The Seven Laws of Conscious Business Growth

Wisdom Dialogues with Colleen-Joy

Wisdom for solopreneurs and entrepreneurs who don’t want to sell their souls to make a sale.

“Thank you for the great talk, Colleen, “my client said, walking me to my car. This successful entrepreneur (also in her 20s) designed bespoke corporate clothing for executive women. I’d just delivered an inspirational talk for her client function.

“It’s my pleasure,” I smiled.

My first car, a very old white Ford Escort, looked like a ‘spot the difference’ game in a parking lot packed with shiny and new. “I knew you were the right person for the job, Colleen,” she added, looking intently at my Ford.

“Thank you, that’s kind.”

“You’re the real deal, a true spiritual teacher – I mean, look at your humble car. I’m glad I hired you,” she said.

“Uh… thanks,” I replied, watching her leave as I stood with my humble spiritual car.

But what if I want a decent car? I puzzled.

This was the first of many collisions with the wall between spiritual and material. In the decades to follow, I would shed many tears trying to find a way to grow a conscious business, feed my children, not ask friends to help pay for food, be spiritual and still afford a decent car.

Perhaps, had it not been for being a young mother of two baby daughters, with my second-born with ongoing life-threatening medical challenges, I would have stayed in the no man’s land between the borders of spiritual and material. But suffering has a way of asking us to look deeper, doesn’t it?

Here are the wisdom teachings, the juice of my first 15 years of entrepreneurship, pressed from sleepless nights of financial stress, facing shameful spiritual arrogance, wrestling with endless imposter syndrome and tons of work, to heal the wall between spiritual and material.

Three years ago, when I turned 50, I made enough profit from my international training and coaching business to invest in property and set up trust funds for my now-adult daughters. I cried new tears of gratitude for the young Col and her fight for wisdom. Today, my clients and students worldwide, from life coaches to CEOs, celebrity influencers to stay-at-home mom solopreneurs, use these seven principles to grow conscious, wisdom-led businesses.

It’s not easy, and this is not a typical garage-to-fortune story because growing a natural business is never a drive-through quick fix. It’s like choosing regenerative farming methods instead of poisoning the soil for quick profits. This means creating products and services that work with natural wisdom instead of against it. And when we create anything in a natural way, we reap the long-term benefits because we build sustainable ecosystems.

We feed our business so that it feeds us.
We give to grow and grow to give.
We leave things in a better state once we leave.

When inner wisdom guided me to grow my business using these seven steps as inspiration, I had no idea how powerful they were. I call this framework the ‘Seven-Step Dream Builder’. Picture seven steps in a spiral staircase or the seven chakras repeated ongoing.

A business that first grows from the seed of Identity – the true self of being, is naturally in service. Everything in nature serves. But a cancer-ridden cell goes against the purpose of the body – its design is corrupt and broken, reverting to primitive single-cell programming. It acts without aligning with the whole body’s purpose. It takes and destroys without service. We all know the price of cancerous organisations, governments and businesses.

Unnatural businesses start with Action (Step 7), intent on accumulating Power (Step 6). Then on this base, they formulate their Truth (Step 5), which determines how they Relate (Step 4). This becomes their Voice (Step 3), Vision (Step 2) and, finally, is shaped into an Identity (Step 1). Think mafia-like business practices. Corruption and destruction are the organisational cancer’s game.

When we grow healthy, wisdom-led businesses, we are the healthy cells with the collective positive power to heal and remove cancer cells.

#1 IDENTITY “Purpose is not something we do”

“What am I supposed to do?” I asked Wisdom.

Wisdom said: “You’re asking the wrong question. If an Apple Tree didn’t know it was an Apple Tree, how would it know what to do?
Find and free your natural Apple Tree Self – it knows what to do.”

How many times do we do, for the sake of doing? Nature never works that way. An Apple Tree only does what it is. And an apple seed doesn’t know what its future expression will look like; its life is moving as an expression of love, trusting that its design knows what to do – because it does.

This doesn’t mean remaining ignorant. The right knowledge is like nutrients for the soil – helping to grow your Apple Tree business.

Your Apple Tree’s love can send emails, guide meetings, create, teach, lead and work. Sense the difference?

When we build a natural wisdom-led business, we start with Identity. We seek to discover the seed of ‘What it is’ because identity is Purpose. Everything in nature is first being, then expressing doing. If we do without the spark of being moving us, this is empty doing; it’s empty of love. You don’t need motivation when love is moving. It’s powerful. It is life itself.

#2 VISION “Cult leaders are certain”

“How can I be sure – I’m tired of doubt – I want to be certain I’m doing the right thing?” I asked Wisdom.

Wisdom said: “Cult leaders and psychopaths are certain. Doubt keeps you humble and questioning. Let doubt live in your heart, side-by-side with your deepest knowing.”

We are told to make firm goals, visualise exactly what we want to create and convince ourselves of it. We are told to pick a niche market, perfect a product and then promote it with certainty. We hold ourselves back from expressing our Apple Tree being because we want certainty before we start.

But what if that’s not the deeper truth? What if we aren’t sure? What if life can dream a better dream for us? What if certainty is a problem?

We are in an avalanche of fake news, 100 per cent guaranteed infomercial-style voices and perfectly filtered faces – it’s no wonder we’re sceptical.

Nature is not certain. A tree doesn’t know if it will survive. A river doesn’t hold itself back until it’s given a guaranteed rock-free path. The river trusts itself to find a way.

When we crave certainty, we are easily manipulated.

But Col, surely only certainty sells? No. My community of coaches, leaders and guides proves daily that honesty works and feels good. Compare these two ways to start a conversation with a potential client.

