After years of matchy-matchy, we love disordant shocks of color right now – the more jarring, the better. Pair green with orange, electric bue with pink – just remember to keep the doses of the contrast element small (for example: green shirt, jeans, with a fabulous pair of bright orange earrings. Yay colour!

I got my ass kicked by a herd of Himalayan yaks today. Jeff and I started off from along the river as they grazed, a dozen or so, loaded heavily with huge baskets and bags. We headed up the mountain on a steep incline. A couple hundred metres up, we heard the clong of yak bells – the herd were just below us.

An unusually competative fervour came over me (maybe it was defiance from dodging yak dung all along the path). Jeff urged me upwards, to stay ahead of the herd. At 4000 metres elevation, there is only 60% of the oxygen of sea level. So after a few minutes of climbing at a speedy pace, my heart is pounding and my breathing laboured.

Regardless, I raced ahead to keep ahead of the yaks, who meandered steadily up the trail, as if taunting me. The trail became narrower, the incline steeper. The black horned beasts were damn near vertical now, clockity clacking along without pause.

We came up to a cliff. I was really winded now, and worried about getting nudged towards the high drop. So at last I succumbed, straddeling the inner rock face in submission. The yaks passed by, brushing my backside. They trudged along for a few metres, then suddenly stopped for a rest, oblivious to my mild humiliation below.

Later, I thought seriously about odering a yak steak for supper, perhaps to reassert the dominence of my species. But, I’m learning to understand my limits and accept that my body is just not designed for this landscape. So, I had some yak cheese curds instead and called it a day.

Perhaps that competative spirit will reignite for Trailwalker? I hope I can keep pace! I’m sure it will be easier at sea level, but yikes, 100kms???

We all have moments when we think about how far we’ve come. Today I’ve thunk that thought again, but for once it’s actually literal. Exuberance is, at this moment, making its way towards Everest Base Camp in Nepal!

Jennifer Brammer, sometimes columnist for Exuberance, is an inspiring, exuberant, fabulous woman who is also the Volunteer Director for Oxfam Canada. On her off-time, she is hiking towards Everest Base Camp. I’ve been able to keep up with her journey, and I am as always, completely inspired and amazed at her courage and chutzpah.

Jennifer has been keeping a chronicle of her experience for a blog series we’ll be setting up on the Exuberance website this week. In the series we’ll focus on our training for Oxfam’s Trailwalker Event, which I have agreed to take part in….the craziness of me agreeing to this will become clear when I share more about the event!

Anyway, I digress … I was writing about Princess Marrakesh’s extravagant vacation at Everest. In Jennifer’s email:

“I haven’t looked at a mirror in 5 days. Being at 5500 metres altitude, hiking to the base camp of Mount Everest, my image doesn’t seem that relevant. Interestingly, I packed Exuberance Princess Marrakesh Facial Tonic , but no mirror. I think it is because I want to feel beautiful and that doesn’t have everything to do with how I look. Rather, what I look at, how I see the world around me. If my focus is on my reflection in the mirror, do I see my beauty within as clearly?”

“Now that’s powerful message.. how the outer world can dictate how we feel about out own beauty, but how feeling beauty inside truly allows us to define ourselves as beautiful. And this in turn reflects outwards to the world. (thereby making us more externally beautiful, in one of those paradigms that makes life so interesting!)

Love it! We’re spreading our Exuberance around the world! Hmmm…. maybe we should all start a gnome photo repeat, but instead of the gnome we’ll position bottles of Exuberance in travel – as a chronicle and a representation of amazing women living their dreams! Anybody travelling soon? Send us your exuberant photos!

Incidentally, I told a friend that Jennifer was hiking Everest, and he said “no she’s not, she’s hiking to base camp. That’s not hiking Everest”. I disagreed – it isn’t where you start on the mountain, it’s the fact that you’re on the mountain at all that counts. So, Jennifer..if you’re reading this….you are now, to me, the fabulous women who hiked Everest and took exuberance along with you. And Exuberance, in this case, is defined not only as the name of our product, but the courage, passion, and power that got you there in the first place – and kept you hiking onwards! Viva l’Exuberance!

