Leonie Dawson's Blog, page 37

Align + Attract Podcast

Blossoms!

I sat down with my gorgeous friend Kerry Rowett on her podcast Align + Attract!


The topic? Creating your joyful high-profit business.


We talk about ALL THE THINGS, including:

focusing on what lights you up and brings you joy
using experiments in your business
feeling what’s aligned – and paying attention to the data
keeping an eye on your hours



 

 



To listen, click play above or head HERE!
 
With abundance and love,



 

Enrol now & save!

 

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Offline is the new luxury

I fell down a Lucy Bellwood rabbit hole today, and it was glorious. Her financial post on going viral, and yearly income review here and here are just brilliant.

And this post on Kicking Snakes:

It makes me wonder what I have been doing, generating a feed of thoughts (on Twitter). Am I truly attempting to provide some kind of service? Or am I feeding tokens into a machine in order to keep a tiny, arbitrary bubble of numbers going up?

Lucy then led me her friend doreen dodgen-magee and her book Deviced which sounds right up my alley:

What happens when we offload our regulation to internet-enabled devices is, basically, a bait and switch. We need soothing, but we substitute stimulation. We need to get calm and centered; instead we gather more data, input, and dazzling digital experiences. This leaves us dependent on stimulation to distract us and make us think we are actually being soothed. On the contrary, being soothed results in calming and working through the feelings related to dysregulation. When we substitute simple distraction and stimulation for this developed ability, we end up amplifying the dysregulation we are already experiencing and rob ourselves of practice in the important work of bringing ourselves back to a regulated state.

Lucy continues:

My palms don’t sweat when I write things for Patreon… I don’t want to crawl out of my own skin when I blog. In these quieter spaces, sharing doesn’t come attached to the instinctual certainty that I’ve just kicked a furious ball of snakes.

Same, boo. Same.

Reading blogs by other creators just makes me itch to create.

Big love,

Enrol now & save!

 

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Autism: What Helps (a free poster)

Pooky bears,

I’ve written often about having Autism – you can find all my writings about it & recommended resources here.

Today I wanted to share with you a quick poster on what helps with managing my Autism.

Click here to download it as a printable poster!

Most of these tools are there to help reduce the sensory overstimulation – an Autistic brain records life in a higher definition than neurotypicals. And then of course pre-planning so you’re not in a state of constant overstimulation by scheduling less where possible.

I reckon the key for me is unapologetically accepting and cultivating the kinds of conditions I need to thrive. I’m not going to be able to be as “out” in the world socially & physically as neurotypicals are. My brain has its own gifts, I just need to help it have the quiet and space so it can thrive as best it can.

And of course, every person with Autism is different and needs different conditions. We all need to explore and create our tools of what helps… and use them as devotedly as we can.

All my love,

Enrol now & save!

 

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All the books YOU have written!

Lovebugs!

A very special blog for you today.

If you’re in my course Finish Your Book in 40 Days, you’ll know that recently I put out the call to students to send me the links & covers to their finished books.

My assistant diligently went through all the submissions we received in the first 48 hours or so and put together this gorgeous collage.

Every book you see here is written by someone who dedicated 40 days (at least) to writing + editing their book. It actually makes me emotional seeing these beautiful creations out in the world. (Plus, in the mastermind group we have a MASSIVE document where people can post links to their finished books.)

It’s literally so fucking cool to see that my course has supported authors on their journeys!

People have used the course to create, publish and sell literally all sorts of creations:

non-fiction booksfiction booksromantic novellaserotic short storiesworkbooks, journals + diariestarot cards, oracle cards + reflection cardschildren’s storiespicture booksself-help books

I wanted to dedicate a blog post in honour of all the authors who have published their works (whether it be self-published or through a publishing house).

Every book you see in the collage is linked below, and I’ll be updating the list every few months as more peeps finish their books.

You Are Woman – Marley Betts US + AUS

My Life as a Magician – Anna Shelley Amazon + Booktopia

How to be happy (no matter what sh!t life throws at you!) – Sophie Le Brozec Amazon

Next Level Felting – Nancy Wesley Amazon

World in Lockdown – Lisa Li Amazon

Pregnant – Your Friendly Guide to the Next 12 Months – Curated by Daniela Drandić  Free Download

