136: Work-Life Balance with Melissa Ambrosini + Nick Broadhurst

Namaste. It's Sahara Rose. And welcome back to the Highest Self podcast, a place where we discuss what makes you your soul's highest evolvement. This episode is brought to you by Uveda Yuveda is a modernized ayurvedic supplement company that takes certain issues that we have such as mood joints, immunity, digestion, and creates these custom little packets exactly for us, infusing ancient ayurvedic herbs with modern vitamins and minerals. I take the mood formula daily. It is great if you work a stressful job, had adrenal fatigue, ever suffer from anxiety or even depression, and it really heals you from a fundamental and holistic level. So if you want to try it out, head over to Uveda. Y-O-U-V-E-A.com, use the code Sahara and you'll receive receive 35% off your first order. And they now ship to almost every country globally. So check it out. If you live internationally, they may be shipping to your country too. And they just added India. Guys, this episode is one that I really needed to listen to because work life balance, such a hard thing. It's been real the past couple months with my book launch Abundance mindset masterclass launch, my Path to Freedom launch, which you guys have seen on social media. We'll be diving into today upcoming Sex Money Magic masterclass, which you'll be hearing about on the next episodes of the podcast and then in December Conscious Relationships masterclass. So it's been a lot of launching, a lot of pitta energy going forth and I've also really been making strides to do things that fill up my cup. I've started to go beach dancing, which has been this really fun silent disco on the beach here. I've been going to more just movement classes in general, whether it's like these plates that they shake and you work out on them or yoga classes, dance classes, et cetera. And when I was dancing on the beach the other day, I really thought about how important it is to have a conversation on work life balance and what that means, what that means in ourselves, in a relationship, the tools that we can use to create work life balance. And then also of course, how we can create passive income, residual income, which we talked about on this episode so you can have space for the things that fill you up. So that's really what we dive into in today's episode. I highly recommend having like a piece of paper or your cell phone near you because there are a lot of different apps and tools that Nick and Melissa share with us that really are going to be really helpful for you to get more organized in your business. I recently joined their Path to Terra team which is their Doterra business. It's like an amazing business coaching mastermind that is free for joining their Doterra program. I'm part of it as well. We'll be talking about it on this episode. But I've learned so much about just business, management, structure, organization from being part of their team and I'm really excited to share with you guys as well. So if you are not familiar with Melissa Ambrosini, she is bestselling author of Mastering youg Mean Girl. Open Wide. And Nick Broadhurst is an amazing musician. You have to check out his songs on Spotify. And he also is an incredible business and marketing expert. So they are a married couple, they live in Australia. As you'll be able to tell from their accents and what they do so beautifully. I co led the Conscious Relationships Masterclass with them and they're such a team. I mean they live together, they work together, they do business together, but they keep this polarity, this incredible balance in their business and they've really had to create work, life balance and separate those boundaries otherwise their whole lives become a blur. So they are the perfect people to be teaching us about this here on the Highest Self podcast. And I'm sorry, so excited to be sharing them with you because they're dear friends of mine. We are doing the Conscious Relationships Masterclass together which we did live here in LA at the end of September and we'll be offering for you to purchase online in December. So stay tuned for that. And they've been true friends, true blessings and true leaders in this space. So without further ado, let's welcome Melissa Ambrosini and Nick Broadhurst to the Highest Self Podcast. Welcome Nick and Melissa to the Higher Self Podcast. It's so great to have you guys here.

Thank you so much for having us. We're so excited.

Thank you, Sahara.

So the first question that I would love to ask both of you is what makes you your highest self?

Oh, such a juicy question. What makes me my highest self? I guess I feel like my highest self when I am living in alignment with my truth and when I am cultivating a lot of self awareness. And I do that through meditation. So when I'm doing that, I feel like I'm in alignment with my higher self. And I am my higher self.

Love that. So, so true. How about you, Nick?

Yeah, I think over the years for me there's been this gap between knowing and being. So you sort of go on this path of personal development and you learn or you remember a lot of things. And then it's one thing to have it in your mind, but it's another thing to actually be that way. So for me, embodiment is when I feel my higher self. And that's again, as Melissa said, that's probably coming mainly from self awareness and meditation. But actually being all the things that we know are our truth is what makes me feel my highest self.

So beautiful. And I love how you guys are both Transcendental Meditation practitioners and that's such a huge part of your life. I know both of you are really committed to a twice a day practice, which is so impressive. I've seen my fiance, he kind of comes in and out of it. Like he'll do it for twice a day for a while and then he'll get out of it. I know you guys are just so committed, which is really inspiring for people.

Yeah, it's one of those things which, you know, it's really moved the needle on my life and Melissa's life. And just to be perfectly correct, we don't actually teach Transcendental meditation. We currently being certified in the One Giant Mind Being technique which comes from the similar Vedic origins. But again, yes, it is a 20 minutes, twice a day practice and it's. It's changed everything for us.

Love that so much. So both of you guys have a lot on your plate. So if you have not heard Nick Broadhurst music, he is a musician. So amazing. Really good, like chill. But also he has some really lively stuff. It's really good for Vinyasa flow or just hanging out with friends. You got to listen to it. And Melissa, she's been on the podcast before. As you guys know, she is a two time bestselling author of Open Wide and Mastering youg Mean Girl. You guys are both podcasters, you guys are both leading this incredible Pastor Freedom Doterra team, which we'll talk about later. So many things on your plate. So I'd really love to just dive into the conversation of work life, balance because it's something that you guys have really mastered. I know it's something that everyone is still continually working on yourselves too. So we'll start with Nunit. Can you share with us how you have one foot into this music art world and another foot very deeply into the business world? You are a prolific marketing and business genius. So can you share how you kind of dance between these two worlds?

Yeah, for me, it's about really segmentation, I have to really divide them up. I can't really do both because the minute that you bring numbers or marketing or strategy into your mind, then you can kind of kiss goodbye any sort of musical creativity because it's a different part of the brain. So I tend to do it in spurts. I tend to, you know, go headfirst into business for a period of time. And then I come out of that and I say right now it's music time. I'm actually doing that in December onwards, where I'm shifting out of business mode into music mode. And that's my 40th birthday present to myself, is to have all of December just writing music. Because if I do both, then I'm not doing either of them well. So I do have to definitely compartmentalize them for sure.

