Ep 260: Vanessa Molano on Abundance as a We Thing, Not a Me Thing

What is abundance culture? And what does pausing have to do with sustained abundance? These are some of the questions Vanessa Molano (our resident party animal + book nerd) asks us to explore in this conversation.

"I designed a spreadsheet to help you manage your bone$ and circulate that shit."
- Vanessa

Madd Question Askin' from this convo:

• What are some of the alternative ways we can do what we’re trying to do, without the harm?
• How do you manage money in a way where you measure success by the way your relationships feel?
• How do we practice reparations?
• How do we practice valuing healing as the center of financial management?
• How do we do financial management in a collective way? with foundations for inter-class solidarity.
• How do we practice “small is all”?

Highlights from this convo:

7:20 - 7:24 “what’s the point of being alive if you don’t have yourself?” VM

25:59 - 26:02 “For unschooling entrepreneurs, financial creativity is really at the heart of self-direction” ASR

30: 48 - 30:51 “authenticity is the most important thing we have” VM

31:08 - 31:17 “if you turn on the abundance lens, you’ll see that there’s a lot more support for the world that we want” - VM

Links from this convo:

• Vanessa Online
• Akilah’s Content Trunk
• Emergent Strategy by adrienne marie brown

Transcript

Akilah Richards: 0:00

Audio by raising free people network

Unknown: 0:10

yes, there's so much to process, right. It's like a lifetime of being in these systems. And the only way to really feel through it is to have the chance to pause,

Crystal Menzies: 0:21

documenting the shift, and really sharing the behind the scenes, not just tactical pieces, but the spiritual work that I'm going through. As I navigate this space,

Chemay Morales James: 0:35

I'm feeling a strong energetic shift in myself in my body, emotionally, spiritually. And unschooling self directed like all of that shit ties in. Why are we talking about this in SDE? Why are we afraid to talk about manifestation and like the power of our kids to manifest to us? If we understood that we wouldn't be afraid about getting the standards and the grades because we know we don't need that to manifest our happiness.

Crystal Menzies: 1:10

You can't keep using tools of oppression and expect to raise free people.

Fatima Mookadam: 1:24

Peace FOFC fam is now here. I wanted to give you a few touch points for this episode's flow. Most of this will be a conversation between Akilah and Vanessa Mallanna, aka Bridget, our Communications manager, and our bridge builder here at RFN. When I initially interviewed Vanessa for this position, they immediately felt like our people, our tribe, even just looking at them on the screen, I was like, wow, we have the same eyebrows.

Unknown: 1:57

So today

Fatima Mookadam: 1:59

Akilah and I are giving Vanessa the proverbial floor. That is to say the mic to share their story. You'll also hear from Chemay who like us sings Vanessa's praises. And together, Chemay and Vanessa have completely transformed the membership model for my reflection matters. This new model, they call it the star model has been such a blessing to every single member and future member of that space. You'll hear why and how in this conversation. And we want to know how it lands for you too. So use the voice memo button on raising free people.com Or come join us inside my reflection matters in the Fare of the Free Child village to share your fields and ask your questions.

Akilah Richards: 2:57

I'm actually going to send you the recording because to me is cool with it too. And I know Fatima is as well. So you can see how we all went into like, I mean, it was such a Vanessa love fest. It's like everybody told a little bit of the connection story and the pieces.

Vanessa Molano: 3:13

Oh, my cheeks are getting an exercise. Yeah, yeah. No, the slowness. I mean, it's funny because sometimes you have to listen to yourself, like you're saying all this stuff. And you know it's true. But you have to also convince yourself that is true. And it's funny, because it's like, yeah, that's a lot of what I'm trying to do with the money work. In my head. I actually started calling it a pause fund the redistribution work, because ultimately, healing is so much about pausing. So it's just like, yeah, there's so much to process, right? It's like a lifetime of being in these systems. And the only way to really feel through it is to have the chance to pause. Yeah,

