Here at the home of the 'Money and Meaning Movie' I like to think you and I think a little harder about what it means to create a great life.

You wouldn't have loved the movie so much if you didn't think deeper thoughts than most somedays, right? :-)

Which is why I think you'll like a quote I'd love to share with you today about work, just before diving into two cool offerings in today's news. The quote is from a book I'm enjoying at the moment called 'My Job, My Self: Work and the Creation of the Modern Individual.'
Had you ever thought that the work you do is making you who you are? Actually changing your identity? Shaping and molding you. Interesting, isn't it?

Here's the quote, from Chapter 5: Lack of Vision on page 59. Intriguing stuff.

"If work shapes and defines people, then forms of work are needed that will help rather than impede self-realization:

But jobs such as these are hard to find. [...] too many of us cry out, "our jobs are too small!... our work is not revelatory."

My dear business owner, isn't it true that as we create our own work, we have the opportunity to create revelatory, big work that grows us? Work that serves and earns money, yes, but that also lovingly shapes us into the greatest version of ourselves possible?

I like to think this is the singular responsibility and opportunity of the modern business owner. And I'm so glad I get to share thoughts like this with you.

If this idea rings with you, or if it feels like a struggle to 'get' or if you think it's 'bollocks!' I'd love to hear. Post below.

--- begin Soni's rant ---

Here's my question:

There are all kinds of tricks, tips and tools for getting your website, your ebook, your telecourse or your blog into the top spot at Google. And some of them even work, no question about it.

But (and that rustling sound you hear is me dusting off and donning my coaching hat), let's reframe this issue for just a second and ask:

Does your content actually DESERVE to be #1?

Is it, really, the most relevant information on the topic a person could find if they went searching for those keywords and phrases? Is your product, site or blog really what they're hoping to find?

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"Resistance is about believing you are vulnerable or susceptible to something not wanted

and holding a stance of protection

which only holds you in a place of not letting in the well-being
that would be there otherwise.

There is nothing big enough

to protect you

from unwanted things -

and there are no unwanted things big enough

to get into your experience."

-- Abraham-Hicks

When you get that palpable sensation of having one foot on the gas, and one foot on the brakes in your life, where do you turn, what do you do?

The Maui Writers Conference last week was...

Delightful - A full 10 days in an environment of bright and shiny, creative thinkers from hundreds of walks of life, not to mention sweetly-scented air and ocean all around, made for a multisensory feast of an exeperience. It was also extremely...

Fruitful - Two literary agents and one editor are interested in seeing two book proposals. Two other agents are willing for me to stay in touch on behalf of clients who have books coming up themselves. And one editor was tolerably encouraging of the idea that I might hang up a shingle as agent in the new year, and call him with a couple of pitches. "If you think you have an eye for recognizing talent, that's a gift that separates regular agents from agents I want to work with." Excellent!

For those of you who'd love to 'piggyback' on this immersion experience, I'd be delighted to share an infusion. If you'd like to know more about:

- the big picture of the publishing world as I've been learning it the last several months...
- the little picture of the players in that world (what do they wear, eat, read?) after 'living' with them for a week...
- what's occuring with the 'new media' revolution and what it means...
- the distinctions between publishing and self-publishing, and...
- which projects I'll put on the mainstream publishing track - which ones I'll self-publish, and why...

Of course, post-conference life is terribly interrupted now, by design. And I'm grateful. Like a big trunk full of toys collected over the years, sometimes you have to dump all the pieces of your life on the ground in a mess in order to decide what to play with next.

Interrupting life this way means it will be impossible to put all the toys back the way they were before. What a perfect relief!

On a personal note, two things:

Snorkelling and swimming has freed me from residual body-fear. 10 weeks after my surgery and that's a good thing. Yes, I am smiling!

Well actually make that grinning from ear to ear because my hubby Mike had an even more incredible time than I did at the conference. Of the 3 tracks at the event, Mike took part in the most intensive - Screenwriting with Director Michael Palmieri (Chico's Angels, Michael P is on the right, my hubby at left), featuring Bobby Moresco (Crash), Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine) and others. Among 29 attendees in the group, only two wrote in the romantic comedy genre - you know that genre where the movies are either fabulous (When Harry Met Sally, French Kiss) or really really horrible (names omitted to protect the innocent)?

