Posts tagged ‘conscious business’

I recently started working with a gifted, committed, passionate coach. Like many, she moved away from a more traditional career in order to follow her heart and make a difference. And like many, she’s invested years developing her skills and expertise so she can offer exceptional value to her clients.

But then she did something most practice builders don’t do – she gathered her courage, took a leap of faith, and hired a consultant to help her build the business side of her practice. She realized that in order to be successful, she needed to develop as much competency in selling her services as in providing them. So she found someone who had a lot of experience with small businesses, paid him $36,000, did everything he said to do for six months…and generated virtually no new clients.

In fact, it was even worse than that.

This consultant didn’t just waste her time and money. He actually guided her to do things that were the exact opposite of what would make her successful. He pushed her to do things that felt out of integrity, that turned off potential clients, and that pulled her away from her purpose – all at the same time.

In response to her story, I realized there’s one thing, more than any other, I wish I could help every practice builder understand. If I could wave a magic wand, and give just one piece of information to every purpose-driven coach, counselor and healer in the world – this would be it.

Most standard business practices don’t work for purpose driven practice builders.

They don’t work practically and they don’t work energetically. They don’t generate the results we want and they don’t feel good when we try to do them.

Here’s why.

Your services are not an impersonal commodity.
Traditional business is based on selling the same thing to everyone. If you buy a Toyota Prius, you can customize a few things like the color and options, but you’ll still be one of 1.6 million people driving this car. Traditional business is a fundamentally impersonal process.

However, you’re not selling bananas, cars, or cheap plastic toys. You’re selling services that change people’s lives. You’re selling the equivalent of heart surgery. As such, what you’re selling is based on intimacy, which is the opposite of what most sales and marketing techniques create. (Imagine if you were to receive a coupon for heart surgery – Buy One, Get One FREE! Ridiculous – yet that’s what we often think we have to do to sell our services.)

Your value is not based on offering the cheapest prices.
Because traditional business is based on selling commodities, the primary way retailers can offer value is by selling things at a cheaper price. But that’s the opposite of what works for us. With coaching, counseling and healing, the number one thing that creates exceptional value is the level of commitment your clients bring to the relationship. If you have a client that is 100% committed to their growth and healing, you could read the phone book to them and they’d get value. If you have a client who is 100% committed to resisting their growth and healing, nothing you can do will make a difference.

Commitment creates value. And in our culture, one of the most powerful ways we commit ourselves is with our money. If you try to compete based on offering the lowest prices, you end up decreasing the value you offer – not increasing it. You end up doing a disservice to your clients and to yourself. Again, this is the opposite of how most business works.

Your value is not based on helping people hide from their issues.
When you’re feeling insecure or lonely, how do you deal with this? For most people, the answer is to consume something. Feeling bad? Eat something. Watch a show. Pop a pill. Buy new clothes. Drink a beer. Go on vacation. Buy a couch. Traditional business does a great job of enabling our addictions. It loves to help us numb out and hide from our issues by offering us sugar highs that feel good for the moment but come with a long term cost.

In contrast, our services are based on helping people embrace their issues and work through them. This isn’t quick or easy, and it automatically brings up deep, unconscious fears. In fact, the more value you offer, the more likely it is that people’s defenses will get triggered during the enrollment process (usually without them even realizing it). And when this happens, people automatically start thinking “I don’t have enough time or money to do this.” This usually isn’t true, and being of service involves learning how to lovingly work with this instead of helping enable their fears.

Your paradigm isn’t based in stress and scarcity.
Not only don’t traditional business practices work for us practically. They also don’t work energetically. They don’t feel good, or in alignment with our core values. So no matter how many times we tell ourselves that we “should” do more to build our businesses, we often find ourselves procrastinating or getting sucked into cycles of meaningless busywork. Or we’ll waste money paying others to try and find our clients for us. These patterns don’t work. Yet virtually every purpose driven practice builder I’ve worked with has them, because at the deepest levels, the energy most business runs off of isn’t compatible with the energy we’re committed to living our lives from.

Traditional business is based in stress and scarcity. Stress is the fuel source most people in business use to keep themselves motivated. They amp up on caffeine, deadlines, and endless to do lists. But what is stress? It’s a polite name for fear and self-judgment. Plus, the foundational principle of modern economics – the law of supply and demand – is based on the assumption that prices are set by competing over scarce resources.

Yet we seek to live from a paradigm of abundance, and we seek to be motivated by purpose and inspiration rather than fear and unworthiness. And when we try to do business in a traditional way, we naturally find ourselves procrastinating – consistently – because of this core energetic conflict between how we want to be and how we feel business is “supposed” to be done.