Akilah Richards: 4:00

absolutely. A term that came up for me recently was stillvitation, like invitation to stillness. And then Vanessa, who you met other Vanessa, her whole energy, her whole share is, is savoring, like savoring. Not necessarily in a way that like when I hear savor, I think of delicious, like savoring the last bit of whatever. But it's not always delicious. But that savoring energy, of like, really slowing into something really paying attention to the pieces, noticing some connections, letting the sit sit in the side of your mouth and melting instead of biting. These are the things that are so present right now. So I love that pause fund, like that idea of the pause, so that you can notice so that you can save her so that you can nudge and notice. Because it's not just stillness. It's also different type of movement. Like you move it a little bit. You're like okay, well But I'll say like 98 things happen when I just nudged it a little bit this way. Yeah. Oh, now I gotta be with and that's also what money sometimes affords us, right? Like, the space to pause. Let's get into Vanessa. Before I knew Vanessa, like what led you too? Let's start with my work like, Where were you? And what led you to that place? If you can recall?

Vanessa Molano: 5:25

Yeah, well, okay, so the two things about me is being a book nerd and a party animal. So that's the simplest way of describing me. And because of COVID, those booknerd time, and there was so much going on. Okay, so take it back about what five years I think since emergent strategy came out. And since I read that book, one of the questions in there is, are you a fractal living embodiment of all of your values. And I was writing my own book, which I had been doing talks about, and people said, it reminded them of emergent strategy. So I was like, Okay, I'm gonna read that. So I always read books of like, something similar to what I'm talking because I always want to see what other people have said. And I think that reading is the best way to listen to someone. And so once I read that, I was like, Well, my book is so similar to emergent strategy, I should just really try to embody it. So I want to be a fractal living embodiment of all of my values. And, of course, I've been about youth liberation for since before emergent strategy came out, because of my experience as an after school teacher and being within the regular school system. And I've always held a value for playing and I've always embodied, playing. And so like being an authority, in a school system that was not working for me, I'm not the kind of person to like, quiet laughter, for the sake of getting in line, or for the sake of whatever program we're doing. because laughter is the most important thing, if anything in the world. And just like the joy and creativity and character of childhood, you know, of young people, it's everything that matters in the world, you know, and it's not just for young people, it's that I see, in contrast, how adults in the society have been just so whittled down to nothing, which, personally is boring. And what's the point of being alive if you don't have yourself, right? And so that desire to keep kids and young people and older people whole to remain whole has been, of course, the driving motivation for collective liberation for everything that I do. And so of course, that's the party animal side to right, like getting people together to be in our full selves together to jump on the table. And yeah, and that's what me and my brother, like a lot of the cultural work that we were doing, we had like a three story warehouse. And we had a lot of friends that were like DJs, and painters and artists of all kinds. And so we would do all kinds of different cultural events and sleepovers and stuff like that to like, one of my birthdays was a decolonize math birthday party. I think I called it aftermath. Yeah, cuz it was really. That was so fun. I got a bunch of books from the library. And like, just different. I came across this book called from one to zero. It's about the development of concrete concepts to abstract concepts, but it's completely multicultural, like this, like multicultural analysis of like how numbers develop. So anyways, I just like drew inspiration from all kinds of stuff. But that's just like one example. So it was always an experimental place. And then through that, it's like I'm always reading. And that's how I came across your book, because I got on some newsletter when it was

Akilah Richards: 8:50

pre Yeah. Before it was out. Yeah. pre order status.

Vanessa Molano: 8:53

Yeah, the pre order, and I might have been through my No, I heard about my reflection matters through you, actually. But anyways, I mean, it's so hard sometimes to say where books come from, because I'm always insert.

Akilah Richards: 9:06

Especially if you're,if you're lucky.

Vanessa Molano: 9:08

Yeah. Yeah. So I was like, Oh, I have to get on this with my brother probably sent it to me or something. So I was like, I have to get on this one. And then of course, I read it. And I took note of everything that was in there. I don't think you mentioned my affection letters in there in the actual book.

Akilah Richards: 9:24

It certainly wasn't in this form, because it didn't exist in that way. But Jimmy and I were already connected, and she was doing my reflection matters work in different ways.

Vanessa Molano: 9:34

Yeah. Okay. So yeah, I think since I was on the newsletter, then I started getting those tips and stuff. And so I was like, Yeah, I have to join plus, I had just moved to New Mexico. And of course, I wanted to actually create or join an unschooling collective. And since I don't have kids, I'd get connected and stuff like that. Yeah, down. It's funny because now we actually have one it's just like three days. I'd

Akilah Richards: 10:01

love three and a half families. That's all right. That's it. That's plenty. Three and a half.

