Your playing small doesn't Serve the World!!

 I've been getting a lot of questions lately about what it is that I'm doing.  It's crazy how much life can change in 1 year.  Especially when you're not looking for change! I figured the best way to explain it would be to write up my/our experience with Strongbrook.  It's kind of lengthy, but I wanted to get every detail in to explain how we are where we are!
     August of 2013, we were invited by my Aunt Marlene Matheson to come and check out something new they were involved with and excited about. We had spoken previously about it before, and had discussed the fact that we were now renting our first home, and that they now had rentals.  I was interested in what they were doing with their rentals, so I did want to go.  Well, my dad and brother had gone to a previous meeting, and gotten a book, so before the meeting I read the book and was ready for my questions to be answered!  After the meeting, we had a few additional questions, and were able to meet with the president of the company, Kris Krohn.  The company promised a 5-10 year game plan, where they can replace your income in that time through investing in real estate.  We had known that we wanted real estate as part of our retirement, hence the reason why we were renting our first home.  However, Matt travels so much with work, and with 4 young girls I knew that being a landlord wasn't a great option for us.  So Kris showed us some of our options for our game plan, which was really exciting.  We were able to see what we could do now, to be where we want to be sooner than we thought.  It helps me to know that when he's out of town that this is not the end all, that we are working on other options so he won't have to miss our kids growing up.  We signed up to work with Strongbrook, and from there met our 'coach' Rodney.  We then met with Rodney a few times, got our financials in place, then had to wait for Matt's job and some commission money to come in before we could purchase our first home.   
    At that first meeting that we went to, they did a drawing for an entry into the 'Conscious Creator Live' 3 day course.  Matt won!  We had never heard about it, and all anyone said about it that night was how amazing it was and how it would change his life!  We figured he had better go! :)  It was happening that weekend, and conveniently Matt had already taken work off to do a little 'Staycation' with our family.  We decided that it would be a good thing for him to go, and he loved it.  He came home each night so motivated and literally 'high on life'!  It was hard to watch him learn so much and be so uplifted, and changing.  We decided that the next time they put it on, we would do it together, or I would do it so we both could learn and go through what he was doing.  
    When we first met with Kris, he mentioned that they were really excited about a new part of the company called Strongbrook Direct.  They had recently realized that the majority of their clients were referrals, and friends/family of those already doing business with them.  We weren't really interested in that part initially, primarily because we did not want to feel like we were hitting up our friends and family to make money off them.  So we told him we weren't interested in that part, and no problem.  Well, we went home and Matt did end up telling a few friends about it, and they were actually interested.  We got a few 'thank you' checks from Strongbrook.  But the thing that was exciting was the fact that we had introduced someone that we cared about to a company that provided them with a solution, the same as for us!  The more we learn about it, and the more we see, this is a company that can literally change someone's life.  You can go from a space of not having many options for retirement and the future, to having many options.  Many people that we know have wanted to get involved with real estate, just like us and haven't known how. We now don't feel like we're hitting up our friends and family, but simply sharing a company and opportunity that has blessed our lives, and we're excited about.  
  In November, we held our official "Grand Opening" meeting, and lots of friends and family members came.  Thank you if you did!!  We saw it become a solution for a few more of our friends and family, and this made us feel even better about it.  In December, we got a call from my cousin McKay Matheson, who had initially found the company.  He said that he had been doing some one-on-one mentoring with the president, Kris Krohn and it had changed his and his wife's mindset and lives immensely.  They were opening up another mentoring session, and wanted to know if we were interested.  This brought many nights of discussion, and pondering, and prayer.  It was a lot of money to drop on something we didn't know much about.  And we knew it was going to STRETCH us.  But, we were pretty happy and CONTENT where we were.  We had a great relationship, and marriage, we had 4 beautiful girls, and were in a pretty good place.  Well, we felt good about it and decided to go for it.  We had no idea what we were in for!  
     December our mentoring program began, and it was a HUGE sacrifice, but also a HUGE blessing!  We went on Saturday mornings at 8 am, which was a really big sacrifice for me, because I had been running with friends for years every saturday morning.  We had just moved, and this was the only time I saw those friends.  :(  It was SO hard for me to put that off, and know for 6 months I wouldn't be joining them!  And then to find somewhere for the girls to go at that time every week.  BUT, it was an intensely satisfying and growing experience.  Every week we were so glad we made it.  We were pushed to read a new book every other week, we were pushed to come up with a Stretch to become better.  We learned so much about ourselves and each other.  We no longer had time to hang out on the couch and watch Netflix episodes, we had to really work hard to arrange our schedules to work on our stretches.  We had so many amazing conversations and discussions with each other and where we wanted life to be.  We had become so content with life the way it was, that this was kind of like getting to know each other again, in ways we had never done while we were dating.  
     February came along and we both were able to attend the Conscious Creator Live course.  What an experience!  They spend a lot of time in the classroom, learning tools and laws for living consciously.  There were exercises done and questions asked that we've never even thought of.  For example, I had never even had the thought of what would I do with my day if money wasn't an issue?  Well, I would still be a mom, with or without money.  But I've never allowed myself to dream, to dream of what I could do WITH money to help others.  Who I would want to help if money wasn't an issue?  Sure my day to day wouldn't change much, but my goals and dreams would.  Kris's wife Kalenn spoke for just a few minutes the first day, and said something that really hit me.  Essentially, she said that we have a choice, we have a choice to live a nice comfortable life, a good life.  Or we have a choice to live an extraordinary life.  Yes, Matt & I have our trials, and we don't have a perfect life.  But we do have a pretty amazing life.  But why not have an extraordinary life?  The rest of the 3 days of Conscious Creator helped me take an intense look at my life and where I wanted to be and what I wanted to do, and how I wanted to serve.   
     We had our graduation from the mentoring class in June.  As this was ending, he offered another class to us.  A class to move forward, continue mentoring and learn how to facilitate future mentoring classes.  This again was another decision.  Matt knew that he didn't want to continue, merely out of time and other commitments.  However, I really wanted to continue, not only for my learning and growth, but for future possibilities as well.  I know that my job right now is to be the best mother to my girls and to help them grow and become the best women that they can be.  I need to help them find their potential and the knowledge and skills that I've learned and am learning are instrumental in that.  It's impossible to explain all that I've learned, but it includes a personal journey that I'm still on.  I'm so grateful for the experience so far...I have learned so much about myself.  My testimony of my Savior Jesus Christ and my Heavenly Father has grown by leaps and bounds.  I feel like I'm just beginning on becoming the person I want to be, creating the life that I want to live, and serving and helping people do the same.  
    Just two weeks ago, I attended the Conscious Creator Live seminar again, and actually got to participate more as a facilitator.  This was another amazing experience.  I realized that many of my beliefs that held me back in the past, I've turned and I truly don't feel that way anymore.  What a huge blessing!  I saw how much I have truly changed and incorporated the knowledge into my life.  I feel like much that I've learned, I've already known and heard through the gospel.  But this has given me a way to truly apply the principles in my life.  I feel like the 3 day course is like EFY for adults!      
   It's become so much more than just Strongbrook, and the real estate side of it.  Who knew that this was going to come out of a real estate company!  Anyway, if you've read all this way, this is the craziness that we've been up to!  I can easily say that our lives have been changed by being introduced to this company.  The thing that is great, is that you can do just the mentoring/conscious creator side of the company, or you can do both.  We would absolutely love to share our experience and answer any questions you may have!