I spent a good chunk of my life wondering if I had enough, if I would ever have enough, and what would happen if I ran out.

Then, I let it happen. So I could find out.

After building two million dollar businesses, and realizing that there was something faulty in my internal foundation that no amount of success would fix or fill, I made the choice to face my greatest fear, let it all go, move to a farm and file bankruptcy so I could discover who I was, and what was really important to me, if I wasn’t letting my fear of running out of money drive my life decisions.

And while I was there, I discovered the Equation for Enough. At least one equation, which works really well, if you want to always know that you will have enough resource, regardless of what we are using as a medium for exchange.

So here it is, the Equation for Enough is this simple:

Learn to ask for what you need in exchange for what you have to give.

Master the equation for enough, and you’ll always have what you need. Easy, right? Well, not so fast. Because each piece of this equation seems to be challenging (if not impossible) for most people.

People don’t know what they need. There’s all this conditioning around need.

I don’t need anything.

I need too much.

I don’t want to seem needy.

So, as a result, we get disconnected from the truth of what we actually need. Which, of course, makes it really hard to ask for what we need.

And if you don’t know what you need, or if you are not in right relationship with what you need, then it’s going to be very difficult to ask for what you need.

On top of that, most people tend to be very confused about what they have to give. At least I was, for a really long time. And most of the people I’ve met in the world also seem to struggle with this one.

What do I have to give?

Oh yeah, I can give that, but it’s not worth much because it’s so easy for me to do. Who am I to do that?

I don’t really have anything to give.

If you don’t know what you have to give, or the value of what you have to give, or if you devalue what you have to give because it’s what comes easy to you, or because you didn’t earn it, then it’s hard to ask for what you need in exchange for what you have to give.

On top of that, most people seem to have a big problem with asking at all! For anything. Ever.

Oh, no, I couldn’t ask for that.

She’ll probably say no.

I’ll just wait until he figures out I need it.

No way! That’s way too scary to ask for.

We’re terrified to ask and hear no. So, we just don’t ask. And then we’re upset when we don’t receive. Or our needs come out sideways and feel bad to us and the people we wish would just read our minds.

There is a better way, y’all. Let’s practice relational hygiene when it comes to having enough. We really can do it.

Be honest with yourself about what you actually need. Be willing to see what you have to give and the value of it. And learn to ask, cleanly, for what you need in exchange for what you have to give.

Yes, you may get some “no’s” at first. That’s great! Keep asking, and you’ll keep learning, about the true value of what you have to give and how to convey that value. You’ll refine your communication skills. You’ll get more in touch with what you need.

It’s all good. This is how we learn to live together and create a world that truly works for everyone. It must first start with you standing in your own sovereignty, and knowing you can always have enough because you’ve mastered the equation — knowing what you need, knowing what you have to give, and knowing how to ask for what you need in exchange for what you have to give.

You’ve got this. ❤

Alone, without resources, and no one to turn to for help …

Back in 2013, I connected with a woman who was so resourceful that she had turned her bathroom into a year-round vegetable and herb garden.

I loved the idea of that and wrote about it on my blog, along with my concern about whether real, fresh food would become a scarce resource in the new economy.

Four years later, I found myself surprised to see posts by her on Facebook indicating she was living in a hotel and very close to out of resources, facing homelessness.

I messaged Laura to find out what was going on specifically and to see how I could help.

It turns out that back in February of this year, Laura had to move out of the home she had been living in because of a toxic environmental issue that was making her sick.

It had been two years and she was beginning to have mobility issues because of it. Once it became clear it wasn’t getting better and before it got worse, Laura put her belongings into storage and moved into a hotel.

Now, when I say hotel, I‘m not talking Eloise at the Plaza. I’m talking the Quality Inn in Indianapolis, Indiana.

The good news is that it’s safe and has free breakfast, which she makes the most of by pocketing some fruit and bagels she can eat throughout the rest of the day.

And free wifi included in the $63.17 per night rent, which she needs so she can finish the classes she is taking online through Southern New Hampshire University and getting all As in, even through all of the challenges she has had with her move and her health.

