going downstream with an upstream business - the value of being ourselves part II

It wasn't that long ago, of course I think in evolutions and age myself in dog years now, that I sold things from mall carts because there was no place of commerce called the internet.

(there was an internet of course, but people didn't trust it so much for shopping in those days)

I had to build my business to appeal to the local customer. This is what business makers had been doing for generations.

If I wanted to focus my business on what I wanted to do I had to plant my business in a place the thing I wanted to do was needed.

Or I could try to figure out what was needed in the place I wanted to plant my business (ie the local mall) and focus my business on that.

I couldn't just decide what I wanted to do and do it wherever I wanted to do it - I had to work upstream with an upstream business.

We live in a very different world now.

(although it looks like the internet created this change, what really happened is we changed and the internet was created by us to support our new way of being - this is why we really need to defend what we have created here - if you haven't educated yourself on net neutrality, please do so and take some action to support it)

The stuff I sold from my mall carts had a very broad appeal. It had to. I had to appeal to as many people who came into that mall as possible or I wouldn't stay in business.

This mindset is the reason so many people in business before the internet have so much trouble translating their success to an online business. With 60% of U.S. sales anticipated to involve the internet by 2017 we all need to figure this thing out.

I have a friend who owns a local music store selling musical instruments and supplies. He has been in business for decades and was smart enough to see the internet as a great opportunity. He got in early and set up a website.

It pretty much looked like a one dimensional version of his music store.

This seemed like a good idea at the time (the aisles in his store became sections in his website - he even had pictures of his retail store on his front page) because we really couldn't see how this was all going to work yet.

Of course what happened is his website never took off. Yes, millions of people were buying online, but they weren't buying from him (most of the money made from local stores going online without a doubt went to web designers).

His physical store sales plummeted. Yes, customers still came in to pick the brains of his seasoned staff, but then they went online (and to the big box stores), with its price comparison and Amazon free shipping.

The very internet that was supposed to open up his little business to the world destroyed his retail sales platform because he was selling the same thing everyone else was.

Now he is a very savvy and smart business man and switched his retail sales business model to a service model - he now makes most of his money on music lessons and has become the go-to local place for this. He was able to go downstream and do what we loves in an upstream business.

This works for him because he is a musician and loves music - if he had been just a guy who opened a music store because he saw his town needed a music store he would have been in a whole lot of trouble. Those guys are dead in the water now.

There is not a Happily Ever After ending to this tale however

(and if he really thought it through he wouldn't really want there to be, we came to this planet for contrast and growth after all - the end is never really the end).

His service business model is exhausting. His sales staff do not easily transition to teachers. Some are excellent, some not so much. He is now trading hours for dollars. Even in his little upscale community parents will only pay so much per hour for lessons. Other music stores are making similar transitions. There is more competition all the time. He still has a store filled with musical merchandise and a website that looks like his store. He is swimming in brand new waters.

(and so are we)

Next part III - loosening our grip

why we have to know we're awesome to sell online - the value of being ourselves part I

 

The challenge with integrating our spiritual life and our business is that in order to be fully ourselves we have to stop catering ourselves to an audience, and of course, our customers are kind of an audience.

They don't eat popcorn and we don't tell them to silence their cell phones

(well, maybe they do eat popcorn - I hope not with any of that fake butter though)

but we are in business to trade value with them - the stuff we make for that stuff in their wallet; the stuff that got into their wallet when they traded their value for the stuff in somebody's else's wallet. We are all in this together after all.

Since Business 101 taught us to figure out our customer, get inside her head - who is she? what does she look like? what does she want?, then cater to that - this is all good solid advice, until it isn't anymore and the truth is - this way of thinking has always made artists a little itchy.

Maybe we quit our day job to fire our boss and now we have dozens of bosses (we call them customers or clients these days) and instead of working for a paycheck we are working for the possibility of a paycheck. We really need to know what the hell we are doing here.

I have had a couple businesses before this one and before that I was in banking. I have made many mistakes over the years, but the one thing I have done right (and this is totally because of the Course in Miracles and my spiritual practice) is this:

I have always seen myself as the primary value in my business or my job. Not the stuff I make, not the stuff I do - because I know these forms can and will change - I know the value is really me.

