My Story
I believe that we can completely author our life, and that we can have it all – health, prosperity, amazing relationships, connection, happiness, deep meaning, and balance – and that it’s not an either/or world.
Over the past 20 years I’ve personally lived my 10 Core Life Principles. I’m here to share them with you, and to help you consciously design your own life. And I’m still on the journey – so as I grow and evolve and deepen into my own life I want to continue sharing my learnings and what works for me, with you.
My life’s mission is to help people to author their lives by bringing to life these 10 Core Life Principles:
Purpose:
Prosperity
Nutrition:
Exercise:
Personal Growth:
Self-Care:
Relationships:
Slowing Down:
Spirituality:
Fun:
If what I’m sharing resonates with you, please keep reading! Your amazing life is waiting to be crafted by you… to create and live now, in the present, not in one, five or 10 years from now.
I want to share my personal story with you
So you can understand how I formed my philosophy and use it to Soul Craft™ my own life.
I want to inspire you to be author of your future – to know that you absolutely can. I’m passionate about helping you create the same freedom, purpose, abundance and connection in your own life.
My Early Life
I didn’t always believe in the concept of creating your life – or even have an inkling that I could. I had wonderful parents but was brought up in a church that was extremely controlling.
The idea of authoring my own life was not even a concept.
During my senior year of college, I started seriously questioning my belief system and realized that I believed something entirely different than what I’d been taught growing up. After graduating from college in 1995, I got married and immediately left for South Korea to teach English. My husband and I wanted something more for our life, to get a head start and to not just end up in 9-5 jobs saving for a “someday” better life.
Life Lesson #1
If you want to create an amazing life, do things differently than 99% of the world.
(And it’s never too late to start!)
Going to Korea also provided the ideal opportunity to figure out what we really believed in – oceans apart from the opinions of family, friends and our upbringing.
Life Lesson #2
Discover what you believe – independent of what others including your family, spouse, friends and childhood believe. Know yourself, your beliefs and your values.
This is absolutely crucial for creating a life you want.
While in Korea, I started reading books like the “Celestine Prophecy” and “Seat of the Soul” which opened up a whole new world to me. Enter spirituality in a way that I could relate to. On this new journey of discovery, curiosity and ideas that weren’t centered on a single “right” way to live, I fell in love with books, teachers and philosophies that were inclusive and compassionate.
After about six months of working in Korea, I woke up one morning realizing that I was working very hard to make someone else very wealthy. And although we were making and saving quite a bit of money, I was not enjoying what I was doing on a day-to-day basis.
Life Lesson #3
You will never set yourself financially free working for someone else.
Owning your own business, or at least having an additional income stream, is crucial for financial freedom.
Even though we weren’t happy in our jobs, we decided to stay another year to be able to save enough to open our own business once we returned to the USA. However, I had another big lesson to learn. Six months into our second year, in 1997, the “Asian Crisis” happened . We lost almost everything that we had earned during those grueling 1.5 years. We had put most of our savings in the stock market and the Korean banks. Everything crashed – the market, the banks – and our money was gone, just like that.
Life Lesson #4
If you don’t like what you’re doing, no amount of money is worth it.
Money can disappear in an instant.
Change what you are doing or find a way to love what you do, so if money leaves you for any reason, at least you love your day-to-day. We spend so much of our time working and life is too short to not be enjoying our work.
This was an absolute turning point for me. We left South Korea with no money and nothing to show for 1.5 years of effort. But I left with the absolute determination to start my own business, to create my own income and be in control of my own destiny. I also wanted to love what I was doing – every single day.
We flew to Australia to visit my husband’s homeland. I remember vividly how connected I felt to Australia the minute we landed – it was my first time there and yet it felt like home in a way that no other country ever had (I was born in the US, grew up in Canada, spent 1.5 years in the UK, a year in Thailand, went to university in the US for 4 years and had just spent 1.5 years in South Korea). An intended three month “vacation” was about to become a three year adventure.
