Leonie Dawson's Blog, page 91

The Critical Mistake Most Business Owners Make

You probably aren’t doing what you think you are doing.

In business, that is.

In business, it’s easy to think the sign on the door tells what problem we’re solving:

Massage.

Products for sale.

Idea consulting.

Doula.

Excavator.

Excavator, really Grant?

Yep. I have a friend who does dirt work. To protect the innocent, we’ll call him Bob. You know, like Bob the Builder. He’s pretty dang good at it. You need a hole in the ground, he’s got the tools. He’s got the experience. You need gravel delivered or snow removed? These are his specialties.

I was talking to Bob recently about his business. The funny thing is, we didn’t spend any time talking about his work. We talked about cash flow and invoicing, hiring and managing people, making decisions about what kind of equipment to buy and what sort of work to get. But we didn’t spend any time talking about how you dig holes or haul gravel.

As I say often, business is a creative endeavor.

An endless line of interesting problems to solve. But if you want to be successful, the one thing that can’t be a problem for you is what you do for your customers. The problem you solve, can’t be a problem for your business. Does that make sense?

Think about it – the photographer, has to be great at taking pictures.

That’s an assumption.

Can you imagine a doula showing up for labor with questions about exactly how the process works? Imagine your fear and surprise when she pulls out a book, “Doula’ing for Dummies” in the middle of your labor and starts to read up on how to help.

Or as another friend of mine who is an Emergency Room nurse says:

‘Going to the Emergency Room is an emergency. Running an Emergency Room isn’t.’

In fact, it can’t be. It won’t work that way. We take our emergencies to a place that is specifically designed to handle them and we don’t expect them to be as anxious or unprepared as we might be for the visit, right?

In business, the service you provide must be an assumption.

The problem you’re actually solving is something different.

Let’s jump back to Bob. For Bob, the challenges aren’t in the work, but in the logistics and processes that make it possible for him to show up in your yard, with the right machine, the right crew, on the right day, with the right plan, to get started digging for the new garage you’re having built. Oh, and he’s got to make money in the end of all of those efforts, so let’s say profitable logistics and processes…

Do you see where I’m going here? It is a subtle shift perhaps, but as you think about it, it gets bigger and bigger.

Chances are you’re already good at what you ‘do’ for your customers. That’s how you came to be in business. But that’s not enough to keep you in business.

You cannot be good enough at your craft to overcome being bad at running your business and still achieve the kind of results you dream about.

Seriously.

In his book The eMyth Revisited, Michael Gerber outlines three roles that all business people have floating around inside their heads. They are the Entrepreneur, the Manager, and the Technician.

Lots of us are drawn to business by the Technician.

We are good at something. People say, hey, why don’t you sell this, do this fulltime, open a shop and offer this service?

Gerber talks about the moment when we get a flash of inspiration and for just an instant, the Entrepreneur shows up and says

“YES, that’s a GREAT idea. What do you say folks, let’s do this thing!?!”

For many people in business, that’s the last time the Entrepreneur is seen in for a long, long time.

So who’s running the place?

Well, Gerber says it is the Manager and the Technician, but in most cases, I see an awful lot of the Technician at work.

The person who does great work, but doesn’t communicate the whole time the work is underway – a Technician.

The referral you get from a friend, that comes with a caveat…”if you want your cake by your wedding date, make sure you get her started on it a year in advance. She’s great, but she’s always behind” – yep, a Technician.

The mechanic who says (when YOU call), ‘Oh, yeah, your car is done, but I haven’t gotten around to the invoice yet, should just be a few more days (and you’re thinking days = weeks)’ – definitely a Technician.

Which brings us back to Bob, remember, the Builder? Digging holes and hauling gravel is Technician stuff. That’s his trade. But solving the problems of how to run the business and how to grow the business, these are problems that the Manager and Entrepreneur are uniquely suited for and they should be solving them.

And so how about you?

Take a minute and think about your business. Are you good at what you do, the part that you actually produce/give/deliver/provide to your customers? Great.

How about the rest of it?

Are you hiding anywhere behind the idea that you can be so good at your core skillset that you don’t have to focus on other areas?

Remember what I said above: **You cannot be good enough at your craft to overcome being bad at running your business and still achieve the kind of results you dream about.**

Do you know how to change hats and bring your inner Entrepreneur into your business in the right places?

The 2016 Create Your Shining Biz Workbook is designed to surface your inner Entrepreneur and give her a boost in helping to run your business. Sometimes, it can feel like you’ve been involved in hostile takeover by an out-of-control Technician, and the questions, dreaming, and goal-setting activities the Workbook provides can be super helpful in re-focusing you on what brought you here in the first place – not your great skills, but your great dream.

That’s also the purpose of the new weekly Diary-Planner. By bringing your goals and dreams into a monthly, weekly, and daily focus, you can remember what you’re really chasing and as a result, be more disciplined on working across all the parts of your business.

Take a minute and think about your business.

How would you describe the problems you’re really solving? What are people really paying for? They may think they are buying your end-product, but what really satisfies people is a whole set of different tasks you’re executing with excellence.

Let me leave you with a final picture.

Have you seen the show Cake Boss? An energetic baker with a serious New Jersey accent bakes beautiful cakes for all sorts of occasions. Clearly, Buddy, THE Cake Boss, is awesome at baking cakes. Most of his creations wouldn’t get past the flour stage with me. His cakes always amaze and delight his customers. But what you see on the show is the behind-the-scenes view, and there, it’s easy to see the problems Buddy is really solving.

