LISA BERKOVITZ ~ Inspired Lifestyle Design

I am soooo excited!! I just submitted my proposal for a workshop to be delivered at an event I'm attending in Arizona on May 8-12 called Eden Unplugged. If you don't know about it, Eden is described as: 

88 evolutionary entrepreneurs coming together at the most amazing hot springs, on lush land far from noise and clutter, to integrate into the life you really want, and the business that will support that life. Together, in community, we'll be creating the new paradigm of business. 

One of the coolest things that will be happening at Eden is everyone is invited to participate in The Tribal Marketplace Game. This is way cool...the game takes each entrepreneur's Great Work (the work they're here on the planet to do) and makes it the focus of the event so the creator can get invaluable feedback from the tribe to move their work forward in the world.

Check this out, as described on the EdenUnplugged.com web site: 

Old Paradigm: Put a few, pre-selected presenters in front of a captive audience & sell em! (Maybe hand out feedback forms… but never question the “context” of the event itself.)

New Paradigm: Create space to explore authentic, heart-centered offering & truth-telling in a tribal marketplace. Receive immediate, visceral feedback.

How does the Tribal Marketplace Game work?

Step 1. You show up fully in your truth & offer your gift – from your heart.

Step 2. The tribe responds, providing immediate feedback & connecting you with others who resonate…who you may never have connected with if you hadn’t shown up this way.

Step 3. We all transform.

Why is the Tribal Marketplace Game so (r)Evolutionary?

Well, aside from the fact that we’ve never seen anything like it – not even progressive gatherings like SXSW create this real-time marketplace “game” – this is the most raw, real feedback you will get on how you show up in the market-space.

No more hiding behind email campaigns, or flyers, or Facebook. This is edgy, real and immediate feedback for courageous, heart-centered evolutionary entrepreneurs.

How cool is that?!? Totally unique and valuable in a way I've never experienced before (and I've been to a LOT of business events in my day).  

The premise of the Tribal Marketplace is already working perfectly for me. I wanted to offer something that is a powerful step in the building of my dream business, yet I couldn't quite pinpoint how to name it, position it or structure it (really just resistance to putting something so important to me out there...what if no one wants it???). 

So in the mean time I submitted another workshop on something I knew I could do really well that could make a difference for others (helping people get crystal clear on their ideal tribe and track), though it wasn't the core of my passion or my reason for being on the planet.

And what happened? I shared it with the community on our private Facebook event page and NO ONE responded to my request for feedback on the topic Nothing! Not a single "Like" even. Nothin' nada zilch. 

The tribe has spoken.

So I withdrew that workshop submission because it was clear that it was not greatest value I could offer the community, and somehow they knew it (so did I).

So it forced me to stop playing in the realm of "safe" (i.e., I already know how to do that) and get into the realm of SCARED to offer something that is so juicy, so close to my heart, so coming from the fire of my Soul that it brings me to my own edge. 

But that's where we all need to be right now - stepping up and playing full out. No more hiding. No more compromise. No more doing something because we're good at it. That's not enough anymore. We're called to give our greatest passions and greatest gifts, and the marketplace won't let us shrink back from that. It's time to have some serious FUN.

So...I've submitted the workshop that makes my cells tingle with excitement because I know it's in far greater alignment with why I'm on the planet and what I love most. I'm not going to reveal what it is here quite yet. I'll let the Tribal Marketplace Game work its magic, and as my offering is shaped by the fires of the tribal marketplace kiln, I'll introduce it to the wider world with the broadest smile and the invitation to come and play.

I've been talking and writing about people doing what they love and creating a business from that for a lot of years now - more than a decade.

When I first started, I got my share of puzzled looks. People seemed to like what I had to say, but there wasn't yet a mainstream awareness of these ideas. I got my NLP facilitator certification at that time, long before "life coaching" had become popular, and before so many people became disillusioned with corporate life and needed support in learning more about themselves and what they really want to experience and uniquely express in their lives and in their careers.

Over those years, I've explored various ways to follow my own passion and be paid for it. My highest value is freedom, and I've found ways to be self-employed, use my talents, and work with awesome people that I have respected and enjoyed, while continuing to learn and grow and work from pretty much anywhere I've chosen to be in the world. 

