Lita Goddess of Growth

Tag: Sovren Collective

  • The Energy Exchange: Survival, Debt, and the Lessons of the Drought

    Carleta Barrett BA (Hon), DipHypCS
    Transformation is our focus

    Let’s get to the very heart of what it means to build a sovereign life. The starts with the concept of “energy exchange” as a tangible currency.

    Energy Exchange: The Real Currency of Survival and Growth | Lita Goddess of Growth

    What is the energy exchange that carries us through hard times? Lita Goddess of Growth explores how the goodwill we build becomes a lifeline during personal drought, and why some tools are soothers, not solutions.

    The Energy Exchange: Survival, Debt, and the Lessons of the Drought

    My task is to guide others through transformation and to tap into the energy required to move beyond survival. To do that, I must speak about the very fabric of that journey: energy exchange.

    I have had a life of many cycles—starts, stops, endings, and beginnings. As I enter a new cycle after the profound drought of 2022-2025, it is crucial to reflect on this. It was the energy exchange I had cultivated that encouraged people, throughout my drought, to give or loan me money. It was that same energy that helped me negotiate deferred payments when I simply did not have enough to meet my bills in part, on time, or at all.

    We are talking about the energy we sow in our good times that acts as goodwill in our bad times. This can come from unexpected places, even from those we might not consider allies. In my podcast, I talk about having to go cap in hand to my mother for a loan. I am not her favourite child, and it was given along with hours of updates on how terrible I was as a child, to drum into my head how lucky I was to be considered. I got through it. That was an energy exchange, however difficult.

    The Bank of Goodwill: Investing in Your Future Resilience

    We often think of currency in purely financial terms. But the personal drought I endured taught me that the most valuable currency is the one built on authentic connection. This is the Bank of Goodwill. Every time you offer genuine help without an immediate expectation of return, every time you listen with compassion, every time you share your expertise freely, you are making a deposit.

    During my drought, I didn’t have money to withdraw, but I was able to draw upon the relational equity I had built. A friend who fixed my boiler for free was repaying the energy I’d invested in supporting him through his divorce years prior. The company that allowed me to defer a payment was responding to the honest, respectful energy exchange I initiated, rather than ignoring their invoices. This isn’t about manipulation; it’s about the cumulative effect of showing up in the world with integrity. It is a foundational practice for anyone committed to sovereign growth—building a life supported by the strength of your character, not just your credit score.

    The Unbalanced Ledger and the Nature of True Reciprocity

    I speak often about my daily Ho’oponopono practice—gratitude as soon as I wake and just before bed. Yet, I know there are times I can be so fed up with the cycle of life that I am the most ungrateful person to be around. I work on it. I have also come to understand a hard truth: those we help are not necessarily the ones who will ever be in a position to help us in return.

    This is where the concept of energy exchange expands beyond a simple transaction. If we only help others expecting a direct return, we are still operating from a mindset of scarcity. True sovereign energy exchange is about trusting the flow of the universe itself. You help Person A, and Person Z, whom you’ve never met, arrives with unexpected support. We must release the need to control the return and trust that our contributions to the collective energy field will find their way back to us in the form we most need. This is an act of profound faith and a core principle of resilience building.

    The Soothers, Not the Solutions: Enduring the Transformation

    This is where I offer a hard-won truth. Techniques like Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) can be powerful tools for shifting our belief systems. However, personal experience tells me that when you are in a deep cycle of drought, no prayer, meditation, or tapping session can move you from the lesson. They are not escape hatches.

    They are soothers. They are the balm that helps you endure the revision and transformation I believe we sign up for before we enter this time and space we call life. They give you the strength to sit in the fire, not the power to extinguish it before its work is done. During my drought, my spiritual practice didn’t pay my bills. But it did stop me from collapsing into despair. It soothed my nervous system enough to pick up the phone and negotiate, to write that difficult email, or to simply get out of bed and face another day. This is the internal work that makes the external work possible.

    Raising Your Energetic Currency in a Cost of Living Crisis

    My period of doubt saw debts written off and debts accumulated. I had no idea I had the power to create both. Today, I have a long list of material goods I want to pay back in this lifetime. I have taken on part-time work, only to find that, due to the cost of living, the pay doesn’t cover my debts at all. This is the reality for so many.

    So, when I speak of energy, I speak of focusing on raising it no matter what life is telling us. It is about making a decision about our focus, even when our present reality doesn’t appear to match the place of prosperity we are attempting to create. How do we do this?

    • Micro-acts of gratitude: Finding one tiny thing to be thankful for, even on the darkest day.
    • Micro-acts of generosity: Sharing a kind word, a cup of tea, a piece of bread. It keeps the energy in motion.
    • Protecting your peace: Consciously limiting exposure to draining people and news cycles.
    • Focusing on creation: Even five minutes spent working on your own business, your art, or your ideas signals to the universe that you are still building.

    The energy exchange is happening all around us, in every interaction, every loan, every repaired appliance, and every difficult conversation. It is the currency of our humanity. And sometimes, the most important exchange we can make is with ourselves—to find a sliver of gratitude amidst the ingratitude, and to keep focusing our energy on building, even when we are only building character.

