Beware The Poison of Greed
In this episode, I reflect on my powerful realization around greed on New Years 2023 and how it informed my year. I share my story of how greed was seeping into my consciousness and how I've worked to transform that in the past year. I'll also share thoughts to help you look at your relationship with money and where it stands in how you operate your business.
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Podcast Transcript
Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Art and Business of Meditation podcast. I'm your host, Lou Redmond. This is another solo episode where I am going to share something I hope is helpful and hopefully help you look at your business, look at your relationship to money, look at how you operate for this upcoming year. I'm recording this just before Christmas in 2023, and I am reflecting on the year and the themes that have informed my year. And the big theme that started the beginning of my last year came up on New Year's Eve 2023. I sat in my first psilocybin ceremony, and that experience really opened me up to seeing something that was creeping into my energy. This darkness, this poison that, if gone unchecked, might have really led me down a path that I know my heart doesn't want to go down. And so it was around greed. And I'll backtrack here with how this came up and really how this landed in the ceremony. I have a podcast episode where I talk about this experience in detail. So if you want to scroll back and. And you can find my first psychedelic experience. That was actually when the podcast was entitled this. It was titled the Awakening to Purpose Podcast. So if that interests you and you want to hear more about that full experience, I talk a lot about money in that experience. I'm going to come at it from a different place this time, but if you're interested in hearing that experience, please go back to listening to that episode. So that day, I had received an email from. From someone who, a couple years ago, wanted to work with me. One on one, we had a discovery call. And they didn't end up working with me. And so what they ended up doing was they booked another discovery call after I sent an email about someone potentially working with me. And at the time, I was like, well, this guy already booked a discovery call. Like, you don't get two free discovery calls. I know it's two years later, but I had some judgment towards him, and my price at the time was much lower than it was at this current time. And so I sent him an email and I told him that my price had increased significantly. And I want to make sure that we're not wasting each other's time. And I know that sounds like an innocent thing to say, but in my ceremony, I saw the tendrils of how that energy came out and also where it came from. And I'll backtrack even more. I had worked with a coach in 2020, and we ended up working together on and off for about two years. And there was one on the breaks where I reached back out with him because I was in a difficult situation, I wanted to do some more coaching. And he had given me those same words. He was like, hey, Lou, yeah, we can definitely work together, but I want to let you know my price has increased significantly. So he used those exact words, I remember at the time being like, whoa, ok. And not to make this right or wrong about him, he had a very significant amount to begin with and then he doubled his prices. And at the time, I equated, well, if I invest more money into myself, then I'm going to make more money. And it was all about the money. It was quickly becoming, in 2022, about how much money I'm making, how much money I'm investing myself. And it went into this sort of dogma that is prevalent in the coaching industry, where it's just about hitting certain numbers, investing higher so that you can charge higher. And it's this weird phenomenon that people are calling out in the coaching industry and where it turns into just your coaches, coaches, coaching, coaching, coaches, coaching, coaches. Lot to say about that. That's not what this episode is about. But I see there's a lot of value in investing in yourself, so I know that. But when I invested that double amount, I don't think that was the right thing for me. And I definitely, I definitely didn't get that in return. Nor did it equate to me making more money because the energy was misaligned. And so in this psilocybin experience, I recognized how I responded to this person who reached out and this person who I know sometimes can be in a vulnerable state. And I felt so much pain. I felt the pain of how that energy came out, which was basically like, hey, I don't think you can afford me and so I don't have time for you. I didn't say it like that, but there was a. There was an energy, an intention a little bit that had that. And so that was really painful to work through in this ceremony, to notice and to be like, mmm, wow, like, where, where did your heart go? Like, yes, maybe it didn't. Doesn't work out for that person. But, but where, where did you start making it all about whether people can pay you or not? Where did it start being about the money? And it made me really look at the past year and see how the dollar amounts became such a focus because to backtrack two years before that, I had doubled my revenue. And so it became this huge shift for me financially. And I think I got a little carried away with that and started just making it about the money. And this past year, 2023, after doing that ceremony, after coming out of that, you know, I was, I was tempted to just completely just throw away the business model of my coaching and, and do it in a different way. I haven't necessarily done that quite yet because what I've learned is it's not really about the amount of the money, it' the intention and the energy around the money. And it's been a very informative experience for this entire year to recheck myself. And this is something I want you to think about for this next year, about what is your business metric or what I'm calling a soulful business metric. And I got this from a book I'm reading called Regenerative Business by Samantha Garcia. I hope to reach out to her and have her on the podcast. I haven't yet. And she talks about not having your metric be money. Like, what is a different business