I absolutely love the Soulful Shout Out series here on Soul Speak! I get to highlight and introduce you to beautiful people and their wonderful offerings!

I love connecting people and sharing products that I love, and so I’m just thrilled to be able to do that each week with you here.

If you would like your product/website/service promoted here, please click here to read the details and then email me to apply. (I take what I share very seriously and will only share products and services that I am in alignment with.) The spaces are going quickly because the introductory prices are going way up after the first of the year, so please keep that in mind when you’re signing up!

***We’re scheduling into February. Please be sure to reserve your space before Dec. 31st while the prices are still low! (You can pay for your space now and use it any time in the future!)***

A huge thank you to everyone who has already done so. You’re all absolutely wonderful, and I am so grateful for each of you.

And now, let’s get to this week’s beautiful soul and her inspiring offerings!

This week, I am featuring Sue Kearney from Magnolias West!

Sue and I met in the Amazing Biz & Life Academy last year. I love her huge heart and her joyful spirit. She lives in gratitude, which goes a long way with me. She’s extremely giving and loving, and if you don’t already know her, you’re definitely in for a treat!

Sue is sharing her wonderful free meditation with you, plus she’s offering a special discount on her amazing Astrology for Your Business reading! (You can read all about these great offers at the end.) But first, I’m happy to share our chat with you. So let’s get started!

Welcome to Soul Speak, Sue!

I love how you always share what you’re grateful for in each blog post that you write. How has your life been positively impacted as a result of your gratitude practice?

It’s been a complete turnaround, a complete remaking of myself from the inside out. I didn’t know anything about spiritual neuroscience when my business coach suggested to me in 2002 that I start writing a 15-item gratitude list Every.Single.Day. Before that time, I had written gratitude lists twice a year or so, for about 10 years (on my birthday and on my sobriety anniversary), so I had a passing acquaintance with the concept.

But putting my resistance aside and embracing a daily gratitude practice was so impactful! I didn’t feel grateful much of the time. I was resentful. I was victimized. I had a big dark cloud I lugged around with me that colored everything I thought, said, and did. So reaching for the gratitude was, well, a reach. “I’m grateful I’m alive.” “I’m grateful that I didn’t hit my daughter last night when she punched a hole in the wall.” “I’m grateful I’m not having major surgery without anesthesia.”

I’ve learned many deep transformational secrets from this long practice. One is that the content or authenticity of the expressed gratitude doesn’t matter as much as the fact that I expressed it, because by doing so, day after day, I am creating new habitual ways of thinking, speaking and acting. The more I practice gratitude, the less I’m hanging out in my old habitual resentments and victimizations, which then fade into memory and are replaced by Love!

Just because you have me thinking about gratitude, here are three from today:

• I am so grateful to be connected to you, Jodi, and for the opportunity to be in your company as we both express our passion and love for our communities.
• I am grateful for clothes in the dryer and knowing that I can put on my toasty warm favorite sweatshirt in about 30 minutes.
• I am grateful for the willingness to show up for interactions and conversations, from the easy to the challenging, and speak my truth from my heart.

If someone is just beginning to consciously bring gratitude into their life, can you share some tips to get them started?

Just do it. Honestly. Just write 15 statements that start with “I am grateful…” every day. Do not copy and paste. Try not to repeat much. It’s perfectly okay to start with the mundane (“I’m grateful it’s a sunny day.” “I’m grateful for the eggs I got from the chicken coop this morning.”), it’s how you build the muscle.

We both believe that we can create sacred, heart-centered businesses that honor our calling and also support us in sharing our message with the world. Can you share how it feels to be living your calling and sharing your purpose with others?

Ahh, Jodi, it feels so right. And still so surprising to me! The fact that I can express my authentic self, teach what I’ve learned, love freely, support women in discovering and manifesting the business of their dreams, write from my heart, and get paid for it! I am so honored, so lucky, so blessed!

I believe that showing up authentically in the world is such a gift that we can give to ourselves and also to others. And I know that this is important to you as well. Can you share some of the brave choices you’ve made to show up authentically?

You know, this continues to be the big revelation for me. Sharing the whole of me, even and especially the struggles, has been huge.

