Munching cookies and strawberries the other night with this beauty I found myself talking about the importance of not knowing. Not knowing that kale is not just a garnish on the side of a plate, you can eat it. Not knowing how to re-size a picture or publish a post.
Not knowing how to use your voice, stuck.
Not knowing how to take your dreams and turn them into a business. That jittery, exciting time full of fear and magical potential.
And remembering all the things that once we didn't know.
The women of The Joy Up Tribe Alumni Group are making my heart soar right now. They are offering to sponsor other women in the tribe who don't have $45 to join the program. I'll tell you more about this as I tell you about not knowing and then knowing, really knowing.
A year ago the joy up was born. It was an idea that over a few months went from simply a name into a program that would bring over 200 women together. While it wasn't for everyone, it was available to any woman. I was positioning my business to go from Health Coaching into Holistic Life and Business Coaching and I wanted to grow my tribe.
Big dreams are great, but if you don't take the actions to support them, you still only have dreams.
I found it really hard to tag a price on a program about joy. The fears too, maybe no one will resonate with it, maybe this is a silly idea.
In my heart, I knew that not knowing was where I needed to be. Just like learning to move kale from garnish to salad, a world was opening up to me. A large community of women, taking my programs from 30 or so into the hundreds. I was ready to do the work.
The Joy Up started as 10 days, pay-what-you-can. A core group of women formed around the soulwork and my life hit crazy. I had no idea what holding the energy of that many women would be like. I was not prepared for emails telling me that their lives had changed because of 10 days. I knew I could explain joy and why we must choose it, even in the face of sadness or lack, but I had no idea.
I couldn't eat. I cried a lot. (I did this in quiet mostly because while you can share this a year later once you've learned to hold that kind of energy, you can't talk about it while you are in it.)
We think that those little tastes of growth and success will taste sweet, but usually they are more like unsweetened dark chocolate. You know somewhere inside of it all you like the taste, but don't know how to get to it. My husband and I had the 'opportunity' in all of the emotion to work on our stuff.
Each time The Joy Up program ran after that, I followed my intuition. I kept it pay-what-feels-good, built my tribe even more and the emails from the tribe became more intense. From making decisions to leave abusive marriages to pursuing a new career. All on the basis of 'Joy is a Choice.'
Letters would come in the mail with feathers falling out of them, I have now had about 6 or 7 of these. These women who knew how much I loved feathers were forming a community based on joy and love and support.
During one of the program runs I received $100 from a woman in the tribe. I sent her an email that told her she took my breath away, and asked if she meant to send that? She replied, "Now you know how I feel each morning with your Joy Up emails."
A sweet online friend sent $200 as her contribution to the program and my work. Knowing.
The year of building this community was beyond amazing. The first Joy Up was shared over 600 times on social media. It was humbling and intense.
The Joy Up continues after the (now) 30 days. A private community on FB allows women to stay connected and I pop in and out as I need to. A true community inside of a somewhat crazy online world.
After a year I wasn't sure what to do with this program. Do I turn it into an ebook, offer something new and different, keep going? Could I keep creating new material or do I re-purpose? I let my intuition play around and talking with husband he said, "I just don't think it is over yet."
While I agreed I knew that I would need to allow it to evolve.
I needed to finally price it, close the tribe a bit in numbers while increasing its value, and still allow women who wanted access a way to do so regardless of their financial situation. There have been times in my life when $45 meant feeding my family or buying gas. I also really wanted women to value this work they were doing and invest in themselves. The Joy Up is about changing your life, sparkling with the butterflies and stepping into abundance.
We have watched women who started the program go from broke to abundant. Who are now sponsoring other women to join.
The program this time is priced with an option to join with a soul-sister. Many women are inviting their best friends or sisters to journey with them.
I wrote a little note on the tribe's alumni page. There are scholarships available if you are not able to afford the program but wish to continue on the journey with us.
From then on women in the tribe have been asking me about sponsoring a soul-sister on the journey. The outpouring has been incredible. We have had about 10 women sponsored and more sponsors waiting to help.
There is all sorts of magic inside the not knowing if we trust enough to allow ourselves to know.
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We start August 1st. Join us.
