How Does the Online Idea Party Work?
You have a dream or a wish, and an obstacle to getting there. (If you don’t think you know your wish, work through my kick-starter and read this post. To learn why you must put logic aside to find your dream, read the following.)
The online Idea Party is here to help you – and the other fellow party goers – with your wishes and obstacles.
Voices from Success Teams and Idea Parties:
Having a team to report to and hearing what everybody did each week is very exciting. It’s kept me moving all year. In the past I made some good starts on my own, but found, every time, when the energy ran out, I ran out. Now it doesn’t run out.
Jade G.
Children’s Playroom Therapist, New York Hospital
I would do a painting a year, a sketch a year. If it was only me I know I would never do it. Having to tell you makes all the difference. It’s crazy why I didn’t do this years ago, it’s so easy all of a sudden.
Caroline R. Personnel Executive, Macy’s Dept Store
Post Your Wish and Your Obstacle Here!
And help your team mates out when you can. Use the Reply link to help, the form below the comments to add your own Wish and Obstacle.
(Your first comment below has to be approved, so it may not display instantly depending on the time of the day. Once your email address is approved you can post instantly. If you want your own profile photo to show up beside your comments, instead of the cute little design, upload your photo on Gravatar.com and give them an hour or so to make it happen.)
Having read Yemisi’s request, I think I’d also like to attract a partner. I am a 30-year old English man who has recently had a financial windfall which has put me well on the way to financial independence (should hopefully have happened by the time I’m 32).
I have a degree in Economics with Chinese Studies. I’d like to meet an attractive, intelligent, hopefully rich Chinese woman. Any idea on where I can find a partner with those qualities?
Thanks for any advice.
Hi,
I’ve recently been awarded some money to run a social enterprise project. I’d like to find more funds but don’t know where to search.
Thanks for any info.
Wow! i am loving the idea of this support already i feel shy about my wish because you all feel deep and thoughtful but i’ll say it anyway. I’d really love to have a rich, tall and handsome husband who loves me truly and i love too.
Nothing wrong with that goal, Yemisi! You might want to figure out which of these are need-to-have and which are nice-to-have. It expands your options.
Men who make a lot of money and people who inherited a lot of money all tend to travel a lot, whether for business or pleasure. A job in the travel or lodging industries will give you better opportunities for meeting them.
If you, too, are tall, you could join your nearest chapter of Tall Clubs International to meet more tall men. If not, try a Scandinavian social club or start a fan club for a basketball team.
Handsome men are a bit tougher, but high end men’s clothing stores and the TV and movie industry seem like good places to put yourself to meet them. But if rich and handsome are both on your list, position yourself to meet rich ones, as handsome is a lot easier to spot.
I hope that part about loving you and being someone you love is most important. For this, you cannot let yourself fall for appearances, although it’s okay to limit those you consider to men with the appearance you seek. You must know your own character strengths and what you value. You must know what character strengths you insist upon in a spouse and which would be great additions. And you must ignore all the rich, tall, handsome men who lack them, even if they pursue you. VIACharacter.org is a good place to get clearer on these.
You should know going in that while women are looking for love, men are looking for respect. It’s the foundation of a relationship, not the cherry on top when they are at their best. Don’t bother dating anyone you don’t always respect. If you choose them for their strengths and values, respect should come easily.
Watch out for commitmentphobes. They race into relationships, but they usually hand you a clue. I learned them from Steven Carter and Julia Sokol’s book, Men Who Can’t Love.
The first is any story they tell when you first meet or maybe on a second date that has them considering a move or career change that would end your relationship or require a big upheaval for you. They won’t tell it again until it’s time to dump you, so pay attention. The second is that they don’t usually date women like you, if they mention it in the first few dates. The third is when they invent you, extolling some virtue of yours they could not yet have observed. Say thank you and good night and get out of there.
Before you find your guy, you really should learn a lot about how to sustain and nurture a loving relationship. I write about this at AssumeLove.com. You can also find a great list of marriage education programs at SmartMarriages.org.
May you find and marry a wonderful man!
Yemisi, I see that HayHouse have a new program out by Gabrielle Bernstein called MediDating. Hopefully this might put you in a good frame of mind for finding a partner on a metaphysical level.
Also, Steve G. Jones and Joe Vitale have done a program about dating. Not sure where to find the info. You might be able to find it on Google.
