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With her heart and Eyes Wide Open: a love letter to Ali and the Money Map

This is no ordinary Love Letter; it is a Love Letter to Ali and the Money Map. A message to our community from a very dear, passionate and inspiring member of the Eyes Wide Open Collective: 

In 2015, one of my biggest intentions was to create a career in alignment with my values and Soul-Purpose, one that created financial sovereignty while also being of service in a way that felt inspiring and nourishing. I heard about the Money Map Life Planning System through several friends who were going through the program and their feedback and reflections encouraged me to explore the possibility.

The Money Map is a system designed by Alexis Neely (artist name: Ali Shanti), a paradigm-shifting visionary entrepreneur and thought-leader in the field of Sacred Economics for the New Earth. This system guides participants to come into right relationship with time, money and how they get paid through a series of modules that are worked through at the individual’s own pace.

I was touched by what felt like a “wholistic financial perspective” with which this work is held. I chose this program as the next step on my path to creating an empowered, congruent and financially sovereign life. I knew that an “accountability partner” would really support me through this process, and quickly found an inspiring and resonant partner in a Facebook community group that I’m a part of.  

The first two modules in the program helped me get clear on how much money I need to be earning on an hourly and monthly basis to create a lifestyle that is aligned with my values, needs and self-care, so that I can be in service “from the overflow”. It felt so clarifying to discover my “monthly number”, which is $3567, and to have a clear goal for my monthly income to aim towards. I even made a visionary collage art-piece with my monthly number on it, to help crystallize the intention.

The third module was very illuminating in helping me get clear on how I choose to invest my time. I realized how key it is for me to create space for self care (visits with a naturopath, acupuncture, massage, restful sleep), so that I can really begin sharing my gifts from a foundation of wholistic ‘thrival’. I began ‘time-blocking‘: creating my own schedule, making space for my business, clients, relationships, creativity and Spirit.

The next two modules led me into greater awareness of what real resources are currently available to me, and how I can best put them to use for my business, based on my ‘Entrepreneurial Archetype’. It was very enheartening to unearth the many ways in which my immediate environment is already aligned to support my life and my work in the world. The diverse, pioneering path that Ali has taken in her life and career has cultivated her ability to mentor other visionary entrepreneurs with creativity, innovation and resourcefulness. As I worked through these modules, I felt empowered to begin creating my website, promotional materials and branding. Of the eight entrepreneurial archetypes, I aligned with ‘Sage Guide’, and was better able to understand how to grow my business in a way that supports me in doing what I do best.

The final step was to get clear on my purpose and complete any ‘incompletions’ that are blocks on the path to creating the life that I really want. This included getting on track with loans and debt, clearing the air in challenging interpersonal dynamics and attending to health concerns that may have been swept under the rug. The intention of this module is to bring to light our blind spots and create an accountability system for us to begin bringing them to conscious completion.

Throughout this whole process, I regularly posted questions, reflections and intentions in the Facebook group, to have them witnessed and held by a supportive community. I attended the twice a month coaching calls, receiving guidance from Ali and her team, including the brilliant ‘Human Design’ consultant, Christopher Power, who works with the ‘Eyes Wide Open Life Collective’ to support people in understanding how their ‘Human Design Type’ influences their business.

As I deepen the establishment of my business and it’s processes I intend to work through Phase Two of the Money Map, which will support me in ensuring I have the proper legal, insurance, financial and tax structures in place.

With this program, I got really clear on the direction I am choosing to take my business. I created promotional materials, began seeing new clients and received really great and encouraging feedback about my work. Creating ‘right-livelihood’ through my skills and gifts has been a key component in creating a life that I love. It is definitely an ongoing journey, but having a resonant ‘tribe’ of supporters and co-creators has been an invaluable support and for that I am truly grateful.

I recently came across a quote from Dr. Wayne Dyer that felt like a powerful reflection for this journey: “When I chased after money, I never had enough. When I got my life on purpose and focused on giving of myself and everything that arrived into my life, then I was prosperous.”
Join us in the pursuit of your life and income awake, aware and on your terms. We want to work to construct an income model that works with you and for you, to include all of your amazing skills and talents into one thriving system. Take some time to go through the Life & Income Planning Series right now (for FREE) and then listen to the fourth session, recorded on New Year’s Eve. If you want to dive in with your Eyes Wide Open, join our Membership for a higher, deeper level of support from Ali and her team at the Eyes Wide Open Collective.

 

About Prema Gaia:

Prema Gaia brings over 13 years of intensive study and practice of the world’s wisdom traditions & healing arts to her transformational coaching practice, workshops and retreats. Feeling called to dedicate her life to service, Prema gave away all of her possessions and traveled the world on a several-year ‘vision quest’, writing about what she discovered, in magazines such as Spirituality & Health, Sage Woman & South Africa’s Odyssey Magazine. To connect, please visit: www.facebook.com/premagaiawriter

I’m in love…

This is a long love letter, grab a cup of tea and settle in for a few minutes.