metric for you? Maybe it's how many people resign for you with your coaching, how many thank yous you get, how many comments you get, how many times someone else connects because they met you and you're the connector in their world. So thinking of something that's more of a soulful business metric and that's actually termed by Bindi Belanger, who's been on this podcast too. We were having a conversation and I brought this up and she added the soulful in there. So I'll give her credit. So thinking about what is your soulful business metric? Because as I saw last year, you know, once you make. I'll speak for myself. Once I made decent money and I started having some savings to put back into my business, yes, I can expand. But I realized pretty quickly of like, okay, this thing is fun. It feels really enlivening and it's really not it, as so many of us understand this. And it's not like I made like millions of dollars, right? But in just having this kind of extra finances is like, yeah, this is great, but it's not the ultimate fulfillment. It'll feel a burst of excitement to have a sale or to have someone start working with you. But ultimately it comes down to the work. It comes down to being in the moment and actually doing the soulful work. The money is just coming from that. And so that's been a big shift for me this year is to really get super clean and clear about how I'm approaching money, how I'm approaching working with people and not letting money be the number one thing. Like, I can't believe I even got to where this even became like a little thing, because it was so far from that. And so just an example, what do they talk about? The seven deadly sins? Just because we're in the spiritual world doesn't mean we are all human. And we are all susceptible to very human things. And greed is one of them. And I'm not saying that I was going off the ladder and being overtly greedy, but that psilocybin experience allowed me to see and feel the little poison that was starting to grow in me. And the funny thing is, I ended up reaching out to this person and telling. After that experience, I was like, I don't care about the money. I'll do it for free. It opens you up, of course. And they say to not make decisions right after a ceremony, give it two weeks, give it a month, let it integrate, and then kind of use it and frame it. And maybe you don't go 100% in, but. And so I reached out and I was like, I don't even care. Like, whatever works for you. I kind of said, hey, why don't we just do what I told you my price was a couple of years ago, which was like a hundred bucks a session. Why don't we just do that for a couple of sessions and see where it goes? And it turned out that what I said, even though I thought it was uncompassionate, was exactly what he needed to hear. Because what he responded was, is that he tends to sometimes take advantage of situations, and he can just get the help locally from his friends. And so for every party involved, it was exactly what needed to happen, as it tends to be. And so I had to laugh at that. But it has been something that I've been thinking about. Not necessarily like, oh, I need to give all my stuff away for free. Because again, it's not the amounts. The amounts are not the issue here. It's the energy. It's the energy around how we interact with our money. And so what is your soulful business metric for this next year? How has money showed up in your life? How is greed? If you're being honest with yourself, how has greed showed up? Is it showing up? And be on the lookout, because when you start making money, it can quickly seep in. So I'm so grateful for this first psychedelic experience and the lesson that I'm still taking with me, and that's the power of some of these experiences, is it's not Just one and done. It's like it's a year later and I'm still feeling into it and so hope this was helpful. I just wanted to kind of do a reflection on my year of how this has shown up, of how I've really come back into this heart centered focus. Not that I lost the heart centered focus, but I've really just been a lot more clean and clear about how I'm showing up. And I love contemplating these things. This is why I have this podcast because I love exploring this intersection of spirituality and business. And sometimes to explore it, we have to go into the darkness, we have to go into different sections, we have to see. And there's so many things that are being talked about and called out in the coaching industry and sometimes it's challenging to listen to it. And this can be another podcast episode, but it fascinates me and I want to be a voice of positive energy and integrity because I deeply love this work. I deeply believe that we all have a gift and that we deserve to be supported financially for that gift. And so this is the, the path we must walk. And so I thank you for walking it with me in whatever way this podcast might be supportive for you. I deeply appreciate your time, your energy, and I wish you all good things in this coming year. I wish your business success, I wish you are spending your days aligned and doing the things that are meaning that you love. Doesn't mean you're always going to love doing, doesn't mean it's not going to feel like work. But when you're really connected to the why, to your soul's gifts, to your vocation, to the calling that is emerging from you, there's. There's no better way to live. At least my own opinion, of course. So thanks for hearing me rant and ramble on this episode. And as always, if you have questions, questions or comments, please send them my way. I love hearing from you. Thanks so much everyone. Oh, and before you take off, I will be reopening doors to the Meraki Mastermind in January. If you are a wellness practitioner, coach, creator, spiritual guide, and you're looking for a community of people to support you, to give you ideas, to highlight your blind spots, to just not do this thing alone. If that calls to you, send me an email and reach out and we can have a conversation around if it's a good fit. And lastly, if you enjoy this podcast, please leave a review. Say something kind. Don't leave a review. If you don't like it, just. Just turn it off. Yeah, it's appreciated. So thanks so much. I'll stop talking. Lots of love to you and see you on the next episode.