The Most Exciting New Year To Date

Beach Bike Sun = Fun

I’m not entirely sure why I’m so excited about 2010. But I am. It seems I’m not alone. From the people I’ve talked to and the articles, blogs, emails and tweets I’ve read recently, it’s fairly evident that people are very optimistic about this year.

I know that a tough 2009 has made everyone want even more from this new year. There’s a belief that things must change because we’re not prepared to put up with what we went through in 2009.

Outside of that, people who had a great year last year are wanting to naturally build on that and make this year even more successful.

I’d say on reflection 2009 was one of the most challenging I’ve had, but also one of the best. Anything that causes you to learn, to grow, to fail, to get back up and succeed – then repeat often, can only be a wonderful thing. If I weren’t growing I’d be stagnating and what’s the point of being on this earth if that’s your intention?

I’ve started the year off with a bang but in a particularly relaxed manner for me. I’m all about simplicity this year. Focusing on a few key areas and decluttering the rest.

Venice Beach Beauty

It helps that I’ve just come off two of the most chillaxin weeks of holiday in LA where I had a great time and did quite

a lot of nothing – that’s helped me gain some valuable R&R, some space in my mind to reflect, to pontificate and at times to just think of nothing. I know – rare indeed.

In just two weeks I’ve met an amazing man who’s made me believe in romance and falling in love again. I’ve been an LA girl and enjoyed the relaxed living, oceanside lifestyle and copious amounts of sunshine. Now, back in Vancouver, I get to move into my new home tomorrow with Megan and Craig. All this on just the 3rd day of the year!

I did so much work on goal setting back in August last year and have kept updating them that there was no work to do come January 1st.

Not that I ever set goals on such a day, when you know you’re going to be tired from celebrating the night before, especially one that started with a limo ride with 18 people to a Hollywood party. I woke up with a hangover, a huge grin on my face and sore feet from dancing and being stepped on. Pretty perfect really. Brunch on the deck with new friends, Frisbee golf, time with my boy and a flight back to Vancouver were all I was in need of on January 1st.

I’m also not in a rush to achieve mammoth feats in the next few days. I’m on a slow and steady path to achieving my personal goals as well as those for FundRazr and WomanzWorld.

2010 is all about having fun whilst achieving.

I wish all my friends the best year yet. Make it happen.

Tags: 2010 New Year Goals, Loving Los Angeles

The Return of the Nomad

Oh how the months have flown by with September and October being two of the busiest in my life.

They’ve brought with them some key learnings, interesting challenges, a launch of one great Closed Beta product FundRazr and a launch of an online resource WomanzWorld.

Some people might think it silly to attempt such a thing, and I’d say they’d be right.

But my god it’s one way to live life and push yourself, stretch your boundaries, challenge your limits, reach out to your friends, find new ones, meet loads of new people and discover a whole bunch of things you never knew you knew – if that makes sense.

So what has this girl learned?

The business world has certainly taken over my life. It’s taken away from my travel time (oh no wait that was the lack of a valid permit!), Ultimate Frisbee, looking after myself, general sleep patterns and a regular routine of just about anything.

I’ve become accustomed to waking between 2-4am on a regular basis and have decided to embrace it and put my stimulated mind to work. I mean who said we needed to sleep between midnight and 6am? Just because it’s conventional doesn’t mean it’s always practical.

In it’s place, I’ve gained being involved in a kick ass startup that’s changing the face of fundraising and payments. This can be described as nothing short of a never-ending adventure, sometimes brilliant, other times overwhelming, often stressful but never dull. And I love our team.

To add to that I decided that leaving my beautiful suite, the first place I’ve felt at home in since leaving home in 2006,

Suite 6 - a place in my heart

was just another step I had to take. Despite comments from friends on how lovely the place is (I’ve held a spate of last minute dinner parties in order to use my dining room table) I see it as a positive step.

