So What Do You Do?

by Kay Rice | Jul 3, 2017 | Coffee With Kay

So What Do YOU Do? Vol. 2

Discovering the GENIUS Next Door with One Simple Question

This book features wisdom and inspiration from NEW YORK TIMES Best Selling Author Joel Comm, and 40 other contributors, including me! I contributed a chapter entitled, “Learning to Live from the Heart” which is an abbreviated version of a chapter in a book I am working on now. See me at the right with Joel Comm and David Hancock, owner of Morgan James Publishing. My journey is a story about learning to live from the heart. If you would like to learn what it is to truly use the power of intention to dream the life you want into existence, then my story may interest you. My journey has taken me from health & fitness to learning key success principles used by the very successful, to learning mind-body-spirit principles and techniques, to traveling to South America to live while learning the spiritual and healing traditions of the Andes. I’ve been blessed to have many gifted teachers along my journey such as Deepak Chopra and David Simon at the Chopra Center, Jack Canfield, as well as the humble healers and shaman I met while traveling in Peru and Bolivia. I’ll share my chapter here, and you may download it in pdf form if you wish.

Learning to Live From the Heart

My trip to Peru in 2012 took on a life of its own. It started before I left the United States; situations, circumstances and opportunities indicated that a force was at work directing my life. Having learned it is best not to argue with the Universe, I stood back and watched as my life unfolded. I was a home manager and the house had sold and the company didn’t have a new one yet—so all my belongings went into storage. The new contract I had been working to close fell through—it was something I could have worked on ‘virtually’ while traveling. When my computer crashed the week before I left, I was grateful. Why? Because I had time to have it repaired before I left and it was running better than ever. Then it crashed again the day after I arrived in the Sacred Valley of Peru. Apparently the Universe had decided I needed to focus on my journey rather than the Internet and my electronics.

I received an invitation to go to Machu Picchu before I left the U.S. I didn’t have to plan a thing. The guide, the hotel, and all the travel arrangements were made for me. All I had to do was say “yes”. Imagine, a trip to Machu Picchu planned without having to even think about it! I would see Machu Picchu only eight days after arriving in Peru. I could go ahead and mark Machu Picchu of my bucket list!

Lake Titicaca was also on my bucket list. It is located in the southernmost part of Peru and northern Bolivia. I knew very little Spanish, so it would be difficult for me to go there alone. One day I was told three times that I should go to Lake Titicaca, specifically6 to the Isla del Sol, or Island of the Sun, on the Bolivian side. At the end of the day, a woman named Donna approached me and said she would be taking a group to Lake Titicaca in a few weeks. After her group left, she would travel into Bolivia and go to the Island of the Sun. She said she had received a very strong message to invite me to come with her. And so it was!

I joined her group on the last few days of their tour and traveled to Puno with them. From there, Donna and I crossed the border into Bolivia. We had been given the name of a man named Rojer, and Aymara Shaman who lived on the remote side of the Island of the Sun. We were to take a ferry from the peninsula of Copacabana to Cha’lla to meet Rojer, who spoke no English. We were dependent on Donna’s Spanish for direction. Earlier in the day Donna had commented that she wanted to improve her Spanish so instead of merely thinking she understood what people were saying, she wanted to be sure she really understood. However, as a result of some miscommunication, we missed the commercial ferry to the island and had to charter our own boat to our destination, Cha’lla. We did not know there is a Cha’lla 1 and a Cha’lla 2.

When we arrived at the Cha’lla, our boatman quickly unloaded our luggage onto the dock and sped away. Rojer was nowhere in sight. There are no motorized vehicles on the Island of the Sun, and the terrain is steep and rocky. We had no way to contact Rojer, no way off the island, and it appeared we had been dropped off in the middle of nowhere.

In the distance some children were tending animals. A boy approached us. Donna explained we were looking for Rojer. He replied, “Si, si, conozco a Rojer,”—Yes, I know Rojer—as he pointed in the direction of the steep rocky terrain in the distance. He told us that Rojer lived in a yellow house on the other side of that mountain, at Cha’lla 2; we had been dropped off at Cha’lla 1.

