CREATIVITY + INNOVATION Page 11 of 38

On recalibrating

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A while back I talked about how we often teach what we need to hear, and this has never been more true than right now, this very minute, as we kick off our new course The Business Soul Sessions. Today has been a day for recalibration and redirection and it has been exhilarating.

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Rewind to yesterday, a glorious sunny day here on the south coast of England. Mr K and I took Sienna to Stanmer Park, a wonderful green space in the grounds of a stately home, complete with cows, a stone church and a sweet little tea room. We spent two solid hours laughing as we chased her round and round the field, stopping only to make a daisy chain crown for her hair.

She has been walking with assistance for months now, but for some reason, last week, she just decided to go for it and started walking unaided, round in circles, up steps, and even breaking into a little wobbly run. It was amazing. Pure joy, and she was so proud she kept clapping herself. Now the world must look very different to her, as she can go where she wants and look at anything that catches her eye.

For us yesterday was such a fun family day, and it made us start thinking ahead to the expansion of our family in the months ahead, with baby number two on the horizon (due at the end of July).

When Sienna was born I did a really bad job of juggling work and new motherhood, to the point where I exhausted myself, and probably did neither of them properly. This time we want to do it differently. We want to spend more time with the new little one, but also with Sienna as she gets used to having a little sister. So things need to be done differently.

With that in mind Mr K and I spent today working on our business development plan for the next few years, with thoughts of our family front of mind throughout the process. It was an invigorating day of brainstorming, questioning, challenging and imagining, and we are truly excited about what lies ahead. The best part? We were recalibrating for our change in lifestyle, but by REALLY focusing on what is important to us, came away with ideas that will make our business better as a result. (I look forward to sharing some of those things with you in the coming months…)

How did we do it? Using the resources from our very own Business Soul Sessions course! We took a selection of the worksheets from the course and powered through them in a mammoth café session. We came away with an extraordinary sense of clarity, direction and new ideas. It was so exciting to use our own course to help direct the next phase of our own business, and it makes complete sense.

Because having a soulful business is all about being clear on WHY you are doing what you are doing, serving WHO you want to serve, with WHAT they need, and doing it all in a way that makes you happy and makes you profits you can be proud of. But we all change and grow over time, our motivations change, our situations change, and the world outside our door changes. So it follows that your business needs to change, adapt and evolve with it. The principles of the Business Soul Sessions played a major role in the early days of our business, and I am thrilled that the course is equally valuable at this stage, because it’s about principles and possibility, which are important wherever you are with your business. (And it wasn’t just us – here’s a fantastic case study from designer Hannah Nunn who took the Beta version of the course a while back and has seen a 53% rise in sales, combined with a complete perspective shift – it’s an inspiring tale!)

If you think it’s time to recalibrate your own business, to get re-motivated, re-inspired, and ready to create much greater impact, profits and freedom, then join us. Class has just begun but you can still squeeze in here if you are quick!

This week we’d like to challenge you to think about what areas of your life could do with recalibration. What have you been doing the same for a while now, even though something has changed – your circumstances, your friendship group, your interests or whatever. Think about it, and take a moment to reflect and recalibrate today.

Have a great week!

Beth and team

Need a new idea?

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Ideas

Stuck for ideas? Click on the image below to discover our FREE resource ‘Catalyst’ to help generate hundreds more ideas for your life or business. Some might be wacky, some ridiculous, but others might just be genius…

DWYL Catalyst

When business meets happiness (a free gift to kick start your business from our friends at the Happy Startup School)

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When you think of doing what you love, what comes to mind? Many of us think of travel, friends and family, creativity… but not always business.

We want to change that. Here at Do What You Love we believe business can be incredibly life enriching if it’s built on the right values. Our friends at the Happy Startup School share our passion for business, and as part of our Business month they’re offering a great free toolkit to help our community kick-start their businesses the right way.

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The Happy Startup School are helping a new breed of entrepreneur gain the confidence, skills, toolset and community they need to build meaningful businesses & be their own boss. They put on crazy events like their annual camping retreat in Sussex for budding change-makers, the Happy Startup Summercamp and gather tribes of likeminded creatives online to support one another in the start of new business ideas.

