authenticity and money making

Is it possible to be creative and authentic and yet make enough money where you don't really have to think about it? So this is one of the questions that one of you viewers sent to me, and I think maybe some of you watching this can relate and I want to share with you what my thoughts are. So let me first of all share with you what the exact question was and we'll get into it. So the person wrote to me, I long for the ability to create without any thoughts of money to create, because I love it, to take real time off when I need it, to try new things and to build in more hobby time into my life. Everything I create is because I love it. But I always tend to have that background question, will it make me money? I want to get to a place where I feel like I can try things and fail and be totally fine with it. And the sort of implication behind it is that as all of us do, this person wants to really create and serve their audience and their clients without wondering, oh, am I going to get paid for this? They want the energy of service and creation to be clean, in other words. Right. So can relate too, because for many years I was in that state of, you know, where my business, well, I was grateful that really the first year of business I was able to make it work. But prior to this business, I spent many years testing out different things to see if it would make money and if I would make it, have it be fulfilling. And so there's these two things we need to think about. There's these two ends of the spectrum, hobby and business. Right? Hobby is where you can create and express yourself, explore your soul with no concern whether anybody is going to like it or buy it. It's a hobby. It's something that you do for yourself, for your own expression, for your own personal enjoyment and growth. All right, that's on one side is hobby and then on the other side is business. Business by definition needs to be sustained financially, which means if it's going to be sustained financially, remember where money comes from? I've talked about this in other videos. Your money comes from other people's spending, right? You don't. Money just doesn't appear out of thin air. It doesn't just appear in your bank account. Somebody decided to put it in your bank account. Customer, a client, maybe, you know, maybe a family support or whatever, or a boss. Somebody says, ah, you deserve this money or you are owed this money. I'm going to pay you this money. They made a choice. So in other words, a Business. Now, we're no longer talking about employment and about family support, but a business is where customers and clients make the decision to say, oh, you deserve this money because of what you gave me or what you're going to give me. Okay, so in other words, a business is where, on the opposite side of hobby, a business is where you need to please other people. It's true. Bottom line, right? Well, if you don't please, if you don't care completely about pleasing other people, that's called a hobby. Now, some people are very lucky and their hobbies and their expression, when they put it out there, people go, oh, my gosh, can I buy that artwork or can I buy that song or can I hire you for that service or whatever? Now, in business now, when that's the case and that person says, yes, you can pay me for the service, you can pay me for the product, you can pay me for the program or my time or whatever, then you start moving more and more closer to business. And here, here's the thing, here's the key. The more money you require from your business, the more money you require from the thing that you're creating, the more it's a business. Let me explain that again. The more money you require for the thing you do, the more it's a business. Because if you require the money, that means you need to make sure that the person giving you the money, you're the customer or the client, that you're meeting their requirements, right? Because you require money from them, well, then they're going to require something back from you. Otherwise, why would they give you any money, right? So you need to then meet their requirements. You need to make a service that they want to buy. You need to make a product that they actually want to buy. So the hobby and business dichotomy, you got to keep that in mind. It's like, okay, am I really doing a hobby here where I'm just expressing I don't care what other people think? Or do I care very much what other people think because they're the ones paying me? Okay, so a couple of things here. One is that if you want to create and serve without thinking about the money, you need to first make sure that the money is stable. Let me say that again. If money is stable in your life, okay, you've already set up a system where the money just keeps coming in, then you can really serve and create because you're not worrying so much. Because if the money isn't stable, if you don't have a secure income Right. Of course you're going to keep worrying about it. Of course you can't fully serve with your heart or create with your spirit and mind and heart fully because you're always worried about the money. The money is not stable. So in other words, if you really want an authentic business. Right. The end goal of an authentic business is