Zara moved in with her lovely boyfriend Si and I simply couldn’t find a replacement. So rather than take my time to do that over the month of October, the action woman in me made the decision to hand in my notice to become `Natalie the Nomad’.

Yes I could have found a new place, but nothing quite jumped out at me when looking, so I figured, just let it be and go free.

It’s a role I’m very comfortable with. I am grateful for not having accumulated much junk, if any in a year of being here, and it’s satisfying to pack that up and live out of a suitcase again.

Luckily I’ve accumulated great friends instead, ones who help me move, provide a storage space and give up their apartment for me in November, or let me sublet their apartment in December. Big ups to them!

Come January I’ll be looking for a new place. I figure that’s either a brilliant move – as all the people attempting to rent out their place for extortionate prices during the Olympics will realise there was an over supply and so will happily rent it out to me.

Or, my bold and incorrect assumption will see me with no place to go and living out of my suitcase until March.

Either way, it’s yet another adventure. Perhaps I’m getting a little too old for this, perhaps it’s what keeps me young!

Tags: decluttering your life, packing up and being free, The art of travel as a nomad

How to start a business whilst trapped in Canada

WomanzWorld Founders

It’s ironic that my personal blog for friends and family is called Global Adventures, particularly as right now I’m confined to National travel only. Yep I’m treading a fine immigration line. It dawned on me 2 weeks ago when I was going to book my flights to NYC to hang with great friends and capitalize on 5 days worth of US Open Tennis tickets (including the finals!) that it may not be a smart idea. My work permit expires on the 9/9/09  – right when I was going to be away.

The immigration lady basically told me to avoid any travel outside of Canada or risk not let being back in.

This was a big wake up call, since when has this nomad ever been stopped from travelling? I felt a little trapped. Unless my work permit extension letter came through in the next few weeks (unlikely) or my Permanent Resident application was suddenly approved (very unlikely) I was going nowhere!

For once in my life, I had to make a sensible decision:

1. Spend close to $2K on 8 days in NYC watching a sport I love and catching up with friends I love too.OR
2. Stay put, save money and get on with launching two businesses…..

So this spur of the moment adventurer made a very adult decision to not go. I know, what’s become of me? This has allowed me instead to enjoy the joys of true Canadian life. A trip to Vancouver Island and Sproat Lake was a

Sproat Lake

truly relaxing weekend thanks to Drew and allowed Liz & I to work on our new online business – WomanzWorld and get super excited about it. It also saw me become so focused (reading `The Power of Focus’ can do that to you) that I set not just 1 but 3,5 and 10 year goals in the space of a weekend and detailed out the 1 and 3. I was pretty exhausted after that but also very…focused.

I also got to enjoy the beauty and culture of `The Peg’ as Winnipeg is fondly known where our women’s ultimate Frisbee team Zephyr had an amazing time at Canadian Nationals just last weekend. Ok so truthfully Winnipeg was a scary city – especially downtown and not a place I’d revisit. But we came home with a bronze medal after 4 days, hopefully a spot at World Clubs in Prague next year and having won the party as true cowgirls. I can’t describe how awesome it was to play with the ladies of Zephyr and I’m looking forward to more shenanigans with them as head to Sectionals in September. I was super proud to be awarded `Miss D’ for defence over the tourney, that meant a lot, and the hand made and embroidered sash was so pretty – thanks Kiwi.

I’m really hoping my visa comes through as I don’t want to miss launching FundRazr in San Francisco in September with Daryl –  can’t say why we’re launching as it’s part of the terms of the competition we entered and made the top 100 who get to present on the day to PR, investors and the tech world so will be really big for us. Big for me if I can be part of it by actually being there! Same with sectionals just over the border 5 days after.

The great thing is that I have had time to really reflect and out of that great things have happened. First off I’d like to thank you all for being a big part of my life, wherever you are in the world, and for making me believe in myself and to go after my dreams. I’m proud to start my own business WomanzWorld.

