I MET A BOY!!

March 13th – It does not take me long does it!! Day 2 baby!!  Day started at 9:00 – I’m on row 3.  Tons of different speakers with so much content, I am transfixed on the knowledge I am receiving.  Toward the end of the day, Susan and I duck out and go sit on a sofa in the lobby.  This guy comes over and asks can he join us. I am brain dead at this point so I really didn’t notice him, but of course we say yes.  We start talking – the obligatory “what do you do” question.  Susan and I give our spiel and he (I won’t give his name to protect the innocent. I’ll call him “Euro” as he had a very European style with his dress that was sexy.) has a site that is in a niche that I would have never thought of.  Once you hear it, it is super obvious, however, you would never imagine that there is a market for it.  Turns out there is and he is VERY successful.  Hmmmm…my interest is piqued lol.  He is actually really cute, however, it doesn’t seem like he is interested in me too much, so I don’t “turn on the charm” like I usually would.  We all ended up talking for a bit more and then it was time to go back into the conference.  Later that night as Susan and I were getting ready to go to bed, she mentions that it looked like Euro was really interested in me.  I’m like “HUH??? Seriously?!?”   Tidbit about me:  I am actually totally shy and completely clueless when it comes to knowing if a guy is into me. If I really like someone, I get all quiet and girly and if he does not make a move, then I miss out. Once she said this to me, I replayed the meeting in my head and I realized that he was giving off signals that he was interested.  I decided the next day to make my move as I thought he was really cute.

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Geekiness, Fortune & Romance at the World Internet Summit – I’m in Heaven!!

It’s day one of WIS and I truly cannot believe I’m here.  I only found out about WIS in late December and even though I had no earthly idea as to how I would get here financially or logistically, I made the decision in Dec. that come March, I would be here and HERE I AM!!!  GOD IS GOOD!!  I am supposed to be here!!I start out the morning with a shower, get dressed and then proceed to do my hair.  I decided to go for mega dramatic hair for this trip and got my new weave with 22in long hair.  Just to help you visualize, remember Cher in the 70′s and how long her hair was – yeah, that was 22 inches!!  My hair is down to my big chocolate bootie and it looks good!!  I got Indian Wavy from extensions plus – http://extensions-plus.com – the absolute best place to buy quality hair.  This will last me for years.  Anyway, I plug in my curling iron with my aussie adapter and after 5 minutes, I pick up my iron to curl my hair and I notice the iron is turning black.  Huh???  I took a small piece of hair to curl and within 1/2 seconds, my hair was burning.  DAMN!!! The voltage here in OZ is 220v and my curling iron is only up to 120v.  My curling iron burned the hell up!!  That also means that my flat iron won’t work.  Ain’t this a bitch!!!  My sista-girls will understand the seriousness of this situation – here I am all the way across the damn world in a land where there are NO BLACK PEOPLE, much less any sistas that need a curling iron that gets super hot to make my pretty curls or to straighten this suff when I want to rock the silky straight.  What am I gonna do???  Luckily, I just got this hair put in right before my flight so it was not looking crazy so I was able to fluff it and go and be okay. The rest of the three days when I am counting on “pimping the pretty” and need to rock some fly hair, uh yeah, I have no clue.

Anyway, it’s now about 8:15 and the doors to the conference open at 9:00am.  I plan on being front and center as my golden strategy that I employ at every conference/seminar I attend is to be sitting within the first 2-4 rows on an end seat so that when they call for questions, I get to stand up, front and center in front of the entire room of usually 500+ people, take the microphone and say something incredibly profound. I do this early & fairly often in the conference so that the whole room gets to see me, hear me & make the decision that they want to get to know me. (Golden tip #1 – if they call for someone to go up onstage – get your ass up out of your seat and be the first one up!!} It saves me the stress of having to introduce myself to people as they now come to me. As I am almost always the ONLY BLACK WOMAN IN THE ROOM or the only one that is halfway “Diva-Delicious” looking, I always have a beeline of men that will buzz around trying to get my attention throughout the weekend and I get to pick and choose who I want to be with like a Queen Bee.

