Archives for October 2014

A Peek Behind the Scenes of a Launch that is Breaking All the Rules

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Online marketing is an interesting beast…

On the one hand, the internet provides an incredible vehicle to distribute content that has the ability to impact thousands. When you have a mission, there is no better way to share it with the planet than online marketing.

On the other hand, this industry is rift with terminology and tactics that are used to manipulate human behavior. The formulas have been essentially the same for 20 years, with nuances here and there, but in many (not all) cases are designed to manufacture scarcity and fear.

The way that I was taught to reconcile this as a student of internet marketing was through terms like “ethical bribery,” “tripwires” and “diminishing rewards,” and the idea that as a marketer, if I had confidence in the ability of the program, product or service to create transformation, than it was ok to do whatever it took to get people to separate money from their pocketbooks to be able to access my specific flavor of transformation.

Even if that meant tapping into fear, lack and scarcity.

These are not values that I am personally aligned with. They are not values that any of us here at Eyes Wide Open Life are aligned with.

From the very inception of discussing the strategic design of our recent launch of the Money Map, we knew that we were willing to take a risk and break these rules. We desired to create art. We desired a level of integrity, generosity and beauty that defied the old rules of the internet marketing game, after all – “it’s been statistically proven that ugly pages convert better!”… blech.

I am sharing this ‘behind the scenes of a launch' with you because I want you to know that if you share our desire to embody your personal values in the way that you market your products and services, it is more than possible. We have some amazing discoveries and results to share with you.

Here's a Peek Behind the Scenes of a Launch that is Breaking All the Rules:

Not everything we tried worked… our initial gateway into this launch, our much touted ‘visual meditation video,’ didn’t work. People didn’t get it right away and the average viewer only watched the first 30 seconds of the almost 7 minute video. And since it wasn’t behind an opt-in, we lost thousands of leads provided by our partners because the next step of opting in for the complete series was at the end. It was beautiful, yes. And it was not effective.

Another example is the several fairly intense debates on our daily team calls about how to complete this launch in the strongest way possible while maintaining our values.

One strategy that you’ll often see marketers use is to say that a program is closing to new enrollments, only to – surprise! – give you one last chance to allow the people who regret their decision not to join to bring in a final burst of sales. Although this strategy works revenue wise, (and we care strongly about revenue here at Eyes Wide Open – it’s the oxygen in a growing business) Amrita made the final call. We will not lie to you. We will not tell you that the program is closing when we know it’s not true.

Another often used strategy is to have disappearing waves of payment plans and/or bonuses. Nope. We’re not doing that either. We’re leaving them up until the cart closes. (Rather than give into knee-jerk reactions that cause marketers to turn up the scarcity volume mid-launch – believe me we were tempted.)

By far the boldest thing we did (near the start of the launch), with the most incredible results in terms of effecting change on the planet, was offering an Accelerated Money Map Course, which we could have easily sold for $500 or $1000 — for free. 5000 people participated and had the opportunity to get clear on their Money Map. We can see from the feedback we’ve gotten that this made a real and lasting impact on people’s lives – of course the greatest indicator of success of all… and also resulted in incredible exposure & attendance rates, and conversion of 16% on our cart open call.

Has it been perfect? Not even close. And even though we are not at the finish line yet, I am so proud to have been a part of this grand experiment.

We’ve been blessed to have two incredible assets: 1) our team. Wow. Their commitment to holding us to our highest intentions, even when we were scared and wanted to go back to playing by the old rules because, well… when it comes to making sales, they work – kept us from self-sabotaging our commitments to ourselves and holding you, our community as the dearest outcome of our work. 2) our coaches, especially Alex Mandossian, who understood what we wanted to do from the get go, and has held us to it in ways we could not have possibly seen for ourselves.

Last night Alex invited us to let go of our goals.

“The end results are none of your business,” he said. “Take care of people. Finish what you started with the integrity and commitment that you began with, and those who are meant to be with you will be.”

He asked to have the entire team share how they will be celebrating on Tuesday when this run is over.

Ultimately, we are reminded that we all show up. We all make mistakes. We all have wins that are important to recognize and celebrate. But ultimately, what matters is honoring our word, living our values and surrendering to exactly what is, learning from the experience and leveraging it to create more goodness in the world.

(Check out this post for a behind the scenes look at our launch through the eyes of our CEO, Amrita Khalsa.)

Want more rule-breaking, revolutionary, new economy launch insights? Be sure to leave your name and email below. We've got plenty more to share!

Loveletter: Worst advice ever?

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Recently, a guy tagged me on Twitter and said:

I totally get why he would say that. It’s certainly not what the mainstream financial advisers are teaching.

How can I possibly be teaching that people should stop worrying about paying off debt and saving for retirement?

