So this April marks a pretty significant moment in my life. I am turning 40 years young. For my birthday, I have decided to gift myself something special. I want to be in the best shape of my life - physically and mentally. Where am I at on that?? Actually pretty close! Which excites me. And it has all come about in the last month or so. I quit telling myself stories that were unhelpful and put myself into the direct spotlight to get serious about committing to this goal. These were stories like:  Oh when I am traveling I am surrounded by shitty choices of food Oh I play Ultimate Frisbee and run around so of course I can drink alcohol at tournaments and eat pizza because I am burning it off It does not matter that I am staying up late at night and not getting enough sleep, I am an entrepreneur, I am built tough!  Yeah those right there were all big fat lies, told to myself in an attempt to make me feel less guilty about the fact that I was not making any changes in my life. I kept buying chorizo and cheese and cheap but delicious Portugese wine thinking that because I was going surfing several days a week that I was going to be just fine, it would not affect me. And it’s not like I gained weight. I was getting fit. But my energy levels weren not great, I did not feel good about the food I was putting in my body. I was sluggish, less excited. So let me ask you, what stories are you telling yourself about your health? Is it;  I could never give up my mid afternoon sweet treat I need at least 2 cups of coffee to get through my workday I am overweight, I always eat too much, I must have a slower metabolism than other people I am not athletic I try to lose weight but the pounds never come off, its genetic I am too busy to eat healthily  The purpose of this exercise is to become aware of the stories you have told yourself around health. When we repeatedly think or say something, we start to hold this as part of our identity. When willpower starts to fade, our habits start to reflect the identity and beliefs we have about ourselves. Let’s be frank, the way you tend to do one thing, is the way you tend do everything. Think about it. The way you care for yourself will directly impact the way you present yourself as an entrepreneur. Take a moment and think of three people you look up to in your field. Who you aspire to be like and who are successful in their businesses and their lives. What do you think their mornings look like? What type of food do you think they choose to eat? How about exercise and mindfulness? Do you think that they have daily and/or weekly practice? Your personal health and wellness is the health and wealth of your business as an entrepreneur. This is a mind-shift one needs to make to succeed. Want freedom from the 9-5, want location independence? Well, you need to find freedom in your body and mind first and foremost. What you eat impacts how you think and perform. How you move impacts your creativity and productivity. How you manage and harness your stress impacts how you communicate and present yourself. You are your business and if you want your business to thrive, you need to thrive. Ask yourself and get clear with what tools you use in your business to stay on track and motivated? Do you try to do it all alone? Are you a part of master-mind groups, have accountability partners and/or networking meetings? YES! The number 1 reason people fail as entrepreneurs (and with their own personal health) is trying to do it all on their own. We need accountability and support to succeed. That is why I am so thankful I joined the 30 Day Clean Living Challenge in January. I personally went through this program and had a true transformation with my health and well-being and watched it impact my work. I shot a very excited Vlog about it. &nbsp; Hey, it is Natalie Sisson and I am feeling fit. I knew that I would now. I am feeling fit, I am feeling energetic, I am feeling freaking amazing if I am really honest about...