Oh, so good. And I always tell people on the podcast segment your days, even as Vata Pittacapha. So sounds like December. I'm doing the same thing in December too. Very Vata month for you.

I can't wait. I'm so excited.

Melissa, how about you?

Yeah, I mean when I'm writing a book, that is really all I'm doing. So again, the creativity, like what Nick mentioned, like I wrote Mastering your mean girl in two weeks and that's. I literally went away and I just did that and I wrote Open wide in a month and that's all I did in that month. So for me, big creative projects like that need all of my energy and all of my creativity and all of my space. But how I kind of do all of these things on a day to day basis, like, like you said, you know, we're writing books and speaking and we've got our podcast and we've got our doterra team and we're mentoring, you know, four and a half thousand people all over the world. We've got a lot going on and we've also got a 12 year old and we're married and you know, we've got friends that we want to nurture those relationships with. So there's lots of different hats that we actually wear. But I find for myself I have always been incredibly organized and having a schedule like having my calendar mapped out with everything that I'm doing, you know, having my Vata pitta and kapha moments throughout the day really helps me achieve and do everything it is that I want to achieve. So for me, I always take that time in the morning for self care and self love. The first half of the day is when I am really moving the needle forward on all of my creative projects. And I just get in there and I just go for it, laser focus and do it. And then, you know, I really, every day, I stop and have a beautiful, slow, mindful, conscious lunch in the sunshine. And then the afternoon is more for my kapha stuff. So, you know, meetings or things that don't require me to really focus and a lot of creativity. And that seems to work really well for me. I can just get in there, get the things that I need done, and then I have that time in the afternoon to go to the beach for the rest of the day if I want to.

That is so beautiful. And I love how you really, you know, made it an initiative to take that space for yourself, because I think what sometimes happens is we have this intention for ourselves. Oh, in the afternoon, I'm not going to take, like, business meetings, but what happens when someone else's schedule only, you know, they're only available at that time, and that's your creative time. And I think that's what makes it hard, at least for myself, is like, I can make my own schedule, but I'm interacting with the world. So I'd love to know about kind of, what are the boundaries that both of you guys have set to help honor this work life balance?

I often hear the whole argument there should be no such thing as work life balance, because your work should be your life, right? And if you're on purpose and you're on mission, then, you know, it shouldn't feel like work. And I guess we should probably debunk that a bit, because at the end of the day, you do have to get yourself into a state to be productive. And that state is a bitter, masculine state. And that may not be the state that you want to be with when you come home and you're with your partner. So, you know, you want to soften and you want to be much more in the feminine space. And I think it's important to bring that up because we love what we do. We do. We absolutely love. I love writing music, I love doing my podcast. I love working with Path to Freedom. You know, all the different things that we do. It's exciting, but you're still in that part of the brain that's not really conducive to nurturing relationships, especially with your partner at home. So we definitely have refined this over the years. When we first came together, we had this sort of prolific period of productivity because we were so excited that we met and we were just creating so much stuff together. But we'd be on our computers late at night and we knew it wasn't great, but we'd be kind of burning the candle, to be honest. And so we've been down that path and recognize that firm boundaries have to come in. So we basically have really just rules in the house. We switch off at 5:00', clock, we meditate and we have dinner at 5:30. And that really draws a very firm line in the sand. And if it's warm weather and beautiful, then we try before or after dinner to go for a swim in the ocean because you're essentially marking a clear change in your day, you know, you're drawing a line in the sand, literally. So that's been really supportive for us is being really firm around that. But the other thing as well is getting your self love practice done in the morning. Because then, you know, I know when you have those days when you don't quite get that self love practice in, then it sort of feels like you're chasing a tail, you know, because you haven't really topped yourself up. And by the end of the day you might have had a productive day. But there's just this feeling of almost like, like something's missing here. And that's because you didn't get those things in for yourself. So I think if you start the day with the self help practice and you end it by drawing a firm line of sand and you know, marking the end of the day, then you can kind of go to bed feeling really at peace with what you've done that day. Like it's been a complete day.

Yeah, I was just going to add, I know we, this is constantly evolving for us and we're always having an open dialogue around the boundaries because we work and live from home, both of us. And so, you know, there does need to be some boundaries. And especially when we're in, we have two homes. Especially when we're in our Bondi home, which is a lot smaller than our Noosa home. So we're kind of like on top of each other all day. And we don't have a separate office here. So my office is the kitchen table or out on the balcony. And so, you know, we have to be really clear. You know, in the mornings we always take some time to connect with each other. If we don't do that, I kind of feel like all day I'm like a little bit cranky. I'm like, hey, but yeah, I know we're business partners, but we're lovers first and foremost. Like we're lovers. Like, so it's hard, you know, for me. I just look at him all day and I'm like, I just want to go to the beach and play with you and be lovers with you. And he's like, can you write this copy for me or this? And I'm like, I don't want to do that. I just want to be a lover. But as long as we have taken that time first thing in the morning, I can kind of then go, okay, cool. You know, being each other's lover is our first priority. So we've kind of connected first thing in the morning and set the tone. And then we go into, you know, our own self love practice. And then we go into work mode. And then we're in work mode all day. We'll break for lunch together. You know, I might make us a beautiful lunch and we'll sit in the sun and we might go for a swim after lunch. And then we go back into work mode. And then like Nick said, you know, five o', clock, we close our computers, we meditate, we eat dinner together, and when we have Leo, that's family time, we play games, we go for a swim. And then again, we bookend our day with connections. So we'll get into bed really early and make love or talk and just laugh or read in bed and have that time. So I think for us what's really worked is having those two scheduled slots per day. And I know that sounds really rigid, but it's actually not. Like, we just know that first thing in the morning when I have a little cuddle in bed, we'll put our alarm on a little bit earlier so that we can have that cuddle. And that time, Alexi and Preston, mutual friends of ours, call it the snuggle alarm. You know, you put an alarm on half an hour before you actually have to get up, so you have that time for each other. And then we don't do things at nighttimes. Like our plan is let's get into bed as early as possible, like 7, 45, 8 o' clock, so that we have that time together. And I think being really firm around those boundaries is really important. I know that if we get really, really busy and those two slots of lovers time start to get deleted from our day, that's when we start to butt heads. Because ultimately, yes, we are business partners, but, you know, we're lovers first and foremost. And so getting really clear on what's going to work for you. And we're not saying that everyone needs to do this. You've Got to find those things, you know, maybe you can have yours in the middle of the day, I don't know. But just getting really creative with when you can create time and space for each other. I know, as the feminine. Otherwise I just get really cranky. I'm like, you just want me to write copy and sales pages all day and you don't love me and get like really sulky and whingy, and that's not fun for anyone.

