What Becoming a Full-Time Writer is Teaching Me About My Relationship with Wealth Building

Creative LivingCreative CareerCreative CEO

Oct. 11

Article Published for The Creative Woman Diaries Collection, Written by Casey Balon

I am exploring 10 of my current considerations for financial sustainability and growth. From the true experience *of wealth**, to leveraging automatic transfers, to how my finances intertwine with* being *a love-led woman**, to opening multiple revenue streams — I’m addressing it all. Welcome to* The Creative Woman Diaries.

1) Being mission-driven is not actually enough for me.

part a) why this matters from the short-term perspective:

in addition to being fully led and ignited by service — reciprocity does matter to me. joy matters. passion matters. vitality matters. fulfillment matters. overflow matters. being able to collaborate and create opportunities matters. and, ultimately, having access to choice matters.

In order to truly understand this, I had to learn that I matter. My health matters. My wealth matters. (And it’s an integral part of my job to take care of this.)

I’ve been down the path of martyrdom before, and it was not sustainable. Now, I am creating a much more vibrant and secure experience, intentionally grown from a strong — and deeply-rooted — foundation.

What is working for me is this:

1) Compassionately meeting and unwrapping the ‘shadowy aspects’ and internal patterns around why I felt inclined to chronically over-give

2) Listening to, partnering with, and reconnecting through my body to experience new levels of safety, generational stability, and innate subconscious worthiness

3) Amping up my conviction, while actively deepening my relationship with prayer, walking with faith, and with God

4) Surrounding myself with clear (and grounded) voices of support, collaboration, and vision holding

5) Prioritizing neuroplasticity and rewiring my neural pathways to repattern automatic behaviours that support my true Self Concept. (No matter my emotional experience, I am already her.)

These are, in turn, naturally freeing up my energetic capacity to embody a more genuine and open-hearted approach to financial exchange.

This has been the key to delivering high-quality creative work.

part b) why this matters from the long-term perspective:

I desire for my team to grow and thrive. I believe that when we thrive, those we serve thrive.

What I have found (in an entrepreneurial culture that has a tendency to pendulum swing the narrative from “you must prioritize personal success” to focusing solely on the moral importance of devoting to collective service, and back again) is a beautiful merge point at the intersection of both — where the mission to serve and our ability to thrive have a sincere, reciprocal, and amplifying relationship. A relationship that develops and innovates over time.

This is the landscape where the vitality of the work pours into us, just as we pour into it.

Resembling the Japanese concept of ikigai, this balanced approach to delivering work helps to create stability, as well as a healthy foundation for financial growth.

*To read further about my experience with the concept of vitality, check out this piece on Taking Your Creative Practice Off the Pedestal While Still Protecting It.

part c) a journal note on what i’ve learned from my past choices & internal posture:

I’ve been down the less magnetic (potentially more inauthentic) route of completely ‘giving myself to my work’ in a self-sacrificial way — often dipping into martyrdom and avoidance behaviours, rather than deeply (and responsibility) riding the pure intention to serve. Receiving appropriate amounts of money in exchange for my teaching, creative work, and writing is a nonnegotiable for me. From my lens, living the lifestyle of a heart, soma, and faith-led woman is not directly driven by a desire for money, nor external power… but living a romantic lifestyle attuned to beauty, my soul’s desires, and my unique expressions — those are certainly threads that draw me. My loved ones are important to me. Stability is important to me. Traveling is important to me. Love, wisdom, style, movement, and self-care are important to me. Experience, connection, community, and opportunity are important to me. Having a seat at the table (and the means to build my own table) is important to me. At the core of it all, having the resources to give back, in a big way, is important to me.

2) The true experience of wealth is irreplaceable.

wealth building is multifaceted — and not exclusively about money and financial health.

There is nothing that can replace the experience of being spiritually well. Just as with our whole body health (including physical, emotional, mental, energetic, and communal facets), the connection within us is Wealth.

The health of my relationship with a Higher Power, and with my internal compass, is the point. There is a symbiotic relationship between this experience of Wealth and my work in the world.

This also means a symbiotic relationship exits between building wealth (and a creative brand, for that matter) and serving others.

I have also decided my partnership with the currency of money gets to be enjoyable, secure, and liberating. (Because, why would I not want to have as much fun with the process as possible?)

With that in mind, there are multiple components that have an impact on my relationship with my finances, such as establishing an internal foundation of gratitude, trying out fresh approaches to revenue generation and investing, embracing a ‘long-path’ perspective, as well as devoting to healing and honouring the financial patterns within myself, my bloodlines, and society — just to name a few.