In order to deliver an amazing cake at a specific time, he’s got to have a team of people, the right tools, the right ingredients, and a bakery culture that brings all those aspects together in the production of masterpiece after masterpiece. At the front end, people ask for and receive cakes, but back in the bakery, people problems, process problems, equipment problems (and the occasional vehicular incident) are all on the road toward the Cake Boss delivering another stunning creation.

If you’re not familiar Buddy the Cake Boss, this is a great clip of him in action:

So why does this matter, really?

Isn’t it just semantics, to say I’m solving this problem or that problem?

I don’t think so.

I think it’s like John Dewey said, “a problem well put is half solved.”

When we focus on solving the right problems, we can ensure that our business is fully prepared to deliver the kind of output our customers need to rely on. We will have prepared to delight them and in the process, improved our income, our sanity, and the longevity of the precious entity we’re working so hard to create.

If you’re looking for something to do over the next couple of weeks to get your head in the right place for growing your business in 2016…

I highly recommend a read through the eMyth Revisited. (And completing your Create Your Shining Year in Biz Workbook! If you haven’t bought one yet, get one today at shiningyear.com!)

Be well + enjoy the journey,

P.S. FYI: we’re down to our last few boxes of printed books + won’t be reprinting this year! One of you is going to score one of the lucky last ones to score one! Don’t miss out!!!)

Leonie’s Scrapbook: one IKEA visit too many + drama llamas

Hiya lovebugs!!

We’re back with my usual scrapbook of photos + ramblings from the past few weeks.

Workbook launch season is nearing a close + it felt good to take a look back at the whirlwind madness. Holy bonza balls!

I look forward to sharing our many new exciting projects that 2016 is bringing!

Here we go!

 

GUESS WHAT I BOUGHT GUYZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ…

My very own BINDING MACHINE MOTHERFUCKKKKERZZZZZ.

And then I promptly co-opted Mr Dawson to be my binding bitch.

And I have made some ridiculously polished binded documents for very little reason and I feel SO LEGIT guys. SO LEGIT.

#menwhobinddocumentsfortheirwives #icouldwriteeroticfanfictionaboutthis

National Uniform of Hippy Nation.

We (Barely) Survived IKEA 2016.

The best way I can describe my kids is this: my first born was born with all the fucks to give. She gives a fuck about everything. My second born looked at the allotment of fucks left and realised Ostara had used them all up when she was born. So Beth consequently walks through life giving zero fucks about everything. That’s my daughters. The perfect match for each other’s destiny, each other’s teacher. I’m so fucking eloquent and insightful today!

I also decided to something WILD (I AM SOOOOOO CRAZY GUYZZZZZ) and get my own Double Your Biz program (available in the Academy) PDFs printed out as a big book so I can look at it proudly on my shelf. 50,000 words on how to double your profits + reach (oh and how to do it without sacrificing your life in the process). I’m one proud mama bear of this.

It is the end of January!!!! Too late to set goals for 2016!!!! Guess I’ll have to wait until next year to write goals and make my dreams come true. LOLLLLLZ NOTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

I went to the National Portrait Gallery to work and eat petit fours and have a lovely meeting with the Canberra head of Business In Heels (I’ll be speaking at one of their events soon. Spoiler alert: I will probably be wearing Crocs or Birkenstocks. LOLZ). Then I went and sat under the trees near the National Rose Garden. And I thought to myself: you ain’t so remote hillbilly anymore girl. You in CIVILISATTTTTIONNNNN. #fancyladyalert

I’m thinking of doing a beautiful black and white fine art photography photo book called “The Miracle of Motherhood.”

Team meeting with all our customer service staff… It’s been a wild few months as we’ve sold more than double the amount of workbooks as last season (and we haven’t even finished yet!!!!!) Consequently we had to hire a bunch of new magical customer service fairies to keep up with the sheer influx of emails. So grateful to Julie, Jennifer + Fallon for joining our shining team!

And as always, big love to Erin, Amber, Joyce and Grant for being such solid stars.

(And to our other incredible contractors who do design, development, copy and PR – Suzi, Kayla, Kelsey, The Ginger Minge [apparently his name is Nathan, but that’s not his name around these parts], Tim Tam and Naomi! And of course, our new Operations Manager Sonya!!!!)

Chris walked in on our team call this morning and came over to say hello and saw the amount of people and said “HOLY SHIT! DO ALL THESE PEOPLE WORK FOR US?”

Hahahahahaha… yes… it’s a little surprising sometimes… our team has doubled in size this year… but big dreams needs lots of wings to help them fly…

Endlessly grateful. I love these people and I love the work we do.

This is how elegant I look after copywriting intensive. Me and Grantacular got a wily fankle of an idea to totally transform our Academy information page. It was such a massive effort pulling off the Academy membership site relaunch earlier several months back that I didn’t have the time or energy left to make our Academy information page scrumptious and thoughtful and useful.

We decided now was the time… Which meant we needed to do a copywriting deep dive. He booked into a b&b, I sent him boxes of copywriting and sales books to read. We decided on our own curriculum. Then we spent a total of ten hours on Skype over two days. He’d tell me everything he’d read in the books, I’d tell him everything I’d learned over the past 8 years. Then we’d brainstorm and type as fast as we could to keep up with the word tsunamis that rushed through us. We have two more days to finish it and then it gets handed to our designer.

