SOLD: Beautiful Happyzine

You’re sitting on the deck of your mud-brick home enjoying a cup of tea. It’s dusk. You can hear the Tui calling to each other as they bed down for the night. You sigh with happiness, flip open your lap-top and notice that today, while you swam, mulched your garden, and enjoyed your loved ones, you made another thousand dollars. And you did it by providing a much needed service for people just like yourself, who want to make a positive difference in the world. Can you hear the Tui? Can you see the orange sky? Can you imagine what it feels like to earn a good income while you relax and do stuff that feels good? This, my friend, is what’s kno wn as a passive income and if you’d like to learn how to create one for yourself, read on and I’ll tell you all about Business Coach Serena Star Leonard’s goal for the year.

It’s time to leave our warm-deck and the sleepy Tui, and pop over to Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia. Why? Because this is where our heroine – the quick witted and positive thinking Business Coach-come-Radio Presenter-come-Entrepreneur Serena Star Leonard lives. And it’s from here that she will spend the next year setting herself up with a reliable low maintenance income – also known as a ‘passive income’ – totaling $2000 per week. She aims to create this income stream before the 12th December 2010.

She’s already taken her plan beyond that of a mere pipe-dream. She’s found herself two impressively high calibre mentors to advise her through the year, she’s co-created an on-line information package that she intends to sell on-line, en mass; and already her experiences are benefiting people world-wide via a new blog detailing the highs and the not-so-highs of her journey towards financial freedom.

Reality check: millions of us have salivated wishfully over the concept of a passive income. Some of us have even taken a step or two towards making it happen. A smaller group of us have stuck with the idea and given it a good go, before giving up and declaring it to be impossible. And a tiny minority of us have created the holy grail of financial freedom – the ability to earn enough money to live comfortably, in return for very little output. Isn’t that something you only see people on ‘The Secret’ doing?

Just who is Serena Star Leonard and what makes her think she’ll crack ‘the code?’

“I would describe myself as passionate and creative. I like to dream, solve problems, and work out ways to make things happen. I seem to have inherited a mix of my mother’s sense of wonder and possibility and my father’s pragmatism.

“I split my time between business coaching and social media marketing services for clients in New Zealand and Australia. I work with people who are starting or expanding a business. I mainly work with people who are wanting to find ways to create a wicked lifestyle doing what they are passionate about, so I end up getting really excited about peoples businesses, and it is so nice to see the results!

I asked Serena what life experience she has that will help reaching her goal.

“Well… I have plenty of experience in trying things that I have never done before! I am starting to get a good understanding of quite a few of the elements that this project will encompass, so it is just a matter of tying it together and hoping that my intuition is correct!”

Ok, so she’s really going out on a limb here. She’s never done this before, and she’s willing to strive to make it happen in front of us, her audience. That takes courage. I asked her which aspect of the business she expects to challenge her the most?

“Marketing! Marketing is the make or break of any company, and can be tough, especially when you don’t have much of a budget.”

As should anyone with high aspirations, Serena has sought the guidance of two highly experienced business advisers to guide and support her to coast through the myriad of challenges she’s prepared to face.

“My mentors so far are David Potts (Sun Herald) and Luke Harvey-Palmer (Buzzle, Seggr). I chose them both for their expertise in areas that I had little knowledge. I was recommended David through a mutual contact and I saw Luke present at an event. I basically asked for a meeting, proposed the concept and their potential involvement and to my delight they both said yes!”

Given that she’s got courage, some great experience, two brilliant mentors and some serious optimism in her attitudinal banks, where does Serena see herself on December 13th, 2010?

“Hopping on a plane to South America! We are planning to spend six months traveling through South America and then a couple of years in Africa. Lots of travel on the horizon. The goal is to earn $2000 a week, working less than one day a week from anywhere in the world. If things are going really well we could leave earlier and continue the project from overseas!”

Will it really be that simple? Will Serena achieve her goal to set herself up with a passive income that funds a life of travel and adventure? Is it all too good to be true? Too romantic, too idealistic? Or could many more of us be enjoying our ideal lifestyle, given a little time spent strategising and working intelligently towards our business goals?

We’ll tune in again mid-year and find out how Serena’s going.

If that wee mud-brick scene with the sleepy Tui appealed to you (or replace scene with surfing, horse riding, sun-bathing, working for a charity, building houses for the home-less, cleaning up rivers, healing your inner child … the list goes on), then check out Serena’s blog ‘How to Retire in Twelve Months – Adventures in Living and Dreaming‘ You can subscribe to her weekly newsletter here.