Your Happy Hour - Episode 13: Money Positivity

Episode Date: March 1, 2024

Happy Friday everyone!  Tune in to episode 13 and let’s chat about Money Positivity.In this episode, we unpack the construct of money, how we move from scarcity to self-love in our relationships with money. Let’s find financial freedom by uncovering our money truths, debunking the money myths we’ve been sold and talk about the hard truths behind financial success. They say follow your joy and the money will follow… is this true? We’ll be here - every Friday - celebrating with you!Connect with us @ friday-feels.co▶ Podcast Chapters01:23 New month, new theme on money matters01:55 Cosmo’s article on work feels03:54 Charting your own path: The construct of money07:42 Ramit Sethi: “I will teach you to be rich”10:55 Money is a journey: From scarcity to self-love17:55 Earning money: What does this really mean? 25:00 Do you walk differently when your bank account is full?25:22 Uncovering Money Truths: Spending, saving & diversification as the key to success29:45 Debunking Money Myths: Value, exchanges of energy and the current economy34:30 Where did it go wrong? Lynne Twist on “The Soul of Money”39:17 Follow the money: Talk about the hard truths behind financial success40:40 Gems of the Week: Bet on yourself, be authentic and gift yourself respect47:30 Our wishes for you, final questions and farewell!

Happy Friday beautiful people and hello to you all out there tuning in for your first sip of the weekend. you tune into your happy hour with friday feels we're celebrating all your working professionals out there doing your crazy craft embracing the beauty of being human and connecting authentically and we are host sage and nicole and we're living and working around the world, holding space for you and keeping it raw and real as we share fresh content with you every week. Follow us on LinkedIn at Friday Feels and Instagram at These Friday Feels for updates throughout the week. In our last episode, we chatted with Tiffany Gossain on balancing it all in work, life, motherhood. And she shared some really interesting points of her journey, you know, how she's pivoted, how she's made room for being a mom of two and a working professional in her life, and some advice for those who are trying to find some time for

themselves while balancing it all. And this month, we are tackling a new subject, which is money positivity and how we understand, view, and carry our beliefs around money. It's a love-hate relationship of worth that we all have to master in our lifetimes. Some have trauma bonds around it, and we'll be discussing, you know, some of ours and what we've built around money. And we'll also be discussing with speakers who have found ways to make money while also following their passion. actually posted some of our favorite money quotes from Cosmo. They had an article last year, which was 120 Instagram captions for all of your work feels. And I sent it to Nicole and I was like, look, they're talking about work feels just like us. And I actually got a really good laugh out of it. They had different topics for it. And so some of them are like positive thoughts about work, you know, when you're ready to get up and get that money. And then some of them are

like when you're just so over it, you know, so they had, I'm going to read out the topics for you. But they had productive day captions, feeling demotivated at work, day off captions, hard work captions, sarcastic work captions, overwhelmed and tired work captions. And so one of mine that I thought was really good was get up and get ready. You're not a nepo baby, which basically means they're just not a product of nepotism. So you need to get up and work for your buddy. And they had the CEO, 000, 000. I thought that one was really cute. What about you, Nicole?

Which ones are your favorites? Yeah, those are great. Thanks for sharing them. And I'm glad we could share them with our community and with you guys out there. Quite keen to hear what everyone else's favorites are. And also thanks again to Cosmo for bringing us some feels for the week. It's always great to see other communities like that sharing what they think working is about. So I think definitely for me, and it's probably like the theme of my life

every month right now is compliments are great, but I need cash. So I know, Saj, I've been telling you that I've secretly been very much looking forward to this topic since we started brainstorming the themes for the next few months. Money is such a fascinating construct of our existence. We touched briefly on this with Christine Bolden, I think, in episode eight.

