Today my pre-order party for THE FIRE STARTER SESSIONS officially launches.
Order 1 copy and we’ll mail you a tattoo + a magnet + a notecard of my hot one-liners. Pretty cool, eh? Order 3 copies and you get even more goodies — instantly. Check it.

WHAT LIGHTS YOUR FIRE? I want you to tell me…and the world.

I’ve got a new DAILY QUOTE /TRUTH BOMB series. An inspirational sound bite five or six days a week. You can subscribe on the upper right corner.

SESSION 1 for the book, DECLARE YOUR SUPER POWERS – downloadable and freeeee.

FREE STUFF. Interviews + worksheets. Fun.

THE BURNING QUESTION series will be kicking off later this week. (I ask a question and you answer it, on your own blog…or in your mind.)

There’s a bunch of new glam stuff in the BLOGGERS + MEDIA SECTION — including one of the best media kits I’ve ever created.

My entire talk from The World Domination Summit ’11 is viewable.

Noodle. Stay awhile. Thank you for being here. The party is just getting started.

Always Love,

How to love the inevitable pain of getting focused. It hurts so good: Focus is a key ingredient of success. Duh. But if it was simple, everyone would be doing it, right? Choosing the object of your laser-beam attention is the hard part. FOCUSING CAN BE PAINFUL. MAKE YOUR CHOICES.

Success is a surprise party: The idea: hold a Pay What You Can Day for The Spark Kit 1.0, as a simultaneous fond farewell to the kit, and a kick off for the FSS pre-order party. The result: We made an Amazon Bestseller happen. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU.

10 antidotes to assumptions + the dark beauty of internships: I sent out an email looking for a free intern and… holy fire alarms. Responses all across the spectrum, from eager anticipations to fiery accusations. My take-away from all this: ASSUMPTIONS KILL COURAGE AND CREATIVITY.

The subtle & abiding sense of failure angel. Know her?: It doesn’t matter how successful you are, who’s sung your praises or what trophies line your mantelpiece… if you’re committed to the sacred strive, a subtle & abiding sense of failure will always be along for the ride. SHE’S AN ANGEL, I TELL YOU. AN ANGEL.

The “What I Trust List”. Why you need one, and how to do it.: A little trust exercise for the moments between endorphin-amping pep talks and big dream visualizations. Make a list of what’s at your rock solid foundation, that which you are certain of. Feeling comforted is a very, very powerful state of being. That sureness will become a bridge to what’s possible. TRUST NOW.

Love light.
D xo

I’ve been searching the archive of my emotions, looking for the root source of the notion that love is easy. Romantic comedies and new age bookstores. Glossy hopes, like my prom picture and all those journals I burned. Smiling martyrs and serene Saints.

Love. Just love. Love makes it easier. Just love and it’s easy. Easy. To Love. Love flows. Love graces. Love doesn’t grind. It doesn’t wince. It doesn’t lug. Love ain’t heavy. Love is light.

Right?

Somewhere in all this I got snagged and questioned my capacity to love. Thinking that if I was resentful, or felt burden, or a little on the crank whilst I was dishing out the love, then it wasn’t … love. It was faux love, pseudo Buddhist, fallen Catholic, contrived agape. Unlove. Not quite right.

Wrong.

It’s still love. Jagged, cranky, lip bitten, heavy sighing. On delivery, it becomes love.

It’s the intention that reaches.
The surmounting that teaches.
Good, hard, real love.

Create a “What I Trust List”. Whenever you need it.

FOCUS ON THE PRESENT. The whole point of this exercise is to access the trust that already lives in your being. It’s not about generating new trust, or visualizing outcomes, or affirming your way into positive thinking. Those techniques are useful, but they can also turn into mind tricks. We’re concentrating on presence here.

Sometimes, the fact of the matter is that you don’t fully trust that something will work out in you’re favour. You have doubts, you’re anxious, you have reason to be cautious – and you’re going for it anyway. This is the definition of courage: Regardless of concerns, I’m givin’ ‘er! It’ll be easier to give ‘er if you’re anchored to what’s already working in your life.

WRITE IT OUT. It’s important that your What I Trust List be written, out. The movement, hand to vision, will help your psyche take in the comfort. Imagine that your mind is like a lung, inhaling and exhaling as you account for all that you know to be true. Ahhhh.

SPEAK IT OUT. If you’re an audio-learner, speak it out. Leave yourself a voicemail, or a voice-memo on your mobile, or talk to yourself. Kindly.

STREAM YOUR CONSCIOUSNESS. Just let it pour out – but, again, don’t include things that you don’t fully have trust in. It’s okay if your list is short. Brevity is better than bravado. It could be one word if that’s what feels true. It could be six pages in your daytimer if that’s real.

