Healthy Money Mindset & Habits

Welcome! 😊

I'm so glad you're here.

Before we get into any content, take a moment to feel the energy of this space:

Soulpreneurs just like you take this course — coaches, healers, teachers, creators, and heart-centered service providers. Each one cares enough about their meaningful work to give it a solid financial foundation.

You're not surrounded by hustle-culture finance bros. You're alongside your kindred spirits, who understand that money talk can feel vulnerable, and who are choosing to learn and practice more skillfulness with this important area of life and business.

Take a breath and let that land. ✨

Who's in the room? 👋🏼

Let's start by meeting each other. Share in the Student Discussion doc:

1. Where you're located in the world
2. What you do for work (even a few words helps)
3. What drew you to this course
4. One honest word/phrase that describes how you currently feel about money,
5. And a word/phrase that describes how you'd love to feel by the end of this course.

One agreement before we begin: everything shared in this course stays in this course. People will be honest about their numbers, their concerns, and their patterns. That honesty is what makes the work land. Let's protect it.

Three stages of soulpreneur financial life 🧭

In my experience working with hundreds of soulpreneurs since 2009, people tend to be in one of three stages with money:

Survivors feel like they're in crisis mode. Income is unstable or absent, and the immediate priority is getting money flowing. There is absolutely no shame in this — I've been there myself. It's simply that this course assumes some baseline income is already in place. If you're in survival mode right now, get your footing first, and come back when you're ready.

Builders have some financial ground under them. Money is coming in, but the relationship with it still feels a bit too foggy, reactive, or stressful. You want steadiness, to stop avoiding the numbers, to have simple systems for building abundance.

Free Flyers are financially thriving and want highly personalized guidance. Private coaching is the better fit for that stage.

This course is designed for Builders. If you're unsure whether you're a Survivor or a Builder, here's a simple check: Can you cover your basic expenses most months, even if it's tight? If yes, you're a Builder. You're in the right place.

Wherever you are right now is your curriculum. Honor it. It is simply your starting point at this time.

A note on how we'll work together 🤝

This isn't about perfection or pressure. It's about honest reflection and gentle, sustainable forward movement.

I'll share frameworks and practices, but I invite you to feel into what resonates. Your intuition matters here just as much as what's being taught. Always feel welcome to bring your thoughts and suggestions to my free monthly Q&A call.

And as you see fellow soulpreneurs comment in the Student Discussion doc, I hope you'll reply to at least 2 others' comments for every one you post. It keeps a healthy balance among the students of this course, and your encouragement will mean more than you know.

Let's begin. 🙏🏼

Share your introduction in the Student Discussion doc — your location, what you do, one honest word/phrase about your money situation today, and a word/phrase for where you'd love to go . Then reply to at least 2 others and welcome them in. These are your fellow learner-practitioners. 🙏🏼🧡

A student shared: "I was in the live session but revisiting as MINDSET is my biggest challenge. Let's say that I could be considered a "free flyer," yet I feel like "a survivor". A classmate above, there is that critical voice saying- "get off your butt and start to work again- you are wasting your time!" when I know it is not true! 😫"

George replied: interesting! For a free flyer, it's about the practice of shifting "work" towards "contribution" regardless of money. Indeed there's so much contribution needed, more than ever before. Of course the more our contribution moves people the more economic opportunity there is too.

As importantly, work is best paired with joyful productivity, so balance is essential 🙏🏼🧡

Now that we've met each other and found our footing, let's talk about the philosophy that undergirds this course...

How you think about money shapes every financial decision you make. And a lot of what you've absorbed about money — from business culture, spiritual communities, and your own nervous system — may be subtly working against you.

In the next few lessons, let's start to reset our mindset about money toward a healthier state.

Whatever your financial reality looks like right now — if any debt, inconsistent income perhaps, a modest bank balance? — it's not a verdict on your talent... let it serve as your current classroom.

Think of it like martial arts. A white belt isn't "failing" at being a black belt. They're in exactly the right class for their current skill level.