Stories we tell ourselves

For the longest time I’ve been obsessed with freedom. Freedom is my main mission in life, or has been for the greater part of the 7 years. But recently, I have been realizing that my hunt for understanding, defining and having freedom may be completely off track. And that is a huge revelation to have when you have named your new podcast Quest for Freedom, and you think you have all the freedom in the world right? Several weeks ago I saw my friend Conni Biesalski post an update on Facebook about attending Tony Robbin's Date with Destiny. Conni is the Founder of Planetbackpack, has written a book, is a bit of a YouTube star and believes in…  holistic lifestyle design slow travel as a spiritual experience connecting with our bodies and souls through healthy clean eating, meditation and yoga opening our hearts through healing and connecting to ourselves  So on her Facebook update she wrote: Life will never be the same again. 6 days with Tony Robbins in Florida and I feel like the greatest transformation of my life just happened. So powerful, so deep, so incredibly healing. I have finally let go of my story and am starting a new one. Amazing miracles happened in these days, things I never thought possible. Everything feels wide open, just like in this photo that I took on the beach on the last morning. Infinite gratitude and love in my heart. This is Life 2.0. Now incidentally, at the start of this year I decided to invest in myself for the first time in a loooongg time and take up a Mastery Program through the Tony Robbins Institute. I am heading to Unleash the Power event in London at the end of April. If you want to join me there are still tickets. Head to nataliesisson.com/tony and grab one. If you don’t know who he is, in a nutshell he is the Worlds No #1 Personal Development Master who has worked with presidents, Oprah Winfrey. His documentary: I am not your Guru, is a great insight into how he works. I first read his book Awaken the Giant Within back in 2004 when I was training for body-sculpting competition, and that year, in big part thanks to reading his books and listening to his audio series, I had one of the most amazing years of my life. I felt like I could achieve anything I put my mind to. And that year in particular I did - I won the Regional North Island Body Sculpting Championships, I got a kick ass job, and I completed my Certificate in Fitness Management Diploma extramurally through Otago University. I was unstoppable, and aside from neglecting my personal relationship with my then boyfriend...ooops, everything else in life was going amazing. So back to my Facebook chat with Conni mid December, which went like this: Natalie Sisson Well that answers my question to what did you get out of it. Sending a big virtual hug of Freedom your way to go with your transformation Conni Biesalski You know what’s funny.. freedom was always so high on my values list.. in the process of Date with Destiny I kicked freedom off my list. After having questioned it and looked at what it costs me, I realised this intense strive for it has out-served me. I now feel freer than ever not having freedom as my main driver anymore. Crazy!! Natalie Sisson Conni Biesalski Oooh I think I'll need to jump on a chat with you about that for my new podcast starting in the new year: And so we did. And here it is. Yup, it was this epiphany during “Date with Destiny” with Tony Robbins in December and he was talking about freedom and how he one day started to question his quest for freedom that he was following his whole life and he was telling this long story. In the end it was…..he said that once he questioned his search for freedom, it was that he realized that he can stop looking for freedom and feel a lot freer. I thought about this for days and weeks after that and then eventually it hit me. I was like, WOW. I have been looking for freedom, I've been searching for freedom my entire life. It's been my main mission with whatever I...

Is Freedom Really Free?

So the Quest for Freedom goes on. I know in this episode I was going to talk about some of the life changing moments that I experienced at New Frontiers and Enspiral Summerfest but given that this episode's name is called "Changing Plans", I've changed my plan for this week! And the reason for that is pretty simple. I've been tossing up between two completely different paths that I can take and as I mentioned to you when I started the Quest for Freedom, I did say there'd be an element of choose your own adventure in it. Now I'm pretty close to making this choice but there is still some sway here, some room for you to have your say. And so, today's episode is about why it's okay to change your mind. Why you can choose to change your mind and why you are free to change your mind. And of course as always I would love your feedback on this episode. It all kind of started recently. If I am really honest I've talked about this decision to take a business sabbatical this year and while I am still doing that, the business sabbatical itself has changed quite a lot in my mind. I think at the time I made that decision I was very much like, I am so over 7 or almost 7 years in business and I am over doing all these things and I am just wanting a break. And as I've stepped away from my business a lot of people have asked me, "How are you doing it". I am happy to explain that in this episode, but as I've removed myself bit by bit, I've realized it's actually pretty hard to remove yourself from your own business when your business IS you. When you are a personal brand. Had I chosen to go into the software development business, or a kind of a customized service that was part of a team and not dependent on me, it might have been way easier. But I realized that some of my stuff is actually flawed, because the key things that I guess I give to my business, that are sort of irreplaceable (and I am not saying that from an ego driven perspective at all), but the things that I bring to my business that nobody else can really replace are the social capital that I have. The relationships that I have with friends, with influencers, with partners, with companies who have been on this journey with me as I've grown my business, who have supported me along the way. Where we've done promotions together, we've partnered together on really cool education aspects and we've gotten to know each other at conferences, at events and experiences. And that's stuff that you just can't hand over to somebody else that's coming in to replace you. You can't just say, "Hey! Here's this awesome person that will be dealing with you now." It just doesn't really fully cut it. This is by no means me hanging on to my baby or holding on to my business. This is the reality of things. The things that drive revenue on my business all come down to relationships. I've even noticed a little in my community just with saying, "Hey! I am going to be on a sabbatical!", that people have been really supportive of it and saying things like, "Hey Natalie! That totally aligns with who you are and what you always preach to us." But I also feel there's been a little bit of a drop away from people in the community, like just this general dip, and I am going to be straight up honest here. - my business over the last couple of months took a bit of a dive. I think part of it was related to the brand new website, which was received extremely well. But changing hosting companies and SEO rankings kind of going down the toilet with that change ...well we always knew that there'd be this momentary aspect when some of the rankings would drop and things would decline but then they'd stabilize. We also switched over to all new systems ConvertKit, Teachable, Clickfunnels and while I think they've been an excellent change, there's just that hand over time, in that change over there's things clicking together and sticking together and working. And all of that combined being done all at the same time, kind of...

