This week I was invited to an event hosted by my business bank.

I was pleased (and curious) that they’d decided to invite their customers to talk about the recession. The aim was to help us to explore how to ‘manage’ our businesses during these difficult times.  

They started by giving a 20 minute presentation about the latest survey of business opinions and trends (January 2009) and then it was over to networking and a number of mini talks about marketing and the support available.

The one thing I was looking for was ‘Vision’ and ‘Inspiration’.

We are now in a time where we are having to let go of the past and ‘the way we were’! I can’t argue that there have been previous recessions but I believe the nature of this one is very different.  I don’t believe that we (or anyone) has a ‘map’ that will take us out of this particular recession.

Although there is some common sense advice we can take (watch costs and keep marketing and developing oneself), I for one don’t just want to survive this recession, I want to feel like it’s been a life changing experience that has transformed me and my business for the better and as a result I have found my wealth! 

Its going to take vision, courage and a huge letting go of the past to get us through this one in a successful way.

Yes, I’m sure there will be pain (lasting change isn’t easy) but I was left feeling that there’s still a lot of shock and denial about what’s just happened and a real uncertainty about what this really means to us all (both as an individual and from a business perspective).    

I see the banks (and financial services) needing to go through a significant image transformation. I don’t mean a re-branding exercise and a different approach to marketing, but a real culture shift that focuses on future generations, vision and wisdom.

I want to work alongside a bank that has a higher level of conscious and wants to collaborate with its customers to bring wealth to all (not just the chosen few) and who can make a real difference to both my business and my life. Think of the film ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ and the difference between Mr. Potter (the disabled banker(!) and George Bailey who wants to loan mortgages to people so they all have a better life!

Amen! x

“The future is not some place we are going to, but one we are creating. The paths are not to be found, but made, and the activity of making them changes both the maker and the destination” John Schaar

The credit crunch. Funny isn’t it? So what do we do now? No idea! Have we been living in a dream? I’m not really sure. Should we be worried? What’s the point! Mee? I feel a mixture of excitement at the prospect of a ‘new age’ around money and wealth, a new frontier, but ever so slightly anxious in my effort to not absorb the fear that currently surrounds us. I think its a time to slow down, go inside, be patient and wait. But let’s not get stuck in the ‘waiting room’, it’s not a good place to be in for too long! So we need to think about how will we make our wealth now? 

Sat with my visionary hat on I sense that the movement towards owning our own destiny rather than putting ourselves in the Corporates hands is where we must continue to move towards. Our dependancy on institutions needs exploring at a deeper level and we need to start to take ownership of our unique talent and potential and be much more creative in taking responsibility for building and growing our own personal wealth. Us humans are creative beings, survivors (well, not all of us I suppose) but IT IS in the human DNA and so we need to trust it.

When you sit back and look you start to realise how for far too long the majority of us in the Western world have been ‘educated’ in the ’system’ - the so called route to ’success’ (and that usually inferred money). I’m not sure it was ever ‘real’ but it’s the map we are given on arrival and blindly we tended to follow it. There has been the odd individual who didn’t buy into it (the entrepreneur, the maverick, the rebel with a cause) but essentially we have been brought up to believe a ‘job’ and an ‘honest’ living is where our security lies. Some even connect their sense of identity to it to. How many of us like to tell people what position we hold or who we work for (particularly if its a BIG corporate giant or we are in a position of great importance).

But we are now at the edge of a new frontier and at times like this there are no rules and no set of instructions - so we have to make it up as we go along.

About four years ago I heard Bernard Lietaer speak at an international conference in London. Bernard is an international visionary specialising in economic and monetary systems speak. He spoke about the various ancient and modern civilisations and the economic systems they had in place and said that our global money system was seriously outdated and no longer worked and that it would only be a matter of time before it started to break down. Well, how right he was!

In his book ‘The Future of Money - creating new wealth, work and a wiser world’ he states “The global money system no longer works in our best interests; we need a serious overhaul of money - and our attitude towards it”.

So I’m pondering on our understanding of ‘wealth’ versus ‘money’…

In c.1250 wealth was described as “happiness” also “prosperity in abundance of possessions or riches” “well-being”. It is also described as ‘the quality of profuse abundance’. 

