Week In Review: 20-26 April 2013 - Events, Like-minds & Mummy

One of the photos from my Lauren Emily Photography Shoot

Everything in my life at the moment is ramping up as all the momentum I've been building has snowballed. It is really awesome, but I'm also realising I'm ignoring certain important parts of life...Honestly, I've not gotten my heart pumping in ages and I'm finding I'm just grabbing anything easy to eat and not thinking about the nourishment (or lack thereof!) it provides to my body. If anyone has any words of encouragement or advice, shout it out sister!

You may have noticed a few changes happening around the blog and online with Savvy Sassy She. I'm starting a bit of a transition...keep your eyes peeled as my new pics, brand and message unfolds.

My week. In review.

Heard some great pitches and met some very creative entrepreneurs at LeanStartUpMachine. Sadly couldn't stay for the weekend as a great opportunity came up to be involved at...

The Greatest Gift Event. Spent the day making friends, helping out, meeting like-minds and hearing wonderful messages. The fab Nancy Georges summed it up in her Storify Story.

Sunday kicked off with a LiveAspireBlog event which I summed up here.

Mummy dearest arrived for a few days.

Posted Magical Monday: Who Do You Need to Contact?

Finalised all the paperwork for The Man's visa stuff. Being together for almost 4 years and there are already so many memories. Tried to be concise in our recollections!

Getting the house into shape for guests that stayed a few days

Printing, packing and shipping of Life is Crafted planners!

Received the photos from the shoot the other week! I'm so damn pleased :) Thanks Lauren Emily Photography!

Doggie walks with VIP guest dog Maddy along for the ride with usual suspect Zander.

Still lots of decision making

Winter veggie soup making (and I broke the brand new slow cooker...)

Berry smoothie indulgences

Business planning...

Paperwork organising

Desk clearing

Routine tweaking

Read seriously amazing, fun and actionable book, Get Rich, Lucky Bitch!: Release Your Money Blocks and Live a First Class Life
Dinner at the local 'classy' pub with The Man and one of the Guests
Delish Malaysian meal with Mummy Dearest
Session with my UK based coach Ms J- goodness she helps me so much!
Accountability session with my two amazing social entrepreneur gal pals

What is one highlight of the last 7 days ladies? Share one (or more in the comments below!).

Make it as you wish Adventuress!

Arienne xo

Shoutout Sister Saturday: Lisa Fox

There are so many amazing things going on in the world and so many gorgeous women doing them. I'm always on the lookout for great juicy finds to add to my world so I thought I'd introduce SHOUTOUT SISTER SATURDAYs over on the Luxe Life Adventuress Facebook Page  

Do you know a woman (personally or through their reputations!) with an amazing biz, product or story? Give them and their page a shoutout below in the Facebook post comments. I'll be doing this each week so we can all discover new and new-to-us people and ideas.

Go on over to the page now and add someone who deserves a shoutout!

Make it as you wish Adventuresses!
Arienne xo

Room of Inspiration - Live Aspire Blog Event - Connie Chapman & Alison Morgan

Connie Chapman, Me!, Alison Morgan

Sunday morning saw me adventuring through the sunny sidewalks of Paddington and Darlinghurst to have a morning of inspiration and play.

Jessica Nazarali of Live Healthy Simply and Ursula Williams of The Aspirer have started putting on regular events called LiveAspireBlog. Walking into the room, I was met with a brightly dressed group of ladies (I added to the gorgeous rainbow with an orange and yellow combo) that had gathered to hear the two speakers of the day Connie Chapman of ConnieChapman.com and Alison Morgan of Relauncher.com. 

These spaces are so great to connect with other women. Yes, it can be a little daunting walking in by yourself, but there are others there flying solo too and we're oh so welcoming to each other. We're all attracted there for similar reasons - personal growth, business nurturing, creating whizbang microenterprises  with heart and positive impacts and tapping into the inspiration of others. It's not too hard to find like minded soul sistas there!

We had the opportunity to mingle with the speakers before and after the speeches and had some absolutely wonderful conversations with these magic-makers and met a great group of gals!