• If a seven-figure business landed in your lap before you'd built the systems and nervous-system capacity to hold it, the weight would crush your spirit...
• Your current business numbers reflect the level of complexity you're actually prepared to navigate without losing your soul...
• Almost every successful soulpreneur you admire has probably had a version of the financial picture you might be in right now — they didn't skip the hard stages, they stayed long enough to learn from them.
• As you integrate the lessons of this stage — tracking honestly, serving humbly, consistent clarity about your numbers — you naturally graduate to the next one...

Your financial situation is never final. It's always mid-story.

Pause and notice what comes up as you read that. Relief? Resistance? A little of both? That's data too 🙏🏼😊

A student shared: "This reframe gets me feeling more empowered and willing to work from where I am now, instead of being disappointed with the situation. Good 👍"

George replied: thanks! There is always so much to appreciate and, as humans it's so easy for us to take things for granted. May we en-joy more of what we already have.

Traditional business culture sells "financial freedom" as the ultimate goal — escape from work, endless vacations, total control.

But this path often leads to the hedonic treadmill: endless desire, brief satisfaction, then more desire. Even the super-wealthy frequently report feeling anxious and insecure.

Here's what I've found when I'm rested and connected to my deeper self:

what I actually yearn for isn't freedom from work. It's the feeling of being truly useful.

I like to call it true livelihood (a play on "right livelihood") — and it's a fundamentally different orientation:

• "Financial freedom" says money is the destination. True livelihood says money is the fuel for your calling.
• If your pricing depletes you, you burn out. If your cash flow is chaotic, you make fear-based decisions. Financial health isn't a reward you earn after your mission succeeds — it's the foundation that lets meaningful work continue.
• The rhythm looks like this: earn through joyful contribution, maintain self-care that keeps you connected to your highest self, return to your work renewed.

Your nervous system responds to money long before your rational mind does. Tightness in your chest when you open a bank statement. The urge to close the tab. Shame before you've even done the math. These aren't character flaws — they're survival strategies your nervous system learned around perceived threats.

• Trying to fix your finances through spreadsheets alone is like trying to fix a car by polishing the dashboard...
• Grounding, presence, and reconnecting to something larger than your fear aren't spiritual luxuries — they're practical business tools...
• When you operate from internal steadiness, you can look at your numbers with clarity instead of panic and act from wisdom instead of scrambling...

Throughout this course, you'll get tools for both sides: the practical systems and the nervous-system steadiness to actually use them. We'll be diving into a specific grounding practice called the energy reboot in our next lesson.

A note on deeper work: if you find yourself consistently unable to act on good financial strategies despite understanding them — not occasionally stuck, but persistently stuck — that may point toward therapeutic work that this course supports but doesn't replace. There's no shame in that. It's simply a different layer, and recognizing it is itself a form of wisdom.

For now, take a breath. You're here, looking at your relationship with money honestly. That already says a lot. 🙏🏼🧡

In the next lesson, we'll put one of these ideas into immediate practice with a tool you can use every time you sit down to work on money.

In our previous lesson we explored the philosophy that inner work is money work. Now let's put that into practice with a tool you can use every time you sit down to deal with money.

Money work stirs up stress for most people. Creatives especially report entering a kind of dazed state around numbers — you sit down to look at your finances and suddenly you're foggy, avoidant, or reaching for your phone. That's not laziness. That's your nervous system reacting.

We need a simple practice that can interrupt that reaction and help us approach money with calmness and courage.

Do you already have a quick self-regulation practice that works for you? If so, share it in the Student Discussion doc — it might be exactly what someone else needs to hear.

If you're curious about the tool I use, read on (and watch the next video for the demonstration.)

A healthy commitment:

Set a reminder during any money session — every 10–15 minutes, pause and do a quick Energy Reboot (see the next lesson), or whatever self-regulation practice works best for you.

Use it throughout today's session and throughout the course.

If you only take one thing from this entire module, let it be this:

before money work, do your energy reboot.