Here’s a secret – I very regularly make bad decisions. I would venture to say that most entrepreneurs do. Especially those of us who are taking a first pass at this game. Yet few of us will admit it. Them’s the rules.

From my current vantage point, when I think back to the myriad of bad decisions that I’ve made, and on all the levels they’ve occurred, it makes me cringe. I didn’t just make these mistakes once either; some of them I made them over and over again, refusing to alter my path until I had absolutely no other option. Funny thing – many of these mistakes I made because I was scared of making mistakes.

One case in point: We had entered our first trade show. We needed a booth, but I decided we couldn’t afford the $2000 for the premade exhibit; and they were ugly anyway. I decided we would build our own, putting all my do-it-your-self crafting experience to work. How hard could it be? I wasn’t just going to do any nasty trade show exhibit either – I was going to design a self-sustaining waterfall system, with river rocks and a mist that would surround my fantastic, beautiful, mind-blowing booth. So I talked my sister into helping me, and off we went to Home Depot to get the supplies.

From concept to completion the exhibit took us two weeks to build – two weeks we could have been looking for contacts or researching how skincare distribution worked instead of sanding and painting.

On the last night before the show I was alone as I created an exuberance logo out of silver duct tape, cutting and taping and folding and sticking until I had a fairly good approximation of our logo on the back of my undulating waterfall background material. I pulled an all-nighter that night – 15 straight hours – making sure I had it perfect.

I was exhausted the next day, and spent much of the setup time sobbing from nerves and fatigue. (not my best hour!) It was around the time that I was lugging the twelfth eighty-pound box of river rocks to my exhibit that I began to question the path I was on. The final straw came crashing down the next day when a women gave me her card, told me she was a distributor, and I looked at her and said ‘what’s a distributor?’

The pictures give you a good idea of what we accomplished. We managed to build the damn waterfall. But what the picture doesn’t show is the multimillion dollar exhibits around the corner. So after all that effort, all of that work, trying to look bigger and better, we still showed up exactly as we were – homemade, with some charm, but still the victims of an overzealous leader caught up in a bad decision. I still have those 12 boxes of river rocks – can’t bring myself to throw them away. They’re a good reminder.

The worst part? The exhibit ended us costing us $3000. Exactly $1000 more than a new one would have cost.

I learned a lot from the decisions I made for that trade show. So the million dollar question is; are bad decisions ever truly mistakes, or are they just choices that have sometimes unintended results? Because what I’ve learned is that what seem like mistakes usually also carry with them the greatest lessons: what not-to-do next time, how to focus on your outcome, and sometimes, simply learning that you have the ability to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and keep on moving forward, even when you are bruised and battered and lugging an eighty-pound box of rocks.

Signing off to go make a few more decisions. Bad or good? I guess we’ll see…

We just finished writing the protocol for our ‘Exuberance Organic Facial” I’m quite fond of the intro, so thought I’d share. Here it is…

Exuberance Inspiration:

Your outer face is a reflection of your inner self, and as such, in every woman’s face, there is beauty. Our faces are a window to our deeper, delicate hearts and our truest, boldest selves.

An Exuberance facial is a moment for a woman to celebrate her own unique beauty and her personal possibility. It is a time for a woman to indulge in self-care with a product that looks after her body in a healthy, nurturing way. It is a moment when she can recognize and act on the knowing that she is worthy, perfect, beautiful. It is a physical act that encourages and defines self-care in her life.

It is also a potent treatment that gives her skin powerful and redefining vitamin treatments, antiaging benefits, pure organic ingredients, lush and intensely hydrated skin in a nurturing, gentle way. It is the beauty that resides in her at all times – made manifest.

Back in History… I’m in my grandfather’s basement. He’s kindly set up an electric hotplate with two burners on top of the freezer for me. I’ve recently decided I was going to make my own lotion, a step I decided to take because I didn’t like the lotion that the private label companies had available. It was either synthetic and unhealthy, or organic with a gross feel.

No history, no background in lotion. No idea about ingredients. I find a recipe, do some adaptations. I stir, whiz, add, mix. I add my own flair to my blend, in the form of rosehip tea, which is supposed to be good for the skin. I heat and mix and blend and stir. I’m almost done.

Picture the creamiest, most beautiful lotion you can imagine…it’s lux, deluxe, rich and creamy. It looks like a mix between smooth cream and rich butter. Yum.

