Yes, you guessed it. It’s a New Year’s contemplation post. But relax, it’s schmaltz-and-cheese-free.
I’m not really a festive person, but I do embrace the reflective energies that swirl with the culmination of another year. Will much change after the 1st of January ticks over? Who knows. But it’s worth looking back on what was and setting some intention for what you want to create for your future.
You may have seen my post on Instagram about my last-minute opportunity to attend the Fusion Biz Co Christmas Party and how it felt meant to be that I got to attend.
Fusion creator Ashleigh Matkovic’s motto is, we leave our best selves at the door and bring our real selves to her events, which she iterated in her speech shortly after everyone arrived and settled in — to ditch the business hats and Insta-personalities and enjoy ourselves whether our year has been wildly successful or a complete shocker.
The food, music, decor, ambience, and energy everyone brought were on point for the breezy summer evening overlooking the Swan River and cityscape. Hugs from familiar faces pleased to each other were soon followed by inevitable questions about how you and your business are going.
I didn’t honey coat it.
This year ruthlessly sucked in my personal life, and it made showing up in my business and reaching my goals hard (I didn’t get there with a few of them).
What I didn’t share in my post (TL: people won’t read) was that I was compassionately received by the women I had that conversation with, and it cleared the space for them to share how they too have had hectic family and life matters outside of business.
We’re all working tirelessly, growing ourselves and our businesses and performing the glossy gregariousness of social media while traversing life’s plot twists.
If you’re Perth-based, Fusion Biz Co is a fantastic networking group not only for its fun-filled events.
The looming collective shadows
The past few years have been so much to navigate externally as well, and the bell curve of tragedy and suffering is on a continually disturbing upswing. It’s led many of us to paths of greater awareness because we’re well tired of the degenerate status quo and living unconsciously.
It’s beyond devastating to witness what’s taking place, and it can sometimes feel like our life and business desires are trivial or egotistical. But I see it as part of the medicine the world needs if we’re operating with clear purpose and intention, are aware of our actions and behaviours, and create boundaries that repel anything that’s unaligned with — not only the life we want for ourselves — but the world we want.
The old must indeed crumble for the new to emerge, which is what we are here to co-create. One of the ways I see our energy being siphoned in this chaos and destruction though, is fear and scarcity setting in – believing there isn’t enough for everyone or that prosperity is a devious quest while others are suffering immensely.
Something I am learning is when we operate from this place; we deny our divinity, and when we deny our divinity, we can’t see it in others.
In these moments I come back to my vision, truth and values that brought me here in the first place because:
“We are not just creating a business or offering a service; we are birthing a legacy.
A legacy of courage, of healing, of hope.
A legacy that says, “I chose to do things differently. I chose to honour my heart, our planet, and our humanity.”
~ Leandra Rose
No one said it was easy, but anything worth doing rarely is.
Shedding Skins, Planting Intentions
If you’ve followed me for a while, you’ll know there’s much about the brand and marketing world that makes me want to flip tables because it:
🌵provokes people’s fears and insecurities rather than empowering them to activate, expand and heal by answering the call of their deepest yearnings
🌵are aspects that put business newbies completely off wanting to promote themselves and;
🌵keeps people out of courageous expression because they think they have to be a particular way to succeed.
Especially my soul-led friends in the holistic health and natural healing and medicine spaces.
Looking back on 2023’s lessons and releasing the energies of hardship and lack that attached to me through this, I’ve been thinking about what I want to bring more of into 2024 (in addition to creating and teaching everything contrary to the above).
Two words came to me when I was journaling before Christmas.
✨Tenacious and Audacious✨
Because you need tenacity and audacity to keep going. Plus, they sound great together, right? I think the connected words of this blog title can also be sprinkled in: Grace, Grit, Gratitude and Growth.
Holiday Podcast Picks
⚜️Potent Truth with Ruby Fremon. For today’s leaders (that’s you) who want to gather to question the narrative and lead with sovereignty.
⚜️Brand Gravity with Kaye Putnam. While she’s pausing her show in 2024, there are a ton of great listens on all things (no BS) branding and marketing and it’s relationship with science and psychology.
⚜️Sales Without Socials with Tanya Williams. The name says it all. Here for it.
⚜️Biz Secrets Exposed – Fusion Biz Co interviews with Australian business owners who have done all the things, learned the lessons, and are running profitable businesses they love.
We bless this year for all we learned,
for all we loved and lost
and for the quiet way it brought us
nearer to our invisible destination.
[Excerpt] At The End of The Year – John O’Donohue
As we journey toward our invisible destination, may we have the courage to speak and live our truth and be as present as possible for the ride.
Fullest blessings to you and your families for 2024.
Carmen