So how do we work with this?

Being successful as a coach, counselor, healer, or other type of purpose driven practice builder requires learning a new, different, more caring way of doing business. It requires letting go much of what we think we know about business, or how we think business “should” be, and learning what it means to do business in a way that works for us, both practically and energetically.

Selling By Giving provides a complete system that you can use to learn how to do so. It teaches what it means to do business in a new, different, more loving way. One that empowers you to make money and make a difference, while doing what you love.

And rather than try to sell you on why you “should” buy something from us, our goal is to build a relationship with you, based on a set of stair steps of trust and commitment.
Hopefully you’ve taken advantage of the first, free step – the $197 Practice Building Kit you can claim (for free) at www.sellingbygiving.net

Then the next step is either the Home Study Course or the 6 Month Practice Building Academy. Not sure which one would be best for you? If so, we’ve made it so you can’t make a wrong choice. If you start with the Home Study Course and then upgrade to the Academy, your HSC tuition pays for your first month at the Academy. And if you jump in to the Academy and decide it’s too much too soon, you can leave after the first month and keep your HSC.

Plus, both programs are covered by our exceptional value guarantees. So what have you got to lose? (Except any limiting beliefs about business that have been holding you back?)
Love and light,
Brian

After decades where we increasingly bought in to the idea that “what’s good for Wall Street is good for America,” the financial crisis is causing many people to question the nature of business. Is greed and corruption merely “business as usual?” Or can business be a force for good?

In the bubble, a lot of people got rich gambling with other people’s money. And when those bets turned sour, the losses were paid for, not by the people who made the bets, but by taxpayers and by millions who lost their jobs. When combined with the cases where big businesses have contributed to ecological devastation, Enron-style fraud, and childhood obesity, there’s a lot of anger about the way business is being done.

But here’s the thing. Capitalism is far and away the most powerful system ever developed for creating wealth and raising our standard of living. Over the last 190 years, the real per person income level in the US has increased from $1,200 to $31,000. Our level of wealth has increased so much that we now drive to our protests.

Capitalism creates wealth – enormous wealth – and this wealth pays for our homes, education, health care, social services, and the many non-profits we donate to.

The problem isn’t that business is bad. In its own way, business is already a tremendous force for good.

The problem is that most of this good is being done unconsciously. It’s being done almost by accident, rather than as part of a consciously defined purpose. Relentless, ruthless competition creates profits – lots of profits – but these profits come with a price.

As its most commonly practiced, traditional business has three core problems.

It’s short on purpose.

It’s long on fear.

And it’s unsustainable.

Purpose. A colleague of mine does a lot of work with boards of directors. These men (and yes, they’re almost all older, white men) have lots of grey hair. They’ve risen to the top of their competitive ladders. And yet their biggest question is usually, “is this all there is?” They’ve often sacrificed everything to their careers, only to find a sense of emptiness and a lack of fulfillment.

The reason for this is that traditionally, we’ve compartmentalized money and meaning. For-profits are supposed to make money. Non-profits are supposed to make a difference. And that has left many people in business feeling successful put unfulfilled.

Fear. At its core, traditional business is fueled by scarcity and stress – two polite names for fear. Why do people get corrupt and greedy? Because they’re afraid there’s not enough to go around. In daily life, we don’t get greedy for air. We don’t try to hoard it, or store it away, because we trust that there’s enough for everyone. But capitalism is based on relentless, ruthless competition over scarce goods and services – and that creates fear. Feeling stressed about work isn’t something special. It’s an automatic consequence of being part of this system.

Sustainability. Capitalism’s greatest strength is its unparalleled capacity for economic expansion. And capitalism’s greatest challenge is its addiction to that expansion. Our entire financial system is predicated on the assumption that GDP will always keep increasing. Stock markets, debt and retirement funds all depend on this. So does our monetary supply. But continuous exponential expansion is unsustainable, and we’re rapidly reaching its limits.

Capitalism is a system with tremendous strengths – and with equally tremendous challenges.

So the real question is not “can business be a force for good?” The real question is “how can business be more of a force for good?” How can it provide more purpose, less fear, and more sustainability? And how can it do this more consciously, rather than as something we try to just fit in the cracks?

Now, that’s a question worth investing in.

If you’re a fish living in an aquarium, it doesn’t take a whole lot of ingenuity to discover things like food, rocks, bubbles, and other fish.

But it takes a genius to discover water.

