The Hidden Vulnerability of a Cashless World

Why (and when) cash is still king

In our increasingly digital world, we rely on convenience. Cards, contactless payments, apps — all make transactions fast and easy. But what happens when that digital world is suddenly taken away?

I recently had to confront this question head-on. Hurricane Helene hit my region hard, and we were forced to evacuate. Power lines were down, communication networks failed, and as the storm passed, something became painfully clear: digital payments were no longer an option.

Stores, gas stations, and essential services had switched to cash-only transactions. With card readers offline and ATMs out of service, it didn’t matter how much credit you had access to — cash became the only way to access what we needed: food, water, fuel, and other essentials.

I was relieved to find I had $150 at home, but in the midst of a long evacuation, that wouldn’t take me very far. Thankfully, a kind neighbor topped it off, handing me $77 he had stashed in his kitchen drawer. That money made all the difference. Not only did it help my wife and I evacuate, but it also allowed us to help a rescuer repair a flat tire on his truck during the process.

It was a humbling reminder: when the systems we rely on fail, cash becomes your lifeline. And while $227 got us through the worst of it, having more cash on hand would have put us in a better position to stick it out longer or help others more effectively.

The High Price of Being Unprepared

Let’s say you find yourself in a situation like mine. You’ve evacuated due to a natural disaster, and you’re relying on gas stations and stores to get by. But without cash, you have no way to pay. Your credit cards, your digital wallets — they all depend on the infrastructure that’s no longer functioning.

What happens if you can’t get the supplies you need?

• You’re stuck in the storm — literally and figuratively — without access to gas, food, or water.

• You experience heightened stress, not just from the crisis itself, but from the financial uncertainty it brings.

• You’re left scrambling, asking others for help or hoping things will be restored before your situation becomes dire.

I was lucky to have a neighbor who could offer help, but what if no one else around you has cash to spare? You might find yourself in a precarious position, unable to buy the essentials you need to stay safe, calm, and secure.

The bottom line: Having enough cash on hand in an emergency is not a luxury — it’s a necessity.

Why My Story Matters: Lessons from Hurricane Helene

I didn’t come to this realization overnight. I’ve spent years working at the intersection of money and mindfulness, advising clients on how to grow their wealth while also maintaining a sense of balance and peace of mind. But my evacuation during Hurricane Helene made me realize that, in times of crisis, financial preparedness takes on a whole new meaning.

When my wife and I evacuated, we were able to manage with the $227 we had on hand. That cash helped us leave our home, refuel the car, and even assist a rescuer when his truck broke down. But I couldn’t help thinking about how different the situation might have been if we hadn’t had that cash — or if we had had more.

More cash would have allowed us to stick it out longer, ride out the storm with more comfort, and even help more people along the way. That experience reinforced a truth I now share with all my clients and followers: just as we prepare our minds through meditation, we must prepare our financial lives for the unexpected.

I’ve seen firsthand how financial security impacts peace of mind. It’s one thing to discuss wealth management in theory, but it’s another to live through a situation where your financial preparedness — or lack of it — directly affects your well-being.

The Simple Yet Powerful Solution: Keep Cash on Hand

Here’s the solution, and it’s simple: Keep some cash on hand for emergencies. It’s a practice that’s been somewhat lost in the age of digital payments, but in crisis situations, cash is still king.

Now, I’m not here to tell you exactly how much you should keep in reserve. That’s a personal decision based on what makes you feel secure. For some, it may be $500; for others, it might be $2,000 or more. The key is to think about your own needs:

• How much would cover 1 to 2 weeks of essential expenses?

• How much would make you feel calm and secure if digital payments were unavailable for an extended time?

Reflect on what would give you peace of mind in an emergency — whether it’s a natural disaster, a power outage, or another unexpected event.

The Calm Before (and During) the Storm: The Benefits of Being Prepared

When you’re financially prepared, you’re not just holding onto cash — you’re holding onto peace of mind. Here’s what happens when you’re ready:

1. You stay calm during emergencies. You don’t have to worry about scrambling for resources or relying on others for basic needs.

2. You feel secure, knowing that no matter what happens, you can take care of yourself and your loved ones.

3. You focus on what truly matters — whether it’s protecting your family, securing your home, or navigating your next steps — because you’re not bogged down by financial anxiety.

Having cash on hand in an emergency is a small act of preparedness that delivers significant peace. Just as in meditation, where we prepare our minds to stay centered in the face of challenges, financial readiness keeps us grounded in times of crisis.

Final Thoughts: Your Peace of Mind Starts with Preparedness

When it comes to financial preparedness, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer. But there is one truth: being ready for emergencies, both mentally and financially, ensures you stay grounded no matter what life throws your way.

How much cash would make you feel secure in a crisis? Take a moment to reflect, and make sure your financial safety net is ready for whatever comes.

Pre-Booking Web Design Services for Recovery from Hurricane Helene

Five cats in cat carriers in a neighbors truck after our car was stuck on the mountain with all roads leading to our home destroyed.

We are incredibly fortunate, but there are many in our community who have lost everything—homes, cars, and even loved ones. Thousands are still stranded without basic utilities, and while efforts are underway to restore normalcy, it will take time.

In the meantime, I am working to rebuild my life and business. While we are staying temporarily with a generous friend in Pennsylvania, my goal is to get back on our feet, secure temporary housing in the foothills of North Carolina, and support our community in the rebuilding process.

Additionally, our local community bank was also impacted by the floods, forcing them to reduce some of their functions, including limiting cash withdrawals to $200 per day. This has made it challenging to access enough funds quickly. With our car and home no longer accessible, we need to purchase a new vehicle to regain mobility and organize temporary housing near Charlotte or Raleigh/Durham. These immediate needs are adding to the urgency of our situation as we work to rebuild.

To make this possible, I am offering pre-advanced booking for my web design and online marketing services. If you’ve been thinking about upgrading your website or launching a new online project, now would be a perfect time to book my services for completion over the next few months. Here are some options you can consider:

1. Web Design Packages (Squarespace):

• Website in a Day ($1,800)
  Perfect for small businesses or personal brands needing a fast, professional 3-page website, designed in just one day. Includes custom design, mobile optimization, and SEO setup.
  Book it here.

• Website in Two Days ($3,600)
  For those needing a more robust 6-page website with deeper customization. This package offers two full days of focused web design work to create a beautiful, optimized online presence.
  Book it here.

• Website in Two Weeks ($7,200)
  A comprehensive 8-10 page custom website, built with attention to detail over two weeks. This package is ideal for larger projects requiring advanced functionality, SEO, and integrations such as email marketing or scheduling tools.
  Book it here.
  
  How to book:
  1. Click the above link to book your package.
  2. After you book, we can meet on Zoom and discuss your project details and timeline.
  
  Please see my web design portfolio and testimonials here.
  Please email me at so@sophiaojha.com with any questions.

2. Hourly Packages (Used for multiple services):

• 1-Hour Package ($250)
  Book it here.

• 5-Hour Package ($950)
  Book it here.

• 10-Hour Package ($1,750)
  Book it here.

These packages are perfect if you want to delegate tasks or have live video consultations and training via Zoom. You can use the time in versatile ways, such as website updates, online marketing strategy, email newsletter marketing and set up, content marketing planning, or online business consultations. The hours can be spread across several one-hour sessions over multiple weeks, providing flexibility for ongoing support and allowing you to get expert guidance while keeping your projects on track.

Please see details on the service packages here.

Skills and Services You Can Use the Hourly Packages For:

The hourly packages can be used for any of the following or other ideas you may have using my skills and expertise in online business, or online marketing.

• Website Maintenance

  Maintaining, updating, building or expanding your Squarespace site.

• Email Marketing Setup
  Get your email campaigns up and running on your preferred platform. (I am proficient in these platforms: ConvertKit, Mailerlite, Mailchimp, beehiiv).

• Online Marketing Strategy Sessions
  Let’s create a solid plan to grow your business online.

• Content Marketing Strategy Sessions
  Craft a content marketing plan and strategy for your business using YouTube, Blogging, Medium, and LinkedIn.

• Course Creation/Launch Strategy
  Design and launch your online course with personalized support including curriculum development, sales page and landing page design, email sales sequence.

• Webinar Creation/ Strategy
  Craft a webinar for list-building, product/tech demo, or sales webinar for selling your services or courses.

How You Can Take The Next Step

If any of these services align with your needs or future plans, I would be incredibly grateful if you would consider pre-booking today using the links in the respective sections. The work will be scheduled to begin after October 15, 2024, and will be completed within the next 3-4 months.

Your support means the world to me as we navigate this difficult time. Thank you for being part of my community, and please keep the people of Western North Carolina and the US Southeast, in your thoughts as we all work toward recovery.

Warm regards,
Sophia Ojha

A Personal Update (Hurricane Helene Evacuation)

Dear Friend,

I hope this message finds you well. I wanted to take a moment to share a personal update with you.

My wife, our five cats, and I have just come through an intense experience with Hurricane Helene. Our home area (Busick, NC) was hit hard with over 30 inches of rain and high winds, leaving us without supplies, water, or power, and the 1.3 mile long access road to our home destroyed. Thankfully, we’ve been evacuated and are now safe and sound at a friend’s house, for which we are deeply grateful.

We are incredibly fortunate, but there are many in our community who have lost everything—homes, cars, and even loved ones. Thousands are still stranded without basic utilities, and while efforts are underway to restore normalcy, it will take months. In the meantime, I am working to rebuild my life and business. While we have safety now, my goal is to get back on our feet and restore independence, so I can support our community when rebuilding begins.

Through this storm, we’ve been shown incredible kindness from unexpected sources, and now, as we begin the journey to rebuild, I’m ready to work remote and would like to offer my expertise and services to anyone who could use a helping hand with their finances or investments.

If you'd like to know how you can best help us right now: buy from or hire me.

How I Can Serve You:

1. Pre-Order My New Book: Investing in Absence

I’m thrilled to announce the upcoming release of my book, Investing in Absence: How to Ignore the Markets, Come Out Ahead, and Have Peace of Mind While Meditating, coming out by the end of the year. This book is perfect for meditators and anyone seeking financial freedom without the constant stress of market fluctuations. It introduces a simple yet powerful approach to investing that allows you to step away from the markets—whether you're on a three-month meditation retreat or just living your life—while still growing your wealth.  

For a limited time, you can pre-order the PDF edition for just $10, and it will be delivered straight into your inbox. This book will help you balance your financial success with inner peace, providing a roadmap to long-term investing that doesn’t demand constant attention.

Pre-order here: https://pineridgewealth.com/investing-in-absence

2. Investment Management

As a licensed, registered investment adviser since 2023, I specialize in building risk-balanced, diversified portfolios designed to grow your wealth and generate passive income. My approach is aligned with your best interests, acting as a fiduciary with no commissions, only a flat management fee of 1% per year.

Typically, I work with clients who have portfolios of $100,000 or more, but right now, I’m reducing that minimum to just $10,000 to make it easier for more people to benefit from my services. My first client who started with me in November 2023, has seen a +17% return on her portfolio, and I’d love to help you grow your wealth in a similar way. (The long-term average return of my model Serenity Portfolio is about 11% annually, so we have had an above-average run so far.)

Email me here to enquire more information: cristof@pineridgewealth.com

3. Financial & Investment Coaching

If you prefer a more hands-on approach to managing your finances, I also offer coaching sessions to guide you through financial planning, investment strategy, debt repayment, retirement plan reviews, and more. My clients have used this service to save thousands in fees and boost their portfolios by tens of thousands. The sessions start at $125.

Whether you need a second set of eyes on your portfolio or strategic advice on budgeting and retirement planning, I’m here to help you navigate your financial journey.

Book your Zoom session here: https://pineridgewealth.com/wealthcoaching

If you’re interested in any of these services or know someone who could benefit, I’d be honored to work with you. With everything now set up remotely, I’m fully available to meet and assist you via Zoom and secure online access.

Thank you for all the support and encouragement you’ve shown us. We appreciate you more than words can express, and I look forward to the opportunity to give back by helping you grow your wealth and achieve your financial goals.

Warmly,  
Cristof Ensslin  
Founder & Investment Adviser  
Pine Ridge Wealth LLC

cristof@pineridgewealth.com

How to become a money magnet with Omari Harebin

🐬 Be.Do.Have.Life - The Show [Ep 005] with Omari Harebin 🐬
Today, I am sharing a delightful conversation with Omari Harebin. We talk about becoming a money magnet, generating our supply, and many other juicy topics relate to manifestation.

🐬 Check out all that Omari Harebin has to offer:
🐬 Website: https://www.omariharebin.com/money
Podcast: https://www.sqspthemes.com/podcast
YouTube: @omariharebin

Here’s the unedited transcript:

In terms of just becoming a money magnet, today, whatever it is that you have excess of, whatever it is that you have surplus of, give that, and you'll see a return on that in your a return on demand for that. And now your willingness and ability to respond to that demand gives that demand permission to grow. And now the demand knows, oh, okay. We can demand more, and now you're in business. Now you're flowing.

Now the wheel is spinning again. And if it slows down, if it creaks or whatever, come back. I got the oil, and we'll and we'll get it going. I am very excited today to be speaking with Omari. Welcome, Omari, to the be do have live show.