Thank you for the sites i am checking them out. I have no idea how to meet a rich chinese lady so i’ll just send you my support. Have you tried any of Steve.G.jones hypnosis recordings? What was it like.
Thank you so much for the advice. I’ve checked assumelove.com and smartmarriages.com so much to learn. I will make sure to check the other sites as I am sure they will prove very helpful. I feel good just reading your reply. I love the idea of finding my partner on a metaphysical level it sounds exciting and yes Amen to meeting and marrying a wonderful man.
Thank you so much for the advice. I’ve checked assumelove.com and smartmarriages.com i am learning so much. I see now how “should have, should be like” has robbed me of happiness in my life i pray for courage to make the truly necessary adjustments in my heart and thinking. I feel good reading your reply.
Thanks, Yemisi. It’s surprising how easy being loved gets when you stop picturing what it should look like. The surprise is 75% of the fun. Will you let us know when you meet someone?
Our group has been created – Becca, it won’t let me send you an invite until you have a Google account – it’s free, also Frank, I don’t have an email address to send you an invite. You can send it to me at michellelengland@yahoo.com, or post it here.
Hey there. I hadn’t been on this site in a while and just saw you guys are starting a group. I know Google+ limits the number of ppl who can join. Do you have room for more people by any chance?
We have room and I didn’t know there was a limit. Michelle England will invite you, if you email her. The more people on there, the better.
-Becca
I sent an email but haven’t heard back. I’ll send another. thanks. 🙂
Well then let’s make this happen…I have an account on Google, and will research how to create a private group
hi michelle,
tomorrow I´ll get cracking on getting an account with google+. for me privacy is extremely important once we get to share our personal life experiences, dreams, obstacles etc.
I would also like us to introduce ourselves to each other the way frank did in his posting below, and I would like to get out of the public space for that.
are skannies posts answering mine visible to you, michelle?there´s quite some information about me there. are they visible to you, becca and frank, too? how would group communication in writing work? (I´ve been in conference calls, but not in group chats.)
so, please let me know how your research about creating a private group is going. I´d like to be instructed on that rather than doing the research myself. thank you so much!
There are several optins on google+. The main difference compared with facebook until now is that you have to be invited. but if look for”How to invite people to google+” you’ll find a description but you need an email adress.
yes – thank you group! There are several options – one is that others can join, but only with moderator approval – I like this one…but there are other options. For private groups we can allow others to find us, or hide our group completely from other communities. Probably for our group we will want the most privacy – so the private and hidden option sounds best. You do have to be invited as Frank mentioned and an email address is needed. Is everyone okay with sharing email addresses with a group moderator? Also is there one person who would like to be group moderator?
From the video I watched – it looks like it is easy to see and respond to one another’s posts…kind of like facebook, but a little bit different…
hi frank and michelle,
sorry about my three-days´-silence,had a lot of stuff going on.my email address is pialau2@aol.com. I´ll copy this to michelle now as I don´t know who can read whose replies to whom here . . . 🙂 as I say, I have no experience whatsoever with facebook or any chats, and yes, I would absolutely need to be sure that our conversations are NOT open to others. would you agree to this? is becca still on board? for me it´s okay to just start the three of us, michelle, frank, pia. I would be ready to be the group moderator. have not quite understood WHO would do the inviting? thanks for helping me into all this . . . cheers, pia
I’m still on board. rawbecca (at) gmail
This should be fun!
so, do we exchange email-addresses here? I just realize I´m the only person who has shared her address so far . . . just read through google+ private group invitation etc and it looks like we will need each others´ addresse here . . . ? cheers, pia
so, do we exchange email-addresses here? I just realize I´m the only person who has shared her address so far . . . just read through google+ private group invitation etc and it looks like we will need each others´ addresses here . . . ? cheers, pia
How about Google chat since it sounds like it has more privacy?
Barbara’s books are extremely AWESOME and helpful and it would be great to work through the exercises with others. I was reflecting on the negative feelings I felt the other day – and realized that what I’m missing out on is a supportive “family”. I can work on the exercise and make a plan, but it’s hurtful to have so many doubters around me who think I should settle for less than what I’m trying to work for – they are people I love, but they are not supportive – anyone else feeling my pain? I can look in the mirror and tell myself – you can do it – but I also need someone else to do the same. I’m getting so excited about our group!