It hasn't always been easy, and I've made my share of mistakes (the story of pretty much every successful enterepreneur ever), but it was more important for me to be free and live life on my own terms than to ever work for someone else again. 

For a long time, it was a fairly isolated road. Then I realized there were more and more people just like me, who've been on this kind of path for a lot of years already, doing their best to be true to themselves and the vision that kept pulling them forward even when it was challenging to stay the course.

Now we've got people leaving corporate life in droves, and scores of authors and speakers and trainers and coaches and entrepreneurs who've made the transition from high-paying, high-powered corporate jobs successfully, and whose knowledge, experience and practical skills have been sought out, and for which they are paid handsomely. 

We've never been taught the first thing about how to actually navigate a rapidly changing world where a college degree and a title after your name doesn't guarantee anything anymore, and what kind of lessons will need to be learned when navigating your own course. 

Now we've got books like:

- Escape from Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Enterpreneur, by Pam Slim 

- Career Renegade: How to Make Great Money Doing What You Love, by Jonathan Fields

- Why Now is the Time to Crush It: Cash in on Your Passion, by Gary Vaynerchuk

- The Art of Non-Conformity: Set Your Own Rules, Live the Life You Want, and Change the World by Chris Guillebeau

And we've got blogs like: 

- The Middle Finger Project: Bye Bye Corporate. Hello Entrepreneur, by Ashley Ambirge http://www.themiddlefingerproject.org/

- Alexis Neely: Life, Business and the Pursuit of Truth
http://www.alexismartinneely.com/

- Danielle LaPorte: White Hot Truth
http://whitehottruth.com

- Marie Forleo: Where Women Entrepreneurs Live Rich, Happy and Hot
http://marieforleo.com/

These are just a few, there are so many more. And what's amazing about these authors and coaches and bloggers is that many are serious business people leading an entire movement of thousands, and tens of thousands, and, in some cases, hundreds of thousands of people - huge followings - while getting some serious media coverage. 

Today I am sharing a post I wrote on Alexis Neely's blog, part of a discussion she started in response to Les McKeown's article in the Huffington Post entitled "Stop Trying to Find Your Passion and Get to Work." You can read his original article here: http://huff.to/i1bkht and Alexis' response here: http://bit.ly/hKOCrJ.

For those who will skip reading the original writings, one of Les' main points is that passion is not sufficient - nor even necessary - for business success, and anyone who simplifies entrepreneurialism to that factor alone is not painting an accurate picture. Despite the fact that the title of his article disturbs me, I agree with that point. 

Alexis' point is that competency without passion is ultimately a recipe for unsustainable business success. I believe that's true as well in a great many cases. 

My contribution to the discussion is that Alexis and I and countless other passionate entrepreneurs have invested countless hours and large sums of money to continue to improve our knowledge and skills to be able to exemplify the highest possible level of competency (excellence, even?) in our fields. It's true that passion alone is not enough.

However, to me, passion is absolutely an essential ingredient for sustainable business success that is coupled with a sense of deep personal satisfaction, happiness and fulfillment on a relatively consistent basis. 

In other words, by what are we measuring "success"? The bottom line? The profitability of the company, the satisfaction of the shareholders, the number of satisfied customers, the reputation of the company in the market among not only customers but even by competitors? How widely are proponents of "competency" including, among those more commonly-held measures of success, a regularly-experienced sense of personal fulfillment, meaning, well-being and happiness by the business owner as well as his or her team members?

Have there been entrepreneurs who have been successful in the long-run without that kind of passion, primarily built on "competency" without a deep sense of passion for what they are doing and why? Yes, there are. 

But how physically and emotionally healthy are those people? How much buoyant energy do they have when they get out of bed in the morning and when they are in the last hours of their day? How enjoyable are they to work with? If they were truly honest with themselves, what would be their self-assessed level of happiness and fulfillment on a daily basis? 

These are the kinds of measures that are, for me, sorely lacking from typical measures of business success and the "competency" of the people who run those businesses. The new paradigm of business engages the heart and a sense of individual and organizational well-being and not just intellect and standard measures of business competency. Both are important.