I have known Omari ever since I started I got started in Squarespace essentially, like, 5, 6, 7, 8 years ago. I think you've been there all along my journey, but this is the first time we are meeting. So I'm super excited to talk with you and, learn a lot about your way of thinking. So welcome, Omar. Thank you, Sofia.

I'm glad to be on your show. I saw some of the the content you had been publishing, and I was like, this reminds me of some of the stuff that I really used to, like, consume early in my journey. And now I'm in a place where that's what I'm producing, so I thought, you would be a good person to talk to about it. Yes. I was super thrilled when, I got, you know, I got to find I found out that you were interested in, being on the show.

So this is really, really blessing and an honor to talk with you. Oh, cool. So, you actually are not just a digital strategist and all that I know about you from the Squarespace world. You're the founder of s q s SQSPthemes.com. You're an author.

You are a podcaster. You are SEO genius. Like, there's so many labels that you are you're multifaceted. But just recently, I found out that you are an author, and I had the privilege to read your book, You Are a Money Magnet. I printed it out so that I can I can make notes Mhmm?

In it. So, maybe we can just start with your book. And, first of all, congratulations. This is actually, you you told me you already wrote another book too. I don't know.

How many books have you written? Several. So, yeah, by the time this comes out, maybe there'll be more. So Excellent. So, tell me about, if you may, how you got to write the book, You Are A Money Magnet.

Yeah. So I've been writing my own personal memoir for the better part of a decade now, and I reached a a part where I was, like, close to the finish. And as I was getting to the finish, there were, like, these last there are these things that just started coming up of, like, okay. At my lowest point, money was my biggest issue. And I told myself that when I resolved this, the thing that I would give is I would give people the resolution to this money issue.

And as I got to, you know, the the end of writing my memoir, it I felt really compelled where I was like, okay. You studied this for a decade now. Like, you've gone you've really applied every single principle that you've learned. You've you've you've just gone through it over and over again. Like, where is the truth?

Like, what is the the the thing here that you can give that will change and transform someone else's situation that is where you were once upon a time? And, that's where this came from. And I oh, I had read a book maybe a few weeks before. I forget exactly what it was called, but it was a it was in this genre of, like, money mindset affirmation kind of things, and it was from a author I'd never read before. But the way it was written was he wasn't really saying much, but it was written in a way that kinda, like, guided your your meditation.

It kinda led you in a certain frame of mind. And and so I'm I've been studying the way people write these kind of books for as long as I've been reading them. In the beginning, I was trying to figure out everything at the same time. I was trying to figure out, okay, how is this marketed? How is this written?

How is it structured? What's the content? Like, I was trying to just crack all of the codes, and then now it's kinda like, okay. I understand how these things are done. What is my version of this?

And a thing came up and it was like, you know what? You are a money magnet, and there's science behind this that you understand. And if you can, put this into a way that makes sense for people, then you you are effectively activating another, you know, magnetic money field that people can enter. And so from the introduction, it's it's intended to give you an immediate effect of, like, oh, something is happening already. Like, my mind is already being transformed.

And that's the power of words, and it's one of the reasons I'm so excited about this. Beautiful. And I concur reading the book You promised already in the first pages that this is going to be an transformative experience, that the reader is going to feel a shift. And I am on fire. I do feel a shift because I was able to question a few of the few of the things that have been emerging for me, and, this book immediately solved for for and I will go into into more detail about that.

But, I love that already in what you shared, you mentioned, you wanted to create your version of all the influences and, conversations around money and abundance and mindset. And this is already a shift for a lot of people, I'm sure, who watch this, is this stumbling block that comes up when we want to create something or bring something out into the world is saturation. There's already so much of this already existing. There are already these people doing that. There's already so much out there, but that doesn't stop a new clothing line.

There are, like, 10 clothing lines already on the same side of the street, and you have one more shop. You you said my version of it. So, yeah, speak to speak to the stumbling block that So there's already so many people on the planet. Why do why we keep making more? I I love the ones that I made.

I, you know, I wouldn't not make them just because other people are making them. I mean, maybe some people think like that, but, it's one of those things where there was not a saturation of what I was looking for. Right? So there and what I was looking for was, a synthesis of ideas that didn't typically go together. Right?

So I grew up in a in a Pentecostal world, which is a Christian denomination that is very fiery and very, emotional and and lit up. And so inside of that world, there's certain truths and certain beliefs that hold it together. In that world, I had beliefs that didn't hold it together. I had beliefs that meant this world that I was in couldn't wasn't stable enough for me to grow. And so I had to exit that world and allow it to to crumble in my consciousness and rebuild a world of my own off of my beliefs that were a reflection of my inner reality.

I don't know how I got on that topic, but oh, the the saturation. So the the point of that is I was always trying to reconcile different worlds, different cultural worlds, and each culture has embedded beliefs, has embedded values and identities. And so I was always moving in between worlds where these things were different, and I had to figure out, well, like, how does this make sense? Right? Most of the worlds that I was traveling between, no one else in those worlds were doing what I was doing.

They weren't, you know, they weren't whether mentally or physically, they weren't leaving the space to have to go through that conflict of, oh, there's people who believe something different and have a different reality. Oh, there's people over here who believe something different, identify different, have a different reality. So I had to reconcile all of that. So I had to reconcile it the science. I had to reconcile the the spiritual.

I had to reconcile the physical, the all all of these different things that we put in isolation. And in my journey, I couldn't find that. I couldn't find that, unifying thing where there was no shame or where there was no, like, fear of being exposed. Right? So Mhmm.

Within the Pentecostal world, I didn't wanna be, like, identified with it because I didn't believe a 100%. And so but I couldn't be in it and not believe a 100% because it's, like, you know, then you go into hell. So there's there was this, like, constant turmoil there in my development of trying to figure that out, and, you know, realizing, like, alright. This is how it goes. So, so the the point is, like, I'm creating for a part of myself that couldn't find what it was looking for.

You know? So as a seeker, you know, I imagine you're a seeker. There's something that you haven't found yet. And that thing, you're gonna find it within yourself, and as you discover it, you'll be like, this is what I now have to give. And you've already found it in different ways.

Right? It's not a one time be all kind of thing. It's a continual, you know, refinement, if you will. Yes. And so my Squarespace business is a perfect example of that.

I was looking for development help. Like, I was looking for plugins once upon a time. I was looking for templates once upon a time. And what I couldn't find, I created. And so every single time I log in to that platform and I have a problem, which is pretty much every time I log in to the platform, I go Google something.

And I don't log in that much these days, but when I do, and I'm like, wow. I have to go and Google this? And then I Google it, and I don't find anything. I'm like, what's going on? Like, who's why is no one why has no one solved this and, like, put it up yet?

So 9 times out of 10, if it takes an hour, I'll figure it out. I'll publish something. Or if I'm really curious about it, I'll spend some time and I'll, you know, I'll come up with a solution and I'll share it. And I just have a long trail of those. Right?

Like, that's what my business consists of. It's just a long trail of, going through the same process of looking for something that I couldn't find, creating it, and giving it to other people. And and we all have that. You know? And it and it it occurs when you're in your interest, when you're following your curiosity.

You are bound to run into, like, the edge I call it the edge of the universe, which is where questions haven't been answered yet, problems haven't been solved yet. And that's where I'm most, like, lit up. I'm like, oh, we're at the if I go searching for something on Google and I get the the fishing thing, I'm, like, oh, wait. So no one 3 words or these two words that I just put together that feel so good together that makes so much sense, no one has, like, conceived this and published it on the Internet yet. I'm, like, okay.

Cool. So, you talked about SEO. Like, to me, that's what I call deep search. It's where you've gone to, like, the edge of the the digital world where nothing has been, published for that particular small thing, and that's where you create. That is literally where you create, and you can create, like, with you know?

You're at the edge of the river. You know? Like, if there's not there's nothing saturated in front of you. That's yeah. That's amazing, Omari, because I have not run into that problem now.

Oh, you well, you're gonna run into it. I, oftentimes feel myself, looking for something, finding answers, and, like, 10 different versions of that answer already exist. But there's always my twist to the problem that I can do. Exactly. But coming back to just this this element in you that says, okay.

The the thing that I'm looking for doesn't exist, and then you figure it out on your own with your own resources, creativity, intelligence. And then there's this drive in you to then put it out there for the others instead of just going about your life and, okay, I solved that, and now I'm moving on. That is something very powerful. That's just this to me, it's like business. It's like a it it's a it's like a necessary part of, the value exchange.

Right? So if I discover something valuable, then I have to figure out a way to distribute that value or make that value accessible to people, in order to have a business. That's the thing I'm solving for. And it's just the end part of a process. It's, the the the exposure part, you know, where you have to present something.

And so I think sometimes if you can break the parts down and then you can say, okay. This is, like, a skill set that I can build, and that skill set is, like, sharing your solutions to to problems you've encountered. Like, it's not been an easy thing for me. You know? Mhmm.

But it's been a practice. So over time, the practice becomes more natural. It becomes easier. It becomes just a thing you have to do, in order to finish your you know, in order to finish your cycle Yeah. So to speak.

And that is what you're referring to already in the first few pages of your book where you talk about entering the magnetic field, and you invite us to align the magnetic force that lies within us, align with the magnetic force that's within us. Mhmm. And the value is an important, part of it. Actually, there's a a quote that I wrote down. You you write, the stronger your energy, the more aligned, authentic, and positive it is, the stronger your magnetic field becomes.

Wow. That's a lot of wisdom and insights inside this quote. I'll make it really simple. We all have desires. Right?

Like, we are all drawn to certain particular things. I was in the supermarket the other night, and I was just going through the aisles. And I looked over, may I don't know, 20 yards in the refrigerated section, and I saw these, like, 3 cans, and the colors were perfect, the shape, whatever the design was, it it literally just called me and it was like, these are for you. And I just walked over, took them off the shelf. I already knew this is what I had been looking for.

And what had I been looking for? I'd been looking for, a sports drink that was, like, healthy, essentially, or that that felt good or felt better than, like, a Monster or Red Bull. And I'd been just you know, it was just like a a random thought a few weeks ago, like, man, I want this is what I want. I want this type of sports drink. And so, literally, as soon as it entered my peripheral vision, I saw it.

It called to me. I went and got it. Right? Call it good branding. Call it good marketing.

Call it what you will, but that is Good intuition. It's all so all I'm doing is using different words to describe the same thing. Right? So, I was drawn magnetically to that product. I bought it.

That the creator of that product, they magnetize money by through their design, through their packaging, through the ideation of the product. All of that value that they created, they created it with someone in mind. They created it with me in mind, the person who was who couldn't find it. Right? So everybody does this.

It's not like a it's not a it's not I my hope and my goal is to demystify a lot of these things so people can see it in broad daylight all around them and look around and say, oh, wow. Yeah. Every single product, every object, every item in my material world was conceived by somebody in their imagination with a purpose for a function. Right? And it has arrived in my reality through my own desire or through my own imagination of what I wanna see and what I wanna feel.

And so that is the the quantum entanglement where Mhmm. There's this this this commingling of desire and imagination and creation, and, we all have access to it. So, that is what I'm excited about. It's like, you know, the the and and so there's an honesty. Right?

When we're honest about our desires and we're honest about our needs and our wants, then we become more magnetic for those things. Mhmm. Right? That is powerful there. And Because a lot of us do put away our desires because of what we need to We don't sorry to interrupt.

Go ahead. Because this is something I had to go through. It's like, you don't wanna be seen desiring. You know? Like, you don't wanna be seen, like, oh oh, you want that?

Or, like, oh oh, you wanna be a money magnet? You know? Even just creating this book for me, there's a time where I I couldn't do that because I would be, like, in the state of doubt or questioning or, like, is it, you know, the like, no. I wanted to be a money magnet. So I became a money magnet, and here's how you you are a money magnet too.

We're all money magnets while we decide certain things, and that's what this is supposed to help you do. It's like, okay. I can decide to be honest about what I desire, and I can recognize when I'm being drawn to things, and I can now also recognize when things are being drawn to me. Right? So, money is just a byproduct of an of some type of energy exchange, and that exchange is one of desire.

And so that's why in marketing, you're always trying to conjure up this energetic state in the the the buyer of desire. And Mhmm. You know, and, oh, you want this. And then also fear of, oh, this might be taken away. Oh, you might not get this.

And so Mhmm. I've always been aware and sensitive of all of that because I'm like, man, that's, that's dangerous stuff to play with. You know? That's powerful stuff to play with. Playing with desire and playing with fears around those desires.

And that took me a long time to be, like, to to be, like, okay. I know how I wanna use that power. Right? Mhmm. And I wanna use that power to make people better in ways that, they might not realize they can be better.

Yes. So what would you say is is the first step for anyone who wants to become more conscious of their money magnetism? Okay. So the way money flows, it's always in the direction of, like, a a value dis like, some kind of disproportionate value. Meaning, you need something or you want something more than it costs you.

Mhmm. Right? Every single time. Sometimes there might be some pain with that. It's costing a lot for something that you need, and then when that, you know, when that thrust if it if it's if it's costing more than the desire, then you don't buy it.