Ladies, pay CLOSE attention to what I am about to tell you as I am about to drop some SERIOUS man-getting knowledge on you that I need to be getting paid for. Fellas, I am going waaaaaaay off topic here, so you can tune out.  As I mentioned in my “about me” page, one of my 3 objectives in traveling is to meet lots of hot, sexy men.  For those of you that do not know me, this also typically means WEALTHY men – should be a given, but some of you are not informed.  My girlfriends are always asking me where in the world do I meet all of the p-a-i-d men that I date.  Aside from my own neighborhood – hello, why do you think I deliberatly chose to live in Beverly Hills when I moved to LA – I also go to a ton of conferences/seminars every year that attract wealthy people.  I really hope ya’ll are taking notes here!!!  You have to go to real estate, internet marketing, self-development, professional organizations, Success, wealth protection, wealth creation events/seminars.  These are all topics that are of interest to me and that I actually implement in my life.  You can’t just show up not knowing anything about the topic.  You have to have a true interest as there is a huge time & financial investment in attending these events. Every one I attend (and I attend at least 5 a year), I spend anywhere from $3,000-$15,000  on each one with airfare, lodging, food and educational materials if I choose to buy courses. I am serious about investing in myself professionally, personally and educationally but I reap the rewards too. You have to be able to talk the talk and and know enough to know who the TRUE PLAYERS are.  You do not want to get stuck talking to a bunch of newbies or broke people trying to learn the “secret” to becoming rich.  Hell, you can stay home for that!!  LOL.  Do your homework ahead of time to know who is speaking and what type of people follow them. You need to be able to speak intelligently, not be shy, go talk to everyone. When you meet someone that you have an interest in, you need to be ready:  {GOLDEN TIP #2 – Have business cards made up – but not your typical business card.  Go to vistaprint.com… and get 250 cards for free.  I would actually suggest you upgrade to the next level card with the glossy finish.  You want to put your photo on the card (assuming you are pretty of course, otherwise, I really can’t help you), your full name, email and phone number. Instead of some bullshit company name and title that suckers put on their cards, simply put “Entrepreneur”. This will accomplish 3 things: 1. he’ll remember you when he pulls out your card later and there is your beautiful face looking back at him 2. he will know how to contact you and 3. he’ll be intrigued by the mystique of the “Entrepreneur” title to want to get to know you better.  You better make sure you can back that sh*t up though and really have something going on.}  Google Brian Tracy, Dan Kennedy, Jack Canfield, Armand Morin, Jeff Johnson,  Mark Victor Hansen, John Childers..etc to get a clue as to what I am talking about re: the types of events you should go to.)  Do enough homework so that you can talk about strategies briefly and ask the guy to talk about what he does.  Ladies, you know that the only voice a man wants to hear is his own  so use this to your advantage.  Listen intently to every word he says as if he is dropping gold bombs.  Nod, smile, throw in some “uh-huh’s” , ask a few questions, keep eye contact so he thinks you are really listening.  Meanwhile, you are listening trying to find out a way to connect later for drinks/dinner or lunch if it is early in the day – but only after you have determined if you are interested.  Is he totally hot and you just want a kissing buddy, is he super smart and you really want to learn from him and see if you can do some work together, is this someone you can mastermind with, will this be a lifelong friend or is he super-paid and you think you may have a winner? Either way, this stuff works!! {Golden tip #3 – if you are one of my girls that will not date interracially, then you can completely ignore my advice above as it only works with men that actually want to date a Black Woman}.
Okay, so back to WIS…the first day was intros and lots of newbie info. I spent the day memorizing the agenda, familiariazing myself with the speakers and determining which ones I truly wanted to connect with and when would they be speaking.  Also spent time with my friend David. I met David at the Armand Morin conference in Phoenix the weekend of Dec 3-5 2008.  He was in the states from Australia with his family on holiday and he introduced himself to me during one of the breaks.  We ended up connecting and I met more of the people he met and at the end of the day, we had a group of about 10 that wanted to continue communicating so we created a mastermind group.  We would talk weekly on Sundays about what we internet marketing projects we were working, giving each other advice, encouragement, etc…  During one of our first calls, we were stating our goals for 2009 and I told about my intention to be in Australia in March for WIS, even though I had no idea how it would happen.  As it so happens, David lives on the Gold Coast where WIS was being held (conincidence huh?  Thank you God for that one) and he invited me to stay at his house with he and his family while I was in town after the conference ended.  I was so grateful for that!!  David and I and his friends spent a ton of time together at this conference.  Also, during the conference, I put in a request for a roommate as I did not want to pay $400 a night myself.  I ended up (again by coincidence, Thank you God again) with a woman named Susan from Sydney. She is an amazing person that became a really good friend to me.   The rest of the day was spent at the conference before heading off to bed for 11 hours of sleep.