The Depression Relief Workbook: 6 weeks to a happier you – Melody Green Amazon

The Colour Medicine Cards – Melody Green Buy Here

Hire A Virtual Assistant – Billie Gardner Buy Here

Free Spirit Guidebook – Kerry Burki Buy Here

The Wild In Us – Thirza Voysey Amazon

The Hare and The Moon – Sophie Shaw US + UK + AUS

Dear Paris – The Paris Letters Collection – Janice MacLeod Buy Here

My Name Is Buster – Jessica Harris Buy Here

The Matron – Anne Pagnell Amazon

Growth Mindset – Lisa Rigoni Buy Here

My Dog Sees Ghosts – Dakota Duncan Buy Here

Yoga Nidra Scripts – Tamara Verma Amazon

Tennis Elbow Relief – Emma Green Amazon

Life Stories Journal – Catie Chung Amazon

If you’re reading this list and thinking “Aw maaaan. I want to write my book and have it featured…” or just feeling some epic FOMO seeing all the amazeballs books above, I STRONGLY suggest you jump into Finish Your Book in 40 Days, especially since prices are doubling very, very soon!

 

 

Or maybe you’re just hankering to say “Yes! My book is finished!”?

Want that book inside of you to AT LAST be out in the world, doing what it needs to be doing:

touching livesgetting you new customersexpert recognitionearning you $$$featured in wickedly cool blog posts just like this one?

It’s time to get that book written. Get it out of your head, onto paper and into the world.

Every single published author started off where you are now. With an idea, a plot bunny, a first draft, an imagined scene in their head. Wherever you’re at, we’ve been there. The only difference? We made those dreams into a tangible reality.

One of the greatest joys in life is holding a physical copy of a book you’ve poured your heart, mind and soul into.

It is unbelievably gratifying and soul-nourishing.

So! Check out the brilliant authors and their books listed above, make sure you drop them a line if you like their shizzz (feedback is EVERYTHING) and have a think about whether it’s your time to get that book written.

With love, ink stained fingers and joy,

Enrol now & save!

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Killing off $4,000 in expenses

Hey pookies,

Remember how I was talking about frugality last week, acknowledging that I didn’t want to reduce expenditure on self care, but still wanted to review my expenses?

I spent the weekend doing the same spreadsheet & homework I prescribe in Week 1 of Money, Manifesting & Multiple Streams of Income.

Here’s what I ended up saving:

To which I say:

It always surprises me how much I can reduce – even when I think I run a pretty tight ship on expenses, there’s always more to do.

I went through and:

cancelled some excess softwarereduced user licence numberschecked what usage we were getting on plans & reduced where possiblechecked for new plan optionschecked if we could move to another more affordable provider.

My husband already keeps his own spreadsheet for all our telephone, internet & entertainment subscriptions and fucks with it constantly to make it smaller… so there wasn’t much for me to cut on that front.

$4,000 a year is a bonza amount to save though. Even more to throw into ethical managed funds!

Plus, I can still happily nom on my bag of overprized keto freeze dried ice-cream.

Again:

HOORAY!

In gladness & healthy financial custodianship,

Enrol now & save!

 

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Day In The Life: 2021 Edition

Blossoms,

Every wee once in a while, I like to share a behind-the-scenes of what an ordinary day in my life looks like.

I’ve done these kinds of posts throughout the years, and it always makes me happy and a bit sentimental to see how my days have changed and stay the same.

Day in my life through the years:day in my life 2011day in my life 2014day in my life 2019podcast episode in 20206:30am

Our alarm goes off, but the kids are usually already up, getting ready for school by themselves.

I blearily stumble out to the kitchen, make myself a cup of chai with milk and honey. Settle myself down on the couch with a newspaper, magazine, or ipad to read blogs with, and eat a Larabar while I read. Eating + reading at the same time is basically my version of heaven on earth.

Having older kids (mine are now 11 and 7) is like HEAPS easier than toddlers, guyzzzz. You can benevolently ignore them, all in the name of “fostering independence” instead of “this counts as childhood neglect.” HO HO HO #protip

My husband is also super on top of morning routines – he’s the one that ushers them through making sure they are getting ready on time, whether they’ve packed lunches, whether they’ve got the muffins he’s baked for them, whether they have swimming clothes or whatever they need.

I just float along while all this is happening around me, there to occasionally say “rad work!” and “yeah, I can plait your hair”, but mostly just to be blissfully oblivious. I regard this as my feminist triumph. Morning mental load? I HAVE NONE! HOORAY!

You may be wondering how I “trained” my husband to be like this. I don’t believe I can train him to do anything. He is a great majestic, untrainable wildebeest! He was however raised by a feminist mother, to which I say: CHEERS MATE! The only way I may have somehow influenced his behaviour is just by being lazy from the get go. Do less, and eventually someone will pick up the slack!