Learnings & TakeAways

Alison Morgan - Relauncher

• Customer service is super important. When building a relationship we can  ask customers and clients what they really want and see if we can provide an offering to meet their needs
• Be flexible in the direction of your business. It should be influenced by your customers and what is going on in the world. Sometimes you start out with one type of product and service and it evolves into something  different (small aside, did you know that YouTube started out as a dating site?!).
• The first year is extremely hard. It takes a lot of work and dedication. After a while, even though there is still a lot of work to do, things just start to happen more effortlessly.
• We are totally in charge of what we do. There is no Boss we have to listen to besides ourselves! There are no boundaries - it is limitless - so we can shape and mold what we want our businesses and lives to be.

Connie Chapman - Connie Chapman 

• Always write from a place of love, passion and authenticity as it will resonate much more with yourself and your readers. Write from the heart not the head.
• Transitioning from a full time job to your business, come from a place of real intention, not financial need as it will come through to your readers. Get a part time job to satisfy your financial requirements as you transition if you feel it will help you.
• Look at creating other income streams to supplement your main focus. Programs, products and E-books are great ways to create income and give your clients what they need even when you can't coach them one-on-one.
• Ask your audience what they want.
• Don't listen to the nay-sayers. Connie says, "I'll only take advice from people that have what I want.". Love it!

It is so nice to hear about the journeys of others and be able to relate to what they've been through and get inspired by their stories and advice. Working solo means you're in your own little world for most of the day so the ability to reach out and make real world connections and hear how others have created their businesses is priceless!

If you've not already checked the ladies out, what are you waiting for?! You'll be happy you've welcomed them into your lives :) Thank you Jess and Ursula for putting on such a great morning.

Make it what you wish Adventuress!
Arienne

10 Minute Trips: The Wheel of Life - Where you at Girlfriend?

Ahoy Adventuresses! Let's go on a Ten Minute Trip into your Life!

The image above shows The Wheel of Life, a really powerful exercise. It will provide you with a birdseye snapshot of where you are in the big areas, at this moment in time.

I often use this with my clients as it provides a clear starting point of where they are at and starts to provide them with insights of where they want to go, where there is balance (or lack of balance!), where they are happy and where their priorities lay.

We don't need to get into that much detail in 10 minutes, so we'll be using this tool to see where you're at now girlfriend!

Ready to take off?! Take some action!

1. Grab a blank piece of paper and draw a circle with a dot in the middle and 11 spokes coming out.
2. Label each of the spokes as per the image above with the different sections:

• Love - Your romantic relationship. Your lovelife. How happy you are in your relationship, looking for a relationship or flying as a solo superwoman.
• Family - How your relationship is with your family? Your immediate members - siblings, parents, children.
• Social/Friendships - How are you feeling around your social activities and friendships?
• Health/Fitness - Where are you at with your health and fitness in your physical body?
• Self Image/Love - Self confidence, self esteem, self talk. How are you feeling towards yourself?
• Spiritual - Your connection to The Universe/God/Higher Power/Something Bigger
• Giving Back - Your contribution back to society - volunteering, donations, charity
• Finance - Money levels, financial understanding, savings, budget, investing
• Career/Business - your studies, job or role, your career path
• Fun/Hobbies/Interests - Do you have and spend time on things that are fun and add to your life?
• Personal Development/Growth - your growth as a whole person - emotionally, intellectually, physically spiritually
• ? - I left a question mark in case you wanted to add an area of your own that is important - ie creativity, surroundings (the physical environment you're in). 

3. Now, rate each section from 1-10. 

'1' being 'holy-moly, it's crap, a schmozzle I tells ya.' 

'10' being 'blissly divine, so freaking amazing, I'm rocking this area!'

The one is in the center of the wheel and the ten is the outer rim.

Don't over think it! Just start at one spoke and go around the sections putting an 'X' where you feel you are now. Be honest, you can't lose anything and you won't get a gold star for all 10s,  you'll get more out of the exercise with your truthfulness

4. If you want you can connect the dots and it looks like a web and you can clearly see the peaks and troughs.

It is such a simple but eye opening activity! Step one is done!

If you want to take it to the next level, start jotting down or thinking why you gave the score that you did to a particular area.

