10 Step Formula for a Thriving Spirited Business

First Thing's First Formula:  words used in ceremony or ritual (1630's) from the Latin formula, form, draft, contract, method, literally "small form."  

I love the artist Keri Smith.  For years I taught university level Expository Writing from her wonderful book, How to be an Explorer of the World.  Keri told me to see patterns and make connections.

These days the Fibonacci spiral is drawing my attention, that whirring intricacy of seeds at the center of the sunflower, or the turn of the nautilus shell.  It reminds me that patterns don't need to be a grid, linear, or even steps to an end.  They may be multi-dimensional, process oriented, in motion.  And sacred.

This formula for a thriving spiritual business may be completed in any order.  It may be crafted and recreated to suit any needs.  It should be edited, it should grow and change and adapt to you.  Applied, it is a powerful catalyst for transformation.  It is magic. One:  Do what brings you joy. Notice I didn't say "do what you love."  This is an important distinction

Love and joy are mostly in alignment.  But I know that sometimes what we love might not serve our greater purpose, our larger goals.  I have used my love of writing and art in the past as an excuse to stay small, isolated, feeding my introverted nature.  

Joy, to me, is a shared experience.  This is important.  Because in order for your business to thrive, you have to put yourself out there.  You have to be willing to share your joy, your enthusiasm, your gifts.  And you have to find joy in the sharing.  This means doing what brings you joy by its very nature must feed you, literally and figuratively.  The secret is finding something you both enjoy doing, and that you want to (joyfully) promote.
Two:  Negotiate for Yourself First Raise your hand if you say yes too much.  Raise your hand if you have ever given your time, energy, work or resources away in a way that later left you feeling unappreciated or resentful.  If you have both hands up you are likely a self-saboteur, one with the best interests at heart, but maybe lacking the boundaries and assertion to put your own needs first.

This piece of the formula probably needs a post all its own.  Negotiating for yourself simply means advocating for what feels right to you.  This only can happen when we feel strong, balanced, abundant and connected.  When we are in transition--starting a new endeavor, changing careers, revealing ourselves in a new way--our insecurity (from the Latin insecurus, "not safe") can cause us to negotiate against ourselves, to give ourselves away, to minimize our worth and value.  

Negotiating for yourself often means holding firm, creating boundaries, taking risks.  It always means crafting a daily practice that is grounding and balancing, so no matter what is happening around you, you may operate from a center rooted in your own best interests. Three:  Practice, Practice, Practice I have many daily practices, from writing to walking to prayer.  Most are small, take only minutes of my time, but they each act as a sacred thread linking together the fabric of my conscious and unconscious thoughts.  My yoga teacher Uma Diana Hulet once said, "Practice makes us ready."  When I practice, I feel myself part of the pattern of my life, not mysteriously adrift, not yanked around by other people, emotions, circumstances beyond my control.  Practice enables me to surrender to the whole, stay present and be with whatever comes.

What does your practice look like?  Do you have one?  This is one of the first questions I ask clients who come to me for spirited business support.  If you resist daily practice of self-care, the road to success may suck you dry. Consistent, daily practice tells the world we are worthy of our own attention and deserve good stuff, like exercise and connection and rest.

For practice to be effective it must be doable (not overly intricate or daunting), repeatable, and enjoyable.  I recommend a ten minute non-negotiable (see #2 :) ) self-care and/or spiritual practice every single day.  It will transform your life faster than anything else. Four:  Honor the Seasons and Cycles of Work The moon cycles, the earth cycles, our bodies cycle.  I once felt like I was inconsistently productive, and thus not a good worker.  I would feel guilty for giving myself space and breaks.  Then I heard the poet Madeline DeFrees give a talk about the fallow time, the rest required of the earth after the frenetic seasons of flower and fruit.  The fallow time, she said, prepared us for the next season's growth.  And I stopped with the guilt, just like that.

Shortly thereafter I learned about the cycles of my body, and met women like writer Tami Lynn Kent who actually honor their cycles.  Tami taught me that by scheduling less during times when I felt drawn to solitude actually led to more and different kinds of accomplishment.

In many indigenous cultures, including the cultures of pre-Christian northern Europe, time was not linear, but cyclic.  Even stories of the end of the world lead back again to the beginning of the world.  The gift of cyclic time is simultaneity:  everything happens all at once.  Translate this to the cycles of work and production, then even when you are in a place of withdrawal, you are simultaneously expansive.  Both states are essential for balance, and making peace with this, making space for your own cyclic work in a way that is authentic (not, for example, withdrawing as a form of self-denial or because you feel shy, or expanding because of greed) leads to richer communities, opportunities for collaboration and that elusive work-life balance everyone is always searching for. Five:  Feelings Matter Your intuition is the most valuable skill you have as an entrepreneur.  And I'm not the only one who says so.  Spend some time in the biography section of any library and you will find story after story of people who talk about luck, yes, faith, too, but mostly trusting their gut.

Are you comfortable in your body? Do you feel a yes or no somewhere within you? Do you follow your instincts? Have an inner compass or sense of leadership that helps you follow your inner heart?  If not, it is time to build these relationships.  My work with Moon Divas has been invaluable to helping me trust my gut--or womb, as the case may be.  My head is much less instinctually reliable than my body.  When you are in communication with your body, there is very little that you can lie to yourself about.  And when the yeses come from your body--and oh, they will!--you will leap without question, knowing that the landing will be in your best interests. Six:  When in Doubt, Divine Okay, so this is where I really have to go out on a limb.  When I am faced with indecision (which happens about fifty-seven times a day and more) I flip a coin.  Or ask the wind.  Or draw a card.  Sometimes the answer is exactly what I think it should be (that old gut instinct at work again) and sometimes not--I believe that may be the 50/50 odds at work--but what divination of any form does is move me past my indecision so that I can move on to something else.  See, whatever the outcome, I will myself to take action one way or the other.  There are no mistakes, friends.  There is only the way.  

