(This is a long, wrangly post. My apologies. I mean, I’m not really sorry. Coz that’s just how I like to write. But if you like to speed read, please just make sure you check out the important news about changes to the Academy & 2015 workbook. They are further down in the post. Otherwise… get yoself a cup of chai. Chill da fruitcake out. Let’s sit and meander our way there, yeah?)

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Hola my darlings,

There’s a lot happening + shaking over here in Land of da Unicorns and Gigglesnorts.

I feel like I’m emerging out of a long, dark winter. My pregnancy  with our second mermaid daughter really sent me into a cave.

And everything is kind of new again, out here in the glowing sun.

I’ve learned so many huge lessons over the last five years since becoming pregnant with my first mermaid daughter.

It’s been a five year circle.

Mermaid Daughter #1, that incredible, spirited, sensitive daughter of mine… that one I have known I would give birth to since I was 14… she taught me how to grow up. She birthed my true self. She made me look into the shadows of all myself, and really made sure that I did what was needed.

If she hadn’t, I could have continued on, completely oblivious to the way the unhealed, unconscious parts of me were running the show when it came to my marriage and my family of origin.

It was really, really hard and awful to look at it all… but holy dooley, I’m grateful it happened. It needed to. It made me even more of myself. It gave me the personal power and freedom to claim the life that is mine, and create, develop and grow relationships that were healthy, compassionate, sovereign & respectful of boundaries.

I don’t know how to talk about any of this without sounding like psychoanalysis wanker mumbo jumbo, but there ya go.

If it makes sense to you and your heart, I’m grateful.

If it doesn’t, I’m sorry to be obtuse, but it’s the only way I can currently talk about it.

Anyways, point being:

Mermaid Daughter of the Light has been an incredible teacher for me.

Where would I be without having given birth to her?

A very different woman.

And despite having many more scars, being less naive, slightly less optimistic, far more worldly and worn…

I am grateful.

My heart is more open, more compassionate, more understanding, more kind because of her.

And of course, our second mermaid daughter’s pregnancy was a trial by fire.

And emerging out the other side of that is this incredible… lightness. Ease. Blessings. Joy.

I just never expected it could be so glorious having a wee bubba.

She is an easier babe to keep settled.

What’s more, I’m a better, more relaxed mama.

I wish Mermaid Daughter #1 could have had the me of now as her mama when she was a bubba.

But it is what it is.

I cannot argue with what is.

And only trust that all of us have chosen this just the way it happened, and continues to unfold.

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Anywaysies, I’m happy, lovebugs.

Content in my bones.

I feel like everything I’ve always dreamed of has come true, by hook or by crook:

the relationship I have with my husband, so tender, full of love and understanding.

being a mama to these two girls.

our home: warm, colourful, expansive, filled with love and beautiful views.

our land: space to roam and play and garden. Maybe I could get a goat to milk! Or a horse! But I wouldn’t milk the horse!

our life: free, creative, gentle, happy.

Everything I thought it would be.

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And of course my business is a huge, wide, loving blessing too.

But it’s not about owning a business.

It’s really about that act of creating, of sending out words, art, stories, things that might just be what someone else needs.

That’s the thing I never really want to lose focus on, really.

Sometimes I do of course.

Sometimes I feel overwhelmed at how many balls I have to keep juggling in the air, how many things I have to learn, how many more skills I need to master… owning a business can really kick one’s butt.

But I just have to keep remembering:

the business is just a vehicle for sending out my stuff into the world.

the real thing, the real magic…

is in the creating.

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That’s what is home to me.

That’s where I hear the angels sing, the muse call, the dreams dance.

Writing. Art. Forming. Creating. Sharing.

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I’ve been volunteering lately.

Doing more donating.

Trying to work out what my next big thing is.

I’ve reached a point where I feel like I’m pretty much financially free.

Our needs as a family are taken care of, and I know I have the skills to be able to keep creating an abundant income for the rest of my life.

Five years ago I had no idea if it was even possible to live off my business as a family.

It felt like a big scary experiment.

And now we know well and truly that it can be done.

And that it’s 100% doable.

So it feels like that experiment is totally resolved.

I don’t have to keep striving for that anymore.

The question is now:

What next?

What drives me next?

And the answer absolutely has to do around service, donations and volunteering. Something I’ve been doing all along anyway. I’ve always joked about being the next Bill Gates but way more liable to talk about sacred vaginas.

And now I’ve got even more energy, time and abundance to devote to those things.

So that’ll form part of my way ahead too.

We’ll keep supporting the panoply of charities we currently donate monthly & yearly to. But I want… need… to up my game and do more. Because my heart is full of all the people and animals and land that are suffering. Sometimes it feels overwhelming, how much needs help. But I remember what Ricky Martin says in his autobiography about his charity work:

Even if it’s just one life you help, it’s the whole world to that person.

I was talking to a couple of my entrepreneur goddess mates about it yesterday, and we decided to fund the building of a school together in a third world country as a fun side project this year. And we’ve already found half the money needed for it. I know we’ll find the rest of it licketty split.

Magic happens when women circle.

Money can be a source for good.

Doing career talks at high schools, providing more support to local organisations, volunteering as a marketing consultant for non profits… the list goes on.

I know this world can change. I know we are the ones who will change it.

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Over the last five years, I’ve also experienced so many business transitions and transformations along the way.

From massive hippy to more business-y.

And I’ve been kinda sensing this need to integrate the two more. To become Ultimate Hippy Creative Spiritual Business Goddess.

Everything all included together.

And it always has been.

But I want to do it even more.

And even MORE Leonie flavoured.