In evidence of just what a Stereotypical Dad I am in this situation, I once had to manage morning school routine by myself because my husband was ill. When I got home, I realised, horrified, that I didn’t actually pack any lunch for the kids. I told my husband. “Don’t worry hon… I felt ok enough to get up and cook some pasta last night for the kids’ lunches. I’ve got Starry packing her and Beth’s lunches now, so she would have made up pasta lunches for them.” And she, indeed, had.

P H E W.

Also: what a triumph for lazy women everywhere! Ha!

(Also: I should note as I’m writing this, I can feel all this societal judgment and conditioning rising up in me that makes me squeamish to say I’m lazy. Is there anything WORSE on this earth than a lazy mother, I hear that voice say. And I’d like to hasten to add that I do plenty – more than enough – as a person and as a mother. I just don’t believe I have to Do It All Myself.)

(Double also: My husband just announced as I was writing this that he was off to bake blueberry muffins to freeze for the next week of school lunches. Competency and thoughtfulness is hottttttttt.)

About 5 minutes before we need to leave the house, I go get dressed by picking up whatever is cleanest from the floor or the “Slightly Worn, But Not Stinky” clothing pile. My 20 second morning beauty routine: toner spray, moisturiser, lip balm. SPRITZ SLAP SWIPE DONE. Sometimes I don’t read what bottle I’ve picked up, and spritz myself in the face with deodorant instead. #blessed #inspo #lifestylesoftherichandfamous

Once or twice a week, instead of lounging around like a lofty pelican in the mornings, I do an hour of work. That’s when I’m doing interviews for podcasts, Q&A calls for my courses, and webinars.

7:30am

We head off in the car – all four of us together – for school run. My husband and I rarely do it individually and do it as a team instead. He drives, I drift off in my own world and occasionally take notes in my journal, the kids play games in the back of the car.

8am

The kids walk into school by themselves, we watch until they are in their school rooms like the stalker parents we are. Then we head to the river to walk together & talk shit together. It’s my favourite place to walk – kilometres of paths beside the river. It’s really popular for dog owners to go, so I not only get to look out for fish and stingrays and birds, but I can play OOH CUTE DOG!

How do you play this game, you ask? I’m so glad you asked! When you say a dog, gaze besotted at it and coo “OOH CUTE DOG!”  Occasionally mouth “I LOVE YOU” to said puppeh and hope this does not reflect poorly upon your sanity in public. Then rinse, repeat for every dog you pass on your walk, which will be at least 50.

Stop to get your favourite smoothie from your favourite shop and request it made with very specific instructions, like the high maintenance bae you are. Then walk back to car, sharing smoothie with husband, delighting when it’s made juuuuuuuuust right.

(If you’re wondering what kind of smoothie it is: it’s frozen bananas, peanut butter, cacao powder, coconut, chia, coconut milk and honey. Like a Reese’s Peanut Butter cup in smoothie format. GET IN MY MOUTH NOWWWW)

9am

Plop about town doing errands together. The usual shtuff – post office, groceries, shopping, whatever needs to be done.

11am

Home. Sit on verandah and talk together. Chuck a load of washing on. Sometimes my husband does gardening and mowing (we have a couple of acres). He takes care of the kitchen & dishwasher, always. So much so… I don’t know how to use it, nor have I ever known how to use one.

At some point, I might start doing some work. I used to shlep off to my office to do it (a room that’s just behind our garage), but now I tend to just sit on the verandah couch next to my husband and work.

(Also: if you’re wondering why I say MY HUSBAND roughly a billion times during this instead of using his name, I try not to use any of my family member’s names on my blog now for privacy reasons. He’s still hot as ever though. Ha!)

What do I do in a work session?

Everyday is different. It’s usually only about two hours of work. Today it will only be about an hour, unless I do some tonight. I always write down my task list in my journal, and update it as I go.

Things I might do:

write and illustrate blog postscreate new free stuffwrite sales emailsrun webinarscome up with marketing plans & goalswrite newsletters (daily-ish and weekly-ish)trying new marketing strategiesrecord podcast episodeswrite sales pagescreate new coursesupdate yearly workbooks (that’s a once a year project)get interviewed on other podcastslearn from other entrepreneurs (through books or online courses… I never stop learning!)do financial management: reconcile Xero, check expenses, have meetings with accountants & financial advisors etc.

Obviously, I don’t do everything in one work session. I usually batch record podcasts and do a few at a time, and schedule them in. I usually have a monthly focus on most critical things to work on, especially if I’m launching something.

This month, I’m promoting my courses doubling in price at the end of the month, so most of my focus is on that.