So for whoever hasn't checked that out, it's an interesting take that she had on that as well. So what does this topic mean to you? And do you feel like you have a positive attitude towards money yeah so I think this topic is is really interesting I think when we were talking about what are the topics we want to have in the different months this one came up because in the spirit of charting your own path I think money is just a really important construct that we all in some way in this world that in the worlds that we live in you know you need to have it you need to have it to kind of go out and do what you want in the world um and feel safe and secure is is part of that um or taking risks and calculated risks to get paid for what you're passionate about, what you like

doing. And so much of what we talk about is following your joy and your passion. And I think for me, you know, I have some strong held beliefs on money. A lot of them actually have changed a bit in the past year. And for me, you know, growing up, frugality was a big thing. I kind of grew up that way, you know, going to garage sales and buying things on clearance. And for me, it's actually fun to get things discounted. Shout out to my, I wouldn't say my parents, shout out to my mom for probably making it a game. I don't know. But I think it's kind of funny because I think, especially I would say if you're in a relationship and it doesn't have to be a romantic one, but it's very interesting to see how other people have different beliefs about money.

And the reason I say in a relationship is because you're probably around that person a lot. I say in a relationship is because you're probably around that person a lot, even if it's your best friend or your spouse. You can tell people come with their own set of beliefs to many scenarios about money. There's so many times, even if you go and grab coffee, you can see if people choose to pay for you, if they tip well, if they get a bunch of free stuff like they'll go and take extra sugar extra half and half and keep it in their bag they'll bring their own tea bag to you know when they're going out to get tea so there's so much you can tell about people when you you know that's an exercise I like to do a lot of which is like follow the money you really understand what's going on in a lot of situations, especially around like businesses and business models, etc. So as I got older, and I started making my own money, I would splurge a bit here and there on nice things. But I still find it very,

very hard to spend a lot of money on clothes and material items and most things. It's weird, because I have no problem spending hundreds of dollars getting things on clearance versus buying one thing that I really want for the same price. For me, it just doesn't make any sense. And it might break. It might not fit me well, but I will still do it. And I really argue a lot with myself around that and my partner also argues a lot with me like you know why why don't you just buy one thing you really want instead of buying 500 things that kind of like yeah they're a great deal but like they don't actually serve the purpose that you need them to serve. And I think an interesting book that talks about

this is Ramit Sethi's book. He also has a Netflix special on it. It's called I Will Teach You To Be Rich. And he's a big believer in splurging relentlessly on the things that are of value to you in your rich life and cutting everything else out. So if you're a person that really likes to go on vacations, or even if you're a person who really likes designer things, whatever it is, that's your kind of cup of tea that you really want, enjoy, like, gives you happiness. You figure out a way to center your life around that and get the things that you want. But everything else that doesn't fall in line with that, you don't splurge on it. So you might, let's say, cook meals at home for the whole month just so that you can afford your vacation, that you want to go stay in a five-star resort for five days and you don't

want to have to worry about anything. Whatever it is, I like his approach because it's not about judgment and what works for everybody. It's very personalized, but it's realistic in a way that you can't afford everything. And you shouldn't feel a lot of it is guilty. You shouldn't feel guilty about the things that you generally like and enjoy. But you do have to be realistic about where you're going to cut those costs. And so he also has a lot around automating systems. So if you get paid

every month and you realize this is what you want to do, you save up for those vacations. The rest goes into savings. Just basically making it easier on yourself by having systems and processes in place. And I think this is still a topic for me that I struggle with a bit because if you read a lot about how people become financially successful, it's usually focused on one thing, try a variety of methods, figure out what works. And when you do, hone in on that, get better at it than anyone else, and then charge for your services. And so for me, thinking about money and in the context of how we live our life and how we also follow our passion, I think in this phase, I just really want to try a lot of

different things and want more of it in my life. And so for me, it's about building back my money roles in a way that feels authentic to me now. A year ago, when I had a steady job, it was different. For me, it was more about, okay, the money that I have and that I'm earning, I need to invest it to beat out inflation to, you know, rather than saving it, I would probably put a portion of that away for some sort of vacation and save some of it. But the majority of my extra income went to investing or putting in a pool to invest it. And so, I mean, there's so much on this topic, but I think, you know, we're going to get into later on, like, what are our money rules?

