116 - Q&A with Kate Northrup: The Intersection of Money & Energy

Today, Kate Northrup returns to Threshold Moments for a live Q&A exploring money, energy, and the deeper patterns shaping how we show up in our work and lives.

In this grounded and eye-opening conversation, we explore the internal and external shifts required to move beyond scarcity, and how those shifts ripple into the systems we're part of. Kate gets specific about her role in ushering in a new economic paradigm, and answers questions about how to stay consistent even when we don't feel like it.

Kate Northrup is a bestselling author, entrepreneur, and body-based financial educator who helps conscious humans build wealth without burning out. Blending practical money strategy with nervous system awareness and cyclical living, she teaches a simple but radical approach: body first, business and money second, so you can feel safe before the external circumstances change and be present through every season of life. Through her program Relaxed Money, her books Do Less and Money: A Love Story, and the Plenty podcast, Kate offers a clear roadmap for expanding prosperity from a well-resourced foundation.

Episode Transcript:

[00:01:00] Welcome back to Threshold Moments. We are opening up the Q and A with Kate Northrop and members from the Juice Community who have been here for Kate's whole interview. One thing I was excited about for this was that. I know that everybody has different lived experiences, and so how each person hears Kate is different than how I hear Kate, and [00:02:00] so various people's questions could bring things up that I would never even consider or think to ask.

And so I'm really grateful for all of you who are here and excited to hear any questions that you might ask. And thank you, Kate, for saying yes to this. Of course.

Alice. Hi Sarah. Hi Kate. Hi. I've been following you for a while, a year or two and I have a lot of questions, but the question that really jumps out at me is you said your vision is to create a new economic system. And so I come from the activism world, the social justice world, and right now I'm a coach, right?

I'm an activism coach. And there's running programs and there's creating systems and I think they're, I tend to think of them as really different. So I know you've got the seed and you've got what your 85-year-old told you, [00:03:00] and you may not know the pathway, but do you think that you're gonna be creating a new economic system through teaching mindset, or do you think you're gonna be Actually, I don't know.

What a good question in the world. Yeah. So I wanna clarify and say that my prayer for the world and my contribution is to be part of birthing a new economic system where everyone can have enough. So as opposed to me engineering it, which I have no freaking clue how to do but for me to be. In relationship with and in influence in the rooms where those conversations are happening.

So two, really practical three really practical a few. Anyway, the way that this has shown up since this prayer came through is one I met a guy who does a lot of work with incredibly wealthy families and family [00:04:00] offices. Around trauma recovery and and addiction. And when I told him about what I do, helping people heal their relationship with money, he was like, oh, we have a lot of work to do together.

So that's one example. Another example is I am in relationship with someone who runs a venture capital firm who's just deploying hundreds of millions of dollars. All the time. Another one is I'm connecting with a woman who is really like doing deep work to help the world to have a new dream for modern life, specifically around.

Our relationship to resources and sufficiency and what does it even mean to have enough? What does it even mean to experience prosperity? And could we reimagine what that would be? So the way I see myself contributing [00:05:00] is more philosophically so first of all, on the individual level, supporting at scale individuals who are contributing to the economy.

Shift the way that they relate to money, because if we can shift from the lie of scarcity to the truth of sufficiency, we stop running. Scarcity through our systems, and we stop replicating our microsystems rooted in scarcity because the lie of scarcity says there's not enough to go around. And when you believe the lie of scarcity, you hoard resources and you hold them with a closed fist as opposed to with an open hand.

So my answer to you is, I don't know, but I am having bigger conversations than I've ever had before, and I'm being invited. Into closed door conversations in a way that never happened before. And I know that's because of the dreaming a bigger dream. But no, I personally will not be single-handedly [00:06:00] architecting a new economic system.

Thanks for the question. No, that, yeah. Thank you. Okay. I that something. Thank you. Thank you, Alice. Thank you, Kate. What a relief. I'm just thinking like what a relief to be in the state of, I think is very much like the other conversation we had that I would single-handedly won't be doing it. It reminds me of being in the particular activating system of I wonder and show me, and then being in the surprise and delight.

When things do show up I'm just like, oh. So ironically that when I was talking to Therese, that she is also in some of these behind the scenes closed door communities with people who are looking to invest big in a new world. Yeah. And wanting some some wisdom from somebody who perceives the world differently than it's structured now.

And so I'm really [00:07:00] grateful that people are, who have those financial resources. Know that there's something else, but there's a program that their system is running on and that they're call, I would ask her, I was like, do you know how you make slime and you need the activator? I was like, I imagine that they have the, like the ingredients and the foundation and they're calling you in as the activator.

