confidence vs. blind faith: rock ‘em both

confidence

: Is earned. No exceptions. There are NO short cuts to initiation. Ever. It's law. You can do it quick n' dirty, (think: near death experiences, starter marriages done at the Lusty Lady Chapel in Vegas, trauma and tragedy, the 1999 dot com boom, winning the lottery.) Or you can do it slow, like, over life times kind of slow. But confidence is the result of insight and insight comes from experiencing things on a very deep level.

: Confidence is an arrow ommming to the target. Ommm. Spwack! Bull's eye.
: Confidence has a past. She has lost something before. (Dignity.) She's been shaken (even if she never showed it.)
: Confidence wavered and then went on to finish the race.
: Confidence goes in eyes wide open.

You need confidence to lead, to sustain, and to offer the kind of straight up compassion that transforms people.

blind faith

: Is exhilarating, caffeinated, giddy.
: Blind faith is like a race car. He white knuckles the wheel and hopes he makes the curve. Fhew.
: Blind faith is fresh. She recruits chance, destiny, and the good will of others. She prays, wishes, crosses her heart, and cozies up to luck, symbols and "signs." (It's a sign!)
: Blind faith gets carefree and careless confused. (It's okay, this is healthy chaos.)
: Blind faith tends to give up more easily, but regardless of that, blind faith is incredibly endearing.

You need blind faith to build confidence.

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art + cash, truth + freedom: recent interviews

I've been asked some great questions lately by lovely seekers and servants of entrepreneurship. Please dig in.

LifeDev.net with @Glen Stansberry

Glen: Money and Art seem to always be at odds. This is a massive deal for MANY wanting to stay true to themselves, but still make money. Good money, even.So here’s the Million Dollar Question: How do you create a personal brand, without selling out?

Danielle:...If you create a personal brand that isn’t deeply personal, you’ve already sold out.

The vast majority of artists I know (from writers and craftspeople, to software developers and designers) don’t have any quams with making money – and lot’s of it if possible. What makes them all weird is the marketing of their stuff, they don’t want to sell out and become an infomercial. It understandable, because we live in a culture of false advertising and the slick, hard sell. It’s dangerous turf for sure. But this is where you need to diligently carry your personality forward. It’s not enough to have an authentic, integrity-driven offering, you need to sell it in a way that is true for you. If you’re slick, be slick. If you’re subtle, be subtle. Just be consistent. And above all, be passionately proud of what you’re bringing to the world.

>> READ THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE

AuthenticatiKate.com with @katenorthrup

Kate: I find that, often, people (meaning myself) are unaccustomed to telling the truth. And my question is, what do you suggest for those of us who’ve been raised to be afraid of the truth, if we want to start to peel back the layers and start telling it like it is?

Danielle: Hang out with people who do tell the truth. Learn from example. Get interviewed. Start telling the truth to yourself.

Here’s a formula: Start telling the truth to yourself in as many ways as possible. And then start telling the truth to a few more people. Extend. I see it as concentric circles. So, you can tell yourself the truth when you look in the mirror. You can tell yourself the truth when you’re journaling. You can tell yourself the truth when you’re getting dressed, when you’re dancing, when you’re getting yourself off, when you’re going shopping. There’s lots of ways to tell yourself the truth. You can tell yourself the truth by drawing it out. Yeah, it’s about expression. And then tell one good friend, and then tell two good friends. And then start telling the people you work with, and then start telling strangers.

>> READ THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE

PurposefulProduct.com with @samrosen

Integrity branding, stripping it down to your truth, and as Sam calls it, "the mystical fog of creating product."

>> LISTEN TO THE RECORDING HERE

 

escaping? from what? your pain? or your power?

Escapism. Most new age gurus say we're expert in it. I can't disagree. We're distracted. Denatured. We're overbooked. We tend to be disconnected from our divine nature, the food we eat, the shit we buy, the eyes we look into -- our own and others.