I would add that I recently got a new Mac computer after working on PC's all my life. Yes, no question, Steve Jobs and his merry band of geniuses are highly competent at what they do. But I paid more than double what I needed to for my machine (had I chosen to buy another PC instead) and have invested precious time to move through the learning curve involved in changing systems. Why? Functionally, I could have stayed with another "highly competent" PC, had the same basic functions I needed to do my work, and saved some money and a bunch of time and effort. 

But the tangible passion that Steve Jobs has infused into that company and its culture is infectious, and it shows in every last detail of the product and service I have received, from the aesthetic beauty and functional brilliance of the hardware and software, to every phone call I've made to an Apple store, every online order made, the "Genius" technicians who transferred all my files, and every trainer who's taught me how to make the switch. 

I (and we all) get to choose between countless competent product and service providers of all kinds every day, and I'll take that kind of competence infused with genuine and unquenchable passion any day, rather than plain old competence itself. 

I'll shout from the rooftops to all entrepreneurs and would-be entrepreneurs to ABSOLUTELY ensure that passion is central to your business, alongside all the other things you need to learn and develop in terms of business know-how and skill to thrive in your field and make a difference to the people you serve.

I was in a gift shop a few months ago and saw a little hardcover book that caught my eye. The title was "Hell Yes!" 

It caught my attention! I read the whole thing right there and then. (It's short but compelling.)

For me, the key thing I took away from it was in the introduction to the book. Elizabeth Cogswell Baskin, the author and CEO and creative director of Tribe, Inc., an ad agency with a focus on branded content, says: 

I don't know about you, but I'll bet you're busier than you really want to be. You might be the CEO or the office intern, a stay-at-home parent or a part-time student, a doctor, a lawyer, a butcher, a baker, or a candlestick maker, but my money says you're overcommitted.

Do you really want to be one of those people who are always overwhelmed? Imagine being highly productive but more relaxed. Imagine waking up excited about what's on your calendar, going through your day feeling energized and joyful, or even having nice roomy holes in your schedule. 

The trick is to do what is on your true path and skip the rest. "Follow your bliss," said Joseph Campell, the esteemed twentieth century psychologist...And as Alan Cohen, author and speaker, says, "You only have to decide one thing. If it's not 'Hell yes,' then I don't care what it is.

Before you commit to anything - a meeting, a lunch date, a favor for a friend, a volunteer opportunity, a marriage proposal, or even another piece of pie - use this simple measurement to weight your options. 

If it's not a "Hell yes!" then it's a "Hell no!"

There are many people who would say this is not a realistic way to go through life (and for them it isn't because that belief is a self-fulfilling prophecy). But I believe it's just a choice...a choice that requires enough discipline to make your joy, what lights you up, what makes you come alive (which are all to me clues to your deeper purpose and the reason you're on the planet) your highest priority. 

What perhaps is not realistic is expecting to be able to live by the Hell Yes! philosophy 100% of the time starting today. It's a practice to develop over time. But if even you started to think along these lines and make even 5-10% of your decisions by this method, how would that change things for you over the long term? A lot. As the saying goes, a plane that changes its course by even 1% ends up at a totally different place! 


Looking back on 2010, I can see lots of ways that I myself did not practice the Hell Yes! strategy enough. And the immediate result of that, by my own experience, was more fatigue, less fun and less progress on my purpose than I otherwise could have had. I did also make a lot of Hell Yes! choices though, and those choices actually led to more fun, more clients, more income, more progress on my purpose, and greater benefit to those around me.

I've tested it and the Hell Yes! strategy is neither self-indulgent nor frivolous. To me, it's essential for anyone who is truly committed to following their passion and their purpose and creating a thriving business from that. 

When I make sure to make it to my yoga class (always a Hell Yes!) instead of "powering through" to do that extra hour of work when I already feel tired and uninspired, for example, I can come back to the work refreshed and more creative and accomplish three times as much in the next hour of work than I otherwise would have, and the quality of of the work is significantly higher.

Fill your own cup first and you have will more good to overflow to the things you do and the people around you in a way that is sustainable and will not lead to burnout or common health or relationship imbalances or addictions. And you, and the people around you, will have a lot more fun along the way (isn't that really the point?). 

You will also have a delighted clientele that is much more likely to refer you to others because you're giving off a different kind of vibe than most people. You will naturally set yourself apart, and once you get into that realm, there is no competition for you or what you do. You are in a category all your own.

