When I first started blogging in April 2009, it was just little ol’ me and a dream.

From the beginning, I imagined OwningPink.com as a community, not a solo blog.

I was feeling lonely and disconnected, and I had a vision for a website that would be the go-to place for those in need of healing and for visionary teachers and healers to find each other, a sort of virtual, truly integrative, medicine practice. Within three months of our launch, the site had attracted 30+ fabulous spiritually-leaning writers with missions and messages of healing, wholeness, authenticity, and love.

My vision quickly crystallized, but I hit a snag.  Within a year of OwningPink.com’s launch, I had pulled my identity almost completely out of the Owning Pink space. I wanted it to be about the community, not about me. But I didn’t foresee the problem that arose.

My growing professional life in other areas, beyond OwningPink.com, demanded that I have a web space just for me, where publishers, TV producers, people inviting me to speak, brands seeking me as a spokesperson, and people who read my books could find out more about me, my events, and my other offerings. As a result, OwningPink.com became sort of a hybrid site - part online magazine, part the Lissa Rankin show. It’s been confusing for many, myself included.

After long talks with Reid Tracy, my publisher at Hay House, and after deep soul searching, prayers for guidance, realignment with my greater vision, and commitment to following the Signs from the Universe when they’re all pointing in the same direction, I finally made a decision I want to share with you.

The Big News

I’m launching LissaRankin.com! Visit the site to download my FREE manifesto "How To Change The World" about how to be a successful visionary. When you do, you’ll be automatically subscribed to the new blog so you can make sure you never miss any of the twice weekly posts.

What Will LissaRankin.com Be?

I will be blogging at LissaRankin.com, but with more focus than I have at OwningPink.com. At OwningPink.com, I’ve been all over the map. Call me multi-passionate, call me a branding nightmare, call me an ADHD writer - whatever. But I had to let my freak flag fly and passionately resisted being put in a box. What resulted was a bit of a mishmash - posts that ranged from rants against advertising, thoughts about politics, my thoughts on the latest health guidelines, stories of my spiritual journey, and tales about my family.

Things will be a little more focused at LissaRankin.com. I’ll still be writing about whatever the hell floats my boat, but at LissaRankin.com, I’ll be primarily writing passionate prescriptions for living and loving fearlessly to help you live a healthier, happier life. Of course, my blog there will continue to unfold the story of how I’m learning all that I’m learning so you can glean what you can from my own personal journey.

Although I may occasionally feature the work of other authors and teachers I’m learning from, LissaRankin.com will be just me. So if you’re looking to read only my stuff, that’s where you’ll find me.

How Will OwningPink.com Be Different?

In case you’re worried I’m breaking up with OwningPink.com, don’t! OwningPink.com is my baby, and I’m not abandoning the second best thing I’ve ever birthed! I will still be posting at OwningPink.com, mostly when I get a bee in my bonnet about something random that doesn’t fit the curated theme of LissaRankin.com.  If I’m in the mood to rant about something tangential or blog  about some current event, you’ll likely find that at OwningPink.com. But I will no longer be posting three times a week on OwningPink.com. Instead, I’ll be at LissaRankin.com twice a week and on OwningPink.com several times per month.

The good news is that this opens up more space on OwningPink.com to showcase the amazing writers who share my vision and long to be of service in the world by lifting you up! Our writers are psyched to spread their wings, flex their creative muscles, and enjoy more visibility on the new site. I’m also excited because this will be much more in line with my original vision - a community of people dedicated to living optimally healthy, happy lives and serving each other from a place of love, safety, unity, and deep connection.

Why The Change?

When my publisher was coaching me, he said, “Lissa, stop hiding behind your brand. You ARE the brand.” Like Oprah, Martha Stewart, and Deepak Chopra, I will have many entrepreneurial businesses and sub-brands during my career. Because of my Renaissance womanness, I’m told my overarching umbrella brand is Lissa Rankin, with Owning Pink as one of the brands under the Lissa Rankin umbrella (along with other existing or developing brands like The Daily Flame (InnerPilotLight.com), Visionary Ignition Switch (VisionaryIgnitionSwitch), the Pink & Green Detox Cleanse (JuiceDietCleanse.com), The Prescription (PrescriptionForHealth.com), The Woman Inside Project, and the rest of my art.

While some brands are based more on ideas than people - for example, Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus, Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff, and Chicken Soup For the Soul - those brands can be limiting if you’re the person who created them. What if John Gray wants to write a cookbook or Richard Carlson’s widow Kristine Carlson wants to spread her own wings? While these are all wildly successful brands, that model of branding doesn’t always work so well for multi-passionate visionaries.

