I recently attended a 3 day gathering of women entrepreneur-authors at Denise Linn’s Summerhill Ranch here in California. It validated and strengthened my belief that a small, intensive group of women collaborating is the most powerful tool to acheiving greatness in business and life (for many of us these are one and the same).

Only 1.8% of women owned business break the $1MM revenue mark, and I believe masterminds are one way of changing this.

The top 5 reasons to mastermind are:
1. Shared resources. Through my 13 years in building Zhena’s Gypsy Tea into a multi-million dollar company, I learned a LOT and one of the great lessons was in finding great vendor partners I could trust. Web designers, graphic designers, videograhers, printers, packaging designers and makers, and the list goes on. Through building my company, I worked with and grew relationships with some of the most phenomenal vendor partners in the world and these resources are valuable and can be shared in a mastermind.

2. Perspective. When you are a solo-preneur you cannot necessarily see your offerings from a distance and with a mastermind, you can get perspective and shape your offerings from a potential customer’s point of view. This has so much value. While in the author mastermind, I learned so many beautiful ways of getting the word out about my book, things that were right under my nose but I didn’t see them.

3. Support. The other women in my mastermind were all family centric. Either mothers or women on their way to motherhood, they had a lot of amazing tips on mothering babies and business at once. From my friend Erin, I learned that a 20-hour workweek can be possible. I learned ways to schedule my time so that I could have more dedicated, focused time with my children while growing my new business–Zhena.TV. For this I am deeply grateful.

4. Fun. We drank margaritas, laughed and told crazy stories about our mess ups in the business world. We howled at some of our own shortcomings and they all seemed so much smaller in the face of our belly-laughing guffaws. Never underestimate the power of humor to grow your business! If you’re not having fun neither will your staff or customers. I’ve always loved the saying that if you’re funny you’re in the money :-). Levity works.

5. Best practices. We shared our practices on how to love and cherish customers, readers and vendors so everyone feels cared for. We discussed ways to maximize our online services, make better offerings and develop programs to support other women entrepreneurs. We realized that we were each other’s best customers and we all had offerings to share with one another from that point of view. Best practices in online communications, blogging, social media and which classes to take were all demystified.

If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a metropolis to raise a child and a business. Masterminding is one way to acheive this so that your dreams can become your reality. If you are interested in joining a mastermind, please comment below!

Here’s to your health, happiness and the realization of your most audacious dreams,
Zhena

“Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen.” -Goethe

Dear Magical Reader,

A sense magic and wonder can make for more joy in your life, but how to regain it when we are so busy? Enter the Zhena.TV magic blog.

Here, we will explore the enduring aspects of magic:

The magic of believing in yourself

The magic of nature

Intentional magic: little rituals for drawing miracles into your life

I invite you to steep a cup of tea, open your senses to nature and cultivate your curiosity with us here at Zhena.TV

What does magic mean to you? We cannot wait to hear. XXOO Zhena

Dear Business Goddess,

Whether you are in business or dream of starting one, this blog will explore alternative ideas on how to attain the success of your dreams. I built a business from nothing into millions of revenue, and I wish I had the info during my journey that I will be posting on this blog! A lot of the lessons I learned are featured in my upcoming book: Life by the Cup/ yet there are endless other tips and tricks that we will be featuring here as well.

If you need specific business questions answered, post them here or email them to Zhena@Zhena.TV and we will answer them on the blog–because if you have a question, there are bound to be a lot of others who carry the same one.

Here are some business topics we will be covering:

Balancing business and a life

Family, Friends and Finances

Hiring and Releasing Staff

Nuts and Bolts of starting with nothing

Storytelling secrets for meaningful press

How to finance and scale your business

Resources for launching and growing

How the ROI (Return on Investment) on Love makes smart business

How to make your mission the center of your business

Healing yourself and the world through business …and many more.

I look forward to getting into the rhythm of blogging for you. I am here to serve your spirit and to help you step into your bright future.

Here’s to your success,

Zhena

Dear Loving Reader,

The concept of hosting a love blog occurred when I was taking Gay and Katie Hendricks Conscious Loving advanced training last July.

Being happily married took on new meaning with the breakthroughs I had about how I was loving my husband, and as I made a few tiny shifts in my behavior, my love got bigger, more enjoyable and more accessible during times of challenge.

This blog will ask the questions:

1. How can we grow the love we have?

2. How can we attract the love we want?

3. How can we infuse our businesses, products and/or work environment with love?

4. How can we love ourselves as much as we love others…

I do hope you will chime in, make comments and if you are so moved, send us a blog of your own for our consideration.

We’d love to hear from you.

With Love, Zhena

Dear Sacred Reader, On one of my first trips to Asia, I woke up in a small hotel room in Bangkok and peered out my window into the alleyway. What I saw changed my life.

I saw little altars everywhere–sacred spaces carefully arranged in a traffic dense, dirty alley! It gave me a moment of mindfulness which shifted my day from mundane to magical.

Creating a sacred space in your home or office can give you a feeling of spaciousness and breathe. Creating a small sacred space allows for us to draw in the energy of the heart and with that centered energy comes more awareness, balance, calm and joy.

Today’s sacred post is about making a space for the Goddess of Fortune in your life.

Lakshmi is the symbol of prosperity, and her name actually means “goal” in Sanskrit. Lakshmi is synonymous with the goal of spiritual and physical prosperity. She has four arms symbolizing the four Hindu goals of human life: righteousness, genuineness, wealth and liberation from the cycle of life and death. I also happen to think the four arms of the Goddess are meant to remind us we have Divine powers beyond our two hands.

I have a painting (actually several) of my friend, Paul Heussenstam’s depictions of Lakshmi in my home. Here’s a link to the one that is above me as I type this for you: http://www.mandalas.com/store2/#!/~/product/category=2889982&id=13583373

Often in the mornings, I make my tea and then light a candle and some incense and say the following when I am calling in the energy of Lakshmi: “Lakshmi, lotus-eyed one, please bless my family, friends and all those in the world with your grace. Inspire me with your generosity, so that I may embody you to serve those who need it most in the world. Lakshmi, sacred Mother, thank-you for the bounty of nature, the love of humanity and the breadth of prosperity. May all prosper by your beauty and by the knowledge of your grace.” This prayer is simple and elevates my energy.

Where in your home or office could you create a sacred space to remind yourself of the grace of prosperity? Perhaps a small table in your room, a corner of your desk, or a shelf in the dining room?

The first sacred spaces I saw outside of my church were in the alleyways in Bangkok, reminding us that even an alleyway is sacred. I’d love to hear about your sacred space, please post comments and pictures.

Sending you sacred love and Lakshmi’s blessings, Zhena

Dear friends,

I’m excited to share a new vision with you, a place where we can share and communicate over a cup of tea: Zhena.TV

We are in our “soft launch” meaning not all of the pages are up, the products are not yet inventoried and the “how-to” videos are not yet posted, but you can see the intentions of this beautiful project–to inspire YOU.

With this soft launch comes time to take notes, fix bugs and collaborate with you on what you’d like to see on Zhena.TV. We are taking contributions for blogs, video classes you’d like to teach and uplifting content you want to share. So feel free to comment here on what inspires you, what you would like to see, and how we can best serve you as you travel the rim of your very own “Life by the Cup!”

From Tea to TV, A New Journey for Life, Love and Business Pursuits, thank-you for joining us all.

With love,

Zhena