Yes, it’s true, I am experiencing the beauty of new love. It’s tender, and a wee bit frightening. I’m not quite ready to share the details, and it feels way too soon after my last relationship but, I’m a lover. It’s my nature.

The truth is, now that my heart is open, I walk around feeling in love most of the time. Not just with humans, but with all of Life.

And, I’ve fallen in love with each and every one of you who has written to share the truth of your current reality and your vision for the future.

My guess is that if you haven’t written in, that I’d fall in love with you too, if you did. (And, please do — I read everything and I become evermore inspired to keep sharing, even when it feels like a stretch for me to do so.)

Your stories of where you are now and what you want to create in your life are inspiring me to serve more widely than I ever have before.

Thank you for sharing them with me.

If you desire to work with me in the future, it’s a good idea to write in, whether you are ready to get started now or you know it will be some time in the future because it allows me to begin to get to know you, which allows us to dive in deeper more quickly and support you with more precision right away when we do work together.

I have three things for you today:

1. You are likely investing your resources in ways that will not lead you to more of what you want in life — now, there’s help.

I’m writing this on my way to San Francisco (now Oakland due to flight delays into SFO this am) for a 24-hour trip to support the launch of what I am calling the most rational book I’ve ever read on how we can invest our resources in the new economy for true safety.

I’m investing the time, money and energy to be in San Francisco for the launch because I know that the investment in tribe-building that comes along with my trip will be worth it — and that’s part of what you’ll come to understand creates real security, once you read the book.

I recorded an interview with the authors, Bryan Franklin and Michael Ellsberg. Here’s where you can hear it.

Read the book and change the way you think about how you are investing your resources, forever.

Check out my personal Facebook profile for some pictures from the day and the event itself.

2. How to become free to be all of yourself.

One of the questions I get asked the most by people who write in is — how did you go from being an uptight legal expert on TV to becoming free to be all of you?

Check out the live Facebook video I recorded this past weekend — on the process of becoming free to be all of yourself — here.

All I want to do lately is share what I’ve learned so you can build your life and income with your eyes and heart way more open than mine were.

3. The support for creating the life and income you really, really, really, REALLY want – not the one “they” want for you.

It’s SO easy to get sucked into creating a life and income you don’t actually want.

The pull toward safety, security and fitting in is strong for most of us, so we find ourselves making choices and decisions that lead to more of what we don’t actually want.

We follow the “leader” (monkey see, monkey do style) only to discover we’ve created a life that doesn’t feel right, dependent on an income that keeps us trapped in that life.

And the pressure to save, save, save so we can retire comfortably later.

Fahgeddabout that. It’s time to wake up.

Please stop waiting for later, and take a step toward getting the support you need to step into the life that’s waiting for you.

Watch the recording of my New Year’s Eve Clarity Call and you’ll hear about and from other people just like you who have done it, stepped into a life of freedom, liberated.

And you’ll learn how you can have my support in doing just that.

I’ve revamped my own income model for 2016 and I’m done with big launches of my products, don’t want this business to be a million dollar business, and I’m narrowing in on who and how I serve until I’ve freed up more time in my other business.

I promised myself last year that I was not going to go down the road of big launches, competition-based models, and enrolling as many people as possible in a short period of time.

It’s a “successful” model that leaves me wanting to quit the business every time. Not sustainable for me and my life. And while I’m fairly good at it, I’ve been committed to discovering a new way.

Yet, this fall I hired a “launch manager” to help me build out my systems so that anyone can sign up for our programs at any time, so I can just focus on creating great new content, and I could feel myself getting pulled into the old model that I had sworn to myself I was not going to get caught up in again.

It’s so alluring.

Blindly, again and again, I built my income model based on what others were doing “successfully” — but each time, I would get to the finish line and find I had created something I didn’t want, based on conditioning I couldn’t see.

This time, fortunately, I was awake enough to understand the road I was heading down wasn’t going to lead me to where I really wanted to go, and if I didn’t make a hard right, I’d be right back in the same place I had ended up in time and again.

So, at the 11th hour, I changed up the plan. I said no to the big launch, the affiliates, the million dollar business, and remembered what’s most important to me.

Rather than strategizing my webinar to maximize sales, I read everything you wrote the night before and stayed up until 3:30a (it’s when I often do my best work) and created a presentation that spoke directly to what you actually need.

If you haven’t watched yet, you can still do so here.

I made the decision not to enroll as many people as possible, but to limit the offer to a container of just 50 people right now. A container me and my team can handle and serve well and deeply. And we are already half full.

It’s enough. There’s no need to go bigger right now.

What matters isn’t how many people I can enroll, it’s how many people I can love. And right now, I’ve got  room for 50 in my inner circle attention field.

For so many years, my eyes were blind and my heart was closed.

Awakening these parts of myself has been both painful and ever so rewarding.

Coming into true alignment with the life I am here to live, and creating the space to live in my heart and share from the overflow could have been faster, if my own clarity had come sooner.

Of course, it couldn’t come any sooner than it did. We are each in the evolution process of discovering what’s true and that means someone has to take the long, circuitous route there.

