It just takes one person to start a movement. Kinda like Toms Shoes. You buy a pair, he gives a pair. Or Shauna M., a White Hot reader who emailed me to say:

“Dear Danielle…Here’s a question for you: I would love to donate a Fire Starter e-book to someone who would really love it/want it but can’t afford to pay. I am not starting any business myself, but I would love to give it as a gift to someone. Is there someone from your birthday give-away that you know who would do a happy dance to receive the book? Let me know!”

Wow. Just giving. To give. And I thought, There’s a party in here somewhere. So let’s get it started. Fellow seekers and achievers, I’m thrilled to announce:

From Monday, September 27 to Friday, October 1, 2010 — just this week, for every Fire Starter Sessions program purchased, we’ll give one copy away: either to a friend of yours (you tell me who), or one to a happy stranger (we’ll pick ‘em together). Yep — you buy one for yourself. And together, we give one away — to an appreciative someone who will put the program to use.

There are two ways to give: you can gift the program to someone you already know; or to an aspiring entrepreneur you haven’t met yet, who will be selected through a public voting process.

There is one way to receive: by applying.

I have no idea how this is going to go down — could fizzle, could blaze. Let’s try it.

Here’s how it works:

buyers. givers. philanthropists:

GIVING OPTION A: Pick a comrade who needs some fire.

STEP 1. Purchase a copy of The Fire Starter Sessions.

STEP 2. You can gift the program to someone you know. In the comments box below, let us know who you would like to have the gift copy donated to — just mention their name, and maybe why they’re wonderful (but don’t leave their actual email address in the comments box, or the spambots might find ‘em).

STEP 3: Email my lovely Communications Manager, alexandra@alexandrafranzen.com with the name + email address of your giftee. (I’m asking you to leave comments so we can publicly track how this is rolling out.) She’ll send them a gift copy. And they’ll love you forever.

GIVING OPTION B: Don’t have a friend in mind? Or simply can’t choose? Put your gift copy into the Love Match Mix. And let the world vote on the lucky winners.

STEP 1. Purchase a copy of The Fire Starter Sessions.

STEP 2: Choose to add your gift copy to the Love Match Mix. Our gifted copies will be awarded to winning applicants, who will have to apply, and then be selected by public voters. If you’re adding to the Mix, please leave a comment in the comments box below to say that you’re adding to the “Love Match Mix, please!” (I’m asking you to leave comments so we can publicly track how this is rolling out.)

STEP 3: And THEN email my lovely Communications Manager, alexandra@alexandrafranzen.com to say “Put my copy into the Love Match Mix”

then…

On Tuesday October 5 we’ll tally up the number of copies we have to give away, and we’ll open up the application process for people to win-earn the program. Applicants will be given the guidelines for throwing their hat into the ring to be gifted the program. The deadline will be tight. I’ll then narrow down that list, and post the group of finalists on the site. Then! the public will vote to select the fabulous winners!

potential winners, entrants, those who want to be on the receiving end:

Been hankering for a copy of The Fire Starter Sessions but it hasn’t been in the budget? Want to spark your dream, and throw some light on a strategy to make it happen? Okay! We’d love to help. Keep your eye on the prize. Subscribe to WhiteHotTruth.com if you haven’t already, or check back in obsessively for breaking news.

As mentioned above, on October 5, we’ll post sassy guidelines and virtual hoops to jump through in order to get into the Love Match Mix of potential winners. Soon after, finalists will be voted on by the free world to choose the actual winners! Please hold tight for instructions. If you email me this week to ask what the guidelines are, I’m just going to laugh wickedly, muhahaha! You have to wait till the 5th to apply.

Let the wild rumpus start!

Questions? Email alexandra@alexandrafranzen.com

> LEARN MORE ABOUT THE FIRE STARTER SESSIONS

$150 for the full-tilt love. And! $5 from every purchased copy goes to the charity you choose: The Acumen Fund or Women for Women International

I booked a month at the beach this August with the intention of writing, relaxing, cooking, doing yoga, getting a great tan, and spending quality time with other people I love who value space, green, slowing down, turning in, and chilling out. I am an ardent believer in the power of intention, but this belief is trumped by my deep knowing that, in the words of the great Mr. Jagger and Mr. Richards, “You can’t always get what you want. But if you try sometimes you just might find . . . You get what you need.”