What does it mean for us? But I think that's kind of how my journey and money has changed over the years. What about you, Nicole? That's fascinating. And I think you're so right, right? Like money is a journey. It's not to say that the way you think about money when you're young is going to be the way you think about money when you're old and when you've gone through some things in

life. And funny enough, I think money still remains an issue. It doesn't matter what age you are. But for me, it's definitely a pertinent thing in my life at the moment because I am trying to heal a lot of really owning my worth and when I say worth it's very much about your own love but it's also about the financial expression of that in the world so I have quite an interesting journey with money and when I was thinking about this I really had to like break it down into like phases of my life. So when I was very young, what I remember is getting pocket money and not being wanting to spend it, you know. And yes, I am an only child. And as much as I completely hate the stereotypical idea of only children being spoiled,

I was, I was very privileged. I was very grateful for being able to get anything. I was never unreasonably spoiled, but I was always given choices. Is it this one or this one? And I was very indecisive. But I remember one day very specifically where I wanted to buy a CD. It was my very first CD that I really, really wanted. And I just couldn't like spend money on it. I was so scared to spend money and buy something that I wanted. And I always had this thing where like, we'll look at something, I'm going to buy it. And then first we have to go home and I have to sleep on it. And if I still want it in the morning, then I'll go back and spend the money. So I was very scared to like,

follow, give myself things that would like give me joy and I didn't really have that good like relationship with spending and money so anyway the student days came and I was obviously off to university I've what I remember about that time is that I was basically broke most of the time so you know I had I had money and I was working tutoring jobs and whatever else, but I was spending on partying and having a good time and living life. And I also very much remember spending money on gifts for other people. Again, I wasn't really spending money on myself. It was about if someone had a birthday, I want to make sure if it was my boyfriend, like he gets the best gift I can offer.

Even if I can't afford it, I'll make a plan, you know. So I was basically broke because of partying and gifts. And when I then entered like after student life, a bit of already working for myself, I started healing that, you you know I was definitely working in a space where I was working my own jobs I was doing different multiple things at the same time I wasn't in corporate yet but I was I was getting by in life and then I started working in corporate I was working at KPMG at the time and you know when you enter those kind of programs like even the forensic program I entered most auditorsitors will tell you, you, you earn peanuts, you earn absolutely squat all for

all the hard work and life that you give to these corporates, you know, it's just a fact of life. So I really wasn't making much, but putting so much energy into that. And yeah, again, just kind of trying to build from that and realizing very quickly that when I moved out of corporate into fintech, I was making a lot more money. So it's interesting what you mentioned earlier about when you find things that you're good at and go for, sometimes that's quite hard because it's also dependent on the industry that you move in, dependent on the way those things function in those industries and all of that. So that was an interesting realization

that you could do similar work within a different industry and earn more money. And then I got married and I haven't spoken much about this on the podcast, but I was married for a while. And I entered this interesting phase with money where I always believed that even though I studied finances, this is the irony, and accounting, I never really had this good relationship with how to manage money. And I got kind of convinced that I wasn't very good at this and couldn't be and gave my bank account away. And so I gave up my ownership of money to be able to be in a joint, co-joint bank account with, you know, the ability to spend but be watched

and really have to like draw, you know, from the ATM if I wanted to surprise anyone with anything. And so I completely limited myself in my way of being financially free in the world. And after I got divorced, I really started healing that relationship. You know, I had to take on the mortgage by myself, which was a huge leap of faith for me, but the universe completely helped me and mended this relationship by supporting me in different ways. My company got medical aid all of a sudden for us. So I was covered. You know, I got the most ridiculous bond

because we were in lockdown, which I never would have gotten on my own. And so when I started following more of my joy and spending money on making the house my space and my sanctuary, more money started flowing in. And so it was really beautiful to kind of see this transition from a young girl who was really scared to spend money on things she loved, to this whole movement of being able to mend my money matters in following

my joy. And then yet again, after the layoff, having spent so much energy and money into doing creative things, I now find myself in an interesting situation of still feeling financially stressed out, still not quite knowing how to own my worth in the world. But it's because I have to do it for myself, not for a company, not for anyone else. And I've now discovered that I think differently about money because of this. I really had to sit with myself and being very broke a lot of the last year, broke because of decisions of paying for creations of music and all of that. So I would make those choices again.

