113 | Legacy, Leadership & Believing in Your Gifts with Rachel Proctor

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It’s an honor to welcome Rachel Proctor, an online educator helping people transform their lives through faith and online business to our Rising Women Leaders community. We touched on all the challenges we face as entrepreneurs in the online world: fear, self-doubt, the inner critic, comparing ourselves to those who are our inspirations, how to handle trolls and so much more.

Rachel not only shares her firsthand experiences, vulnerable moments, challenges and successes rising as a leader in online business, but also through running a campaign for mayor in her town outside of Dallas, Texas. If you’ve been having trouble believing in yourself, your gifts or your dreams, you may just find the motivation you need to take your first step in today’s conversation.

In this episode we discussed:

• Making courageous business decisions (even when the odds are against you)

• Finding your unique voice in a crowded mediascape  

• How to approach what scares us through mindset practices

• How “failing” leads to our greatest success stories

• How to navigate “compare and despair” in entrepreneurship

• What Rachel learned from six years in local politics and her reflections after running for mayor in her town outside of Dallas, Texas

• How to navigate the people who “attack” or speak up against you when you are taking big strides in your life and career

• The role of faith in Rachel’s life and work as an entrepreneur

• Bringing Black business owners/entrepreneurs to the forefront through education and building upon the principles and actions used by previous generations of Black business owners to achieve success in the face of inequality

Stay in Touch with Rachel:

• Instagram

• Website

Stay in Touch with Rising Women Leaders:

• Patreon

• Instagram

• Facebook Group

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Author, speaker, and second-generation entrepreneur Rachel L. Proctor helps people turn ideas into successful online businesses. A self-proclaimed market research junkie, Rachel has hit seven-figure sales marks as she’s built a versatile and trusted learning resource hub for aspiring and successful business owners alike. Dedicated to equipping entrepreneurs with the skills needed for success, Rachel provides free business training on concepts including branding, budgeting, profitability, productivity, and more. With an emphasis on real-world skills, accessible technology, and holistic learning, Rachel helps students pinpoint their unique ideas and turn them into profitable, life-changing business ventures.

It's okay to wait for your ripeness

It’s the time of year where blackberries are ripening in my backyard, however, many of them are still not ready to come off the vine. Have you ever tried eating a blackberry when it was not quite ripe?  

Even if there's just a little bit of resistance to pull it off, it will be sour.

However, if you are patient, the blackberry ripens and will be so sweet, and so easy to pull off.

I've been taking the wisdom of the blackberry to heart this summer and reminding myself it's okay to slow down and wait for my ripeness.

I've been remembering that the times in my life where I pushed before I was ready, it felt like a struggle.  

If you are willing to be patient, willing to wait for your ripeness, it will be easy.

Where have you been feeling a struggle in your life?  Could it be that you're pushing before your ready?  Maybe it's time to listen to the wisdom of the blackberry, to be in the joy of waiting for your ripeness.

I have lots of projects, ideas and creations in the works now, including a new one-on-one offering  for creative, wild & free women with an entrepreneurial spirit.

I'm excited to share more as these projects come into their ripeness.  Stay tuned for more info coming soon...

With love, gratitude & patience,

Meredith

How I started earning more money doing what I love (and other insights on manifestation)

This past January I participated in a potent Vision meditation practice for 40 days. Every day I did this practice consisting of meditation, pranayama, chanting, mantra, mudra and quite literally, standing up to declare my heart's vision.

So what is a vision? And what was I saying everyday?

A vision is a written and spoken intention of your highest self.  It is written and spoken in the present tense to tune yourself to this highest power and start living the vision.

Here are some lines from my vision:

• I am financially independent.  I am earning my living through doing what I love: teaching yoga and health coaching
• I am participating in female mentorship and collaboration
• I am fulfilling my soul's purpose
• I am teaching others to rest, align, and love themselves first
• I am breaking through my blocks and fears to have an amazing 6 month program for my clients
• I am an inspiration to everyone around me
• I am touching the lives of more people through my teachings

Every day I stood up and read my heart vision out loud.  It is a powerful practice to imagine your future self and then voice that intention in the present tense, every day, for 40 consecutive days.

So what happened after 40 days?

• My yoga schedule shifted: I was asked to teach a new class with higher attendance
• My other yoga classes started having higher attendance
• I had a phone call with a female mentor I admire
• New female mentors in my life appeared.  Wise older female yoga teachers became accessible to me where I live
• I brought in $500 more per month through doing what I love: yoga and health coaching

And the biggest thing that happened on day 40 of the practice:

• 15 people directly told me "You are an inspiration!" or "You inspire me!" These came through comments on facebook, messages, emails and text messages for a variety of different reasons all on the same day - the last day of my heart vision practice. One source was from this facebook Post 

I couldn't believe it. 15 people from all directions telling me the exact words I used in my vision practice??