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I’m in OZ!!!

It’s now Wednesday March 11th, 2 days after I left LA I finally arrive at my hotel in the Gold Coast for the World Internet Summit – WIS – that starts tomorrow. I’ve been traveling for over 24 hours, my bags are heavy as f*ck and I am dehydrated and starving.  I literally barely know my name at this point as I am checking in.  The hotel is really nice.  It’s a highrise and is one block from the beach.

I guess I should take a second and explain what the World Internet Summit is and why I felt the need to fly around the world to attend an internet conference.  The WIS is one of the premier internet conferences in the world.  This one that I attended was the 37th one in 4 years.  It attracts the cream-of-the-crop of successful people in the internet marketing world and unlike most seminars , internet marketing or otherwise, you actually walk away with content you can use to become successful if you take action and apply what you learn.  Of course, the speakers are selling their courses, mentoring, training, etc…  this is a business after all, but you can, as I did, walk away without spending a dime and have tons of content to work with.  For those of you that may not know, I do internet marketing.  That is how I made money in my final months in the states and how I plan on making tons of money now that I am in Australia.  Internet marketing is a fairly new thing here in Australia and it is my goal to connect with and mentor/JV with marketers that are not as well known as folks are in the states.

Also, the whole point of going to conferences is to make connections and it is my very clear intention to connect with certain key speakers (some from the states) one-on-one.  As we are all the way in OZ, that would be much easier to do than if we were in the states where everyone knows who they are and will be mobbing them from day one.  Successful internet marketers are basically rockstars in the net marketing world.  It’s pretty funny is the geekiest way possible.

So, I get checked in and it is raining cats and dogs. Great, I thought I came to the Sunshine Coast. WTF?!?! I ended up getting a very $$ and not so great burger, fries and beer before heading up to take a nap for a couple of hours.  I know they say to not sleep when you have jet lag, but I had 4 days of 20 hours days coming up and I was going to sleep.  I ended up sleeping for about 5 hours till 10pm.  Woke up and unpacked & watched tv till 1:30am and then headed to bed.  G’Nite.

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I’m Leaving on a Jet Airplane…

3/9/08 – Today is the day that I leave LA. I’m flying to The Gold Coast to attend the World Internet Summit from 3/12 – 3/15. I get to fly Virgin Australia, the newly launched arm of Virgin airlines flying to OZ from LA.  They have all new planes and really cool features – lots of legroom in coach, individual entertainment centers with each seat that has tons of movies, tv shows, games etc… One feature I found interesting was the ability to instant message another passenger. I think the premise is that if you met someone that was cute, you could IM them and flirt. Of course, there were no hotties on my flight for me to try this out with.

I have of course overpacked.  I made the decision to only bring one bag and one carryon and of course my computer.  I met that goal, but my one bag weighs about 70lbs!!!!  And this was after unpacking 6 times and leaving items out.  How do you pack for an indefinte trip when you are a girl and you need your beauty stuff (15lbs worth), clothes for meeting sexy guys, clothes for everyday, workout clothes, shoes for all occasions and random stuff???

The flight over was uneventful. I am blessed with the ability to be able to sleep like a baby on airplanes.  We took off around 11:00pm and were scheduled to arrive in Sydney 15 hours later.  I then had to catch another flight that went to Brisbane.  Upon arrival in Brisbane, I had to then catch the train for an hour and a half trip down the coast to The Gold Coast where the conference.  All together, 24 hours of straight travel!!  Glad I brought plenty of books.

