Photo by Nancee_art

So last night I had this dream that my mom had this huge house and my two sisters and I were coming over to visit for a few days.  I got this little guest room off to the side.  You know, basic room with a bed and nightstand.  And my sister said, “Come look at my room.”

I go upstairs and her “room” is the entire floor and a huge expansive place with a beautiful living room, kitchen, and bedroom with a window seat.  I’ve always wanted a window seat!  And the beauty of the space just kept going and going and as I was checking it all out I was saying, “Why do you get all of this and I only get a bed?  This isn’t fair.”  Instead of rejoicing with what she had, I was lamenting that I had so little compared to what she had.

Fast forward a couple of hours and I’m out of dreamland and on my morning run.  And it hit me.  The Universe intends for me to have my own huge mansion.  And yet, here I am taking just a room in that mansion and lamenting the fact that I don’t have this big mansion.  When in fact I really do!

So today I claim my mansion and standing in my room – my current reality – I feel so amazed and astounded at the beauty of this mansion that’s  all mine.  I claim it.  I own it.  I say, “I deserve this.”  I imagine it.  I am seeing it in my mind’s eye right now exactly what it looks like and how it feels to have it.  And I love and appreciate myself exactly where I’m at knowing that it’s just a matter of time before I am enjoying all of my mansion.

What is your mansion?  What does it look like?  How does it feel to have your mansion?  I invite you today to own your mansion.  Claim it as yours.  Know that you deserve it.  Imagine how it feels to be fully living in every inch of it and be grateful for it.  Woohoo!

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So what is Self Marketing at CSL San Jose?

We are a New Thought Business Networking Group.  We blend the best of business and spiritual development into one group.  We understand that the foundation for outer success is the inner work we do and we are dedicated to lifting each other up, holding a space to receive more success, and growing our businesses together.  The more we come together and lift each other up, the more success we are open to receive.  Are you ready for more success?  I sure am!

What are we going to do at the next meeting?

I will be leading a workshop on visioning for your business.  We will discuss what visioning is, why you would use it, and how it works.  This is a hands on meeting and you will get to experience visioning for yourself.  In addition, we will be visioning for Self Marketing as we enter this new phase of our group and open up to exciting possibilities.  This is your chance to help co-create our group and make it work for you.

New Advisory Board

You will also get to meet the brand new advisory board of Self Marketing.  We are a team of dedicated entrepreneurs and spiritual leaders.  We vision, meditate, and pray for our group on a consistent basis to continually grow the success consciousness of our group.  We are committed to your success and come together to create awesome programs, workshops, and presentations just for you.

What is the greatest vision for your business?
Led by Cassandra Rae

Saturday, September 11, 2010, 9:30 – 11:30 am
Light continental breakfast served

Center for Spiritual Living
1195 Clark St, San Jose, Ca  95125

$15 early bird on-line registration/$20 at the door

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1. Short, Easy & Effective Practice to Bring Your Vision into Reality
2. How much are you worth?
3. Announcing: Simply Fearless Fempreneur Mini-Retreat!

Ouch.

Yeah, so when I saw that we are offering this all-day workshop at the Center for Spiritual Living San Jose I just about peed my pants! I am so there because I want to receive support in this process of putting myself out there without putting my personal worth on the line.  Would you like to join me?  I love it when I am connecting, learning and growing with my peeps!  Here are all the deets:

A Woman’s Worth Workshop with Mary Manin Morrissey

Each of you has the ability to be extraordinary and achieve whatever you set out to achieve. Women are hearing the whispers of their heart grow louder and asking them to step up and step out and use their gifts, talents and voices for something much greater than themselves. The power that resides in one woman is great; the power that resides in women united …is immeasurable. The time has come for us to step into our greatness, our power, our purpose and to birth a new way of being. And women together can create a world of compassion, love and power not yet seen on this planet. It’s not only possible…it’s necessary.

Every woman is coded with a “greatness gene” and this event will support all of you in discovering, owning and unleashing this greatness. What is within YOU that is waiting to be born? In this seminar you will discover what one woman can BE when that woman is YOU.

Saturday, August 28, 2010
Time 9:00 am – 4:00 pm

Center for Spiritual Living
1195 Clark Street
San Jose, California
(408) 294 – 1828

Attire: Comfy. Cozy. Beautifully you!

