Speaker #0In today's episode, I'm going to share three easy ways that you can make money while pursuing your regenerative career. I know, easy ways to make money while pursuing regeneration. That's what we're here for today. Let's do it. Welcome to the Regenerative Work Life Podcast. If you are ready to make the leap out of your corporate job and into purposeful regenerative work, This is the show for you. As you've probably discovered, transitioning into regenerative work is a lot more complicated than going on a job board and sending off your CV. This journey you are embarking on means taking risks, going against the grain, overcoming challenges and writing your own script. It takes entrepreneurial muscle, powerful vision and a willingness to change. Having a mentor by your side makes all the difference. I am your host. Alyssa Murphy. I have worked with hundreds of impact-focused businesses and individuals, and I am here to help you. Let's take things one step at a time as I show you how to quit corporate, find your vision, and successfully transition into regenerative work. Here we go. Okay, I promised you that we were going to tackle the money topic today, and it's really important that we do. In the market research that I have been doing this week and last week, over 80% of you told me that money and paying your mortgage are the biggest reasons where you are being held back from pursuing a regenerative career. This is a really powerful, heavy, weighty topic. And I want to be honest with you, I am approaching this with a certain amount of trepidation because maybe partly just because talking about money is not something that most of us feel really comfortable with even though I'm an entrepreneur I'm used to talking about money in business perspective but here of course we're talking about it in a very personal perspective we're talking about people's livelihoods we're talking about taking care of yourself and your family and your quality of life you know this is a difficult topic to approach and you When I was going through all the results of the market research and I kept seeing this topic come up again and again and when I'd ask people what's the number one thing getting in your way they'd say yeah it's the money piece. If I could just take care of the money piece, if I just knew that that wasn't going to be a problem then I could move forward. Well that is my intention, to help you take care of that money piece. But it also, I need to just take a moment to, I think... to be real about the fact that this is an emotional topic. And I even found myself reading those responses thinking, oh my goodness, you know, have I just really underestimated the scale of the problem here? You know, is this actually responsible to encourage people to take this leap out of corporate and into regenerative work? You know, am I seeing possibilities where there aren't possibilities? I know I'm a, I'm very much... a believer. I, you know, I believe that almost anything is possible. And, you know, and I wanted to really respect the financial reality that we're all operating in. I'm not here to gaslight you. I'm not here to tell you that your financial needs aren't reasonable or real. I really do understand that we have to ground into this financial reality. And at the same time, there was part of me that began thinking, Why is this topic so, so heavy? And isn't it interesting? In a subject where we are talking about divesting from an existing system and finding new ways of doing things, that the kind of the metric, the juice, the life force of that old system, which is money, is the number one thing that is preventing us from that new exploration and moving into new ways. Because you see, this is what money does. Money controls us. It is the number one most powerful tool and leverage that the existing extractive corporate system has over us. There is a reason that corporations pay extremely high salaries with very generous bonuses, because it keeps people trapped because how do you walk away from that? And even for those of us that aren't on that salary level, you know, we... all need to support the standard of life that we've become accustomed to. There are some people who are ready and willing to make quite dramatic changes in their life, I think that's wonderful, but it's not the choice for everyone. For most of us it's going to be some kind of compromise and finding our way through, and we're still going to have a certain amount of financial needs. But the other thing about money is that it's the most cast iron Don't question me, immovable, rock solid excuse for not making change. I've seen this many, many times. I'm a coach. You know, people need to invest in me in order to get change. And the number one thing that people will put in the way is money. And sometimes that's a reality. And the vast majority of times, it's just that they aren't willing to prioritize and they're not really willing to commit. They are afraid of making that change. And they're using the money as the reason because who's going to question the money? Who's going to question if you tell me the reason you can't do something is money? And the same thing happens to you. If you're thinking about a regenerative career, if you're thinking about making big shifts in your work, but then you have the thought, well, I'll never be able to make enough money, you don't question it. You don't go any further. You stop