After a month at my inlaw’s house deciding our next steps, my husband decided to find a stable, corporate job and I would do the “entrepreneurial” thing. I started scanning the newspapers for every business I could buy – horrified to realize that without a substantial amount of money, I could afford 2 businesses – a direct mail company (and the idea of licking stamps/envelopes all day didn’t appeal to me) and a dog wash (which did not sound like fun to me).
Enter Network Marketing/Direct Sales
Fortunately I had a friend from college living in Australia that heard I was looking for a business. Over lunch he asked me if I had considered network marketing. I retorted, “absolutely not – I would never do network marketing!” I had all these “ideas” of what I thought NWM was and that somehow NWM was a salesy/sleazy thing to do.
Luckily, my friend didn’t take what I said personally, but instead very calmly asked, “What do you know about NWM Carmen?”
THAT stopped me in my tracks.
What did I know?
Nothing really – just hazy concepts in my head that I had no idea where I’d gotten them – no real proof, no real experience. I looked squarely at him, “You’re right, I don’t know anything about NWM. Show me what you’ve got. I can’t promise I’ll do it, but I’ll look at it with an open mind”.
Life Lesson #5
Keep your mind open to new ideas, especially when you have strong opinions about them.
One of the best decisions I ever made was to open my mind to something I had a very negative opinion about. And what I saw was something completely different to what I’d had in my mind, like, 1)NWM/Direct Selling is a true business (not just a hobby), 2) you can make a phenomenal amount of $$ with minimal investment or risk, 3) with a great work ethic and focus, you can set your own hours, be in control of your life, be your own boss, design your days, and 4) there is no limit on your income.
And all of these things were very different to the status quo and what I’d been taught in university.
But what really ‘sold’ me was a concept I had never seen before.
If I helped other people be successful and helped them make solid, steady incomes, I would be successful. And THAT’S what I fell in love with.
What a brilliant concept, and one that you rarely see in the corporate world . I LOVED the fact that if helped other people get what they wanted, that would help me achieve what I wanted.
Beautiful.
Life Lesson #6
When you do something – commit with everything you have – whether it’s a business, relationship, health etc.
No backdoor. Get naked and jump in with full commitment.
I got started – and threw myself in with my whole body and soul.
Life Lesson #7
Your business and life will grow and expand in exact proportion to your personal growth.
I was very fortunate that my first network marketing company’s product was personal development courses and seminars. The very thing that I was selling helped me grow in the ways I needed to become a leader, a millionaire and a teacher of what I had learned.
The courses helped identify subconscious beliefs and patterns that I didn’t even know I had. In particular for me, it changed beliefs around money and myself. Some of my shifts were around what I could do in life, what I could achieve and create, how much I could make, and that money and what it can create is good. I learned to see money as an energy, as an exchange for value and as a force for good.
Life Lesson #8
Money provides freedom to really do what you’re here to do on this earth.
The most wonderful thing about money is that it gives you the time and freedom to pursue your passions, interests and to contribute to the world.
It is one of my core values and personal mission to help thousands of people shift their relationship with money and create an additional income stream. I want you to have the time and money to pursue your passions, interests, gifts and what you’re here to do on this planet.
I’ve seen what money allows me to do – give more to others, make a difference, help, self-express, and live with purpose. I am incredibly passionate about helping others create abundance in their life so they can do the same thing. And I personally believe that network marketing/direct sales, with the right company and done in the right way, is one of the best ways to create financial freedom.
So back to my story: I built up my first network marketing distributorship for three years and became the top income earner worldwide. And, the most brilliant thing was that in order to do this, I had to help a lot of other people make income – how cool is that?!
I loved what I was doing, believed in the product and saw how it was shifting people’s lives. In my opinion, there is no other business model that could have created that kind of income and helped that amount of people in such a short time, with minimal risk or financial investment to boot! I was definitely hooked on the direct selling/network marketing model.
