Mary Schiller was LIVE! Dissolving money stress

Hello there, it's Mary Schiller, author and coach of MarySchiller.com, where we follow the fun in life and business because why not, right? Uh, thanks so much for joining me for this talk today, whether you are here with me live or you are joining by the recording. I really, really, really appreciate it. Today's topic is all about money stress and how we are going to dissolve it. So I don't know about you, but that sounds like a great way to spend an hour. Hi there, Doug. Thank you for telling me that you can see and hear me. Really appreciate that. So let me know where in the world you are joining from. If you are joining me live, I'd love to hear. As you know, if you've been on these calls with me before, I am just fascinated by the fact that we can connect across the miles in this way. And so I always love hearing where people are from. Mimi is from Coventry, pardon me, in the UK. It sounds like a lovely place. That's such a nice name. As you may know, I'm here in Paris, France. Rocky is from San Francisco. Hi, Rocky. I'm originally from California, was born in Palo Alto and lived most of my life in the state. South coast of UK, says Graham Clifford, is from Northern Ireland. I have never been to Northern Ireland. I'd like to go there sometime though, and now that I'm closer, maybe I can get over there because I do visit the UK fairly frequently. Where else are people dialing in from? I'm gonna grab a sip of water here. Hi Susan, nice to see you from Canada. I hope you're surviving the winter there. Hi, and Southwest France. Yes, Nova Scotia, Barbara says, and Mary is in Oxford. I'm very familiar with Oxford. Welcome everybody. This is great. This is great. Hi, Judy from Oregon. Yes. Hi, Pat from Milwaukee. Oh, my relatives just moved from the Milwaukee area. They've been living there for a while and have just moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. So some Midwestern there. I also spent part of my childhood in the Midwest in Minneapolis. So I've kind of lived in a lot of places, but it's an exciting life of mine. So I'm so glad to have you all here. And just to let you know how this is structured, this is a very informal chat that we're going to have today about relieving the stress around money. I don't have a slide presentation or anything like that. I do have some things that I want to talk to you about, but I want to encourage you to And type your thoughts and comments into the chat at any time. Hi, Lynn, thanks for joining. And if you have a specific question, it really helps to put it where it says ask a question because there's a little alert that I see when there's a question there. And also on the replay, you can look at those questions and it'll take you right to that spot on the replay if you want to see a specific answer, which is kind of cool. So that's here on Crowdcast. You have that option. So feel free again to post in the chat anytime. I'll keep one eye over there. And if you have a specific question, please put it where it says ask a question and I am happy to get there. So, gosh, the topic of money and stress, it kind of seems like those two things are linked, right? Like almost all the time. What I have found so interesting about this topic is that it doesn't seem to matter how much or how little money people have. There always seems to be a level of stress involved. Hi, Erna, thanks for joining. And so, uh, just out of curiosity, I'd love to hear in the chat if money stress is something that you feel, you know, often, like every day, or just only sometimes, or, you know, not really all that much. I'd love to kind of hear, you know, how much of your time stress related to money is taking up. And then I will share with you how it was for me for a long time and what it's like now. Lynn says sometimes, not too often. Mimi, not as much as before. Pat, 75% of the time currently. Anybody else kind of up in that upper percentage? If so, I'm not surprised because It continues to be one of the things that I hear from my clients that I work with a lot of the time is that they really feel stressed about, you know, how much money they're bringing in, how irregular that income seems to be sometimes, or even if they have a regular job that, you know, it's just not quite making enough to pay the bills. Graham, not a lot day to day, but it kicks in when I think about the future. That's a good point, Graham. We have this idea that we have to kind of stockpile money for the future in case something happens, or if we're lucky enough to live so long where we're too old to work anymore. And so we want to try to prepare for that. So, excuse me, there's a lot of kind of pressurized thinking around this whole money thing. We may be in a position where we are providing for other people in our lives, like children or even other relatives or parents. We may be in a position where we're trying desperately to retire, but it just doesn't seem like that's going to be an option because it looks like there's not enough money. I mean, this is a major, major part of the cultural conversation. Would you agree with that? That this subject of money is like everywhere all the time. I mean, it really is so pervasive, especially as an American. It's really part of the American conversation, you know, talking about how much you earn and, you know, talking to your friends about how much things cost and, you know, how you spent so much on this, but you got a discount on that. I mean, that is just part of the American culture. I know that that's a little bit different in other parts of the world. Here in France, money is really not discussed very much. It's a very different frame of reference. But I think you might agree with me that, you know, in the general cultural conversation, money plays a huge role. Say yes if you're in agreement with that, if you notice it quite a bit. Mimi, yep, money is considered very important. Yeah, Barbara agrees. Yes. It can really seem, and this is how it used to seem to me, like it's life or death, right? It seems like money is the source of life almost, like it's as important as the blood running through