right there because it would be... wrong it would be irresponsible to pursue if you can't make any money it's like a full stop it kills the conversation dead and if I'm telling you look here is this possibility to step out of this system and into a new way of being and you're saying yes but the money I'm even afraid to say well let's look past the money let's see if that really is the real reason or if there are other reasons under the surface that actually might be more real for you you It's hard for me to say, shall we question whether you're using money as an excuse? But that's what I'm doing. I want you to ask yourself that question. I want you to ask yourself, am I, is it possible that I'm using money as an excuse? And one of the ways to do this actually is to ask yourself if the money piece were taken care of, if we could wave a magic wand and you knew for certain that the money was going to be fine. what else would be getting in the way? Because I bet you there's another fear that's lying just underneath. But back to financial reality, the best way that I can get you to get into that uncovering process of seeing what's really going on, what's really holding you back, and to discover whether money is just a reality that you're not going to be able to get past, or something that you can work with, something you can build on that is flexible, that can change with you, the number one way we can do that is to have... a solid starting financial plan in place. If you know that you can meet your financial needs, then you can put your nervous system at ease, you can know you're taken care of, you can tell your loved ones around you that you're meeting your responsibilities, and you can begin your regenerative career exploration. And I know that this isn't easy. I have been through it myself. When I sold my company, last year, I, you know, I've always had a certain amount of financial privilege. I suspect the vast majority of people listening to this podcast also have financial privilege when we look on a global level. And when I sold my company last year, I was in a very fortunate position to have passive income coming from that sale to support me and my family. And even though I had that in place, I still heard the voice that said, Alyssa, what are you doing? you've got to start turning this into a serious business idea. You're just messing around, you're playing, you're out in the woods, you're hosting retreats, but you're not making any money out of doing this. Stop pursuing these different paths. There's no money in them. Can we please go back to business? Can we go and do some high paid consultancy like every other business owner that's sold their business? Can we just follow that path and take care of the money piece, please, so we can feel safe? And I was able to just recognize that voice and say, I hear you. And no right now I'm doing this exploration we have enough income coming in give it time and give it time is a really important piece of this you can't expect regenerative work to make money from you from day one that's an important component of these three approaches that I'm going to teach you we're not asking regenerative work to meet our financial needs from day one because we cannot pursue it with openness and curiosity and creativity and exploration if we set that expectation from the beginning. So what we're doing here is finding a way to meet your financial needs while allowing you to develop a side shoot. What do I mean by a side shoot? Okay, so in our culture we would describe it as a side hustle. Your regenerative career is going to be your side hustle for a while. I hate the word hustle, we are not going to use the word side hustle, so we're going to use the word side shoot. So think of a plant growing, I'm going to think of a tomato plant, it has its main stem, this is, this needs, you know, water and you need, it needs to bring up the minerals and resources and sunshine. Great. But also it produces side shoots and it sort of allows some of that energy to go into the side shoots and it grows the side shoots at the same time as it's taking care of the main stem. You're going to be a tomato plant. We are going to find a way that your main stem, your main financial needs are taken care of. And then we're going to work on how much of your time and energy and your resources can you start diverting. to your side shoot so you can start growing that side shoot we can do them at the same time okay so here we go three easy ways to make money while pursuing a regenerative career did i mention that you might not like these you might not like them the point here is to get your financial needs met these are not groundbreaking approaches that i'm giving you things that you can put into practice hopefully within the next couple of weeks so you've got this financial piece taken care of and you can move forward. So I have warned you, you may not like what I have to say. Number one, and I think this is the easiest way to make money while pursuing your regenerative career, stay in your job and use it to fund your regenerative exploration. So if you choose to stay in your job, that's the easiest way because you already have that source of income. You are going to need to make some changes, probably. You may find that actually you have enough headspace to work on that side shoot. I know clients who are extremely skilled at what they do and actually they're like, frankly, I