Life Lesson #9
The product is the most important thing when looking at a business opportunity.
Don’t even look at how much money you can make until you look at the product. The product always carries everything.
At this time, there were a lot of changes going on in the company, including product changes which I felt compromised the integrity of the product line that I used to believe was the best on the market.
Life Lesson #10
Check out who is at the top. Are they congruent and ethical?
Your body will know if you resonate with their core values.
I also met the owner and didn’t resonate with his core values or personality. For me, I have to be completely and utterly behind a product and the people who make up a company if I am going to partner with them.
Life Lesson #11
Your body ALWAYS knows.
Learn to tune into your body, your feelings, and your intuition – you will always know how to make the right choice for you.
So, I made the tough decision to sell my network marketing distributorship with that particular company.
My new mission was to find the best NWM company out there. I believed in the model and I knew there had to be one that would fit all my criteria. I spent the next year and a half looking at 73 companies and eventually chose the company that I’m with today.
I knew exactly what I wanted and exactly what I didn’t want. I scrutinized the product, company, compensation plan, industry and available training to find the company I felt would be the best opportunity for myself and everyone that I would bring to it.
During the process of selling my first network marketing company, I worked with Action International (business coaching franchise system) in Australia as their General Manager at Kangaroo Point, then their Franchise Development Manager in the UK for six months. This broadened my small-medium sized business coaching skills and essentially was my “MBA” in business. I will always be grateful to Action International as it was instrumental in my creating my next three businesses.
Life Lesson #12
Find a mentor, get a business, health or life coach in whatever area you want growth.
If your life isn’t working in a specific area, hire someone who you admire in that arena to help you shift your thinking and your way of being.
My mentors have been invaluable to me and have been worth every penny or minute I have spent with them. I’ll get back to this in a moment. But back to my search for the best network marketing company…
After 1.5 years of indepth research looking at 73 companies, I chose the company that I felt was the absolutely best for product, company, compensation plan, industry and training. I got started in 2003 and haven’t looked back.
I used everything I had learned in my first NWM company (personal development) and Action International (business acumen) to build in my first two years. But something was missing.
What if I could build a network marketing organization by having people focus on personal development, health & fitness, holistic living, prosperity all together at the same time?
My first NWM company was all about the mind/consciousness and prosperity, but the health & fitness side was left out. My second NWM company was all about the health and prosperity, but the personal development, fitness, self care and integrating your passions into your business was left out. What if I could teach people to incorporate all into their life and use that as a business building strategy?
I started developing training for my team and then wellness seminars that focused on whole living, health, fitness, nutrition, purpose, stress reduction, self care and my company’s products. Soon the seminars were packed with guests who wanted to learn about holistic health and living – both as it related to my company’s products and also to other things that they could do to create holistic health and balanced lives.
My business exploded and my team worldwide grew leaps and bounds. Even better, I LOVED what I was doing because I was teaching others how to bring together health, fitness, purpose, self care, personal development and prosperity. My team and I were living exactly what we were teaching.
Life Lesson #13
Make your life as congruent as possible.
If you want your life to be healthy, happy, prosperous, full of meaning – find a business that will allow that be your actual life. Live it, build a business around it and then help others by teaching them to do the same.
That birthed Live Well International, my international training company for associates/entrepreneurs worldwide that wanted to build a business with my network marketing company and “Wellness Business Model.”
We now have Certified Live Well Coaches + SexyFit® Licensees in 13 countries building with this model – not only positively affecting their own lives, but those around them. As Live Well grew, we started holding seminars and trainings worldwide, going into companies, holding retreats and seminars to help more people build a congruent, balanced life – all based on being healthy, growing personally and creating an additional, residual income stream through this unique way of doing network marketing.
Life Lesson #14
Use nutrition, supplementation and fitness as a life and business strategy.
Your physical health is the foundation of a healthy personal and business life. Your vibration, energy, abilities, mind and spirit are profoundly affected by what you eat, drink and do with your body.