Changing Plans

The irony around timing as I mentioned is not lost on me because that very day that we looked at the property, we also went back to look at another property that we were pretty set on and it was going to be a huge financial commitment dare I say burden. If we went ahead and did it. And also, it was 26 acres of land which one reflection is just or something that I think, what is immensely scary to deal with for 2 city folk. And there was just so much work to be done. So interestingly on that day we went to look back at it is the day that we decided the one we’d seen earlier, was in fact the combination of our perfect wishlist. The other reason why I think timing is so key is if for example, over this weekend just gone in my preemptiveness I went to the SPCA, the Society Protection for Care of Animals. And I was looking at dogs to adopt because I so desperately wanted a dog for the last 7 years of being on the road, living out of my suitcase but I’ve obviously never felt it’s fair to do that and have never been in one place for long enough to even justify thinking about a dog. I’ve instead dog sat and house sat and got my fix with every single dog that I’ve come into contact with. And I was a little preemptive because I saw this dog on Friday and she was beautiful and so I went back Saturday and she already had an adoption pending on her. And there was no way I could have done anything anyway because they typically try and get the dogs out of there in a week or so and get them fostered. And so I was just way too early in my typical pre-planning and excitement and impatience as an Aries. It’s a good trait most of the time and sometimes it’s frustrating. So I was like, “Okay, there’s a reason why I didn’t obviously get that dog and I wasn’t meant to have it”. And then voila on Sunday morning I am browsing Trade Me which is a bit like Ebay and a bit like Gumtree depending on which country you are in. And this beautiful new listing of Welsh Springer Spaniel pups popped up. And I immediately clicked on it because I’ve been refreshing this Trade Me listing all week. And they’d only put it up the day before and only 2 of the 6 pups were left so I rang up immediately and said, “Is it possible to come out and see it today?” and she said, “Yup. We’ve been inundated with people.” So just hugely hugely amazed how popular these puppies were. So I went out to see them in the afternoon and oh my goodness! I spent about 25 minutes there with beautiful moment. These gorgeous pups which are only about 9 weeks old, super cuddly and sleepy. The thing about it is, I am really hoping at this point that she’s going to pick me as one of the final two people to get a puppy. She said I am at the top of the list because I’ve got a lifestyle property that we haven’t even got yet. (But we will have it!) And that both Josh and I work from home and we are super active as well and that there will be plenty of space for the dog to run around but also good fencing. All these things tick the boxes. And the fact the momma dog immediately bonded with me which she hadn’t seen nearly do with many other people at all. Fingers crossed on those things and then I started there to go and look at the a second hand piano. Also on Trade Me. And I got there and I played it a little bit even though I am super rusty at playing the piano. And I was like, “I love it. I’ll take it.”. And she’s like, “Well, no joke. Three minutes before you arrived. Somebody put a bid on it”. So now the auction has started in place. There’s no more buy now button. It’s an auction and you have to bide the time. And I was like, “Uh! Timing is everything!”. Had I arrived at the time that I said I would, I will be now to hit the buy now button and then just hand her over cash and secure this beautiful old piano that had been passed down from her grandmother. So now I just have to exercise patience once again and wait until that...

