What Business Are You REALLY In?

I’ve got an interesting question for you.

When I first started to consider it, it got me really excited and gave me even greater clarity about my WHY.

So, here it is for you...

What business are you really in?

At first, you might feel compelled to respond with…

“I’m a coach / entrepreneur / small business owner / creative / yoga teacher / artist / mentor”

But, I’m challenging you to unpack it more.

Get underneath all the layers.

Behind your title, under your business model, inside your brand, what’s there?

What is it that you -- and ONLY YOU -- are offering to the world?

That, my dear, is where the TRUTH of the TRUTH lies. The bud of the bud (I’m channeling e.e. cummings here, can you tell?).

That is your essence, your soul’s purpose, your reason for being on this planet.

Now, that may sound like a lot of weight to put on one little question, but I encourage you to play around with this. Allow it to draw goodness out of you as you think about it. Don’t let it weigh you down, that’s not the point!

Toss it around. Mull it over. Savor the first thought that pops into your mind.

Want to know what business I am really in? Beneath it all?

Here goes…

I’m in the business of Inspired Clarity.

To flesh it out a bit more...

I deliver + evoke clarity that leads to inspired action.

When that hit me, everything seemed so simple. So clear.

When everything comes back to that one kernel of truth, it simplifies the whole deal. (I love simplification, ease and CLARITY, so this felt great to me!)

It was as if I had a new lens through which to look at my business + life and everything made more sense.

If everything I do, create, say, offer, build, develop, or teach has that underlying message, I’m good. I’m on track. I’m doing it. Cool.

Now, it’s your turn, my friend. Inquiry always brings clarity <3 

[Tweet "Inquiry always brings clarity via @cailenascher http://calmbiz.com/what-business-are-you-really-in/"]

What business are you REALLY in?

Ask yourself and see what comes up. Trust what comes up. Love what comes up.

Then, share it here. 

With love,

A Year Ago I Was About to Give Up on My Business

A year ago, I had just reentered my business after 4 months of maternity leave. A year ago, I was making almost no money.

A year ago, I was feeling stuck, unclear, and out of alignment.

A year ago, I was about to give up on my business.

I remember thinking to myself…

If this is all it will ever be, it’s not worth it! I should just give up and be a full-time mom.

The BIG vision I had for my business felt so far away. So unrealistic. So unachievable.

But, one thing I’ve come to realize again and again (I guess it’s a lesson I need to keep on learning!) is the more I get tied down by HOW things NEED to happen, the less likely they are to occur at all.

Fast forward to today, a mere 12 months later, and EVERYTHING is different. Everything is better. Everything is working...or should I saying flowing.

If I told you that 12 months from now you will be working only 20 hours a week with amazing clients you adore and making 5-figures in a month, what would you say?

If you had run that scenario by me a year ago, I would have said, Seriously? How?

But you see the HOW isn’t what’s important. The belief that it is possible is. That’s where we need to start.

Too many of us start with the “hows”. We get obsessed with them.

Should I be on Twitter or Facebook?

Should I work 1x1 or run a group program?

Should I host a podcast or write a blog?

But, that’s not where our journey begins. That’s not where success starts.

Our journey to true success begins with a belief that it’s possible, and then the hows naturally fall into place as they reveal themselves along the way.

All we need is a glimmer of possibility. A glimmer that cracks our limiting mindset wide open and opens our eyes (or should I say our hearts) to the idea that anything is possible and things can change FAST.

When we get tied down by the hows, we get completely overwhelmed because we think we need to micromanage every aspect of the enormous big picture. We don’t.

We only need to move forward in devotion to our vision.

We need to seek out what feels good, what feels aligned, what inspires us, speaks to us, elevates us, brings us joy, and move in that direction. That’s the trick.

[Tweet "We design our roadmap to success one good feeling at a time."]

Celebrate every win, no matter how seemingly small, and tap into that deep-down knowing that you are meant for something big, bold and beautiful. (I know you are!)

Most importantly, know that you are deserving of it, too.

12 months from now EVERYTHING will be different.

With love,

P.S. Would this message brighten someone’s day? Why not forward it to a lady in your life who could use a little pep talk?!

Confession: It’s easier to make MORE money than less!

Confession: “It’s easier to make MORE money than less. When I wrapped my head around this, my entire business shifted.” - Tara Travis, Master Coach + Feminine Leadership Mentor

Tara Travis is the leading authority on women entrepreneurs' personal and money mastery. As a master coach and feminine leadership mentor, she has a proven track record of coaching women around the globe to create high 5-figure months in record time (usually in less than 30 days!) and sustainable 6-figure businesses with elegant ease and grace. She teaches women how to master their inner game of abundance, transform their money story and attract ideal, committed clients at premium fees so they can do meaningful, deeply transformational work in the world. Above all, Tara takes a powerful stand for women creating lives and businesses that are spiritually and financially liberating.

Tara is a passionate powerhouse, and I thoroughly enjoyed our interview together (as I’m sure you’ll be able to tell!). There is so much good stuff in store for you, and I have no doubt just watching will instantly elevate your energy.

Dive into this month’s Clarity Confession with Tara Travis to learn why…

• It’s essential to to give yourself permission to evolve (and what that evolution looked like for Tara)

• Her 1st year of coaching was so unnecessarily HARD

• We need to value ourselves & our gifts before clients will invest in us

• It’s easier to make MORE money than less

Watch Tara’s Clarity Confession now. 