    The drought ends. The lessons remain. And the energy you cultivate today is the currency that will see you through tomorrow’s unknown.

    Together we will explore strategies of resilience and sovereign growth.

    Lita, Goddess of Growth ™️

  • The Philosophy Behind a Paid Community

    Introducing a powerful and necessary manifesto that gets to the heart of sustainable business and authentic community building.

    Why a Paid Community is the Key to Authentic Growth | Lita Goddess of Growth – Discover why a paid community beats free ‘grow rooms’ for building a real network. Lita Goddess of Growth reveals how investing in the right space saves time, builds value, and creates genuine collaboration.

    No More Free: The Philosophy Behind a Paid Community

    It’s a hard truth I had to learn: the same creators who wouldn’t invest a small subscription in a service focused on their genuine upliftment and growth were often the very same people I’d meet in ‘grow rooms.’ There, they would shower gifts on hosts, chasing the fleeting attention of an algorithm, all to inflate their follower count by a thousand—only to find, months later, that they had numbers, but no engaged community. This is the fundamental flaw in the ‘free’ model, and it’s why The Sovren Collective is built on a different principle: valued exchange.

    When I first joined, I didn’t know any better. I was keen to livestream, convinced it was my doorway to the visibility and success I sought. And in truth, had I not livestreamed, I would not have gained the opportunities I did: an ambassadorship, free products to promote for commission, and the Creator Network role. I saw the system full-cycle, from a novice creator to the person behind the stage guiding others.

    But that’s where the inner conflict began. How could I coach someone to avoid an algorithmic violation when my own content was being penalised for what felt like no good reason? I’ve never been able to coach what I don’t believe in. The key is that I need to believe in the principle.

    To use an analogy: I believe in healthy eating. I don’t always eat healthily, but I can comfortably and authentically coach on its benefits. Coaching the intricacies of a system I believed was fundamentally flawed? That was a different matter. My personal morals and ethics were in question.

    The High Cost of ‘Free’: Algorithms, Boundaries, and Misplaced Energy

    My conflict was compounded by the platform’s own actions. The deeply uncomfortable reality of friends and family being monetised by a system I couldn’t control was the final straw. My own family and friends could not, or would not, understand me when I asked them to disconnect from my account. Here I was, choosing self-employment to gain sovereign growth and self-respect, yet I was on a platform that believed inviting my friends and family—even those I had personally blocked—to my livestreams was acceptable. The hope was that they would gift or keep the live ‘lively’. My personal boundaries were irrelevant to the algorithm’s hunger for engagement.

    Furthermore, my livestreams were consistently shown to audiences in Africa and outside the UK. It seemed that what I looked like was more important to the algorithm than my purpose: to connect with people in the UK to build my business. As a UK-based business limited by logistics, this was a systemic failure. I realised it wasn’t just me; this was a fundamental misalignment for any entrepreneur seeking authentic connection with a specific, local audience. The platform was a barrier, not a bridge.

    The Psychology of Investment: Why We Value What We Pay For

    It’s often the way a person who claims to have no money will somehow find it for cigarettes or, in my case, sweets. I know what it is to truly not have. And I saw a pattern: people would watch a livestream, knowing the host relied on gifts to keep showing up, and sit there without interacting or supporting. Then, they would go to a different room and shower gifts on hosts or brands that had already ‘made it’.

    This behaviour reveals a critical psychological truth: we assign value based on cost. A free community is often treated as a disposable one. There is no commitment, and therefore, no skin in the game. A paid community, by its very structure, acts as a filter. It attracts individuals who are serious about their growth and are willing to invest in their own potential. This initial valued exchange sets the stage for everything that follows. It creates a container of mutual commitment, which is the absolute bedrock of sustainable business practices.

    More Than a Membership: The Sovren Way as a Conscious Choice

    This is why The Sovren Collective is a paid-for service. It is a conscious, deliberate choice to establish value from the outset and to take back control. We are focused on building a real community, and together we will find a way to support the growth of all members—on and off social media—without resorting to multi-level marketing, empty gifting cycles, or algorithmic manipulation that disrespects our personal boundaries and goals.

    My vision is clear. Once the foundation for this service is solid, I, Lita Goddess of Growth, will build my presence as an anchor and host through livestreams. I will return to live-streaming, but this time, it will be different. Visibility will not be the end goal; it will be the tool to create a space that attracts those ready to build better networks, to connect meaningfully, and to invest in their own growth and the growth of others. This is the pathway to sovereign growth.

    The Truth About ‘Free’: There Is No Such Thing

    The truth is, there is no free. Even when we attend events for family and friends, and they tell us, “Bring nothing, just yourself,” you know you will still bring something. And you know the host will have spent a great deal of time and resources to create an event where you feel looked after. Even if served just a bowl of soup with bread, you know the love, attention, and time that went into it alone carried a cost. That is the value of genuine care and effort.

    That is the Sovren way. It is an investment in your own journey, surrounded by others who are equally invested. It is the decision to stop funding the illusion of free and start building the reality of connection, strategy, and growth.

    ✨ If you are ready to invest in genuine growth, [Explore The Sovren Collective].

    Lita, Goddess of Growth ™️