Abundance is an interesting word. It means ‘an overflowing fullness, great plenty’.

Money in the dictionary is described as ‘a medium that can be exchanged for goods or services’ and I am starting to see that ‘money’ is essentially an energy.  

So what is it we really want? Money or wealth? We seem to have attached these two things together in such a way that we almost can’t separate them out. Yet, I’ve met and known many people in life who have had lots of money and material possessions but I would NEVER EVER have called them ‘wealthy’. Alternatively I have met people who have not had a lot money or material things but they seemed to possess a great deal of wealth. 

For me, wealth and presence have a strong connection. The people I have met who have great presence also appear to be wealthy. They operate within their whole potential, radiating their unique talent, which they have in abundance. It flows from them.

So is it now time to explore your wealth rather than your money? 

Times are certainly a changing. Significant global changes are here in the world of money and as Peter Drucker claims:

‘Every few hundred years in Western history there occurs a sharp transformation. Within a few short decades, society - its worldview, its basic values, its social and political structures, its arts, its key institutions - rearranges itself, and the people born then cannot even imagine a world in which their grandparents lived and into which their own parents were born. We are currently living through such a transformation’

I would just like to say a huge thank you to all the people who helped make this site happen, I can’t name you all personally but I just wanted to mention a few people who made all of this possible.

Firstly, Richard and Jenny from Vanilla Storm. Thank you for ‘seeing’ my vision and having the patience and dedication to stay with me throughout the whole process, I couldn’t have done it without you. www.vanillastorm.com

To Max Ellis who produced all the artwork and with his truly amazing talent helped brought my vision to life (and my re-branding). Thank you Max, it’s truly beautiful and you’ve been an absolute dream to work with. Lots of fun! www.junkyard.com

To Nicola and Rowena, the ‘boss ladies’ from Allwords. Thank you for all your enthusiasm and unwavering passion for the written word. You’re amazing! www.allwords.co.uk

To Siobhan Sweeney, my best friend and PA. You have been right by my side every step of the way. Thank you for believing in me and my vision. You truly are my angel on the earth.

To Trish Baillie, my voice coach. Thank you for inspiring my creativity and for believing in me and my vision. I would be lost without your limitless love and support.

Finally I’d like to say a huge thank you to my wonderful family. Your inspiring unconditional love and support give me the courage and determination to succeed. Words cannot express how much you mean to me - you truly are my world.

Thank you very much (I’ll get off the stage now)…

xxx

We have the English author Horace Walpole to thank for the word serendipity, which he coined in one of the 3,000 or more letters on which his literary reputation primarily rests. In a letter of January 28, 1754, Walpole says that “this discovery, indeed, is almost of that kind which I call Serendipity, a very expressive word.”

Walpole formed the word on an old name for Sri Lanka, Serendip. He explained that this name was part of the title of “a silly fairy tale, called The Three Princes of Serendip: as their highnesses traveled, they were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of….”

This week I will be speaking at a CTT conference in Brighton called ‘The Leader Within’. It is indeed serendipitous that this is where my story began (with CTT) and where the initial spark of inspiration came from.

In early 2005 Phil Clothier (CTT CEO) showed me a film he had made called ‘Heartland’. The film showed eight year old school children talking about how they saw their world and their inner hopes and fears for the future of the planet. To say that I was profoundly moved would be an understatement!

The whole film was set to the music of Tim Wheater’s Heartland which is about the powerful story of the warrior’s journey to learn to live in peace and love. Listening and watching these children speak woke my ‘Leader Within.’ Something inside me needed to re-discover that inner eight year old and so started the long journey to realising and fulfilling my own purpose and vision.

Reflecting on the conference I’ve had many thoughts on what I should talk about and how to deliver the message I felt the need to convey. In fact: I even commissioned a writer and director to help create the show but interestingly nothing materialised and as the event drew nearer it became clearer to me that it was now indeed the right time to share my own personal story to my own vision.

So this web-site is the result of that journey. The ‘home’ of my very own vision and purpose. I want to help you find your ‘inner leader’, the real you. I want to give you the love, support and guidance that you need to express every aspect of your unique presence and to find your authentic voice.