At first, I could feel myself trying very hard to pump out new content and grab for the message.  I want to write my eCourse and get it out there in the world.  But then I slowed down, breathed in a good dose of trust, and reminded myself that my most compelling message comes from a place deep within me when I allow it to emerge.

No more trying.

No more pushing.

No more insisting.

Instead I get to start where I’m at, with what I know, and feel for the direction that flows with my Soul.  I get to enjoy the process.  I get to have fun creating.  And guess what happened?  With all of this letting go of trying and opening up to allowing, I received the best idea!

It suddenly became clear to me that the eCourse is the foundation for my signature speech.  So why not speak the content first and write it second?  What a brilliant idea!  And I know the perfect person to help me bring my message to light and serve as my Speaking Coach.  Wahoo!  In fact, I’ve already called him and we have our first session booked for Wednesday morning.

And it gets even better!  Suzanne and I have been bouncing around the idea of hosting a party.  Initially it was going to be a blog launch party since we both recently launched new blogs.  Yay!  But, that idea lost its initial luster even though we both still want to host a party.

Well, this morning while we were writing together another brilliant idea hit me: she should sing at our party!  You see, Suzanne has a beautiful voice and I think it would be so much fun to see her perform.  We both loved the idea – even though we didn’t know how it would fit into the gathering.  And then, she was struck with a brilliant idea: why don’t we make it a celebration of everybody’s secret talent?!  How *FUN* is that?!

So now we are throwing a Secret Talents & Hidden Desires Showcase Party where people will be invited to share something yummy to eat and their secret talent!  We are providing a venue for peeps to showcase something that they secretly want to pursue and I’m so excited because I’ve decided to share my love of photography.  I’m going to have my first show! Wahoo!

I can’t wait to pick photos, research printing options, and play with how to display them.  I’m going to do this full-on as if I were a real-life artist having her first professional show.  I mean, why not?  This idea makes me so happy in a light, fun, and playful way. These are exactly the feelings that open me up to receive more success.

Everyone benefits when you share:
What is your secret talent and/or hidden desire?

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1. Writing Buddies Kick Ass!
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No seriously.  I am grateful…and sarcastically bitter all at the same time.  Hey, my 16 year-old-daughter moved out yesterday to go live with her father full-time.  I have every right to be bitter.

Wait a minute.  Why am I explaining {read: trying to justify} myself to you?

Good question.  I don’t know, but how about I stop now?

Okay.

Are you lost yet? I am just a little bit.  But, that’s okay.  This is what it’s been like in my head with all this stuff going on in my life.

It’s easy to freak out in the face of such terrifying events like letting go of parenting full-time.  But, here’s the thing:

I’ve asked for and received some amazing acts of support, kindness, and love.

And you know what, isn’t this what life and love are really all about?

I haven’t tried to hide my personal crisis. Nope.  Instead I’ve shared it and was able to receive the strength from others that I couldn’t muster for myself.  I didn’t try to pretend I had it all together.   Instead I asked my sister, my dad, and my mom just to hold me while I cried.

And you know what?

They did. They held me and let me cry.  What a gift!  I didn’t have this kind of support earlier in my life.  So when these people held me, they not only held the mother that’s going through hell with her daughter.  They held the frightened child.  They held the angry teen.  They held the lost twenty-something.  They held me.

And that, my friend, is beautiful.

So when it comes to sharing your life, your problems, and your fears with your peeps…I encourage you to open up, talk, and ask for what you need.  You just might find your colleagues, clients, friends, and families coming together to support and love you just like they all did for me.

To all of you who have reached out to me through this…thank you.

–

Today is Simply Fearless Friday!  Blog about one thing you’ve done this past week that’s stretched your comfort zone and then come back here to share the link directly to your blog post.  Facing your fears is an absolute must when you are building the business of your dreams. But, you do not have to do it alone.  Share your story and I promise to swing on by and leave you a comment.  You know you’d love that!