I'll go into more details next week for our next 10 Minute Trip.

Make it as you wish Adventuresses!
Arienne

Week in Review: 13-19 April 2013 - Stepping Up

My gorgeous sister Liane ;) Happy birthday!!!!

This week has been full of magic. Internal magic. I've had ahas, breakthroughs and am finally ready to be truly me and step up into my essence and spread my message. I know, I know, it sounds very deep!

Well it is and I'm not being apologetic about it. I've been on this self discovery journey for about 6 years now, but it has only been in the last week that I am really owning it. I've been to hell and back and it's been a blessing. I've put in the hard yards to shake up my life from the inside out and I'm ready to truly flourish and do what it takes to sprinkle my version of life-fabulousness on the world. I don't know all the exact 'hows' yet but I'm not going to let that stop me. I'm clear on my Why and my Path so I'm just going to delve into it and do what it takes. I'm truly not afraid to show the real me now.

Are you ready to stop letting fear control you? What can you do to get closer to the true you?

Alright, now we've started with that amazingness, on to this week in review! I feel like I have done a lot because I've 'gotten over myself' and just jumped into doing things that I might have previously felt super, super, super duper uncomfortable about (so much so that I would probably put it off and self-sabotage, end up not doing it and then beat myself up about not doing it...exhausting!).

Instagramming away for #fflovephotoaday

Dinner catch up with wonderful friend Mrs T. We ate amazing Roti in the city (mouth watering!!!!)

Attended life-changing weekend event. Perfect You. Highly recommend it for pushing forward in life. I'm ready, I'm stepping up. This is my life.

Had birthday chat with my gorgeous sister Liane. I wish I could have been there in person, but my heart was celebrating with her!

Had much needed phone catch up with the Daddy-O. Switzerland feels so far away sometimes.

Lots of catch up responses and reach outs in front of the computer. Being away from emails for two days takes a bit of follow up work!

Wrote a couple of emails that really stretched my comfort zones. But have done it with heart and positive intention and am seeing that I am dealing with this discomfort and uncertainty in a whole new way!

Lots of action taking with progressing Life is Crafted planner printing - speaking with printers and dealing with quantities and questions

Working with providing the designers with what they need for the male version of the LIC planner...

Printing out a surge of Life is Crafted orders! Yay!

Progressing The Man's next stage of visa stuff - I think he's going to be formally Australian before I am (I've been an 'Aussie' with only permanent resident status for 25 years...)

Putting finishing touches on new calendar product

Beautiful catch up meeting with truly amazing women from course I'm doing in Manly. Goddess Inspiration Loops where we are reflecting inspiration off each other and giving each other fab ideas.

Great conversation with Miss C who is inspiring me to pay more attention to my health again.

New website brainstorming

Slight facebook revamp (if you've not 'liked' me yet, go on! www.facebook.com/savvysassyshes)

How about you? What have you done this week that made you feel uncomfortable but you knew it was actually important to the big picture so you did it anyway?

Make it as you wish! Become an Adventuress in your life,
Arienne

Self Love & Sisterhood

Tara Bliss, Melissa Ambrosini, Amanda Rootsey & Jessica Ainscough
Photo credit via Earth Events

Self Love = Soul Satisfaction ~ Tara Bliss

Walking into this packed room for the event Self Love & Sisterhood took my breath away. I could feel the uplifting energy and looking around at the sea of eager faces was awwwwwwwesome! And this was before the panel ladies even stepped out onto the stage!

This is the world I have been longing for since I woke up from my sleepwalking life. Over the years I've made some amazing one-on-one connections with like minds, but seeing a sea of sisters in one place was truly encouraging - this heart-centered, authentic-life, soul-sista, make-a-difference community is truly growing. I'm excited to see what Earth Events has in store for us in this vein.

So, who were these magic ladies?
Tara Bliss from Such Different Skies, Jessica Ainscough of the Wellness Warrior, Melissa Ambrosini from Path to Wellness and Amanda Rootsey from AmandaRootsey.com.au. Amanda was one of the early followers of this blog and I got such a buzz realising that!! (hi Amanda if you're reading this!).

