Christa Romano: [00:00:00] Hey there and welcome to the Digital Nomad Life podcast. I'm your host Christa, also known as @christabellatravels on TikTok and Instagram. Feel free to slide into my DMs on IG at any time and tell me that you're a listener. Genuinely, I love to hear from you and I love to talk to you. So tell me, tell me that you're here and tell me that you heard this episode, which is all about money.

Christa Romano: Money, money, money, everybody's favorite and most scary topic ever. I totally get that talking about money can feel really uncomfortable for a lot of people, especially when they're coming from the Western world. It kind of feels like this taboo thing like, Oh no, don't tell people how much money you're making because they might judge you or whatever.

Christa Romano: And I actually hold a different mindset from that. I want people to know how much money I'm making now because I also want them to know how much money I was making because it's a very, very different experience from what I was making back then before I became a digital nomad and how much money I'm making now, which is amazing.[00:01:00] 

Christa Romano: Spoiler, a lot more. I want to share this with people because I want to empower people. That's why I have this whole podcast. I want people to know that no matter how broke you are, no matter what your starting point is with money, you can change your situation just like I did. So I will introduce myself.

Christa Romano: I'll tell you all about my own personal financial journey. And more importantly, I want to actually talk about the general money mindset issues that I have seen and heard people have that I know holds them back from becoming a digital nomad. You're listening to the digital nomad life podcast. So of course I'm here to frame this conversation about money under the context of becoming a digital nomad.

Christa Romano: That's what the whole thing is about. And that's what I do. I help people become digital nomads first by helping them figure out what is the best career that's suitable for their personality that can be done completely online. And then I got them through the process of [00:02:00] creating an online business.

Christa Romano: around that personality driven career. Now, the reason why I feel the need to make this episode is because I've just worked with so many clients where they have everything that it takes to become a digital nomad. They're motivated, they're hardworking, they have a great business idea. They're smart, they're capable, but there's this big thing, this big, big thing.

Christa Romano: shadow thing in the corner, which is the way that they think about money, the way that they relate to money. So before I get into any of this, um, I just want to ask you, dear listener, what is the way that you relate to money? Do you think that the way you relate to money is positive or negative? Is it high vibe or is it low vibe?

Christa Romano: Do you feel abundance or do you feel scarcity? All these things are just feelings that are really good to tune into [00:03:00] so that you have a general understanding of your relationship to money,

Christa Romano: which by the way, we all have our relationship to money. We relate to everything in our life and the more conscious that we can become of the way that we relate to things. the better we can be at changing the way that we relate to those things so that we can have a more positive relationship. Just like if you're in a romantic relationship, you need to be aware of how you're showing up in that relationship so that you can make positive changes.

Christa Romano: And when you make positive changes, you get positive results, and then you get a happy relationship. And what I want for you is to have a happy relationship with money. I want you to feel good about making money. I want you to feel good about spending money. And I want you to feel good about managing money.

Christa Romano: All of those things, making, spending and managing are really, really, really important when you are creating a business from scratch, which is probably what you're going to end up doing. If you want to become a [00:04:00] digital nomad, especially if you're going to follow my advice and my guidance. So we've got to work on your relationship with money.

Christa Romano: So, uh, yeah, like I said, I can't wait to share with you my relationship with money and how much it's changed over the and also the most common limiting beliefs that I've heard my clients say about money. Okay, let's get into it.

So I'd like to start off by sharing with you what my relationship with money is and has been and how much it has changed so that you're not just taking information from a stranger on the internet blindly. You at least know who it is that you're taking advice from. You should always know who you're taking advice from, and maybe consider what Only taking advice from someone who's actually where you want to be.

So if you want to be a multiple six figure digital nomad, then you are in the right place, my friend. Okay. So, um, I wasn't always. It's that, right? What I used to be was the [00:05:00] child of a very middle class family, grew up in the suburbs of Boston and I would say that, you know, my family didn't necessarily have like crazy money struggles, but we also were absolutely not abundant in money.

You know, I was never wearing like the same brand clothes that all the other kids in my class were wearing. Um, you know, it was always like, quote, too much money to buy lunch at school. We always had to make lunch at home. So there were a lot of stories about just like, you know, money being scarce, if you will.

And, uh, a little bit, some worries about would we quote, be able to afford things. So those were just some of the words and phrases that I was hearing growing up in my household. What I have learned about money and our relationship to money is it doesn't actually matter how much money is in anybody's particular bank account.

What really matters [00:06:00] is how they feel about how much money they have or don't have and the kind of phrases that your parents were saying about the way that they felt about money when you were growing up. The phrases and language that we heard about money when we were growing up is 100 percent the reason why you believe what you believe about money today.

So it's really, really important to actually think about what were those phrases in your house when you were growing up? Were your parents ever saying things like, that's too expensive, or we can't afford it, or were they saying money can't grow on trees, or, oh, the so and sos, they always like to show off their money, or was anybody ever criticizing others about money for having a lot of money or for not having a lot of money?

Did your parents ever share with you the amount of money that they were making and was there any expectations about [00:07:00] how much money you quote should be making someday when you grew up? I actually really encourage you to pause this episode and just reflect on those questions before you hear the rest of my story.

So ask yourself, what are the beliefs about money that you developed when you were a child based on your parents beliefs about money? Okay. So we know that I came from, a relatively humble beginnings and was not necessarily given lots of financial handouts when I was growing up. My parents did pay for my university, which was amazing.

So I graduated without debt, which was amazing, but there definitely wasn't the ability for me to ask for spending money. Especially if I wanted to move out of the house right away, which I did. I really wanted to not live at home as soon as I graduated from university. So what I did was I worked my ass off the summer after I graduated.

I think I had three [00:08:00] different jobs and, how much money? I don't remember how much money I had saved in my bank account, but eventually I landed a job in New York City. I actually lied on my resume. I like wrote that I wrote my friend's New Jersey address so that they would think that I didn't have to commute or like relocate from Boston.

I just really wanted a job. I really, really wanted to move to New York. So, um, basically I did what it took to get there. This is actually kind of a funny little story. Do you know what I used to do? Like, When I want something, I fucking go for it. So yeah, when I was 22, I was like, I must move to New York City, but what if they don't want to hire me because I'm from Boston?

