By Posted in 3 Journeys of Marketing.

Finding the Challenge in What’s Hard

Last week I got to spend three days hanging out virtually with some of the most amazing, talented, heart-full people. I’m talking about the folks in our year-long Opening the Moneyflow course plus the Heart of Business team.

We ran a virtual event via video conferencing (which would’ve been a disaster without the incredible help of Jeremie Miller on three spiritual topics that, together, create massive breakthroughs in business. Sovereignty, Ease, and Appreciation.

The three days were filled with many insights. A lot of people cried, including me. And yes, I’ll go on record as saying that I don’t think it’s a successful event without at least half the participants crying at least once.

I don’t know if it will make you cry, but here’s one deceptively simple and profound insight that will turn your relationship with business around if you take it on.

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By Posted in 3 Journeys of Marketing.

Accepting What You Really Do

A client had been wrestling with focusing in on what he does. The funny thing is that he already had a fairly well-developed business, with a full client load and a good income.

But, he had a LOT more potential, and not being able to articulate what he does was keeping his business down.

Plus, it should be said, that he had participated in a high-priced, high-energy coaching program that had created financial results in the short term, but had left him disconnected from himself, burnt out, and with no foundation to easily repeat what he had achieved.

Not good.

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By Posted in 3 Journeys of Marketing.

How I Replaced the Safety of Patterns With the Uncertainty of Faith to Connect Better With Clients

Introduction: This is a guest post by Leesa Barnes of success refresh. I asked her to share the journey of how she brought her connection to the Divine into her business. You can find her at http://www.leesabarnes.com

I crave patterns.

No, not sewing patterns (although I do love to sew), but step-by-step formulas that follow a predictable path.

I love math. Yup, I said it. I’m a numbers-holic. I also have a unique ability to learn new languages fast – even at THIS age of…well, a lady never tells her age. I majored in history in university and then found my way into the exciting world of technology.

A wonderful coach helped me see why I was interested in such an electic mix of subjects. While others were mystified how a degree in history would prepare me for a career in technology, this coach said in a rather elegant way that…

“Leesa, you’re attracted to patterns.” (more…)


By Posted in 3 Journeys of Marketing.

Letting Go of Guilt

This is a guest post by Heart of Business Alumni Community Member Jenny Bones.  Jenny is on a mission to teach people how to change their world with their words. Devouring everything to do with entrepreneurship and/or chocolate, she is currently hosting the first annual  S’mores Summer Camp for Solopreneurs. When was the last time you roasted marshmallows by the campfire? Come check it out.

I used to like to joke that, because of my Catholic upbringing, I only had two motivators in life: Fear and Guilt. Of course, it was one of those jokes that really wasn’t that funny. Most of my jokes aren’t.

For the past two and a half years, I have been carrying around with me some monumentally intense guilt. Through a series of very unfortunate events, I had to make the gut-wrenchingly difficult decision to move away from my family and try to rebuild my life.

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By Posted in 3 Journeys of Marketing.

How to Finish a Year’s Worth of Work in Four Hours

Every month our Alumni Community has a different business focus. While this has many benefits for the community, the practical work involved is that each month I need to find/create a worksheet, and find several related articles that juice the conversation. I also need to create a conversation thread on the Community Forum, and create the backlinks for it.

Let me tell you something: how you handle tasks like this will define how big your business can get. It will tell you how much you can handle and how much space you have for creative thinking.

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By Posted in 3 Journeys of Marketing.

Are you afraid that your deepest, lushest, most heart-centered you is too big for your audience?

This is a guest post by Heart of Business Alumni Community Member Sue Kearney. She runs MagnoliasWest, helping you with personal branding, logo/marketing design and web development.

I’m a lifelong spiritual student and practitioner. In the last ten years, since I’ve been working with women as a coach, my commitment to spirituality has deepened in many ways.

Yet, I’ve found myself keeping some of my more arcane sacred practices veiled from my business interactions and offerings. (more…)


By Posted in 3 Journeys of Marketing.

My Annual Trek to Bainbridge Island

This past weekend, at our annual retreat on Bainbridge Island, there was a strong consensus among my Brain Trust that I had to make a significant shift in my business model. Places in how I ran Heart of Business where I was struggling, unsure, or feeling lost came into focus, at the expense of my comfort.

When an uncomfortable truth comes in, for me time seems to go into slow-motion, my stomach feels queasy, and I sometimes cry. The last five years I cried, but this year I didn’t. Instead I just felt overwhelmed and slightly nauseous.

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By Posted in 3 Journeys of Marketing.

Sounds Like Love

I’m *finally* healthy after a very sick winter. I’m happy. I love my beautiful wife. The sun has come out here in Portland, at least some of the time, and my kids say the Cutest Things in the World every single day all day long.

Sounds like love, doesn’t it?

But, what I described above isn’t the whole picture. There are some real challenges in life. We’re hiring a new operations person. We’re deeply examining our business model. We’re contemplating some big projects. And the first three months of this year have been BUMPY.

Does that sound like love?

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By Posted in 3 Journeys of Marketing.

When Referrals Hide From You

Here’s a dream scenario: you have a raving fan client who has colleagues who need the same help you gave him. He offers to introduce you to them and recommend they work with you. Nice!

One of our Opening the Moneyflow participants, Donald (not his real name) had just this wonderful opportunity. The trouble was…

“My client introduced me by email to his colleagues. I then sent an email to them saying if I didn’t hear from them I’d follow up with a phone call next week.

“The next week came and I didn’t want to make the calls. I felt nervous and anxious. I kept telling myself it was just a conversation, and eventually I forced myself to make the calls, leaving two voicemails.”

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By Posted in 3 Journeys of Marketing.

The Other Three Reasons Pricing is So Hard

One of our Heart of Money participants was still struggling with her pricing. “I’ve had some incredibly breakthroughs in my relationship with money, but pricing myself still feels hard. How do I do this?”

After hearing her explanation, I immediately saw what was going on.

“First of all, empathy! Pricing is hard! And the big reason it’s so hard… it’s not just about your price. You’ve got at least three questions wrapped up in the question of price, and without separating them out, you can’t get a clear answer to your pricing.”

This is why we spend an entire class in our Sacred Selling Course on pricing, and another entire class dealing with the other questions that get tangled in pricing.

But let me break it down for you a little right now.

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