Cost: Suggested Love Offering of $48 or pay-what-you can

• Light continental breakfast provided
• Please bring a potluck lunch item to share
•To register RSVP on the Facebook event page

Mary Manin Morrissey is an international speaker, best-selling author, CEO consultant, visionary & empowerment specialist.  Learn more about her at www.MaryMorrissey.com

Music will be provided by the beautiful, powerful, and transformative presence of Melissa Phillippe.  Check her out at MelissaPhillippe.com.  She rocks!

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1. What is the greatest vision for your business?
2. Announcing: Simply Fearless Fempreneur Mini-Retreat!
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And instead of writing my answers to the questions, I video-taped them.  How cool is that?!  Wanna sneak a peek?  Yeah, I thought so.

In this video, I answered the question:

What advice, tips, resources, and overall good-to-know information would you offer someone just starting out with regards to finding passion & inspiration and digging in?

I talk about what to do when you hear that voice of fear that says, “Who are you to do that?”  Check it out…

So what’d you think? Please post your comments, insights and ideas.  We all benefit when you share.

You can also check out the entire interview where I answer more questions like:

What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail and fear didn’t exist?

What is your big dream?  Yes, the BIG one!  The really, super big, pee your pants when you make it happen dream.  The one you feel a wee bit nervous saying out loud.  Yep, that one!

Be sure to leave us a comment so that we know you stopped by and so that we can click through and check out your awesomeness on your blog or website too.  Don’t ya just love connecting on-line?

Rock it out, Peeps!

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It was easy to strike up a conversation with artist Jorge Castrillo.  He has such an inviting personality and he immediately opened up about the creative process.  I seriously wanted to go home and paint after listening to him talk about it…

You know, being an artist is one of the most intimate and vulnerable things a person can do.  You pour your heart out onto a canvas, let people look at it, and then they decide if they like it or not.  It’s kinda like running your own business!  Yeah, being a painter – and an entrepreneur – certainly isn’t for the faint of heart.

But, Jorge explains in his video why it’s so important to experiment and put yourself out there.  When you follow and express your heart, you are putting energy and love into motion that goes out into the world, touches lives, and comes back to you in the coolest ways.  The bottom line is…when you create lives are transformed.

Here’s a video of Jorge’s work.  You can reach the artist at (408) 992-0635.

What gives life to your life?

What is your heart asking you to do?

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“To surrender is to choose to give up what’s not working.”

Whoa!  Really?  Now that’s a definition I can get behind.

Fast forward some random unknown amount of time to yesterday morning and I felt like crap.  The same ‘ol stuff was coming up again.  Building my business is hard.  I don’t wanna do this.  Why can’t this be easier?  I’m tired of doing this all by myself. I could feel my feet dragging and my heart sinking.  It was not pretty.

So I put down my pen and put on my running shoes.  I decided that letting go of writing my Morning Pages and switching focus was probably a good thing.  And it was.  By the time my feet hit the trail I was feeling just a little bit better.

I let myself settle into the rhythm of running while I counted my breath in and out.  And as I was making my way up the prettiest part of the trail – a bright blue bridge – it all just came pouring out…

“Okay, fine.  Universe, I surrender.  I give up trying to do all this stuff by myself.  I’m tired of wearing myself out trying so damn hard.  I admit it.  My way isn’t working.  I’m ready to fully trust in you and the Law.”

Oh and I felt the relief instantly.  I felt the weight being lifted off my shoulders as I stepped out of trying to prove my personal worth through the success of my business and stepped into the co-creative process with the Universe where I get to think and feel my way towards receiving my success.

I really don’t have to make all of this happen on my own. In fact, the same creative energy that made everything I see right now in front of me is also available to me when I line myself up with it.  Now that sounds way easier than trying to make it all happen on my own.  I have to admit…today surrendering feels so good.

Please share your thoughts:
What does surrender mean to you? How have you made it easier to do?

Related posts:

1. 3 Simple Ways to Feel Better Now
2. Short, Easy & Effective Practice to Bring Your Vision into Reality
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I want to tap into your talent while spreading the word about you and/or your biz! I have written the Simply Fearless Manifesto and now I need someone to make it pretty.  Enter your name and email below to receive the:

1. Project specs
2. A draft of the Simply Fearless manifesto
3. My personal notes about the design

I am accepting submissions through Sunday, August 15, 2010 midnight Pacific.  It’s super easy to submit and the winner will receive:

1. Credit on the manifesto – your name and/or url will go out to everyone who signs the manifesto as long as I’m using your design – imagine the exposure!
2. Four 30-minute coaching sessions with me

You don’t have to be a graphic designer to play and win.  If you are in the slightest bit curious about this opportunity and would like to win the prizes, then please enter your name & email to receive all the information about the contest:

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Pink’s response was, “And I think you learn more about yourself in the context of a relationship.”