So I didn't have a lot of money, right? I was working multiple jobs at a time. And I would actually hop on the Chinatown bus from Boston to New York to get to a 3 p. m. interview. So I'd get on that bus like very early in the morning, I'd go to that 3 p. m. interview, and then I would take the 6 [00:09:00] or 8 p.

m. bus back. from New York that night because I couldn't afford to stay in a hotel, um, or at least I felt like I couldn't afford to stay in a hotel. I mean, hotels in New York are a lot of money to be fair. Um, so the only way that I was managing quote affording to even go to my interviews was by taking a 15 bus there and back and spending like eight to ten hours on a bus in one day.

 Of course, eventually it paid off and I landed my dream job in New York making drumroll 35, 000 a year. You may be asking yourself, how does one survive in New York City on 35, 000 a year? And my answer to you is, I have no idea. I don't know how I survived. Actually, I do know how I survived. I lived in a shoebox sized apartment that was so dark that I could wave my hand in front of my face in the middle of the day and not be able to see my hand, right?

Because it was just, [00:10:00] we had, like, an extra bedroom that we, Converted the living room into another bedroom so that my friends and I could afford it Um, and I would eat dollar slice pizza for dinner multiple times per week So that's how I was surviving in New York. Okay on my salary

that shit was hard and it was stressful But honestly, I didn't know any different I guess I'm glad that I did it when I was in my young twenties, because I think when you're that age, it kind of like feels acceptable to be broke, I guess. Um, anyway, the point is I was broke and when I got fired from my job and you can hear more details about that in episode one of this podcast, but, um, when I lost my job, I panicked because I was like, I cannot afford this.

This rent if I don't have my 35, 000 a year salary and how else am I going to make this kind of money? and so I was really embarrassed and really ashamed and I really didn't want to deal with that like financial hardships that just felt like something I didn't want to [00:11:00] do. So my plan was to move somewhere cheap to just like pretend that my goal all along was to leave New York and to go do something radical and crazy.

So, uh, yeah, so what did I do? I got my security deposit back. I sold all my furniture. I sold all my stuff. I, Picked up random gigs for a couple months and um, I saved I think about like 5, 000 and I spent two of that on the flight to Thailand and on my English teaching certification, which left me with yes, 3, 000 to my name living on the other side of the planet for the very first time in my life.

How did I survive in Thailand? Well, I was spending 10 a night on my accommodation, which absolutely is something that is still very much possible if you go to Thailand. you could probably spend less than that. but, uh, you're just not going to be in a great place.

Right. [00:12:00] But at the time for me, I was living my dream. It was like my dream to be barefoot on the beach in a tropical place. My dream was to be there. Spending a dollar on a pad thai rather than a dollar on a cheap slice of pizza. So for me, I felt like I was abundant. I felt actually really good about my financial situation when I got to Thailand, especially because I started making money pretty quickly when I got there.

When I got there, I did have a couple of English teaching gigs, but I very quickly got a job in marketing where I was making drum roll 24, 000 a year. Woo. Literally 24, 000 a year. Um, but actually that amount of money got me way Farther in Thailand than 35, 000 a year in New York did. So, I mean, honestly, I felt like I was rolling in it when I was living in Thailand.

I was being able to afford [00:13:00] going to the beach, flying to different beaches in Thailand every weekend, going out to nice restaurants, fancy parties, et cetera. And, um, That actually was really important because that was the first time in my life that I felt what it feels like to have money and to not stress about spending money.

And that was when I realized, ooh, this feeling is a feeling I want to own. always have. And that was when I decided I never want to go back to the way that I felt in New York City when I was living paycheck to paycheck, when I was pinching pennies and when I was eating dollar slice pizza, not because I like pizza.

I actually don't like pizza, but because I felt like I had to, because that was all that I could afford. And having to say no to things because I couldn't afford it. I just, I decided that in there in Thailand that I was like, I ain't never going back to that kind of broke ass life again. So, I changed my relationship with money a little bit in those moments, right?

[00:14:00] In those moments, I decided the way that I was going to relate to money from then on was that I will always, always make sure that I work my ass off to have the money that I want so that I don't have to stress about money. Whereas previously, I was in a comfortable place stressing about money. That was what I was used to.

That was what happened with my family. Um, and so we always kind of default to what we're used to, right? Our, subconscious brain loves familiarity and therefore if your subconscious brain finds struggle with money more familiar than abundance with money, your subconscious brain is going to allow you to be in situations where you're struggling with money.

So in that moment, I kind of rewired my brain. And now my relationship with money is that I always have enough money and guess what? I do always have enough money. And ever since then I've been making more and more and more and more and more [00:15:00] money. So, yeah, even though I moved to Thailand with 3, 000 to my name, I made it work and I lived a very abundant life for the years that I lived there.

Then when I needed to move back to So, I'm back to the United States. I tried to go back to New York and actually ended up getting a couple of job offers where I was making 60k, so double of what I had been making in the past. I was like, you know what? I just really don't want to be in New York anymore.

So that was when I got a remote job. Remote job doing marketing for a tech startup and that one was going to pay me, I think 65 was what I was making. So even though that amount of money felt like a lot, I was really excited to be making that kind of salary. I didn't have any savings, like zero savings.

So what did I do? Um, I I started traveling as a digital nomad around South America, [00:16:00] staying in 8 a night hostels. Literally the first like two years of me traveling full time as a nomad, I was sleeping in hostels 90 percent of the time. There was this one place in, Medellin, Colombia, where literally I camped out in this hostel for, I think, two months straight to the point that I ended up hanging sarongs around my bed because, I just needed more privacy, like after living in a, in an eight bedroom dorm for two months.

So I've come so far guys, I've come so far. I basically maintained this standard in my subconscious about money for the next few years. I mean, of course, like making that salary and living in South America, my savings account started growing and growing and that was awesome, but I was still not spending money like crazy.

It just like spending money, spending a lot of money did not feel like something that I was comfortable doing. And because [00:17:00] my subconscious had been wired to think, okay, well I never want to be stressed about money. I became obsessed with saving money. So I saved and saved all this money until, it was time to create my own business.

I got really, frustrated with just like working my remote job. I was super uninspired. I was super bored. And I was like, yep, it's time. And, um, I'll have to share about it in another podcast, but basically between 2018 to 2020, I tried to create like a Eight different businesses. And it just kept not working out.