Now picture the exact opposite. Picture lumpy, crumpy, curdled, with a light pink watery film floating on the surface like pond scum from my ill-chosen tea infusion. You’ve got my very first attempt at making lotion. Not discouraged, I dipped my hand in and slathered it on…at which point my Grandpa came down the stairs and said “Ew, what’s that smell?” It took another year, a sister who was better at following recipes than I and a chemist to finally create our body lotion recipe. Which is now fantastic. Good thing I kept at it…how far we’ve come!

I have spent the last five years striving to create an illusion that Exuberance was bigger than it was. Stories abound about ways I did this, some of which I will share later with you. I believed what is the common myth about business – that you need to create an illusion for people to want you. Most recently, I’ve struggled with what to write for this blog; do I focus on inspirational items, post specials? What could I post that maintained this illusion while still being truthful? I struggled, and in the end, was silent.

But in denying a pure expression for myself, I am not authentic – and for a company that preaches self-love and self-acceptance, the founder of the company not following the same model is the ultimate in hypocrisy. I, as much as anyone, know that often what we teach is that which we aspire to; and I struggle with self-acceptance in the same way that everyone else does. Many people believe it is a lifelong journey. But I also know that most journeys’ start with steps, both small and large, and so today I take one.

This step flies in the face of all common business practices. The standard business rule is that you only let people in on the successes. Even blogs are usually a litany of ‘this is why we’re great’ and ‘this is what special we have’. Very few really talk about the emotional truth, the real ongoing issues. It’s common practice; we’re taught to find the hook, market an illusion, build a story about who we are. We’re taught to be everything but what we really are – flawed, with some amazing successes and many small failures. And it is an exhausting illusion to maintain – we have entire marketing teams dedicated to keeping it in place.

As a result, as consumers we are so cynical about what we are told that we find it hard to believe in anything anymore. I get the same junk mail in my inbox you do; each one promising us that we will be bigger and better if we buy their products or follow their rules for a satisfying life. I struggle with this for Exuberance because I spent so much time and energy making sure that what we sold was good; and yet there is such confusion that good sits beside bad on the shelf, and no one can tell what’s what. Very frustrating, but I’ve existed in that structure too, so I’ve been no better. Until today.

Exuberance as a company has always been about more than skin care products; our heart is our defining factor, and hearts don’t lie, as the old saying goes; so in trying to follow the same model as other companies, I’ve denied our very heart. It takes confidence to be who you truly are; and I’ve never had this confidence for Exuberance; I always felt we were too little, didn’t have the right look, I didn’t enough experience, our office space didn’t look like it should, that we still had so much to learn. And so I’ve hidden behind this concept of ‘a skin care company’ and built us up into what I thought was expected of us.

But I came to a realization recently; in this case, a skin care company is exactly what I’ve created, and it doesn’t need to look like anyone else’s, does it? I truly believe there is inherent beauty in our flaws; it is our striving towards possibility, even in the face of our flaws and fears, that I find one of our most magical traits; and so should I offer any less than complete acceptance of this to my company, the people within it, and you?

Today we draw a line in the sand. No more pretending to be something we are not. What we are is passionate, committed, trying to make a difference, working to get press, perpetually overworked, trying to get people to try our products, sometimes exhausted, occasionally miserable, sometimes full of joy and excitement, sometimes doubting, but most of all feeling like there is incredible possibility in this company that will in time manifest itself. Course we could be wrong about the latter, although I sincerely hope not…but you’ll have to keep reading to find out.

If you do find my story and the growth of Exuberance interesting, tell your friends; if you don’t, well – no biggie – another time, another place. But if you do choose to read, you are now on a journey with us…a rip-roaring, truthful, authentic journey… and like most journey’s to places we haven’t been before we have no idea of what the destination looks like, but the travelling will hold all sorts of surprises along the way!

