Here´s the last photo from the 10th Annual Chili Cookout on Saturday night where we raised $2,300 for kids in the dump in the Puerto Vallarta area. Dana was the organizer of our booth. Some of you may recognize the wig – I wore it to the Mardi Gras party in February and won the sexiest costume.

Dana is a real character. He and his wife have been living here for a number of years and are originally from England. They were selling real estate and have now invested in an organic farm. Hence the name of our booth – Orgasmic Organic Chili!

While we served up chili and laughed with the customers, Dana was reeling them in with his outrageous costume while Alison, his wife was educating people on their farm, organics and their tree planting project.

It was an interesting combination – philanthrophy combined with business mixed with a whole lot of fun. I don´t think anybody was having more fun than Dana and all of us girls were pretty jealous of those hot legs!

But it once again made me realize that we often think of philanthrophy as serious business – we´re saving the world. Business is serious because there is money to be made, deals to be signed, joint ventures to be created, and bills to be paid. Then if there´s any time or energy left over, we have some fun.

I believe we can combine it all. Making our contribution, making money AND having fun. Saturday night was proof of it! I create my amazing life to combine all three and it´s working out well. And as I live it every day traveling the world and living my life as the Sunshine Gypsy, it is confirming to me and to my readers that it is possible. It´s possible for me and it´s certainly possible for you.

Commit to the fabulous trio of more freedom, less stress and more fun in your life and start creating your life with the possibility that anything is possible.

Yesterday´s post clearly stated that life is risky…period. However, there are ways to calculate risks. You actually already do it. You just may not be aware of it.

For example, today a snake came into my living room here in Sedona. I don´t like snakes and there was a moments panic as this bright orange snake slithered under a speaker sitting on the floor. I ran for the kitchen garbage can and placed it over the speaker, trapping the snake.

I then went to find someone to remove the snake for me. A painter working in the complex offered to come in and help me out. A risk? Absolutely! A strange man I don´t know coming into my home where I live alone. That´s a risk. However, for me, I very quickly calculated the risk of dealing with the snake alone or asking for help and assuming those risks. The snake was removed by Gentleman X. I was unharmed.

You make similar decisions daily. We base those decisions on what is important to us. For me, getting the snake out of the house WITHOUT me having to touch it was the most important thing. For someone else, their personal safety would have been paramount.

The next time you make a decision, which should be within the next 60 minutes, notice why you made the decision you do. Was it based on what was important to you? Very likely yes.

You may decide to keep your business small and risk not growing because you don´t want to risk the time you desire for your children. You may stay in the community you don´t like because for you, it is more important that you be secure and in your comfort zone than for you to risk travelling or moving somewhere that you don´t know.

Calculating risks is usually done based on our values and what is important to us. It´s why I can think, “why not” to an opportunity while someone else will say, “absolutely no”. Being more aware of why you make decisions and take certain risks and not others will help you create your amazing life.

This weekend on a Beach Boys cruise that we did to a couple of remote beaches, we saw entrepreneurs who were creative and successful. This is a picture of Greg with a pet iguana. We paid the equivalent of $5 to have 3 pictures taken of Greg with the iguana. Considering that the owner didn´t pay for the iguana and the iguana eats vegetables and flowers, a few tourists paying the entrepreneurial owner $5 for a couple of pictures gives him a great income.

At the restaurant where we had lunch, there were several women who had baked beautiful home-made pies. At $2.50 a slice, they went like hot cakes and boy they were delicious. Hard work, focus on a speciality and the courage to get out and sell their wares gave those women an upper hand in the community.

At the last beach, we rented horses and went up to a waterfall in the jungle. We paid $15 each for the horses. Approximately 20 of us chose to rent instead of make the hike on foot. $300 income for a couple of hours work in this small community goes a long ways.

What we saw this weekend was creativity, hard work and a commitment to their business. Nobody was sitting around hoping that we would find them. They came to us. They sold us. They did what it took to make their business succeed.

What about you? It´s easy to say that it´s not working for you, or times have changed and it´s hard. But are you doing whatever it takes to make it work? Are you being creative and thinking outside the box or are you doing your business like you´ve always done it?

You may not need to find an iguana to put on people´s heads but you may need to get outside of your own head and limitations and see what you can come up with to increase your business.