I sense that I am in your life to ease the process for you. You are ready to see with clear eyes and to feel with an open heart.

You long for guidance as you step onto the road less traveled and I offer an outstretched hand with the other on my heart, welcoming you.

Welcome.  And thank you for being on the journey with me.

With so much love today and everyday.

Ali

PS — for you skimmers, here’s the three things:

1. Buy the book the Last Safe Investment and  start re-allocating your resources today. Here’s my FB message about it and an interview I recorded with the authors.

2. Check out the live video I made on Facebook: how you can become free to be all of yourself.

3. Watch the recording of the New Year’s Clarity Call before it comes down for good.

My Next Big Investment

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In yesterday’s blog post, I shared that I’m about to make my next big investment in my business and I’m in the midst of that ‘big gulp’ that comes right before it.

My mind is going nuts with all the reasons this is a BAD idea.

I could lose all my money.

It could fail.

I could get ripped off.

Maybe it won’t work.

What if I fail?

I’m sure you are intimately familiar with these stories yourself.

So now, I’m going to let you know how I get beyond these stories and keep moving forward, confidently saying yes to the next right thing that is going to take my life and business to the next level.

First, the investment …

I’m about to invest $25,000 up front + $10,000 per month for a company to build out and manage the entire marketing funnel that will lead more people deeper into my work.

I looked into working with this company a year ago and did not make the decision to hire them then because I knew my company wasn’t ready for the influx they would bring.

I spent the past year getting ready. Building up the team, the infrastructure, knowing we could provide the support to our members.

And now that we know the product rocks, what’s next is creating an influx of a lot more people.

I see a lot of people who do this all backwards (and heck, I’ve done it backward myself in the past).

They want to invest in marketing before knowing that they have a great product.

They want to invest in getting more traffic to their website before even ensuring their website converts.

They want to invest in learning how to speak to sell before they even have a clear offer (packages) nailed down.

They want to learn how to have enrollment conversations before they even know what they are enrolling people into.

They want to learn how to bring their business online to reach millions before ensuring the model even works on a small scale.

I get it. It all sounds so exciting! And it can be hard to know what order to do things in when you are getting marketed to from all directions.

Often, whoever is best at marketing their stuff wins your attention and so you find yourself doing the wrong things first (mostly around sales and marketing because the people who market the best are usually teaching that) and wasting a lot of time, energy and money in the process.

I only know because I’ve been there myself.

It’s why I created the Money Map. I needed to map out the straightest line possible from where I was, to where I wanted to go, so I could stop circling my success and systematically get to the next vista point as quickly and with as much clarity as possible.

And, stop investing in things I wasn’t ready for while at the same time knowing what I DID need to invest in next. What I see a lot of people doing and what I did myself after I made a few “I wasn’t ready for that” investments is freeze up and do nothing.

Freezing up and doing nothing is almost worse than making the wrong investments because at least you learn from the wrong investments.

When you freeze up and do nothing, you don’t learn, you simply get stuck. Deer in the headlights. Not going anywhere. And that can be far worse.

So I knew that last year was not the right time to make a big, scary investment in a team to build out my marketing funnel. I needed to hire a CEO first and get my team and product straightened out.

Now we’re ready for the marketing.

So while this investment is scary, I know that building out our marketing funnels is next because we’ve got clear offers, great products, great results, great customer service and a super foundation to support it all.

But I’m still scared.

I don’t think that part goes away, ever.

And, I am not even entirely sure where the money is going to come from for this investment. Sure, the company brings in $135,000-$150,000 every month, but we use it all to pay our existing team and expenses.

I have some ideas though, and one thing I know for certain is that every single time I have committed to an investment, even (especially?!?) when I haven’t known where the money would come from to pay for it, the resources have shown up.

In my next post, I’ll share with you where I think the money may come from to support this investment and how I’m going to make it all work.

For now though, I’d love for you to consider — what’s your next big investment?

If you are currently providing one to one services (sage guide archetype) and still charging hourly or don’t have clear packages so that it’s easy for people to say yes to working with you, consider our packaging course starting Monday.

To your eyes (and heart) wide open life,

Ali

PS — Want to know if the packaging course is right for you? Consider this:

The packaging course is for anyone who knows who they serve and how they serve them, but you aren’t enrolling (enough) people in your services because you don’t have a fluid, easy, clear way to say to people — this is how we work together and here’s how you’ll pay for it.

  • You either think your services can’t be packaged because they are too individual for each person (I guarantee I can change that thinking and create packages out of what you do);
  • Or you think you have to charge hourly because each engagement is simply too variable (yep, that’s what a lot of the lawyers I work with think too — I can fix that right quick);
  • Or perhaps you think that you must charge by the hour because your license or regulations require it (I’m pretty good at finding a way around that one too).

So if you are ready to move beyond hourly billing (and any focus on trading your time for money) plus be ready to enroll the folks who are interested in your services into paid work with you, make this your next big investment. It’ll pay off in spades.