you. Anybody relate to that? That it's really seen as this life-giving force, and almost like, um, literally we will die. We will die if we don't have a certain amount of it. That's how it looks to us, and that is certainly how it looked to me. So I'm going to start by sharing with you a little bit about something that I experienced related to money a few years ago. And if you've heard me tell this story before, I'd appreciate it if you would listen again, just, you know, with new ears, because you may hear something new. So a few years ago, I can't remember exactly when this was, but I want to say it was around 2011, 2012, somewhere in there, somewhere in that range. I had a discussion with my daughter, who was grown at the time, uh, that really changed my life related to money. Before I get into— let me look at Mimi's comment. You can't live without money. That's what it looks like for a lot of people, I'm sure. Exactly, Mimi. So I was in this conversation with my daughter, and I was saying something about money, I don't know what, and she stopped me and she said, Mom, you talk about money more than anyone I know, and I am sick of hearing about it. I don't want to hear another word from you about money ever. And like I said, she was grown at the time, so she was allowed to talk to me that way. But I have to tell you, that stopped me in my tracks. It really did. As you can tell, I still remember that moment so vividly because first of all, she'd never said anything to me like that before. Second of all, I didn't know that I was talking about money that much. I was completely unaware that that's what my behavior was. I had no, no idea at all. And the third part about it that really got to me was Wow, like, how obsessed am I with money? Like, how much of my time is actually taken up with this preoccupation with money that she pointed out to me? A lot of things started to happen after that related to money. So the first thing was I started noticing just how much space in my mind was being taken up with money-related thinking. And that was an absolute eye-opener. I mean, eye-opener is putting it mildly. I have to tell you that when I first started to pay attention to all the, the sound in my head related to money, I felt kind of sick to my stomach. I really did. And I can get a little emotional about this because it was a shock. It was a shock how much time I was spending listening to money-related thinking. And it was thinking that wasn't so pretty. Let's just put it that way. There was a lot of thought that I would interpret as stressful. There was just a lot of chatter going on all the time. A lot of it had to do with things like, what is wrong with you, Mary? You're a grown-up. Why can't you seem to get over this income threshold? Why can't you make as much money as your friends? What is wrong with you? You don't seem to understand the first thing about money and how to manage it. You're always losing it or going into debt. And it just went on and on and on like that. So I'm going to pause there and ask you if you're on here live, does that sound at all familiar to you? Does anybody who is listening here have a similar kind of thing, or have you had that in the past? Doug says a wise person once said that anything we think we have to and got to about anything, we block it. Interesting. I have a little bit different take on that, which I'll share in a moment. But I'm curious to know if those of you who are here with me live, if any of that sounds familiar, if you find yourself listening to a lot of thinking like that. Because for me, when I noticed how much of my day was spent listening to that, I just kind of freaked out. I really kind of freaked out. Mimi, it sounds familiar. Barbara, for sure. I mean, yeah, I just— it was almost like, you know, if you're watching something on TV or whatever and you suddenly crank the volume up really loud, it was suddenly like that. It was like, whoa, what is that? What am I listening to all the time? So that was a huge wake-up call for me. And then the next thing that happened, kind of a little bit after that, was I started wondering, you know, what to do about it. Um, Judy says, more in the past. Hi, Helen. Uh, when I'm not avoiding thinking about money, the money thoughts are stressful. Yeah, so this is— so this is kind of what happened was After I realized how much time I was spending listening to thinking about money, I started to wonder what would happen if when those thoughts came in, I just didn't do anything at all. Like, I wouldn't worry about having them. I would just kind of welcome them as sort of familiar friends taking up residence. In my mind, and I just wanted to see what would happen. So the reason why I decided to kind of approach it that way was I had realized that areas of life where I didn't really have any, you know, major issues were areas where I didn't have a lot of thinking. And I either didn't have a lot of thinking or If I did, it was just kind of fleeting and kind of very low volume. You know, it just was sort of in the background and I wasn't really paying attention to it. And so one of the areas of my life where I've never really had any issues is with my weight. I've never been overweight. I've never had to go on a diet. I've never really had any issues in that area. And I realized from kind of looking at that that I don't have a lot of thoughts related to food or eating or hunger. I listen to when my body is telling me it needs food and I respond to that. I don't think, oh my gosh, I'm going to eat at this time, at this time and this time. This is what I'm going to have. I don't go there. And so I thought to myself, well, that's interesting because I don't really have any issues related to weight. That's just never been a thing. So I wonder what would happen then if I just decided to, you know, not listen so much to the thoughts around money that came in, even when they were kind of flashing red lights, you know, even when, if they got really, really loud, could I just kind of hang back and sit and just let them do whatever they were going to do, but not really concern myself with them. So that's what I did