It’s come about from my 10 months as an `Entrepreneur’ and co-founder of ConnectionPoint Systems Inc with Daryl. On the rollercoaster ride of developing FundRazr – our awesome application for Facebook that helps you collect fees and donations and manage members (had to plug that and thank all our friends who became our fans recently), I was really surprised to see so few female CEOs at business and networking events. I recently found out 35% of all businesses in BC are owned by women. So where are they all?

There have been many times when I’ve wanted to chat with women in business to get their take on how they’ve coped with the challenges, what they’ve learned and more importantly their perspective, as a woman. From my constant discussions with everyone I met I started getting really positive feedback on my idea and that made me more passionate to get women into business. That perhaps I could help drive women to do that, to motivate, inspire and advise. At the same time I could learn from those succeeding right now and pass that on to others aspiring to become entrepreneurs. A win win situation for everyone.

So hence the idea to start a blog and recount my journey right here, right now, interview amazing women, review great resources for females in business and build a community of great women. That journey has already begun. Wish my good friend and talented business partner Elizabeth and me luck and please tell anyone you think who could benefit from WomanzWorld to visit our site www.womanzworld.com – as Tessa my good friend and the talented designer of our site noted, it was an apt domain name as I’m an NZ Woman.

Keep living life to the full

Tags: canada, fundrazr, online business, womanzworld, zephyr

Got to love Michael O’Leary CE of RyanAir for his outrageous comments – charge fat people more for seats http://ping.fm/55PKB

Testing out ping.fm for updating all my social networks at once……this will be interesting

The top 50 reasons to be in the Mile High Club

Yes it’s true, our Potlatch mixed Ulti Frisbee team came in the top 50/100 a few weekends ago…..
As you can imagine the Mile High club was all about sexy stewardesses, suave pilots and some Top Gun enthusiasts thrown in for saucy measure.

The secret signal all stewardesses on MHC should know

I’ve been wanting to experience the Potlatch Tournament for several years since I’d heard just too many good things about it including Matt and Bobo’s hilarious hook up story which clearly was a goodie since they’re still together after many years. It was all I’d hoped for and more. Scorching sun, lush playing fields, 100 teams, 30 something games going on at a time, drinking, dancing, partying and competitive ulti. Pretty much my idea of a perfect weekend – photos galore here. Plus I got to catch up with so many good friends were there from all over the world.

So for those of you who comment on my Facebook status or Twitter updates (one has to be up with the social networks when one’s building their business in, around and on it!) you seem to think all I do is party and play Ultimate – not true, although a great guess.

My life has primarily consisted of 3 focus areas for the last couple of months:

1) Building our startup and a kick-ass application that will change the face of fundraising and payments in social networks, we have 45 days of funding left and two weeks til launch – you do the math!

2) Training hard with our hot women’s team Zephyr in the lead up to Nationals including a brilliant bonding weekend in stunning Naramata last weekend (which involved scrimmaging, tubing, drinking and partying)

3) Personal growth.  Part of this has been socialising I admit, also even more networking than normal and developing my vision for WomanzWorld by meeting a whole bunch of inspiring women in business.

It’s been a hugely rewarding time but I have been burning the bridges a little at both ends, hence the reason why I’m pretty happy to head off on a 6 hour drive in about 6 hours time to reach Shuswap Lake for four excellent days of house boating with a bunch of friends, some I know and some I soon will.
I’ve never been houseboating but given the organiser is a DJ I’m sure we’ll be rocking out, and given his friend is a chef and is cooking up a storm for us complete with delicious sounding menus, AND that the houseboat has a waterslide and hot tub included makes me think I’m in for one helluva time!

• I do intend to read at least 1 of the 8 great business books I recently bought
• Set some goals and actions based off the excellent pre work done at the entrepreneurial Passion and Purpose workshop I attended yesterday afternoon – shout out to Mike and Gabe for pulling off that energising afternoon.
• Work on fleshing out the whole concept of empowering women to become entrepreneurs – but more on that later

So if you don’t hear from me for a wee while you certainly will when I’m back because I feel like I’ll be launching our business into the next scary but exciting chapter of making it a reality and including you in that, as well as launching my new personal pursuit of Women taking over the World and launching my personal countdown to being in prime shape for Nationals in August with Zephyr.