The spirit of this little book and its approach to life and business reminds me of one my favourite quotes that I often share: 

Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. ~ Howard Thurman

So if you know deep inside that following your passion and serving others with it is the highest path for you, the one where you can make your greatest contribution, then the next time you have a choice to make, a commitment of your time and energy of some kind, ask yourself "Is this a Hell Yes! for me?" 

If not, ask yourself why you are choosing to do it, and if you are really serving yourself and the others around you in the highest and best way by doing some kind of "should," or to meet someone else's expectation of you. The hallmark of your highest path is your joy - the deep and resonant joy of your Soul (as opposed to the short-term gratification of your ego which is a totally different thing).

You can check out the "Hell Yes!" book here: http://amzn.to/fkNHD3

Yet another great post yesterday by Seth Godin, who always seems to stay focused on what really matters and keeps things simple.

If you really want to do something you love, something that is meaningful, joy-filled, fun and fully engages you, something you might want to turn into your livelihood but don't yet see how, something that brings you alive, energizes rather than drains you, something that feels like it MUST be born through you, or if you still have a job or business that you know isn't quite your right livelihood, follow this wise advice. I know I'll be practicing this more than ever in 2011. From Seth's blog, 12/18/10:

What are you working on?

If someone asks you that, are you excited to tell them the answer?

I hope so. If not, you're wasting away.

No matter what your job is, no matter where you work, there's a way to create a project (on your own, on weekends if necessary), where the excitement is palpable, where something that might make a difference is right around the corner.

Hurry, go do that.

Aaron Ross is a cool guy. Check out his bio:

Formerly:
Programmer at NASA
Stanford Civil Engineering (undergrad)
Investment banker (80-100 hrs/wk)
Stanford M.B.A. (decided to drop out)
CEO of Lease Exchange
Generated $100 million in sales at Salesforce.com
Struck a book deal with Wiley
Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Alloy Ventures

And outside work:
Ironman triathlete
28 Day Desert Survival School Course
10 day Vipassana Meditation retreat (10 days of silence and 10+ hrs of meditation/day) - I did that one too...what an experience!)
Travel to more than 40 countries
Motorcycle enthusiast
Creative artist
Knows he's meant to change the world

Today: Founder and CEO of Pebblestorm, his company devoted to helping people "Make Money through Enjoyment" and his "Unique Genius Superhero Program" that walks people through the steps on how to get there.

Can't get cooler than that in my books!

Aaron was stumped in his own life trying to figure out how to combine his apparently divergent interests in capitalism (wealth, creation, satisfying wants) and buddhism (happiness, integrity, acceptance).

They say we teach what we most need to learn - so the next step in Aaron's journey has been learning how to integrate these parts of himself and turn that into a thriving business, and he now teaches that process to others.

You can check out what Aaron's up to on his web sites below. His Unique Genius site has some awesome free videos and downloadable worksheets to help anyone with their first steps to making money through enjoyment.

http://pebblestorm.com/
http://uniquegenius.com/

If you've been following even a few of my posts before now, you'll notice that one of the things I am most committed to is sharing great thinkers as well as useful resources on the subject of living your highest purpose and passion, while making a great living at the same time.

Since our society at large is not yet at the point where people are getting the message on a regular basis to live their passions, nor the tools to do so, I see myself as a tour guide through the growing network of people who've devoted their lives to this message and to assisting others in aligning with their purpose and what most makes them come alive. It is my intent that, by sharing these real-life stories of personal and career transformation, it will make the path for others that much easier.

HEreyet a is a short intro to yet another inspiring role model, Bill Baren. Bill is a coach, speaker, author and entrepreneur whose mission is integrating creativity and life balance with financial success. Bill's story is cool (and so much like many others who, like me, share this mission).