In response to a recent article on conscious business, someone asked me “so, what do you mean by conscious?” And I got stuck. I couldn’t provide a concise answer. The whole notion of consciousness had become so core for me that that I was at a loss for words.

Then in my morning meditation today, I realized that the defining genius of some of my favorite teachers (such as Ron and Mary Hulnick, Steve Chandler, Ken Wilber and David Hawkins) is that like a fish explaining water, they’ve learned how to explain consciousness to other humans.

The picture below shows the ladder of consciousness. At the bottom of the ladder is death. As Steve Chandler points out, you’ve got to be a pretty good salesperson to close a deal with a dead person. And death makes it a lot harder to hit the quarterly numbers.

Just slightly above death is fear, along with its partners judgment and pain. Fear makes us stupid. It makes us un-conscious. At a physical level, it literally sucks the blood from our brains, reverses tens of thousands of years of evolution, and puts us into “fight or flight mode.” When we’re feeling scared, angry, hurt, stressed, guilty or unworthy, we’re in a very low state of consciousness. Most violence comes from this level of consciousness, as do most of the deeper challenges in relationships and business.

At the top of the ladder is the power of the human spirit. Think Gandhi, Chariots of Fire, and the firemen at 9/11. Think “yes we can.” This is where creativity lives, as well as inspiration, joy, love and peace. When we’re living life from the top of the ladder, we’re at the top of our game. Ideas flow, synchronicity connects, and we’re able to see how even the most painful challenges in our lives have been gifts for our learning and growth. This is a place of profound but grounded optimism – what Jim Collins calls Level 5 Leadership.

This grounded optimism makes a huge difference. According to Dr. Martin Seligman, “I have studied pessimism for the last twenty years, and in more than one thousand studies, involving more than half a million children and adults, pessimistic people do worse than optimistic people in three ways: First, they get depressed much more often. Second, they achieve less at school, on the job and on the playing field, much less than their talents would suggest. Third, their physical health is worse than that of optimists.”

When we’re at the top of the ladder we live life much more consciously than when we’re at the bottom. We see how interconnected life is, and we treat other people and our environment with care and consideration. Not because we “should,” or because we want others’ approval, but because we genuinely want to. From this place, we naturally shift our focus from a single bottom line to a triple bottom line (of profits, society and the environment.) We create businesses that provide both money and meaning. We create conscious businesses – organizations that are aware of the ladder of consciousness, and focus not just on what they do, but also on how they are.

Organizations which are not only aware of the other fish in the tank, but also of the water they swim in.

In the wake of the financial crisis, there’s been a lot of talk about ethical reform. With the disgrace of so many of “the best and the brightest,” there’s a lot of soul searching going on in government, industry and business schools. Most of this discussion is focused on regulation and rules – it seeks to answer the question “what is good behavior and how can we mandate it?”

This line of questioning is important. But it risks missing the deeper issue, because meaningful ethical reform requires making ethics meaningful.

Meaningful ethical reform requires moving beyond just the “what” question and also addressing the “why”. It requires moving beyond creating lists of behaviors people should comply with to connecting them with values they freely choose to live their lives by. Not out of a sense of obligation, but because they get how these values create meaning. And because they’ve learned concrete tools to deal with the conflicts that inevitably arise as they seek to live a meaningful life.

“Why would people freely choose to live an ethical life?”

Not out of a fear of punishment. A choice made out of fear isn’t a free choice. It breeds surface compliance and hidden rebellion. It creates preachers who rail against sex while having affairs. As Joan Borysenko puts it, “Punishment is an effective way to change behavior, but usually not in the desired direction.” When motivation comes from a place of I should or I must, it’s sourced from fear and guilt. This can keep us from doing something awful, but it can’t inspire us to authentic ethics or authentic leadership, which come from a place of I choose.

Similarly, authentic ethics can’t come just out of a desire for approval. Do you remember the petty cliquishness of high school? That’s what happens when a group of good but insecure people seek to define their self worth according to others’ opinions. A life based on approval seeking quickly degenerates into an empty race for money and status. While our desire for approval can be a force for good – the shaming of investment banking’s excesses is creating a major drive for change – the whims of the crowd are fickle and can reward vice just as easily as virtue.

The primary, enduring reason to freely choose an ethical life is that a meaningful life is an ethical life. The meaning of life comes from growth, giving and connection – three of the primary forms of mature love. Mature love is the foundation of all ethics (i.e. “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”) and a meaningful life is also an ethical life.

