Untangling Our Invisible Money Scripts

How our money mindset quietly determines what we charge, what we earn and how far we grow as artists and creatives.

I’m writing this in the thick of tax season. That time of year when many of us are forced to look directly at the numbers and what we’ve earned and spent as creative professionals. The receipts. The spreadsheets. The totals. The gaps. Alongside the administrative scramble that often accompanies this season, I’ve been working with several clients who have reached out specifically in part for support around the financial side of their practice. Not just thinking through strategy and systems but relationship and capacity. Clinging to limiting beliefs and inherited narratives about money isn’t unusual for artists and creatives. — it’s incredibly common. And when we get caught in those stories, they weave themselves quietly into the fabric of our work, tightening over time and constricting the sustainability of our creative practices and businesses.

 Our financial challenges as artists and creatives are rarely just about math. They’re often about mindset. The quiet, inherited beliefs we carry about money. Beliefs that shape how we price our creative work and services, how we feel about selling it, whether we invest in our growth, and whether we avoid our numbers altogether. Ideas like: exchanging money is crass. Charging more is bad or about having a big ego. We’re “not good with money.” There isn’t enough to go around or people can’t afford to pay. These invisible scripts don’t just influence our bank accounts. They influence our burnout, our confidence, and how far we allow ourselves to grow as creative professionals.

In this post (the first part of a two part series), I’m inviting us to consider the invisible money scripts we carry — scarcity, guilt, passivity, fear of risk, all-or-nothing thinking — and how they quietly determine what we charge, what we earn, and what we believe is possible.

Here are few common ones I’ve seen:

The Scarcity Mindset 

The Belief: The conviction that there is never enough money, paid opportunities, clients to go around or who can afford our creative work or services. Rising costs of living, funding cutbacks, and increased competition are very real pressures for many of us. But the scarcity mindset goes a step further: it turns external challenges into an internalized certainty that there simply isn’t enough to go around.

How it holds artists and creatives back: It creates fear, anxiety and a hesitancy to invest in our own growth (professional development, materials, support) and we may undercharge, undersell, or agree to unpaid work out of fear rather than intention. Over time, scarcity doesn’t just reflect our circumstances; it begins to shape them.

The "I'm Not Good with Money" Mindset

The Belief:The assumption that financial capability is an innate talent. Something we either have or don’t and that as creative people, we simply weren’t born with it. It frames money management as a personality trait rather than a learnable skill.

How it holds us back:It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. We avoid learning basic financial skills, delay looking at our numbers, and postpone important decisions because we’ve already decided we’re “bad” at this. That avoidance creates stress, mistakes, and unnecessary crisis which only reinforces our original belief. I’ve seen firsthand how this mindset doesn’t just affect financial admin and management; it drains creative energy and ultimately stifles growth, confidence, and opportunity.

Money is Evil/Bad Mindset

The Belief: Associating money and selling our work or services for money with greed, dishonesty, or moral compromise. Seeing the desire to earn well from our work as crass, sleazy, or out of alignment with our values. This can also creep into our thinking as seeing important investments as something we shouldn’t have to pay money for as artists or creatives.

How it holds artists and creatives back: It creates subtle guilt around asking for money or charging what our work is worth. That guilt can lead to underpricing, overdelivering, avoiding negotiations, or hesitating to explore new revenue streams. When we unconsciously equate income with immorality, we make financial sustainability feel like a betrayal  and we limit our ability to build creative practices, business and careers that truly support us.

Passive Mindset

The Belief: The idea that “the universe will provide,” that things will somehow work out without deliberate action or that we need to wait for a windfall, a benefactor, a grant, or the “right” opportunity before we can move forward. At its core, this mindset outsources agency and places timing and responsibility somewhere outside of us.

How it holds us back: It keeps us in waiting mode. We delay financial planning, avoid setting clear income or investment goals, and postpone necessary decisions or important projects because we’re expecting something external to shift first. While trust and optimism are valuable qualities, without action they can turn into avoidance. Over time, leaving our finances to chance or the hands of others erodes confidence and stability  and prevents us from building the steady, self-directed foundation our creative work deserves.

Fear of Failure / Risk

The Belief: Believing that investing financially in our creative practice is too risky and that losing money, making the “wrong” decision (or investment), or not seeing immediate returns would be devastating.

How it holds us back: It keeps us overly cautious and stuck in maintenance mode. We avoid calculated risks like hiring support, upgrading tools, pursuing training, pitching bigger opportunities because the possibility of loss feels intolerable. While scarcity says, “There isn’t enough,” fear of risk says, “I can’t afford to get this wrong.” Both limit growth, but fear of risk specifically shrinks our willingness to expand.

“All-or-Nothing” Mindset

The Belief: The assumption that if we can’t invest a significant amount  or see an immediate, substantial financial return — it isn’t worth doing at all. It can also show up as the belief that we must say yes to every opportunity or keep every existing income stream out of fear that letting go will jeopardize professional relationships and everything we’ve built.

How it holds us back: It creates overwhelm and paralysis. When growth feels like an all-or-nothing leap, we procrastinate instead of taking small, strategic steps that build momentum over time. At the same time, fear of losing income can keep us clinging to work that drains or no longer aligns or even makes sense, preventing us from refining, evolving, or moving toward more sustainable and satisfying directions in our creative practice.

When we begin to name these invisible money scripts we loosen their grip. My clients often acknowledge that just expressing these beliefs out loud in a coaching session helps them name and recognize their mindsets as a belief rather than reality.  These scripts don’t mean we’re irresponsible or incapable. They simply reveal the stories we’ve absorbed about money and what’s possible for us as artists and creatives. Awareness is the first shift. Later this month in Part II, I’ll explore how we begin rewriting these stories through intentional mindset shifts that expand our capacity to earn, manage, and grow in ways that feel more aligned, empowered and sustainable.

Which of these money mindsets do we most recognize in ourselves right now? 

Where is it showing up — in our pricing, our bank account, our avoidance,

our overwork, our hesitation to invest? 

And if that belief weren’t running the show, what might become possible?

Photo Credit: Michael Evans

In Part Two, for paid subscribers to Ways To Be A Creative, I'll go deeper into the inner and outer work of navigating and empowering our money mindset as creative professionals. Expect coaching tools, reflective prompts, and practical experiments to help you align your creativity with financial confidence and sustainability.

Consider becoming a paid subscriber to get access to this next post and more content designed to support your growth as a creative professional.