How Your Business Can Heal You
My business is a portal to heal myself. And I’ve taught on this subject in the recent past with my friend and industry peer, Simona Ondrejkova, to share strategies for mindful entrepreneurs on how to leverage your business to heal yourself (and not just heal other people). But I haven’t yet shared how my own business has healed me personally.
Today, in this blog post, I’ll share how my own business has been a portal for personal healing.
From procrastination, to people-pleasing, to boundary-development - I’ve put clarity into action EVERY step of the way. The revenue has 10X in the last 5 years. The satisfaction is risen tremendously. I know who I LOVE working with, and I know how to say an aligned ‘No’ without feeling guilt or shame.
I’ll offer insights on the changes I’ve experienced, the resistance or old beliefs that have been undone, and how mindfulness meditation and daily life practices have helped me tap into more self-awareness, fulfillment and clarity over these last few years.
I’ll also offer you 3 tips to help you see your own business’ potential for self-healing.
Because what a beautiful, rich opportunity. If you’re a mindfulness trainer, coach, healing arts or mental health professional, you’re probably in this trade to help OTHERS. Maybe you’ve had an experience in your life with certain modalities or challenges, and you now want to pay it forward.
But it goes far beyond your clients. That’s the beautiful of being an entrepreneur and paving your OWN path of business: you get to tune into your own needs, vision, inner resistance and self-awareness quite uniquely. A full-time job certainly offers the lens of self-development and growth. But this entrepreneurial journey is especially a vital portal for that. Dare I call it an accelerator.
Whether you struggle with people-pleasing, or procrastination, or imposter syndrome, or workaholism, your business gives you the arena to face those inner qualities, patterns and tendencies HEAD-ON. It takes courage, and humility, to do that. I can say from personal experience: it’s worth it to embrace the healing.
On my own path, I’ve gone from workaholic to feeling restful and having an easeful nervous system on a regular basis.
I’ve gone from perfectionist, to agile momentum (with no guilt or shame about mistakes). A full compassion for my humanity, and a swift, buoyant and passionate momentum that let’s me propel ideas, products, messages forward FAST.
I’ve also gone from being too flowy to leaning on aligned structure in my solo business - keeping my eye on the purpose and vision, defining and tracking goals, and having a project management system that allows me to stay in flow but not succumb to feeling lost or confused (which many entrepreneurs face). It can be hard managing yourself!
Here’s 3 ways my own mindful business has served as a healing portal for me.
Take what resonates, and leave the rest.
1. Entrepreneurship offers an identity shift.
Stepping into the role of coach marked an important moment in my career, because it also meant that I was stepping away from a career track I was on. Titles I’ve held prior to coaching were: Creative Director. Managing Director. Content Lead. Social Media Manager.
By moving into entrepreneurship and running my own business, I essentially stepped away from titles that meant a lot to me. A job title can represent status, and situate someone within the greater industry space. It dictates where you’re headed next in the ladder (in my case, it was Chief Marketing Officer).
Letting go of this was very humbling. Mindfulness helped me do this in a way that was stabilizing and helped me maintain balance. What was so healing about this was: I started to anchor more into my values, the impact I wanted to make in the world, and the lifestyle I wanted to experience.
These became my rubric for designing my coaching business. For me, being a coach is about being of service in a highly impactful way. It’s about being of service in a way that truly energizes and aligns with my values and vision today. And it’s about the life it creates for me - how life FEELS and looks on a daily basis.
It’s not about the title. It’s not status driven at all, for me.
And so, the journey been about shifting to that new set of meaning layers. The things that matter to me. And to de-emphasize status, fame, or drivers of the like.
My worth is not tied to my title. It’s not tied to the company I work for. I’m inherently worthy.
The biggest question I answered over the last few years has been: If I am not my title, then who am I? What am I?
And the follow up question that became possible leads us to the next growth experience I had.
2. Entrepreneurship offered me the space to define my authentic self.
For much of my life, I didn’t know who I was (truly). I knew some of the things I was passionate about, but I had a very hard time exploring those things to the fullest.
This resulted in a life where I was offered opportunities, and would make decisions based on what I was offered. I don’t regret that for a second, because I was offered quite exceptional opportunities in my life.
And to be fair, I set up the ground work to receive those invites (so, I don’t want to remove myself completely from that equation). I worked hard, I demonstrated talent, and the right opportunities presented themselves.
