Last weekend my assistant extraordinaire/business manager/we’re still coming up with the appropriate title, Kathleen, joined Mike and I in our hometown of Portland, ME for a weekend of business visioning, clarifying, goal setting, deliverable defining, and some good old down and dirty logistical planning.

A critical aspect of my business and life philosophy is that if it’s not fun, it’s not worth doing. So often we associate increasing our income, expanding our business, and even being of service with hard work and sacrificing having a good time for productivity.

I want to share a few key choices we made for the energy and agenda of the weekend so you get an example of what it looks like to mix business AND pleasure. These are the most important aspects that I think made our weekend meeting successful:

My mom and Kathleen enjoying a latte from a local coffee shop.

Ingredients for a Fun, Productive, and Meaningful Meeting

1. Eat well, and locally if possible. As soon as we picked Kathleen up from the airport we went straight to Pai Miyake, one of Portland’s best restaurants featuring delectable Japanese food, most of which is grown or raised locally 20 minutes away at the Miyake farm. A well fed body makes us more grounded and more highly functioning. And investing your money in local, organic agriculture is good for the planet. Win-win.

2. Get lots of sleep. We knew we had a limited amount of time together to go over TONS of ideas, projects, logistics, plans, and visions. And we also knew that if you’re tired, it doesn’t matter how many hours you have to work – the work just isn’t as good. I didn’t set my alarm either morning of our retreat and my ability to stay present and actively engaged the whole weekend was a direct result of being well-rested. I’ve been to plenty an event where the leaders wear you down emotionally by making you stay up well past midnight and those who leave to take care of themselves are not only frowned upon, but are often chastised. The “no pain, no gain” and pushing your physical limits to the point of exhaustion model has no place in my company. How you do it is what you get. The more ease, joy, pleasure, fun, and well-restedness that goes into a project, the better the results will be.

Getting ready to board the amphibious Downeast Duck Tour on a break.

2. Take breaks often. We had luxurious meals all weekend and took breaks for coffee, for a birthday party, and for the Downeast Duck Tour. We laughed, we chilled out, we played with adorable babies, we learned a ton about Portland, and we nourished our bodies, minds, and spirits. As a result when we were working we were super engaged and great ideas flowed. When you take good breaks you can get more done in half the time it would take you if you powered through all the time.

The results of our branding mind-meld.

3. Mind-meld starting with the assumption that every idea is a good one. In an effort to come up with a tagline that accurately answers the question “what do I do” we got a HUGE white board and started throwing out every descriptor we could think of when it comes to my brand. We gave one another the freedom to just shout things out. In the beginning stages of mind-melding or brainstorming, assume that every idea is a good one. You might say something really silly. But the act of articulating something silly may lead you to the best idea you’ve ever had that you may not have ever had if you hadn’t said the silly thing first. When you’re in mind-meld mode let yourself say ridiculous things. Let your editor go on a coffee break. Says something cockamamie. Lubricate the brainstorming process with unconditional acceptance and you’ll be amazed with the gems that are revealed.

We took a break on Casco Bay and toured the Portland Harbor.

4. Get outside. A very wise friend of mine once reminded me that if you can’t see the sky there’s no way that you can see possibilities for yourself. So when laying plans for expansion and business development, be sure you get outside to see the sky. When we’re out in nature we remember that everything is connected and that life itself is a miracle. When the energy starts to stall at your meeting, open the door and take a walk around the block. Take your shoes off and put your bare feet on the grass. Go searching for seals in the harbor. You’ll be reminded of the majesty of the universe, you’ll think bigger and better, and you’ll have better ideas.

5. Bounce.  You can take this one literally like Kathleen did (on the ball to the left) or you can take it metaphorically. Good ideas do not come from stagnation. They come from movement. Get out your yoga ball and bounce. Stand up and do a few hip circles. At the very least, wiggle your toes. And remember to remain in the open, playful state of bouncing. You’ll be more agile in your thoughts and therefore open to new ideas that wouldn’t have been possible if you stayed still.

6. Don’t take yourself too seriously. I know I’ve said it here before, but it bears repeating:

Anything work taking seriously is worth making fun of. 