I wasn’t sure how I would feel once I took off.  For this entire whirlwind month of getting ready for this moment, I have been incredibly calm. Odd considering I have given up my life for the unknown.  I feel incredibly, overwhelmingly blessed in this moment and I spend a lot of time during the first hour or so reflecting on the events of the past several weeks and praying and giving thanks. I feel so at peace.

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WHY IN THE WORLD DID SHEILA LEAVING EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE SHE KNOWS TO GO TRAVELING ALL OVER THE WORLD?

Hi everyone.  Welcome to my travel/life blog.  I appreciate you stopping by and I hope you enjoy enough of what you see and read to keep coming back and also tell your friends about it. I guess I should start with some background of what led me to this point. This will be a long post as I tend to be detailed. The rest of my posts will not be this long, so bear with me.

[I am typing this entry on 4/20/09 as my blog was just created. I'm bring you up to speed with subsequent posts, starting with this one]

The week of February 9th, 2009 when I began to inform my friends and family that I had made the decison to give up my beautiful apartment in Beverly Hills that I had lived in for 9 years, sell almost all my posessions (yes ya’ll even the Gucci’s & Louis Vuittons – but not my Gucci luggage – I ain’t that crazy, LOL) and go to Australia to begin my latest travel adventures, everyone thought I was crazy.  Sure, they were used to me being a Travel Diva because since 2005, I had already been blessed to be able to be on holiday and travel extensively for 6 months out of the year for the past 3 yrs.  I was always jetting off to Europe – spent 90 days there on vaca in 06 & have been back 4 times since then or going to Mexico or Hawaii or galavanting around the USA for conferences and seminars, but this was different.  I was actually going to sell my stuff, voluntarily become homeless and go way the hell away to Australia?!?!?! WTF…had I lost my mind??  They really would have thought I was crazy if they knew the entire truth…my entire reason for doing this.  The truth of the matter is that my life is a Journey that is led by God. Don’t tune out now. This is not going to become some religious rant.  I am actually HIGHLY Spiritual and not religious. There is a huge difference. I won’t bore you with a ton of detail, but HE wants me to be here in Australia for reasons that have yet to be revealed to me and I have made the decision to FULLY step out on faith and go wherever HE leads me.  HE very clearly communicated this to me on February 2, 2009 when HE instructed me to 1. give up my apartment 2. sell all of my suff and 3. move to Australia. I chose to obey and I can honestly say that it has been the best decision of my life!  Everything that I have needed for this trip has been provided – I went from having very little money (as I had spent most of it in 2008 with the 13 vacations/trips I took), no real “plan” as to what I was going to do in Australia or why I was even supposed to be here. I didn’t know a single person in Australia except for a couple of random people I have met in my travels, no idea where I would be living, no idea how I would be received as a Black Woman, no idea how I was going to afford to buy my ticket, no idea how I was going to sustain myself financially, etc…  The only thing I did know for a fact was that I absolutely would NOT be getting any type of j-o-b during my travels. I gave up working a j-o-b forever on May 21st, 2008.  It’s called being “on holiday” for a reason.  So armed with all of this, I have sat back and let Him work out the how and everything has miraculously worked out beyond my wildest dreams. My only job is to say “YES” & TAKE ACTION on the directions I am given daily!!  I’m currently living here in Sydney, stress free & CHILLING!!! I have a bit of money in the bank so that I can fully focus on making  lots and lots more which will come in the coming months. I have tons of new friends and new family and it has all just begun. You gotta have FAITH & CHOOSE IN. It’s really as simple as that.  Stay tuned and join me on this journey.  Can’t wait to see how it unfolds.

p.s I truly want to thank all of my friends/family in CA & MO & TX that were my Angels as I prepared to leave: Barbara, Anne, Esther, Giles, Roz, everyone who purchased any of my possessions, My Big Daddy, Sylvia, Tracy, Christa, Linessa and everyone who prayed with me and for me and gave me such an amazing level of support, encouragement and well wishes.  I also want to thank my new friends on Facebook – people that haven’t met me yet but are supporting me every step of this journey.  I could not do this if I didn’t know that so many people love and care about me and are holding me safe in their prayers.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart!!!

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