They’re here to give you a push starting out in business and have a free ebook and startup toolkit for people to learn how you can build a happy startup. Start working on your business plan with their simple approach and free worksheet.

Need a bit of inspiration to get started? Check out the Happy Startup School’s 10 steps to happiness in business & life below.

When business meets happiness (a free gift to kick start your business from our friends at the Happy Startup School)

You can do it!

Why getting serious about goals is the key to achieving your dreams

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Dream Big

When was the last time you thought about what you want to achieve in your life? When was the last time you paid real attention to the hopes and desires deep inside of you?

It’s easy to put our dreams on hold and see them as things that we’ll pursue in the future when we don’t have errands to run, bills to pay, work to do, and people to care for. But the truth is we’ll probably always be busy with one thing another, and as the years go by, we’ll only be getting older and more tired too. NOW really is the best time to make our dreams happen. It’s the only time that we can really count on!

Setting goals is a great place to start, but it can feel overwhelming. How do you go about it? What’s the best approach?  These inspiring TED Talks offer some great advice on how to make your dreams happen…

1. Derek Sivers: Keep your goals to yourself

Once you’ve made up your mind and set a goal you’re sure will change your life, our first instinct is to tell those around us. In this insightful TED Talk, Derek Sivers, leading entrepreneur in the music business, says it’s often better to keep your goals to yourself. History has shown us that people who talk about their ambitions and resolutions are often less likely to achieve them. Research dating all the way back to the 1920s shows that keeping aspirations a secret is your best chance at actually following through with them.

2. Reggie Rivers: If you want to achieve your goals, don’t focus on them

“We all talk about setting goals, but we don’t talk that much about how to actually achieve goals,” says former Denver Broncos running back Reggie Rivers. In this TED Talk, he speaks about how focusing on your goals is the one sure way not to achieve them. Spending time concentrating on what is in your control rather than goals, which are outside of your control, puts the power of action in your hands and is the best approach to realising your aspirations.

3. Mel Robbins: Setting your goals high

In this motivational talk, Mel Robbins speaks on setting your goals high, regardless of any embarrassment you may feel. She tells the audience about the importance of setting goals for what you really want out of life, rather than just what you think is achievable. By keeping the bigger picture in mind, it is easier for us to accomplish the smaller targets that make it up. Recognise what you really want, admit you want it and do it, says Robbins.


4. Jason Fox: Goal setting is broken

The way people are setting goals is changing in the modern world. In this TED Talk, Jason Fox, Australian innovation management consultant and author, likens goal setting in business to the engagement needed for playing video games. He speaks on learning from challenges and failures and how it’s only through these that we can learn to achieve our goals and revel in the rewards. Keeping focus on what you have already achieved, rather than what still needs to be done, creates a bias towards action and keeps people engaged in a project for longer.

5. Raghava KK: What’s your 200-year plan?

You might have a 5-year plan, but what about a 200-year plan? Artist Raghava KK has set his eyes on an ultra-long-term horizon; at TEDxSummit, he shows how it helps guide today’s choices and tomorrow’s goals — and encourages you to make your own 200-year plan too.

What do you want to achieve next? What goals will you set to make this happen? What approach will you take? 

Light your entrepreneurial fire

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If you want to put a rocket under your ideas and ambition, start or grow your own business or revolutionise your current business, and make your own choices and your own money, then you need to meet Danielle LaPorte. She is one hot woman. She made me think differently about aspects of my own business, and I wanted to share some of her magic with you. ~ Beth

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Image credit: Anastasia Photography
Danielle is the creator of www.daniellelaporte.com, and author of the inspiring digital books, The Fire Starter Sessions and the Desire Map, which helps entrepreneurs rock their career with integrity, audacity and their truest strengths. Danielle is a former news show commentator, and director of a Washington-DC think tank, where she managed a team of analysts studying global trends for the likes of the Pentagon and the World Bank. She is the lead author of the Amazon bestseller, Style Statement: Live By Your Own Design, and has been featured in Elle, Vogue Australia, Body + Soul, The National Post, Entertainment Tonight, and The Huffington Post.
Here’s her awesome advice on doing what you love…

1) At a time when we are starting to come out of a global recession, you are encouraging entrepreneurs everywhere to blaze their own trails and set the world on fire. Why is it important and how does it feel to you?