I love that. And it will like create a new system that's different than the program that's running that current matrix and and even possibly the program in which much of that money was earned in the first place. Yeah. And so those resources can actually be transmuted through new paradigms and through way new ways of running those resources.

Like I really believe that on some level, like all money is dirty money and it wants to be healed through us. That's a big one. You believe that all money is dirty money on some level. Every single dollar has passed through a distorted [00:08:00] system that's rooted in the lie of scarcity and the lie of separation.

At some point that is true of every single dollar. You know how like money itself has touched, like physical cash has touched a lot of hands. And if you've worked, I used to work the hotdog stand right? And like at the end of the day, like my hands were literally really dirty from touching all that cash.

So I think about that energetically of the imprints energetically that money has. From thousands and thousands of years of distorted systems. And now the way that when it passes through my company or an investment that is really for a more beautiful world, or when I invest it in, like a.

Like a regenerative farm for my CSA or whatever. You know that actually is like re imprinting and cleaning the money's energetic field, and I really enjoy that concept. I love that. I'm obsessed with that. That [00:09:00] makes it really, to me, it makes it really exciting. Yeah. Actually we can really contribute interacting with the money.

I love thinking of that level. And a mutual friend of ours was talking about how she was actually going to roll quarters, and she's but I washed it first. But she wasn't, like she was talking about the actual dirt that's on the money, but then the energetics of it as well uhhuh, and there's something exciting about that for me.

So thank you for adding that layer. You're welcome. Anybody else from the audience? Whitney, welcome. Hello. Hi. I am so excited to be here with you. I've been following your work for maybe 12 years now. It's felt like a long time. Did the whole Money love story like the book many years ago, and I just amazing.

I appreciate your presence in the world so much and it's just, it always feels so true. And heart-centered. And we have some mutual friends as well. So really happy to be here. [00:10:00] Amazing. So I have, I mean there was like, there's so much I could say, but I think my question, and I didn't know this, but maybe it does land somewhere between the wounded and healthy masculine.

So something that came to me on the call was like, okay I grew up with the wounded masculine, like very structured military captain but very controlling and i'll leave it there. So I wonder degree, I wonder to what degree that has impacted my ability to create healthy structure. And I get curious in terms of creating the healthy feminine, masculine, your thoughts about the pendulum swing between producing and creating when feeling resourced and yet still doing it when we don't feel resourced.

Are you in a position and tell me as much or as little, but do you feel pressure to produce and create when you don't feel resourced? Or is it more of a unconscious pattern that you can't break even though you don't technically have to be doing it? [00:11:00] Yeah, it's more so of a consistency thing of not wanting, feeling unresourced to get in my way of being consistent. And moving the, continually Yes. The daily people totally clean water. Like not needing to wait for the inspiration to be able to take the steps and not going down those rabbit holes. Actually, the, one of the aspects of the wounded feminine is emotion based creation.

So it's like waiting until I feel like it to do it. And I think there is something really profound about the discipline and devotion to show up every day, even if it's a little bit in service of something greater. So I literally just voice memoed, a girlfriend of mine on the way back to my office to do this interview.

Because I am really in a lot of resistance around writing my next book, and I have a lot [00:12:00] of reasons why there's not time and space. And I told her all of them, and she wrote, she messaged me back and she's you know what, girl? I think we just need, we're in a season of, we just need to gallop and you just need to get it done.

It's okay, wow. That's not what I expected you to say. And that's also not what I wanted you to say, but I know that it matters less what we're doing than it does the way we're doing it because the result we will get is a reflection of the energy that we're running through our body while we're doing the thing.

We know this, right? You can give two people the exact same identical. Business strategy, for example, and one person will just hit it outta the park and it won't work for the other person. What's the difference? The ecosystem, the energy. Through which that person is doing the thing. So the invitation I would have for you and really me, is how [00:13:00] can we, even if we're feeling like I don't have enough time, I need more sleep, I haven't moved my body, I, like all of the reasons, like I have a million other pieces of writing to do, or whatever the thing is, how can we make showing up an act of devotion and an act of prayer.

In the same way, quite frankly, that we would show up to feed our kids breakfast in the morning or, brush our teeth or just these small ways that are devoted to a longer term goal of like dental hygiene or keeping our children alive that are so that obviously I'm sure your consistency thing is something much bigger and less basic than that.

But I do think that when we show up. From an act of devotion, making our actions a prayer for the true or more beautiful world that we want, we can actually get out of running those patterns of wounded masculine control [00:14:00] and we can pop ourselves out of that matrix into using our energy as an expression of the divine running through us.

