Ep #146: Investing in Yourself: The Full View

“Take a coin from your purse and invest it in your mind. It will come pouring out of your mind and overflow your purse,” Benjamin Franklin.

In today’s episode, I want to talk to you about a topic that I could geek out on; investing. Particularly investing in yourself and your dream. What I had planned today was to do a straight up FAQ for the Art School, and then I thought, well, actually, what would actually be more value added, and also will directly and indirectly, I think, speak to the heart of many questions that I receive about the Art School is to share with you some pieces from an upcoming workshop that I’m preparing for this fall Art School 2021.

I have taught in the past a 10X Any Investment workshop and I am revamping that, adding new content, making it fresh and even more relevant for this next session’s participants. So, I was deep in working in that while also working on this FAQ podcast and realized, actually, what I think would give you a really great return on your investment, on the investment of the time you spend listening to my podcast – which I so appreciate – I will share with you this conversation about investing in yourself.

I love this quote from Benjamin Franklin, “Take a coin from your purse and invest it in your mind. It will come pouring out of your mind and overflow your purse.” It will overflow not only your purse, but your life. This is an under-talked-about creative skillset that should be in the repertoire of any creative powerhouse.

Actually, if you are a creative powerhouse, you likely have this someplace in your skillset, or if you’re working to shore things up and take yourself to the next level, you will also love this podcast.

Any time I have invested in myself, I have up-leveled my life, not only financially, but in so many other ways. It makes me emotional and is a little hard to take in. And I think it’s something we are not conditioned to do. Particularly as artists and for a lot of us, not as entrepreneurs.

I am all for bootstrapping, but I see way too many creatives, way too many artists, way too many people with a dream for their life and a desire to create life on their terms try to do it like they’re trying to squeeze blood from a stone.

And I hope what I have to share with you today will offer you a fresh insight on why that just doesn’t work, and will also help you embrace investing not as an unnecessary expense, but as something that you love to do because you have come to trust yourself as the kind of creative powerhouse, creative genius, investing genius who is discerning and strategic about their investments and really, at the heart of it, knows that they are the kind of person that, if they put a coin in, it will come back to them one hundredfold.

If this seems like an impossible goal for you, this is the podcast for you. It’s time to turn that idea that this is out of reach for you on its head. I’m excited to share this with you, shifting my perspective around investing, which was ultimately my perspective on myself, was absolutely life changing. And I only wish I had done it sooner. But no regrets. I am benefiting from it now, and again, so excited to share it with you.

You are listening to The Art School Podcast; a show for artists and creatives who want to become the next greatest version of themselves. Learn how to cultivate an extraordinary way of being and take the mystery out of making money, and the struggle out of making art. Here is your host, master certified life coach, artist, and former lawyer, Leah Badertscher.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of The Art School Podcast. I hope this finds you doing well. There is a lot going on in the world and that was definitely on my mind, and I was very conscious of that as I was recording this podcast. There’s a lot going on in the world at all times, especially these last two years.

And it is sharpening my focus and my ability to channel my intention and energy whenever I offer anything for you or for my clients. Really, letting myself make it as meaningful and honest and real and thinking about what is the best that I can offer you today.

And so, it was pretty clear, when I was preparing a frequently asked questions podcast, I’m like, “Okay, this is good.” And I liked what I had written and I had spent a fair amount of time, invested a fair amount of time in doing it. But it was lacking a certain kind of juice or energy.

And instead of taking that as a bad thing, I decided to take it as a nudge and guidance that there is something else in addition. Not completely different, but something else that really wants to be addressed and spoken and shared with you today. And particularly when there is so much going on in the world that seems out of our control, I want this to be a place of sanctuary, an oasis where you can come back and center yourself in your power and ask, yes, at this point in human history, why am I here? What can I do? How can I share my light? And to renew your energy that your impossible dreams are possible.

They’re there for a reason. And those places that just won’t let us alone, including the places that have our attention perhaps negatively, perhaps we’re perennially frustrated with certain things, like I know for many people it ends up being money, or it ends up being not feeling as fulfilled in their lives, or it means that they don’t feel they can actually make money and enjoy their daily life. They don’t enjoy just the day-to-day routine of what they’re doing.

And I think this topic today, while it’s stemming from a particular workshop that I have offered for the Art School before, and I’m taking it deeper this time and to the next level, it’s 10Xing any investment, I think this is a fundamental creative skill. And therefore a fundamental human skill.

Too many times we abdicate our creative power when it comes to money. We think, “Well, I’m willing to say I create my results, my experience in life. But money, no, we all know that’s actually not within my control. I actually can’t create abundance, income, wealth, more than enough, more than you know what to do with on my terms.”

And that is an idea whose time has come to be just blown up and disrupted. As like so many ideas right now, it’s uncomfortable, disruption, but there are certain things that need to go. And so does such a deeply disempowering belief to individual sovereignty as the belief that you, as an individual, cannot create value in the world and enough value to bring in enough abundance. Not only sufficient to meet your needs, but more than enough to create a life, live a life beyond your wildest dreams and continue to contribute, you know, more abundance, more goodness back into the world, an ability to be affluent, which I talked about last week.

Too many of our own personal ideas about what we’re capable of in terms of creating money and how we can go about creating money and what money means, I don’t want to go down the rabbit hole, the discourse of, like, the historical roots of many of our modern hang-ups and limiting beliefs about money. But I just want to invite you here – I know I have such a brilliant audience – to think about that yourself. This would be a mini coach with me here, to think about how it served people in power for millennia before us, generations before us, to have a large portion of the population conditioned to believe that they are relatively powerless or dependent on an outside source and nearly have to work themselves to death because then they don’t have any creative energy left after working so hard to just meet their basic needs.

Because then, if they had creative energy left, they might start thinking about innovative ways to not be beholden to an institution or patterns and society that oppress them and keep them down. So, again, you can tell I’m fired up about this topic. Examine that. Question everything you have ever thought about what is available to you when it comes to making money, how you go about creating it, how you can make money, how you can live your life, what kind of work is required from you, and also at the heart of it, what you believe about your ability to have what you want. Not just what you need, but to create what you want and beyond.

And if you know this is a place where you get stuck, you have maybe some deeply held beliefs or subconscious programs running that you can’t quite put your finger on. They’re in your blind spot. But that you know are keeping you from creating the kind of money, the kind of outcomes, the kind of results, the kind of life that is really what you’re meant for. If you want to take this deeper again, you will want to be in this next upcoming round of the Art School.

Because I am not offering the Art School again for at least a year. And at that point, it might be different. And so, this round, I am really focusing on how to blow the roof off of anything I have ever done before.

So, even this time, you might have noticed I’m not running a mastermind concurrently. I am treating this as an epic mastermind for an epically minimal investment. I want to have the results people experience and the experience that they have in this process be 10 times what it has ever been before. And I think it’s been pretty damn awesome and extraordinary before.

But I’ve spent the summer gathering my energy and really thinking about how I want to focus and the places where I want to rattle people’s cages and blow up some old bad ideas that are keeping them stuck, as if this were the last time I was ever able to do this. So, I’m not saying that this will be the last Art School I ever run, but this will for sure be an Art School like I have never done before, learning from everything I have done before and, again, also benefiting from channeling all of the deep dives I’ve been doing myself this summer and also taking into consideration, if I think about my big question and where I really want to be playing from, I’m giving it my all.

And that also seemed relevant to share in a podcast about investment because when I say, you know, invest in yourself and your dreams, by no means am I an advocate of just throwing money at things without discernment. And even if you want to throw your money at the Art School but you really haven’t given it thought, if you haven’t really discerned whether you are going to commit and be all in.

Because if I’m going to bring my best and my tiger energy, I’m there to create results for you. And so, I want you to have discerned, is this the room that you want to be in? Do you want to be in a room where everyone is committed to creating results and you’re going to get the best of my energy and the best of other people’s energy? Or are you still on the fence about that? Because I’m not going to pull you over. Because I am not here to get you to sign up for the Art School. I am here to help you be successful.

I am here to help you create what you want. And if you are all in for that, if you are ready to change your life and up-level, then that’s a discerning decision, I would say. So, to come back around, I was writing this class, writing new content for this class, also writing the frequently asked questions that I get about the Art School. And I realized that, you know, at the heart of a lot of questions I receive, there is often this.

