Heart of Business

A friend and colleague, Havi Brooks of The Fluent Self just dumped her “noozletter” in favor of her blog. She was, as she admitted, a-scared and a-tremblin’ about the decision, because every big marketing guru tells you that you have to have a newsletter.

But she dumped it, and now it’s history.

You may be wondering whether you should follow her. You may wonder whether blogs really “win” over newsletters, as some people claim. What should you do, a blog or a newsletter?

The Classic Answer: It Depends On Who Yer Tawkin’ At

For at least a year, I had been blogging with the intention/thought/hope that if people read my blog, they would subscribe to my “noozletter” as my friend Havi calls these kinds of things.

No dice. I mean, it happened that someone from the blog would wander over and subscribe, but it was rare. Eventually, I faced the inevitable conclusion that has since been confirmed anecdotally by several others:

Blog readers and email newsletter readers are, by-and-large, different groups of people. Some people like email, and some people like RSS (which is how you would get notified that there’s been something new added to the blog.) Some people like both, but not so many.

Do One or the Other–or Both

Any garden-variety spiritual master would tell you the same thing. “Speak to the people where they are. Speak to them in the language they understand. Go to them, and bring the truth.”

This same spiritual master would also say: “Don’t go among foreigners until you have spoken to your own people.”

Before in this ezine I’ve discussed, “Does the Cutting Edge of Social Media Really Pay?” The answer is yes, it does. But the rest of the answer is you don’t have to rush off to do the latest thing. Start with what’s familiar to you.

Do you read blogs, familiar with RSS, and enjoy that whole world? Then go for it–start a blog!

Or, do you read email newsletters and like them? Then that’s a great place to start for you.

Either Way, You Can’t Do It Wrong

It’s not such a big choice. If you are already doing one or the other, and it’s working and you’re enjoying it, keep doing it. If you aren’t doing either, which one are you drawn to more?

And, if you’ve been doing one for awhile, like I have, and it’s in a groove, maybe you have the spaciousness to try the other one.

There are a few things to keep in mind, however. Let me give you some of the things I’ve found most useful for each.

Top Tips for Blogs and Newsletters

• For newsletters: Publish, be useful, don’t be careful.

1) When you send out your newsletter, also make sure it gets put on some sort of an archive page on your website, like this: http://www.heartofbusiness.com/articles/2008/Aug27.htm.

If your content isn’t also on your website, then you are missing out on Google juice, where Google will find your content and have it appear in search engines.

2) Share your expertise! This is one of those no-duh things, but don’t hold back, because you don’t want to give yourself away for free. People will still pay. Why they will is a whole ‘nother article, but trust me, it works to be generous.

3) Something happens when people start writing–they get “careful.” Instead of writing: “Hey, guess what, I can’t believe we’re finally releasing this product.” They’ll say something like, “I’m pleased to announce the release of our product.”

That carefulness builds walls of formality and distance. Be yourself. Be vulnerable. Write how you talk, and have fun with it. That’s what builds intimacy, which builds trust, which brings you business.

• For blogs: find friends, comment frequently, be a peer.

1) One of the big benefits with blogging is that everything is interconnected on the web. And so, a blog without comments can look pretty lonely.

If you find three or four friends who are also blogging, you can comment, and mention each other’s blogs. That will create some seed energy to help build momentum and readership. It will also help keep you connected to your blog as a conversation, instead of feeling like you’re talking to a tree stump.

2) Again, the interconnection thing. If you are reading other people’s blogs that you like, and commenting, people really do follow you back to your blog. Plus, if your comments are heart-felt and add to the conversation, you can begin to make friends with the blogger, who may blog you up, too.

Of course, there’s a thin line between commenting as strategy versus commenting as an authentic real person with something to say. Yes, do it as a strategy, but don’t lose your heart–keep it real.

3) For some reason, blogs thrive on peerness. Meaning, no one is better than anyone else. Even the most popular bloggers often write about their mistakes, goof-ups, insecurities. Don’t be afraid to let it all hang out there, as well as sharing your expertise and insight.

You already know that writing regularly creates intimacy and builds trust which is what brings in clients, so you can help them and be supported. If you’ve been waiting to start, trying to figure out whether to blog or to send out a newsletter… just pick the one you’re most comfortable with, and start. There’s plenty of time for the other one later.

Since this is the blog version of this article (it was also published to my email list) I’m guessing you may be more comfortable with blogs. Is it true? Do you have both, or one, or the other? What have you found?