put in a few hours of really high quality work a day, I don't need to do all the rest of the time, I can invest in my side shoot. Brilliant, right? If you're really committed to this, probably you do have some time that you can put into this, some energy, some headspace, all of that, that you can put into your side shoot. You may even be able to just keep doing your job in the way you did before. And maybe you just do a little bit less of it. Maybe you're not quite as good at it. Because remember, if you're at this point, you've made the decision that you're not staying in that job for the long term. You do not have to give it everything, right? You have to meet the expectations and that is enough. I know that is a very hard thing for people to kind of grasp, but it's a valid choice in my opinion. But you could also stay in your job and just look at... how you can find some flexibility within that job. So, you know, can you have a conversation around flexible hours, around reduced hours, or even going part-time or shrinking your hours? I think there are a lot of options and, you know, you will each know your individual circumstances. But again, if you have made the decision kind of internally that this job is not where you are going to be in the long term, that actually gives you a lot of power, right? Because now you're job needs you more than you need your job. Okay. And remember that. So go into that conversation empowered, right? There are other interests that you want to pursue. You can, you know, you can put it in whatever way you think will be acceptable. There's a course that you want to do. There are new skills that you want to develop, anything like that. You need a little bit more time or you want more time with your family. I don't know, whatever it is, find a way that makes it feel like a conversation that you can have. and find out what flexibility is an offer, negotiate something that works for you and then you've got that time ready to put into your side shoot. Now if you are not currently in a job or if you're in a space where you're like Alyssa no I have to get out of this job as soon as possible, I cannot do another day in it, it's a toxic culture, I'm nearly burnt out, they will squeeze every last drop out of me, I know how frequent... that is the case. I've heard that story a lot. If that's you, then yes, go ahead, get out. You may find that they are able to negotiate some kind of package for your exit and then brilliant, you've got some funds that can help you pursue that regenerative exploration. And if not, this second option is going to be for you. This option is also for you if you are not in a job at the moment and you are searching for a job because the chances are you've been searching for a job that meets. all of your requirements and we are going to just simplify. We are going to get a bridging job. What do I mean by a bridging job? A job that bridges the gap between where you are now where you want to be. So you need to reduce your expectations of this job dramatically. Okay, I really want you to take that on board. You're gonna figure out one thing. What is the minimum amount of income that you need to be bringing in? Now, this might take some hard conversations around some lifestyle changes that you, your partner, your family are willing to make. I want you to get to the minimum number that you can bring in so that everybody is safe and taken care of, okay? Not so that you can continue to go on x many holidays and, you know, put a very significant amount away in savings. You're going to be, you know, you need to be willing to make some shifts here and come to that minimum number. Also, just the process of coming to that minimum number. A lot of the people, a lot of time people talk about, I'm you know I need to make money I have to make money it has to make this much money but they haven't actually really got that figure in their head so that's your first piece of homework if you're going down the bridging job route work out what is the minimum amount of income you need and then you're going to find a job that brings you that amount okay and this job can be anything as long as it doesn't directly conflict with your values it can be anything and I want you to prioritize the easiest job that you can find. So whatever that might mean, the minimum amount of hours, the proximity is really close to you. Bonus points. If this is something that you can basically do with your eyes closed, if you are really overqualified for this job, or it's just something that, you know, it's a repetitive task or something where, you know, you can put in like a couple of hours and then you've pretty much taken care of it or something where you... definitely don't want something where you're bringing that work home with you or there's like a lot of um you know politics around it you just want a really simple easy job you show up you do that job to a decent level you get that minimum amount of income that's what a bridging job is and let's take a moment to address the ego part of this because i know that a lot of you will be discounting a lot of jobs that could really serve this purpose for you because they don't feel like a step up. This bridging job is not going to be a step up. So let that expectation go. It's a bridging job. You can call it that. You can tell your friends who ask you why you've gone to work in a shop that this is a bridging job. You