I am sharing my story of moving from separation to unity in recovery, love, business, money, and more so that you might discover something valuable for your journey. 

 

Rev. Karen Russo, MBA

Hello friends! I am Karen Russo. 

You can think of me as a wisdom guide for greater spiritual purpose and accelerated financial results in your personal and professional life.

I have kept so many things in my life apart from each other out of fear, shame, and ignorance. 

That theme – feeling falsely separate and discovering the spiritual truth of connection—has been the dominant dynamic of everything I have learned and experienced.

When I discovered the integration of the body and the spirit, masculine and feminine energies, business and purpose, money and meaning, work and love, everything changes for me.

 

Insights from my challenges are what fuels my continued growth, as well as all the teachings and offerings you find here on this site. 

Everything I do is dedicated so that you—my students, clients, colleagues, and communities—are:

  • crystal clear about what inspires you so that you have energy to live on purpose
  • less fearful, ashamed, and upset about your past so you have the confidence to express your magnificence
  • taking consistent, productive action to achieve the results you desire

“Karen, Your Job is School” … and I loved my job!

I grew up in Maryland, with a Dad who worked for the US Government and a Mom who was a part time substitute teacher.  Education was a very important and valued part of all our lives. 

A lot of our personal intimacy and our relationship to the world at large was positively expressed through education, work, and community. 

 

My brother Tony was always a free spirit with a heart for adventure and my brother Bill was a smart, kind guy who everybody loved.

I do remember feeling a wash of warmth and good feeling at odd moments in random Catholic Mass I attended.  It was an inkling of the huge spiritual quickening that was to come later in my life.

 

Mostly, I was a serious little girl who escaped family challenges by being well behaved and studious.  I loved school!  It was a place where my fears and insecurity could be covered up. 

Achievement and Challenge

In my teens and twenties, I faced some tough challenges. From the outside my life looked successful. I received good grades, I was productive, and I easily conformed to social roles of student, worker, and friend. But on the inside, I did not have a strong sense of who I was as a person.

 

I hid the pain.  And I hid the things I did to cope with the pain.

It was a mixed-up time. Some wonderful moments – I trained for and ran the 1987 New York Marathon. I showed up at school and work—with an MBA in Finance from Columbia University, I had gotten a corporate position with a Wall Street commercial bank—but my drinking was harder to hide and the emotional toll of the horrible things I’d done felt so heavy.

My emotional, physical, and mental well-being suffered from my sense of disconnection. The feeling of grace I once felt as a young girl became covered over with anxiety, addictive habits and controlling behaviors.

 

I was at a crossroads – and was blessed when a dear friend suggested I come with her to a support group in a church basement on the Westside.

 

I was introduced to new concepts of spirituality and found a a greater reality than my past, my job, my roles, or my stories.

I was at a turning point 30 years ago… and as many of you know, that surrender, that low point, became the most important and powerful moment of my life.

 

I was blessed to discover a power greater than myself and a recovery program that started me on a path of personal and spiritual growth and study.

 

But I was still keeping things SEPARATED.

 

In business I was tough, fast, and emotionless as a sales officer for a commercial bank - hiding my spiritual interests from my colleagues and clients.

 

In the recovery groups I kept quiet about my competence and financial success in the world so I would not intimidate people.

 

I was not fully integrated… and it felt lonely… and I was not living the fully powerful, successful life I knew I could.

Spiritual Practice and Community Create Possibilities

When the New York bank assigned me to their California office I resisted. But you know how the things we resist become blessings.  My 15 years in Southern California was transformational.

 

Having just gotten settled, I was lonely and newly sober… and longing for deeper connections—to myself, to meaningful friendships, and to work that mattered.

 

An exasperated therapist suggested I check out this new place on Olympic Blvd in West Los Angeles called Agape.

I discovered the teachings of Religious Science, one of the new thought traditions. I studied the work of Dr. Ernest Holmes and many others.

 

What a delight to ponder: All that I am is of God and yet God is more than I am. The principles of Unity, Cause and Effect, and Circulation are worthy of study and exploration for a lifetime.

Truths beyond the intellect and yet a place where my intellect would always be stimulated.

I studied and practiced for years, becoming a licensed spiritual counselor and eventually an ordained minister of what is now called Centers for Spiritual Living.

