Suffice it to say we’ve been doing a lot of laundry.

The real issue is not to pick on poor David, he’s doing the best he can to manage things. We trust it will mellow out as he gets older.

But, it’s interesting to see–when you don’t like something, throwing up EVERYTHING instead of just spitting out what you didn’t like.

Two things we’re learning from this. One, we’re seeing that he has an exquisite sense of knowing what he likes and doesn’t like. If we take the time to tune in, we can avoid pushing something on him that he has clearly, but subtly, refused. Result: no geyser.

The second is that we know David will grow out of it. We know he won’t be sitting down to lunch at age 34, take a bite of roasted beet salad, doesn’t he doesn’t like it, and geyser all over the restaurant. He just won’t eat any more.

The question for your heart: How finely attuned are you to what you like and dislike, or do you just eat what everyone else is eating? “Eat” is a metaphor here, folks.

The second question: When you take a bite of something you don’t like, do you get rid of everything that’s ever been associated with it? Or are you able to figure out the bit you didn’t like, and keep the rest? “Bite” is, you guessed it, another metaphor.

Translate these questions into your business, and see what you notice.

Thrown From the Holiday Train

In 1986 I was at the Boston University fencing club practicing lunges. I overlunged, meaning I threw my foot too far forward, overcompensated by pushing even harder off my back foot, and went forward-over. Only my forward foot was still planted.

I heard a “pop.” And then I said to myself, “That’s gonna hurt.” Six seconds later, it did.

That’s how I found myself with my ankle bandaged up, hobbling around on crutches my first winter in Boston, as the snow and ice started to cover everything.

It was, in some ways, one of the most pleasant experiences of my life. In other ways it sucked eggs. But, what was pleasant is that it renewed my faith in humanity. Because, you see, everyone was so helpful. Getting on and off the T, getting in and out of stores, getting to my classes and home again. Gracious and helpful, in that fantastically warm and curt way that New Englanders have.

That’s why what happened to my friend Arwen is so incredibly wrong. It involves trains, wheelchairs, and big guys. I know it’s not very NVC to judge things, but hey, sometimes I color outside the lines.

Arwen, however, is dedicated to restorative justice, and so she responded like this. She asked three things:

1. Watch the short story (it’s about five minutes long.)
2. Share it far and wide with everyone you know.
3. Let her know (by posting here- if you feel more connected to your Will to help people with disabilities be with the ones they love.

Arwen has dealt so eloquently with the question of access. I have a slightly different question for the heart of your business: How does your business deal with exceptions and special requests?

Birthdays Coming Up!

It’s one birthday, but two at once. Our boys, Sam and David, turn one year old this coming Wednesday. Amazing.

How old is your business? When is it’s birthday? Have you celebrated it’s development and growth so far?

And, don’t look for me being too quick on any online responses this Wednesday. I’ll be eating cake. And hopefully not cleaning up any geysers.

So, here are some things for my heart and yours, while we both dig into our Mondays.

A Truly Non-Hypey Free Giveaway

That wacky New Zealander with the incisive mind for small business systems, Sean D’Souza of Pyschotactics, has been one of my business teachers. His mind just automatically sees how things are structured, and can break them down into simple metaphors that help you get it.

He’s one of those people who could be a big “guru” of marketing, but he’s not, by choice. He’s a big advocate for human-sized dreams and for having a relaxed life. I studied with him for two years learning details about marketing. He’s smart, he’s got a big heart, and…

He’s got a dream. A dream of a university for small business owners he calls Casa de Locos. He’s working towards it, and one of the early steps is giving away his stuff for free.

Today he’s giving away his three-day Masterclass seminar. He’s been selling it out for some years at $2500/seat. And now he’s giving it away.

He explains why here: Sean’s Free Brain Alchemy Masterclass

Question for your heart: What is the current role of generosity in your business? And what role does it truly want to play?

Just Something Cool: IdeaPaint

Finally, after trying to get three different carpet installers to come, one arrived and installed the roll of el cheapo but sturdy and actually decent-looking wool carpet over the concrete in our basement office. One down, two to go–there’s a second room down there waiting for the same treatment.