Me & Amanda - gorgeous girl - gorgeous dress! Photo quality - average ;)

These women are truly living their authentic lives and inspiring others to gracefully (and messily!) dive through the muck and magic and be our well, real, divine, wonderful selves.

I came away from this event inspired. Not only to earnestly practice my version of self love but to gain more confidence in putting myself out there and growing in the direction my heart desires.

The panel format was engaging and provided spontaneous wisdom and heartfelt sharing.

You know me and my love of paper and pouring my heart out onto the page, so, in typical Arienne-fashion, I took copious notes that I had a hard time deciphering! I took down words and phrases that captured me and left me nodding with my heart. I may not have gotten every word right but it the gist that counts right girls?!

In response to 'What does self love mean to you?'
Accepting and having your own back no matter what. - Jessica Ainscough (JA)
Having gratitude for what you have now - Amanda Rootsey (AR)
Everything doesn't work without it - JA
[if you don't have self love you're] Building yourself up with sticks instead of bricks - Melissa Ambrosini (MA)
When you love yourself you want to drink green smoothies....- MA
Working the Self Love Muscle - MA
One first step is awareness...see how you speak to yourself - JA
[affirmations are important in self talk] I deeply and completely love and accept myself - JA
We wouldn't be here if we'd not been so messed up - Tara Bliss (TB)
I have a choice in this moment - TB
What does the mean girl say in your head? Write it down. Look at it. No one else would talk to you like that so why do you allow it? - MA
Doing things for someone else brings self love back
No amount of darkness can ever blow out that candle of awareness and choice 

How do you practice self love?
Remembering who I am in quiet time. - TB
Meditating and connecting - MA
What I put in my body are acts of self love.
What soundtrack I choose to play in my head each day?
Getting to know myself without all the external labels (ie party girl) - JA

 How do you support the Sisterhood

Compare no more. Support and encourage others. There is an abundance in the world

Acceptance and love of where you are now

How do we make self love fun?Be gentle and forgiving of yourself
Do things everyday that you love. I've designed my life to make everyday and every moment fun - JA

Self love is not selfishness to the detriment of others. It is realising the importance of taking the time and effort in loving yourself so you can truly love and support others from the right place and from the best reasons.

I went with one of my besties and healthy influencers Miss C and caught up with Ashley - Physio and Pilates girl extraordinaire! 

The beautiful and vibrant Jessica Ainscough of The Wellness Warrior

Some of the takeaways and reminders that I am taking action on now:

• Sitting in stillness or journaling to connect with myself more regularly
• Becoming more aware of what I put into my body
• Stepping up into my own brilliance so I can shine and reflect that to the women shining around me
• Reminding myself that I chose the way I am now living my life and to allow myself more fun and lightheartedness in this.

I love Tara's quote that I highlighted at the top - Self love is equal to soul satisfaction. That's what it is all about - doing the things that make your soul truly light up.

How do you practice self-love?
Make it as you wish,
Arienne

Week in Review: 6-12 April 2013 - Photoshoots, Product Development & Passions

Oooooh, this week has been mega Savvies! Meeting so many fab people who are helping me make my dreams comes true. Also just stumbling across peeps doing magic in their own worlds and seeing how I can help them work towards the lives they want. There truly are amazing things out there when you zip past all the crap and focus on the good.

Here's what I've been up to this week. I know it looks like a lot, but if you did the same, you might amaze yourself...

Meeting with two designers for new Life is Crafted product designs - amazing peeps!

Cleaned house - mopping magic!

Got ready for a night out only to discover it was on Friday, not Saturday - #lifeblooper

Extra early wake ups due to Daylight saving time changes

Celebrated Zander's 2nd birthday. He's such a puppy delight

Online meeting with amazing international mastermind group

Business name brainstorming session for friend

Wrote raw and real post over at LIC about freaking out. This was a hard one and it took heaps of energy out of me. 

Went to 'More Money for Shoes' event, met some amazing women in real life and heard Jodie Fox of ShoesOfPrey speak.

Won gorgeous Uberfine necklace

Brainstorming new product ideas

New connections with people who will be skipping the paths ahead with me

Website ideas being developed

New branding meeting with Designer

Wrote 3 Best Qualities Post and got some great emails about it - go powerhouse women!