Is the Art School right for me? And I would say, if you have a desire to create a dream and to create the life of your dreams, if you have a desire to become someone who loves themselves deeply and loves their life, loves waking up in their life, if you have a desire to create some deeply meaningful profound sustainable changes in your life, if you want to wake something up within yourself and have an internal evolution where you truly become someone who knows, whatever you want, you’re going to get, that’s just who you are in this lifetime and that you are the master of your destiny, then yes, the Art School is for you.

Do you have to be a traditional artist? And my answer to that is, and always has been, no. Because while we do have a large portion of our demographic that are artists – actually, I’d say it’s usually about 50% – there’s such a wonderful diversity of people that are attracted to this work. And again, at the heart of what I think is one of my superpowers is the ability to impart a knowing and then the skills and then the process for becoming someone who knows they can create whatever they want, that nothing is off limits, that all things are within their reach, including and especially those things that before you just thought were impossible.

Just like you might think, well, it’s impossible to dunk a basketball with a normal sized hoop. It is also impossible for me to make $10,000 more a month, or to add two zeroes to my bottom line every year, or to jump a tax bracket.

Like, dunking a basketball might be impossible. Learning to how be somebody who creates money and does it from a place of integrity and health, aligned with their values, creating the kind of life they want to along the way, I think that is definitely a creative skillset. And particularly the way I approach it, I approach it in a very soulful, soul-building way. Because that’s the way I did it.

I started as an attorney. I started as, I wanted to make art, but my background was in finance and law and I had no art to show for it. and I for sure did not want to be broke, a broke artist. I for sure did not want to be tortured and miserable.

And fast forward everything that I’ve learned, the trainings I’ve done, the workshops, and then how I’ve mixed that with my own particular magic and essence to create the knowing that I can craft my life, that my life, I can create the world that I see within.

So, for instance, today, I mean, that has been one of the – I can’t even say one of the greatest gifts. I can’t imagine my life not having done this and invested in myself in this way to cultivate and acquire the inner skillset, to learn how to shape and align my psyche, to be a psychologist of my own self and learn how to align my mind, align my emotional self, my spiritual self, my physical self, my actions in the world, recondition my body to align with the future that I wanted to create, to be a match for a woman who is a mother, who is a real artist who works and sells her paintings.

Right now, I’m actually recording this in my studio. I have three different commissions that I’m working on right now, including a body of my own new work, in addition to getting ready for the upcoming Art School and also, it’s the last Friday of summer before my kids start school.

So, after I get to record this for you, I’ve taken the whole day off and I am taking them to the lake. We are going to pick up a lunch at our favorite spot, a picnic lunch. We’re going to spend the afternoon on our hike through the woods and then go to our favorite beach and play, and then on the way back, there’s this restaurant that we love, Café Gulistan. So amazing. Sitting out in the garden with them there as the sun sets and they can run around and look at the fish ponds and just run around the gardens. And then we have this amazing Turkish meal.

That’s the life that I have created for myself, this wonderful balance. I got up this morning, went for a run, and took in my 10,000 zinnia seeds. They didn’t all grow. We’ll figure that out next year. But I have a lot of flowers. And I don’t say this to be boastful, but I do say this to be transparent. It’s the honest truth. This is what I dreamed of, woke up in my dream house, my husband and I, we had coffee together, I drank the coffee, he sits and talks with me and listens. What it’s done for our relationship too, that didn’t just happen on default. And a lot of my resistance to investing over the years was, can I just figure these things out? I should be able to just figure these things out on my own. What’s wrong with me that I can’t just figure this out on my own?

It takes a skillset. It takes intentional cultivation and energy. Again, I just didn’t wake up and this happened overnight. I’ve really been sitting with, the last couple of weeks, giving myself a little bit more space to take in everything that I have created. Because even though I know not to do this, my mind wants to gloss over it. And I talk about that in another podcast, the law of increase and the importance of celebrating to integrate.

But let’s just say, like, as a coach, I definitely know myself to be someone who walks my talk and is a product of my process. Because I don’t want to teach you anything that I haven’t actually done for myself in my life, and then found ways to share with clients that deeply resonate. So, this brings me back around to the question I often get about if you need to be a creative type. Because I find it interesting that so many people reach out to me, they’re interested in the Art School and then they say, “But I’m not creative.”

And so, I point out, you reached out to me. There are thousands of amazing coaches, at least thousands of amazing coaches out there. I get to know a lot of them. And for some reason, you are attracted to my work and the way that I do things. So, I have, again, worked with such a diversity of people as private clients and in the Art School. Some are traditional, professional artists, musicians, choreographers, performing artists, playwrights, authors, novelists, painters, poets, sculptors, you name it. And we also have doctors, lawyers, former lawyers, director of nonprofits, corporate executives, people who are retiring from corporate or transitioning, stay-at-home parents, entrepreneurs, people who are between jobs, teachers, college students, coaches, therapists, psychologists, professors, architects. Again, across the board.

So, I would say that 90% of the non-artists that always join at first or 90% of the people that tell me that they are not creative really insist that they are not creative. But that’s totally fine because I know that creativity is an inherent human potential and it’s okay that you don’t embrace that yet.

Then, I’d ask you to just ask yourself, what is it that draws you to my work? Because I know that creativity, as we’re often conditioned to think of it, you might not just be identifying as creative because of what we are often conditioned to think creativity looks like or manifests at. But I know that creativity is like tis life force. It’s like a river that runs through all of us of pure energy, delight, mystery, wonder, serendipity, surprise, fun, joy, depth, and that river is there for us to tap into, to discover, to explore, to use its energy to awaken us, to be nourished by it, supported by it so that we can then further enjoy and cultivate and channel that energy to create lives that we want.

So, if you have been forever a hard worker but you want to experience more joy, more peace, more aliveness, like something like a childlike, “Oh this is the world and how I’m meant to be in it again,” that sense of energy, creativity is calling you. And I think this is why people are often drawn to my work, even if they don’t identify as creative. Because something within them does know that the way I do things is exactly what they need. Even if their rational brain is having a hard time making sense of it and it really can’t connect the dots in advance.

So, I have seen – and this is my belief – in these people that are like, “I’m drawn to her work but I’m not creative,” that there is a part of them that knows and that goes out ahead of the rational brain. Because the rational brain can only know what it has known so far and done in the past. But there is a part of you that is eternal and not restricted to place or time or prior life experience, it can be many places simultaneously at once, even in the future, and it can go out ahead of you. And it does this work and it goes out ahead and it says, “Here, over here. I know it makes no sense right now. But over here, you’re drawn to this.”

When you honor this and when you follow those sacred breadcrumbs, the rational brain in hindsight goes, “Now I can make sense of it, now that I have the experience.” And this isn’t just speculation on my part. It is exactly what I hear from a lot of clients who didn’t identify as an artist, just something in them knew they needed to work with me. Those are the exact words I hear, knew they needed to be in the Art School. They decided to listen to that whisper. They decided to take a chance and trust that aspect of themselves and then, in hindsight, they tell me how it totally made sense and it was exactly what I needed, even if I didn’t understand it.

And so, in a related vein, I think another common thread that exists in the diverse individuals in the Art School, including the ones that don’t identify as creative, is that there is something about the way that I approach what I do that is the right thing for them at this point in their life.

Again, there are so many amazing coaches and methods out there. and I believe we all have our place. And I know I have my own particular place and X-factor. So, people that come, they’ve tried a lot of things, they’ve worked really hard, they have invested a lot, in a lot of life energy, time, and other valuable resources including money. And they can’t find more hours in a day. They can’t work harder. And they are really fed up with all the, “Just work smarter then,” strategies.

So, they fortunately still have something in them that still believes, “I know we haven’t done it yet, but there is still a way for me to create this goal. Part of me still believes in this dream and part of me still really believes there’s a way to do it on my terms and live a really beautiful, fulfilling life in the process.”

So, I do do things differently and I also know one of my superpowers is integrating many aspects and worlds that have often been thought, wrongly thought, as incompatible or contrary. For instance, I am so passionate about creative freedom in one’s work, whether you are a therapist, building houses, a doctor, or a painter, and I am so passionate about helping people to also overcome underearning. No more underearners. And become instead very confident in their ability to make a lot more money.

I want Art School to be this place where people come in and the trail behind it is like these astounding starbursts of people who come alive with their ability to create wealth, to create abundance, not only money, but including, absolutely including money. And for people to say, “What the heck is going on in there?