And why was it not working out? Well, at the time I had no idea because like I understood marketing. I was pretty sure that my ideas were good. Like I did the market research and confirmed that the ideas were good, but why were none of the businesses taking off? When I look back, I know. That it's because I was too afraid to invest in myself.

I was too afraid to pay for any kind of online course. I [00:18:00] was just thinking that I could learn everything that I needed to learn from free shit on the internet, like free YouTube videos, free Googling, free advice from my neighbor or whatever. Like I just never wanted to actually invest in myself. So it wasn't until two years of failed attempts at starting a business that I decided, you know what, I think I do need to invest in myself and I decided to hire a coach.

And actually I think I'm telling the story a little bit wrong because it was almost like I didn't really decide to hire the coach. I feel like my coach found me somehow. That's sort of another story for another day. But, basically I ended up talking to this person, Susie. and I found out after talking with her for a while that she was a business coach and then she told me about what she does and I was like, Oh my God, that feels amazing.

How do I get involved in this? I think I want to coach. And then she was like, that'll be 10, 000. And I was like, what? Oh my God, 10, 000. Like I've never, I think [00:19:00] at that point. The most money I had ever spent on anything other than a month of rent was like, a plane ticket for a thousand dollars. Or like maybe a laptop and then underneath that maybe like a pair of headphones for 200 and that was like a splurge, right?

So to spend 10, 000 on something, especially like something intangible, like coaching, just threw me for a fricking loop and actually sat about on the idea for months. And then finally. I decided, you know what? Something's gotta give here. I've been trying to do it on my own. let's just see how this goes.

So I spent the most terrifying amount of money I have ever spent to this day. Oh my God. I'll never forget being like, am I seriously doing this? But I did. So I spent the money. And I started working with my business coach Susie and, actually I just really credit her. You guys should follow her. She is, Susie, a [00:20:00] official on Instagram now, and she no longer does business coaching, but this woman is so fricking tapped in to psychology and spirituality and money mindset.

And she literally changed my whole life with what she taught me about money. money mindset. And I can't wait to share with you now what she taught me and what I've continued to learn and how I've seen it shape and affect my life. And that's when we'll all start also talking about what are the most common money beliefs that I see my clients have that prevent from making these massive, abundant changes in their life.

Christa Romano: So the first concept that Susie taught me about money was that I have a relationship to money, which is, of course, I already spoke about that earlier on in the podcast, but it's so important that we know what our relationship with money is so that we can change it. there were a couple of really powerful things that I read and watched in the early days that, seriously helped me improve my money mindset.

Christa Romano: So the [00:21:00] first thing is, this book called You Are a Badass at Making Money by an author, Jen Sincero, S I N C E R O. I listened to it on Audible. Um, whether you read it or listen to it, it's just like, Such a good book. The author is so funny and fun and woo woo. And like, just, it's just amazing. Even if you're not into the woo woo, I highly recommend reading this book so that you can understand about having a relationship with money.

Christa Romano: I literally have every single client read this book. It's like mandatory to work with me. So can't recommend that book enough. Also, there is this really great meditation on YouTube by a woman named Marissa Peer. If you type in Marissa peer onto YouTube, the title is called fix your money mindset today with this abundance meditation.

Christa Romano: Okay. So basically she takes you through this, subconscious reprogramming session that you can just watch and listen to. And, yeah, [00:22:00] you will surface some of your beliefs. about money. And that's when I first realized that the way that my parents spoke about money, that's too expensive. Can we really afford that?

Christa Romano: Is this a good financial decision? Like all those phrases weren't playing in the back of my mind as I was embarking on a journey to be making money in my new business. So Susie taught me to create a business, right? And that's also what I teach people to do. I've done the whole do a remote job thing.

Christa Romano: I've been a freelancer. I've been a content creator. I've partaken in the gig economy. I've been a blogger. Like I've, I've just done. all the different ways that you can make money online. And I just really believe in the method that I eventually landed on, which is to create a small service provider business out of a passion or an interest or a skill that you already have.

Christa Romano: Check out episode 38 of this podcast. If you want to hear more [00:23:00] about that. Anywho, I believe that creating a business is the best way to be making money as a digital nomad, especially if you want to be making money quickly. The road to passive income is very long and arduous and risky, actually, because you could put in all that time and money and not get any kind of result.

Christa Romano: So the thing is, when you want to make money in the way that I'm teaching you how to make money, it is. simple. It's a very simple process. It's very straightforward. But the thing is, it can be really challenging for people because of their money beliefs. So I want to share with you now what those money beliefs are, and I'll talk about what the beliefs are, why they come up, or how they come up in the digital nomad journey, and also how I personally have experienced them.

Christa Romano: Okay. And actually just one more little context thing. You will start to hear these beliefs and as I share them with you, I want you to think about how, [00:24:00] if you actually really believed this, how well would your business be doing? How successful financially would your business be if you actually really believed these things?

Christa Romano: Okay. So the first one is that money is the root of all evil. Personally, this is a phrase that I heard all the time growing up and especially in the Catholic church. The Catholic church loves to use guilt and shaming on people. So, um, we hear those things a lot if you do come from that kind of religious background.

Christa Romano: So this money is the root of all evil. If you are scared of being evil, and especially if you're scared of going to hell, when you hear this phrase when you are young, It's really, really, really scary and everything that you hear when you're young, by the way, gets stuck in your subconscious. Here's a little fun fact for you just to really drive this point home.

Christa Romano: Up until the age [00:25:00] of seven, you actually only have access to the same brainwaves that we have as adults when we're under a state of hypnosis. And when we're under hypnosis, We are highly, highly, highly suggestible. So basically anything that you hear under the age of seven gets stuck in your brain like forever and you have to know that that's in there.

Christa Romano: So I'm going to ask you right now. Have you ever heard the phrase money is the root of all evil? from one of your primary caregivers or when you were under the age of seven. If so, it might be possible that you actually have that belief in your subconscious and you have a subconscious guilt around desiring or accumulating wealth.

Christa Romano: So if you have guilt around making money, what are you going to do when it comes time to actually Ask for the sale on a sales call. When it comes time to price [00:26:00] yourself, what you're going to do is you're going to think, Oh my gosh, if I raise my prices, I am evil and you don't want to be evil.