Once I got sober back in 2014, I got to really look at this question square in the face: Who am I today? What do I authentically care about?
This question has been the most important question I’ve answered in my lifetime so far, and it’s one that continues to bear fruit and reveal answers. It’s an ongoing process, and I’m guessing that’s the case for many of us.
Being authentic takes courage. It’s risky. It can be met with rejection. For a long time, I didn’t know how to emotionally regulate the possibility of rejection. And so, I minimized those risks, and didn’t explore fully. This led to feeling empty, unfulfilled or even lonely (with no real clarity as to why).
I now can see why. Being authentic is what leads to feeling aligned, and feeling alive. It’s what sparks passion within, and generates energy.
My coaching business is a space for me to explore my authentic self. I get to offer services that I authentically enjoy. And, I get to retire services that I feel resistant toward, or blocked, or ambivalent toward.
I see this as a necessity, and a portal into authentic expression. Why? Because pursuing opportunities that feel dull, misaligned or draining are an ENERGY leakage. I can’t afford that. Those energy leakages take a toll on my capacity to serve the highest level. They corrode my self-esteem, and dim my light. So, with every offering, with every opportunity, I feel into my somatic landscape.
Questions I ask myself to calibrate to my authentic needs include:
How does it feel on that Alignment Call? What does the body say?
Do I feel energized by this program offering (or depleted)?
Do I feel energized by this client, or depleted? What components or qualities feel energizing and aligned? What feels depleting or misaligned?
What boundaries can I implement, based on the insight emerging from this experience?
What can I proactively install in my business before the engagement, to better equip me and the client to work together successfully? I.e. an onboarding survey, or pre-requisites.
3. I’m allowed to get my needs met, and I get to design how that happens in my business systems.
One of the coolest parts of running my own business, was learning how to step out of the seat of employee and step into the seat of coach (or consultant).
This required me to define my terms of engagement, and to optimize those over the last few years with every client engagement. This has offered an opportunity to leverage challenging AND rewarding experiences in my entrepreneurial journey, as LEARNING opportunities.
Terms of engagement can include:
How often do I meet with my private coaching clients? What is the duration of each session, and why?
What other program features do I provide? I.e. Am I available between sessions, and if so, what does that look like?
How long do I work with someone, and is that a standard program feature, or custom based on the client’s needs?
Each client engagement gave me opportunities to tune into my authentic vision and alignment. Tuning into this with radical courage, and tapping into mindfulness (self-regulation) and co-regulation resources helped me clarify and optimize with every iteration.
I ask myself questions like:
What did I learn from this type of contract model?
What was frustrating, and why? What policy can I introduce into my contracts going forward to create a more desirable experience and get my needs met more effectively?
Over time, I have been able to craft program offerings, my product/service suite, pricing and business boundaries to truly align with my values, energy, vision and needs. Rather than choosing opportunities that I could barely stomach, and that felt challenging or overwhelming or brought up lots of challenging emotions (frustration, resentment, sadness), I now feel well versed in saying an aligned ‘No’ when an opportunity feels misaligned. I can also identify my aligned ‘Yes’ when the right opportunities present themselves.
So, in your coaching or healing business, take the opportunity to know yourself more. Adjust your offerings, services, pricing, and systems accordingly.
Recognize that your clients hold the keys, and offer you a lot of insight about how you can help them BEST, but also how you like to be of service with most alignment. Remember: just because a client wants a service, and just because you know HOW to do it, does not mean you should offer it. Always consult your internal compass, your values, your career vision, before creating program features or offerings. Your energy management depends on it.
Does this resonate? What have you healed on your own entrepreneurial path? What has being a client-centered service provider taught you about yourself and your needs? I’d love to hear. Hop in the Youtube comments and let me know!
Honoring you,
Jess
Mindful Business Coach
Calling all mindful entrepreneurs and client-centered service providers in mindfulness, the healing arts and mental health fields.
If you’re a mindful client-centered service provider who wants to strategically build a sustainable online service business, this is for you. Build an aligned, effective offer to help you enroll your ideal clients into your program (without compromising your values or vision). Whether you’re just starting out, or you’re already making $100K+ annual revenue, this course will offer vital perspectives and questions that are relevant at ANY level of business.