“I know exactly what you need. I help people triple their income in less than two months using proven scientific strategies. Would you like to triple your income? Don’t miss out! Book a call with me today.”

We’ve all become allergic to this tone. Rightly so. We know it’s not honest.

Compare it to this:

“I’m not sure, but I think I could possibly help. Perhaps a quick chat would be good. So, I can understand where you are now and where you want to be. I have some solutions in mind – we could check if this works for both of us. How does that sound?”

Can you feel the difference? It’s honest. The truth is, we don’t know if we can help. The truth is it’s a possibility. Not all seeds grow and that’s okay.

We walk away from a deal if:

1. They can’t afford our solution or
   2. We can’t help.

#3 VOICE “Stop singing the me, me, me song”

“Will my product idea work?”  I asked wisdom.

Wisdom said: “You cannot know until you are in front of them.
Meet them at their place of need.”

When we try to perfect a product or service at our desks, we too easily sing a “me, me, me” song. We try to create in the vacuum of what we like. We get attached to our product ideas. We cling too tightly to the fonts we picked. And we hope these seedlings on our desks will leap into full, abundant, healthy Apple Trees. But this is unnatural.

Everything in nature serves life. Business happens naturally when… Our Apple Tree Purpose finds the right pockets of People (people seeking Apple Trees) and we custom-create the right Products (shade, bark, leaves and, yes, apples).

When we follow mainstream advice and try to: ‘Pick a niche, perfect a product and promote all at our desk’ – we get stuck at go. How many businesses die right there? I think most.

Instead, start singing a you-you-you song. Get out there and discover the many small pockets of people who need you. Then, meet them at their place of need by listening to where they are suffering, stressed and stuck. And create something to help.

When I’ve struggled to find clients, my mantra has been: ‘If I can’t find 100 people to serve from 7.8 billion, I don’t deserve a business.’

#4 RELATE “Grow to give and give to grow”

“What if people say ‘no’? I don’t like having to sell.”

Wisdom said: “An Apple Tree makes apples even if they fall to rot on the ground. It lets the wind take its leaves and the birds make nests on its branches. Be equal to people’s no and yes.
Then give to grow and grow to give.”

You never need to sell if you share and serve. I shrieked like a kid at Christmas when I spotted a pumpkin growing in my garden. We ate it for a family lunch, salted, roasted, soft and delicious. There were close to a hundred seeds in that one pumpkin, enough to feed a small village.

And yet, we humans hold back.

“I won’t share my best teachings – they must buy the course.”

“I’m not going to let people try my cake before buying it.”

I’m not saying be a charity. I needed to feed that pumpkin so that it could feed me. Dead soil produces nothing. Give to grow and grow to give. Let them taste the cake. Help them. Give samples, talks and demonstrations and create social media content that serves at the highest. Plant many seeds. Prove you can help by helping.

Those who can afford will step up for more. Those who can’t, you helped them for love. This is also an excellent way to test and adapt. Refine your products and services in the fire of your clients’ experience.

#5 TRUTH “Playing small is also ego”

“Why don’t I have clients?” I asked.

Wisdom said: “You feel superior to the accountant down the road with his front yard advertising billboard. You believe that you don’t need to put yourself out there because you are following your purpose. You expect the bees to find you like a flower hiding under a rock behind a shed in the shadows. This is spiritual arrogance. Be like a flower.”

An Apple Tree doesn’t say: “I am better than,” nor “I’m less than.” It says: “I am this.” Minus is as much ego as plus. Advertising can be plus or minus, but it is better when it’s equal, just, ‘I am this, I love to help. Let’s chat to see if I can.’

Every time I judged materialistic business principles from a ‘plus’ place of spiritual arrogance, I was humbled. I rediscovered advertising, admin, income statements, sales, marketing and leadership with fresh wisdom and clean eyes. All of these can be expressions of the love of our being.

#6 POWER “Stop chasing the rain away”

“Do I need to find more money?”  I asked.

Wisdom said: “If a bucket is full of holes, does it help to add more water? Fix the leaking bucket. You are like an Apple Tree telling the rainclouds not to rain on you because you are spiritual. An Apple Tree doesn’t do this for survival and that for its purpose.”

Money is not personal – it’s practical. I can waste rain or look after it. Money is not identity, power, freedom, or worth.

Wisdom taught me to be equal to the valley of having less and the summit of having more. And mostly to not form an identity from either. That is true financial freedom.

It’s sensible to collect firewood for cold nights. Money can be practical. It can be rain for your Apple Tree.

“But Col, shouldn’t we be unattached to money?” you may ask.

Which is real non-attachment – being attached to not having money or having money and being unattached to it?

#7 ACTION “Feed the farm so it feeds you”

“Now that my business is working and growing, how do I look after it?” I asked.

Wisdom said: “It’s not your business. You own nothing. You are a custodian. Like a wisdom farm, feed the soil so that it feeds you. Create ecosystems. Create work from joy and love.”

We don’t own money, businesses, or land. We are all custodians. I work for my staff, my business partners and my clients.

When work I don’t like arrives on my desk, wisdom says: “You would happily scrub the floors of a holy temple; this is scrubbing the temple floor.”

A business is a farm. Feed it so that it feeds you. Don’t throw poison on the soil for a quick profit – work with wisdom to create natural ecosystems.

Ask wisdom to dissolve the mirage of a wall between spiritual and material so that you can create from the wholeness of your Apple Tree true self and serve others at the highest with your work.

Colleen-Joy is an MCC Master Coach and CEO of InnerLifeSkills. Join her and her partner team, to gain the Big 4 most in-demand certifications: Life Coach, Business Coach, Executive Coach and Enneagram Coach, plus Global ICF internationally accredited skills. If you are called to guide, coach and lead with wisdom visit innerlifeskills.com