As our twin boys grow up, they turn one in Oh-My-God nine days, it’s clear that while my office with the nice open door looking out over the dining room and main play area in our home is a super way to stay connected to the family, it’s not always going to be the most productive decision to be sitting here.

Thus, the basement office.

At the same time, my associate Kate has been hammering me about leadership. She yelled at me the other day (well, okay, she didn’t yell) about how I’ve been really been thinking more like a marketing executive than a CEO. This was after we had a phone meeting with some folks, and she walked into it completely unprepared because I hadn’t prepped her.

I could go on and on about my s l o w l y shifting mindset, but instead I’ll just chatter about my office. And that’s why IdeaPaint. In terms of planning, I’m fairly monkey-see, monkey-do. If something’s not in front of my face, I sometimes don’t think of it. Plus, in a totally related aside, have you noticed the cost of whiteboards?

IdeaPaint is whiteboard paint. Yup, a whiteboard in a can. A BIG whiteboard. A whiteboard that can cover an entire wall, floor to ceiling.

Question for your heart: In your office, are the most important, critical things visible so they can remind you of their sweet selves?

Second question: Guess what I’m going to be putting in my basement office?

Sunday Morning Comics

One of the great things about growing up with The Washington Post was that they had three pages of comics on the weekdays! Not to mention a giant-mondo color comic section on Sundays.

But, one reason no doubt the paper is struggling is that they don’t have xkcd on their comic pages.

Question for your funny bone: When was the last time you had a good guffaw? I won’t go all Patch Adams on you, but hey, we’re going into winter here with weeks of gray forecast. We need as much laughter as we can get.

Another Monday

And time for me to dig back into content for the Momentum course. And dream about jury duty…

Yes, I know I shouldn’t start out talking about me, but sometimes me’s all I got. Thankfully, that’s not entirely true, or this would be a mighty short Monday Heart Stuff.

First up, a little music.

Ellis

Good friends of ours introduced us to a band called The Bills, and we’ve been looking for our socks every since. So, when they suggested we join them to see someone called “Ellis” we said, “Heck yeah!”

There’s lot of good things to say about Ellis–she’s warm, she’s funny, she’s humble, her music is both profound, simple, fun, and carries you away. But, beyond that, she’s on top of it. Check out her Song of the Month Club. Now, it’s becoming more and more common for indie music people to embrace alternate forms of distribution. There were two things noteworthy to me here, in a business-sense.

The first is that the premium version of the song of the month club includes Ellis recording one of her songs with a personal dedication to you.I think that’s genius, although she doesn’t charge enough for it, it’s barely forty dollars more per year than the simple $5/month option.

The second thing is that she didn’t mention her song-of-the-month club ONCE during the show. It’s true we left before the encore (babysitters waiting at home). But, she so clearly had a room full of raving fans. How many could she have signed up that night? How many shows would she have to do before her livelihood as an artist is covered entirely by song-of-the-month subscribers?

Question for Your Heart: Do you have some amazing offer people want to know about, but you aren’t letting them know? Are you finding venues to let your raving fans know what you have to offer?

Pricing to Save the World

Charlie Gilkey, world-famous philosophy and productivity anti-guru (well, call this a “foreshadowing prediction) wrote a post about selling happiness in the form of a $47 ebook. The discussion was quite robust, including some polite exchanges between myself and Duff McDuffee. Duff is a great guy, with a keen critical insight into the self-improvement industry. His writing was inspirational for the article coming out this Wednesday.

And, he spoke at length about how the digital info-product world is inflated, overpriced, and with little value. That there’s basically a lot of crap out there because people are being taught to get products out quickly and charge a lot for them.

I challenged him on this. Here are Duff’s comments: This one, and then this one, and then there’s my first response, then Duff’s response to me, then my next response. then Duff’s last response to me. And then my final (so far) response.

A polite, thoughtful, ping-pong match. Here’s the gist I’m getting at: we all have challenging experiences in life. Some of them truly suck. All of them have gifts, lessons and other silver linings, but please don’t mention that to me when I’m in the middle of it. When I’m in the middle, it just sucks. I’ll find the silver linings later.