Right? That's that's just plain. Right? Simple. But when there's a really good deal, right, when it's something that you've wanted, you've desired, it's worth a lot to you, but then the cost is, like, suddenly it's half, where does your money fly?

It flies in that direction. Right? You know when people are like, oh, just take my money to it's because they're having that feeling of, like, yo. Whatever it costs is insignificant compared to this desire, this energetic state that I'm gonna receive from having this, owning this, from from having my consciousness now be, like, yeah. Now I have this.

You know? Like, I've I've I've gone from imagining it to materializing it. That's what that's what everyone is doing when we we throw money away. Right? We are, in exchange, hopefully, materializing something.

Mhmm. And so you asked about the first step. It's just recognizing that that happens all day, all around you. We're all active participants in this exchange and in this flow. And once you're aware of it, you can now decide, okay.

Where am I most valuable? Where is where is the the the thing that is coming from me worth more than it costs someone to receive it? Yes. On a so on a basic level, when people go to work or you have a job, you've entered a contract where you have said, okay. I value my time at this amount of money.

And so if it costs me 8 hours to get that amount of money, I'll give you my 8 hours. Give me my money. I'm not we're now, you know, in a employee contract relationship. Right? Yes.

That happens all day. It's all around us. But then someone can decide, oh, no. What if I'm worth 10 times what my salary is at the moment? Right?

What if if what if right now I'm only operating at 10% of my true value potential in this role? What if? And what if I were to 10 x my potential by fully being myself and letting go of this, shell identity that is only operating at 10%. What if I were to operate at a 100%, wouldn't I then be worth 10 times what this employer has decided my, the value of my function is? Right?

Mhmm. So, these are all very, like, practical things that you can use where you can it it will take time. Right? Yes. I had the realization 10 years, and I'm like, man, I gotta be worth more than this.

I have to be because I'm only giving these people a small part of myself. I'm not even giving them, like, the entirety of Omari. So if they're paying me this amount of money for this small part of myself, what does that mean? Right? So that The part of it is a decision.

It's it's essentially a decision. Yeah. It's all a decision because once you decide, you've eliminated other possibilities. So in the realm of possibilities, there's always possibilities. By by default, we're gonna drift towards, like, something.

Like, we're just gonna be drifting in some whatever momentum direction we're going. But if we decide on a different possibility that is not in that trajectory, now things have to be now things are shaken up. Now reality is breaking down. Relationships are falling away, because now you've entered a new realm of possibility. And if you continue to make decisions that are in alignment with that, then you're bound to see that realized.

Yes. Yes. I love that. I love that because, it's not about techniques and processes and all these rituals. Those can those can be good, but it starts with a decision I'm hearing from you.

It's about deciding what is that the reality that you want to create and then aligning yourself more and more towards Yeah. Continually. Yeah. It's like you're you're navigating across an ocean, and you have to keep sight of your north star. Whatever that north star is, it might you know, like, the location might shift as you as you move.

Yes. Right? So it can become disorienting if you're expecting things to just stay, like, linear. Right? Oh my goodness.

But accepting that there's gonna be, like, you know, variation in states along the way, but that doesn't change the the the star that you've, you know, you fixated on. Yes. Okay. So you just touched on something very, very sensitive for me because, as you know, I've been a Squarespace web designer for many years. And lately, I've been feeling this desire to shift my focus to things like what I'm doing now to this Mhmm.

To this conversation, be to have life, the show, writing more about, manifestation, abundance, wealth creation, expanding, getting to know the limitless possibilities that we have about our own mind. And I'm finding myself struggling with that transition because part of me says, here you go again. I'm starting something new again and starting from scratch. Because before web design, I was an email marketer. Before that, I, was a meditation teacher.

Before that, I was photo book designer. So each time I am getting more and more refined towards my desires Mhmm. I feel like I'm starting from 0. Mhmm. And it's it's a it's a stumbling block.

But you are reminding me that it's important to be honest about our desires, to recognize the things of interests that we have. What doesn't start from 0? Do you know anything? It just seems like if somebody were to stick with something, they their efforts compound over many years. Yep.

Whereas Who who do you have to stick with? Whatever I'm starting with. Like, I'm afraid that now this thing that I'm starting in a couple of years, I'm going to let it go. And Yeah. No.

No. I said, who who who are you stuck with? Who? Yeah. Myself.

Okay. Okay. Right? So wouldn't you compound as long as you stick to yourself? Doesn't the principle still apply?

Yes. It doesn't compound if you stick to a role because you know that sticking to a role is gonna take you away from yourself at a certain point in time. You already know that because you've observed and measured your path up to this point, so you can already know that, okay, at a certain point of time, I will have to give this up as well. And I'm not gonna be worried about that because I'm not there yet. I'm here.

And so I have to really embody this so that when that time comes, I can surrender it again, and I can go back to 0. And this time, I can go back to 0 confidently because 0 is not a new state. 0 is something that I've been at before. So, it's like it's like telling the clock that, no. I don't want you to go back to go back to 1.

Like, what? It's, like, after 12, I want you to keep going to 13. That's military time. Okay. After 24, I want you to go to 25.

No. It's gotta go back to 1. Right? So time forces that function. It forces that return to 0.

Yes. So when you go when you go with it, you can be in harmony with it. And when you're in harmony with 0, 1 feels a lot more easy. Yes. 1 is incredibly hard when you're trying to be at 8, 9, 10, like, you know, because you're not there yet.

But but one is much easier when you're at 0, and then 2 becomes a lot easier from 1. And then you can start to think exponentially or, you know, go in different trajectories. But those those initial steps are always gonna be the same. Yeah. You're in it.

You know? Yes. I'm in it myself. You know? It's not the first time, but I know that I'm returning to myself.

You know? I'm not, it's not like I'm going to some other person. I'm going to a a a version of myself that I once conceived in my mind. Yes. That's, something in the book that you by the way, that's just I just feel like that issue just got solved like that with what you shared.

So thank you for that. I think, yeah, just there was just a stumbling thought, a mind virus that, I presented to you, and you showed me a way out of it. In your book, you also mentioned that, following our interest and passion is important because they're pointing to our purpose. And that was really important for me to remind myself because how often do we, you know, downplay things that come easy to us, downplay things that are natural, downplay things that, you know, we we think that it should, ah, who's gonna pay for that? You know, that comes that's, like, second nature to me.

Somebody who's amazing singer or amazing artist. Yeah. I can do that in my sleep. Why, you know, why should that be valued? So Yep.

So important to remember that. Yeah. I've I've had to deal with that recently where a few months ago, I got a comment on some, I don't know, some video or somewhere, and the person was like, oh, this is so inspiring. And I got upset. I was like, what is this inspiration that like, I I had this, my mind went through, like, a montage of, like, oh, this is so you're inspiring, Mario.

Oh, man. I'm so inspired. Like, I just had this montage of, like, inspiration message, you know. And it made me upset because I'll at at the state I was in, I was, like, well, what is this doing for me? I was like, like, what the hell?

Like, what is inspiration that what is it doing? And I had to sit with that feeling because it was it was like, I don't usually get upset. Right? And why would someone get upset at a compliment where someone is telling you you've inspired them? But if if you've given that inspiration and, you haven't been aware of the value of it, then you can kinda develop a resentment for your own gift, for your own source, because you haven't really capitalized and actualized it in a way where it could really be, magnetized and and and and strengthened.

Yes. So I sat with the emotion of, like, okay. Well, what does it mean to be an inspiration? So I I literally Googled it. I was, like, I need to understand this thing because, clearly, I'm get clearly, I have it, and, clearly, I'm giving it, and people are receiving it.

But, there's something out of balance in the exchange where I don't feel like I'm I'm getting my share of it. And maybe it's because I don't know what it is. So I looked it up, and I learned I was like, okay. Inspiration is is something that moves people to action. And I was like, oh, okay.

So moving people to action, that's a pretty valuable thing. Everyone needs what if you have a desire and you're not moved to action towards that desire, you're not gonna realize it. So I was like, oh, this is valuable. And then I sat and then I I was like, oh. And I've always thought about inspiration as being in the spirit of a thing, but I didn't realize the thing that I was being in the spirit of was the spirit of creation.

And so Mhmm. I was like, oh, so when I'm in the spirit of creation, people are inspired to create, And therefore, this is the state that I need to be in, stay in, and give from perpetually or as often or as freely as, I'm presented the opportunity. And so then everything kinda changed. I was like, okay. I got this.

You know? Clearly, I I already had it, but because I wasn't conscious of it, I was my mind was thinking, oh, I need to be this. I need to do that. I I these needs, these or these shoulds that were outside of my core, outside of my my source of abundance. And so if I could be abundant with inspiration, if that's where my abundance is, if if that's the thing that I am gravitated towards, and if that's the thing that I can give freely from, then that's all I need to do.

Beautiful. I love that how you really went deep with the feeling, the emotions that were coming up from a compliment and to dig deeper to find out what is it really there to tell me. Mhmm. So you are owning your your creative spirit more fully as a result. Yeah.

Have to. So that means anything that inspires me or grabs my inspiration, that's where I invest. You know? That's where that's what I, I wanna conjure more of. Right?

So and that feels wonderful. Right? It means that I can, I can feel good about my desires because I know my desires are in alignment with what inspires me and what keeps me inspired and what gets me inspired? And so I know that those things are already mine, I because they already are mine. You know?

So it it creates that state that we occasionally or have occasionally accessed or tapped into, but now there's more of a a certainty where it's like, okay. I, like, I can now accept without any shadow, you know, shadow of a doubt. I I can accept this. So what would you say to somebody who is, let's say, a freelancer? You know?

They have carved out a niche for themselves. Let's say Squarespace web designer. Why not? Because that's Mhmm. And now they find that, yes, that's paying the bills.

That's taking care of, you know, the groceries and the rent and or or the mortgage and everything that they need to survive. But what they need to thrive is something else, something from a deeper part of their consciousness, a creative element that is wanting to emerge. Maybe it's something simple as they love reading books and they love making videos that are summaries, like book reviews of the books that they read. There has to be an element of trust, right, for this person then to say, okay. I'm going to go all in because I trust the process, and I trust that committing myself to my desire is going to be the path to my abundance, to my wealth so that it can sustain me.

What are your thoughts on that? How would this person develop that that trust, or what else is needed? I think in the beginning, the fear is that you're gonna be alone. Right? That, because this thing is unique to you, because this thing feels individual, it feels like, oh, there's no one else.

Maybe in my immediate sphere who's interested in this. It means that me going all in on it kinda create you know, means that I'm no longer connected to what I'm currently connected Right? Because now I'm connecting to this thing that is unique to me, and so, therefore, the first obstacle is, like, well, like, how do I do this alone? Right? Like, what what does it mean to be alone or to start at 0, to be at scratch with this thing?

And that's just, like, how it goes. It it's not I think maybe I think because there's a lot of people who sell shortcuts and, like, you know, these, like, ways around things. Like, I I specialize in workarounds, you know? So technical workarounds, mental workarounds, but then there's certain things that you you don't you can't work around. You it's just you have to work through.

And so in every sales message, the first thing that you're told is you are not alone, because that's how the person feels with their problem in the beginning. They feel like, oh, I'm a no one else is as stuck. No one else is as stagnant. No one else is suffering the way I'm suffering right now, because you don't know anyone else the way that you know yourself. So, therefore and you are your biggest priority.

So, of course, it it's gonna feel like that. And then guess what happens? You encounter a message that says you are not alone, and it grabs your attention. You're like, wait. There there's other people out there who feel this way, who suffer, who struggle, who are going through this thing?

And now you start to, you know, you're like, okay. Tell me more. And then they tell you about a transformation where not only did they suffer and struggle and feel like you, but then they realize this this other reality that you've been seeking to realize as well. And now you're really at the edge of your seat, and then they tell you exactly how it happened, and you're like, woah. There's there has to be something else in there.

There has to be something missing. And they say, yeah. There is, but it cost you. Yes. And it cost me a whole lot.

It cost me more than you would probably want to to go through yourself, which is why I'm giving you a deal, Which is why I'm making it an easy 1999 or whatever the thing is, and you're, like, oh, okay. And then they say, but not only that, I'm gonna make it happen for you faster. I'm gonna make it happen for you in in shorter amount of time. All of these extra things that you didn't even bargain for. Right?

Yes. So the reason I lay out that, like, that sales message is because, literally, that's what we're always buying into, is the reality that we struggle with problems. And in the beginning, when we first encounter the problem, we are alone in it. And our next course of action is to find out who else has had this problem because maybe they have a way out. And as soon as we find that person, they say, oh, yeah.

I've had that too. Here's how I solved it. And you follow their recommendation because you've there's this, I wanna say quantum entanglement with the problem, and that allows you both to observe the the the the resolution to it, even though it occurred for you at different points in time. So, the question of, you know, the freelancer going all in on an interest, what is you know, the the the key thing, and I think you've done a excellent job already, is that if you just keep that interest to yourself, you know, if you just keep it to yourself and it doesn't do anything for anyone else, then you miss out on the the magic of what happens when other people are aligned with that interest as well. Right?

