Money Magic 3.0 Retreat (Tribe Edition): The Story I Didn’t Realise I Was Still Living
I’ll be honest.
If you’d told me five years ago that I would willingly spend two days at something called the Money Magic 3.0 Retreat (Tribe Edition), I would probably have smiled politely, nodded approvingly, and then found a reason to be somewhere else.
Not because I wasn’t interested in money.
Quite the opposite.
Like most business owners, money has been a constant companion throughout my entrepreneurial journey. I’ve worried about it. Chased it. Lost it. Earned it. Invested it. Misunderstood it. And, as I’ve now discovered, (occasionally) allowed it to define me.
For years, I thought the biggest challenges around money were practical. Schools don’t teach enough financial education. Business owners don’t understand their numbers. People don’t budget effectively. Investments aren’t explained properly. Surely that was the problem. Money was simply information. Knowledge. Maths. Logic.
Wasn’t it?
What I’ve discovered through attending Money Magic 1, Money Magic 2 and now the Money Magic 3.0 Retreat (Tribe Edition), hosted by Amanda Daniels-Allen, is that money is about far more than numbers.
It’s about stories.
And most of us are living stories we didn’t even know we’d inherited.
Why I Keep Going Back
The easiest thing in the world would be for me to write this as a glowing review.
Amanda did this. Amanda did that. Amanda is brilliant.
And, whilst all of that is true, it misses the point.
The reason I keep returning has very little to do with the event itself.
It has everything to do with what the event forces me to confront.
I attended the first Money Magic event with a healthy dose of scepticism.
- Intrigued? Absolutely.
- Open-minded? Certainly.
- Convinced? Not even remotely.
I expected discussions about money. Cheat sheets on winning formulas and a takeaway of “go earn more!” What I didn’t expect was to learn so much about myself.
I walked away from the first event genuinely shocked by what it revealed about my relationship with money.
Not my ability to make money.
My relationship with it.
The second event took that awareness deeper.
And last week, the third created what I can only describe as a breakthrough.
Not because I learned something groundbreaking.
But because I finally understood something I’d been carrying around for decades.
Fourteen Business Owners. One Common Theme.
One of the most fascinating parts of the retreat was the people in the room.
Fourteen business owners. Different industries. Different backgrounds. Different ages. Different cultures. Different life experiences.
On the surface, we had very little in common.
Some were at the beginning of their journey. Others were leading established businesses. Some were naturally confident. Others were quieter and more reflective.
Yet as conversations unfolded, something remarkable happened.
The details of our stories were different, but the themes were often surprisingly similar.
- Fear.
- Scarcity.
- Worthiness.
- Validation.
- Success.
- Security.
- Belonging.
The circumstances may have varied, but many of us were carrying old money stories that continued to influence our decisions years, and sometimes decades, later. (I found that incredibly reassuring).
Not because I want others to struggle. But because it reminded me that behind every successful business owner is a human being trying to make sense of their experience. Sometimes we think we’re the only one carrying a particular burden. Often we’re not.
The Biggest Lesson of All
If I were forced to choose a single takeaway from the entire retreat (tough, as there were many), it would be this:
We’ve lost our relationship with money.
Not our need for it. Not our dependence on it. Our relationship with it.
Money has become numbers on a screen.
- A banking app.
- A statement.
- A notification.
Somewhere along the way, many of us stopped seeing money as something with which we have a relationship and started seeing it purely as a transaction.
That distinction might sound subtle. But it isn’t.
Because when something becomes purely transactional, we often stop paying attention to it. We stop respecting it. We stop appreciating it. We stop understanding it.
One of the ideas that landed most powerfully for me was this:
Money won’t invest in a transactional relationship.
That sentence really packed a punch and will stay with me for long after returning from the retreat.
For years I’ve focused on getting money to work for me.
What I hadn’t considered was whether I had invested sufficiently in my relationship with money itself.
- Did I respect it?
- Did I value it?
- Did I understand it?
Or did I simply expect it to behave in the way I wanted?
That question alone has created more reflection than I ever expected.
The Story I Didn’t Realise I Was Still Living
Throughout the retreat, we explored the stories we tell ourselves about money.
- Where they come from.
- How they were formed.
- Who gave them to us.
And whether they’re still serving us (or ever did?)
As I reflected on my own journey, I found myself revisiting messages I’d heard throughout childhood and early adulthood.
Work hard. Get a good job. Earn more money. Be successful.
Most people will recognise some variation of that message. The problem is not that it’s entirely wrong. The problem is what often comes next.
Without realising it, we begin to associate income with value.
Money becomes evidence of success.
Success becomes evidence of worth.
And before long we find ourselves measuring our lives against a number.
The balance goes up – We feel good.
The balance goes down – We question ourselves.
We make more – We feel validated.
We lose some – We feel diminished.
It’s exhausting.
And yet many business owners do it every single day. (I know I have).
One of the most significant breakthroughs from the retreat was finally recognising something I’ve probably said to clients countless times but hadn’t fully integrated myself:
My bank balance does not determine my worth.
Not when it’s healthy.
Not when it’s under pressure.
Not after a big win.
Not after a painful setback.
My value as a human being is not determined by the number in my account. The number changes. My worth does not.
There’s an important difference. And finally, truly understanding that difference has been incredibly liberating.
Tearing Up the Past
There was a particular exercise during the retreat that generated my biggest “aha” moment. Amanda invited us to seal our old money story in a black envelope. And yet what one other candidate on the retreat did, and caused a ripple effect, as others followed suit (including me), really surprised me. As the moment it was sealed in the envelope – she tore it up. Not just once, but repeatedly. Destroying our old money story once and for all.
Simple. Symbolic. Powerful.
At first glance, it sounds almost too straightforward.