More cwazy, more colour, more hippy. Even MORE.

I want to write more blog posts that are long and emotional and don’t have all the answers.

I want to be known less as a know-it-all, and more of a know-a-lot, still-learning, and happy to share what I know and what I don’t know and the whole  journey with you.

That’s the whole thing about business and spirit and life like this…

Ch-ch-changes and transformations are good. And needed. At least, they are for this Scorpio woman.

I feel like I’m constantly evolving and learning what it means to be me.

And it doesn’t help (well, it does actually) that I’m married to another deep-thinking Scorpio who adores transformation and personal evolution as much as I do. He is arms-wide-open to changing himself. He expects it of me too. He’s my match, my muse, my teacher.

He calls me on my shit, I call him on ours.

There was a lot of shit at the beginning.

There isn’t as much shit now.

It’s pretty rad, really.

Anyways, there are some important things I need to talk about on the work front.

About changes to my Academy and the upcoming 2015 Workbook.

But don’t worry:

It’s all good.

Here’s what you can expect, yeah?

Amazing Biz + Life Academy

I was at a crossroads, trying to work out the next thing that I was being called to.

What I wanted to pour my energy into next.

I could have scrapped it all. Moved into higher priced products or coaching that were paid for one-by-one.

But honestly, I’m still just in love with the idea of helping as many people as I can, giving them everything I create, and making it as affordable as possible.

It started four years ago as the Goddess Circle, and evolved into the Academy. And I still love it and wholeheartedly believe in it.

So it’s my main focus over the next year to pour even more energy and goodness into it.

• We are going to be undergoing a name change to the Shining Academy (www.shiningacademy.com). 
  It’s something I’ve been feeling pulled to in my spirit for a long time now. We will still have the same focus on creating a joyful, creative, spirited life and a powerful, abundant business. Spirit and joy is such a big part of the energy I wanted to create here, so I need a name change to reflect that more beautifully.
• We are creating a whole new membership site.
  Brand new design, better functionality.
  Totally upleveled and gorgeous.
• More and more courses and meditations will be released – especially ones that are easier to consume – smaller chunks of digestible, implementable information for when you’ve only got 10 or 20 minutes to study.
• Programs like Double Your Biz will also be available as year-long daily email actionables – you’ll get a daily email with a marketing/biz task for you to do so you can do it one step at a time.
• More creativity + spirit courses will be created. We’ll do a relationships course (I think I’ve even managed to get Mr Dawson to do some co-teaching with me for it! EEE!) and more artsy ones and and and… ideas KABOOOOOM!
• I want to do some more screen capture videos showing you some really practical business stuff as well – like the systems and organisation I use in my business.
• The masterminds on the membership site will be shifted to be the Academy Facebook mastermind which is thriving + growing + filled with so much support, resources and sisterhood.
• We’re working on some really great ideas & projects to help you get more accountable & start using all the education and resources here in the Academy for you.
• You will be able to see when your account is due, if you need to change credit card details and all your membership and account information on site.
• We are still working out the coding, but we’re going to try and make it so you have the ability to see what courses/programs you’ve used and what ones you are still working on.

I’m so proud of the last four years.

So proud of our incredible success stories of women who are stepping up to the plate + creating real change in their lives + businesses. Conscious creators + powerful women aho!

Proud that 97% of our members say they would wholeheartedly recommend the Academy to a friend.

Proud that we have members who have been a part of it since it began, and continue to renew their membership every single year.

I’m so very excited about everything that’s going to be shared here over the coming months and over the next year… it’s the biggest reinvention of the Academy since it began…

And I’m SO delighted to be sharing it with you.

I am so committed to helping you make your life and business shine beautifully, abundantly, exquisitely through the Academy.

2015 Workbook

This year we are (OMFG!!!!) printing them ourselves with a Malaysian printing company which kinda takes me back to ye olden days when I lived there for a bit when I was 18… Back to the days of ramadan and durians!

Anyways… it’s been a MASSIVE learning curve to be taking on such a big print job, and learning about publishing and wet proofs and customs and importing and shipping houses and all that… but it feels wildly grown up and powerful.

I needed more capacity to customise to make it the best yet based on what YOU want to see!

So here’s the kinds of differences you will see:

• spiral bound so you can write it in more easily!
• comes with a bonus foldout A2 wall planner calendar which looks effing gorgeous!
• thicker more durable covers
• added pages for monthly check-ins
• and more inclusions!
• There’ll be a name change to 2015 Create Your Shining Year in Life + Biz workbook to reflect my whole-of-brand spirit-call name change.

Special Note For Affiliates!

This year we’ll also be able to offer affiliates commission for printed workbooks (as well as e-books)!!! SQUEEEE!!!!!!!

I really wanted to be able to offer this as a massive thank you to our incredible affiliates who are so important. I’m so grateful to you for helping spread the word.

And of course there will be a HUGE affiliate competition for the workbooks… the biggest one yet!

If you’d like to make magical moolah sharing about my work (thank you!) you can sign up as an affiliate for free here.

My team has done a brilliant job… My eyes are still recovering from many late nights… It’s going to be our best yet. It took all your feedback and tried to weave it all in for the most powerful goal planning workbook for hippies and creatives and heart-centered women evaaaaaa! Can’t wait to share it with you.

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Phew. Okay my loves.

That’s my update.

Big, beautiful changes abound.

Continuing to shine, refine, glow, grow.

Honoured to share this journey with you.

As always.

Grateful that all around the world, there are strong, passionate, creative women birthing their dreams alive.

Grateful that we get to do this… together.

So much love, as always,