So in the beginning of my Squarespace journey, there no one was thinking about what I was thinking about or caring about what I was caring about, but I knew that they were bound to. I knew that there was a certain inevitability that, okay. Maybe I'm the only one interested in Squarespace themes right now, but that's the best place to start. It's it's always best to start alone. Because if you start alone in a thing that others are bound to encounter, then when they encounter it, they're bound to receive what you've created for them to receive at that moment of of, you know, problem.

Like, it every day, I I get a a a testimonial or a review of someone who woke up not realizing that they would have a Squarespace problem, and then they go on a Google search, and then they find the plug in, and then they they they have an experience that happens all the time. And but it first started I first had the experience myself, and I decided that I wasn't I couldn't I I knew that I couldn't just, like, sit with it myself because I that's not how you grow. And so even though it was difficult, even though it required me to get out of myself and face certain anxieties and fears, I knew that it was the only way to go is, you know, to to share. Yes. And we hear all the time, you know, conversations about people saying I'm interested in x, y, and z.

It's a it's a a tiny niche inside a tiny niche, and you realize very soon that there are countless forums on that topic, and there are 100 of thousands of people interested in this tiny niche. Mhmm. Oh, yeah. For sure. I mean, and people out there.

Money is a giant niche. That's why I was like, okay. I'm I now know I'm in the place where, like, I can kinda, like, fall back on the bed, is because is because there's no shortage of money problems. There's no shortage of, you know, people trying to acquire more, accumulate more, but not having the foundation or not having the principles to just get them there, faster for a shorter amount of time. See, I just did it.

I love that, and I love always to have a different angle on the same topic because it's, it is it's flavored with your experience. It's flavored with your specific persona and your point of view. Mhmm. So I really appreciated the opportunity to to read your book. So what principles I don't know.

There's so many questions. But It's all good. I'm good for it. I did wanna ask you all your different influences, in this, like, the spiritual traditions. You also talked about the hermetic principles.

So I'm curious about that. Mhmm. But coming back to the person, I I wanna stay with, applying this knowledge to a person who maybe at this point, at this time while listening to us, is facing a money issue Mhmm. Which, you know, for many, many different reasons, they are in that situation. Yep.

And they're very much curious and eager to get themselves out because they do recognize that they are a money magnet. So But Yes. So what I found what I found is that there's always, like well, for me, at least, there's always some immediate thing that I have to attend to. Right? There's there's always some work.

There's always some work that, maybe, like, I no longer maybe it, like not to say I don't wanna do it anymore because I've left that state, but, like, maybe there's some work that I haven't done yet. And, and yeah. Sure. Maybe there's some money that I need or money that I want, but I know that until I address the present needs in in front of me because what addressing those present needs does is it I'm given. Like, there's all it's delivery.

Right? There's some things that I need to deliver to people. If you don't have anything that you need to deliver to anyone, that's that's the like, the the delivery is in response to you know, like, it's a flow. Right? So it's about getting the flow going.

And the flow starts with, okay, what do you have in front of you today that you need to deliver? Deliver that. Right? Be as simple as doing a laundry that's been sitting for a week. The for me, it used to be dishes.

It was like, I'm in this I feel kinda stagnant. Let me do the dishes. It loosens up my mind. It kinda it it's almost like a little mini meditation where okay. The now the dishes are done.

I can I can my mind is clean? You know, the flow can begin again. But, you know, if if there's some kind of client demand or or something, resolve those as quickly as possible. Get those, get those out the way because that loosens up you know, that creates the space for more to replace it. Right?

And so if you finish that work, if whatever work you have now, if you finish it in a positive state, in a in a in a state of gratitude, in a state of, like, okay. Maybe I was feeling, like, kinda bummed about this for a little bit of time because I maybe I didn't charge enough or may you know, maybe some negative thing kicks in. Shed that because the work that you are delivering, it doesn't just have value to the person you're giving it to. It has value for anyone else like them with the same problem that you're delivering that solution for. K?

Mhmm. So so not only are we gonna focus on this 24 hours and and deliver what we have to deliver, whether it's some domestic chores or it's some client obligation or some obligation that maybe you just been sitting on, get that out the way. And as you get it out the way, though, get it out the way, like, happily. As happily as you can. Not just because, like, it's out the way, but because there's value in that thing that you didn't even realize before before before listening to this, where you get to now choose.

You now get to decide that the work that you are doing is no longer just, like, this is no longer just gonna benefit you. This is gonna benefit anyone else who watches this, who's in a similar state and going through a similar process. So that makes that starts to multiply the value, and then it creates space as that delivery is gone. Now you have space. Now you have clarity of mind, and it's in a positive space.

Right? And now you are open and ready to receive a new a new demand. And and and that's the thing is if you are trying to get away from demand or you're trying to get away from, then you're getting away from your supply as well. Right? So the the align the alignment is okay.

If our supply so in my case, if my supply is inspiration, then I have to get in alignment with the demand for inspiration. So, okay, if people are listening to podcasts because they wanna be inspired, then wherever there's a demand for that, I gotta I have to accept and be open to that demand. So, that is is, like, the mechanism that you keep that you use to, like, keep the flow going, and and continuing to realign with okay. Well, what do I wanna be demanded for? Because if I wanna amplify my supply, I have to amplify my demand.

Right? Naturally. It it you know, if I wanna charge more, I need to create more demand. If I wanna magnetize more money, like, I I'm using all of that language to really get people to back to basics of of exactly what I'm telling you right here. This is like, those things are attractive.

Right? Those ideas are magnetic, but there's also they they're they're also metaphors for for things that we do and we see every day and we participate in every day. Yes. Yes. Absolutely.

There's so many nuggets, and we'd love to go deeper in that demand part towards the end. But I just wanted to add that, not only do we create so when we finish it's also this unfinished business that could be a project, not just for a client, but our our own project. Like Yep. For about I think for 10 years, I had a project to create a photo book for my mom's 60th, birthday, anniversary. I managed to do it for her 68th birthday anniversary, where it took me 10 years of delaying and procrastinating, but the project was done in a weekend.

Mhmm. You know? Mhmm. And, and emails sitting in the inbox. Like, I made a rule to respond to emails within 24 hours or less Mhmm.

During workdays to kind of clear that out as well. Yeah. And when we take care of things for others, not delay things for others, things in our life are also not delayed. Mhmm. So every time I'm delayed, like, if my plane gets delayed, I'm traveling somewhere, I know that I have, put somebody else on a delay.

Mhmm. Oh, yeah. The ripple effect of that. Yeah. That's a powerful thing to be aware of.

Yes. So tell tell us a bit more about the last part you just said about amplifying the the demand in order to and amplify the supply Yeah. Or vice versa. Yeah. So so, you know, in business, if you you wanna grow, right, it means that more people are demanding your services.

So there's 2 side you know, there's 2 sides of the word demand. There's 2 connotations. They're like, oh, this is so demanding. Right? There's, like, a negative side of it, but then there's the positive side of, well, if I wanna be in business, then I need demand.

Right? Every business is in the business of delivering on orders. It's orders. Right? So but orders as well.

That's a word where who likes to take orders? Right? There's, like, a negative side of, like, if if it's if it's not coming from your truth, then you don't wanna be taking those orders. But then there's another side of taking orders where there's there's it feels fulfilling. It's like, oh, I get to deliver on this.

I get to fulfill this. So the alignment that I'm talking about is where I wanna be demanded. Like, I want you to demand inspiration of me because that's what I'm I'm demanding of of my my environment. Like, I wanna be inspired. So I want you to want that from me.

Orders. Like, I want you to order this book from me because this is what I used to order. You know? Like, this is the this is where I wanna I I the demand that I wanna meet is the people who are demanding answers to these questions that I had for a long time. I wanna meet that demand.

I I wanna deliver. I wanna take those orders. Yes. Right? Order me to to to to answer every single question that you have, and I will answer it.

You know? It's kinda like the genie. Like, you know, we'll we'll we'll take you or whatever or you go to the drive you drive through. I'll take your order, you know, purchase, like, orders everywhere. Orders orders everywhere.

Demand demand everywhere. Right? So it's it's there. You can be in a an environment where you do not want to meet whatever the demand is anymore. Maybe there's a time that you did, and now it's like, I don't wanna meet that demand anymore.

Well, you have to you have to look for a place where there is even more demand if you wanna Mhmm. Make that that shift. Right? That quantum leap of, like, okay. Well, if I wanna go from here to here, then where is this demand, like, exceedingly great?

Yes. And it's not being met. Right? Yes. So where was my demand exceedingly great and where and it wasn't being met?

Mhmm. That's where I'm on my way to. I'm I'm you know, that that's the that's the journey back. It's like, I'm I'm rushing to that place where I was looking so that I can meet myself there, and I can give myself what I was looking for. I can meet that demand that I had.

I love that. It's coming back to using your des desires as guideposts to your true self and honoring it, honoring that desire where you're not putting it on the back burner anymore, but bringing it front and center. Do you also feel that when you are creating, you are taking care of your past self? There the the the needs that you had in the past, you're now fulfilling your own needs Yeah. Most definitely.

Past self? I have a meditation that I call it the the circle of life meditation. And, essentially, what it I'll I'll give it to you. You essentially you're walking you're you are you are showing up to an event, a networking event, and you have no idea what's on the other side. But as soon as you get there, you are greeted with another version of yourself.

And the room is not only that other version of yourself, but it's filled with every other version of yourself, so every other age. Right? So Sofia from 0 all the way up to the age you are now, but then all the way up to a 100 as well. So the 100 year old Sofia is in the room along with the 1 year old Sofia. Wow.

And everyone in between. And it is a wonderful event because the eldest is holding the youngest. Right? The 40 year old is chatting with the 20 year old. Right?

God. There's there's this, like it's just an amazing event. Right? Because, finally, you can connect with yourself. Mhmm.

All of yourself. And all of the wisdom that the future you has is there in the room. All of the wisdom that the child has, all of the joy that the child has is there in the room. Everything of you is there. And so you get to hold hands in a circle.

You get to look around the circle and look at all of yourself, and there's an exchange of, oneness. Right? There's a reconciliation of identity where, the photo book Sofia, the web designer Sofia, the money mindset manifestation Sofia, they're all enjoying each other's company. There's there's there's harmony. Right?

Where even if you open your mouth and and there's a song that sang, there's harmony from the child. Right? They get to sing at a frequency that you can't access right now, but it's there. It's touching. Right?

The eldest can sing, and they can sing at a frequency that you can't sing at right now because their voice isn't there yet. It hasn't it hasn't dropped to that degree. Right? But there's such harmony. There's such resonance in the room because it's the circle of you.

And, that is a place that when I go to that place and I go to that ultimate networking event, I'm I'm reaffirmed. I I I it it lets you know, the uncertainty goes away because you can see for yourself. You get to your imagination gets to create yourself, in order to meet yourself wherever you are and wherever you've been and wherever you will be. So Wow. Wow.

I have never heard of something like this before. It's powerful. Did they have the no Yeah. Definitely no business cards are exchanged at this There's no yeah. There's no need.

There's but if you want to, you could because You could. Why not? Just for just for comedic purposes. Mhmm. Let me see your card.

Oh, you're that now? I can see my future self, like, just having a t shirt saying, like, just listen to me. I have all the answers. Yeah. Wow.

So I just looked at the clock, and I can't believe that more you know, almost an hour more than hour has passed. But, do you have one one final question that I can ask you Yeah. For sure. Before we go. Yeah.

Okay. So this is the question I am curious about. What are your different influences Okay. And, yeah, different paths that you've explored? Yeah.

So I've gone down many paths. I have a memoir. It's called Brainwashed in the Blood of Jesus, and that really cap captures my the totality of my spiritual journey, which has been one of, I guess, figuring out what I need to believe. Right? Like like, my, my mom used to say, every man has to know God for himself.

And that was something that that, like, anchored my spiritual journey was knowing for myself of what I chose to believe. And what I think naturally I was seeking as a child were were answers to creation. You know? Like, from a young age, I was looking to just understand, okay, well, how how did the world come about? You know, just how do things come to be?

And I think my through my entire life has been that question of how do things come to be? And, essentially, how does reality come to be? Mhmm. And if I have a desire, how does that desire come to be? Right?

So seeking to answer that question has been, I guess, the the the the through line for me, of the different, I guess, spiritual traditions that I've explored is coming to understand the nature of reality. And starting from a a Christian worldview, unique to the island of Jamaica, unique to the the culture of of Pentecostalism, which emerged about a little over a century ago, and spread, and and had, there used to be a song. The holy ghost fire is moving just like a magnet. Whoop. So that was funny.

So, yeah, when I was 5 years old, that was a song that would be sang in church. And when that song was sang, the holy ghost fire would move just like a magnet. Right? So that was my early, early experience with the spiritual and and and God and religion and all of that was through, the lens of Pentecostalism, which is a branch of Christianity where there's a belief in the Holy Ghost, which is, a part of a part, a, a, a vehicle of, you know, spiritual exchange. Right?

It's like the the the comforter, the the benefactor, the the spiritual thing that, like, I guess, permeates. And so in that world, when it moved, you know, it would have a very physical effect. Right? So there's shouting. There's there's a there's there's movement.

There's running. There's jumping. There's speaking in tongues. So that that is, like, my, that's my foundation. And so from that place, with these questions that I had, I had to figure figure out answers to these questions, because that world felt very unique in a sense that these things that I'm observing and that are happening, I know that they're not happening outside of here.