It's funny because you actually don't write sales pages, but.

It was an analogy.

You know what I mean?

You don't love me. Yeah, yeah.

You make me do a lot of work, babes.

I do, I do. And you know, it's really. I have to echo what she's saying because I often say that marrying Melissa was the easiest thing I ever did, but also the hardest thing, because when you meet your match, you cannot show up and be average anymore because that person's always mirroring back your potential at yourself. And, you know, Melissa's really unforgiving when it comes to intimacy time. And I think the masculine. You know, I woke up this morning and the first thing I wanted to do was just start working. I didn't even think about self care because Melissa's not here. So when the feminine's not around me, my masculine is in overdrive and it's really hard to control, you know, and I have to be really diligent around that and just almost force myself to sit down and meditate and do my phone rolling and the things that I'm doing at the moment. And you know, hats off to Melissa because I think that sign of agitation, frustration, crankiness that can come from the feminine is totally natural if they're not being served by them masculine. And I think a lot of men can look at that as, you know, an annoyance as opposed to looking at it as a challenge. And for me, if Melissa's cranky, then I just know that I haven't been showing up for her, I haven't been making space for her. And you can work with anyone, but you can only make love with one person if you're in a monogamous relationship. And, you know, you need to prioritize that, otherwise things can get pear shaped pretty quickly. And, you know, I think that's if we have a self love routine, we should have a, you know, make love routine. Because if you want more love in your relationship, you have to actually make love. Makes sense, right?

And that was one of my favorite things that you guys both talked about in Our conscious relationships masterclass, which we will be launching this December. So stay tuned for that on all of our social media channels. And really just how important it is to continue to foster that and the dance between the masculine and feminine. So that was just such an amazing part of the masterclass and a challenge that I have that a lot of listeners probably have too, is, you know, sometimes when you're not working with that person, you have different schedules. Like, I wake up and sleep earlier than my fiance who's like, was up until 7 in the morning today because he's making a song. So that can be really hard when it's like, okay, we're on totally different routines, and you can't really wake each other up for that. So I'd love to know what is your advice for people who are on different schedules?

Yeah, I think, again, it's about being adaptable and flexible. But there's gonna have to be some time where you both say to each other, look, of course our work is important, but we're in this for life. We're married. You're about to get married. You know, this is a life commitment. And if we're gonna make this work, we have to find those times to be lovers or just to be intimate, just to have time to talk and, you know, just be together. I think it can work on different schedules, but there has to be, you know, a level of prioritizing which takes place to make it happen. And it could just be that maybe during the day you have an afternoon together, you know, for an hour or two, and that's it. You know, that could be beautiful.

And I always say, you've got to practice ccc, crystal clear communication. And it can feel very scary and vulnerable and uncomfortable, you know, sitting your partner down and saying, honey, I love you so much, like, I married you, or I'm with you because I want to hang out with you. And I would love if we could create some space in our calendar today, you know, to have lunch together, or let's go for a with the dog this afternoon. And Nick and I share a digital calendar, so I can see what's in his calendar. So on my Mac, he's got the same calendars. I can see what he's got on. I just go in there and I just add things. I'm like, I put in lovers time, I put in lunch, I put in picnics, I put in things, and I just add them into his calendar or into our joint calendar. So he has a calendar, I have a calendar. And then we have A joint calendar. And that's kind of anything to do with us and Leo, our son. So family stuff, you know, drop offs and pickups, all of that stuff. So we can see what everybody is doing. And that's really, you know, coming back to organization and doing everything and achieving everything and this achieving everything you want in your work and achieving everything you want in your life. Get organized. So that is really important and just creating the space, having an open, crystal clear dialogue with your lover and saying, right, okay, I know that the next four days you are in the studio or you are back to back or you're doing night shifts, but how about on Saturday? I would love to take you on a picnic or, you know, just so you know, you've got something to look forward to. I know that if it goes a couple of days and we don't have anything in our calendar, I start to get really cranky and he'll feel it and he's like, all right, cool, I need to, I need to organize something, otherwise she's going to lose it.

And it doesn't have to be every day. Let's just make that clear as well. I think it's just as long as each other knows, especially the feminine and knows that, you know, you're a priority for each other. And that's the main thing, I think. And that comes through communication.

Totally. Yes. Yeah. Last night we had to like put in our calendars, like wedding planning time and like sit down and be like, okay, let's figure this out. So sometimes, you know, from the masculine, from the structure is where you can create space for the feminine, for the flow. You're creating the container for that. So it's really important even if you're not in a relationship, Right. Just to allow the space for creative writing, creative of work, music, whatever it is, without, you know, just expecting it's going to show up magically. Your schedule is going to open up one day. It's like, no, we're all busy people. That's not going to happen. You have to take that initiative.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And I think technology is really important in this conversation because love it or hate it, you know, it's something which we have at our disposal that can really liberate us from certain tasks or make certain tasks a lot easier. And we have, you know, just some non negotiables that we use that just make our life easier. You know, we use Voxer for communication, as you know, Sahara, because we've got you on there now. And that just makes some of the business Stuff. Much more efficient to send each other a quick voice note, you know, and we run all of our businesses through Voxer and there's little things like 1Password, you know, the app where we all have Melissa and I have access to each other's things. If I need to log into something, I don't need to go and ask her using Gmail. So we're both efficient when we're traveling, we don't have problems with servers or using Google Drive. And Things is the productivity app we've got some non negotiables we use that make it a lot more easy to get more done. I think that's a really important piece here as well because work life balance, of course means you are going to spend a period of your day working. So you may as well make that as efficient as possible. And again, as Melissa said, having those calendars where we can see each other, what we're doing. You've got colors, she's pink, I'm blue. Stereotypical, but it works. And, you know, I can see what she's doing, you know, I can see exactly what she's up to. There's no point me calling her this morning at 7:00-clock to say hello because I knew she was in the gym, you know, so we just knew what each other's up to. So I think technology is really, really important.

