Follow your dreams

“When you live with an open heart, anything is possible”

– Unknown –

Last year on 8th June, I left the Corporate World forever, and exactly one week later I registered my business (Thought Cloud Collective) on 15th June. I started it with zero investment, and a cup brimming with positivity, ambition, ideas, excitement and certainty.

I was setting out on a journey into the unknown, the Captain Cook of entrepreneurial exploration. My voyage was going to take me into unchartered territories. My mission, to become one of the first Brits in history to come to Australia, start their own business and sponsor themselves for a 457 visa through that business.

There were a lot of hoops that I needed to jump through. The waters were, at times, very choppy. I encountered shark infested waters on several occasions. I had to make some stops at islands I had never been to before, and I needed to take diversions and turns when I least expected it. It was by no means plain sailing. However, it was the most wonderful, magical mystery tour into the unknown.

My immigration lawyer didn’t know anyone who had done anything like it before me, but he also knew it was entirely possible. Despite the odds being stacked quite significantly against me (I was very new to Australia, I didn’t know many people, didn’t have any family close to me for support, I had zero investment in my business and I was on a Working Holiday Visa that was due to expire in 6 months when I set up my business), I still managed to achieve the seemingly impossible, by following my dream to become an entrepreneur.

On 12.12.12. I was granted sponsorship status for Thought Cloud, sponsorship for myself through Thought Cloud and a 457 visa to be able to work and stay in Australia for 4 years. I was ecstatic and elated.

And now is another big milestone in my journey. I have just launched the brand new website for Thought Cloud and I wanted to share this piece of news with you all in the hope of inspiring you.

It took me a long time to build up the courage and make the decision to follow my intuition and niche in the area that I have decided to niche into.

Thought Cloud creates conscious brands for conscious companies. We want to help people who have a product or service that will benefit people or the planet in an ethical, sustainable and conscious way.

We believe that your brand is at the heart of your business and we exist to help people create a brand that is true for them and one that will attract other people who think and feel the same way.

I have developed a unique and special methodology to help people create a Brand Blueprint for their business. It is a methodology that I have not only spent the last 12 months crafting and perfecting, but that also takes into account the 11 years experience I have had working with some of the biggest brands in the world, including 4 years at Virgin Mobile in the UK.

Everything that I know and understand to be true about brands I have learnt from Richard Branson, and mixing it with my own knowledge and understanding of the importance of creating conscious brands that will change the world for good, I have created a product and service that is truly unique.

I believe that positive change in the world won’t necessarily come from big businesses, big governments or the UN. Instead I believe it will come from the individual. I also believe that small businesses and social and conscious entrepreneurs have a huge role to play in raising the consciousness of people across the globe and helping to change the world for good. This is why I believe that every conscious small business should have a Brand Blueprint to act as a solid foundation upon which to build their business and to act as a guiding light to help them stay true to their mission and their values, be clear about what they do, how they do it and most importantly why they do it and have a hymn sheet from which they can sing from.

I’m so happy and proud at what I have achieved over the last 12 months and I am so grateful for all of the help, support, love, kindness and advice that I have received from so many amazing people across the globe. I am certain that I wouldn’t be where I am today, nor would Thought Cloud exist if it wasn’t for the loving kindness of so many other beautiful people.

I am living the dream. I am so very lucky to be able to do what I love and help people with branding their businesses. I love where I live and I love the people who I work with on a daily basis. I honestly and genuinely would fill my days doing what I do, if money was no object and if I won the lottery tomorrow I would still continue on to spread the Thought Cloud love.

It is my mission for there to be a Thought Cloud in every major city in the world, so we can help millions of conscious businesses create Brand Blueprints and be able to spread their message and connect with other like-minded people who think and feel the same way as they do. People who will want to work for them, partner with them, supply to them or buy from them.

I’m living breathing proof that anything is indeed possible if you put your heart and mind to it and believe. I’m proof that you should follow your dreams. And I’m proof that you really can live the life that you thought you might only be able to imagine.

Sending you lots of love, hugs and light,

Kat x x x

Inspiration for this post

Myself & Thought Cloud

Thought Cloud video – Be the change you want to see

Want to know the secret to better work and a happier life?

“Good things happen to good people, who think good thoughts, have good hearts and do good things.” 

– Kat Kinnie –

I have another awesome TED talk to share with you today, this time from a pretty funny guy and positive psychologist called Shaun Anchor. I have loved this talk since the first time I watched it last year and I think I have re-watched it at least 5 or 6 times since, shared it on Facebook and stuck it on my Onwards and Upwards Pinterest board too.

90% of your happiness is predicted by the way your brain processes the world.

He posits that 90% of your long-term happiness is predicted, not by your external world, but by the way your brain processes the world. And that if we change our formula for happiness and success, we can change the way we affect reality.

Only 25% of job success is predicted by IQ.

He also says that only 25% of job successes are predicted by IQ and that 75% of people’s job success is predicted by their level of optimism, their social support and their ability to see stress as a challenge rather than a threat.

Your brain performs better at positive.

He also says that ‘We’ve pushed happiness over the cognitive horizon as a society. And that’s because we think that we have to be successful and then we’ll be happier. But the real problem is, our brains work in the opposite order. If you can raise someone’s level of positivity in the present, then their brains experience something called a Happiness Advantage, which is that your brain performs better at positive, than negative, neutral or stressed.

The Happiness Advantage – your brain is 31% more productive at positive.

His talk discusses something that he refers to as The Happiness Advantage and the fact that you can train your brain to become more positive in a 2 minute span of time for 21 days in a row. He says that by doing this and creating new positive habits, you can re-wire your brain allowing it to work more optimistically and more successfully.

How to create lasting positive change

• 3 gratitudes a day – write down 3 things you’re grateful for each day. Your brain starts to scan the world, not for the negative, but for the positive.
• Journaling 1 positive experience you’ve had in the last 24 hours – this allows your brain to re-live it
• Exercise – teaches your brain that your behaviour matters
• Meditation – allows your brain to get over the cultural ADHD we’ve been creating by trying to do multiple tasks at once and allows our brains to slow down and relax.
• Random acts of kindness – write one positive email a day praising or thanking someone

Shaun says that by maintaining these positive habits every day, for 21 days in a row, and beyond, we can train our brains for positivity and success, just as you can train your body to perform better.

Who would have thought the secret to happiness and success could be as easy as re-training your brain for 2 minutes a day?

Inspiration for this post

Shaun Anchor’s TED talk – The Happiness Advantage – Linking Positive Brains To Performance