I love a short deadline to make things happen… Otherwise I will procrastinate for years. Luckily, Grantacular digs riding wild donkeys just as much as I do. Plus, we are lucky – Mr Dawson would visit regularly to chime in on Skype and make us both laugh. The blokes in my life are some of my biggest blessings. Anyways… Keep your eyes peeled for the new Shining Academy page in the next couple of weeks. It is going to be scrumdiddlededumptious!

Driving to pick up kids after a hot date. One of my mates looked after them, we look after hers on Saturday so she can hot date her hubby. On our super hot date we went to the music store, the National Library of Australia to see their Qing Dynasty exhibition, and then to the bookstore. Mostly we just enjoyed the sound of no screaming children. #livingdadreammmmm

Handy tip: keep your big goals front of mind, especially when you are donkey riding. I put up our revenue goal of $2m at the start of workbook season. It was on the window in front of my desk, half way up the window. I also had a sticky note lower on the window with the income we were starting at – about $1.2m.

Each time we hit another $100k, I’d add another post it note moving closer to the final goal. It was incredibly motivating.

I think I’ll keep that top post it note as a reminder, a celebration. I love how goals when done well can keep our intention focussed and make some pretty huge dreams come true.

We did a stocktake of our audio visual supplies and all the plans we have for creating new programs for the Academy in the next year… And realised we needed an upgrade.

I set Mr D loose on product reviews and specs and this is what we decided on. Next month, Grantacular and I will be in the video studio for a bunch of days to create a stack of new courses with Mr D and Mrs A as videographers and production assistant. We are totes into nepotism around these parts!

The family that wears tie dye together… Looks rad together. Hahahahahaaaaa!!! All of us wrapped in new @thesunnydaisytiedye threads! Are you a tie dye fan? Where do you get yours from?

Today’s the day I discover babysitting 2 kids on top of mine is easier than just having mine. They are all out there eating popcorn while daytime glamping. I haven’t seen my kids in hours!

Beth has discovered the supreme joys of swinging. So has Mr D.

On quiet Sundays… Sometimes just sometimes this non-cookingish type person gravitates toward the kitchen. Overripe bananas and leftover coconut cream needed to be used up so I made a raw chocolate banana pie. Gettttt innnnnn myyyyyyy faaaaace.

Sunday afternoon. You know what that means… Solo mama mini retreat. Art journaling, e-courses, 2016 goals workbooks. It’s a ritual. One I love with my whole heart and look forward to each week.

Making myself a poster to remember my own personal rules which bring me success. We all have different rhythms and rituals that bring out our best. It is our job to find them and then over and over again remind ourselves of them.

Want to see my own personal behind-the-scenes proof that goal setting works? I’m doing my year-end reviews for my 2016 Create Your Shining Year in Biz goals workbook, including historical financials. I just pulled this from our stats… year in, year out growth for 6 years running (since I started recording financials properly!)

If you’re not doing yearly business planning in your business, you’re doing yourself, your income, your company, your staff + your customers a HUGE disservice and not achieving the potential you have. If you’re committed to growth, this is what it takes. No excuses – just dedication and disciplined action towards your dreams. I’m soooooooooo proud of what we’ve achieved… and excited what we can create in 2016.

Holy. Shit. So. Good. Perfect for this stage in my life/biz. Working Together by Michael Eisner.

I went through it with a red pen, taking notes + underlining so I can send it to Granto to read as well.

If you’re in a working partnership, this is the bomb diggity.

It’s been such a surprise to me (and to Grant) to end up working WITH someone to build a business – we’re so used to doing it on our own. The last year of working together has been huge + life-changing + filled with so many intense blessings + challenges.

Hot date at the accountants with my boo. There ain’t nothing sexier than financial literacy!

Guess what I bought?????? I cancelled my gym membership and bought a treadmill desk instead. Will let you know how it goes!!!

Mr Dawson sorting and packing baby carriers to send to Greece for Syrian refugees. We have been collecting carrier donations as the Australian contact for Carry The Future so our company can pay the postage of getting them to Greece. We’ve honestly been in awe of how many we’ve received. We sent about a cubic metre of carriers to send.

To Greece, With Love.

REALLY ENJOYING HUNTING THROUGH IKEA TO FIND ONE THING NEEDED FOR A WORK PROJECT.

#blessed #lovinglife #whenwillilearn

Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better… Our duo became a trio and it was exactly what was needed. Destiny is working with two of my best mates, dreaming big dreams and making them happen, healing our shit, becoming our best selves, integrating spirituality and personal development and business as one and growing a business vessel that changes lives and changes the world.

I feel very lucky to be so lovingly held, supported, challenged and taught by Grant and Sonya. Together we can do anything.

Weekend. Thank fuck. It’s been a big week/month/year in a high growth company.

Time to cuddle on the couch and watch vintage Care Bears.

Beer and books in the garden. There would be chips too, but Beth upended the whole bag and the dogs ate them all.

#devastating #prayforme #ithinkiwilleatfudgeinstead

Sabbath morning walk with the angels.

On my Sunday morning amble up the hill today, the theme was feathers… A sure sign that the Angels are near. A big black/purple feather right on my driveway… Small white feathers on the path… Two huge white cockatoo feathers laying side by side… And then a half dozen of Major Mitchell cockatoos hung out with me for a while.

If you don’t know these beauties, they are pink and grey and the most beautiful looking things. My mate Donna says “Those birds are evidence that God is an artist.” They were quite friendly and not at all bothered as I ambled along beside them. Then some tiny little wrens…so tiny they looked like fairies flirting about.