Christa Romano: So guess what? You're not going to raise your prices. And guess what? You're going to be scared shitless when you tell someone on the phone what your prices are. So you're probably not going to do very well in business. If you believe that money is the root of all evil. The next belief is that you have to work really hard to make good money.

Christa Romano: Okay. So yes, it's important to work hard and I have a whole podcast episode all about how becoming a digital nomad is not easy. But it's possible it's like, it's kind of hard. Like you, you do have to put in the work, right? And there's, there's like shit that you have to do. The thing is, if you hear that too much, like, Oh, making money is really hard.

Christa Romano: Or you see people like they're making a lot of money because they're working really hard. They're working really long hours. Well, nobody wants to be exhausted all the time [00:27:00] with their work. nobody wants to become a workaholic, but if you in your brain associate being a workaholic with making a lot of money, Then you're probably going to sabotage your chances of making a lot of money because when opportunities come up for you, you might not take them because you think that, Oh, but if I want to be successful in this, I have to work so hard and I don't want to do that.

Christa Romano: I want to enjoy my life instead. The truth is that there are lots of ways that you can make money with money. not that much effort. And that actually is what I teach inside of the digital nomad life Academy, my program, where I teach you how to create a business. Everybody inside of the program learns how to create a business in the way that I teach them in the most fluid, seamless way possible.

Christa Romano: And there's always ways to scale your business without working your ass off. Like just to compare a little bit. [00:28:00] The job that I had in Thailand, I really loved that job. I was the editor of a magazine. That's kind of a story for another day, how I ended up with that job. Um, but I had this like really cool job, but it was demanding.

Christa Romano: because it was a startup, I just had to wear many hats and dude, the days, like the week before we went to publish every other month, I was working 12 hour days every single day. Getting so stressed out, like literally like ready to rip my hair out to the point that the day after the magazine published, like nobody in the office would talk to me because they knew that I would just be a fucking like lump.

Christa Romano: They were like, Oh my God. Okay, Krista, maybe you should just like go home today because I would be working that hard like that crazy. So at that time, that job, remember I was literally making 24, 000 a year. Now that I am making multiple six figures a year, I don't work on [00:29:00] Fridays. I don't even open my laptop until 1 or 2 PM on most days, unless I have a call in the morning and, but I find calls like fun cause obviously I'm a talker.

Christa Romano: and sometimes I just like don't work all week because I just don't feel like it because I, you know, I'm on my cycle or because I'm tired or I'm, I'm sick. sad about something or whatever. Like, I mean, I've probably built my business to the point where I probably work like 20 hours a week, max.

Christa Romano: and when I work, it's fun. I'm like excited about it. So this whole work smarter, not harder thing is real. I was not working smarter when I was in Thailand. I was just working harder and I was not making more money. But the thing is most people believe that you have to work hard to make a lot of money.

Christa Romano: So I'm telling you right now that's not true. And you got to do the work to rewire your belief systems about that particular belief. Otherwise you're going to keep sabotaging your chances of making great money.

Christa Romano: Okay. This next belief [00:30:00] is one that I hear about all the time, especially from people in my program. Maybe you've heard me say it before, but like, I think the people that join the Digital Nomad Life Academy are honestly such softies. Like they're such sweet people. I just naturally attract people that really want to do good in the world and want to be good people and have a lot of integrity.

Christa Romano: And, um, they just want to do the right thing. Like they want to be good. So I love the value of the people that are inside my program, um, because I think like attracts, like, so I think I'm like that too, but yeah. And the problem is that people that have these, very strong values of kindness and of integrity, they might have a belief that of course, remember was given to them when they were very young, that rich people are greedy or dishonest.

Christa Romano: So if you believe that rich people are greedy or dishonest and you value kindness and generosity, what are you going to think? When [00:31:00] you have an opportunity to make a lot of money or what are you going to think when it comes time to raise your prices, you're going to start associating raising your prices with being greedy, but actually you might need to raise your prices.

Christa Romano: You may need to raise your prices because of inflation. You might need to raise your prices because your skill level has just gone up and up and up. You might need to raise your prices because you just actually are starting to. I only eat dollar slice pizza because you can't afford your rent anymore.

Christa Romano: But like so many, I see this, so many freelancers, so many, business owners that are new, they sabotage their pricing because they think that they're going to be greedy or dishonest if they charge what they're actually worth. Like literally you can tell yourself all day that you want to make more money, that you want to make more money, that you want to make more money.

Christa Romano: But when it actually comes time to Yeah, again, raising your prices or scaling your [00:32:00] business or accepting a new job, you will probably get super triggered if you are associating making a lot of money with greed or dishonesty. I actually recently had this conversation with one of my clients who was saying that when she thinks about, making more money in her business or raising her prices, she thinks, Oh, well, if I do that, then I'll start making more money.

Christa Romano: And then maybe Eventually I'll be rich. And then she thinks, Ooh, who's rich? What's rich. And then she gets a vision of Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, right? One of the richest men in the world who is not necessarily known as being like the kindest, nicest man. So she. is worried, right? We, we realized she had this subconscious fear of making more money in her business because she didn't want to be like Jeff Bezos.

Christa Romano: So I know like saying it out loud sounds crazy, but this is super, super, super common. You just need to be aware of what your beliefs [00:33:00] are. and then you can rewrite them. So that kind of actually leads me into the next two beliefs, which are that I don't deserve. to be wealthy and there's never enough money.

Christa Romano: Okay. So I don't deserve to be wealthy. Like, um, well, first of all, does Jeff Bezos deserve to be wealthy? Well, you may think, yeah, but he's so smart or he's so hardworking or he has something that I don't have. Okay. That is. A terrible, negative, limiting belief that actually just has to do with a lack of self love.

Christa Romano: Sorry to say that. Sorry to call you out if that's what you believe, but um, you can listen to my last episode about spiritual beliefs that really changed the game for me and in business and in my life. but there's a concept that I talk about, which is that when we are born, we We are all born the same, like it doesn't matter if we're born into an aristocratic or wealthy family or if we're born [00:34:00] to a broke family, we all have the same amount of worthiness.