My SexyFit® Nutrition Challenge came out of my core belief and experience that our physical health profoundly affects our business, relationship and overall quality of life. I have everyone I mentor for health and/or business do my online 30 Day SexyFit® Nutrition Challenge as it’s the physical foundation for everything else. I absolutely adore running this program as it’s fun, educational and life changing on so many levels… and who couldn’t do with a dose of feeling SexyFit®?
Other pivotal learnings that shaped my life, philosophy and what I teach.
Life Lesson #15
Do what you love now, not when you have more time or money.
When you do what you love now, it raises your vibration, you’re 100 times happier and you start attracting like-minded people and events into your business and your life.
I learned this about two years into building my current NWM business. I was working very hard and concentrating my efforts, but I got to a point where nothing seemed to be moving – everything seemed “stuck” and “effortful”. I read a book that utterly shifted my thinking – Ask & It’s Given by Jerry & Esther Hicks. It was all about doing what you love now – instead of waiting till you have more time or money.
So I did just that – I started teaching dance – NIA, Zumba®, Brazilian Zouk and then eventually my own modalities SexyFit® Dance + Soul Fit™ Dance. Bringing what I absolutely LOVED into my life now changed everything – my vibration, my happiness and my outlook on life. Not only was I having more fun, I was lighter, more vibrant, more happy.
Doing what you love now is a core philosophy of everything I do.
Life Lesson #16
What if, what is missing, is YOU?
2 years later, I was definitely having more fun, expanding both my businesses, but something in me was missing. I would wake up in the middle of the night with a gnawing feeling of emptiness. And I had so much – 2 amazing businesses, purpose, friends, money, health – so many great things on the “surface”.
Enter Cheryl Richardson and her book “The Art of Extreme Self Care”. Of course the right book/teacher appears at the right time, and like I did with health, nutrition and fitness, I took on Self Care as a business & life strategy. What if by putting the oxygen mask on first, I could become more connected to myself? What if what was missing was a relationship with myself? What if I focused on that – would that in turn enable me to be more to connected to people and the flow of life?
I started making time for breathing, meditation, purpose, massage and time on my own and…
Life Lesson #17
The more I created time, space and self-care for myself – the more connected I felt to myself, to others and the flow of life.
And magically, my business grew even more.
Slowing down and connecting to myself made everything work better…and it filled that “void” inside. And of course I funneled everything I was learning into training my team, my coaching, seminars and companies so that it could impact others in the same way – in their lives, relationships and business.
And finally, it was time to work on my speaking my truth.
I was married to the most wonderful, competent, loyal, driven, amazing man who had stood by my side through everything. I couldn’t bear the thought of hurting someone who not only had done nothing wrong in the relationship, but who had given so much to me – his life and his heart. I needed to ask for a divorce as I wanted something different in a relationship, but it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my whole entire life. It was necessary, but took all the strength I had to speak my truth.
Life Lesson #18
Speaking your truth is never easy and often has repercussions that you may not like or want, but speaking your truth is what creates an authentic life.
Also, it’s not a one-time event, but rather an ongoing practice that requires ongoing commitment.
As I picked up the pieces after the divorce, I started to create a new life – and in a lot of ways – was starting completely over again. I had to look at what I was responsible for in a failed marriage – learning how to communicate better, learning how to be in relationship, learning to be completely honest and to speak my truth. And from the fog of hurt, regret, pain and doubt, I had to reinvent a huge part of myself.
What did I want my life to look like now, what did I want to really want to create? I used everything I had learned up to this point. Every philosophy I had formed and was teaching was being tested in real time.
One particular core belief stood out, “Creating Your Day.” Every morning I sat down for at least 10 min to intentionally design my life and business, focusing on what I knew worked: doing what I loved now, practicing self-care, taking time to connect to myself, making vibrant health priority, connecting with others, listening to what my soul really wanted, aligning with nature, tuning into my body, and centering my life around my passions; what I later came to call our “Soul Fire”.