It was a walk filled with the winged ones and I felt like I was walking through a tiny miracle.

TED talks & journaling in bed. I have a raging Brené Brown crush.

Finished listening to this audiobook by Brené on my walk with the Angels this morning. Highly recommend!

Definitely on my #leoniestopbooks2016 list.

Bonza read on management. Highly recommend!

When it be full moon, sometimes normal everyday people shapeshift… Not into werewolves… But DRAMA LLAMAS. This phenomenon is most found in Internet forumz. You know what I say to this? Ain’t no drama llamas belong in wild donkey paddocks!

Woweeee! That’s all folks!

Thank you for sharing the journey with me.

Big love,

Word of the Year Artwork Inspiration!

Hi lovebugs!

Creating an artwork to celebrate your theme for the year is one of my most favourite creative side projects in the workbooks (you can see my 2016 word of the year + artwork here!)

I thought it would be fun to see what some other workbook goddesses were doing as their artwork for the year.

I asked workbookers in the 2016 Creating Your Shining Year workbook group to share with me some of theirs!

I love how different + magical each of these is… a strong totem and emblem for exactly what they want to invoke in 2016.

Hope these inspire you as much as they did for me!

Tamela Fawns created a gorgeous pen + watercolour. I love the smile on this girl’s face. Totally embodies the energy of “embody.”

Kristin shared her art journal collage of her word of the year – Foundations!

(Fun side story: I met Kristin years ago when I got to photograph her pregnant in the river.)

Lemme see if I can find a photograph from it… AWWWW YEAHHHHH>>> JUST DID…

SO BOOTIFUL!

Okay… back to word of the year artwork now!

Bard Judith shared her gorgeous digital collage…

Natalie Miller made this MAGICAL creative act to celebrate bloom… Imagonna guess them be seeds? Or rice? Either way… #radperfect

Dalea Faulkner made me giggle my ass off… combining my favourites and making a MERNICORN!

Andrea Stern reminds me of Picasso’s line work. I remember seeing his originals as a teenager in “The Big Smoke” (aka Brisbane!) I loved how perfect and thoughtful yet lyrical it all was. So yeah… go you good thing Andrea!

Kt Shepherd shared her scrumptious zendoodlish THRIVE!

Marigold Fairweather is adorable as fuck.

Tia Elizabeth Tuuta made a gorgeous framed collage. I’m also tripping out over the print because it’s the EXACT same one I have on my laptop skin!!!!

Yvette Griggs created this beautiful watercolour and ink. So vibrant yet peaceful. Patience. What a sweet exhale.

Trina Esquivelzeta combines black + white chalkboard with magical lettering.

I love how uncluttered it is. It’s exactly what it says it is.

FOCUS.

 

Karen Shopoff Rooff made this stunning digital collage.

Iris Fritschi-Cussens – exquisite artist at work. I love how all these artworks are sacred totems at work, reminding their creator of their highest intentions.

Anna Georges drew her own kind of 2016 poster of mottos + goals, encapsulating some of the big things from her workbook. Fantastic idea.

 

 

Susan Meyer – a beautiful, beautiful photograph embodying the energy of her theme. Bliss!

Andrea Chamberlain made a mosaic of her word. I just adore its rainbowy goodness.

Also: me + Andrea are totes mates IRL. Last year I crashed a workbook party that was happening a couple of towns over from where I lived and Andrea was there. She has the sweetest heart… just like her artwork.

Kate Rogers created this textured rainbow artwork for her word. SO creative. I’m guessing she wrote the word first in some kind of liquid glue or 3d paint, waited for it to dry and then painted over the top. I love how layered it is… like the word emerges out of the colour.

 

Lioness Lee created basically her own logo for 2016. She should just print it on a hundred stickers and brand her life with it.

Have you done yours yet?

If not… jump on it!

What’s YOUR word of the year? Share it with me on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter with hashtag #2016planners!

Can’t wait to see – they bring such a smile to my dial!

Love,

P.S. Just as an FYI: our stocks are starting to run low on 2016 Shining Year workbooks. We definitely won’t have printed supplies for much longer. If you’re keen to get yours, do it now, love. I wouldn’t want you to miss out on this opportunity to craft a beautiful life or biz for yourself this year. We’ve only got one gorgeous life to live… might as well live it in full colour. ORDER YOURS NOW.

My Favourite #2016planners Thus Far!

Hola dearhearts!

Gosh I really do love workbook season. I’m like a giddy kid at Christmas seeing all the women using these workbooks + hearing how many miracles they are already making happen just in the span of a month.

And NOPE… it’s definitely NOT too late to start using them. Read on here to find out why.

Anywaysies, it’s always just a joy to see everyone using their workbooks and diaries and sharing about them on social media.

And to make it even more fun, we created a sweeeeet competition to reward our social media sharers… and it wraps up in just a few days!

All you need to do is…

Share a picture of the workbooks or diary (or you with them) on social media before January 31, and you could win one of TWO Shining Biz + Life Academy memberships (worth $497 each!)

How to Enter:

Upload your picture on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook. (Make sure you’re not set to private!)
Hashtag it with #2016planners
The most creative + the most scenic photographs will win!

If you’re already an Academy member, you can gift it to a bestie instead, or extend your membership by a year!

Can’t wait to see your glorious pictures!

