Dawn Todd, Entrepreneur Success Coach

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Twelve Traits of a Conscious Business

A  conscious business is a enterprise who exhibit seven or more of these traits:

1.  Run a business based on their calling or a special talent
2.  The company serves the greater community in a positive way
3.  The company is connected to them much like a child to a parent
4.  Make operational decisions based on  their values and with mindfulness
5.  Know that there is more to life than getting more
6.  Are aware of how their decisions effect staff and customers
7.  Make every effort to create a positive work culture that allows employees to grow
8.  Know that making money isn’t the only way to measure success
9.  Do a “gut check” on big decisions and follow that gut feeling
10.  Do the right thing even when no  one would find out, and/or it costs  more
11.  Know beyond a shadow of a doubt that what they focus on they get more of
12.  Are committed to personal growth or a practice of faith because they know that somehow it translates into good business

 Does any of this ring true for you?  

I’ve been talking about the idea of conscious business and how consciousness creates value and ultimately profits in business.    What exactly IS a conscious business?

Turns out that’s a bigger question than I realized.

In my world, a conscious business is a enterprise whose day-to-day operations and strategic planning are done by one or two people, and who exhibit seven or more of these traits:

 Run a business based on their calling or a special talent

The company serves the greater community in a positive

The company is connected to them much like a child to a parent

 Make operational decisions based on  their values and with mindfulness

  Know that there is more to life than getting more

  Are aware of how their decisions effect staff and customers

  Make every effort to create a positive work culture that allows employees to grow

  Know that making money isn’t the only way to measure success

  Do a “gut check” on big decisions and follow that gut feeling

  Do the right thing even when no  one would find out, and/or it costs  more

  Know beyond a shadow of a doubt that what they focus on they get more of

 Are committed to personal growth or a practice of faith because they know that somehow it translates into good business

 How do you as an entrepreneur stay on track with these? I really want to know what’s working for you and what’s not.

Email me back with your feedback- I’d really like to know!

Have a great week!

Dawn

Presence is the perfect present. What is it? I’ve always thought it was giving something or someone your full attention while you were with them.

Hard for a multitasking manic like me to do, especially when the day to day course of business can bring a big win and a huge fire to put out, all in the same morning.

Certainly our families and staff might appreciate it we could learn to give just one thing our full attention – and I admit that allowing my teenager to talk to me and text at the same time hasn’t helped her develop the habit of giving one task your full attention until it’s complete and moving on to the next thing.

“One thing at a time” develops a mindset of self-mastery, which we talked about last week as the key to effective leadership and innovation. Business intangibles that by some accounts create up to 75% of the value of a brand.
Most business owners would agree that the goal of a business is to create a tangible effect in the real world. How can you create results in the tangible world unless you first master your own emotions and thoughts?

Mastering self creates complete responsibility for both your successes and failures. And it creates presence which is the cornerstone of creativity and collaboration – more valuable intangibles.

Here’s to a great 2010 – one thing at a time.

Does being a value-based company translate into more profits?   

We assume so, at any rate we hope so.  And even if we don’t make more money we have the good feeling of doing “the right thing”. 

Perhaps it can be summed up in four words:   minimize evil, maximize good. 

Sounds easy,  eh?  Now for the big “how” question. 

By making the choice to operate your business from a place of consciousness.  Patricia Aburdene, in her book Megatrends 2010 says:  “conscious individuals transform organizations.  Period.” 

The cornerstone of this mindset is self-mastery. Mastering your own thoughts and actions creates effective leadership, which creates successful businesses.  

Mastering yourself gives you a strategic advantage (knowing of course that advantage over others means nothing) to create an ethical, sustainable, integral, profitable business.  This means very specifically that business leadership uses tools that have been developed to best navigate and master self, culture, and world.

 What’s the purpose of business, and specifically YOUR business?  Is a better profit margin the soul/sole goal of my business? 

Maybe these questions are a good place to start.  And while I know that making more money is probably NOT the only reason you’re in business,  keeping the lights on and making payroll is pretty important.  It’s gotta be a balance between chasing the money and doing the right thing.  The hope is that those two are not mutually exclusive.

 What are your two most recent success stories?

 When you’re working towards a goal, you know that what you put your time and attention into you get more of.

 No big surprise there. 

 So doesn’t it just make sense to track your success?  

 To always be on the lookout for evidence of a positive outcome, rather thanfocusing on what’s not working?

 Grab a sticky note and answer these questions:

•  What have you accomplished so far, in connection with the goal that you are working toward?
•  When you leave the office tonight, how many successes will you celebrate? 

 Dave   Opton said   “Job security is the triumph of  hope over reality”.  

 Only you can decide what your day will be like.  Have a great one!

Are you are values driven entrepreneur?

If your life feels different today than last year, last month, or even last week…you’re not alone.