It feels like someone turned on the heat here this week in Bucerias, Mexico. It´s been averaging around 95 degrees (Fahrenheit) or 35 degrees Celsius and the humidity has gone through the roof. I had forgotten since my days of living on the equator what it feels like to have this moustache of perspiration constantly on my upper lip. Even the pools are like bath water this week!

I´ve read some newsletters and posts lately about the effect the recession is having on entrepreneurs and their businesses. Business is down and sales have plummeted. I certainly haven´t experienced the downturn but as I have found ways to deal with the literal heat, here´s some ideas if you are feeling the heat of an economic downturn that I´m implementing as part of my safety net.

Get creative. What you were doing before may not be working now so you are going to have to get out of the box of how you may have always done your business. One of the things I will be offering this year is more group packages and teleclasses so people can do work with me without leaving their home and I can afford to offer attractive pricing for group work.

Expand your market. If your market has been local, can you go bigger? If your market has been only women, could men benefit from what you do? I certainly notice that more and more men are doing my healing work with me, buying my books and participating in events I have been speaking at. It´s great to see. What about you?

Grow your product base. If you have always done one on one coaching for example, can you write an ebook, do a home study program or offer a teleclass? All of those can be free or almost free to produce but could appeal to more people.

Ramp up your marketing. When everybody is cutting back and hiding in a place of fear, can you put yourself out there even more than before by writing articles, being a guest speaker on teleclasses, joining an online forum, networking more, or learning a new avenue of marketing. One of my projects this summer is to learn Pay Per Click (PPC) marketing.

It´s easy to slow down when the heat is on, to do less and relax more. It´s hard to be working on my laptop when I´m feeling hot and sticky. It´s way more fun to pour a Margarita earlier in the day and take it easy. However, that is not going to help me reach my goals. As I wind down the last 10 days here in Bucerias, yes I am playing a little more. But I have big plans for this year and next and I am still very focused on my goals.

So creativity, expanding my market and product base as I ramp up my marketing is the key to dealing with the heat. So is a midnight swim, some air conditioning and a ice cold beer!

For many entrepreneurs these days, running your own business can feel like walking a tightrope. How do you master doing it all? What risks do you take? How do you avoid becoming overwhelmed?

I realized in a conversation the other night that I have created a safety net for my life which very much includes my business. Here is what it looks like:

My faith in a Higher Power and my partnership with that Universal Power
The confidence I have in my god-given gifts, talents and abilities
The amazing support team that I have created around me which includes my dearest friends and life partner
The financial buffer that I have created with no debt

These four components weave together to form a very solid safety net for me. Let me explain.

As I talk about in my CD: Who Are You – Getting to Know the C.O.O. of Your Business , I believe that God is the C.E.O. in my life. I am the Chief Operating Officer. So I have a higher intelligence than me who I can go to for guidance, direction and support. That feels absolutely wonderful to not feel alone. I am in partnership with someone who is completely rooting for my success!

I also know myself well. The difference this has made in my life has revolutionized my self-esteem issues, taking my knowingness of self-worth through the roof.

All of you know the difference in how you feel about life when you feel good about yourself. Feel lousy and unworthy and you will walk around with the weight of the world on your shoulders. When you feel good about yourself, you walk with your head held high. This creates a vibration that makes you attractive and irresistible. People want to do business with you because you are confident and fun rather than depressed, worried or angry.

I also know what I do well and what I need to delegate based on my Sacred Gifts. Because I don´t live from a place of guilt about what I should or shouldn´t be doing in my business but rather what feels really good, then I feel confident that I don´t need to do things that I don´t like or are a struggle for me. Changes everything. Seriously!

Ask yourself: Do I feel confident that I can truly succeed in my business? If the answer is no, then there´s an important issue to work on.

An amazing support team is pivotal and crucial. If you are not building a support team, your business will also be stymied. You can´t grow without a team to help you along, support you and encourage you. I have a fabulous team that includes my web guru, Krista Garren, a formatter, a team that works on my Word Press projects (blogs), an amazing illustrator and a great recording/editing and duplicaton team for my CDs. Then my fulfillment house does a job that is absolutely fabulous in getting my products out to clients.

On top of a fabulous support team, my friends and partner Greg support me consistently. That means they also kick me in the butt when I need it but they never admonish me to play safe or small but rather large and magnificent.