can tell your parents when they say, I don't know, why are you doing part-time teaching? This is a bridging job. If you want it put on your CV, you can explicitly state that this was a bridging job. while you developed new skills and learnt new things or whatever it might be, okay? Call it a bridging job. Understand in your head that that is what this is. Okay, so what has this bridging job done for us? It's met our financial needs and it's created, hopefully, more time, but at least more headspace and more energy that you can start nourishing into that side shoot. Okay, your third option is for... my people who are quite comfortable putting themselves out of there and have a particular skill that you are able to leverage here. So this option is some form of freelance work. So if you have, I don't know, maybe it's coding or copywriting or some kind of skill like this, that's kind of a high demand skill that allows you to kind of just get in, do a few hours of that skill, deliver and get out. Freelancing might be a really good option for you. And I know a lot of people who have ended up freelancing for the organization that they left. They've identified what was the most high value bit of what I did. And very, very often, you know there's something that you're doing for that organization that nobody else can do, right? So if you need to get out, right? Or if they're not willing to offer you the flexibility, then just go to them and say, look, I'll keep doing this bit. I'll do it right here. It'll cost you X much with this many hours. Do you wanna do it? maybe it's not for your organization, maybe it's for someone else, find that thing that it should just be the thing that you can kind of do with your eyes closed, you're just highly skilled at it. That's if if there is something like that, where you know, you can just do it really easily, it just flows for you, you can make some good money doing it, you can meet that minimum minimum income threshold, because you don't want this to start scaling up into something that really takes over your life. And you don't have any space for your side shoot, right? You don't want to, we don't want to crush the the side shoot and it's got to be exposed to the sun, it's got to be able to soak up the water, right? But if there is something that you can do in a kind of manageable pocket size kind of way, great. Freelancing can be a good option for you. Do not choose this option if the idea of putting yourself out there is really triggering to you. Don't choose this option if you feel like you're going to get really caught up in all the kind of admin and bureaucracy. Again, the whole point, whatever option you choose is to take care of your financial needs while being able to divert time, energy and attention to your side shoot. So which of those options is going to best allow you to do that? and which the option is going to get you there the quickest. Okay, this isn't something that you really, ideally, we don't want to be spending six months a year doing this, we want to get this taken care of, so that we can start to nurture that beautiful little side shoot. All right, quick recap. Money is a heavy, heavy topic, give yourself space for that, recognise the emotions around it, pay attention to the thoughts that come up, because as soon as we notice those thoughts as a part of us... that is the part that's noticing the thoughts, right? We're less identified with them. If you feel like you can spend some time with the question of whether or not you might be using money as an excuse here, and then recognize you need to take care of financial reality and pick an approach that is going to allow you to take care of those needs while supporting your side shoot. So stay in your job, negotiate flexibility, get yourself more time, get yourself a bridging job that's going to meet your minimum income requirement. maximum ease and headspace, think about whether freelancing can be a good option for you. The point here is to get the money piece taken care of, get something in place. It's temporary. It is not forever. It is here to allow you to support that side shoot. That side shoot will grow. You know, think about a tomato. It's a great analogy. You can take that side shoot. You can pinch it out. You can put it in the ground. It will grow a whole new tomato plant, right? The tomato plant is what you're looking for. But it takes time and it takes nutrients and energy and sunshine and space. So I hope this has been really, really helpful to you today. I'd love to hear if one of these strategies is going to work for you. If you've got a different way of approaching this, get your financial plan in place. Let's get moving forward, taking action and immersing ourselves in regenerative possibilities. I will see you next week. Thank you for listening to the Regenerative Work Life podcast. It's time to put what you learned today into practice. Remember, you were called to this work for good reason. Nature needs each and every one of us and you can do this. If today's episode has been helpful, please take the time to share it with someone who needs a little guidance in stepping out of corporate and into regenerative. Learn more about how I can help you find your vision for a work life filled with purpose. impact and joy at regenerativeworklife.com and connect with me on LinkedIn. Just search Alyssa Murphy. I'll see you back here soon for the next episode.