They bring such a smile to my dial… and I ADORE seeing the workbooks all splayed out around the world… working their magic with women everywhere!!!!

I decided to compile a few of my favourite posts thus far and give you some inspiration!

Okay, this video is just the cutest thing I have ever seen. And the storybook voice? TO DIE FOR!

Meet Ginger Bearded Stud. Bahahahaha! Peeps are soooo excited about getting their #shiningyear books in the mail they are taking heaps of photos of their packages and sending them into us which makes us so happy. This is some next level shit right here… One gorgeous soul was so excited she got the postman to post with her delivery!!!!! Hahahahahahahaaaaaaaa… I LOVE IT.

Two gorgeous women who didn’t know each other before this… both of them living in a remote mining town… the week that this photo was taken they were the HOTTEST PLACE ON EARTH.

Talk about dedication! Hiking… Babywearing… Diarying it the fucccck up!

Fireplace… hello!

Workbook meet-ups! Yee-haw! I love seeing gorgeous goddesses getting together to manifest + mastermind together. Want to do workbooks together? Grab our free illustrated guide here!

This is from a gorgeous workbooker in the Istanbul airport. I wonder how many different airports these workbooks have traveled through and how many passport stamps they have?

Bliss.

Caught redhanded in the backseat of her car writing in her books! #mumslife

I don’t know what I enjoy more…that view, those workbooks, the flowers OR THAT TURQUOISE NAIL POLISH!?!

Just HANGING OUT setting goals. SEE WHAT I DID THERE?? SEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE???

Sista, sista! So many of these gorgeous souls gift the workbooks to their friends + sisters so they can all work on their goals together. It’s so beautiful to see!

Reasons I can tell this is photographed in Australia:

1. The light

2. The rocks

3. The everything

4. Scott Alexander King’s Animal Dreaming cards. I can spot oracle cards from fifty paces.

Fuckkkkk soooo pretty. OH WAIT. GUYZ. LOOK!!! Someone who owns a FLOWER MARKET DID THIS. CHAMPION. DAMN CHAMPION.

Side note: In my highly scientific research I reckon I have evidence to prove that 99.9% of florists in the world are pure angels bringing beauty and healing to the world. I would say 100% but I wanted to appear more scientific.

I’m pretty sure it worked.

Can we just take a minute and marvel at this bath?!

I’m going to vote on it being a LUSH bomb. Ten bucks says I’m right.

Glad to know the workbooks are making it up to the mile high club! Bahahahaha!

Wow. Amazing.

And can we just talk about the most ADORBZ kids that use the workbooks…?

Me too girl, me too.

Okay, and while we are at it, I’m thinking a pet version of the workbooks is in order…

It’s a hedgehog! Omggggggg the cuteness!!!!!

See!

Workbooks! Fun + joy for the WHOLE FAMILY!

Now… get on to sharing your images… you’ve only got a few days left before our big competition closes!

Big love,

Quick But Life-Changing Tip That Will Grow Your Business

Hola loves!

I wanted to share with you today a quick but important tip to grow your business…

Guidance that I’ve used to grow my own multi-million dollar a year company and has held me in good stead.

Just a few minutes long so short, sweet + potent.

Dive in to get a business tip that can change your trajectory now.

Listen as an audio below or subscribe in iTunes here.

Download audio file (Quick+But+Life-Changing+Tip+That+Will+Grow+Your+Business.m4a)

All my love,

Are You Too Late?

Hola possums,

This is something that comes up every.single.ding.dang.year.

As soon as we get past – say – January 6 – peeps start freaking out that they haven’t done their planning for 2016.

And they throw up their hands and go:

Oh well.

I missed the opportunity.

Maybe next year.

So I want to do this public service announcement…

Is it TOO LATE to plan for 2016?

Shouldn’t I have all my resolutions in place on January 1?

Let me answer this with three words: Absoloodely, 100% NOT.

New Year’s Day is NOT the “Use By Date” for setting resolutions for the new year.

I have no idea why we got that idea stuck in our heads, but it’s worth chucking out the window.

We have women buying the yearly planning workbook right up until NOVEMBER of that year – and say it was still 100% worth it because of the results they got from it.

It’s just like saying:

Have I waited too long?

Am I too old?

Am I too late for my dreams?

I’ll tell you when it’s too late:

It’s when you never begin at all.

When you give up because you won’t have 365 perfect days under your belt.

When you think it’s too late to make a change, so why bother at all?

The Perfect Time To Create Your Shining Year (And Life. And Business.)

The perfect time to create your shining year is NOW.

Right where you are this moment. Right here.

It’s the point in time when you decide you are a conscious creator of your life and business.

It’s never ever too late to start crafting the business and life you want.

It’s only too late when you don’t start at all.

“It is January 11!!!! Too late to set goals for 2016!!!! Guess I’ll have to wait until next year to write goals and make my dreams come true. LOLLLLLZ NOTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT”

One Thing I’ve Been Noticing…

Something I’ve been noticing in my world, and other entrepreneur’s worlds this year is this —

We’re all a bit burnt out. We’re still in holiday mode. Still soaking up the lessons from 2015.

Our heads haven’t swivelled towards 2016 yet.

Year planning definitely is happening a little later this year than usual.

It’s not just you.

As long as it gets DONE, that’s the main thing.

Want to see my own personal behind-the-scenes proof that goal setting works?

