Earlier this year, I started hearing a knock on the door of my soul.

Knock, knock …

“Are you ready for me? I want to come into your family.”

It was the unmistakable voice of a child, a little girl it seemed, a soul who wanted to join our family.

At first, I shrugged it off, ignored the voice, closed the door. I didn’t have time to process the idea.

Too much happening in my life, in my business, in my house.

We had embarked on a massive home renovation and addition that had almost taken over my life, I started writing my first book, my business vision was growing and my team was evolving.

My 4-year-old son Sean and 2-year old son Luke needed me in new ways. They were going through their own growth and development that I wanted to be intimately involved in.

And my husband Steven, now 50 years old, was changing his views on work and travel and how much (or little) he wanted to be on the road, away from our family.

When I look back on 2013, I’d say this was the MOST intense year I’ve had since the death of my younger sister Julie in 1994.

But there was that knock, knock, knock again.

“Mama, it’s me. Are you ready for me? I’m ready for you.”

And so it began … this dance … this soul-to-soul conversation with this child I had long wondered if we had room for.

3 kids under the age of 6?

Can we do it? Do we want to do it?

Will we have to get a minivan?

We have a pretty smooth routine with our boys. Why mess that up?

Have I fully healed from my last birth and can I walk the road towards a VBAC with this baby?

Those were the thoughts I had.

The VBAC one weighed heavily on me since I knew I’d have to travel about an hour to the closest hospital in my area that would perform a VBAC. After a smooth, natural, unmedicated birth with my first son, I was shocked to have a C-section with my second son due to his breach position (I had originally planned to birth him at home – you make plans God laughs, right?!).

But this child’s voice was so strong, so clear, so right, that I just knew that this was the next step on our journey as a family.

Having a baby is one thing, having a baby while you run and grow your business as an entrepreneur is an entirely different thing.

And guess what? You can have young children AND run a thriving business. The two aren’t mutually exclusive.

Having learned from the births of my first two children, I started making space for this soul to enter our lives BEFORE we even started trying to conceive (or even thinking about conceiving, in all honesty).

I’ve found that making space for your growth and transformation is the biggest indicator that you’re serious about your intentions … and the Universe takes note in magical, mysterious ways.

I’m committed to bringing in this baby AND having my biz structured and set-up so that we don’t skip a beat when it comes to income and impact. I know this is possible and it’s so damn exciting.

Here’s how I made space pre-pregnancy …

ENVIRONMENT + PHYSICAL SPACE: I relocated my office out of the spare bedroom in our home (the room that would be used for this child) into the addition we built. I now have a gorgeous Sunshine Studio that’s solely dedicated to my business and it feels absolutely amazing. I didn’t realize it 2 years ago when we started this home improvement project that I’d be pregnant (yes, I’m pregnant!) when it was all over, but that’s simply the beauty of life.

Now this child will have a room all to her / his own when she / he joins us in April 2014. I’m psyched to turn it into a beautiful nursery!

PROGRAM DESIGN: This past July as I was designing my new yearlong mastermind and coaching program, the Business Adventure School, I did so with an awareness that I could be welcoming in a child (or becoming pregnant) sometime in the year ahead. So instead of hosting the live client retreats in New York and Florida as I had in the past, I opted to host them ALL here in the beautiful Berkshires of Western Massachusetts, where I live.

I also didn’t commit to exact dates for the final retreat of 3 (just said it would take place in June or July) because I wanted to keep that open to decide when would work best for me in case I had a baby in 2014. I remember fighting with my ego on that piece. My ego told me a “real business woman would commit to dates.” I told my ego to take a hike. My family’s growth will always come first … and when I put my family first, my business always grows. I’ve learned.

The program is structured to rely on the power of the training, masterminding and group coaching that is built into the program. My team has all of these pieces systematized and scheduled so they happen with little input from me. When my baby is born, I can rest easy knowing that the program will continue to operate without me needing to check in on these elements. HUGE RELIEF. Creating systems in my business has been the BIGGEST key to my growth in the last year.

PRIVATE CLIENTS: For clients in the Inner Circle membership tier of the Business Adventure School who receive one-on-one time with me, I’ve built in systems and processes to make this smooth and manageable for me (and really awesome for them because they receive high levels of service). I’ve been maxed out with too many private clients and not enough boundaries in the past and I can’t live like that!

So when my clients want my eyes on their marketing materials or a business situation or promotion calendar and it can’t wait for our monthly coaching call, then they go to our VIP Client Concierge with their request. This VIP Client Concierge is also the Program Manager of the Business Adventure School and she’s awesome! She then puts all of the requests in our project management software (we use Asana.com), along with deadlines for each and assigns the task to me. Hooray! I can stay organized and don’t lose sleep worrying that I missed a client email.

To ensure some “OPEN” time during the year of the program, I built in 2 months where I won’t be available for private coaching. One of these months is December, the month when I recommend my clients go really internal and quiet as they birth their vision for the year ahead. I originally was going to make the other “OPEN” month August, but once I realized I was pregnant, I switched the 2nd “OPEN” month to April 2014, the month I’m due. Easy breezy.

Because I have  my A-team in place, I know my clients are receiving a high level of service without me having to do anything EXCEPT operate in my genius zone (teaching, coaching, holding them accountable).

