Last week, Eden and I announced that we are having our second child.

While we’re ecstatic, it wasn’t exactly planned.  I was still in the middle of coming to terms with my own loss of self and independence from caring for our first little one, who turned one-year old this month.  What it means in the literal sense is that I’m cooking and cleaning more, as well as caring more for our daughter, as Eden turns her attention to the new life that is growing inside her.  All the while, I’m trying to keep one eye on what I’m doing with my business, attempting to be of greatest service to my clients and the groups that I serve.

It’s harder than I ever imagined.  I really did think it would be different for us.  I said, “Not me and Eden. We have the ability to communicate on a different level, not only with ourselves, but also with the new children that are coming to us.  We’ll be able to manage this with more grace than most.”  And maybe we are.  Who knows?

I used to write about the personal matters of business-type challenges.  I suppose this is a very personal matter, one that I’m actually hesitant to share.

Yet, the point of mentioning this is that we each have personal challenges to manage in addition to work that we’re meant to bring forth to the world.  Perhaps they are related to each other.  Lately, I’ve been reminded of the Cosmic Dancer.

That I have the ability to manage all that life is presenting me, with grace and ease, even though I may have to balance it all standing on one leg.  My motto lately has been, “Release the Struggle”.  I seem to be saying it to myself several times a day as I have a tendency to tighten when I’m being confronted with unexpected challenges.  Yet, I know that softness is the way.  I’m reminded of certain power animals that have made themselves known to me like the Whale and the Peace Dove.  At certain times, other power animals and tendencies are called for like that of the Jaguar.  But not right now.

If there’s a way through, to complete all of the required tasks, whether it’s breakfast for my little one, or fulfilling my own soul’s purpose, then softness and gentleness is the way for me right now.

May you find whatever is required for your journey at this time, whether it be the strength of a jaguar or the softness of a peace dove.  (Or something completely different because that’s what’s appropriate for you.)  However, if you don’t know what your power animal is that is meant to assist you, that’s something that I help people discover in my one-on-one work.

May we each meet the challenges in front of us with the correct energy.

Today, Eden and I are being flown to New York to deliver a workshop and do two days of Chakra Clearings for the employees of Rodale Publishing, the company that is responsible for magazines like Prevention, Men’s Health, and many others.  It was a real surprise to me that we are completely booked for all 48 slots for the mini-chakra clearing sessions that are being offered.

I think it’s quite a testament to the New times that we’re in that a company would include Chakra Clearings as a part of their month of “Health, Healing, and Happiness” for their employees.  Of course, we know that paying attention to the energy body and healing soul wounds has a profound impact on someone’s health and happiness.  It’s awesome now that more people are waking up to the knowledge that they can change the quality of their lives, not only by changing their thoughts, but also by being more aware of the energy that they carry.

To me, this is a huge shift from mental-level living to more soul-based living.  I said a while back that, in these times of great change, if you only live from the level of your mind, you’re often going to feel like you’re losing your mind.  It’s so important to be in touch with the non-linear parts of ourselves.  It’s there, the places where we experience ourselves that are beyond the mind, that our real truth resides.

We’ve all heard so many times to “follow our heart” that it’s hard for me to even write the cliche.  Yet, that is exactly the instrument that needs to “run the show”, for any choice that we’re about to make, whether it’s something around our careers, relationships, or personal matters with ourselves.

So today I encourage you to take a little time, whether it’s only 30 seconds in the shower or an hour that you can spend in nature or stillness, to connect with those parts of you that are not “just thinking”.  And if you happen to be around New York, Eden and I have some slots available for personal sessions for energy clearings later this week.  Just email back if you’d like to schedule an in-person session on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday.

May you find peace this day.

Would you like to have more clients?

The ones where you not only do your best work, but where they come to you in an easy and graceful way?

There’s a way to achieve that.

Last year to promote the Create a Thriving Practice course, I led a teleclass entitled, How to Attract Your Ideal Clients with Grace & Ease.  For the first time, I’m releasing the recording of that class.

This isn’t some “puff piece” that’s all promotion and no real help to your business.  It was my intention to really make a difference with the 300 or so people who were on the call.  In it, I share how to stand in your own truth so that people are just naturally drawn to what you have to offer. A great first step would be to listen to the free teleclass on how to attract your ideal clients. If you’re going to do that, must first look within to see how you can most be of service to others.  Look at your own biggest lessons of your soul’s journey by clicking the link below:

Attracting Your Ideal Clients with Grace and Ease: Teleclass Recording from John Leto on Vimeo.