I’m doing my year-end reviews for my 2016 Create Your Shining Year in Biz goals workbook, including historical financials. I just pulled this from our stats… year in, year out growth for 6 years running (since I started recording financials properly!) I’m soooooooooo proud of what we’ve achieved… and excited what we can create in 2016.

If you’re not doing yearly business planning in your business, you’re doing yourself, your income, your company, your staff + your customers a HUGE disservice and not achieving the potential you have. If you’re committed to growth, this is what it takes. No excuses – just dedication and disciplined action towards your dreams.

How I’m doing my life + biz planning this year in my company

I’m doing it just as I do nearly every year:

2013 & 2015 planning…

I fill out my Life goals workbook first, and will add to it and revise and review as I go throughout the year. I always set a goal for when to complete it, and that’s usually before end of January.

My Biz goals workbook usually takes more time. I start by filling out all the review pieces for 2015, looking at what works, what our highest selling products are, what our wins and our challenges are. First I tend to take note of all my own reflections and experiences, then I start polling and interviewing my staff to find out their perceptions and experiences and insights so I can get a well-rounded picture of the company from the ground up.

2014 planning…

Once I’ve done that process in the workbook, I can start looking at planning ahead for the next year. This usually happens for me every February or March, because January is too batshit insane busy-crazy for me because – whatdoyaknow – we actually SELL workbooks then.

Grantacular our General Manager + his wifey JenJen are coming over to Australia for a month to stay with us in Feb, so we can run the Shining Business Academy retreat. Sone our new Operations Manager will come down from Sydney as well for some in person retreating. We will spend the majority of our time working through the workbooks together to map out the next year for the company.

 

It’s such a useful framework to use when running internal business planning retreats. In fact, the Biz workbook was created from exactly that – the questions I used to use every year for my annual business planning retreats! It’s what I’ve used in my own business for many years now, and is absolutely one of the success factors behind our high-growth high-profit high-happiness $2m a year company.

Just remember: Right Where You Are Right NOW Is A Point Of Power

It’s the moment when you choose to step up, to say yes.

It’s the moment you craft your destiny from.

Who you want to be today, in this moment. Where you want to find yourself in 12 months, at the end of your life.

It’s all a blank canvas, waiting for you to take up the brush and carve it in colours in the way YOU want.

You are the one you’ve been waiting for.

YOU are the knight in shining armour.

You are your soulmate, your best friend, your cheerleader with pom poms.

You have infinite choices, infinite power, infinite abilities.

All you need do is claim. Claim your choices, claim your responsibility.

And, let me say it again because it’s just so important:

The perfect time to create your incredible year is NOW.

The Rules of Achievement

I fee like we should talk about this more. That every kid at school should be taught this.

Here’s the population research of success:

80% of the population do NOT have goals
16% THINK of their goals but don’t write them down
3% write down their goals but don’t look at them again
and just 1% – just ONE PERCENT – of the population write down their goals and regularly review them… and it THESE people who are among the highest achievers in society.

The research lays out VERY clearly what you need to do to make your dreams come true:

Think of your goals
Write them down
Regularly review them.

The 2016 Create Your Shining Year product collection helps you do just that.

The 2016 Create Your Shining Year in Life workbook will help you map out all your goals in life, finances, health, relationships, creativity, travel + more…
The 2016 Create Your Shining Year in Biz workbook will help you plan out your goals in marketing, income, profit, products, customer service, team, philanthropy + more…
The 2016 Create Your Shining Year weekly diary-planner makes you review your goals monthly and weekly + keeps you on track everyday with making your goals come true!

Got it?

Good.

Let’s go create our miracles, dearest.

Our dream lives + businesses are waiting for us. The world is too.

Go get your workbooks.

Go join the workbook group (10,000 goal-getting goddesses united!)

And go make your dreams happen!

love love love,

P.S. I keep getting these questions, so I’m going to answer them here incase you’re wondering too:

YES, we’ve still got some printed 2016 Biz & Life workbooks in stock.

YES, we’ve still got some printed 2016 Shining Year Diaries in stock.

YES, you can still buy them.

YES, we ship EVERYWHERE around the world.

And NO, they won’t be around forever. We WILL be out of stock v soon. We’re 80% of the way through our stock and won’t be repurchasing. So if you are ready to make 2016 your best year yet in life and/or business… you need to get your orders NOW.

Also:

A HUGE amount of peeps have NO idea that the 2016 Create Your Shining Year workbooks + planners are SO cheap. They all thought they were way more expensive and were holding out from getting them because of that!!!

Yes, I could charge more. Yes, I hear ALL the time that they are much more valuable and powerful than that price. I know that. I’m not underpricing them because I undervalue them.

I make them so cheap because I want every single woman who needs them to be able to invest in them. I want you to create your shining life and business, and I know these planners will help.

I want you to live your dreams for one simple reason:

Because I know when you do, you’ll be alight. You’ll shine so bright you’ll help thousands of others to light up. And I know, whole of heart, that when women step up to live their dreams, it will change this world. In big, beautiful, profound ways. In ways it is aching for.

P.P.S. Been waiting for your moment to say YES?

Here it is babe. Today’s the day. You DESERVE this.

Claim your shining year ahead right here.

New Academy Release: Discover Your Life’s Wisdom

Hola possums!

We’re rockin’ and rollin’ with new Academy courses coming your way!

Last week we released Grant Andrew’s Deep Brewed Life album and today we have an excerpt from our first live Academy event!

This was recorded LIVE in Denver, Colorado at our first US Academy retreat.