for weeks and weeks and weeks on end. I did that related to money thinking, meaning I didn't do anything. I kind of would notice when they come in and I'd sort of wave, mentally wave at them, hi, you know, but I didn't really pay attention to what they were saying or how loud they were, and it was a very interesting experiment. So I'm going to take a pause right there and ask you if you have ever done anything similar, because the reason I'm asking is because most of the conversation around things like money, uh, has to do with your money mindset. Has everybody heard that phrase? You know, you've got to improve or change your money mindset. And to me, as I have written about in my books related to money, that seems like a complete waste of energy because it's talking about trying to manipulate our thinking in some way, that we're trying to think differently about money, or we're trying to think positively about money, or, you know, we're trying to flip these stories around related to money. And I don't know about you, but I have no idea what thought is going to come into my head at any given time. It simply shows up. And I had learned that there was nothing that I could really do about the money thoughts. They were going to come in as they were going to come in, but what I could do was sit with them and just literally do nothing at all about them and just let them play out, let them play out and do what they wanted to do. And I would feel whatever feelings were coming along with that, but nothing terrible was going to happen to me. Nothing terrible was going to happen to me. So that was a huge turnaround for me, a huge turnaround, because I had always thought that in order to change my money situation, in order to quote unquote have a better relationship with money and all these different things, that I was somehow required to wrestle with all of that money thinking and try to do something with it. And I simply couldn't. I did try, I did try, didn't work because like I said, I can't predict what I'm going to think next. So instead of trying to wrestle with money-related thinking, I simply decided to let it be and let whatever it was going to say, say it was going to say it. And I was simply not going to respond. So that was a major, major breakthrough for me related to money. So let me ask you this. Does that sound completely nuts to you? To just allow whatever kind of stressful money thinking you have, just let it come in and do what it's gonna do and kind of sit and see what happens and recognize that maybe it's not telling you anything that you really need to listen to, even when it is flashing red lights and sirens. Those kinds of thoughts tend to make it look like we've got to do something right now. We've got to fix this right now. This is an urgent problem. And what I saw was just the opposite was true. That the louder those thoughts were, the less I needed to pay attention to them. They were not telling me anything truthful and I could simply wait them out. And then if I wanted to do something about how much money I was earning, I could just go do it instead of having to try to fix or mold or change any of that. So Anne has a comment. I totally agree, Mary. I spent years trying to think positively about money and trying to change my thoughts and beliefs. As you say, never stop the thoughts coming because I took them seriously. I felt very uncomfortable most of the time. Now I do exactly what you do and money turns up in all sorts of unexpected ways and I feel great whatever is going on. Awesome, Anne. That is exactly the experience that I had. I saw that things that we, we would label like money blocks or, or what have you, they're not real. They're not real. And we simply have thought related to money, and that's it. It comes in, it says what it's going to say, and then it moves along. And we aren't obligated to do anything with it at all because, as you just pointed out, we can't. I've often said, you know, trying to change your thinking is trying to— is like wrestling with air. It cannot be done. There is no there there to try to do anything with because once we've had the thought, it's already there. The horse is already out of the barn. There's no putting it back in and trying to get a different one. So if you walk away from this talk with one idea, this is why I'm saying this one first, because to me it was so key. Is that you don't have to do anything related to stressful thinking about money or anything else. You can simply sit with it and wait, and it will change. Even when it seems really gripping, like it's, you know, holding on and really wanting you to pay attention, you don't have to do anything about that. It will change on its own because that's how we're designed. Hi, Mimi. Nope, it's been very helpful to me to just sit with my thoughts about money. I'm going to be more consistent though. Yeah, don't worry about it, Mimi. You know, it's, it's one of these things where, uh, you know, I still occasionally have kind of— I don't know if I'd call it stressful, but, um, somewhat loud thoughts related to money. But because now I see that they have no real impact at all other than they give me a feeling, a passing feeling, I just ignore them. I just ignore them. And nothing that we hear that indicates any sort of limitation is true because you and I have unlimited abilities creative abilities, uh, related to money and everything else. There is no limit to that capability. I learned that lesson from a coach that I had, who I had some really interesting discussions with related to money. And she said to me, you know, your creative abilities are not just relegated to a few little areas of life where you might have some special talents. It's in everything because you are a naturally creative being. Your life is being created every moment through you. And so that means that you have creativity available to you in every area of life, and that includes money. So if you have thinking around money that seems limiting in any way, you are absolutely free to ignore that. It cannot be true because it is trying to tell you that you have a limitation that you simply don't have. So