The Harmless Phrase That's Killing Women Entrepreneurs' Sales and Why You Must Eliminate It in 2025
- Feb 18, 2025
- 5 min read
Dr. Murielle Thezenas is a Mindset Business Mentor and Trainer for Female Entrepreneurs, Certified Closer, Creator of ©LoveClosing. She helps solo female entrepreneurs (coaches, trainers, consultants, freelancers) overcome their struggles with sales and build financial freedom. She is one of the Top 15 Coaches in Paris by Influence Digest Media.
Let’s take a moment to analyze a small phrase that seems so noble, a mantra that many women entrepreneurs proudly proclaim. It’s the answer I hear most often when I ask them why they are undercharging, why they give away their services for free, or whether they can actually pay themselves decently.
They don’t realize that hidden behind these few words lies a silent trap, one that slows down their business growth and limits their entrepreneurial expansion.
This phrase is: “I don’t do this for that!”
(Implying: I don’t do this for the money.)
Why is this phrase so toxic?
Because it normalizes and justifies self-sabotage, a trap that keeps too many women entrepreneurs stuck: underpricing their services, giving too much for free, avoiding sales, and not paying themselves.
And it is far from harmless.
There are three insidious mechanisms behind this damaging phrase that can completely undermine your business efforts. These silent killers operate through:
1. Devaluation: When giving becomes synonymous with worthlessness
If you “don’t do this for that,” then your work has no price.
And what has no price, has no value.
Let’s take a simple example. Imagine you find a crumpled €500 bill on the ground.
Your first instinct? You pick it up immediately. Because even if it’s wrinkled, its value remains intact.
But what if that same bill were just a blank piece of paper with no numbers printed on it? Would you take it?
Probably not. Because it has no perceived value.
Your work functions the exact same way.
If you don’t assign value to it, no one else will.
Every time you offer your services for free or drastically undercharge, every time you avoid talking about money, you’re sending a subliminal message to your audience:
What I do is free; therefore, what I do is worthless.
And the consequences are immediate:
People admire you, but they don’t buy from you.
They thank you, but they don’t pay you.
Because unconsciously, you have set the stage where money has no place!
2. The passion vs. money dilemma: The illusion of choice
This phrase creates an internal conflict that is both unfair and illogical:
On one side: Passion and impact
On the other: Money and greed
As if it had to be one OR the other. As if making money automatically meant losing integrity.
This is not true. In fact, it is a dangerous belief. Let’s use a simple analogy:
Imagine you are a passionate artist. You create breathtaking paintings, filled with emotion and depth. You pour your soul into your work.
But you refuse to sell your art because you believe that “true art shouldn’t be monetized.”
What would happen?
You remain trapped in a small creative bubble, invisible to the world.
You can’t afford better supplies or improve your technique.
You lack the resources to spread your message on a larger scale.
This is exactly what happens when you refuse to associate money with your entrepreneurial journey.
Money is not your enemy. Money is an amplifier.
It allows you to:
Help more clients
Offer higher-quality services
Pay yourself fairly
Build a sustainable business with a lasting impact
Where you see a dilemma, there is actually a powerful synergy:
Passion and profit
Impact and prosperity
One should never exclude the other!
3. Escapism: When your own beliefs trap you
"I don’t do this for that" is more than just a phrase.
It is an escape route.
It provides a false sense of pride that numbs self-reflection and allows you to avoid asking yourself the hard questions:
Why does selling make me so uncomfortable?
Why am I afraid to display my prices?
Why do I struggle to claim my worth?
These questions are not easy to confront, because the answers challenge your comfort zone.
Accepting that money plays a central role in your success means recognizing that you may need to:
Work on your mindset and self-worth
Change your relationship with sales and money
Learn to confidently set and defend your prices
It is not always easy, but it is a necessary step to transform limiting beliefs into powerful, business-driving thoughts.
However, as long as you keep hiding behind the phrase "I don’t do this for that," your breakthrough remains impossible.
You stay stuck in a vicious cycle: No money → No growth → No business evolution → No money.
And sadly, for many women entrepreneurs, this cycle has been repeating for years.
Money is part of the equation
We love to tell ourselves that we start businesses for passion, freedom, and impact. And that is true.
But not entirely.
Because without money, even the most beautiful aspirations fade away:
Without revenue, your business stagnates.
Without revenue, you are forced to accept low-paying projects.
Without revenue, your vision of freedom remains out of reach.
And eventually, without revenue, you burn out and give up.
But you alone hold the power to break this cycle.
It is time to uncover your true why, the deep reasons that drive you to do what you do with so much passion and excellence every day.
What if, instead of rejecting money, you embraced it for what it truly is? What if you realized that making money is the key to more freedom and more impact?
The late Paul-Loup Sulitzer, businessman and writer, put it best:
“Well, tell yourself that if money, contrary to the saying, has a smell, and even a bad one, it is up to you to do great things with it that you won’t have to be ashamed of. Money doesn’t matter in itself. It is neither ugly nor beautiful; it is what it is. It’s up to you to give it its true value, that is, a purpose.”
Your mission as an entrepreneur is not to reject money, but to give it meaning.
And what if 2025 became the year you finally align your ambition, your impact, and your revenue?
This is exactly what the "LE FRIC C’E$T CHIC" Wealth & Money Seminar for Women Entrepreneurs is designed to help you achieve.
Reserve your free spot now, find the link in my profile and step into your financial transformation!
“Come on, let’s do this for that!”
Read more from Dr. Murielle Thezenas
Dr. Murielle Thezenas, PhD Mindset Business Mentor Coach
For many female entrepreneurs, sales and closing are synonymous with pressure and manipulation, which slows down their expansion.
Dr. Murielle created the ©Love Closing to teach these professionals to appropriate the keys of an ethical closing, aligned with their energies and sacred feminine, enabling them to master their sales, grow their revenue, and achieve financial freedom.
©LoveClosing places the female entrepreneur and her values at the heart of a simplified sales process driven by love, the most powerful energy for ethical negotiations and sales.
Dr. Murielle Thezenas is renowned for having trained over 800 female entrepreneurs in her proprietary ©LoveClosing method: she is one of the Top 15 Coaches in Paris by Influence Digest Media.
