AUDIO ~ Spiritual Entrepreneurs: Building a Heart-Centered Business

Do you feel stuck in your spiritual business (or in getting one started) and wondering what steps to take to create more successDoes the thought of selling your service, your gift, make you INCREDIBLY uncomfortable?

Psychic medium Marilyn Alauria and mindful marketing expert Kimberly Maska shared secrets for spiritual entrepreneurs to create an abundant business in a live call with Elevated Existence founder Tammy Mastroberte (listen to the call below).

And a spiritual entrepreneur doesn’t mean you see one-on-one clients, or need to be a healer, psychic or life coach. The definition they use is much broader than that.

“It’s really about having a message that you need to get out ther to change the world,” Maska said on the call. “You can do that through the arts, singing, or any modality. If you have a way to change the world and make it a better place, and you are doing it authentically and from your heart, that is a spiritual entrepreneur.”

Alauria and Maska took live calls, answered questions from the audience and shared a number of tips to build a heart-centered business. As a psychic medium, Alauria shared the importance of asking our guides for help when it comes to business concerns.

“So many people don’t recognize they can ask their guides marketing advice, partnership advice or what product to sell,” she explained. “If you don’t know who your guides are, but are an artist and love Van Gogh’s work, then call in the energy of Van Gogh and start communicating with it. Print out a picture and start talking to it. Or if you really admire Oprah, she may not be deceased but you can call in that energy because whoever you admire means that energy exists in you, and you want to start awakening it, paying attention to it and being conscious about it to help you in your business.”

Maska also addressed how many spiritual business owners tend to shy away from marketing, but the key is to reframe the way we are thinking about it. Rather than looking at the selling aspect, she recommended focusing on serving.

“We tend to look at selling as you are pushing something on someone they don’t really want, but what if they do want it or need, and you are going to change their life,” she shared. “When you start thinking about what you are going to sell, start thinking about the value you are giving. If you can solve a problem for someone or give them a solution, they will pay for that.”

Listen to the full call below, and also access 2 FREE Gifts available from the experts HERE!

Stay Well Meetings Launched by Delos and MGM Resorts International

Delos, a pioneer in wellness real estate, and MGM Resorts International teamed up to launch Stay Well Meetings, or the world’s first wellness meetings experience.

Unveiled by Deepak Chopra, a Delos Advisory Board member, the Stay Well Meetings will debut at MGM Grand Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas On August 18, 2014.

“The Stay Well experience is changing the way we travel today, and as someone who is always on the road, it’s an area of particular interest for me,” said Chopra in a report by Successful Meetings. “With the outstanding success of Stay Well at MGM Grand, I am thrilled to see these evidence-based wellness technologies will be introduced in meeting and convention spaces, one of the most important places for health and wellness. You should feel refreshed after a meeting if you set the right tone.”

The program will provide meeting rooms and spaces designed to optimize the healt and wellbeing of attendees; wellness programming and Stay Well room and suit accommodations. Wellness elements include:

Air Purification – An advanced HEPA-standard air purification system to reduce allergens, toxins and pathogens to create better air quality and breathing.

WELL Shield – A self-cleaning, photocatalytic coating applied to high-touch areas throughout the rooms to trigger a process of oxidation when exposed to light. This results in cleaner surfaces and the destruction of odors and volatile organic compounds.

Cleaning Protocol – Use of hyperallergenic products and state-of-the-art UV wand cleaning tool, which neutralizes bacteria, viruses and other microbes.

Circadian Lighting – Engineered to emulate the properties of natural light, enhancing productivity, energy and experience.

Virtual Biophilia – Biophilic virtual window lights bring an element of the natural environment into rooms.

Chromatherapy – Use of dynamic color designs allowing for themes in the room.

Acoustic Elements – The amount of noise is reduces from outside the space, allowing for an uninterrupted meeting.

Ergonomic Elements – Ergonomic furniture and elements help improve circulation and balance, reducing back stress and decreasing fatigue.