That goes for your business just as much as for anything else in life. Find ways to make your meeting more fun. Bring gifts for everyone. Have a playlist and dance breaks. Have everyone start by introducing themselves and telling their favorite joke. Play soccer with a yoga ball. Watch silly YouTube videos. Your business will grow more if you have fun while building it and if you don’t take yourself too darn seriously. Trust me. This really works.

Kathleen posing by the beginnings of our brand brainstorm.

8. Dive deeply into the “why” before you begin to iron out the “what” or the “how.” This one is probably the most important of all. On the first morning of the weekend when Kathleen asked me about the bigger vision of my business and brand I immediately tapped into the “why” of what I’m doing and started getting teary. I told her that what I truly want is to have kids and be a really present mom. (Anyone who’s heard me talk about this live knows that it usually brings me to tears. That’s how I know it’s real.) I also told her that I want to not only be an example for a new model of present parenting that comes from financial freedom instead of stress, but that I want to give people actual steps to get there. I told her that I see myself as part of a movement of people having the freedom to choose to come home to what really matters to them. As I muddled through my last tear-filled thoughts I turned to Mike and asked him if he was on the same page. He nodded and told us that he wouldn’t be here if he didn’t want those same things. We spent the weekend filling in the gaps in terms of what we’re going to create and how we’re going to deliver it. But if we hadn’t started with that deep dive into the truth of what we’re really up to, the WHY, the entire weekend would have been wasted. Don’t bother asking yourself “how” or “what” until you know “why.”

Next time you’re planning a meeting, consciously find places to bring the nurturing, to bring the heart, to bring some giggles, to bring in movement, to get out in nature, to have a hell of a good time, and to remember why. Your sense of purpose and your bottom line will thank you.

I find that when I skip the digestion step of everything that’s happened, I get cranky. I forget my blessings, I start finding myself wrong, and things kind of go bland. But when I take the time to notice all the good (and some of the challenges, as well) that I’ve just experienced, life gets back to its usual sparkly sheen.

In no particular order, here are the significant things that happened in 2011:

• I got rid of most of my stuff and left my home in NYC and hit the road on The Freedom Tour. (34,000+ miles by car, 30,000+ by plane, over 60 beds, hundreds of hours spent looking out the car window)
• I fell in love.
• I started and ended a business partnership with grace and love.
• I ended another business partnership that was a little tougher to unravel with just as much grace and love.
• I learned to say no far more often and with far less angst.
• I bought my first car.
• I sold my first apartment.
• I reached a level of financial abundance and consciousness I’ve never achieved before. (This manifested as making, giving, and saving more money.)
• I explored what freedom is and is not to me.
• I spoke in 18 cities in North America to hundreds of different people.
• I spent time with people, like my aunt and uncle Penny and Phil and my Granny, who I haven’t ever spent as much quality time with.
• I got a book deal.
• I individuated from my mom financially, business-wise, and emotionally. We are both all the better for it.
• I realized how much open space there is in this country. Having lived on the tiny island of Manhattan for 6 years this awareness calmed me down in a way I found surprising and refreshing.
• I gave myself a demotion and stepped down as the CEO of Team Northrup so that I can now focus on running my own show instead of other people’s. I’m now the co-creator which feels much more expansive.
• I was invited to become a part of Hay House’s new Ignite initiative, which is focusing on attracting a new generation of authors, speakers, and audience members.
• I started and maintained a 6 days a week meditation practice.
• I started teaching yoga at Yoga Shanti.
• I received profound support from friends and family on The Freedom Tour as Mike and I traversed the country. Thank you to all of you. You know who you are.
• I made new friends.
• I got better at doing nothing.