Well, my Mike took the screenwriting track's prize for best screenplay. Even better, his writing met with - in his words - "laughs basically right on cue, pages in a row" which had him the ultimate Cloud 9. Then, an agent asked if he had a manager and invited him to take next steps.

Let's just say that with a free ticket to next year's conference, $1000 in prize money, massive validation and a ton of new questions (Will we move to LA as hinted would be wise? Of all the new ideas, which screenplay will Mike tackle next? Is this really real, pinch me/us/him!)....... this is life - perfectly interrupted - for us at this moment.

With that...perhaps a little of this energy can be turned around to good use for you. That is after all, the point right? Will you join us for an energized fall? Why do I think you have a ruckus you're itching to create, underneath your skin? Or maybe its something you're spinning, silky and smooth?

I think of Fall as such a great non-new-year non-cliche time for refreshment and renewal...a counter-culture overachiever's fantasy. So while no one else has noticed the January 1st that's looming yet - what will you do with your life and business next? Will you solidify the road you are on? Will you try something new? What will feel good and feed you energy? What will you whittle away?

I'm looking forward to reading whatever's useful to you to share, and hearing you on the Open House call, once again, registration details above. More Maui stories to come...

Use the player below to listen to the recording of this call or click the link below the player to download the mp3:

Is this neat little turn of phrase meaningful or just so much Charlie Brown's teacher talking?

From Oystein Dahle, Chairman of Worldwatch Institute and former VP of Esso:

"Socialism collapsed because it did not allow prices to tell the economic truth.

Capitalism may collapse because it does not allow prices to tell the ecological truth."

I think it lands but does little more than make one go 'huh, interesting' and then immediately move on. It seems like the neatness of the phrasing actually makes it easier to forget - despite the sentiment being sound.

This I believe: "It's not what you say, it's HOW you say it that matters most in getting messages, meaning, etc. across to others."

So if 'getting through to people' with our messages is the goal...I'm wondering...HOW (specifically) can we improve HOW we say things?

Family is one of those words that I think has lost its oomph. Everyone thinks they know what it means and it seems to me it's hard to use the word without inducing sleepiness.

Funny, because clearly the concept has dozens of possible uses. The family of people you choose to surround yourself with. Your spiritual family. Family of origin. Blended family. And then of course there's always La Familia.

Here's a little quote that makes me think differently again about family - in a meta sense of the word. Does this usage make you sleepy?

From Finding Oprah's Roots:

"Knowing your family history is knowing your worth - your whole worth. And I don't mean monetary value.

It's about everything that everybody gave up for you. It allows you to know what your mama went through, your grandmama went through, your great-grandmama went through, your grandfathers.

It lets you know that you've been paid for - that there are lots of people who came before you who would have liked to have had what you have. I think about this all the time - you know, my ancestors could not have imagined the life that I now lead but for the work that they did that prepared the way."

Coaching questions that may be of interest:

I know my ancestors didn't live their lives for me, but in what way did what they did with their time lead to something (a place, a time, a context or opportunity) that allows me to do something unique with my turn at bat?

Am I putting my life to good use, from the eyes of the family members that have come before me?

Will my life the way I'm living it be of use to the family that is to come next?

Forget everyone else, am I living too much for everyone else? What about me?

Aside: This is the second of two vignettes on the topic of what it's like to be Taiwanese. Read the first one here.

"Mom, why is Grandad walking round and round the cherry trees again?"

Actually, that was my inside voice. I didn't ask out loud, because like many, good Taiwanese children are supposed to be quiet.  Something to do with how many people live on such a small island*, I think.

But I did ask it inside my head over the next few weeks, because Grandad kept circling around, shaking and peering up at the cherry trees beside our house, happily anticipating something.

Little did I know then that plum blossoms, not cherry, have a special place in the Taiwanese heart because they bloom with the winter snow and do best when seemingly overlooked.  Improbably, the colder the winter, the more beautiful the blossoms, or so the stories go.

In other words plum blossoms thrive under adversity and are all the more beloved for their resilience.

Grandad wasn't thinking of resilience though. 

After some thought he sawed off one of the straightest, thickest branches of the tallest cherry tree.  Filled with purpose, he set the saw at just a certain angle and when he was done he painted the cut ends with something black.

Then came the hours of polishing, first with his bare hands, then with a small rag and oil from the kitchen to shine it up.  Trimming the thin tip of the branch came next, with much measuring and testing, balancing and banging the branch into the ground. 

And all of a sudden, I saw that it was a walking stick.