Last week I wrote about why you should never have more than three projects. And then, yesterday morning, in our Heart of Business Team Meeting (I love writing that, just cause after years of doing this nearly solo, we now have a team!), we nearly did it to ourselves.

So, half-way through the meeting, we killed a big project. Just knocked it off the list.

And then we all breathed a bit more deeply, and sat there looking at each other. Blink. Blink-blink. It was great. The project was actually a juicy project, that could’ve done some very cool things for our business, but it was just too much. Too much for us to take on.

Have you ever heard that trite old saying, “Go slow to go fast”? Well, that’s what we were thinking here. And by going slow, we are now focusing on the most important project we have:

Building Infrastructure.

I know, I know. It’s such an unbelievably sexy, lustful project that we can barely hold ourselves back. I mean, how exhilarating to be discussing what kind of phone system can handle three different people in remote locations, and how to keep our calendars synched? It’s so exciting I just have… to… yawn.

And yet… have you every noticed how satisfying a good yawn can be?

Since we killed that other project, and have focused on just three main ones, actually only two if I count correctly, plus some of the regular day-to-day stuff that keeps happening, I find myself actually becoming productive.

A project I’d been meaning to get to all last week, I finally took several steps on it today. I find myself feeling spacious, at-ease, breathing better.

And I find myself loving my projects.

The Project Soul.

One of the points I made last week was that projects have a soul. A being-ness. Something real to them that is beyond just a list of to-do’s. Because everything comes from Source (where else would it come from) it has to have some sort of a spiritual being-ness to it, and so therefore, your project has a heart. It has a soul.

By having fewer projects, I’m able to cozy up to the few that are left.

How about you? Have you ever experienced the heart or soul of a project? What happens if you take a moment in your heart to connect?

It’s been true for a long time that “micro” businesses, sometimes called “personal-sized” businesses, are the largest part of the economy. The self-employed, one or two-owner with no employees is a huge part of the U.S. and global economy.

If you need proof, here’s the US census data.

Some of the numbers:

• In 2006, there 20.7 million nonemployer businesses.
• They brought in $970 Billion in revenues in that same year.

Get it. Your little business is a major part of the economy. Because major corporations have such large coffers, they buy advertising (which is becoming about as effective as nasal spray for a goldfish) and that’s what we see. But that’s such a small slice of the truth.

I’ve heard that the number of “nonemployer” micro-businesses is expected to grow substantially over the next decade, for a variety of reasons. Although it’s sometimes hard to feel significant when you think you’re a lone voice in the wilderness- just remember there are another 20+ million voices standing with you.

The way you and I and our 20 million colleagues choose to do business has a major effect on how our culture and economy works.

What do you think? Do the numbers surprise you? Do you feel more hopeful?

This past Monday my wife Holly, myself, and our assistant Kate had a long meeting. And why? So we can put a bunch of absolutely amazing and wonderful ideas on the back burner, and do nothing about them.

It’s probably not such a surprising idea for you, that you’re supposed to prioritize your projects, and only focus on a few things at a time. If you’re new to the concept, like I was when I was trying to keep 20 projects all going at once, and driving myself insane in the process, let me ’splain just briefly.

If you give in to the pressure that you need to get lots and lots done all right now, it’s much more likely you’ll end up spinning around, getting much less done, and getting it done with a lot less quality. And you’ll find your business hasn’t moved forward nearly as much as you’d have liked.

If you just focus on three major projects in your business at a time, and put the rest on the back burner, you’ll actually get them done, so you can move on to other things. You’ll think you’re moving more slowly, but after a year or two of focusing on only three projects at a time, adding a new project when another completes, you’ll see that your business is making a lot of progress.

Focusing on three is the smart thing to do.

But, just because it’s ’smart’ doesn’t mean that you or I will have the will power to resist the flood of urgency that wants us to keep adding to the pile.

Does your project have a soul?

Everything, absolutely everything comes from Source, and has a spiritual essence to it. This most obviously applies to humans, animals, and plants. But, it also applies to things, and even ideas.

Things like projects. I know it’s strange to imagine it, but projects really do have a spiritual essence.

Let me put it to you this way: if everything, everything comes from Source, if it didn’t have a spiritual essence, how could that project exist?

Pick one of your business projects right now, and take a few moments to see if you can connect to the spiritual ‘essence’ of the project. For instance, this homestudy product we’re working on, if I take a few moments in my heart, I can become aware of a sense of its ‘beingness.’ Kinda hard to put into words, but it’s there.