Hi Michelle,
I am delighted by the idea to have a online “Support-Idea-Party-Group” and I would love to share experiences with Barbaras excercises. I am a real person, 51 years old, I live in Germany, I am a psychologist and I worked for rehab-clinics and counselling-institutions (both areas had a lot to do with coaching, motivating, developing etc.) on an employed basis and because my contract will run out in the end of February I’m working on possibilities to run my own bussiness. I offer systemic coaching combined with a acupressure based counselling.
I’m stuck to the notion that Isolation (which I lived with too long) is a dream-killer.
Google+ might be a good option for group work…
hi frank and michelle and becca,
sorry about my three-days´-silence,had a lot of stuff going on.my email address is pialau2@aol.com. I´ll copy this to michelle now as I don´t know who can read whose replies to whom here . . . 🙂 as I say, I have no experience whatsoever with facebook or any chats, and yes, I would absolutely need to be sure that our conversations are NOT open to others. would you agree to this? is becca still on board? for me it´s okay to just start the three of us, michelle, frank, pia, or the four, just found you here again, becca (sorry for not finding you right away). I would be ready to be the group moderator. have not quite understood WHO would do the inviting? thanks for helping me into all this . . . cheers, pia
I’ve had some experience with Google+ chats and can talk about this. Everyone does need to have a Google account. It’s free and you only need to set up the barebones, though if you want to go ahead and fill in all the Google+ account info, that’s your choice.
Once everyone has a Google account, you should pass along each other’s account usernames so that you can find each other. Probably easiest to add each other to a Circle (fancy term for a group) so you can easily find each other anytime.
When the time comes, one of you can start up the Google chat—it doesn’t matter who. Depending on the browser and system you’re using, you may need to install a plug-in for the video window.
Once you’ve started the chat—making sure it’s set to “private” and not public—you can invite people to chat. If everyone’s in a Circle, this is easily done by selecting the Circle group and sending.
The invitees will get an email invitation. Click on the link and you’re in.
I suggest everyone go create a Google account and try to start a private chat with themselves to start off. This way, you can test the technology, make sure you have all the right things installed, and everything works the way it should. Also so you can check out the features and see if you want to use any of them. Troubleshoot before meeting!
Also recommend everyone use headphones during the chat, otherwise the other chatters will hear an echo through your mic of the audio. It’s easier for everyone to make each other out when the audio input and output are separated.
And if you have a headphone+mic headset, even better, or a separate USB microphone. Onboard laptop microphones are okay too (with headphones), but if you have a desktop tower (how many people still have one?) the onboard mic (if there is one) is in the tower, so it’ll have to sit somewhere close to your face. Like I said, do test all this out before you actually join up the meeting, otherwise you’ll be spending the first 20-30 minutes troubleshooting the technology for each other instead of talking about what you want to talk about.
Good luck!
Isn’t Google+ a major privacy violator?
This former Success Team member has been following the conversation here and has been meaning to ask … have you all already closed the group?
not yet – we are planning to go through the books together and share. This will be a private group though. Send me your email address and I can invite you: michellelengland@yahoo.com
Hello!
Is there any room left in that group? 🙂
Please email Michelle above…we’d love more people involved!
I just sent an e-mail too. I’d like to get involved if there’s room for another person.
I feel that I am really struggling with accomplishing my goals/ideas and need some mentors-would anyone out there want to talk? I’m not sure if we could friend one another on facebook or not – am open to suggestions….
I wouldn’t call myself a mentor, since I’m working on my stuff too, but would be open to an online group or partnership where we can check in and have accountability…maybe go through the books (Barbara’s) and do exercises?
-Becca
hi becca,
I don´t know yet how to do a work-group online, but yes, I have some training even as a coach, but still need coaching and support myself . . . (as you may see in my communications from january 4th…)
so, maybe together with michelle we could work through barbara´s book ‘I could do anything´?
pia
hi michelle –
I don´t know yet how to do a work-group online, but yes, I have some training even as a coach, but still need coaching and support myself . . . (as you may see in my communications from january 4th…)
so, maybe together with becca campbell we could work through barbara´s book ‘I could do anything´?
pia
this sounds great – I have done some of the exercises in her books and they have been helpful. What type of online group forum would we use?