But really not being able to spend much on food and anything like that. I started thinking about what is this thing like money? You know, what is it when I'm earning money? What does that really mean? And yeah, I mean, we're're still gonna delve into some of this and and some of our money truths but yeah that's been my journey from like scarcity to energy exchange and I want to flesh that out a little bit more but I've really gone on a whole long rant here so that's a little bit of the journey for me and why money is such an important topic out there in the world, because we allow ourselves to be captivated by it and controlled by it when it's really not necessary.

Yeah, I mean, thank you for sharing that. I think, same, when I was thinking about this topic, I realized it is, you kind of break it down into phases, right? So you grow up with whatever is around you, because that's how life is. And then when you start kind of embarking on your own, I remember in college, like my parents used to give me money. They were very much so when I was growing up, and it was the time for me to get a job. It was like, instead of you getting a job, we'll give you money, but you focus on school and you focus on this and so I didn't have to kind of figure it out because I always had and so there came a time you know around 2008 when there was the crash where they didn't really tell me too much but I just realized when I would ask for money it didn't really come as frequently

and I remember one time asking my parents like they used to give me like a hundred dollars for I don't know how much it was for like a week or every two weeks or something like for groceries because our meals were kind of covered housing was covered so it was really like recreational and if you wanted to buy things some of the meals were covered and so um again i was using it for like partying and um and food mostly and what else are you gonna use it on and i remember asking my family because i used it and i was like can i have can you guys send me some more money and my dad was like he was just like kind of quiet and like yeah okay and my mom like no tell her like tell like what happened she was like what happened to the money we gave you like last week and I was like oh I used it and she was like well you really need to like stretch it

longer or something and she was like the first person to even say anything I wouldn't have known like it you know that's a big thing like a lot of times parents see things and you don't realize what it costs them to do that not like monetarily wise but just like emotionally and obviously you know so I I did also grow up like you know I never really had to want for anything but also we were pretty conditioned in a way to not really want crazy expensive things anyway but my dad would be the one to kind of go off and buy what the latest thing was he always just wanted me to have the best stuff especially like professionally or for

school um and so I remember like in college I had like a a Palm Pilot. I didn't need a Palm Pilot. I wasn't running a company back then. But you could always buy whatever the best was at the time. And when I realized that the money wasn't coming as fast as I needed it, I decided to get a job through the university. And then I would babysit. And I don't even know what else I used to do. And I used to get up at the crack of dawn I had like an 8 a.m class I would have to get up at like

five something go down to the west village take this kid this bratty kid to school in Brooklyn and come back and go to my class and twice I like missed, like I missed my alarm. It was such a fiasco, but it's crazy how much I had to do for that same money when I had to do it on my own. And then you really realize you're like, damn, this is hard.

You know, like this is a lot of work when you're tired and you're working and school is not easy. So I think, you know, that phase of my life was like, shit, like, I need to really be better about this money that I'm getting. And it's true.

When you start earning more and you're deciding what to do with it, that's when you start creating kind of your own beliefs about it. Because you watch the people around you, you see how they have money in storage. And I remember I had a friend who we'd go out in the cover for clubs and university was like five dollars or ten dollars for girls sometimes there would be twenty dollars and when it was twenty dollars i was like wow it has to be like amazing for us to spend twenty dollars to go and just go in and they would have like drink specials but people would buy us drinks and stuff like that so but so the cover the main problem. And we used to have this friend

who would go and take the subway and go to all these different places. And if they asked for cover, whether it was like $5 or $10, she was not going. And it's like, but we spent so much time and energy coming here and picking the right place.

And she just would not budge. And one day I was like, I will just pay for you I mean not like I had it but the $20 that I paid for her it was like I'm not gonna go anywhere else and it's one of those things that kind of like sticks with you because then you realize like there's other elements it's not just the cost it's the freedom it's the convenience that you pay for things and you know I I took some money shoots from my partner, he does a lot of paying for convenience. I don't always agree with him. Because I have a lot of like, well,

we can just do it ourselves. We can just go to the grocery and sit in a half an hour in traffic. What do you mean to save $5? But I think it is it is very much a journey. And I like that you, you kind of broke it out into the phases of your life and what was kind of going on with the people around you. I think that influences so much of our money decisions. I have friends that they will spend hundreds of dollars on dinners because that's what they really like to do. And some of them I'll be like, yeah, I'll join if I really, really want to go to that place. But I'm okay eating with food that tastes good that doesn't have a great ambiance. For me, that's not worth it for me.

