7 Keys to Growing Spiritually Through Entrepreneurship
You may believe it is strange to put the words entrepreneur and spiritual in the same sentence.
Yet I firmly believe that entrepreneurship is a spiritual path of growth, especially when we choose to see it for the lessons it has to offer.
In a world that is moving faster and faster and has shrunken our attention span to that of a goldfish, promises of immediate success, overnight success and abundance litter our landscape.
And what any conscious business coach might tell you. They are lies.
It is true that you can create a business that feeds your soul, makes a difference in the world and brings you more free time. It is true that you can create passive-income revenue streams.
But what most fail to tell you is that there is a heavy investment of time, energy, money and effort to get to set things up to get to that place.
And that no-matter what blueprint, system or method you have, you will still need to implement it, test it out, tweak it and repeat over and over until you find the winning formula for you.
To believe that you will create a multi-million dollar business from scratch in less than 6 months is ridiculous. To believe that you can just get the stuff and turn “auto-play” and the cash will begin pouring in, is naive.
Yet, this is not a reason to quit or give up on your dreams and aspirations. If you can see entrepreneurship as the pathway you have chosen, in which you will challenge and grow yourself spiritually you will find it to be one of the most rewarding and fulfilling things you can do.
If you can separate yourself from the hype and the money and see that this path will highlight all your shortcomings, will test your motivation and perseverance, will cause you to doubt yourself and it will certainly knock you on your head a few times over; and in the end it will provide a way for you to grow mentally, spiritually and emotionally and will provide the most satisfaction that you ever thought possible, then you will be successful and financially abundant.
Entrepreneurship will highlight your weaknesses and areas that need more knowledge, development and practice.
Not as a way to make you feel bad or doubt your mission, but actually as a pathway of enlightenment. See it as the universe highlighting the thing that needs to be healed, addressed or learned. This will happen all through your life, especially as you continue to rise up to higher and higher challenges.
It tends to be MOST discouraging at the beginning. The beginning stage of business is what I call GROUNDWORK (see my stages of business development for more details about this and further stages http://tinyurl.com/business-stages2).
It is during this time that you are “breaking ground” so to speak. You are busting your chops and tend to see little results because just as you figure something out you realize you need to learn something new. Or you need to clear something old out.
For example: let’s just say you simply want to get clients. Well there are a multitude of ways and approaches many coaches recommend on “the best” way to get clients. (Some are list-building approaches, telesummits, developing opt-in gifts, putting ads on social media, hosting community events, giving talks, networking, offering free sessions, partnering with other professionals, SEO, etc.)
Perhaps we all recommend what we have seen the most success with and what has been most successful for our clients. However if you try to do them all, you will quickly end up in a merry-go-round of confusion and frustration because you are not really learning, practicing, improving or getting traction in any one of them.
Let’s just say that you choose the speaking route.
(This is my personal favorite- because conversion rates are almost double to triple the amount of virtual approaches, and in my opinion there is NO replacement for the interaction and power that you get to have when people see you and hear you live.)
But I digress, so let’s say you decide this is what you want to do and you don’t have a coach. You will probably make several mistakes that will cause low enrollment. Let’s say you have a coach and you actually are following the recommendations and are implementing, trying and sharing what you are experiencing.
Then you will quickly find out you need to learn the best structure that takes into consideration the psychological motivators that cause people to take action. So you need to implement those.
You will realize you need to craft a juicy and valuable offer. Something that is not thrown together but takes some time to develop and is based on your specific niche, market, and result that you will provide. This can take anywhere from 2 weeks to a month to fully understand, test out and arrive at the ideal balance of value and price.
Then you will realize that you need to learn how to speak the language of your ideal client. Most of us think we “know” but most of us don’t. This may take the form of research through quizzes, individual conversations or focus groups. It also may mean that you may need the help of a copywriter to help you capture the ideas clearly and come up with snazzy titles and ways to deliver that pack a punch and make people jump up for what you have to offer.
Then you may realize, awesome I got these things, and I’m ready to go.