We buffer-numb out-avoid-distract ourselves with TV, caffeine, drugs, getting off, gossiping, complaining, and otherwise meaningless conversation, shopping (more aptly, "stuffing"), working working tweeting surfing work email work work -– all to avoid feeling particular things. This is what the Buddhists would call "The Principle of Death." Keep it safe, keep it small. At all costs, avoid life.

The self-help book aisle is busting with the theory that what we're running from is our demons. Sadness, grief, emptiness, loneliness. Pain.

PAIN MANAGEMENT
Personally, I haven't run from my pain. I compensated for it. I spent so much time accommodating it, "working with it", paying attention to it –- NOT avoiding it, that I neglected my very agency and power: my joy. Unbridled, unabashedly sweet, essential joyousness.

I'm recovering Metaphysical Overachiever. After I got done being a good Catholic girl I moved on to being a Good New Age Girl. Subtly, I just swapped one gospel with the other. I just wanted to get it right, you know. I was up for facing demons. Bring them on -- and the more analysis the better. Crusading all the way.

Continually staring down your demons can be an act of avoidance all it's own.
Recapitulating the reasons for your hurts, and isms, and faults can become addictive in and of itself.
Eventually, you have to stop picking a fight with your true nature and decide to seek the joy that underlies it All.

BLISS IS BIG
I got caught up enough in going where the pain was ("brave", "evolved",) that I avoided going where the delight was. And here's what I figured out, (later than I hoped but just in time): I have not shied from pain, oh no. I have shied from ecstasy. Surprisingly, (thankfully!) ecstasy is quite patient. After all, she starts with a slow burn.

When I take the certain routes to awakeness, through the portals of breathing, laughter, stillness, spontaneity; when I exercise the courage to not fill up space with empty conversation, with the tube, with busyness, it's not my pain that I most often meet in such presence -- it's my power.

When I override my senses, refuse to bend, when I check my email just one more time before I make time for me, when I eat even though I'm full, when I hold myself back from a bursting expression of "I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!" because I don't want to be too much, it's not my pain that I'm avoiding -- it's my very life force.

So which of these concepts would you rather investigate?:

"avoiding your pain"
or
"avoiding your power"

The cosmic twist is that both routes lead home. But how you make the trip to enlightenment is up to you. Pack light.

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11 wisdoms that you can turn into cash…and crazy love

or: WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT THE HUMAN SPIRIT + MONEY ON MY 41st BIRTHDAY

So I did this Pay What You Can Day (hereto referred to as PWYCD) for THE FIRE STARTER SESSIONS. On my birthday. Recently. Many people cheered me on for "clever marketing!" And hey, I did come out of the womb with my own press release, but, you know, this wasn't solely driven by a marketing impulse. I love the sentiment of giving gifts on your birthday. Giving feels good on any day. The PWYCD notion came to me just a few days before May 25 and, truly, I thought, Hey, what the hell? If, like 70 people get in on the deal, that'd be sweet. Ha! SEVEN HUNDRED+ e-books later, we lit up the sky with crazy delight and motivation.

What happened behind the scenes:
I went for a salt scrub that morning and when I came up for air to check my iPhone I almost fell off my lounger. Gobsmacked, as the Londoners say. My VA, Dawn and I just about keeled from the comments and the emails. (It took Dawn nearly two weeks to sort out the messages, PayPal invoices, currency exchanges, cheques, and special requests.) I got in my car and had to have a boo-happy-hoo. The stories sent to my personal email address were heart-stretching, sobering, inspiring. The outpouring of love and appreciation was stunning, and (and this is what moved me so deeply,) the spontaneous generosity sparked amongst White Hot visitors, well, that just about did me in. Between the spa steam, chocolate cake, and the PWYCD affection, I was a stun bunny.

It was a life-affirming, wisdom-bolstering, humbling event that ranks in the Top 3 highlights of my career (and birthdays!) Here's what it confirmed:

11 Wisdoms That You Can Convert to Cash + Crazy Love

1. Creativity + Aspiration = INGENUITY. And ingenuity wins, every time.

Make up your mind to make an effort and then make it up as you go.