In the meantime enjoy the photos!

Is Canada worth it?

Should I give my heart to Canada

As I filled out the last of my forms for Permanent Residency today I wondered how much effort one should put into to have the right to be welcomed to another country?

I’ve probably spent up to 4 hours now of ensuring I have all the right forms, rereading the detailed instructions, saying the right things and proving I’m not a criminal. The overwhelming message CIC puts out is that `if you stuff up we’ll make your life difficult and delay your application’. So it pays to get it right the first time.

And pay I will. Is $1500 too much to pay to become a resident of another country? I’d say probably not, it’s an honour right? But if you don’t get accepted I’d feel pretty hard done by. Plus they say funny things here like `It’s only a ways away’

I was super excited to get a fast track to perm residency by being nominated under the BC Provincial Nominee Program. Essentially a rubber stamp approval from this lovely province saying they’d like to keep me on and I won’t be a drain on the local economy, or sponge off the government. Plus rather than waiting 3 years you get to apply straight away – a huge bonus. That privilege cost me $550. And if I hadn’t been accepted it still would have cost me that much – how reasonable.

But wait there’s more, for only two easy installments of $490 – a landing fee (wait a minute I landed 9 months ago….. ) and another $550 per applicant. Once again I still might not get accepted as a PR (that doesn’t stand for press release – although I might write an opinionated one if things don’t work out for me).

I guess I should be happy as I’m living in the No1 city of the world `livability’ wise according to the Economist. That said another report today showed as a brand, Vancouver pales in comparison (in 18th/50) to Paris, Sydney, London and Vienna. Luckily branding is one of my fortes so perhaps Vancouver can pay me to help get their ranking up in return for waiving for fees?

The branding index measures the world’s perception of each city, which influences people’s choices on where to live, work and vacation. Luckily Vancouver scores 3rd on the prerequisites factor – affordable accommodations (really? The houses in Kits and Point Grey seem pretty pricey to me) and quality of public amenities (if only they had more places to lock up my now stolen bike)

But the big question is for $1500 will I get the same pleasure molesting Canadian Moose as I did shagging sheep in New Zealand?

Tags: Living, personal

Magical moments in Costa Rica

Brin D'Amor crew

When my alarm went off at 4:30am on Friday 22 May I knew I was about to embark on adventure that would have a profound and lasting impact on my life. Was I right? Absolutely!

10 days in Costa Rica in the province of Guanacaste with 14 entrepreneurs from all over North America, brought together for a Livin’ Large vacation in the magical setting of the private property of Brin D’Amor (translated means `Share the love’).

Thanks to an invite from my good friend and talented CEO, Mike Tan, I somehow managed to join this incredible crew who between them have challenged conventional education, run one or several successful businesses, are published authors, professional speakers, real estate gurus, investment experts and more – and all while in their 20s!

The days were filled with intelligent and stimulating conversation, visionary discussions, mind expanding conversation, lofty ideals, spiritual awakenings, mastermind group discussions, the Pachamama Alliance Symposium and naturally a whole heap of fun.

When we weren’t discussing how to change the world for the better by inviting the leaders of tomorrow to the Brin D’Amor Academy of the future we were undertaking a variety of activities.

What could be better than jumping from the natural waterfalls, practicing yoga poolside with the talented Jessica, riding horses all over the 160+ acres of land, enduring 2 hours of intense heat in a sweat lodge that bonded us all together, surfing in the warm waters at sunset, flying down a waterslide set in the jungle, covering ourselves in thermal mud at a spa and geting caught in a torrential downpour and thunderstorm whilst out on a boat.