Apparently, this summer what I needed—what my soul was longing for way more than a month of relaxation and introspection—was a lesson in taking a stand and telling the truth. (Necessary digression: It turns out when you name your blog “AuthentiKate,” the universe conspires to give you all sorts of lovely lessons and opportunities to not just walk the walk, but to strut the strut with a full-on swagger when it comes to telling it like it is. And at times, like during the month of August on my “vacation,” I sometimes wished I had named my blog “Fakin’ Kate” or something equally ripe with opportunities to sugarcoat the truth or wield smoke and mirrors. Sometimes the truth just sucks. It’s certainly not the easy path. Nope. It’s the mossy one that’s overgrown with vines, the one that’s poorly lit, muddy, and echoing with the screeches and moans of unidentified animals. It’s the scarier one. But it’s apparently the one that I’ve chosen.)

As much as I want to go into gory details of the many situations that transpired this month that squeezed me so hard I felt I had the choice to either tell the truth and take a stand for myself or suffocate, I will abstain for the following reasons: 1. I fear that illustrating the stories outright will add to my emotional charge around them. 2. I’d prefer to use vagueness to protect the anonymity of those involved. 3. As much as I talk about how the more specific we can be, the more universal and relatable our truth becomes, this is a time when I don’t think the details really matter.

Instead of composing what had the distinct possibility of becoming an overly emotional and somewhat unprocessed written diarrhea of the summer’s challenges, I’m going to try a different route and just stick with the lessons. Here are my Seven Truths About the Truth:

1.     The time is now. There is no right time or place for the truth. The perfect time for telling it like it is always lies in the present moment, reporting live from how you feel right now. Telling the truth in real time, rather than 24 or 48 hours later when you’ve had time to stew, marinate, and create a slow-cooked, falling-off-the-bones, tender roast of your version of the truth, simply makes more sense. Emotions, reality, perspectives, and sensations are so transient that, in a way, the only time the truth is relevant is right now. Just as the longer you go without taking out the garbage, the more it stinks, the longer you wait to tell the truth, the harder it becomes and the more rank it becomes from an energetic, emotional-charge perspective. Tell it now while it’s only vaguely odorous.

2.     The truth stands alone. The point of telling the truth is not to change someone’s behavior or get a desired outcome. The value of telling the truth is in owning your power, owning your perspective, and validating your experience through words. Taking a stand for oneself by telling the truth is worth it as an act of self-love and saying, “Hey! I’m here. I matter,” even if you’re the only person who hears it. The truth is not about changing someone else; it’s about honoring yourself. Just because someone doesn’t receive your truth with an open heart and an open mind doesn’t mean it wasn’t worth telling and doesn’t invalidate it. The value in your truth doesn’t come from how it lands (though there are certainly ways of telling it in more friendly ways than others). The value in your truth comes simply from telling it.

3.     The truth changes lives. The truth brings people closer together and is life-altering. As a cowboy who was helping me train a horse in Arizona once said, “The biggest gift you can ever give another living being is your truth.” Clarity and honesty works with horses and it sure as hell works with people. Last week I sat across a blanket on the beach from someone I love and told her some things that were not easy to say and were not easy for her to hear. And both of our willingness to get incredibly uncomfortable in that moment by cracking open our hearts to let the truth out and let it in bonded us in a way that would have been impossible had I not been willing to lay it down.

4.     The truth is never too late. This may seem totally in conflict with number one, but the second thing I learned about telling the truth is that it’s never too late. Based on Truth About the Truth #3, the truth—your truth—is life-changing. It’s never too late to take out smelly garbage. It’s never too late to lay it down straight.

5.     Take a stand for someone else’s truth. Sometimes you must be willing to stand for someone else’s truth when they’re not able to see it or hear it for themselves. I heard my aunt Penny tell a story about climbing to Mt. Everest Base Camp at 17,600 feet with my grandmother, Edna, this past May (my granny is the oldest woman to ever successfully make that trek). Penny talked about a moment on the trek when my grandmother was really sick and wasn’t sure she could go on and all of her doubt began to come up in that insidious way that it tends to do when we’re challenged. Penny talked about standing for her mother (my grandmother) and for the truth that she was unable to see for herself in that moment: that she could make the trek if, and only if, she was willing to receive the help that was available to her. Because of Penny’s firm resolve and deep belief in Granny, she was able to accept help and made it to Mt. Everest Base Camp.