Christa Romano: inside of us. We are inherently worthy and we remain inherently worthy for the rest of our life. worthy of love, worthy of success, worthy of abundance. Um, I know you can probably think of lots of rags to riches stories. Like it's a tale as old as time it happens. So just because you're born into a situation where you don't have a lot of money, it doesn't mean that you can't be mega abundant later in life.

Christa Romano: But if you want to be mega abundant later in life, you really have to believe that you are worthy of it because it's just like, imagine the vibe of, you giving someone a gift and they're like, Oh no, I couldn't possibly, and they like really believe that they couldn't possibly, and their body language is like their head down and they're looking up through their eyebrows or maybe they're like faces red and when people are not able to receive a gift.

Christa Romano: It's because they don't believe that [00:35:00] they are worthy of that gift. And then they get all ashamed and they act super weird and socially awkward. And that is essentially energetically what can happen in your business. And If you have this belief that you don't deserve to be wealthy, you can't also just believe that you deserve to have enough money, but not wealthy.

Christa Romano: Like, no, you need to believe that you deserve to be as abundant as Jeff Bezos, as Elon as a Saudi prince. Like you deserve to have that if you want it. and wanting it doesn't make you greedy. Okay. It doesn't make you greedy. there's all kinds of amazing things that can happen when you do start making more money.

Christa Romano: And actually, I wasn't planning on talking about this in the podcast, but I do think that it's really important To talk about too, is that, back to the greedy or dishonesty thing, like sure, maybe the examples that we have that stick out in our mind of people that are incredibly wealthy, [00:36:00] like we do have a perception that they might be greedy or dishonest, but that doesn't necessarily mean that if you make a lot of money that you have to suddenly become greedy or dishonest.

Christa Romano: unkind. to be worried about turning into someone who's greedy or dishonest all of a sudden when you make a lot of money, like if you won the lottery today, like, is your soul, is your spirit, is your mindset going to completely shift to being greedy and selfish?

Christa Romano: Why don't you trust yourself a little bit more than that? Like know who you are, like seriously, get in touch with who the F you are. If you're listening to this and you know right now that you're a kind person, babe, you can continue to be a kind person. Whether you raise your prices, whether you win the lottery, whether you marry rich, like, it doesn't matter.

Christa Romano: You are who you are, and if you are a kind, good person, trust yourself [00:37:00] enough that if you make a lot of money, You're going to keep being a kind and nice person. And I actually encourage you right now to think about what kind of impact could you have on the world? What kind of impact could you have on the people around you, on your family, on your friends?

Christa Romano: If you made twice as much money as you have right now, how generous could you be? If you made twice as much money as you do now, what could you do? What good Could you do in the world if you had 10 times as much money as you have right now? Could you actually like donate to those really sad commercials that you see that just break your heart about the dogs or, or the kids in war zones?

Christa Romano: Like, like, could you sponsor a child? Like, is that something that you could do? Like, could you afford next to 30 a month? If that's something that you've been wanting to do, Could you support someone in an issue that they're having? Like, could you have the ability to pay for your [00:38:00] aging parents medical bills? Could you fly a loved one across the country to visit you or for you to visit them because one of you is sad? there's a lot of amazing things that you can do when you have more money.

Christa Romano: So I just really encourage you to think about what those things are because that might actually be the change and the mindset shifts that you need in order to allow yourself to feel safe and comfortable calling in bigger amounts of money. Like I said, there's another belief that ties into this as well, which is that there's never enough money. So, and I think this belief, what that really is, is that people think that, somehow, like, if they are making a lot of money, then they're taking away money from another person. But that is just not true.

Christa Romano: Like, that's not how money works. Sure, you spend money on things, but just because you're spending money, it doesn't mean that like you're taking it from that person and [00:39:00] then that person's is just their money stash is going to keep going down and down and down with no opportunity to replace it. Money is money.

Christa Romano: And I don't have the time in this podcast episode to go into how money is energy, but it is always flowing. It is flowing from me into you and to somebody else. And it's just always moving and circulating, circulating, circulating. So just because you're charging someone. money for whatever it is that you're offering.

Christa Romano: They're spending it on you. But ultimately, when we spend money, it's usually for an investment. We're not just spending money on things that don't get us anything. We're spending money on something that is going to benefit us. Otherwise we wouldn't spend the money. When you had this belief that there never is enough money, you're really in a scarcity mindset.

Christa Romano: Um, you're in lack [00:40:00] and you're in fear. And when you're in lack and fear, you are not going to be making big, bold, risky moves, which is what you need to do as an entrepreneur. Sometimes you got to take a little bit of a risk. You got to make big moves and you need to invest in yourself. You might believe that other people don't have enough money and you might believe that.

Christa Romano: You never have enough money, but if you believe that you never have enough money for whatever it is that you're always running out of money or that money's running out on you, how is that going to affect your decision making? Are you going to be able to invest in yourself in the way that you need to?

Christa Romano: Or are you going to be like me circa 2018 where I just thought, Oh, well, I'd rather just not spend the money and just Google it. No, no, no, no. You need to spend money in order to have the results that you want. In most cases, I mean, you might be getting gifts for free, but like, you can't base your life on [00:41:00] free shit.

Christa Romano: Like that is not going to get you anywhere fast.

Christa Romano: The truth is that the world is filled with money and there is always enough money. There's always enough access to money anyway. You can always go out and make more money in different ways. And other people can pay you money. And just because they're paying you money, it doesn't mean that they are being depleted.

Christa Romano: They can also find other ways to make money. So stop telling yourself that you're going to hurt someone if you are getting money from them in whatever way.

Christa Romano: You also got to stop telling yourself that you're just not good with money. That creates a self fulfilling prophecy. Think about it. If you actually believe you're just not good with money, how are you going to act? How are you going to show up in your business? When you believe that you are essentially avoiding learning about financial management and you're not going to be making informed decisions about your finances.

Christa Romano: So guess what? You're going to keep being bad with [00:42:00] money. Same thing with this other belief that I think people have, which is that I'll never be wealthy. Personally, that was one that I held. I think, you know, something that came up in the meditation that I mentioned earlier is that you want to think about how much money your parents made.

Christa Romano: And generally we usually see ourselves making the same amount of money as our parents because our parents are our role models, right? It's not often that someone says, Oh yeah, my parents made this much money, but I'm going to make this amount of money. Like you might want to do that, but it might be hard for you to actually believe that you can, because we're all just people.