Hacking Happiness

Welcome to Season 2 of Natalie Sisson's Quest for Freedom! I'm delighted to be back and I know you've been missing me...at least 2 people have asked me "Natalie when is your next podcast episode coming out". So thank you to the two of you, I appreciate it. Obviously to talk about a business sabbatical and how you can truly have a profitable business that can technically run without you, you need to experience that in full glory for yourself. Luckily this podcast is about making me the guinea pig of my own experiments in order for us to uncover what true freedom really is. Since the 1st of April I've been on a business sabbatical and in this episode I reveal all. Well almost all, I'll tell you the rest when I'm finished my break from my business. But here's what I will share:  What a business sabbatical actually is (and why you get to define this for yourself) Behind the scenes of what really happens when you take time out from your business  Then I went on to answer some great questions from a fan on my Facebook page that watched my previous video on this topic where I shared the realities of it, and why I was extending my sabbatical for another month (which has now turned into 3). The only thing I'm bringing back is this podcast because it's my baby, and it's helping me to learn and grow real-time by sharing my findings with YOU. So for the full lowdown you can watch the video below (here it is on my Facebook page) OR listen to the podcast by clicking the button at the top OR you can read the full blog post below this video. "For those of you who have been following The Suitcase Entrepreneur and my Quest for Freedom, you'll know that I took the entire month of April off my business. No checking emails, no checking in with the team, no watching anything related to business, not thinking about business and just taking a month off my business, The Suitcase Entrepreneur. And I then extended it into May. I appreciate it's May now as I record this, but I don't feel like doing a Facebook live video to answer your questions feels like business to me, and I love my business so it's you that I am here for. You guys have helped me build it. I do think you've got to talk about these things in the moment because several months down the track I may actually forget what it really, really physically feels like to be on a sabbatical right now, and continuing it on through to the end of June. Next week actually I am going to be taking a digital sabbatical and be totally offline, off the Internet probably for 3 to 5 days. It's been awhile since I've done a digital sabbatical and I just want to disconnect. I'll be doing some reading, thanks to Brendon Burchard's The Motivation Manifesto and Tony Robbins Unshakeable, so these are a couple of the things that I'll be focusing on. I also have some novels. And I just want to chill out by the fire, play with my puppy, exercise, read books and think. I want to practice the piano and I want to enjoy myself, which I already have been doing. Just do more of that. But today I wanted to answer specifically questions that you guys had from the Reality of a business sabbatical Facebook Live video where I took you behind the scenes. The first month off was kind of weird. I was 1) moving into a beautiful new dream lifestyle property, 2) getting a puppy, getting 5 chickens, and setting up an entire house - because when you've lived out of the suitcase for close to 7 years you don't really have much stuff! And I realized that I still hadn't fully given myself the time out to just enjoy and re-energize and get my verve and my mojo back for everything that I love to do. The great news is it's starting to happen since I've given myself more space, more time. I'll admit, I can't ever fully stop. I've been reaching out to networks where I now live and looking at potentially helping getting a co-working space setup, which would be so awesome because I've used so many of them over the years as a digital nomad. I've...