I might do it once in a while. But honestly, I'm not the type of person to actually ever choose to do that. I will go if somebody I know is going. And I feel like it's going to be a cool experience. That is something that I would rather spend my time with because of the people who are going or it's unique or something like that. So I think it's really something also that you kind of have to re-evaluate every few years or at different points in your life. Why do I feel so much better when people respond

to my job inquiries and say, you know, like, and it comes back, it's not necessarily about the job or being wanted. It's also about the money, right? And why do I feel better when there's more money in my bank account? I mean, for a while, we both had savings. Why is it that we walk differently in the world when our bank account is full? Is it because it's very much like with savings. Yeah, I know some people who they don't make a lot of money, but they have huge savings. They're really frugal with the way they do it. And they're really proud of that, which is an accomplishment in itself. But if inflation is taking 10% of it every year, 10 years from now, when you have it sitting in the bank account, what is it that you can actually buy with it?

And so, you know, I think that brings us into kind of our money truths and what it is that we really stand by. And for me, I would say, you know, there are three things that I've realized are kind of holy grail for me. And one is memories of experiences are better for me than luxury items. I find it extremely hard to spend $2,000 on a purse, $3,000 on a purse, $10,000. And it's not like I couldn't have at one point, maybe not a lot of points, but at some points, you know, you get like a big bonus check or you make a commission on something and you're like, what should I do with this money? And I think for me, when I started traveling, first for work, and then I would go off on my own, I realized those are the things that are

kind of worth it for me and the things that we remember. And even gifting people, for me, I tend to gift more experiences than luxury items if I can afford it. Like, hey, I'd rather pay $100 for your flight to come down to Florida and let's do something rather than give you a $300 watch or give you a $300 sweater. And I mean, not that I spend that much on gifts, but I'm saying for my immediate family, we tend to talk about the experiences that we had when we went somewhere as fond memories. So that's my first one. Two, investing is better than saving. Again, with inflation, I just will argue with people all day long about this. I think you have to take it into context too, though.

You don't want to, you know, if you're in a rocky, this, I would say this economy is very rocky. And so there is a room for having savings for layoffs, etc. Just feeling that sort of stability and having a back burner. et cetera, just feeling that sort of stability and having a back burner. But in general, as a way of life, that's something that was kind of instilled in me for better or for worse. And I've decided at different points in my life that I tend to veer towards investing rather than savings because it's a fact. It's an invisible thing that happens, but your purchasing power just goes down every year.

And then three, just diversifying income streams. I used to read a lot about how people become wealthy on CNBC and all those different types. Fortune magazine, Fast Company, fascinated with how people build companies and how they acquire success. And a lot of it comes down to even though you focus and you kind of build, I think diversifying your income streams is a big thing because you just never know. If you have all your eggs in one basket and something heavily affects that basket, you can always hustle your way into different areas, but I would say those are the three things for me that are many truths for me at this time.

I love what you are saying now about diversification. And we were talking earlier about Taylor Swift. She has become such a successful businesswoman or rather figure in the world. I mean, she's Time Magazine's person of the year, which is insane and amazing. But she's a creative and we all know there's not that much money in creative unless you build that brand out. And she has completely diversified into property and she's been so smart about what she's done.

So I think she's a great example of diversification on your point three there and then like just to quickly revisit what you said I think it's such an important point you know when you walk down the street and you have zero in your bank account versus five thousand dollars how are you different as a person? And this has been one of my big questions in the last year. Often reaching that zero and then feeling that weight of that on myself as I walk down the different streets and traveling. So I think it's a really important thing to ask ourselves. And I think that kind of brings me to some of my money truths and what

I've been thinking about. And just to tie back to what I was saying earlier, when I was in Austin, Texas, I was really sitting there thinking about what I'm going to do with my life and what is this thing of money? And yeah, why does it affect my feeling of worth so much? Why does it really draw me down so much when I don't have money? And I got to realize that, well, actually, money is just the transfer of value. It is just your value that you are expressing in the world. It's a form of that.