But sitting there reflecting on the stories I’d carried, the beliefs I’d inherited, and the assumptions I’d accepted as fact, it became surprisingly emotional.
As we went into the next exercise of writing our new money story, one question asked, “How does this differs from the old story” and I sat, pen in hand, wracking my brain trying to remember the old money story and not being able to!
- How many decisions had I made from stories that were never actually mine?
- How many limitations had I accepted because they felt familiar?
- How many opportunities had I unconsciously filtered through outdated beliefs?
The exercise wasn’t about denying the past. It wasn’t about pretending mistakes never happened. It was about recognising something profoundly important:
We get to choose our next story.
That realisation hit hard. Because if we can choose our next story, then we’re not prisoners of our previous one.
Unexpected Lessons About Age
One breakthrough caught me completely off guard.
Age.
Not because anyone mentioned it.
Not because it was a major topic of discussion.
But because I found myself recognising a subtle belief I’d been carrying around.
- A belief about what was still possible.
- A belief about what stage of life I was now entering.
- A belief about how much time remained to accomplish certain goals.
None of it was conscious.
None of it was particularly obvious.
Yet there it was.
Sitting quietly beneath the surface.
The retreat gave me space to challenge that belief. To question where it had come from. And to ask whether it was actually true.
The answer surprised me: What if the limitation wasn’t reality? What if it was simply a story?
That question alone has been worth taking home, and toying with ever since!
Tears, Laughter and Dancing
If I’m honest, people unfamiliar with this work probably imagine serious conversations around money. And there were plenty of those. There were moments of reflection. Moments of vulnerability. Moments where people confronted painful experiences from their past. Moments where there wasn’t a dry eye in the room.
But that’s only half the story.
The overwhelming feeling throughout the retreat was joy. There was laughter. Encouragement. Support. Connection. Friendship. Celebration. And yes, somewhat surprisingly, dancing.
Apparently, I am more willing to dance than I had previously given myself credit for. Who knew? (I didn’t even dance at my own wedding!!!) and yet there I was having a boogie, lost in my own appreciation of the transition from what what to what is.
What struck me most wasn’t just the exercises themselves. It was the environment. People felt safe enough to be honest. And honesty is where transformation happens.
The Daniels Difference
I’ve attended conferences, workshops, masterminds, summits and retreats all over the world. Yet I’ve never met anyone who understands customer experience the way and to the extent Amanda does.
I get it. She was born and raised in Bermuda. Where both her parents worked for one of the most prestigious hotel chains in the world. As Amanda will rightly share with people, “There’s 5 star, and then theres FIVE STARS.
Thankfully, she didn’t leave that ‘on island’ when she came to the UK. As everything felt intentional. Everything felt considered. Everything felt personal.
- From the venue selection to the goodie bags.
- From the seating arrangements to the exercises.
- From the coaching conversations to the group discussions.
Nothing felt generic. Nothing felt off-the-shelf.
The retreat wasn’t delivered to fourteen people. It was designed around fourteen people. That takes skill. That takes preparation. And most importantly, it takes genuine care for the people you’re serving.
What impressed me most was Amanda’s ability to hold space for difficult conversations. To allow emotions to surface without rushing in to fix them. To challenge people without judgment. To create an environment where people could sit with discomfort long enough for learning to emerge.
That’s not easy, and extremely rare. But it was done exceptionally well.
What Has This Created For Me?
This is the question I’ve been asking myself since returning home. Not what happened. What has it created?
The answer isn’t simply more awareness, although there’s certainly plenty of that.
- It has created permission. Permission to stop tying my self-worth to financial performance. Permission to stop viewing previous financial losses as evidence of failure. Permission to recognise that losing money doesn’t make me less worthy. It makes me more experienced, more appreciative, and more determined to learn.
- It has created clarity. Clarity around how I make decisions. Clarity around the stories that influence those decisions. Clarity around the beliefs worth keeping and those worth challenging.
- It has created confidence. Not confidence that everything will work perfectly. Confidence that I no longer need to define myself by outcomes.
And perhaps most importantly, it has created curiosity. Curiosity about how this work can help others.
As a coach, I spend much of my time helping business owners understand themselves better. After this experience, I am increasingly convinced that understanding someone’s relationship with money may be every bit as important as understanding their business strategy. In fact, it has already influenced how I intend to work with clients in future, including incorporating Amanda’s Sacred Money Archetypes Survey into my own onboarding process. Because if money influences how we price, invest, hire, delegate and grow, surely we should understand the lens through which we’re making those decisions.
Final Reflections
Looking back, the biggest surprise about the Money Magic 3.0 Retreat (Tribe Edition) is that it wasn’t really about money at all.
It was about awareness. It was about identity. It was about choice.
- The choice to examine inherited beliefs.
- The choice to question old stories.
- The choice to stop allowing the past to dictate the future.
And ultimately, the choice to write a new chapter.
I’m eternally grateful to Amanda for creating the experience.
I’m grateful to the other thirteen business owners for sharing the journey.
And I’m grateful for the reminder that growth doesn’t always come from learning something new.
Sometimes growth comes from finally understanding something you’ve needed to hear for a very long time.
My biggest breakthrough was not learning how to make more money.
It was recognising that I no longer want money to define me.
And perhaps that’s the most valuable return on investment I’ve ever received.
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If any of this struck a chord: The transactional relationship with money, the bank balance standing in for your worth, the story you’re still living without realising it, the place I’d point you first isn’t her next retreat (Although I’d strongly recommend it as a close second). It’s a question.
Amanda has built a quiz that identifies your Sacred Money Archetypes. The lens you unconsciously make every pricing, hiring, investing and growth decision through, every purchase and every pass. Every invoice and every enquiry.
It takes a few minutes. It doesn’t ask you to tear anything up. It just shows you where to start looking.