Fatima Mookadam: 10:08

Yeah, yeah. And

Akilah Richards: 10:10

then I remember when you you reached out to me a while before, and I think you were putting, maybe it was like a workshop or a course or something like that together. And that was like the first point of connection. And then later on with Bridget, when we put that call out, and then you just like descended from the heavens or something where the trees are slowly, it was just like a little sprinkle, sprinkle fairy dust. And then so to me, tell me about the MRM part because I remember pieces of one of the bridges that you were creating, where the role of you before we even knew you was to make sure that I was in more consistent connection with what was happening in my reflection matters in the larger village, not just fear of the free child, and ways that we could amplify what was happening there. And the resources that were there that a lot of the folks who came to us it was like, but the answers are right in here. Because the answer is community, any question that you have, it's about finding it in that space. And so wanting to make that a more organic part of our flow. That's what I remember. And then I remember that you concepted, the warm line, like really early on. And then I just started getting messages from Jimmy, like, thank you so much for telling Vanessa, about what we're doing. And you'd like sending Vanessa our way because blah, blah. Now Vanessa is like later, I was like when this was my coach, when I said my final like it just was like, just like how it was when you joined RFPs it was just like your energy has seeped into so many spaces and just bought in, like clarity and connection and all these things. That's my perception of what happened.

Vanessa Molano: 11:59

Oh, man, I just think of like, absorbing. I mean, it's like a co inspiring process, right? I remember, when you first told me that I was working there and stuff. I was like, I was like, oh, yeah, now we're co conspirators. But I think when I first I was so excited, I just started like reading all your stuff, and like just absorbing everything that you've created. And I think yeah, I really wanted for each people at every stage in the unschooling process to feel like they had company in it. And of course, my reflection matters is a huge part of that, because there's actual people there. But I always reference your work whenever I'm doing something like Oh, as Akilah says, you know, D schooling is like this. So the language that you provide, is extremely affirming, just for all those like nuances of transformation. But yeah, I think for me, it's like, I just got really excited about getting organized, getting the information organized. So we can just toss it out, like candy or something.

Akilah Richards: 13:04

Yes. And that's feels so good. I just updated my content from yesterday, with some interviews from 2020 that someone brought back to my attention. And I was like, Man, this idea would not have even existed had it not been for Vanessa. Yeah.

Vanessa Molano: 13:20

Thank ya. So that's what I'm looking forward to, to jumping back. Yes, believe

Akilah Richards: 13:27

me, me too. But I am honoring the shit out of this slowdown. And it's been such a beautiful challenge. Really beautiful challenge in so many ways, emotionally, financially, lens wise, you know, like, what, what am I trusting? That's why I keep using that language like, yeah, I have these moments of Oh, my God, what the fuck the Blue Bloods? And then we've gone this far. And now we have, it's like, Yeah, I hear that. And I noticed that feeling, but I don't trust it. What I trust is moments like this, where it's like, or when I messaged you, and was like, Oh my gosh, I'm not going to be able to bring you back on for this month. And you're like, okay, that's okay. And I have these things going on in my life that, so that's what I trust. I trust those things.

Vanessa Molano: 14:15

Yeah, and I love that in your recent videos, where you were saying like, what are you trusting right now? Because we're always trusting something. Ah, yes.

Akilah Richards: 14:25

The pause right. For the podcast for the in betweens, yes.

Unknown: 14:30

Yeah. And I always think about that. It's you're always trusting something. And I think about that a lot. Even when driving, or even when you're crossing the street. It's like you trust that the car is gonna stop, you trust that the green light means green, and it's going to be red on the other side. We trust things all the time. And it's very often it's a lot easier to trust the status quo than it is to trust liberation. And so that trust work about where we shift trust and developing the skill of I think authenticity and trusting that when you express yourself or through your actions or through your words, that there's going to be some kind of equal energy to match that, whether it's now or later.