I trust my love for… I trust my integrity. I trust how much my mama loves me. … I trust that my guides are watching out for me. … I trust that she’ll be there when I call. … I trust that there’s always another idea. … I trust that I can always get a job. …

GO “OBVIOUS” IF YOU NEED TO. Nothing is too great or too small to put your trust in. Sometimes the most basic and primal things will give you a boost, especially if you’re finding it difficult to think of things that you fully trust in.

I trust my next breath will keep coming. … I trust the sun will rise tomorrow. … I trust Sparky will be wagging his tail when I walk in the door. … I trust that the snow will melt. …

Trust now. Trust in The Now. Consciously access what you know to be positively, life-affirmingly true. And that sureness will become a bridge to what’s possible.

I have a painter friend whose art sells for $10,000 a painting. She routinely paints over pieces that are for sale in her gallery. It could have been better, she says.

I’ve gotten standing ovations for speaking gigs. “Meh, I give myself a B. Coulda been better.”

Here’s the confession: I always feel like I’m failing. And succeeding. And failing. And succeeding. And failing.

I’m not masochistic. My glass is not ‘half full’, it is oceanic. I feel sturdy and ripe. But The Subtle & Abiding Sense of Failure Thing…. it’s as steady as the green of my eyes.

If you’re committed to the sacred strive, The Subtle & Abiding Sense of Failure Thing will always be along for the ride.

… In your speech, your craft, your work. Pleasing your lover, planting your garden, dispensing your accumulated knowledge. You can make masterpieces. Daily. You can please some people, get a raise, fire up your kundalini, you can hit it out of the park and sleep like a satiated baby that night. And then in she glides, to sit in the chair in the corner of your room: The Subtle & Abiding Sense of Failure Thing.

She’s an angel, I tell you. An angel.
You are not insecure, neurotic, defective, obsessive, or unappreciative.
(Well, maybe you are, but not because you experience The Subtle & Abiding Sense of Failure Angel.)
Coexisting with The Subtle & Abiding Sense of Failure Angel is part of making art.
She is as reliable as your creative impulses.
She comes bearing invitations. To more.

The Subtle & Abiding Sense of Failure Angel is able to enter because you left your heart open.
Leave it open.
You have to.
To make more stuff.
To make it better, so that we evolve and bring one another along for the ride.
Where demons get to be angels if you look at them the right way.

do not wait for special occasions.
do not tuck your best away in the drawers, in the back of the closet, in your heart.
don’t wait for holidays or invitations.

declare that your today is the special occasion.

call instead of emailing. (it feels so good to connect.)
go for coffee.

quit.

renounce your glory days. you’ve told all of those stories more than twice.
focus forward.

wear perfume for yourself. toss your only-wear-around-the-house clothes and let your good clothes graduate to around-the-house status.
intend to feel good all of the time.

write your book.

launch.

make great sex a priority. (this alone will make you more creative and free. on your death bed, you will think about all the great sex you had this lifetime.)

burn your to-do list.

write poetry. One a day.

make a point to be as encouraging as possible, as much as possible, to everyone possible.

don’t look back.

if you feel like you’re always failing, consider that this is part of being an artist. let it be a divine inclination. keep going.

enter.

leave.

eat real food.

often refuse to be in the presence of people who make you feel repressed, anxious, or pull your frequency down.

do not entertain haters.

send light to the haters.

give it away. you probably don’t need it and someone else does.

turn off the tv.

let it be easy.

burn candles. during the day.

fall in love. with yourself. with the person you’re with. with the persons in your orbit.
because no one is perfect, but you can let the love be perfect for the both of you.
because everyone — everyone — is a doorway to God.
because you can get there from here.

because life is short.

My perception of your integrity has plummeted. Slave driver. Who do you think you are? Unsubscribed. What an unloving tone. Tacky. What a great opportunity. I was just thinking of offering my services for an exchange. Sounds incredible. I can’t work for free, but what could we work out? I’d love to learn from you. Could be a magical trade. I’ll make this work. I’m in. I’d pay YOU to be your intern!

Chris Brogan had similar “comments/concerns/accusations” when he put a call out for an intern. My take-away from the response is essentially this:

Assumptions kill courage and creativity.

Assumptions squash opportunities before they fully present themselves. Assumptions hurt your chances, people’s feelings, and your pride. Assumptions will keep you right where you are. If you avoid assumptions, you can make more amazing things happen.

