Episode 015
Vered Kogan
Are your internal beliefs about money keeping you stuck at a certain income level? In this episode of Women’s Million Dollar Conversations, Alice Tang sits down with Vered Kogan, founder of the Momentum Institute and an expert in the mindset of success.
Vered shares how she reached her first million-dollar milestone in five years by releasing a “mental ceiling” regarding her worthiness to out-earn her past benchmarks. She explains why “burning the ships” of her side hobbies allowed her to finally focus and achieve true abundance. If you have ever felt like you were working 80 hours a week without moving the needle, Vered’s insights on “inner harmony” will show you a better path.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
-How to identify and release the “unconscious programs” that limit your income.
-The “Truth that Sets You Free”: Using evidence to heal internal resistance.
-Why expanding your business actually creates more freedom, not less.
-How to use the “water energy” of a shower to receive intuitive business breakthroughs.
"The moment I made the courageous decision to trust my intuition and go all in was when things started to happen."
[00:00:20] Alice Tang: Hello Vered, my good friend, my good new friend. I have privilege and honor to be interviewing you at our Women’s Million Dollar Conversations. So we are gonna talk about the mindset, which Barrett is an expert in that area.
She coach people about how they can change their mind and achieve great things that is all possible in your life. So here I am in front of my good new friend. Vered would you say a few words about your business?
[00:00:52] Vered Kogan: Yeah, absolutely. I help people and my team as well helps people to create inner harmony and [00:01:00] that’s usually done by releasing some deeper limiting beliefs, releasing some emotions so that people can create change more deliberately in their life and experience more ease and joy.
[00:01:12] Alice Tang: Very good. Cuz all of us want to be happy in the way that we defined. So how we defined it and how we look at it is really important. So here I am following you the first question.
Simple first question, how long does it take for you to get to your million dollar business income?
[00:01:29] Vered Kogan: Yeah, it took about five years from the time that I officially started my coaching business and it’s coaching. In those days, I was beginning to do some trainings. Now I do a lot more training and keynote speaking as well as coaching CEOs. But it took a few years and it, and a lot of that was in the last two and a half years, again, because of shift that I’ve made in my own mindset a worthiness and acceptance of me being able to earn a certain amount of income. There were [00:02:00] certain beliefs that I had about for myself, not about other women, but about myself, earning a certain amount relative to my husband or what I should be or I’m worthy of. And once I released those things just opened up.
[00:02:13] Alice Tang: Well, I’d like to share a little bit not to take away the funder of our great speaker is many years ago, I falsely believed that I had to make 80% of my husband’s income. So for three to four years, I was stuck at a certain level. No matter how hard I work, I could be working 60, 70, 80 hours and still, it hasn’t moved the needle.
But I got many good friends and your my new friend, but this wonderful friend just told me, is that real? And it hit me like a huge baseball bat on my head.
And I thought, it might not be real. Let me just ask him. And he simply didn’t care. That’s the problem.
[00:03:00] Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for listening. Continuing on sharing questions. How does it feel when you hit your million?
How does it meet you?
[00:03:08] Vered Kogan: Oh my goodness. It was amazing. And it was a moment of like disbelief and then came the rush of just gratitude. Also knowing that when it hit that I, I knew that this was just the beginning of even more fun, even more abundance because it’s a process of allowing and when we get the truth, like you.
And we fully accept that truth at a deeper level. Then opportunities show up and things begin to happen. And our job is just to, stay as coherent as we can as we allow opportunities to show up and to take advantage of those. So, yes.
[00:03:45] Alice Tang: My takeaway from, what you just said now is the truth is setting us free.
[00:03:51] Vered Kogan: Yes.
[00:03:52] Alice Tang: But how many of us are courageous enough to look at the truth?
[00:03:56] Vered Kogan: Yeah.
[00:03:57] Alice Tang: Last time we look at it with fear.
[00:03:59] Vered Kogan: [00:04:00] Yeah. The conversation I had right before we connected today was with a woman, she’s a business owner who. She connected with a part of her, a little five-year-old at an event many years ago where she felt that it was her fault that something had happened.
And when that little sweet little five-year-old got the truth, when my client was able to give her the evidence that it was not her fault that she’s a perfect little girl, that her heart is pure and she did her best. Then that little girl was free. She could go play and my client then released a lot of resistance that she has around the, she had around some conversations she wanted to have with her siblings and other things.
It just all melted away when she got the truth. But the keys that it’s not here, it’s here, it’s at a deeper level and, and, and, you know, it’s an acceptance at that deeper level. But once that acceptance is made where we know that it is healthy for us, let’s say to make a million plus dollars, that it is possible for us to make a million plus dollars and that we are [00:05:00] worthy and deserving of making a million plus dollars, then the unconscious mind will have us access opportunities, intuitive guidance, synchronicities.