Hydration Station – Infused water strategically placed to ensure attendees meet the Stay Well Meetings App’s recommendations on water consumption throughout the day, helping to avoid dehydration.

Aromatherapy – Optional use of scent creates mood-enhancing environment

Biophilia – Natural design principals incorporated into the space create a calming atmosphere for attendees.

Healthy Menu Options – A curated menu of food, with nutritional and dietary content informed by leading medical institutions, enhances mental cognition and brain functioning throughout the day. Menu options are designated by Go! Healthy by Cleveland Clinic Wellness.

Additionally, Stay Well Meetings offers Wellness Moment Programming, which is a selection of short mental and physical activities designed to engage the body and mind. Delos, in collaboration with experts from Cleveland Clinic Wellness, selected activities proven to energize, boost creativity, relax, and focus meeting attendees, Successful Meetings reported.

These include:

Mental Activity and Brain Teasers – Mental exercises to stimulate creative thinking and strategic approaches to problem solving, as well as elements that engage the hands to foster creativity and the release of tension.

Guided Meditation – Provides designated quiet areas for relaxation and rejuvenation, along with integrated moments of silence and guided meditation, which take place throughout the meetings and convention schedule.

Digital Detox – Throughout the day, meeting attendees are given specified intervals of time to disconnect from technology.

Physical Activity Breaks – Voluntary physical activity breaks, customized to match meeting length. This allows participants to be active for a short period of time during the workday.

Wellness Moment Kit – Box of items containing a carefully selected variety of mental acuity exercises to increase attendee engagement.

How Conscious Business Leaders Deepak Chopra & Richard Branson Hire Employees

In a recent article by FastCompany.com, both Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group, and Deepak Chopra, bestselling author and co-founder of the Chopra Center for Wellbeing, share the way they hire employees.

Sir Richard Branson focuses on personality, according to FastCompany.com. He likes to hire people who are “fun, friendly, caring and love helping others,” he said in the article. “You can learn most jobs extremely quickly once you are thrown in the deep end,” Branson continues. “Within three months, you can usually know the ins and outs of a role. If you are satisfied with the personality, then look at experience and expertise.”

Additionally, Deepak Chopra revealed he has potential employees fill out a “soul profile,” with the following questions, according to the article:

1.What makes you joyful? Can you recall the most joyous moments of your life?

2.What is your life purpose?

3.In what way do you want to contribute to the business or organization?

4.What are your unique talents and skills, and who would benefit from them?

5.Who are your heroes/heroines/mentors in history, mythology, religion, or contemporary times?

6.What are the qualities you look for in a good friendship?

7.What are the best attributes you have that contribute to a meaningful relationship?

 

3 Truths All Heartrepreneurs Needs To Know

By Keri Nola, MA, LMHC

As a conscious, heart-centered entrepreneur, aka “Heartrepreneur,” I used to struggle to find a marketing plan that resonated with my values and kept me from feeling like a slimy salesperson.  Can you relate?

I used to wonder if I would ever be able to share my divine gifts with the world in a way that felt transparent and heartfelt rather than guarded and masked in inauthentic advertisement. Over the past several years, I have managed to build a prosperous healing practice that supports me abundantly not only financially, but emotionally, mentally, and spiritually as well. I have tried numerous approaches, studied with several conscious mentors and created a business building tool box that doesn’t require me to compromise my principles.

Today, I’d like to share with you a few of the heart-centered truths of business building I’ve discovered so you too can grow your business with ease.

Truth # 1: When people know you and like you, they are more willing to buy your products and services, and refer others to do the same. When you are so caught up in “selling” your products and services, you miss the opportunity to create authentic relationships, which are actually the key to selling what you have to offer.

Look for opportunities to connect with your target audience that help them get to know you better — offer free tips, videos, audios, e-books, trainings, and/or teleseminars, and give people a chance to experience the gifts you have to share. When you are known and liked, your products and services sell themselves and you are then freed up to just be YOU and do what you do best — create your products and services!