Right? Like, I know that at the the Catholic church up the street, like, people are not jumping around singing and shouting like like this. I know that halfway across the world, someone might not even know that any of this exists or this idea and so forth. And so my question as a child was, well, what about the people for whom this isn't true? Where but I was told, no.

This is the truth. So anyone who doesn't have this truth, they're screwed, and I I couldn't make sense of that. So it set me on this journey of trying to make sense of what happens to people who don't believe this. Right? Because I'm told that if they don't believe this, that they're doomed.

And there's a part of me that, can't fully reconcile the belief, so I know I'm not doomed. Right? And I know that these people can't be doomed either. So how can I figure this out? How can I solve for this x, this equation?

And so when I got to college, I was first confronted with, like, opposite arguments to everything I had been indoctrinated in. So I took a course on religion and philosophy my freshman year. I went to an engineering school, where it was all about, you know, engineering, but there's a a big humanities component. And so, for me, going to college or all of my academic experience was, like, man, I wanna do what I'm interested in. So there's a course on religion and philosophy.

It might not meet my credit requirements, but I'm interested, so let me take it. And in that course, I remember having to, like, write an essay to, like, defend, my religion, essentially, everything I had grown up to believe. And I was, like, it was it was a struggle because I couldn't defend it. I was finding too many holes, or I was finding things that I couldn't defend with the conviction of the other defenders. And I couldn't deny the conviction of the other defenders either.

Right? The defenders of the faith. Let's call them that. I couldn't deny or take away their conviction because I felt the power of their conviction. Right?

So it's, like, okay. That's when I realized that conviction was the thing that I needed. And I was, like, oh, I don't have any conviction because my faith hasn't been validated. My faith hasn't gone through the fire. These people, they feel the way that they feel because they've gone through a transformation.

They've gone through a a conversion in their own life and in their own story that makes this true and undeniable. So what is that for me? And so it wasn't until I, like, I graduated college and I was now on my own where I wanted to, like, be free kinda. You know? Like, alright.

Let let me now finally indulge in everything I I couldn't indulge in before. And, that got me down the the making some mistakes. Right? I had a DUI, like, 6 months after I graduated college, and it was a very low point because I'd messed up. And I had, you know, I'd I was at it was just, like, a a bad thing.

Right? Like, I messed up big. And that mess up was didn't align with my identity. It didn't align with who Omari was or who, who he wanted to be or or who who people thought of him as even. But, it was also the result of him not being able to express himself, him not being able to surface emotion, and him not being able to be, convicted in himself.

And so alcohol being that intermediary, the spirit of you know, alcohol is a spirit. That being the thing that then opens him up, right, and allows him to speak and express himself, but it also being the thing that drowns him and drowns out his consciousness. So Oh, that's deep. So from that place, I decided that, there there were 2 archetypes that I had available to me. Right?

It was, like, I was 24, 25 years old, and I was, like, okay. Who do I wanna be? Right? Like, what what kind of man do I wanna be? Because, clearly, I don't know.

Like, I'm I'm I don't have I'm not anything yet. I'm just, I'm just floating around out here in a in a sea of, unknown and and and just questions unanswered. And so I can't, without any conviction, without any direction, without any North Star, I'm not going anywhere. Right? I'm not being anything.

And so because of my faith, I I grew up on the Bible and the Old Testament and the New Testament and, all of these stories, I was, like, okay. There might not be, like, a person alive who I who I wanna be like, because I I wasn't satisfied. I needed to go, like, outside the time. And so I was like, alright. Well, I like King Solomon because he was a very wise king, the wisest king in the bible, and the thing that he asked for was knowledge, wisdom, and understanding.

And, because he asked for that, he got everything else. So I was, like, okay. I wanna be like Solomon. And then I was, like, okay. And then you got Jesus.

And I was, like, well, I wanna be like Jesus too. So we got Solomon and Jesus. Jesus is in the lineage of of Solomon, so there's a there's, like, a genealogy alignment, but then Jesus represents the the forgiven spirit, the the spirit of love, and and and that essence of abundance. So and then Jesus also says, seek ye first the kingdom, and all other things shall be added unto you. So when you put those two equations in the balance of, seeking knowledge, wisdom, and understanding, and all other things being added onto Solomon, and Jesus saying, seek ye first the kingdom, and all other things are added, so then we get the kingdom equals knowledge, wisdom, and understanding.

Well, what does that mean? What is what do you what do you so that began my journey and my quest to the kingdom, which all of the paths lead to within. What does that mean? How does this work? What do you mean there's a kingdom within me?

What do you mean, that if that if I know this, I will have everything else? Yes. Oh, I wanna know it, though. Right? If if this truth has survived through time, if this equation, if you will, has made its way, through millennia to me, then I'm as a scientist, I'm gonna test it.

Right? I'm gonna gonna put it into play. I'm gonna activate it. And as a scientist, I'm gonna keep a log. I'm gonna keep a journal of my experiments and my tests so that when I know I know for sure, I know for true, I know it it's not a question anymore.

I've I've started with this hypothesis that if a man seeks after this, he will receive this, so I'm seeking. Right? And and that led me, down the mystical paths of Christianity first. So there's a lot of, mystical, I guess, schools, if you will, that are more, based in the metaphysical aspect of Christianity. And I really resonated with that a lot, where, understanding things at a metaphysical level made it make sense to me.

I was like, oh, I could reconcile the metaphors. Right? As a as a poet, as a artist, like, metaphors are have always been, like, a thing where it's, like, yeah. That's, you know I guess this. Yeah.

Yeah. So as soon as I I started to get my mind around, like, the metaphysical, that led me towards, then, I guess, you would say different branches. Right? So, different branches of mysticism. So, like, the Kabbalah, the I Ching on the eastern side, those two things primarily, I remember for a long time, I, it was like I was like, I gotta understand this.

And the I Ching is a, it's a, ancient, like, divination tool, but what it captures is it captures the changes of reality. So the different states, the many different states that that we evolve through and we go through on a moment by moment basis, it allows you to get, almost like a a reading on different state changes. And so I started to, I started to to use this as a tool and to keep track of, you know, all of my discoveries along the way. And over time, I just, you know, kept going down different rabbit holes, if you will, of all the different, spiritual traditions and faith because I was looking for the unifying factor. I was looking for the thing that transcended culture and transcended, personal identity and, something that I could access that I I could acknowledge these things with someone that, okay, there is a a transcendent principle that manifests in the form of culture.

It manifests through identity in different ways, in different times, and all sorts of of things. It's it's beautiful, but it all goes back to the same source, if you will, source of creation. Wow. Speechless. All I can say is I really appreciate you sharing your journey so vulnerably and sharing with us your different influences, and it gives more depths now to to this book, your money magnet.

And, it's a combination. Maybe maybe just a sliver of the combination of all your influences and your trans your own transformation and shift. So I really appreciate you sharing that. Omari. Mhmm.

What would be your final advice as we wrap up this conversation? Yeah. Give me one give me a final question. What is the thing that would wrap this up? What What would you say to somebody who, after listening to all of this, is now buzzing with ideas and inspiration and action?

Mhmm. What would you guide them to do? Well, well, first, they have to read the book too. Right? Because Yeah.

Absolutely. Where can they get this? Where can they get Omariharabin.com. And your other books as well? Back backslash money.

And then, I don't know. By the time this comes out, maybe Brainwash and the Blood of Jesus will be ready. The Corporate Dropout, which is, another memoir that kinda unpacks the the journey from corporate to self employment, solopreneurship, and and, like, the whole passive income lifestyle that comes with what I once desired. So, yeah, it's all I've reached, like, a you know, you said you spent 10 years working on that photo book for your mom or just go so I've spent 10 years working on the Squarespace website to tell this story. So even if actually, if you go to omariharibman.com now, the corporate job ad story is already, published.

Okay. And it's a digital memoir. But, you know, what do you I guess the real question is, like, well, what do you do with this inspiration once you have it? Right? Like, what direction does it go in?

That is is so this is why, right now, I have a a coaching and a mentorship program because it's always unique and specific to people. Right? And right now, I really wanna get to know what what the the common threads are. Right? So, like I shared, I know exactly what to do when you get stuck in terms of, like, I don't feel like things are happening for me.

And and, usually, it's an attention thing that needs to happen where the attention has to shift towards the outflow of value from you into the world. Right? For a moment, it might be on what you don't have enough of, but when you shift to okay, well, I have an inventory of x y z at my disposal. How can I get rid of this? You now activate a different flow.

Right? So, in terms of just becoming a money magnet, today, whatever it is that you have excess of, whatever it is that you have surplus of, give that, and you will see a return on that in your a return on demand for that. Right? And now your willingness and ability to respond to that demand gives that demand permission to grow. And now the demand knows, oh, okay.

We can demand more, and now you're in business. Now you're flowing. Now, the wheel is spinning again. And if it slows down, if it creaks or whatever, come back. I got the oil, and we'll and we'll get it going.

So inspiring and empowering because it's all it all comes back to, empowerment of our own self Mhmm. And credit to our own desires and and disentangling from relying on the outside world. Self reliance is a theme that comes out strongly from what you're sharing. So Oh, yeah. I didn't even share that that line of spiritual tradition that that comes from.

But, yeah, self reliance. Yes. That's what I'm picking up from from what you're saying. It's like you you know, it's, as you just said, like, you come back to yourself and see where is the surplus of, where can I give value from, and what do I have surplus of? It can be material things.

It can be ideas. It can be creativity. Mhmm. And to honor that, I think for me, my own problem is that I don't honor my own desires and gifts fully enough to the extent that I would like it. And I'm changing that, and the conversation is part of that.

Yep. So I'm very, very appreciative of this conversation. It's been Yeah. Amazing. I'm grateful as well.

Thank you so much for this conversation, for your time, Omari, Omariharaben.comforward/money, and I will also put all your links, in the description. We absolutely have to reconnect, if you would like that as well down the road and continue the conversation. Cool. Yeah. For sure.

Thank you. You're welcome.

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Your Inner Gifts - a meditative experience

Find yourself in a comfortable position in a seated or lying down.

Allow your mind and body to relax. You can be seated or lay down.
Completely relax. Let go of any thoughts about the day.

Right now is about you and your inner journey. Imagine that it's a sunny day at the beach. The wind is blowing through the trees, through the grasses, through the sand. And as it's blowing, you can feel it on the surface of your skin and your face. The sun is smiling, shining brightly.

And you can see the water of the ocean ahead of you shimmering in the sunlight, creating all kinds of visual patterns as if the ocean waves are dancing with the light. You're seated on the sandy beach with your feet in the sand. And you look down and you touch the sand granules and watch them fall through your fingers. You just feel all your burdens and tensions falling away. The sand is grounding you, birthing you, giving you a feeling of relief and calm and gentleness.

You've entered a space of no judgments, no barrage of thinking patterns pulling you down, slowing you down. It's a boundless free space of love and appreciation and freedom. The environment is so rich in natural beauty. The sand, the palm trees, the grasses, the little shells, the birds, the seagulls, and the pelicans, and just the vastness of the ocean fills you up with pure liquid light. You realize parts of you were dormant.

They are now getting activated. Your creativity, your creativity, your imagination, your desire for creating and bringing something beautiful into this world is getting activated, getting turned on. Switch is turned on. Just by being here, sitting on the sand, looking at the ocean, you're feeling the activations throughout your body, throughout your mental and emotional body, to your spiritual body. All the different dimensions of who you are are instantly being healed, transformed and transmuted into the being, into the one that you were meant to be.

Allowing your gifts and talents to flow through you without any judgment, without any critical voice, without any doubt, without any reservation or hesitation, moving forward confidently and boldly, marching towards and through your desires into the realm of infinite possibilities.

You're allowing your true self to flow into this 3D world in order to impact, touch, inspire, move countless beings, activating them on their own journey of transformation. You are the catalyst. You are the bridge. You are the stepping stone.

Your presence, your creative outputs, that is what is required for the transformation of millions of people. In a domino effect, you affect millions. Even by just one person being transformed and changed, you are affecting millions because of all the people they're gonna interact and all the people they're going to interact and they're going to interact and so on.

And so now you're sitting here on the sandy beach allowing yourself to let go of your own inner biases, limitations and concerns and doubts that you imposed upon yourself. All these masks that you put on your face to cover up your true self out of a desire to protect, to heal, to shield.

But now you're ready to be visible. You're ready to be seen and to be a channel of change for all those who come in contact with you. You're honoring your own inner gifts and talents and inclinations, quirks, skills, propensities, things that come so easy and natural to you. You're just embracing all of it, being who you are.

Unfiltered, uncensored, unrestricted.

What you have, nobody has in the exact way that you have. The best thing you can do is to let that inner talent, inner gifts flow through you without expectations, but only with the desire to share with the intention that what you put out helps one other person. Purpose that you've been yearning for, fulfillment, the purpose that you've been yearning for. It's all within you. It has always been within you all along.