Yeah, call me obsessed, but this is the same thing I think about running your own business.  The journey isn’t about making money.  It’s about learning who you are first so that you can be more intimate with your clients.  And you do learn more about yourself in the context of being in relationship with clients.

“A lot of people like to just start over…but you will come to the same problem.”

It’s true.  You can decide to leave your business behind.  But, you are still left with you.  So why not stick it out?  Look at yourself full on.  Take it in.  Love all parts…good, bad, strong, weak…and just know that no matter what happens on your income statement you are worthy.

You are worthy.

Building a business has been one of the most heart-wrenching and heart-fulfilling experiences I’ve ever been through.  I’ve learned more about who I am and what’s important to me.  It’s almost impossible to run from your “stuff” when you are developing your business because your stuff shows up on your income statement.

Believe me, what you think you are worth will show up.  And in order to grow, you must look at it square in the eyes.  You must look at you square in the eyes.  And nothing is more terrifying than facing your own belief about what you are worth or not worth.

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photo by webtreats

Today I rocked it out at the very first Sassy Networking Event.  Woohoo!  My favorite part was helping people video their 30 second intros.  What an awesome party.  We schmoozed, learned, and schmoozed some more.  After our rockin’ guest speakers Cherie & Carla with GatherYour Crowd taught us about gaining on-line influence with photos & videos, I got to share all kinds of tools as a part of the techie panel.  And guess what?  I’m going to share them with you too…

Here’s how to find a flickr photo to use on your website for FREE:

1. Click here to search all flickr photos posted under a Creative Commons Attribution license.  This means that you can use the photo for free on your site as long as you give credit to the photographer – I always include a back-link to the flickr photo page.
2. Enter your search terms.  To find the photo I used in this post I entered “social media”
3. If you don’t like the selection, then click on “Interesting” to view the best photos
4. Click on the photo you want to use
5. Click on “All sizes” to download the size of your choice
6. Use the photo with credit and then leave the photographer a comment on the flickr page telling them thank you for allowing you to use their photo for free.  You can also leave a link to where you’ve used the comment and peeps might click through to see your stuff too!

Being on-line is no longer just about having a website and blog.  It’s about having a presence and being present.  Here are some of our favorite techie tools:

• Create a free website
  • http://www.weebly.com/
• Fonts
  • http://www.dafont.com/
• Stock photos
  • http://www.dreamstime.com/
  • http://www.istockphoto.com/index.php
  • http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/by-2.0/
• On-line appointment scheduling
  • http://genbook.com/
  • http://tungle.me/
  • http://www.bookfresh.com/
  • http://appointment-plus.com/
• Movie making
  • http://www.xtranormal.com/
  • http://animoto.com/
• Share your PowerPoint presentations
  • http://www.slideshare.net/
• Reputation Management
  • http://socialmention.com/
  • http://www.yext.com/
  • http://www.trackur.com/
  • http://www.steprep.com/ {this is the one Chrystal raves about}
• Don’t send the wrong message ~ check your email for tone
  • http://www.tonecheck.com/
• Social Media Productivity Tools
  • http://hootsuite.com/
  • http://www.socialoomph.com/
• Photo editing
  • http://www.photoscape.org/
  • http://fotobounce.com/
  • http://www.gimp.org/
• Discover the magic of words
  • http://wordsmith.org/
• Mind Mapping
  • http://www.mindmeister.com/
• Information Management
  • http://www.snipit.org/
  • http://www.instapaper.com/
  • http://www.evernote.com/
• Computer Back-up Services
  • http://www.carbonite.com/en/default.aspx
  • http://mozy.com/
• Copywriting tips
  • http://www.copyblogger.com/

To really set yourself up to succeed on-line, start by setting your intention.  Why are you there?  What do you want to accomplish?  How are you going to contribute?  Then be sure to show up on a consistent basis and openly share your expertise.  The more you connect with people, the more opportunities you have to grow your network, gain influence, and really rock it out!

Here’s a golden opportunity to share your expertise: post a comment with your favorite techie tool.  What is it? How does it help you? And how much does it cost?

**special thanks to Chrystal Bougon, Gather Your Crowd, and Hatch Network for contributing to our list of techie tools**

Related posts:

1. Social Media Resources Plus Recording to the Latest Coaching Call
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3. Put Your Success Front and Center

A great big juicy THANK YOU! to Z Eggloff author of Verge for sharing her wisdom.  You rock, Z.

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