Nicole Bonneau

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Exuberance, the Company

This summer I bought a name-brand moisturizer that contained an SPF15 because I thought it was a good idea at the time.  Ah, okay, impulse buying got the best of me because I normally stay with what I believe to be as close to natural as possible skin care products.  As a woman in menopause, I began to experience hot flashes.  Also as a woman who does not want to buy into the need for hormone replacement, etc., for a bodily function that has been going on for millennia, I decided to look at any changes I had introduced into my system as the flashes seemed to come on quite sudden, and then remembered the new skin product.  Within days of stopping its use the flashes also stopped. Coincidence?  I can only say it is a pleasure to not being awaken during the night in a sweat and I am sure my body is mighty pleased too.  This gives food for thought about what is contained in products, but that’s a whole other topic.

Shortly after stopping the other moisturizer, Karma Wear introduced me to a skin care product.  They talked about the product being chemical-free, how it had worked for them, and even better, that this was also an opportunity to support local as it’s an Ottawa-based company.   And so I bought the Witch Hazel cleanser, and love that my face loves it!  Using products that have a simple, uncomplicated base, I believe in the body’s own built-in capability to taking care of itself.  My skin knows when it is experiencing something it does not like, hence rashes, redness, and a multitude of ways of saying, PLEASE STOP, your hurting me. And YEAH, this minimally blended creation works.  Despite the current weather, the skin on my face is fully balanced – no dry spots, no oily, just nicely smooth and it is getting better the longer I use it.  But much more than that.

Stepping out of my own comfort zone, I decided to take this a step further and met with the owner and one of the staff.  Among other things, we got to discuss Jodi’s own experience with skin products.  She found very few products on the market that contained ingredients that hold to the principles of being truly natural.  She was experiencing her own unpleasant skin reactions, so she decided to come up with her own formulations based on the latest research, without compromising the principles of being natural.  And as with many new businesses, she wanted something better and took up the challenge of creating her own.

Jodi and the staff at Exuberance are creating a way of life, not just a product.  Their web site match their core values and I got a glimpse of this strength in meeting with them.  I know they have a great product, and I am looking forward to their launching anything new.  And I also am pleased to be passing on their name as a company that I can conscientiously recommend to other women – all from a place of integrity.  And being based in Ottawa, I like supporting home grown too.

By Jennifer Brammer, Nepal, May 7, 2009

I climbed the CN Tower last year for a charity event. 20 mins, 553 metres.

Today, hiking for 6 hours on steep inclines up 1200 metres to Namche Bazaar, the last town on the route to the Mount Everest basecamp, I am reminded of the confidence I had that day, at the top of the Tower. I remember thinking that I could do it another time or two, no big deal.

Today I am humbled. Trekking here is so much more intense… Like climbing the CN Tower 10 times in a row. While carrying the weight of a small TV. Wih 30% less oxygen. Slightly dehydrated. And in 30 degrees.

I love how tactile the trail is, the uneven ground, the jagged steep inclines. It commands the attention to be present, look for the next rock to lift myself up on, the next turn, consumed with each moment, that seamlessly becomes the next. It’s like a moving meditation.

We are passed by many steady Sherpas along the route, some no more than 15 years old, carrying baskets on their back brimming with loads of rise, beer, the odd chair or door. They are carrying their weight, at least.

Most foreign trekkers are accompanied by Sherpa porters who carry their loads. I prefer the pack on my own back, the weight of each step. It is rewarding to carry what I consume. The burden is grounding, somehow.

Tomorrow we will rest for a day, to acclimatize before hiking 12 hours to the next village. I am thinking about how challenging Trailwalker will be, hiking for 48 hours! I hope that this Nepal trek will get me into shape! One step at a time…

]Some people would have you believe that letting go of our attachment to outcomes implies a lack of awareness or blind faith. It doesn’t. Letting go is not easy – it takes more courage to trust that we will be okay, no matter what happens in our lives, than it does to hold on tightly to outcomes that we deem acceptable.

Letting go is being aware of what could go wrong, but also knowing what could go right. It is, in any decision, taking the knowledge you have learned through your life in that area, applying it to the best of your ability in an appropriate manner – and then letting go of the outcome. And along the way, when more effort is needed, you apply more of your knowledge and skills – and again, let go.

In letting go, there is great freedom and openness to what the universe has in store for us and for what is possible in our lives. There is magnificence in this trust that everything will be okay, and a deep beauty in these leaps of faith that inevitably allow us to fly.

So leap and let go, Exuberant women, leap and let go! What outcome can you let go of today?