Not Starving Artists

In this episode, I sit down with Tia Levings to talk about her experience inside Christian fundamentalist patriarchy and the trad wife movement, and what it really looks like to break free.

We get into the realities behind the aesthetic: the loss of financial autonomy, being denied access to money, and living on an allowance that could be taken away or used as punishment.

We also talk about what happens after you get out. Tia opens up about learning basic money skills as an adult, navigating shame around debt, unpacking tithing and "should" narratives, and rebuilding trust with herself.

This conversation also explores the overlap between religious messaging around suffering and the "starving artist" identity, especially how both can keep people stuck in cycles of instability and under-earning.

This is a deep, honest conversation about power, money, identity, and what it really means to belong to yourself.

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Tia Levings is the New York Times Bestselling author of "A Well-Trained Wife", her memoir of escape from Christian Patriarchy. She writes about the realities of religious trauma, evangelical patriarchy, and the Trad wife life, decoding the fundamentalist influences in our news and culture. Her work and quotes have appeared in Teen Vogue, Salon, Newsweek, and the HuffingtonPost. She also appeared in the hit Amazon docu-series, Shiny Happy People. Based in Raleigh, North Carolina, she is mom to four. https://tialevings.com/

PRE-ORDER Tia's brand new book "I Belong to Me" coming out on May 5, 2026.

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Trad is a new play written by Kelly Pekar and directed by/developed with Hannah Ryan (Hamilton, An American in Paris), with an all female creative team (including Tia Levings as the Cultural Consultant and Brooke Benson as the Fiscal Dramaturg). There is a private industry reading being held the first week of May, and if you'd like to learn more you can email [email protected]. Check out the official press release here!

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🎉Click here to get the [FINANCES 101] course for FREE 🎉

You'll learn everything about money that school never taught you, created FOR creatives BY a creative.

Want to learn more about 1:1 coaching? Click HERE to learn more and book your sales call

Follow Brooke on Instagram @notstarvingartists

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Spending isn't the thing standing between you and your financial goals. Your relationship with it is.

In this episode, we're diving into intuitive spending. It's the money skill that no budget, spreadsheet, or app can teach you. If you've ever felt guilty for spending, frozen by financial anxiety, or like you just can't trust yourself with money, this one is for you.

Tune in to hear:

• Why spending is a skill, and how honing it makes saving and investing easier
• The problem with outsourcing your financial decisions to budgeting apps and spreadsheets
• How to use your gut intuition alongside your numbers to make spending decisions you feel confident about
• Why there's no right or wrong way to spend your money (and what actually makes a spending decision irresponsible)
• A 7-day homework exercise to start building your intuitive spending muscle today

🎉Click here to get the [FINANCES 101] course for FREE 🎉 <- You'll learn everything about money that school never taught you, created FOR creatives BY a creative.

Want to learn more about 1:1 coaching? Click HERE to learn more and book your sales call

Follow Brooke on Instagram @notstarvingartists

& subscribe to the newsletter here!

Financial confidence isn't about how much money you make, your degree, or having the "perfect" financial plan.

It comes from something much deeper: your ability to lead yourself when it comes to money.

In this episode, we're breaking down what it really means to be the CEO of your financial life, and why so many people feel anxious about money even when they're earning more than enough.

If you've ever second-guessed your financial decisions, constantly searched for answers, or felt like everyone else "knows better", this episode is for you.

Tune in to hear:

💰Why financial confidence has nothing to do with your bank balance

💰The hidden reason money anxiety sticks around (even when you're "doing well")

💰How outsourcing your financial decisions is keeping you stuck

💰The difference between gathering information vs. giving away your power

💰The 3 core pillars every financially confident person operates from

💰How to stop second-guessing yourself and start trusting your decisions

🎉Click here to get the [FINANCES 101] course for FREE 🎉

You'll learn everything about money that school never taught you, created FOR creatives BY a creative.

Want to learn more about 1:1 coaching? Click HERE to learn more and book your sales call

Follow Brooke on Instagram @notstarvingartists

& subscribe to the newsletter here!

Do you ever scroll through your feed and suddenly feel completely behind with money, even when nothing in your life has actually changed? That feeling has a name: comparison. And it might be quietly running your entire financial life.

In this episode, we're talking about why borrowing other people's money goals is keeping you stuck, stressed, and chasing a finish line that was never meant for you.

Your colleague's savings target, your friend's investment strategy, the "rules" you picked up somewhere along the way. None of it matters if it doesn't align with your life, your values, and your version of success.

It's time to stop measuring yourself against someone else's ruler. Your money goals should excite you, motivate you, and actually mean something to you. In this episode, we're figuring out how to get you there.