But now you're opening up to channels. Now you're allowing the river to flow ideas, inspiration, projects, concepts, modalities, various various formats of how this thing that you do so naturally can now take shape, take form. It is yearning to take form as well. Just as you're yearning for your purpose, this creativity, whatever it may be, doesn't have to be in the arts. Can be sciences, mathematics, engineering, or raising animals and children or gardens.

Creativity is just the act of creating. Giving form to an idea and inspiration, a thought that has benevolent implications to anyone who experiences them. It's an act of creation because you are a creator, because you have the physical vessel to take some intangible concept and give it tangible form. In the doing of this, there is transformation and shifts for you, yourself, first. There's fulfillment and satisfaction.

And from this, then there are ripple effects into the world, which cannot be quantified. In fact, the whole quantification of any of your outputs is a futile endeavor. It only derails you. Those are all numbers of vanity, of egoic mind seeking satisfaction in numbers. Numbers are great measurements. Yes. Only up to the extent that they enable you to create, not derail you from creation, not move you away from your aligned goal.

So allow yourself to embrace this beautiful sunshine, this wonderful sandy beach, the vastness of the ocean. Let it all inspire you to move forward, trusting the process, trusting yourself, knowing with conviction that this is the right way for you, for your growth, transformation, healing, and for your receiving abundance. Receiving abundance, receiving prosperity, receiving appreciation, respect, love, all those all those are side effects.

World of bounty, world of beauty, love and appreciation. They're all here for you. It is up to you to step up to your inner gifts and share it with the world.

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Peace. Want my writings in your inbox? I send SophiaNotes every Thursday morning with my words to inspire you along with success mindset insights from people I interview on the Be.Do.Have.Life Show. You can sign up here.

🚀 My Latest Feature on Squarespace Circle: Answering a Question I Get All the Timesharing 11 actionable strategies!

Building a freelance business or starting a side venture as a Squarespace web designer can be a powerful path to financial freedom. However, growing any business requires a consistent flow of clients. This guide provides 11 actionable strategies to help attract new clients and elevate your web design business in 2024.

Fresh off the oven, published yesterday on September 4th!
Image source: Squarespace.com

Understanding Automatic Action: How It Feels to Act Without Doubt

I've been intrigued by the idea of automatic action lately. It's a fascinating concept that I've come to understand as taking action that aligns perfectly with your inner state. When you're in this mode, there's no room for doubt or confusion—just a crystal-clear clarity about what to do next.

What Is Automatic Action?

Automatic action is something we do without overthinking. It’s like when you’re thirsty, and without hesitation, you reach for a glass of water. You don’t stop to question whether you should drink water or think about alternatives. You just act. It feels natural, effortless, and exactly right in the moment. This kind of action is deeply connected to our instincts, making it almost automatic, hence the name.

How Does Automatic Action Feel?

When you're in the flow of automatic action, everything clicks. There’s no second-guessing yourself or worrying about whether you're doing the right thing. Instead, you feel a strong, clear sense of what needs to happen next. The action feels right and good, almost like it's the only thing you could do in that moment. It’s like a state of clarity and inspiration guiding you forward, and it feels amazing.

My Experience with Automatic Action

Last week, I had an experience that made me truly aware of what automatic action feels like in practice. Here's what happened:

• I tried out a new video editing app.

• I experimented with different effects.

• I recorded a spontaneous, non-scripted narration.

• I edited the video.

• I opened a brand-new TikTok account.

• And finally, I uploaded the video.

All of this happened naturally, with flow, ease, and a ton of fun. I wasn’t overthinking or doubting myself at any step. It felt like I was just doing what I was meant to do in that moment, and it was incredibly satisfying.

The Joy of Creation

One of the most rewarding aspects of this experience was the joy it brought me. I don't know where this new TikTok venture will lead, and I'm not worried about it. For now, I'm simply happy that I created something I love. The process filled me with delight, and that feeling of joy is something I'm holding onto.

Inspired Action vs. Automatic Action

It's important to note that while inspired action can feel similar to automatic action, they’re not always the same. Inspired action often starts as an idea—a suggestion that pops into your mind. You might think about it for a while before deciding to act on it. However, if you act on the inspiration immediately and without overthinking, it can feel just like automatic action. The key difference is that automatic action doesn’t involve any hesitation; it just happens naturally.

Conclusion: Embracing Automatic Action

Embracing automatic action means trusting yourself and your instincts. It’s about letting go of doubts and fears and allowing yourself to act with clarity and confidence. Whether you're trying out a new hobby, like I did with video editing, or simply making everyday decisions, automatic action can lead to a more joyful, fulfilling life. It’s a state of flow where everything aligns, and you feel completely in tune with what you’re doing. And that, to me, is a beautiful way to live.

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Peace. Want my writings in your inbox? I send SophiaNotes every Thursday morning with my words to inspire you along with success mindset insights from people I interview on the Be.Do.Have.Life Show. You can sign up here.

The Power of the Subconscious Mind: Mastering the "Congratulations Method" | Neville Goddard

In the realm of personal growth and manifestation, there are countless tools and techniques designed to help you achieve your goals. But what if you could harness the power of your subconscious mind in just three seconds? Welcome to the "Congratulations Method," a simple yet powerful technique that can help you manifest your desires with minimal effort. In this blog post, we will explore what the Congratulations Method is, how it works, and how you can apply it to your own life to achieve your goals.

Introduction: The Power of the Subconscious Mind

Have you ever wondered how your thoughts and beliefs shape your reality? The subconscious mind is the powerhouse behind our external experiences, driving everything from our decisions to our outcomes. By tapping into this incredible resource, we can create lasting change in our lives. The Congratulations Method, popularized by Neville Goddard, is a way to imprint your desires onto your subconscious mind, leading to real-world results.

What is the Congratulations Method?

The Congratulations Method is a visualization technique where you imagine a scene in which someone you know is congratulating you on achieving your goal. The key to this method is that the scene should imply that your desire has already been fulfilled. For example, if your goal is to get a promotion, you might visualize a close friend or colleague congratulating you on your new position.

The Origins of the Method

This method was first introduced by Neville Goddard, a prominent teacher, author, and lecturer from Barbados, known for his teachings on the power of the subconscious mind. Goddard emphasized the importance of impressing the subconscious with vivid, emotional scenes that represent the fulfillment of one's desires. By doing so, he believed that the subconscious mind would work to bring those desires into reality.

How the Congratulations Method Works

The Congratulations Method works by creating a mental scene that is so vivid and emotionally charged that it imprints on your subconscious mind. This scene should be short—about three seconds long—and should involve someone you trust and respect congratulating you on achieving your goal.

What the Method Is (and Isn't)

It's important to note that the Congratulations Method is not about visualizing yourself talking about your goal to others. Instead, it's about imagining someone else acknowledging your success. This distinction is crucial because the subconscious mind responds more powerfully to external validation in your visualization.

Personal Success Stories

Many people, including myself, have experienced significant success using the Congratulations Method. For instance, when I was working to hit my first $100,000 in my design business, I created a scene where my husband congratulated me on reaching that milestone. I could hear his voice, see his expression, and feel the pride in his words. This simple visualization helped me triple my business revenue in just one year, without changing anything externally.

Practical Tips for Using the Congratulations Method

Now that you understand the basics of the Congratulations Method, let's explore how you can apply it in your own life. Here are some practical tips to help you get started:

1. Keep It Simple

• Create a short, three-second scene that involves someone you love and trust congratulating you on your success. The scene should be easy to remember and should evoke strong positive emotions.

2. Repeat the Scene Regularly

• Practice the scene repeatedly, especially before bed or whenever you think about your goal. The more you repeat it, the stronger the impression on your subconscious mind.

3. Create Multiple Scenes

• You can create different scenes for different goals. For example, you might have one scene for your career, another for your relationships, and yet another for your health.

4. Visualize the Present, Not the Future

• It's essential to visualize the scene as if it's happening right now, not in the distant future. This helps to anchor the desire in the present moment, making it more likely to manifest.

Examples of Congratulations Scenes

To help you get started, here are a few examples of how you might use the Congratulations Method for different goals:

1. Career Goal

• Imagine a close friend congratulating you on your promotion, saying, "I knew you'd get that corner office! You worked so hard, and it's paying off!"

2. Business Success

• Visualize your mother telling you, "I'm so proud of you for hitting six figures in your business. You've come so far!"

3. Athletic Achievement

• Picture a stadium full of fans cheering as you receive your gold medal, their applause echoing in your ears.

4. Academic Excellence

• See your teacher handing you a test with an A+ on it, smiling and saying, "Well done!"

Conclusion: Embrace Your Power to Create Change

The Congratulations Method is a simple yet powerful tool that can help you manifest your desires by harnessing the power of your subconscious mind. By creating vivid, emotionally charged scenes of success and repeating them regularly, you can imprint your desires onto your subconscious, leading to real-world results. So why not give it a try? Create your own scenes, have fun with it, and watch as your dreams become your reality.

Thank you for reading, and remember—you have the power to create the life you want. Start today by imprinting your subconscious mind with your desires, and see how the Congratulations Method can transform your life.

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Peace. Want my writings in your inbox? I send SophiaNotes every Thursday morning with my words to inspire you along with success mindset insights from people I interview on the Be.Do.Have.Life Show. You can sign up here.

Write Unapologetically

Write unapologetically. Write as if everything you write is gold.
Write knowing that only good will come out of it.

Let go of your fake high standards. They only keep you stuck in an old pattern of perfectionism that is filled with lack.

The lack mindset is the poison that can kill your soul.
The flow of your writing comes from a deep source of infinite wisdom and knowledge. You are to tap into it.

Bring forth your gifts for the world through the magic of words and writing.
Writing is your path to peace, love, and enlightenment.

Be bold.

Don’t worry about what “they” will say. ”They” don’t exist in real life.
“They” are only a figment of your imagination pulling you down from the exponential path you are on.

Write knowing that every beautiful experience can be re-lived and created and recreated through your words.
Write knowing that the divine, Universal energy wants to flow through you and your pen to become the catalyst for your inner transformation and mult-dimensional expansion, healing and freedom.

Do this everyday…several times a day.

Write and you shall secure your freedom.

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Peace. Want my writings in your inbox? I send SophiaNotes every Thursday morning with my words to inspire you along with success mindset insights from people I interview on the Be.Do.Have.Life Show. You can sign up here.

The 4 levels of positive energy 🍀 for your money

The 4 levels of positive energy 🍀 for your money

The higher your energy level, the more abundance will come your way.

Photo by Artem Sapegin on Unsplash

Everyone wants money… 💰

That’s neither good nor bad inherently because money is energy.

Pure energy.

Its user (YOU) infuses it with intention and gives it meaning.

You can infuse it with negative or positive intent.

Let’s talk about the positive since that guides a constructive way to handle your money.

There are 4 levels of positive energy 🍀 for your money.

First, I’ll define them, then I’ll share a model of splitting up your money into these four energy levels.

Level 1️⃣ : SUSTENANCE for your present self (anything you absolutely need for yourself and your family for everyday life, such as paying for housing, transportation, food, clothing, health, a sustainable level of everyday fun, and debts)

Level 2️⃣ : GROWTH for your near-future self (anything that would improve the life of you and your dependents, such as saving and paying for education to create more income, down payments for a car or your own home, home maintenance and improvement, vacations, and extra payments to high-interest debt)

Level 3️⃣ : WEALTH for your far-future self (anything that is further than 5 years out, such as investing for your retirement or your kid’s college tuition, and getting completely debt-free)

Level 4️⃣ : EXPANSION beyond yourself (anything that does good for others and the world without you having any direct benefit from it; make no mistake: you will benefit socially and emotionally, and if you believe in karma you know that generosity is the root of all good the good things happening to you in the future)

The higher the level, the higher the energy.

The higher the energy, the better the results for your life and happiness.

But giving all your money away (Level 4) is hardly a reasonable strategy — unless you want to become a monastic.

Neither is it sustainable to spend it all on sustenance. That’s called “living from paycheck to paycheck”. It results in stress at home and dependence on work no matter your income level.

Finding the right balance is the way to go.

Everyone will have a different mix. Your balance will all depend on your personal situation.

May the following mix be seen as a starting point for your process to infuse your money with the highest possible energy.

For Level 1️⃣ : Use 50% of your income for SUSTENANCE. If that’s not enough, work on increasing your income (see level 2) and simplifying your life, such as letting go of luxuries, downsizing your dwelling or getting a roommate, or replacing your SUV with an economy car (you get the drill: not easy stuff but doable if you want to up your money energy level)

For Level 2️⃣ : Use 20% of your income for GROWTH. Have dedicated accounts for each subgoal (emergency fund, vacation savings, down payment savings, etc.).

For Level 3️⃣ : Use 20% of your income for WEALTH. Yes, that includes your 401(k), your Roth IRA, and your regular investment accounts. Let it grow and don’t touch it until its use purpose nears.

For Level 4️⃣ : Use 10% of your income for EXPANSION. Every major tradition of the world suggests giving a certain percentage of your income altruistically. My wife and I started giving 10% of our income away to charitable causes while living on $1K a month in a 460 sqft apartment. It did miracles: It sowed the karmic seeds for better times and made us happy in the moment.

The higher your energy level, the more abundance will come your way!

Best wishes for your journey to infuse money with the highest possible level of energy!