"Here is a promise and my offer. 1) I will pay this gift forward. 2) I will hold you in the Light with an intention for abundant blessings on you, your family, your ventures, and your efforts to make the world a better place. 3) I'll send you 10% of every payment I receive from every client until the entire $150 is paid off."
- Eydie

"If I sell a painting this week, I'll send you $100. If I don't sell anything, will $41 do?"
- Lisa

2. Initiative and specificity are sexy.

"I've got $37.80 in my PayPal account. It's yours. Right now. (I wish it were so much more.) I will Tweet your praises and send you a full testimonial within two weeks of receiving the book."
- Andi

3. Humility is the inroad to conviction.

The stories of hardship, and resiliency, and exceptional wealth that were so open-heartedly shared with me from women and men in four different countries...well, be still my heart. I had flashbacks to my own days in the New Mexico welfare office after I'd lost three clients in two weeks. I had flash-forwards to my intentions for sweeping financial freedom.

"I am a broke, unfunded graduate student & I work part time and a children's bookstore to feed my belly while I stoke my soul. I'd like to offer $30, a multiple of three, a great fairy tale number. And when my first book is published, you'll be in the Acknowledgments.
- Natasha

"My situation: I am currently unemployed - but am stirred up, expectant, and on purpose. I hope to use your vook to successfully launch a blog of my own. I am most humbled by your generosity and am offering to pay $75 USD."
- Rah

"I'm a single mom of two, getting food stamps, with plenty of ambition and smarts and vision. I'm good for $30 this month."
- Sasha

Sharing your story is the surest way to create a unified field of empathy. And empathy moves mountains.

4. Generous people have more to give.

"Danielle, I'd like to offer $150 but in a spread-the-love way. I'd like to:
1. give $50 directly to you,
2. give $50 to whichever of these (http://u.nu/366pa) Gulf oil spill rescue & cleanup initiatives you'd like me donate to, &
3. give a final $50 on behalf of someone who can't afford to pay anything at all for the sessions because they've done something very brave (like for instance, a woman leaving an abusive relationship with her young kids)"
- Kye

(This gesture of Kye's started a domino affect. We gave out about a dozen Fire Starter Sessions "scholarships" and paired up the donor with the recipient.)

"I would like to humbly offer you $28.44. I know this is not a lot and does not do justice to the work that you have put in to your Fire Starter Sessions. I am offering you this amount because it is the entire amount of extra money that have outside of the finances that I have put aside for rent and other similar things. If you accept my offer, I promise that I will pay it forward and make sure to share both my experience with the Fire Starter Sessions and the generosity that you have shown. I can also send some vegan baked goods your way."
- Lexi

"I would like to offer you $25 for the FSS. In addition, here is my deal to you:
~ Within the next 6 months, I will pay the remaining $125 to pay the full amount.
~ By your 42nd birthday, I will not only book an actual Fire Starter Session with you, but I will also pay another $150 so that someone who either cannot swing today's offer or does not know about it can enjoy FSS, too."
- Mary

"Offering $75 for FSS and $75 for the Gulf clean up efforts - just let me know which one of those charities you prefer."
- CJ

"I can pay $50 for Fire Starter Sessions and in a month or two give another $50 to my friends organization in Haiti on your behalf." Check http://www.fida-pch.org "
- Bronwyn

"I love this idea so much that I'm offering $200. I've had a tab open on your site since you launched, planning to buy when the moment was right. I'd say this is it."
- Oroboros

5. Giving begets giving.

This flipped me right 'round:

"I'd like to gift a copy to my fabulous friend Jo Hanlon-Moores. She is brilliant and funny and talented. And her business is growing from a little acorn. I want to bring her some fire :)"
- Sas Lockey

"I can pay the full amount and am going to because your amazingly generous offer reminded me of just how very lucky we are and we live our lives by these three words - dignity, integrity and love. I hope that by paying in full I can help subsidize a copy for someone else."
- Sophie