And no bed bugs.

The bad news is that Laura never expected to be at the hotel more than a month, sure she would be able to find another place to live, and now she’s been there more than 90 days and is completely out of money with nowhere else to go.

Laura is 59 years old. She has spent most of her adult life as a caregiver of others, a community volunteer, and an artist.

She was living sustainably running her own shop on Etsy, growing food in her bathroom, and expanding her skills by returning to school with the support of student loans.

Until she had to move.

And now, 90 days later, she is completely without resources and with no family to help her and no apparently available social services that can help her with her housing crisis.

Laura is facing the very real possibility of being out on the streets.

At 59, with mobility issues.

If this isn’t every woman’s worst nightmare, I don’t know what is.

I used to think bag lady syndrome was just a syndrome. Now, I’m seeing first-hand that it’s not. It can become so very real so very quickly.

I can (and will) write another post about how exactly Laura ended up in the hotel for 90 days and using up all of her resources, even after we raised $1,298 in the first round of the Generosity campaign and I (and a few donors) paid for three weeks of her hotel stay in April.

I can (and will) write another post about what all of us who may be afraid of what we are reading here can do for ourselves now to make sure it doesn’t happen to us.

But, what I’d like to do here in this post is ask for help on behalf of Laura, and on behalf of all women in Laura’s shoes right now (and all of our Elder Orphans, really), and on behalf of the part of me that is terrified that this could happen to me later in my life.

What Laura needs right now:

To have her hotel room paid for through May so she can use the rest of this month to focus on finding permanent housing she can move into before June 1. The cost of that is likely to be around $1,500 for the remaining month with two weeks at $368 each (a negotiated/discounted rate) and then the final week at a higher cost due to the Memorial Day weekend.

If you would like to contribute you can PayPal Laura directly at: [email protected].

MOST IMPORTANTLY: LAURA NEEDS SUPPORT TO FIND AFFORDABLE, PERMANENT HOUSING WITH SECURE MAIL DELIVERY

This looks like a 350–450 square foot first floor (no stairs or elevator) permanent living space in Indianapolis, Indiana, in an area that is sufficiently safe, that ideally has access to public transit and a safe mail delivery, as Laura shops online and runs her Etsy shop out of her home.

And I would like to continue this conversation about how we can help the women who find themselves alone, without resources and with nowhere to turn for help more systematically and sustainably, without relying on governmental benefits that are hard to find, get and receive.

Frankly, ladies, we need to build this for ourselves. We can continue that conversation here in the comments and in my next posts on this topic.

This is where you can find Laura online:

LinkedIn
Facebook
Bathroom Farmer Blog
Personal Blog With More of the Story of Laura’s Move

If you want more people to see this post and be part of this conversation, please use the heart button at the bottom of this page to show the love, which will mean more people will see the post. Or share the post using the social media share buttons. I appreciate you keeping the conversation going.

UPDATE MAY 5, 2018

It’s been a year since I wrote this and a lot has happened for Laura, yet she is once again on the verge of homelessness, if she doesn’t receive support.

Over the past year, Laura did find a more sustainable housing situation, in the form of a long-term hotel, with an ADA room, laundry on the same floor and a small kitchenette with secure mail delivery, and a more stable rent of approximately $1000/mo. in the downtown Indianapolis area with access to public transport.

Laura was able to move some of her things out of storage, get her Etsy stores partially back up and running (though she needs to move more things out of storage in order to be able to make custom items) and keep herself going through the Fall and Winter.

But, now, as we move into Summer, Laura is once again on the edge.

When I explored why that is with Laura, it made sense: one of her Etsy products is “chicken sweaters” that people don’t buy once the snow stops, her storage bills continue to pile up and she has been unable to move her remaining items and get access to her crafting gear, and Laura doesn’t get financial aid over the Summer. (Laura is a straight ‘A’ student despite all of the housing challenges she has had.)

And, it also seems that Laura has gotten worn down by the stress and uncertainty of her living situation and income, and at times has collapsed emotionally and not been able to ask for help.