I know from past experience that when one business winds down I can make another one because I have done it before. Seeing ourselves as the primary value we have to offer the world rather than our makings being the primary value is an important distinction. This works the same way when we have a job.

I have many friends who sell online who are selling less and less because the marketplace is more and more crowded (and other reasons, but this is one of them). They are a little panicky. Many people have turned to teaching and coaching and this in itself is OK and a good thing really - we all teach what we need to learn after all, that's how life works - but the coaching business online is starting to look like a giant pyramid scheme (which is not in any way sustainable) with coaches just coaching people to be coaches! 

(I have to do a post on the proliferation of online coaching and the asteroid/minor planet Chiron - the wounded healer- soon)

So what is the answer here?

We always have to know our ability to make money is in our own hands.

It isn't in our customers' hands or our boss's hands - the money looks like it comes through our customer or through our paycheck. It comes from the Universe (God/Higher Self - we should pick our most comfortable word here because we really need to get this and hold it in a place we vibrate with) - the money comes from Source.

It is like air. We breathe it in. We breathe it out.

The more we try to hold on to money the more it runs through our fingers - and in fact if money is running through your fingers right now, loosen your grip! Spend a little more. Trust that life has got your back!

Some experts advise us to play out worst case scenarios with our fears - they tell us to think of the worst possible thing that could happen if we lose our job or our business and this is supposed to make us see how preposterous our fears are so we can release them -

the problem is that all of us have past life experiences where the worst possible things that could happen to us really did happen to us (and if you don't resonate with past lives, think of your familial ancestry here) and part of us knows this.

How freeing would it be to really absorb into the very DNA of our business that we just have to be who we truly are and trust that the universe will deliver to us exactly the people who will benefit from us and our work and that is exactly what will happen.

(this does not mean we will make a lot of money - it does however guarantee to make us rich)

Part II next week - going downstream with an upstream business

Have a nice weekend everyone - I had a stressful week and it is now 70 degrees and sunny so I plan to be meditating (ie gardening) in the sun as much as possible for the next two days. I had a terrible Vitamin D reading of 16 (!) recently and have decided sun (and supplements) are my friend right now. I will try to do another auto-immune thyroid/hormone post next week. Would love to hear what anyone else is doing.

Also Venus is moving into Aries May 2nd - so this is a great time for us to take any action that brings beauty and love into our world. Will write about that next time!

New Moon in Taurus April 29th - Solar Eclipse!

Tomorrow's New Moon in Taurus is a solar eclipse!

In olden days solar eclipses scared the hell out of everyone and we still carry a little of that in our DNA I'm sure.

This one has the energy of the Cardinal Grand Cross, so even though a new moon is a time in the dark, a beginning that doesn't always feel like a beginning until later, this one has an extra kick behind it.

People don't always understand Taurus. It is like she is so simple, and these times we live in so complicated, we have made her complicated, too. She isn't.

Taurus is all about the Earth - she is everything grounded.

Taurus is all about sensuality - the touch that feels like love.

Ruled by Venus she coaxes us back into our bodies at the end of a long day with a hot bath, she urges our hands to pick up those tomato plants at the market and get them into the ground, she is the voice that whispers I love you when we stroke the baby's ear with our lips.

Taurus rules our 2nd house of values - everything money can buy and everything money can't buy. 

We have the sun and the moon in Taurus today and this is the time to ask ourselves "what do we really value?"

This new moon in Taurus is an excellent time to begin a grounding practice, make affirmations and set intentions about:

Money, Contentment, Patience, Self-worth, Releasing Stubbornness, Health Issues regarding your neck, throat and voice in the world

Some I will be working with include:

1. I live in comfortable and enriching surroundings
2. I easily find the time to shop for, prepare and eat nutritious and delicious meals
3. I enjoy and appreciate my life!
4. I slow down and enjoy doing each task with thoroughness
5. The habit of trying to rush results is easily lifted from me
6. I embrace constructive change
7. My neck and thyroid enjoy perfect health
 and then some money affirmations.

 (astrologer Jan Spiller calls them wishes and says to work with 10 at every new moon)

AFFIRMATION TIPS: get into a happy frame of mind - always make affirmations from a  positive place - write your affirmations down by hand in script, speak them out loud - I write my affirmations on strips of paper and burn them, releasing the ashes into moving water - then release your attention from these things knowing that your intention is known. Know these things are already yours.