Because I know that if most people follow the traditional personal finance advice they will likely not have what they actually need for the rest of their lives.

To ensure you can care for yourself and your family for the rest of your life, you need to learn how to give something of value in exchange for money in a sustainable way.

If you do not have enough in retirement now, will you ever if you continue to do what you’re doing now?

Probably not. If you died with debt, would it matter? No.

But if you learned to earn what you need, when you need it, on demand, doing meaningful work you enjoy, could that give you what you need to live the rest of your life and even pay off your debt in the future? Yes.

So why focus your life energy now on perpetuating a norm that likely isn’t working for you instead of creating a reality for yourself that gets you the liberation you are truly seeking?

Sure, it requires you to buck the trends and go against the traditional advice around money, retirement and debt, but that’s okay so long as it has you create the life you really want.

Want more?

Join us on Saturday, October 21st at 12:30pm ET / 9:30am PT for a live webinar. Register at www.moneymap.tv/webinar to get your seat.

How to Create a Collective of Your Very Own in 4 Steps

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The most common thing I get asked about our work here is how to create a collective.

I hear all of the time… “I need an Amrita” or “I need a Kiva.”

There is incredible freedom that comes with entrepreneurship. This is the path to sovereignty, where you are completely in charge of your own life. You get to decide when, where and how much. If freedom is a value that you honor, then in most cases, entrepreneurship is truly the choice for you.

Entrepreneurship can also be a lonely road, where the pressure to make every decision and, especially at the beginning, to be in charge of every aspect of the business is very challenging.

Service delivery, sales and marketing, the financials… and the probability is that only one of these things is most likely in your zone of genius.

We teach our clients to begin to delegate work that is outside of their zone of genius as quickly as possible. It is the keystone to scalability.

The key to scalability is to delegate everything outside of your zone of genius – as quickly as possible. Tweet It!

But how do you begin to create a collective and culture yourself as you see us doing here at Eyes Wide Open?

You begin in stages.

What you see here is the result of YEARS of work, and each of us having a commitment to our own personal growth that allows this partnership to thrive.

Partnerships are like marriage. They require a tremendous amount of trust and surrender. Communication and self-awareness are vital pieces of the picture, because, quite frankly, it is simply too easy to blame the other person(s) for your own stuff.

The good news is that there are ways to ease into partnerships and eventually, if it is on your entrepreneurial path, to create a collective of your very own.

Here's where to start to create a collective of your very own:

1) Be committed to your own growth as an entrepreneur. Own your strengths and weaknesses and be willing to hold up a mirror to your actions and see what there is to see. My experience is that this requires a mentor, a community and a willingness to surrender your ego. As Alexis says, our blind spots are called that for a reason. Our commitment to this is so strong that we have called in Reuben to be our coach – as an equal partner in this business. It’s that important.

2) Be willing to invest so that you can create resources to do less and less of the work that is outside of your zone of genius. I hear from people that they are trying to build a business with as little investment as possible. This is like trying to grow a tree without water. There are huge payoffs possible in this game – but you have to be willing to invest. The notion of bootstrapping – building a company from the ground up without outside capital is absolutely possible. The reality is, though, that in most cases you are investing nearly 100% of revenue back into the business for the first 1-3 years so that it can grow. So you need to be crystal clear on your resources to be able to do this (hello Money Map).

3) Find your tribe. Seriously. I would not have been able to handle the roller coaster of entrepreneurship without my business soul sisters. Each of us – Alexis, Amrita and I have our own sisterhood of fellow entrepreneurs where we have a soft place to land, a sounding board outside of the Collective, and women who take a huge stand for us as individuals, ensuring that we are committed to creating a reality in Eyes Wide Open where our personal needs are met.

At our Circle of CoCreation retreat last week (pics below), the thing that brought tears to my eyes – well, I’m a sap and seeing people having breakthroughs always makes me cry – but the biggest thing was the support this tribe had for each other. The way they truly knew each other’s strengths and challenges and took a stand for each other. As their coach and mentor, I felt like a proud mother hen.

4) Practice Surrender. Put yourself in situations where you feel what it feels like to give up control. Control and partnership do not mix. And truly, Alexis’ ability to do this, in the face of this business being created based on her great work is exceptional. It speaks volumes to who she is and her own personal journey of growth and transformation. Until you are truly ready to let go of control of your great work, you are not ready for this kind of partnership.

So first steps… co-host a telesummit. Partner with a business soul sister (or brother) to add more impact to each of your offerings. Hire a business manager or a book keeper. And practice the art of allowing them to be in their zone of genius without interference.

Breathe. Trust. Communicate. Surrender to the idea that…

Even the “failures” are serving a powerful purpose and drawing you down the path to creating exactly the thing that is meant for you. Tweet It!