Christa Romano: Products of our environment. But anyway, I hope that you don't think that you'll never be wealthy But if you do if you do believe that you'll never be wealthy You need to understand that this is a defeatist attitude and it's going to get you nowhere to be a defeatist Okay, ready for the next one?

Christa Romano: Because this one is a doozy and I think we all hear it all the [00:43:00] time. I feel like this one is actually almost a way to shame people that do make money and it is this, maybe you've heard it before, money can't buy happiness. Are you sure? Are you sure about that?

Christa Romano: Uh, look, okay. Yes, it's true. You can't literally buy happiness. However, It sure does frickin help. It sure does help for you to have a less Stressful life and therefore a happier life when you are not worrying about the next paycheck when you know a medical emergency comes up and you can just say I got this or when you do need to fly halfway across the world for funeral that happened while you were on vacation like Those are not things that you want to be stressed about.

Christa Romano: Like, you definitely want to be able to have the kind of money that just lets you relax, like lets you be a relaxed person in a state of [00:44:00] emergency and even in a not state of emergency, like what great things could having quadruple the money that you have now do for your life? What would make you really happy in life and can money in any way contribute to you being happier?

Christa Romano: I feel like in the, I don't know, early 2000s, there was this article that went viral that showed this bell curve of like, if you're making 70, 000 a year, like up until 70, 000 a year, the amount of money that you make does directly relate to how happy you are. you can be. So if you're making less than 70k, you're going to be less and less and less and less happy.

Christa Romano: The less and less and less money that you make. But then once you start making more than 70, 000 a year, let's say if you make 90, 000 or 200, 000, you're actually like less happy. Um, okay. So I find that completely [00:45:00] untrue, completely untrue. I don't think that money and happiness. Um, and I'm going to talk a little bit about how money and happiness go together, how money and happiness even go together like they're unrelated.

Christa Romano: Like that's what anybody who is, is rich or has made a lot of money will tell you is that they think they might think that, Oh, they're going to be happy when they make more money. And then they get there and then they realize that they're not any happier,

Christa Romano: but you know what, they're also not saying that having less money is going to make them happier either. What they realize is that money and happiness are unrelated. So if money and happiness are unrelated. Why the hell is everybody forcing this phrase down our throats, which is that money doesn't buy happiness.

Christa Romano: Like, what the hell are they talking about? Like, money doesn't buy, the wind. Money doesn't buy the beach. Money doesn't buy Your long term or short term memory money doesn't buy your ability to smell the roses like what the fuck What are we talking about?

Christa Romano: Why is this even a conversation? Yeah, money doesn't [00:46:00] buy happiness. Why is this a relevant part of our conversation? remove it from your vocabulary. It's unhelpful. It's unnecessary. And in fact, it's harmful because it kind of puts this idea into our head that if we are relating money and happiness, then we somehow have like misaligned or I don't know, not good values.

Christa Romano: If you want money to provide you with more freedom, with less stress and with more opportunities. Then amazing. Go for it. Go get that bread. There is absolutely nothing wrong or selfish about wanting to make more money.

Christa Romano: Okay, another belief is that you have to have money to make money. Well, as you know, from my story, definitely that is not true. Like I really did not quote have a lot of money when I started building up my career. Like [00:47:00] we all have access to money. to the internet. We all have access to social media. We all have access to YouTube.

Christa Romano: Like, we can use social media to sell stuff for free. We can learn YouTube to learn stuff for free. We can use Facebook to connect us with the right people who might want to buy our services. We can use LinkedIn for that. We can use LinkedIn to find jobs. We can use different websites to get gigs. is such a ridiculous thing to say you have to have money to make money.

Christa Romano: I think you need to have the internet to make money and you do need the internet to make money as a digital nomad anyway. Like if you want to go be a waitress or a farmer or something, sure. You don't need the internet to make money, but you also don't need money to go get a farmer or a waitressing job.

Christa Romano: you don't need money to make money. You might need money to make money in a specific way. You might need money to, create some kind of like product based business where you have inventory.

Christa Romano: You [00:48:00] might need money to start investing so that you can double your investment. You obviously need some kind of like seed of money, but you know, even if you have 10, like that's still 10 that you can invest. So like you have to have money to make money. I don't know. I just feel like we're missing a lot of context to the statement and the statement feels void of, it just feels, it just feels void of value.

Christa Romano: Void of relevancy. Now, the last belief that I want to share about is spending money on myself is wasteful or selfish. This is definitely something that I used to believe. Like I saw girls, you know, splashing out, like getting their nails done or getting the expensive shampoo at the hair salon or Spending money on, designer bags or whatever.

Christa Romano: And I just, I feel like I, I judged these girls. I was like, ew, like, why are you guys spending so much money on yourself? Like, who do you think [00:49:00] you are? And I just cast all these judgments on these people. And, um, I just, well, I feel, I feel sad for the people that I judge and I feel sad for myself because now I understand that actually, like for me, getting my nails done is an investment, helps me feel like the woman that I want to be.

Christa Romano: And when I feel like the woman that I want to be, I show up as the woman that I want to be. And that's just what the, like a silly example about getting my nails done. But how about spending big money on yourself, like getting yourself a coaching program or a high ticket course or something like that?

Christa Romano: let's say. Joining the digital nomad life Academy, for example, or for me spending 10, 000 on my first business coach, I resisted spending that money for so long. I was like, no, I can do it myself. Like I shouldn't be spending that kind of money on myself. Who do I think I am? I should be using that money for insert blank.

Christa Romano: [00:50:00] And, uh, hopefully you've heard me talk about the word should in enough episodes, but we know by now, right. That the words should. Equals a state of shame and it equals inauthenticity. There is no person that has enough power on this earth or that is as godlike as they need to be in order to be telling people how they quote should be living their life.

Christa Romano: Or shouldn't be living their life or the way they should be spending their money or shouldn't be spending their money. The only should is that you should be spending your money exactly on the things that are right for you. So if what's right for you, if what you feel that you need is accountability and support direction.

Christa Romano: guidance, mentorship, a community of people who understand you, people to network with, people to brainstorm with. If [00:51:00] you think that you would benefit from all of those things, then spending money on yourself by investing in some kind of coach or mentorship program is that it is an investment, right? It's not necessarily just like getting your nails done.