"I'd like to give you $100 directly for the Fire Starter Sessions, and $50 to a charity of your choice."
- Melissa

6. You must heed the impulse to give. Generosity is a core muscle that your whole being can move on.

"Today has been full of unexpected gifts and I am now able to increase my offer to $100. Reading the comments in response to your generous offer I am struck by the power of sharing our gifts. I feel so blessed to have this opportunity within my own work, and you've inspired in me a grand vision for an annual pay-as-you-can gift to my extended community."
- Sarah Juliusson

7. When you give people a break, they want to -- and usually will -- go the distance for you.

"I wanted to ask for FSS for $50, but I can actually afford the full price if I'm honest. But your generosity forces me to either pay in full or not at all. Sigh. Stupid freakin integrity..."
- Andrew Lightheart

"I only have about $50 extra bucks a month, but I want to pay the full price because I know it's worth it."
- Sam

"I'd love to pay the full $150, but with the tight spot I'm in, $40 would make my heart smile. I hope that works for you. I'd be honored to pay the balance, or make a donation to charity in your name, once my business is up and running."
- Brian

"I sold three memberships to my small site today, so that's $60. I'd like to offer that as payment for the course right now."
- Magpie Girl

8. Scarcity creates anxiety.

(This fact alone gives me cause to never do another time-sensitive event like this. I'm not saying that I won't but...whoa.) We were bowled over by dozens of emails to this affect: "Did you accept my offer?" Some people left their price offer as a blog comment, then emailed me AND my VA, and also messaged me on Twitter, and in some cases, also left a message on Facebook. The sense of urgency was...urgent! I was shocked, because, in my mind (which of course I expected thousands of people to read), I intended to honour a huge range of offers. Need + want + restriction = urgency. And the tighter the restriction, the more likely that urgency will turn into anxiety.

9. Money makes people get all weird n' stuff.

Money is like a chemical. Some chemicals mix nicely with other chemicals, some don't. With my PWYCD experiment, some folks got downright demando, "I left my comment/offer this morning and I STILL haven't heard back from you." Chill. And I'm not saying to back off just 'cause you got a hot deal (tho' that is a factor,) I'm saying chill because "chill" is generally better for world peace and your complexion. When money and trust occupy the same space, things move forward.

10. Generosity + healthy boundaries clearly communicated = ahhhh.

It's fair to say that in the (now distant) past, I may have had some uh, boundary issues with my giving nature. So although I very clearly stated in the PWYCD announcement: "This offer expires at midnight PST May 25, just like my birthday does. And I'm serious about it." I was still fretting about the possibilities of pleading, after-the-fact requests. But I only got a couple of such requests and they were so gracious and dignified and sincere, that it was a total (healthy) pleasure to honour them.

11. Humanity is, on the whole, generous, loving and kind. People want to give.

And when you operate on that foundational premise, you are actively allowing amazing things to happen.

QUESTIONS?
I'm opening up this conversation to answer any questions about the behind the scenes happenings, technological do's and snafus, emotions, and outcomes of the PWYCD extravaganza. Let 'em fly!

And...thank you.

Ever true,

. . . . . . . . .

$150 for the full-tilt FIRE STARTERS SESSIONS love.

And! $5 from every copy goes to the charity you choose:
The Acumen Fund or Women for Women International

Click here to view the full
Table of Contents!

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11 things to do (and not do) when you’re burned out

Life balance? It doesn't exist. (Proportion, however does.)
Burn out? It's just a given for mad scientists and artists (and so very many of us are artists. MuWahahaaaa!)

I planned for this intense regeneration phase I'm in right now (read: burn out). In fact, I intended it. Three+ round-the-clock creative months on The Fire Starter Sessions book, one purchase of a new abode, big launch day, followed three days later by a move, followed by the most overwhelming need for stillness I've ever experienced. Perfectly fried. Naturally. And quite contentedly.