Laura needs help. If you want to support Laura to get back on her feet, get her items out of storage and re-open her shops in full, please PayPal whatever you can to [email protected].

For the most part, natural disasters all around suck. They are costly, inconvenient and at times, even deadly.

There is a an upside though.

Crisis in the form of natural disaster brings community together.

Here in Boulder, the first floor of our beloved community center, the Boulder Integral Center, was flooded and contaminated with sewage.

As soon as the rain stopped enough for the members to get there, the community came together to begin bailing out the basement, sewage and all.

All around Boulder, community was gathering to support one another.

The entire town of Lyons, CO lost power and a spontaneous 200-plus person cookout sprung up around a fire pit outside of the Stone Cup. The local Lyons natural food store, the St. Vrain Market, Oskar Blues, and the Stone Cup all contributed perishables to the gathering and were giving away food to members of the community.

Friends, Casey Capshaw, Marco Lam and Pieter Oosthuizen, forded the raging river to rescue precious belongings from Huy Lam’s house up the canyon before it was swept away in the flood. And then, Pieter took in Huy and his whole family.

I awoke to the sound of my neighbor reconstructing the median on our street so that no one else would have to deal with it.

Evacuated Jamestown residents came together to ensure all town members were accounted for, built a pulley system to ferry medical supplies, food and other necessaries across the 100-foot flood waters that split the town in half and are creating a plan for rebuilding the town they love.

These are just a tiny few of the examples of people stepping up to support one another.

Ultimately, the stories of support coming out of the Boulder Flood tell a tale seen often in the midst of tragedy, people coming together to support one another in community.

Here’s the rub: the acute community support that comes together in the midst of crisis tapers off quickly once people go back to their everyday lives.

The people who will fare the best after a disaster are those who have invested in creating community before the crisis.

Some folks will be sleeping in shelters while others are cozy in the homes of friends.

Some folks will wonder where their next meal or hot shower is coming from while others have a myriad of options.

Some will wonder how they’ll ever get all the water and mud out of their basement and others will have streams of people taking shift after shift to bail and clean.

The people who are cozy, cared for and loved beyond the immediate crisis aren’t those who have saved the most for retirement, paid off all their debt or worked their buns off to scale the corporate ladder, they are the ones who have invested in building relationships.

Community is the new currency.

The Single Most Important Thing You Can Do Now to Feel Better About Yourself As a Parent AND Leave the World a Better Place — No Matter How Much Money You Have in the Bank

[read while listening to: https://soundcloud.com/laraberg]

If you are like most of the parents I know, you feel guilty. It’s what we do.

Whether your guilt is about not enough time with the kids, too much time with the kids, not enough money, too much money, hovering incessantly, or being too laid back, you are worried you aren’t doing the right thing by your kids in some way.

Just the fact that you are worried about it tells me, you are an awesome parent. Bad parents don’t worry that they are being bad parents, they just are bad and don’t care.

And, at the same time, I know you’d appreciate a super quick, effective and pain-free way to remove the guilt and start really feeling great about the parent you are to your kids.

Plus, bet you’d love to make sure your kids know exactly how much you love them, no matter what (even if they are at that age where they are screaming they hate you.)

Kids’ who grow up feeling loved live better lives. They are better parents themselves, more successful, happier and contribute to the world more. (I was going to look up a bunch of sites about this to link to, but you already know that, right? If not, please press the little plus sign to the right of the paragraph and disagree publicly. I’m curious.)

I’ve seen it again and again and been frequently surprised by how much a child who feels loved can overcome.

Broken marriages, early death of parents, even being given up for adoption, each of these circumstances could lead to trauma, feelings of abandonment, persistent anxiety and fear.

People who experience these challenges without a full experience of love will have a harder time in life, be less able to maintain relationships and tend to do less well in their careers.

If a child feels loved through these exact same circumstances, truly and thoroughly loved and accepted, he doesn’t just survive them, he thrives.

He takes the hard times and turns them into teachings. He is a joy to be around because he is so in service to life itself. He is loved by all because he knows the love of his parents.