If we simplify human needs down to their essence, we all have three basic levels of needs: survival, success and fulfillment (i.e. meaning). We all crave meaning, particularly once we’ve met our basic needs for survival and success. Because of this, we don’t need to convince people that they should live an ethical life. We just need to help them understand – in their whole being – how authentic ethics are an essential aspect of creating the meaningful life they crave.

But – and this is key – ethical behaviors do not necessarily create a meaningful life. This is because authentic ethics are determined not just by what we do, but also by where we do it from. When we do ethical behaviors from a place of fear, guilt or approval seeking, the result is fragile and empty. It’s only when our ethics come from a genuine place of mature love that they create a lasting, meaningful foundation for life.

Yet how many business textbooks talk about love? How many college courses teach authentic leadership? How many high schools teach students practical tools for how to be more loving?

Not nearly enough.

In the past decades, we’ve increasingly bought into the idea that “separation of church and state” means “separation of heart and mind.” Church is where we’re supposed to learn how to love, and school is where we’re supposed to learn how to achieve.

This divorce is at the heart of the current crisis. It’s contributed to a compartmentalization between our personal and professional lives, and to an attitude in business where “anything goes unless it’s forbidden or unprofitable.” So if we want to address the roots of this crisis, we need to learn how to integrate money and meaning – both in our lives, in our businesses, and in our schools.

The practice of integrating money and meaning automatically and consistently brings up inner conflicts. It brings up challenges that can’t be solved just in our heads. It brings forward dilemmas that can only be resolved through deep personal and spiritual growth.

Because of this, there is no such thing as a theoretical class in authentic leadership. Authentic leadership requires integrating body, mind, and spirit. It requires learning how to integrate success and fulfillment, sales and service, money and meaning. It requires learning how to embrace the conflicts in life, and how to use everything as opportunities for learning, upliftment and growth.

This doesn’t mean that our schools need to become more religious. It means they need to become more loving.

Over the past decades, business schools have sought to become ever more scientific. But by increasingly basing their existence solely on the cult of reason, they’ve been feeding the divorce between heart and mind, rather than healing it. In doing so, they’ve been failing our students, failing our businesses, and failing our society.

If we wish to create meaningful ethical reform in business, it requires bringing meaning and love back into education. In particular, it means bringing meaning and love back into business schools. It requires teaching students practical, concrete, psycho-spiritual tools for how to work with their inner conflicts. It requires teaching them how to embrace the challenges that automatically come up as we seek to build businesses that create both money and meaning. It requires renouncing the fundamentalist dogmas of the cult of reason and of the single bottom line. And it requires evaluating our schools not just on whether they produce smart and successful students, but also on whether they produce wise and fulfilled ones.

P.S. Have you checked out the free $100 practice building kits we’re giving away yet?  While they’re particularly focused on practice builders, the first CD in particular contains some of the leading, practical tools for how to create a business that embraces both money and meaning.

One of my clients made a major shift this month in her business. She’s building a new company that’s exciting, innovative and heart-felt. She’s got a big vision and a big opportunity, but like most of us, her fears and insecurities had been holding her back.

She kept asking questions like “Who am I to do this business?” “Why would investors give me money?” “Why would people buy from me?” Each time she did, she found herself feeling more insecure and unworthy.

The key she used to change things for herself was to change the core focus of the company. When she listened to her insecurities, she thought it needed to be about her. And when she thought she needed to be the center of the company, she kept comparing herself to others and finding herself wanting. Which created more insecurity, and more of a need to make the company about herself…

But her business isn’t really about her. It’s about a bigger purpose. It’s about a cause she cares deeply about. And when she focused on this purpose, then the question shifted from “Why would people want to work with me?” to “Who wants to join with me in support of this purpose?” The answer: lots of people, including some very rich and successful investors, who might be delighted to enlist her in their cause.

Their cause? What about her cause? Ah…but it’s the same cause. Self-focus creates a win/lose mentality. How can I take from you? How can I convince you? How can I enroll you in what I want? It puts us on opposing teams. Purpose-focus creates a win/win or no deal mentality. It shifts the game so we’re both on the same team.

I notice the same shift in me. When I start thinking that Selling By Giving is about me, I start feeling insecure and thinking that I need to convince others of its value. But it’s not about me. It’s about service. It’s about making a difference in people’s lives. It’s about a cause I care deeply about – integrating spirituality and business, so we can learn how to turn business into service and sales into spiritual growth.

Do you ever feel insecure about business? If so, what is the purpose behind what you’re doing? And how can you focus more on that, particularly when talking to others about sales, investment or partnership?

Love and light,

Brian

P.S. Big announcement coming soon! Probably this next week!