Some things that didn’t go as well as I had thought they would:

• I thought The Freedom Tour would be better for building my Team Northrup business but given my lack of strategic planning around this and my burn out early on in the trip, it wasn’t. That’s okay. It was really amazing for a lot of other reasons.
• I wanted to document The Freedom Tour more. I had visions of daily videos, more pictures, more updates, and more transmitting my adventures to my readers. But instead, I enjoyed a lot of adventures and precious moments that went undocumented. And because I was there in the experience instead of capturing it for the future I suppose this is really a good thing.
• I wanted to do more connecting with people I didn’t know on my travels. I had visions of tweetups, donation yoga classes, and meeting people at coffee shops to talk about freedom. That kind of conversation only happened once and I wrote about it here. It was enlightening, but not exactly what I had imagined. It turns out I’m scared to talk to strangers and sometimes I have social anxiety. Another lesson in learning that sometimes it’s okay, and even necessary, to do less.
• During The Freedom Tour I didn’t take that great care of my body and I ended the year with about ten extra pounds on me. Ooops! A reminder to prioritize self-care in 2012.

Luckily, far outnumbering the things that didn’t turn out the way I thought they would were wonderful things I hadn’t even thought to think up (like falling in love and getting a book deal!) So, overall the year ended significantly on the upside.

Taking everything I learned from 2011, I spent some time focusing on how I’d like to create 2012. I still have some more refining to do (using some of the tools recommended below). But I’m sharing my 2012 creation plan with you now, even though it’s not complete, because the idea that I could create the perfect 2012 plan and control how the year goes is not only absurd, it’s also exhausting.

Here are my 2012 intentions/goals/desires/creations:

• Tighten up my brand to clarify and expand upon my message of financial consciousness as an inroad to spiritual and emotional freedom.
• Write my first book.
• Launch my 2012 Mentoring Program.
• Take a tropical vacation with Mike.
• Follow my inner compass as my default setting instead of checking outside myself to see if I’m ok.
• Launch two or more digital products.
• Rock the stage at the Hay House I Can Do It Ignite events.
• Increase my USANA business revenue by 100%.
• Spend more time alone and more time doing nothing.
• Get better at asking for what I need/want.
• Continue to say no more often and with more grace.
• Dance more.
• Intentionally align with organizations that uplift and serve women such as Women For Women International.
• Prioritize self-care.
• Create The Freedom Family. (More on this soon and NO, I’m not planning on getting pregnant this year.)

Tools for 2012 Creation

Something I’m adding to my planning of the year this year that I’ve never done before is assigning measurable goals to each intention and then tracking them through the year. This is inspired by Chris Guillebeau’s Annual Review. I’ll also be scheduling specific events, actions, and goals into my calendar and breaking them into action steps using my new Getting Things Done system a-la David Allen.

Lastly, as I’m going through my intentions/desires/goals for 2012 I’ll be creating a list of things that I’ll be delegating to the universe. For example, if my goal is to enroll twelve people in my mentoring program, I may write down that I’ll be personally responsible for attracting six of them, and I’ll ask the universe to attract the other six. This will act as a reminder to myself that I’m not responsible for everything, that synchronicity and magic abounds, and that there’s help for me (and you) available at all times if I’m simply willing to ask.

If you’re wanting to some guidance in your 2011 review and 2012 creation, I recommend the following resources:

• Creating Your Magical Year by Molly Mahar (Molly interviewed me about how I wrap up the year and plan out the next one and I gave her some juicy, honest answers including sharing the family New Year’s Eve ritual we started when I was six. Click the green and yellow button on the right to get access to it.)
• Marie Forleo’s Free Planning Tool To Set & Reach Your Business Goals
• Chris Guillebeau’s How to Conduct Your Own Annual Review

What were some of your best moments of 2011?

What did you learn last year?

What are you thrilled to announce that you’ll be creating in 2012?

What do you think about doing a year in review and planning out your year in general?

Leave a comment!

Tuckered out in Glacier National Park

I have a really big appetite for food, but even more so for life.

A day where I’m scheduled within minutes of my life is my idea of heaven. When I headed out on The Freedom Tour on February 2^nd this year, my eyes were wide, the road was open and the sky was big. My tummy was grumbling for some adventure and moderation simply wouldn’t do.

The Metrics of The Freedom Tour

Between February 2^nd and June 21^st I traveled 19,000 miles by car and another 11,000 miles by plane (plus 300 by boat.)  I visited 21 different states and provinces, slept in over 50 beds, taught 16 workshops, spoke to over 800 people, and attended 5 major conferences (SXSW, Summit Series, Reveal, Selling Your Soul, I Can Do It!, and the World Domination Summit.) I did this all while launching a new business partnership, ending another one, then ending the one I had just started, experimenting with being homeless, and falling in love.

