LISA BERKOVITZ ~ Inspired Lifestyle Design

There's something magnificent in the air since we moved into 2012. Can you feel it?

There are some TOTALLY cool things going on in my business since we moved into new year that I'm excited to share. The last quarter of 2011 was a lot about cleaning up loose ends, letting go of what was no longer in alignment, and incubating new ideas. That paved the way for all the new creation that's happening now.

Here are just a few of the things that are happening right now:

1. I'm in the process of designing a whole new web site that is about to be launched. The site you're on has been good to me, but it was originally built to be temporary, and it's time to evolve to my next level of expression. The new one is going to be hot!

2. I'm officially launching Project Sweet Spot with the new site! If you don't know about it, check out the blog post I wrote about it here:

http://www.lisaberkovitz.com/1/post/2011/06/project-sweet-spot-is-born.html

I am conducting my first interview for Project Sweet Spot this week, with a role model who's been on my 'wish list' of role models for quite some time already. Things are getting juicy around here - stay tuned!

3. I've just started writing a new column for Upmarket, the new online business magazine founded by Seth Godin and his team at Squidoo. The column is also called "Project Sweet Spot" and will share a key nugget learned from the role models who are interviewed as part of the over project.

4. I've just put together a very limited-time special offer for my coaching services for a handful of visionary entrepreneurs who are ready to make 2012 the year they bring their vision to life and step into their own sweet spots. Check out the details here and act quickly if you feel pulled (offer expires Friday, January 27th, midnight PST):

http://www.stepintoyoursweetspot.com/

There's no better time time to step up and shine in what you are meant to do on the planet, and I'd love to support you in that. What are YOU going to create in 2012?

Wise words 11/30/2011

Anything or anyone that does not bring you alive is too small for you. ~ David Whyte

When projects are incubating... 09/30/2011

I can't believe it's been two months since I last wrote. I've noticed this on the path to fulfilling your purpose: sometimes you need to pause (even though you feel like you want to keep moving forward!).

Project Sweet Spot started to take form and flight, and I then found myself naturally taking a pause. A pause to feel into my next step. There are so many ways that one can tell good stories, yet which one feels like the best fit for the stories that I want to tell?
It takes some discipline to trust that everything has its right timing, and you need to trust the feeling inside (it's sometimes pulling you forward in a certain direction and sometimes it stands still) even when your mind doesn't fully understand.

Telling people's stories is something I'm drawn to do because I've noticed how valuable it's been to me. Learning by studying the theory or model of how something works is useful, but only to a point. We all know that it isn't until you act on that learning that it becomes wisdom.

Reading or hearing other people's stories of how they created a result that you, yourself, want to create is definitely one of the most effective forms of learning on the planet. You get to hear how they turned knowledge into wisdom, an insight into a tangible outcome.

The last couple of months have been devoted to looking at how different people that I respect are choosing to tell the stories of, and share the wisdom gained by, living examples of the message that's important to them. I'm listening and learning, both from the content shared and by observing the business models they are using. More on that in future posts!

For now, I have so thoroughly enjoyed the people I've "met" through these interviews, I wanted to pass these awesome resources along to you:

The Rise to the Top with David Siteman Garland
With a following of over 200,000 people, David does awesome and inspiring business and lifestyle-related interviews with various "mediapreneurs", a term he uses to describe Internet-based entrepreneurs that have created a business around creating media/broadcasting.This includes podcaster, web TV hosts, video bloggers and bloggers. David's style is fun and the good energy is infectious (I can actually say that about each of these hosts listed here).

Check out David's great work here: http://www.therisetothetop.com/

The Aware Show with Lisa GarrLisa Garr hosts this very popular talk radio program that features best-selling authors and experts in the fields of natural health and personal growth. She is considered an expert in the field of lifestyle and transformational programming. I am currently listening to an interview she did with Bo Rinaldi, who teaches people how to eat a more plant-based diet to increase your energy and your focus, optimize your well-being and eradicate disease (fascinating!!).

Check out Lisa's great work here: http://www.theawareshow.com/

Healing with the Masters with Jennifer MacLeanJennifer MacLean created and hosts this widely-acclaimed teleseminar series that features prominent healers and thought leaders that are devoted to supporting the process of raising personal and global consciousness. Always fun and enlightening.

Check out Jennifer's great work here: http://www.healingwiththemasters.com/

WISH (Women's International Summit for Health) Teleseminar Series

I recently discovered Tera Warner and her site http://www.terawarner.com/. Her main work is focused on raw food cleansing and detoxification for women. She created a special teleseminar series called WISH, the Women's International Summit for Health, 40 interviews with leading health experts. If you sign up at her web site, you'll receive one interview per day (all free). These interviews are incredibly informative, I've been listening and learning so much from the range of experts she's showcased. Highly recommended.

