Making Money isn't "Unspiritual"

Nov 10

Affiliate for Meriflor and her amazing book. Fifty. Bam!

My two cents? I despise being pandered to, particularly when I can sense someone's underlying agenda.

In fact, my biggest struggle in building my thriving business was the idea of selling to people—knowing full well I hated having people selling me things.

If I want something bad enough, I will buy it.

If I admire and respect a person enough, I will bend over backwards to support them.

If I could stereotype the yoga and meditation teachers I have met, by the hundreds--these are people with admittedly poor relationships to money.

If you were raised again and again with the mantra, "money is the root of all evil", you might even feel it is more "spiritual" to be struggling financially.

After all, you are the opposite of "evil", even if you're dirt poor or broke.

Ask me how I know. 😜

One of my many courses focuses on a shift on mindset, not only on limiting beliefs and negative mindsets--but also on building a better relationship with money.

See: Top 10 Resources for Developing a Better Relationship to Money

In short? As a yoga and meditation teacher trained in, practicing, and teaching the philosophy of nonduality—it seemed damn near impossible (or at least highly phony) to not apply these same principles to my business.

I often hear many business owners advocating the complete separation of the personal and professional—and while to a degree this division may be occassionally useful—overall, there was (and is) no separation in reality.

In fact, the most prolific aspect of yoga that translates most immediately to personal life, business life, and a sustainable yoga practice: "Yoga is 99% practice, and 1% theory."

In modern America, this might seem like the complete opposite of what we are often taught.

Theory, theory, theory. Ideas, thoughts, hypostheses. Opinions, rants, and arguments. But practice?

I'm talking 'bout practice.

So while I didn't make a whole lot of money with my website in the first two years of building its foundation, I did manage to have anywhere from 950,000 - to 1.5 MILLION impressions per month.

And while, heck yes, offering a free download or incentive to have people subscribe to your newsletter IS ridiculously helpful in rampantly expanding your email list… before I ever put together a freebie, incentive, or product I quite effortlessly gathered over 500 dedicated email subscribers.

How?

I didn't sell them sh*t.

In fact, I didn't sell them ANYTHING.

I offered people "value", sure: playlists, lectures, podcasts, quotes, inspiring ideas, humor, and emails that went out consistenly just once a month, on the first of the month.

Wait, what?

Why bother wasting my time, delivering free content with no sales pitch, no sales funnel and hidden/totally overt motive to "convert" my clients?

What can you deliver that is timeless and memorable?

Respect. Honesty. Authenticity.

If you are enthusiastic, giving, and transparent: you are gaining something more important (arguagbly) than sales: you are earning dedication and trust.

I have been full of zero gimmicks and sales pitches for years.

From a fiscal perspective, this could be looked at as a massive failure or missed opportunity.

But from an ethical or philothranpic perspective, I'd completely achieved my dreams: people were adding hundreds of thousands of my posts to boards like: "Inspiration" "Motivation" "True That" "Happiness" "Food for Thought" "Kindness" "Live Your Best Life" and hundreds of other boards that at last made me realize… though eventually I would NEED to transition to making sales to sustain myself and business… what mattered more to me was forming relatinoships and inspiring the masses, like any bestselling author might who transforms a reader from the inside out, personally connects to another human spirit in a deep yet private way… and not just ONE person… but potentially MILLIONS.

Ultimately, this website is the culmination of ALL that I am.

Admittedly Peace to the People had roots a lot like a non-profit—in that it made no profit for at least the first year. {Haha emoji}

Call me a young and naïve businesswoman or as I'd like to think of it, I simply needed time to soul search and understand how I wanted to "package" and "sell" myself to the world wide web as I am truly just a person but as "they" say, "you are your brand."

Enough with the quotations already, I get it.

The point is that to combine my deepest desire of becoming an author with all the other specialties of my life, I was going to have to figure out who I was as not only as the owner of my business but as the first person narrator putting content out into the world.

There would be ramifications and I wanted as long as possible to refine my work before I made it public.

I'm not a perfectionist per se, but perhaps a tad shy, paranoid, and fearful.

What a winning combo. {Haha emoji}

But what I really realized in officially registering my company as Peace to the People, LLC, in teaching yoga, and helping companies with their social media and marketing was that I do have some useful skill sets and a whole lot of versatility, passion, and enthusiasm.

I see myself as an artist and writer who adores color and more than anything, freedom.

Thus the most stubborn drive and desire to succeed on my own: to just be self-sufficient and eventually thriving from my own efforts: that was also the greatest dream!

To write (to be an artist, my own "brand", a published author) was to own what I wanted to be more than anything: honest, likable, funny, helpful, and talented.

I wanted to be great in this lifetime.

I wanted to leave a large legacy and nest egg behind for my future great grand children.

I want them to look back at my photographs and read the many novels I publish and think I was an amazing and sassy old lady.

I want future generations I can't even fathom yet to think I was an awesome great grandmother to stem from, and I want to make them proud.