I'm so excited to bring you all a four part series about money. In this first episode of this mini series, we're going to be talking about what money truly is, so that you can stop hating it, stop resisting it, stop desiring it, and simply have it. You ready? Let's do it.

Hello. You are listening to the Love Your Life as a Performer podcast. I'm Kelli Youngman and I am The Life Coach for Performers. I help actors, singers and dancers love themselves and their lives way more. So keep listening to learn how you can love your life way more. Both on and off the stage.

Hello, and welcome back to episode 70 of the Love Your Life as a Performer podcast. I'm super excited about these money podcasts and this sort of four part series that I've cooked up for you. And in full transparency, I was talking to Terry about it and I realized that I was having a little bit of like, imposter syndrome about sharing what I've learned from just my experience and changing my relationship with money. Because the truth is I have had all of the circumstances.

I graduated from college with a lot of debt. I used credit cards irresponsibly, and I don't know if I even would give it that judgment, but I was learning how to navigate being an adult and managing my money. And I I have had good credit scores. I've had bad credit scores. I've had moments where my account has been in the negatives. I've had moments where I'm making more money than I ever experienced. I've literally just had all of the circumstances you can imagine. And the idea of getting on this podcast and continuing to share my thoughts about money and how I've changed my relationship to money feels a little daunting, knowing that I still have some consumer debt, some loans, things that I've invested in for my business, from college, et cetera, like those things are still in process and as I was sharing all of this with my partner, what I realized is like, this is what makes me extremely qualified to simply talk and share all of it.

Because truly, I have taken the courses, I have done the work, I've done the healing, and it is still a process. And so, I'm really excited to, one, talk about it because I think a lot of the times we think that the circumstances, how much money we have in the bank, how much we have in our savings, et cetera, we think all of that is what creates how we feel about money when really, what really creates how we feel about money is our thoughts.

And I know I've done a podcast on, you know, thoughts and beliefs about money before on the podcast. And this kind of four part series is just going to go a little bit more in depth. And so I'm excited to jump in and I hope you are too. Like I said, I have gotten to the place where even though I have debt, even though I have, you know, things that I'm working on financially with goals of income, et cetera, even though I'm fully in flow and growing and it's a never ending process. Right? I have gotten to a place where I feel financially free, despite my circumstances.

And like I said, we all have our own unique circumstances. And what I hope you take away from this podcast episode is that the way you feel about money is in your control. So this first episode, we're just going to talk about your relationship to money and you know, the coming episodes will really talk about, you know, even more about creating more money which we all always are wanting and desiring and doing it in a way that feels amazing is a huge part of the work that I do with my clients. So yeah, let's just jump right in.

I want to expand upon the idea that how you feel about money is totally In your control. Right here, right now, you get to decide, redecide, redefine your relationship to money. And I think, first of all, it starts with really acknowledging what money is. I feel like we treat money like it's, I don't know, this like hot commodity, this thing that there's not enough of, that we have to have in order to, I don't know, be a measure of success, to feel powerful. We associate all these different ideas and feelings to money, which then, when we don't have it or like circumstantially, it's not in the bank, we then feel oppositely, right?

And again, there's just like all these stories that we grow up hearing, thoughts about rich people, thoughts about poor people, thoughts about everything in between. And it becomes this really soupy, I don't know, moral superiority. Like this issue of morality of having money makes you bad or not having money makes you good or more noble and these are all just thoughts and opinions and points of view that we've accumulated, sort of as the societal norm.

And now what I want you to know is that money is a neutral tool. Even debt is a neutral tool. It's not good, bad, right, or wrong. Money is not good, bad, right, or wrong. It's simply a symbol of value. Money is a symbol of value, a representation of value. And we use it in our modern day society to exchange things, right? We offer services, we do work to earn this money, this value, and we're receiving it in exchange for our services, our goods, et cetera. Like you're working on a contract, you're offering your talents to a contract, and so you're receiving value for the value you're giving, right?

Money comes from value. And because it's coming from value, it's really coming from you. Okay? I'm going to say that again and I'll expand on it. Money comes from value. And because it's you, you are the value, you're the creator of money. Okay. Stick with me. If this is a new idea to you, I know it's a little bit to wrap your head around, because we think of money as like this sort of physical tender, tender? We think of money as this physical thing, paper coins that we need to accumulate, right? That we have to get from someone. Instead of really seeing that when we show up with our value and our services and our unique gifts, we receive money in exchange for our value.

And I want to be clear that like when we're talking about value, it's not like your worth or your inherent value as a human. We're talking about like your skills, your expertise, your talent, your labor. It's your unique offering that you have to give the world or your clients or your employers. It just is so important to know that money is a man made tool and concept. Like it was created by humans, because we stopped sort of like bartering somewhere along the way, right? It's not like, Hey, I'll give you three jugs of milk, if you'll exchange some corn. I don't know. That's just the first thing that came to mind. But so money is simply a man made tool that we used so that we don't have to walk around bartering for things. Instead, we earn this form of money, this value, we earn this tool by being valuable, right?