Truth #2: Consider what you can give before being concerned with what you can get. The truth is, giving is getting. It’s the good ol’ adage that what we give to others comes back to us multiplied, and I have found this to be absolutely true in heart-centered business building.

When working to build relationships with potential clients, customers, and/or referral sources, Heartrepreneurs know it’s about building a mutually beneficial partnership that involves asking others how you can support them and trusting the universe will honor your giving spirit with abundance in return.

It’s also helpful to remember you may not receive in the same places you give and/or you may not see a return on an investment right away. When you come from a spirit of giving, receiving is never far away.

Truth #3: Collaboration takes you a lot farther than competition. There are plenty of people who need what you have to offer. Competition is a harmful mindset of lack based in the fear there isn’t enough to go around. The truth is there is more than enough for everyone, and when you learn to connect with colleagues, customers and clients from a heart-centered space, you will welcome the abundance you deserve and desire.

Consider connecting with other professionals who may have contact with your target audience and discover ways you can support one another — team up for a joint venture, create a referral program, brainstorm ideas together. There is only one YOU and no one can create a product or facilitate an experience the way YOU can. Allow yourself to reconnect with the truth of your uniqueness to make room for partnerships and connections with others for support.

Are you in alignment with your truth? Making a few small shifts in your perspective, can welcome infinitely fulfilling changes in the way you experience and expand your business. Give yourself permission to try something new today and be curious about the benefits you will notice.

Have you signed up for our FREE monthly e-newsletter yet? We bring you advice from today’s top authors, and the best in spiritual and self-improvement — sign up now for FREE!

Author of “A Year on Your Path to Growth: Daily Inspiration to Reconnect With Your Soul,” and “44 Holistic Tips for Peaceful Sleep,” Keri Nola is a highly regarded psychotherapist, and Founder of Path To Growth LLC, an integrative healing center based in Central Florida. She combines traditional and holistic techniques to create products and experiences that help people access their inner wisdom and create a healthy mind, body and spirit to live their most inspired lives. Her real life experience paired with her extensive education and work background makes her a compassionate, balanced, and sought-after professional in the areas of personal and spiritual growth and development. For more information, visit www.pathtogrowth.com; follow Keri on Twitter @PathtoGrowth; or on Facebook

The New York Open Center Launches “The Leadership Institute”

Dedicated to fostering the ongoing development of innovative business leaders, empowering them to effect positive change in themselves, their organizations and the world, the New York Open Center launched The Leadership Institute. It will offer a curriculum of classes, coaching, executive forums and more.

“This initiative is indicative of the broader growing interest in all forms of personal development,” said Jayne Gumpel, Founder and co-Chairman of The Leadership Institute. “In fact, many of the most innovative and successful companies of our time – companies like Google, Nike, General Electric, Deutsche Bank – are now including mindfulness and meditation practices as part of their day-to-day activities.“

The Institute will offer workshops led by renowned educators and innovators in the fields of business, branding, finance, psychology and entrepreneurship, and unique offerings such as one-to-one leadership coaching, peer development forums, customized consulting programs and monthly networking events.

“When our needs are met at work – professional, physical, mental, emotional and spiritual – we are more effective, more efficient, and have greater capacity for success; in short we are happier. Research shows that when we are happy at work sales increase by 37 percent and productivity by 31 percent,” said John Margaritis, Founder and co-Chairman. “It’s not about abandoning profitability, but about enhancing profitability with methods that can expand and enrich the whole of our being – and our contributions to the world.”

Margaritis noted CEOs who participate in monthly peer forums grow their businesses 2-1/2 times faster and increase their employee retention by up to 50 percent.

“The overall Leadership Institute approach and program – from the classes to the coaching – will inspire and empower participants to become more productive, more focused on their craft and better leaders for their organizations,” said Greg Monaco, Founding Partner of Monaco Lange branding agency and teacher of “How to Become Unforgettable,” a Leadership Institute Course taking place February 26.

For more information, visit www.leadoc.org.