This one hour video is a beautiful, intimate insight into how you can discover the wisdom that exists in your own life story.

I believe the key markings of Grant’s magical teaching style is the interweaving of heart, personal story, analogy + big AHA! moments. I like to call him the Malcolm Gladwell of the heart. This is no different.

Plus, there’s a kind of magic of watching a video recording of a live training. There’s an aliveness to it. It’s actually my favourite type of course to learn from.

(Just as an FYI as well: We have hired a professional video team for our upcoming 2 day Canberra Shining Retreat and will be releasing the full seminar videos to our Academy members. This is the kind of stuff that others sell for thousands of $$$$ – we’re just giving it our peeps, as always, to spoil + delight them. We pour all our energy into making the Academy the best, deepest + most amazing value resource out there. Hooray!)

(I gently suggested highly recommended forced him to use this photograph for the course because this is the regular view of Grant. Throwing back his head laughing. Our team consequently spends a lot of time looking at his neck and chin on Skype.)

Here’s what Grant says about “Discover Your Life’s Wisdom”:

It is so easy to discount what we know, what we’ve learned, the ways that our experience has taught us.

This is how we grow and discover our very own life wisdom. And we need this wisdom to take our next steps. Capturing and integrating these experiences into our current thought processes allows us to become our own teachers, letting the lessons of our life fuel our progress.

You’ll receive the course video + handout PDF to help you mine the wisdom of your own life’s wisdom.

If you’re an Academy member, tune in here!
Not an Academy member… yet?

There are many investments you can make in your business.

I get that. I know there’s a million different directions your cash can be pulled. I can guarantee though – if you turn up and make use of the Academy + its mastermind, it’s going to give you the BEST return on investment possible.

Each month, because of the Academy, you’ll be:

growing your business profit with our fast growth tactics
building your social media reach like a pro
turning them into buying customers + raving fans (making you THOUSANDS UPON THOUSANDS)
brainstorming with other Academy members – essential advice on how to do your business better, in ways you haven’t thought of before!
getting advice from our panel of experts (saving you cash on having to buy extra advice or programs!)
saving you valuable time searching around the whole damn interwebs for an answer and hoping it’s the right one
learning from $10,000 (and counting!) worth of training materials!
finding other members to meet up with face to face to mastermind with (MEET + GROW RICH, BABY!)
implementing our success habits + mindset to get you the BIGGEST impact with the LEAST amount of hours + tears
jumping on our monthly coaching calls to get hotseat advice (worth THOUSANDS – I usually charge $1k an hour for coaching!)
finding out the very latest business tactics and tips that are getting people RESULTS in their businesses
getting access to an incredible community of women you can work with, brainstorm with and get referrals from
getting advice on the exact right software situation for your biz needs (saving you HUNDREDS!)

all the love we can pile on you.

Let’s go, lovely. It’s time to make those dreams of yours come TRUE.

Join the Academy now!

All my love,

Attention All Workbookers! Your Guide To How To Start And Run A Workbook Group is hereeeee!

Hola gorgeous ones,

Goal setting + accomplishing your biggest hopes and dreams isn’t always an easy feat. Life gets in the way. You get sick, work gets hectic, unexpected expenses come up.

It’s just SO easy to put those goals on the back burner and well, give up. Been there, done that.

We all need + deserve support.

Sometimes we don’t get that support from the places we expect it the most and some of the most common + active posts in the 2016 Create Your Shining Year Workbookers group are those looking for meet-ups, masterminds and other like minded peeps in their area (or online!) for accountability + other support.

So we decided to create a fabulous, free guide to help you create your own workbook group!

It’s a free guide for all our Academy members + workbook users!

To download yours, head to your 2016 workbook download area, find the Workbook Group Guide lesson and download it now!

Why Create A Workbook Group?

I look back at my own career + journey and know that it is only through being a part of dedicated groups like these are how I have achieved the amount of joy, abundance + success that I have.

Masterminds using principles like those found in the workbooks have been used for centuries by some of the world’s leading minds and entrepreneurs (including Albert Einstein, Richard Branson + Andrew Carnegie) to supercharge goals.

Creating a face-to-face workbook group means you :

manifest your dreams faster
get accountability, accountability, accountability!
brainstorming + masterminding
stay on track
it’s totes FUN!

There are many blessings and lessons that come with leading a group.

It will supercharge your growth + really help you learn how to be sovereign, maintain boundaries + guide energy in the right direction and I honour you for the brilliant, brave leap are looking to undertake. I love a woman who takes the reins + does what it takes!

In this Guide to Starting + Running A Workbook Group you’ll learn:

why it’s incredibly useful to have a local workbook group 
where you should run them
how to find people for your workbook group
if you can charge for workbook groups
how to run them so they are effective + powerful for everyone.
and more!

Join the Academy OR purchase a 2016 Shining Year Business or Life Workbook and gain access to this guide now!

These workbooks are magical.

They bring people together and bring a massive amount of joy, abundance + success.  Many miracles have been made from using them.

Grab your 2016 workbooks + snag your How To Start & Run A Workbook Group Guide now!

How excitlement!

Lots of love,

Leonie

P.S. Just as an FYI: our stocks are starting to run low on 2016 Shining Year workbooks.

We definitely won’t have printed supplies for much longer. If you’re keen to get yours, do it now, love. I wouldn’t want you to miss out on this opportunity to craft a beautiful life or biz for yourself this year. We’ve only got one gorgeous life to live… might as well live it in full colour. ORDER YOURS NOW.