It's interesting that you say it's actually, you mentioned more wounded feminine, like needing to move from, I forget how you framed it. Waiting until we feel like it to do something right. Is wounded feminine? It's sloppy. Or even stories of if my energy's off, that's gonna mess it up. Or, as a coach, as a practitioner, you wanna be feeling connected to your body of work as you create it, but sometimes you're not gonna feel.

You know deeply well, but I think that's where a lot of the work in Juice comes back to, what we've learned from Sarah around nervous system and resourcing. It's okay, cool. Like maybe I don't feel connected to my body of work today and maybe I actually really don't feel like doing this coaching session or whatever.

But what would be like a quarter turn you could make? Is there some [00:15:00] sort of. Tool that you could use, and I don't know the exact names that you call things Sarah, but I know you teach this stuff all the time, so let's think, is there some kind of resourcing you could do for even 30 seconds or even while you're, even in this conversation right now?

Right now, I'm aware of. The soles of my feet and the feeling of the rug on the soles of my feet and how yummy that feels. And so that's contributing to my body's sense of safety and capacity, which then contributes to our ability to be in real connection. Because there's presence and there's capacity, and there's power there.

So our body is always the inroad to plug back into source. And we can do that in big and small ways. And it doesn't have to be radical. It can actually be really small, and those things do tend to compound on one another a hundred percent. Thank you so much for sharing. Yeah. My own version of Just Do It Right [00:16:00] here comes your book.

Yeah. I thank you for that. I was thinking about labor when it's I don't wanna do this anymore. And so many of the things in parenting where I'm like, I don't wanna do this. I don't wanna make lunch today. No, it was like 80%. But also the difference, I think of the just do it or the behavioral activation therapy, I think that we get to ask what is the smallest, dual piece of devotion and can I bring any element of pleasure into it?

So if it's dishes, then I'm gonna turn the music on and I'm gonna like dance. And now it feels generative. So I'm always looking for is there a generative way that I can do this devotional thing? And the last newsletter I just sent out was all about like that on ramp where if we devote even like 15 minutes to the book I often talk about it, like for me, I'm not often in the mood to have sex.

Right now because I'm the got things to do and I'm in my beta brainwaves and I've got the hormones going through me more for get the shit done [00:17:00] or like I wanna relax. And so it takes what is the smallest, because I know how much, I love how I feel once I'm actually, once I've actually changed states to turn on.

And so it's what is the smallest doable piece? You actually, I think. Maybe not that you actually love coaching, but you're not feeling well resourced for it. So I was like, what is this smallest, doable piece where I can bring more presence and more pleasure into it as I change states for this thing?

My other thing that I'm thinking, and I know you asked Kate, me. It's how to, on the hard days where you're feeling under-resourced is like, where can you do less? So if you are gonna show up for the thing, are there places that you can do less or receive more to balance out? So if it's like that thing that you're gonna stay consistent with are there other areas where it's like, somebody asked me today at Drop off, have you lived 75 lives today before drop off?

And I was like, today, no. Because yesterday from 5:30 AM till 7:30 PM [00:18:00] or I guess until the kids went to bed at nine 30, when we all went to bed together, every moment had something. So this morning, instead of getting up and working out, I still did my one minute prayer, my red light, and I was like, I'm not doing anything extra.

It was just like, so I still had like my devotional point, but then it was like, and I'm gonna let anything else that isn't necessary go away. And I don't know if that's helpful, but this is just me tinkering over here with a smile as you guys ask the questions and can convene with one another.

Thank you.

We have a minute or two left. Kate, do you have to have for another question? Just do one, one more quick one. If anyone has one, we have one question and if not we can just wrap.

We're all good. Okay, great. All right. Can I close this out with a prayer? I don't know what's gonna be said. You'd be great and I'd actually love Kate if you have anything you [00:19:00] wanna add to it. Okay. No pressure. Just imagine we're like sitting around at dinner table. Okay.

When I find the desire in me to uplevel and upgrade and do the next right thing, may I also remember Grace May I also remember ecosystems. May I remember that I'm not alone. When I start to step off course, may I be open to the signs and signals as life offers me resistance or easy avenues in or signs to help realign me to readjust.[00:20:00]

May I trust in taking the next right step in, having devotion in making a choice without needing to know that it's the right choice. May I trust in my resilience, in my curiosity, in the wisdom. That runs through me, around me, from the universe and from my community.

May we continue to dream into a more beautiful world. May we stay open to what that looks like without needing to know the next step or the whole blueprint with so much gratitude for this conversation and. For what's coming into this world and our commitment to step into it and also step back when we need.

[00:21:00] Taking a nice inhale and an easy exhale.

Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Amen. Thank you Sarah. Thanks everyone. Thank you everyone for being here. I appreciate you all.