Today, a mini dance break: for storytelling and sharing, for visioning and adventuring, for loving and living.
You see, I love crafting + curating teachings around money (and all that it touches) for you all — including creative entrepreneurism, mama-preneuriship, somatic practices, relationships, and so much more.
And once in a luminous blue moon, I love to share personal stories about how my little family does life, play, rejuvenation, dreaming … and how all this dances with our business and parenting.
My little family thrives on fun + creative adventures! Running an online business makes these so much easier in some ways — and brings its own challenges, too.
So come along with us on one of our …
Family Road Trips!
Our little family loves road trips.
It’s become one of our favorite ways to reconnect with each other, explore the world, and share new adventures.
Of course, we always pack our laptops and run our business from the road (great wifi is a must for us!) — but we’ll get to those logistical details in a moment.
Guatemala: Planting Our First Travel Seeds
Our travel-adventure seeds were first planted on a family trip to Guatemala back when Noah was 18 months old. Forest was working for a tech company at the time, and we packed our bags to attend their company retreat in Antigua.
I had just anchored my entire business ship online (I needed simpleness and sleep after Noah was born!). It was during this trip that I first realized the additional, huge benefit of my new business model: I could work from anywhere — even a B&B in Antigua!
While Forest was in meetings during the days, I was busy running my biz, filling my final Conscious Bookkeeping telecourse (which would eventually morph into my year-long program, The Art of Money). I carried Noah on my back, and we went on glorious family adventures.
Thankfully, our delightful B&B had great wifi!
Magical Play Day at the Sand Dunes
Last year we mega-expanded our road trip adventures, and became officially initiated into this way of life. Now we’re clearly hooked!
Our family-travel-playtime deepens our bond as a family. It makes space for new dreams to bubble up to the surface and for others to incubate or mature. And we love playing together, exploring together, and learning together.
Epic Taos
We’re so tremendously grateful that we can bring our work on the road with us, anywhere! And: taking a vacation as an entrepreneur certainly has its challenges! It’s usually impossible to truly “unplug” for long, and we remain connected to our business, at some level, all the time.
On our trip to Taos last year, we were so lucky to have my amazing online biz manager running the show while we were away. This allowed us to almost-completely unplug — and have an epic experience. We stayed at another lovely B&B … and got to see a Mumford and Sons concert from the front row!
Lake Michigan: Gentle Work, Rest + Play
Part of our entrepreneurial family journey is finding the right balance of work and play. Depending on the phase and season of our businesses, this truly varies. Some road trips are mostly play with minimal work. Some are all-around gentle. And some are honestly tons of work with just a spice of play.
Our trips to visit Forest’s family in Lake Michigan last year were a nice, steady balance of gentle work, gentle rest, and gentle play.
Our Latest, Greatest Adventure: The Earth Ships of Taos + Santa Fe
2014 came in like a lion for our family and business life. We rocked out an incredible opening and registration period for our year-long program, the Art of Money 2014. And we also had big family stresses: Forest and I each had a parent suffer a stroke.
We’re so grateful that our online business model grants us the freedom to hop in a car (or on a plane) at a moment’s notice — so we were able to visit our families through this difficult time last year.
As this March rolled around, our parents were well on the mend, the Art of Money was in full swing — and we were so ready to celebrate, take a breather, and play.
We packed the car to the ceiling, making sure to bring two guitars (both of my boys are currently learning Mumford songs!), and headed to the Earth Ships outside of Taos — and then a week in Santa Fe.
Ah, the Earth Ships! As soon as we arrive, our boy, Noah, starts climbing and dancing. He has quite the moves.
This time, we even got to stay in one of the Earth Ships! Here’s a view of the outside and the greenhouse from the inside …
Can you see me cooking dinner in the kitchen, there?
Forest has started whispering sweet-nothings in my ear about building our family an Earth Ship. I’m listening … I’m open … It’s totally possible! I believe …
We also explored some incredible cliff dwellings and Native American ruins outside of Santa Fe. Both of my boys were in heaven here! Forest has a strong, soul-connection with these places. And Noah loved it all — especially finding “treasures.”
I felt a deep, sweet connection with my Noah on this trip. It was so lovely.
At home, we love eating healthy, nourishing food. (Here’s our family’s favorite paleo pancake recipe!) But every once in awhile — especially on the road — chocolate for breakfast is absolute perfection.