Boat trip around peninsula

Key highlights were definitely:

• Mike getting bitten by a Boa snake hiding in our room on the first night and his super calm response, getting shat on by a bird, and having his horse’s bridle come off as it ran off with him atop into the trees!
• Several of us getting stung by wasps when we disturbed their nest by jumping off the waterfall and side of the cliff including a sting to Darren’s eyelid!
• Adil flying off his horse rodeo style as it ran out of control into the pack, coupled with galloping sessions with saddles coming loose and riders hanging on for dear life
• Smashing my shin up on submerged rocks when running into the sea followed by catching managing to catch my first ever wave and standing up
• A hilarious and intense game of Beach ultimate with the boys who couldn’t necessarily throw or catch but were super competitive
• Salsa dancing with Micah and Aaron who enlisted any local lady who could shake her booty and poolside dancing lessons for the boys
• Falling through a yoga platform to add to my war wounds
• Everyone getting great feedback from their rocks during our rock reading….
• The various jungle life that kept us on our feet including monkeys, snakes, lizards, biting fish, wasps, nasty red ants, butterflies, giant moths and huge toads
• The incredible fresh and sumptuous feasts from breakfast through to dinner provided by the awesome caterers

I can’t really do this trip justice here, or just how lucky I feel to have been art of this journey and make connections with these extraordinary souls. All I know is this was a trip of a lifetime and one that shall never be forgotten.

Can can takes on a whole new meaning

Waterslide rules

Stretching out with Jess’s yoga

Brin D’Amor waterfall

Surfer boys at sunset

Beach picnic

Top 3 reasons to love Vancouver

This is the crummy view I get to look out on each day from our ConnectionPoint office in Gastown.
I know, how unlucky am I! Since spring arrived there’s been a new cruise ship to gaze out onto daily, and with that brings lots of tourists and a hive of activity to Gastown. When we started leasing office space down here in December it was like a ghost town. The financial crisis had killed many tech companies or forced them out of the area. The homeless were tucked away in alcoves and alleys trying not to freeze, and the rain and snow added to the bleak picture.

Not so now. Spring has also bought the cherry blossoms which I haven’t had the pleasure of experiencing before, not with this much magnitude. Arching over streets and raining blossom petals on the ground, paving everything with pink, it was like one long wedding celebration! I’ve been even more appreciative of how beautiful Vancouver becomes when the good weather arrives as I now have a bicycle. My shiny new Brodie (Canadian made) hybrid is built tough and for 6 weeks has been getting my ass in serious shape and transporting me to places I’d never even visited. I love the freedom of cycling, I forgot how much from when I had my bike in London.
It’s less crazy cycling here and the cycle lanes are pretty decent and take you on quieter streets. So it’s allowed me to see some stunning houses and streets that this city has to offer. Thanks to now attending a total of 8 tryouts for 2 women’s ultimate teams I’ve seen far east to far west and beyond and embarked on 5 plus hours of exercise an evening!

So what are the top 3 things to love about Vancouver:

1. The abundance of outdoor activities that exist right on your doorstep and tempt you to partake in each and every one (like 6 of us ladies trying out windsurfing last weekend and rocking at it – even if the mast hit my head and we into the water constantly and collided too)
2. The wonderful friends and networks - this ultimately has been up to me to initiate but there’s more networking events in this city than in the world combined! Plus people have generously invited me into their lives and activities so I now have a wide variety of friends to do anything and everything with
3. The entrepreneurial nature of the city – probably a little bias here as it’s all I’ve immersed myself in since arriving. Taking the route of growing a start up with my fantastic business partner and boss Daryl who I’m too lucky to have in my life, and becoming more entrepreneurial has opened up a new world for me. Work (a dull name for what we do) is a never ending source of fun, stimulation, steep learning curves, excitement, challenges and the thing that keeps me up late and night and the first thing I wake up to in the morning- but in a totally good way!