Messages From Within

For years, I’ve been asking my inner-self for guidance.
For years, I’ve been receiving both specific and general guidance.

Specific guidance has been about what I should I do next that’s tailor-made for that particular moment in my life.
General guidance has been guidance that would be beneficial for anyone who is on the path to peace and self-actualization.

I am now sharing this guidance in the blog category: Messages From Within

Today, I will share the specific guidance I received that’s relevant:

”You are opening up to your real mission in this life: to uplift people and show them the way to peace and love. By interviewing people the way you are planning, you are assisting in a big shift, a huge transformation that people on this Earth are thirsty for. Remember that we want you to succeed so we will help guide you every day, every moment.”

Here’s today’s guidance for you:
”You are trying to create the new while also wanting the old to help you. But the old will only hinder you on this new path you are going on.
So create the brand new. Let go of the old. Let go of old chapters.
Ask yourself, ‘What will help me simplify my life?’”

Welcome to “Messages From Within” and I know that it will be fruitful for you in accelerating on your path and your life’s mission.

~ Sophia

—-
Peace. Want my writings in your inbox? I send SophiaNotes every Thursday morning with my words to inspire you along with success mindset insights from people I interview on the Be.Do.Have.Life Show. You can sign up here.

How to shift into your desired self | Niclas Upgrade to Life | Neville Goddard Student

Niclas from Upgrade to Life shares how he found the teachings of Neville Goddard , the mystic and teacher from Barbados and eventually went from CEO of a software company to a YouTuber sharing in his own way the Law of Assumption. He runs a community with the same name that has hundreds of students. Click the video below to watch or Watch on YouTube.

Forget the Noise - Inspired by Sara Blakely

“Business should not be war.” - Sara Blakely

But some do think that. They want to “beat “the competition. Or “kill it” in business. Or “overcome” the competitors.

All of this war mongering in business is far from what an impactful, inspiring business can be.

Look at one of my all time women entrepreneur inspirations: Sara Blakely.

She focused not on the competition. She focused on solving a real problem women were facing.

She focused not on challenging the status quo. She focused on challenging herself and her business to offer the best value.

It’s with a mindset of value that she and her team built a billion dollar business in a category of one.

Click to see her post on LinkedIn

The outward focus on comparing what others are doing or trying to be better than the other guy is counter productive.

What Sara Blakely inspires us to do is to be better than your past self. Put efforts in turbocharging your best efforts.

I am inspired by her example; not only the successful business she created but also the impactful work she is doing in empowering women.

Plus, she is a conscious creator who listened to Wayne Dyer tapes at 17 to lift herself out of a difficult stage in her life.

Today, I want to encourage you to follow your truth. Be inwardly focused so you can output from your authentic self.

Forget the noise.

Give your dreams and goals primetime in your mental bandwidth.

Your creativity and your business can be a channel for peace, love and personal growth.

Inevitably, this will have a positive impact on the people around you, the environment you are in and the world at large through an unseen domino effect.

Make peace. Let your inner-self speak through your words and your business.

Let me know what you think in the comments of this LinkedIn Post.

Pros and cons from my first year of my big revenue year

2022 was my first 100K+ revenue year running a freelance business. I hit a milestone that I had been working towards for the previous four years.

I was happy when I hit the mark. It proved to me that I could make it happen.

Looking back at that one year, there were pros and cons to that first $100K revenue path. I want to share these with you today.

They are very subjective, from my personal point of view. I am not discouraging you to go on this path nor am I putting this milestone on a pedestal. I simply want to share both sides of the experience.

First lets, begin with the cons so we can end this article with the pros and on a high note!

Cons:

1. Despite having my evenings and weekends blocked, I worked a lot of hours on client acquisition, client communication and product delivery and not much on the business.

2. I didn’t make the time to do other things in my business like long-term strategy, content creation or relationship building with colleagues and partners.

3. I didn’t make time for exercise or movement and gained some extra pounds as a result and felt tired and exhausted all the time.

4. I didn’t make time for skytime: my favorite free-time activity - staring at the open sky, watching clouds float by and dreaming.

5. I didn’t take a vacation or even a weekend getaway.

6. I didn’t go on a meditation retreat which is an annual goal of mine.

7. Not much time for friends and family - just work, work, work.

8. When the revenue crossed $100K, I was elated for a few days. Then it was back to getting the next project underway, back to the next thing in the business. The moment was great but it was not everlasting and didn’t solve everything for me! (Surprise, surprise!)

9. Getting demotivated, exhausted and on the edge of dropping it all.

Result: US$106,375 and accomplishing a long-held dream, slowly killing the Golden Goose

Pros:

1. I streamlined my offers to two main design packages which allowed me to get better at the workflow each time I completed a project and delivered dozens of websites.

2. I got really good in communicating with my clients giving them a red carpet experience

3. I was highly focused and didn’t let doubt or other negative mind states take up too much bandwidth in my mind.

4. I grew in self-confidence because I had achieved for me an important milestone on my freelance journey.

5. I had was able to fully fund my retirement accounts.

6. I was able to donate thousands of dollars to my chosen charities and non-profits which was a big deal for me.

7. I was able to save 10% of my income which came in handy next year. When Dad was admitted to a hospital an hour and a half away from their home and I was able to cover hotel, Uber and food costs for 13 days (which in the NY/NJ area is easily thousands of dollars) for Mom and myself without batting an eye.

8. It became clear to me that this way of working is not sustainable in the long-term. This clarity helped me to make personal changes in 2023 - I took more breaks, went on an in-person meditation retreat and an online meditation retreat and one short trip within the US.

9. The experience of 2022 also made me think strategically about what I truly want, who I want to serve and how I want to serve in the future. It helped me recognize that achieving any kind revenue goal is not really what makes my heart happy. It needs to be a healthy, wholesome approach to what I define as success.

Result: US$106,375, accomplishing a long-held dream, having many insights and realizations about my journey and making a ton of changes for the next phase.

So as you make your plans and goals, remember that there will be pros and cons. Be aware of the cost as well as the benefits. Take care of yourself, don’t get burned out, and constantly assess so you make smart moves toward your revenue and business goals. Don’t kill the Golden Goose which is YOU!

I truly hope this is helpful; please let me know your thoughts by responding to this LinkedIn post.

8 Entrepreneurial Mindset Tips

Lots of entrepreneurs teach strategy.

The how of running and growing a business.

Yet, starting and running an online business requires not just strategy but also one key criterion:

The Entrepreneurial Mindset

We can learn about processes and systems and strategies till the cows come home.

But if the entrepreneurial mindset is lacking, we are building on weak foundations.

I am on this journey of strengthening this mindset and have a long way to go.

Here are 8 mindset nuggets I have gathered along the way so far:

1. Don't wait for passion in order to begin.
Start with something that you like and are good at.

2. The thoughts about what other people will think are just that: thoughts.
No one is thinking about you! So do what you want to do anyways.

3. Don't listen to the perfectionist, pride-rich voice that creates obstacles in you way.
Learn to do things imperfectly and trust that you do get better over time with self-reflection and introspection.

4. Habits can break or make you.
Find books that show you how to build good habits. "Atomic Habits" by James Clear is a good place to start.

5. Listen to your intuition or that inner-voice.
That's your inner-guidance system. Trust it and act on it. It's showing you the shortest way to your goal.

6. Get clear on what you want. Ambiguity leads to confusion.
If you can get specifics clear, great. If you are not there yet, start with getting clear about how you want to feel. A good question to ask yourself is, "If money, time, resources and my own limitations were not an issue, how do I want to live my life, what do I want to invest my time in, how do I want to serve people?"

7. Don't be afraid to experiment.
A voice within you may say you've got to stick to this one thing. But everything has a time, has its season. When the energy is finished, let go and move on.

8. Give more than you receive.
Whether it is working with clients or interacting with people. Let go of the "whats in it for me" mindset and cultivate "how can I make another's life better" mindset.

I will continue to add to this list as I learn and grow.

What entrepreneurial mindsets you've picked up along your way? Share them in the comments of this LinkedIn post. I’d love to know your wisdom nuggets.

[Season Finale] 5 Factors of choosing the right ETF

July 14th 2024

Photo by Robert Anasch

Master these 5 and you will get it right 99% of the time

There are five main factors for choosing the right ETF for your investment portfolio.

1) The index that the ETF tracks should represent the asset class that you want to invest in (e.g. the S&P 500, the price of gold, or US treasury bonds)

Make sure that your chosen ETF covers the index you want to invest in.

It is super important.

Some ETFs sound alike but are very different. Some names of ETFs indicate something that may or may not be the true focus of the fund.

So, make sure you have the right underlying index.

If the ETF doesn’t follow an index at all, it is an actively managed ETF. It takes even more expertise (and some luck) to find the right active manager.

Stick with passive, index-tracking ETFs.

That way you know what you’re getting into and usually incur substantially lower costs (i.e. expense ratio). Double-win!

2) The ETF must “replicate” the index, meaning it buys the actual components of the index, not placeholders like futures or other derivatives

The fund must buy the actual components of the index, not placeholders like futures or other derivatives.

If it’s an S&P 500 ETF, it should buy all 500 stocks of the S&P 500 index. If it’s a gold ETF, it should buy physical gold. If it’s a 2-year government bond index ETF, it should invest in real 2-year government bonds.

That is called “replication”.

Replication lets you, the investor, indirectly own the companies/commodities/bonds/etc. for real.

It’s important to avoid introducing other types of risks such as counterparty or credit risks.

3) The ETF’s expense ratio should be as low as possible, ideally in the single or very low double-digits (so you get to keep as much of your money as possible)

Managing an ETF undoubtedly costs money: salaries, research costs, other admin, etc. need to be paid. However, it should cost the investor as little as possible.

That’s what a fund’s “expense ratio” expresses.

The most popular index funds charge as little as 9, 5, or even just 3 basis points (1 basis point = 0.01%).

5 basis points, for instance, means that management fees of $5 per $10,000 worth of the ETF are deducted annually.

The most affordable actively managed ETFs cost around 25 to 30 basis points. That’s 5–6 times as much as the lowest charging passive funds. And many charge way more than that!

An active manager has to consistently outperform the market average (i.e. the index) to make their higher fee worth the investor’s while.

80–90% of all actively managed funds don’t reach that goal, statistically. So, stick with passive!

4) How much money the ETF manages (called assets under management): generally, the more the better, with a minimum of $10M (otherwise the risk of it closing is too high)

The biggest ETFs in the US (and the world) manage several hundred billion dollars.

Size matters.

Size expresses general investor interest and implies two things:

1. Liquidity (easy buying and selling)

2. Fair pricing throughout the trading day (less chance of overpaying when buying and receiving too little when selling the ETF).

Size also reduces the risk that a fund may be closed down by its manager because running it is not worth their while.

If an ETF cannot win the interest of at least $10 million, it may become under pressure to be closed down.

Why?

Say, an ETF charges 10 basis points in expense ratio and has $10 million in assets under management. That’s $10,000 in revenue for the management form. To run a fund, paying managers, traders, software, data feeds, regulatory and legal fees, etc., will easily cost that much money. Where there’s no space for business profit, the business must go out of business sooner or later.

When an ETF closes, you get paid out your share of the current value of the ETF’s assets under management.

That means you don’t have control over the timing of the sale. Plus, it’s a taxable event that may not fit in your tax plan at all (unless held in a tax-deferred account).

Sticking with the larger ETFs will most likely avoid such unexpected events.

5) How many of the ETF’s shares are traded daily on average: the more the better, so you can buy and sell it easily and cheaply

Heavily traded ETFs are more likely to exhibit a fair value in their market price than thinly traded ones.

Plus, the difference between the immediately available prices for buying and selling shares of the ETF (called the Bid-Ask spread) is usually lower the more trading volume there is.

If you select an ETF that is traded more than an otherwise equal competitor, you can reasonably expect to incur lower implicit transaction costs (i.e. the lower Bid-Ask-spread) and receive a more reliable price — which benefits your bottom line as an investor.

Are these 5 factors all there is to selecting the right ETF?

Well, there are more factors to consider if you want to get all nerdy.

But if you master these 5, you will get it right 99% of the time.

Thanks for reading.

Shine your light,
Cristof

—

This article is intended for residents of the United States only. Not all of the products and services mentioned on this site may be available in your state.

The information in this article is not an offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell specific securities. Nor is it an endorsement or recommendation of the specific securities mentioned. It does not constitute personalized investment, financial, legal, or tax advice. Nor should it be misconstrued as a solicitation of investment advisory services. It is for informational and educational purposes only and presents the author’s interpretations and opinions which are subject to change without notice.

Research for this article was done thoroughly from sources the author believes to be reliable and trustworthy, but the author cannot guarantee that the presentation is complete or correct.

Investments in stocks, ETFs, and other securities can lose value. There is no guarantee that this information will lead to investment returns or profits. Historical results and analysis are not a guarantee for future results. Model portfolio returns may not be achievable by all investors.

Each person’s situation is unique. Please seek professional advice from the qualified financial advisor of your choice about your investment decisions, and your attorney and accountant concerning legal and tax questions.

My firm Pine Ridge Wealth LLC (PRW) is an investment adviser registered with the State of North Carolina. PRW may only conduct business with residents of the states and/or jurisdictions in which it is properly registered.