Ask yourself: Do I have a team around me as part of my safety net or am I going it alone? If you don´t have strong, spiritually healthy people around you, you will struggle. Guaranteed.

Money is the last part of my safety net. I have been broke so I know the panic and fear intimately that comes with wondering how you are going to pay the bills or make ends meet. There is a sickening dread each month and you don´t even want to think about retirement or the future. That doesn´t feel good as I am sure you are aware if you are in that situation.

So for me, having no debt and money in the bank is wonderful. Even both of my credit cards are secured credit cards so I truly have no debt even using a credit card. It simply frees up energy to focus on really wonderful things I want to manifest in my life rather than focusing on a budget with not enough money.

Ask yourself: Is the money/debt situation in my life sucking precious energy from me because of the worry and fear? If so, then put some energy into changing that situation.

Look at these four areas in your life and see if you can create a safety net in your business.

Knowing that I have this safety net constantly in place allows me to move forward with confidence just as a tight rope walker undoubtedly feels more confident with a safety net beneath them. Confidence is a good vibration which brings powerful results into your business.

Go create your safety net this month.

This post is my monthly newsletter to Spiritual Entrepreneurs. To receive the next one automatically in your inbox, please go to www.spiritualentrepreneurinfo.com

Tacos on the Street

One of the benefits of living abroad is the time freedom that comes with it. In many countries around the world, it is incredibly affordable to have part-time or full-time household help. That means that some of the chores that take up time in your life now can be delegated.

However, it means that you need to have things to do that will replace the menial chores. Sometimes, it can feel strange to have time on your hands while someone else dusts and mops floors. There can be a feeling of guilt that you can´t do it all or you don´t even want to do everything.

I am committed to delegating as much of the menial work as possible around the house. I also delegate lots of projects in my business to people who love what they do. This gives me time freedom to enjoy dinners out with friends, card games, time to read, suntan, go for walks or hang out with friends over drinks.

Above is a photo of a group of us who met at Tacos on the Street for great tacos, quesadillas, and tostados at a well-known local restaurant that is literally “on the street”. We all brought our own liquor to drink and glasses and Jorge provides the great food. The service is wonderful and the atmosphere is fun. It cost us a few dollars (literally!) Yet what precious time as we got to associate with friends on a Friday night.

It´s one thing to want to get rid of some of your work. However, what do you want to replace that time doing? You need to be clear about that or you may find yourself not delegating, feeling guilty when you do or wasting the time and then feeling angry with yourself. It is a new experience to have someone clean your house while you play cards. It is different to have time regularly to play when you aren´t used to it.

Make your list now what you want to do with the extra time you create by delegating tasks. You may be surprised at how hard it is to replace “work” with “fun” instead of “more work”. I know that I was. I actually had to learn to play and have fun!

However, of all the things I have had to get used to living abroad, it´s been one of the most fun to adjust to!

The other night Greg and I played our most favorite game, Parcheesi. I won 3 games in a row and was revelling in my victory. And I can revel when I am winning! Greg told me that it was the chair I was sitting in. It was a “lucky” chair and if we traded chairs, he said he would win the games. He told me there was an energy vortex that was affecting whoever sat in the “loser´s” chair. Laughing, we switched seats. Sure enough, he won the next three games hands down! He kept on telling me that it was the chair. There was a “winner´s” chair and a “loser´s” chair and I was now in the loser´s chair.

As I watched my winning streak come to an end, I actually began to believe him. Maybe there was something wrong with the energy in this particular chair. Perhaps I couldn´t win if I was sitting in it. As he reinforced this belief in me, I found the doubts starting to come into my head. I joked about it, I laughed it off, I had another glass of wine…but I kept on losing. And the more I lost, the more Greg reinforced the belief in me that I would not win sitting in the “loser´s” chair. There was that negative energy vortex that I simply could not control.

Of course, it was all in jest and we were having a good time, but I found it interesting how easily my mind took on the belief that something outside of myself was in control. Imagine, something as ridiculous as the chair that I sat on being responsible for me winning or losing a board game! It´s crazy. Of course it is. But maybe not….

