More Than Your Category

I was having a conversation with Zoe, my assistant, the other day. We were talking about her band, Cross-Eyed Rosie, who has been making a big splash recently here in the Pacific Northwest, with their particularly sincere and beautiful blue-grass/folk sound. http://www.crosseyedrosie.com

The trouble is, that in the music industry as she knows it, until you get wildly successful, you end up working harder and harder playing more and more gigs, spending money on mini-tours, etc, and making hardly any money at all- a few hundred dollars for a gig to be split between several band members.

As we talked, what I saw was that they were confining themselves in terms of what they were able to give. As long as they thought of themselves as a band that played music for entertainment, they would be playing $10/head gigs.

But something Zoe said during the conversation holds the doorway for this band, and for your business, when she described one of their gigs that went amazingly well, “the best gig we ever played.” In her own words, as best as I can remember them:

“So the whole scene was going amazingly well, and I just had this feeling, and I said to the crowd, ‘Okay, this is the time during the show when you turn to the person next to you and tell them how much you love them.’ And they did it! I couldn’t believe it- and the whole room felt amazing, and everyone was flying.”

Zoe went on to describe that she has had a vision for a long time of creating an experience where people didn’t need or want to smoke or drink- because the experience of the music created such a feeling in them that they wanted to feel connected.

What I saw was that if she could start to define the experience and the true gift the band, the music was able to bring for people, then you go beyond entertainment. If the band, for instance, discovered that they had a gift for creating love and peace between people through the music, then you can start to creatively define an experience with a strong benefit, more than just a night’s entertainment, no matter how cool.

With this kind of experience the value goes up. People receive more from the experience, and so they want to give more, and it’s worth more.

Maybe the band creates from this a 3-hour interactive musical experience, that teaches people to use their own music and voices to connect with others, and create peace and love in their lives. Maybe that’s worth a lot more than $10 per person.

One of the consequences of NOT spending time to discover the deeper truth of what you are giving is that you lose your passion. In her exhaustion, she was losing her passion for singing, which breaks my heart.

Several clients I’m working with right now are struggling with finding their passion, and I’ve been gently dissuading them from spending too much time looking at -what- they want to do, at least at first, and more time learning about how their heart truly gives to people, no matter what the situation.

This is not an overnight journey, but you can begin to catch a taste of what you are really giving, which can help you transend, and leave behind your category, and begin to give what is uniquely yours to give. And, as you give more, and more clearly, you will be able to receive more.

So, are you another canned good in a category, or are you taking the time to discover the truth in your heart, that is a gift for all people?

Keys to More Than Your Category

* People often spend a lot of time with the wrong question- looking for the right category– “Should I be a doctor or a lawyer? Does God want me to be a consultant or a realtor? In my heart am I a baker or a tinker?” This is not the right question. Drop this question entirely, it doesn’t help you at this point. If you are discontent as a doctor, chances are you’ll be discontent as a lawyer, or as a baker.

* You are already a natural, even if you are raw or unconscious, at what your heart gives to people. Because you do what you do so naturally, you probably don’t assign it any value. One client I have helps people feel known and seen, and he doesn’t yet fully realize how powerful this is. I don’t fully realize how powerful my gift is, because it is from the Divine, it is infinite, and always capable of deepening and expanding. You don’t, either.

* Take time to do the exercise below, and repeat it. It has taken me three years to go from ìhelping you have clarity in confidence in your business and in your life.î to ìfeeling completely at home in all aspects of your business.î As I’ve done this, my business has helped more people as it grows, and, not so incidentally, become more profitable every year.

* Most importantly, you need what your heart gives more than anyone. This is not just a giving- you must receive your gift before you can pass it along with any kind of power.

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Exercise: Unveiling Your Essence

1) Start the Remembrance. For those unfamiliar with this, it is to repeat the Name of the Divine, whatever you use to call to the Highest Light, and saying it into your heart. Not with the idea of fixing anything, or healing anything, or seeing anything. It’s just remembering that there is something more than just you in the mix. If anyone has questions about the remembrance, please ask me. It’s fairly simple, but there are easy places that people sometimes get stuck.

2) Even if you are in a job you hate, or in a hard business situation, think of a time you were with someone, a client, a colleague, someone else in the course of your work, and you enjoyed it. Take the time to bring the enjoyment of the situation into your body- remember it fully, in fully-body detail.

3) With the Remembrance, ask to be shown what was moving from your heart to the other person’s heart. It will be a quality of some sort. It’s important that you ask to be shown from a place of sincerity, meaning, you have no idea what the answer could be, you drop all assumptions of what you might know, and let yourself be willing to be surprised.

4) When you begin to taste this quality, ask to be filled with it yourself. You can only give it to others from a place of overflowing fullness, which means you have to receive it yourself from the Divine. Drink it in deeply.

5) From this place of fullness ask to be shown what happens for the other person’s heart when they receive this quality- what becomes possible for them in their life? Again, let yourself be willing to be surprised.

Be patient with this exercise. These are Divine qualities, and infinite in their depths, and so it might take you awhile for you to deeply understand what your heart is giving. If you follow this process, repeat it, spend time with it, you will be able to receive very grounded answers to these questions.