Christa Romano: It's You're putting money in and then you're ultimately going to make money from the money that you put in. Actually, I'm just thinking about this a lot today because I'm in the process of getting a new house here in Bali. I've run the course on my lease and, uh, I really want to up level my, accommodation.

Christa Romano: Like I want to live in a more beautiful place. I want to have a view. I want to have a garden. And, um, I saw this place today that I really love. And then I found out that the building right next to it, the house right next to it was also available. And so it's obviously like double the amount of money that I would have to put in to, secure.

Christa Romano: villas at once and that feels a little bit like [00:52:00] crazy to me like feels a little bit ostentatious And also feels a little bit scary because I'm like, Ooh, I'm going to have to manage this place. And like, can I manage this? And I'm really working through my beliefs anyway. The thing is the reason why I would want to get the second villa is to put it on Airbnb.

Christa Romano: Like the reason why I would want to get another one is to make money from it. So yes, the initial amount of money that I would hand over to the landlord. is a little bit scary. It's like a lot of money, but the point is I would be putting in that amount of money at first so that I can make more money on top of it.

Christa Romano: That's what investing is. So when you invest in a business coaching program, for example, like my program, yeah, of course, you're going to be Spending more money up front. It's going to feel like you're just putting money into the void and then it disappears. But that's not how it works. that money is energy.

Christa Romano: Remember you're putting the money in so that you can [00:53:00] transmute it into something else. So in this case, you're transmuting it into knowledge. You're transmuting into community. You're transmuting it into something that will help you grow and up level as a person and as an entrepreneur. And then when you grow and up level as a person and as an entrepreneur, you will have the ability to make more money than what you spent in the initial investment of the program.

Christa Romano: And that's how investing works. And that's why like a lot of people, when they come to me, they're like, Krista, I really want to become a digital nomad. Can you help me? I love your podcast. I love your content. I feel like you're the person. And then I'm like, okay, yeah, like it costs money to work at me.

Christa Romano: Like I don't do this for free. I'm, I need to make money too. Um, this is the program. This is how much it costs. And then sometimes people are like, Oh my God, that's too expensive. And I'm like, too expensive compared to what? Like too expensive [00:54:00] compared to a sandwich? Well, guess what?

Christa Romano: You're not going to get the same kind of value out of a fricking sandwich as you would out of a program that ultimately is going to teach you exactly what you need to do, not just to change your mindset. And. Your lifestyle, but to change your career, to change your financial situation, to change your whole life.

Christa Romano: Like, obviously the price is going to be different. And by the way, it's not as much as buying a house because a house is a different kind of investment. When you are buying a house, you're going to put in even more money than what you would spend on a measly coaching program because ultimately with a house, like you're getting, you know, a place to live for a year.

Christa Romano: How much value is that? And then you're getting the ability to sell it later. So like, that's a different kind of investment, but nobody bats their eye on the investment of a house because we can clearly see how it translates into making money in the future. [00:55:00] Just the thing is, most people aren't entrepreneurs.

Christa Romano: Most people are not digital nomads. Most people don't understand. what coaching is. They think that coaching is like life coaching and, and they just don't get it. But the thing is like when you work with a coach, then you fucking get it. Like you get it. And that's why I'm literally always investing in coaching.

Christa Romano: I'm in a coaching program right now. I'm usually in like at least three programs per year and that's how I've been able. To start making the amount of money that I'm making, which by the way, I don't think I ever finished my story. What happened after I started working with Susie? What happened after I hired Susie?

Christa Romano: What happened after I paid her 10, 000? Well, she taught me all this stuff, right? She taught me all this stuff about my money beliefs. And I started rewriting them. I started doing a lot of subconscious reprogramming work to change my beliefs. Um, which side note? In the DNLA, in the Digital Limit Life Academy, I [00:56:00] give you so many tools to reprogram your subconscious because I help you look at what your limiting beliefs are and then I teach you how to reprogram it.

Christa Romano: So anyway, I did all the work to reprogram my limiting beliefs about money and I started believing I am worthy, that it is safe to make more money, I deserve to be making money that I can do good in the world. When I make more money, I can contribute in a healthy, positive way when I make more money, that my services are valuable, that my services are the best, that people are so excited to pay me money.

Christa Romano: They can't wait to work with me because they know that when they pay me money, they're going to get so much more out of it. So I started reprogramming my beliefs about money and literally Everything started changing. I started being able to get on sales calls in my new business and talk to people. And when they asked me how much money I charge, I said the price confidently.

Christa Romano: And when you say the price confidently, guess what? It's [00:57:00] received with confidence as well. The person who's hearing you say the price is gonna be like, oh damn I'll never forget Oh my gosh The coach that I hired that I spent the most money on my coach Emil who I worked with like a couple years later Literally, I paid this guy 26, 000.

Christa Romano: Oh My god, even now I'm like, oh my god, did I really do that? But I'm telling you it was worth every fucking penny like my life up leveled You so hard after working with him. But anyway, I remember being on the call with him and, by that point, like I had already spent 10, 000 on Susie.

Christa Romano: And I kind of thought that I was like a baller for spending that amount of money. And then, you know, I obviously made a lot more money after working with Susie. So when I met Emil and I knew that I really wanted to work with him, we had this whole long sales call where I'm like, Yeah, I totally want to work with this guy.

Christa Romano: Like this call is going great. Like, um, yeah, love him. Like love the vibe. And then I'm like, okay, so like. How do we work together? Like, how much do [00:58:00] you charge? And, um, he just was like, yeah, so the cost of the program is 26, 000. And what happens when you work with me is this happens and this happens.

Christa Romano: And he just kept talking. And I remember literally my jaw was on the floor. I was like, Oh, 26, 000. Like that is that what, like, I was not expecting that. Like, it was like, That was like at least double what I thought that maybe I would pay. So, um That was terrifying. And I'm going to be honest, like I almost said no, like I resisted.

Christa Romano: but in the end, I just, I really, really, really believe in the value of investing. I know how much it has impacted and changed my life. And it's like jumping on the highway to your dreams. I mean, I'm a girl with big dreams, obviously. I mean, you don't travel to 65 countries because you're complacent or because you don't care about shit like I've been to 65 countries because, because I have big dreams and [00:59:00] because I go the fuck after them, I'm relentless. And so, You know, we have to accept sometimes, I have to accept that I am a mere human, that I don't have all the time in the world to learn how to do all the big things that I want to do. Like, I want to do big things in this life and, I can't learn it all from scratch. By myself, I wouldn't have time.