Business is Changing
Economies are Changing
Life is Changing

Listening to the news or neighbors or economists isn’t going to help you navigate this change. The old rules no longer apply. But there is another way. . . .

Your Strengths + Your Values x Purpose = Passion

Just to be clear, my purpose is not about the perfect job, the perfect family or the lifestyle of my dreams. My life purpose is to serve and express my gift to the world.

HERE IS THE COOL PART! YOU HAVE THE SAME PURPOSE! !

When you operate from that place, you are authentic and clear and powerful.

Your life and your next right action become absolutely clear, because you know why are doing what you are doing.

It is the combination of right action with right intention.

It is a Business on Purpose and Life in Balance.

Your business is a reflection of you. You are not a reflection of your business.
What will you do to ride that shift and thrive?

Are you the cause or the effect in your business?

Maybe both, but perhaps you hope to be the cause more often than the effect.

High achievers are almost always the cause of what is happening around them, and not usually the effect of what other people say or do.

If you are the cause, it means that you are letting your mindset and goal setting mastery drive the result that you want. It means that you are now seeing the fruition of the outcomes you planned earlier in the year.

Every success in your business came as a direct result of correct mindset applied with a goal in mind.

Every single event that occurs happens because of a complicated chain of events that trigger an outcome. Cause and effect.

Have you ever thought about how this drives your business?

If correct mindset drives results how do you create the correct mindset?

Here are three ways to manage your mind and thus become the cause rather than the effect:

Start each and every day with your goals in front of you, and review them for ten minutes.

Take whatever action is required to shift your results, and just do it. Correct mindset will never trump lack of action.

Mastering mindset allows you to understand cause and effect, and work with it instead of opposing it.

Be the cause of success and positivity for yourself and others.

Tough times test entrepreneurs. Tough times separate those who put their head in the sand and hope it will pass from those who use their strengths and use them in new ways to create success.

At the end of the day, mindset drives business results and not the other way around. Most professionals in bizdev will attest to the truth of this – interestingly, for many small business owners this idea is revolutionary.

This concept is the basis of not only everything that I do, but everything that my coaching is built around. Conscious people transform business. No matter what you call this phenomenon: positive thinking, positive psychology, or appreciation marketing: it produces results.

If you think about it, even the act of dollarizing your results for your clients is an exercise in gratitude: you are focusing on what is working and not on what is not right.

The amazing thing about positivity is the life it creates for you. Positive thinking is not just about becoming wealthy or achieving success – it will enrich your life, reduce stress, and bring happiness to you. It is about feeling happy, prosperous, and contented with your life.

Here are the three steps to harnessing positivity:
Acknowledge and use your unique strengths
Keep track in writing of the good things that are happening to you every day
Acknowledge one person every day that has helped or assisted you

If you can find deep genuine interest in looking at yourself, changing habits that don’t work, discovering your unexpressed purpose, and understanding the nature of the entrepreneurial mind, I would feel honored to pursue that with you.

Have a great week!

Dawn

“The choice to be excellent begins with aligning your thoughts and words with the intention to require more from yourself”. – Oprah Winfrey

What profound words. It made me ask exactly what are my intentions to require more of myself?

Make more money? Spend more time with my family? Volunteer more in the community?

In the end it was an easy choice: listen to my gut more. Follow my intuition. Act on that still small voice.

You’ve got it, too. Every business owner does – everyone does for that matter.

It’s the voice that leads us to what’s next, into the next opportunity, and helps confirm that we’re on the right track.

The triple bottom line includes people, planet and profits. Maybe it’s time to add a fourth: purpose.

Only when we are tuned into our gut feelings are we on track with purpose. And without purpose, profits have no meaning.

If you know why you’re driving your business, then the how to/how much equation becomes easier. Purpose is central to not only a good life, but to a great business.

I’ll choose excellence by choosing a business on purpose and a life in balance. How about you?

Vision combined with Venture creates success.

Mark Twain said that twenty years from now we will be more disappointed by the things we didn’t do rather than the things we did.

There truly is no time like the present, especially when you are an entrepreneur.

In my experience, there are three things that stop people from achieving exactly what they want:

1. Lack of clarity about exactly what they do want
2. Worry about “how” to do it
3. Lack of clear action

We live in a world of unlimited choices and a constant barrage of messages about being all you can be, living your best life and feeling good. Sometimes knowing what your best life IS can be the hardest part.

Here is my personal guarantee: when you know exactly WHAT you want, the how falls into place. Clear intention creates the logical action and the how evaporates.

So finding your next clear path can be as easy as knowing what you don’t want. And it’s usually pretty easy to know what is not working. I do not recommend focusing on this for too long, but using it as a touchstone to point you in the right direction.

What I do not want shows me what I do want – use it to identify your next right steps!

Have a great week!