Also remember affirmations are action -  they set the energy in motion and we are literally creating the affirmation within the energy that is needed to manifest it. 

Words are not just words. If done properly, in the right frame of mind, they line us up energetically with the thing we are seeking.

I started my money work when the sun entered Taurus and have had a few surprises - two unexpected checks in the mail, hubs won the lottery (each win under $10 and growing steadily - he is addicted) four times and

<--- I received this from the girl at my local bank sandwiched between two check registers.

I found it in my bag the next day, briefly considered a quick trip to the bank at midnight with a flashlight - but since I value my freedom more than the bank's loot -

I accept it as a clear signal the cosmic loot is ready to be picked up!

The new moon in Taurus always makes me think about stewardship - the responsible care we take of ourselves, our families, our businesses, our planet - this one feels like an excellent time to do some restful things and just be actually.

Taurus always desires peace, so bringing some symbol of peace into your life right now is very powerful.

(think about what symbolizes peace to you - and get yourself some of that! for me it is a garden, so I grabbed some pics from Pinterest and am getting my supplies this week to start a new one just for cutting flowers; a garden I can watch from my studio window while I work)

Stuff is springing to life all around us now - we show the universe what we value by what we give our attention to - where is your attention today?

xo all

First 10 Goddess Charts Are Out!

I have 14 charts going out this week. 10 I am emailing tonight and the final three by mid-week - we have a new moon Tuesday so I will blog that first.

I will post a little bit from each chart (no names ever, of course) at the end of the week, probably with a link here and the full shebang on the new site. I will still be posting my usual stuff here even if just with a link to the new site until the end of the year- so no worries about missing anything.

I hope I haven't missed anyone, if you don't hear from me by Thursday, don't hesitate to knock me over the head with an email with your info and I will get it done. My gmail account is a bit hard to keep up with at times. A big thanks to all the victims volunteers.

The Goddesses may not seem as important as some natal chart aspects but I have found mine very helpful and  maybe others will, too!

xo all

Asteroid Goddess reports almost done .... first, a little background ....

So, what I am about to do here is a pretty large astrological no-no. Taking celestial bodies like asteroids outside the context of the larger natal (birth) chart is rather treacherous territory.

It is like gathering the spices that have gone into a delicious meal and discussing what was eaten without knowing the meats, fruits and vegetables those spices flavored.

But I am going to plow ahead anyway.

If you were one of the volunteers gracious enough to offer up your birth information and something just doesn't resonate with what I write for you

(and you are over 40 or so, before 40ish these may be archetypes you just haven't met up with yet)

- it could be the spices in your chart are not heavily accented enough without the other ingredients to make total sense to you.

Be assured their energy lives inside you and is playing a part in whatever magic you are unfolding.

The asteroids are a belt of celestial bodies found mostly between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter that were discovered in the 1800's. The first 4 were quickly named after the famous Goddesses - Ceres, Pallas (Athene, Athena), Juno and Vesta. 

In mythology Vesta, Ceres and Juno were the 3 sisters of Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto - all born from the union of Saturn and Rhea. Pallas (Athene, Athena) was Jupiter's favorite daughter (conceived without a mother and birthed from his head - the father's daughter archetype).

Our belief within astrology is that celestial bodies are discovered when our actions on Earth have readied us for them - when our vibration is a match for theirs. 

For example Uranus the planet of freedom and rebellion was discovered in 1781 when we had just experienced the American and French revolutions. Neptune was discovered in 1846 amid the spiritualism and transcendentalist movements. 

(We now have Neptune in Pisces until 2025 - he is a slowpoke that Neptune. Neptune is known as the planet of illusions, dreams and fantasy. It is energetically responsible for the manifestation of the creative imagination. That dreamy creativity, spiritual questioning and yearning to connect with the big picture we are all feeling - yup, that's Neptune moving through Pisces. So we have the potential for mass awakening and also mass delusion with this one. With Neptune everything is not as it appears. 

The collective consciousness, or unconsciousness as the case may be, is more readily accessible now and with Neptune traveling through Pisces life is even more confusing as the veils between the realms of experience become thinner and easier to traverse.

I have Neptune in my first house of self in my birth chart and he started his solid trek into Pisces just a couple weeks after David - my husband's brother with schizophrenia - moved into our house; much of my blog in 2012 is about this experience and all of it is influenced by him. 