And then for there to be a domino effect, and for that to spread. Because I do think again, it’s an essential creative skill and an ability that we all have. And again, to me, all of these things that some places are thought of as disparate or contrary or incompatible, to me absolutely go hand in hand, even if there are other paradigms that think otherwise, that think it’s not spiritual to make money, or that wanting to make a lot of money will restrict your creative freedom and compromise your values.

It will amplify your values. It will amplify who you are, whether those are artistic values or standards of care in your healing profession. So, whether you call what I do, coaching, teaching, mentoring, I think it’s my approach to that that can generally be described of or thought of as creative. Which is perfect, and also, understandably can lead some people to wonder if it’s right for them.

So, overall, I really think of what I do as living and leading by example. And then creating a very safe, profound, and also challenging – I’m going to challenge you. I am going to test those limits that you think you have so that you see that they are no longer limits and you are able to transcend and move beyond them.

And I think what I’m really great about too is creating the conditions for your own true nature, your own deepest wisdom, power, creativity, and vision to come to light and life in the world, profoundly, powerfully, strongly, vibrantly so.

Another specific question I get on, “Is this right for me?” and this one is very easy to answer. And my response is much shorter. The questions are from men asking, “Is the Art School for men?” Yes. We love men. So, we would love to have you in the Art School. We would love to have everything that you offer, everything that you bring, your perspective, your goals, your dreams. We also cannot wait to see your breakthroughs and your amplification and your incredible success story. So, yes, the Art School is open to men, women, nonbinary, people of all walks of life, gender identification, backgrounds, colors, race. We have people from all over the world and one thing I hear over and over again is I get thank-yous about creating such an extraordinary welcoming safe community.

And absolutely, I set a very powerful intention and boundaries around that. And I also have to say then I thank the people who come to the group. Because people who share those values and honor and respect that space, they amplify the intentions that I have, to be inclusive, unconditionally loving, supporting of everyone and to see everyone rise.

So, no person left behind in this group. I also think everyone is responsible for the energy they bring and also an incredible dynamic that happens in this group is you can relax feeling you are in a community where the overall momentum is evolution and transformation and greater creativity and greater success.

That’s what happens in this kind of community. And that part of you that has felt so individualistic and so separated, that part of you has been overworking to compensate for the creative energy, the life force that comes from being in a constructive, creative community, where everyone knows it’s not a zero-sum game but it’s rather, when I succeed, you succeed.

You probably have heard me talk about before or heard it elsewhere, this axiom that we are the average of the five people that we spend the most time with. I know I’ve talked about that in prior podcasts. If you want a really illuminating discussion, lively conversation around this, check out Brené Brown’s podcast Unlocking Us, and the conversation she has with Tim Ferris and Dax Shepard and in particular what Tim Ferris has to say about this, and then what Brené follows up with, with a quote from the Neural Biologist, I think, Neuroscientist David Eagleman about the neural network that we share with the people who we are most often in contact with.

So, again, absolutely, we are such an inclusive, extraordinary community. I love that about us. I am deeply proud of that, and at the same time, grateful to everyone that comes and upholds that, contributes to that, and amplifies my vision 100 times.

So, now let’s really dive into this topic, the content that I want to share from the 10Xing any investment workshop. Let me just start off by saying I have not always believed in or loved investing in myself. And this has been one of the key things – and this is why I’m so fired up, is well, I know what it is. It’s because this is the podcast that was meant to happen. This week alone, I have had so many conversations with people who have big dreams but have such tight ideas, I would say, wrong ideas about investing in themselves. And it’s what is holding them back.

And so, I should clarify and say, I love investing in myself. But to make that more accurate, let me say, I love intentionally investing in myself. Because here is the thing. We are always all the time investing or invested in something. Are you investing your energy, then therefore also channeling your money or not, into old ideas of yourself? Old patterns? Old thoughts about the way things can be done? Most people are.

Most people are really invested in stories that are old, outdated, or of other people’s creations, and they haven’t even questioned it. And it’s very easy and understandable given the negative bias of our brain and the default that we usually have, which is to invest – it’s just how our brains have evolved, is to invest in the most negative outcomes. Our brains have evolved to try to eclipse possibility because possibility means moving out into the unknown. It means moving beyond your comfort zone, so your brain has evolved to filter and edit possibility. And it instead wants you to invest everything on what is safe and known.

And I’m using invest here very broadly because that means investing in your mental energy, your focus, your attention, and your thoughts about yourself, investing your time in things that your brain has said, “Well, this is a sure thing. This nine to five and what you’ve been doing and what people with your background who look like you in this area of the country, this is what they do.” You’re investing your time and your life in that. But then also investing money.

So, without batting an eyelash it’s pretty common for us to invest, you know, tens of thousands, now even hundreds of thousands of dollars in a college education. And jobs after that, livelihood is not secure. But we do that, invest in that. And I’m not saying you shouldn’t or that’s good or bad. I am very grateful for my college education. My husband’s a college professor. I believe in education.

What I am saying is to be aware and intentional about all the things that we are investing in and to again start to question any place where we think we can’t invest in what we truly, deeply want to create, including testing those limitations with money.

So, for me, yeah I love learning. I love coaching. I love training. I want to continually become better and better at my craft, the craft of coaching, the art of coaching as well as art. And so, for me, investing in art training or courses or classes or books is just, that is something that actually doesn’t even feel like work to me. It just feels like I would do this and pay for it. And then I do get paid for it.

And the same with coaching. I like learning new coaching skills, being coached by other ninja coaches. I love that. And I love getting better at my craft. And I have spent a lot; time, money, energy. But also cash over the years. And I’ve grown so much. And so much. And I see the ripple effects of that.

And I didn’t always love to invest in myself. I used to feel guilty – well, I had a scarcity mindset around it. Like I mentioned earlier, I would think, “I shouldn’t need this. I should be able to figure it out. And then I’ll figure it out, and then I’ll figure out how to make money on my own and how to create art that makes money on my own. And then, I’ll be able to afford working with X, Y, or Z coach, or then I’ll be able to afford…” you know, whatever it was. Or I’d think it’s selfish and I really should be able to do this on my own. Or, I would think, “I don’t have the money.” And then, I’d be caught in the loop where I can’t afford to get help to learn how to change my mindset around money. I can’t afford to get help to learn how to create more value as a coach or to create the art that I really love and that other people I know will love. I don’t have the money to do that. But when I figure it out on my own, then I’ll get the money to do that.

So, you can see that loop, that imprisoning mind loop that a scarcity mindset keeps us trapped in, and then keeps us trapped in a scarcity lifestyle. That scarcity mindset absolutely limits growth. And you can make some incremental progress, but my god, I am a hard worker and I am smart and I made some progress on my own. But it was nothing compared to what I was able to do when I started to make strategic, discerning investments. And that also meant making mistakes, choosing to see that, choosing to see those investments that didn’t pan out how I had wished they had panned out, choosing to see those instead in a new light, which was actually the genesis of the 10X any investment concept for me.

Because once I had this opportunity to be in a mastermind for a year and it was the most I’d ever spent on a program like that at the time, it was like $12,000 plus that didn’t include the travel to the retreats for that year. And here’s what I think happened – know happened. My soul got me in that seat because it knew it’s exactly what I needed for my soul to be nourished and grow. So, it told my brain, “Hey, get in this mastermind and you are going to grow your business this year. And that will justify your investment.”

Well, I didn’t grow my business that year from that mastermind in the way that I had intended. And I was, like, so upset for a while, like an entire plane ride home from Paris about that. And then, I decided I need to shift this around. I felt miserable, but I needed to shift this around before I landed.

And so, I did some soul searching from 40,000 and above feet, and decided, no, I am becoming the kind of woman that is so creative that she 10X any investment. And that just blew my mind. I didn’t realize still how little and cramped my mind was at the time. But that blew the lid right off. Like, who does that?

And I could imagine someone doing that. I just couldn’t imagine me doing that. And I just knew before those wheels touched down, I was going to get to a place where I committed to becoming that person, so that I was going 10X – not constricting myself to an abusive timeline of a year or anything. But I just knew, “Hey, Leah, you are going to 10X at least this investment because it’s just who you are and it’s just what you do and it’s just who you are becoming. And then you’re going to figure it out and you’re going to do it all over the board, everywhere, again and again. And 10X will be conservative, and 10X too financially, but also it’s going to be 100X that in terms of what it creates in your entire life, not just your financial life.”