What my month’s work looks like:daily bloggingdaily podcasting, including sharing one of the most horrifyingly embarrassing (and hilarious) mistakes I’ve ever madesending daily-ish and weekly-ish newslettersrunning an affiliate competitionmaking free shit like this and thisrunning webinars like this.But do you REALLY only work 10 hours a week?

Pretty much bar a few hours less or more, depending on what I’m feeling like creating. I didn’t set out to create a full time job for myself with my business. I wanted to create something that easily fit around being with my kids and living a good life. I don’t thrive on busy-ness – my Autism prevents it and will soon send me spinning into a tailspin.

Instead, I focus on doing the most important work, and killing off any tasks that don’t need doing. I don’t delegate if the task can just straight up be deleted. I don’t have a large team anymore as I don’t enjoy managing staff. I just have one part-time assistant who thrives on what I call “benevolent neglect” and she calls “not being micromanaged.”

I’ve NEVER worked full-time in my business… never had the time luxury of it. Before having kids, I still worked in the public service while I built my business up on the side. And then I plopped out babies, and I didn’t have any time then either. I wanted to be with them as much as I could while still being the breadwinner for my family… so my business needed to be able to generate sufficient funds without it requiring much time.

And clearly, working such small hours hasn’t hurt my business’ growth… I’ve now brought in over $11 million in revenue with super high profit margins. It’s all about being super strategic with your time and making sure you are making maximum impact with minimum effort.

I get asked a lot about building a big business in part-time hours and I have SO much more to share… will need to do a masterclass about it sometime, me thinks! Let me know if you’re interested in me teaching something about that!

1pm-2:30pm-ish

At some point, we’ll head back into town. Sometimes we’ll go earlier and go for another walk along the river, or just sit and look at the river together. Sometimes I’ll go by myself into town and have tea & cake at my favourite bookstore, get a facial, get a massage or osteo, get my brows done, get my hair chopped off, or sit by the river and read and write.

3pm

Pick up the kids from school and head home.

A couple of nights a week, we grab takeaway for dinner – especially Japanese or Thai.

4pm

Talk shit with the kids.

5pm

Make dinner if we haven’t bought takeaway. Eat said dinner, all whilst high fiving myself for being SUCH a domestic goddess. LOOK AT ME. COOKING STUFF. #achievement

5.30pm

Watch some TV together. Usually a craft or baking show – like Great British Bakeoff or Nailed It. Round it off with every kid’s cocaine: Bluey.

6:30pm

So, this is where we had a big change in our routine! Usually, we’d put our kids to bed early and then Netflix and chill like adults until 9:30. But this year we started trying out a new routine and found it so beneficial we continued.

We ALL start migrating to our big bedroom at 6:30pm. Yep… ALL OF US!

We have a large master bedroom that fits our king bed, plus a single bed, a couch, an armchair, a bookcase and more. Our youngest prefers to still sleep in our room which is fine. Our eldest currently likes sleeping in her own room, but during 2020 she moved back in with us (probably because of pandemic stress). It was totes fine with us for her to join the big ole sleep room too. We co-slept a lot when they were littler, and they are always welcome to sleep in our bedroom.

Anyways, we don’t go to SLEEP at 6:30pm. We hang out in there together, no TV or screens. The girls play endless games together, they read to me, I read to them, we play a whole-of-family game. About 7:30 I start ushering them into bed.

My husband goes to sleep about the same time as he is caring for our ageing puppy Angel. She’s now 15, and needs assistance multiple times a night for toileting. It’s basically like looking after a newborn again, except this time no boobies are needed, so I sleep through the entire thing. By going to bed earlier, he manages to scrape in enough hours of patchy sleep to not feel like a zombie during the day.

I stay up while the rest of the family slumbers… I read, write, journal, meditate, do yoga, whatever other challenge I’m doing. I’m usually asleep about 9:30pm.

We probably won’t have this routine forever – it’s just the right thing to do for right now to get everyone’s needs mets. I do enjoy these moments when our bed is filled with bodies and idle chitchat… then the quiet, still hours as they sleep around me.

All in all, I’m grateful for this life.

There are hard days, and there are miraculous days, and there are boring days too.

But it’s my life. And I’m so very lucky to have it. This work, these humans, this little piece of land beneath the sun. I am grateful.

All my love,

 

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Daily: Aunty Leonie & Their Meditating Notes

(Click on image to enlarge)

Blossoms,

I’ve been doing Tara Brach’s “Awaken Your Heart, Creativity & Wisdom” course… above are my notes in my art journal. The background is a collage of wrapping paper that my creative penpal Tammy Hudgeon sent me.