I wouldn’t exactly call it a ’soul,’ but it is an expression of Divine Reality, and so it’s definitely akin to that.

How many close, really close, friends do you have?

You’ve met a lot of people in your life, I’m guessing. At least in the hundreds, probably in the thousands. Yet the number of acquaintances you have, people you know better, is much fewer.

And the number of real friends and loved ones, the ones you see on a daily or weekly basis? I bet it’s a pretty small number.

Your projects are intimate friends of your business, but are they intimate friends of yours? If you just barely give them the time of day, glad-handing from one to another as if in a large party, what kind of a relationship will you really develop with your projects?

Will you discover the unexpected depths, the breadth of opportunity? Will you really be able to attend to all the details, issues, and questions that your project brings up?

If I handle a project only as series of tasks that I need to get done, not only do I disconnect from my heart, but the whole project feels a little dull, lifeless. I tend to miss the miracles available.

For instance, I had a project of creating strategic alliances. At first, I was just trying to list out potential strategic alliances, and approach them. I did have my heart open, but it still felt rather mechanical.

It wasn’t until I really looked at the whole project of “strategic alliances,” and came into a deeper relationship with the essence of it, and found a quality of beingness that included openness, generosity, and sincerity, that the project took on a life of its own.

Suddenly, instead of pushing boulders uphill, strategic alliances starting sprouting up seemingly spontaneously. Whew! How much better is that?

Keep Projects Intimate.

If you try to keep too many friends in your inner, inner circle, then you get to know none of them well. The same with your projects. Your business projects have tons of undiscovered miracles within them, if you can only really open your heart, and get up close and personal.

This is why I’m asking you to please, please limit the number of active business projects to about three, and put the rest of them on the back burner.

Is it really that simple? Well, kinda. Let’s take a look.

Keys to Project Intimacy.

• Pick just one project.

With that one project, take a moment in your heart to see what’s your true relationship to it. Not your ideal relationship, but what’s true now? Are you grumpy, scared, nervous, tense, angry?

What if it was okay to feel that way about the project?

Example: Strategic alliances… ewww… scary. It’s kinda like cold calling, and do I really have to force myself onto people? Emotions/sensations: fear, overwhelm, resentment.

• What’s the deeper relationship?

When you take time in your heart to connect with the essence of the project, what quality of relationship is there?

Example: Strategic alliances… resting into my heart… remembering times when people were really happy to help promote the business. Asking in my heart what is the Divine quality of relationship? Qualities: sincerity, generosity, love.

• How many can you honestly handle?

If you were going to have deeper relationships with your active projects, how many can your heart honestly handle?

List out all of your projects, and pick the top three to six. Go through this process with each of them, and then just honestly sit with each. How many of them can you really handle, without becoming overwhelmed?

Trust your heart here. If you can handle three, that’s it. Trust that the rest will wait patiently on a back burner until it’s time to get to them.

Sometimes you want to have as many friends as possible, but there are just so many intimate dinners or tea-parties in a week that you can get to. Limit your projects, and get intimate with those that are active. There will be plenty of time later to get to the others, and, in the meantime, the intimacy you build with each project will really get your business going.

And for you? What’s your relationship with your projects? Intimacy? Not?

Here’s what happened- I dragged my feet.

Well, not exactly. We just got overwhelmed, and didn’t get out from under a huge pile of projects and to-do’s until about a week ago.

But, what was supposed to happen was we were going to start promoting our Path to Profitability Retreat back in April. Really gently, giving everyone time to figure out if it would be a good fit for them.

Instead, we started promoting it just three weeks ago. Luckily, it seems already 5 of the 20 spots are taken. Still, I hate to pressure people with a promotion.

And then came Article Writing.

The other thing is that we wanted to launch our Heart-Centered Article Writing HomeStudy product, because the class went so well. And, we have all these plans to biggify (thanks Havi, for that), because the teachings in that course are so sorely needed. I mean, I needed them, and the people I’ve taught them to have needed them. The internet just seems to need them, in general.

And this is when the promotion for that is supposed to start, and did. Except it all got jammed together with the Retreat promotion, which wasn’t supposed to happen.

I feel great about promoting things. I just don’t feel great about creating confusion in the promotions, and about promoting too much at the same time. It’s just too much.

So, please accept my apologies, and know that my intentions are sincere.

The Retreat is going to be beautiful, and is a completely different animal than the Article Writing. Check out both, either, or none, as your heart guides you.