P.P.S. And FYI – it’s not too late to begin! Planning doesn’t need to be done in the first week of January in order to happen. It’s not like you get a week to do it, and if you don’t, you miss out on making your dreams come true for another whole year. That’s a self-limiting mindset… one that you should kick in the balls el pronto!

The most important thing is that you step up, invest + make your dreams happen!

ORDER YOURS TODAY

Holy Adorable! Workbook Unboxing Videos From Around The Web!

Hola gorgeous ones!

SO super cute…

There have been SO many unboxing videos of the 2016 workbooks and diary-planners springing up all over the web!

If you haven’t grabbed the workbooks or diary yet, check out the videos to see what it’s like to get one of those boxes of love in the mail!

SUPER CUTE!

I know there’s a bunch of them there… but holy guacamole, these kittens are excitable!

I loves it!

Big love,

P.S. It’s only too late to do 2016 planning if you… (drum roll…)

DON’T

.

ACTUALLY

.

DO

.

IT

!

People who plan out their goals are more likely to:

increase their income
deepen their relationships
achieve their career goals
feel a sense of achievement, success and happiness.

Join our worldwide group of goal-getters now.

My 2016 Word of the Year Painting!

Hi lovelies,

This year as I was filling out the workbooks I decided I wanted to do one of the extension activities in it…

to make an artwork for my Word of the Year.

I’ve done this before a couple of times before when I’ve been called.

2009: Faith artwork

“Faith” was my word of the year in 2009. Me & Sone (who, co-incidentally enough our new Operations Manager) did our paintings together. A year later, I gave birth to a little girl who we named Ostara Faith.

I created this as a multi-media artwork.

I took a long thin canvas, glued a bunch of tissue paper and fabric on it to give it texture. I then painted it with acrylic paints, added a bunch of stamping and gold stickers, and tore out gold leaf-esque paper to form the letters for “Faith.”

It now hangs in my daughter’s room, which makes me smile.

2012: FUN! artwork

In 2012, my word of the year was FUN and I made a big Eric-Carle esque painting to put above the kitchen sink to remind me.

I had a piece of old board that I’d found (under the 100+ year old house we had bought from my grandmother). I painted it roughly with white paint so some of the texture showed through. Then I cut out the letters from paper I had painted with different colours.

2015: Thrive artwork

This year I decided to do another painting to hang in my office. It’s so helpful to have a big painting to remind me of my word of the year.

My word for the year this year is THRIVE.

It was also my year for 2015, and I feel like my journey with it is not over yet.

I’ve learned a lot about thriving, and I want to settle more deeply into it.

Now we are settled in Canberra, my deepest intention is for me and all members of my lil family to be thriving.

How I made it!

I decided I wanted to make a mixed media artwork with a photograph as a base.

I thought about some photographs I had, and thought about how this photo Chris took of me a few years ago felt like a really beautiful embodiment of “THRIVE”.

Here’s the original photograph:

I knew I would print it in black and white, so I opened it Adobe Photoshop, and converted it to black and white and played around with the contrasts until it looked great in black and white. I also cropped it to centre better.

I ordered it as an engineering print from Officeworks – they call them the more generic “black and white posters” there. It was only about $8 for a big A1 sized print.

It ended up looking like this:

Then I used some Sennelier Shellac ink in a couple of blue tones to wash the background in with a wide brush and plenty of water.

I flicked on some less watered down ink, and held the paper up to let the excess painting dribble down the painting.

Once it was dry I used acrylic paint to hand letter my word of the year on it.

It now hangs in my office next to my favourite birthday gift from last year:

the pink unicorn head that whinnies and makes sparkly noises when you walk past it. HAHAHAHA!

(I bought it for $15 from Kmart. BEST.DOLLARS.SPENT.EVER.)

“Pinky Sparkly Unicorn” (as Ostara calls him) is wearing around his neck a silk khata – a ceremonial scarf blessed by monks that Sone was given when she was trekking in Tibet. She gifted it on to me for my birthday and it made me tear up.

Anywaysies… I’m thrilled with how it turned out.

And while Chris was taking photos of me in the studio, I got him to photograph me at my desk as well.

There’s artwork in there by: me, Lori Portka, Tangerine Meg, SARK, Janet Lloyd, Suzy Toronto, and Michelle Andrews.

Obviously, I love quite a lot of colour surrounding me as I work!

I’m excited too… as a reward for myself for meeting our revenue goals this year, I’ve just ordered a treadmill desk. I will report back in and let you know how it goes!

Hope this has inspired you to keep diving into your Shining Year workbooks, coming up with your own theme for the year and maybe even making your own artwork as a celebration and reminder of your theme!

I’m inspired to do more large-scale paintings this year... I’ve done hundreds of pieces of small artworks in the past few years… it would be lovely to get back into some bigger acrylic paintings as a “just for fun, just for me” creative side project. I do love a good creative side project… it keeps me inspired and invigorated!

Lots of love from my creative heart to yours,

Leonie

xoxoxo

P.S. Just as an FYI: our stocks are starting to run low on 2016 Shining Year workbooks. We definitely won’t have printed supplies for much longer. If you’re keen to get yours, do it now, love. I wouldn’t want you to miss out on this opportunity to craft a beautiful life or biz for yourself this year. We’ve only got one gorgeous life to live… might as well live it in full colour. ORDER YOURS NOW.