Loving your children so well that they become good people in the process is what makes life really matter, right?

Knowing you’ve parented your kids well and left them well-prepared for the future — safe, secure and full of self-love.

Is there really anything more important than that?

But what have you done to prepare for the day you can’t be there for them?

It’s not a pleasant topic, I know.

It used to frighten me to paralysis when I thought about it. Because I didn’t know what to do to make it okay. I love my children so much I couldn’t bare to think about them living on after me because I couldn’t envision who would care for them like I do.

I knew that if I didn’t make the decisions for my kids care, a Judge would make them for me.

I knew it wouldn’t be what I wanted and my kids would be left wondering – “why didn’t mom care enough to take care of the things that really matter?”

Day after day the Courts process cases of families who have lost a loved one and now it’s left up to the overworked, underpaid, harried and hurried Judge to make the critical decisions you’ve struggled with yourself, and to do so with limited or no information.

Decisions such as who will be the guardian of the children left behind, who will make financial decisions for the family until all children have become adults and who will take care of ensuring it’s all done well are left up to a stranger who doesn’t know you, love you, or really even care about you.

When you decide and document who will raise your kids if you can’t, who will make financial decisions for them and how you want them to be raised, you know you are doing the right thing by your children.

They know it too.

You are sending the message to your children that they can feel secure and confident, even if current circumstances are not ideal, they are loved.

Making decisions for your kids care if something happens to you and getting clear on the kind of beliefs you want them to take into the world if you aren’t there to raise them makes you a better parent. Period.

Not just in the future, or after you die, but now.

Yes, the simple act of planning for your death can make you a better parent now.

When you clarify the way you want your children raised and the beliefs you want them to carry into the world, you naturally begin to be more conscious about your relationship with your children. Immediately. You won’t be able to help it.

It changes the way you parent. You relax more. You react less. You know how to be the kind of parent you want to be because you’ve defined it.

This is why I help lawyers remember how to counsel clients to not only pass on their money, but also clarify their values, beliefs and what really matters.

So more kids feel loved and become the kind of humans we all like to be around who will leave the world a better place.

It’s a game-changer. And it all starts with you.

Name guardians for your kids. (Here’s a place you can name legal guardians for free. Plus, the site guides you to choose the right people.)

Tell your kids how much they mean to you. Words are great. Letters are better. Recordings, the very best.

Let them know they will always be loved and cared for, no matter what.

You’ll change the world, when you do.

It has been a long-held dream of mine to support creative men and women to experience personal sovereignty and financial liberation.

That dream originates in three places:

2) My mom is an artist who loves to travel and create, and I watcher her compromise her life dreams so she could support me and my sister because she couldn’t figure out how to earn her income using her creativity (and is still working at 70);

3) I gained my own personal sovereignty and financial liberation by building a million dollar law practice, and then a company that trains lawyers on the new law business model I created, and as a result, I’ve been able to create my own economy by employing friends and family, giving my kids’ opportunities they wouldn’t otherwise have and investing in ventures I believe in.

As a result of these experiences, I feel confident that guiding the creative men and women who are part of my community of lightworkers, healers, artists, dreamers and visionaries to experience financial liberation will make the world a better place.

And so I’ve been seeking the very best way to do that.

I Investigated Whether Women’s Gifting Circles Could Be the Path to Financial Liberation for the Eyes Wide Open Community.

A few years ago, I wrote an article about women’s gifting circles because there were many women in our community who were choosing to join them, some of whom were making a lot of money, and others who got sucked in by the promise of easy money, only to find themselves in internal conflict and conflict with the friends who had invited them in.

As I looked into the gifting circle phenomenon, it became clear to me that they were meeting a big need in the community.

Women in our community strongly desired a way to earn income that did not involve working for low hourly wages, or selling sex or growing weed.

And yet these same women were not the type to build companies, and create their own products, and live out the entrepreneurial hustle of seeking funding, building customer service teams, marketing and selling their services.

The gifting circles provided an ostensible alternative to business that capitalized on the natural feminine skills of connecting, gathering, and educating.