I’m curious- what’s been your experience with trying to promote too much at once? You ever get jammed up, and ended up feeling tender, nervous, uncertain

==Flash back to 2004==

As I sit down to write an article, I feel stumped. I’ve got an hour to “get it done,” and meanwhile I’m just staring at the screen… 55 minutes later, with a few sentences written, I have to stop, and I’m off to the next thing- two back-to-back conference calls.

==Flash forward again.==

Your business depends on your creativity. Your creativity in your marketing, in your product and service creation, and just in how you show up for your customers and clients. Without creativity, everything grows stagnant, you are unable to produce to meet deadlines, yours and others, and you begin to feel lifeless. And so does your business. And so do your profits.

How do you nurture the absolutely critical, bottom-line necessary creativity since you can’t just turn it on between appointments?

Well, let’s take a look at creativity, what it is, and what it needs.

The first thing to get clear is that “creativity” is a bit of a misnomer. You aren’t creating anything, in the meaning of “making something exist out of thin air, where nothing existed before.” No human being can create at that level, although it can sure look that way sometimes.

So, when you get creative, what’s really happening?

In the best-selling management book Whale Done, by Ken Blanchard, the book describes how a failing manager attending a business conference in Florida, takes time off to go see a killer whale show. Amazed by the performance, he sticks around to find out how the trainers get the killer whales to perform so consistently.

A best-selling book was born out of this apparent mis-match: training killer whales who could easily kill and eat their trainers (means you want to keep them happy and well-fed), and creating positive and effective relationships with employees and others in your life.

Amazing. Simple. Creative.

Although Whale Done is written as a fable, the event of meeting the killer whale trainers really happened. And it happened during time off from working.

Creativity is a synthesis of different elements, not normally seen together, or expressed in a certain way. In order to make those unusual connections, you need unscheduled time. You need room to think and play and daydream, where there is no pressure to be “productive.”

You need space.

==Flash back to 2006.==

I have an entire week of unstructured time, except for three appointments. Clients ask to meet, and I smoothly schedule them before and after the week. People want to “get together.” I schedule them out. A high-priority board meeting comes up, but, I’m unavailable. So sorry. My week is packed full. With space. And the creativity and insights pour through.

==Flash forward again.==

How do you defend your spaciousness from the unrelenting onslaught of demands and deadlines? Read below in “Keys to Space Defense.”

Keys to Space Defense.

• Take “Cafe Days.”

Nutso marketing guru Sean D’Souza calls these “cafe days.” I’ve adopted them, and they are brilliant. Go spend 2-4 hours in a cafe. By yourself. No computer. Bring a pad of paper and a pen if you like. Eat lunch. Sip tea. Watch people. Daydream. See what happens.

• Give yourself one appointment a day for you.

If you see clients, or vendors, or whomever, and you typically schedule 60-90 minute appointments, give one of these to yourself every day. Yes, every day.

I struggled with finishing my book for a long time, until my mastermind group convinced me to treat my book like a client. A very big and important client. A daily client.

I made the decision to give my 9am client slot to my book every single day. I finished the book in a little over four months. And, I liked the habit so much, I kept that 9am slot for me. Just try and get a 9am appointment with me. Sorry, I’m booked. But I’ll gladly see you at 10:30am.

• Schedule unproductive time.

I really did schedule a whole week of unproductive time, but that was at the end of December. During the rest of the year, I’m more likely to schedule a Cafe Day, or simply an hour or two in the afternoon, once or twice a week. And, when I put it in my calendar, it doesn’t move. Someone needs an appointment, an important meeting comes up? Sorry, I’m already booked.

You are not a robot. And even robots need to oil their joints. If you really want to make that quantum jump in your business, then you need to do more than just stand where you want to jump from because when you make a quantum jump, there is a little bit of time before you land in the new place, when you are flying through unstructured space.

Action step: Take out your calendar right now and look at the next few weeks. It might take a few weeks to start to work it in because of pre-scheduled commitments, but schedule your “unproductive” time right now. And don’t give it up for anything.

So… did you do it? Did you take time? Did you schedule it?

In a little tweeting back and forth with Naomi of Ittybiz, I was kinda curious about her product release strategy. Instead of releasing a book that was standalone- she released it with support. Then, cut off sales. I’d give you a link, but the book is no longer available, as of August 8.

When I asked her about whether an unsupported version was going to be available, she said maybe in a few months.

Now, I really like Naomi, and she’s one smart cookie, so I’m guessing she’s got some kind of grand plan behind it. But, to my way of thinking, it’s a little bit backwards. And yes, she’s trying to create urgency to spike sales, and it worked.