Related posts:

1. What is your Calling?
2. Video: taking care of me
3. Face a Fear Friday!

“What we seek is seeking us.”

Yowza!  I’ve been saying this a lot lately about your ideal client.  You are seeking them and they are also seeking you – even though they might not know it consciously.  They are calling you to share your message in order to open a new door of possibility for them.  Well, for both of you really.

So today while I was sitting quietly eating my lunch alone it hit me:

“I’m seeking clarity, which means that clarity is seeking me!”

Oh how comforting this idea is and it applies to my life on so many levels.  You see, my daughter just moved to her dad’s house 60 miles away.  Literally.  She just left moments ago and one of the things I’m doing to nurture myself through it is to write this blog post and share it with you.  I have no idea if making the move was the “right” thing to do.  But, I do know it was the best decision considering the facts, circumstances, and recent past.  Here we are just moments before her departure:

I’m also running my very first Simply Fearless Fempreneur Group {so excited!} and I’m writing our workbook as I go.  There are times when I doubt, question, or over-edit the content, direction, and lay-out.  But, I do know I am creating something {both a workbook and a community} that is central to who I am, what I’m all about, and my calling.

Plus, I am working with a product coach and creating brand new products for my website, which is in the process of being redesigned.  Wow!  I am doing so much right now.  I hadn’t really realized it until I was typing it all out.

Anyhow, all of these happenings require a tremendous amount of decisions to be made relatively quick and money to be invested.  So yeah, I’m seeking big doses of clarity.  I’m so glad that it’s also seeking me.  In fact, I know it’s already on its way.  It’s a good thing because…

I am open.

I am ready to receive.

And to rock it out!

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1. How personal do you get?
2. Video: taking care of me
3. What is Your Heart Asking You to do?

For this week’s Simply Fearless Friday I recorded a video for ya’ll.  Ain’t that special? Of course it is! And you really don’t want to miss this one because I share about my personal experience parenting a 16 yo daughter while running a growing business.

Whew…I’m tired just thinking about it!  Time for more self-care.  I’m off to eat a delicious and healthy lunch.

Rock it out, Peeps!

–

Today is Simply Fearless Friday!  Blog about one thing you’ve done this past week that’s stretched your comfort zone and then come back here to share the link directly to your blog post.  Facing your fears is an absolute must when you are building the business of your dreams. But, you do not have to do it alone.  Share your story and I promise to swing on by and leave you a comment.  You know you’d love that!

Related posts:

1. Face a Fear Friday!
2. How personal do you get?
3. Take Care of You and You Can Do Anything!

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1. Video: What is your calling?
2. Video: taking care of me
3. Video: small moments lead to big results

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This week’s Simply Fearless Friday is dedicated to all the fabulous fempreneurs who were at the very first Women Entrepreneurs of the Bay Area meetup group in San Mateo last night.  You ladies rock!  It was definitely one of the best networking events I’ve ever been to.  The energy was phenomenal.  There was something in the air that allowed us to simply be ourselves, which made our introductions way more powerful and effective.  Wasn’t it great getting up and speaking to 60+ women while being videotaped by the fearless Ana Lucia Novak?!  A huge thank you and hats off to Phyllis Garland for putting together a powerful group.  And this is just the beginning!

Okay, now on to the fear I faced this week…

Oh boy.  This one was a biggie.  I woke up Monday morning feeling overwhelmed, confused, and rattled.  Yeah, it was one of those moments when I was like, “What am I doing? Who am I serving? How can I do this?”  Yup.  I was freaking out.

And instead of pushing through my to-do list I reached out for help.  I knew that I was way off center and needed some support getting back into alignment {hey it sounds like I needed a chiropractor for my soul!} So I sent of an email to my coach asking for a session.  I felt a little bit better just knowing that help was on the way.

Secondly, I put all business development stuff aside.  Even though I REALLY wanted to work on some projects, I knew that it would not benefit me, my business, or my clients if I created from a place of panic.  So I let it go and cleaned my office space.