But do you throw the gold out with the river mud? If you’ve had a bad experience, or even multiple miserable experiences, is it game over for anything in business that reminds you of those bad experiences?

Question for Your Heart: Are you avoiding aspects of business because you’re afraid of becoming the “bad guy?” Is there a way to look at those aspects of business with an open heart and a new mind?

Back To It

I love teaching my Heart of Business Momentum course, but it Lordy it takes up a lot of time on Monday and Tuesday prepping. While you’re pondering those questions, you may just think about whether you want to grab the homestudy version while we’re offering the pre-release price on it.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on either or both of these items.

What has been painful is that for the last year our car has become the only transportation choice, except for very limited walks around the neighborhood. Shopping? Errand? Take the car.

Before the boys came days would go by without me getting in the car. It’s one of the joys of living in a friendly, human-sized city like Portland. I would walk or bicycle to many places, even in the rain.

Now, we’re back in the bicycle business, and my needs around exercise, sustainability and nature are being met once more. I just couldn’t resist sharing that with you. It’s been an ecstatic experience.

Speaking of ecstatic experiences.

Is This Your Brain on God?

NPR has done a great interactive site for the book Fingerprints of God, which I subsequently ordered and started reading with great interest. I’m only partway through the book, but the website and the book cover that intersection between spirituality and science, which is so fascinating to me.

There’s been a line drawn for some decades, some would say centuries, between those who believe in a spiritual existence, and those who say “prove it.” While this book hasn’t proven anything in the scientific sense, it has raised questions and opened doors that weren’t open in the world of science.

There’s a lot to say and explore here about the spiritual experience. For today, what I’m interested in is the concept of “proof.”

People who are interested in your business are so because they need help with something. And, before they buy from you, they need trust. One of the ways trust is built is through proof. Proof is built in many ways. Some take testimonials, anecdotes and case studies are proof. Others take a history of past purchasers as proof. Others need numbers, statistics, and other hard “scientific” proof.

The tricky thing with proof is that it’s easy to slip over the fence into trying to “prove” yourself, rather than just caring for the heart of the client and helping them gain the trust they need to come in out of the rain.

For the heart of your business and the heart of your customer: what are all the ways you are providing “proof” of what you do?

The Dirty Little Secret About Patients as Partners in Health Care

This blog is all about healthcare, someone who calls herself “#1 Dinosaur” and whose bio reads “A Family Doctor in solo private practice; I may be going the way of the dinosaur, but I’m not dead yet.” She wrote a really insightful post about the Patients as Partners thing.

I’ll bottom-line it for you: patients can’t be partners, except in special circumstances, because they just don’t know enough. Patients can participate in decision-making. They can be educated and involved. But they can’t be full and equal partners because they just don’t have the background and experience to make an educated decision.

I know there will be people who will argue with this… I have my own arguments, although I can see both sides.

But, the reason I bring it up today is because of this issue of “partnering” and how it impacts you and your business, and your clients. You see, a lot of practitioners of all types don’t make strong recommendations to their clients because they don’t want to be pushy, and they don’t want to “take away” the power from their clients.

However, a client has come to you because they want support and guidance. They want your opinion. Of course it’s their decision, and most reasonable adults know that, especially if you haven’t used strange hype to manipulate them. Which I know you haven’t if we’re in the same heart-centered business tribe together.

However, I’m worried. I’m worried that you may be withholding the strength of your opinions from your clients. That you aren’t giving them strong and clear recommendations: “You know, if you want to really handle this, I want you to come in for ten sessions over the next four months.”

Yes, you do benefit. Yes, it could look manipulative and pushy and salesy. But if you are in your heart, and that’s your honest considered expert opinion of what your clients need, they give it to your them. Don’t give away your power because you don’t want to “steal” yours. They are leaning into you, and depending on you. Don’t let them down.

For your heart: Can you give a strong recommendation to your clients, even if it earns you more money, if it’s what they really need?

Sufi Council to Combat Extremism

Sufis are what I call “disciplined mystics.” Meaning they stick with things. And what you may not know is that they are organized, too.

Bikya Masr, a site devoted to watching news in the middle east and the Muslim world, especially Egypt it appears, reported that a Sufi council has been organized to combat extremist ideologies. In Islam there are two polar opposites: the Wahhabis and Salafist ideologies, which might be roughly analogous to certain sects of Christian literalistic fundamentalism in the West.

