How To Improve Your Relationship With Money
I’m pretty sure there isn’t an actor out there who’s never had some sort of money trouble. Being an actor is expensive, between classes, marketing materials, headshots, casting sites, things can start to add up really fast – and unlike a doctor or a lawyer, you can never really know exactly when you’re going to get your investment back.
I recently read an amazing book – Money: A Love Story, by Kate Northrup, and in it Kate gives some really great tips that also relate to actors. A few of my coaching clients have brought up the money issue recently, so I wanted to give you some tips I learned to help you improve your relationship with money and get over the hurdle (both mental and financial) that worrying about money can bring.
Is there some bad blood between you and your money? Not anymore. 
But really, I love this book. All of my coaching clients and the Workshop Guru Get It Done group are reading it this month, so click here to grab a copy for yourself!
Do you have a juicy question you want me to cover in a future episode of GuruTips for Actors? I’ll be answering YOUR questions every month, so be sure to send them in to questions@workshopguru.com!
#CASHMONEY!
xo,
P.S. A few years ago we had a membership referral program and used this photo. It’s still one of my favorites. And pretty relevant! #CASHMONEY
March 22, 2017 @ 12:59 am
Just bought the book Money A Love Story on your recommendation, because this post resonated with me. It came in the mail today and started reading and was frankly a bit stunned. The author is a high level sales woman for USANA which is a multi-level marketing company. This company and others like it, offer monetary incentives to their sales people for recruiting and training more sales people–often enlarging a sales team comes with Way more monetery incentives than making actual sales. This seems pretty great if you have a large sales team that you’ve recruited (like this author) because you get all this great passive income, but this passive income comes at a truly terrible cost to other people. If you aren’t familiar with John Oliver’s recent piece on multi-level marketing companies, please watch it, he explains it so much better than I can https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6MwGeOm8iI This model of multi-level marketing companies has been proven to prey on poorer communities. I love the message of empowering people to start their own businesses, to set their own hours and work from home, but if you are working for a MLM, most people aren’t going to make much of anything and often the people who go in it needing money the most desperately end up losing quite a bit. MLM’s give huge kickbacks to the people who got in early, or people who come in already with large fan bases, but for other people, it can be financially disastrous.
Kate Northrup may have some great lessons to teach about money (many of which probably could be useful to me), but I can’t get past page 45.
She begins by telling her financial story which happens to start with a family that has money. She then encourages the reader to tell hers or his own “money love story” and to reframe the story in a positive light. I’m all for positivity, but reading the story of Kate’s financial path with all the moments she says she felt like a fraud (and actually Was a fraud-selling a lifestyle that she herself admits was a veneer.) Reading all that, and the way she spins it, gives me the chills. Am I missing something? I’m sorry if I have read the book wrong. I’m all for exploring one’s relationship to money and loving it more. I don’t normally write such long responses to blog posts, but this is something I feel passionate about. Multi-level marketing businesses aren’t great and we shouldn’t as a mindful culture continue supporting them or the people who blindly or not so blindly peddle their wares.
March 22, 2017 @ 4:22 pm
Thank you so much for your comments, Jesse. I know a lot of people have issues with MLM companies, and I’ll check out John Oliver’s video. I honestly didn’t put too much focus on Northrup’s MLM business as I was reading this, and I didn’t feel that her message centered on promoting that business. I got a lot out of the book myself because of her message about financial awareness, forgiving yourself for “mistakes” you’ve made in the past, and learning to value yourself and your contributions. For those of us who have trouble tracking where our money is going, or who beat ourselves up for being in debt, or who tend to undervalue the work we do, this is compelling. I appreciate Kate’s willingness to admit that she had a poor relationship with money despite her parents being well-off, and sharing how she has repaired that. I appreciate you sharing your perspective, and every messenger isn’t for everybody, right? Maybe you can return the book?