It's just your value that you are expressing in the world. It's a form of that. And what really got me going was the fact that, well, if you're putting your energy behind something, if you are ready to put your value to something and you're giving your energy to the world and that translates into money and you give that to somebody else, that's a beautiful exchange. That's a beautiful exchange of energy but then what really is sad for me and has angered me quite enough to to start trying to change this in the world is we have governmental systems that have now said, okay, well, it's okay to take this thing called money, which is supposed to be backed by energy, and print some of it. Just print it out of nothing.

And that's not backed by anyone's energy, but the printer's. backed by anyone's energy but the printers and you know then that's put into the world prices are inflated and we are then controlled by something which we've created that is not even backed by our own energy it's not real once I realized this the idea of energy exchanges the idea of the social sharing economy made so much more sense to me. The way home exchange works that I've been living in the world, you know, that's not a cash, it's a cashless system. It's based on kindness and community. So my view on money has changed completely. Do I feel like money is the root of all evil? Absolutely not. Money cannot be the root of all evil if it's just our energy, because then we are evil.

And so I think that's such a fallacy. I think that's such a money myth, you know, that's put out there in the world to make us feel fearful of this thing that is really just a part of who we are. Do I think that money cannot buy you happiness? I think that's also not true. I've come to realize that since it is our energy, since it is something we value, we can put that value to something that we find joy in. It's what else are we doing here but to transfer that energy, to keep that feedback loop going. So if you're not following your joy with your energy expressed as money, then what on earth

are we doing? And you need money to make money. A lot of people have said this to me, you know, and I totally understand where they're coming from, but I don't think that is true. I totally understand where they're coming from, but I don't think that is true. Maybe in the sense of you need energy to create energy. You need something within yourself, which you always will have of, unless you take yourself out of this world and you're no longer alive,

you will always have something to give. You will always have something you can create with in the world. And this is why I think creativity and originality and something that comes out of the source of you is just so important in putting out as value in the world so most importantly I think I've realized that money cannot control you because it's a part of you it's not a separate thing maybe it is if you are participating in the fake money economy,

in the fake money field that I've mentioned now. But in the true sense of energy exchange in the world, in the true sense of placing your value to things that is an expression of who you are, it's your energy to follow your joy money cannot control you and so how we fear money is fascinating to me and I'm learning about that every day you know this these are all things I have grappled with and these are things that I'm struggling with still so but I would love to see more more of the economy, of the sharing economy, where we are not as regulated, not as taxed. And interestingly, I was listening to a talk by a woman called Lynn Twist, and she has

written a book called The Soul of Money. And what she talks about is the fact that money was just created to be able to transfer energy in a beautiful way. Because, you know, sometimes when you have, you know, Peter might not always have the cows you need when you give him the eggs. And so you're hoping that he has the cows. And Peter, who needs the, you know, whatever the cows eat, the grass for the cows, and was going to hope that Simon has some of the grass or whatever it is. But money, that did make sense. Cash made sense to be able to transfer value. And what she talks about is that where it got really interesting is where people started making money on money, where we were charging interest on money. And so in tax, I feel, is a similar kind of thing.

It's not so much about this is just what you need. It became a bit of a greedy exchange. You were making money off somebody else's, something they might not even have. So it's an interesting thing, and I really hope that, like I said, we can have her on so we can uncover a little bit more of what she has written about and she is helping people every day to heal their money matters. Those are the money truths and fallacies and things that I've been grappling with and what I've come to. So I am, I hope to exchange energy in a beautiful way with whoever's keen to do that

with me. I mean, you have a lot of businesses that you're a part of that you've grown and you're building that touch on this concept, right? I know you have the chemistry connection and also helping creative artists um through sweat cat so i think you know there's definitely room there and i think for the first time in a long time that i've always kind of chose the responsible path choosing the responsible like still activating things that

give me joy but you know I went into school I did finance because I was good at math and I thought it would make sense and I thought I would never have to look for a job if I went into it and it was very lucrative but I just hated some of the paths that the school really pushed on us. And I feel like I've tried to maintain some of my joy through my jobs. And when I got into partnerships and sales, I realized, oh, wow, I can thrive in this environment and not hate every single aspect of it. And having a job and having money,

to be able to do the things and provide for your family, et cetera, did land me in a decent spot. But in the past year, just kind of rethinking that. I think it's a really interesting question to ask people. Like, when your bank account is full, do you really walk through the world differently? And why is that?

