If you’re experiencing a struggle right now in your virtual business with the dolla dolla bills flowing in - there’s no freaking excuse. A restaurant, gym, brick and mortar, or event-based business, yes, they’re getting hit hard right now. 

But if you’ve got online biz, or even a portion of your biz online and you’re not bringing in money now when MORE people are online and doing business online than ever before....then, it’s both because of what you’re doing and more importantly, it’s because you’re not BEING the dang thing consistently. 

Questioning yourself. Doubting. Delaying on doing those things. Getting mired in the spiral of “productive procrastination” - doing all the things - except for those in your genius zone.

Your Genius Zone is a magical place.

It goes against every bit of plagiarized programming you’ve got. 

It’s easy.

It’s practically effortless.

So when you suddenly...

On the flight over to Australia, I got MY fill of Marvel movies. International flights used to be my jam. Strapped in a seat, I’d get so much work done. Laser focus, baby! That was before Declan. 

When we took our first trip overseas to Australia, that was a 16-hour lesson for me in surrendering to what was. Declan was one at the time. I was squished into the middle seat between Spike and a large Samoan man, holding my overly exhausted baby boy, who then proceeded to nurse...for the WHOLE flight. Yeah. That was rough. I learned to surrender the form of how I traveled and the expectation to be able to get ANYTHING done while on a plane with a child...other than taking care of my kid.

So for this flight, I had to 

Ex when you face your worst fear, the fear loses its power

Learn the lessons

SURRENDER THE FORM OF HOW YOU DO BUSINESS

This is why knowing your values is so critical because you can always pivot into a knee form when you know your purpose.

I didn’t...

Never before has there been more of a need to tap into your resilience.

This world right now requires GRIT.

The hunger to get back up again, to go back into the proverbial arena, and to show up boldly like never before.

People are looking for leaders. I don't care whether you have one person following you, 20 people in your group, or 20,000.

IT'S NOT ABOUT THE NUMBER, IT'S ABOUT WHAT YOU INSPIRE AND IGNITE WITHIN THOSE PEOPLE.

To paraphrase one of my awesome clients, Jessica McCann who wrote her thesis on resilience and grit, shared on my podcast, the life experience and training ground of strengthening your resilience muscle is waaaaaaay different than theorizing about it.

RESILIENCE TAKES YOU GETTING IN THERE DAY IN AND DAY OUT, USUALLY WHEN YOU REALLY DON'T WANT TO, BUT YOU DO IT BECAUSE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE WORKING TOWARD.

You know the payoff.

Maybe it's having that amazing body that you feel so confident in...so you get up and you go for that run or you do that virtual...

When I was a kid, I would have nightmares - horrible dreams that someone was chasing me with the intent to hurt me. After weeks of experiencing the same dream over, and over, my mom told me, “Turn and face it. Whatever it is that you’re running from, turn and face it?”

Maybe it’s grief.

Maybe it’s fear.

Maybe it’s anger.

Maybe it’s shame.

Maybe it’s guilt.

Maybe it’s a combination of all of them.

Your subconscious mind represses negative memories until it’s ready to process them. It does it because it loves you. It does it to keep you safe, to protect you. It does it because it loves you. 

In times of crisis, sometimes this repressed, hidden, shadow side comes out. It gets triggered. The sleeping giant awakens. 

You fear it’s too big. Too powerful. Too strong to face. 

You’re David and it feels like a mother-fucking behemoth, roided-out version of Goliath.

BUT YOU’RE STRONGER THAN THAT,...

Ever look back on an event in your life and see EXACTLY why that happened to you?

You see the lessons, the learning, the growth. Maybe you see how it shaped you as a human to be more compassionate or more ambitious or more organized. Maybe you look back on that thing with appreciation, or gratitude or just a deep satisfaction that you were strong enough and had the resilience to pull through, even when things looked their bleakest. Maybe you’re just fuckjng grateful you survived, because, there were times when you didn’t think you could...but you did. 

You’re here. Reading this. 

THE THING IS YOU DIDN’T HAVE ALL THAT KNOWLEDGE WHEN YOU WERE IN THE THICK OF IT. 

When you were in it, you didn’t know how it would turn out. You didn’t know you’d be okay, days or decades later. 

You did the best you could with the information and the resources you had at that time. 

Looking back now, from this new place of courage or...

In times of crisis, whether it's COVID-19 or the threat of another financial recession, what do you do with a problem?

It is in the face of chaos on and crisis that who you are, who you have been working on becoming comes to light.

This is when the rubber meets the road, sweetheart.

WHO DO YOU BE WHEN THE WORLD FEELS LIKE IT IS FALLING APART?

Who do you BE when fear smacks the world in the face with a two-by-four?

Coronavirus is one thing. Yes, it is contagious and there are fears when it comes to that. 

And, sure, you may have some fears about staying at home for a few weeks cooped up with the fam.

But, the financial impact of shutting businesses and schools down when 78% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck will hit...hard.

The fact that the stock markets just hit their largest dip worldwide since 1987. 

The fact that the Federal Reserve just 96 hours ago invested $1.5 Trillion dollars in short-term loans. (HINT: the last time they did that...it was 2008.)

THE FEAR OF A GLOBAL CRISIS IS ONLY BEGINNING. 

And, the mentors, experts, doctors and top-level investors that I...

In times of crisis, whether it’s COVID-19 or the looming financial crisis, where is joy? Where did that illustrious angel of vibrancy go? Did she disappear?

No. You just missed her. 

Joy is only found in the present moment, really being 100% fully in the present moment.

She is rarely found in the past for she is either tainted with “what could have been” or “what should have been” or “what would have been.”

And she is rarely found in the future, where Fear is a stakeholder in monopolizing your thoughts. 

No, joy is in the present. She lives and breathes there, praying that you will tap into her.

She’s in the whisper of the wind against your skin. She’s in the experience of your partner’s touch as he passes you. She’s is in the burrowing of the large bowling ball of your child’s head into your chest as he says “mama, cuddle me.”

Yes, joy lives in the moment - in being fully fucking in it,...

The creative process is a lot like eating shit.

How do I know? I've literally tried it. Obviously this was not an intentional thing...

Over a delicious Sunday breakfast of waffles and jam, I was sitting with my son on the couch, reading as we gloriously reveled in carby goodness - okay, I was the one doing the reveling. Declan was enjoying the usual.

He’s recently discovered textures - bumpy, sticky, gooey, rough, smooth, tickly. So, when it comes to food we’ll normally play a game if his hands are sticky with jam. He’ll hold out his hand with a whine, saying “dirty” and I’ll be the vacuum cleaner and gobble up his fingers. Cute, right? Right.

Until it’s not…

I missed the moment in our interchange - it was probably in my own moment of bliss, closing my eyes and savoring the sweet, figgy taste of waffles - when Declan stuck his fingers in his diaper.

It was him saying “dirty” and the whine that followed that jolted me...