I’m also now of an age where I like to adopt adorable people in their 20s as my nieces and nephews and enthusiastically encourage all their endeavours while furiously taking notes on how The Youth Of Today Speak. I think this is where I am supposed to put this:     but definitely not .

Anyways, one of my adopted nephews is Bilvy who is a ridic talented comic illustrator. He made me THIS masterpiece to encourage me on my latest challenge. BEHOLD!

I’ve been reading through a stack of books on meditation that I retrieved from my husband’s extensive collection.

So far the one that has stuck in my mind most is this short book on meditating by Matthew Johnstone:

I’m an addict of graphic novels – I’m a visual thinker and it helps me understand on a much deeper level. The pictures just stick in my mind, and I return to them over and over again like a touch point.

This one especially:

When I’m meditating now and my mind wanders, I think of this image, and remember that all I need to do is focus on my breath… pay attention to my nose… how the air goes in and out through my nostrils.

This morning I meditated, and I could feel myself becoming as still as a stone Buddha, and thought of this image. And I thought of how the sun would warm my stone skin. How I could watch the floods and the flowers growing afterwards. How at night there would be a huge expanse of stars above me. I could feel a slight smile on my lips.

Back to weekend-ing. These journals won’t write in themselves!

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Meditation Challenge & Good Habits Update…

Dearests, 

Just a short one today.

I started reading a book by HRH Dalai Lama, but stopped because I just felt so cross about the sexist remarks he made a wee while ago. Those remarks really broke my heart… for so long he has been a bastion of compassion and wisdom for the world. Now when I read his words, there’s a part of me that feels so desperately sad that he doesn’t see the divine potential of women (unless they’re a hottie of course!) Oooof. This feels hard. I hope I can one day not feel so sad and triggered, so I can continue to learn from him.

In other news, I’ve started a little bullet-journal-esque habits tracker of all the good daily habits I’m wanting to maintain.

On the whole, I’m super encouraged with how many coloured in blocks I’m managing to do each day.

It doesn’t need to be a perfect run… anything is better than nothing.

I’m off to recline in weekend pose. Fill the well, fill the well, fill the well.

Big love,

Enrol now & save!

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Your Chance to Ask Me ANYTHING!

Baberinos!

Every week, my inbox grows with questions from people.

“How do you only work ten hours a week?”

“I want to write my book but I have no clue how to get it published?”

“You make such pretty graphics… HOW?!”

“Is it really possible to make 8 figures while raising a family?”

My assistant does her best to answer all the Qs and update our FAQs, but we both understand that sometimes you just need to be able to ask the question directly, and get an answer straight from the horses mouth.

Enter: The Horse. AKA moi.

On Thursday April 29th at 6:30am I’ll be running a 1 hour live Ask Me Anything live call!

You can ask me literally anything about life, business, marketing, being social media free and my courses!

If you’re a member of any of my courses, you’ll already know that once a month I run an Open Office Hour live call, where peeps can rock up and ask me literally anything, LIVE!

They’re suuuper popular and SO MUCH FUN, so much so that I wanted to do one open to everyone.

And that’s exactly what I’ve done! Bonza AF! 

Once you register, you’ll get an email with the link, details and some TOP SECRET MISSIONS.

Okay, by “top secret” I mean I’ll tell you right now because OMGZ I am so excited.

We’re having three competitions:

Wear the most epic of hatsShow off your cutest and/or most ridiculous petsAsk me a super interesting or funny question
There will be a winner for each category and there shall be AH-MAY-ZING prizes! How fucking fun is that?!

I’ll be giving away FREE memberships to your choice of a course:
Money, Manifesting + Multiple Streams of IncomeFinish Your Book in 40 Days40 Days to Create + Sell Your eCourse

Be there or be square, hohoho.

With shining love and abundance,

P.S. YES! The call will be recorded and uploaded to my Youtube!

Enrol now & save!

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My Most Embarrassing Mistake

Dearests,

I NEVER thought I would talk about this publicly… because this mistake still wakes me up in the middle of the night sometimes. Every time I think about it, I flinch, then shudder, then start laughing. It’s mortifying and awful and so very, very funny.

I’m NOT going to write this one out… it still makes me shudder too much to actually immortalise it in words.

So instead… I made you a podcast episode.

Be prepared to listen, shudder & weep with laughter.

YOU ARE WELCOME.

You can also subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, PocketCast (or wherever else you listen to podcasts!)

Big love,

 

Enrol now & save!

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