Clearly, we had a problem. Not only was it a significant distance and a steep climb, but we also had to carry our luggage. It seemed unlikely we could make it over the mountain hauling our belongings so Donna asked the young man if he had friends who we could pay to carry our luggage. He said no and then quickly made his exit. Clearly he was not interested in taking on our problem. Donna and I took off in the direction he had indicated, across the field. Soon, another boy tending animals ran up to us wanting to know where we were going. Clearly it was highly unusual to see two gringo women where we were. Donna explained to him our dilemma and that we had come to see Rojer who was over the mountain. The boy told us that we were headed in the direction of a stream and we would not be able to cross; he pointed us in a different direction telling us we would find a path there that would take us over the mountain. Donna asked him if he would be willing to run over the mountain and tell Rojer we had arrived so he could come help us with our luggage. The boy told us, “No, I must stay here and watch my animals.”

We had two weeks of luggage we were hauling on foot. We were at a very high altitude, about 14,000 feet) which made our trek much more physically challenging. We had no food, no water and no shelter. As soon as the sun set, the temperature would plummet, and it was already mid-afternoon. We were in a potentially dangerous situation if we didn’t get over the mountain and find Rojer before dak. I didn’t know whether to be amused or annoyed that Donna kept stopping to ask people to help us. It was obvious to me that we were responsible for ourselves and our luggage and no one seemed interested in taking on our problem. We didn’t have much time before the sun would set. Donna grumbled along the way, asking herself why she had brought all of these belongings and considered leaving them on the path. Even so, she is still smiling here in this photo!  We were both exhausted when we reached the courtyard at the top of the mountain. Here’s the view of where we had to travel from after we reached the top of the mountain: 

As we headed down the other side of the rocky path, we found Rojer on the path waiting for us.He led us to the hostel right on the beach were we would stay for the next several days. Our hosts, Victoria and Francisco, served us one of the most delicious meals I had yet eaten in South America. Delicious fish, roasted vegetables, potatoes and tea! As we finished our meal I could hear the waves lapping on the shore.

After our dinner, Rojer escorted us to our room, and he performed an opening ceremony for our time together. We breathed our intentions into coca leaves and placed them around our room to create sacred space. Rojer cleared our personal energy fields using a feather from a great condor. We heard the feather move through the air as if the great bird were flying in the room. When he finished, he stood in front of me for a moment and exclaimed, “You are a butterfly!” Then he looked at Donna and asked, “Don’t you see that she is a butterfly?” Then looking more serious, he told me, “There are many great teachers around you. They have been there for a long time. Osho, Gandhi, Carl Jung, James Campbell, and many others.” Then his face dropped and he looked sad as he told me, “but you are blocked.”

As Rojer left, he told us he would be back for us in a few hours.  We should be prepared to leave well before daylight in the morning. We would hike further up the rocky terrain and arrive at our next destination well before sunrise. There he told us we would perform a ceremony. It would be very cold, but he promised to build “un fuego”—a fire—for us when we arrived.

The next morning when we arrived at our destination, Rojer opened sacred space for us to perform our ceremony. He called in all four directions and called on the elements, all the Apus (mountain guardians) and prayed for all the countries and peoples of the earth. He honored our ancestors, mother earth and father sky. He beat his drum, chanted and conducted ceremony for more than an hour as the sun rose. Finally, we stood with our eyes closed on the rocky cliff overlooking Lake Titiacaca in the direction of the newly risen sun. Afterward, Rojer asked each of what we had seen. I described an image that I did not know until later is a symbol of the eye of the condor. He looked pleased.

After our ceremony Rojer explained the four spiritual gateways on the Isla del Sol. We passed through the first gateway by boat. We passed through the second gateway when we were dropped off at the wrong Cha’lla and had to climb the mountain. (Maybe that wasn’t an accident after all). Today we were at the location of the third gateway, where we accepted the spiritual path. He warned, “Not everyone who accepts the spiritual path will fly! So where are your feathers?” “Where are your feathers?” he asked again as he indicated his own feathers. He further explained that if we were to fly that our first feathers would come to us; we would either find them in nature or we would be gifted them by someone else on the spiritual path;l our feathers could not be purchased.

