The ultimate guide to post capitalist income

How to be sustained by work you love without falling into toxic work culture.

Post capitalist income can be challenging and complicated to build alone. Continue the conversation by building your own post capitalist income stream for free here

1. begin with breath and nourishment

This is the most important thing I can write in my work and yet I feel utterly overwhelmed as I try to find a place to begin.

I’ve spent more than a decade understanding the activism, tangible skills, and processes of change to support people in defining and creating post-capitalist income for themselves.

This work is important because it is an essential gateway to unreasonable satisfaction for individuals and collective liberation for all yet…

My brain is literally buzzing with the multitude of avenues I can use to begin this conversation … I found myself wondering:

Do I begin with how fucked society feels right now as headlines and timelines are filled with crisis after crisis?

How crunchy it can feel to be stuck holding jadedness from the way the world works now while another part of you may feel economically bound to continuing to do things the way they have been done before.

Do I begin with how we urgently need more people building alternatives to existing harmful and violent systems and businesses.

Or do I begin with the unfortunate reality that most systems in late stage capitalism are a byproduct of our conditioning towards scarcity, fear, and inadequacy, and nothing radical can ever happen without committing to cultural change.

Instead of reacting to my overwhelm of ideas I stood up from my laptop, stepped away from the space heater that is attached to my hips throughout winter months, and stewed some apples.

I allowed my house to warm and fill with the aroma of cinnamon, fresh ginger, and clove

I gave myself the gift of silence while snow gently fell onto my backyard

I needed a moment to honor myself so that I could honor my work and not write from a place of anxiety or a need to perform

Post capitalism is a big messy complex topic that simultaneously is the most rewarding challenge you can take up in your life. Especially when basic civil rights and civil liberties are being challenged or taken away. We need to take action, protest, and use all tools available to create liberation.

Developing post-capitalist alternatives is a tool and a journey that will transform how you see yourself, how you engage with your family and friends, and it will give you hope on what the world could be.

Complexity requires intentionality and care. It demands truth. Working through complexity is not work that can be forced.

Allowing yourself to sit in this complexity means you will achieve your greatest work - your life’s work.

You also will save time by not wasting away working your way up to 6 figures in a traditional job only to experience burnout multiple times (yup that was me) or build a business up to destroy it because you followed cliche marketing and sales advice (guilty here too).

We’ve got our work cut out for us, but the conversation must begin with feeling nourished, supported, and safe so you can hold the complexity this work requires. Both within our own professional paths and the other actions we take to create the world we need.

By the end of this article it is my intention that you have a clear jumping off point on creating post-capitalist income. If there is anything I want you to take away from this article it is that you have the power to create deep, radical, and lasting change in your own life and in the world. That change begins with the micro-decisions that allow you to live into and embody the world you believe is possible. This is the work we do in the income REBELLION and you can receive free tangible support so you don’t have to do it all alone. Join the free community here.

Give yourself time, space, community, nourishment, abundance, and everything else you need to be able to dedicate yourself to your work.

This is the work of building a better world than the one that we are given.

Post-capitalist income is how we care for each other and build new systems that actively heal and repair the harms of late stage capitalism.

It is very human to feel powerless, but powerlessness can be a reflection of sheer overwhelm with no branching off point. There are too many things that are wrong, too many things that are bad, too much going on in the world that feels undefeatable. So much bad that we forget the good we have control over.

We all have something we are naturally good at or have a deep passion for that is completely necessary for the world to grow and evolve, even if it is hard for you to see in yourself

In practice, post capitalist income means you are building an income stream that honors and values you and the people around you. You are simultaneously practicing the inner work to reshape how capitalist culture has conditioned you to think.

The more people who participate in our economy with this lens, the faster we can combat racism, sexism, classism, and all systemic forms of violence. The faster we can combat colonialism and ecological harm. The more space we have to center curiosity and empathy in the way we live instead of reactivity, fear, and power grabbing.

So as you read the practical guidance in this article to create post-capitalist income, allow this conversation to enter conversations with loved ones and mentors. To challenge those you care about most to radically rethink their relationship to work and to build ways of working that can lead to a more beautiful world. ask questions. engage. and most importantly take action.

2. cultural disruption and starting a conversation on systemic change

There are many business courses that will sell you a liberated life and only mean you will be able to quit your 9 to 5 job and maybe have location freedom. Postcapitalist wealth does help you do that but we take the conversation further into a deep commitment to build a better world. This work is about your life and legacy.