And our job at that point is to say yes and be courageous and work hard and get those results.
[00:05:15] Alice Tang: My goodness. Gave me all the goosebumps as you were speaking and answering the question, so I know at least I feel that is real and it’s possible for me. Next question.
What is the biggest bias that you have internally stand externally when you’re getting to that million?
[00:05:35] Vered Kogan: Yeah. So for me, the big thing that I around that point struggle with, okay. Then, I’ve gotten to that point, but what does it mean for me now to expand beyond this? Because I knew that meant I needed to expand the scope of my business, right? To have more people working with me. And in my mind in those days, it was that it would require me to have less freedom.
Because I would just have more stuff to [00:06:00] do and that was not congruent with my top value, which is freedom. Mental, emotional, physical freedom, right? The ability to do what I want, when I wanted the way that I wanted, right? Generally speaking, of course, we all have aspects of our business and our life that we need to do, but of course to be generally very congruent with feeling that flow, that energy in my body.
And that was something that I needed to work through. And when I got the fact that’s not true, right? Just head over the head, right? Yeah, that’s not even true. I would have even more freedom when I expand and build. Maybe in the short term they would require more effort and more focus, but in the long term, my goodness, way more freedom.
I could make millions in my sleep without even showing up, cuz other people would lead that, right? So once I got that, then it released, and then like I said, more ways of opportunities showed.
[00:06:49] Alice Tang: Very good.
So believing that you can and believing that, you know, actually it is freer to be there and beyond [00:07:00] there instead of, there got to be a lot of demands.
So I was working 40, it might be a 80 hour week. No, the answer is no.
[00:07:09] Vered Kogan: That was my experience. I think generally speaking, there’s a feeling of surrender, right? So we get to a certain point, let’s call it a million dollars, let’s call it certain number of clients, certain reached geographical or otherwise, whatever we intend in our business or in other areas of our life.
And when we get to that point, yes, we wanna stay very deliberate about what we wanna create. We wanna have a clear picture. What that success that we want will look like, feel like, sound like, all of the above. And at the same time, surrender the form of that. Allow ourselves to trust that it will happen in the highest and best way for us.
And I think that’s where a lot of people struggle with is that they’re almost become resistant because it’s like now they’ve gotten to a certain level, there’s more trust, there’s more confidence. But also with that sometimes comes like a, [00:08:00] I need to keep this going, kind of thing.
I must do more. I must make more. I might, reach more. And when it gets to a place where it’s unpleasant, like it’s like a pressure, like a heaviness versus a fun kind of game, that’s a warning call. That is a wake up call for us to say, all right, what is really important to me?
What do I actually want at this point? Yes, I can achieve, yes, it is possible for me, but what do I really want? Yeah. So it, yes it’s beneficial. It’s, I’m worthy of it. I can do it but do I want to? I got this, check it off. Do I want more? And if so, what would that look like? And does that align with my values?
So I think just consciously saying, what do I actually want? Is an important question to ask ourselves. Cause what I wanted a year ago or pre million dollars might not be what I want right now. And that’s okay. It’s okay to trust that and to redesign our future and [00:09:00] to surrender that it will happen, right?
Because now we’ve got more resources than we had before.
[00:09:05] Alice Tang: Sorry, I jumped again. But knowing what we want you just said is like beginning of wisdom.
[00:09:12] Vered Kogan: That’s right.
[00:09:13] Alice Tang: But they have to know though.
[00:09:15] Vered Kogan: It is. And so here’s the beautiful thing of what you’ve just shared. How do I know what I want? If I don’t have an experience or hallucination of what I don’t want I cannot access the wisdom without the learning, without the contrast.
And so when emotions show up, when we shift from some pleasant state to some unpleasant, those little warning signs, we need to listen to get nice and quiet and listen to that. What am I feeling? What is that little voice saying? And to get the wisdom to ask ourselves, what do I need to learn? What do I need to learn so that I can take even better care of myself so that I could experience even more health and ease moving forward and to trust that guidance to surrender to that guidance.
[00:09:57] Alice Tang: So do you recommend that we [00:10:00] quiet our minds and example one of the guests had she would go to shower, if she wanted to climb her mind. She even have, the writing boards in the shower. Her husband was like, what’s going on here? And she said those are only ideas. We can erase it.
I just come to me when the water is coming from the shower. So what do you recommend people to do to listen to that inner voice? Because we all get so busy.
[00:10:28] Vered Kogan: Yeah, that’s exactly it. It’s quieting the mind. I actually had a major download, what I call a download, an intuitive learning guidance that felt very real and very clear.
