The Extreme Life of an Evolutionary Entrepreneur

This is a post that lets you behind the scenes into the insanity that is my life as an evolutionary entrepreneur.  Your life does not have to be this nutty if you are or become an evolutionary entrepreneur.

But, the great thing is … it can be if you want it to be! Or, it can be exactly the opposite.

When you are in business for yourself, especially as an evolutionary entrepreneur, YOU make the rules, set the schedule, decide how you want it to be.

And then sometimes you end up with something looking  like my next two weeks.  I am sitting here not yet packed and wondering if I am in total denial about how stressful it is going to be or if I have just gotten so good at flowing that it really will not be stressful at all.

Before I fill you in on what the heck I am talking about, I know some of you are waiting on an update from the first community meeting we had here at my home in CO the other night.

Short story: It rocked.  We are in action.  Momentum must keep going.  We have a little steering committee in place and will meet again in April.   I cannot think about it at all though for the next two weeks because of what you will read about below.  Longer story will have to come another time because I need to get into reality about the next two weeks of my life and go pack, which means I need to finish this post.

Four cities in two weeks.

First stop – Sunday: San Francisco for a 2-day business intensive with Tim Kelley’s True Purpose Institute.  They are ready to evolve in a big way and ramp up their business model so they can make an even bigger impact on the change agents they serve.  I’ll be there to lead them into the evolution of that model and the online and offline structures they need to build around it.  (We are having an impromptu community meeting in SFO on Sunday night, message me if you can make it.)

Second stop – Wednesday:  Down to Los Angeles where I’ll be hanging with my sister in West Hollywood and re-opening our Personal Family Lawyer and Creative Business Lawyer programs for the first time in more than a year.  Some of you may recall that I spent the past year deconstructing, nearly killing and reconstructing that business and it is now ready for it’s next evolution and to make a HUGE impact in the lives and businesses of many more lawyers.

While I’m in LA, I’ll be attending Cynthia Kersey’s big birthday bash/fundraiser to educate kids in Africa.  I’m super excited to spend time with great friends while supporting an amazing cause.  And I’m trying not to be too in awe of all the transformational leaders who will be in attendance.

At the same time that I am attending Cynthia’s party, one of my best girlfriends in the world JoAnne will be flying into LA from Denver with her kids and my son.

(My daughter was supposed to join us as well, but I made a MAJOR MOMMY SCREW UP and thought Spring Break was the week before it actually is.  I had booked tickets for all of us to hit the 2nd leg of my trip to the tune of $1800 worth of non-refundable tickets so I wouldn’t be away from my kids for two weeks while I did all this travel.  My ex-husband called me two days ago and said, “you know that they don’t have Spring Break until the following week, right?”  Um no.  CRAP! And, you may recall I’m under a truancy order not to take the kids out of school anymore, so I had to scramble for a solution.  Solution was: Approval to take 2nd grader out, but 5th grader has standardized tests that week, so she’ll stay behind.  2 weeks apart from her is a lot, but I think it will actually be great for her to have her dad to herself for a week and to give her and her brother time apart for the week.)

Third stopLas Vegas: JoAnne and I are roadtripping from LA to Las Vegas with the kids where I am speaking at Ciara Daykin’s Rockstar Wedding Planner Live event.  Ciara is one of my dear friends and a client and I cannot wait to share business models, structures and legal goodness with her wedding planner community.

Fourth stop – San Diego: Finally, we will either drive from Las Vegas to San Diego to hit up Max Simon’s Your Big Launch Event, which is what we are scheduled to do OR we will head out to Santa Barbara for a meeting of transformational leaders that I just got an invite to and may not be able to pass up.  Feeling into that one still.

While all this is going on, my businesses will be running, serving clients, making a difference in the world, and generating profit.  At least I hope so!

This is a BIG test for me and my teams.

We’ve just finished up the Money Map to Freedom live program.  We are getting ready to launch the Money Map Home Study Course and the newly updated and upgraded LIFT Foundation System Get in the Know program, we are re-opening our Personal Family Lawyer and Creative Business Lawyer programs for the first time in over a year and we are designing our Money Map Masters program, which we created in Beta in January and are now readying for widespread enrollment.

And we have private clients to serve. (Whether I continue to take on private clients is a BIG question for me – I love working with evolutionaries on their businesses and I realize that with everything I have going on, I need to start charging more if I am going to continue to do it, but I struggle with that.  I already feel like my fees are high for a lot of the people I work with and yet they have to be in order to make sense for me to do it given the realities of my life and business.)

Hello, Money Map™!  It’s time for me to revisit my own Money Map again (its something you will do again and again as your business evolves) so I can honestly look at what is the least I can charge and still be sustainable.  (I see that as one of the greatest gifts of the Money Map – really understanding what the least you can charge for your time is without burning out and while giving your greatest gifts.)

That’s evolution.

And on top of all of this, Russell and I are in the exploration of what our relationship is going to look like.  We got married so quickly and while we love each other tremendously, we had no idea how mis-aligned we are about many things, including the way in which I do my work. More on that as it all unfolds.

So, can we (me, the teams, Russell, the kids) hold it all together with me doing all this traveling?

There is only one way to find out.  Stay tuned …

And in the meantime, I’d love for you to share with me what your evolutionary life will or does look like once you start or if you are making your own rules as an evolutionary entrepreneur.  Do you want this sort of variety in your life?  Would you prefer to have a more stationary, stable, consistent life?  Either way, it’s great!  Dream the dream, share your reality in the comments.