When I zoom out to view the full timeline of my life, it is clear that when I worry about, avoid, or attach to money itself, I am not actually in a true relationship with it; I am pedestaling it far beyond my true source of wealth — which, for me, is my relationship with God, with myself, with my loved ones, with my community of friends, and with the world around me.

What is most true for me is this:

Expanding — and investing in — my internal resources (aka a faith-fueled wellspring of vitality, aka my experience of true wealth) is an investment that always has long-term results.
Who I am can never be lost. The woman I have revealed and built is with me no matter what.

Being the woman with the skills and capacity to generate financial abundance (being available to receive, as well as being capable of responding to and creating opportunities to bring in more revenue) has become an intuitive, ever-growing skillset — one that is dynamic, beautiful, sometimes challenging, always character-building, not linear, and totally worth it.

3) My depth of experience, skill level, and approach to life play a major role in why I am remunerated well.

but character, heart, and integrity will always be more important.

As a creative service provider, your unique essence, level of embodiment, expertise, and perspective are the reason people work with you.

The experience you create with them matters. Who you are during the experience matters. The quality of your work matters. None of it requires perfection. All of it requires curiosity, confidence, and humility. A big chunk of it comes from your natural gifts and cultivated qualities. And a splash of cheekiness, awkwardness, and well-timed humour is always helpful.

Being remunerated well for my Creative Work is inherently important to me, but it took me a while to figure out the real reason why:

I have spent the better part of my life cultivating the presence, tangible skills, and perspective that I have now. The ability to intimately see the full arc of creative development — and the ability to intuitively translate that through my writing, speaking, and multimedia work — originated somewhat from my physiological makeup (my intrinsic blueprint and natural inclinations), but what’s played an even larger role than that is the depth of commitment, devotion, time, energy, money, education, experience, collaboration, intentionality, vulnerability, courage, and precise ‘risk taking’ that has been required to usher me to this point.

With a deep level of support from others, I have done a great deal of internal work to be the woman I am today, and I will continue to enjoy the process of unfolding as I age, and as I further meet myself.

I stand where I stand today, with a fierce yet soft degree of creative capacity because of this approach to life.

a choice to appropriately acknowledge the work.

Appropriate pay is an acknowledgement of the caliber of our perspective, and the caliber of our work. It is an acknowledgement of where we have been, and what that means for the humans we are creating with.
While our creative ability and radiance feel most natural to us (and they truly are), it is of deepest reverence to acknowledge what it has taken an artist to get to the point they are at.
Not everyone can do what we do, in the way that we do it — and that distinction is the point.

4) I know how and why I spend: I am a quality > everything girlie.

this applies to everything — quality of experience, quality of a connection, quality of a garment or physical item.

My tastes are precise. My standards are high. The flow and feeling of an experience is always a key component. I prefer to surround myself with people who possess wit beyond measure, yet love whole-heartedly, earnestly communicate with compassion, and leave criticism at the door. (Wait — are we still talking about spending on quality items and experiences, or my romantic preferences?) To me, it’s all related. Quality > quantity. Every time. I make my choices, to the best of my ability, through the lens of my intuition, with a keen eye of discernment, and an open heart.

This comes down to my life values, as well as the caliber (and unique flavour) of life experiences I authentically enjoy. Unless a physical item TRULY lights me up, fulfills a need or desire, and feels incredibly resonant — the purchase actually drains and deteriorates my energy and feels like wasteful spending.

That’s how sensitive I am.

It has to be either a chosen necessity (and I am thankful to have the ability to purchase it) or a feel-good desire that enhances my life (in a way that brings amplification, joy, purpose, opportunity, a deeper breadth of creative service, acquisition of knowledge, or fulfillment). This is true even for pieces of clothing, tech that supports me to run my creative business, or a purchase that creates an opening for an experience or connection.

Every choice falls into this, even ‘everyday spending’, such as vehicle-related expenses. This is how I automatically frame them: “This fuel enables me to travel to connect with people I love, carry out the work that lights me up, attend events, move my body, etc.”

It all comes back to what truly makes me, the bigger movement we are creating, and the people I love (and serve), tick.

5) Leveraging automatic transfers and scheduling payments is a simple way to build, invest, and circulate.

traditional budgeting is not my jam.

Knowing I can rely upon automated transfers frees up my creative capacity to focus on everything else — my health, my loved ones, my work, and my life.

The amounts transferred can easily be adjusted on most banking apps, and this approach creates a lighter sense of security and safety in my body, which are important to me.