Prepare yourself though.  If you’re going to actually learn how to do something as important as attracting your ideal clients, its not going to happen in a quick 2-minute video.  In this hour-long teleclass, I share the in-depth exercise that participants complete in the full Thriving Practice course.  It is one of the cornerstone pieces of the upcoming 6-Week Webinar Series: Create a Thriving Practice, which starts on January 30th.  For more information on the upcoming course, click the link below:

6-Week Webinar Series: Create a Thriving Practice

Yesterday, I gave one of my most radically honest interviews ever regarding Purpose and how to connect more deeply to it.  I simply opened up and let the truth of my experience flow through.

To hear the in-depth discussion of ways that you can increase your connection to your highest path, here’s the direct link for the replay:

http://www.intentiontraining.com/2014/01/06/fulfilling-your-souls-journey/ 

Listen To Your Path

There are certain obstacles that shouldn’t be surmounted.  They are put in your path as indication that there’s a better way to go.  Yet, we need a keen level of discernment to know whether to push on in the face of adversity or whether we’re simply not on the right path right now.

On a recent mountain bike trek in Colorado, I was cruising along all by myself about 90 minutes in, when suddenly there were Bulls on the trail.  I mean, big, raging male cows who were looking at me as if they were going to charge (I later found out that there are several deaths a year from charging bulls).  I was doing my best to release all fear and simply be in love.  Yet, I came upon a spot where there were a lot of them directly on the trail where I wanted to go.

I was stuck.  I didn’t know what to do.  I wanted to reach the destination that I had intended that day – this beautiful, sacred spot by a stream where Eden and I had camped out two years earlier.

In my direct path on the trail, there were five bulls with some female cows and a few calves.  I was starting to get nervous as they shifted towards me.  I sensed that they were feeling like they needed to protect their young.

I noticed that if I deviated off the trail away from the bulls and went up the hill, I might be able to link up with the path again.  So with my bike on my shoulder I started walking off the path up the mountain, to where I thought the trail would eventually lead.  So here I am panting as I’m carrying my bike up this tremendously steep hill, in wet grass and bush up to my shoulders, and the thought comes in, “What in the world am I doing?  This doesn’t feel right at all.  This is really hard.  What am I doing this for?  Is this really the way I want to go?”

Then this thought came in like a thunderbolt:

“You have to listen to the path.”   

The path was telling me I went as far as I could go.  I definitely couldn’t go any farther on the trail with all of those bulls.  I could certainly climb the hill off the trail with my own sheer willpower, taking a lot of effort and energy to do so.  But to what avail?

“You have to listen to the path.”

This particular path that day was telling me that I had gone exactly as far as I was meant to go to learn the lesson that day.  I needed to simply appreciate this simple lesson of listening to the path as well as the other gifts that I had been given that day – like the spiritual experience it was to see male deer in the wild for the first time.

For me that day, I noted the big difference between flowing on a path that I’m meant to be on versus having to use a tremendous amount of willpower to get to where I think I should be going.

If you’re going to allow your path to unfold, then you have to listen to the path.  Of course you have to walk it.  And you have to have a high level of discernment in your listening to know if you should continue walking in a certain direction.

I’ve learned that it’s the step that you take before you take your first step that’s most important: To Listen.  To know what the appropriate action is for that particular moment.

May your path lead you to where you’re truly meant to go.

In the last 5 days, I’ve shed 13 years of living in New York City.  On both a physical level and energetic level, I’ve cleared out everything in my NY apartment.

I was actually dreading this recent trip to New York.  For the first couple of days, I had a very strong resistance to donating or selling anything.  I just wasn’t ready yet to post anything on Craigslist or contact the donation company.  I didn’t understand why.

On the morning of the 3rd day, it hit me.

“There’s no turning back.”

That’s the thought that came in like a lightning bolt.  Even though I’ve been living in California for the last 3 years, been married for the last two, and had a baby 6 months ago, I still had this perfect bachelor pad in NY to go back to at any time.

I wasn’t conscious of it. I never actually thought, “In case this whole wife and daughter thing doesn’t work out, I can always go back.”   That never crossed my mind.  Yet, energetically that path was available to me.

Not any more.

That “back door” is closed.  I realized that my trip to NY was about doing away with any other options except choosing powerfully the one path that I am already on.

It’s a cliché, but life is about choices.  Certain choices take us down certain paths.  And there are many paths available to us.  It’s simple enough, but we can’t walk down two paths at the same time.  Yet, how often do we try to? How often are we splitting our energies, instead of truly focusing on one area?  How often are we living in two or three different worlds instead of One World?