Akilah Richards: 15:11

Exactly, exactly, Vanessa. And the slowing down, helps me to notice that when I'm getting exactly what I'm trusting into, or when it's time for me to realize and pivot away from what I've been trusting, because it is so much easier to trust the familiarity of the status quo, right, like so much so and in noticing that it really has been super helpful for me to recognize what I am trusting. And not just that I'm trusting it. There's like an overarching trust that everything that is happening to me is for my protection, like the protection of what I'm for the protection of what I need the protection of what I love, everything, everything, always. So my job is to really get gooder and gooder at noticing that. Yeah,

Vanessa Molano: 16:03

there is some kind of reminds me of some kind of quote about, that's not exactly the right one. But it's like, oh, when someone shows you who they are, believe them. But it's similar to that it's not coming to mind. But it's like, when something doesn't work out, or when something like your money runs out, or some client gets mad at you for something. It's like, Oh, good. Thank you for showing me who you are.

Akilah Richards: 16:26

Exactly. Yes, exactly. That feels so connected to it. I mean, carnival as Fatima and I were talking about yesterday is a prime example of that. It continues to evolve into something that I am learning how to trust and the pace of it, including the pace of it to trust that to say, whatever I concepted I did that from like the opening of the portal and now I'm in the ship. So what I'm not going to do is try to stay stuck at the entrance when the other people that other energies, the other things are here now. So if I silo if I colonize myself in that way, and shut out all of the other things. That's all Empire shit. I know how to do that all day, every day. This is something different. And this is what I trust.

Vanessa Molano: 17:15

Yeah. And like from that to I had so much space to Yeah, it was such a blessing in disguise the time off because I have so many friends now. It's like too much. I'm like, I can't even be on the computer anymore.

Akilah Richards: 17:27

Oh, my goodness. That's so great to hear Vanessa because I know that was exactly what you wanted and needed. Yeah. Speaking of exactly what you wanted and needed, let me take this moment to shout out the newest members of our Make It Happen family over on patreon.com forward slash Akela Sarah Reese, whatever is Rachel and Paulina, actually, Reese and Rachel are both members of the my reflection matters community. So shout out to MRM as we do over here, and anybody, everybody who is part of our Make It Happen family, thank you so much, you know, we cannot do this without you. And this show has been a portal for so much more and continues to be. So if you get anything good and useful from these episodes, come on over to patreon.com forward slash Akilah, drop some coins in this river to make sure we can continue to expand and connect and deepen in this work we do over here. When I was talking with Jimmy, and the second interview where Fatima interviewed us, in a sense, this kind of has like two women who put ourselves in position to organize groups around the things that we needed and saw were missing and just our voice and struggles became sort of the medium for community. We have that in common. And we were talking about, again, you having our Vanessa love fest and saying that one of the things that you've done for both of us in very different ways, but to similar ends is given us the space to really move into what we're about now, not necessarily what people came to us for originally or what we started out at. But what we're at now where we're at now, the things that we've shared and what's left to me was talking about the work that you do with abundance in the space and how that's been obviously effective for the community there and the level of work and the level of like, sustainable care that people were getting, as you mentioned to me it wasn't like oh, here's one donation it's like you say you you did you buy you know like we really bought to get you to the point where are you walking around completely that and a die and not just like a one time thing like that level of community care, it's feels like such a part of your origin story, that you bring that lens and that way into different spaces. And so thinking of ourselves, our individual selves as also communities, also collectives of things, you've been able to do that for our individual community selves as well. So can you tell us a little bit about the work that you do with chimi?