It also helps that I recently got accepted for the BC Provincial nominee program – essentially a fast track to permanent residency, a big relief as it means I can stay on and continue to enjoy this city and discover Canada.

And one more thing, networking is the best thing in the world, you just never know who you’ll meet, how they’ll effect you and vice versa and what opportunities that may bring. Such as the opportunity I get to embark on tomorrow morning at 5am as I head to Costa Rica. Yes I’ve somehow managed to get an invite to hang out with up to 10 over achieving young entrepreneurs for 10 days and discuss how to change the world for the better. Their bios were outstanding and I paled in comparison but I do get to teach them Ultimate Frisbee!  They won’t know what hit them – literally…..

Tags: entrepreneurial, friends, networking

Smiling in Seattle

I’d never been to Seattle until last Friday. In many respects it was like driving for 3 hours to be in Vancouver!

Just as many carpet/ rug shops, the home of Starbucks and good coffee joints, Pudget Sound on one side and Lake Washington on the other, pot smokers on the street and the same issue of the homeless population.

As the picture on the left shows it’s not a bad looking city… I can’t profess to having taken this shot. In fact I totally forgot my camera ,which for a traveller is a poor sign.

I was picked up early in the morning by Adam, Derek and Mike from TeamPages – who no doubt have google alerts on so hi guys! We’re working on a potential business alignment with them and they kindly invited me to attend Soccer Palooza to get some customer/market insight and get to know them and their business better.

It turned out to be one big bundle of fun from start to finish, we laughed, we joked and we smiled so much our cheeks were sore on Saturday morning. It helps that these guys are as crazy as me and can handle mocking and sheep shagging jokes and give it back just as well!

I spent the morning wandering around the city with my tour guides Derek and Adam, who were lacking in detailed city knowledge and took me on a lovely tour of the non-seafront seaside walkway right by the noisy freeway. I made up creative stories on the history of the famous fish market and we simply walked the streets and took it all in. We met Mike after his business meeting and all had lunch with the lovely Laura aka Apples, fellow Iso team member from my London days and all round great gal.

After a trip to REI – the equivalent of MEC here in Vancouver, I felt like I’d been to some mountain chalet and hung out in a natural park. They’ve tried to emulate the outdoors with a waterfall, mountain bike path and climbing wall to test out all their sporting gear. I somehow escaped without buying anything!

The guys left me in some dodgey part of town armed only with a small cowprint suitcase to defend myself. Whilst they set up their booth for the event on Saturday, I took myself off to a quality cafe and enjoyed the rare pleasure of 3 hours to read my business book, some People magazine goss and write down my rules to live life by (more on that next post).

I spent the evening near the water enjoying a drink in the sun with Laura and friends and then heading off to play my first official Disc golf course. I can tell you that arriving slightly drunk and continuing to drink  cider from a brown paper bag like a bum is not a great recipe for frisbee golf success. That game made me feel that I had to unlearn all that I’ve learned about throwing. Apparently it was one of the more technical courses, but I can’t blame that for hooking every throw, hitting more trees and poles then I care to remember and reaching par only a few times!

The evening was filled with us meeting the guys again to watch some entertaining jazz in a bar filled with an average punter age of 50+. Apparently when us ladies walked in they switched to playing romantic Marvin Gaye jazz numbers (one of my all time favourites) and turned to face us.

We finally decided to call it a night and I was treated to stay with Laura’s at her folks huge house. It stood proudly atop a hill with stunning views over the water and back to Seattle, pretty special to wake up to that.

The soccer event was an intelligence gathering exercise in most respects, and a chance to connect with potential advertisers and grab some free swag. Mike and I noted my first ever sales pitch attempt for FundRazr during a workshop on sponsorship was treated with dead silence and looks to kill from the presenter. Naturally I took that as a positive sign

The trip home was filled with more laughter, silly games, fantastic Thai food and no border crossing stunts.

I loved the impromptu trip and the connections made with my new friends that was way too much fun. Life’s short, laugh often!