Yes. And you guys both, you're amazing at like using different technologies and just creating systems of efficiency. I've just learned so much from being on your Path to Freedom team and having you guys as my mentors in that whole business. Just, just systems. And that's something that does not come naturally to me. So I love that and I'd love to ask you guys, because you're amazing at this, just delegation and leading a team, what are some recommendations that you have for that? I think a lot of people get stuck doing everything themselves and then it kind of keeps their business stagnant. So any delegation suggestions? Nick, you can start. I know you have so much in this.

You know, delegation is a skill that you learn and you can only learn it when you start. You've got to sort of take that leap at some point to start trusting other people. And, you know, because I found myself in this online world for various reasons back in like 2009, so I've had a good nine years at it and I've got very good at identifying people who are going to be great team members and who are going to show up and do the work properly and be fun and be Grateful and people that we can be grateful having on our team. So I think the first thing is identifying the right person. And it's a skill that you develop. You have to be patient. You know, I think I would have hired probably a hundred people. And I feel like I'm just hitting my straps now, getting really good at finding the right people. And it's just totally intuitive. I've. I just don't get it wrong anymore. Like, literally every person I bring into the team is amazing because I can see what we need and what they need to thrive. So I think that's the first thing is people skills. But systems are literally the cogs in that whole machine. If you don't have systems in place with a virtual team especially, then just forget about it because it's going to be a nightmare to run. So this comes down to the basics of really outsourcing stuff. If you are going to be doing something that's done repetitively, it could be a social media task, it could be something within WordPress, whatever it is, newsletters. You take the time to explain it properly and you record it and you put that into a system. We use teamwork as our collaborative team management system. And we have a project in there called the Wiki. You know, it's like a wiki for all of our companies. And if you need to know how to do something, you just go in there and there's a video for it. And those sorts of taking the time to do that takes time. Trust me, it takes time. But ultimately, what it leads you to is a life of leverage. And a life of leverage is so much more sweet, because when you're leveraging technology, you get to buy back your time. And there's one thing that we all don't have enough of, I believe. Well, we. I guess we do. But it's a very precious commodity, and that's time. And systems and technology give us more time, but it takes work, it takes diligence, and you just have to keep working at that.

So good. What about you, Melissa?

Yeah, Nick is the expert at this and he's taught me so much. I remember when we first got together, I had all of my passwords just on an Excel spreadsheet and all of my logins and my life. I had to do lists on the back of serviettes or napkins, I think you guys call them, and on the back of envelopes and things like that. And Nick just kind of looked at me and was like. He's like, you need to sort your life out. Like you need to get organized. You need to get all these systems in place. And he just taught me, like he literally taught me, just sat me down and taught me. And it's changed my life. Like it is such. It's taken off so much stress and it allows us the freedom to do all of the things that we do, to have all of these different businesses and to have the life that we have. The systems are key for that. And it really stops overwhelm and stress. And you know, I look at people, some of my friends who, you know, still using a handheld diary with an exercise book with all of their logins and passwords in it and look, I mean, each to your own, but a chaotic outside, you know, will be a chaotic mind. And so we want to really help ourselves and make sure that we're setting ourselves up for success in business and in life. And systems are just so, so powerful at doing that. And this is why, you know, four and a half thousand people in our Pastor Freedom Team, they just like in awe of Nick because he's so freaking good at it. And they want to learn from him. They want to learn how to create leverage in their business and in their life, how to create abundance in their business and their life. And Nick is a perfect example of how to do that. And so no wonder we've got, you know, this epic team of four and a half thousand people from all over the world wanting to be mentored by us in particular by him, because he's just so prolific.

Yes. I have already learned so many just in the past few months of being part of the Path to Freedom Team. And it's been really life changing because these are kind of tools that people use but don't really share. I mean, maybe in a really high level mastermind that costs tens of thousands of dollars. And it's something that you guys are so generous of really creating this system that is able to be spread and duplicated and accessible to all people and best of all that it is included in joining Garrett Doterra team. So thank you guys so much for that. So I'd love to ask you, when you guys are hiring, and this is a good question for Nick, what are the types of questions that you ask to make sure that it is the perfect hire?

Yeah, so look, I do most of our hiring through upwork and I do believe that these online freelance websites can be a minefield if you don't know what to look for. And you can end up with some really, you know, I hate to say it, but you can End up with some pretty average stuff if you're not careful. But I, you know, it depends on the actual job that you're looking for. So you're going to be asking for very specific questions in relation to that job, right? But the very first thing I ask them to do, which literally filters out probably 80% of applicants and it's so simple, is I say in your proposal, please start your first sentence with right. And I'll put in inverted commas, something like, I am a podcast producing superstar, right? Say if I'm looking for a podcast producer, which is a recent job that I had to rehire for, we'd had someone for years and he was amazing as a very integral part of our team. And I had to replace him because his business got so big because we referred him so much business. So if people don't respond with that first thing in their sentence. Sorry, that first sentence in their reply, then they didn't read and they're not paying attention and they don't follow orders, directions straight away. You've literally filtered out problems right there. Right. It's such a simple thing. It's been a game changer for me. I've been doing that for probably six or seven years. And if someone is amazing, but they didn't do that correctly, I literally just archive them. Don't even have a conversation. So, you know, that's the first tip. And I get very specific. I say, you are perfect for this role if. And I'll outline all the bullet points, right? And this is not for you. If. Okay. And again, outline all the things. And I'll even say things like, if you like using family disasters as an excuse for not showing up for work. Because what I found with upwork, especially with Philippine workers, is that there's constant family disasters. It's a smokestack.

Yeah. Oh my God. It's been very tough.