After you watch Tara’s Clarity Confession, we want to hear from you!

Listen until the very end to learn how to get a free copy of Tara’s transformative Wealth Activation Kit. And, be sure to join in the discussion about this interview in the Facebook Group #ClarityConfession. I’d love to know what you think and what your takeaways are.

Loved Tara’s interview and want to know more? You can download her free Wealth Activation Kit at www.TaraTravis.org.

With love,

I Stopped Weighing Myself & My Business Quadrupled

February 2016 was my best business month to date. I brought in nearly $23K in business while working just 3 days a week.

The whole month felt great and, to be the completely truthful, it felt like the least amount of work I’ve ever done to make money! It felt in flow, nearly effortless, and totally grounded and aligned. So good.

On the other hand, the logic-based thinker in me wants a strategic way to replicate this for myself and also teach my clients how to do the same, so I started looking at all the things that made this month different.

And something very interesting came to light…

I stopped weighing myself this month.

Hmmm….

That got me thinking. Was this related? Or unrelated?

An answer quickly came. As a woman who tends to think EVERYTHING is connected, I believe 100% that there is a correlation here. (I’ll dive into my theory about this below.)

I’m not saying that not stepping on the scale contributed to every single dollar that found its way to me this past month, but I think...no, I know...it’s a key player.

I’ll speak for myself here, but I believe most women can relate: my relationship with my body is always in need of more loving kindness. Always.

As women, even when we’re feeling great about ourselves, our businesses, or our lives, a few pounds on the scale, an overindulgent night out, or a pair of jeans that no longer fit “just right” can totally shift the way we’re thinking and feeling about every single aspect of our lives.

Throughout my pre-teen and teen years, especially, I had a tumultuous relationship with my body and food and too often allowed my happiness and self-worth to be determined by the numbers on the scale.

Lower numbers = Yay! I’m allowed to feel good.

Higher numbers = I hate myself.

I felt I was always battling against my body, instead of working with it.

Luckily, over the last decade a lot has changed for me, for the better. Through heaps of personal development, yoga, meditation, and surrounding myself with positive role models, I’ve come to love, appreciate and honor my body (most of the time, which is all I think any of us can ask for).

But...I was still weighing myself. Every week. A few pounds up, ugh. A few pounds down, yay!

Over the last 10 years my weight hasn’t fluctuated more than 8 to 10 pounds - except when I was pregnant of course! - but I felt I had to have that weekly check-in to keep me “on track.”

I realized that I was still in fear mode around my weight. Yes, after all these years -- the fear was still there! I thought I needed the scale to tell me if I should eat a little more or a little less. Fit in some extra movement or give myself permission to indulge.

So, I decided to do a short-term experiment. No weighing myself for the month of February. If it totally derailed my healthy-ish lifestyle, and I felt like I was ballooning up, out of control, I told myself that I could always go back to my weekly weigh-ins.

Well, I’m here to report that not only are my jeans still fitting just right and my entire relationship with my body and food is feeling even more loving and kind, but I also had my BEST month ever! Making $23K in just over 3 weeks.

Here’s my theory behind no weigh-ins = 4x business.

:1: I was focusing on smaller (or at least unchanging) numbers. Every single week I’d reinforce that smaller is better. Smaller numbers are what I want. Do you see how this might hurt your bank account?

:2: It put my happiness in someone...or should I say something...else’s control. I’d have a great week and then step on the scale and be a couple pounds up, and inside my head I’d hear “ugh”. I want to feel good, not crappy. Stepping on the scale was making me feel crappy, so why keep doing it? Or, it was giving me a momentary “yay!” because of my smaller number (see #1).

:3: I was in total fear mode. I felt that I had to keep my body in-check otherwise my health, weight, sanity would “get away from me”. Fear constricts us, it keeps us (and our potential) small. I don’t want to be small -- I want to be BIG (energetically speaking ;-))! Again, can you see how this would affect your income?

:4: It forced me to trust more. Trust my body, trust my hunger, trust my intuition, trust that I wouldn’t go off the rails if I loosened my perfectionist grip just a tad. And, I’m here on the other side of it still in one piece, still in the same pants and with $23K in new business! Brilliant.

:5: That weekly weigh-in bled over into others areas of my life, and made me think about food/my body/weight at times that I didn’t want to be thinking about those things. It even, at times, would lead to totally unnecessary negative self-talk. Essentially, it took up too much valuable mental real estate. Without that weekly reminder of my “goodness” or “badness”, I freed up space for creativity, joy, inspiration, mindfulness and guilt-free celebration!!!

When you’re constantly sending out signals of fear, saying to yourself “I want small numbers”, and letting negativity chirp in your ear, it’s going to have an effect. It has to. There is no other option. The thoughts we think, the things we do, the words we say become our lives.

I wholeheartedly believe in the connectedness of all things, but somehow I didn’t realize that I was sending out beacons that were totally misaligned with what I truly was after. Ahh...the clarity of hindsight.

I was stuck in a deep groove that I’d been digging most of my life up until now, and finally (after 10 years of reading Geneen Roth books) I was ready -- I am ready -- to opt for trust instead of fear. Growth instead of shrinking. Abundance instead of restriction.

Join me. It’s so much lighter on the other side ::wink wink::

With love,

P.S. Want to read more about how I made $23K in 23 days? I wrote an entire post about what it took to reach those numbers here.