I find that facebook’s private groups are good. If you aren’t facebook users, then I’m sure that Google hangout (not the call version, just the instant message chat version)would work. I’m happy to work through any book. I’m in transition myself, but would love to inspire and be inspired by others!
-Becca
sounds good to me! I do have a facebook account,but never used it much for anything, so I´d have to learn how to use it for our group. as far as I´m concerned, three people is a great number to start with – michelle, becca, pia – as too many people involved might make it complicated online for beginners like myself. what do you think? I´d go into my facebook tomorrow to see whether I can find anything from either of you.
what would be essential for me is privacy, to really insure our dialogue (trialogue 🙂 stays with the three of us. some of my young volunteers say, there´s nothing ever private around facebook… couldn´t we just do it by chatting via our normal email-addresses? (I´ve never chatted that way either,but have noticed the `chat-button´ in my aol mail site and at least aol doesn´t claim for example all my pictures I might send as their private property, as facebook does…)
curious about your ideas and comments,
pia
Facebook has a private group option. While I can’t claim to know (or care, really) about “privacy”, it’s just an easy way to interact. If Google Chat/hangout is better, that’s fine too. Email can work as long as we have some organization…or possibly use google docs?
hi patty,
I join Anna, curious about your wish/es – obstacle/s! looking forward to your answer! also would love you to comment on my wish/obstacle description – get me out of my isolation! yeah!!!
pia
`I could do anything . . . ´ fell into my hands JANUARY FIRST just when I had decided to forgo ANY SORT OF NEW YEAR´S RESOLUTIONS!!! Chance . . . ? there are no coincidences . . .
I have come a long way towards my dream. I built up an amazing, wild place in the middle of nature near the sea with rescue animals, horses, llamas, ponies, dogs, cats, tortoises . . . my childhood dream come true. I am financially independent, have all the time of the world, wrote already two novels in the past that even got some acknowledgement by some publishers but weren´t published in the end, and got stuck there.
at the same time I dream of having families with children visiting here, I have two guest rooms in my house and a wooden cabin in the foresty part of my place, but but but but but . . . I have had a lot of struggles the last seven years to develop this place, it´s all legal, all licences in order etc, but the bureaucracy involved was atrocious, I hit upon corruption, cynicism, indifference, even criminal attempts to stop me in my tracks (amongst other things my car was put on fire . . . )
so, I have lost my original naive trust in people, I am terrified of more bureaucratical procedures, of publishing the activities I´d like to offer, of taking out insurances, declaring taxes like a normal business, of going `official´ with my invitations etc . . .
and I don´t seem to be able to get serious people involved with my dream . . . lots of people say, `oh, great, I always wanted to do something with kids and animals´, but it´s all `pipe-dream-people´, no one seriously getting involved . . .
one problem around me is that I seem to be a catalyst for what people do NOT want to see about themselves: it´s not that I´d see it – far from it, I´m not a wise person or anything – it just somehow transpires, and then people throw onto ME what does not seem to work in their own lives . . . so, I´ve ended up pretty isolated these days and started thinking about myself as `people-incompatible´ . . .
(never a problem in the past . . .)
so, be it working with kids and beasts, or going back to writing books: the first for me would be to come out of my isolation (oh yes, you´re so right, it DOES kill dreams if you think there´s no-one out there to share them!) . . .
curious about what you´ll say to all of this . . .
It’s hard to make it so far toward your goals and then get stopped in your tracks by other people! I think getting the RIGHT people involved in your dreams is essential. I’m not sure if there would be a way to screen people more carefully to make sure they are completely on board with your specific goals. What kind of help are you looking for?
I’m going to suggest that you register as a host with these short-term volunteering sites, and get one or two volunteers, or more if you want, to come and help you with the place.
http://www.helpx.net/ http://www.workaway.info/
That will break your isolation, and attract mostly young, energetic people who are enthusiastic about what you do. You can decide how long you want the volunteers to stay, and you can make the initial period quite short so that anyone who doesn’t click won’t be staying long. But when you get someone really good you might persuade them to stay longer or make repeat visits. The volunteers will also bring a variety of skills with them that they can use to help you, e.g. building skills, website and social media skills, or marketing experience.
You say you are financially independent, so I’m wondering why you want to turn this into a business, when that involves so many things you hate doing. Can’t you just invite people to stay for free? Maybe your friends and relatives, or families with special needs?