But, you can spike sales with urgency, without needing to cut off your foot, or cut off the product that people want. In fact, cutting off the supply, in a somewhat artificial way, can actually leave people feeling abandoned- not a good way to feel. I feel it myself in my belly- even though I know Naomi wasn’t intending it, and without having met her, I have a feeling she’s just a great person.

Sometimes we try a strategy and it has unintended effects.

So, without further ado, I thought I’d share with you an article I wrote back in 2006 for my email list-

Why and How to Create an Information Product.

Have you put off, or given up entirely, the idea of writing that book, or creating a CD or DVD, for your business?

Maybe you’ve let that idea slip away because you thought your business wasn’t suited to it. I mean, what you do is so individual and personal, or too complicated to explain, or so intuitive in nature, that it can’t be captured in a product.

Or maybe you already sell a product, and you can’t imagine what a book or CD would possibly do for your business.

These kinds of products- books, CDs, DVDs and their digital downloadable equivalents: pdfs, mp3s, mpegs - are called information products, ‘info products’ for short.

And, if you are putting off creating one, you are doing a disservice to all the people who are waiting for you.

What’s the purpose of having an info product?

Some people will tell you the purpose is to have ‘multiple streams of income’ or to ‘fill your business to overflowing.’ It’s true, a good info product can create these kinds of results.

But that’s not why you create one. If you create it for that reason, you are chasing the money, and you’ll end up chasing away your customers.

The purpose of an info product is to help the wallflowers.

A wallflower is that term used at dances and other social events where someone who is feeling a little shy or awkward will take a seat next to a wall, and plant themselves there, and never get out on the dance floor.

In junior high I was painfully shy, and lived as a wallflower. High school wasn’t much better, but I was able to retreat into punk rock and avoid the ‘popular’ high school scene.

Even today, as my 20th high school reunion approaches, I can find myself in wallflower situations. I have better coping mechanisms, but it’s still painful.

How many wallflowers are in your business’ dance hall?

People who are struggling with something are unsure of themselves. They are upset, insecure, hesitant. They want to dance the tango, but they don’t want to look foolish and be rejected.

Do you think it might be easier for those wallflowers if you met them at their seat with a glass of punch, and talked with them awhile, before you even asked them to dance?

A good information product doesn’t recreate your business to give the full dance-hall experience. It doesn’t deliver the same intimacy, or the same instruction, or the same in-depth support, or the same results that your main products or services do. That’s not its job.

The job of a good information product is to help people dance along off to the side, out of the spotlight. This will not only help them get some of the results they need, but it will also get them ready to get out on your dance floor and engage more deeply with what will really help them: your main products and services.

And, it’s not a bad thing that info products can create a nice flow of income for you as well.

Ready to deliver that glass of punch and create an info product?

Keys to Creating an Info Product

• What seats are your wallflowers sitting in?

Identify the main hesitations of some of your reluctant customers. Some common hesitations have to do with:

- Is this weird, or is it normal (do people like me do this?).

- Does it really work?

- Do you really know what you’re doing?

- How does it work?

There are others, including ones specific to your business or industry. Search your heart, and also ask your newest clients what concerns they had before they purchased from you.

• Where does your record skip?

With new clients or customers and in newly-started classes, you give them explanations, key ideas, and foundational notions. These notions may be new to your clients, but you’ve repeated each of them 1000 times in different situations.

At a dance, if the record skips, maybe it’s a DJ working the grooves, or maybe it’s just a bad scratch. (But you hear it repeating the same line over and over.)

When you repeat yourself it’s like a scratched record- and you’ve just found a prime place to focus on a product. Stop the skipping record, and turn it into a workbook, article, or recorded audio product.

• Don’t forget the how-to’s.

In your info product, you want to teach them something, and include instructions on how to actually do it. But, remember, that this is a ‘getting-ready / dance-along’ product, and not the dance itself.

This means that while you want your how-to’s to be complete, and you expect your reader or listener to apply them to some extent, don’t worry about trying to recreate the dance hall experience. Because you can’t.

Instead ask your heart to show you how much (or how little) they really need to know to feel comfortable dancing. Lead them up to the edge of the dance floor, maybe have them dance along to the music a few steps off to the side. And, believe me, people can get a lot out of dancing along off to the side.

Then, they’ll be ready for the dance hall. And that’s when you’ll find your dance card overflowing with new customers and clients.

Go mix up that punch, and start serving out info products to all of your wallflowers.