How many times, as move forward through the transitions of our lives, do we want another option, just in case this one doesn’t work out?

We don’t know what twists and turns are in the road.  We can’t see the future.  So we hold on to the past.

Because it’s known.

Because it’s familiar.

Because it’s safe.

Yet, we know that we can’t powerfully move forward when we’re still holding on to the past.

Now, that makes sense intellectually, but how often do we really live that way?

“I just want to get back to the way things were.”

We’ve heard that statement…we’ve probably said it as it pertains to a relationship, a business, or creative endeavor.

“Can’t it just be the way it used to be?”

No.

It can’t.

There’s no going back.

There’s only the way forward.  There’s only “this time”.

I encourage you to release those things from the past that don’t serve you any longer and move towards your highest path.

Choose powerfully.

Why would you choose any other way?

What are you creating in your life?

Now, you might be thinking:

“What do you mean – what am I creating? I’m just living. I’m trying to be on my highest path, but most of the time I’m just doing what I’m obligated to do. I’m also trying to make a little bit of money and build my practice.  But what am I creating?  What do you mean?”

What I mean is that whether you realize it or not, you are creating your life. You are creating your experiences. You are creating your reality.

You have exactly the situations, the friends, the amount of money, worry, and love that you have created up to this point. See, many of us have lost our connection to creation – we’ve lost our ability to truly create. We really don’t have to create anything anymore. We just have to follow. We just have to react: just go to the meeting, say what you’ve already said a thousand times, just answer the text, send the email, drive there, go here – we’ve lost our sense of what it means to be the creator of our own lives.

How can you restore the power that you’re supposed to have to create whatever you’d like for yourself and your life?

1) The first thing to get is that you actually are the creator. If you’ve lost touch with this, then rekindle it. Deep down, you know this to be true. If you don’t believe me, then suspend your own belief for a minute, and then keep reading.

Try on that every single thing that you feel and that goes through your head – matters. Every single thing. The thought about that girl, the judgment about your body, the doubt about yourself, whatever it may be – it matters. It counts, big time.

Now, I probably don’t have to go too far to try to convince you of this. You’re probably living proof that the Law of Attraction is very real.  You know that you become what you think about. Yet, how conscious are you of it on a moment to moment basis?

“Our minds are always active anyway, so they might as well be focused on something worthwhile.”

-       from the movie, I heart Huckabees

So once you’re present to the fact that you are the one who is constantly creating your own reality, the next step is to go into Nothing.

2) Enter the Void

Emptiness is a concept that I’ve been sitting with all year long. Believe me, it hasn’t been easy. It’s much easier to be Something than to be Nothing. I’ve been studying Tai Chi intensely one on one with a master for the last year and a half. The whole point is to access a deeper sense of nothing to be able to work with the true “chi” – the energy of the universe – instead of our own. What I’ve learned is that if I’m working only with my own energy, it’s a pretty limited and finite thing. I mean, how long can you go before you need to rest or have another cup of coffee? But if you’re working with universal energy, you have access to all that is and can actually be limitless. One of the major lessons of Tai Chi though is that you can’t work with universal energy if you’re already full of your own. If your cup is already full of what you think you are, then how will the energy of the universe be able to get in? Hence, the concept of emptying oneself: Going into Nothing.

The reason why it’s important to go into nothingness is because if you don’t find some way to be in stillness, you’re doomed to your own momentum tunnel.

This is a familiar concept if you’re a Four Winds student.  If you’re not, think of it this way: there is a momentum pushing you forward in life. It consists of all of your previous actions, thoughts, and beliefs. It has created the environment of your home and work as well as the people you know and where you live. It’s the sum total of your past. And it has a momentum. If you don’t believe me, just think of the things that you have to do tomorrow or next week because of the momentum that your life has already set up.

So if you’re going to be able to change anything about your life, if you’re going to embrace being the creator of your life, you have to regularly step off your own momentum tunnel. If you don’t, then you’re just going to get more of what you’ve always gotten.

The only way to do this is to bring yourself to a still point. Only then will you truly have the freedom to create. Otherwise, if you try to create while you’re still being pushed by your momentum, you’re going to get mixed results.

So the bottom line is that you have to find a way to quiet your mind and find stillness. Here’s a link to a quick guided meditation that I created to do just that:

Enter into Stillness – A 9-minute guided meditation

Then only once you’ve accessed stillness, emptiness, the void (whatever you want to call it), you’re now able to make a conscious choice.

We all want to fulfill our soul’s journey and use our time here well.  It’s great that so many people are now aware of their life’s purpose of being of greatest service to others.