What I realized from all of this was that I was tuning my energy to become what I was saying.  Every morning when I said, "I am an inspiration to everyone around me," my actions were guided throughout the day.  I was subconsciously choosing to speak from a place of guidance and live from my heart.  I was listening to my intuition and the posts I made on social media were inspiring others.

When you consistently imagine your highest vision for yourself, you begin to believe it and become it. {tweet it}

Needless to say, I am a strong believer in holding a vision and having a consistent practice to manifest that vision.

It can create dramatic change in your life to shift your thoughts.  You will start receiving the guidance you need to reach your goals.   You will suddenly be in the right place at the right time.  You will find yourself sitting next to just the right person you need to meet.  Ideas will drop into your mind and you won't know where they came from!

So, if you are curious about manfestation, and want to hear more about my 40 day practice, be sure to sign up for my free teleseminar tomorrow night at 6 pm pacific for "Magic," the first class in a series of 3 free phone calls.  You'll learn my top 3 tips for a manifestation, 6 key steps for a manifestation practice, and a group guided meditation.

You'll also be the first to hear about my upcoming group program where I will be teaching a 40 day practice for an intimate group of women to support each other in manifesting their vision.

I'd love to hear your stories of manifestation in the comments below...  Have you ever changed your thoughts and saw them manifest in your daily life?  If so, share your story!

Love,

Meredith

On money and miracles

I've been reading this book: The Law of Divine Compensation by Marianne Williamson.

The wisdom of this book has been finding its way into my yoga classes, so I thought I would share some of my insights here.

One of the first lessons in the book is, when bad things happen, remind yourself, "I can absorb the loss," let go, and move on.

The day after I read this lesson, I got a parking ticket.  Not just some $15 parking ticket, but a $48 parking ticket.  That's almost fifty dollars!  I very well knew to move my car, but absentmindedly forgot.

Before reading this book, I would have made myself feel pretty bad about it.  But that day, something in me shifted and I said to myself, "I can absorb the loss."

I paid the ticket, and I moved on with my life.  I didn't let guilt build up or let my inner critic say negative things inside my mind.

Marianne reminds us that only love is real.  When bad things happen, whether or not you attracted them into your life, you can always realign yourself back with love to keep attracting more of what's good.  However, if we hold on to the pain, the anger, and the negative emotions, we block our next miracle to make things right.

That same week, 4 of my yoga classes doubled in size, and I signed on a new client for health coaching.  It was like the universe saw the loss, recognized my shift in consciousness and immediately realigned to make up for it (and some)!

The second insight that stayed with me was about forgiveness.  Forgiveness - especially to those we have worked with in the past is so crucial to clear our money consciousness.  Marianne suggests imagining a long line of people you are working with, or have worked with before and bow before every person standing in the line.

"Within your heart, bless, apologize, and forgive wherever necessary.  And complete forgiveness is necessary, if we're to attract and produce miracles."

Then she suggests creating another line of people:  everyone you're working with or could be working with now.  Again, inwardly, bow before the spirit of each one.  "Acknowledge their gifts and thank them for what they have done for you.  Fill your heart with an attitude of appreciation.  Pray to be a vessel of love that invokes their fulfillment and joy.  Pray that your energy expands to such an extent that it would be natural for you to find yourself in a room with such people, working and creating with them."

I did this exercise one night as I was falling asleep, and imagined funnelling love to the person I want to work with most in my life.  I prayed to be a vessel of greater good in that person's life.  Even though it seemed like an impossible fate - the next morning she called me.

I share this to remind you, miracles are real.  When you release negativity and shift your consciousness to align with love, and believe that only love is real, the universe will open to you and all you need will be provided.

The thing is, It won't always look exactly how you imagined it.  "God's promise is not that we will always get what we want.  It's that in all things love will ultimately prevail."

We must let go our attachment to form to realize form is limited, but spirit is not.  The universe is not invested in exactly what you want, but it is invested in your enlightenment.  When we let go of form, we often realize we are fine without it, which then either attracts it or something even better.

Whatever blocks are in the way of you achieving the life you want to live and the financial abundance you want to have, are in your mind.

As Marianne says, "Seek to remove your barriers to love, and miracles will replace them."

In deep gratitude for this work. ~ Meredith