There is an interpretation of sacred texts that allow for no mystical elements, and there is a tyrannical application of very limited interpretations, not allowing for any latitude. This is the kind of extremism that has been behind the Taliban in Islam, and behind the folks in Christianity who bomb womens health centers and make death threats to doctors for providing abortion services.

This is a hot topic, and just talking about it hopefully won’t get this blog targeted by extremists, although as a Sufi I’m already in that territory.

But I’m not deliberately getting you involved in cultural and religious wars. The point I want to make is this: in every culture, every religion, every organization, every industry, there are people with strong opinions. Those strong opinions attract followers.

For many going into business the strong-opinion thing goes away, replaced by a fear of offending people, turning people off, or otherwise scaring off potential customers. The thing is, it doesn’t work.

Instead you become bland, no one shows up, and you don’t have any followers.

Of course, attracting followers is more than just holding strong opinions. But it’s part of it.

For your heart: What are your strong considered opinions in your industry? Do  you disagree with any of the common thinking by acknowledged leaders? I think you know what I’m going to suggest you do… But I’ll spell it out anyway. Can you find it in your heart to speak your opinions, strongly, powerfully?

Another Week, Another Monday.

I’m curious how all of this lands for you-proof, partnering, or opinions…

Seven Simple Income Streams That You Can Actually Create

I know, I know, I featured Dave just last week. Still, he’s doing this way cool thing with these free workbooks, and super-long and detailed posts that have so many nuts and bolts in them. It’s just nice to see something that goes so far beyond the typically insipid “Top Five Ways to…” type of thing.

Here’s the post to read for yourself. Make sure you get the free workbook.

(And, I suppose it doesn’t hurt to mention that I’m one of 12 people featured in his More Buyer’s Mastermind. Yes, that is an affiliate link. He’s done an incredible job of pulling together people I know and respect, and I trust that there’s good info there.)

The thing about income streams is that if you have money coming from several directions, than you don’t have to lean so hard on just one thing. I mean, instead of having to fill one thing past capacity to make it, what if you had three things in your business that did kinda sorta okay, but added up in really nice ways?

Here’s for the heart of your business: Where does the money come from? Is it just from clients, or somewhere else? How many income streams does your business have?

How to Play a Bigger Game

If you know me, then you know I’m not a big fan of “play a bigger game” or amibitious reaching. I’m much more into organic growth, contentment, ease.

However, Jonathan Fields from Awake@theWheel wrote a very thought-provoking post about the game of life. In some ways it’s just the same old same old. And yet, there are profound questions there. Maybe it was just the mood I was in the day I read it, but it struck deep, the sense of needing clarity and simplicity.

How to Play a Bigger Game. Read it, and seem if it strikes you.

For the sake of simplicity and sanity, we eliminated something here at Heart of Business, which you’ll hear about on Wednesday, although members of The Business Oasis already have seen the article.

For your heart: What can you eliminate from your business and life? What can go away?

Business Education from Dr. Seusss

I forget what trail of breadcrumbs led me to Nocturnal Design, but there was a post by Ken Peters there that reminded me of a few years ago. You see, I’m pretty insatiable when it comes to learning about business. I don’t know why, I’m just fascinated learning and reading about it.

But, a couple of a years ago I got sick of reading business books. Not permanently, just for awhile. So, I took on the project of reading biographies of spiritual leaders. And the business lessons were non-stop.

Ken Peters recommended just that in this post, 6 Not-So-Obvious Books Everyone in Business Should Read, including one by Dr. Seuss.

For your heart: I’m curious (one) if you are indulging yourself in reading about business and letting yourself learn and grow in that way, and (two) if you learn about business from non-business sources? And what are you reading lately? What should I read next?

October is Flying By!

I hope you’re enjoying whatever your local equivalent is of crisp air, crunchy apples, and brilliant blue fall skies.

And, it’s refreshing, to tell you the truth. Back in the day, since 2001, I published an email newsletter plain text, and it wasn’t really possible to put other people’s stuff in there. I mean, I could. But plain text emails are just so butt-ugly that if there’s more than one or two things in there, it’s hard to find them.