Are you a Heartrepreneur?

I remember coming out of the heartrepreneur closet several years ago when a mentor of mine at the time kept insisting that I needed a business plan full of charts and graphs with elaborate formulas to analyze this and that. My head immediately started hurting, and I became all flustered at the thought.

I then heard the voice of my inner wise woman say, “No, you don’t need those. That isn’t you.” For the first time, I allowed myself to take a breath and acknowledge (out loud—eeek!) that while business plans with charts, graphs and formulas may work well for others, they just aren’t the tools that resonate for me to use in my business building strategy.

After acknowledging this reality, I transitioned away from trying to stuff my circle self into a square hole and began moving with the flow of my inner pilot, saying “yes” to opportunities, people and places that connected with me and “no, thank you” to those that didn’t. I surprisingly and gratefully watched as my business expanded in tremendously satisfying directions.

To me, Heartrepreneurs are entrepreneurs that lead with their heart — when in doubt, we come back to our heart center, get quiet and listen for our inner wisdom’s guidance on how to move forward. We are courageous souls, men and women alike, and conscious leaders, invested in mindfully constructing businesses and organizations that resonate with our deep desire to contribute our unique gifts and skills in ways that make our planet a better place to live, work and play on. We have learned to set healthy boundaries, trust our instincts, and not be swayed away from our inner compass when the noise of the mainstream gets loud.

Qualities of a Heartrepreneur:

Has the courage to discover and ignite the flame within and let it guide your soul purpose.
Heartrepreneurs have the courage to acknowledge when fear may be getting in the way of following their soul’s purpose, and they have a practice that allows them to move through the fear and come back to their heart center before moving forward. Heartrepreneurs know that ideas without passion behind them often flounder, and they trust their instincts to move away from what doesn’t resonate with them, whether this be an idea, a partnership, or an opportunity. Heartrepreneurs align with their vision and purpose and respond accordingly.  Does this sound familiar?

Engages authentically
Heartrepreneurs know authentic engagement is one of the keys to successful business building, and they are conscious about being authentic in their interactions as they navigate transactions with customers, clients, colleagues, staff, mentors, etc.

Accepts your limitless worth and value
Heartrepreneurs know in order to welcome abundance, they must be aligned with the truth that they are worthy of experiencing abundance. When we realize and accept ourselves as worthy and valuable human beings, our businesses expand in deeper and more meaningful ways.

Cultivates Relationships
Heartrepreneurs understand the value of relationships and know that along with engaging authentically, cultivating relationships is at the heart of successful business practice.  Consciously working to develop meaningful relationships on a daily basis, heartrepreneurs maintain connections regularly rather than simply calling on people when they “need” something. Relationships are truly at the heart of our businesses and heartrepreneurs appreciate and share gratitude for the ways various people support their business and also reciprocate support by helping others in ways that resonate with them to do so.

Think less and Feel more.
Don’t get me wrong here, obviously Heartrepreneurs think. They are actually some of the most successful thought leaders in the world! The thing I believe Heartrepreneurs understand, however, is that their ability to feel their way through situations, allowing their heart to lead the way, keeps them centered on their greater vision and purpose so each decision can align with this purpose and thus the business can flourish accordingly.

Regardless of the businesses we are in, here’s to remembering the value of leading from a heart-felt place, a place that is conscious, authentic and honest, It is this place that welcomes a vibration of meaningful success!

Keri Nola is author of “A Year on Your Path to Growth: Daily Inspirations to Reconnect with Your Soul,” and founder of Path to Growth LLC, a Central Florida-based integrative healing center that blends traditional and holistic techniques for journeys to peace. As a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, Nola provides psychotherapy and facilitates therapeutic retreats for those seeking to reconnect with their inner wisdom, particularly after trauma or loss. She also offers heart-inspired business consultations for healthcare professionals. For more information visit www.pathtogrowth.com, on Facebook and Twitter @pathtogrowth.

NOTE: Picture of Keri Nola by Monica Alfonso