“Look around you. Nature is free.”
I nearly choked on my dinner.
My coach and I were spending our final evening at a retreat center in Puerto Rico, sitting beneath a canopy of stars on land lovingly restored from near ruin into a sanctuary. Our host, a scholar of many esoteric traditions whose devotion to the place was evident everywhere we looked, had joined us for dinner. The conversation had wandered, as conversations with me tend to do, toward prosperity.
And then he said those three little words.
“Nature is free.”
I had purchased a plane ticket to Puerto Rico, rented a car to drive across the island, and paid to stay on the very land he had invested years of his life and considerable resources restoring.
Free?
Even the mosquitoes were collecting payment.
I kept my thoughts to myself. We were enjoying a lovely dinner, and he hadn’t given me consent to coach him and challenge his philosophy. But the conversation followed me home, and I’ve been turning it over ever since.
Because I understand what he meant. I can walk outside my door and stand beneath the trees without anyone presenting me with an invoice. I can watch the light move across the water, listen to the birds, breathe the air, and experience a kind of wealth that no financial statement can ever adequately capture. I have stood in places so beautiful that I could scarcely believe I was allowed to be there, much less call one of them home.
And every bit of that experience exists within an extraordinary network of exchange.
The trees participate in the cycles that make the air breathable. Pollinators move between flowers, gathering nourishment while making future generations of plants possible. Fallen leaves decompose and feed the soil that nourishes new growth. Fungi, insects, animals, microorganisms, water, and sunlight sustain the world outside my window through relationships of astonishing complexity.
Some of those relationships are mutually beneficial. Others involve competition, consumption, or one organism thriving at another’s expense. Nature has never promised fairness, and its abundance has never depended on everything receiving an equal share. Life continues to create, adapt, regenerate, and participate in an astonishing circulation of resources.
When I catch myself questioning abundance, I look to nature.
Does abundance really exist? Is there enough? Am I asking for too much? Have I somehow reached the limits of what is available to me?
The questions feel almost comical when I’m standing on my property, surrounded by trees, birds, insects, and the unrelenting determination of everything growing around me. The forest has been creating life long before I arrived, and it will continue long after I’m gone. I can spend an entire afternoon trying to understand the relationships unfolding in a single patch of ground and barely scratch the surface.
There is something profoundly reassuring about remembering that I belong to a world capable of such extraordinary creation.
I experience a similar sense of abundance looking out of a hotel window at the New York skyline.
The first time I noticed the connection, I was struck by how different the landscapes appeared and how familiar the feeling was. Outside my home, I see the accumulated creativity of the natural world. In New York, I see the accumulated creativity of human beings. Buildings imagined, financed, designed, constructed, maintained, inhabited, and continually reinvented by people whose lives intersect in ways they may never fully comprehend.
Every illuminated window represents another life unfolding. Somewhere inside those buildings, someone is making dinner, starting a business, planning a family, falling in love, worrying about money, sobbing in pain, celebrating a victory, or writing the next Tony winning broadway show.
The skyline exists independently of my attention, of course. Yet the particular experience of it, the wonder I feel, the possibilities I imagine, the memories it awakens, the way it changes my understanding of what human beings can create together, exists because I am there to participate.
The same is true when I look across my land.
I am a necessary, cooperating component of the reality I experience. My attention, my choices, my creativity, and my willingness to engage all influence what becomes possible within it. Remembering that I am an active participant in all this abundance changes the way I experience money.
I feel it before I can explain it. The contraction in my body eases. The urgency to force an outcome begins to dissolve. I become more curious, more receptive, and more willing to act on the opportunities in front of me. I find myself making requests I might otherwise hesitate to make, recognizing possibilities I might otherwise dismiss, and trusting my ability to contribute something valuable to the world.
Money becomes easier for me to create when I am connected to that visceral knowing. I stand in the flow of abundance, receiving what is mine to receive and sending out that which is mine to send out.
That understanding also shapes how I care for the land I call home.
Stewarding this land is both a responsibility and an extraordinary privilege. I maintain safe spaces for the animals who share it with us. I encourage native species and the pollinators who depend on them. I maintain firebreaks, watch the health of the trees, and invest time and money in protecting the conditions that let this little corner of the world flourish.
Nature has never asked me to do any of those things. I have never asked nature to compensate me for my efforts, either.
Still, the exchange is unmistakable.
I receive beauty, peace, belonging, wonder, and the satisfaction of participating in the flourishing of something I love. I contribute my attention, labor, resources, and care. Some days my return is the simple pleasure of watching a butterfly settle on a flower. Other days it’s the knowledge that something I did may help protect this place for years to come.
