Workin' on the Workshop

It's really happening.

The first full weekend in July, we are hosting a workshop in Stratford on the Law of Attraction. This will be the first, official workshop as organized by M&L Ideas & Co. In other words, this will be the first workshop that I will have had a hand in the organization and promotion of it!!

I feel pretty grown up. Most of the time, I still feel like a kid who is just kickin' around, not too sure what I'm doing, where I'm going. But being responsible for organizing the venue and food, all of the advertising and such, I feel like I'm finally ahead of myself, that I'm doing things right! I feel like a professional!!! AAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! That's a bit scary and exciting all in one!!

I worked out some free advertising with local media, such as with CTV on their 'What's On Where' board that they post both on the internet and run as commercial clips on their local stations, and I've even gotten a short time slot for an interview with the local radio station!! Pretty cool!! And of course, flyers posted like crazy around town and the surrounding areas. Let's not forget the typical paid ads in the newspaper too!!

The venue where we are hosting the workshop is at The Queen's Inn. I picked it mainly because the family that owns it is friends with one of my close friends. (And not to mention, the pub attached to the Inn has the best wings in the world. For real.) Anyway, it's this fabulous old inn, (take a peek at their site and you will agree!) that has that great Victorian feel to it. They have a couple different rooms available for functions such as ours, we have picked the Edinburgh room.

AND!!!!

We have arranged for a feature guest speaker too!! One of my mom's associates, Anny Tenbult, who have been a Certified Power Coach for nearly a decade has agreed to come down and host the portion on the BrainWalk!! The BrainWalk is a power coaching tool that can be used with a coach or by yourself, it's pretty cool. It will be interesting for both my mom and I to see how someone else presents a workshop on the BrainWalk~variety is the spice of life!!

Well...I'm keeping my fingers and toes crossed that this is going to be a mad success next Saturday!! If you know where Stratford is, and you have got some time on July 7...come down to The Queen's Inn to find out how the Universal Laws affect your life and what you can do with them to make it better!! Just email me with any questions freshideasco at hotmail.com (you know the drill, I just don't want spammers!!)

the ducks are lining up

We've got most of the content written for our website!! Just have to put some finishing touches on it this weekend.

Meeting with the graphic designer next weekend to get it all going!!

I'm so excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What's in a name?

After settling on a name for our business, sketching out logos and such, we find out we are unable to use the name we had wanted. Turns out there is another business registered in Ontario with the same name.


Hmmmm......so we put our heads together to come up with a new one. We put it forth, had it checked it, found availability and have claimed it as our own.


Welcome to M&L Ideas & Co.


My roommate is a graphic designer, and I had asked her a while ago if she would be interested in creating a logo for us. Mom and I sketched it out, but putting in on a computer...beyond me! Busy gal that she is, she didn't have time to do it.


Ironically enough, the day that we registered our name, Erin asked me about the logo. I told her the new name, and she whipped one right up!! It's like it was meant to be, the way it worked out like that.

www.something.com

As we progress through the development of our business, we are looking at getting ourselves a website. After all, these days, how can a business function without a website??

We've been in touch we a couple graphic design firms, looking for quotes and such. We hammered out what kind of format we want and what kinds of pages we would require. We've also designed our logo~which I am very excited about!~and want to get that on an electronic file.
The designer whom we have decided upon (I think), his name is Justin. He has presented us with some nifty ideas. We want to have regular access to our site to post event updates, and talk about our feature speakers and stuff like that, and he has suggested that we have a blog-like site, where it will be easy as pie for us to manage it. Hmmm...I think I can handle that!!! LOL!!

But now we are faced with the content of the site. Meaning, we have to write it up and hand it over. I sat at my laptop the other night, drawing blanks of what I wanted to say about our company!! I couldn't believe it!

Let's think about this. We need to write up a page about who we are, what we offer, and why. This is where I keep getting stuck. I can't decided if we should have the home page list this info right away, or if there should be a link on "about us"...and then additionally, what should be separated from the "about us" to the home page?? Does that follow very well, or have I confused you as much as I am confusing myself?

Ironically, I think I need to work out all this website stuff on paper, not on my laptop. I think technology is not going to help me get organized for this. Eek!

Here's keeping my fingers crossed that I can get this sorted asap so we can move forward and get this up and running. Thank heavens I don't need to worry about the technical stuff, just the words...

Not just another number

This past week, mom and I travelled north to spend some time in Bourget, a quaint town just outside of Ottawa. Our purpose was to get some work done, decisions made, and of course, to relax. We stayed at The Domaine Bourget Inn & Spa, a wonderful inn set in the country. The family who runs it are warm and friendly, and the ladies who work in the spa are just as nice. It was a random choice to stay there, but I'm glad we picked it....I suspect we will be returning there soon!!