6.     The truth gets fuzzy around the word “versus.” The truth is clouded by blame, competitiveness, reactivity, separation, and polarization. When we see things as right vs. wrong, you vs. me, black vs. white, and us vs. them, everything gets muddled and we can no longer see straight. I had an incredibly upsetting experience this week in which I was harshly blamed for something that someone had decided I had done based on inadequate evidence and intense reactivity. In my state of hurt, shock, and self-protection, I began to see her as perpetrator and me as victim, while I simultaneously began to beat myself up for what was, in essence, a miscommunication that we were both responsible for. When my dear friend helped me see how I was polarizing myself from this woman, the truth suddenly crystallized and I was able to see the situation for what it was: a simple case of mismanaged expectations and miscommunications. No blame. No right or wrong. Just a conversation that should have happened and never did. The relief that came from seeing the situation through the loving eyes of connection and collaboration was soul-nourishing.

7.     The truth wins every time. Whether you’re writing, speaking in public, acting, or simply talking with someone one on one, the truth is the most intoxicatingly compelling material you have. No matter how genius your shtick is or how brilliant your comic timing, the truth will always be more captivating than anything pre-planned or packaged. Two weeks ago I spoke in front of 3,000 people at the USANA International Convention about social media and writing a blog and, besides a few bullet points, I didn’t plan a thing. Instead, I held the microphone, felt my feet grounded on the stage, and told the truth. I talked about my identity crisis last fall and how I had to start writing a blog in order to carve out a space where I could be me, undefined by Team Northrup or being my mother’s daughter, and people loved it. I got an overwhelmingly positive response from people in the audience. They were inspired and moved to take action and tell the truth in their own ways. And it felt great to know that rather than a well-polished speech, I had delivered content that was fresh, vibrant, and real that was emotionally moving and motivating. (Plus I got asked for my autograph for the first time, which was really trippy and totally fun – see picture to the left…that’s me in the white dress.)

The truth captivates us. We can’t take our eyes away from it. My friend Josh Pais, founder and teacher of Committed Impulse, points out that kids and animals will always upstage actors because they can’t help but tell the truth and we can’t help but be fascinated by it. Next time you’re speaking or writing, channel that dog or child, strip away the layers, and let the truth win.

I’m sure there are more than seven truths about the truth, but these are mine for now. Perhaps one day I will develop this into some sort of truth manifesto or something. But for now I’m still practicing with the truth . . . telling a little bit more each and every day. Learning how to do it with grace, love, and wisdom. Learning how to tell it in a way that changes lives . . . mine most of all.

How did you learn to tell the truth?

What are some truths about truth that you’ve discovered?

Do you have a story about telling the truth you’d be willing to share?

What’s true for you right in this very moment?

I was inspired to write about female financial power this morning after reading a post from Lora Sasiela of Financially Smitten on negotiation and how our ability to ask for what we’re worth gives us a much better return on investment than minding our portfolios or becoming a stock wizard (though these things are important too.)  The article mentions certified financial planner and author of Women’s Worth: Finding Your Financial Confidence, Eleanor Blayney, who notes that women still earn only 77 cents on every dollar that men earn. She asserts that the difference may largely be due to the fact that men are much more comfortable asking for what they’re worth than women.

As I was reading the article a memory popped into my head of the first time I ever asked for more:

I was fourteen years old. It was a beautiful Maine summer. I had spent the entire day babysitting for three kids under the age of seven. I was exhausted after about ten hours of running around, feeding them every thirty seconds, cleaning up, and all the other fun stuff involved in taking care of kids. The father of the family drove me home at the end of the night and handed me twenty dollars. My heart sank. I smiled as I held back infuriated tears and got out of the car.