I mean, we read so much, you and I, we do so much on a different value. We still are succumbing to things like that. And we probably don't even fully understand all of it. So really question to the audience, you know, is that something that you feel like? And why is that? What is that trying to tell you? I think it is, it is a question about worth. And technically, you should feel the same way because you're the same person. You still have the same exact capability that you do whether you have a job or you don't have a job. Your network is pretty much the same. If you've managed to network with people, you can get another job. But somehow, it does manage. Let's say you're on your fifth round

of interviews or you're on your fifth round of interviews or you're on your fifth round of applying for jobs and going through interviews and then getting rejected, it does start to wane on you. And so I think it's really interesting to kind of chat with someone who's in the businesses that you are in about money. And one thing we've said, and I really try to, I don't know if I do it well or not, is in starting like more creative businesses, is trying to, okay, can we address the money things?

Because if you don't address it, I've lived through circumstances like this with different people. It's, for me, it just creates a snowball. So for me, I'd rather say, hey, let's publicly say I don't know about money and feel like we addressed it rather than just going off into the land of Neverland and hoping things kind of work according to plan.

It's unfortunate that, and we're going to probably talk about this next week when we have Alex on, who's in the creative space. And you guys share more of what the business side of that looks like. I know on Earn Your Leisure, they always talk about the money moves behind a lot of businesses and people and their success because it's so important. Right. And that's kind of why we're here in a way is we like to talk about the things that you might not have friends or co-workers that really you can talk about all these things with, but it doesn't mean it's not important and it shouldn't be addressed. And some of the consistent feedback that we've gotten on the podcast is that,

you know, we really like that you guys talk authentically and kind of don't hold back on these topics. So, you know, we're going to continue to do that, whether it's uncomfortable or not. Sometimes it's uncomfortable for us personally to even talk about some of these situations. But hey, we're here. We know what happens. And we're here to share that with you.

And so, you know, strongly encourage people to think about what your money truths are and if there's any ways that you can re-evaluate or kind of add to that yeah absolutely we are here to speak our honest truth like Sasha and even if it's uncomfortable even you know the point is we are all human and we're all grappling with the same things and in between all the things that we're struggling with we have beautiful gems so our gems of the week uh this week Saj what were your gems this week that helped you fill your cup and get through any challenges of being a beautiful working professional I thought it was really interesting. I stumbled upon the JLo

music video. So she has this extended music video. It's kind of like a movie. I think it's like 45 minutes long on Prime Video. And I think it's called This Is Me Now. It was very interesting. I didn't really know while I was watching it, even what it was. I thought it was more of a documentary. And when it finished, it auto played the behind the scenes of her making this video, movie, video slash movie. And that I found really interesting. And the name of that was The Greatest Love Story Never Told. It's very, very interesting because it has Ben Affleck in it. It has her entire journey as a creative. I think you would really enjoy it, Nicole, as a creative trying to bring something to life that has never been done before. She basically had pitched the idea with her team to a different studio and they had greenlighted it. They were going to pay for it.

And a few weeks before they were actually set for production, they pulled out. She ended up funding it herself. And so she goes through all of the emotions, finding, you know, not only funding this project, but acting, directing, dancing, singing in it. It's very funny to watch the finished product and then watch the behind the scenes because she's very polished in the finished product. I mean, I just have so much respect and admiration. She's much older than everyone else in terms of what she can do at that age. I just find it jaw-dropping. But just to see the way that she approaches things, how she never compromises on the product. And then she has so much self-doubt. She has so much to prove. And it was really interesting.