And I in the shower there, yes, there is something about the water energy. Water energy as a water element is very nurturing. It’s love, it’s a nurturing motherly type of feeling. And if it’s a warm. Shower, hot shower. Then you’ve got fire energy. The fire element is very much about drive and motivation, wanting gut energy, going to get it. So that balance together, the [00:11:00] harmony of the kind of conscious and the unconscious, working together while. You know, She’s not able to like, use her iPhone and, write her emails in the shower, right? So she can just be present with that. And then things flow, right?
So that information flows from the super conscious mind, right? What some people call the higher or the collective conscious mind, this higher mind when there isn’t that resistance that we have when we’re so busy it can flow. So whether it’s shower, whether it’s going for a walk, whether it’s just pausing to take a few breaths.
To really feel the air going in and going out and and experience appreciation for something or someone in our life when we’re able to do that. And from that place, ask the question, what’s the best path for me? Or What’s most important here? What’s most important here? What really matters?
The answer will come. It might come right away. It might come in the shower later or in the walk tomorrow, whatever. It will come [00:12:00] because we’ve asked for it, and when it comes, it will be very clear and then we will feel even more congruent with taking the actions or stopping the actions if we’re already taking them so that we can experience life at an even higher level.
Which may mean much more abundance from a financial perspective. It might not mean, it may be, it means actually even pausing what we’re doing to contribute in some other way. But whatever it is, it’ll be what’s highest and best for us.
[00:12:28] Alice Tang: So quiet your mind in your own ways in terms and asked a question.
[00:12:34] Vered Kogan: Quiet the mind. Activate the. Feel, appreciation, ease, love for something or someone, and then ask the question because we must ask the question in a coherent state, in a state where we experience an elevated emotion because the intuitive guidance. The heart’s intuition that will come in. That coherent state is totally and [00:13:00] 100% trustworthy, and then we get to say yes, right?
The courage, we get to say yes to take that action, even though it might not be logical, it might not be what everybody says we should or could do, or what we used to tell ourselves we should or could do. We gotta trust it because there is some part of us that knows where we’ve been and where we’re going and knows what’s highest and best.
Not only for us, but for our clients, for our friends, for our family for our planet.
[00:13:27] Alice Tang: Very wonderful. Now we gonna make a turn here. I’m sure that building a business is not necessarily easy, but it’s exciting. It’s worth doing it. There might be a time or two you wanted to quit. What has kept you going?
[00:13:44] Vered Kogan: So truthfully, there has not been a time where I’ve wanted to quit. There have been times where I felt I didn’t wanna do certain aspects of it or that they were no longer serving me. But [00:14:00] truthfully in, in what I’m calling this business there has not been a time. Now having said that, the reason why I opened up the channel at that point, What I mentioned, pre the five years before it took me to make a million was because I had done other things.
My focus was dispersed. We had owned some real estate investment properties and I was managing those properties. I had. A lot of different kind of eggs and a lot of different baskets, but yet I really wanted to grow this business. But it was more of a hobby. I wasn’t fully committed to it. It was something that was fun, but it wasn’t a business.
The moment I made the courageous decision to let go of some of these other things, to trust my intuition and to go all in burn the ship, so to speak. That’s when things started to happen. It’s almost like there was some part of me that said, all right, now we know you’re really committed. And so we’re gonna help you.
[00:14:58] Alice Tang: Wow. Wow. So there’s [00:15:00] no point of time you want to quit, but really a refocus and concentrate laser beam. Focus on the things that you feel that is the most important for you to achieve at the time, and you let go of other distractions, outer noise.
[00:15:16] Vered Kogan: Correct. So like I said, there are aspects of the business that shift over time and certain things that are better investment of energy and time and than others.
Of course, we grow and we adapt, but the why, the reason for the business is so crystal clear that there is nothing. You could drop a billion dollars in my lap right now. Give me all the cars, houses, experiences, whatever, in this life, and I would still do what I’m doing. If you told me you had six weeks to live, I would still do exactly what I’m doing because it is deeper than that.
Yeah. It’s a mission. It’s a calling, and by the way, it’s related to the, to that download in the shower all those years ago.
[00:15:59] Alice Tang: Aw, very [00:16:00] good. Now what is the one piece of advice you would like to give to people who are looking up at you? She achieved, she got there. What is the one thing that they needed to do or should do in order to get to the same place?
[00:16:12] Vered Kogan: Number one I would help them to know that I didn’t get there. I’m still in the getting of there. I like everybody else, have my own stuff that’s, remember we said wisdom comes from contrasting experiences and getting the learning. So I have my own things. I have not gotten there. I have more tools and that is what I would suggest for them is to get more tools.
