EP 440: The Invisible Number: The Neuroscience of What You Believe You’re Worth

Have you ever wondered why you keep hitting the same income ceiling no matter how hard you work? What if there’s an invisible number in your brain that’s been controlling your financial reality this entire time?

In this groundbreaking episode, we dive deep into the neuroscience of self-worth and discover why your brain has a “financial thermostat” that keeps you stuck at the same level. You don’t need more strategy or hustle—you need to understand the neural programming running in the background and learn how to rewire it.

This episode reveals three shiny golden nuggets that will help you transform your financial ceiling into your next breakthrough.

The Brain’s Financial Thermostat: Your brain operates with something called homeostasis, the tendency to maintain stable, familiar conditions. Just like your body has a temperature set point, neuroscientists have discovered your brain creates a financial set point based on your early experiences and childhood programming. When you try to exceed this invisible number, your amygdala (the brain’s fear centre) lights up, releases cortisol, and treats financial expansion as a threat. Catherine explains how your nervous system activates “homeostatic correction” to bring you back to the income level it believes keeps you safe—causing you to make impulsive purchases, avoid opportunities, or create crises that demand your money or attention. The stunning part? This set point was installed before you were seven years old.

The Inherited Story: Developmental psychology shows that children are in a hypnotic state from birth to age seven, downloading everything through osmosis. You absorbed your family’s relationship with money—the tension when bills arrived, the shame around what you couldn’t afford, the spoken and unspoken messages about who “deserves” wealth. Research in epigenetics reveals that financial stress doesn’t just affect you; it affects your children’s nervous systems. When your parents said “Money doesn’t grow on trees” or “We can’t afford that,” your child’s brain didn’t analyse those statements—it absorbed them as truth, as identity, as the rules of reality. Your nervous system built neural pathways to match your family’s set point. This isn’t about blame, it’s about biology. Your set point isn’t your fault, but it is your responsibility to become aware of it.

The Evidence Loop: Your brain doesn’t just have a set point; it actively works to prove that set point is correct through your Reticular Activating System (RAS). This network of neurons filters the 11 million bits of sensory information bombarding you every second, allowing only 40 to 50 bits through to your conscious mind. The catch? It filters based on what you already believe. If your set point says you’re worth $60,000 a year, your RAS will notice evidence that confirms it, ignore opportunities above it, and guide your behavior to maintain it. You’ll undercharge “just this once,” avoid following up on big opportunities, or take time off right when momentum is building. And you’ll have a logical reason for every decision, while underneath, your nervous system is simply doing its job: maintain the set point, stay in the familiar zone, survive.

This isn’t just an episode—it’s an invitation to finally see the invisible number that’s been running your financial reality. If you’re ready to interrupt the pattern and raise your set point, this one’s for you.

You can watch the video on YouTube.

Ready to Raise Your Set Point?

Join me for a FREE 90-Minute Masterclass on December 1st

If you’re tired of hitting the same income ceiling, knowing you should charge more but something always stops you, this live training will show you exactly which psychological pattern is blocking your breakthrough.

You’ll discover:

• The Revenue Ceiling Diagnostic (3-question framework that reveals YOUR specific block)
• The 60-second somatic