From One Goddess To Another: Did you see this secret millionaire?

Last night I watched a replay of the season finale of the hit ABC reality show, Secret Millionaire, featuring none other than internet entrepreneur extraordinaire Ali Brown.

In case you’re not familiar with the show, here’s the premise. In each episode, a self-made millionaire goes “undercover” for a week to an impoverished community. The cover story is that they’re doing a documentary on volunteering, but in reality, they are looking for organizations to support and at the end of the week, donate $100,000 of their own money.

You can watch the episode with Ali Brown here. (Or just Google – it’s also on Hulu.com.)

The show brought up a lot for me, so there are many a-has I could share. (Indeed, I actually had something else planned for this article today, but after last night, I decided to save it for later because the show moved me so much.)

The first of these was around waiting. Namely, when it comes to your big contribution, what are you waiting for? (And yes, I’m asking myself that question, too.)

It’s no secret that I believe that spiritual women entrepreneurs are poised to create and facilitate the massive change our world is crying out for right now. One of the biggest reasons we go into business in the first place is to give back.

Yet, many women entrepreneurs do a lot of the wrong kinds of giving – giving away our time, undercharging, and giving services for free. And they wait to do the kinds of giving they really want – donations of money and time to organizations they care about.

It’s another version of “Someday I’ll be able to…” “Someday I’ll have enough money and time to donate to…”

Last night, I was reminded that building a business is a journey, that “someday” is actually right now, and that all of us can actually choose how and when we contribute.

Meaning… if you’re feeling like you “can’t” contribute because your current monthly income is too low… ask yourself, “What amount would I need to make in order to give away X and feel great about it?” (Change your number, in other words. Yes, you can do this!)

And, “What do I have to say ‘no’ to… in order to say YES to my contribution and my mission, starting right now?”

Remember that there’s a true cost to giving yourself away in the wrong way – not just for you, but for your bigger impact, as well.

So here’s my coach’s question for you. What’s one cause you’re passionate about, and what’s one shift you’re going to make in your business to allow you to give back NOW? (As opposed to later?)

Bright blessings and massive success to you…

On April 14 (that’s this Thursday), Ali will be hosting a special fr’e’e call where she’ll be sharing about her experience on Secret Millionaire and answering questions. You can bet I’ll be there, and I invite you to join me. You can register here: http://www.alibrown.com/secretmillionairecall.html
From One Goddess To Another: Did you see this secret millionaire?

Does The Abundance You Seek Have A Way To Get To You?

I know it’s not always cool to admit it, but back when the movie The Secret came out, I was overjoyed. And not for the reason you might think.

One of the things that I am a passionate stand for is the value of metaphysical thought. Even with the boom in new age publishing and the prevalence of mind-body-spirit disciplines like yoga, the esoteric thought that is the basis of so much of our self-help literature still doesn’t get the respect it deserves.

Frankly, this makes me crazy! So when movies like The Secret (and Da Vinci Code, for that matter) peek out from behind the veil, so to speak, I get very excited, despite their flaws.

In the case of The Secret, I was truly taken in. And the next thing you know, I’m writing $20k checks to the Universe and posting them on my bulletin board. I wrote pages of affirmations, and spent waaaay too much of my morning altar time concentrating on said checks and re-reading those affirmations and visualizing very, very hard.

Inevitably, I would get disappointed time and time again when what I’d wished, hoped, prayed, and affirmed for failed to show up. (The fact that I’d been a practitioner of manifestation for over a dozen years just made it worse. Hello, shouldn’t I know better? Hello!)

As you might imagine, there were many times when I called my faith and manifestation skills into question. For many long months, I was down on myself.

But throughout all that time, I never doubted the process. I knew the process worked, there was just something that I was missing. Finally I realized that amid all of that affirming and visualizing, I’d overlooked the most important thing of all: creating a path for the abundance to come in.

One of my mentors likes to say, “The Universe wants you to have what you want, even more than you do.” But if you’re not prepared to receive what you want, you will never experience it.

Creating a path for the abundance to come in takes place on 2 levels: inner and outer. Internally, you have to do the work to bring your beliefs about money and yourself (i.e., self worth) into alignment so that you can receive money. You can say you want more money ’til the cows come home, but if you don’t truly believe yourself worthy to receive it, you will push it away… again and again and again. (That was my challenge for a long time.)

Meanwhile, on the outside, abundance will come to you quicker and easier when you give it a path to follow. For example, let’s say that you want to manifest $20,000 in one month, and you currently offer your service in 1-on-1 single sessions of 30 minutes each. How easy is it going to be for Spirit to bring you what you seek? (As opposed, to, say, a package that you can easily and ethically charge $5k for.)

Of course, Spirit can always find ways to give us the abundance we seek, even when we can’t see them. But I also believe in following the path of least resistance. That includes creating products, programs and services as channels for Spirit to bring abundance to me.

If you’re struggling to manifest something in your life and business right now, I invite you to take a look at where you may be putting up the barriers. Does the Universe have a clear path to bring what you want to you? Be sure to look on the inside first, at your limiting thoughts and beliefs that may be choking the flow. Then be proactive and practical on the outside, and look for ways to make Spirit’s job a little easier. (This is an energetic alignment as well.)

Remember, the Universe wants you to have what you want, even more than you do. Bright blessings and massive success to you…