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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.
I had a pretty successful business going for the last couple of years. I had a store in a place called Poncey Market, and we were making money. The store was growing. We had bought a second location, and then kind of in a blink of an eye, everything just fell apart. I remember feeling like a failure, but now I have $20,000 saved up.
Speaker 1:In August, I had less than zero in savings.
Speaker 2:Hi. Welcome to Plenty. This is one of my favorite times of the year because it is the time when we feature case studies from our students. And today is really special. It's with my friend, Kareem Manuel, and he is a single dad.
Speaker 2:He is a creative. He's a performer. He's a singer. He's a musician. He's a facilitator of incredible men's work and somatic healing and all sorts of community work.
Speaker 2:He's an entrepreneur, and he had things really fall apart about a year ago financially. Something happened with a business partner, and things got really rough, really fast. He had to move. Things went into contraction. He needed to go back into the workforce.
Speaker 2:And there was a lot at stake because his boys really depend on him. And when Kareem dug in and did the work, things changed really fast. And I'm so excited for you to hear his story today. It gave me chills. It made me a little emotional, and I think you're gonna absolutely love Kareem's story of money transformation.
Speaker 2:Enjoy. Welcome to Plenty, a weekly recalibration of power, money, and safety for high capacity humans. I'm Kate Northrup, best selling author and creator of Relaxed Money, and this is where neuroscience meets ancient wisdom meets real wealth strategy. This is the sacred conversation at the intersection of money, the body, and the life you're truly here to live. If you're ready to reimagine what's possible for yourself and for the world, you're in the right place.
Speaker 2:Let's go. Hi, Kareem. Hey. Thanks for being here. Thanks for talking to me.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Thanks for having me. I'm glad to be here.
Speaker 2:This is such a pleasure. So okay. I would love to know, when did you start Relaxed Money?
Speaker 1:I think maybe a week after this program opened. So Okay. In August, maybe.
Speaker 2:Okay. Amazing. And you live in Atlanta. Yeah?
Speaker 1:I do.
Speaker 2:Yes. And you've known my husband for a long time through
Speaker 1:some at least.
Speaker 2:Through some men's work and through our friend Jonathan and stuff. So you guys you guys had some background. Can you tell me what whatever you wanna share about what was going on for you that had you say, I'm gonna dig into this. I'm gonna check it out.
Speaker 1:So wow. The the shortest, most concise version is I've been an entrepreneur for as long as I can remember. I had a pretty successful business going for the last couple years. I had a store in a place called Ponsky Market. I had a business partner.
Speaker 1:I have two young sons that live with me, and we were making money. The store was growing. We had bought a second location. And then kind of in a blink of an eye, everything just fell apart. Lost my partner, had to move out of the home that I was in, moved into, like, a shared living space with roommates, became full time parent of my children.
Speaker 1:And while I had done a lot of work in learning how to make money, I just felt like as I was transforming and as things were going, I needed to figure out a way to be more comfortable feeling like I deserved money. How do I sustain money and hold it, build with it, and not feel I felt like my foot was just on the gas pedal 100% of the time. And I never knew if I was doing the right thing. And I thought I was doing the right thing, and then I had no buffer. And so that was what was going on.
Speaker 1:It's like, was changing my life or my life was changing whether I really wanted it to or not. How do I accept this? What can I do about it for the future? Is there a way to make sure that this never happens again? And if it does, how am I better prepared?
Speaker 1:Because I was completely unprepared. And I was really afraid afraid of what would happen next, afraid of what I might look like to my family, to my peers, to people that I have been leading and coaching. That's what was going on.
Speaker 2:I mean, you carry a lot. You know? You're a primary parent for two teen sons full time.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:You're you're a creative. You're an artist. You're an entrepreneur, and you're an incredible coach and facilitator. So are someone who is obviously highly responsible
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And highly capable.
Speaker 1:Oh, great.
Speaker 2:So I just my I mean, like, that's really intense for everything to, in a blink of an eye, just shift so dramatically and, like, you know, have the rug pulled out from you. What was going on for you? You shared a little bit, but is there anything else you wanna say? Like, what thoughts came up or what emotions came up during that time? Can you paint a picture of kind of the internal landscape and and unless you don't care to go there?