And that was absolutely a turning point, to make that commitment to myself before those wheels touched down. And then to figure out how to live into that. And it is that figuring out and the living into it which I am condensing into this workshop, to share with the Art School and sharing a glimpse into that with you today.

So, now I know I grow so much anytime that I invest, including the times when it’s still uncomfortable for me, like going to the next level. And it’s uncomfortable going through periods of breakthrough and difficulty. And yet, I up-level. I evolve. I expand. I grow. I deepen. Because that is my intention.

I have decided I am that creatively powerful. And that same decision and commitment is available to you as well. So, now I get excited. I am discerning. But it’s in a fun, fun, exciting way. And here’s another key. I’ll talk about this again later. I know ultimately that the ROI, the return on the investment, that responsibility is with me. It is with me.

So, if I decide to go for it, I get excited because what I have cultivated, I’ve done my own work. I’ve done the work that I teach my clients in the Art School, that I teach any of my clients. I have done the work to become the kind of person that knows, I am the kind of person that up-levels majorly every single time I invest in myself, in my dreams, and now in causes, in contributions that align with my values that aren’t necessarily my work, like charities, that also amplify what I’m able to create in the world, that amplify what matters for me.

For instance, I can’t do like on the ground work everywhere, but I can contribute, for instance, to my friend Tererai Trent’s education fund for young girls in Africa and her school in Zimbabwe. I can’t be on the ground in Afghanistan, but there are so many amazing causes that are helping the people there, helping women and children there in particular, just anyone in need of help there. and I’ll include all of these links in my show notes too, if these are causes that align with your values and you also want to amplify what you’re able to create.

So, shifting from thinking of investment as a frivolous expense and an indulgence to thinking of it as a strategic, creative, empowered, and powerful miracle, amplifying vehicle, has made all of the difference. And I’m going to ship ahead right now actually in my notes and talk about something that really helps with that.

Here is a gamechanger for shifting your mindset from a scarcity mindset and thinking of being afraid of investing in what you really want and thinking of it as a frivolous expense or as a risk you can’t possibly take, to being someone who identifies as strategic, empowered, creative, savvy, and knows that they are absolutely going to create a return on that investment. And that is the concept of turning pro.

And so, I’m speaking of it in the context of how Steven Pressfield writes about it. He wrote in the book Turning Pro, which I love, he wrote this, “I wrote in The War of Art that I could divide my life neatly into two parts; before Turning Pro and after. After is better.”

So, I know I have talked about this concept, for sure, before in the Art School and with my clients, the difference between amateur and pro and if you want to make that shift and what it means for you if you don’t identify as a working artist, there are ways that we can all turn pro. And I think it’s very relevant to today’s conversation, for everyone, including people who don’t identify as artists, to think about in terms of like an amateur or a pro making that shift and how it impacts your ability to not only make strategic investment decisions, but to be somebody who knows they can 10X any investment.

So, what difference does turning pro make, particularly as it pertains to you being an empowered investor. Well, he also writes in Turning Pro, “What we get when we turn pro is we find our power. We find our will and our voice and we find our self-respect. We become who we always were, but had until then been afraid to embrace and live out.”

So, I want to tie this all together with things that I’ve said earlier. We are all always investing in something. It’s just whether it is intentional and whether it is aligned with who we really are and what we really want to embrace and live out, or if we are just running on an unconscious default, or if we’re defaulting to the option that seems more safe, more realistic, more conventional, but is definitely like a downgrade and a dialed down version of what we actually want to be doing.

For example, years ago when I was struggling to make the time to get in my art studio and practice painting, and this was early on when I was really struggling, hadn’t found my voice, had so much to learn, and again, could see that I wasn’t spending the time in the studio that you would think someone who is enamored with art and knows that she’s going to become a real-deal thriving artist would spend.

And so, I looked at that and then I contrasted that to my decision, and then my commitment and follow through when it came to law school. When it came to becoming a lawyer, I paid, I signed up, I studied, I showed up for everything, I put in the time. It was hard. I did it always. And I followed through.

I got my degree. At the time I think it was 100K. It’s much more now. I contrasted those two, like what’s the difference? Because I am in love with this dream – or so I tell myself – of becoming an artist. And yet, I am not showing up for it.

And I realized that there really was this inner work yet to do of finding this deep inner love and belief in myself. And if I believed in myself, then I would find the power to embrace everything that was necessary to invest the time, to invest the money, to rearrange my life. I was walking my talk so that it reflected someone who was becoming an artist, someone who was making being a successful artist inevitable.

And because I hadn’t made that switch yet, I was still thinking in my head as someone who might not make it happen, someone who wasn’t just being a hobbyist or an amateur because she wanted to. That’s not all I wanted. But she was doing that because she was afraid. And it was really that decision that to me occurred first as, “I’ve got to love myself enough to believe in myself and do this.” And then, my actions will look differently if they align with that, if I’m living in integrity and being honest with myself. And that is where I found my power.

That was years before I had read the book Turning Pro. And so, when I read this about there’s before turning pro and after, and after is better. Yes, there’s work. But you are all in with it and you really have found your power. You have found your self-respect. You know you’re becoming who you always were. But now you’re not afraid to embrace it and not afraid to live it out.

And for me, investing in myself, cash money has been a place where rubber meets the road. I’m going to put my money not just where my mouth is, but where my heart is, you know, that line, where our heart is, there our treasure will also be. Like really putting money into the life and then putting time, investing lots of mistakes and lots of heartbreak and lots of failure into something that mattered that much to me, that mattered so much that I was willing to invest failure and heartache and time and trial and error, and yes, money.

Because money for me has always been sacred work. Well, I didn’t always know of it as sacred work until I started walking this path. But now, that’s how I see it. If there is some place where I am not aligned or I am limiting myself, money will show me. Money will show me nooks and crannies and underlayers that I have perhaps kept conveniently in my blind spot. And now I’m more aware of that. So now, I kind of know the first subtle signs. If I have any resistance to investing money, or anything else, but particularly still money in my dream, if I have trouble lining my money up with where my heart is – and I still do this in places where there is no external guarantee, but I have to come back and recommit and do the work of being somebody, reminding myself that I am somebody who 10X at least anything that she ever does.

And what really kept me going through times when I wanted to give into the doubt about this, when I wanted to think, “Oh my god, you’re being so delusional and irresponsible, Leah,” what kept me going was all of you, that I didn’t even know yet, was all of my clients, was thinking, “I’m going to figure it out. I’m going to figure out what I have so wanted someone else to show me and tell me is possible and be an example of. I’m going to be an example of it. And then, I am smart enough, I can find the words, I can help untangle, unknot anyone, help them find their way out of that, and I’m going to teach it. And I’m going to teach it so that it’s just a matter of fact skill, so that things that people once thought were impossible and out of reach for them, it becomes like the four-minute mile.

They just start to normalize it. And it’s contagious. And it enables other people to see what’s possible. And the ripple effects go on and there becomes a tipping point. And then so many more people are free from this oppressive feeling that they can’t actually go for what they want in life and that they’re just here to stay on somebody else’s payroll, on someone else’s timeline and someone else’s terms.

So, thank you for all of you listening. Because I had never envisioned a podcast – I don’t think podcasts were around yet back then. If so, I wasn’t listening to them yet, I don’t think. But that definitely kept me going when I really wanted to give into lower-quality thoughts.

And if you need to hear me say this again, you can do this too. This is not a Leah thing, for sure. And I think particularly that’s why I was graced with, for a while, a belief system and a mindset and external circumstances that looked like, “No, you’re not going to make money doing what you love. You’re not good at that.”

I had all sorts of thoughts about why I couldn’t be an entrepreneur. I wasn’t as naturally gifted at sales as other people that I could see doing it. I don’t love to be on a camera, on social media. I had to blow through so many limiting and actually mean thoughts about myself to make this possible. And if I can do it, you can do it.

And if my story doesn’t resonate with you, then get in the Art School and you will find other people who are doing this too, who look differently than me, and yet they are doing this and doing this in their own way. And they didn’t think that it was available at one point for them either. And now it is.