Share in the Student Discussion doc: your own regulation practice, or try the Energy Reboot right now and tell us what you noticed... even "I felt a tiny shift" counts! 🙏🏼🧡

I've been doing this practice multiple times a day since 2013. I fondly call it the Energy Reboot. It's had a profound impact on my personal and professional growth — it carried me through the biggest growth years of my business. Here it is:

Breathe IN: Love. I believe the universe is, in some mysterious way, actually made of love. We are literally breathing it in.

Breathe OUT: Total Security. I believe this is the real truth of your destiny and mine — we have nothing to be afraid of. We will always be taken care of. We are headed inevitably toward ultimate bliss.

Breathe IN: Guidance. Higher guidance is always available to us. Let's open ourselves to it.

Breathe OUT: Thank You. A natural response to higher Love and Guidance.

Breathe IN: Joy. Connect to the joyful experience of this moment.

Breathe OUT: Love & Gratitude. I envision myself en-joying the next task I do.

That's it. Three intentional breaths. About 30 seconds.

I make it as quick as possible while still being meaningful, so I'm more likely to do it often!

I did the above version, daily, for 8 years 🌱 then, I switched to doing Energy Reboot 2 and have been doing that for the past 5 years. I recommend either practice — whichever resonates more with you.

In our previous lesson we learned the Energy Reboot — a way to ground ourselves before and during money work. Now let's pair that inner practice, with one of the most foundational outer practices there is:

Tracking every dollar 💰

One of the most basic money practices, especially while you're on the road toward financial abundance, is to track every dollar that goes in and out of your life and business.

I started doing this years before I launched my business, and I believe it's one reason I was able to grow quickly — reaching full-time income by my second year, and six figures by my third.

It's a money mindfulness practice. Rather than charging money with emotion, you simply watch it as flow — coming in and going out. Over time, that watching changes your relationship with money more than almost any strategy can.

Your tracking tool 🛠️

Whatever tool you use, it needs to be easy for you — and ideally pleasant — so that you'll actually be consistent. That matters more than finding the "best" system.

I started with pen and paper — a small notebook I carried everywhere. I did that for years! Eventually, I graduated to a spreadsheet... then eventually to software that automatically downloads transactions from my accounts while still allowing manual tracking for cash.

Today, I'm grateful to be financially abundant enough that I don't need to track every dollar of cash. My software handles the major ins and outs by pulling automatically from the accounts of bank, credit card, and investments, and that's good enough for me.

So tracking doesn't have to be manual forever. In fact, with AI's growth, one day you may simply have your personal AI track all your monetary flow if you prefer.

But for now, while you're building financial abundance, there's real value in the hands-on mindfulness of tracking it yourself.

I'll share a simple spreadsheet template in the next lesson that you can start using if you don't already have a tool. Or explore the recommendations from your fellow colleagues in the Student Discussion doc — try the ones that seem good, then stick with whichever is easiest and most likely to keep you consistent.

Share in the Student Discussion doc: do you already track your money? What tool do you use — an app, a spreadsheet, pen and paper? If you don't track yet, that's completely fine — tell us what you're thinking of trying. Your recommendation might be exactly what someone else needs. 🙏🏼🧡

In our previous lesson we started tracking every dollar in and out. Now let's use that awareness to answer a question most soulpreneurs have never sat with clearly: how much do you actually need?

Your Minimum Viable Month (MVM) 🧮

Go to your tracking tool — your spreadsheet, app, or notebook. Take a few minutes and do a rough estimate. Imperfect is fine for now. We're gradually building clarity.

Add up only your essentials:

Personal essentials: rent or mortgage, utilities, food, insurance, essential health costs, minimum debt payments, and any other essential family expenses (if you support your family financially).

Business essentials: critical software, hosting, absolutely necessary subscriptions.

For a comprehensive list of potential expenses, see money flow spreadsheet, the tab called "simple".

Total up both... that's your MVM — the minimum it costs to keep your life and business running. For now, don't count anything else. We'll look at less-essential spending later.

To get to the income you actually need to earn, take your MVM and divide it by the % you keep after taxes.

