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What if you could get more of what you want in life? But not through pushing, forcing, or pressure.
You can.
When it comes to money, time, and energy, no one’s gonna turn away more.
And Kate Northrup, Bestselling Author of Money: A Love Story and Do Less and host of Plenty, is here to help you expand your capacity to receive all of the best.
As a Money Empowerment OG who’s been at it for nearly 2 decades, Kate’s the abundance-oriented best friend you may not even know you’ve always needed.
Pull up a chair every week with top thought leaders, luminaries, and adventurers to learn how to have more abundance with ease.
Every time I have made a decision that didn't quote, unquote make sense in my business based on my inner knowing, it has always worked out better than if I had continued just because people were expecting me to or just because we quote unquote needed the money. Welcome to Plenty. I'm your host Kate Northrup and together we are going on a journey to help you have an incredible relationship with money, time, and energy, and to have abundance on every possible level. Every week, we're gonna dive in with experts and insights to help you unlock a life of printing. Let's go fill our cups.
Kate Northrup:We're doing something a little different today, and my videographer is asking me questions instead of me just talking. So let's see what happens with this little creative interview.
Podcast Producer:Hello, Kate. Hi. So first question, you built a brand around doing less, but has there ever been a time when doing less was actually a form of avoidance or fear?
Kate Northrup:Oh, that's a good question. For me, doing more was generally my way of being in avoidance or fear. So mostly no, but I will say, yes around two things. So my things that I avoid and do less of historically are writing and dancing. Writing and dancing are my favorite things, and those are the when I, like, come most alive, and it has been I can procrastinate around writing, like especially writing my books, and so doing less of those is absolutely a sign I'm in fear or avoidance, and then when I start coming up with reasons I can't go to dance class, that is absolutely like fear and avoidance, because I think so many people, and we all have our things, writing and dancing won't be the thing for most people, but there are certain things that are like our thing that is just I I don't know how I would describe it, but like the thing that makes us come alive the most, and we will be in resistance around it because sometimes we're just in resistance around our expansion because it feels safer to be miserable because our old patterning is usually about being miserable.
Kate Northrup:And so feeling that much joy can actually feel really uncomfortable. So yes, mostly I am an overworker, like as a default patterning, but when it comes to dance and writing, sometimes that's my do less avoidance strategy.
Podcast Producer:What's one belief about feminine energy in business that you've outgrown or secretly disagree with now?
Kate Northrup:Well, I see a trend, which is an idea that in order to be in your feminine, you need to be in some way not engaged in the details of structures and systems. And I think that that's a less evolved concept of the masculine and the feminine. And the truth is when we build the masculine structures in our businesses and in ourselves, we can experience both expressive masculine energy and feminine energy at the same time. The idea that in order to be in my feminine and be totally surrendered and totally in flow, all the structures and systems have to be done by someone else and outside myself is yet another way of externalizing our power when actually we can create that. This doesn't mean you don't get to have that from someone else.
Kate Northrup:Mean anyone who's known me for two seconds knows that Mike creates the vast majority of the structure in our lives. However, like I'm not just giving it all over to him. Like I know what's going on over there, and the more I can create some of that myself, the more relaxed and held I actually feel.
Podcast Producer:You talk a lot about cycles and rhythms. What happens when life is just chaotic and refuses to flow? Do you still trust the rhythm or override it?
Kate Northrup:I still trust the rhythm because actually, we I think we can have this idea that cycles and rhythms are that like nature and cycles and rhythms and feminine energy is like this sweet, sort of like floral, pink, lovely, always nurturing, and actually feminine energy is also incredibly destructive. I mean the goddess Kali is like, you know, she like goes around with like severed heads, you know. So there's a destructive cycle that's really important, and honoring both death and rebirth. So sometimes when we're in maybe a death portal in our lives, and things aren't quote unquote in flow, they may not feel easy, they may not be going our way, but that doesn't mean they're out of rhythm in any way. So even if it's brutal, even if it's like one thing after another, and I'm like, really?