And sometimes the return is awe, the almost overwhelming privilege of helping something thrive.
There is always an exchange, even when nothing has been asked for, and no obligation has been created.
Much of our confusion about money begins with how narrowly we’ve learned to recognize exchange. Business owners understand the value of money because we can count it, deposit it, spend it, and record it. We have a much harder time recognizing the value of attention, presence, wisdom, care, satisfaction, and the countless contributions that make thriving possible.
Somewhere along the way, the word free became shorthand for anything that doesn’t require a financial payment, and we began overlooking everything else being contributed.
And nowhere is this more apparent than in how we offer our wisdom.
People tell me they’re offering free consultations, free workshops, free resources, and free access to their expertise. I understand the intention behind those offers. They want to be generous, build relationships, introduce people to their work, and make something valuable accessible without requiring a financial commitment.
I share that desire, and generosity is essential to how I operate.
But I don’t offer free sessions. I offer complimentary sessions.
When someone spends time with me, I bring decades of experience, knowledge, pattern recognition, attention, and the perspective I’ve developed through working with business owners navigating some of the most consequential decisions of their lives. I bring the mistakes I’ve made, the lessons I’ve learned, and the ability to recognize possibilities that may be difficult to see from inside a particular situation.
The person sitting across from me brings their own experience, questions, curiosity, attention, and presence. They bring a willingness to engage with what we’re exploring and, often, the courage to consider something they haven’t considered before.
Together, we create an experience that neither of us could create alone.
Most of the time, I leave a complimentary session feeling as though I’ve received as much as I contributed. Witnessing someone recognize their own brilliance, discover a possibility, or find clarity around something that has been weighing on them can be deeply satisfying. I love the moment when someone’s entire expression changes because they suddenly see what has been available to them all along.
That satisfaction is part of what I receive in exchange for my time and wisdom. I don’t need that person to buy anything for the exchange to be worthwhile.
The same philosophy informs how I offer complimentary masterclasses and webinars.
When someone joins me live, they contribute their time, attention, curiosity, and energy to a shared experience. Their presence matters. The questions people ask, the insights that emerge, and the connections created in the room all shape what becomes possible during our time together.
If someone can’t attend live and would like access to the recording, I charge for it.
Watching a recording still requires someone’s time and attention, but their presence can no longer contribute to the experience we’re creating together. The knowledge, preparation, and care remain available, and I’ve chosen money as the currency for that exchange.
I’m entirely comfortable with that arrangement. I get to choose how I offer my work, and the people who want to experience it get to choose whether the exchange works for them. Those terms can evolve as our circumstances, priorities, and capacity change. An exchange that once served everyone beautifully may eventually deserve a fresh conversation.
That freedom to choose is part of financial agency, and it belongs to everyone participating in the exchange.
The word free has been costing you more than you realize. You’ve become exceptionally good at giving. Now it’s time to become equally skilled at receiving. That’s the work we begin in a Prosperity Breakthrough Call.
One session. What you give, what you charge, and what’s standing between you and receiving abundantly.
I wonder how much would change in our businesses if we became more conscious of what we’re already giving and receiving. We routinely overlook the preparation behind a generous offer, the years of experience behind a seemingly effortless answer, and the emotional and intellectual resources required to be fully present with another human being. How often do we hesitate to charge for work we genuinely love because we’ve somehow absorbed the idea that our enjoyment reduces its monetary value?
I have seen extraordinarily capable people give so much of themselves that they eventually lose the capacity to continue doing the work they love. Their generosity was genuine. So is their burnout.
I want us all to serve from the saucer. To fill our own cups to overflowing so that we can generously give of our time, energy, and money from a state of blissful abundance.
When we give from overflow, we can release the need to control where our generosity goes next.
Exchange doesn’t require an immediate or equal return, and its effects can extend across relationships, communities, and generations. Someone may receive kindness from a stranger and carry that kindness into an entirely different relationship years later. A teacher may never know the full impact of something they shared. A person who receives help during a difficult season may eventually become the person who makes someone else’s survival or success possible.
The exchange is larger than any individual transaction, and money allows us to participate in that larger circulation in remarkable ways.
It allows us to exchange value across time and distance, often with people we will never meet. It allows us to support the labor, creativity, expertise, and care of others while receiving what we need to build and sustain our own lives. It makes possible forms of cooperation that would be extraordinarily difficult if every exchange required two people to have something the other wanted at precisely the same moment.
Money is woven throughout the life I have created, including the parts that feel most sacred to me.