Looking for a tribe, mentorship and accountability container of your own? Perhaps the Circle of CoCreation is for you… apply here.

How to Make Money in the New Economy

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Money is a means for communicating value. It is a communications technology, like a telephone, or email. Thus, making money means making communications about our values.

In the old economy, only central banks are granted the authority to issue money directly, so their values tend to override everyone else's. By issuing money with interest, they primarily communicate two values: continuous exponential expansion of the economy, and constant upwards redistribution of wealth (towards the money lenders). Virtually everyone who participates in the old economy becomes trapped on a hamster wheel of “getting ahead” in a purposefully engineered environment of artificial scarcity and perpetual economic “growth.” We are programmed to believe that this is what we value, and that no other economy is possible; but is this truly so?

The globalization of the old economy has resulted in a large-scale systemic subordination of human values to the “interests” of investment banking. In order to issue communications about our values, we first need to borrow money from a bank. Because money is only ever borrowed into existence (at interest), debt repayment and compound interest are baked into the prices we pay for everything—from groceries to salaries to taxes. In this way, the values of investment banking (exponential growth and upward redistribution of wealth) ultimately override whatever values we are actually trying to communicate through our economic activity.

Somewhere along the way, we developed the backwards notion that “making money” meant earning money, whether by investment, labour or salesmanship—as if we needed to earn the right to communicate our values. Perhaps the wool has been so thoroughly pulled over our eyes that, having delegated our power to create money, we think the only way to “make it” is to take it.

In any economy you make money by issuing it, either by spending or lending it into existence. Those who issue money, then, are by definition the ones with the power to make it. One of the defining features of the new economy is that the power to make money shifts away from central banks and investment firms, into the hands of living individuals. In the new economy, we make money by issuing communications about what we truly value—our authentic needs and desires, and our true gifts and offerings. The profit motive is displaced by a deeper motivation to create social value by the mutual exchange of our gifts.

Although many of us have shifted our consciousness into this new way of being, virtually all of us are compelled to engage in various ways with the lingering infrastructures of the old economy. Thus, in order to make the new economy a living reality, we have to envision the transitional steps between old and new, and mobilize our energies around making those transitions today.

The shift in consciousness and behaviour is actually the first and most important step. We need to liberate ourselves from the hamster wheel, discover our innate gifts and learn how to communicate our offering of these gifts to the world. We need to stop chasing the carrot of endless economic growth and advancement, consciously determine what our actual needs and desires are, and communicate these needs in a straightforward and self-empowered manner. Above all, we need to stop the cycle of consumerism, and build a life that is truly in alignment with our purpose here on this divine planet. These are the living foundations of the new economy.

But this in itself is not enough. So long as we continue to enable central banking currencies, we are in fact not making money, but feeding a malignant tumor which continues to suck the life out of the planet at an ever accelerating rate. We must insist that our governments reclaim the money supply from central banks (through initiatives such as positivemoney.org), and simultaneously create, promote and participate in alternative currencies, lending communities and pure gift economies (see New Economy Coalition for examples). Ultimately, the new economy will lead us towards a moneyless society—or at least to such a profound transformation of money that we no longer recognize it as such. Along the way, transitional currencies and the transformation of mainstream currencies will play an important role. Most importantly, “we the people” need to reclaim our inherent right (as living beings) to issue money directly, purely for the sake of making unhindered communications about our authentic values.

Making money in the new economy is inseparable from the making of the new economy, and this involves both an inner and an outer transformation of money and our relationship to it. Abundance in the new economy means everyone does work they love, and has everything they need to do the work they love. Money in the new economy is the communications tool that allows this to happen. Redefining our relationship to money means redefining money, creating new money and using it to fulfill ourselves in a global economy of mutual abundance.

The True Liberation of Desire

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[This is my response to Alexis' article, Are the Roots of Desire the Source of our Power? I shared it with her privately and we decided that we would post our dialogue publicly, so that you may witness our own evolutionary processes & differentiation in perspectives…]

This is a false teaching being perpetuated by women in the modern day. Reclaiming our emotional and physical desire energy may be a source of healing if those have been repressed, but it is a false liberation.

Any time you are seeking outside of yourself for the fulfillment of relationship, you are looking in a direction that will never unite with that which truly satisfies. You will continue to perpetuate an endless cycle of fulfillment-unfulfillment, of karmic creation – it truly is endless.

The ultimate aim of consciousness is to become aware of itself, and the greatest thing we can do as conscious beings is become aware of ourselves as that-which-is-everything. The pure fundamental energy that we are made of is Divine, is Love.

The very fact of us existing at all is an awesome miracle. To live in devotion to that divinity which we are (which is so much more vast than our individualistic perspective), means uniting all flows of energy within the body (physical, emotional, vital, soul) with the current OF divine being in its primal purity.