Finding My Footing
Santa Fe was a different experience, for me: I couldn’t quite find my footing with this landscape. One day, I went on a solo hike on a desert trail and got totally lost for about 40 minutes. It was scary, but luckily I was able to retrace my footsteps, go back up the trail, and find my way. (What a metaphor for life, business, and all of it, right? We find our path, lose it, and find it again. And again and again.)
Some of my highlights from Santa Fe: a massage and soaking in the hot tubs with my family at 10,000 Waves. And we visited Kakawa a few times: a local shop with some very special chocolate elixirs! Here is my boy saying, “Oh, does my mama love her chocolate!”
Synchronistic Moments
We had a couple wonderfully synchronistic moments on this trip. First, I showed up for a dance class only to find out that one of my all-time favorite African dance teachers, Rujeko, was the substitute teacher for the day! There were over 60 dancers in the room. Simply incredible.
Sometimes, when you’re working from the road, wifi isn’t enough! To teach my monthly Art of Money Community Call, I needed both a landline and great wifi (and our Air BnB only had wifi).
Thankfully, I connected with an elder in our AOM community, Joanna Harcourt-Smith, who graciously welcomed me into her home to do my teaching. Here we are, both in red — more synchronicity!
Road Worky-Worky
We ended up needing to work quite a bit during this trip, for a few reasons. It happened to be a week where our Art of Money community needed some extra loving care behind the scenes, and we ended up sharing some of our best teachings with them. We also had a lot to track, since our wonderful new V.A. (Virtual Assistant) was on her own spring break camping with her family.
And, and, and — we spent a lot of the trip in deep creation mode, putting together a fabulous, free mini e-course for our growing community: Pocket Map for Your Money Roadtrip: A 7-Day Journey into the Art of Money Method. See, Road Trips, really do inspire new creations for our little entrepreneurial family!
While we couldn’t unplug completely on this trip, we still got to enjoy so much wonderful family time. There were many days where we spent a few hours working out of coffeeshops — but we always find the very best mochas! While Forest and I worked on the Art of Money, Noah did his “work” in Minecraft (minus the bad guys, naturally).
We are so grateful for the opportunity to work, play, and love in this way.
Our Family’s Tips for Working Road Trip Adventures:
- Good wifi is essential. Period. If you don’t have it where you’re staying, find a great local coffeeshop to haunt.
- Get in some good exercise. If I don’t exercise I feel crazy! So I need to make it happen when traveling. Hiking. Biking (on our most recent trip, we used the AirBnB bikes + brought Noah’s bike via the rack on top of our car). Show up at a local dance class or yoga class or hotel gym. Get creative: I’ve run up stairs at the beach house for exercise. And: accept that you might not get the same level of exercise on the road as you do at home. Find the right balance here.
- Eat well and enjoy good meals! We always post a request on Facebook looking for healthy + yummy restaurant recommendations in the town we are visiting.
- Sleep. Hydrate. Move. The basics are key.
- Add in some extra self-care: a spa day, a massage, or hot tub soaking. Our family visit to Ten Thousand Waves was absolutely divine!
- Each trip is different, so roll with it! Some will be overflowing with magic — others will bring challenges.
- Some trips mean minimal working. Others afford a nice work-play balance. And others end up just one big work-week. It’s all a learning experience, and flows through the phases and cycles of your business. Experiment!
- Communication with your love (or any travel-work partner) is so key. Be transparent about what you need and want — in work, play, rest, co-parenting, and more.
- “Debrief” the trip when you get home. What worked, and what didn’t? What were the themes? What did you learn? Take the time to honor the adventure you just created!
Hope you’ve enjoyed this behind-the-scenes look at how our little family does work and life and a bit of travels.
With my dearest wishes for your own work-life-love-travel adventures!
P.S. Hear Forest + Bari teach together at the Conscious Sexuality & Relationship Conference
So not only are Forest and I husband-and-wife, co-parents, and travel companions … we’re also now officially business partners! After years of supporting each other in our separate businesses, we’re now fully under one umbrella. All in.
We’ve learned a lot about creating conscious, happy work-and-love partnerships. And we’re now being invited to speak about love and entrepreneurship — and we couldn’t be more excited!
Join us (online) at the Conscious Sexuality & Relationship Conference
We’re delighted to be featured at this free, online event, where we’ll share some of our hard-won lessons around money, entrepreneurship, co-parenting, and making it all work as a loving couple.
The conference features 40+ experts on all things conscious sex + relationships: from tantra to evolutionary psychology, from food to shamanism, from healing trauma to building a business.
This gathering of the minds is May 12 – 16. It’s completely free, and it’s all online (so you can enjoy from anywhere — even your own family roadtrip!). Sign up right here.