You know how sometimes, in large pre-historic creatures, it would take quite a while for knowledge of an injury to reach the brain? I was feeling like that. Despite a fancy new html newsletter courtesy of Trisha at Blue Owl Designs, and despite actually having a blog up on the website for the last going on three years, the gestalt of blogging took awhile to reach me.

All of this is to say, here are people and things that have touched my heart, opened my mind, nourished my business. They aren’t necessarily from the last week–I see something cool, I bookmark it, and when I’m moved, I add it here. Not everything has to be “fresh off the press.” Sometimes things that have been around for decades are still useful. I mean, how about you or m e? How many decades have we been around?

Big Names Promoting Your Business?

I’m a big proponent of organic growth. You know, start small, build slowly, then scale it up if appropriate. However, sometimes your business is in a position to really launch something out there. To get it out in front of a lot of people quickly.

In which case you want someone like Dave Navarro, the Launch Coach. A simple tagline says it: “How to get more people to buy what you’re selling.”

Here’s the thing about launches, it takes a lot of coordination. There are a seemingly uncountable number of details to track and follow through with. Literally dozens of projects each with their own to-do lists. Someone like Dave can put it all together for you and shepherd you through the process.

One of those things that you will need is other people helping to get the word out. Some of this will come from sheer good will, people who know you and love you. And some of it will come from affiliates. Meaning people who will spread the word about you launch to their communities in exchange for affiliate commissions on sales they generate.

Make no mistakes, this can be done in a slimy, gross way. It can be manipulative and annoying. However, it doesn’t have to be. You can have a genuine relationship with people who just happen to have 10,000-100,000 readers on an email list or blog. After all, they are people with hearts, too. And many of them are very nice people with a lot of integrity.

So, how do you go about making those connections? It does take some time and money, but it’s kinda simple, and Dave lays it out for you.

Once you’ve read the article, ponder this for your heart: Are you purchasing/using materials from people you admire? Are you expressing the same generosity towards others that you are hoping to receive in return?

Making “It” Work

There are people who are artists who also have businesses. Some of them have businesses about their art. And some of them are making a living, supporting a family, and doing incredible stuff. One of those people is my friend Dave Billings, aka Mr. Sparky Firepants.

He wrote recently about how he makes it all work. I mean, there’s a lot to making it all work, and he didn’t write all about it in this post. But he wrote about something critical. That was after he pointed out how few people talk about freaking out when being self-employed, even though it happens to all of us.

But, really, the main thing he was getting at was 17 years of love that built his business. 17 years of “I believe in you” notes. Who are those notes from? Whose love is it? Kinda obvious once you read it, but I find the same thing myself. I’ve got 15 years of what he’s got, and I’m so incredibly grateful I’m blown away.

Read it up: How I make This All Work.

Question for your heart: who’s got your back? Who’s holding your heart in business? Who believes in you? Have you appreciated them lately?

And if you don’t think you have anyone like that, who could you cultivate?

What Abundance Takes Away

We live in the most materialistic abundant cultures the world has ever seen.

Truth be told, if we were transplanted back a few hundred years, most of us would be peasants or lowly tradespeople. And the kind of amenities we’re used to on a daily basis would be things we wouldn’t dream of. I’m not talking technological advances, I’m talking simple things like homes with more than one room, shoes that actually fit if they had shoes at all, and regular hot meals that include meat, white bread and other delicacies.

There’s been a cost to that abundance. A huge cost. Material cost, emotional costs, spiritual costs. And Charlie Gilkey writes about how much of ourselves we’ve lost in this trade-off that many of us never asked for. I’m loving Charlie Gilkey and his blog Productive Flourishing, and he has insights into productivity and work that really nourishes me.

Living in a modern city with two kids I’m as caught up as anyone else. And it’s a handy question for each of us.

For the heart: This coming year, what bits of “modern abundance” can you let go of to regain more of yourself?

And That’s Another Monday

I know these can be a lot of big questions, and maybe you’re not in the mood for any or all of them. Just pick one of the three questions and let it marinate in your heart. And share any insights that come to you here on the blog. It really does make a difference.