Early in my work towards racial justice I learned that even if racism ended, tomorrow, we would still have social inequity because our culture and systems continue to perpetuate racial bias and violence.

This realization was one of those things that radicalized me. I stopped looking at racism as how people were treating me and started looking at cultures and systems of violence.

How systems of violence could easily melt from harming one population to another.

How these systems can increase volatility or decrease volatility in a moment’s notice.

How culture can normalize isolation and playing off a rulebook you don’t agree with because you feel it’s the only way to move forward.

How the sheer number of systems leads to overwhelm, inaction, and compliance.

I began to see that capitalism will continue simply because no one created a feasible better option.

And on the human side of things, people are suffering and we need to make changes to better support each other now.

We live in a world where it is normal to experience continual burnout and anxiety, to overwork and be underpaid, and where well-being and creative fulfillment are nice to have but only survival is essential.

A world where we are taught to not bring our ideals and values into the places we work and to ignore the possible negative consequences work has.

All of the above are examples of work culture - the set of beliefs, behaviors, and emotional reactions that underpin every change you could make around your work.

The scary truth is that work culture has a ripple effect on how we see ourselves, how we see each other, and how we make meaning of the world around us.

Work culture teaches us about our self worth and can shape how we value ourselves.

Work culture determines how much time we can spend with our kids, how freely we can speak our minds, and how much capacity we have for those we love.

Work culture teaches us that our relationships are transactions and people are disposable depending on what they can give to you at any given time. Some work teaches us to not treat others as human.

Work culture manipulates people to make morally grey, or bad decisions because they know they have to feed their family or the consequences of stepping away from a status quo (Nazi Germany is a great example of how people just doing a job can lead to large amounts of violence).

I can go on and on about the toxicity of work culture and may in a future post, for now two voices I love on this topic are Overwork by Brigid Schulte, and Anna Kallschmidt’s new book The Unwritten Rules of Work.

The conversation I care about sharing now and through the bulk of my work is what exactly we are going to do to combat this.

Post-capitalist income changes work culture by looking at life as if it’s a creative act. The creative shift occurs on three levels. the individual, the relational, and the systemic.

1. INDIVIDUAL: We have to change AKA the role work plays in our life must shift: We have to unlearn all of the toxicity that is a byproduct of the existing system.

2. RELATIONAL: Our relationships have to change AKA how we work with and for others must shift: We have to center other humans and the environment instead of making shareholders rich. The ripple effect of this flows into how we treat all people who interact with our work

3. SYSTEMIC: We have to build systems of change AKA what work we do: This is the work itself. How you create income.

Culture changes when people decide to be different and do different things. The problem is that we have no roadmap on how to create this change, however, the work of the income rebellion is designed to give you a process to play with. A process and community to build values aligned income streams and work through the messy ambiguous moments that accompany all growth and change.

The work is absolutely crucial to do now because for many, maintaining the status quo comes at too high of a cost to not be working towards something better, different or new.

Cultural disruption begins in the micro-decisions of difference. The moments you move slowly, intentionally, and in alignment with the world and life you would like to live. Ironically, this is the fastest way to get results, tangible increases in income, capacity, and community.

There are no shortcuts to change or progress. We are building a new world.

3. building post capitalist income

There are three layers to creating complex cultural change: foundations, safety, and your strategy. Each of these components build on each other to give you consistent values aligned income.

• foundations: are the inner principles and direction you bring to your work

• safety: are the conditions, structures, and shifts you need to make to do your best work

• strategy: your plan to succeed in the work you chose to do

Most business and career coaches focus solely on the strategy piece and as a result people struggle to reach their goals in their work. They build portfolios of work that are unsatisfying or lead to burnout.

If you are currently looking at your income streams and are not satisfied it likely is because of an imbalance below.

FOUNDATIONS

your foundations are where you build from. They are the roots that give you nourishment in your work.

There are four considerations I assess when discussing the foundations of one’s income REBELLION journey: Values, Sustainability, Desires, and Purpose. By getting clear on these internal truths, you are able to shine a light on the direction and life you are creating for yourself. Each contributes to the guardrails of your professional path moving forward.

VALUES: What principles and values do you live for? What is not worth compromising in your life? What do you create for? What would you leave an opportunity for?