Check out Tera's great work here: http://www.terawarner.com/

Soul Art TV Season 2: Thriving as a Creative Spiritual Entrepreneur
Laura Hollick is a gifted artist and coach (I've met her and she's delightful!) who is about to launch her second season of interviews with a series of accomplished creative spiritual entrepreneurs, interviewing them on how they thrive in their life and businesses doing what they are meant to be doing on this planet. Starting October 4th, you can sign up for the series at her web site. Everything Laura does is infused with beauty so you receive not only invaluable content, but you enjoy a feast for the eyes at the same time.

Check out Laura's great work here: http://www.soulartstudio.com/

Enjoy, and let me know how you like any and all of these that you check out for yourself! :)

Quote to Live By 07/31/2011

Let the beauty of what you love be what you do. ~ Rumi
(Imagine for a moment what this world would be like if people lived by this!!)

Project Sweet Spot is Born 06/27/2011

I promised to write more about my Eden Unplugged event experience as it integrated, and there's been little chance to do that over the past few weeks. Things have really been accelerating.

One of the greatest gifts I received from that event was the Tribal Marketplace Game. Each of us who attended had the opportunity to present a workshop to all the other entrepreneurs there based on whatever new product, service or business idea we wanted to offer to the marketplace.

We each had 1 minute to present our workshop topic for a limited number of workshop slots. Anyone who was not presenting a workshop idea would listen to the initial 1 minute presentations, and after everyone had presented, participants would simply go stand next to the person who was offering the workshop they most wanted to attend. Pretty simple but very powerful to get that immediate and physical feedback from the tribe.

I presented a workshop called "Project Sweet Spot" - an interactive discussion of the shift from the old paradigm of work and business (hard work, struggle, long hours and limited funds) to the new paradigm of work and business, which I am calling the Sweet Spot: greater ease, flow, fun and financial well-being. I had also invited two thriving entrepreneurs who struck me as living examples of working in their Sweet Spots to be on my panel and who I would interview as part of the workshop, Kendra Thornbury (http://www.kendrathornbury.com) and Rebecca Astara (http://www.destinationbliss.com)

The response was phenomenal, as person after person came to stand next me indicating their desire to come and listen to my workshop! When we actually conducted it, participants listened attentively, asked powerful and relevant questions, and heard the experiences of our panel members and what kinds of lessons they learned along the way of stepping into their own sweet spots. Here are just some of the dozens of lessons that emerged as part of that conversation.

When you are in your Sweet Spot, you will:
1. Lose track of time
2. Be energized by it no matter how long you are "working"
3. Feel like it comes very naturally to you
4. Feel like you are just being yourself
5. Find challenges are a lot easier to handle than they have been in the past

If you want to move into your Sweet Spot but are not there yet, you can expect you will need to:
1. Cultivate your faith and trust the process, even you don't have the answers or see the results you want yet
2. Do the necessary inner work and clear the inner blocks to allowing your good to come you
3. Make peace inside yourself that there will be people who do not understand why you are pursuing the path you are on and will tell you you're being unrealistic
4. Give yourself permission to experience joy daily
5. Be ultra aware of the signs and synchronicities affirming your direction and keep moving forward

What was most amazing about it for me was that I truly felt that I was in my own Sweet Spot as I led this workshop and interviewed Rebecca and Kendra. It was as easy and natural as breathing. And so I intend to be doing a LOT more interviews and events of this type!

If you are someone who is in your Sweet Spot, or know someone who is, please nominate them to be a person that I interview for Project Sweet Spot. My intent is to gather as many stories as I possibly can of people from all walks of life thriving in their Sweet Spots so we begin to build a critical mass, others can see and feel what it looks like, and they can learn how to move into their own unique Sweet Spots too. Everybody has one!

You can comment below or I've created a page on Facebook where you can nominate people you think I should interview here: facebook.com/ProjectSweetSpot (and if you feel inspired, please "Like" the page too!)

More fun to follow - stay tuned! :)

From Service to Creating 05/15/2011

WOW. I cannot yet quite put into words my experience at the Eden Unplugged event in Arizona. All I know is that things will be different from this point forward than they have been in the past. I experienced community like never before, connection, authenticity, soul expression and a deeper seeing and knowing between people. I will write more as I integrate more.

Meanwhile...I just read a fabulous post by Lauren Gorgo who writes the blog "Think with your Heart." She is a channeler and regularly writes energy reports that have been phenomenally aligned with my experience of the path to living from my deepest Essence. I love this passage which aligns completely with my knowing and with my plans for my own Great Work the planet. Now is the time to do what makes each of us feel most ALIVE and VIBRANT:

One further point that we would like to make with regard to this life-changing transition is that each of you are fully in control of your destinies now. It is no longer a place of coming together to create for the good of mankind, to fix what's broken, but a place of coming together to create from deep passion, from the unrelenting desire to make manifest your YOUnique contribution to the planet thru the pure reflection of your soulular self.