Here’s a few things that my heart is loving.

Freak Revolution: The Manifesto

I will admit to you that I love Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight books. They were just fun, the story was compelling, and they happen in the pacific northwest where I happen to live. I was a big fan of science fiction and fantasy growing up, and these were right up my alley. But why, why were they so popular?

My theory is because a big theme in the story taps into the deep feeling of alienation that runs through our culture. Many, many people, even supposedly ordinary people, don’t feel like they fit in. So many people feel like they are misfits, that they are out of step with the world, that they are…

Freaks. Yes, freaks. Almost everyone has a bit of freak in them. And that’s why I’m loving this manifesto. Kyeli and Pace, a love-filled, power-duo, have written an eloquent, kick-butt manifesto on change.

So read The Freak Revolution Manifesto. So become fans of Kyeli and Pace. So join the revolution.

For the heart: Are there ways you are trying to make your business “fit in” and look normal? Is there a way that you could let your out-of-stepness be a strength to your business?

A Beautiful Mortality Send-Off

Occasionally I come across a business that I think is just all-that. Just really right. Just strikes a chord with me.

A Fine Farewell did that. Maybe it’s because my wife’s mom Virginia dying this past year. Maybe it’s because both Holly and I are over 40 and life is looking a little shorter than it used to. Maybe it’s because I did a bunch of healing on my post traumatic stress symptoms that were left over from my paramedic days, clearing out all kinds of really gruesome imagery from my body memories.

Whatever the reason, death is real. It comes to all of us. And we all deserve A Fine Farewell. Ecological. Beautiful. Appropriate. What could be a better way to say that final goodbye?

For the heart: Are the things that your best clients have to face that are really uncomfortable for them to deal with? Is there a way for you to bring beauty, care, and consideration so that they can be more comfortable facing them?

Yom Tov! Twitter for the Heb Set

Today is Yom Kippur, of course. Jews all over the world are fasting 25 hours. It’s arguably the most important holiday of the year, and so it’s no time for anything but prayer and return to Oneness.

So, tomorrow, no today, you should check out Twitteleh: Twitter for your Jewish Mother. It makes me think that even my mother could start using social media.

Okay, it’s a joke, but a funny one. And, for those who are M.O.T. (members of the tribe, for my goyim friends) it’s so dead-on, you can’t not crack a smile.

For the heart: Lightness, fun, jokes in your business? Espcially in-jokes. Are there jokes/language/ways of being that are particular to the tribe your business serves? How can you weave more of that into how you communicate? Not to manipulate, but as a way to really relax into your tribe?

Okay, There’s Your Monday

It’s time for me to get to work–final preparations for The Heart of Business Momentum. And, who knows, the Business Oasis might actually go live again soon after an additional four days of unexpected downtime.

So, this nearly slipped through the cracks. But, here it is:

The Big Challenge of Marketing Porn

Sexuality is such a funny thing in Western culture- omnipresent, yet completely unconscious. And pornography is one of unnamed struggles in our culture of sexuality.

John Reisinger is bravely taking this topic on on his site, Make Peace With Porn. He’s doing some really great work. And… as powerful a topic as sexuality is, it can be quite challenging to get something like this to be passed along.

(Note- bummer. I just tried to bring his site up and it has disappeared. I don’t know if it’s been attacked or what. I’ll try to get hold of John- meanwhile, it’s a good lesson to learn.)

I mean, if you recommend something like this, does that mean you have to admit to dealing with porn? It’s a rough one.

One of my contentions is that marketing is not about attraction, it’s about safety. Strangely, that’s one of John’s ideas about porn- not that men are merely run by their gonads, but that pornography actually promises men a deep acceptance and safety that we have trouble finding in our every day relationships, and not just for our sexuality.

For the Heart: with your own business, where could it be challenging for someone to admit working with you? How can you make it safer for them to pass it along to someone else? And, if you could be brave and pass John’s information, let’s help make it a little more visible.

Tim Ferriss’ Missing Link

Many people slaver at the thought of having a 4-hour Work Week, a la Tim Ferriss’ best-selling book. But, there is a missing link. Actually, there’s a couple of missing links, but Marissa Bracke has one of them.