If you pay a total of 33% on your income taxes (consider federal, state, etc) that means you get to keep 67%... so divide your MVM by 67% to get to the actual income you (and your family) need to earn to pay for the essentials.

Example:

Your MVM is $4,000.

Your taxes combined is 33%.

You get to keep 67% after taxes.

So $4,000 divided by 67% is $5,970.

$5,970 is the income (before paying any expenses) that you need to earn.

Anytime, take a pause and do an Energy Reboot — especially if you notice stress or fogginess creeping in. This is exactly the kind of moment it's for.

Your Supportive Monthly Income 🌱

Your MVM tells you what survival costs. But you're not here to survive. You need enough to feel adequately resourced — not luxurious, just genuinely supported.

Take your MVM and multiply it by 1.5. It's not a rigid rule — your number might be slightly higher or lower — but it's a reliable starting point. The result is your Supportive Income Monthly. It includes reasonable spending on things like health, therapy, some breathing room, and modest enjoyment — the things that allow you feel fully supported.

If your MVM is $4,000 (post-taxes) your Supportive Income would be around $6,000 (post-taxes).

Of if you're calculating an amount to earn before paying taxes, then take your pre-tax MVM (such as $5,970 that we calculated above) and multiply by 1.5 to get your pre-tax Supportive Income, which in this case would be $8,955.

These two numbers -- your MVM and your Supportive Income -- are floors you protect, not goals to prove. They're not about ambition. They're about knowing, with real clarity, what it takes to sustain yourself and your work. Everything we build from here rests on that foundation.

Share in the Student Discussion doc only if you'd like, with your two numbers. No need to explain or justify — simply the numbers. Seeing other people's real numbers helps everyone feel less alone in this. 🙏🏼🧡

Now that you've started building a calmer relationship with money, let's turn that into something you can actually practice — a simple weekly habit that keeps you grounded and connected to your financial reality.

This isn't about spreadsheets or budgeting software. It's about 15 minutes of honest, gentle contact with your money.

Setting it up

Pick a day and time that feels natural to you. For many people, Sunday evening or Monday morning works well — but choose whatever fits your rhythm.

Set a recurring calendar reminder. Treat it like any other commitment you'd keep.

Then pair it with something pleasurable. Nice tea, a favorite playlist, your coziest spot. You're slowly training yourself to associate looking at money with calm and safety — and that rewiring is worth more than any budgeting hack.

🔄 The 15-minute weekly practice

1. Energy reboot

A few slow breaths. Hand on your chest if that feels right. One or more orienting phrases — something like "I appreciate this opportunity to look at my money" or *"This is simply information." *

Refer to the energy reboot lesson we did earlier.

2. Look at cash on hand

Just the number. What's in your checking account(s) right now?

Take a moment and feel gratitude for whatever is there. Not forced positivity — just a genuine pause to notice that this money is there to support you now.

3. Look at what's due before your next expected income

Bills, subscriptions, anything already committed.

Here, too, try a moment of gratitude for what those expenses actually bring you — the roof over your head, the tools you use in your work, the experiences they make possible.

One simple way to track upcoming bills: create a separate calendar (within your existing Google, Apple, or other calendar account) dedicated just to bills, especially recurring ones. No new app needed.

4. Decide one money action for the week

This could be:

• Sending an invoice
• Following up with a lead
• Canceling an unused subscription
• Simply doing nothing, because things are stable

One action. Sometimes the most empowered choice is recognizing that nothing needs to happen this week.

🌱 Be consistent with this practice.

We'll deepen this into a fuller ritual in upcoming modules, but this version is good enough on its own!

If this were the only money habit you ever built, it would transform your relationship with finances over time.

Just 15 minutes of calm, honest presence with your money reality, done consistently, will change your life.

Set up your weekly reminder right now — pick your day, time, and what you'll pair it with.

Then share your plan in the Student Discussion doc: When will you do your weekly money ritual, and what's the pleasurable thing you'll pair it with? Your fellow students would love to hear what you choose. Feel free to also mention if you make changes to your version of this money ritual. 🙏🏼🧡