It's just. And I don't think they are. It's just they're probably managing several jobs and, you know, and they just come out with excuses. So there's things like that, which I'm really very clear on now. I'd have to go through some of my job posts to actually tell you exactly what I say. But I'm very, very clear on those sorts of filters. And I just don't tend to get that many people who aren't really qualified, you know. And of course, you've got to look at their, their experience and their reviews and it just becomes this very intuitive process.

So true. And I know I've gone through so many virtual assistants and graphic designers and web developers and so many things. And it's really hard because oftentimes they'll be in the middle of the project, they'll stop responding or like give you a half delivered thing. And it is very, very tough. And in general, just managing an online team and keeping people on the same page and keeping people excited, which is something that you guys so excel at. I mean, and just being part of your path to freedom, Voxer Group and the Facebook community, it feels like I am actually working with you guys in real life in your fun Bondi beach office or something. Noosa, maybe. Because you guys do a really good job at just the human interaction component at it. So could you share with us just a little bit about the path to freedom opportunity and what it is like to be part of your team?

Yeah. Do you want to share, Melissa?

Yes. I just wanted to also say that you left out a really key thing, honey. When you're hiring, you get them to do your. Their Ayurvedic body type test. You get them to do that. You forgot that.

I know.

I. Yeah. Oh, you, you have them take the test?

Yeah, I get them to do your test.

Oh, amazing. Yeah, I always, I mean, I'm just kind of able to tell what they are, especially if it's someone who, you know, I'm more interacting with. But it is so important to know their dosha.

Yeah, it is. And you know, we made a very, very important hire a few months ago. Her name's Brooke. And I was bringing her in because I made a commitment to myself in June that come June, I think it was June 30, we were going to Greece on a family holiday. And I promised Melissa that I wouldn't work and that I would be retiring from email right now. To retire from email, when you have the number of things going on that I've got, you've got to remember that, you know, this is complex stuff. There's film production as well in there. There's music, there's licensing deals, there's like really technical things. There's a record label, New York, you know, you need someone who's really on the ball to even just handle email. Right. And I actually found Brooke on upwork, would you believe. And she's in the Gold coast in Australia, which is quite rare. And when she did the dosha quiz, she was quite tri doshic. She was leaning a bit towards Varda. So I knew she was creative, but I could see that she was balanced. I could see that she had. She wasn't naturally ordered and structured, but she'd mastered that somehow, you know, and that was really, really important because I needed someone creative. I needed someone to think for themselves, but I needed someone who could then execute. I could see that she had embraced that and she'd balance that. And I sort of got that out of her in our first interview, you know, So I went into this interview knowing her doses, you know, her best approximation of it anyway, and that really enabled me to look at her and say, okay, you're a good fit, because I know you can do this and you can do this. And I could see that she was balanced. And that was. That was a game changer.

That is amazing. So does she now just read to you, the emails and send it to you on Voxer, the ones that kind of need your input, or does she pretty much just know how to respond to everything?

You know, I'm going to be doing a podcast episode on this soon because I think it's going to be really interesting for people how to retire from email forever. And, you know, it was becoming a real problem for me and I had to do something about it. And I think that's really. This is another key point with work. Life balance in business in general, you reach a point with something, some role, some task that becomes painful. And this came from my friend James Colquhoun is my best mate. He owns with his wife, the business Food Matters. Great, Amazing company, fmtv. Like, he's amazing at this stuff. And I asked him about hiring and he said, I don't hire until there is a pain point. Point. I can tell it's so painful not to have someone that we have to hire. Right. I think that's really, really important. Hires should not be luxuries. I don't believe they should be coming in at the point where you really need it.

Well, no, this is really important because this is something that recently I have been, you know, as my companies and businesses have all grown, you know, those things that give you anxiety when you're in a yoga class or when you're dancing that you're, like, constantly thinking of, that is just a reminder for you of. Of a system or a hire that needs to be in place and that is not going to go away from you ignoring it. This is actually that pain point. It is a calling for you to go into there and create a system. So this isn't a recurring issue. So this is exactly what I'm dealing with right now.

Yeah, no, I remembered your question about how we handle the email. And it's quite simple really. Yes, she does read out. You know, I'll wake up in the morning and I'll give it a few hours and then by 11 or 12 I'll have between 10 to 20 Voxer messages. And they're very short, to the point point. And she'll sometimes read it if it's something she's not sure about. But generally she'll be able to answer everything for me. But Brooke is so talented that she now is basically running all of our companies within like four months. She's an absolute, you know, freak of nature, to be honest, you know, lifesaver. So, you know, that was, that was a blessing finding Brooke for sure. But I will do a podcast on retiring from email. I think if people can get to a point where they only have one or two a day to look at, life is a lot sweeter, that's for sure.

Oh my God. I literally spent half my day on my email. And I have someone who filters through the general emails, but then most of them just get forwarded to me, so it's just like moving between inboxes.

Your other question was about tell us.

About Path to Freedom. Because this has been such an amazing experience for me and I'm so grateful for you guys really to open up this opportunity to the highest self podcast community because there are so many people listening who really want a life like this. They want to be location independent, they want to have a good work life balance. They want to be able to, you know, really fill up their cup doing their creative tasks, whether it's writing books or podcasts or music, but also create that abundance and have both of those hand in hand. So thank you guys both so much for opening up the opportunity to me and now opening it up to this entire community. So Melissa, can you tell us a little bit about Path to Freedom?

Yeah. Path to Freedom is our Doterra team, our Doterra business. And, and like you said, it's all of those things. It allows you to have the abundance and to do the things that you want to do and to be location dependent. It's for anyone who wants to be in the health and wellness space and to serve others. And it's been so rewarding and we absolutely love mentoring our team. Nick does a lot more of the business side of mentoring and I do more of the mindset, which is awesome. But obviously it's, it's the beautiful Doterra essential oils. And these oils are just so high grade and beautiful and I've got Right now, Citrus bliss and Spearmint just diffusing right next to me. And it's so beautiful. And we just absolutely love them. And we've been using essential oils for about seven or eight years. And then one of our best friends presented the amazing opportunity that comes with the oils to us. And it was just a full body. Hell yeah. For both of us. We were looking for another way to be of service to more people in a deeper level. And this has been the best avenue and way that we can do that.

So true. And can you tell us more about just the business side of it, Nick?