If you need to make money to keep it going maybe you could get what Barbara calls a good enough job that funds the things you love doing. Or you could try crowd-funding e.g. gogetfunding.com. Many people like to donate to help rescued animals, and you could offer visits and stays there as rewards for the higher levels of donation. I think money from crowd-funding would be tax free, but you’d have to check the tax laws in your locality.
this reply might get quite emotional . . . there´s a lump in my throat thinking some people out there are actually really answering to my posting . . .
to jennifer I would have answered `if I only knew´ (=what help I´m looking for), and to skannie´s first suggestion I would have said, yes, I´m registered with workaway, helpx and wwoof and received an enormous amount of help over the last three years. without them I could have never done it. but, as I described, the `click´ people were/are unbelievable, just so far none of them stayed for longer than two, three months (simply because of their life-plans, with which I sometimes could greatly support them, finding out THEIR dreams etc.), and always after the departure of a great team of a single great person I have to pick up my alone-ness and my own life-rhythm etc again. (I run the place alone, except for one associate who is very loyal and helpful but not really interested/engaged in my aims) Sometimes, at the beginning, this was so bad that I actually started dreading the departure of people whose presence I loved WHILE THEY WERE STILL HERE and worked hard to not feel about them like `traitors´ or something … (this phase is over,thank god…) Then there were quite a few people walking all over me, so I developed `boss-skills´ including asking people to leave before they wanted to, if they were simply respectless, destructive etc. During some time I totally lost my originally life-long open approach to people (I´m 54 and started the finca seven years ago, at 47) and became suspicious, withdrawn, sometimes even paranoid… (this phase is over now as well, as the really heavy experiences with the local mafia are now a few years behind.)
what really made my heart race was your sentence, skannie – WHY DO YOU WANT TO TURN IT INTO A BUSINESS IT THAT IMPLIES SO MANY THINGS YOU HATE – exactly!!! why on earth do I??? partly maybe because after offering adventure-visits,animal visits etc free to all the families around here – I taught six years of taiji quan in the village first for free and then for the petrol money, I´m a professional teacher and studied five years twice a day in taipei with master wang yennian personally, and quite a few of my students with young kids visited the finca and LOVED it . . . then, maybe because it WAS free and too easy to get, the taiji quan classes as well as the finca visits died . . . so, some people say,it will only be appreciated if you charge some money for it.
but the donation-idea is FANTASTIC!!! it just never ocurred to me . . . I was a fundraiser for THE HUNGER PROJECT while it was still run by Joan Holmes, but it just never ocurred to me that our (mine and the animals´) purpose here could be worthy of support as well . . . (`as long as there are still children starving . . . ) the reason why I will have to make some – not much – money in the future is that a)the mafia´s doings almost drained my last savings and reserves and b)my associate, whose pension we have lived on in the last few years, is eighty and might well one day need his whole income for his own care, which he deserves the best of . . . and by that time we will have to be self-reliant,the animals and me.
but the idea to get true animal- and nature-lovers to support us and come for holidays in exchange just totally thrills me: this way I DON´T HAVE TO CHARGE (taking money for what you do is BAD!!!:-) ), and people give money towards the beasts and THEIR needs, and I can clandestinely slip in my own little needs and hope no-body notices . . . 🙂 no, seriously: fact is that I DO live at those animals´ service, and LOVE it, and it still leaves me enough time to do my writing . . .
skannie, I´m SOOO excited and will get into gogetfunding right away.of course, my internet stopped functioning THIS MINUTE, but I´ll trick the dibbuk, copy my text, re-connect myself and answer you right away . . . see you in a minute!!!
HEY – IT WORKED!!! OVERCOMING MY INTERNET- AND PC-HANGUPS!!! (I so often lost texts I´d written . . .now I dread windows 8 in case my computer dies, still with window 7 and everyone moans about windows 8 . . . these are just a few `side-hangups´. . . 🙂 )
okay, skannie – I´ll go into gogetfunding now … more throat-lumping – — fasten your seatbelt!!! I´ll let you know . . . HERE WE GOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
not a reply, just an addition: back from visiting `gogetfunding´, overwhelmed . . . I already created an association, properly registered and all, except there are no active members, as the occasional visitors were just passers-by . . .
so, I never raised any membership-fees or anything, it never ocurred to me to work on all this online . . .