where money is an afterthought. Yes. And you can get there. I want to tell you how. So you need to have it so that money is an afterthought. You're not thinking about all. If you're thinking about it right now, all the time. You need to first solve your. I was going to say solve your money issues, but the funny thing was I wrote a post some months ago about how money is not a problem to be solved. Okay. But you need to first set up a system where money becomes an afterthought. And then you can bring your heart, you can bring your creativity to it. So how do we get. How do we set up a system where money is an afterthought? Okay, so now let's talk about the ways to do it. All right. Essentially, there are three ways, right, where money is an afterthought. One way. For a few of us, we are lucky to have family support. Now I am not. I am no longer. In that case, when I first started my business, I was very lucky that my wife was in an okay job. She was able to support us for a little while while I got my business going. And so that was very helpful. Now she supported me for like a year, and then I supported her for a year or two when she got her business going anyway. So family support. So do you have. Can you, can you get some family support? Now? It might not be from one person. It might be from like, you know, maybe it's five or ten people who are willing to support you at $500 a month from your family or your family members. And maybe that's enough to get you by. Just pay the basic bills. And this is the other thing. The more money you require, the harder it is or the more work you have to do to set up the money system. So sometimes you have to look at yourself and go, there. Let me just. I'm looking you in the eyes right now, and I'm just telling you you can probably save some money. Chances are everybody can save some money, right? You could probably find some way to save some money in your life. You don't have to buy this, you don't have to buy that. You don't have to Buy my courses, right? Really cut my courses out as the first thing to save money. Maybe cut other people's courses out first and then cut my courses out in terms of business and marketing course. Maybe do personal development courses. That's important to you. Fine, but cut my courses out first, okay? Or cut any business and marketing courses out first. You can learn all the stuff that I teach you on YouTube for free, on Google for free. So if you're struggling with money, don't buy anything from me, okay? Don't buy anything from me or any other business and marketing person. Learn it all for free on YouTube or just watch my videos for free, okay? So don't buy anything. So save some money first. You got to learn to save money or to not spend it as much. Don't have this fantasy that, oh, I'm going to make money soon, so I'm going to spend money on. No, no, no. This is what I'm going to get to next, okay? So save money. Eat beans, rice and cabbage. Those are pretty cheap. Okay, Beans, rice and cabbage or something like that. And you know, don't. Well, now we can't go out anymore, right? We're all on lockdown. So you'll save money there. But just, just, just look at your budget again. Look at your expenditures again. Go. Hmm. How can I get a little bit more creative to fulfill my wants, to fulfill my heart without spending money? Get creative. Get creative. Okay, so one is to less, less. Second is can you get some family support? Chances are you probably can from somebody, an uncle, an aunt, you know, if you have still have parents, grandparents, if you have kids who can support you. If you're lucky to have brothers and sisters, somebody or a best friend who can support you a little bit every month. Somebody who can support you. Family and friends support. Okay, that's one. Secondly, or one is to save money. Second is family support. Third is get a job. No, I mean, I mean seriously, there is, I said this before. There is no shame in having a stable job or two stable part time jobs or three stable part time, part time jobs. Whatever you need to piece together so that you have a money system that makes money an afterthought. That's really where you should start if you want to really create. If you want to be authentic, you have to make money. An afterthought. Family support, saving money, family support, getting a stable job or three stable jobs. Doesn't matter where you work. There is no shame in doing administrative work for people at $20 an hour, $25 an hour. If you're watching this. You can charge $25 an hour for administrative work. You really can. I mean, $25 an hour is very reasonable. If you're watching this, you're somebody who already has some entrepreneurial tendencies and skills. You can charge $25 an hour for admin support. Okay, so start there or get some other job that you can find on Indeed.com or other. Indeed Indeed.com is a popular job search site. So get a stable job or get three stable jobs, whatever you need to do so that money is no longer an afterthought. And also, like I said, save money so you don't have to be making $10,000 a month. If you can make $3,000, can you live on $3,000 a month? I hope so. I mean, you don't live in San Francisco like me. And even San Francisco rents are crashing these days because of the pandemic. People are moving away. So our rent is lower and lower and lower. But $3,000 a month, you should be able to live, okay, anywhere in the world, even in the United States. Okay, Maybe not in like Switzerland or something like that, but $3,000 a month, you should be able to do okay, and that's what, $25 an hour, that's 100 hours. Well, 200 and what? 125, something like that, hours a month divided by four, that's what? 30. 