As soon as I walked in the front door I lost it. I was pissed. He had paid me two dollars an hour. How dare he take advantage of me because of my age and gender? What nerve he had to pay me a pittance for working my ass off running after his bratty kids all day!  After ranting about for a while, my mom suggested that I call him and tell him what I’m worth. What??!! I thought she was insane. In that moment it felt like it would be easier, and far more pleasurable, to stick a hot poker in my eye than to call a grown businessman at least thirty years my senior and tell him that he had majorly low-balled it and that he owed me money.

But below my fear there was another voice that told me this was a moment of critical importance. This was an opportunity to own my power and speak up for myself. This was a moment to ask for what I’m worth. (In actuality I don’t think those particular thoughts consciously crossed my mind. Really I was mostly just pissed off and wanted extra money for clothes or movies or whatever I was investing my precious pennies in at the time. But looking back thirteen years later, I know that voice was whispering to me on some level, urging me to value myself.)

I still wasn’t ready to make the call in that moment, though. I was scared shitless, to be honest. Plus, I was too angry to be adult and professional. So, I called a woman in the community who I also babysat for and who I trusted. I asked her what she thought I should do and she agreed with my mom (darn those mature, empowered women for being right). She told me that she felt he had grossly underestimated my worth and that I should tell him so directly (and sweetly, of course.)

So the next morning I mustered up the courage to make the call. I was nauseous. I was sweating. I was shaking. The phone weighed eight bazillion pounds. But my anger and desire to take a stand for myself made me dial the number. I told him, quite kindly and matter-of-factly, that my going rate for babysitting was actually quite a bit higher than two dollars an hour and that I would appreciate it if he would make up the difference. I apologized for not having told him my rate ahead of time, then told him that we would need to straighten out the situation. I thanked him for his time and hung up the phone.

He was stunned. I was stunned. I never babysat for that family again, which was more than okay. He ended up dropping off more money. I ended up feeling intoxicatingly empowered. My mom and my neighbor who I had called for support were really proud of me. I was really proud of me.

Since that time I’ve negotiated my worth on countless occasions. I’ve asked for higher pay and gotten it time after time. I’ve realized that generally speaking, unless you ask for it, you’re not going to get it. No one will value you unless you value yourself and are willing to take a stand verbally, in writing, or in some other tangible way. I’ve also learned that asking for what I’m worth is scary every single time. And yet, the fear that I feel when I ask for more money or anything else, is not enough to stop me from doing it because the feeling of genuine, profound power on the other side of that fear is worth it every time. Yeah, the extra money in my bank account is nice too, but it pales in comparison to the deep sense of personal worth that grows each and every time I negotiate on my own behalf.

***Tomorrow is my final Women & Wealth Seminar of the summer and possibly of 2010. Join the conversation about feminine financial power live in NYC Thursday, July 29^th, 7:00 – 8:30pm at the Giving Nature Center, 155 W 19^th St. Discover where your money blocks are, learn strategies for clearing any unconscious beliefs that are holding you back from creating wealth, and identify new ways to create wealth in your life. REGISTER HERE TO SAVE $5.***

When was a time you asked for what you were worth and how did it make you feel?

Have you ever gotten stiffed and not said anything about it?

How do you feel about negotiating in general?

What does feminine financial power mean to you?

I have a tremendous need to get results out of anything I do. I started a pranayama practice in October as part of my yoga teacher training and couldn’t seem to stick with it on a daily basis (which was a course requirement) because it didn’t feel like I was getting anywhere. Where exactly would I like to be getting? Self-improvement can become an addiction I think. It’s hard for me to justify doing something unless I think I’m going to somehow become a better person by doing it. It’s a sickness, really.

So many self-help books, programs, and seminars prey upon the fact that we inherently disapprove of ourselves. If I’m into self-improvement work, I must feel like there’s something to be improved upon in me. I must feel that I am fundamentally flawed and that I need some spackling and sheetrock in order to rectify the situation. Yep, I would say that’s accurate. And, on the other hand, rather ironically, I’ve learned at Mama Gena’s School of Womanly Arts, at Sacred Center New York, from Louise Hay, and from other teachers, that the key to solving practically any problem is loving myself.