Christa Romano: So, I have to pay people to show me the ropes to do the thing that I want to do next to help me accomplish my next big goal. So, you know, it took me a while to build up, uh, any kind of capital to be able to invest in my first coach. But it's like, you have to have money to make money.

Christa Romano: Um, not necessarily true. you don't need to have money to make money to get started. You can get started, but once you have money, yes, investing that money is in fact how you make more and more and more money. And. Investing in [01:00:00] your knowledge, investing in your mindset, investing in your body, investing in your wellbeing.

Christa Romano: I know they don't always seem like you're going to tangibly get the results right after, or it's a little bit hard to compare. Like what's the return on the investment, but. It is an investment. It's always an investment. so anyway, I just want to leave you with that with the concept of what is investing and where is an area of your life that you could actually use an investment like Who could you hire to help you achieve the next level thing that you want to do so that you can skip the steps and just get there faster?

Christa Romano: Because every day that you don't invest in yourself, every day that you don't seek help, that you don't ask for mentorship or guidance, every day that you're like, no, I can figure it out myself. is just a day that you're moving further away from your goals. In my last [01:01:00] episode, in the spiritual episode, I talked about how we live in an energetic universe and because everything is energy and energy is always moving.

Christa Romano: You are either, and I mean either moving towards or away from your dreams. So, um, When you invest in yourself, that's a huge, like I'm moving towards my dreams. And if you're into manifestation, like that is a big action that you can take that ultimately starts to create a ripple effect in the energy around you.

Christa Romano: Like, think about what would happen when you actually take a scary action to invest in yourself in a big way. When you're like, okay, I'm going to pay for this thing, whatever the thing is. and I'm scared. But like when I do it, I know that I'm going all in.

Christa Romano: Cause I've just paid. it's like lighting a fire under your ass when you actually pay for something because then it's like, you can't go back. Like the damage is done and It's sink or swim at this point. that's exactly how I felt [01:02:00] when I hired Susie, right?

Christa Romano: Like I said, so I, I paid her 10, 000 and I was shaking when I was typing in my credit card number. But after I did, I was like, oh my god, what a fucking rush. First of all, so exciting. I was like, I can't believe I just did that. Oh my god. I can't believe I just spent all this money on myself. Not on somebody else, but just like for my dreams.

Christa Romano: And then, my next thought was, Oh shit. How do I make sure that this investment is going to be worth it? How do I make sure that I'm going to get the results that I want? And I thought, well, I need to just go all in. Like I cannot let any buddy distract me. I cannot make any mistakes here. Like I decided that I was going to go somewhere where I didn't know anybody so that I would not be tempted to do any kind of social activities. where I could just focus on building my business alongside Susie, my coach, while also doing my job. Cause I still had my job. I still had my nine to five [01:03:00] remote job.

Christa Romano: That it was making money. And by the way, if you're like, Oh, you didn't quit your job, I have a whole episode on Should you quit your job? To become a digital nomad. Spoiler, I believe, no. You should not just quit your job. I don't think you should quit your job until you're already making a full time income with your new side hustle.

Christa Romano: Then you can turn your side hustle into a full time hustle. So for me, when I first hired Suzy, I kept my 9 to 5. I actually picked up some other remote gigs. Um, and I was, working all the time on my own business. So I went to Sri Lanka, a place that was thousands of miles away from anybody that I knew. I checked myself into a really cute guest house that had a desk at it and good wifi on the reviews.

Christa Romano: And, uh, my schedule was, I would go to the beach in the morning. Then I would work all day on my own business. And then when it was 9am in New York city, that's when I would [01:04:00] open my laptop and I would start doing my actual day job when I was tired because I was like, I'm going to give my best energy to my business.

Christa Romano: why would I give it to My employer that like, I don't really care that much anymore. Like I'm already on the way out. So it's not that I didn't do my job for my job, right? Like I did the job, but I just gave my better energy to my own business. And I do recommend doing that if you have the ability.

Christa Romano: Of course, like you're listening to this podcast because you want to be a digital nomad. So you might not be in the situation that I was in when I first started my business, but if you're like unemployed or something and you're spending rent right now, Why not go try to build your business from Thailand, for example, or from Bali where it's cheap and when you can be happy and like just, enjoy your day to day while working on your dreams.

Christa Romano: Just another way to think about it. Anyway, I've talked a lot about myself. I've talked a lot about different stories. I've told you so many beliefs and, uh, hopefully [01:05:00] ways that you can start thinking about changing your money mindset for the better. Just remember you are so worthy of having a super abundant freedom focused life.

Christa Romano: And if you're wondering, How you can have that. Or if you're curious how I can personally help you or if I can even help you, maybe I can't help you. I don't know. You got to tell me a little bit about yourself first, but if you want to, you can just always send me a DM on Instagram at @christabellatravels and use the code.

Christa Romano: Money podcast. You have to say it like that. Money podcast. And if you type those words into um, a DM on Instagram to me, at @christabellatravels, I'll send you an automated reply that will ask you a little bit about yourself. Like I'll say, oh hey, you listen to my podcast. And first of all, what did you think?

Christa Romano: And tell me your story, like, what are you currently doing to make money? And, um, How do you feel about that? I'm going to ask you in an [01:06:00] automated message, all these questions, if you answer them thoroughly and thoughtfully, don't give me just one word answers. Like I'm not a robot. I'm just giving you a robot to respond with first, So respond to my robot with like some thoughtful human answers. And then my human me, I will respond and then we can engage in a conversation, but you got to give me something to work with. Okay. Don't just like send me a message and say, can you help me become a digital nomad? Because I'm going to be like, I don't know who the, who the F are you.

Christa Romano: You would be surprised. People say things like that to me. People like send me dumb questions all the time, so don't send me a dumb question. Tell me about yourself, and then we can actually engage in a productive conversation. send me a DM on Instagram with the Words Money podcast. And let's talk. Let's talk about how we can change your life and start moving you closer to a life of absolute financial freedom, freedom in all ways. All right. Thank you so much for listening and we'll see you in [01:07:00] the next episode. Bye.