As we stood to leave, Rojer looked at me and said, “Your block is in your head. You do not need to read any more books.” (How did he know that I read a lot?) He said, “I know Osho, I know Carl Jung and Gandhi; I know many great teachers. I have never read their books. Stop using your head so much; instead you must learn to use your heart to think.”

I found my feathers. Several weeks later as I was trudging down a dusty dirt road in Peru wondering if I would find my feathers and asking, “Where are my feathers?” I looked down and there they were. They were hummingbird feathers. Now I have many more feathers, some of which I found in nature one special one that was gifted to me. Not only did I find my feathers, I also discovered the magic and flow when you learn to live from the heart rather than the head.

Think Like A Self Made Millionaire

by Kay Rice | Jul 2, 2017 | Coffee With Kay

Think Like a Self-Made Millionaire

STEWART H. WELCH, III WITH KAY RICE

10 Secrets to Success

“Everyone has the power to transform themselves and create extraordinary levels of success.”

In THINK Like a Self-Made Millionaire: 10 Secrets to Success, learn the success secrets of virtually all self-made millionaires. You’ll pick up proven strategies and action steps to help you achieve sustainable financial freedom, peace of mind, and life success! Through the Get Rich on Purpose® series, America’s Financial Advisor, Stewart H. Welch III, shares the financial expertise and wealth “secrets” he learned while going from an average twenty-something to self-made millionaire before the age of forty.

You may wonder how I managed to get my name on the front cover of this book with one of the top and most sought after financial advisors in the country,right? Well, as you may imagine there is a story behind that, and a few lessons. Stewart’s firm, The Welch Group, LLC is one of the top “Fee for Service” financial advisory firms in the country, managing over a billion dollars in assets for their clients. He’s appeared weekly on Fox News in a segment called “Money Tuesday” for years, and writes a weekly column in the Birmingham News, one of the top circulated papers in the South East. I happened to meet him at an event we both attended. I never imagined at the time that meeting would turn into a long-term friendship and I would end up with my name on the front of a book with him!

I was in search of excellence. I wanted to know what sets really successful people who achieve great things in life apart from those set goals and never seem to attain them. For example, how many people do you know who have been “trying” to lose weight for years, but don’t? Or those who want to achieve financial freedom but are struggling week to week just to make ends meet. While I was reading books and studying the strategies and beginning to implement them in my own life, Stewart had already mastered these strategies and had a tremendous amount of success under his belt. He and I agreed that regardless of whether you want to become financially free, or become a multi-millionaire, or lose 100 pounds and have a fit and toned body, the success strategies are the same. The rest is getting the right information and techniques that apply to your particular goal.

This book applies those success strategies to the area of finance. In a second project we worked on together, The Ultimate Fitness Quest, Stewart challenged himself to see what he could achieve in the area of his health and fitness using these same success strategies. And you know what?? It worked! On that project, not only did I get to handle the logistics on the back end, but I was also on his panel of experts as his Nutrition Coach and provided him with the program he used to lose 17 pounds of body fat and significantly improve his body composition all within 40 days. I hosted a second UFQ Challenge for him in 2016 and we allowed others to participate and follow along.

Turning Dreams into Reality

Here’s an excerpt from the book on turning your dreams into reality: Few of us take the time to stop and take stock of our lives, but if you take a moment to reflect, you will find that you, in fact, accomplished quite a lot in the past year. But did you achieve your full potential? It’s likely that your full potential is much greater than even you recognize. For each of us, our destiny is to have an extraordinary life. Yet it is up to us to claim it. I challenge you to commit to break the chains that are keeping you from achieving your true potential.

Achieving extraordinary results rarely happens by accident. First you have to decide exactly what it is you want, then believe that it is possible, develop a plan of action, and finally commit 100 percent to getting the results you intended. It’s also important to acknowledge that success is rarely a sprint, but rather a marathon. In my experience, many people are good ‘starters’ but few are good ‘finishers’. Use the following process to help you turn your biggest dreams into reality:

Develop your dream list. Start with blank paper and write down everything you would do, own, buy and accomplish if there were absolutely no barriers to your success. List everything you can imagine. This is where you want to think big and have some fun. Create a “Vision” of your future. What would you be willing to totally commit to accomplishing?