Speaker 1:I would love to. Definitely feeling like failure. It's like I had you know, we had months. We're making $5,060,000 dollars. I remember feeling like a failure, feeling like I've had all the success, all of the the aesthetics of success, feeling like I was moving in the right right direction, feeling so proud about what I thought the future was gonna hold, and now it was kind of in ashes.
Speaker 1:And I'm a failure as a father. Somehow, I should have known better. I should have been better prepared. This is my fault. Almost feeling deserving of the negativity if I would've just been smarter or better equipped or studied better or made a different choice.
Speaker 1:You know, playing that game where I'm going in the past is, if I would've made this choice, then it would've went this way. And while I knew that that wasn't true, it was still definitely there in my heart. And then the fear of looking at money like it's so little of it, I don't wanna look at it. I don't and now I'm just living on hopes and wishes, and that is not helping. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So I just remember feeling very down, very, very frightened, and very unsure of how to even start to dig myself out of this hole. And if I manage to do it all again, what would be the point if, I'm just gonna end up right back here? I did not wanna stay there, though. And so when this came, I said, definitely I need to come in. I need to sit and learn, put my head down, and just listen, and start again.
Speaker 2:I'm curious. We have students who go through the program in all sorts of ways. Some people are super choose their own adventure, and they pop in here and there. Some people show up for every live call, and they just treat it like, you know, like a class in college where well, I guess not everyone shows up for all the classes in college, but, like, you know, they take it really seriously. So I'm curious, what was your manner of going through it?
Speaker 2:Was it replays? Was it live?
Speaker 1:What was the comp? Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm a replay person myself too. I like, you will never my face on a live call. No. But I love replays.
Speaker 1:I did a few live ones. There was a lot of feminine energy, which I completely understand. Yeah. A lot of empresses and goddesses. And and and I said, you know, this is still for me, but I also I work.
Speaker 1:I I I went into the workforce for the first time in seven years, and I work a lot of hours to make sure I I make enough to cover everything. And so I have to catch mine at night at the end, but that worked out for me. It was so easy to do, so easy to actually answer. I I was very grateful.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's so cool. Okay. I love that. Yeah. There were times when Mike and I were going through various programs together, and we would just swap out whatever show we were watching
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:For that course and just watch it on our TV instead of Netflix. And I I love that.
Speaker 1:I say that all the time. People say, you know, how do you have the time? How do have the time? And it's like, yeah. I just have to cut out the things that aren't about what I'm trying to do right now.
Speaker 1:So it's much less TV. There's, like, the new entertainment. I call it edutainment, and it works out great.
Speaker 2:That's great. That's great. I'll add more singing and dancing next time.
Speaker 1:So it's a little bit
Speaker 2:entertaining. So tell me what you know, you and I both know what's what's inside the program, and I'm curious, what were the parts that really moved the needle for you, that stuck out
Speaker 1:for you? So first, even the term relaxed moment is a complete paradigm shift. It took me a few weeks to really settle into. I am not relaxed or comfortable with the concept of money, especially when I have to go to another level, especially when whatever has been is now becoming new. So the first time I'm making even more money first, you know, the first year we did 6 figures, just feeling my heart beating, I'm gonna up somehow.
Speaker 1:Learning to bring kind of my spiritual practices, my esoteric somatic practices into the concept of this major part of my life of how I handle my finances every single day, breathing, tapping, rocking. It's so simple, but it's it's powerful. And I used it for so many other things, and I never considered bringing it into the thing that probably is the thing that brings me the most anxiety in my life to just take a breath, relax. When you started calling debt invoices for blessings already received and going, you know what? She's right.
Speaker 1:I did receive a blessing. I I got something out of this. I don't have to be ashamed that I have debt now. This was a blessing. I'm just responsible to cover what it is.
Speaker 1:And then I started calling my creditors so comfortably, so relaxed, and saying, this is what I need to do. This is how I wanna work this out. And almost 100% of them were like, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:You know? Like, there was no friction. And in my mind, there was friction in class. They were the enemy. You know?