—–

So there’s the article. The point I’m making is that I bet Naomi has a BUNCH of wallflowers who would love to spend money with her, but are hanging back, just reading her blog posts, and would be happy to purchase a more in-depth experience with her… that still wasn’t quite a full-blown consulting experience.

My point is not to dump on Naomi- I hope she forgives me for this. I read her blog, I follow her tweets, she’s smart, she’s got a heart, she’s someone I respect a lot. I was just confused by this particular strategy.

Maybe she’ll visit and give me an insight that will have me eating my heart-centered hat. Maybe you will. What do you think?

My good friend and co-collaborator Leif Hansen, passed along an article from the Harvard Business Review on 37signals.com (who created the award-winning app Highrise, which we use religiously).

Here’s the gist of the article, quoting founders Jason Fried and his colleague David Heinemeier Hansson:

“No, less is less—because more is not better! Everyone tries to do too much: solve too many problems, build products with too many features. Our goal is to do less, to build half a product rather than a half-assed product. So we say ‘no’ to almost everything. If you include every decent idea that comes along, you’ll just wind up with a half-assed version of your product. What you really want to do is build half a product that kicks ass.”

The article doesn’t specify which of them said that glorious quote, but it doesn’t matter, there’s a whole lotta truth in it.

I wrote about how Productivity Contributes to Global Warming and Debt, and here’s a super-successful company, one for which we’re raving fans, who shows you how to be sustainably successful by doing less. Much less.

Are you able to resist the urge to do more, be more? Can you be less than all you can be, and be happier as a result? Tell us about your next project/product/offering your business is making- do you have an idea of how you can make it less, and thus make it more successful?

In great big, sluggish, behemoth businesses the term “capital investment” refers to buying great big things, like buildings. The term is “fixed assets” and covers things like buildings, machinery- stuff that’s going to be around for awhile.

The trouble for most personal-sized businesses is that revenue- if you even want to use that word, I just mean what cash comes in– tends to go directly into one of two places: day-to-day things that just need to happen like getting biz cards printed, or the phone bills, or what have you, or it gets shovelled over, sometimes in a panic, to cover personal expenses like the mortgage and the grocery bills.

Would I be speaking from personal experience? Maybe…

The thing is that even teensy weensy small businesses, the kind called “personal-sized,” still need fixed assets. You need a computer. You might need audio equipment. Or a projector for presentations.

Where does that money come from, if you haven’t had an income spike this month? Especially since those purchases aren’t usually planned-for- they just happen. When the hard drive crashes. When the presentation comes up and you need something in a hurry.

Here’s my two questions for you all:

- Do you plan ahead for capital purchases- like computers and other kinds of equipment?

- Do you save money aside in some way to be able to pay for those purchases, without needing to take a big bite out of your day-to-day expenses?

My co-blogger Arianna Huffington (I loved writing that, even though I’m a bottom-rung blogger for her gig… ;-)) quoted what President Charles DeGaulle’s said to his aide Jacques Soustelle when Jacques complained that all of his friends were bitterly opposed to the government’s policies. “Changez vos amis.” (”Change your friends.”)

The context here was Arianna’s latest post on Barack Obama’s campaign. Her message to Barack: “Don’t pander to conventional wisdom, stay true to yourself.”

It’s the Same in Business.

The conventional wisdom has it that your business needs to deliver what people want and need- and that’s true. If you aren’t fulfilling basic wants and needs of people, chances are your business won’t really take off.

However, there is another side of this- showing leadership. Sometimes people don’t know what they want. A clear example in our business is that often business owners want to rush into getting something done- they want to jump into action.

And yet, before you can get into action, you have to have clarity. Without clarity- clarity of heart, clarity of purpose, clarity of who you’re serving- your actions may well be totally useless. I sometimes have to reign someone in, and help them take a look at something more internal, or more profound, or more challenging to look at than usual.

That’s the case with the upcoming course Heart of Money Transformational Journey. Money is a HUGE topic- and yet many business owners never really face their doubts, fears, assumptions, and beliefs about money. Which makes it very, very hard to be successful, no matter how many “right actions” you may take.

It’s not always fun, but it is incredibly liberating and effective, and I wouldn’t be showing leadership if I didn’t cover this territory.

Are you letting your friends change you?

Are you Jacques Soustelle or Charles DeGaulle? Or Barack Obama? Well, maybe you don’t want to be any of them.

But here’s the real question: are you being you? Are you being true to your vision, are you planting your flag? Are you leading the way in your business?