getting in my own way.

And I kept hitting the same income ceiling year after year, no matter what I did strategically, because the root cause was still there.

Here's what it looks like for the women I work with:

Discounting before the client even asks. Saying yes to projects that aren't quite right because saying no felt too risky. Avoiding following up on warm leads. Procrastinating on the one task that would actually bring in money. Resisting visibility when things start to go well.

None of these feel like sabotage in the moment. They feel like being reasonable, or considerate, or just not ready yet.

That's what makes them so effective at keeping you stuck.

Why awareness is the most important first step

Here's the thing about self-sabotaging behaviors: they are unique to you. Unlike money blocks that tend to show up in similar ways across a lot of people, your sabotage patterns are specific to your personality, your upbringing, your experiences, and what you believe you are allowed to receive.

That means you cannot just copy someone else's solution. You have to understand your own patterns first.

And that starts with awareness. Not judgment. Not a five-step fix. Just getting honest about what you are actually doing, and what it is costing you.

One of my clients, Michelle, was an accountant and a coach. She tripled her income, going from $3,000 to over $10,000 a month, not because I taught her anything new about accounting or coaching. She did it by stopping one behavior: discounting for clients who hadn't even asked for a discount.

That's it. One pattern uncovered, one pattern changed.

Another client, Amy, booked her first VIP client after doing the work, because she stopped sabotaging herself when someone actually asked to work with her. Emily doubled her income simply by having the confidence to follow her own big ideas instead of talking herself out of them.

These are not extraordinary people. They are women just like you, from all industries and all walks of life, who got honest about what was holding them back.

The real cost of staying stuck

Here is the question I want you to sit with.

How much is it costing you to discount your value before anyone has asked you to? What is it costing you to procrastinate on the action you know would bring in money right now? What is it costing you to surround yourself with people who speak negatively about money, even casually?

And beyond the monetary cost: what is the emotional and energetic cost of not living your full potential?

If you have been telling yourself that your background is the reason, or the economy, or that other people have advantages you don't, I want to offer you something different.

I was raised by a single mom on welfare. I had no healthy money role models growing up and definitely none when I started my business. The women inside Money Bootcamp come from every industry, every background, every starting point. Nobody won the lottery. Nobody had a fairy godmother. There is nothing special about any of us that isn't also available to you.

The difference is simply that they got honest about their sabotage patterns and then had support to work through them.

Your next step

If this is resonating, the most useful thing you can do right now is find out what your specific money block is. That is the starting point for understanding where your own sabotage patterns are coming from.

My free Money Blocks workshop walks you through exactly that. It is the same framework I use inside Money Bootcamp, and it will give you personalized insight into what is actually getting in your way and what to do about it.

Find out your money block at denisedt.com/blocks

It's your time, and you're ready for the next step.