Tools for resilience, tools for shifting their own limiting programs that are no longer serving them. Tools for being more present with the people in their life. You know, so, so I would say tools for emotional management for resilience. Uh, Is what I would recommend, and it’s a journey. I have not arrived.
Before this conversation we talked about the word master. I don’t consider myself a master. I feel I’ve got some wonderful [00:17:00] skills, which I’m very grateful for and very eager to share, but I’m no master as I don’t think anybody who truly calls themselves a master is a true master.
[00:17:09] Alice Tang: Good. Good. Last question. What is one piece of very good advice or very bad advice that has made a huge impact to you?
[00:17:18] Vered Kogan: That’s a good question. So I’m thinking of advice that other, I can think of advice that I gave myself, but if I think of advice that other people have given me. I would say what my grandmother said to me years ago, was done something, this is when I was very young. I had done something that wasn’t quite congruent, wasn’t very kind and she said to me, we are good people.
Like you’re good. And she just said that. I remember I was a little girl and I was in the pool when she said this, and she said, you’re good. Remember that you are good and those words, I, my grandmother Touchwood is still alive. I get to see her very soon. And I think that’s the essence to remember that at our core, [00:18:00] we’re good.
All our decisions have always been made with the highest best intention in that moment, in the state that we were in with the resources that we had available to us. So just to give ourselves a lot of compassion. And kindness and know that where we’ve been or where we are is not where we’ll be. We are a work in progress, and that’s the beauty of our life.
That’s what we’re here for. And so I would say that to just be really kind and remember, you are good. You are good.
[00:18:29] Alice Tang: We are all good. So sometimes I think women or men too, we self criticize, right? We are very critical of ourself. One of my good friend Adi Klevit has said to me one time she said if you are speaking to you, your good friend, will you be that critical? No. And why? And why did you do that to yourself? And at that moment I said, [00:19:00] Adi, let me record you. Say it to my iPhone so that I can pull it up anytime when I become so critical about myself. Be kind, not to other people. Everybody have a difficult life, but also be kind to ourselves.
[00:19:14] Vered Kogan: And a way to do that is to accept how we feel. Right? So the woman I spoke with right before our conversation, she felt shame. She felt worried. To just accept that we feel shame around wherever whatever happened. To accept that we feel what we feel or how we feel right now, it’s okay in the acceptance of the feeling it seize us to have a hold on us and then we can think more clearly and step into the fullness, wholeness of who we are, which is pure love.
And so sometimes when we judge ourselves, we just momentarily forget that and so we need to remember we’re human. Just accept ourselves, accept how we feel, and it’s okay. It’s okay. We’re growing, we’re learning, getting better and better every day.
[00:19:58] Alice Tang: As your grandmother has [00:20:00] that. You are good.
[00:20:02] Vered Kogan: Thank you so much.
[00:20:03] Alice Tang: Thank you so much . Thank you so much. We we’re happy so happy to be with you for that 15, 16 minutes. How do people find you? Would you tell us?
[00:20:16] Vered Kogan: The easiest way is either to go to momentum institute.com which is my training coaching company, or to find me on LinkedIn. I believe I’m the only Vered Kogan on LinkedIn, so that would be a nice, easy way as well.
And I have a podcast in case people wanna learn more tools and how to experience self love, self-compassion, all these tools. It’s a podcast called The Mindset Game, and in case that’s helpful for them, they can check that out as well.
[00:20:43] Alice Tang: Now, I would, say that it’s really helpful for me, so listen to it. Listen to it. All right thank you Vered once again.
[00:20:51] Vered Kogan: Thank you, Alice. This was such a joy. Thank you.
Vered Kogan is the Founder and CEO of the Momentum Institute, dedicated to empowering individuals and leaders to achieve their highest potential and create the life they desire. With over 20 years of experience, she helps senior executives and teams successfully navigate personal and organizational change in today’s disruptive environment.
Vered began her career as a Civil Engineer (BASc, University of Toronto) and later earned an MBA in Strategic Management (Schulich School of Business). Her professional journey includes time as a Management Consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers and as a coach at Lee Hecht Harrison. She has coached hundreds of executives and entrepreneurs, helping organizations prepare for and adapt to change.
As a seasoned speaker, she delivers keynote presentations and award-winning workshops focused on navigating change and maximizing potential. She holds numerous advanced certifications, including Professional Certified Coach (PCC) and Certified High Performance Coach™.
Vered is a dedicated non-profit advocate, volunteering with the Fresh Start Women’s Foundation in Phoenix since 2005. She resides in Scottsdale, AZ, with her husband, three daughters, and dog, Kiwi.