From your dream list, choose one or two things you feel the strongest passion about and write them down on a separate piece of paper. The greater the detail, the better. Develop and Action Plan. Between where you are now and the achievement of your vision, you’ll find a number of ‘Critical Success Factors’. These are the critical things that you must do to create success. List as many as you can think of along with supporting ‘actions’. Include target timelines for each critical success factor.

Commit 100 percent! Commitment is evidenced by daily focus. I believe that whatever you constantly focus on will come to pass. It is this constant focus that is the engine for achieving greatness. Each day you should include a minimum of three action activities that move you closer to the realization of your vision. You can have the life of your dreams if you’ll accept the responsibility for making your dreams a reality.

You might like to know what those 10 Success Secrets are, right? Okay, I’ll share them with you right here!

1. The Secret of Decision. “The indispensable first step to getting what you want out of life is this: Decide what you want.” —Ben Stein
2. The Secret of Clarity. “If one advances in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him—and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings.” —Henry David Thoreau
3. The Secret of Belief. “Whether you think you can or you can’t…you’re right.” —Henry Ford
4. The Secret of Decisive Action. “Stop thinking, start doing—it will give you power!” —Stewart Welch, III
5. The Secret of Wisdom
6. The Secret of Attitude. “Life is an attitude. You can either allow circumstances and events to disable you or empower you. The coice is yours. So, how is your life? A bad attitude invariably defeats the Universal Law of Attraction.” —Stewart H Welch, III
7.  The Secret of Focus. “It is easy to dodge our responsibilities but we cannot dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities.” —Sir Josiah Stamp
8. The Secret of Leverage. “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.” —Archimedes
9. The Secret of Team. “I figured out that life in general is a team effort; it’s a team game.” —Joe Namath
10. The Secret of Giving Back. In helping others, we shall help ourselves, for whatever good we give out completes the circle and comes back to us.” —Flora Edwards

Think Like a Self-Made Millionaire is available at your favorite book retail store.

To purchase Think Like A Self-Made Millionaire  & other books by Stewart on Amazon, just click on the images below:

Kay’s Books

by Kay Rice | Jul 15, 2016 | Coffee With Kay

What I’ve been up to—Kay’s books & book projects.

For the past two years I’ve been working on my writing and publishing skills. My intention was to learn what I needed to do to get my own books and content published. However, I ended up working on multiple book projects in a variety of capacities. I am either an author or have been acknowledged in some way for my contribution to each of the books below. I either wrote content, helped with the publication process, the launch or the marketing for each of the following books, and I must tell you that not only have I learned a lot, it has been really, really fun!

Your Holiday Feast by Kay Rice, M.Ed.

Your Holiday Feast is a holiday cookbook & planning guide which is full of my family recipes and tips that I used for decades while hosting our annual Thanksgiving Family Reunion. Guests arrived early in the week and stayed until the weekend. It is so nice to have all of our family recipes in one place, and it has been fun to share. ELEGANT & EASY HOLIDAY ENTERTAINING Whether you are entertaining during the holiday for the first time or whether you are seasoned holiday host or hostess, Your Holiday Feast cookbook and planning guide was created for you. If you have never made a traditional Holiday Dinner, this book has all the information you will need in one place: –Traditional recipes & family favorites –Organizational tips –Suggestions for making things ahead of time –Shopping and planning lists –Tips for making everyone feel welcome and at home You will learn how easy it is to make your holiday entertaining stress free, elegant, and a time for everyone to look forward to and remember long after the event. Whether you are hosting a small gathering or a large crowd, you can consider Your Holiday Feast your holiday entertaining blueprint! You will find suggestions to make your holiday a time to enjoy family and food, and will create memories and traditions that will last for years to come. Have your guests raving about how delicious everything is and be amazed at how easy you make it look. It is all in the planning and preparation, and of course, the delicious recipes!

So, What Do You Do? Vol 2 by Joel Comm, Kay Rice and others …

Next, I contributed a chapter to New York Time’s best selling author, Joel Comm’s book, So What Do You Do, Vol 2. Every person has been created by God with a set of unique passions, talents, skills, abilities, personality and presence which makes them completely unique from anyone who has ever, or will ever, live. When you are doing what you were made to do, you have the opportunity to positively impact the people and world around you.Unlike many books which highlight the “gurus”, “So What Do You Do? Discovering the Genius Next Door with One Simple Question” puts the spotlight on the unsung heroes; the everyday person; your neighbor; each of which has a special expertise which is demonstrated in their vocation or hobby.