10 ANTIDOTES TO ASSUMPTIONS

(like most things, this applies to livelihood and love):

1. Inquire. Is this 2 hours a week or 20 hours a week? (It’s up to you.)
2. Assert your genuine self. I’d love to do XYZ. (Great! I only want you to do what you love. It’s better for everybody.)
3. Make declarations. I’m in! (Excellent. Enthusiasm is gorgeous.)
4. Ask for access. May I sit in on your tele-meetings with Random House? (Absolutely. That team will blow your mind!) Can I read that plan? (Already sent you the password.)
5. Ask for money. Can I get paid? (Of course. I was wondering if you’d ask.)
6. Have bigger vision. It doesn’t help a potential mentor or love-match for you to say, “I’m all these great qualities.” You need to demonstrate your understanding of the brand/the person, and some forward thinking. Be the entrepreneur, the woo’er. Bigger vision shakes you out of small thinking and magnetizes people to you.
7. Think long term. Love upfront pays off later.
8. Be generous. Generous people attract generosity.
9. Be obsessed with improving everything you touch.
10. Use trust as a strength. I trust that if I give, I’ll get.
11. Pour it ON. As my own mentor always says, “It’s ‘Give and take.’ Not, ‘Take, then give.’”
12. Live from a place of possibility. Possibility thinking is the singular most powerful weapon against limiting assumptions. And more is possible if you think it is.

This is the price of admission to something great. It’s almost always worth it. And you never stop doling out your admission fees, no matter how successful you are.

Charlie Hoehn does a great job of selling “free.”

. . . . . .

subject line: I’m looking for an intern

you will: work for free until June 1. work could range from grunt tech uploading, to bartending, to high level marketing maneuvers, to styling.

I will: teach you how to make a lot of big, meaningful, profitable stuff happen.

If you think you’re the one, tell me — or show me — what you’d do to help me get where you think I should go.
email: danielle@daniellelaporte.com by Thursday January 19. please: no further questions, no DM’s, no Facebook messages.

I’ll announce if the position has been filled by Friday January 27 via my Facebook fan page and Twitter.
cheers,
Danielle

. . . . . .

CHECK IT OUT!
Your Big Beautiful Book Plan Teleseminar + Twitter Party
Wednesday, January 18th, 2011 at 9pm EST/ 6pm PST
Sponsored by Karl from PartyBizConnect.com
5 copies of YBBBP ($150 each) will be gifted to happy tweeters.

CLICK HERE FOR SIGN UP INFO.

And yep — it’s free.

My idea was : I’ll do a Pay What You Can Day to retire The Spark Kit and kick-off THE FIRE STARTER SESSIONS pre-order party.

My presumption was: I’ll sell enough Spark Kits to pay for a family vacation. Clear the energy for new things to come in.

What happened was: We made an Amazon Bestseller happen. That day, as I was helping a friend move, in between emails and an acupuncture treatment, my agent emailed me and said, “You’re #114 on Amazon.” It took me a minute to compute. It hadn’t occurred to me to even check. You see, the day before the book ranked #390,460 in overall books on Amazon.com. And then…

This is what happened in the US:

And this happened in Canada:

My friend Jonathan Fields did a video post about my apparently brill tactical moves. And, yep, when God was handing out gold stars for promotional savvy, I campaigned for more. But here’s the thing…this early success was a complete surprise. It wasn’t what I planned. When it was clear that we were climbing the charts I thought to myself, “This ‘giving up expectations‘ shit really works.” I got all teary and taken aback.

Because here’s what I think when really fantastic awesome things happen in my own little world: God really does want for me what I want for me. And that, yep, cosmic intelligence is the hostess with the mostest.

In summary:

Give it your all. Give it away. Your desires are being held in the hand of the cosmos with incredibly sturdy care. Life is not testing you. She is rooting for you.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

There’s more in store. Soon. Very soon.

P.S.
I’m changing my site name to DanielleLaPorte.com. WhiteHotTruth has had it’s run. Death. Life. You know. I’ll explain. Tomorrow.

My new book, THE FIRE STARTER SESSIONS: A SOULFUL + PRACTICAL GUIDE TO CREATING SUCCESS ON YOUR OWN TERMS is now available for pre-order! In hardcover! All gorgeous n’ new! (Read more about it at the bottom of this post.) In the coming weeks I’ll be rolling out a campaign that will sizzle with bestseller-light-up-your-life LOVE.

pay what you can day is now closed. The Spark Kit is going to digital heaven. more to report very, very soon. xoxo

But first, we need to burn some virtual sage and chant in the future. Dismantle to make space.

THE SPARK KIT: A DIGITAL PROGRAM FOR ENTREPRENEURS, FROM MEANING TO MONEY MAKING is being retired. Au revoir, ma cherie.

I’m taking it off the e-shelf today. A business-only version will reincarnate down the road, but this version will be gone for good. I still sell a lot of SPARK KITs and the love letters are steady. So this is a bit of a leap, but it’s curtain time. And it’s big deal time.

Get hot + Pay What You Can!

Pre-order a copy of The Fire Starter Sessions (most e-retailers are selling it for as low as $14 bucks).

Then… pay what you can for The Spark Kit (regularly $150).