After five months of going at this pace I felt full. The kind of full that makes you want to put on pants with an elastic waist band and talk about how you’re never going to eat again.

I landed in Maine at my childhood home in June feeling exhausted. I thought the summer would birth great creativity and production in the form of pages and pages of brilliant writing. I thought by this time I would have a sample chapter and outline for my first book.

But it turns out that when your eyes are bigger than your schedule, when your MO is to say yes to everything, and when you run your self more than a little ragged, what you need is sleep. And watching movies. And eating lunches that take three hours to finish And looking out at the ocean. And more sleep.

Promises, Promises, Promises

I sat with my dad over lunch the other day chatting about my blog. He’s one of my most dedicated readers, which simultaneously thrills and terrifies me. He told me that I need to be careful about what I promise to my readers because they (he) get disappointed when I don’t follow through on my promises.

Here are a few things I’ve promised over the past couple of months that I haven’t followed through on:

• Shooting daily videos (what was I thinking when I announced I was going to start doing that?!)
• A post of my pictures from the stunning drive up the Pacific Coast Highway from Laguna Beach, CA to Vancouver, BC (which was supposed to be for my dad)
• This post on “the most important question to ask yourself before embarking on any project” that I promised several weeks ago in this video (This one only half counts as not following through because I’m finally writing it. It’s just late.)
• Submitting a sample chapter and an outline of the book I’m currently gestating by the beginning of July (This one is still in process, just taking longer than I thought.)

I also have over 700 unread/unanswered emails in my inbox, some unreturned voicemails, and a few missed opportunities as a result.

Granted, I think my dad takes my promises on my blog more to heart than some of my other readers, but he brings up a really important point.

What are you promising that you’re not delivering on?

Our conversation made me pause. It made me feel sheepish. And it made me realize the single most important question to ask before embarking on any new project:

Is this sustainable?

When you’re birthing anything new there will be a period of time when you sometimes don’t shower until 6pm (if at all) and you eat takeout and don’t respond to emails. I get that AND I’m not making myself wrong for the way I’ve done The Freedom Tour up until this point.

In fact, one of my new favorite mantras is: “I am enough and I’m doing it right.”

Let that baby sink into your cells for a moment.

However, the way I started this whole adventure was completely unsustainable. I said yes to more than I could follow through on. I promised things I didn’t end up doing. I found myself way overextended. I got sick. I disappointed a few people (and thrilled some others.)

I’ve spent the past 6 weeks in Maine adoring life, adoring being in the house I was brought home to the day I was born, adoring being grounded, adoring not moving, and adoring a break.

It’s been goooooooood. It’s been beyond necessary.

The Freedom Tour 2.0

My man and I are packing up the Prius on Friday morning and heading out on the road again. We head West and will be in Scottsdale, AZ for September and October by way of Columbus, OH and Salt Lake City, UT.

The Freedom Tour continues but it is now The Freedom Tour 2.0. I now have a filtering question to ask myself when presented with any new opportunity so that I’m no longer giving a knee-jerk “yes!” I’m building in vacations. I’m being strategic about my workshops and speaking gigs. I’m standing for eight hours of sleep, no more than six hours a day in the car, meditation, and greens.

Whatever you’re cooking up right now, ask yourself: Is this sustainable?

If your answer is “no” but you’ve got an end point in mind, rock on. If there’s no end point, get one on the calendar. You can only go at full capacity for so long.

Creativity and production of great work is not a steady stream. It comes in fits and starts. Sometimes its fueled by an all-nighter. Sometimes it’s fueled by a double feature. Let your art flow the way it wants to flow. Just be sure to factor your promises, your health, your sanity, and your soul into the equation.

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The Freedom Tour is hitting the road again!

Come see me on Sunday, August 14^th!

Women & Wealth: The Truth About Money That No One Has Ever Told You

6:00 – 7:30pm

The Reiki Center, 1540 W. 5th Avenue
Columbus, Ohio 43212

This event is free, but we have limited space. Please email rsvp@teamorthrup.com to reserve your seat.