The next morning I sat down with my Soul and said, “Okay, Soul, I’ll do whatever you say because I have nothing left.  I’ve done all my ideas and I’m back to nothing.”  And guess what happened? I received very specific information about my next offering and I’m so excited because I can feel the power in it!  I immediately jumped up from my meditation corner, turned on my computer, and got to work writing out the invitation, setting up the webpage, and creating the registration packet.  Whew!  It’s been 3 solid days of creation, but now I am ready.  I am launching my very first Soul-inspired program and it even amazes me.  The invitation is going out to my list today and I can’t wait to start welcoming people in.  If you want to receive an invitation, then please send me an email at Cassandra@SimplyFearless.com and I will shoot one right out to you.  This initial offering is a once-in-a-lifetime deal and it’s only going out to my current network plus all the ladies from WEBA.

Okay, so now looking back on my week I’m grateful for being overwhelmed, confused, and rattled because it was exactly what I needed to re-align myself and my coaching practice with Soul. Woohoo!

- -

{You are invited to participate in Simply Fearless Friday! Write your own blog post sharing one fear you faced or one thing you did in the past week that stretched your comfort zone.  Then post a direct link to your blog post below so that we can all visit each other’s blogs and leave supportive comments.  Questions? Check out the guidelines here.}

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I would totally ramp it up and put myself out there.  So what’s stopping me from doing that now? Good question.  And I’m done waiting to find out.  I don’t need to figure out why I’m hesitating.  I simply need to move.

And I”m going to imagine that I’ve just survived a plane crash.  I’ve been handed a second chance at life and I’m not going to poo poo around any longer.

I get to live my intention that Coach Vicki Garcia helped me articulate in this month’s Simply Fearless Coaching Call:

I AM WILLING TO PRACTICE BEING MY BOLD SELF!!!

So watch out folks cuz here comes a survivor who rocks!

–

In search of a photo to include with this post, I searched the keyword “bold” in my flickr photostream and found this photo & inscription from August 2008:

“You are beautiful simply by opening up and blossoming boldly!”

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So 100 days is big, right? But, you like the idea about facing your fears and moving through them, right? Of course, you do!  Otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this article on my blog.  So I decided to launch a weekly ritual here at SimplyFearless.com where every Friday we blog about one fear we faced during this past week.  Damn that rocks!

One of the fears I faced this week was making a commitment to my daughter to work on my Book Proposal for 15 minutes every day for 30 days.  This has been something I’ve been avoiding and it is time to allow someone else to hold me accountable and who better than my 16 year old daughter? She’s also made the commitment to work out for 15 minutes a day for 30 days and at the end of the 30 days we are  going to get a body piercing together.  I want to get my nose pierced and she wants snake-bites.

Face 1 Fear Friday

Now it’s your turn!
To play along with us publish a blog post that talks about the one fear you faced this week and then come back here to enter your name & the link directly to your blog post. Do not leave a link to your blog homepage – that link will get deleted.  We want the link directly to your blog post so that we can read & comment.  Rock it out, Peeps!

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The 2nd step is to stop judging yourself for where you are.  Simply let go of the criticism.  It’s not like you made yourself miserable on purpose.  You’ve always done the best you could considering your background, your experiences, and your skills.

The 3rd step is to embrace your humanity. As much as you’d like to be one: you aren’t a superhero.  You are human with feelings, foibles, and fear.  The more you allow yourself to be human, the more courage and strength you will have to move forward.  {I’ll let you in on a little secret: the less you try to be a superhero, the more you are one!}

The 4th step is to consider all of your options. What else could you be doing? And what else? Go ahead and make a list of as many options as you can think of.  Include everything from the blatantly obvious (i.e. I could stay miserable forever) to the outrageously ridiculous (i.e. I could live on the streets begging for loose change).

The 5th step is to choose just one thing, one simple thing, you can do today to move towards what you love.  Seriously, what can you do right now? It doesn’t need to be drastic and big.  In fact, it needs to be teeny tiny and super cool.  Choose something do-able and go do it!

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