Vanessa Molano: 20:25

So around 2015, yeah, it was 2015 is where I started photon factory with my brother, which was a cultural space. And just like kind of an activism hub and stuff like that, as well as anything that it needs to become. And through that, that's where I learned a lot about money, and how money can be used to make dreams come true or whatever, which sounds so techie. But really, if you use money, well, you can really make some beautiful things happen. And if you don't, you can stress yourself out and take some paths that are not aligned. And through that work at photon factory, just you know, because we had a cultural space, but we funded it through graphic design stuff. So I negotiated a lot of things I so you're very much responsible for pretty much every word that you say every person that you talk to, who you associate with, and why when you feel scarce, or that you feel like oh, I need x number of dollars in order to survive, or I need x number of dollars, in order to feel okay with myself, you have to ask yourself, why. And you have to ask yourself, Who are the people that you want to be surrounded by, and what actually feels good in life. So through that, through that learning money, over seven years of partnering with people in business or freelancing, I really got and also being a liberation theorist, it really gave me a sense of like, how just our relationship with money, how it could be used in a laboratory way, or it could be used in an oppressive way. And oftentimes, we don't realize that we're being oppressive, because we think we're just taking care of ourselves. And so that idea of scarcity versus abundance, that mindset is really what is at the heart of the work that I'm doing with Jimmy. I feel like I should give a little more background to on solidarity and like what it means to me. And I feel like the background is so necessary, because I always take stock of like moments where I've been really hurt by people. And because of that, I think I'm always theorizing. So whenever I experience something that's really harmful, I think, what are alternative ways of doing whatever it is we were trying to do without that harm happening? One of the mindsets that I've come across is this idea of scale, like this idea of like, oh, everything has to be a mass movement. I remember one time I was just going through just a lot. And I was trying to call on some women and FEM friends that I guess didn't really know, I needed a lot of support at that time. So I knew I needed a lot. But I didn't really get what I needed. And a lot of what was happening was at the Women's March, like a lot of the friends that I was trying to call on were like too busy because they were at the Women's March or whatever. So yeah, I just thought I'm like, Damn, that's a paradox. And so I was just like, a lot of from that moment, you know, I was just like, I really want to take care of every single person in my life. When someone really needs something, I want to give them an abundance of listening space and abundance of whatever it is that I have to offer. And of course, being an emergent strategy, scholar and practitioner, I guess, like, small as all is the main thing. So in this culture of mass production and capitalism, and everything like that, we think of our value in terms of how many followers we have, how many, whatever numbers, and it's shifting that mindset from quantity to quality. And it's really one of the phrases in emergent strategy is, you can measure your success by how your relationships feel. And that's what we need to be doing all the time. So how do you manage money in a way where you measure your success by how your relationships feel, and that includes your relationship with yourself. So from those principles, emerged a practice of well, of course, I accidentally became an account or I don't want to say I became an accountant, but through my freelancing work, because I keep picking up skills and whatever I learned accounting, and when COVID hit, that was the thing that was very easy to sell, and what I kind of did good at to make a living. And so because I have the combination of financial skills and liberation mindset, decided to merge them together for the abundance culture workshops. And because when you freelance you're always writing the highs and lows of money, you know,

Akilah Richards: 24:52

I do know.

Vanessa Molano: 24:56

Yeah, and like writing those highs and lows on the lope hurts, you got to still believe in what you believe in. And that's the hard part. And because I'm so familiar with that roller coaster, I wanted to help people navigate that. I was also part of this group called Seattle Solidarity Network, or Cecil for short. And what we did was like, whenever LIKE A BOSS ripped off someone, like wouldn't give them their full pay or whatever especially happened for like undocumented people, we would go and basically do these escalations until the boss would give the person their money. But at that time, I didn't really click that I was like, Oh, wait, I'm in Seattle, it's like one of the richest cities in the world, we could actually just pull money together and get these people out of these. We can liberate workers from their buses by actually creating businesses. And since I had so much experience, like creating businesses and stuff, and like, we got to think like the Senate goes back to what you're saying your course on the unschooling entrepreneurs guide, where financial creativity is really the heart of self direction. And so I was really trying to combine what it's like to be feminist and anti racist, and also have a financially creative unschooling reparations, like everything, just bring everything together. So I've really wanted to put to words like, what does the deepest solidarity mean? How do we practice small as all? How do we practice reparations? How do we practice valuing healing as the center of financial management? And also how do we do financial management in a collective way, where we lay the foundation for inter class solidarity? And I feel like solidarity is not complete, unless you're bringing your money into it, especially for white people. Exactly. Yeah. So I really wanted to embody, everything goes back to embodying all of your liberation values. And so yeah, I just I really don't feel comfortable with middle class or upper middle class or anyone that's financially comfortable to not be moving that money, for healing, for healing, especially if you're going to be anti racist, and it's necessary. Yeah. And

Akilah Richards: 27:18

liberation minded. Like, well, how, how how?

