One Month. 33 courageous souls. Baring their truth about money. One story at a time. We’re hosting a free, month-long gathering this October to bring our money stories out of the shadows and into the light. To enrich and connect this dear community. To spread a message of healing and love even farther. To bring more depth and intimacy to our money relationships than ever before. Grab a cuppa tea. Curl up with your favorite blanket. Bring your journal and make some time to connect with your own heart’s truth. Don’t miss a single story. Sign up here to subscribe to the October Money Memoirs Series and get them delivered fresh in your inbox.
Leonie is an amazing guide for creative types, offering amazing support with their businesses. I contributed to her World’s Biggest Summit a few years ago, and have been so excited to invite her to one of my gatherings now!
In this Money Memoir, Leonie talks about making money her soulmate, her fierce optimism, and a piece of shame. She also shares a powerful personal story about losing everything, taking a leap, and receiving it all back.
Leonie’s Money Memoir
1. How would you describe your relationship with money?
I’ve been in love with my husband for 12 years now. In the early years, we fumbled + tottered about in love. And we kept on growing and changing and learning how to love each other. And it’s gotten bigger and deeper and wider than I ever thought possible. Me + him = for life.
Me & money are in about year 5 of our marriage I reckon. We have a growing love + trust of each other. I still have fears it will leave me. I am still healing my own shit and learning how to understand it. I know we can be soulmates too though. We will get to that “for life” status, I know for sure.
2. What are your strengths around your relationship to money? What really works for you in this area? Where do you rock with money? What are you proud of?
I’m proud that I’m fearlessly optimistic. That I believe I can create any amount of money I want. That I have completely changed the broke mindset I grew up in, and live in a really prosperous, abundant world now.
3. I believe everyone has money shame. What is the Money Shame story you tell yourself? How does this show up in your life and business?
My Money Shame story is that I should be further along in my savings and investment plan than I am. I want to be mortgage free already! I try to gently remind myself that I’m doing really well for where I am right now, and that one step needs to be taken at a time.
4. What was a really tough money experience you went through? Please share the gory details. What did you do to get yourself through this time? What did you learn from it, and what are you doing differently because of it?
A couple of years ago, we made a life changing decision. We’d moved back to my hometown a couple of years before that, but soon realised it was not the place we were supposed to be at all. Have you ever had that feeling? When you move to a place and nothing goes right, and you get literally repulsed by the place?
It was like that times a million. After the thousandth heartbreak, one fateful night I relinquished my dream of living there forever. I said to my husband “Okay, we’re done now. We’ve got to move. And soon. Where to?”
And we made a leap. We left quickly, and left our tiny, crumbling cottage with a For Sale sign. Months later after no interest, we sold it for half the price we’d bought it for.
It felt like a giant blow to the gut to accept the offer.
And yet, there was something inside both of us that said: If you let go of this, you will receive it back.
If you choose a different money story, if you choose a different life than the one about survival, it will be different.
And we accepted the offer. Less than two weeks later, we fell head over heels in love with our dream home. And we moved heaven and earth and money beliefs to make it happen.
And that truth inside us was right: we made back the money we lost. We had to give up in order to get it back.
It reminded me of the biblical story of Job. How Job lost everything but kept the faith and it was all returned to him.
5. Do you have a money practice? What does this look like for you? (e.g. Do you attend to your money relationship through a daily, weekly, monthly, and/or yearly practice? Do you have money dates? Do you use a bookkeeping system? Do you have a ‘budget-plan’?)
I track money weekly – one of my team updates a weekly spreadsheet that tracks income, expenses, profit, and where we are at in reaching our yearly money goals.
I have a major yearly money and goal dreaming session at the beginning each year. I write down how much income I want to earn and how much I want to save. I also include goals about updating my money relationship – for example, continuing to invest in money education, investing in a financial planner, having half-yearly financial review sessions, making sure my accountant is on track with our business goals. In the past, some of those goals have been to create wills and powers of attorney, consolidate home loans, change banks and apply for payment processors.
6. I believe our money relationship is never “handled”. We’re always evolving, upgrading, tweaking and expanding our money lives. What are you working on right now? What’s new for you emotionally, practically, or spiritually with money? What’s the next level for you? (e.g. Are you adding new financial support people to your team, are you learning Quickbooks for the first time, are you working on receiving in a new way?)
At the beginning of the financial year (that’s July in Australia), we decided to move our company accounting to a new accounting firm. I was starting to feel like the accountants we started with were no longer a good fit with what we needed as our company grew at such an exponential rate. We interviewed for new accountants, found ones that were a good fit and have been transitioning over to using them.
This year we’ll be having quarterly reviews with our financial advisor.
I use Xero software for official record keeping which we work with in conjunction with our accountant.
And I’ll keep using intuitive healing to shift any money blocks that come up.
7. What’s the most important nugget of money wisdom that you would wish to pass on to young people? What is the Money Legacy you would wish to leave?
That your story can be yours and yours alone – it doesn’t have to look like your family’s, your past, or the stories of those who surround you.
You can do something good and wonderful with your money. You can create a life that sings deeply to you and your values. You can change the world through philanthropy.
All the doors are open to you. Everything is possible.
About Leonie
Leonie Dawson is a soul-centered teacher, author, entrepreneur, artist, mama, wifey + mentor to the 30,000+ women in her tribe. She is the creator of the Amazing Biz + Life Academy, the world’s premier training ground for women wanting to live passionate, inspired, prosperous lives.
She lives in the rainforest in Qld, Australia, with her family + tribe of animal friends.
leoniedawson.com
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Ready to go deeper?
The conscious money movement is growing. And you’re invited. If this tender, empowered truth-telling about money has spoken to you, you might love our year-long money school, The Art of Money. Registration for The Art of Money 2014 opens October 11. Click here to learn a bit more about this incredible community journey.