Well, it's funny, we've only been in this for just over 12 months and. And literally, I think in November, we're going for the highest rank in Doterra, which is almost unheard of. And this is a network marketing business model. And if you had asked us 15 months ago if we would be in network marketing, we would have sort of been like, oh, I don't know, I've never really considered it. And of course, just the word tends to bring up certain feelings because there's been, I guess, a long history of different things happening in that industry. But once you get into it, you think, why is not every business doing this? It's like this heart based, incredibly generous way of remunerating people. And we tell people that it's really, you're getting paid to do your own personal development. That's literally what it's all about. So when we started this, as Melissa said, we were looking for ways to be of more service. And we actually were almost at a pain point in our own lives where we were like, we've got to find a way to be of more service. It was really, really almost heavy on our hearts. How can we do more for people? And this kind of just came across our laps. And we were speaking with, I don't know if you know, Peter Kelly, and she's a good friend of ours and her husband Eric. And Eric is basically the CEO of Isagenix and his parents started that company and Peter is a multi millionaire of Isagenix. Very, very young. And so we started getting opened to this whole world of network marketing. We'd never even, even been around it before because it's not, you know, it's not huge in Australia. And we had them for dinner and they looked at us, they're like, oh, you guys would be freaking perfect for Doterra. Really? Like, yeah, you guys will be so good for that. And it was just, you know, that little nudge that sort of gave us that bit of confidence and we decided to go into it headfirst. But what we wanted to do is we wanted to create systems. We wanted to use technology so that people, people could create a life of choice, right? Because what network marketing does and what people don't quite understand about residual income is that as long as you maintain that particular rank, you get paid. For life, right? For life. As long as that company's around and a company like Doterra that's privately owned, no debt, right? It's a $2 billion company per year. They're not going anywhere. And, and the company itself is so hard based. I mean, when we looked at what they've been able to achieve in 10 years to become a $2 billion per year company, not only that, but to the way they harvest their oils and source their oils from around the world is so beautiful. It comes from where the plant's indigenous. They work with the communities. It's called co impact sourcing. To really foster development in those communities, they build hospitals, they improve the schools, they increase the wages of the farmers, they pay the farmers consistently through the years so they can depend on their wages. From Dterra, it's an incredibly heart based business. We also have a Healing Hands foundation where they work on stopping child sex slavery and child trafficking and so many different organizations. And I witnessed this firsthand when I went to Nepal this year on a co impact sourcing trip and I was harvesting wintergreen there and it just blew my mind that a company could do this. I honestly believe it's the number one company in the world. No one comes close to doing what they do for the world. They're unbelievable. And what we wanted to do was create systems for people where they could basically plug into our systems. So let's say, for example, Sahara, you've joined our team, right? And you enroll someone. Now you don't have to go and recreate the wheel, right? Because network marketing can, can be pretty overwhelming, to be honest with you. It can be if you don't have the systems. But when you enroll someone, they get plugged into the whole Path to Freedom system. It's not Nick and Melissa, it's Path to Freedom. It's your team, it's everyone's team. It's a white label team, right? We set it up so that everyone can take ownership of this. And once they're plugged into our system, we mentor them for you. They get access to all the different platforms and the training and everything that they need to be successful. So as we said, it's like getting paid to do personal development. And we have team members who are less than a year in, they're well on their way to earning seven figures per year. Right. With essential oils. It like, it blows my mind. And what that ultimately means is that these people have choice. You know, one of them is going for a rank that's called platinum. Right? And this means she can choose whether or not she wants to continue teaching at the school she teaches at or if she just goes part time. But she has choices. Right. And we've also been able to put my mother and Melissa's mother in strategic places so that our parents never have to think of money ever again. And it's this beautiful, energetic exchange that we've been able to develop with our community where, you know, we just basically give people the tools they need to be successful in all areas of their life and to be able to gift, you know, whatever they want to their friends, their family in terms of abundance, it's just, I don't know, you can tell I'm quite passionate about it because we didn't see this coming. It took us by surprise, but now we're in it. We just wonder why doesn't everyone do this? It sort of blows my mind. It's crazy there could be any negative talk about this business model because it's just so heart based and so beautiful.

And it really is about collaboration. You know, instead of calling it network marketing, you can call it collaborative business. It's really about, about working together as a team. I know there's corporations in the city that say that they're a team and they do team bonding exercises, but it's all about climbing the corporate ladder as quickly as possible and kind of stepping on the other person to get to the top. This is not what this is about. This is about helping each other. All rising together. We all rise together. There's no stepping on anybody else. It's about collaborating, supporting, serving, helping, inspiring. Like I've never seen anything like it. And I've been in the personal development industry for a really long time and I had online programs and private Facebook groups and there was an element of competitiveness amongst all of the spiritual self help teachers. And it is so beautiful to be in a space where there is just no competition. It is all about collaboration and helping each other and supporting each other to really their own individual path to freedom, whatever that looks like. And for some people it might just be, you know, one beautiful lady that we met at who's in our team she came to the Australian conference and she's a mother of two and she lives in America and she, she flew all the way to Australia for our Australian conference and she was just bawling her eyes out to me, crying, crying, crying. And she's reached a level, a rank in, in our Doterra team where she can quit her Starbucks job. She was a manager at Starbucks. She has Starbucks and she had two kids and she was just crying because she didn't want to do that. And she's now able to do something that she loves and share these beautiful gifts from the earth, which is what Doterra means, share these beautiful essential oils with the world and get remunerated for it. It's such a beautiful thing and we got to play a part in that. And it's so rewarding and so beautiful to witness and be part of.

Yes. I mean, I just remember in our Conscious Relationships masterclass, a little over a month ago here in la, a woman came up to you guys who was part of the Path to Freedom team and she just started crying in both of your arms because she was finally able to retire from her job. I don't remember her name. Do you remember her name?

Was it Fiona?

Yes.