How to meet your burn out with an open heart and mind:

1. Cease keeping a to-do list. It's critical in burnout phases that you restore your connection to your instincts and natural rhythm--those same instincts that you likely had to override in part to achieve your goal. Not having a to do list does a few important things for your psyche: it immediately puts you in holiday-lite mode and it gives your brain space to re-jig what's important. Because if it's really and truly important, you WILL remember it. If it's critical, it will get done. When the spirit moves you, you will let yourself be moved.
2. Keep a schedule. This may sound counter-logical to easing up on yourself and nixing your to-do list. But often when we complete massive projects we can feel discombobulated or adrift. And since there are still the details of life and business to attend to, you don't want to let those smaller, non-urgent details encroach on all the space that's been freed up--that new, free space is for re-charging and partying. My re-generate schedule has "OFF" written on three days of this week. And on other days, I ink in really basic stuff that I'd normally cram into a full day, like "groceries, bank, pick up gift for Karis." And, I even make notes to myself to...
3. Schedule in sleep. This sounds goofy, but allotting time for extra sleep does something to your head-zone. It breaks the pattern of over-work, it signals your body to gear down for rest, and the mere act of writing it down officially gives you permission that you probably have a hard time giving yourself because you're so used to kicking ass rather than kicking your feet up.
4. Plan to do one Busy Luxury Thing that would make you giddy, but has felt like a waste of precious time. This week, I'm tidying up my iTunes and cranking out some new playlists. Why is this a good thing? Because my mind has been in productive over-drive for months and I want to ease out of that high. It's great to feel like you're downshifting to take in the view, not crashing into the the guardrail.
5. Recapitulate your work process and your success. It may all be a blur. But walk yourself through the inception and birth of your project. It's so important to objectively see how you managed to finish the race.
6. Return to your roots. You'll probably have a few emails to return after long-term neglect of loved ones and society. The best place to start can be with the comfort of familiar friends who loved you long before you slam dunked your big goal. The familiar can be such luscious comfort. This not only includes people, but favourite books, poetry, songs, movies, places.
7. Do not start anything new. For the love of God, stop. You're allowed to have new phantasmogorical ideas (indeed, now that your mind is freed up, you probably will have a whole new set of visions.) You can make notes. But do not activate anything. Projects started in the glow of burnout fumes have a way of fizzling out fast.
8. Express your gratitude. This is the sweetest part of regenerating. Send thank you emails, make phone calls, mail cards, send flowers, dole out bonuses. You didn't cross the finish line alone. We never do.
9. Be generous. Generosity when you're fried can be one of the most healing and restorative acts of all.
10. Wholly embrace the organic nature of create-fry-regenerate. Guilt and pressing on with super-hero stamina is three steps back. Down time is natural as John Denver in the early days.
11. Trust. It's hard for me to think that I'm not being creative, productive, contributive, moving forward--at the speed of light and love 24-7. Maybe this is a psyche workaround but it's recently and more deeply occurred to me that even in the resting, new things are being born, dying to be born, in fact. And it delights me to no end to imagine what's next.

But first...there's that nap I've scheduled in, followed by a bitta Rilke, and tea with an old friend.

. . . . . . .

My web guy, Paul Jarvis of twothirty.com, is so web-hot that he gets to name a WordPress theme after himself. He just launched JARVIS. Jarvis is a customizable WordPress theme, a hosted solution, and a set of plugins for excellent value. If you need to stand up a site and dont' want to lay out $3K to do it, this is a fab option. I've worked on a lot of sites with Paul over the years and I can tell you that he is one solid, smart, logical dude -- which is just what you want in your code. CHECK OUT JARVIS HERE.

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21.5.800: yoga, writing, life living

Hey hey, today (June 8) begins Bindu Wiles' (aka my fav Brooklyn-based Buddhist) way cool "21.5.800" community project. I'm all over it (and it's taking off like wild fire already.) It's just the right kind of creative crazy for me now.