Kate Northrup:Also this, like I remember when Mike was really sick, we were in the pandemic, we'd moved to Miami, things were so stressful, and then he also fell off his bike and broke his knee, and I just remember being like, and also my husband can't walk? Like really? This is too much. But it was such a clearing that was going on in our lives to make space for what was next, and it was forcing me to look at my patterns, and apparently I needed to be forced hard. And so, yeah, it was a little hard to trust the rhythm then, but I still did.
Podcast Producer:What part of your past self, your earliest household driven version, do you still miss, if any?
Kate Northrup:Okay. Here's what's fully honest. I was an academic hustler, but the truth is, like I was really conditioned to believe that academic achievement really mattered, and so I always went for getting straight A's and working really, you know, quote unquote hard. But even then, I chose a major in college that required the fewest number of classes to complete, and also that I knew I could do relatively easily. I became an art history major because I'm really good at, a, I'm interested in the topic, but b, it was really easy to ace the exams because I'm really good at looking at an image and remembering the date and the name.
Kate Northrup:I'm just like really good at memorization that literally leaves my brain the next day, so that was useless. But it made it really easy to ace that degree. And so the truth is, I'm less of a recovering hustler, and I'm more of someone who's always looked for the loophole in terms of like, okay, if I wanna get this particular result, what is the path of least resistance? So there are people who are more typical, like, you know, I would stay up all night, I was, like, addicted to Adderall, so I could, you know, this, that, and the other thing, and I was always a little bit like, there's gotta be an easier way here. And so, yeah, I don't really have a part of me that was what people might expect.
Kate Northrup:It's always been the work. Yeah. One of my one of my first book idea, was gonna write an ebook, like in my early days of, learning Internet marketing. I was gonna write an ebook called The Lazy Girl's Guide to Getting Shit Done, which is essentially what do less is.
Podcast Producer:You teach people how to work with their body and intuition. But what do you do when your intuition says stop and your business says go?
Kate Northrup:Oh. Yeah. That's such a good one. I have had many moments where my intuition has said stop and my business has has said go, or my financial needs have said, I'm sorry, ma'am. Like, I know you don't wanna do this, but like, we have real financial needs here, or you have payroll, or you know, or my business partner, who also is my husband, was like, hello.
Kate Northrup:I will say this. Every time I have made a decision that didn't quote unquote make sense in my business based on my inner knowing. It has always worked out better than if I had continued just because people were expecting me to, or just because we, quote, unquote, needed the money. So two practical examples of this. One, when I closed my membership, it did not make any sense on paper to close my membership.
Kate Northrup:It was a successful membership, the Origin membership, for six and a half years. We sometimes had a 98% retention rate. We had had members who had been members for six and a half years. People loved it, but I just was like, there's something else calling me, so we closed it. And it was also a multiple six figure.
Kate Northrup:I think I think at that time, it brought in $600,000 a year or something, so it wasn't like a small it was, you know, it was a big chunk. But we decided to close it down, and Relax Money came through, and more than easily replaced that revenue, and is honestly just like been the biggest blessing in terms of a business model, and being able to reach more people in a deeper way. Not to say that I'll never have another membership, that's not what I'm saying. But that one needed to close. And then the other example of this was my Mastermind, the Origin Mastermind, which was very easy to sell, even though it was a $50,000 investment.
Kate Northrup:I had many women already signed up for the next year, and I just, at our annual planning meeting, I just was like, this feels tight in my body, like it just feels heavy. And I said to Mike, if we didn't need the money, I wouldn't do this program. And Mike said, we never need the money enough for you to do something you don't want to do. And so we either refunded the members, or gave them a transfer to another offer. And that was, I don't know the math, but whatever eight people times 50 k is, or 400 k, that I didn't have a plan for replacing that revenue, and once again, no problem, I closed that down, and the revenue was more than easily replaced.
Kate Northrup:So I will say I love making a big leap like that. Most people would be like, you need to have a plan. I have never found that I needed to have a plan, and it usually works out. Good. Good.
Kate Northrup:Good. Good.
Podcast Producer:If your daughters grew up and rejected everything you teach, choosing hustle, corporate life, and linear goals, what would you say?