Behind the Scenes of My Business Sabbatical

You wouldn’t expect yourself to cook in the kitchen without the proper knives, pans, and pots. You wouldn’t expect to build your body at the gym without the proper equipment either. Think about lifestyle freedom in the same way that you think about cooking or building muscle at the gym. While you could achieve your goals without any assistance, tools will help you to achieve your goals faster and more efficiently. In today’s episode, I will cover the different types of tools you can use to help you track your progress, achieve your goals, and work your way to a better life. #1. Journaling Although this doesn’t seem to be the go-to tool for many of those seeking lifestyle freedom in this day and age, the journal is a classic tool that is both affordable and useful. Journaling is best for those who are looking to track their progress as they make changes in their daily lives. When you take a look at your journal each day, you are constantly reminding yourself of the goals that you have set. Even better, you can use the journal to also keep track of the progress that you have made, make a definitive list of actions that will help you reach your goals, and list of all of the things that may not be working as well. Also, the journal is a tool that is highly customizable. If you’re someone who wants to meet their lifestyle goals without having too many distracting features, you can choose to make a bullet journal. If you prefer visuals that remind you of where you are going and motivate you, you can paste pictures and draw inside your journal. Your creativity is your only limit. #2. Vision Board Vision boards are one of the most used tools today to help people reach their goals. A vision board is essentially a collage filled with objects, pictures, sayings, and other small pieces that represent the future you would like to have. While a journal may be too demanding for some people, a vision board is almost perfect for everyone who is wishing to change their lifestyle. However, it will take a small time investment initially when you begin putting it together. What can you put on your vision board? Here are some ideas:  Magazine cutouts that represent your end goals Positive affirmations that help you get the most out of your day Pamphlets of places that you would like to travel to Important notes from loved ones  #3. Sticky Notes Even simpler than the above two methods, you could leave sticky notes in places where you are sure to see them and remind yourself of your goals. For those of you who may want to incorporate more mindfulness into your daily schedule, you can place a sticky note by your bed that reminds you to breathe and meditate every morning. If you’re someone who wants to work less and spend more time with your family, you can place a sticky note at your place of employment that tells you to work smarter and not longer. Whatever it is that you are setting out to do, a simple sticky note with an important reminder can help you to achieve it. #4. Apps Not everyone is into creating physical manifestations of their goals and that’s absolutely okay. If you’re still creative and would like to make a digital version of these tools, that works just as well as a physical version. If you’re more into applications that help you to track your goals and your progress, here are some goal setting applications recommended by Lifewire that will help you to do exactly that:  Strides Way of Life Goals on Track Coach. Me ATracker  Make no mistake, tools are helpful and are sometimes necessary for people who need that extra push in order to develop their ideal lifestyle. However, there is a line that people sometimes cross when people begin buying more tools than they need. This is what I’ll be addressing in the next episode. If you want to take your goal setting even further in 2018, and make some real changes that last, then you need to plan your year out differently. And I offer a completely different approach to...

Tools to Achieve Your Lifestyle Goals

Sigrun Gudjonsdottir is one heck of a woman. She's the type of woman who turned down the role as CEO of Nissan Sweden, to follow love to Switzerland.
Once there, after a lot of soul searching, she figured out how to leverage 10 years of Corporate CEO experience for several major companies, an MBA in Entrepreneurship, and a whole lot of passion, into an incredible online business mentoring women.
In no less than four years, with absolute transparency, she built her business up from five figures in her first year, by offering 1-1 coaching.
Less than four years later, she scaled her business model to hit seven figures in revenue with group masterminds, retreats and her signature (and legendary) program SOMBA.
She knew there needed to be a better training out there for women entrepreneurs, so she created it and&nbsp;boldly named it Sigrun's Online MBA.
What's more, this Icelandic powerhouse gets amazing results for her clients through her laser sharp coaching instincts, straight up advice and genuine love for seeing women entrepreneurs succeed.


In This Episode of UNTAPPED:Learn why Sigrun's Icelandic heritage gives her an advantageHow Sigrun has turned being a feminist from a young age into a force for goodWhy one event with Tony Robbins changed her lifeHow she's turned her favourite colour into a 'flag' her clients fly with prideThe lessons she learned as a successful CEO in other peoples' businessesWhy a growth mindset has been so important to her continuing successHow she started growing her online business and then changed the model to scale itThe grand vision she's prepared to take a big risk on in 2020Connect with SigrunAttend her free Profit WorkshopListen to her podcast, The Sigrun ShowVisit her website Sigrun.comConnect with Sigrun on Facebook and Instagram.To share your thoughts:Leave a note in the comment section below.Subscribe on iTunes



003 - How Sigrun Grew Her Business to Seven Figures in Four Years

After 6 years living out of my suitcase and running my business, that teaches entrepreneurs how to create freedom in business and adventure in life, from all over the world, I’ve realized ONE thing.

Despite my obsession with freedom all these years, I really don’t think I know what true freedom looks, feels, and sounds like. 

So in 2017 I’m going on a Quest for Freedom to discover what it is all about, and what freedom really means to me, and to you.

I’m taking a business sabbatical, and seeing if my business can survive without me, by putting to work everything I’ve learned, applied and coached my clients and community of Freedomists on, over the years.

I'll be experimenting on myself to discover what personal, lifestyle, physical, relationship and financial freedom really are. Join my adventure at http://nataliesisson.com