Depending on the terms of an investment portfolio, once I have communicated with my financial adviser, the distribution (or amounts allocated) can typically be shifted for the next monthly investment cycle.

6) My money values reflect my life values, and it’s evident.

i’m convinced our conscious choices run through what we desire to value, and our subconscious choices run through what our bodies have learned to value.

I’m a grounded gal, but I’m not someone who is motivated by logic alone. I’m much more drawn by visceral and sensual experience, as well as intuition.

This is to say: I run on the details, the beauty of intricacy. Devotion for the sake of devotion. In service to vitality, and faith and the poetry. (Oh, it might all be for the poetry.) The smell of coffee. Silk against my skin. The perfect raspberry on my tongue. The shiver that comes with genuine eye contact, not sought nor forced. The moments of raw joy, and depths of the human experience. The passport stamps and the foreign air, and the rosy cheeks from a mountain hike. The puppy cuddles, and the kitten snuggles. The micro-interactions with the cashier. (The way she tucked the pineapple into the corner of the fabric bag with such care.)

I am a self-proclaimed visionary with big-picture sight, but I am willing to acknowledge that these details truly matter to me. They leave an imprint on my heart. They are what speak to my tissues.

This is Important Because:

In order to understand how I circulate wealth, I must understand the true nature of me.

I am willing to acknowledge that I live for wisdom and artistry and beauty and heart, for the Grace of a new day. For the texture of a real conversation — with strangers, new friends, and those I love. I live to move with my body (to be IN my body), and I live to breathe (because I am alive!). I adorn my ear lobes and my fingers and my neck. I am in a lifelong relationship with language and words… and I almost forgot about Love! — boy, do I love love. (But we’ll get into that deeper in another section below.)

indulging deeper.

I recognize I thoroughly enjoy learning, but I am precise with this. I am inclined to dive into subjects that spark a fierce fire within me (cue: a visual of me showing up 15 minutes early for my 8:30am sports psychology class twice a week in second year uni. It was the only class where I sat in the front row!), alongside which exists a penchant for developing skillsets and deepening capacity sets that support me to be ‘more me’.

I know why and how it feels to be enveloped by trying something new (especially a physical activity) simply to share the experience with people who feel the same way, or as a means of challenging myself to grow, or get a little uncomfortable.

For the areas of my life where I value a quality or ability but do not possess a natural ‘talent’ for it, I like to work with it in curious ways. For example, I am not a natural gift giver, but I do love to listen and pay attention to what people are passionate about. So while choosing gifts may not be my strongest quality, I can still work at it by gifting something that is highly suited to the person in front of me, perhaps in a way, or at a time, that is unexpected. (Something I know is meaningful to the person in front of me.) Or maybe its something someone actually needs. That sentiment really ‘gets me’ too. (Five years spent practising community pharmacy in my mid twenties at a location which served folks without permanent housing was the biggest gift to shaping my perspective.)

When I look from the lens of what drives me, it’s evident I spend my money on (in the same way, with the same motivation and passion) as the aforementioned values.
My wealth values are my life values.

7) Intimately understanding my human design has been super relevant to my career path.

i am peacefully satisfied when i pour my whole self into projects that fully ignite me.

I’ve prided myself on being the ‘Easy Breezy Genius’ (less affectionately referred to as the ‘Hermit Opportunist’ or the ‘Natural People Person’). As a Manifesting Generator with a 2/4 profile, being deeply engaged by multiple facets — and avenues — of work (and revenue generation) is preferential.

A combination of solo and collaborative work is ideal, with a harmonious “balance between being in a secure environment by yourself and answering the right calls to share your gifts, which will draw you out into the world,” which is sourced from Jenna Zoe’s new Human Design book and a perfect way to describe how I am inclined to work.

In her book, Zoe further writes about the Natural/People Person (the 2/4 ) profile:

There’s a dichotomy between the ‘Natural’ and the ‘People Person’, since the Natural has a hermit side to it, and the People Person is naturally friendly, and people are drawn to you. The world will tell you that you can’t be both, that one is the real you or that one is better than the other, but both of these sides are here to serve you at different times and for different purposes.
You have a natural shyness to you that protects you. This ensures someone’s call is strong enough that they actually DO want you to share your gifts and filters out the casual requests. Because you won’t just say yes to anyone.

I’m well-designed to thrive delivering creative work. With an intuitive ‘Emotional Authority’, ‘Buzzing Digestion’, and 1-8 ‘Channel of Inspiration’, I’m a big feeler. Did I mention my strongest sense is that of ‘Feeling’? This means the energetic tone, atmosphere, and flow of experience while I create are of ultra importance to me.