They too, at one time, had all sorts of shitty thoughts like, “I shouldn’t need to do this. I’m so much smarter. God damnit I have two graduate degrees and from such and such institution or I’ve already done this that and the other in my life, or been the head of a corporation, why can’t I make money for myself? Or it’s selfish for me to do this. Or I’m not earning any money yet, and this takes money away from my family. Or I’ll just figure it out on my own. I’ll just keep reading books, like I have for the last five or 10 years, and I’ll eventually make some headway. Or, I don’t have the money…”

Let me tell you this. I did not have the money either. But I won’t go down the rabbit hole into the many ways that I figured it out. I have a few examples to share with you later. I didn’t have the money either. And I didn’t have anybody subsidizing this or saying, “Yeah, here you go, until you get this on your feet,” and I think that was also the grace of my situation. Then that’s what I told myself at the time too.

I had a knowing that I would teach this. and perhaps that was just me making meaning of the situation at the time. And it was helpful. And it’s helpful now because I can tell you how I did it when I truly didn’t just think I didn’t have the money but I looked around and I was like, “Nope, not seeing it.” So, I went about creating it, first a little, and then a little more, and then a little more, and then making bigger and bigger leaps. And then sometimes making what felt like quantum leaps, like the first time that I had a $50,000 month. Whoa, felt like a quantum leap. The first time when I sold my very first painting, I’d sold prints, stationary cards for $12, prints for $35 plus shipping and handling. And then I sold my very first painting after having it listed for a year, it was, I believe, $1500. And then I sold another one with it. So, my first painting sale was a few thousand dollars. First painting sale separate, that felt like a quantum leap.

As did the time when I had a $25,000 painting transaction, so it all started though with these little incremental shifts. But the thing is, you have to be willing to make any of the shifts and turning pro, changing how you think about yourself shifts that. Because people are so reluctant to invest in what they actually want. They’re afraid.

But once you begin to take yourself seriously, once you decide, “No, this is what my life is about, this is who I’m becoming,” then you realize, even when it’s scary, you want to bet on yourself and you want to invest in what you want to grow. You want to invest in your dreams. You want to invest in the intentional vision of you being somebody who is powerful and creative. You want to disinvest in limiting thoughts and beliefs in yourself. And one way that we stay invested in old views of ourselves, one way we stay invested in our plateaus, in our ruts, or in our hamster wheel is by not investing, not strategically investing in our own growth, in our life as we want it to be, and in our dreams.

And here’s what else turning pro can do for you. It shifts your identity as someone who is just trying to pull someone off and feels like an imposter most of the time into being somebody who just feels more solid. I’ve heard people describe it – it rings true for my experience of feeling like an adult, feeling at home within yourself, and just feeling like a good businessperson.

I was recently at home talking to my dad, who is a farmer. And he’s also on a bank board there. And talking to my dad, it’s not uncommon to hear about loans that are for millions of dollars, sometimes for farming operations, sometimes it’s so people can buy an old mall and turn it into an ice skating rink, like tens of millions of dollars.

And loans for that amount, that people are investing, whether it’s farming or equipment or old malls, and I’m listening and finding it so fascinating, like the amount of money that’s being invested in different areas and industries and business. And yet, what I run into with individuals over and over again are people who feel like it’s a life or death decision to invest a few thousand dollars in themselves and in their dreams, when it could move their life forward in immeasurable ways.

Now, maybe strip mall turned into an ice rink moves some people’s lives forward in immeasurable ways. I’m not here to judge that. I also know if you are dying to create a creative dream, if you have a book inside of you, book deals inside of you, if you have an audition that you want to land. You know, for me, it was paintings. I just had paintings in me that I wanted out. Like, investing in that shifts your life forward in immeasurable ways.

And again, what is the difference between people who are applying for millions of dollars of loans and then ponying up – they have to in order for the bank to even entertain it – great amounts of their own capital and cash, what’s the difference is that they are looking at it as a businessperson, as a strategic investment. Yes, this is going to grow my money. And they are assuming, you know, really betting on themselves too to be someone who makes that happen. And I think having that shift, experiencing that shift in your lifetime, the money is awesome, 10Xing your money is awesome but it pales in comparison to growing your relationship, growing your trust and your belief in yourself by that much.

So, another point I wanted to highlight for you is the concept of – you could call it you choosing you, or you going first. And I do think it’s a good follow up to talking about turning pro. Because I hear from a lot of people that whether they are artists, creative entrepreneurs, or they want to make money doing something that they love, offering a product or a service or creating a new business, but they have a lack of belief that there will be customers, that there will be clients, that there will be purchases made.

And so, therefore, they’re very reluctant to develop their skillset, their inner skillset, their mindset, their emotional health that it takes to be a thriving creative, that it takes to be a thriving entrepreneur. They are reluctant to invest in business strategy, the mindset that it requires for that. They are reluctant to invest in masterminds or education, or whatever vehicles are necessary, whether it’s technology or brick and mortar, employees, what have you, to deliver that, and therefore have money flowing in.

And so, this is where I want to emphasize the power of you choosing you and you going first. Because if you are wanting customers or clients. Which is essentially you want people to invest in the dream that you’ve created and you’ve offered, but you’re not willing to invest in it yourself, that’s not going to play. That’s not going to land.

Investment is a proxy for energy, life force, and belief. Again, where we put our treasure, there also our heart is. Where our heart is, there also our treasure will be. If you’re not willing to invest in you, if you’re not willing to bet on you, if you don’t believe in yourself or what you’re offering enough to make that happen, that travels downstream. That is absolutely going to be reflected in others also not being willing to see you, to see the beauty, the value, the wonderfulness of what you do and what you offer.

And I am not saying this to shame anyone or to judge, but I am saying it because I have been there and I know it’s the truth and I’ve coaches so many people on this. If you are not 100% invested, like energetically and then also committed, doing the work, and also monetarily willing to invest in you, why would anyone else need to?

And again, I don’t want to shame, but I do want this to be a wake-up call because I think entitlement is one way we get in our own ways. People should just buy it. And then, I will feel better about myself. the money should just come in. I’ve put in time and effort and maybe you’ve already invested, therefore people should get it and the money should just flow in.

Because you may have invested and you’re not seeing the money flow in yet. Keep going. Figure it out. No one is entitled to results. I do think we get to be committed to making them and persistence and ongoing commitment and cultivating your faith and coming back and honing your craft and honing your marketing, that’s all stuff that we get to do.

And again, not to shame, but just to unleash some mama-tiger energy on you, it doesn’t get anyone anywhere. And I think too, this is a benefit of turning pro. When you are a pro, you don’t feel entitled to anything. And that’s the irony, maybe the paradox of it. When you go all in, you’re like, “This is who I am,” you are not waiting for the world to then affirm you because you’re all in.

You’re like, “I am doing this no matter what.” And then, what I have seen for myself and others with time, that’s what pays. Because you are actually like, “I love this so much. I’m willing to grow this and develop this so much. I’m contributed to making it better and better,” that vibration is magnetic. That vibration is powerful, powerfully attracted, and people want that.

Why do they want it? One of my theories is because it is just so dang attractive when other people believe in what they’re doing, love what they’re doing, love how they’re doing it, are so in love with themselves as they’re doing it, they’re not even thinking of themselves they’re so excited about it. There is just something energetically magnetic and attractive about that and people want it for that.

The other reason is that I think it’s contagious. Like, there’s a feeling of that’s love that someone is pouring into their work. I want that in my life, whether it’s a coach who is living a life that they love and you want to just learn by osmosis and learn what their mindset is, learn how they live their life. Whether it’s a piece of art or human hands have touched it, crafted it, heart and soul has been poured into that. And that’s the energy that you want in your space. It matches the energy of the life that you are intentionally creating.

So, again, if you are finding people are reluctant to invest or you’re fearful, you’re not even getting started because they’re reluctant to invest, always bring it back to you. This is always about 100% ownership because that is where you will be creatively empowered. That is where you will become someone who creates the results they want inevitably.

So, look at where you’re not willing to invest or whether you have invested and you’re like, “Well, that should have worked by now.” Look at places where you’re being very transactional instead of being that pro who is absolutely in love with it and committed to it.

Because here’s the thing. Deciding to love investing in yourself and your dreams is very strategic. This was a big shift for me too. Instead of resenting myself for not having made my return on investment as fast as I thought I should, you know, entitlement right there, instead, when I decided to love investing and love the fact that I live courageously, love the fact that I am someone who is willing to put her money and her life and time where her heart is, when I decided that I’m somebody who loves to grow and who, in the long haul, it’s going to come back to her one hundredfold and by that point she’s going to be so dang in love with her life that she’s like, cherry on the top. That’s lifechanging. That changes the game. That shoots you up into a league of your own.

