Today I’m talking about light, love, and laziness… and a new way of doing business that more and more entrepreneurs are getting glimpses of that just might change the world.
I know that’s a bold statement… but we’d be well served as a society to have a bold transformation right about now.
Entrepreneurs really do change the world… not just because you are someone whose work is life-changing for your clients, but because we are consistently redefining what has value in society.
We value what we invest in, and a business that creates a compelling reason to invest in something different, that matters and that has a positive impact, that business is changing the world.
For me being in the business of transformation is about that.
If we want to shake things up, we have to actually shake things up.
I found inspiration for this in the unlikeliest of places last week in Tulum… the top of an ancient temple… and deep within the branch of a tree.
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“At the top of the temple is a glyph which shows the descending bee god,” our tour guide began.
I immediately leaned in.
I’d taken this tour before but I didn’t hear these words in quite the same way. Because in recent months the animal totem of the bee has been guiding me. And it’s been showing up everywhere.
The bee totem has to do with stopping to smell the flowers and enjoying life’s nectar, finding the balance between work and pleasure. It also speaks of being able to accomplish things that seem beyond our limitations (a bee ‘shouldn’t’ be able to fly). Bees pollinate (ideas) and live and work in a community, and have a strong connection to warmth and light.
For the bee has been guiding me to be present in the moment, trusting my small bursts of work, and being willing to enjoy all the other moments in between.
So when I heard the Mayans created a whole temple, and city, in honor of this bee I was mesmerized. And it gets so much better!
The Maya God of the Bees, named Ah Muu Zen Caab, is in reverence to a species of bee the melipona, or in Mayan xunan kab, which means “royal lady bee.”
They call these royal lady bees “Lazy Bees” for their lack of activity and production.
Now at this point, you may be uncertain that you want to be associated with the melipona at this point. They are royal/ noble, yet also lazy.
Our culture holds disdain for the lazy after all.
But here’s what else I learned about the Lazy Bee that had me want to identify even more with this fabulous creature.
The melipona, heretofore referred to as the Lazy Bee, works just four hours a day, in contrast to the “busy as a bee” mentality we may hold.
Much of their time is spent in building a lovely environment, laying wax in the hollow tree branch they call home, enjoying the fruits of their labor, and preparing themselves for their short but efficient workday.
These stingless female bees produce small amounts of honey which is extremely valuable. By comparison, 10 ml of this honey goes for $110, whereas 12 ounces of raw honey in stores is about $12 (which makes 10 ml roughly $0.34). This makes it more than three hundred times as valuable as the regular old busy bee’s hard work.
WHAT? So you are saying that these bees nurture themselves most of the day, work for small amounts of time, create tremendous value, and suck the nectar out of life? YES!
But wait, there’s more!
What makes the honey of the Lazy Bee so valuable?
[Now I don’t know the science behind this, and the Maya were also people who sacrificed children born on specific days as an offering to the gods so interpret as you will.]
The honey from the Lazy Bee is distinct from that of its European cousins. It is MAGIC!
This melipona honey is/ was known to have healing properties. Combined with the bark of a specific tree which the melipona pollinated (the balche tree) the honey had psychotropic effects. It had the power to alter perception and behavior!
As a recap, here’s what I learned about the Lazy Bee:
- She’s female and ‘stingless’
- She’s noble and revered
- She nurtures herself and spends time creating and enjoying a fabulous environment
- She works four hours a day
- Her work creates a product that is three hundred times more valuable than the average similar product
- Her product offers healing magic and new perceptions and behaviors
If this isn’t a transformational way of living, I don’t know what is!
So what can you, and I, as a transformational leader, learn from the Lazy Bee?
Here’s what I’ve noticed.
FEMALE AND STINGLESS
The less I sting or allow external circumstances to sting me, the more harmonious my world is. I can be at peace. For me, this feels like a feminine energy, though not like what I was taught growing up.
NOBLE AND REVERED
I am passionate about having the work of transformation be noble and revered in our culture. Now I’m not saying that I need to be the queen, but being a queen of my business serves me in the bigger mission. We revere technology and hard work and intellect, and we forget about our humanity.
NURTURES HERSELF
When I nurture myself and cultivate an environment that supports me energetically, my work is so much easier, more clear, and more powerful. This has been consistently true for my clients as well. A training feels heavy and hard to develop sitting at a desk with pressure to work. Then she steps away into a beautiful spot in nature, nurturing her body and soul. As if on cue the insight about the training flows through, and words are now powerful and clear.
Society tells her that she only gets to ‘treat herself’ well after the work is done. But the Lazy Bee knows that treating herself well IS the work. It allows her to be 100% present and fully engaged in the work, making it three hundred times more powerful when she is working!