I spent much of my life hesitating over minute choices--should my hair be up or down in my profile picture (what looks more professional?), should the border be green or blue (which is more attractive?), should I contact this editor again or not (would it seem pushy?), should I book the space today or tomorrow (I don't know if I really want it but what if it is already booked by the time I decide?)... 

Do you see how all of that indecision is rooted in self-doubt?  I may always have self-doubt, that is my work in this lifetime, but I don't let it hold me back in the same way.  Life is too short.  Now I flip a coin, take the picture, the border is blue, I call the editor again and go ahead and book the space.  Four decisions I could have spent minutes--no, let's be honest, hours over.

This is an invitation: believe that there are no mistakes and give yourself a method to be more decisive and not delay.  The only possible error is inaction.  Or wasting an entire day choosing that profile picture :). Seven:  Trust in Your Spiritual Organization A scene:  I'm supposed to launch this business today.  It's the full moon, I've made loads o' plans.  But the website is being glitchy, and I can't find the folder with the most recent service menu.  My children are fighting, my husband is cranky and it is probably because it is Sunday and they would like my presence, thank you, instead of the closed door of my office (cue antic rustling within).  Do I push through because of my self-imposed deadline, or do I trust that this launch is happening, unfolding, petal by petal.  It will bloom without force, as it is ready.

If I believe my life is spiritually organized, if I am centered and practicing, then I can let go of my own limitations, and open to the possibility that comes with listening.  The world is speaking to us, constantly.  The key is listening amid the chatter of our own heads.  Listening, trusting, allowing things to be as they (apparently) need to be turns obstacles into opportunities and allows for a more easeful, spacious experience in life.

So today, I'll finish this post and give my family some time, and maybe my big launch is less a fireworks display than a series of shooting stars--silent, beautiful, made for wishing.  Drawing less attention, but, in all the right places, some awe.
Eight:  Schedule It--Confront Resistance I have clients pay for sessions in advance, and I require a three appointment minimum commitment.  I also offer big incentives for booking in bulk.  This isn't all about me, but because I know a little bit about fear and resistance once the dream starts to become reality.  I have been there.  I have canceled my share of appointments.

My most successful clients, the ones who see immediate returns on their investment, are those who commit to weekly sessions over several months.  Our work is fast, regular, and efficient.  Scheduling our time keeps the energy moving, keeps their intention alive and the inspiration aglow.  If you want to get something started, you have to feed the fire.  And nothing feeds the fire like your time and energy.

Money is energy, and when we pay in advance we have made a substantive energetic commitment.  We say we are prioritizing this work.  It is unlikely that we will cancel a prepaid appointment, and so our self-saboteur is foiled.  Which is important, because nine times out of ten we will try to weasel out of our commitment to ourselves.  A huge challenge to our work, any and all, is to stand up to the self-saboteur and say:

"My dream is worth the time and money it takes to build it.  I am worth the investment that enables me to do this work.  I am making this investment in my dream."

Resistance crumbles once you are committed.  What remains is your intention, your drive, and measurable, achievable success. Nine:  Ritualize Building your dream is sacred work.  So make sacred time for this work.

Set aside dedicated space and time.  Ritualize the process of creation.  This can mean using any number of tools or practices to define your space.  I have an altar next to my desk, and I light a candle at the beginning of my workday with a prayer of opening.  At the end, I blow out the candle with a prayer of gratitude.

This beginning and ending ceremony strengthens my work time.  For one, I am unlikely to leave my desk while the candle is burning, meaning the "distracted wandering" syndrome is nullified.   A second advantage, is the lit candle is known by all around to be symbolic of my serious, focused attention.  It says, I'm working, don't bother me right now.

When I work with clients we sometimes come up with rituals together, to strengthen and make efficient our time in the container, between beginning and end.  Ritual builds a space of directed effort, and we are often amazed at how much we are able to accomplish in our time together.

One last effect of ritualizing any work or task, is that you clearly indicate this is a choice, you are choosing to be engaged in this way.  Choice brings a kind of freedom, and joy, even to your least favorite endeavors. Ten: We are Stronger Together, Collaboration is Success When I wrote my first business plan (for my ceremony business, Vestal Transitions) I was pretty strung out on the competition analysis part.  The Celebrant Institute has a code that is insistent on collaboration and collective support, but in the business plan language, my fellow Celebrants were my competition.  Never mind that my so-called competitors invited me over for tea, gave me freely all their forms, connections and resources to help make my business successful.  They even offered to mentor me at any time.

What I learned writing my Celebrant business plan was not about competition, but differentiation.  What makes us unique is the very thing that will attract clients.  When we express that uniqueness in our business presence, our client base will be individualized.

When spirited business folks get together, there is a kind of spark that occurs.  We inspire each other, we give each other permission to be as funny and interesting and outrageous as we (quite comfortably) are.  We help each other find words for our uniqueness, this incredible variety, so that we naturally can let our differences shine.  And we create a network for referrals and resources, because there is more than enough (clients, money, business) for everyone.

In a few days I will be announcing the launch of The Hive, a spirited business hub for meeting, greeting and seeding new (ad) ventures.  This is not "business as usual", there are no ladders, no one-ups, just lots of fun, invention and connection in a community fueled by the spirit of collaboration.

I began this work as a Moon Diva, building community as a foundation for transformation.  Our spirited businesses have the same requirements for nourishment and soul-sweetness.  Welcome, all who wish to enter.

May your spirited business thrive.