My grandad's been gone for a long time now.  But the lesson of the walking stick was the same as the lesson of empty eggshells turned upside down in all of our houseplants (what a pain to water!) 

It was the same lesson as the two grains of uncooked rice stuck under a band-aid, used on an acupressure point to relieve a headache.   

In fact it was the same lesson as the 40-year old suit my Dad loves saying 'still fits' and the pair of shoes my mom says have been reheeled and re-leathered so many times, it's not fair to call them the same old great pair of shoes.  But Dad gets such joy from admiring "such good quality, can you believe they've lasted so long?!"

Living in Canada as we were at the time, surely there was a multitude of walking sticks to choose from in a shopping mall nearby.  But that's not the Taiwanese way. 

The Taiwanese way is to take pleasure adding value, or even better, finding value in places you might not normally look.

The Taiwanese way is to accomplish a lot with unexpectedly little (make something from nothing.) To use everything at hand to make life better.  To find a bargain or perfect fit for a missing piece.

Taiwanese find it fun to make something work, especially when it seems like it shouldn't and everyone else has given up.

For better or worse, Taiwan is about surviving and thriving, against the odds.  I guess that's a little like the plum blossom.

----------------------------

*Taiwan has a population of about 23 million (c. 2005) living in about 32,000 square kilometers of land.  That's about 70% of the population of all of Canada, in a land area the size of Vancouver island, slightly smaller than the combined area of Maryland and Delaware.

**This above painting of plum blossoms hangs in my office where I write. You can find it, and other Taiwanese and Asian art, here.

Are you sick of trying so hard? May I ask, "Are You Being the Sun or the Wind?"

Question: "Andrea, when you’re trying to sell something to someone, I know it’s important to communicate with people more than once. I’ve already emailed my newsletter readers with four different offers this month, but they still aren’t buying. What should I write in my next email that will work? I’m tired of pounding them so many times."

Answer: There are many ways to answer this question, but with thanks to Aesop, I'd like to paraphrase a little story. It may give you a new perspective on this as well as other situations where you feel like you’re trying awfully hard. Play along for just a moment and see if you can find the energy of this little tale:

The Sun and the Wind decided to have a little game. They agreed to prove which one of them was more powerful.

When a man came traveling down the road, they seized their opportunity – they decided to see who could make the man remove his coat, thus proving whether the Sun or the Wind was the more powerful.

The Wind took the challenge and began to blow. He blew as hard as he could at the man, trying to get him to remove his coat.

But the more the wind blew, the more the man clung to his coat and hat, and the wind had to give up.

Next the sun gave it a try and turned up his rays so it began to warm up. As the day grew brighter and the man grew warmer, he naturally found it too hot to keep his coat on and was happy to take it off.

Coming up on a small stream, he even took his shoes and socks off and took a wade before he continued on his journey.

Now with this story as a backdrop, let’s get back to the questions that make this 'real.'

"How do I stop chasing after customers and get them to try (or buy) my stuff?"

"How do I stop trying so hard to get results?"

As your e-coach for the moment, may I ask:

Between the wind and the sun, which would you rather be, as you pursue the natural, effortless, stress-free growth of your business?

In what way might you be stepping on the gas in your business, only to spin your wheels?

What seems to take an awfully LONG time to do in your business?

How often do you feel as if "I should" or "I must" in your business? When, exactly?

If you could make your own rules, what would you stop doing?

Hint: Whether you feel as though you 'get' the idea behind the Sun and the Wind, take your time with it. We're taking about a shift in the order of a sea change here and it doesn't usually happen overnight...

Remember: You can't get anything wrong and you'll never be completely finished with your work. Post your comments and questions on this topic at this link:

Brad Swift of The Life on Purpose Institute recently interviewed me as part of the 'Building Your Business on Purpose' Teleseries.

In it, I quoted from Lynne Twist's The Soul of Money, a must read for insight into how and where meaning and money intersect:

"Money is like an iron ring we put through our nose. It is now leading us around wherever it wants. We just forgot that we are the ones who designed it." -- Mark Kinney

Paraphrasing:

"It is in the act of resseing ourselves in relation to our money, and expressing our soul's integrity through the medium of money, that we experience joyful reward." [page 40, paragraph 2]

"There is an immense healing power of even the smallest amount of money when we use it to express our humanity..." [page xx, paragraph 1]

To which I suggest superimposing another layer could be useful, for the entrepreneurs in us:

There is an immense healing power in even the smallest amount of money EARNED when we do so by expressing our humanity and adding value to others...