30 hours a week. So yeah, you could probably, you could probably get that. Okay, let's say 30 hours a week. I mean, let me just do a quick calculation. $30 a week times 4.3. 120. Let's just say 120 hours. Yeah, 120 exactly. So 30 hours a week at $25 is $3,000 a month. Okay, so get your money system. So save money, family support, stable job. Your money system is now secure and stable. And then you can start to create an authentic business, truly. Or you already, maybe you already have an authentic business that's kind of sputtering now. You can. Truly, with the money system in place, I said 30 hours a week, you're doing $25 an hour work, right? That means you have 10 hours a week left. If you want to work a 40 hour work week, which is very reasonable, 10 to 15 hours a week work left. If you want to build your authentic business to really grow it without the desperation and the concern for money, money must be an afterthought. Okay? So now with your authentic business, you can really create, you can really serve and really bring your heart into it. Without worrying if you're going to get paid or not, or without worrying how much you're going to get paid. You see what I mean? Then you really have the freedom. See, freedom, truly freedom in business is about being able to create and sell and serve the way you want to do it. And yes, you're going to have to do a little bit of aligning with the customer and the client to also give them what they want. But you basically have this passion circle. I always talk about these two circles. Looks like I'm waxing on, waxing off here. One circle is your passion, your interests, your personality, being who you are. Okay? And then this circle is what the customer or client wants to buy from you. And there is always a bit of overlap. There's not complete overlap. That would be. That's very lucky. At some point you will get there. When you build enough of an audience, the overlap becomes closer and closer. But at first you have to find a little bit of an overlap where, okay, this is part of my passion and personality and interest and happens to overlap a little bit with what you want to pay me for. So that little overlap is where you can start to charge money. You don't have to charge very much at first to charge something, right? You're not desperate about money. Money is not an issue anymore. At least, you know, to get by. Fine, charge a little bit of money, serve them well. Word of mouth starts, and then you get. You get more customers and more customers and more of an audience. And as you get more of an audience, they like you more and more and more. They just like your energy, they like your ideas, they like your. Your way of doing things. And more and more, you and them will become more and more aligned between passion, interests, personality, and what they're willing to pay for. And that's what I call a true fan audience. An audience that buys just about anything you create. And you will get there. But it's hard to get there if you're feeling desperate about money. Okay? It is much easier to get there, really. And actually even faster, right? It's easier and faster to get there if you can create content and serve people and connect with people without that desperate energy of, oh, I hope you pay me, I hope the money is going to be there. You see what I mean? So that way you can really move forward, build an authentic audience, build an authentic business from the heart, really, from the spirit, from experimentation. Because any business project, any new business you're creating, any creative project, by definition, you do not know if it's Going to bring you money. So if you put a fancy, see so many people that I talk to. Maybe you have this fantasy that I'm building a business, authentic business. It's going to make me money. See, if you put money into the equation like it's got to make me money, otherwise I'm not happy. It's got to make me money soon, otherwise I don't know how to pay the bills. You've corrupted and you've poisoned the authentic business. It's no longer an authentic business. It's just a business that tries. It's profit driven business which is, as you know, not the kind of business you love to do because it's like, oh, this energy of money is always there. Solve the money issue by creating a system where money is not. Now, now, I'll end with this. Remember I've said before that money is not a problem to be solved. Money is an exchange between human beings that can uplift the world. So you might be saying, George, I know of course I can get a stable job, but I don't like those jobs. Right, let's talk about this. But I don't like those jobs. I don't like the people I work with. I don't like the work that I do. And guess what, everything you focus on expands. So if you continually, and maybe you've already trained yourself for years to focus on the boss that you don't like, the