🎉Click here to get the [FINANCES 101] course completely FREE 🎉

You'll learn everything about money that school never taught you, in a digestable non-jargony way, created FOR creatives BY a creative ♥️

If you loved this episode, subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a friend!

Want to learn more about 1:1 coaching? Click HERE to learn more and book your sales call

Follow Brooke on Instagram @notstarvingartists

& subscribe to the newsletter here!

In this episode, we're talking about travel hacking with credit card points (but not the hyper-optimized version the TikTok travel influencers will sell you).

Instead of asking, "How do I get the absolute maximum cents-per-point value?", here's the questions we're diving into:

💰How can I use points to support my cash flow?

💰How can I fund the trips I actually want?

💰How can I stay spontaneous without overextending my bank accounts?

I'm sharing how I used points for a last-minute San Francisco trip, why sometimes the smartest redemption is the one that preserves your savings, and how to avoid hoarding points out of guilt or scarcity.

If you want to start travel hacking in a way that feels strategic but not stressful, this episode will help you use credit card points as a tool to create freedom, flexibility, and more trips each year without going into debt.

Here is the link to the episode mentioned about lazy girl travel hacking:

Travel Hacking at Every Level (and how to do it the lazy girl way) - EP. 37

Apple + Spotify

🎉 Click here to join CASHED UP CREATIVES 🎉

It's my new online course with all the financial education you were never given it school, helping artists (and anyone else who doesn't want to budget) get out of the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle and become the confident financial CEO of their life & career.

If you loved this episode, subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a friend!

Want to learn more about 1:1 coaching? Click HERE to learn more and book your sales call

Follow Brooke on Instagram @notstarvingartists

& subscribe to the newsletter here!

Welcome to a new series, INDUSTRY EXPERTS: How to Spend Money on your Artistic Career.

The purpose of this series is to give you, actors & creatives, a panel of opinions from people who have been in the industry a while on the best ways to use your money to grow your career.

As a money coach, I teach you how to save money without a consistent paycheck and create longevity in your career via financial stability, and these interviews are to bring in advice on how to spend those savings in a way that actually generates an ROI (adding in the nuance that more spending money won't automatically equal more bookings, and all the free ways you can invest in your career). Enjoy!

Jenn Haltman (she/her) is a director, casting director, coach and producer. With her company, Between Two Boroughs, she has directed multiple shows including the critically acclaimed Trich. She has also directed at Mile Square Theatre, Joe's Pub, VetRep Theatre and Axial Theatre. Jenn has been the Casting Director for Portland Stage in Maine since 2017 where she has recently cast Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Clyde's, The Play That Goes Wrong, and The Cake. Other regional theatre casting credits include Pig Iron Theatre Company, Savage Wonder, Hartford Stage, Penguin Rep Theatre, Gloucester Stage, Virginia Stage Company, and Sharon Playhouse. Films include "Boy Meets Girl" (dir. Eric Schaeffer), the award-winning shorts "Behind the Wall" (dir. Bat-Sheva Guez) and "Someone Will Assist You Shortly" (dir. Jon Levenson), the 2017 Sundance selection "Madeline's Madeline" (Josephine Decker) and the upcoming Gloria (dirs. Jon Levenson and Roos Mattaar). Previously, she was the Casting Associate at New York Theatre Workshop (shows include Peter and the Starcatcher, Little Foxes, Aftermath, The Seven) and also worked with Page 73 Productions and and Soho Rep. Jenn is a proud graduate of Muhlenberg College. jennhaltman.com

And check out TRICH: a solo show written by Becca Schneider, created by Jenn Haltman, Casey Pfiefer, & Becca Schneider (https://trichplay.com/)

🎉 Click here to join CASHED UP CREATIVES 🎉

It's my new online course with all the financial education you were never given it school, helping artists (and anyone else who doesn't want to budget) get out of the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle and become the confident financial CEO of their life & career.

If you loved this episode, subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a friend!

Want to learn more about 1:1 coaching? Click HERE to learn more and book your sales call

Follow Brooke on Instagram @notstarvingartists

& subscribe to the newsletter here!

If you've "fallen off the wagon" with your money (overspending, avoiding your accounts, or just coasting) this episode is your reset.

We're challenging the shame spiral and asking a better question: did you actually fall off… or did life happen? The problem isn't you, it's the story you're telling about what it means.

Inside the episode, I'll walk you through 3 things you can do this week to regain control without guilt or extreme budgeting.

What if falling off the wagon was never possible again…because there is no wagon? Just you, building a money system that can handle your busiest, messiest, most human seasons. Let's create a money plan that works for you, even when life doesn't go perfectly.