Unfortunately, for several reasons, gifting circles were a sub-optimal structure that could not (and did not) actually serve as intended.

1) I watched my dad die at just 58-years old full of self-hatred because he only knew how to earn money by taking from others;

For starters, gifting circles are illegal. As a result, they had to remain secret. And the illegality and secrecy made it impossible for infrastructure to be created that would ensure the participants received the leadership support they needed to actually succeed.

In addition, the structure of the circles made it so that it was highly unlikely that women who invested would earn back their investment.

To begin with, the math shows that at 31 rounds, the population of the entire world has been maxed out, so definitely not sustainable long-term.

And even if you ignore the math and argue that the gifting circles could serve a greater purpose than just the return of financial investment + profit (as I did in my original article on women’s gifting circles), they were not the right vehicle for serving that greater purpose.

In their ideal structure, these circles would have been vehicles for the women who participated to learn how to find money to invest in a venture, and then to learn how to lead a team, enroll others in their vision and create more wealth for themselves and everyone around them.

Most often though, because of the secrecy and lack of sustainable leadership due to the structure of the circles (leaders who were “successful” and received all of their “gifts” had no incentive to stay involved and continuing modeling leadership) women who participated were disillusioned, hurt and often left with deeper wounds around money and leadership than when they had first participated.

Gifting Circles Weren’t It, But I Discovered a Huge Need +
A Strong Desire to Serve That Need.

Since writing about the circles and discovering the huge need in the community, I have been looking for a sustainable alternative that would capitalize on the natural gifts of the feminine while also supporting the growth of feminine leadership and re-patterning old money beliefs.

I even considered creating it myself.

I thought one way to do it would be to train women in my community to become Money Map Masters.

The Money Map is a program I created that guides those who use it to clearly and honestly envision their ideal life and the time and skills they really have to create that life.

Those who complete the Money Map come into right relationship with time, money and how they get paid and a clear path to chart for their own ideal income model.

I loved the idea of using the Money Map to create a “share the wealth” company and scaling the model by replicating the best parts of the gifting circles and giving the women (and creative men) in my community a built-in product + service that would allow them to build their own sustainable wealth.

I would train those who loved the Money Map for themselves as Money Map Masters, so they could guide their own friends and family through the process, and earn income while they did it.

But, there were some issues with the Money Map being the vehicle:

For my company to train a Money Map Master required a minimum $5,000 investment by each person who wanted to get trained, due to the resources necessary for training.

And earning back that investment required a Money Map Master to charge a minimum of $500 for their services and upwards of several thousand dollars.

While personalized support through the Money Map is certainly worth that, I wanted to be able to support people into economic independence who didn’t necessarily have $5,000 to startup their own business.

And I wanted to see them be able to get to at least a $1,000/mo income within 30 days, which was not possible with the Money Map, which requires a minimum 6-month training to become a Master.

On top of that, because of my own time limitations as the CEO of another company, and the mom of two teenagers, I was not able to build the infrastructure necessary to provide the support that would be needed to train the Money Map Masters, provide robust customer service to the Masters and their clients, plus create the marketing and sales support the Masters would need to sell their products and services.

While it’s still a vision for the future, I decided to keep looking for the right business I could get involved with that would allow me to support creative men and women in my community to have their own personal sovereignty and financial liberation.

It would need to have a built-in income model that would include a product that I could get behind, fully.

It needed to have sustainable leadership structures that would allow me to share the leadership skills I’ve learned by being a CEO for the past twelve years, growing million dollar businesses, and that would incentivize me to grow my team.

And, there would be robust customer service systems in place, an online back office, and done for you websites.

These were all things I wanted to provide for my Money Map Masters, and ultimately could not fully build-out myself to support hundreds, or even thousands, tens of thousand or the millions of people I wanted to support to step into economic independence.

I had a sense that an existing network marketing (or multi-level marketing/MLM) company might be just the thing.

I Tried Out a Couple MLMs Thinking They May Serve the Need.

I briefly considered Doterra and Purium, both of which have products I love and use myself.