It has to do with project management. She has a fantastic article on the topic, and I suggest you take a read.

Project management is one of those fantastically useful skills that hasn’t really translated that well into the world of self-employment. Well, it sorta-kinda-has, but there hasn’t been a whole-hearted acceptance of project management among the “I’m-just-going-to-hang-out-a-shingle” set. Sometimes it seems too logical and dry. Sometimes it seems to represent all that is evil in the corporate world that often the shingle-hanger is just trying to escape from.

But, the truth is, project management- how to be in healthy relationship with what you need to do–is as necessary as breathing. And without it, the whole 4-Hour Work Week is even more elusive than it already seems.

For the Heart: What is your relationship to your projects? How could you open your heart to them? Who can you get help from to manage those projects?

Adventures in Free Time

One of the benefits of having a 4-Hour Work Week is “free time.” What, that’s impossible? Free time? Well, one of my favorite people in the world, Lisa Hunter, has teamed up her bud Kerri Yates to form Adventures in Free Time, a silly concept for a blog that feels really great, actually.

It’s about play. It’s about adventure. It’s about unlocking creativity. Without being earnest. They don’t talk about play and why it’s important. They don’t talk about unlocking creativity. They just go do it. And you get to join them.

For the Heart: how can you bring more play into your life? Into your business? Even if it’s beside the point?

Okay, there you go. Another Monday Heart Stuff.  It might just become a habit.

No More Square Wheels. Or Round Wheel, Either.

Considering the next class is all about No More Square Wheels, some intrepid reader sent me this:

“A new bicycle reinvents the wheel, with a pentagon and triangle.”

Interesting… For the heart: What are you doing in your business that everyone else is doing the exact same way because it’s “accepted wisdom.” And maybe, just maybe you could do something else?

How to Get Any Work Done (When Connecting Is Your Job)

The fabulous, pink-haired marketing maven Sonia Simone, who is also one of the people running the incredibly popular Copyblogger as well as a teacher over at Teaching Sells (which I’ll talk about their one-day $750,000 sell-out in this Wednesday’s article), takes on the big bugaboo in social media: time.

Lots of people have talked about productivity. But, the truth is, the interwebs are on 24-7, and we’re expected to appear to be everywhere all at once.

Except when you’re a mom, and a human being, occasionally you want to do something else other than tweet or write on a blog. How does she handle?

How to Get Any Work Done (When Connecting Is Your Job)

I have to admit to being a bit in the weeds on this one, too. Her article prompted me to download an egg timer Mac desktop widget.

For the heart: Are you managing the overwhelming flow? How are you deciding when to do what and for how long? Do you have the support to interrupt yourself?

Hooking Up With the Big Fish

Dave Navarro, the Launch Coach, co-author of “How to Launch the **** Out of Your eBook” takes on a delightful subject: connecting with influential people to help launch your business.

Anyone who has worked with me knows that I think that strategic alliances are really the most powerful way to get your business out in the world. A strategic alliance, to be clear, is when someone who loves and trusts you then introduces your work, especially a specific offer, to their community/list.

Through strategic alliances word of the Heart of Money course reached over 100,000 people. Nice. We’re hoping for a similar reach for the Heart of Business Momentum.

Anyway, all of this was a three-paragraph rambling way to say that Dave has written a no-nonsense, clear, open-heart way to begin to build relationships of integrity with influential people you admire.

For the heart: How are you giving to the people you admire? Just that simple question. Once you’ve answered that, it will be easier to find an open path to how to actually approach them.

Inspired Organizing from Jen Hofmann

Once upon a time my office was a mess. A real mess. an overwhelmed dirty, dingy mess. Well, maybe not dirty and dingy- but I couldn’t find anything, I had a stack of papers that I never looked through, and I just felt oppressed by stuff.

Now, no one could say my office is the picture-perfect. But that’s okay. It’s me. I know where things are. I have a flow. And there is beauty. I’m so much more organized than I was.

All due to Jen Hofmann. Jen is a sweet heart, and a sharp, sharp person with a lot of compassion and a deep understanding of how to help you organize in a way that is intuitive for you.

