Miss Mandie

Something extraordinary has occurred for me the past few days. I discovered “real” people on the internet.

I’m not talking about friends on facebook. Or the people blogging about their lives from their basements. Or the people you find on loved up chat rooms.

I’m talking about people who are making money from doing what they do best by being “real” about it. I mean, really, real. Like talking to you like you’re a human being real, rather than just a potential sale.

This snowball of discovery started with Naomi at IttyBiz.com. I found her when I was stumbling through the internet looking for information to help me with my marketing assignment.

First thing I noticed about Naomi is that she is honest.

Brutally honest. About marketing. Business. Her life.

She also uses the f* word in her blog.

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I should have known this tree wasn’t going to last forever. My track record in gardening would have been enough of an indication I would kill it eventually. But I had one. Oh, such a glorious, abundant money tree, so easily accessible through the convenience of my trusty electronic card. I lived for three years with my money tree; the tree that sprouted from my decision to sell up and hand over the keys to my inner city apartment and undo the chains that were around my neck from its mortgage. I travelled, I volunteered, I socialised, I soul searched, I learnt Reiki, I daydreamed, I studied. All the while giving very little thought to the exchange of my time for any currency.

Then one day, last October, with an unexpected car repair bill (the consequence of the 10,000km road trip to the centre of this great country of mine), it died. No more. The tree just fizzled up and died.

Now you would think that for most people, it would mean the shake up to a reality that might involve full-time work and the end of the holiday as such. Not I; she who believes in the law of attraction!  My life didn’t have to change given my magic money tree had gone. Thankfully the Australian Government would support me now that I was by their standards, or by anyone’s standards, dead broke. Things were going along fairly smoothly. I sold items of any value off that I wouldn’t miss too much. I picked up a few hours here and there at the local health food store. I even managed to work full-time for one week back in February. The Universe was doing a good job of looking after me from week-to-week.

But suddenly, as what little money I had from the things I sold disappeared, and the few hours I did work dried up, I noticed that in actual fact, I was more than dead broke. I was now careering backwards into a debt ditch with no visible means of digging myself out (a metaphor made even more appropriate if you know of my previous track record with driving). But what’s going on here…I believed in the law of attraction!? So Universe, where’s my bloody money!?

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There a few sure fire signs when my attitude to life takes a turn: I stop updating my facebook status, I stop exercising and I start reminiscing about working full-time. Yep, I know, tragic. But as tragic as it sounds, it just occurred.

It was prompted after the Great Easter Campout at The Forest, with 13 of my darling friends and 9 of their kids pitching tents around my yard. The weekend was chaotic, messy, fun and heartwarming. My kitchen turned into a brothel within minutes of it being cleaned, the boys couldn’t wait to burn everything in sight on the campfire, and kids were having major sugar meltdowns by Sunday evening. But all in all, we functioned rather harmoniously, sharing food and watching whoever’s kid was right in front of us…the whole weekend kind of echoed of the commune-style living that you imagine the original hippies of this area would have lived like.

Then as quickly as this impromtu community sprung up, it packed up and headed home. Headed home with their family members in tow, to their jobs and mortgages, to the weekly social gatherings with one another in Brisbane, to the cycle of life that revolves around the whole Monday-Friday gig.

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The proposed "reiki studio"

I have lots of business ideas. Most of which are shelved until I finish my life coaching qualification. But one I had seemed like the perfect solution to making use of a great little studio on my property and getting me some extra cash while I am studying. I wanted to convert the guest studio into a reiki studio. I had the view I could entice some city gals to have a “girl’s afternoon” at my place. They could sip tea on the verandah. Enjoy the views. Be still and calm, while they took it in turn to have a reiki and massage session with yours truly. I thought it was a great idea!

It escalated into an even better idea when I ran into one of my neighbours in The Forest who is also a reiki practitioner. A practitioner in need of a space to practice. Perfect! She could use the space too for a small contribution. I was getting excited about creating this beautiful space. I even managed to compromise with my landlord about reducing the number of colours in the room…I got him down from four to two. We settled on keeping the green and blue. I could repaint the purple and yellow. I was going for a “serene” look, I told him in earnest.

Then, in a style that has permeated my entire career, largely in the world of communications and management, I decided to be open and honest and let others know what I had planned and confirm that it was okay for me to go ahead with this idea. It was an interesting process, being passed along from person to person. I quickly realised that no-one wanted to be that final person to give me the ultimate permission to proceed.

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