But with each of them, I found that the path to earn the kind of income I wanted for myself and wanted my team to have was too slow and, frankly, too small.

And the amount of product that affiliates needed to buy to get up and running and maintain their business before they started earning the kind of money that would make it worth it, was too significant relative to the income potential.

I vetted each of them by enrolling myself and then sharing the opportunity with a few people in my close community. (The best way I know to figure out whether something will work is to try it myself, and that’s actually inherent to my Human Design as a 1/3 profile, for those of you familiar with that typing system.)

After enrolling and sharing the opportunity, I made a few hundred dollars, but I couldn’t see my way to even $1,000/mo of consistent income, let alone the $5,000 to $10,000 per month that would be necessary for me to take 3–5 hours a week away from my existing ventures.

So I remained a customer of both companies (which have great products I still use), but discontinued the business side.

Just When I Thought I’d Have to Back-Burner My Desire to Support
Financial Liberation For Our Community for Several Years, This Happened.

By early 2016, I had realized that I could no longer successfully run two companies and parent my kids the way I wanted to be able to do. I would have to choose.

So I chose to focus on serving the lawyers as that company was already built out significantly with a whole team, sustainable products and a proven market, and I figured I could come back to serving the creative community in a few years after I developed my own leadership skills further.

Then, in October of 2016 I was contacted by Renee Jeffus, about a new hemp oil business she had recently gotten involved with, Prime My Body.

When I found out it was a multi-level marketing (MLM), network marketing structure, I told her I wasn’t interested.

Remember, I had already tried both Doterra and Purium, and they weren’t it.

And I didn’t want to put energy into yet another possibility that would distract me from the work I was already doing with the lawyers. (As you’ll see, I’m kicking myself now that I didn’t get involved back then, but I also do trust the timing of all of it.)

In December, my friend Kiana contacted me and asked me to get involved. I declined again.

Then, my friend Dr. Lori Cardellino contacted me, more excited than I had ever heard her. Dr. Lori is a holistic dentist and naturopath. And she told me she had found the holy grail business possibility for our community.

When she told me the story, I was definitely more intrigued. Dr. Lori is picky (to say the least) when it comes to CBD. She had been mentoring with the top CBD scientist in the world for ten years. And she wasn’t into MLMs.

But, at the time, she checked out the business, after seeing the health turn-around Renee had experienced. As she was sitting in a hotel conference room listening to the pitch, she saw a slide that was the same slide shared by HER mentor, Dr. Chris Shade.

But at that time, the company wasn’t revealing who the scientist was, and she thought maybe they were just stealing and using his research data.

She called him at the break and asked him what his slide was doing in an MLM presentation. He said “shhhh, they are keeping me a secret for now.”

The company was working on an exclusive deal, in which they would become the primary distributor of Dr. Chris Shade’s best formulation, but it wouldn’t be announced for another six months. (You can watch Dr. Shade’s presentation at the Prime My Body launch here.)

So, Lori had to keep his name quiet.

But, she immediately began calling her best friends (me included) and telling them they had to get signed up because Prime My Body had THE BEST hemp oil on the planet and while she couldn’t tell me the scientists name, she said trust me — sign up.

I still didn’t sign up though because I was busy with my own work, and wanted to stay focused.

It wasn’t until my best friend of 15 years, JoAnne Rees, called me that I finally decided to check it out.

Why I Decided to Give Prime My Body a Try After Saying No to Gifting Circles and Other MLM Companies.

I decided to move forward with Prime My Body for several reasons, but I wouldn’t get fully behind it right away, until I could vet the company and the product myself.

First, I’ve always wanted to be in business with my long-time friend, JoAnne. At one point, I hired her to work for my company, but that wasn’t the right business relationship for us. Me being her boss threw our relationship out of whack.

I once had a dream that Joanne and I would start a credit counseling business together, but she’s a homeschooling, single mom of two, and I knew she wasn’t really available for that kind of commitment.