From exceptional parenting and exciting adventure travel to growing a thriving business and dealing with issues of personal growth, “So What Do YOU Do?” will take you to new places and inspire you to share your genius with the world.

THINK Like A Self-Made Millionaire by Stewart H. Welch & Kay Rice (contributor)

Think Like A Self-Made Millionaire by Stewart H. Welch, III & Kay Rice (contributor) I helped with this one so much that I received a beautiful acknowledgement from Stewart and my name is on the cover! Not only that, it is the first of a series of books called Get Rich On Purpose® to help people learn about Financial Literacy and how to achieve Financial Freedom. I also was given the opportunity to update the GetRichOnPurpose.com website. In THINK Like a Self-Made Millionaire: 10 Secrets to Success, learn the success secrets of virtually all self-made millionaires. You’ll pick up proven strategies and action steps to help you achieve sustainable financial freedom, peace of mind, and life success! Through the Get Rich on Purpose® series, America’s Financial Advisor, Stewart H. Welch III, shares the financial expertise and wealth “secrets” he learned while going from an average twenty-something to self-made millionaire before the age of forty. His message is clear: “Everyone has the power to transform themselves and create extraordinary levels of success.”

Finding Your Best Places by Dan Furst

I met Dan Furst, Astrocartographer and Author of Finding Your Best Places, Using Astrocartography to Navigate your Life, in 2012 when I was traveling in Peru. Dan came to me for advice on how to better use his website and content for reaching more of his clients, and then again to coach him through the self-publishing process. Dan’s book is quite a work of art with all the maps and 4 color process in the interior. I am very proud to have supported him in bringing his work to publication and he generously acknowledged for my help and support. Finding Your Best Places: Using Astrocartography to Navigate Your Life is Dan Furst’s long-awaited first ebook on today’s hottest astrology topic, the exciting new art and science of Astrocartography. This word simply means that we take the same information an astrologer uses to create birth charts and horoscopes – that is, a person’s date, time and place of birth – and we use them to create world maps that are personal and unique, and useful in guiding us to our best destinations for jobs and money, health, family, love relationships, creative and spiritual paths, community, travel destinations, whatever matters most to us. Dan’s Astrocartography readings are amazing! I’ve gotten readings for myself, friends, and synastry readings, too. Right on target and helpful!

Acknowledgement: “For Project management, team coordination, digital publishing guidance and promotional strategies, Kay Rice.” 

R*eVe*olution by Denny Robbins-Scott & others

R*eVe*olution The Return of the Divine Feminine is our Evolution by Denye Robbins Scott Journey through the minds and lives of 40 global women leaders as they share their stories of passion, purpose, love and service in this revolutionary anthology. In R-eVe-olution, The Return of the Divine Feminine, you’ll be inspired, moved, and motivated to transform the YIN energy and divine feminine in your own life. These stories will: • Uplift your spirit and reconnect you to your soul • Energize the divine feminine within • Transform your commitment to service and contribution The Yin is the most highly underestimated energy on our planet, and the awakening of the global heart is emerging. The balance of the masculine and feminine energy in the world is essential now and as each of us is willing to participate in the awakening, we help shift the consciousness all around us. Join us in the stories of R-eVe-olution and let’s celebrate the feminine energy on mother earth together.

“It is with utmost respect and gratitude that I want to thank Shareen Ewing, Robert Robbins, Kay Rice, Maryann Brown, Polly Letofsky, Andrea Costantine and Lisa Schultz. Without this team of amazing and powerful beings, this project would not have happened.” Denye Robbins Scott

Plan Ahead by Babs Hart

The author of Plan Ahead, Babs Hart, wrote and self-published a few years ago. It needed updating and she wanted it to be re-published. She she furnished me with the old manuscript and I published it for her through Create Space. She has been in the insurance industry all of her life, and not only does she have her personal clients, but she also speaks at National Conventions, and this book provides valuable information about Long Term Care insurance. While we were updating things, she also had me update her website and convert it to a WordPress site so that she and her assistant could update and add content to it more easily.