You As A Brand

If you’re a visionary entrepreneur, healing professional, writer, or artist, as many in the Owning Pink community are, you might be struggling with similar branding issues in your business. Owning Pink contributor Danielle LaPorte was WhiteHotTruth.com until she switched it to DanielleLaPorte.com (Reid Tracy counseled her too!)  Kris Carr is CrazySexyLife.com, but that may wind up being only one of her many brands in time. According to Reid, most authors/ speakers/ teachers, like the ones he has mentored - Wayne Dyer, Louise Hay, Cheryl Richardson, Doreen Virtue, and more - dabble in many passions. Their book names may change, their sub-brands may come and go, but the one thing that is always consistent is the creator of ideas, books, art, products, and brands - YOU!

I finally found my peace about moving myself over to LissaRankin.com as a separate site focused solely on my blog, my books, my speaking, my mentoring, my  products, my art, etc.  It will give the Lissa Rankin brand breathing room. It will also create space for more men, who may not consider themselves “pink” but are interested in my mind-body medicine ideas.

Big Things Are Afoot

I’m excited about the change, and I just know it will give wings both to me and to the Owning Pink community at large. (And remember, I’m not going anywhere, my darlings! I’ll still be here at OwningPink.com, writing my own original posts, reading all your comments, commenting back, curating the best spiritually-minded health and happiness bloggers on the web (I hand pick each one!) and supporting the community in any way I can.

There are a lot of exciting changes going on in my professional life. Most of them I can’t announce officially yet because they’re not a done deal, but suffice it to say that my dreams are coming true in ways beyond my wildest imaginings.  LissaRankin.com will help foster those evolving manifestations, while keeping OwningPink.com aligned with my original vision.

So please, bear with me as we go through the awkwardness of growing pains.  I hope the changes I’m putting into place with the Owning Pink team will make the community experience even richer.

You Can Help

Can I ask you a favor? We’re on the lookout for the best writers on the web. They don’t have to be famous. They can be bloggers nobody has ever heard of, as long as they’re kick ass writers who write from the heart with a passion for service and the desire to help others live happier, healthier, more authentic, pleasurable, soulfully-connected lives.

So tell me, who are your favorite bloggers? Who would you love to see featured at the new OwningPink.com? (It’s okay to vote for yourself!) Owning Pink’s editor Melanie Bates will be trolling through the comments here and checking out every blogger you recommend, so give us your faves in the comment section below.

And feel free to ask any questions about this shift, offer your feedback, and tell us what you think. Owning Pink is YOUR site, and we want to do everything we can to make the reader experience exactly what you desire so Owning Pink is your go-to place for living your best life.

THANK YOU

Most of all, I just want to say thank you. You, the Owning Pink community, have healed me. When I first started blogging, I was so wounded from years of trauma and so out of touch with what I was here on this earth to do. I had spent so many years wearing masks, pretending to be something I’m not so people I didn’t even like would accept me. I had forgotten who I was.

My commitment to start blogging, with the goal of being UNAPOLOGETICALLY ME - out there, in public, naked and vulnerable, exposing the process of my own growth, was terrifying. But you have undone me and then collectively put me back together. I had to break down to break through, and you have held the space for me to do that - over and over and over, with so much love and not a lick of judgment.

You made me brave, so I could keep taking risks, keep pushing the envelope, keep giving people permission to break my heart, keep opening my heart a little further, until I’m cracked wide open and I feel things I never thought I would ever feel.

And it’s all because of you. Thank you, my love.

The Power Of Community

This is the power of community. We can do this for each other.  You can break down and we will hold space for you. When another community member is in need of healing, you can be the healer. You can give what you can, take what you need, then pay it forward.

We are all healers, and we are all in need of healing. When we bear witness to each other with open hearts of pure love, seeing the best in each other and holding space for the worst, we open ourselves to intimacy. We allow ourselves to be imperfect, and within that imperfection, our safety lies.

I wish you all could the read the letters I’ve received as a result of you - the Owning Pink community.  Addicts have gotten clean. “Chronically” ill people have cured themselves. People about to commit suicide have decided to live with gusto. People in abusive marriages have left. Widows, widowers, and divorcees have opened their hearts and decided to risk loving again. Molested children have healed their hearts.  Depressed people have discovered joy.  Happy people have found even greater happiness by being part of the transformation of another soul who is suffering.

I have not done this. I just created the container and YOU have done this for each other. Every time you comment back to someone who opens up in a comment, every time you post back to a blogger who confesses a deep truth, you become the healer.

All I can say is bless you. The world is a better place because you’re in it.

With enduring love and gratitude,

Lissa

Lissa Rankin, MD: Founder of OwningPink.com, Pink Medicine Revolutionary, motivational speaker, and author of What’s Up Down There? Questions You’d Only Ask Your Gynecologist If She Was Your Best Friend and Encaustic Art: The Complete Guide To Creating Fine Art With Wax.