Vanessa Molano: 27:23

Yeah, yeah, exactly. You can't just be sitting on a pile of money and be okay with yourself. So yeah, it was about 24 people who joined the workshops. And it was about maybe, like, seven or so people who would come consistently. And yeah, we were actually able to move some money, like within the village and create, yeah, intimate solidarity, which is essentially like, here's this one person at the center, who is the most vulnerable, and we're gonna surround them with support. And I do feel like I overcommitted because I feel like, you know, I mean, it's interesting, because I think a lot of times, I can't be when these kinds of things I talked about, like getting someone all the way to the other side of, I guess, like getting out of poverty, getting to the other side where they're actually comfortable. Yeah, I tried to like push as much as I can. And like, if I have money, throw that money in and like encourage other people to do the same and like, stay consistent. But all of these things are cultural shifts, and it can't just happen with like one person who really believes in it or whatever. And so there was definitely some significant amounts of money that removed. And yeah, it's interesting, too, because of interpersonal dynamics and stuff like that. But I think that there's a lot more abundance than we acknowledge. And I think that like really, investing in collective liberation really means that like moving your money to where healing is happening, and that no one owes like, whoever needs time to heal. Like, they don't owe you anything but their own healed self.

Akilah Richards: 28:57

That's right. Yeah, like that is a part of your own healing to offer. And to offer it in a way that's not tied to anything but liberation is also for the person give me Yeah, because everybody is giving the receiver is giving a fuck ton.

Vanessa Molano: 29:13

Yeah. And that idea of like, value, and the way that transactions distort our sense of value, like in liberation, I like to call it like multi directional value. It's like a child when you're like hanging out at the park or whatever with a few families, and there's kids running around and stuff like that, like, all of that adds to the scene. Yeah, yeah. Everyone's are like a party. You know, everyone's joy. Like, someone starts dancing over here. And then like, everyone's existence is a contribution.

Akilah Richards: 29:44

That's right. Even if they're not even paying no attention. You're a minor in a business to stepping in the corner. Something about that coffee, we like shit, you know, like the pressure just showed up in my shoulder, just observing and they not even seeing you with it. I love that. Yeah, that one of the terms that my friend Terry, you know, Terry from the crosslink group, we've been talking a lot about value. And the first term we were using was value exchange. And quickly it was like my, that exchange feels like something. And what I landed on was value ecology because of all of those things. And then what Terry landed on, which I also love, is value vibration. Like it's feeling it's not, you're not always going to be able to be like, when you gave me this, and I can live, it's vibrational, it's has a bazillion little pieces. It's ecological, it's connected to the color you put on that day that I noticed that not just the thing that you gave me or I gave you, it's were ignoring so many aspects of it, just like you said, with abundance.

Vanessa Molano: 30:45

Yeah, yeah, I love that phrase of value ecology. And I feel like authenticity is the most important thing that we have. And your full self is always what you have. And I think that, I mean, it's so interesting, it is really a matter of noticing, it's really a matter of noticing. And that doesn't mean to be satisfied with the status quo or with like oppression or something like that. It's just like, if you actually turn on the abundance lens, you can look around and see that there's actually a lot more support for the world that we want, then, yes.

Akilah Richards: 31:27

What you're about to hear now are the details of the Star model, which is the evolution of my reflection matters membership model. I know that Vanessa had a lot to do with this concept in this and then refined it in community with Jimmy and I imagine other members of the team, but I really want you to hear it, especially if you are in business. Because this way, this mindset, it's not necessarily about adopting this exact model. But the thinking behind it, the feelings behind it, the liberation minded approach to income and impact and sustainability is really brilliant. And is the type of thing when we talk about really being imaginative imagining beyond what we're used to. This is a powerful example of that. So it's the star model. It's an acronym for solidarity, trust, abundance, and redistribution. Let me tell you.