let me pause there and see if there are any other comments or questions about that. I can't begin to express what a huge difference this has made. And let me reiterate, it isn't about trying to think positively about money. It's not about trying to imagine myself rich or whatever. It's not about that. It's about recognizing that any thought that I hear inside that indicates something is wrong related to money or anything else— but we're specifically talking about money, uh, anything that comes into my mind that tells me something is wrong with the way I'm dealing with money or the way that I'm earning money or anything like that— I can ignore it because it will pass. And then I can take whatever action seems appropriate, you know, from this beautiful infinite reservoir of ideas that you and I have access to. I realized that all the time I was spending listening to all that stressed-out money thinking, I could have been listening to all the ideas I had about earning money and start acting on those. And guess what? That's exactly what I've been doing ever since I kind of sorted this out. It's been a lot easier for me to come up with fun and creative ways to earn money because I'm not listening to all that other stuff that comes in sometimes and says, you don't know what you're doing, Mary, you have no idea how to make money. I just kind of, you know, don't let that bother me anymore. And I go forward and I listen to what is coming to me to do. So I don't want you wasting any more time trying to get rid of money blocks or fix your money mindset or any of that. It's not necessary. It's just not necessary because you and I have everything we need already right now to earn money and, and do it in a fun way, whatever way we want to. That is underneath all of that thinking that comes in sometimes. That's just like the tiniest little piece of what we experience. What we really are is, like I said, this unlimited reservoir of beautiful creative ideas that we can apply to any area of life, including money. So let me go over to the question that Pat has here. Pat has asked, I wonder what your thoughts are about money blocks and debt are connected to physical, emotional, mental, and digital clutter. The subject is something I've been studying and I'm fascinated by this topic. Uh, can you address how intention plays into all of this? Thanks. Um, interesting question, um, Pat. So as I just kind of alluded to, I don't see, um, any kind of block, and I'm putting that in air quotes, as real. Because there is nothing that can ever block a human being. Our creative energy, if you will, is constantly moving. We are constantly in a state of creating. We are this beautiful vessel into which all of these thoughts and ideas arise every day, and they come and go. They are constantly creating an experience for us. But there is nothing that is ever blocking anything. So I don't see a block or any sort of mental clutter as real. It doesn't look that way to me. It simply looks like different kinds of thinking that we have sort of arbitrarily labeled as clutter or as something unwanted. But in fact, it's it's really neutral. We've just labeled it that way because maybe we don't like what it's saying. And so my point is that if we want to have a different experience, all we need to do is just wait it out and a new thought, new experience will take its place. And once we see that, and this is a pretty radical idea, so I'm going to say that first. Once we see that our thoughts have really nothing to do with our capabilities and what we're able to do, that's pretty freeing because our thoughts don't define us. They don't define the actions that we take. I have had days where I have had, you know, some kind of stressed-out money thinking going on, and I've made lots of money on those days. So I have seen that there is absolutely no connection whatsoever between those two things. So on your question of intention, I don't really use that word in my daily life or in the way that I conduct business. I think maybe I would use the word inspiration instead. I tend to listen to what comes through as a piece of inspiration. And related to money, for instance, I might have a new idea for something that I could create that I think might be really helpful and fun for people, and then I take action on that. So that's kind of how I see things. It— I'm not, uh, really using the same kind of language. So I'm hoping that that was a helpful answer to you, Pat. Thank you. Susan has a question. Please talk about the gap between realizing the money thoughts and ignoring them and moving into the doing ideas to make money. I'm in that gap and notice I have ideas, but I'm not doing much. Oh, interesting, Susan. Thanks for asking that. Yeah, I think that what happened for me was that— and this is going to sound— I'm kind of embarrassed, really. Say this, but oh well, here goes. Uh, I started realizing that over the years, even though I had had a lot of this money thinking that my daughter so kindly pointed out to me— I am actually grateful to her for saying that— I realized that all the years that I had had all of that going on, I was still earning money. I was still doing things related to earning money. I had freelance work for a long time, and then I was in a job for quite a few years. And so all that was still going on. I was still taking action and doing things, and I realized, oh, so maybe what it is is that I still have this capability of earning, clearly, because I've been doing that even with all this stress going on in my head. But maybe the key now is that Once that, that kind of stressful thinking starts to fade in the back into the background, I might hear some new ideas that maybe I've been missing since then that then I can act on. And I think what you're, what you're maybe asking is that is about, you know, well, what if this doesn't work? That's what I'm guessing. So when I'm done answering, maybe you can tell me, but you know, there's always that, okay, well, what if I do this thing to earn money and it doesn't really work? Then what? Well, I've had plenty of things I've tried that haven't had, uh, an outcome, you know, that