We are finally at a place of fully expressing our divinity in a way that expires our old (clearing) contracts and deeply embedded programming that we are here to "save the world". There is no saving or service required any longer….we are simply here now to share the part of ourselves that will, by default, uplift others. The shift is important here because when work from a place of "saving", we are holding on to the very paradigm that we are now breaking free from. NoCanDo.

The unseens want us to deeply understand that the new-earth pioneers are shifting from service to creation, which is a completely different energy construct.

Any need, desire or impulse to "save" the falling world comes from a polarized mind, lends energy to chaos, keeps us attached to the outworn and therefore restricted from our ability to create on the new timeline. Remember those words of one famous Albert Einstein...“Problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them”? It applies here. As the outside world continues to spiral into chaos it is imperative that we push thru to a higher level of thinking by remembering that lasting change only comes when we transcend the energies that created it.

We are here now to create a new way, to create a new world... to use inspiration as our weapon and love as our shield. And there is no turning back.

"Know that your contribution to the world is nothing more or less than what sets you on fire…it is the reflective radiance of the sun's creative potential within each of you, the core center of your embodied power to create, and for all to benefit from. - Seven Sisters

Full post here: http://consciousco-creationalcoaching.blogspot.com/

Quote of the Day (and of a Lifetime) 05/02/2011

Today you are You, that is truer than true.
There is no one alive who is Youer than You.” ~ Dr. Seuss

Eden Unplugged 04/30/2011

I am soooo excited!! I just submitted my proposal for a workshop to be delivered at an event I'm attending in Arizona on May 8-12 called Eden Unplugged. If you don't know about it, Eden is described as:

88 evolutionary entrepreneurs coming together at the most amazing hot springs, on lush land far from noise and clutter, to integrate into the life you really want, and the business that will support that life. Together, in community, we'll be creating the new paradigm of business.

One of the coolest things that will be happening at Eden is everyone is invited to participate in The Tribal Marketplace Game. This is way cool...the game takes each entrepreneur's Great Work (the work they're here on the planet to do) and makes it the focus of the event so the creator can get invaluable feedback from the tribe to move their work forward in the world.

Check this out, as described on the EdenUnplugged.com web site:

Old Paradigm: Put a few, pre-selected presenters in front of a captive audience & sell em! (Maybe hand out feedback forms… but never question the “context” of the event itself.)

New Paradigm: Create space to explore authentic, heart-centered offering & truth-telling in a tribal marketplace. Receive immediate, visceral feedback.

How does the Tribal Marketplace Game work?

Step 1. You show up fully in your truth & offer your gift – from your heart.

Step 2. The tribe responds, providing immediate feedback & connecting you with others who resonate…who you may never have connected with if you hadn’t shown up this way.

Step 3. We all transform.

Why is the Tribal Marketplace Game so (r)Evolutionary?

Well, aside from the fact that we’ve never seen anything like it – not even progressive gatherings like SXSW create this real-time marketplace “game” – this is the most raw, real feedback you will get on how you show up in the market-space.

No more hiding behind email campaigns, or flyers, or Facebook. This is edgy, real and immediate feedback for courageous, heart-centered evolutionary entrepreneurs.

How cool is that?!? Totally unique and valuable in a way I've never experienced before (and I've been to a LOT of business events in my day).

The premise of the Tribal Marketplace is already working perfectly for me. I wanted to offer something that is a powerful step in the building of my dream business, yet I couldn't quite pinpoint how to name it, position it or structure it (really just resistance to putting something so important to me out there...what if no one wants it???).

So in the mean time I submitted another workshop on something I knew I could do really well that could make a difference for others (helping people get crystal clear on their ideal tribe and track), though it wasn't the core of my passion or my reason for being on the planet.

And what happened? I shared it with the community on our private Facebook event page and NO ONE responded to my request for feedback on the topic Nothing! Not a single "Like" even. Nothin' nada zilch.

The tribe has spoken.

So I withdrew that workshop submission because it was clear that it was not greatest value I could offer the community, and somehow they knew it (so did I).

So it forced me to stop playing in the realm of "safe" (i.e., I already know how to do that) and get into the realm of SCARED to offer something that is so juicy, so close to my heart, so coming from the fire of my Soul that it brings me to my own edge.

But that's where we all need to be right now - stepping up and playing full out. No more hiding. No more compromise. No more doing something because we're good at it. That's not enough anymore. We're called to give our greatest passions and greatest gifts, and the marketplace won't let us shrink back from that. It's time to have some serious FUN.

So...I've submitted the workshop that makes my cells tingle with excitement because I know it's in far greater alignment with why I'm on the planet and what I love most. I'm not going to reveal what it is here quite yet. I'll let the Tribal Marketplace Game work its magic, and as my offering is shaped by the fires of the tribal marketplace kiln, I'll introduce it to the wider world with the broadest smile and the invitation to come and play.