So when she contacted me about the hemp oil business, and I saw firsthand the impact the oil was having in her life (she had been having some serious depression and hormonal problems before starting on the oil and was having a major shift in her health after taking it), I figured I would go ahead and sign up to support her, but I wasn’t going to build a business around it.

For three months, I did nothing, other than take the oil myself, occasionally.

And I watched a lot of people I respected in my online community come on board. Women, like Elena “Meta” Jaroff, Patty Yu, Amber Hartnell and Nadia Willis. Seeing them get involved, I wished that I had been the one to invite them.

But, I told myself, I was really too busy with my existing company. And, I wouldn’t have been the one to invite them anyway, as I was still unsure about whether this company was the right one.

I also saw women in my own Boulder community, who I definitely would have invited, if I hadn’t been sitting back and waiting to see what happened, join.

For example, my former nanny, who had been struggling to find her way beyond the world of watching other people’s kids. (And, who has now built her own team with Prime My Body and just bought her own house!)

And I began to see all of these women building their teams, learning leadership, and earning more money than they ever had before …

This was promising.

Then, in March, Renee came to Boulder. And she shared with me what had been happening for her since joining the company the past October.

Before learning about the hemp oil, Renee had been sick, very sick. Some sort of illness that appeared to be due to environmental toxicity. A methane leak in Ventura, where she had been living with Lori, combined with off-gassing from some furniture they had bought together, had created a reality where Renee could barely move.

Renne was so ill that she left Ventura and moved to Ashland, Oregon with the hopes of healing. But nothing shifted, until she began taking the Prime My Body Hemp Oil dietary supplement.

According to Renee, within days, she was not only back to herself, she was even better. More vital, more radiant, more alive.

And on the business side …

Renee quickly began earning quite a lot of money (today, she is a Black Diamond in the company, which is the top rank), sharing hemp oil and the Prime My Body business with her community in Ashland and building a team.

In fact, I was on her team, as JoAnne was part of her downline.

After hearing Renee’s story, I decided to introduce Renee and the Prime My Body hemp oil and business to a few of my friends in Boulder who I knew could really benefit from a sustainable income model, and the oil itself.

I had a meeting at my home with Renee and invited my personal assistant, a friend who was working in the sex industry, another friend who was growing weed, another friend who was a year into starting up her own organic food company, my boyfriend at the time, and a long time friend who was also a coach in my lawyer training company.

All of them decided to join the company.

I earned back the investment I had made in purchasing my own oil plus a small profit.

But I still didn’t really have time to put into the business. And, before I really put any time into it, I wanted to more fully vet it.

When the co-founder Austin Tice came into town, I attended his meeting. And I really liked him.

He shared the roots of the company with me. And, his vision for the future.

I told him I wouldn’t really be able to put much energy into it, but that I was intrigued by what I was seeing.

When the other co-founder, John Taylor (J.T.), came into town, I met him as well.

J.T. has been in the MLM world a long time, and he likes to talk about the money aspect of the business. He’s been in the MLM world for a long time, and reminded me a bit of my dad.

Maybe if a legit network marketing business built around health had been available during my dad’s life, he would still be alive and well right now.

Once My Homeschooling Mom Friend Came On Board and Began Building a Team, I Knew I’d Found the Solution I Was Seeking.

One night, I was playing “Words with Friends” (online scrabble) with a friend I’ve known for years, through our kids. Her name is also Ali. And I knew she was a friend of JoAnne’s, so I asked her if she had considered the hemp oil business.

She is pretty much the anti-thesis of business, so I was surprised when she said that she was intrigued. She’s a homeschooling mom of 4, two teenagers and two still little one’s.

Ali shared with me that she would really like to earn some money because her husband has been working so hard to support them all, but that she felt scared that she wouldn’t really be able to do it.

I offered her some coaching to help her get clear and she took me up on it.

So we talked and together felt into her “why” and into whether she wanted to learn leadership skills, and build a team. Her why? She wanted to be able to foot the family’s organic food bill without feeling guilty for how much she spent each month feeding her family.

And, she tried the oil.

Then, she came to a meeting, shaking her head the whole time, certain she wouldn’t actually be able to do it.