She’s running a course. Inspired Organizing. Is your office a mess? Do you feel oppressed by stuff? Do you need your office to really work? Grab one of the last four spots. Only do it today, because it’s the early-bird price.

And before she takes my advice and doubles her price. Triples, really.

So long for Monday! And while you’re musing, don’t forget to sign up for The Heart of Business Moment. That is, if you were going to. ’cause the early-bird deadline is this coming Friday.

Let me explain that I’m running a business, I’m a new father of twin boys, and I’m a little sleep-deprived. I haven’t really had a lot of extra time to read.

Howsoever, when Pam’s book arrived, and I saw the cover, I couldn’t help but flip it open.

And there it was, the line on page 2 that everyone seems to be repeating, and that sums up the gestalt of the whole book (whatever “gestalt” means):

“And despite what a lot of hyped-up marketing material will tell you, hating your job intensely is not a business plan.”

One morning, after a 3am feeding which my wife blissfully slept through (one of only two nights a week when I’m on for the night feedings–an arrangement that allows me to be coherent and run the business that keeps us in baby formula), I couldn’t go back to sleep. So I picked up her book. I think I had made it to the second chapter.

And finished the book by 5:30am. (That’s your cue to go buy it now.)

If you’re wondering how to make the leap from corporate to entrepreneur this is the book for you. It’s got the nitty-gritty, like:

• “How to Shop for Benefits, including the basics, resources, and some things you definitely might not have thought of. And what is more terrifying than being without benefits while you’re trying to support your family?
• “Do I Really Have to Have a Business Plan?” The answer is “Absolutely not.” And “Absolutely.” which is a lot more clear than you think if you read the chapter. And you’ll be glad you did, because business plans and planning can either speed you up or slow you down, depending.
• “How Do I Choose a Good Business Idea” including Pam’s direct confrontation of the popular trite-ism “Do What You Love and the Money Will Follow.” No, she’s not recommending losing what you love, but she does clue you in how and where the money comes from.

But, this is not another boring how-to-set-up-a-business book. What kind of a boring-how-to-set-up-a-business book would help you detox from corporate life and thaw out your soul, which you must do. You can’t be a successful entrepreneur with a frozen soul, period.

Or how how about facing your family and friends who maybe don’t have an entrepreneurial bone in their body and can’t conceive of you actually making it, and so they tell you their worries day in and day out until your dreams start to turn to dust…

Except that you were smart enough to have both picked up this book and read it.

About the Writing Itself

I revel in the informal, conversational, messy, impromptu, in-the-moment writing that has cropped up in blogs, on Twitter, and in a variety of pdfs. I love it that written conversation is accessible to everyone.

At the same time I’m a writer and sometime editor, and have been for more than twenty years. I worked on a daily newspaper, I ran a non-profit magazine, and I’ve written hundreds of articles and a few books.

I say this to let you know that I value quality writing. There is a skill, talent and art to written expression which makes it easy for the reader to walk into a book, sit down, and have a cup of tea. A combination of humor, heart-opening turns of phrase, and an ability to empathize and stay connected to you as the reader.

Pam’s got it. You’ll enjoy reading the book. You will. Even the parts that could be boring, like “Looking Your Finances in the Eye,” are a pleasure to read.

Why Am I Making Such a Big Deal Out of This Book?

Heart of Business has two missions. The inner mission is to help people touch spirit, to remember Oneness and love in the context of business and money, specifically small business and being self-employed.

The outer mission is to have as many people as possible thriving, with their hearts open, because small businesses are where most of the jobs, creativity, passion, and life-blood comes from in the business world. And strong small businesses help keep money local, and they help to weave strong communities.

A huge number of people have just been forcibly ejected from the corporate world, and millions more are wanting to make the leap. Around the turn of the last century, half the population of the US was self-employed or working in small businesses. I think we’d all be healthier and better off if we were to get back closer to that percentage.

Pam and her Escape from Cubicle Nation- From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur are compadres of ours in this mission. She may only suspect it, but we’re soul-siblings in terms of this mission.

So, there you go. My cards on the table. Now, please, go get the book. And follow her on Twitter. And read her blog.

And start a business.