For 21 days, we’ll be doing 5 days of yoga a week and 800 words of writing per day.

THE WRITING: The writing can be ANYTHING. Memoir, blogs, business plans, essays, fiction, free-writing, letters……ANYTHING. The point is to get writing again daily and to have the boundaries and challenge of a daily word count to reach.

THE YOGA: There are several options for you to do the yoga portion of 21.5.800 5 times in 7 days. Here are the options: 1. Go to a yoga class in your ‘hood. 2. Do a yoga dvd at home. 3. Take a 20-40 minute savasana* at home on the floor.

JOIN IN THE BEAUTY (and a bit of the brawn.) CHECK IT OUT HERE. SIGN UP. DO IT.

Follower Bindu on Twitter: @binduwiles

 

expand your life, take your dogma for a walk

I've looked at love from both sides now
From give and take, and still somehow
It's love's illusions I recall
I really don't know love at all
- Joni Mitchell

Dogma comes in all kinds of packaging -- usually just the right size to fit our insecurities and blind spots. The Greeks defined it as, “that which one thinks is true, good or decent.” Whether you’re fighting for peace (what a searing oxymoron that is,) or you’re converting meat-eaters to veggie burgers, you do what you do because it feels really good to think you’re right. We usually leave the dogma up to "them". You know, "them". But the fact is, that every single one of us is a dogma trouper at the end of the day. Fess up. Laugh at yourself. Get on the bus with all the other righteous bozos.

The church used to have the dogma market cornered, but celebrity culture and the corporations are vying for a hostile take over. Orders, orders everywhere: be good, get rich, be nice, and for God’s sake, be reasonable. There are keys to heaven, keys to the executive washroom, habits for effectiveness, principles for success. Diets. Day timers. And eeew, performance reviews. And how-to’s. Those how-to’s will really mess you up.

Humanist, creationist, capitalist. Pro-gay marriage, -immigration laws, -cigarette taxes. Past-lives, the rapture, the power of now...Dogma. All of it. Just cop to your version of it.

When you admit to your dogma and righteousness, you give yourself some wiggle room. And wiggling is flexible. And flexibility creates spaciousness And spaciousness is daring. And daring is dangerous. And dangerous is scary. And when we're scared, we tend to get...dogmatic.

But we need to return to continual questioning of our beliefs (and our faith) if we're interested in expanding. And communing. And the thrill of certainty. Without certainty, you go mad. Without inquiry, you wither.

LAUGH AT YOURSELF
Some friends and I got to hang with the Dalai Lama for a morning and we grilled him with questions on everything from interplanetary consciousness to politics. And before almost every answer he would laugh his baritone laugh and shake his head and say, “Oh I don’t know, I just don’t know.” It created so much space! Space to wonder.

Me? I think of all I thought I knew and I gotta laugh -- fondly, with a smidge of chagrin. And maybe I'll look back on how wizened I think I am today and bust a gut. Right about now, I care much more deeply about far less. I’m intensely certain about only a few select things in life. And I predict that my certainty will become even more simplified and narrow as I expand with life.

EXPEND EXPAND THE ENERGY
Dogma tends to have a long and viral shelf life because no one likes to admit to being an idiot. So lies get to stay on the payroll, like lazy Larry at the factory, because we unionize our systems of beliefs and we pay our dues because it's easier that way.

Fessing up to the follies of your dogma can burn a lot of energy -- like rockets do before they take off. And you might take some hard knocks (just ask Yusuf Islam aka, Cat Stevens). You might swim up stream for years (like Ariana Huffington on her way to the Democrats' camp.) You might have nothing to talk about with your circle of friends for a while.

But you certainly won't be complacent. And, you won't be tired. You'll be careening through the cosmos on your own terms. Positively certain that you're going the right way -- for now.

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pay what you can amazeballs: a brief update + plea for patience

re: it’s pay what you can day. happy birthday to…us!