Financial resources support my ability to steward the land I love. Native plants cost money. Fire mitigation costs money. The tools, materials, and expertise involved in maintaining this place all participate in the financial economy.
The beauty I receive inspires me to care for the land, and the money I create helps make that care possible. The satisfaction of that stewardship enriches my life in ways that extend far beyond the financial investment, and those experiences influence how I show up in my work and relationships.
The exchanges are interconnected, each contributing to the conditions that make the others possible.
When I talk about creating financial abundance, I want people to have enough money to make choices that honor their values, care for the people and places they love, and contribute to the changes they want to see. I want business owners to understand the financial realities of their work so they can make conscious decisions about what they give, what they charge, what they receive, and what they need to sustain the lives they’re creating.
I want the rebels, healers, coaches, and creatives doing extraordinary work in the world to have the resources to continue doing it, expand its reach, and enjoy the lives their businesses are meant to support.
And I want them to experience the pleasure of receiving.
For all the conversations we have about generosity, receiving deserves considerably more of our attention.
It’s the number one skill all business owners need to master.
We can become so accomplished at contributing that we barely notice how uncomfortable we are when something valuable begins moving in our direction. We minimize compliments, wave away offers of help, discount our expertise, and sometimes make receiving money far more complicated than it needs to be. What might change if receiving felt as natural and welcome as giving? If you could enjoy someone’s appreciation, accept support, name your price, and allow another person to decide whether they want to participate in that exchange?
The same person who can spend an afternoon joyfully helping someone solve a problem finds themselves tongue-tied when it’s time to make a paid offer. Suddenly, they worry about being pushy, asking too much, or making someone uncomfortable.
Yet an offer is simply an invitation to participate in an exchange. You bring something valuable. The other person has the agency to decide whether they want that value and whether the terms work for them.
You get to make the ask. They get to make the choice.
And if they say yes, you get to receive.
If receiving is a skill you want to master, let’s work on it together. Not in theory. In practice, with your actual numbers, your actual offers, and the patterns that have been keeping the money at arm’s length.
That’s what the Prosperity Breakthrough Call is for.
Economic conditions, access to resources, societal inequities, and the practical realities of our lives and businesses all influence our financial circumstances, and I won’t minimize any of it. Appreciating a beautiful view won’t guarantee that the mortgage gets paid. I also know that our relationship with possibility influences what we notice, what we pursue, what we negotiate, and what we allow ourselves to receive.
When I lose touch with that knowing, I return to the evidence around me.
I can stand outside my door and watch the life unfolding across my land, or I can look across the New York skyline and marvel at the accumulated creativity of millions of human beings. Both remind me that I am participating in something larger than myself, something that has been creating and exchanging value long before I arrived.
And wherever you are reading this, you are participating, too.
Perhaps you have a view that takes your breath away. Perhaps you’re sitting in a crowded apartment, a hospital waiting room, a coffee shop, or an office where the only glimpse of nature comes through a window across the hall. The exchanges that sustain your life are still happening. Someone grew the food you ate, built the chair you’re sitting on, created the technology that brought these words to you, or offered a kindness that made your day a little easier.
You are the pebble in the pond, sending ripples farther than you will ever see. Your presence and your work have influenced conversations, decisions, relationships, and possibilities that would have unfolded differently without you.
What becomes visible when you begin recognizing yourself as a necessary participant in the enormous circulation of life?
I think back to the gentleman in Puerto Rico, sitting beneath the stars on land he had helped restore. He had poured years of attention, resources, and care into creating a place where people could experience something extraordinary. We had traveled across the world to be there, bringing our own hopes, questions, resources, and willingness to participate.
The exchange was everywhere, even as he invited us to appreciate what he believed was free.
And I hope he receives abundantly from the sanctuary he helped create.
Because when I look at the world through that lens, I see an extraordinary invitation to participate more consciously in the exchanges already unfolding around us. To recognize the value of what we contribute, honor what we receive, and choose how we want our resources to circulate.
The world is filled with abundance we did nothing to earn and opportunities to contribute that are uniquely ours. We can appreciate what has been generously offered, take responsibility for what is ours to steward, and create new possibilities through the exchanges we choose.
There is always an exchange.
And you belong in it, with everything you have to give and everything you are here to receive.
You’ve spent years becoming exceptional at giving. Imagine what becomes possible when you become just as skilled at receiving abundantly.
The Prosperity Breakthrough Call is where we begin making that real in your business, your pricing, and your life.
P.S. Profit is Protest. And so is allowing yourself to receive abundantly from the world you help make infinitely richer.