SUSTAINABILITY: What amount of money do you need to thrive creatively? What level of attention do you need to thrive creatively (if any!)? What do you want the work to feel like? What type of people do you need to be around?

DESIRES: What do you want to see happen next in the world? What do you want to be different in your life in a month, 12 months, a decade? How do you want a community and cause you care about shifting?

PURPOSE: What is the work only you can do? What are you curious about? Who do you want to be around? Where do you naturally lead as a byproduct of you being yourself? Where do you have a unique lived experience that can help transform other people, relationships, or systems for the better?

Foundations are all about you and only about you. They lay the groundwork to what you can create and how you must create it to build your best work.

You deserve to feel stable and supported as you do challenging things. You deserve to be paid well for your work, whether you work for yourself or someone else. You deserve to work in ways that honor your creativity and joy. You deserve to be able to believe in yourself. You deserve to have a life that isn’t reliant on your burnout. You deserve to live a life where your needs and wants are met. You deserve a life where you can pursue purpose. And you deserve a life that honors your values.

While you deserve all of the above, none of the above is guaranteed. In fact not many people have what is listed above. Very few have everything that is listed above. However, all of the above components are essential in creating a foundation of psychological safety so you are capable of building greater joy and freedom in your work.

There are different barriers folks can face when trying to achieve the above, and I can confidently say with time and commitment it is possible to move forward no matter what systemic barriers may make it challenging for folks like you to succeed. In fact, your identity likely makes you uniquely qualified to facilitate your purpose work. Your identity is the essential parts of yourself that make you You. Part of my work with clients is helping people weed through all of the information we gather about ourselves in our lives into a strategy that is informed by your experience, not a strategy that discourages reflection.

SAFETY

Once you know what you’re building, and what is important to you in building your new body of work you can begin to focus on safety. Safety lives in the processes you use to work. Safety means not using a get rich quick stream or push to rush towards success. You are designing work that can sustain you for the rest of your life and maybe generations that come after you.

Safety reflects the need for psychological, financial, emotional, spiritual, and of course physical safety required for you to practice this work for the long haul. Safety also is the journey of protecting you from your own limiting beliefs, self sabotage, and negative self talk that prevents you from being able to make your greatest impact.

Normally with clients we begin with understanding the limiting beliefs you have by focusing on three key emotional states that can reflect trapped emotions: anger, grief, and shame. Each of these three emotions are easily repressed in ways that fundamentally shape your creativity, capacity, and follow through.

For now, know that how you feel matters, and must be tended to. Both because it’s nice to feel good and because it is a key component of the work at hand.

emotional alchemy

A vital piece of this work is emotional alchemy.

Emotional alchemy goes beyond therapy where you learn to witness, hold space and name your emotion.

Emotional alchemy goes beyond nervous system regulation where you learn how to find safety within your body and withstand triggers and overstimulation with greater ease.

Emotional alchemy is the process of alchemizing one emotional state into a different parallel path. With the key emotions we focus on in the income rebellion this looks like…

• transmuting anger into creativity, passion, discipline, agency, and power

• transmuting grief into legacy shaping, wisdom, devotion, bravery, compassion, and depth

• transmuting shame into bravery, fearlessness, and systemic change

Yes you are building a new income stream but your work plays a vital role in ushering in a new world. You are deciding to build work that does something different which means you are a leader; the first person to walk an unchartered path. As people who have a vision for a better world, you must be able to hold your discomfort to serve your people through your craft. You also must adopt and shape the alternative ways of being necessary to change our status quo.

This is the difference between healing and guiding others on their journey to have the emotional depth needed to create a better culture in the world than the one we currently have.

Some shy away from the title of leadership, I did for a long period of my life too. I shifted the moment I realized that when I undervalue my leadership or power in certain situations, I downplay the ability I have to positively impact others or unintentionally harm them.

Your perspective, vision, and hope for something new is a privilege that not everyone has and it is your responsibility to gain the skillsets you need to support people who do not share this privilege.

Emotional alchemy allows you to grow with your work and helps your work grow with you.

The more your work grows, the more you grow, the more challenges you encounter, the more you will be triggered the more you are at risk of feeling grief, anger, and shame. That is why you learn a toolkit to accompany you through thick and thin emotionally so your work doesn’t fizzle out. So you know how to manage the complex emotions that come with complex growth and change and doing the difficult work of making the world a better place.