The Maha Yogi, Mahavatar BabajiThis means that the desires of the emotions and body, while not being suppressed or ignored, become subordinate to the desires of Divinity as experienced through one’s own eternal presence.

That is the only true liberation, and the ultimate integrous action from the choices available to us for how we move our energy. It is also bliss and eternal unity.

When experiencing sexual desire, or the emotional desire of union through outer relationship, it is beneficial to also experience the deeper Presence of the soul, and connect those surface desires with that energy of the soul. This allows them to be at peace, understood, and newly informed by that which is Eternal and serves All.

Only from there can right action emerge, and only from there can we taste true liberation.

 

 

Are the Roots of Our Desire the Source of Our Power?

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I had a session recently in which I got to stand in the place of three archetypical women who have come to me repeatedly.

1. The woman who is not in relationship and longs to be, oftentimes compromising herself to be someone she thinks she needs to be so she will be loved by a man OR finding herself settling for less than she wants because she's just so damn hungry.

2. The woman who is in relationship and wants more of what she has, but he doesn't want it as much as she does for one reason or another and she feels both trapped and hungry for more, but has nowhere to go because all she really wants is him.

3. The woman who is in relationship and doesn't want what she has because she has shut down all desire to keep him safe. Sharing her desires for more outside the relationship or for more space creates so much reaction in him that it becomes just not worth it.  She becomes anorexic.

I have been all three of these women.
I have lived these three realities.  And, as I stood in the shoes of these 3 archetypes, all melded together, what I felt is how in each three of these realities, I have cut off connection to the source of my power. From any one of these places, I am impotent, can't make decisions, spinning around painfully, stressed out, and generally disempowered.

I have a belief, which I am challenging, looking at, feeling into, questioning, wondering about, poking and prodding that says the core of my power lives in the roots of my Desire.

My Desire originates in the space between my legs travels up through my belly into my solar plexus and from there lights up the world.

My soul sister, LiYana Silver, would say this is the Oracle speaking through me. Pamela Madsen refers to feeling my desire as lighting the pilot light to heat up the cauldron. Nicole Daedone has created an entire movement around it.

During a healing session, I was led into a process of finding the first time in the history of the world (as I can remember it) when this desire was cut off.  I first envisioned all the ways woman was honored through the ages. I recalled the slide show Regena Tomhauser (Mama Gena) showed us in the first session of her Womanly School of the Arts.

Pussy and the Desire she carries with her was honored for eons.

Until, she wasn't.

Then, I saw the moment the first woman was hanged for her desire (that I can remember, which probably wasn't the real first moment, but the one that I was told of in high school history or literature class). Branded with a scarlet letter for the desire she felt and acted upon. Hung from the gallows and stoned for her desire.

And that was the end of the session. Out of time for today.

I will go back there and gently take her down from the noose and chase away all those who stone her and I will hold her and rock her and love her and tell her that her:

Desire is valid, it's worthy, it's acceptable, it's valuable and it's noble. {Tweet It!}

I will honor Her. And respect Her. And worship Her as the source of all that is.

As I feel into this, I am brought back into the reality of my now and these three archetypes I began with. Women cut off from the source of their power because their Desire isn't met. And I feel into myself where this is true.

Yes, I want a deep, connected, committed partnership with my man, my King, my rock, my one AND I want the freedom, liberation and aliveness of exploring all of the princes, frogs, toads, knights, journeymen, and all the others who catch my fancy.  This is the root of my desire, the source of my power and I can feel the pull of all those who are challenged by this desire in various ways.

What is it that makes this feel so unsafe? Isn't this how we once lived? Isn't this the truth of our being?

I know of a woman who did professional BDSM work in New York City where she would be visited by the most religious of the Jews, the Hassidim.  And we even know of the most church-going of the church-goers, the church leadership, who are often found in compromising sexual positions, to say the least.

So why do we deny the reality of our Desires? What would happen if we stopped denying what we really want? If we touched in and felt and allowed it all to flow through with the innocence that truly exists here? 

Before my session closed for the day, I was offered one last gift. A baby. Representing the innocence of this Desire that lives within me, within us all, within these archetypes I represented, likely within you.  Jena la Flamme first graced me with the awareness that all the Desire that lives within me is innocent. So innocent.  And now I know, she is right. It is.  My innocent Desire, the source of my power. And, I believe, yours too.

Will you join me in feeling it, not judging it and allowing it to expand and be seen for the fullness of what it has to offer?  Just for a moment? And, maybe, just maybe, for a lifetime?

Now I want to hear from you!

Tell me in the comments below about your desire – how it feels, what it looks like and what it has to offer you right now. Embrace it.

And if you want support in embracing your true desires to create a life and business you really, really, really, REALLY want – that serve you and the world – sign up for our Free Accelerated Money Map Course happening right now.

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