Kate Northrup:I would say, you know, your path is not my path. And I already my girls surprise me all the time. I was playing this game with my oldest daughter. I can't remember. It's called, like, brain puzzle or something.
Kate Northrup:I don't know. It's it's like you put in these pegs, and then you're supposed to arrange these little blocks. It kinda looks like Tetris, like, around the pegs, and you're supposed to do it as fast as you can. And literally, it's so hard for me. She got it done.
Kate Northrup:She's nine. She got it done in two seconds, and she, like, lifts the thing and shows me her little thing. And she's like, mama, why is this so hard for you? It's so easy. All you have to do let me show you what I do.
Kate Northrup:And she, like, takes out the blocks, and then she goes, see, if you look at it like this, I can just see in my in my mind the shapes and how they all fit together, so I just know it's gonna work. And I and she was like, don't you see that? And I was like, no. I don't. And so it was such a cool experience of, like, this kid is her own person.
Kate Northrup:She has skills that I will never have. She has an understanding of the world already at nine that I will never have, and I couldn't possibly know what she's supposed to do with her life. And I just am kind of in awe. You're so cool and different than me.
Podcast Producer:What's the shadow side of the personal development world that no one warns you about until you were deep in it?
Kate Northrup:That's a good question. What is the shadow side of the personal development world that nobody warns you about until you're deep in it? Well, the thing is that I was raised deep in the personal development world, so I have always known the shadow side. And the shadow side is there's no there there, and no one gets out of being human. So people talk about enlightened beings, and these people who just have it figured out.
Kate Northrup:I don't believe in that. I just don't. I have been behind the scenes with some of the most well respected, pedestalized personal development and spiritual leaders, and everyone's got their stuff. And, I'm so grateful that I was raised in that environment, so I never really had an illusion that anyone was, like, better than. I think this whole concept of enlightenment, and I'm not trying to bash anybody's religion by any means, specifically Buddhism.
Kate Northrup:For me, the idea of enlightenment in the realm of personal development, I don't think is true. I think there are humans who have developed themselves and evolved, and done a lot of work on themselves, and have been able to open their hearts, and are really beautiful, and have done a lot of personal cleanup, but I have yet to meet anybody who has it all figured out, and that's the illusion of the personal development industry is that if someone is teaching some kind of spiritual principles or personal development, that they don't have any issues and they never make mistakes. But when you get up behind the scenes, you're like, oh, wow. Yeah. That's a messy closet back there.
Kate Northrup:And that's okay. I just think we I wish we were more honest about it.
Podcast Producer:Have you ever felt disillusioned with the conscious business space? Who or what made you question it?
Kate Northrup:So I've never really felt disillusioned with the conscious business space. I really haven't. Because I'm always I am eternally optimistic and I am always looking for like, what can we learn here? How can we look at things in a new way, what are other possibilities. The thing I take issue with is teaching something that you're not practicing.
Kate Northrup:And that I see, where it's like somebody's out here espousing, you know, the power of love, and then behind the scenes, they're a complete jerk to their staff. Or they're talking about authenticity, and then like, they're never being honest about who they are, and like keeping secrets all the time. And you see that a lot, so that's a bummer, but it doesn't make me fall out of love with the conscious business space at all. I just think that it would be really great if folks were more honest about their struggles. Unfortunately, we live in a time where that's not as good for sales or hasn't been historically.
Kate Northrup:And then, unfortunately, it turns into this gross other side of it of, like, authenticity for the purpose of selling, which is also not my favorite. I don't know. It's tricky.
Podcast Producer:How do you navigate the tension between spiritual alignment and practical financial pressure, especially when bills are due and the flow isn't flowing?
Kate Northrup:Yeah. Yeah. This is great. Okay. So spiritual alignment and practical financial pressure.
Kate Northrup:Totally. Like, what you know, stuff is due, the money's not there. What do we do? Well, this is when I think it's a really good idea to have a deep connection to source as our source as opposed to money as our source. And it is what I teach all the time that, and this is, you know, shout out to a man named John Randolph Price who wrote the abundance book.