So how am I supposed to love myself while still being obsessed with self-improvement? Are self-love and self-improvement mutually exclusive? I dunno. This one is going to require some unpacking. I once heard that you can’t hate yourself enough to feel better. It turns out that self-loathing isn’t a direct path to happiness. Wayne Dyer says, “There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way.” It is the ultimate frustrating irony that I can’t disapprove of my stomach enough to make it flat and I can’t criticize my fine hair enough to make it thicker.

Our culture has taught us that the best way to get what we want is to push up against what we don’t want. We’re taught to fight for everything. We fight cancer, heart disease, and AIDS. We raise money for the fight. We walk for the fight. We run for the fight. And when we’re trained and raised as fighters, we’re guaranteed to find something to fight against. I’m always surprised by the words chosen by organizations that are fundamentally desiring peace and health. Rather than choose words that are energetically aligned with what their ultimate goal is, they are stuck energizing the problem. We raise money to fight against things rather than raising money to promote our desired outcomes: peace, love, happiness, joy, and health.

It’s no different in my own life. My desire is to be happy and free and to feel loved and to love. My desire is for peace of mind. And yet at times I operate under the erroneous belief that the best way to get there is to pick myself apart. I have a wrinkle between my eyebrows that makes me look old; I said the wrong thing to that guy and now I’ll be alone my whole life; I’m a failure at life because I have some credit card debt; I’m a loser because sometimes I don’t get out of bed until 10 am. Oh, I could go on, but I wouldn’t want to bore you. Plus, I’d rather you fill in the blanks with your favorite self-loathing statements. Air them out. If you articulate the negative, repetitive thoughts in your mind out loud, they actually may sound ridiculous. Get a sense of humor about the whole thing. See if you can love yourself for how mean and disapproving you can be. If you can’t, see if you can love yourself for not being able to love yourself for disapproving of yourself.

When I get really, really upset, I usually call my mom. I’ve been trying to train myself out of that to make sure I have some other tried and true coping mechanisms, but she really often does know just the right thing to say. When I’m beating myself up for doing something wrong, she asks me if I can love myself for that behavior. And I get annoyed and then she asks me if I can love myself for that. She urges me to find a glimmer—just one tiny sparkle—of self-love in that moment. Generally, if I dig deep enough, somewhere in my mascara-stained, snotty-nosed stupor, there’s a little bit of love. And then I can find myself adorable for the whole thing—at least a little bit.

I am the self-improvement queen. At my relatively young age, I have read the vast majority of the self-help section of Barnes and Noble and have taken countless seminars and courses. I once told some friends that I was “getting a PhD in me.” Sound self-centered? Perhaps, but I do believe that by being the best people we can possibly be, we’re able to make the world the best place it can possibly be. I will never tell anyone to stop doing self-improvement work. I do it like it’s my job (which it sort of is), and I would recommend it to anyone.

But, what I will recommend is to come at it from a place of knowing that you’re perfect exactly as you are right now (opt-in on my list on the right for a free 30-minute audio that will teach you how). See if you can open that book on how to find your soul mate while loving yourself and knowing that you’re great. Throw yourself an “I rock” party before you take your next weekend seminar on overcoming fear and playing full out. Put your attention on what you want (love, happiness, joy, self-acceptance, peace of mind, whatever) and then, and only THEN, get out the sandpaper and spackle and begin to buff yourself up. No, I don’t believe self-improvement is mutually exclusive of self-love, but I do think you’ll get a lot further if you love yourself first, right now, exactly as you are. Plus, you’ll have a lot more fun.

Happy self-improving!

I have a major girl crush on Danielle LaPorte. Many of you may already know this. Danielle is the creator of WhiteHotTruth.com, which has been called “the best place online for kick-ass spirituality.” She’s an inspirational speaker and business strategist, and she totally rocks my world. I met Danielle at her Fire Starter Session in New York City in September. Spending the day with her, furiously jotting down her burning questions and steely insights, catalyzed what has become quite an unraveling, reworking, and reinvention for me over the past ten months. It is largely thanks to Danielle that this site exists. My private Fire Starter Session with her in January was incredibly rich with content, practical advice, and sunshine blown up my skirt (Danielle’s words), which was just what I needed at the time. She is badass meets high priestess, business guru meets channel. She is all that and more, and I’m over-the-moon-and-stars ecstatic and grateful to share this interview I did with her last month with you, dear readers.