We were able to spend time working on the Law of Attraction workshops, and creating great matches of what we could pair with it. We have established the kinds of people we would like to be working with us, as well as different venue types. Legal decisions were agreed upon, and roles were agreed upon (I tried to say that I should be CEE--Cheif of Everything Else, but then we decided it was not formal enough!! LOL!!). We've got some great marketing tools available, and most of it will be free! Just need to work on my savvy, and we're set!



Outside of business, we were also able to spend some time relaxing, and do the typical tourist thing--some shopping and sightseeing. We were able to go to the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Hull, where mom has not ever been. It was pretty cool to share that experience with her!

We also took a day and went Montreal, where I had not ever been. Mom had been there when she was a teenager. So that was pretty neat. We had good intentions of full sightseeing, however, the Eaton Centre was just too huge, and time went too fast! Haha! Oh well, it just means we will have to go back to see more.

Our business trip finished up back at mom's house on Sunday afternoon. Her lawyer came over and went over some of the finer details with us. Again, a few more decisions were made. We are officially registered as a business, complete with a numbered Canada Inc. name. While it's true, we are a numbered company, we are more than just another number.

We have fresh ideas to sell!

A Secret of the Ages

The other weekend mum and I went to Toronto to attend a day long seminar based on The Secret. There were five motivational speakers (plus one very funny comedian as the host) who were fabulous motivational speakers in their own right.

Now I have to admit to you, I only had heard about The Secret, I was not fully aware of exactly what it was. I knew it was about something to help you make your life better; it was some sort of positive thinking guide, motivation smack dab in your face.

Now, mum took the notes, so forgive my rusty memory. However, my favourite speaker went by the name Lisa....her last name is now forgotten by me. (I should really work on my memory skills). She was fabulous. No other way to say it. Her main point was that if you believe you can achieve it, you can. You have to work towards your goals, but more importantly, you have to know where you are right now before you can get there. It's like you have a map of your life, but before you get to your destination~before you even hop in the car, you have to know your starting point. Know yourself, believe in yourself and be yourself. I really liked that.

The other four speakers were very good too. Though there was a focus on money a bit too much for my taste. It varied by the speaker. While one seemed to pass along the message that money = happiness, and happiness = money, another noted that happiness is found in all aspects of life ~ family, friends, career, health, financial gain. But the overall message was good. If you work hard, put yourself out there, and keep a positive perspective, it will come back to you. While it may not come back back in the way you hope, it will still come back.

I was raised by the golden rule: Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. I was also raised to be a positive person and have faith that life will all work itself out the way it is supposed to. To me, a lot of the things they said was just common sense. On one hand, I struggle to wonder why more people don't know this 'secret' of life, why it is not naturally ingrained in them. But then on the other hand, all I have to do is look around the room I sit in all day, and see how everyone is so busy busy busy with what is going on right then, that they don't take the time for their inner self, they don't take the time breathe, they don't take the time to achieve. And right there, I can understand why it takes someone standing on a stage saying these simple ideas to make them think about it, and make them want to apply it in their own lives.

While it doesn't seem there there would be much to unravel for us to find the secret in our lives, I guess in reality, it would take us all some time to find a good seat where we can examine what lies inside first. We can't all expect miracles overnight, but at least we can all find a happy thought everyday to help.


We all have to pick and choose what we hear and what we want to retain. It is like anything in life. While I may not have agreed with all that was being painted on the stage before me, if I took a step back to look at the bigger picture, and put that message in my heart, I felt like I had left that room with something special.

And that makes me smile.

And the Adventure is....

So now you might be wondering just what it is we are doing. Not that I am going to give the eggs away in the basket to you, but I'll give you a hint.

We are building a company based on Universal Laws. We are hosting and organizing workshops and seminars, as well as working towards running a Professional Life Coach training academy.

What are the Universal Laws, you ask? They are 'laws' that are constant and applicable to all people in the world, no matter what. Things like the Law of Attraction--you attract people, places and things into your life to help you find your way through it emotionally, spiritually, physically and intellectually. Or the Law of Equality--Your true needs, desires, wants, dreams and such are just as important and equal to those of everyone else in existence; all people are equal.

Universal Laws are simple truths that allow all of us to achieve greatness if we can just accept them and work with them.

Your next question...what is a professional life coach? My personal explanation is that a life coach is like your own guidance counsellor--except that it is you who makes the ultimate decisions, not them. You could be faced with personal or professional issues that you want help with, and a life coach assists you by asking you the right questions, and getting you to come up with your own answers. You state what your goals are, and you figure out how to achieve them.

Who wouldn't want to be a part of that? A part of a business whose goal it is to add peace and comfort, and even success, to the world?

(Well, Ontario for now. The world later.)

I'll keep you posted!