Chemay Morales James: 32:27

So our new membership model follows this core values really is embedded in these four core values that together is called Star, right? It's very cosmic. And so the first one, the essence star, represents the word solidarity, because the village is all about community. And in community, we come together in solidarity for each other, we show up for each other without any questions. That to me is what solidarity is about that we are in community with people that we care about, who share same values, similar values, want the same things in life. And we do what we can to support each other through this process, right, we come together in solidarity. So that's the s and star, the T is trust. So we believe with our new model, and our old one, two, like it's not really that much different. I always believed in trusting our people in the village and being able to give what they can. So if you can't afford to give right now or ever, like, that's fine, we trust that you're being honest about your finances. And that's means that you shouldn't get access to the same learning experiences and opportunities that someone who can't afford to pay. Could so yeah, so trust is about trusting folks can give what they can, without any questions asked, I don't need proof. You don't need to give me evidence like in other kinds of spaces, we trust our people, the A's for abundance. And so the A for abundance is a big shift for me personally, because it is about getting out of that mindset, that scarcity mindset, like, oh, but what if we don't have enough? Oh, but are people going to be really honest and trust? Are people going to be really honest and give us enough? Are we ever going to have enough? So we value abundance. We believe that when we are in solidarity with each other and we trust our community to give what we can that we will and when we are doing our life's passion and work on this earth, that the Abundance flows, I believe The Abundance flows in the village because we attract, we attract the people in the community that creates that beautiful abundant flow. So I don't believe we'll ever be without enough, that is a core value of mine, we will never be without enough. Even if it might look like that to others, even if it might look like that to me at times or feel like that, especially like, we're in the stages of like really building up Patreon. And we have a number goal. And so when you're not there, sometimes it could feel like that abundance mindset, it's very easy to kind of slip out of that. But every day I wake up, and I'm like, I know we're gonna get there. Life is abundant. We get what we need in this universe, when we are doing what we are made to do on this planet. I really believe that and then redistribution. So our model is set up, where we're not asking every single member, we have over 1000, we have almost 1100 members in the village. And when asked that I looked at that number we said, All right, do we really need 1100 people to be paying a membership for this community thrive? Now a traditional business model will say yes. And that's really pushed me to really rethink that and say, Look, if we add, like 80 people out of the village 81, to be exact, that we're able to give more time out at one financially able people that are able to give via Patreon, within one of our four asking tiers, right, so we've broken that out where there's a specific like, number goal that we're looking within our $40 tier, our $100 month tier, or $500, month tier,$1,000 month tier, right. And of course, people can customize they're doing. But if we can meet with 81 people, our target for this year, which would be about 12k a month that we're bringing in financially, we don't actually have to require the rest of our community members to pay, like we will be thriving, we will have funds to pay the bills, we will have funds to be able to pay myself without feeling like I have to go get all these other side hustle gigs. I can focus primarily on just the villages where I want to be Vanessa, she and other members on our team get paid. I know that I don't have to like, ask someone might have to like, we have to cut things for a little bit because we're not enough funds, right? Like I know, we comfortably can make sure team members are getting paid what they need to get paid. That that money when we talk about redistributing it, we're talking about like that money going back into our community. So even when we make over 12k, right, because we're not saying oh, we have to stop at two, okay, we're saying well, at minimum 12k is going to keep us thriving, right? Anything beyond that means that we redistribute that it means it goes back into our community and means that of that 12k We're using funds to pay facilitators, leaders in the self directed education movement, right, whom are majority bipoc In our community, to offer courses in our community. It's not just me. Other folks in our community are offering courses and learning experiences for folks that don't really want to decolonize D school, how they think about education, and being in partnership and relationship with young people. So that 12k allows us to make sure those facilitators are paid that any other guests that we have come into this community that require payment, because we have our live chats, and those are usually not paid gigs,

Unknown: 38:57

that they can get paid.

Chemay Morales James: 39:00

We have mutual aid within our community. So those funds allow us to put aside some money towards mutual aid for members who have come to us in the past for support, whether it's been financial, whether it's been for health support various other things. Anything beyond the 12k means we could offer more than like one or two courses a month, right? It means that we could bring in more learning, we could extend our learning opportunities in the village. Because we have the funds to be able to do that. It means we could use those funds to pay towards an actual physical event and meet up. We can go outside of the interweb and actually be in physical community with each other. Those are some dreams that I have is like having like an annual or bi annual village gathering where we're now we can actually experience we can experience your workshop live right if that's some Do you want to put out we could have a somatic healing session live together instead of virtually. So that's what we mean by redistributing a very different model from a traditional capitalist business model, which is like you just try to squeeze out every penny from every, quote unquote, customer or client person that's in your space, right? And so that you increase your profits. For us. profit increase means there's more to redistribute, more abundance that we get to share back to our villagers. I'd love to invest in some of our villagers, we have such a creative community. And when I say community, I'm including in the young people in our CO learning deliberation, membership, right? Like our families, we have families there, right? Young people who have entrepreneurial ideas, I would love to be able to say we've got funds to invest in some project ideas from our actual members from their families. Just even talking about this just gives me goosebumps and gets me so excited, because like, this is the kind of abundance I believe the village is building. So that's the star. That's our star model. And I'm really excited. And what's happening, what's being created really is spirit driven, is intuitive, driven. I'm doing what I say we should be giving the space for our kids to do. That's exactly what we're doing. In the village we're practicing. The self directed the intuitive led learning philosophy live in action in front of everyone's face. We're breaking down old conventional norms and standards and ways of thinking of just not about education and parenting but also how we make money, how we share money, how we build community, and trust community do all those things so.