The next point I wanted to address is what I see as being commonplace. People slow their own roll, hold themselves back, get stuck, and this can mean you delay progress for a year. But oftentimes, that year leads into three, leads into five, leads into 10, and a couple decades. And that’s the question, like, is this worth it? Is this going to be worth it?

And that is not a helpful question. If you want to be somebody who at least 10X any investment, that’s not the question you ask. You are discerning. You do, whether it’s soul searching or whether it’s more traditional forms of due diligence, you come to a place where you’re like, is this where I’m going to invest my energy in life? And am I going to make this worth it? And what could I make of this?

What could I make of this and then what am I not even fathoming yet that I could make of this? I know that’s been the case for me. There’s what I dreamed of making from my investment in my own mind, in my personal development, in my business, in my growth. There’s what I imagined creating that would be so worth it. And then there has been all of these things I could not have even known.

The people I’ve met, the places I’ve traveled, the experiences that I have, it turns out it was worth so much more. But what was critical was me deciding that I was going to make this decision worth it. It was not on whatever the program, the coach, the degree, the class, the training, that to be a powerful creative, I was going to take all my power back and not give it away to someone else and feel entitled to a result that someone else would hand to me.

I know that I am an artist of my own life, which you all can be, whether you are an artist or not. And so, I know it’s up to me then. And I don’t want to outsource it to anyone else. And the thing is, even when there were times when let’s say I invested in something and it wasn’t what I had thought my expectations were, even when there was difficulty in that, I am still immensely, truly grateful for all of those experiences and to all of those people.

And I don’t know if I could be in that place. I don’t know if I could be in that place where that’s true and I’m not just, like, what would be the alternative? Like resentful, I guess. If I hadn’t done the work to be like, “No, Leah, you take 100% creative ownership for this.” And that is not a burden. That is the opposite. That will set you free.

And so, for those people who hear that and doubt that, just because so far you’ve been tolerating a lot of the hard work of giving your power away to others and the freedom, the joy, the discovery that you are able to make when you decide that you are 100% responsible, that if something doesn’t go right or pan out the way you thought it would, you’re not lost and hopeless, despairing, but you get to work. And you’re like, “Wait, how did I create this result? How can I combine that with what I was expecting to learn? What did I actually learn here?”

And I always believe we get what our souls need. And so, I’m always looking for those lessons as well. And that’s where the true alchemy is. That’s where the true magic happens. That’s where the true aliveness happens.

So, sometimes I know when I’m talking to people who are interested in the Art School, that they’re asking questions, and I can feel the flavor and the subtext. Sometimes, people just outright say is this worth it, and oh my god, absolutely the wrong question. And so, I’m not offended by that because maybe that have never heard this, that the right question to ask is, what do I want to create and how am I going to use everything that’s being given to me here?

Because I tell you what. I’m giving you everything that you need; walking you through this process, walking you home. That absolutely, if you’ve decided you’re somebody who’s going to be that empowered, you won’t ask, if this worth it? You’ll ask, what am I going to make of this and what do I not even know that’s coming to me yet?

I remember years ago, and I was at a point where still I was about five years into my journey as an artist. And I hadn’t made the headway that I had wanted to make then and I was struggling and frustrated and my husband’s career was really taking off. And he said, “You know, why don’t you go back to school? Why don’t you go back and get an MFA, and then you can teach, you can go maybe get a Ph.D. in psychology or creativity or something.”

And that was a no for me. That was just a no. And the reason is not because I have anything against those programs. But it was because I knew what I wanted to create. I knew I wanted the outcome, the results of creating art that I loved, having a process, like I knew I had a process within me to fall in love with, to discover where I would flow. And it would flow this art that I felt that I had within me.

And I knew I was not meant to be broke. I knew that that was nonnegotiable for me. I knew that I wanted to eventually replace whatever income, match at least what I would have made as a lawyer. And therefore, I couldn’t look at any MFA program or any Ph.D. program that would promise that. I couldn’t find a program – and maybe I just was not aware of one – where I could say, “Here’s what I want to be able to do. Here’s who I want to be able to be at the end of the whatever, two to seven years.” I want to be someone who is a real-deal artist and who flows her work and who makes bank doing it.

And that doesn’t exist, so far as I know. But correct me if I’m wrong. And I thought again about the $100,000 that my law school had been and, you know, to summarize it, it’s not like a transaction like this because obviously there’s the work that you put in. But you pay your $100,000 and then at the end you do everything you’re supposed to do during that time, and they hand you a law degree.

And so, when Brad said, “Look for graduate school programs or further education,” that night, I decided. I wrote up my dream curriculum. I wrote up my dream outcome, what I just shared with you, real-deal artist loving her life. This was the other big part of it. I wanted it to be about a spiritual evolution for me. I wanted to grow as a human being. I wanted to love being in my own head, even when life was hard. And I wanted to make lots of money. Lots of money and feel totally okay with that and completely matter-of-fact about my ability to do that. Like, it wasn’t a stretch of the imagination at all. It was just my living, breathing reality.

So, I went and that night stayed up late and wrote up this dream curriculum for like maybe it was like the hottest MFA ever. Maybe it was this dream Ph.D. program, but I wrote what I thought the curriculum would need to be in order to become a person like that. And who some of my dream faculty would be. Some of them were dead, just artists, authors, amazing human beings who have lived and been visionaries and taught and had great minds and hearts. And others were living, you know, mentors, artists, teachers, coaches that I thought could help my journey or that I wanted to, in some way, emulate. And that it would lead to the cultivation of my being, of my mind, of my body, of my spirit, of the way I am in the world to creating this inevitable result of the artist and the artist’s life, the creative life, the dream life that I wanted to have.

Part of what I describe the curriculum as was like unleashing creative genius. Because I just felt I had so much potential in me that I just needed help getting out. and the very next day, what shows up in my email box but a newsletter from Martha Beck announcing a retreat for unleashing your creative genius.

I kid you not, so write things down. Sidenote, get clear about what you really want. Don’t hold back, even if it doesn’t exist. Write it out. And pour out your heart and soul. I kid you not, that was the title of the newsletter and it was announcing an unleash your creative genius retreat that Martha was going to be holding in Arizona.

And I had just thought about this, like what would I be willing to pay for this dream program that I dreamt up? And I’m like, god, I paid $100,000 for law school. I definitely set down $100,000 to be able to unleash my inner artist and to live that life. And then here comes this newsletter and the universe saying, “Oh really? Well then how about a few thousand dollars and flight and hotel to Scottsdale for someone…” Martha was on my dream faculty. I should note that, “Who is right here.” It addresses what is on my dream curriculum, what this curriculum is aimed at.

And I was like, oh my gosh, I am baulking, resisting putting this money out. I was scared to ask my husband about it. I wasn’t making that much money. I was working part-time jobs at the time. But I wasn’t making money from my art. I was making some money as a freelance writer in addition to being a mediator and other things, but not from my art yet. Not a ton of money from writing, and not from my creative writing.

And also, I had some money in my savings account, but I was resisting, even though I had just told the universe it is worth at least $100,000 for me to be who I am meat to be, to live my destiny. Yes, I would pay $100,000 for that. And then I’m like, oh my gosh, here I am feeling sheepish that I am having resistance to paying what it is there.

I want to say that, at that time, it would have been about $2500 to maybe $3000 max for the entire experience. That might even be the high end. Long story short though, I found a way. I invested in it and that was an absolute turning point. Did I make that return on my investment the following week after coming home? No. Did I make it in the following year? I did make all of that, the money that I paid to go, back in the following year. And some of it was from artwork and other of it selling prints and stationery and others of it was because I had committed that I was going to invest in really becoming this person, that I wasn’t going to sit on the fence, I wasn’t going to resent myself or nickel and dime myself.

And then I started to do other things like I was teaching a lot of Pilates and yoga because it was flexible. I was great at it. Always easy for me to be in high demand with that. And then so, I started pricing myself out of a lot of it to by going – I was getting paid $18 an hour in places. That’s ridiculous. So, I started to ask for $25. And then I asked for $35. And each time I asked for the next amount, I could see how ridiculous it was that I was getting paid so little before. And then I asked for $45. And then, like, $120. And so, that incrementally parlayed that experience into more and more money. But then I also invested in myself in other ways. Like when my daughter was born, I had a – I don’t want to say nanny. She’s more of an angel, named Dianne, who came for 12 to 18 hours a week to love on Blaize and make my house beautiful while I painted and to just be sunshine light and a loving presence in all of our lives.