An excerpt from Bill's story:

Perhaps the best way to begin to describe what I do is to share the defining moment in my life that got me to where I am today. I woke up one morning in the summer of 2000 and simply couldn’t get out of bed. I could no longer escape from acknowledging that I was depressed and that my life was no longer working. Though I had at one point enjoyed my career that looked incredible on paper, my heart was no longer in it. It wasn’t enough that I was managing a music distribution company and was constantly around incredible music. It wasn’t enough that I owned a successful record label and had the access to produce and shape the music we were releasing. It wasn’t enough that I had my own business. It wasn’t enough to be fueled by the dreams and desires of my past. I could no longer ignore my intuition that told me that I needed to do something else. I needed to be in a career that allowed my creativity to flourish. I needed to be in an industry where the core values were more linked to my own. I needed to work with people and to continue to grow as a person. So after a year of procrastinating and living in fear of giving up the only career I knew, I finally decided to sell my business and to take the time I needed to figure out where my intuition would lead me.

You can read the rest of Bill's story and check out his web site here: http://www.billbaren.com/about/bill_baren.html

I often quote Seth Godin - highly accomplished entrepreneur and author of Linchpin and other bestselling books - and refer people to  his blog: http://sethgodin.typepad.com. He's one of the most compelling voices in business today for breaking out of mediocrity and offering something extraordinary to the world.

Here's Seth's blog post for today, entitled Organizing for Joy:

Traditional corporations, particularly large-scale service and manufacturing businesses, are organized for efficiency. Or consistency. But not joy.

McDonalds, Hertz, Dell and others crank it out. They show up. They lower costs. They use a stopwatch to measure output.

The problem with this mindset is that as you approach the asymptote of maximum efficiency, there's not a lot of room left for improvement. Making a Chicken McNugget for .00001 cents less isn't going to boost your profit a whole lot.

Worse, the nature of the work is inherently un-remarkable. If you fear special requests, if you staff with cogs, if you have to put it all in a manual, then the chances of amazing someone are really quite low.

These organizations have people who will try to patch problems over after the fact, instead of motivated people eager to delight on the spot.

The alternative, it seems, is to organize for joy. These are the companies that give their people the freedom (and yes, the expectation) that they will create, connect and surprise. These are the organizations that embrace someone who makes a difference, as opposed to searching for a clause in the employee handbook that was violated.

While Seth in this case it talking about traditional organizations (rarely my focus), I love his language - organize for joy...motivated people eager to delight on the spot...the freedom to create, connect and surprise - applies just as much, and is as critical to the success and fulfillment of, any entrepreneur.

I've noticed that people who do what they love, instead of what they think will make the most money, automatically infuse whatever they do with these priceless qualities.

WOW, it truly is amazing how quickly time passes! In the blink of an eye, six months have passed since I last wrote an entry to my blog.

I suppose by the "rules" of blog-writing, that's waaaay too long. But as I wrote shortly before my last post, I had consciously decided to break my old perfectionistic ways with this blog and write when I was truly INSPIRED instead of when I thought I "should."

Lucky for me that I'd made that decision because a whole bunch of great things have happened in the last six months that required the full dedication of my time and energy and I was able to do that guilt-free and in an undivided way.

I guess that's kind of the point in today's new rules of business...things shift and change so much that we need to be flexible as to how and when the flow is guiding us in new or different directions than we expected or planned, and trusting that we will come back to things we'd intended exactly how and when it's right to do so (or not at all, if that's more appropriate).

So what have I been up to...well, I've had the most extraordinary learning experience over the last six months, working with one of the most brilliant marketing and business coaches serving the conscious/spiritual/purpose-driven/heart-centred (pick your favourite word or insert your own synonym) entrepreneurial community today.

I worked as an integral part of the team, creating and launching new info products, coaching and training team members inside and outside the company, delivering powerful coaching to clients (which I continue to do) and many other things too numerous to list here. It's been an intense and amazing learning curve!

I've learned at a whole other level how to help heart-centred entrepreneurs take their unique and deeply-felt purpose, their message to the world, their innate gifts and talents and bring that to the market: determine who is their specific and narrow "tribe" or target market, what is the painful problem facing that tribe for which they are seeking a solution, what kind of lasting transformation they can deliver to that tribe, and how to create the marketing message and structure a business model around that. AWESOME.

So other than just reconnecting and saying "Hi, I'm back!" I want to remind you that even when your "plan" doesn't unfold exactly the way you imagined or intended, trust that what is happening instead is serving you, and will therefore, in turn, serve your clients or the people you want to impact the most.

Bottom line: Trust yourself and the process!

Since I've observed that that is so difficult for most people (myself included), I will be writing more about that over time for sure. '

Glad to be back! :D