Fatima Mookadam: 42:22

If energy reflects the power of alignment, or connection, how do we then move energy through the body? It's a form of expansive journaling. It's getting real and intimate. With self, close and personal, if you will. Can you face off with yourself? Can you face your inner truth? Are you ready to connect intimately with your many selves? How and Where must your energy move, flow? Or infuse to align yourself with your freedom calling? Are you ready to boldly step onto the path toward freedom? Are you willing to make the long walk to liberation? And what does that look like? In the words of Jason Silva. It is ritualized surrender and ego death if you will. It is the last resistance before you discover the alchemical gold the magic so hurl yourself into the abyss and realize it's a feather bed.

Akilah Richards: 43:50

let me take the 4d cards out design the only person practice definition doorway Okay. All right. Say when he said Stop Should I pull from the top or the middle?

Fatima Mookadam: 44:18

The top

Akilah Richards: 44:20

alright. So, purpose. It says Our time together is finite. So whatever the current block between you is it worth carrying? If it is what might the costs be? And if there are costs, decide for yourself whether they are worth it. Ask what is the purpose of us together? And is this current block worth trying to understand? Purpose. And this for me feels connected to what we were just talking about in terms of like what we deserve. And thinking about the blocks in our lives and the things that this grant could unblock in on what are some of the costs that we are experiencing and navigating beautifully as we do and messily as we do. But thinking about the purpose, and what things like that fund can support this purpose. What about for you what comes up with purpose? If anything?

Fatima Mookadam: 45:38

To me, like, purpose has always been a big word. And I think somewhere along the line this year, that actually just shifted, where purpose is more about being present, where you're at, versus trying to chase or achieve something in the future. And once that shifted, I just felt so much more embodied in terms of living on a day to day basis.

Akilah Richards: 46:13

I hear that I love the distinction that you're making. It's such a significant one. Right? It's like something out there that you need to be complete, versus being really present and being clear about what's in front of you now, who you are now what you have now. Yeah, thank you.

Fatima Mookadam: 46:36

It also echoes, I don't know if you recall, December, previous. When I was just totally out of it. Yes. And I, I wouldn't even recognize because I was so not connected to self and to purpose. I didn't even realize it. And you called me out on that. And I was like, Well, I don't know, until I really had to sit with myself. And again, accelerated intimacy, getting close to self and really understanding what it is. Yeah, you are.

Akilah Richards: 47:12

Yeah, I remember that. Because the disassociation was, or is it the association? Or was that is real. And if you're not in community, it was another form of AI, right, another form of accelerated intimacy, so that somebody can call you out and in in a way that you can use not just something that feels like bashing, but something that's like, Oh, if they're saying this, and I trust them, let me look. That's like such a powerful resource to be in healthy relationship. So that these sort of things can happen because we can't do these things alone. Yeah. All right. I will definitely leave this card out on the bed and sit with it today. Because I'm really thinking about the idea of is this current block worth trying to understand that really sticks out for me right now? In a lot of different ways that I'm going to let be with me throughout the day. All right. If you want to work with this deck, this raising free people deck, you can head over to schoolish nest.com and click the market tab and get you one. For the show notes and related links to this episode, head to raisingfreepeople.com/260. So good, so good. As always. I love what's happening here. And I know I know somebody's feeling it. So stay tuned. We have one more episode this season. Just one more. You'll hear more from Chemay, you'll hear more details about the structure of My Reflection Matters. This will be a conversation, next week's episode with Naaz aka Fatima, myself, and Chemay and it will close us out this season. So make sure you listen to that episode because I'll have some clues about what's happening next season in there and then some. So as always, thank you for listening and chat to you next week.