I really didn't see them coming - Neptune the planet or Neptune the person. I had always felt more attuned to the positive side of Neptune; his creativity and intuition although I have always sensed the burdens of his challenges - lack of personal boundaries, need for recognition, addiction and escape, lack of focus and motivation, depression. When Neptune moved into Pisces and my extra bedroom the ground beneath my feet seemed to disappear. Two years later I still find myself dangling 50 feet above the planet at times. This little guy should be taken seriously.)

In 1930 with the sighting of Pluto (once a planet now an asteroid, although still a planet in astrology), we had the mass transformation that Pluto is known for - awakening our sense of a collected welfare after war and genocide.

Before the asteroid sightings the only significant feminine energy in traditional astrology chart making was the Moon and Venus. We had the socially acceptable female roles of Moon (mother) and Venus (lover/mate). These asteroids represent the new voices of the dormant feminine recently activated and stepping into their power.

This isn't about women, we all have feminine and masculine energy in our charts (you can think of this as right brain, left brain stuff if it feels more comfortable). Men used to project their feminine qualities of emotional responses other than anger, nurturing and sensitivity onto women. Now they are required to own and develop these qualities within themselves. We are all in this together.

A little info about the asteroid Goddesses we will be working with. 

Ceres is the nurturer and mother archetype of our group. Known to the Greeks as Demeter

(which is btw the fragrance company I have partnered with for my new patent pending lockets HERE which are available now and launching at the trade shows this summer!)

she rules agriculture and nourishment and works tirelessly to bring forth new life and to sustain us. I could write 10 blog posts about her but if you are unfamiliar with the story of Ceres, her daughter and Pluto, there is enough HERE.

Pallas (Athene, Athena) is the Goddess of wisdom and crafts and warfare (and all you makers out there will understand the connections between these 3 realms easily!). She represents coming of age, exploration, education, the daughter role, the maiden part of our journey, our ability to defend our territory and grow to independence. Some of her story is HERE.

Juno known to the Greeks as Hera is the Goddess of marriage and relationship. Her story is HERE. Her placement in the sky when we were born affects how we handle intimacy and relationship with those we love. Do we honor our partners or do we struggle to stay committed? Juno encourages the "for better or worse" stuff. She brings the wisdom that conscious relationship is a path to spiritual enlightenment. 

Vesta aka Hestia is the sister, virgin archetype (this is the original definition of virgin before the sex stuff was thrown in to trap us - the definition of virgin as a 'free woman') associated with the relationship we have with ourselves.

So, I am going to work your natal charts (if anyone would still like to get involved just email me by Friday with your birth date, time and place) using the Goddess asteroid placements at the moment of your birth and see what we come up with. I will post a bit of each (no real names will be mentioned of course) and email each victim volunteer the full scoop.

A heads up that I will be moving my astrology posts to the Armchair Astrologer at some point soon. As a friend said to me, "you might not want a jewelry customer thinking they had wandered into a seance" - HA, she cracked me up.

Funny story about that new site - I registered the name armchair astrologer a year or so ago meaning to transition my astrology hobby stuff over there. Last Friday afternoon in a wave of "let me finally get my ass moving on this" energy - it was this or my messy closets -  I finally started setting up the site. 

I spent about 8 hours getting everything as you see it (still have to add content). On Saturday night I decide to hit PUBLISH so I could see how it looks on different browsers. I wait an hour, type in armchairastrologer.com - nothing. I decide to go to bed, thinking maybe this takes a while. Sunday morning I get up, type in armchairastrologer.com - still nothing. I return to Godaddy and it says it is published. I'm thinking what the heck (and yes I was thinking what the HECK, it was Easter after all)  - then I realize I have not set up a site called armchairastrologer.com, in fact I don't even own the name armchairastrologer.com - I own and set up a site called arcmchairastrologer.com.

I have a little mini coronary - which means of course I grab Olive and some Easter candy and do some deep breathing in between the mouth fulls of chocolate.

I return to Godaddy and by some miracle the name armchair astrologer is still available - then I call Godaddy and by an even bigger miracle I reach a real live person at 9am on Easter morning and am able to transfer the site over in 2 clicks. So, I love Godaddy now, even though I still hate their name and those stupid commercials.

xo all