 

Much of my teaching was with Dr. Michael Bernard Beckwith, the founder of the agape center, in Los Angeles CA. I am so grateful for hoes formative years of classes and retreats and connection.

Life and ministry brought me to the beautiful Southwest.  I served for over a decade with the New Vision Center in North Phoenix, so grateful for the lessons of deepening in love and leadership.

 

New Vision Center is one of the shining examples of spiritual community created to reveal the power of God’s Love through spiritual principles in our everyday lives.

By now the chronic feeling of having to keep things separate had faded.  It has been thirty plus years deeply involved in personal growth and spiritual expansion, while simultaneously creating worldly success in my profession as a corporate trainer and consultant.

 

There is no fundamental reality in separation. Everything is connected. 

 

My worlds had come together. Business was a place to be mindful. I enjoyed expense reports when the other consultants thought they were a pain because doing them was like a meditation to me. Before going in for a big presentation to our corporate buyers, I would silently bless everyone in the room.

 

Spiritual communities flourish with organization and financial excellence. I happily led role clarity working sessions for leaders at church.  And was always excited to teach the principles of Abundance and Order to spiritual seekers.

The Big Fella—my Hero, my Lover, my Friend

I have kept so many things in my life apart from each other out of fear, shame, and ignorance. 

That theme – feeling falsely separate and discovering the spiritual truth of connection—has been the dominant dynamic of everything I have learned and experienced.

Who knew that I would head up to Esalen in Big Sur for a meditation retreat and meet a ‘nice man’ from Arizona who was 10 years older, just separated, and not at all what I would have profiled in Match.com.  

And, in the most beautiful act of surrender, I would be blessed with letting go of my preconceived ideas and open my heart to love of my life. 

 

After 20 years with the big fella, I am so grateful. So blessed. So happy.

Spiritual Discovery and Practice Around the World

Bill and I share love of spiritual learning, practice, and exploration. So much of the blessings I have received for opening to the presence of the Divine has come in environments and teaching with beloveds all around our precious planet.

What’s Ours to Teach? …

 Isn’t it almost always what we have Learned?

Introducing The Money Keys

In my life I find that work, money, business, investments, meditation, prayer, spiritual study, and God do go together.

 

What I know now is that there never was any reason to hold money and spirituality as two separate areas of experience. Universal spiritual principles are compatible with the knowledge, actions, and results of material success. It is possible to live a conscious, sacred life with a strong experience of inner guidance and connection to spiritual reality and, at the same time, to save, invest and share money effectively.

My lifelong insights and experiences of integrating spirituality and money are the foundation of the message I share in The Money Keys. The original book, The Money Keys: Unlocking Peace, Freedom, and Real Financial Power debuted in 2007. My personal spiritual experiences concerning money and its meaning in my life have proven to me that integrating spirituality and worldly success is available to all.

I am committed to supporting clients, students, and colleagues like you in achieving a vastly more inspiring and satisfying experience of money and its role in your life. My spiritual friends can enjoy more peace of mind and worldly success than they allow themselves to imagine. My entrepreneurial colleagues can have a greater connection to the power and possibility within their own souls.

My whole life has been a journey of coming to truly value the sweet, inclusive, loving nature of the spiritual AND the directed, productive nature of the practical.

 

I have found my genuine combination of strengths, and it is had a hugely positive impact on my business and my life. When you discover yours, you are going to thrive too.

Money Momentum Mastery is my latest offering, in collaboration with my good friend and colleague, Robert A. Martinez. We both have a commitment to helping coaches, healers, experts, and solopreneurs who want to make money making a difference.

It is possible to make good money making a positive difference in the world!  Because when BOTH practical actions and spiritual qualities are celebrated in creating wealth, you have the capacity to go after your dreams, achieve them and enjoy the journey.

The World Needs Women Who Feel Worthy

Another theme that has run through my life is the absolute urgency of empowering women to reveal the magnificence of who we truly are.  And we do this together! Women can celebrate and empower female friends, daughters, sisters, mothers, and partners by providing accurate information and emotional encouragement as well as financial support.

 

An otherwise insightful book I read about how women must care for themselves to create romantic, respectful marriages suggested that women hand over all the finances to their husbands. This author proposed that handling money is inherently too stressful, complicated, and hard for women. Not only is this factually untrue, it is a disabling idea!