8 Comments

  1. Chris AlexanderSunday, March 13, 2011 at 3:34 am 

    Wow that is going to be a crazy two weeks for you. I hope to be as busy as you are one day. You see I am 19 right now and I am getting my blog ready for its launch! I literally just booked my first entrepreneur interviewee 🙂 It has been a long and stressful process to get where I am now but I loved every step of the way. To see you push through your challenges with family and business just keeps me going. My dream of becoming an evolutionary entrepreneur will come and having my friends, family and people like you help keep that dream alive!

    Thank you so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  2. Craig FilekSunday, March 13, 2011 at 4:01 am 

    Buy. A. Bus. Mobile office. Satellite connection. Regional Meet-ups & Consulting Days. Calls.

    Bring the kids. Base at the farm. Road-school. Caretaker. Maybe me?

    More adventure than work addiction… how’s that land?

    C

  3. RachelleSunday, March 13, 2011 at 4:33 pm 

    First of all I send you my love! Whew. I know integration is challenging for you and I relate to wanting it all.

    Wanting it all meaning, there is soooo much to experience in life, different ways of being and connection. I idealize a simple life in which I’m fulfilled and grounded…. yet every time I look around I’ve filled my schedule with the next thing and place to go. I love the freedom and flexibility I have created in my life in order to do that…. and it keeps me yearning for time at home and local community etc.

    I’m loving it all and happy. That is what is important. AND it doesn’t keep me from the ongoing question that you raise here though…. what do I want my evolutionary entrepreneur life to look like?

    I learned long ago that my balance is in the big picture… not in the day to day.

    Love you, Alexis. Look forward to Eden.

  4. RachelleSunday, March 13, 2011 at 4:33 pm 

    First of all I send you my love! Whew. I know integration is challenging for you and I relate to wanting it all.

    Wanting it all meaning, there is soooo much to experience in life, different ways of being and connection. I idealize a simple life in which I’m fulfilled and grounded…. yet every time I look around I’ve filled my schedule with the next thing and place to go. I love the freedom and flexibility I have created in my life in order to do that…. and it keeps me yearning for time at home and local community etc.

    I’m loving it all and happy. That is what is important. AND it doesn’t keep me from the ongoing question that you raise here though…. what do I want my evolutionary entrepreneur life to look like?

    I learned long ago that my balance is in the big picture… not in the day to day.

    Love you, Alexis. Look forward to Eden.

  5. Kim FrazierSunday, March 13, 2011 at 10:12 pm 

    I’d love something somewhere between “stationary, stable, consistent” and what you currently have going on, Alexis! I just completed the Money Map journey with you, and am simply amazed by your intellect, your intuition, your energy, your ambition, and your raw transparency. You are truly a courageous role model for so many of us.

    My business is in its early stage, and I am humbled by how the right people and circumstances keep showing up to help me evolve in the way I am my business are meant to, now that I am saying “what” and “how” instead of “why.”

    I was traveling for most of the past month (some business and some pleasure) and now am feeling deep into my need to nest for a bit. Then, in about a month, another business trip (a Heather Dominick event — yay!) So, yeah, for me, ideal is a little bit of travel but a fair bit of time in my homey little haven so that I have enough structure around food and exercise that things don’t get around of control in that area (a shadow for me — that’s why I’m a wellbeing coach — ha!)

  6. AnonymousMonday, March 14, 2011 at 5:17 pm 

    What struck me most profoundly about this post was your willingness to be so transparent…again! 😀 You’re blazing a trail here. Not many people, let alone biz owners, would be willing to be so open. Thanks for sharing this process with us. I strive to do the same in my coming biz ventures.

    Personally, I thrive with rhythm and regularity, but I also love a good adventure and shaking things up! As a budding entrepreneur I hope to find a place of balance with this, and I really like what Rachelle said about the balance being in the Bigger Picture. This is so true, because as entrepreneurs we are our business, but we can learn to delegate, let go, step in when needed, roll up our sleeves and get in the dirt if necessary; grow, learn and re-define.

    FREEDOM is at once the most thrilling and scary gift. What we do with it says a lot about who we are!

    Have fun traveling the inner and outer landscapes over the next 2 weeks (and beyond!) Much love!

  7. KathleenMonday, March 14, 2011 at 11:46 pm 

    I am with you sister. I am just starting out in one way, having been a far more low-tech evolutionary psychotherapist for many years. Now about to launch my first website in a few days. I have only tuned into your as of late, and though far older, resonate with the vibration—the moment by moment chaordic pulse of life in our lives, our businesses, our loves. I prefer that, since it is what is, without the overlay of attempted control.
    So I am drawn to come to the Eden Event. Here is my real fear—I will be transparent—-I am afraid I will be the oldest one there at 58. That counts as a rather superficial yet strong fear I would like to shed.

  8. Jeremiah StanghiniTuesday, March 15, 2011 at 9:43 pm 

    The bus sounds like an interesting idea, but I wonder if it’s really plausible if some of her work is East of I-15. It might be more appropriate (and cheaper?) to rack up the frequent flyer miles and save ‘time’ in the sense of getting there faster and using the time that would have been spent on the road for other things.

    With Love and Gratitude,

    Jeremiah

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