WORKS FOUR HOURS A DAY
OK, I’d love to tell you I work four hours a day and know that it is accurate. It’s not, I work more hours than that. But more and more since I’ve adopted a particular attitude and energy (I call it my Tulum state of mind, which is now becoming the LAZY BEE energy), I work less and less. I don’t do as much. I allow my team to do more. I’m currently in transition with my team which means quite simply, less gets done.
I allow my ‘work’ to take the form of a beach walk or a nourishing conversation with a colleague over grinding away at the desk. I capture my ideas and energy when they are in flow, and I trust them to be just what’s needed without overthinking. If I have no energy for something, I cultivate my energy first, or I delegate it to someone who does.
One of my talented clients describes it this way in her work: My Fire Comes First. (Keep an eye out for more brilliance from Lisa J. Brown).
I 100% believe it is possible to “work” four hours a day in the work we love, and spend the rest of our time preparing to be ready to do our best work by engaging in that which nourishes our soul. I schedule all calls between 10-2 as a start to implementing this vision for myself.
CREATES AN EXPONENTIALLY VALUABLE PRODUCT
I could talk forever about the value of transformation. In fact it is going to be one of my podcast “pillar episodes” coming next month. Transformation is the thing I pay the most for every time.
When you design your work to actually shift what’s possible for your client at the core, it pays dividends for the rest of their life. It will be worth more to them than a band-aid of information or great advice that they aren’t yet emotionally or energetically ready to implement.
You are likely already doing work that is or has the potential to be 300 times more valuable than the ‘going rate’ for a time for money exchange. If you are scattered and busy and doing all the things all the time, people pleasing and mass producing, you’re actually diluting your value. You won’t be able to give proper time and attention to the clients you have and the energetic space you hold for them.
The Lazy Bee approach to transformation is light on hours laboring, and extremely powerful in creating results.
OFFERS HEALING MAGIC
When you are doing your best work, you are healing. I was a healer for several years before I knew that I was healer. When we can heal hearts and release old beliefs that no longer serve, we heal the spirit and the body as well.
The results of this work are not linear. When your client can gain a different perspective in their life, it changes everything about how they show up in the world, and every single result is amplified accordingly.
This is what I consider ‘magic.’
It really isn’t magic. It’s us lining up with the vibration of something new, therefore experiencing life in a whole new way. We expand our awareness and suddenly see what was previously invisible. This is why it feels like magic.
When you have the ability to do this kind of work, the world benefits from you doing it, and charging for it.
Is it time for you to work your magic?
Are you ready to operate like the Lazy Bee that you are?
(If you’re triggered by the word lazy, by the way, that is the exact reason you’re working too hard for your reward.)
If this article is resonating for you, if you know that you and the energy of your business would be exponentially more powerful if you adopted the approach of the Melipona bee, I’d love to hear about it.
In our Tulum retreat this month, we practiced a very specific energy, the energy of light, to transmute that which is heavy and hard into a tangible approach to business that allows us to be more efficient and effective, ala the Lazy Bee.
The majority of the world is processing through heavy and hard energy right now. As a leader of transformation, as a light worker, you’re called to turn your back on many of the ways that have created this and begin to operate as someone new.
In practicing this for 4 ½ days in Tulum, I saw miracles happen (or shall we say magic?).
I’m sooo excited about this work, I’m considering adding a new retreat to my schedule.
This time in another country with a laid-back energy — Italy.
4 ½ days in the Cinque Terre region of Italy this October 2018.
We’ll practice the ways of the Lazy Bee by enjoying our environment tremendously, being fully present in the moment, nurturing our soul and our creativity, and working diligently in short burst to produce your magic.
This may look like developing your “Lazy Bee Aligned” business model, a piece of signature content that’s TedX or media worthy, a new pricing structure or client/ community model that allows you to operate even more in your brilliance, or something totally new that needs to download through you.
If you’d like to see me host one more intimate mindset retreat this year in Italy and want to be considered to attend, please let me know!
This will help me to determine whether there are other Lazy Bees like me out there who are ready to shake up the more masculine approach to business, so I know if it’s time to start booking.
If you’re feeling pulled toward this idea, please let us know. Comment below or email support (at) alignedentrepreneurs.com with the subject line I’m a Lazy Bee! If we see enough response, we’ll create an application for you.
Either way, I invite you to consider adopting one Lazy Bee attitude this week and see what unfolds for you.
Happy nurturing!
Click the link below to submit your retreat application!
ALIGNED Retreat Application – Lazy Bee Italy 2018

Should each of us have a temple built to honor our best selves?!?
The Lazy Bee is a wonderful way of looking at being my own best self, I’ve been ruminating on how I’ve created my workflow around my energy levels and interest. Seems to follow this wonderful bee!