Think about it. Isn´t it true that people do this all the time? It´s the corrupt government, the bad employer, the crooked employee, the lousy tax system, the economy, the recession, the weather, God or the Devil, just to name a few things, that are responsible for the mess. We´d love to blame someone else for buying on credit, not saving enough money or the downturn in business. Most people are looking for the scapegoat because that feels so much easier than just taking responsibility.

I won the last game of Parcheese that night…even sitting in the so-called wrong chair. I love that Greg pushed those buttons for me and helped me see how easily we can be convinced that it is external forces that govern our destiny, fortune or lack thereof. I know better. I know that I am 110% responsible for creating my life, the life I say I want. Playing Parcheesi was a great reminder.

This morning, without saying a word to us, Jeanette, my partner´s 97 year old mom found her way into the shower for the first time since they arrived on Monday with no cane, no bars in the shower to assist her nor a chair for her to sit on. She dealt with the idiocyncrasies of the Mexican water system, (which is not easy by any means) and then got herself dressed in a jumpsuit. (I can practically fall flat on my face trying to coordinate putting on a jumpsuit and I´m 50 years younger than her!) Jeanette came out for breakfast looking like it was absolutely nothing at all. As a matter of fact, her favorites words are: “Don´t worry about me. I´ll be fine.” I am writing this blog, while her and Greg are down at the pool swimming and suntanning.

I feel like a wimp in comparison. I thought I was gutsy but I have just been given a whole new definition of “suck it up Princess”. Perhaps this spunkiness is a natural by-product of having been born in 1911, having survived two world wars and a depression, not just a recession. Jeanette and her husband ran a very successful pharmacy in Yakima, Washington for years and know what working hard is all about. Nobody at that time expected to be an “overnight success” story. You didn´t expect life to be handed to you on a silver platter.

I know that every spiritual entrepeneur can think: “Why can´t I be the lucky one and make a million dollars too? Why can´t I have that run-away best-seller or the million dollar idea? I have lots of good things I want to do with the money. I´d help others. Why can´t I get the lucky break?”

As I have studied with and been mentored by some very, very wealthy people, I have noted one thing in common. ALL of them just did what it took to make it. They didn´t stop and say, “this is too hard”. They simply did whatever it took to succeed, despite the many failures. Did you know that Henry Ford was a failure at three businesses he attempted before finally succeeding with Ford Motor Company at the age of 53. Milton Hershey´s chocolate enterprise was his third business after failing twice.

It´s easy to assume when we see these large, successful companies or successful businesses that they did it relatively easily. It´s simply not true. They did what it took, they faced the challenges and they moved ahead. I think there´s lots to learn in our own businesses about just doing it without a whole lot of complaining, whining and martrydom. As you create your life, the one you say you want, just suck it up and do it. I´ll be living with a wonderful inspiration of exactly that for the next few months.

Early this morning, daylight savings took effect in North America. In Mexico, we´re a few weeks behind so I´m having to make some adjustments in my appointment calendar. I remember when I lived in Ecuador and Sixto, the President at the time, instituted a daylight savings plan for the country. This had never happened before and people were outraged that a man would dare interfere with God´s clock!

It was the funniest thing to have a discussion about “what time it really was”. People making appointments would clarify whether or not they were cooperating with “Sixto time”. Half the country complied, while others refused to change their clocks. I still remember the anarchy it caused in our appointment schedules. People were not willing to change what they believed was God-appointed timing and were feriously stubborn about this point. If the clock said 2:00 p.m., they felt that it just wasn´t right to say that it was now 3:00 p.m.! For us North Americans living in the country, we were accustomed to changing our clocks twice a year, and were bewildered at how a simple procedure practically caused a civil war.

One of the greatest challenges in life is our degree of flexibility. I am sure you have felt your stubbornness kick in on more than one occasion. Sometimes looking back, we can see that it was just stupid pride or foolish stubbornness. I can see in perfect hindsight where my lack of flexibility has caused problems in business and in relationships.

If you want to create a magical life that really flows, you will need to be flexible. Period. This is not open for discussion. I have never met someone who was inflexible who was also happy.

So a very simple question to ask yourself is: Five years from now will this decision be important? Usually, it won´t be. So give in. Be flexible. What difference does it make if right now it´s 1:00, 2:00 or 3:00? Adjust! Get over it! Lighten up!

You can be stubborn or you can be happy. They don´t go together, so decide what you want most in your life. Personally, I´d choose happy every time.