I would have expected. And I think the, the key there is knowing that it doesn't matter because we have another idea right behind it that we can try, and another one after that, and another one after that. There is no end to the creative ideas we have related to money earning or anything else in life. We are this endless idea-generating machine and we can act on any or all of them. Well, maybe not all of them, because then we'd be running around like crazy all day. But, um, I think that you're in this gap perhaps of wondering, oh, what if I make this move and, and it doesn't actually work out? You know, then what am I going to do? And so what I would say to that is that's another thought you can kind of just let fade into the background, because that thought has no idea what's going to happen. You know, human beings are so funny. We have lots of thinking about a future that doesn't exist. It tries to tell us that it knows what's going to happen in the future. And that's especially true related to money. I think a lot of us have thinking related to money that seems to indicate that it knows exactly what will happen if, or what will happen when. Well, none of that is true. We can just kind of wipe all of that off. And just listen to that inspiration and realize, you know, I can act on any idea that I want. The outcome will be whatever the outcome will be, and I can't know that. I can only take this action and see what occurs. And if I've got fearful thinking about it, oh well, that's not going to hurt me either. So let me know, Susan, if that's kind of where You are. Oh, let's see. Feels more like I'm having a hard time getting started. Maybe it is future failure. Imagine I do. I think that's what it is, Susan. And that is a really common thought that people have. And I think what I've learned for myself is that the more you just take some actions and just see what happens and some things fall flat and it's like, no big deal. Like my coach used to say, you've heard me say this before, probably, Mary, you're not Oprah. Like nobody's really paying attention to you, so it's okay. You can do whatever. You kind of just realize, well, all right, that didn't bring in any money. Let's try something else and see what if this will do something. And so there just isn't as much riding on it the more times you simply start experimenting. So let me know if that makes sense, Susan. Thank you. All right. So I'm going to take a brief pause here. What thoughts do you have at this point in our chat together? Is this helpful for you? Do you feel like you're hearing something that is new? Yeah, I would just like to know. Let me just take a quick sip of water here. Let's see, we have another question. Oh, Susan says thanks. Okay, cool. Let me say one other thing. I want to say one other thing about Susan's point is that we are absolutely free to act on any and all ideas that we have. I think there's often this sense of, oh my gosh, could I really do that? Could I really try that? You know, barring anything illegal, of course. But the answer is yes, you can. No matter— and let me add this. The ideas that I've heard in my head that have seemed the most outrageous have often led to the most fun results and have— I've just had such a joyful experience with that the more outlandish they sound, the more likely I am now to do them. So, uh, I just wanted to throw that out there. Thanks, Susan. Uh, Mimi, very helpful reminder. Yeah, you know, I think that we can all benefit, myself included, from recognizing some key things. So what we've talked about so far is that we are free to ignore or simply sit with and let them pass on by any kind of stressful money-related thinking. That thinking is not telling you anything true about your money-making capabilities. It is not something that you must answer immediately or else. You are allowed to sit and wait it out and wait for some natural clarity to emerge so that you can do the thing that seems the right thing to do next. And that's really how we're designed. That has been hugely helpful to me. There have been points in my business since I started it in 2016 where I had a lot of that kind of flashing red lights and sirens kind of money thinking. And I've learned now that if that ever shows up, I just wait it out. And inevitably on the other side of it is some cool new idea for me to try. And that it's, it's like clockwork. It's just like, that is simply how we're made. And I think the more that you experience that for yourself, and like I was saying just a moment ago, the more you take those actions and you see that, wow, this is actually really fun, and wow, this could actually lead to some income, and wow, look at that, it actually did lead to some income, you know, then it just starts to be, uh, not such a big deal anymore. The whole money thing itself starts to not be such a big deal anymore. So the other piece of this that I really want to cover in this talk, that was, and I kind of alluded to it a few moments ago, this was such a breakthrough for me. And some of you have heard this before, but it really bears repeating because this was so, so key, was that I used to see money as out there. Somewhere. And I think that a lot of the stressful thinking I had was related to this idea that I had to, you know, go after money out there somewhere. I had to somehow convince someone to give it to me, right? You know, like you go in for a job interview and you, you know, you go in in your best suit and everything and you're trying to impress someone so they'll hire you, so they'll pay you. Right? You know, it's a whole big process. We've all been through that, and we're trying to make a good impression because we want this person to hire us, you know. Yes, so we can, you know, have a good time or engage with our skill set and all that, but the bottom line is we want the paycheck, right? Anybody relate to that? You know, that's what we're kind of all doing. We want to impress someone so they will give us money, or, you know, that comes in all different forms. But forever, that's how I saw money. Like it was something out there somewhere that I had to hunt down and kill and