Yet there are many who yearn to use more of their skills and abilities on a daily basis by creating a rich and full client practice.  There are a lot of practitioners who are frustrated and struggling because they haven’t yet sorted out how to continually attract paying clients.  My heart goes out to them.  I certainly know what it’s like to get a glimpse of your soul’s journey and then not be able to support yourself financially while doing it.  In the last 9 years of creating my own successful business, a blend of life coaching, shamanic energy medicine, and also brand consulting, I’ve learned that it takes more than just good intent, high integrity, and strong desire.  It also takes some practical marketing skills.  For me, that simply means learning how to position yourself to the people who can most benefit from what you have to offer.  It takes looking within to learn from your greatest wounds to see how those lessons can be applied to others on a similar path.  In order to build certainty, not only in your abilities, but also in how you present yourself to the world, it often requires a more strategic approach.

I hesitate to use the word “marketing” when describing my upcoming Creating a Thriving Practice course with the Four Winds.  I don’t think of it as a “marketing” course.  It’s not about being a good marketer.  It’s about learning how to stand in your Truth, in the key awakenings of your own soul’s journey, and then be able to express those lessons in your speaking and presentation materials so that when you increase your visibility, you easily attract lots of people who are happy to pay you for the difference you can make in their lives.

I understand the challenge in talking about what you do. I’ve been fumbling around with language for the last couple of years trying to come up with a way to describe to others what I’m up to in a way that not only makes sense, but that they find it so valuable that they are willing to write a check for it.  That’s no easy task, but I now feel that I have some clarity.

Our conscious paths are deep and profound.  They happen at the level of the mythic and affect our lives in meaningful ways.  But when we have to use our minds to explain it, sometimes people aren’t able to relate.  We need a better way of talking about what we do.  There is a method that I’ve discovered to bridge the non-linear, sensing, energetic path with that of the linear, logical, rational way that our mind likes to comprehend things.  Here’s the key – it needs to be specific and individual to YOU.  We all know the importance of “making our own medicine” and utilizing our own unique gifts in the work that we do for others.  The same is also true for how we talk about what we do.

How I describe what I do should be different from how you describe it.  My particular challenges, awakenings, and life experiences are unique to me, as yours are to you.  Herein lies the gems that are waiting to be discovered.  These are the access points into the conversation with others.   What I mean is that you have to first look within at your own healing and success journey, see the most meaningful ways of how your path has helped you, and then talk to others from THAT PLACE.

As an example, a client of mine has been struggling with how to attract veterans with post traumatic stress disorder.  Even though he has never been in the military in this lifetime, I had him look at what experiences in his life mirror that of the veterans that he longs to be of service to.  When we discussed his lessons from being bullied at school earlier in life, he had the realization that veterans are warriors who do well with fighting their external battles, but when they enter their internal battle with PTSD, they are basically entering a gun fight with only their fists.  By positioning his healing work as helping them to have weapons to more successfully fight their internal battle with PTSD, he’s now speaking their language.

This is about reaching people where they actually are.  It’s speaking into their listening.  Not from your coach/healer/teacher place, but from a place where they can hear you best.

So here are some questions to ask yourself:

What’s the greatest truth that you’ve learned through your own experience?

What challenge has been your greatest teacher?

What have you discovered about yourself and about life by going through what you have?

What have been your most cherished accomplishments on your soul’s journey?

How can you use these as an access point into a meaningful conversation with others?

I believe that this is what Alberto Villoldo means when he says you take your greatest wounds and turn them into your greatest strengths.  Also, these are the areas where you can have the most compassion for other people as they go through a similar journey.  You understand how tough it is.  You understand the ins and outs of healing from those particular situations.

When you position yourself to people in this way, you not only attract those who you can most benefit, you do your best work in a way that comes easily to you. 

It’s not really a target market, but if it helps you to think of it in that way, then go ahead.  For me, it’s more about looking within, seeing the truths that you have discovered about your own life, and then positioning your services to others in that way.

A quote I heard a long time ago is that people don’t buy coaching or healings.  They buy situational problem-solving.  They have a specific situation in their life that is challenging and you happen to have some tools that can help them to solve their problem.  You only need to sell people themselves.  I don’t like using the word “sell” because that’s actually not what you’re doing at all.  You’re simply talking to people about what they’re facing and where they’re at.  You have a profound way of helping them so that they can attract what they’d like in their lives, whether it’s a more fulfilling relationship, a more satisfying career, or of simply being more at peace with themselves.