Enter Divine Discontent
BAM…I got hit with, “I’m not fully doing what I’m meant to be doing – I’m not teaching the deeper things I believe in and that I know, from my own experience, take life to a deeper, fuller level.
I felt strongly that I needed to add these components to what I was teaching. The unsettledness in my body made me look at how I could even more authentically live, and from that place teach a fuller expression in the world.
At this point I realized yet again how powerful residual income was because it allowed me the time and space to figure out my next steps.
Sidenote: I hope I’ve hit a chord in you that everyone should have an additional income stream to have the time and money to live your life authentically with your own self-expression. I ended up taking a considerable amount of time off from my business to deal with my personal life and never saw a dip in income because I had built such a strong business.
Life Lesson #19
Divine Discontent is good.
I kept feeling into it and didn’t push away the discontent. I also kept taking action in my life to keep energy flowing. And finally the answers came.
Creating time and space to listen to my and body and soul, doing things that I loved to keep my vibration high and keeping in action with my current businesses to keep energy flowing helped the answers come in time.
And then it all came together with the creation of my company “Create A Life You Love” in 2008, which eventually found it’s even more aligned name “Soul Craft™” in 2017. I launched 2 product companies near and dear to my heart, Sacred Lotus Love and Soul Co., and started teaching a blend of all that was important to me for successful living that stems from your soul; how to intentionally Soul Craft™ your life, blending the physical, spiritual, mental and emotional.
Life Lesson #20
Blending the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual is crucial to living a blissful and grounded existence.
I’m passionate about teaching and sharing what I have found to be true in designing my life and my business.
Wealth and spirituality are not mutually exclusive, that more people need to know about and have a vehicle to create residual income.
Physical Health is a must for our emotional and spiritual vibration. That doing what we love now, along with self care, aligning with nature (hello moon and seasons!) and listening to our bodies – is actually a brilliant business building strategy. Our bodies ARE our business.
Connection, relationships, purpose, slowing down and spirituality can actually make us more successful in our work and our personal lives.
And most importantly – you can can intentionally design a life that you absolutely love.
A life that is full of meaning, fulfillment, joy and love, without any compromise of health, money or bliss.
So where am I now?
I live in Maui, Miami, and Bali – manifested from a dream board I’d created years ago. I don’t tell you this to brag, I tell you to realize I went from a kid growing up thinking I couldn’t create anything, to living a fully authored life.
I choose what I do with my time, and I only choose things I love.
I coach a small number of committed women every year who want to build a residual income and thriving wellness business using my philosophies and business model.
I hold my 30-Day SexyFit® Nutrition Challenges every 2 months – a program I am so passionate about because of the results we can achieve in 30 days which is an amazing and crucial foundation for the BIG stuff.
I created Sacred Lotus Love® with my partner, Peter. It’s our very own line of gifts and luxury household goods to help you slow down, savor the quiet, create space for what matters, and add beauty to your everyday routine.
My SexyFit® License Program is now available for health coaches around the world to partner with me and have their online wellness business, living where they want, laptop in tow.
I run Soul Craft™ online courses, seminars and retreats and also regularly attend personal growth events that call to me so I can further deepen my own life, expand what I’m teaching and always be walking the talk.
I love what I do every day – freedom to create in my businesses, coach, teach dance and most of all – help those who want the same thing – to create health, prosperity, connection, meaning and freedom in their lives.
Where do I want to head?
I want to continue helping people Soul Craft their business and lifestyle and find their Soul Fire – so they are truly living a life of their own design.
I want to ignite a movement of people creating their lives and believing that they can have it all – health, prosperity, meaning and love.
And as I keep learning and growing, I’ll keep sharing everything I discover – I’m so happy to have you here with me!
Where do you go from here?
Choose any or all that resonate with you:
LET’S START SOUL CRAFT-ING YOUR LIFE!
Be Happy…Be Vibrant…