BIG-PICTURE VISION: I got clear about the grand view I have of our family. And when I did, I simply saw 3 children. That number just *felt* right. It made me feel excited, full, expansive, like an earth mama goddess. In all honesty, my husband wasn’t as gung-ho as I was, but he eventually came around. He is an amazing father and nothing gives him more pleasure than parenting (well, except his beloved Cleveland Browns, but our kids don’t break his heart as much!). I’m often the one in the partnership who is more ready for growth than he is … I’ve come to accept this and lovingly hold the sacred vision until he catches up.

Surrendering to the idea that having young children is a bit wild and awesome and unpredictable, I gave myself permission to be in this phase with all its messiness and beauty, knowing that I’m creating my family consciously and sweetly.

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The crazy thing is when I shared with one of my clients in the Business Adventure School my good news, she shared that she just knew I was pregnant at the Retreat for Goddesses in July. She said I was emitting that vibe.

I told her she must be psychic because I didn’t even know I was pregnant there. I was (by about a week!) but hadn’t yet missed my period or taken a pregnancy test. This child’s energy is SO strong. That’s what she was picking up on.

When I took that pregnancy test and realized that this child had in fact chosen us and was on the way, I was thrilled and also shocked all at the same time. My whole life changed in the blink of an eye. That’s how pregnancy works.

Here’s a note I wrote to the baby less than 24 hours later when I couldn’t sleep …

And then, I allowed myself to keep my news a secret from most of the world until now. I liked that it was sacred, soft, mine, private.

Now if I would have seen you in person in the last few weeks, I would have told you because I’m SO SHOWING even now at 15 weeks. I started showing at around 6 weeks … seriously. It’s wild what this 3rd pregnancy will do to your body. It’s like my body said, “Oh ya, I’ve been down this road before. I know exactly what to do.” And then I popped. And it’s so much fun.

I absolutely love pregnancy and am blessed that my body has done very well with it with my first two children, and so far with my 3rd pregnancy. I don’t suffer from intense bouts of nausea, thank God.

I was just really, really tired during the 1st trimester with each baby. If you’re wondering what 1st trimester tired feels like … just think about how tired you are at night before bed and multiply that by 100. That’s how tired I was, which is harder when you have kids who don’t understand why mom always wants to take a nap! So I went to bed at 8 or 9 p.m. with my kids. Luckily, I’m getting my energy back now that I’m in my 2nd trimester.

I can say with confidence that this will be the last baby that I birth. As soon as I got the double line on the pregnancy test, I simply felt complete. My family felt complete.

My sons are thrilled. They both think it’s a baby sister, but just to be safe have names picked out for both a girl and a boy. If it’s a boy, Sean has decided the name will be Johnny. And for a girl: Weed Cutter. Seriously.

We won’t find out the sex prior to birth. It’s not our style. We’ve been surprised with every birth and we simply love the mystery and surprise of not knowing. We love getting to know the child as a human being vs. a gender.

Here’s how I’m making space for my business and personal growth DURING the pregnancy …

SELF-CARE JUNKIE: I’m committed to enjoying the ride on this final victory lap around my pregnancy journey. I’m nourishing myself with tons of self-care. Yoga, massages, facials, green juices, reading, journaling, lots of open space in my schedule. These things feel really luscious to me so I’m diving into them with gusto. I don’t even look at self-care as an indulgence anymore, but rather a way of living that says to my body: my sole goal is to take exquisite care of you so you can carry me effortlessly through life.

IDEAL CLIENTS ONLY: I’ve made a conscious decision to only work with clients who are IDEAL and bring energy into my life vs. take it away. I choose to only work with action-takers who respect my time and teachings. I’ve got a child to protect here! Plus, it’s the only way to be now that I’m in my 6th year of business.

DELEGATING QUEEN: I’m giving my team more responsibilities and am delegating like a mo-fo. I LOVE DELEGATING. I’m only working in my genius zones. Done with being a martyr and suffering from “I-can-do-it-all-itis,” I give people on my team the opportunity to do what they’re great at and I love paying them for their services. I’m also doing this in my personal life and hiring more and more help to make my life easier and more enjoyable.

PASSIVE INCOME: We will be setting up more passive income streams in the business that give my tribe high-value experiences without my private time attached to them. The work is done, we just need to IMPLEMENT and EXECUTE.

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To help you kickstart 2014, I’ll be hosting my landmark program – the Cash in on Your Calling Coaching Program – LIVE before I give birth to this little angel.

And starting on November 13, I’m hosting a FREE two-part training call series called “Make Money Love You: Stand in Your Power as the CEO of Your Business, Life + Bank Account.” If you’re not yet on our list to get invites to our free trainings, make sure you sign up here so you don’t miss the boat (you’ll also score my FREE Soul Business Growth Kit).

I’m a woman on a mission, a woman with a child’s soul and body growing inside me, a woman even more committed to helping you make FULL use of this wildly luscious life through the vehicle of your business.

It’s when women join forces to help heal the planet that we ALL win.

Thanks for allowing me to share my GOOD FORTUNE with you. I’m over the MOON to welcome this baby into the world.

So … my big question for you is: do you think I’m having a boy or girl? I can’t wait to hear your responses and good vibes in the comments section. What a ride we’re going on!

xoxo