And…when I launch The NEW Spark Kit 2.0 (new worksheets + interviews ++) I’ll also send you the new UPGRADED EDITION. Free.

Double hot. Triple hot.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Follow these steps. In this order:

STEP 1:
Go to any one of these dealers and PRE-ORDER The Fire Starter Sessions hardcover book. (It ships in April!) Pick from your fave store:

STEP 2:
EMAIL A COPY OF YOUR RECEIPT or a screenshot of your purchase confirmation from the book retailer to: fire@daniellelaporte.com. Just forward it. Easy.
 
STEP 3:
Once we get your emailed proof of pre-order, you will get instant access to the Pay-What-You-Can PayPal link. MAKE YOUR OFFER ON THE SPARK KIT. And presto it’s yours.

Then…you’ll feel extra blessed when we send you the all new upgraded Spark Kit this spring. And…when you crack open your own hardcover copy of The Fire Starter Sessions, forever and for keeps.

Questions? Email angie@daniellelaporte.com

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

FINE PRINT + GOOD MANNERS:

1. This offer is for 24 hours only, until 12:01am PST Wednesday Jan 11. Fer reals. If you’re out of town, if you missed this email in your inbox…then the opportunity will have vanished. I like things, especially money things, elegant and simple (and generous.)
2. This only applies to The SPARK KIT (Your Big Beautiful Book Plan is not included.)
3. This offer is not retroactive. Even if you bought The Spark Kit yesterday.
4. HOWEVER! If you’ve already pre-ordered The Fire Starter Sessions hardcover book (from one of the book retailers listed above), just zap us your receipt and you’re IN! We’ll send you a link to make a pay-what-you-can offer on The Spark Kit.
5. I reserve the right to refuse too-low offers on The Spark Kit. Good karma is in affect.
6. I will take multiple payments over time. This works on the honour system. If you want to pay, say, $30 in three installments via PayPal, email installments@daniellelaporte.com to set that up.
7. When you pay for The Spark Kit, we’ll zap you the access code. You’ll need to download it within 24 hours of receiving the link.
8. If The Spark Kit access code doesn’t show up in your in box immediately, don’t fret. It will arrive. (We usually get deluged on a pay-what-you-can-day and our server chugs a bit — but we have never missed an order.) If you DM and Facebook and send us three emails wanting immediate confirmation that we got your offer, it confoozes us. We so want to serve you pronto and we’ll bust our booties to do just that!
9. Please be really nice to (and patient with) angie@daniellelaporte.com if you have questions. She will get to you, because she is simply amazing.
10. If you already have The Spark Kit and would like to gift it to someone at a pay-what-you-can rate, go for it!
11. For those of you who do not jive with PayPal or credit cards, you can mail a money order or a cheque (that’s Canadian for “check”) to: Danielle LaPorte, 1424 Commercial Drive, PO Box 21780, Vancouver BC, V5L 3X0. (But you will have to pre-order The Fire Starter Sessions book with a credit card from one of the retailers above.)

HUMANS ARE AWESOME:
I’ve done a few pay-what-you-can-events, and have processed thousands of offers. I’ve received money orders from Tokyo and thank you letters from single moms and laid off geeks. People have gotten charitable: “Here’s $100 bucks, please give 4 copies to people who can’t pay at all.” Only once has someone not made good on their promise to pay. I get emails a year after someone has purchased The Spark Kit saying, “I did the program. I upped my game! Thank you.” And this: “I promised when I got my first client, I’d pay you more, here’s $50.” If I ever need a good cry, I read the thank you notes from pay-what-you-can days.

I’m not telling you this for marketing lube. I’m mentioning this because it’s a great story of something that began on a whim, a slight risk, a birthday wish, and proved – repeatedly – that vastly, people are honest, generous, smart, eager to learn, and happy to have purchasing power on their own terms. And polite. Cynics can stuff it. People are lovely. I have the data.

I won’t being doing another event like this for a long time. So I’m extra-conscious of the great spirit that happens on a day like this.

THE NEW BOOK:
As many of you know, “The Fire Starter Sessions” began right here, as a digital program, which was then re-named The Spark Kit. So you’re probably wondering what’s different about the “book” that’s now for sale. The answer: a lot. The print book is a major renovation, filled with new love stories and case studies, worksheets, quotes, and soulful depth. It’s less business and a lot more life. I am over-the-moon honoured to be published by Random House/Crown, and they’ve made sure that this baby is gorgeous. Hardcover, 328 pages, with a touch of silver metallic, and unlike any self-help book you’ve ever held — or read.

Most e-retailers are making it available for $14 bucks or less.

There will be much more coming – free worksheets, a free group guide, free desktop posters, kindle, audio, and all of the ideas that you will ignite for yourself and take into the world.

Let’s get this party started.

You know what to do.

With Great Love,