The most important nugget to come from this call was the invitation to 'be obscenely obsessed by money' for awhile (say 30-90 days). It seemed to me in this setting of business owners that the terms purpose and meaning, etc., weren't yet being grounded enough into the conversation about money.

Because without the money piece we weren't going to be talking about businesses. And Brad asked me to address BUSINESSES with purpose, not purposes which once in a blue moon, had something to deposit in the bank. So I went to the other extreme to try and bring the energy in the other very important direction.

Here are two questions that came from participants afterwards, along with 6 Suggested Action Steps.

Question #1:

Hi Andrea,

Thanks for the information on the call today. You really got me thinking about Money vs Meaning in order to have a Business on Purpose. My question is this: What do you mean by focusing on the money? Could you give me some examples or methods?

Thanks,

Mariano

Answer:

Hi Mariano, sure. Here are just a few suggestions for you:

(1) Play the Money Game, a easy interesting little game I invented to help you start to pick up the money mindset.

If you don't already have a copy of Multiple Streams of Coaching Income or Money, Meaning and Beyond, you can begin the process by listening to the audio clip here.

Just the one exercise I outline there can give you lots to work with. Try to be thorough with it and play the game multiple times with different financial goals.

(2) Ask yourself this series of great money-focussed questions:

What money have I already earned, that I have not yet invoiced for or collected?

What's the fastest path to money for me right now? What money could I earn right now, if I MUST earn something? If I only pick up the phone or ask for the business today? (What's the Fastest Path to Money? Chapter 4, MMB.)

(3) Begin harnessing your business metrics.

Even if you're just starting out, understanding the measurements that your business generates is a great habit to cultivate. Business metrics are like an EKG for your business. From a money perspective, is your business heart beating?

There is a spreadsheet template and deeper coaching questions available here for your use in getting started.

Remember, you are the boss of money, not the other way around. By focussing, perhaps obscenely, on money for even just 30-90 days, you will increase your ability to make a difference in the world far more than if you focus on purpose, and assume the money will follow.

Here is just one more article that may get you thinking about money in a different way. It concerns knights in shining armour. ;-)

----

Question #2:

Hi Andrea

Thank you for today, as I said on the call, you have really bedded down an idea that I was totally resisting (and suddenly I see total sense in it!). My question is around bridging that gap between what I do with my clients and the ‘real world’ that they live in – how do I start to do that?

My coaching is really about starting to see yourself as the magnificent being you are (I now see how ‘out there’ that can look!) so how do I start meeting my clients where they currently are rather than where we will (most likely) get to?

Thanks a million. Love,

Donna.x

Answer:

Hi Donna, I'm smiling at your question because I sense you've already begun the shift you're seeking. So here are a few suggestions to help keep you going in this wonderful direction - just you wait until it gets affirmed by new clients, more income and more wonderful work for you!

(1) Meeting clients where they are at is at heart, a mindset shift. The bottom-line is customers don't give a hoot what WE think they need. They want what THEY want. If we persist in trying to sell what WE think they need - oof, we become guilty of forcefeeding. Not a pretty sight.

So at the most basic, I suggest you really start to do some processing - verbally or in writing - about why it is you've been so 'attached' to the idea of what you think is best for them. Make sense?

(2) Read a little about Desire Lines [Chapter 2] and especially 'Where Are You Coming From' [Chapter 20] in Money, Meaning and Beyond. If you are a reader.

I'll let you in on a little secret. One of the biggest reasons we wrote this little paperback is to address the mindset shift you are right in the middle of! :-)

(3) If you're not interested in the book for now, try this article on the 8 Steps to Building A Multiple Streams Product Funnel and pay special attention to step #2: Elicit the Problems. It's short and sweet but goes straight to the heart of your question Donna.

Does that help? I hope so. Feel free to post additional questions and I will do my best to answer here in a future post. That goes for everyone.

Let me leave you with one final quote, about profit, another lovely one.

“Profit is like oxygen, food and water for the body- These things are not the points of life, but without them, there is no life. In the same way, visionary companies see profit as a residual of doing things well, not the point of being in business”.

~ James Collins and Jerry Porras (Build to Last) ~

"Once I dreamt I was a butterfly.

And suddenly, I awoke...

Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly

Or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming that I am now a man..."

-- Chuang Tzu