Then all of a sudden, you recognize that you need to learn how to market your talks (and this involves learning a whole host of marketing techniques and strategies) to get the right people to attend. (Sigh…, I know!)
And then you will soon find that you need to have a DELIVERY system that allows you to track your sales, process the payments, follow up with clients, and get them the service or product they have purchased.
And that is IF your inner game is totally sharp, IF there are no blocks, fears of you are lacking confidence about getting in front of people. But if there are any inner blocks, then the process may take longer…
So all in all, it may feel like going down a rabbit hole. The beauty of it, if you choose to see this as a spiritual journey, is that what you need is continuously revealed to you by the nature of the frustration or struggle.
Within every problem we face lies the potential for a creative solution that will stretch your being and will bring a deeper transformation not just to you but to those you serve.
However many of us, end up missing these opportunities when we are overtaken by frustration, blame, scarcity and fear.
I am merely depicting ONE scenario of many, but I hope it illustrates my point.
The key here is, if you believe in your calling, keep moving forward.
Here are 7 Keys to Grow Spiritually Through Entrepreneurship:
- Get the support, hire your coaches, teaches and mentors that can guide you, challenge you, motivate you and hold your feet to the fire when you need that.
- Take ownership of the application and implementation of what you learn and keep asking for help, clarification and keep trying over and over.
- Pick 1 or 2 things and stick to them!
- Don’t switch approaches after trying and failing 1-5 times. Remember it takes 10,000 hrs to achieve mastery and none of us became masters of our trade simply by “thinking about it”. You gotta get your hands dirty, fall on your face and get up several times so you refine it and become more confident.
- Stay open to the possibility that within you resides an abundance of wisdom. Perhaps a particular approach doesn’t resonate for you exactly and you try it consistently (this is important! You can’t claim something doesn’t work if you don’t try it and apply it consistently) for a while with lackluster results. Well perhaps this opens up a creative possibility for you to take some of that system and your intuitive sense of what would work for you or your tribe and then you hit the winning combination! This is perhaps even more valuable and worthwhile- it inspired and opened up a portal for you to access your own wisdom.
- Practice gratitude for any and all that contribute to your knowledge base and your success. Paid or unpaid, professional or not. People who are willing to gift you with their skills, abilities, knowledge, wisdom and time could have chosen to do something else, yet they chose to invest in YOU. Be gracious.
- Pay it forward- at some point in your life or Carreer you will no longer be seen as the student and people will come to you as the teacher and expert. Don’t let your success get to your head so much that you are stingy with your time, resources and wisdom. Remember that many invested in you at some point and that it is worth investing in others. Recognize however that you have no control over other’s success. All you can do is share what you know.
- Lift others as you rise. The old model of business involved stepping over others, putting others down and “crushing the competition” for your business to thrive. We are in a new era of conscious business. Help others along, champion your competitors, lift others as you move up, and take others with you. Maintain your heart open and compassionate for those who chose to challenge you or disagree with you. You will have no regrets. Others may when they “wake up” to how they have lived their lives. Live, love and share openly.
- The last part of paying it forward is to realize that you can make a greater difference in the world than simply sharing your knowledge and expertise. Take up a cause that matters to you. Get involved, donate time, money & energy to making out world a better place for all.
If you would like guidance, inspiration and strategy about how to grow a 6-Figure Practice that feeds your spirit and makes a difference in the world with ease and grace, email or give me a call!
I’ll be happy to set you on the path to success!
Elena Estanol, Ph.D., M.F.A.
#1 International Best-Selling Author
Peak Performance Psychologist and Intuitive Prosperity Business Mentor
Dr. Estanol is a peak performance psychologist and Intuitive Prosperity Business Mentor passionate about helping heart-centered entrepreneurs, turn their passions into lucrative and transformational businesses. She has a proven system to help you breakthrough your internal barriers to success, connect to your intuition, achieve authentic confidence, and take inspired action, in a genuine way aligned with your highest purpose to maximize your income, your impact and make a difference in the world!
Interested in receiving her Luminous Stages of Business Development so you can stop spinning your wheels and start seeing results?