so, tomorrow (it´s 11pm here in spain) I´ll start getting cracking on all this – – – christ, I even suddenly feel I finally arrived in the 21st century!!!
skannie, whoever you are – you will always be a guru in MY life!!!
if it is possible you can write to me directly at pialau2@aol.com and I can send you some pictures! you can also meet some of our animals when you put ` pia lau ´ in the youtube bar . . . big hug, if I may – pia
Oh, maybe I should have replied here instead of down below. Well I’ll add here that I’m determinedly sticking to Windows XP, which works perfectly well, until I absolutely have to change. And yes, hugs are willingly accepted. I looked at your YouTube. The horse training was especially interesting. But I’m notoriously unreliable at emailing people, so I won’t promise to do it.
hi jennifer, thank you so much for answering! I don´t know if you can also read the other answers etc., I just received someones suggestion to try and get some funding and offer family-visits to the finca in return. this idea just never ocurred to me, or seemed too far-fetched or complicated. I´ll go now into gogetfunding and let you know what happens, if you like!! here I add my answer to skannie:this reply might get quite emotional . . . there´s a lump in my throat thinking some people out there are actually really answering to my posting . . .
to jennifer I would have answered `if I only knew´ (=what help I´m looking for), and to skannie´s first suggestion I would have said, yes, I´m registered with workaway, helpx and wwoof and received an enormous amount of help over the last three years. without them I could have never done it. but, as I described, the `click´ people were/are unbelievable, just so far none of them stayed for longer than two, three months (simply because of their life-plans, with which I sometimes could greatly support them, finding out THEIR dreams etc.), and always after the departure of a great team of a single great person I have to pick up my alone-ness and my own life-rhythm etc again. (I run the place alone, except for one associate who is very loyal and helpful but not really interested/engaged in my aims) Sometimes, at the beginning, this was so bad that I actually started dreading the departure of people whose presence I loved WHILE THEY WERE STILL HERE and worked hard to not feel about them like `traitors´ or something … (this phase is over,thank god…) Then there were quite a few people walking all over me, so I developed `boss-skills´ including asking people to leave before they wanted to, if they were simply respectless, destructive etc. During some time I totally lost my originally life-long open approach to people (I´m 54 and started the finca seven years ago, at 47) and became suspicious, withdrawn, sometimes even paranoid… (this phase is over now as well, as the really heavy experiences with the local mafia are now a few years behind.)
what really made my heart race was your sentence, skannie – WHY DO YOU WANT TO TURN IT INTO A BUSINESS IT THAT IMPLIES SO MANY THINGS YOU HATE – exactly!!! why on earth do I??? partly maybe because after offering adventure-visits,animal visits etc free to all the families around here – I taught six years of taiji quan in the village first for free and then for the petrol money, I´m a professional teacher and studied five years twice a day in taipei with master wang yennian personally, and quite a few of my students with young kids visited the finca and LOVED it . . . then, maybe because it WAS free and too easy to get, the taiji quan classes as well as the finca visits died . . . so, some people say,it will only be appreciated if you charge some money for it.
but the donation-idea is FANTASTIC!!! it just never ocurred to me . . . I was a fundraiser for THE HUNGER PROJECT while it was still run by Joan Holmes, but it just never ocurred to me that our (mine and the animals´) purpose here could be worthy of support as well . . . (`as long as there are still children starving . . . ) the reason why I will have to make some – not much – money in the future is that a)the mafia´s doings almost drained my last savings and reserves and b)my associate, whose pension we have lived on in the last few years, is eighty and might well one day need his whole income for his own care, which he deserves the best of . . . and by that time we will have to be self-reliant,the animals and me.
but the idea to get true animal- and nature-lovers to support us and come for holidays in exchange just totally thrills me: this way I DON´T HAVE TO CHARGE (taking money for what you do is BAD!!!:-) ), and people give money towards the beasts and THEIR needs, and I can clandestinely slip in my own little needs and hope no-body notices . . . 🙂 no, seriously: fact is that I DO live at those animals´ service, and LOVE it, and it still leaves me enough time to do my writing . . .
skannie, I´m SOOO excited and will get into gogetfunding right away.of course, my internet stopped functioning THIS MINUTE, but I´ll trick the dibbuk, copy my text, re-connect myself and answer you right away . . . see you in a minute!!!