And that also was hard for me to pay for someone to care for my baby while I painted. I worked through that. Hard for me to pay someone who was happy to fold my laundry, happy to make my house look amazing while the baby slept, happy to just run errands, and be bright and cheerful. And so, I got over that too.

And I was just so grateful for this loving presence that the universe also brought to my doorstep and was like, “Are you going to put your money where your heart is and let it be okay to have more and more in your life and more and more support?

And the energy that that particular investment freed up was incredible. Because to be able to paint and not be completely exhausted, I still painted a lot early in the morning, late at night. I still worked a lot, did my freelance work and things like that. I was coaching too. I still did that a lot in the margins of the day. But having just a taste of how I could invest in support and the energy that came back to me and seeing how that energy that came back to me, I was then able to amplify the value that I offered and also then the value that I received back. And then, something started to click and it started to catch on that I was making my way this way, and then I could make it incrementally and in sometimes bigger steps. And then, at times, when I have felt ready and like it’s what I wanted, sometimes quantum leaps.

And I’ll share so much about all of those and those different processes and which one you are feeling and how to make your own incremental changes and shifts and when and how to feel your way into the time and the place for a quantum leap in the Art School. But I wanted to share a few examples of early on in my career and also now so that you don’t just find yourself thinking, well easy for her to say now.

But I wanted to share with you times when I didn’t have the money. I had a lot of inner work to do around thinking I was selfish, thinking that I didn’t have any money and learning how to make money. Sometimes that felt like out of think air, but it was always I kept looking for abundance that was there that I just wasn’t laying claim to.

And that’s really another essence concept that I want to offer to you, to look around for abundance, for possibilities that you don’t think are there and claim it. And then, you can use that and parlay it into something bigger and parlay it into something bigger.

All of those small steps add up. It does matter. And then also remembering that your big dream does matter, and being willing to invest in both the small steps and the big steps. It is absolutely those small steps I invested in, I can trace where I am now back to writing that dream curriculum, back to getting really clear on what I wanted, and then back to overcoming so much fear and resistance to saying yes to it and putting money on the table.

I can trace so much back to overcoming all the resistance I had around being able, you know, paying Dianne and having that time freed up. That was a gamechanger. So, all of those small steps then led up to this ability today where I’m talking to you on my big, huge, beautiful computer in my studio, in my beautiful dream home, doing work that I love and that is meaningful and talking with my people about things I geek out on.

And then, you know, the balance of that with when I finish here today, you know, taking my children for a day at the lake at one of our favorite places and having so much fun together. All of that, I wanted to share the full view, so that no matter where you find yourself on this spectrum, I think there is a place where you can see where you are and say, “It’s possible for me too. If she has done it, it’s possible for me too.”

And one of the ways that I’ve done it is by becoming committed to being someone who knows she’s going to at least 10X any investment she makes because that’s who she is, and also because I’ve made the crucial decision that I am worth it. My life is worth it. My dreams are worth it.

And back then, when I didn’t have anything to show for those dreams, no painting, no money, no clients, instead a lot of debt, a big stack of failures, I had a blog that hardly anybody read. And I kept going. I kept making the decision that I am worth it, my dreams are worth it, my life matters, my dreams matter, my voice matters.

And that’s what I want you to also hear today. If you can make that commitment to yourself, that is the greatest investment. And then, where money is such a friend is that once you have made that commitment, “Yes, I do love myself. Yes, my dreams do matter. My life does matter. My goals do matter. This life that I envision, yeah, I think I can make that happen,” then you’ll be presented with an opportunity to develop yourself or invest in that dream.

And it will probably require money. And then, you’ll be able to get really clear on any places where your work still is or your hang-ups are. And you can go as fast or slow as you like. But don’t let it drag into years. Don’t let it drag into months. Don’t let it drag into decades.

You can live in a cycle of kind and gentle breakthrough and you can do this feeling empowered and supported and nourished and centered. And that is a great part of the gift of the Art School and the environment that I’ve created and the coaching that I offer. It’s not just in the Art School. Trust yourself to find it other places. But if you’re feeling called to the Art School, consider that and consider, maybe this is your version of the Unleash Your Genius newsletter. Maybe this is your invitation.

So, for this episode, I knew this was going to be a long episode. It’s longer than I thought. I have almost not an entire yellow legal pad just for this episode filled. But almost. And that is just pulling from a portion of the investment – really it’s a mini course or a masterclass – that I have for the Art School.

So, what I’m going to do is share the second half of it with you next week. And if you are in the Art School, obviously you’ll not only have access to these podcasts, both of them as everyone does, but you will also have access to the full course, to the process of becoming someone who 10X any investment.

So, in next week’s episode, I’ll share more of the teaching points, more of the content from that workshop. And for today, I want to summarize why this matters and why this is in a program that is about becoming your most empowered creative self, why it is in a program about being able to create truly anything you want.

I’m not just saying that. It’s not a program about creating just what you need. It’s not a program about scraping by. It is a program about becoming extraordinary. Ordinary is scraping by. Ordinary is submitting to realistic expectations, quote unquote, to conventional standards, to what has been done and what is being done and what you’ve done for yourself and your life. Ordinary is not going for your big juicy goal, your wildest dreams, your impossible dreams.

This is a program about becoming extraordinary, cultivating a mind, body, and spirit that aligns you, lines you up with the affluence, the capability, everything you need to make those great dreams of yours, that next greatest version of yourself inevitable.

So, 10Xing, knowing you can do that for any investment, and then knowing that’s pretty conservative, of course that belongs in the Art School. Because one, I want all of my Art School clients to be able to 10X their investment in the Art School, get that’s super conservative when it comes to the Art School. Will that require a year for you? Two years? Three years? That’s up to you and where you are.

But you could also many times, you know, you could 20X that in a year or two years. But as a baseline, I want this to be a skill that you acquire because it’s a meta skill. And I think especially if you consider a very long-term time horizon, I mean, if I look back into my few thousand dollars that invested in Martha Beck’s course and the money that I have been able to create and now am able to create, it is clear and obvious and simple. Not to mention that going to that retreat, investing in that was absolutely a critical step in me becoming someone who unleashes their creative genius and now that’s what I help others do.

So, while it is not a transaction and you do have to do the work, the inner work and the outer work, I look at it as pretty simple. What is your dream? What would you be willing to pay for that? What do you actually want in life? What life do you actually want to create? Who do you actually want to be? What would you be willing to pay for that?

And if you’re not willing to pay the $3200 that Art School currently is, then we are probably not a good fit. Because I think your goals, the life of your dreams, who you really are meant to be is worth so, so much more than $3200. It is worth so much more than 10Xing that.

And so, for me, that investment is a no-brainer because I believe in the process. I believe in my ability as a coach and I believe that if you have the dream, you have the mechanisms within you to fulfil that dream. And so, if you don’t agree with that, then this is probably either not the right time or I’m not the right coach for you.

But if you are like, “Oh gosh, when you put it that way, $3200 to change the rest of my life, $3200 to become that person that creates and lives that dream and then goes on and does it again and again, that is a no-brainer. Because it will be one of the best investments you ever make for yourself and in yourself.

So, the second reason that I alluded to that I think this is so important, this skill, learning to 10X any investment is that it is a meta creative skill and you can apply it to any investment. And you don’t have to limit it to creating a financial return and you don’t have to limit it to just the Art School.

The third reason is that this is a powerfully creative mindset skillet to have no matter what you do, no matter where you are. This is aligned similar to being a meta skill, but I wanted to elaborate. Money often shows people the place where their limits are, even if they don’t think that they have those limits. It shows you.

And you might even insist that you’re really creative and really empowered, but that it just doesn’t apply to money. And so money is like such a great opportunity to investigate that and to blow the lid off your life again, blow things wide open and discover so much more about yourself and what the world is waiting to offer you.

I know that this is an important skillset that we can be better and better at teaching and acquiring because so many people – and not just my clients and for sure not just my artist creative clients, but people of all walks of life – very much doubt their ability to make money. And especially doubt that it can be done in a way that it doesn’t cost them their physical health, their mental, emotional, spiritual being, their relationships, their values, their soul, or their overall quality of life.

And for me, part of building a paradigm of thriving creatives and thriving humans asks us to develop this belief in ourselves, as people, that to create abundance and money and all the other resources and energy we need, that that is all within us and that skillsets like this are absolutely something that is an innate part of being human, of being a creative human, and that even if you don’t know how to do it yet, doesn’t mean you won’t ever know how to do it, to develop, to have a growth mindset around it.