Yeah, she owned like a shop or something for many years and, you know, now she had the option to no longer do that and to fully just dive into this work and take it to the next level. And what an incredible gift it is to just be able to provide someone with the opportunity to really take that work life balance. I know for me, I have many different businesses like yourself, Melissa. I'm an author. Like both of you, I'm a podcaster. I love writing poetry and doing creative things. And always my struggle has been how can I still remain a creative person and also be able to provide for myself and have the abundance that I want and buy the organic foods and do the yoga classes and go on the retreats and travel to Bali and buy cool art, especially from local places, from handmade places. And I'm able to do all of that now because I have really looked into my abundance mindset and been able to create opportunities to create passive income as well as residual income. So for people who don't know residual income was exactly what Nick was talking about, that it's not just this one time thing that you create, but it's something that continues. So passive income is being able to create wealth for yourself while you're not working on it. So it's the opposite of trading your dollar for hours. I used to be a health coach, which was a lot of, you know, even if I was getting paid $150, 250, $350 an hour, I was still having to show up for that hour and do the work. And you can never truly experience abundance when you're trading your hours for dollars because you only have a set amount of hours in the day. So switching from passive income, doing more group coaching stuff, and now this next level, which is the residual income of being able to really create a foundation and a system that will continually be providing for myself for the rest of my life. I mean, it has been so worth kind of like knowing the new language of a collaborative marketing company, but has opened up my life in so many ways. And we're so excited to have you join us. If this feels right for you, if you are ready for something that can create income for you on the side, that can maybe if you want it to transition to be your full time career again, there's no luck. If you decide that this is how you want to be served and how you want to serve others, you can 100% do it. None of us are people that have lots of, of free time hanging around. So it doesn't take lots of free time to figure out. I mean, I launched my doterra business during my book launch, like the busiest time of my life and I still was able to do it. And I have an incredible team and it also has provided me with amazing like sisterhood and brotherhood that I never had because a lot of us, we work by ourselves. You know, if when you're writing a book or you're podcasting, it's a lot of time on your own and being part of Path to Freedom and, and this incredible doterra team. I mean, I like went to my friend's house on Monday, we shot a video. I'm always, we're always sending voice notes to each other. It's like you really become a cheerleader for your friends and it is so supportive. So if you've been looking for a way like you want to work in a team, but you don't want to work in an office job, this is perfect for you and it truly is. High level business coaching from Nick and Melissa. All of the systems that he spoke about on this episode, he literally has them planned out for you in the step by step approach that teaches you exactly what it is that you need to be focusing your attention on to get to the next level. Because I'm going to be real. Sometimes business coaches can be really fluffy. Have you guys ever had a business coach that's just really kind of giving you information that you could have just told yourself?

Yep, definitely.

Yeah. So, Melissa, have you had that?

Yeah, definitely. And I just was going to mention as well, like, the community, like you said, Sahara, it's just next level. Like, I have made some of my best friends in this team and I've become even closer with people like you. You know, people that were my friends. We've become even closer and it's really is so beautiful. And everybody is worthy of this. Like, we're no more special than anybody else. Like, we didn't, you know, when we were being birthed into this world, God didn't hand out more special fairy dust to us. Like, if you are craving something, if you know something is in your soul, it's calling you, then just do it. Just inquire, like, you know, lean into it. Because we're all worthy of creating the abundance in the life that we truly want. We're all worthy of it.

So very true. We are all worthy of it. We are all empowered to do it. And because of the Internet, we can do it anywhere. You can travel to Australia, you can travel to Egypt, you can go anywhere and continue to really lead a business. And we didn't get enough time to talk about it, but wow. I was able to watch the Doterra convention and just one incredible story which really just changed my outlook on the entire company was this incredible man who came out and they shared the backstory. This man was from Kenya, I believe. Was he from Kenya?

He was, yeah. That was beautiful.

It was beautiful. So this man was. He himself was like, kind of handicapped. And his job was essentially, he was hired by Doterra to find people who were really in positions that they needed help. And he found these two women that were sitting by a gas station. And these women, their husbands had passed away. They each had five kids and no way to pay the bills and there were no jobs available for them. And sadly, they had to go into prostitution. And it really broke down their morale. And, you know, it was so hard for them as mothers and especially now as widows to have to literally sell their bodies. So this man came across them at the gas station and asked them if they would be interested in harvesting pink pepper, which is an incredible spice. Very good for the metabolism, fat burning, anti inflammatory that Doterra is cultivating and it turns their certified therapeutic grade essential oils with. And he was willing to pay them four times more than what any other farmer job does. And that's what Doterra does. And they honor the ancient traditions of how these herbs were cultivated. And they only get these herbs, spices, fruits, etc. From the places that they are indigenous to, unlike any other company out there. So anyways, he offered to pay them four times more. They said yes. These women now are able to fully afford for their kids to go to school and live lives where they are empowered, where they no longer have to sell their bodies radically shifted, not only their lives, but these children's lives and so many other sides, not just in Kenya, in so many countries all over the world. And this is all because this company is essentially creating ways for us to use these indigenous plant medicines in our lives, which also provides us with healing. And Nick, I know you were in Nepal this past year doing work with Doterra. Can you briefly just tell us a little bit about that?

Yeah, I mean, this was. This was a game changer for me. I hadn't been to that part of the continent before. I hadn't been to India or, or Nepal. And it's been on my radar for a long time. And we ended up in a region called Makonpur where we were staying in, basically staying in this very remote, high altitude school. Very, very poor. And it was literally sleeping on the floor in the school. It's really hard to even put into words what you can experience on this sort of trip. And for me, it opened my eyes to the wealth that these people have. They may not have other types of wealth, they may not have material wealth, but the wealth they have in their hearts was mind blowing. And Melissa and I decided to take five of these girls and we are supporting these five girls all the way through high school and through university in Kamandu. And. And it's quite a long commitment, of course, because their parents don't have anything, so it's food and lodging and everything. But there was these five girls and I looked at them and immediately had a connection with them. Like I met them before, it was really hard to explain, but I just didn't want their light, their beauty to be hidden from the world. I looked at these girls and I felt like these are the sort of people the world needs to see. You know, the world needs more of these people. And one in particular, this girl who we went to this agricultural school which Doterra helped build and she came out to do this beautiful performance. It's actually on my Instagram. There's a Nepal highlight. It's very long. You can watch all these things. And she, like everyone was Transfixed. She was like the Beyonce of Nepalese dance, man. She was amazing, right? And there was five girls dancing, but no one could take their eyes with this girl. And I went to the headmaster, I said, tell me about Hela. What's the story? And he said, well, she's from the lowest cast in Nepal, the lowest caste, you know, which is basically a system of dividing. How would you call it? It's a system of dividing up people into different levels, right? And she was the lowest level, which means that at that low level, you basically assigned to small lot farming, like really, really poor lot farming. Cleaning and street sweeping, Right? Now, she was the president of the local Junior Red Cross. That's totally unheard of for someone of her cast. I said to him, if she doesn't get any support, will she get through high school or even college? And he said, there's no way she will. They just can't afford it. This is the sort of girl who could be president of Nepal. They currently have a female president, right? And I looked at these girls and I thought, we have to support them. And there's also this beautiful story. We were harvesting wintergreen, and I was walking through the wintergreen. Just. It just grows everywhere, right? It's all wild, harvested. We're walking through, and we came upon this house.