I’m glad at least one of my suggestions was new and inspiring for you. Yes you really should work on it all online. Get a blog, a Facebook page, a Twitter account, join LinkedIn etc. Apart from promoting your project, it will also give you good connections with like-minded people.
After reading your replies and looking at your YouTube channel I understand your situation much better. I was trying to work out where in the world you are. Llamas and hot dry landscape suggested South America. But no, not with Africa in the background. So then I asked Google maps to find Tarifa and it brought me to the southernmost tip of Spain.
I agree that you need to establish an alternative source of income, because you don’t know how long your associate’s money will be available. And the local people don’t look like being a good source. So I think your best bet is to make it from foreign visitors or clients or benefactors. Spain is a good location for doing that because lots of people like going there for holidays.
Crowd funding, as I mentioned, is one way to do it. But you could also arrange residential workshops and teach people all sorts of stuff. Here’s one example of a site you could cooperate with to provide learning holidays.
http://euro.golearnto.com/become-a-supplier.aspx
You don’t have a lot of accommodation, so if you want to teach bigger groups, maybe you could arrange a package deal with a local hotel or hostel to accommodate them, with daily educational visits to the finca.
Or you could have a campsite like this Dutch couple who bought a farm in Slovakia.
http://farm-in-slovakia.blogspot.sk/
Here’s another way of raising money for animals
http://www.llama-rama.co.uk/Adopt-a-Llama.html
and some more quirky ideas here
http://shangrillama.blogspot.sk/
hi skannie,
thanks for checking our youtube stuff. my helpx profile is the nr. 13 555. and yes, I´ll definitely have to re-start and learn more about my facebook account. I´m still a bit weary about being on those pages, but guess it´s a hurdle I have to jump . . .
didn´t do the gogetfunding yet after all, as I do realize my primary problem is not the money yet, but the idea of having to raise an income has much to do with my need to get out of my isolation on the finca. I´m not isolated in so far as I have some real good friends around here, but none of them is directly involved with the finca (other than as my exotic and not-easy-to-reach home). so, the idea of needing to create some income-related activities is closely linked to the wish to involve some people long term with the finca. there is decent dormitory accommodation for up to ten people, and I don´t think I´d want to have bigger groups visiting, as that would not be very compatible with the `spirit´ of the finca, which has a lot to do with silence, relaxation, introspection, meditation etc . . .
but yes, there would certainly be hotels around that would gladly accommodate bigger groups . . . see, THAT for example would be something far beyond my boldest dreams, though I have inspired large crowds of people in the past . . . (in the nineties I did the leadership programme of landmark education in switzerland, holland, germany and england and graduated as an introduction leader before I moved to spain.)
now, what are YOU after on this page? what are YOUR projects, goals and dreams, and in what way might I serve you??? 🙂
thanks again for your attention, if you like I keep you posted, tomorrow I´ll follow up some of your suggestions! (though I must say I´ve by now met quite a few people whom the internet has not at all helped to make their reality more satisfactory, but rather `sponged´ them away from their reality,replacing real people with virtual `friends´ or `followers´,as in facebook…
hope YOU are a real person!!! 🙂 if not with an email-address, maybe with a facebook account? 🙂
cheers,
pia
hi skannie,
just want to keep thanking you: went into golearnto, and while today and yesterday lots of things happened I need to attend to I will find the time soon to enroll with them. your letters are like gold-mines for me, incredibly rich and leading me into all kinds of undreamt of possibilities – THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! 🙂 bye for now, will keep you posted, hope some day there´ll be something I might be able to do for YOU!
cheers, more hugs,
pia
Me? A real person? No I’m just an advice bot 😉
Here’s someone you could get ideas from
http://healingartjourneys.com/
I’d love to see the photos of your animals in a blog where I can read interesting stuff about about them as well. Why don’t you go to blogger.com or wordpress.com and start one?
I just read Wishcraft 3 days ago. It was an epiphany for me, as I was brought up to be modest, unassuming, and non-complaining. I am shy, and have trouble asking for help. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Hi Patty, Wishcraft is an epiphany indeed! Well, it even becomes more of it when you apply it to your dreams. So: What is your dream / wish? And what’s the problem / obstacle / fear behind it? Would love to hear from you 🙂
Try this book about how to be more assertive. I found it very good.
A Woman in Your Own Right – by Anne Dickson
http://www.amazon.com/Woman-Your-Right-Quartet-original/dp/0704334208