Are you a practitioner with not many clients?  It’s a shame to be sitting on all of the beautiful and powerful tools that you’ve developed while you could be actively walking the path of your soul’s calling, making a tremendous difference in the lives of others.  If you could use some additional tools in learning how to reposition yourself or your brand, then I hope you’ll check out my upcoming course, Creating a Thriving Client Practice with The Four Winds.   Be of greatest service to the world by more effectively reaching those that you are meant to touch.

Sometimes on our paths, things can get a little foggy.  It can be hard to see the next step.  Here in Laguna Beach, we’ve been shrouded in a fog so thick that for the last two days, I haven’t been able to see the house across the street.

So what do we do when we can’t see the way?

One suggestion is to come back to the basics.  Come back to your foundation.  “What, Who, Why?” – That’s what these questions are meant to do.

What are you trying to do?

Who are you trying to do it for?

Why are you the one to do it?

Simple questions.

But can you answer them with clarity?

A couple of years ago, a buddy of mine, Dan Lerner, who’s an amazing coach and organizational consultant, asked those questions of me.  Last week in Utah, I led a course that I created for the Four Winds Society that took the long and winding road to have people be able to answer those questions to get clarity on how to build their own thriving practice.

Here are my answers for the Majestic Path:

What am I trying to do?

Show others how to make a prosperous living doing what they love.  Using a combination of practical business-building information, brand consulting, and also energy work, I help them to be of greatest service to others so that they fulfill their soul’s journey through their life’s work.

Who am I trying to do this for?

People who are embracing their role in the new consciousness.  It’s the healers, coaches, and other holistic practitioners who feel a call to do something greater with their lives by being of service to others.  I love helping these courageous souls who are daring to live life on their own terms.  I love touching others who are meant to touch the world.

Why am I the one to do this?

Because I’ve lived through it:  the fear and the struggle.  By overcoming doubt and creating my own successful practice, I’ve learned so many things that I know can make a difference for others.   I’m here to share what I’ve learned. (Including these 3 questions)

So what about you?  What are your answers?

What are you trying to do?

Who are you trying to do it for?

Why are you the one to do it?

Once you have your answers, it then becomes about your next step.

What’s your next step?

“There is no such thing as time management.  There’s either flow or resistance.” – Dave Buck, CEO of Coachville.

This rings true for me.  Sometimes the immensity of what I’m trying to do just stops me before I can even begin.  I’m either in the flow of my actions or I’m sitting here thinking about things.  And usually, when I’m sitting here thinking, I’m not doing anything.  I’m not making any forward progress.

So I come back to the foundational questions – What, Who, & Why.  Then next step can be made clear.  After that, we simply need to take the step.

If you feel called, I invite you to share your answers below.  You just never know how sharing your answers could be the catalyst for great things.

If you have the willingness to be open, share what you’re trying to do, who you’re doing it for, and why.

May you step with clarity today.

A Message from John:

2013 marks a milestone for me. With the start of this year, it marks 10 years of being in business for myself, making my living solely from being of service to others. I feel very fortunate to have been able to do what a lot of healers and coaches find difficult to do – build a successful business. With the exception of a 4-day per week consulting arrangement that I had for 6 months in the second year of my business, I’ve been able to support myself and make a good living solely from my coaching, healing, and speaking income.

But it didn’t happen by accident.

There’s a book that I saw years ago entitled “Do What You Love and The Money Will Follow”.

To me, that’s not always true. For the first year of my business, I was doing what I loved, but the money didn’t follow.  At least not enough of it. Over the last 10 years, I’ve learned a ton about what it takes to be a successful solo-practitioner. If I were to write that book now from my own experience, I would title it:

Do What You Love,
Find a strategy to attract your ideal clients,
Break through any barriers to being fully visible,
Learn how to speak powerfully about what you do,
Create a personal brand that’s rooted in your truth,
Learn how to write your most effective bio,
Create a compelling online presence,
Learn to have an effective phone conversation with a potential client,
Overcome procrastination and develop a measurable gameplan,
Build complete certainty as a practitioner,
And then…

The money will follow.

I heard a while back that money follows certainty, but runs away from doubt. We all have doubts, but we can’t let them run the show. The Create a Thriving Practice Online Webinar is designed to cover all of these elements to have you build the certainty required to have people want to hire you.  The Thriving Practice course is essentially a business-building, manifestation program but with a heart-centered, spiritual approach. It’s designed to have you attract your ideal clients by having you stand in your own certainty and truth.  It’s my honor to help guide you through this process and save you years of struggling.

You deserve to be on your highest path in full abundance!

Sincerely,
John Germain Leto