STRATEGY

Your strategy always begins with people.

Who you’re helping, how you know you’re helping them, and what community you have to nourish your creative visions.

While the internet will make you think that one standard approach is enough to find a new job or build a new income stream, I have found that greater customization must happen to meet your unique nervous system and values.

Because this is a highly specific step, I recommend you book a call with me to discuss your unique professional path.

Join the community and click the link inside the calendar section to see my scheduling page and book a free 1:1 onboarding call and we can begin to chat about the best way for you to start your specific income REBELLION strategy.

Side note - don’t feel nervous about booking! I support folks at all stages and if you feel the call to get some help you don’t have to be at a specific stage of “readiness”, it is actually better for you to come with what is “realistic” so I can support you in finding your direction and staying on track.

NOW THAT YOU KNOW WHAT IS REQUIRED FOR A POST-CAPITALIST INCOME STREAM…

It may be clear that you are not at a place to dive into this type of work. Don’t worry, we talk about this in the income rebellion too. There are actually 3 phases of readiness. At any point in your professional path you are either healing, building, or scaling.

• HEALING: working through burnout/disillusionment (decreasing complexity)

• BUILDING: Going in a new direction (experimentation)

• SCALING: Refining in the direction you are in to grow your work (increasing complexity)

For example if you are in the scaling phase … you may need support in shifting your workload so it’s more aligned with your values, improving relationships in your work, or increasing visibility

If you are in the building phase … you may need help getting clear on a business you would like to create, pivoting into a different field, or diversifying your income stream so you can have greater capacity to build out an idea you’ve been sitting on.

If you’re in the healing phase you may need help negotiating responsibilities and boundaries with your employer (or yourself/clients if you work for yourself), understanding the systems that created your burnout and doing the inner work and external shifts necessary to change your environment so you can thrive.

When you’re in between phases

It is really common to be in between phases. For example, you may feel burnt out but you want to build a business or you may want to make your business more values aligned but you also have your current business that has been successful for you for quite some time and you want to build on the growth you have there. If you’re experiencing burnout, you may adopt a new system to help ease your burnout. These situations can be complex and of course, depending on your unique circumstance, different considerations must be done. With that said, here are two considerations to make:

• Are you safe? Is your environment safe for you to be in? Is the burnout impacting your confidence and self belief?

• Are you sustained? Are you confident in your stability financially? If you are making an empowered risk for yourself, do you have the time and energy to follow through on that risk?

These two points can help you gauge how secure you are feeling before you jump into deeper changes.

WHAT NEXT?

The most important thing you can do is start now.

Start when you don’t know your direction

Start when you have fear

Start while experiencing uncertainty and instability

Just start, and trust that everything you build you will be building intentionally starting now. For some this work will take a few months and you can make amazing things happen in just a few months of focus and dedication. I have found that the changes and transformations normally settle in folks’ lives after 2 years.

Due to the complexity of this work, the time it takes to complete, and the importance it has on your life and those who will be shaped by your work, I have created a community of resources designed to help you build your post capitalist income stream from scratch. The best part is you can join for free and receive:

• a place to design your post capitalist income stream plan

• weekly action and accountability calls to discuss what direction you’re going in and how you can get there with live working time so you can actually stick to the goals you create

• community to discuss the good, bad, and confusing moments of creating post capitalist income AND so you can make friends :)

• unlockable micro-workshops with instruction on how to build your post capitalist income path. the more points you gain by engaging with the community, the more resources you receive.

  • Part 1: Grounding: The Ultimate Guide to Post Capitalist Income launches this month so you can dive deeper and take action on everything discussed above

And if you’d like to pay $100/month or $500/year you can receive all of the above plus:

• 1:1 coaching office hours you can book every week as you build your post-capitalist income stream

• a ticket to all live full workshops and workshop recordings

  • examples:

    • Cultures of Scarcity: Rituals for Rewiring Wealth (normally $99)

    • The Anger Cleanse Alchemize anger into clarity, creativity, and capacity to build post capitalist wealth (Live Jan 29th)

• immediately unlock all micro-workshop and tools in the resource library

Joining now locks in the founder rates above and secures your spot, as spaces in the paid version are limited based on my ability to serve everyone best.

Now I would love to hear from you - how does the idea of post capitalist income make you feel? Where do you see opportunities to move towards this type of model? What questions do you have?

Talk soon,

Chelsea