bring home. Or somebody, you know, I had to basically beg for someone to pay me something by, you know, dressing in that suit and making a good impression enough for them to hire me and then pay me. Well, as I started to go into this new discovery around money. I had this huge breakthrough moment, and it was almost exactly, uh, 3 years ago, uh, right now. I remember the date very specifically because I remember exactly where I was, and I realized that, you know, I was looking at my life related to earning money and all the different jobs that I had had, you know, starting in high school when I worked, uh, junior high school and high school when I worked at my dad's office, and then I worked at an amusement park, and then I worked all through college in food service at my university, and, and, uh, also did some fun transcription work for some of the movie studios. And, you know, all of that stuff, you know, and then after college and then grad school and teaching and all these different things that I had done that brought money in And I realized, wait a second, Mary, you know, what is the common denominator here? What is the source of money really? Is it all those people out there, or is it me? And I realized, you know what, I'm the source of money, just like I am the source of everything else that I experience in life. Everything comes through me. I experience everything through me. And I was like, wow, that is so cool, because suddenly the whole equation flipped around, just flipped around entirely. And I realized, oh my gosh, I don't have to go hunt down money anymore. You know, I don't have to, uh, I don't have to beg someone to give it to me. I don't have to do a job that I don't like just to earn money. That seems crazy. I am the source. It's all come through me. So what do I want to do with my time? How do I want to spend my time? And that's when I decided that I was going to start this business that I've now had for almost 3 years because I realized I can do whatever I want and the way to earn an income will make itself known because it'll come through me. It will come through me. No more doing jobs I don't like just for the money. I mean, I don't know if you guys can tell, but that was just a major, major breakthrough for me. Huge. And I'd love to hear if that has done anything for you on this call, if this is the first time you're hearing it, or if you've been with me a while and you've heard that before. You know, has that seemed true to you, that in actuality you're the source of money? So what is there to be nervous about? Because you're completely abundant just by being who you are. That there's no shortage of money, that there's no, uh, there's no limit to it, just like there's no limit on you and what your capabilities are. It's all part of that beautiful infinite sphere that we call life. That was gigantic, absolutely gigantic. And it's— it really— that realization continues to permeate everything that I do because I realize that I'm free to do anything. And because I see that money comes through me, that it's all here, it's not out there anywhere, that it can come from anything I want it to. So what do you guys think about that? Does that seem pretty radical to you? It may sound really nuts, I don't know. "Hi Mimi, ever since I heard you say this before, I've seen for myself that I must be the source of money in my life. Thank you." Cool, because where else could it come from? Really, where else could it come from? And it doesn't just, it's not just limited to money either, you know, or earning it, I mean. It can be, you know, somebody gives you an unexpected gift. Well, that came through you too via them. Uh, let me see what this question is here. Exciting. Uh, hi Sana, would you, would you say that you look for ways to earn money or you look for fun things to do and then a ways to earn money appears? It's the latter. It's absolutely the latter. I look for fun things to do that I think might be cool for other people to experience, and then I figure out how the money piece might fit into it. It's not the, the primary focus. Um, it's more about, you know, I loved this quote from one of my, uh, one of the people who was in my community, that money is like thank you notes. It's really the after effect of everything. It's much more about what can I create that somebody else might enjoy. And maybe they'll give me some thank you notes for it. You know, it really comes from that. There are times when I've had a lot of fun setting a money goal just very lightly, not like, oh, I've got to make this money, but just a light goal like, oh, you know, it'd be really cool to earn, you know, $5,000 by the end of the month. How could I do that? I mean, what could I create that people would really love, you know, that maybe they would maybe somehow I could make that much money. That would be a fun thing to play with, and it's, it's much lighter. It's, it's not this heavy, scary, monstrous thing that it used to be for me. So let me know if that was helpful, Sana. Thank you for that. Uh, let's see. Hi, Allison, I love hearing this, first time signed in listening. Oh, thank you so much, I love having you here. Thanks for being here. Yeah, so It really, to me, you know, my, my thing about following the fun and business is fun and all that, I really mean that. I'm not— that's not just a slogan. That really is where I'm coming from, is this place of, you know, what would be fun to do, what would be fun to try. And, you know, the money piece, if that's part of the game I'm playing, then I'll play that game too, because that can be fun as well. Like I said, it doesn't have to be this— I mean, it really used to feel like there was a guillotine hanging over my neck a lot of the time, you know, just ready if I made the wrong move with money to just, you know, and now that is so not there. It's just not there anymore. And it's really exciting to feel the natural freedom that we can have around money because that's such a hot topic. Let's see another question. Hi, Sana. You still have some sort of audience in your thoughts about what to do more than just what you want to do for your own fun. Oh, I