If you’re jonesing for a piece of Danielle’s brilliance immediately after sampling this appetizer of an interview, check out her Fire Starter Sessions: A Digital Experience for Entrepreneurs. It will rock your stockings off and get your business creativity mojo going in a huge, spiritually grounded, and totally rock star kind of way.

Note: This interview was originally conducted and recorded over the phone, and then transcribed into written form. Since Danielle is the queen of authenticity, and this site is, after all, called AuthentiKate, I’ve chosen to preserve the colloquial speech patterns from the interview even though it’s now in written form. This way, you can pretend you are listening to the two of us fabulous femmepreneurs as you read! Enjoy.

What are you most afraid of that you’re doing anyway?
Well, when I get asked the question, “So what’s the one thing you’re afraid of in your life?” I used to say, “Well, not much.” But the one thing is, I’m afraid of not living up to my potential. So, I’m living up to my potential, no matter what.

Now we’re going to do some free association. When I say a word, you just say the first thing that comes to your mind.
Normal:
Banal.
Courage:
Essential.
Money:
I shouldn’t apologize for this but . . . happiness. Okay. Happiness.
Safe:
Scared. Safety . . . safety makes me scared.
Truth:
Courage.

What is one thing that you’re compelled to tell people over and over again . . . either the same people, or different ones?
You know. You know the answer. You know, people say, “Well, I’m torn.” Well look—no, you’re not torn. You know, it’s just what you know is difficult. And I totally understand being torn. There are some things I’m torn about right now, too. But—but you know the answer. You know what you want. And it may change. It may change day to day. But right now you know what you want. You know what’s right for you.

What do you love about your life, and why?
You know what I love about my life, in addition to my kid, who makes everything just sweet and hilarious? What I love about my life is my freedom! I can do what I want. I can do what I want. You know, I launched my book, and I took the week off pretty much, which is totally counter-intuitive. I should be cranking. But I love that. You know I just—because I just moved houses, I’m, you know, I’m a bit beat. So I slept until ten o’clock today. And then I got up and put my mascara on. And I’ll probably work until like two in the morning. And I will be—I will be so blissed out at two in the morning with, like, my tribal music playing, and a candle going and rocking the social web. And who knows what tomorrow will bring? I may work all day. I may go get a pedicure. I’m free.

What activity can you recommend to anyone that takes less than five minutes and will help them thrive?
Oh, well this is immediate. I can give you something that’s faster than the speed of light. You can think happy thoughts.

I find that, often, people (meaning myself) are unaccustomed to telling the truth. And my question is, what do you suggest for those of us who’ve been raised to be afraid of the truth, if we want to start to peel back the layers and start telling it like it is?
Hang out with people who do tell the truth. Learn from example. Get interviewed. Start telling the truth to yourself.
Here’s a formula: Start telling the truth to yourself in as many ways as possible. And then start telling the truth to a few more people. Extend. I see it as concentric circles. So, you can tell yourself the truth when you look in the mirror. You can tell yourself the truth when you’re journaling. You can tell yourself the truth when you’re getting dressed, when you’re dancing, when you’re getting yourself off, when you’re going shopping. There’s lots of ways to tell yourself the truth. You can tell yourself the truth by drawing it out. Yeah, it’s about expression. And then tell one good friend, and then tell two good friends. And then start telling the people you work with, and then start telling strangers.
And it doesn’t mean telling people your deep, dark secrets, because I believe in privacy and I believe in healthy boundaries and all that. But telling the truth could be expressing to the guy in the cubicle next to you that you want to write a masterpiece novel, or that you hate [your] job or that you want to have cocktails with him. I think there is huge power in telling people about what your dreams are—[your] aspirations, your ambitions. I think it empowers them. It empowers. It’s the ambitions, the dreams themselves. It empowers you and empowers the person that you’re sharing the dream with.

And were you always somebody who told the truth, or is that something that happened later?
I think I always had the muscles for the truth. I think I’ve always been, um, outspoken. It’s been helpful to just be kind of mouthy all along. But you can be mouthy and not be telling the truth, right? In my twenties, my motto was: Fake it ‘til you make it. And then my last company crashed and burned because there was an element of faking it going on. You know, it was very deep. It wasn’t even conscious. It was unconscious inauthenticity.