Kate Northrup:This is where I got, this original concept that source is accessed within us. We can we have a direct line to source energy, and that's our creativity, that's our resourcefulness, that's remembering like, oh, yeah, my aunt Sally Jane said, like, if I ever need anything, I should call her. Or like, my friend Sue told me that she has a client that I should she she wants to refer me to, but I just need to do x y z. The thing is when we're in financial fear, we immediately forget all the possibilities, including the practical ones, like calling up Sue or our aunt Susie Jane or whatever I said her name was. Like, we just forget, and our resourcefulness goes out the window.
Kate Northrup:And we when we're in financial fear of like, my only source is my job, or my only source is this one high paying client, or my only source was this grant that I was applying for, and then I didn't get it. So now I'm completely locked out of abundance. That's when our brain will not see possibilities. So that's why I love nervous system healing tools, because nervous system healing tools bring us back into our body feeling safe, which brings more blood flow to our brain, which also puts us more in our prefrontal cortex where we can think logically, and then also be intuitive and remember, oh, I am resourceful. I'm a creative being.
Kate Northrup:What are the other options? Like the other day, we were in our enrollment for Relax Money, and there was a woman, who wanted to do the program, but was feeling like the investment was a stretch. And she practiced some of what we had done in the Good With Money free workshop, which is all about learning to heal your nervous system so that you can have the capacity to think in new ways, behave in new ways, be resourceful, and find all the abundance that was there anyway. And so she used the tools, and she remembered that she had all this furniture in her home that she had been meaning to refurbish. She does a special technique.
Kate Northrup:So she refurbished it. She turned around and was able to sell it to a local store that she already had a contact with immediately, and that store, when she made the call to say I have new pieces, placed an order for, like, five more pieces on the spot, paid her for them, and then she had more than enough money to invest in the program. That was abundance that was already present. That abundance did not become available later. It became available because it had already been there, and now she was seeing the world in a new way, and she saw everything that was possible.
Kate Northrup:And so, that was a long answer to a short question.
Podcast Producer:That was great. So last question. When you look at your own marriage and business, where do you notice control still sneaking in Oh. Despite your efforts and surrender?
Kate Northrup:I I don't like this question. It's good. Okay. So I have a thing. It's funny because we were just recording another episode about what do we do when we're on an abundance journey, but our community is not.
Kate Northrup:And I was I was talking about how, like, it is not our job to change anyone, and it is not our job like, we just need to be on our own path, and people will come if they're ready, but we can't get them to do that. And with Mike, I have a tendency to think I know what he should do about his health, because we've been through such a journey around, like, his health, and I notice what happens when he makes certain choices, and I just have to keep my lips zipped and sit on my hands and just let him be in relationship with his own body, because I am very controlling to the point of borderline mental illness around nutrition and health stuff. Like I get so black and white when Mike and I did this program where we weighed our macros before our wedding. I literally, for four months, did not eat anything that was not exactly in my macro plan. Like, I weighed everything.
Kate Northrup:I weighed my lettuce. Like, it was insane. And so I can go so, rigid around food rules, and I can see the way sometimes Mike's choices impact his body, and I just have to really be like, just because I think rigid food rules would help him does not mean that's true, and he lives in that body. I don't live in that body, and he The only way he's ever going to thrive is to be in his own relationship with his own body and his own way, so I have to really shut up, and it's hard. Thank you for that question.
Podcast Producer:Alright, Kate. Well, thank you for answering my questions.
Kate Northrup:Thank you. Hope you enjoyed this episode. Something a little different. What if managing money felt effortless? You've worked so hard to earn money, so why does it feel stressful?
Kate Northrup:Well, I wanna introduce you to something brand new that I've created called the money reset because abundance starts in your body, not in your bank account. This free audio experience will help you rewire your nervous system for wealth, stop the money in money out cycle, and create a foundation for true wealth, and relax into a new relationship with money. Plus, it comes with the five minute calm cash flow ritual so you can have financial clarity and magnetism anytime you want. All you need to do to get the free money reset is go to katenorthrop.com/reset.