Saturday 22 November 2014

Global Entrepreneurship Week: A Big Juicy Profound Shift


Sometimes, you just know. You know what I mean?

Don't ignore that stuff in business. Your intuition is your faithful Sat Nav.

And sometimes you may feel as though the signposts are everywhere, offering up all these possibilities, guiding you lovingly. You can see them in your peripheral vision. But you're keeping your eyes so locked onto the stretch of road in front of you that you don't even have time to consider where you'd really like to go. You're just driving.

Some people feel seriously weird about going against the business advice of gurus and experts. Some people convince themselves to shut off the sound of their inner voice which has been knocking at the door of their rational mind for months on end. Some people, against all the odds, manage to step over their own hearts in business and keep doing something just because they feel like they should. I want this blog post to be about reading the rule book and then throwing it out of the window. Sometimes you can see the logical reason for a solid piece of business advice, you can appreciate why it has been embraced by entrepreneurs everywhere, and yet.. and yet..

It's just not right for you.

It's ok to own that. It's ok to face it. It's ok to realise that your individual take on things actually bolsters your brand.

I was hanging out with my amazing heart-centred business group once and lamenting the fact that I was struggling to find the impetus to write my newsletter every month. I couldn't work out why the desire wasn't there and why resistance would set in whenever I tried to compose something to be sent to the increasing list of people who had invited me into their inboxes. I knew that there were certain mindsets I had to deal with, certain narrow perspectives I needed to overcome.. I wanted to define exactly what my newsletters should include. I wanted to work out my angle. I wanted to be sure about what kind of themes were appropriate. I wanted to understand which material to put into my blogs/videos and which to send to my newsletter subscribers exclusively. I was in a bit of a pickle.

Then, a wonderful woman responded to me. Her question was blunt and beautiful - straight to the heart of it. She asked me why I needed to write a newsletter every month.

I sat with the question for a while. I realised that my answer was, 'Because it's the industry standard.. It's what most business owners do in my sector.. It's what the experts recommend..' 

All of these reasons suddenly seemed so hollow and alien to me. I had taken my own autonomy for granted by seemingly giving it up, surrendering it to articles about how I should do things and what was required and what was normal and what was expected..

The wonderful woman suggested that I try a novel idea. She said, to summarise, how about you stop trying to force it and wait until there's something you truly want to send? I'd rather receive one newsletter a year full of incredible insights and fiery wisdom than a monthly newsletter that you had to force yourself to write.

Big juicy profound shift + instant connection to my heart centre + simplicity in the midst of complexity.

Yes yes yes.

This is how I want to do it. 

So, I suppose more than anything, I want to ask you to ask yourself why you simply must to do something.

Do the answers stand up under scrutiny? Or do they offer you the delicious realisation that you have handed your business over to someone else?

If so, take it back.

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