Like really just think about that. Whether you're working in a restaurant, working on Broadway, you know, coaching Tony award winners, either way, there's a skillset, a service, some result that you're offering to, again, your employer, the company, your clients who are simply saying, yes, I would love the thing that you provide. And so I'm going to give you money in exchange for the value that you are providing.

So I hope it's starting to sink in that money is a neutral tool. It's a reflection of value, and it's really energy. It's not literal. We know that. Like, there's not literal dollar bills that amount to all of the money that's in the universe, right? There isn't a physical representation of every single dollar if you added up every single bank account in the whole planet. And, Because money is energy, because money comes from an idea, it's a representation, it's a shadow of the value, so to speak, we can't run out of it.

Money comes from value. There's no shortage of money because it's energy. It's an exchange. It's an idea. Now again, this might seem like really out there and the truth is we need money in our society to exchange it for the things that are required to be human on this planet, right? Like for groceries, toiletries, et cetera. Like, we cannot escape the idea that money is required to live and sustain life on this planet and we get to still decide how we relate to it in our life. And I think it's important to just zoom out and really understand what money is to sort of separate the all of the stories that we create about money, right? That we make it bad, that we perceive it's in shortage, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

I already know that if you're listening to this, you, one, are sort of on board or familiar with some of these ideas. And also maybe your brain is resistant to hearing some of it, because it goes against what you have known about money before. And all of that's totally normal. And again, when it comes to being financially free and living a life where you're not making decisions based on money, you're not deciding how you can or cannot live based on money, right? Like if money is not the deciding factor or the driving factor in your life, you really can experience financial freedom right now.

Because to me, financial freedom is really the feeling of not being stressed about money, not allowing it to be what's creating your life or allowing you to do certain things or not do certain things. Right? Like if we take all of that out, then money is just this neutral tool that we all have access to. Okay.

So, so far, we've gotten through the idea that money is a symbol, it represents value and wealth, and really the wealth that we all have inside of us, because that is why and how we receive money, is for our internal being and what we have to offer the world. And when we know that money is a symbol. And we separate all the stories and the fears and the worries and the extra meaning that we give it, it really is this neutral thing.

And so then what, right? Then what? Then it comes down to your relationship to money, which goes back to your thoughts. It's a very different experience to think money is the root of all evil. Money is the source of all my problems. I don't have enough money. I'm struggling, right? Like all of these thoughts will give you a different experience of your money than when you're thinking that you have enough, that you truly know that you are the creator of money, that you're the source of money, that money is a reflection of the value you're giving the world, right? It's a totally different, not only emotional, but physical experience of your money. And the truth is that, again, it's not dictated by your circumstances.

And the reason we know that this is true is because there can be a person with $10 in their bank account who feels rich as fuck or excited as fuck that they have that $10, especially if your account's been in the negatives for a couple of weeks, right, versus someone who has half a million dollars in their account and they're experiencing immense lack and thinking that, you know, $500,000 is not a lot of money. Right? This is how we know that it's our thoughts creating our experience of money based on what we're thinking. And so I don't think it's good, bad, right, or wrong to have a certain amount of money in your account or to decide, you know, this is my baseline. I always want to have at least $20,000 or $5,000 or at one point I was just happy to have $100 in my account.

Right? Again, like I said, it's just. Especially when you've had your account sitting in the negatives and you've been getting overdraft fee after overdraft fee after overdraft fee after overdraft fee. It's like, damn, can you guys chill? Can you put a cap on this? Like I have so been there and, right, like, regardless, I also know that you can feel sufficient even when you're looking at a negative bank account balance of thousands of dollars. Ask me how I know. I've had to crawl myself out of this hole before. And it's not a problem.

The problem comes in when we use the number that's in our bank account or the amount of money that we have, to make it mean something about us. When we make it mean good things. bad, right, wrong, and we judge or shame or blame ourselves for being in the financial circumstances that we are. And don't you worry, I'm going to have a whole podcast about releasing your sort of negative emotions around money and starting to separate that, but that's going to come later.

For right now, I just want you to start identifying the stories. What story are you telling about yourself with money and what are all of the judgments that you have about money?  Like just starting to identify the stories and gain awareness of how you're relating to money and thinking about money will change your world. Because for so long, I identified as the person who was totally screwed, who was going to be in debt forever, who was, you know, just, you know, born into the wrong circumstances to have a wealthy life, right? Like none of those things are true and it'll be fun for you to also explore, and we're going to talk about this too, how you get to expand your wealth consciousness, expand the wealth and the value that's inside of you to start exchanging it with others in ways that feel amazing and delicious, so that you're consciously creating more of it.

Okay. So that's what I got for you this week and I will be back next week and the following two weeks with more. So stay tuned. All right. I'll meet you back here for another episode.

Hey, I want to invite you to get started because if this is blowing your mind, imagine the impact of when we actually work together. You get to love your life as an actor, singer, or dancer, even including auditions. And if that sounds amazing, come join us inside of Momentum, you get lifetime access to The Performers Plan, coaching, community, and more, and I will be supporting you the entire way. Go to kelliyoungmanwellness.com/momentum to join us now.