I mean, obviously, things on camera are different than in real life, but I thought they did a great job showing behind the scenes of somebody who's so famous, so well accomplished and still so driven. She talks about her childhood and what drives her and all of the weddings that she's had and what that meant to her. And it's really a story about her life. it's really a story about her life. It's about self-worth and self-love and how that kind of not addressing that has shaped much of her life. And she released an album in this format. The creative direction for it was almost like the 12 signs that they have, like Sagittarius, Aries, Pisces, the universe, personification of each sign. So the Sagittarius was a person, the Aries was a person. And they're looking down at her as she's moving through her life and making comments saying like,

why does she not see this? Or what about this person? And why does she keep doing this? And it seems very interesting because she has a lot of celebrities that are in it. In the behind the scenes, you see her pitching to these celebrities and so many of them are oh sorry ariana grande is not available sorry justin bieber is not available

this khloe kardashian is not available and he's literally sitting there going are they not available but they just don't believe in the project because when you don't believe in a project you tend to not be available how is it that so many people are not available it's so much of that like it just resonated so much with me and I for me I always think you know when you're at a certain point you don't have all these problems and it was just so interesting to see no matter who you are and how big or small you are and what you're working on birthing things into the universe is a hard thing. And I know sometimes we go through it, even with ourselves behind the scenes on Friday Fields or other businesses, when they actually get down into the raw and real of it, talk

about which is, it is very hard. You really don't know what you're doing. Everybody wants to be around you when it becomes something. But when you're actually going through it, the people that are with you that are there that are listening that are supporting that are trying to stop talk sense into your madness that are supporting you even through the madness, you know, whatever it is, that's where the magic is actually made. It's not when everybody is around and it's paid for and it's a huge success and thinking, wow, you can accomplish

so much, you can have so much, and still authenticity is a problem for so many people. And there have been so many people in the past few months where I've seen this, that the earlier you start with the authenticity journey, just the better it will be for you. with the authenticity journey, just the better it will be for you. It's kind of alarming how many decisions you make, not really understanding yourself and what you want and where you want to go in the world. And it's really a blessing and an opportunity to be able to do this with you, Nicole, and also for you kind of pivoting and opening up this light for people. Because I have met personally, or heard stories from people who are in their 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, that will look back on so many of their life choices and be like, that's just because I wasn't,

that wasn't what I really wanted. But I kept doing it. That wasn't how I really felt. That wasn't what I really wanted, but I kept doing it. That wasn't how I really felt. And you can be very successful on the outside living that way. Sometimes you look at our bank account and it's not as big as if we were doing something else, but do we feel like it was time well spent? Do we feel like it was decisions that we would have made over and over again that meant something to us? You know, they say, follow your joy and the money will follow.

And something that's been a gem for me this week, which kind of ties nicely into what you're saying now, is this topic of respect. You know, because when you value yourself, when you own your worth, one of the big pillars of that is respecting yourself. And if you don't respect yourself people won't respect you and you can't actually expect anybody to treat you any differently and so I guess my gem of the week has besides leaving South Africa sadly coming back to France into the little arms and embrace of little Gracie, which has been wonderful. Super, super happy to be back in Ardèche.

So I wish for everyone a week of owning your worth, gifting the energy of kindness and sharing a lot of love and authenticity with the people around you. That brings us to our final thoughts for our audience. When you think about your value, when you think of money, when you think of your energy, how are you spending your time? And what does money actually mean to you? Are you earning your worth? And do you feel like money is something to be positive about

yeah thank you for that and we'd love to hear from you remember to tag us using hashtag these friday feels to share your stories and listen to us on all your favorite platforms to work with us or potentially have us broadcast friday feels or to plan your workations from your space, please reach out to us. Next week, we are continuing our journey into the ominous topic of money positivity. We'll be chatting with Alex Madeline, a musician and deeply creative soul

who shares his thoughts on how money impacts the creative world and what that means for being an artist and essentially a solopreneur as a calling and as a career choice. But until next time, that's our mix. We've had so much fun mingling with you and we wish you safe travels into your bed, into the night, and into this awesome weekend. We'll see you next week and keep it real.