Today, it’s my pleasure to be included in the BlogLovin’ Tour that is sweeping the interwebs this summer, in celebration of the new book The Declaration of You, by Michelle Ward and Jessica Swift.
These ladies are wonderful, heart-full creatives, and I’m thrilled for them! This week’s theme of the BlogLovin’ Tour is Money (my fave), and Jessica & Michelle sent me some great q’s to explore my own personal “Declaration of Money”. I’m sharing my answers here today, and I hope you enjoy them.
You can learn more about the book, and read over 200 other creative bloggers contribution to the party here.
Do you trust that if you do what you love, the money will follow? Why or why not?
YES. However, it doesn’t always look the way we think it will, and it doesn’t always happen on our desired timeline. Also, it’s not always a direct line between doing what you love and making money. For example, I love to dance. My livelihood is not based on dance in the literal sense, but the way I grow my business, create my offerings, how I market and how I show up in the world is certainly connected to my authentic movement practice.
Early on in my professional life, I knew I was not meant to step foot in the corporate world and by my late 20’s I knew I could never work for anyone else and had to be my own boss.
I knew I had to trust my path, what I love, who I am and who I am not, and hoped and planned and prayed that a wonderful livelihood would follow.
And, it has.
It has been quite a journey of twists and turns to fully hone my skills, nurture my innate abilities, become super savvy with what I love to do.
So, while I have been a late bloomer, I have certainly been slow and steady and totally on target and in alignment the entire time.
Do what you love. Do what comes naturally to you. Add Creativity. Add Savviness. Add Heart. Add Showing UP for yourself and your community over and over. Add Learning. Add support and mentors. And Trust. Add Crafting and Tweaking and Fine-Tuning.
And, YES, the money will follow. We all have different visions, dreams, goals, lifestyles that we are crafting and aiming for. And, I wish everyone my dearest love and support and wishes on this journey.
How have you stepped into your own worth – or why are you resistant to it?
I seem to resonate more with stepping into my own VALUE, rather than stepping into my own worth. I can get picky about words sometimes — it has to feel right in my bones and in my heart, and “worth” has never felt quite right.
For me, it’s all about connecting to my VALUE as a human, woman, mama, wife, mama-preneur, friend. I engage with things to help me cultivate my value and feel my value on a daily basis. And, I like to focus on offering my VALUE to the world.
Part of stepping into my own value has been a process of honoring and discovering what livelihood means to me . . . Really understanding what lifestyle I want, what kind of community I want, and crafting my offerings to meet this . . . getting nitty gritty with the numbers, getting expansive with my visions, trusting, opening, creating and seeing where we all meet up. Checking in with my body and intuition to feel into what’s right, and knowing this can and will change down the line.
I have stepped into my own value by . . .
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Taking one step at a time, in the direction of my dreams.
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Honoring who I am, and who I am not. Stopping pretending or contorting myself (even in subtle ways) to be anyone else.
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Learning how to create healthy boundaries to honor my time and energy — learning about my NO’s and YES’ better.
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Daring Greatly! (Hat tip to Brene Brown, for this wonderful book and concept.)
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Making mistakes, with a fierce commitment to learning from them.
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Showing up fuller and fuller as I grow and mature.
How have you attracted more money into your life?
It’s been a journey….
By befriending money.
By doing my own deep inner money work.
By cultivating a deeper, fuller experience of my own value.
By understanding how to work with my emotions around money.
By understanding what my current money ceiling is and moving through it.
By getting savvier as I go with the practical parts of money and getting good financial folks on my team.
By creating more aligned business models as I go to honor what’s best for me, my family and my community.
Most recently, I shifted my business model in a huge way with the opening of the Art of Money at the beginning of 2013. I stopped pushing. I opened to a new vision and biz model that could be even more sustainable and fulfilling. I broke all the rules I learned about online marketing.
I wanted to serve more folks and support a larger community, so I drastically lowered my pricing. I could feel my capacity had grown, and my value had matured. I believed there could be a different energy and experience with my work. I re-named everything in the experience, so that it felt good (ie: “Launch” became “OPENING” and “Sales Page” became “Invitation”.) I collaborated with more dear colleagues than ever before as Guest Teachers and Ambassadors.
With these changes, I went from 50 students in prior group coaching programs, to 320! It was a huge, wonderful leap in every way.
What’s your personal declaration around money?
My life’s work is my declaration of money, truly. The Art of Money, and everything you’ll find on this site is my expression of what I believe about money.
I believe we have to approach money like we approach any other deep aspect of our life — on the emotional, practical, and spiritual levels. In my work, I call these levels Money Healing, Money Practices, and Money Maps, and they create the foundation for my method.
It’s my mission to create a global money movement, where people are engaging in their money relationship with consciousness, love, and empowerment.
Here’s a bit of stream-of-consciousness riffing on my Declaration of Money . . .
Money is a tool. It’s an exchange.
It’s a dynamic to understand and craft.
It ebbs and flows. It can be created.
It’s not the same each year.
It’s a RELATIONSHIP.
Like any relationship, we need to listen and see what it needs/wants from you.
See what you need/want from it.
Dance.
Stay present.
Add Forgiveness. Big time.
Money is something that humans created.
It affects our time, our energy.
Be mindful.
And watch when you check out.
Get to know money — how it works, how to use it, track it, and earn it.
Know thyself in your relationship with money.
Don’t ignore it or pretend its a big monster.
It’s simply and complexly one of those life gardens that needs our care, attention, nurturance.
Keep learning new tools, new systems.
Fine tune. tweak. adjust. keep going.
Open to new ideas. Accept possibilities.
Get support. Surround yourself with a financial support team.
Believe that this can be a creative and fun adventure!
YES, you will learn about yourself:
The journey comes with emotions, patterns, dynamics, strengths, challenges . . .
and there will be many moments of discomfort.
I repeat: Know thyself in relationship with money.
Know thyself. And, listen to your body – it has so much information for you.
Lastly, please celebrate and honor how far you have come, and exactly where you are in this moment.
It’s a good-hard life and it’s one to be cherished till the end of time.