see what you're saying, Sana. Yeah, I think so, because I, uh, how can I answer that? You know, part of, of, um, for instance, working for yourself and being your own boss, as I love people to do if that's what they want to do, is creating things and then putting it out there to people. You know, as I say, following the fun and then inviting other people into your party, into the party with you. And, and that's very much what it seems like to me. It's like, you know, I want to create something and then invite people in. And so, um, so it is my own fun, but then I reach out my hands to other people and say, why don't you come join me and see if this is for you too? You might enjoy this. And that's really how I approach a business in general, is from that perspective. Everything I do comes from this idea of what would be fun for me to do and what might that do for someone else? How could I share that with them in an interesting way? And it's a very cool thing to recognize that, as I said, since money comes from us and we're the source of it and we are fully abundant, we don't have to manifest anything. We don't have to attract abundance. It's already here. It's all here already that we are an immensely powerful being. And I think it's fun personally. I think it's fun to see that power kind of show itself in the form of money. I think it's really fun to see that creative power in that way is super exciting. And, you know, it doesn't matter to me how much it is or anything like that. It's like, wow, look what was created there. That is so cool. So I hope that was a good answer for you, Sana. Hi, Anne. I found that when we do what comes naturally and what we love doing, what's fun, I don't think we then have to think about how it can help other people. That part just comes naturally too. That could be— that could be it. I hadn't really thought about it that way, um, but, um, that could be very true. I'm going to think about that, Anne. I actually really like that. Uh, it may just be sort of a natural, um a natural thing maybe to want to bring your, your own creativity out into the world. And like in my case, you know, I really love having business-related conversations and money-related conversations, and, and that just seems to kind of bring people into my orbit. So I love that. Um, hi Doug, this is great. The opposite of the way most think. Yeah, it's pretty radically different, um, from what else is out there. And I know people hearing some of this for the first time, it can take a while for it to kind of sink in. And that's why I always say experiment with this for yourself. You know, don't just believe me. I don't want you to believe me. I want you to take what I'm saying and really see if it's true. If you have stressful related thinking, about money or anything, don't worry about it. First of all, don't worry about it. Everybody's got thinking like that. It's universal. It's not personal to you. It's this universal thing that we have called thought. And sometimes it says stuff that seems to, you know, have this stress, stressful feeling attached to it. It's nothing to worry about. And we can simply sit and wait it out. And underneath it, is our natural creativity and our natural clarity that's got every answer we could ever want times a million. And we can listen to an answer that comes to us or an idea, and we can decide to act on it. Or as my old coach would say, yeah, that idea, I reject that one. Next, next idea please. And then another one will show up, and then another one. And we are free to act on any of them. We're free to act on any of them. So I don't want people spending all of this time trying to wrestle with thinking and trying to remove so-called money blocks and things like that that aren't real. That's simply an idea that we can just let pass on by like everything else does. It will change on its own. There is nothing that we need to do about any of that, and it's nothing that we need to be concerned about. It doesn't say anything about who we are, doesn't say anything about our capabilities related to earning money or anything else that it's telling us. That isn't who we are. It's not telling you the truth. The truth is that you have all the abundance you could ever want. You have everything you need. And if you want to play with money, you can play with money. You can do it in any way that you want to. So I think I'll take another pause there. Any other questions or thoughts that have come to mind during this, during this chat today? Let me just check my notes. Yeah, I think I've covered pretty much everything that I wanted to, but I want to make sure that if you guys have any additional thoughts or comments that, you know, I address them. I think what is a little bit— I don't know. Well, I'll just share my experience is that I see people all the time in my conversations that I have with people who are so wonderful and so beautifully capable And yet they are listening to all this thinking that tells them they're not, that tells them, oh, they can't really earn money doing what they love doing, that's just not possible, you know. Or, you know, nobody will pay me for what I can do, it's not worth anything, you know, who would pay for this? And, you know, I will sit across from them, usually on a Zoom call, you know, similar to this except they're talking to me, and I will just see a person who is just the most gorgeous human being ever with so much light emanating from them and so much passion and exuberance and so many gifts to share with the world. And, uh, the only thing that I really want you to get, like I said, if you get nothing else from this, is that if you So here, any thoughts like that in your own mind that seem to indicate you don't have what it takes or you don't know how to or whatever, you are free to just ignore those. They're going to come in and you can let them go on by because that doesn't represent the truth about you. There's nothing missing in you. I used to think I was missing something like the money gene or something, like I just didn't get the whole money thing. Now I realize that wasn't true at all. That was simply a bunch of thinking