Contacted printers, lots of printing associated thinking and decisions

Beauty stuff

Lots of instagramming! I'm playing around with a few photo Apps. Check out my profile on on Instagram!

Mum and stepdad arrived - only for one night though! 

Prepping for a natural light photoshoot (pics to come!) with Lauren Emily Photography. Choosing outfits is sooooooo hard!

Got may hair done and then made friends with the gorgeous gal who did my makeup! Ooooh loved the pampering

Lots of timeline and project planning

2 days away from the computer doing a lot of the above!

Spending time with Lisa Fox of Open Shed - she is AWESOMEness

What was the highlight of your week darlings?

Make it as you wish!
Arienne

10 Minute Trips: What Are Your 3 Best Qualities?

I know, I know, it is hard talk ourselves up but it is so important! I went to a Self Love and Sisterhood event last week and it was such a good reminder that we need to look after ourselves so that we can make life truly work for us. If we are constantly focussing on everyone else first, we get depleted and can deviate from the path that is right and wholesome and worth while and that makes life truly fun for ourselves. But that is a whole 'nother post Sister!

I'm doing a course at the moment where we are looking at building a business around ourselves. As part of that, getting to know who you are, what you want to be and what your strengths and values are is really important.

One of the exercises was to ask 25 people around you (family, friends, colleagues and/or clients) what your 3 best qualities are.

Sure, it felt funny asking, but it was such an interesting and enlightening experience. The responses were varied but I could definitely see a theme. It was truly heartening to see what impressions people have of you that shine through!

So, are you interested in the findings?! I put the words through wordle.net to create a word cloud (that was fun playing around with the colours and word directions!)

Now I know what my strengths are so that I can put more of those qualities out into the world as I see what people appreciate and benefit from.

I really recommend doing it. It is powerful. Plus when I am feeling a bit bleh it is a beautiful reminder of part of who I truly am. What an uplift!

I challenge you to do it Savvies. Go on - what an adventure it will be! Take a few minutes and put together an email and send it out to the people in your life that you trust or admire.

It could be something along the lines of "I'm doing an exercise someone recommended to me to find out my personal strengths. Could you please let me know the 3 best qualities you see in me?".

Make it as you wish SSSs!
Arienne

Week In Review: 29th March - 5th April 2013 - Reunions, Self Love & Sisterhood

I've been missing my week in reviews and all the benefits it gives me! Here is a wrap of the past 7 days :)

Visited Corban and Blair - a beautiful Sydney-based stationery/lifestyle business. Small world as one of the co-founders is the mother of a student from the School of Nursing I used to work at. The other co-founder is the mother of a boy that The Man will start soccer coaching this week...We had good chats around products and business. Hello Universe and Synchronicity!

 Had good chats with a potential printer around paper and production

Me with Janice & Charlie in Bondi

Caught up with the Beautiful Janice, who was my roommate at Kimberly Wilson's Paris/Provence Yoga Retreat last year and her partner Charlie when they had a quick visit to Sydney from Arizona.

Been having lots of instagram-ing fun. I'm @ariennegorlach - join in the visual lovefest! Joining in with the #fflovephotoaday challenge. Love my Filofax!

Revamped my editorial calendar for Savvy Sassy She and Life Is Crafted

Family time at the park - such precious moments

Coaching session with wonderful insight-driving woman

Future creating for Life is Crafted

Reading fun, frivolous, fiction novels to rest the active mind

Product printing for Life is Crafted & LifeTyped

Post office visits

Zander walks

Bill paying

Goulash eating. Amazing food cooked by The Man

Not the best quality shot! Me and Amanda (love the dress!)

Went to an amazing event called Self Love and Sisterhood featuring some amazing bloggers discussing these two important topics. The panel had Tara Bliss from Such Different Skies, Jess Ainscough of The Wellness Warrior, Melissa Ambrosini from Path To Wellness and Amanda Rootsey of Shine From Within. I will definitely write more about this event - they were uplifting and inspiring!

How was your week?

Make is as you wish!

Arienne xo