Speaker 1:I'm against them. They're against me. They want something from me. They're trying to take something from me. It's like, actually, I'm blessed.
Speaker 1:I've been blessed. I've already received the blessing, and now they just want their compensation. Let me talk to them. And I it was such an easy process once my mind switched from there, and my credit my credit is doing great now.
Speaker 2:Amazing. That's incredible. I love that so much because we can create so many illusions of Yeah. People at financial institutions being against us, trying to come after us, or that we're in trouble. And sometimes those all get conflated, and I always remind people, and I'm so glad that you really, like, received this.
Speaker 2:And I used to feel that way. So, you know, I only figured this out the hard way. I felt like I was in trouble all the time. So was, like, slightly different but adjacent. And then I realized, oh, the people that I'm calling or the people receiving my emails or sending me these letters are also human beings.
Speaker 2:They're trying to pay their rent. They're trying to pay their mortgage. They actually don't care at all, nor are they thinking about me. No. Like, they're just working at a company.
Speaker 1:That's it.
Speaker 2:And they just and they're looking for people to show up and be communicative. That's it. And then when you come in there as the boss that you are, which you obviously did as a businessman, it's like, oh, cool. Yeah. No problem.
Speaker 2:So I love that so much. Okay. That's incredible. Now after the program, you know, I always say, you don't have to go through the whole thing. Like, people are like, oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:I didn't do the whole thing. We have a woman who increased her income dramatically, and she only got through section five. Like Right. So it doesn't it's you do the amount that you do until you get the results that you want. I'm curious for you.
Speaker 2:So your credit obviously is doing great now. You renegotiated your you know, whole new relationship with your invoices for blessings already received. What else is either specifically visibly different, like tangibly different, or energetically, emotionally different in your life?
Speaker 1:So tangibly, my credit went from the low 5 hundreds because of everything that was going on. So now I'm in the sevens across the board. Amazing. Right? I moved into a two bedroom apartment, and I felt a way about that.
Speaker 1:But now I have $20,000 saved up debt. In August, I had less less than zero in savings. You know? I owed. Now I have 20 k in
Speaker 2:Oh, this cushion.
Speaker 1:Yes. Which for me, it gives me so much confidence to attack, to go, you know, after the things that I I want to pursue and love because if it all falls apart again, I know I can at least cover. I'm not I'm Brandon. So those are some of the tangibles. The nontangible, I think it's just the energy of I just don't feel rash when I'm opening my agenda now, when I'm doing my weekly.
Speaker 1:I was very good about what I thought I was gonna spend versus what we did. Whether I succeed or fail, quote, unquote, I don't have any shame attached to it. I love to celebrate. I love to dance. Even yesterday, I pulled up to get a haircut.
Speaker 1:There's a lady who had her car messed up. Blah blah blah. We ended up helping to get it fixed. And I have no fear about energetically investing and and supporting because I know exactly where my dollars are. I can account for every penny that comes in and out, but it's not a job.
Speaker 1:It used to feel so heavy, and now I just feel free. That freedom feels great. Freedom feels good.
Speaker 2:Wow. I love that. Is there anything you would wanna pass along to someone someone who is hesitating diving into the program either for financial reasons or for time reasons? Because it is an investment. You know?
Speaker 2:Right. And yet, the payoff is real. But what would you want to pass along given your experience to someone who's hesitating?
Speaker 1:I felt sick about finances. I needed to get healthy, and I could have continued to make all the rationalizations and and not too busy. I have too many demands on me already, but something about choosing this helped all my other responsibilities fall into place in a much easier way to manage. Even talking to my children about money, I've been able to say, yes. We can do this.
Speaker 1:No. We cannot. And this is why in the conversations we're having, feel like lighter but with much more truth and conviction and clarity in them. It's like this join so you can get healthy so that the other issues that are that might be stressing you out can actually get dealt with. Because if you're panicked or afraid or or behind about this and running around trying to chase every chicken, you're not building in other places well either.