Because liberation and self reliance are amazing things. Because cubicles are hell. Because the system is broken.  If you want to make lots of really good stuff happen, then that’s really exciting – for all of us. If you want to earn a living by doing meaningful things – then that’s exceptional. This truth is most evident: we entrepreneurs, artists, and change agents define ourselves on our own terms. Does it get better than that?!

2) What do you want to revolutionise with the Firestarter Sessions?

My intention is that people will start heeding the call of their core desires. “Revolutionary” is basing your strategic plans on how you truly want to feel, not chasing external things and hoping they’ll make you feel a certain way. “Revolutionary” is using grace as a measurement for success, and generosity as part of your bottom line.

3) What does it take to spark genius?

Hunger. An open heart. Flexibility.

4) What is your superpower?

Listening. I also have a knack for getting people just the right gift. But that goes back to listening…

5) What is the one piece of explosive advice you can give to entrepreneurs trying to transform their dream into a rocking business?

Let ease be your metric. Here’s what I mean by that: Using the “ease factor” as a metric for making right choices is counter-culture, of course. It’s been drilled in to us to work hard. Blue collar, white collar, dog collar – hard work pays off. Pay your dues. Put in your time. Prove yourself. Check the right box. Stay the course. Meet expectations. Train in pain, and then reap the rewards. Doing what comes easily to you isn’t about shortcuts or cleverness, and it’s certainly not about making mediocrity acceptable. It’s about leverage. It’s about casting your seeds on the most fertile soil. It’s about your best chances for success.

I don’t do it if it’s not easy. That simple. That fun. That rad.

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Danielle’s brilliant ‘Desire Map’ is a great way to help you map out what you really want from life. Check it out here.
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Now over to you…

What do you want to revolutionise?
What do you find toughest (or what are you most afraid of) about going it alone?
What do you love about it? Why is it right for you?

My lean startup toolkit: the online tools I use to get ideas out into the world

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This is a guest post by Ben Keene. You can find out more about Ben here.

It feels like we’re in a new period of easy-to-use online tools to test, launch and build our projects. We are less dependent on developers (in the early stages at least) and the biggest challenge is finding the time to figure out which tools work best for us.

In workshops at Escape and Virgin, and with my own projects I’ve seen the need for these tools increase. I’ve spent too much time and money withTribewanted and other projects trying to build bespoke online platforms when, so often for our audience, less is more. The lean startup movement has cemented this mindset.

Whatever you need the answer is probably already ‘out there’ and it won’t be expensive. Of course, time is pretty valuable —  so hopefully some of these will help save you some of that, as well as the cash too.

One thing is for sure, there is no excuse for not pushing your idea cheaply, quickly and smartly out into the world.

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April’s happy list is here…

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Happy

Each month we share a free downloadable ‘happy list’ as a place for you to capture the things – big or small – that have made you smile each day.

Happy listOn my happy list – an inspired coffee break

Download your happy list here.

Wishing you an amazing April,

Rachel

PS: We are launching an exciting new course, The Business Soul Sessions, very soon. We can’t reveal the details just yet, but let’s just say it will completely change the way you think of business, and offer you a whole new blueprint for creating a soulful business that generates significant profits you can be proud of. Hop on the waiting list today to find out more and get:

  • The chance to shape upcoming contents and the new course by answering our simple Business Soul Sessions survey here about what challenges you are facing starting or growing your business. One person who responds by Wednesday 8 April will win a free place on the course when it launches later this Spring!
  • Your free copy of ‘Your mission in business’ (interactive worksheet to dig deep into what makes your business tick).
  • The opportunity to get an exclusive early bird offer for course registration (it’s HUGE) – only available to those who join the waiting list.
  • Get our newsletter and articles as they come out – free valuable business news and insight to be released soon.

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