House.

And we asked if we could go inside. And literally, it was the size of a small bedroom, and there was six people in there. And the way that they survive in winter is by burning wood in their house. Like, literally indoors, burning wood in this room. Okay? And so the kids grow up with carbon monoxide poison, and they get very, very sick and sometimes deformed. And a friend of mine, Rob, who was on their trip, we decided to start a new initiative. And we haven't given it a name. I think we're calling it Clean Air Nepal. But what it means is that literally for US$100 per house, we can install a metal stove which they can use to cook on, but it funnels all the smoke out, and it can keep their house warm for US$100, and it extends their lifespan by 10 years. Right? So I would never have been exposed to these things if I hadn't been on that trip. And we're now funding 50 homes as a starting point and within going to bring in the local metal workers to start their own industry to provide stoves for the whole Mack region. Right? And this all comes from being part of a collaborative business, like the Terror. Like it's. Well, I only doterra. No One else does this stuff. It's been life changing. You know, I was literally in tears on every story. Just about. It's pretty funny. But yeah, just a beautiful, beautiful experience.

It is so beautiful. And I mean, guys, like please head over to his Instagram if you want to see pictures. Google Healing Hands. That's Doterra's organization. The work they are doing is profound. And can you share with us what is the next trip that they will be taking? People who hit diamond on which I hope to be on next year.

It's actually Guatemala.

Yes. So exciting. So we will be there learning from the farmers, learning the indigenous ways that these herbs, spices, all these oils are really cultivated and being able to work with these people. So have you ever heard of a company that your bonus is to go volunteer in Guatemala? I for sure have not. And this is how I know this is exactly where I am meant to be. So thank you guys both so much for sharing with us this incredible opportunity. So if people want to learn more, you want to hop on, you're ready to start your adventure. You don't want to wait until 2019 to begin your resolutions. You want to get this going now, all of this. The mentorship programs I'm going to be doing monthly Ayurveda calls, how to use these oils. With your dosha. I've created an incredible ebook full of over 50 pages of material on how to balance your doshas, different digestive issues, hormonal issues using these incredible oils. And they have incredible blends too that work for everything. Tons of emotional reasons as well, like forgiveness, console, passion. So let's say I'm trying to get passion. I put some passion oil. So pretty much you're introducing these incredible oils into your life. Not just the oils, they have skincare products, home care products, self care products, everything and more. You're introducing them into your life. You're up leveling your life. You're helping these people in these developing countries and you are getting free monthly calls from me, monthly call from Melissa, monthly call from Nick. So many other leaders that we are so excited to share with you. Dr. Jess, who is just on the podcast, Krista from Almost 30 who's been on the podcast, Tara Mackey, Cassandra Bonsack, Alison Charles, like literally this whole podcast is part of, if you listen to any, they're all part of it. And, and they're all like my closest friends who were so excited. We're all going to be offering our own unique magic to you. There is an incredible Facebook community, boxer community. This is all Free. There is no additional charge for this, literally. For starting your adventure with these oils, getting your kit, we recommend the Home Essentials kit. That gives you a really good kind of understanding of how to use all of the different oils, especially coming into this, if you want this to be your business. If you're going to be doing women's circles, I know Melissa leads a lot of women's circles or just, just going to maybe different offices and saying, hey, maybe you guys should have more oils or your friends, family, whoever it is, the home Essential oils kit is a really good place to start. Any kit will allow you to essentially join our team. And all of the instructions and more is on my website, iamsaharose.com freedom again, I am sahararose.com freedom and we are so excited to have you join us. So thank you, Nick and Melissa for your wisdom, for your honesty and for really sharing things that most people do. Not so much value you guys are putting out there and I really honor both of you so much.

Likewise, sister.

Yeah, likewise. We honor you too.

Well, I can't wait to have you guys and be part of this incredible team with Nick, Melissa and I and see you guys on the path to freedom. Namaste. It is so valuable to have people really sharing their business and life secrets with us like, like that. It's something that you don't come across every day and something that I really value here on the Highest Self podcast, which is why I bring you the people who are my true friends in real life. I mean, everyone who's on Highest Self podcast is actually my real life friend. I don't accept people who just email me and want to be on the show. So you know that you are getting the people that are closest to me that are like my true ride or dies delivering you this information. People that I would trust everything with because these are the people who I trust you guys with because you guys are my soul fam. You guys are my tribe. And I only want you to learn from people that I would want to learn from, not randoms on the Internet. So I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you feel inspired to volunteer, to travel, to start your own business, to finally be that entrepreneur you know that you were meant to be and set up those systems in place so you don't become burnt out, you don't become become spent and overburdened with all of the things to do and know that you can just take it one step at a time and create different elements and facets of your life to really allow you to dance between the doing and the being and create that white space, but also really create action, the beautiful yin and the yang energy. So if you'd like to join our team to have monthly mentorship calls from me, from nick, from Melissa, doctor, Dr. Jess, all these incredible souls, please head over to iamsaharrose.com freedom all of the information is there, the instructions are there. If you have any questions, you can shoot me an email@freedomtfeelfresh.com and I would be more than happy to assist you on this journey. And I'm so looking forward to getting to know you better. Really, the path to Freedom community is such an tribe and to just be a part of your journey to having freedom in all areas of your life. So thank you so much for listening and I look forward to getting to know you. Namaste.

Sam.