The secret of concentration is the secret of self-discovery.
You reach inside yourself to discover your personal resources, and what it takes to match them to the challenge.
-Arnold Palmer |
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Hi all,
I’ve been hearing from a lot of people how it’s been hard figuring out what to focus on during these times. Connecting with your creative/entrepreneurial drive remains important, and is actually more important now more than ever. It may mean shifting gears in light of these new realities but, nevertheless, channeling what sparks you is going to be what guides the way forward.
In today’s e-mail:
- Principles for and a framework to visualize something I call Awakened Entrepreneurship—an intentionally personal approach to creating/building that better supports ourselves, others and the environment
- Our Big Whisper of the Week: A women-led sausage company that’s actually on a mission to have people eat *less* meat
- Our top five—what we’re reading and listening to this week + the whisper about the Big Whisper
Also, I’m bringing back Virtual Group Strategy Sessions (with a special offering + price), to help solopreneurs/budding entrepreneurs/freelancers/independents creatively unblock and clarify focus. Two spots left to join for this first one—we’ll be scheduling the session based on everyone’s availability, aiming for later this week or early next week. (Not sure you’re ready to join for this one but are still interested? Sign up either way and we’ll keep in touch).
Sending warmth and supportive vibes.
Alison
P.S. Tomorrow is the last day to receive 20% off all of our Toolkits with code SPRINGATHOME2020
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Intentionally personal business-building
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In the movie You’ve Got Mail, Meg Ryan’s character faces her small bookstore going out of business due to a bigger chain bookstore coming up around the corner. As she considers options to fight back, Tom Hanks’ character attempts to psych her up, “It’s not personal, it’s business,” he pulls from The Godfather. In response Meg Ryan’s character implores, “What’s wrong with being personal...Because whatever else anything is it ought to begin by being personal.”
In many ways, “It’s not personal, it’s business” has been the unofficial slogan of our last hundred plus years of Capitalist society which has fueled a culture of profit worship, materialism, toxic competition, and scarcity thinking. My work of the last decade has been an exploration of how to navigate and improve upon this cultural reality through the medium of business. What I’ve learned from working with hundreds of entrepreneurs, and from my own business-building experience, is that the modern business is flourishing precisely because of how personal it is.
I’ve observed a growing movement of entrepreneurs building in an intentionally personal way, modeling a healthier way of doing business and collectively reshaping our culture and economy. I call this way of building Awakened Entrepreneurship and below are three core principles of this approach:
1. Business is a vehicle for systemic change
Our entrepreneurial endeavors are a part of a larger social, environmental and economic ecosystem. What we create has a ripple effect on others. Business is a powerful medium for embodying the values and practices on a micro-level that we hope will permeate the institutions and systems that uphold us on a macro-level. We build more responsible, sustainable and impactful businesses when we consider our own emotional needs and the emotional and social needs of others in what we offer, the effects on the environment in how we operate, and the ways our businesses can give back to the ecosystem itself. // The Doughnut Economics framework visualizes this
2. Entrepreneurship is an art form
If we adopt the idea that we entrepreneurial minded people are actually artists—people who have the ability to express truths and incite inspiration through an external medium, business in this case—we have the opportunity to shift the definition of business from being a purely bottom-line, means-to-an-end type effort, to an art form that becomes an expression and driver of connection and transformation. // Three ways to think, to think like an artist as you build
3. Business is an opportunity for awakening
As you take steps on this unknown path and look inward to understand your inner-world experience—the good, the ugly, the uncomfortable—the more you will connect with the heart-centered truth of who you are and what you are creating. The more you learn the deeper intention of your work, the more impact you will make outside of yourself, and, ultimately, experience that much more fulfillment within you. // Check out framework below
As the tectonic plates of our society and economy shift we have an opportunity to guide how that shift takes effect. In many ways, to take the Awakened Entrepreneurial path is to engage in building a business almost as if it’s a spiritual practice. As we individually wake up to the depth of our entrepreneurial creativities, we become the very ripple effect that empowers the healthy change our communities, environment and culture, crave.
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The Awakened Entrepreneurial Path
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This framework shows how during each phase of entrepreneurial growth we are met with a corresponding internal, emotional experience to grow through as well. And as we honor the internal work of each phase, the result is an external response that both affirms our awakening and propels our endeavor forward.
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Brought to you by the founding team of one of the only women-owned and -led nationally distributed meat companies: the recently launched Seemore Meats & Veggies.
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The idea for vegetable-forward sausages came to Cara—a 4th generation butcher—while beginning her craft in butchery over a decade ago. She was discouraged by how many people—like her younger self—were only eating meat. She wanted to find a way to help people diversify their diet...through sausages.
And that’s what Cara, Erin and Ariel are setting out to do with Seemore Meats & Veggies, help people consume *less* meat. “A little less meat means a little less impact on the environment (in fact, if everyone reduced daily meat consumption by 40% it would slash global emissions by 30%),” the founders share.
The first four Seemore flavors—Loaded Baked Potato, Bubbe’s Chicken Soup, Broccoli Melt and La Dolce Beet-a—are made with humanely raised pork or chicken and up to 35% vegetables, and available directly online and at select New York City area Whole Foods.
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What we’re reading and listening to this week
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THE WHISPER ABOUT THE BIG WHISPER
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Interested in partnering in some way?
Hit reply and let's chat!
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