Q&A: Your Money Matters

Thanks Andrina for your comments and question.  My view on this would be if you were saving your money out of fear of never having enough it would not contribute to the flow.  If you had a goal in mind and you were saving to reach that goal the intention you were holding and the sense of empowerment and achievement you would feel would keep the energy and flow going.  The final authority is doing what you do, observing what happens and seeing if you can adjust what you do in order to influence your money flow.  Good luck with your savings.

Hi Prussian Leadfarmer,  Thanks for your comments which totally reflect the experiences so many creative personalities can have in relation to money, income streams and value.

To answer your question.  When you whip up a jingle in 15 seconds that is a gift you have and your unique ability to express something creatively.  That has value and you can charge for the value not the time it takes.  When you get into your thinking, in the form of "what a load of rubbish" that takes you into personal beliefs and societal conditioning.  For example if you grew up in a family that didn't understand or support your creative expression you will form fundamental beliefs that what you procuce is rubbish.  If you went through a school system that didn't value your creative expression or as a creative person you found it difficult to shine in the way things are done in education you would have developed a further undervaluing of yourself.  These beliefs and conditioning exist in you and come out as an inner critique when you produce your 15sec jingle.  These beliefs and conditioning do not tell you the truth about you and your ability.  They only tell you of beliefs and conditioning that has arisen in response to certain circumstances you have encountered in the past.

If someone goes, "wow that is really good".  Start believing them.  Check out what people charge for good jingles and put a similar price on yours.  If it is something of value to the other person they will pay for it.  When you start to value what you have created yourself, others will too.  My suggestion would be to stop supporting the old story of "It's rubbish" and start creating a new one of the value your jingle can add to a branding campaign or whatever market you choose to put them into.  This may feel strange to start with but this is where you fake it till you make it and move that old conditioning right out of existence.  After a while you will start to feel more comfortable placing value on your creative expression.

We create our reality with the perception we hold.  So don't get confused.  Simply start choosing which reality you want to support.  Go for the one that acknowledges your jingle as good.

Good to stay linked in around these sorts of issues and talk with other artists.  Going it alone doesn't work.

Thanks for your comments Creative Tairawhiti. 

The primary interest of a lot of Artists in business is not to make money and agreed it is not something a lot of creatives naturally feel comfortable with.  However everyone does need to live and the money system is what we have at present as a form of exchange.  As you will have read in the articles and exercises it is the beliefs and conditioning we have on board that gets triggered when we have to discuss money and ask for payment.  This is what is causing the uncomfortable thoughts and feelings.

When I started out in business I had all the same kinds of discomforts around money that you mention.  What I did to move past it all was to acknowledge the discomfort to myself.  Then I would remind myself of the kinds of beliefs I had that were feeding my lack of confidence.  I would then look at what it took me to produce my work or deliver my service.  I had also worked out how much I needed to generate to live every week and how much I wanted to be earning per year.  Then I would remind myself how it was perfectly okay to earn the money I needed to live and in fact to recieve a decent amount of money in exchange for the value that my work provided for others.  

Then I would send the quote or state the price.  I practised stating my price and recieving money comfortably.  The more I did it the more comfortable I got.  We all have a right to feel comfortable to give and recieve money.  Remember money is a neutral form of exchange even if we disagree with a lot of the corruption we witness in relation to money and resources.       

Good question Dawn.  I am certainly one for making a stand that what you are after is not an elusive sought after state but rather a reality.  We have to realise that we live in a work more, earn more kind of society and after buying into that game for most of my working life I too am beginning to question if there is not a way to have greater prosperity with less exhaustion.  A few years back I started to explore the principle of creating vacuum in one's life as a means to attract greater prosperity and abundance.  I have written an article on this subject called "Doing Less a Powerful Force For Change" and it can be found on my website.  Follow this link http://www.creativeadventures.org/index.php?r=9&pt=standard and have a read.

I found the approach so successful that I am presently launching another vacuum creating campaign in my life by selling my house and all my possessions in order to create more ease, greater prosperity and find my next adventure.  The prosperity I am looking for is not the money I will realise from the house sale.  One can't know "how"  what you want will show up when you take this approach.  It does require faith, however it is a natural law that nature won't allow a vacuum.  Which means if you hold a strong intention of what you want the vacuum you create will attract just that. 

I am not sure if this is the practical example you were looking for and I know it challenges all our conditioned ways of viewing the matter but it is the most effective and personally honest answer I can come up with.  You don't have to be as radical as me.  Have a read of the article and give it a bit of a go.