co workers that you don't like, the environment you don't like, the work that you don't. You've trained yourself for years, you practiced focusing on what you don't like for years. And no wonder you have an addiction now to feeling unhappy about the jobs that you take on. That's an addiction. It's a conditioning, right? So what I encourage you to do is to break that conditioning today. Break that conditioning today. Because any job you do is a platform for your personal development, number one. And number two, for your positive impact in the lives of others. Any job you do. So let's, let's make one up. Now, I'm not talking about the jobs where you are being abused, right? If you are being harassed or abused in any way, you should leave that job and find one where you're not harassed and abused. But I am talking about where you don't like your coworkers or your boss because of this personality type or that personality type. You're not being abused. It's just that you don't like how they work and you don't like what their worldview Is you don't like their beliefs or you don't like the work that you do, think it's boring. Okay, let's say you're in that situation again. You've conditioned yourself to be in a state of unhappiness, and you need to break that conditioning today and realize that that job, as long as you're not being abused, that job is an opportunity for you to grow yourself. Inner development, practice as well as outer positive impact. Yes, you don't like that co worker. Yes, you don't like your boss because he or she is like this. But guess what? You change that relationship when you change. When you decide to come into work or log online and say something praiseworthy, say something appreciative about your boss. No matter how despicable your boss is, as long as they're not abusing you. Okay, no matter how despicable your boss is, there is something positive you can say about him. There is some characteristic that you can appreciate about him. You're creative enough to do that, right? So appreciate your co workers, appreciate your boss, and the relationship will change. Step one. Step two is appreciate your work. Your work is doing bookkeeping. You think it's boring. You think your work is, you know, transcribing, whatever it is that is so called boring work. You can. You've been focusing on the bad aspects for so long that you condition yourself, break that condition and say, what is one thing I can appreciate about this bookkeeping work? Ooh, this bookkeeping work is training me to be detail oriented. Every time I come here, it's like detail practice. It's like practicing for myself. And I can start to. Let me practice seeing the beauty of numbers. If I'm doing transcribing for somebody, let me practice learning what they're saying and learning about the subjects and go, ooh, I'm learning about something. Whatever it is you're doing, you can bring some curiosity, some interest, some. Some appreciation. The more you appreciate, the more it expands that. Oh, there's even more things to appreciate about people and about the work. So if you can break that conditioning and start to change a relationship to your boss, your co workers, and your work as appreciation. Now, you've solved two problems. You've solved the money system problem, which was already solved because they're paying you, okay, stable income. You've solved your emotional problem, which is your problem, not theirs. They're not doing anything wrong unless it's abuse, like I said. But if they're not abusing you, it's your problem. Your Emotional issues of not liking something is your opportunity to change that around by using appreciation, by using curiosity. So if you could do that, then, my God, 30 hours a week, you are emotionally happy, you have stable income, and now you could spend the 10 to 20 hours a week, however much you want to work on your authentic business with joy, with creativity, with full heart of service. So I hope this is helpful and I'm always curious about your thoughts and I'll give you a chance to add your comments below while I. While you give me a chance to look at the live comments from those who are here on Facebook watching this. So I appreciate those who are here. Senta and Captain, thank you so much for your. And Amanda, thanks for joining me for this live live call. You know, this is not a popular topic. You know, this is not because people don't want to hear, oh, I gotta go get a job and I gotta be happy about it. Well, all that I. I've got to be is conditioning that you can break to say, oh, I get to. Oh, I get to. Oh, I get to go and practice inner development and outer service in the job, in this. In that. So I hope this is helpful. I genuinely do. I hope this helps you to build your business authentically. And until the next video, I wish you well. I'm George Kao. For those of you who don't know me, authentic business coach. If you like this video, you'll probably enjoy my other ones. Like I said, you know, I have tons and tons of free videos. You don't ever have to buy anything from me. Just watch my free videos. Just read my free articles. If you can't afford. If you. If you don't have your money system set up yet, don't buy anything from me. Got it? Okay. All right, I will see you in the next video. Take care. Bye.