Speaker 1:This and it was so easy. It was like, yeah, 09:00 at night, I was able to catch up to whatever I couldn't do and then make a plan for the rest of the week, whatever the homework was. It was not dramatic. It was not a a time suck. It gave me back more time, more energy.
Speaker 1:That's what that would be my advice.
Speaker 2:I love that so much, and I love that you're passing this along to your boys.
Speaker 1:Oh, they loved it. Yeah. They love it.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. It's beautiful. Okay. So knowing what you know now, is there anything else that you think it's important to share about your journey with this?
Speaker 2:And then I just want you to talk a little bit about what you're building now with this new foundation.
Speaker 1:You said in one of your emails, I think, about the floss, and you were, like, frustrated because you didn't you didn't have your floss in Egypt. And
Speaker 2:I did. I mean, you thought and then you found
Speaker 1:out yes. And then you found out you did have your floss afterwards. The dance between having your agency to change whatever's happening to you and dealing with accepting what is. I think this was a beautiful way for me to practice that, and it's one of the things I absolutely love to practice in life. I want to accept the reality while also acknowledging I am a powerful agent of manifestation and change.
Speaker 1:And what I envision for my life, I can make it come to be while also accepting what is. And while that duality might be confusing, it's so real. This gave me both emotional and practical ways. Like, this is how this is how we look at the budget. This is how we look at our finances.
Speaker 1:This is how we breathe and dance with life as opposed to, like, resistance.
Speaker 2:Like, First of all, I just wanna, like, double click on everything you just said. It was so beautiful and so powerful that duality is everything, and it really is. Mhmm. It it's almost like the tension between accepting what is and knowing we can change what is is where our power gets generated.
Speaker 1:Right. Right.
Speaker 2:In that tension field. So thank you for naming it so beautifully. And then the next question I had is, what is exciting to you now? What are you building now from this foundation? Because you're such a prolific, creative, incredible man, and I'm just curious.
Speaker 1:So I've been doing music. I've been a musician my whole life. I thought that I couldn't do music anymore because I had all these responsibilities. Music is not a very inexpensive hobby. But I've been making music, and I've been I've been able to carve out so much time and space that I'm helping other artists write songs.
Speaker 1:I've been an executive producer on some songs. And now people are coming to me and saying, like, would you like to start a label together? And then I'm able to look at my life and saying, like, yeah. I have the finances to do that. I have the time to do that.
Speaker 1:And that's just one, taking trips with my children and not be not stressing about while I'm gone with them, what the money's gonna be like when I come back home. Am I spending too much? I know exactly how much we can spend. I know how much is in my wiggle room. I know when we can go.
Speaker 1:So, no, we can't go this month, but in two months, we'll have enough, and and it's like a family project. So I'm building, like, a solid family base, and I'm building this musically uplifting creative space for people. Because I feel like music helps you change the environment or amplify your environment. If you're sad and you wanna play sad music, it helps you get the sadness out. And if you're done being sad, you can play some happy music and help change it.
Speaker 1:You know? What I'm building now, and I really can't wait for people to hear kind of these truths and and other things that life has been showing me in the the offerings that I'm about to start releasing.
Speaker 2:I can't wait. You have such a beautiful voice. I've gotten to witness witness your artistry in person, and it was really moving. So I'm excited for the world as well. And if people wanna follow along and be able to learn more about what you're doing and connect with you, where can they go?
Speaker 1:At chief.Kareem@chief.Kareem or Kareem Manuel dot com.
Speaker 2:Amazing. Thank you so much for sharing your story.
Speaker 1:Thank This has been great. Like, the whole year it hasn't even been a year, but it was it was amazing. I appreciate it very much.
Speaker 2:I really appreciate you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Speaker 1:Yeah. No problem.
Speaker 2:One last thing, and this is important. The difference between where you are now and where you wanna be financially is not effort. It's architecture. Join me for good with money, my free three day live financial upgrade experience, and we will close that gap together. Tens of thousands have already done it, and you're next.
Speaker 2:Join us at katenorthrup.com/good. Again, that's katenorthrup.com/good.