Neither PRW nor its representatives are affiliated with the issuing companies or fund sponsors mentioned in this article. However, PRW and its representatives may own, plan to own, or otherwise have an interest in individual securities mentioned in this article, and may benefit from you buying these particular securities.

For further information, including PRW’s current full-disclosure brochure, see www.pineridgewealth.com.

Making it out to the other side

 A post I wrote on building an online business with financial freedom and peace of mind as goals. #solopreneurjourney

This year marks the 14th anniversary of my solopreneur journey.

I started in 2010 and the path has not been starightforward.

I tried many things:
1. Proofread English documents while living in Germany
2. Designed photobooks for families celebrating milestones
3. Taught meditation and ran visualization workshops
4. Set up email marketing systems for solorpreneurs
5. Built websites for creative entrepreneurs (and continue to do so now)

I've struggled to figure out how to make it work as a self-employed biz owner.

I have had many moments where I wanted to give up.

Yes, crying on the living room floor was part of it.

During one of those years, I made less than 13K and lived in a 450 sq. ft apartment.

But I made it out the other side.

In the last four years, I've:
+ Built a 6-figure web design business
+ Served more than a hundred clients
+ Got noticed by and then worked with one of the biggest website-building platforms
+ Encouraged and helped hundreds of web designers on their path

So, what do I want to say with all this, you may be wondering:

It's this.

No matter how challenging your solopreneur journey is:

Don't judge yourself if you don't stick with one thing.

Experiment and try new things.

Keep showing up consistently.

Don't chase perfection; focus on commitment.

Keep a positive mindset. Negativity from others or your own mind is poison.

Remember you are good enough with or without your worldly accomplishments.

And...

Never ever give up on yourself.

Best ESG US Small Cap ETF in 2024

XJR vs ESML

Photo by Trent Haaland

ESG stands for environment, social, and governance. It’s been an investing theme since 2004 and has gathered more than $30 trillion under management according to Wikipedia.

Most of the money is invested in large companies, so-called large-caps. I showed in last week’s article that large-cap ESG investing can keep up with the broad market.

But there are small-caps, too, that are good corporate citizens.

Investing in smaller companies has paid investors a higher return in the very long term. That is likely to continue because investors need to be compensated for the additional risk that’s to be endured when investing in this part of the stock market.

This article compares two US small-cap ESG ETFs to see which one is best.

What’s going on here?

We’re comparing XJR with ESML, two ETFs that invest in the ESG space and select only US small-caps for their portfolio.

XJR

The iShares ESG Screened S&P Small-Cap ETF has existed since September 2020. It follows the S&P SmallCap 600 Sustainability Screened Index.

According to the index’s fact sheet, it excludes companies involved in controversial weapons, small arms, tobacco, and fossil fuels.

As of this writing on July 5, 2024, XJR has $73 million in assets under management. The three largest of its 615 holdings are Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF), Fabrinet (FN), and ATI (ATI). It charges an expense ratio of just 0.12%.

A hypothetical investment of $10K on its inception date (September 22, 2024) with dividends reinvested would have grown to almost $15.8K (after the ETF’s expenses but before taxes and other potential fees such as brokerage commissions or advisory fees), see the following chart.

Chart of the value of a hypothetical investment of $10,000 in XJR on 9/22/2020, according to Morningstar

ESML

The iShares ESG Aware MSCI USA Small-Cap ETF has been in existence since April 2018. It tracks the MSCI USA Small Cap Extended ESG Focus Index.

The index’s fact sheet states that the index “targets companies with high
ESG ratings in each sector. Tobacco, Controversial Weapons, Producers of or ties with Civilian Firearms, Thermal Coal and Oil Sands are
not eligible for inclusion.”

As of this writing on July 5, 2024, ESML has $1.6 billion in assets under management. The three largest of its 917 holdings are Casey’s General Stores (CASY), Janus Henderson Group (JHG), and KBR (KBR). It charges an expense ratio of just 0.17%.

A hypothetical investment of $10K on September 22, 2024 with dividends reinvested would have grown to a bit more than $15.3K (after the ETF’s expenses but before taxes and other potential fees such as brokerage commissions or advisory fees), see the following chart.

Chart of the value of a hypothetical investment of $10,000 in ESML on 9/22/2020 (not ESML’s but XJR’s more recent inception date, for better comparison), according to Morningstar

What does that mean?

Laying both ETFs into the same chart, you see that they correlate highly.

Chart of the value of a hypothetical investment of $10,000 in ESML and XJR on 9/22/2020, according to Morningstar

However, youth has a tad more energy:

XJR, since its inception, has outperformed its two-year older brother ESML.

The risk levels were comparable, by the way, with a 3-year standard deviation of 21.37% (XJR) and 21.11% (ESML).

Since both, the performance and expense ratio, are better, XJR looks preferable over ESML for the long-term investor who wants to invest in ESG-filtered US small-caps.

Why should you care?

ESG-screened small-caps have outperformed their broader market peers.

Comparing ESML from above (ESML instead of XJR because of its longer history) with IJR, one of the oldest and biggest non-ESG-filtered US small-cap ETFs (why IJR, see here), you can see the additional return in the following chart.

Chart of the value of a hypothetical investment of $10,000 in ESML and IJR on 4/10/2018 (ESML’s inception date), according to Morningstar

Investing with a conscience feels good and makes good karma. For the ESG-aware investor, this stance has paid off in terms of portfolio growth, too.

None of us knows what the future holds. But with our earth getting warmer and political and social issues boiling up, ESG small-caps outperforming their non-ESG counterparts may very well continue.

Thanks for reading.

Shine your light,
Cristof

---

This article is intended for residents of the United States only. Not all of the products and services mentioned on this site may be available in your state.

The information in this article is not an offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell specific securities. Nor is it an endorsement or recommendation of the specific securities mentioned. It does not constitute personalized investment, financial, legal, or tax advice. Nor should it be misconstrued as a solicitation of investment advisory services. It is for informational and educational purposes only and presents the author’s interpretations and opinions which are subject to change without notice.

Research for this article was done thoroughly from sources the author believes to be reliable and trustworthy, but the author cannot guarantee that the presentation is complete or correct.

Investments in stocks, ETFs, and other securities can lose value. There is no guarantee that this information will lead to investment returns or profits. Historical results and analysis are not a guarantee for future results. Model portfolio returns may not be achievable by all investors.

Each person’s situation is unique. Please seek professional advice from the qualified financial advisor of your choice about your investment decisions, and your attorney and accountant concerning legal and tax questions.

My firm Pine Ridge Wealth LLC (PRW) is an investment adviser registered with the State of North Carolina. PRW may only conduct business with residents of the states and/or jurisdictions in which it is properly registered.

Neither PRW nor its representatives are affiliated with the issuing companies or fund sponsors mentioned in this article. However, PRW and its representatives may own, plan to own, or otherwise have an interest in individual securities mentioned in this article, and may benefit from you buying these particular securities.

For further information, including PRW’s current full-disclosure brochure, see www.pineridgewealth.com.

What is behind this need to empty?

An enquiry into my soul's wantings

Back in 2011, I had this phase when I started feeling this powerful urge to let go of things and items that belong to me. Personal letters, cards, essays and papers written for school and college and also reducing my vast collection of books. One day, I let go of piles and piles of creative writing assignments from my university studies, with no desire to scan and digitize them. I began with this stack of papers and lay them before me. I wanted to simply “reduce”. At first, I realised that this is a lot of painstaking work that I am simply discarding. To ease the process, I began separating those items that I felt some emotional connection to and made a little collection of them to keep. Very soon, the huge pile of papers was suddenly down to a handful of articles. And the big brown paper bag filled with my essays that I had sorted out for recycling, seemed like a big relief.

Then I went through some of my diaries and other self-awareness notes just from the previous two years. I began letting go of them as well. With some more things left to go through still, I decided to call it a day and went to bed. As I lay in bed, I wondered why I was going through this process of letting go of my belongings?

Photo by Callum Shaw on Unsplash

I realized that in the previous few years, I have intensified the process of recognizing my ego and bit by bit untangling myself from its grip, and making friends with it to serve my higher purpose. The next morning as I woke up, I had an epiphany. I realized that this letting go of my belongings was another way of disentangling myself from things that have become a form of attachment for my ego and a source of identity for myself. So it seems that intuitively, I embarked on this process with the desire to find out: what lies behind all this stuff that I call mine? I wanted to know:

What will I find when I take away all of these things that I own? What remains behind all of this stuff? Who am I without all of these things?

I feel going through this process physically, enabled me to feel a powerful impact. I don’t think I am done with this process yet and still simplifying my belongings. Here are some of things I experienced as a result of decluttering my personal writings and items.

As I let go of things: 

1. I feel light.

2. I feel unburdened with the care and organization of stuff that I do not actively need, use or connect with on a daily basis.

3. I feel free. 

4. I feel greater appreciation and even love for those things I do decide to keep.

5. I feel more spacious.

6. I practice being grateful and thanking my belongings for the service they have offered and letting them go.

7. The flow of energy out, feels good and uplifting. I am making space for all that is wanting to emerge through me and to me.

8. I make room for the flow of gifts of life and the universe.

9. I have more time to do things that fulfill me.

10. I feel more mobile, light and limber. 

Moreover, I felt a general sense of peace and joy filling my being. And I am not yet done. I am eager to go through some more of my things, and some more and some more, until I feel a sense of equilibrium and peace about the whole thing. 

And this has the potential to open up the door for me to come to the realization of the question: What remains behind all the things I own? Who am I? 

Emptiness and Simplicity are the catalysts for inner-peace within me.

The seed of this article was written on November 5th, 2011.

ESGV vs. VOO: Is ESG investing in or out?

Does making good karma with your investments pay off?

Photo by Eye for Ebony

ESG stands for environment, social, and governance.

ESG investing means that you care about the impact that your capital makes. It’s most prominently used for stock market investing but can also be applied to bonds, commodities, and other asset classes.

It’s been a growing investment theme ever since it was incepted by the UN in collaboration with major financial institutions in 2004. According to Wikipedia, more than $30 trillion is under management using the responsible investing approach.

That’s a lot of money.

How does it perform?

How risky is it?

This article looks into a US ESG ETF and compares it with the broad market.

What’s going on here?

One of the leading ESG stock market ETFs is the Vanguard ESG US Stock ETF, ticker symbol ESGV.

According to its latest fact sheet dated March 31, 2024, ESGV

• Has $8.4B under management — quite a heavyweight.

• Costs the investor only 9 basis points (0.09% or $9 per $10K market value) per year in expense ratio to access the world of US ESG equity investments through this ETF.

• Is a passive fund tracking the FTSE US All Cap Choice Index. The index uses screening criteria for environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) aspects.

• Is invested in a current total of 1,436 different stocks.

• Has produced 15.15% annualized return over the last 5 years, and 31.43% in the last 12 months.

• Incurred a standard deviation of 18.71% — a figure that measures risk (the lower the better).

What does that mean?

Let’s put ESGV in context. A good comparison would be an S&P 500 investment and a total market investment.

Over five years, ESGV has performed virtually identically with VOO, one of the leading S&P 500 trackers.

A hypothetical investment of $10,000 in either of the two ETFs on June 27, 2019, would have grown to more than $20,300. You can see this in the following chart.

5-year chart of a hypothetical investment of $10,000 in ESGV and VOO, according to Morningstar

In the post-pandemic stock market rally, ESGV had a bit of a lead. But it gave it up again during early 2022 and lagged by the end of that year. Since then, ESGV and VOO have been neck-a-neck.

Consequently, the picture looks quite similar if we look at only the last 12 months. Hypothetical investments of $10,000 each in ESGV and VOO on June 27, 2023, would have grown to virtually the same amount today. See the following chart.

1-year chart of a hypothetical investment of $10,000 in ESGV and VOO, according to Morningstar

In terms of risk, VOO would have been a tad lower and thus better. Its standard deviation of 17.6% beats ESGV’s 18.71% by more than a whole percentage point.

Why should you care?

If it’s important to you to care for how your money is used, an investment in an ESG-driven stock selection process looks like ticking two boxes at once: making a market-like return and doing good with your capital.

If we broadened the comparison from large caps (S&P 500) to the total market (e.g. ticker symbol VTI), ESGV would not only have matched the market. It would even have outperformed it.

The index that ESGV tracks specifically excludes stocks of certain companies related to weaponry, “vice” products such as gambling, alcohol, and tobacco, as well as potentially harmful energy such as nuclear power, coal, oil, or gas.

Your money would also not go to companies that do not adhere to certain environmental, labor, human rights, and anti-corruption standards. Even companies that do not meet a minimum level of diversity are excluded.

So, do you care and want good returns (with a tad more risk)?

ETF Nerd Summary

Doing good deeds, acting with a conscience, making good karma, and avoiding harming people and the rest of nature, seems to pay off not just in life generally but also in investing.

ESG investing, as represented by ticker ESGV in this article, has grown its investors’ money in a very similar fashion than a mainstream S&P 500 investment would have.

With the earth heating up and social conflicts seemingly on the rise, this trend of the last years may very well continue.

Thanks for reading.

Shine your light,
Cristof

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