I was listening to. It wasn't bad thinking. You know, I don't like to label thinking as good or bad or anything. It simply was there and I could not do anything about it. I could sit and wait it out. And underneath it were all these beautiful ideas that I could act on. So to say that my experience around money has shifted would be the understatement of the century. And it continues to shift. It continues to shift. You know, now I'll have a thought like, you know, wow, it would be really fun to earn, you know, X amount per year because there are things that I would really love to pay for, you know, that, or, you know, causes that I would like to support and things like that. And now that just doesn't seem so far-fetched because it's like, why not? And not only that, I did a talk about this topic not long ago. You know, what if it's actually easy? What if it's actually easy to earn an income doing what you love doing? What if it's actually easy? What if it isn't this big struggle that the traditional conversation makes it out to be? Um, and that is something that I have heard in my mind a lot. What if it's actually easy? I've been surprised more and more and more of the time to discover that things that I thought were hard related to having my own business, working for myself, you know, finding clients and all of these different things, they've actually turned out to be quite easy. And I think a lot of it is because I saw the things that I've shared with you on this talk. I saw that I didn't have to listen anymore to any money-related thoughts that tried to tell me otherwise. I could kind of wave hello at them and embrace them and say, thanks for coming, but now I'm going to listen for something else and kind of be very light about the whole thing and just not really worry about it. And then recognizing that just like everything else that I experience, I am the source of money as well. And that my creativity extends in that area in an infinite direction. So any, uh, any other thoughts? We've got just a couple minutes left, but I'd love to hear more from you guys if you're here live. Um, any other comments you'd like to make before we sign off? I have written, uh, 3 books related to money. They're on Amazon. One is Let's Make Money, Honey. One is How to Price Like a Girl, and one is How to Be Happy When You're Broke. So as you can see, I spent some time on this topic. Hi Susan, love the idea. What if it's easier than we think? Yeah, yeah. What if it's actually easy? What if it's actually easy? And on that topic, there's a green button here that says, curious about how fun and exciting it can be to earn cash in a flash? Join the VIP list to hear about a new program coming soon. The reason I'm offering this particular program coming up is because I want people to have the firsthand experience of how easy it can actually be to earn money and do it quickly. I want people to experience really firsthand this creative power that extends to every area of life, including money, even if money hasn't looked easy to you in the past. I'm going to prove to you that it actually can be very easy and, and not just easy, but really fun, really exciting, really generous. That it seems funny that earning money could be generous, but that's what I have come to see. So if you're interested in hearing about that program that I'm putting together, and I'm not sure exactly when I'll release it, probably sometime in March. Then click that button and then you'll hear about it first and be entitled to first dibs on some cool stuff. So, uh, Terry, so we create our clients, uh, there's an and there, I'm not sure what comes after that. I don't think we create those people. I think that, um, more likely they simply show up because they like the, the energy that we're exuding. Or you could say sometimes this is even— this is true too. A lot of the time there are opportunities right in front of us all the time and we're not seeing them. We're just not seeing them because we've been so focused on trying to fix all this money thinking that we haven't seen that there's just glittering opportunities everywhere all around us. And that includes people who could become clients. They're everywhere. "We attract our ideal clients." You know, that could be true, Augustina. I don't really use the word attract, but kind of, it is kind of like that. I think it's more like, like, you know, maybe it is, you know, because people are, people want to be inspired, you know, they want to be around people they find inspiring. And when we are living from this natural abundance that we don't have to create or attract or anything, this natural abundance and creative energy that we are, it inspires people and they want to be around that. And so, you know, that's a piece of this too. Maybe I'll talk about that in another discussion coming up. So thank you so much for being here on this call. If you joined me live, I really appreciate all the thoughtful comments and questions. If you joined on the replay, thank you so much for watching. If there was something that you wanted to ask me me, but you didn't want to put it in the chat or in the question box, please go ahead and email me mary@maryschiller.com. I'm happy to respond to you personally. And again, if you're curious about what I think is going to be a super fun time related to the topic of money and just having a fun, just a really fun experience with it, then click the green button and join me potentially for a new program. I'll let you know about it as soon as it's ready. Thank you so much, everybody. Thank you, Augustina. Thank you, Terry. I appreciate you all being here, and I hope you're having a wonderful day or evening wherever you are in the world. Don't forget to join me for the next two calls coming up this month. I have special guests joining me for those— Lou Theodore next week, and the following week, Ingrid Lil. Both of them are artists. And we're going to be talking about following the fun and just having a great time in life. So I hope you'll join. Thanks, Doug. Thanks, Mimi and Barbara. Thank you, everybody. It's been a pleasure. I'll talk to you again soon. Bye for now.