But, she left confident that she wanted to give it a try.

And, also certain that she was going to go slow with it and not put any pressure on herself.

She asked me if I would be let down if she didn’t build a big business. I reassured that I was there to support her to have what she wanted and that I didn’t have any agenda at all.

The next thing I knew, she was calling me daily to buy more and more of the bottles of oil I happened to have in inventory. It turns out that all of her friends wanted to try the oil.

And then, much to my shock, she went to the company launch event in Houston, even flying her mom in to help with her kids, at the event.

Ali came back on fire.

Within 45 days of joining the company, Ali built a team that’s almost as big as mine.

I’ve watched Ali’s leadership bloom into full expression before my eyes.

The dark circles I’ve seen under her eyes every time I’ve seen her over the years are gone. She’s modeling empowered feminine leadership for her 4 boys, and I can see a future in which she may even end up the family breadwinner.

At the same time that happened, Renee Jeffus, the friend who first invited me into the company back in October, earned the rank of Black Diamond in the company, along with my friends Kiana and Dr. Lori, the other two women who invited me in. (Yes, I kinda wish I had joined back when I was first invited, but I also trust the timing and my path, and fortunately I enrolled when I did.)

And best of all, these women are modeling a beautiful form of feminine leadership, full of heart, connection, love and compassion, with a duplicatable business model that supports each of us to be what we want to see in the world.

And shows us where we aren’t being exactly that.

The Prime My Body Hemp Oil Business Has Shown Me Exactly Where I Am In My Own Way of Having Exactly What I Want

Being part of Prime My Body has quickly shown me exactly where I am in my own way in life and business.

While it’s true that I’ve built multiple million dollar businesses, I’ve repeatedly done it the hard way.

Due to the karma I am burning from my dad’s work in the world (and his legacy of taking advantage of people to earn money) I created a belief that I can only earn money if I’m doing hard work to earn it.

If I’m not working hard for it, there must be something wrong.

I’m ready to shift this belief. I can provide value and earn money and have it be easy and good.

And I’m definitely coming up against some of my own personal edges and limitations, as I confront what’s been deeply ingrained inside of me.

That’s the nature of business. No matter what business you are in, or what business model you choose to earn your income, you are going to hit up against your own personal edges as you grow your income and do your work in the world.

Over the next days, weeks and months, I’ll be sharing more about my experience with the Prime My Body hemp oil business, including how it’s working for me, where it’s forcing me to face my own edges, and how I’m doing in the business.

For now, I’ll leave you with this … if you’ve been looking for a business that you can do from home, and where you don’t have to build your own website or customer service team, and you love the idea of helping others have more health and wealth in their lives, I’d love for you to consider joining the HempireBuilder team.

I recorded a video with Kiana Prema about the business aspect of Prime My Body, which you can watch here to learn more. Choose the “watch yesterday’s recording” option to get immediate access.

And, if you just want to try the hemp oil itself, you can order your own bottle here and have it shipped to you directly (legal in the 50 states). I’ll be sharing my personal experience with the health benefits of the oil in a future article.

Please note: one of the things I love about the MLM/network marketing/affiliate marketing business model is that in order for me to earn the kind of income I want with Prime My Body, my focus will need to be on supporting my team to build their team. That’s how the compensation model works, and one of the things I really love about it most. I cannot be a lone ranger in this business.

And, I need to keep it super simple and duplicatable by anyone who follows the model. That’s how it works.

To that end, I am building out online resources, such as HempireBuilders.com, to make it easier for my team to build and lead their own teams. I’m excited about that.

The company is very new, having just officially launched on June 10th (with pre-launch dating back to October or so of 2016, which gave them time to work out many of the business kinks). If you love to get in early on an opportunity and be part of the “Founder’s Circle”, you may still even be in time for that.

You can hear more about the Prime My Body Founder’s Circle, which includes company profit sharing beginning in 2018, in the video here, if it’s still available.

If you’d like to stay up to date with my personal experience with Prime My Body, subscribe to this story OR get on my regular email newsletter list at EyesWideOpenLife.com.