So, like, I thought of doing this crazy "Pay what you can" event for The Fire Starter Sessions on my birthday. I didn't think much of it. I thought it would be great if 70 or so people jumped on the rad' offer. MY VA, Dawn, thought "No problem! We can so handle the response!" And while I was getting salt-scrubbed (because it was my birthday,) over SEVEN HUNDRED people made offers between $20 and $200 dollars. SURPRISE!

I accepted 99% of offers. And in the few cases where I did not, I sent out (or will be sending out) a complimentary chapter.

I'll be writing about the lessons learned and tears of wonderment and incredible stories soon. But for now: WE ARE PROCESSING ORDERS OUT THE WAZOO!

If you haven't heard from us yet, or have been invoiced but haven't received the link, please and pretty please lend us your patience. Processing 700+ orders is a very big job. A happy, delightful job, just takes a bitta time and patience.

Hang tight. Is will so be worth the wait.

Big Love,
Danielle
(and the amazing VA, Dawn, and the amazing elves recruited to help respond to the deluge.)

. . . . . . . .

INTERVIEWS

WomanzWorld cornered me in my favourite cafe to talk business. WATCH HERE

Toni Reece from The People Academy asked me about resistance and hope. READ HERE

 

it’s pay what you can day. happy birthday to…us!

It's my birthday on Tuesday May 25. (I'm 41. No need to lie about it because: a) I look great, and b) I feel...41 some days, 111 on others, and usually, about 30.)

You could send: orchids, fine milk chocolate or cashmere. Or some Pinion incense from Taos, or Amber oil from Bali. I'm also partial to gold hoop earrings and mystical poetry.

But if you send some cash - on May 25 - I'll give you a prezzie back, because until midnight Pacific Standard Time, May 25, it's:

PAY WHAT YOU CAN DAY FOR THE FIRE STARTER SESSIONS!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US!

This offer applies to my Fire Starter Sessions digital extravaganza e-book (not my 1-on-1 consults. I'm not that beatific.) This could be a total snafuzzle but what the hey, it worked for Naomi...

Here's how it works: you pay what you truly can. That's it.

1) Leave a comment in the comments box and tell me what price would make your heart smile. Then we'll send you a PayPal invoice. If you're not inclined to publicly declare that your Mastercard (and Visa) are way maxed and you'd like to send me three postdated cheques for $20 each, over the course of ten years, well then, we'll make it happen.
2) Once you pay, we'll zap you the access code to the book. You'll need to download the book within 24 hours of receiving the link.
3) You go light up your life and career.

Some disclaimers and emotionality:
: THE FIRE STARTER SESSIONS retails for $150 USD. A number of people have expressed that they think it's under-priced for the value. I'm cool with that.
: If you already have The Fire Starter Sessions and would like to gift it to someone at a pay-what-you-can rate, let us know who the lucky recipient is.
: This birthday offer is not retroactive.
: I reserve the right to veto ridiculous offers.
: If you feel inclined to pay the full price after you experience The Sessions, feel free.
: If you're independently wealthy and want to pay more than $150 for The Sessions, than that's just brilliant karma.
: I will take multiple payments over time (this works on the honour system. If you want to pay, say $30 in three installments, just let us know what your plan is.)
: For those of you who do not jive with PayPal or credit cards, you can mail a money order or a cheque (that's Canadian for "check") to: Danielle LaPorte, Box 78055, Grandview RPO, Vancouver BC, V5N 5W1

Repeat: this offer expires at midnight PST May 25, just like my birthday does. And I'm serious about it. If you're out of town, if you missed this email in your inbox...then the opportunity will have vanished. I like things, especially money things, elegant and simple (and generous.) So I'm extremely unlikely to do any other gimmicky stunts like this.

Make a wish! And and make me an offer...

With all the love in my heart,

. . . . . . . .

INTERVIEWS

: I'm a big fan of Adam Baker at Man vs. Debt, and after our interview, I'm convinced he needs his own TV show: WATCH HERE

: An interview with Kristin Harad about getting unstuck: LISTEN HERE