What’s on your desk right now?
I have a beautiful pot of orchids with—I think I counted twelve blooms on it—that was a gift to me from Hiro Boga. She’s way cool. She’s a business intuitive. And she sent me these when I did my preorder launch, and these flowers talk to me. And they tell me, “Go team, go!” Yeah. The girl infused them with some weird magic mojo. And I have a little carnelian stone which is about creativity. And then I have some piece of glass which my kid thinks is a magic quartz crystal and I’m just going with it, like: “That is the most powerful crystal I ever saw!” And I have rechargeable batteries because I am eco-friendly. And a measuring tape to hang my new photos. And anything else fun? Some kids’ pictures from my kid because he’s a great post-modernist artist. And I have a little magnetic clip full of fortunes, from fortune cookies.

What do you wear when you write?
Uggs. I wear chocolate brown. The low—not the low, low ones—the medium-calf Uggs. Because I am more brilliant when my feet are warm. And I have to be comfortable when I write. Like I can come home from a gig looking totally hot, and forget it! I’ve got to got to put on some leggings and my Uggs or some baggy jeans. But it’s really about the Uggs. And amber oil. I’m always wearing it. I never leave the house without essential oil. I get some crazy amber oil from this woman in Albuquerque who gets it for me from this guy in Bali.

Do you ever just do nothing? And if so, what does that look like?
I’m really bad at doing nothing. Even my nothing has some kind of seeking to it. So, nothing for me would be reading. That’s not doing nothing, that’s for sure. Even meditating looks like nothing but it’s really something. Who wants to do nothing? I don’t want to do nothing. That’s why I think Julia Cameron’s “Artist Dates” work because it’s a “do-nothing” in disguise.

What books are on your nightstand right now?
Well I just dusted off Women Who Run With The Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés. It’s really time to read that again. I just got Laura Day’s How to Rule the World From Your Couch. I’m excited about that. I’m into changing your past like she talks about. I’m into Rework by the 37Signals guys, Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson. It’s really good. And I just got Confessions of a Public Speaker by Scott Berkun.

And the final question is: What, who, or how do you want to be when you grow up?
I want to be me with abandon. And compassion.

Thank you.

More on the Fire Starter Sessions:

How’s your cash flow and your mojo?
Does your vision match your reality?
Does your brand match your soul?

THE FIRE STARTER SESSIONS is: an e-book meets video transmission of acumen and love. You: are likely sitting on an empire of content, product, services, and prosperity that needs a spark—or blow torch—to take you to the next level. You: want to rock your revenue streams and do meaningful things in the world.
Worksheets that help you draw conclusions, quick videos with motivational punch, connections to current thinkers, practical smarts, and frank wisdom—THE FIRE STARTER SESSIONS is packed with inspiration that you will put to use.
Danielle has worked with 462+ entrepreneurs in her 1-on-1 Fire Starter consults (which are $500 and booked six weeks in advance and SO FREAKIN’ worth every penny and more – I’ve had a one on one for my personal brand and for Team Northrup and have gotten oodles upon oodles of value for both.) For CEOs, coaches, artists, retailers, bestselling authors—from site design to big dreams—Danielle’s strategies combine passion with pragmatism to get to fulfillment and cash.

Each chapter is its own “Fire Starter Session” that includes: e-book components, video inspiration or interviews, and worksheets.

Some of the sessions are: True Strengths & The Metrics of Ease; Branding: Clarifying the Diamond of You; Products & Services: Making Stuff That Feels Good to Make; Money: More is More, Enough is Plenty; Web Design & SEO: Your Virtual Real Estate . . . and dozens of tips and motivating perspectives.
In addition to getting Danielle’s deep and detailed knowledge, THE FIRE STARTER SESSIONS brings you contributions from some A-league marketing strategists, pro-bloggers, branding experts, and creativity coaches.
Whether you’re in the early idea phase or a well-established rut, Danielle’s thorough, witty, and experience-based advice will most certainly light a fire under your . . . aspirations.

The fine print: I’m super proud to be an affiliate with Danielle.