And that having this in your repertoire and your toolkit is so necessary if you want to be anybody living an authentic, fulfilling life. Anyone who feels, you know, I dream this, I can see that there’s going to be work to be done and I’m going to make it beautiful and meaningful and that’s the direction I’m headed, that’s what I’m ultimately creating. That’s ultimately who I am and what I’m about.

So, this brings me to today’s part of the podcast, where I want you to do more than just listen. I want you to lean in and really work with me, coach with me. Another reason I love this practice, this skill of 10Xing any investment is that it aligns so well with another aspect of my philosophy, my mission, my work, which is to help you become not a passive consumer, but a powerful creator.

So, what I want to offer you today – we’ve got a pretty meaty coach with me today – is if there is an area in your life in which you know, if you could just give yourself the proper support, the proper time, training, resources but you’re reluctant to invest, let’s say call a spade a spade, you don’t want to invest, because here’s what’s not helpful, to say, “Oh I want to invest in that,” but you don’t, then stop saying that because that is lying to yourself.

If you want to invest in it, you will. If you’re not, you don’t. And to make peace with that. But at least to let yourself see that because this is where I see people slide into decades later and they’ve not done anything with a dream is it soothes a part of themselves to say, “Oh, I want to invest in that.” But it ignores the fact that they actually don’t, because they aren’t.

So, if you are not investing in it, why don’t you want to invest in that? And why don’t you want to give yourself the best? The best possible chance at success, to set yourself up for success?

One way that I offer to clients sometimes, even if they’re not parents, to think about this is to think about if you were entrusted as being the steward or the guardian of a child with a gift, if you were the steward of a little genius visionary who is going to contribute to humanity in the world, had some special gift, what would you do? What would you be willing to do to help them cultivate and invest in that? And why is it any different for you?

And what I wanted to offer you too as you contemplate this question is often what I see coming up for people when they answer this question. When I ask myself too if there are places where I’m saying I want to invest but then I’m like, “Oh, come on Leah, you’re actually not so let’s just be honest, you don’t want to invest. Why?” Because then we can have an actual conversation and energy starts to move again and life starts to work again instead of staying stuck.

If you are stuck, it can mean many things. And in this area, I would look for places where you are not being 100% honest and clear with yourself. So, answers to the question, why I don’t want to invest in myself, this is what often comes up.

I can’t. And then you just stop. How do you go any further with that? I just can’t. Question that. If you needed to, if it were for someone else, if you knew that it were going to be inevitable that one day you made at least 10X that, would you? Another response that comes up is, I won’t make it back. Question that. Question the thinking behind that. Question how you are thinking of yourself and what your relationship with yourself is, if that’s the answer. Again, not from a shaming place. From a place of elevating your awareness, raising your consciousness, and being able to evolve and grow.

Another response is often, “I shouldn’t need to.” Again, I’d question that and then I’d also say, but do you want to? And is that enough? But always, I think particularly with people who have invested a lot and they’re like, “Nope, you’ve had enough,” that this shouldn’t need to comes up a lot. And also, if you’ve been someone conditioned to just get by in the remains of the day, get by on leftovers, that that often is coming from that scarcity mindset.

And also, here’s what else can come up, is that people are afraid that if they invest in themselves, that their worst fears about themselves are going to come true. And here is the thing. If they are your worst fear, that I’m actually not capable, that that dream’s actually not meant for me, that fear living inside of you unexamined is still there and is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

If you invest, you start to take action, then it comes up where you can look at it and you can work with it. And you can take it and make something of it. You can use that artist as alchemist approach. You can transmute it. You can grow. You can learn. But underground, if those worst fears are still driving your bus and that bus is not heading for the destiny that you know you want to create, how is that actually comfortable? How is that actually a safe place for your soul?

Because here is the thing. Just being brutally honest, when you invest in yourself, all of your worst fears and your limiting thoughts, they will come up and you will get to see them face to face. And then also, through that, you will also discover so many great things about yourself. You will also discover your stronger, smarter, more resilient, more loving, more compassionate, more creative, more open to support from others and the universe, more open to love and life than you ever thought possible when you were just on lockdown from your fear and resisting it.

Finally, if all of these things come up for you and you’re like, “Gosh, but I still do want to invest in myself, but I can see that I don’t because I’m not and it’s because of all these reasons you’ve mentioned,” and you just feel stuck, never stay in that place. And here is a question that is so powerful to help you move beyond that. I’ve used it myself and I’ve used it with clients.

So, imagine for someone else, if someone else somewhere has the dream that you have and if they were given the right support, if they were invested in that dream in all of the right ways and willing to put the resources and the money where that dream is, where their heart is, can you imagine that they would do it?

I asked myself this question long ago when I didn’t think I could do it, when I was like, “I want to invest in myself,” but I just couldn’t fathom overcoming these objections. And so, I did this exercise of getting quiet and still and thinking, “Can I imagine it for someone else?”

And then, how do I need to change my relationship with myself in order to have that same sort of belief in myself? Because I could see it for someone else. I could absolutely see someone else starting from scratch, starting with nothing, no paintings, obviously no money from it. I saw it like a movie, that they went through this course and this journey of discovery and development and that they did take risks and that they did fail and that they did get their heart broken. But they got back up and then the part where they’re making the gorgeous paintings and people are loving them and everything that happened along the way was meant to happen, needed to happen in order to make that possible.

I could see that for someone else, and then I knew, okay, here’s where my work is about the spiritual evolution. It is about what needs to change for me to believe in myself just as much as I can believe in this abstract imaginary other. And I knew one of the fundamental things that needed to change was my relationship to myself, how I thought of myself, how I believed in myself, which ultimately always comes back around to how I love myself.

Because here is the other thing. I took it to the extreme of if the end of that movie is she doesn’t actually have the happy ending, would I still want to see that heroine or that hero going for it, investing in their dreams? Yes, I would.

And so, then it was clear, the choice I could make. And the life then that would be living in accordance, because that still would be a movie worth watching. The story that I wouldn’t be able to crack the book on would be the story of someone who doesn’t make that choice to love herself, to believe in herself, to invest in that love and belief in very real ways.

That, to me, is too heartbreaking of a book, to depressing to crack open. So, again, let me just share again that final imagination, creative prompt with you. If you’re feeling stuck, can you imagine someone else somewhere doing this? And if you can, what needs to change for you in order to believe in yourself just as much as you can believe in that abstract, imaginary other that is the greatest investment and gift you could ever give yourself?

I hope you all do it no matter what it looks like, whether it’s through the Art School, whether it’s following your heart on another path, I’m rooting for that. I’m rooting for that.

Thank you, thank you for listening to another episode of the Art School podcast. I love that you are here. And I would love your help in growing this podcast.

If you would share, if you would subscribe, if you would leave a review, that helps me know who’s out there listening and that also help me reach a wider audience. Thank you so much for being here and in advance for your support and paying it forward.

And if there is a goal, a dream that you are committed to creating in this lifetime, if there is a person, an artist, a creative, a human that you know you are meant to be, I truly can think of no better way to invest in yourself and in your life and make that happen than to join the Art School.

We begin August 31^st. Again, this is our 12-week session, our final one for the coming year. And I would love to have you join us. You can find more information or enroll on my website www.leahcb.com. You can also email us, support@leahcb.com if you have any questions and we would be happy to speak with you, happy to help.

To close, I wanted to circle back around to that opening quote. It’s such a great one. “Take a coin from your purse and invest it in your mind. It will come pouring out of your mind and overflow your purse.” Benjamin Franklin.

If I could adopt that to modern days and to this context, I would definitely say, if you take a coin from your purse, from your bank account, and invest it in your dream, in your heart, in your life, in your future by investing in the Art School, not only will it come pouring out of your mind and overflow your bank account, but those ripple effects will extend far beyond you and extend into ways where you’ll be waking up and a life where you look around and you’re like, “Dang, this is good. Dang this is good. And dang, what else am I capable of? What else can I do?”

I hope you have a beautiful week, everyone. I am off to pack up our beach bag and head to Lake Michigan and enjoy the day, the rest of the summer with my little ones. Oh gosh, they’re getting bigger. So, glad that I have this time to savor and soak it in with them. And I hope wherever you are, whatever the season, that you are also savoring your time with your loved ones and also just loving your life. I’ll talk to you soon.