Zoe expands, “Your journey here is to have BOTH: your own colorful inside world and a colorful outside world of love, connection, and sharing. And its only by allowing yourself to have both that you live out your gifts to the full.”

8) I am a lover through and through — radiance over material, every time.

while it seems true for everyone, i can clearly see how my path to understanding myself has been through relationship with love — through loving presence, intimacy in all forms, and romance itself.

My true essence, expression, and personality are that of a lover. Gentle, soft, and radiant in some ways, yet polarizing, wise, and brave in others. While intricately wrapped around my appreciation for dad jokes and intelligence, I’d say romance has my heart.

The presence of a person means everything to me… because my presence means everything to me.

Love informs the way I have learned to give and receive. This has everything to to with wealth building, and the way I exchange financially, and with life itself.

My relationship with money —and money’s relationship with me — deeply reflects this expression and aspect of self.

9) Restraining myself to one creative revenue stream limits my earning potential; honouring my intuition energizes it.

being able to say no is paramount, but being able to be in relationship with wealth means I am open to receiving through aligned and diversified avenues.

Limiting the types of writing (and the types of projects) I work on places me in a cage of my own making. Devoting to what lights me up amplifies my inspiration. I’ve played with this before, and I see how niching myself down in forceful ways limits my creative capacity, breadth of knowledge, and what I can bring to the Creative Table.

I am not what author Elizabeth Gilbert would call a creative “jackhammer”. I am a focused hummingbird who crosspollinates, bringing with her every brick of experience, every lesson, perspective from every past project, and interaction as the foundation for the work I do. It informs and seasons my voice as a writer.

In place of restricting my avenues for writing and wealth building, I have found that a seasonal approach to “niching” is what works most optimally for me. This is an intuitively strategic middle ground, driven by choice, focus, tenderness, and full-yes commitments. (I currently use my human design strategy and authority to navigate this.)

Ultimately:

Being multifaceted (and multi-passionate) does not dilute the quality of my craft — it magnifies, enriches, and enhances it.

While niching down has its place in business and service provision, it can also be driven by the fear of the unknown — and fear of diversified responsibility or a resistance to the art of team building — wrapped neatly in the intellect’s conditioning and excuses. A not-so-sly way of avoiding vulnerability as we stand at the edge of a new challenge or craft.

When I look at my portfolio and body of work, I recognize something important: It is threaded together by strong, invisible connections. One piece of work informs the next.

Whether cheeky and intriguing, or stern and informative, I have a trustworthy partnership with the creative voice that runs through me… and it is deeply fulfilling.

**there is a mysterious edge to doing things in the way one was fashioned to do them.**

I trust that writing poetry by the lake on the weekend not only fuels my soul, but injects enchantment into my service journalism pieces. I see how my creative nonfiction travel pieces serve the reader (and fuel my internal fire) with the same potency, but in a different way, than my health and wellness work does.

While refined and in deeper integrity now, my present perspective rings true in hindsight, too.

In past reflection, I cannot imagine having missed out on diverse projects — on saying ‘Yes’ to the invitations that lit a sweet fire in my belly — from the simplicity of the article written in high school, to the pieces for the university newspaper, to the first book published in 2012, the position as an editor-in-chief, the delicate yet beautiful years of mentoring other creatives, the wellness campaigns and multimedia work, the opportunities to guest facilitate for other companies, the creative workshops, speaking and storytelling events… and so much more. This even reaches back to the years I spent practicing as a community pharmacist. The teams I had a chance to be on.

10) I will always make use of my experiences to carve a new path.

i am thankful for every last drop of it.

Inch by inch, my experiences have taught me how to welcome in what is meant for me. To ride the contractions and expansions. To integrate and release what is not moving forward with me, as I evolve into the next articulation of me. For the times I have said “yes” to misaligned work when my body was saying “no”, it gave me the opportunity to learn and practice discernment — propelling me to retrieve my inner protector so that my true gifts and voice could radiate, and lead in a purer form.

Truth be told, I feel like I’m just getting started — every experience intended to equip me with a golden nugget to take into this next era of the dynamic Creative Economy.

— Casey Balon, Editor-in-Chief of Casey Jacque

Let’s Connect: Instagram @iamcaseybalon, e-mail casey@caseyjacque.com

What Becoming a Full-Time Writer is Teaching Me About My Relationship with Wealth Building

Article Published for The Creative Woman Diaries Collection, Written by Casey Balon