I have learned that every time I peel a layer and reveal my tender places, even though part of me thinks I’d rather not because it will mess with my look-good—every time I go for and express the truth I find that I touch at least someone (often more than one!) in a deep way.

I’ve come out of the closet as a mother who raised a difficult (so scary!) child. I talk about being single in a coupled world. I talk about my health projects, including the last 25 months of dealing with a so-far incurable chronic digestive illness. And I talk about and weave into my work being a witch, a priestess, a maker of medicines, a maker of art, a fermented foods maker…

I stand for women to weave the whole of themselves into their businesses, their work, their lives. That’s what I teach in my Share Your Magic and Unmask Your Brand programs that I offer.

You offer so many wonderful programs, and I’m excited to let everyone know about your newest offering: Astrology for Your Business!

A note to the readers: In this offering, Sue will create a special astrological reading that you can apply toward your business, and she’s offering a special discount, too!
 
I love knowing that our businesses have their own astrology! Just as in your personal life, when you have a decision to make, you can lean into astrology for support. An Astrology for Your Business reading from Sue gives you new perceptions and clarity, and helps you focus your energy for your client work, and for developing your programs, projects and launches. (You can scroll down to learn more about the special discount Sue is offering.)

I love how you have combined two of your loves: astrology and supporting people with their businesses! I would love to hear how this merging of interests happened.

I’ve been an astrology student for a long time, learned how to cast charts back in the days when you had to cart around a suitcase full of books. I’ve always appreciated the insights into myself, my relationships, and my work that I learned from my natal chart. Working with women as I do, sharing practical and spiritual teachings around being fully expressed in life and work, it felt very natural to me that Astrology for Your Business landed in my heart as a concept about a year ago.

 

How has knowing your own business’s astrology helped you?

Looking at my business chart (I chose the day I launched Magnolias West 2.0 last February as my business’s birth date) and my natal chart together has been so revealing! For example, I have Jupiter in the 10th house in both charts, the house that holds the energy of my career. Jupiter is beneficent and casts an encouraging light on my work. But, especially because Jupiter in my business chart makes a square aspect to Mercury, Mars and Neptune, I am reminded to stay on top of my own forward motion, despite Jupiter’s temptation sometimes to invite me to coast.

My business Jupiter is also conjunct my natal ascendant in Gemini, grounding me in optimism, opening the way for me to be generous in my business, encouraging me to keep seeking knowledge to use in my teachings, and prompting me to remember my tendency to excess in all things, which keeps me committed to the practices that support staying balanced and healthy in my business pursuits and my life.

And that’s just Jupiter! There’s so much more, but I’ll refrain from giving myself a full reading here, something I’m about to add on my website very soon, look for the link from the Astrology for Your Business page. I’m enclosing my two charts here for the astrologers in the group who might want to have a look.

To celebrate this beautiful new offering, Sue has discounted the Astrology for Your Business reading from now until the Solstice (Dec. 21st)!

It makes a great, unusual and very helpful gift, and I definitely recommend checking it out!

What’s next on the horizon for you?

Ahh, can’t tell you much about this one, but I’m working on an eBook with the beautiful Stacey Hoffer Weckstein that will be released hopefully by Spring 2014. It’s going to help passionate changemakers with their online strategies in a beautiful, holistic, heart-centered way.

Also on the calendar for ’14 are Release and Renew Dark Moon retreats and a new freebie about developing a grown-up relationship with money.

What does your soul want you to know?

That I’m blessed. That I’m lucky. That I’m a beautiful daughter of the Goddess, privileged to be of service.

I’m so excited that Sue is offering everyone her Mountain, Tree, and Lake Guided Meditation for free!

Here’s what she says about it:

One of the practices that form the foundation of my balanced and rounded life and work is daily meditation, and last year I decided to share the first meditation I ever learned, one that takes you on a seven-minute journey of visualization and embodiment of the majesty of a mountain, the rootedness of a tree, and the serenity and clarity of a lake. I’m so happy to share this! I still use it often.

You can click here to download it!

Thanks so much, Sue, for sharing your light here on Soul Speak!

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