Here's the link to the episode mentioned about money seasons (saving, spending, & sustaining):

The Myth About Saving Money [EP. 1]

Apple, Spotify, + Youtube

🎉 Click here to join CASHED UP CREATIVES 🎉

It's my new online course with all the financial education you were never given it school, helping artists (and anyone else who doesn't want to budget) get out of the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle and become the confident financial CEO of their life & career.

If you loved this episode, subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a friend!

Want to learn more about 1:1 coaching? Click HERE to learn more and book your sales call

Follow Brooke on Instagram @notstarvingartists

& subscribe to the newsletter here!

Welcome to a new series, INDUSTRY EXPERTS: How to Spend Money on your Artistic Career.

The purpose of this series is to give you, actors & creatives, a panel of opinions from people who have been in the industry a while on the best ways to use your money to grow your career. As a money coach, I teach you how to save money without a consistent paycheck and create longevity in your career via financial stability, and these interviews are to bring in advice on how to spend those savings in a way that actually generates an ROI (adding in the nuance that more spending money won't automatically equal more bookings, and all the free ways you can invest in your career). Enjoy!

A business mind with an entertainment heart, Jeremy was a theatre kid with a Suze Orman obsession. A graduate of the Hartt School with his BFA in musical theatre, Jeremy quickly joined the Daniel Hoff Agency where he worked as an assistant turn agent for just under 5 years. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Jeremy pivoted to working for a fin-tech and compliance consulting firm, ACA Group, where he worked as the Commercial Business Lead of their Managed Services team. His drive comes from melding his passion and love for the arts with the business strategy necessary to propel careers forward. @jeremysickles_

Do you let your income accumulate in your business bank account and then feel stressed anytime you make a withdrawal? Do you find yourself pulling money out of your business bank account multiple times a month, or whenever you feel like your personal checking account is getting low? Do you feel scared to pay yourself monthly because you don't know what the right amount is? Does all of your money live in one checking account, making your feeling of financial safety dependent upon a minimum amount in there?

This episode is here to help.

You will learn why paying yourself once a month (if you have a business, or if you have a bi-weekly paycheck) is the key to financial stability, and two different ways to practically do this.

🎉 Click here to join CASHED UP CREATIVES 🎉

It's my new online course with all the financial education you were never given it school, helping artists (and anyone else who doesn't want to budget) get out of the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle and become the confident financial CEO of their life & career.

If you loved this episode, subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a friend!

Want to learn more about 1:1 coaching? Click HERE to learn more and book your sales call

Follow Brooke on Instagram @notstarvingartists

& subscribe to the newsletter here!

Welcome to a new series, INDUSTRY EXPERTS: How to Spend Money on your Artistic Career.

The purpose of this series is to give you, actors & creatives, a panel of opinions from people who have been in the industry a while on the best ways to use your money to grow your career. As a money coach, I teach you how to save money without a consistent paycheck and create longevity in your career via financial stability, and these interviews are to bring in advice on how to spend those savings in a way that actually generates an ROI (adding in the nuance that more spending money won't automatically equal more bookings, and all the free ways you can invest in your career). Enjoy!

MICHAEL CASSARA, CSA and his team have cast over 1,000 theatre and film projects since the founding of Michael Cassara Casting in 2003. Recent credits: Mr. Holland's Opus (BD Wong/Wayne Barker – upcoming), Punk Rock Girl! (Joe Iconis/Rob Rokicki – upcoming world premiere) An American In Paris (international tour, dir. Christopher Wheeldon), Spamilton: An American Parody (Off-Broadway/Chicago/Pittsburgh CLO/cast album/current tour), Forbidden Broadway (most recent three editions/cast albums), Enter Laughing (York Theatre), Gigantic (Vineyard Theatre, dir. Scott Schwartz), The 12 (Denver Center/world premiere), and regional productions at Gulfshore Playhouse (13 seasons), Ogunquit Playhouse, The Old Globe, Asolo Rep, Hangar Theatre, Argyle Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Denver Center, and dozens of other companies. From 2007 to 2019, Michael served as the resident casting director for the New York Musical Festival (NYMF), and he has proudly served in that position for the National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT) since 2013. Native Clevelander, BFA graduate of Otterbein University. Member, Casting Society of America and two-time Artios Award nominee. www.michaelcassara.net / @michaelcassara

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🎉Click here to get Module 2 of the Cashed up Creatives Online Course [FINANCES 101] completely FREE 🎉

You'll learn everything about money that school never taught you, in a digestable non-jargony way, created FOR creatives BY a creative ♥️

If you loved this episode, subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a friend!

Want to learn more about 1:1 coaching? Click HERE to learn more and book your sales call

Follow Brooke on Instagram @notstarvingartists

& subscribe to the newsletter here!