 

My favorite women’s magazine had an issue dedicated to mastery. Leading-edge experts gave interesting advice on nutrition, skincare, relationships, and self-esteem. But the financial experts seemed to be caught in a worldview from a century ago. The investment advisors suggested that boring investments were the best because reliability was the most a woman should hope for.

Sharon Lechter, financial literacy expert and co-creator of the Rich Dad series, has committed to seriously empowering women with money.

 

I was honored to be selected by Sharon to contribute a saucy chapter on ‘Sex Energy and Money’ to her compilation of Think and Grow Rich for Women, in collaboration with the Napoleon Hill Foundation.

Would anyone suggest that women turn over their communication, their food, and their health care to men because it is just too hard, complicated, or scary? I hope not!  It is vital for women to know they are at one with a generous universe, that they have tremendous capacity for contribution, and that it is possible to develop skills to make, invest, and share money, whether they are staying home with the children, leading an entrepreneurial venture, or running a huge corporation.

Grief and Loss Opens my Heart

In 2016, there was a surprising and painful loss. My dear younger brother, Bill, collapsed on the way home from his commute, was diagnosed with a brain tumor, and was gone in just seven weeks. Such a devastating loss for our entire family. His spirit lives on in his generosity, humor, kindness, and more.

In 2018 my father passed. Not a shock, but sad.  I truly value my father’s self-taught investment acumen and am still touched by how a question about handling something arises, and one of his famous handwritten notes contains the perfect answer.

Losing family members has softened my mental certainty about the nature of life which turns out to be a very good thing. I have more compassion for the challenges and losses and grief of others. And I do have more of a sense of gratitude for the presence of those around me and the preciousness of what every day does bring.

Social Justice and Political Engagement --> Walk the Talk!

I have always been politically engaged, and most will not be surprised to learn that my personal preferences and beliefs are on the progressive end of the spectrum.

 

I came up in the environment where you might be working or worshipping next to someone who voted for the other candidate but that wouldn't get in the way of sharing priorities on a project or a belief in the divine.  

 

However, in 2016 things really began to change. I couldn’t stay on the sidelines. After the US national election, I took my anger and upset into action.

Rather than yelling at the TV, I have been working personally to get out the vote for candidates who share my values of inclusivity, social and criminal justice, economic fairness, environmental protection, and immigration decency.

Some feel that coaches or ministers should remain silent about current events and social issues.  Well, not me!  I have felt called to speak up and out about the critical call to put inclusive, growth ideas into practical action in every area of life.

OK, Let’s Talk about My Hair!

I started out with bangs, then got curly. And then I made the move to cosmetic intervention. For decades! I was absolutely convinced that I could not possibly let the world see what was real. In 2019 authenticity and legacy called. What did Nature have in her brilliance? It took about a year… and it has been fabulous! So, throughout my website here you'll see a variety of colors and styles.

I Want you to Know Me … So I can Celebrate YOU!

As you might suspect, I am not your typical spiritual guide just focusing on visioning and mystical abundance ideas. 

 

And I am not your typical money coach only recommending marketing and revenue generation tactics.

 

I had to live the connection of spirit and matter for myself, and all the speaking and programs that I offer are dedicated to making that journey of discovery easier and faster for you.

 

Your spiritual and financial expansion is WHY I do what I do!

After working with 1,000s of folks all over the globe in the last 20 years, I have seen 3 predictable and immediate results when you implement a holistic approach:

 

  1. Financial Breakthroughs. A new mom had the income in her coaching practice triple.  One couple finally started working together on their finances and had a $125,000 debt dissolve. 
     
  2. Healing.  Long held money resentments dissolved, family conflicts are forgiven, sometimes big surprises where so much creative energy gets freed up.
     
  3. Momentum. When you have an integrated approach, you get into consistent, weekly action, and things move… marketing projects get completed, you stop wasting time with joint ventures or groups that aren’t a fit, and you engage in the highest leveraged financial choices.

“You deserve a successful, integrated, sustainable approach to money, profession, and success.  That requires integrating spirit and matter, principles and practical tools, meaning and money.  I offer my teaching and guidance for you to thrive.”

 

~ Karen

What's Next?

Inspired by my journey of integrating purpose and results? If you have a group or audience that would value this message, let's connect.

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