Shedding the Shoulds and Finally Doing Business MY Way

An aligned business manifesto

I never intended to start a business.

When I finished coaching school, I was asked/told that I was starting a coaching business. “Yes,” I said. “Shit,” I thought, “I don’t know how to start or run a business.”

And yet, at the time, I was freelance writing, teaching swim lessons, personal training and coaching endurance athletes. I had multiple businesses, but I didn’t call them “businesses,” they were “what I did.”

So, let’s return to that moment when I realized that, in my own words, “I had no idea what I was doing.”

I was in luck. There were lots and lots and lots of people who wanted to tell me how to do business. And I listened.

I hired business coaches, I took courses, and I did the things I was “supposed to do.” I also stomped my feet and refused to do a bunch of the stuff I was “supposed to do” because it felt icky. But the truth is that almost all of it felt icky.

And yet this is the path I followed off and on for ten years.

I could say that it was a “mistake” to hire all of these experts, but I don’t believe in mistakes. I believe that we always make the decision we’re supposed to make. Sure, our present selves can look back at our past selves and claim that they made a “mistake,” but that’s not very loving. Instead, how about believing that our past selves were doing the best they could with the tools they had? And besides, I believe that I needed each one of these experiences to gain the clarity, conviction and bravery to finally do things my way.

Here’s what I’m committing to in 2024:

Remembering that I have all the answers.

As a Manifesting Generator with Emotional Authority, I have these amazingly helpful innate tools to guide me. My wisdom lives in my body and I am designed to let my body lead me (not my head). When I come across something that makes my body say, “YES PLEASE!” I go that way. And when something stops feeling like a “YES PLEASE!” I stop going that way. That lack of a “YES PLEASE!” is my body’s way of saying, “this isn’t for you.”

And when I have a feeling of anger or ickiness around something, that’s my Emotional Authority telling me not to go that way. I’m almost six years into my Human Design experiment and I’m finally getting this.

Sharing all of me.

As a Manifesting Generator, I must be multi-passionate. And I am. I’m an Energy Alignment Coach, a Human Design Guide and a House Therapist (that’s a type of Feng Shui guide). I’m also a huge plant-based nutrition nerd and a triathlete who competes for the US age group national team. I love to cook, need to be in nature daily and love being with animals.

Back when I was on instagram, my business coach at the time told me that I should cover my muscles in photos. ‘Scuse me, what? I was told I could only be one thing—a Human Design Guide or a coach or a triathlete. But, as inconvenient as it may be, I am all of those things.

I am so much more than a coach or a Human Design Guide or a triathlete or a Feng Shui practitioner. And also, I hate labels and will do whatever it takes to wiggle out of them.

I’m done with hiding parts of myself. I am all of the things I listed above—and a whole lot more.

As

Johnny B. Truant

writes in “Exposing Yourself For Fun and Profit,”

And that’s the crux of it, my fellow creators: The secret to attracting True Fans is to be fully, completely, and boldly yourself.

That. That’s what I’m doing from now on.

Real Connection

As a 4/6, I love humans and I’m here for deep connection. I’m very much not here for the surface-level communication that can be common in the online business space. I want to know what you’re reading, what you’re eating and how you’re growing. I want to know how your soul speaks to you and what it really truly craves.

I’m not here to just know people. I’m here to KNOW people. I’m here for friendships. I’m here for connection. I’m here for partnerships. I’m here for supporting one another and rising together.

Creating and Serving

One of my biggest gifts in Human Design is the gift of waking people up to the most expanded versions of themselves. And with that gift comes the desire to impact people.

For years, I thought that I had to get people into my offerings so that I could impact them.

It never felt quite right, but I couldn’t find a way around it.

And then, earlier this week, while reading “Substack Diaries: What do you do if you’re not growing as fast as others,” by Substack writer

Mika

, I got it.

My job isn’t to get people to be impacted by my work. My job is to create. My job is to coach. My job is to teach. I don’t have to do anything to set people up to be impacted by my work. It just happens. The right people will be impacted in the right way at the right time.

Wow, that one feels like such a relief. I get to do me. They get to do them. And the universe will take care of the rest.

Remembering my mission. (It’s not about the money.)

There was a season when I listened as people told me I was supposed to want to make a ton of money. They said that I wasn’t making a big impact if I wasn’t making a big income, which, by the way, is total BS. Um, Mother Theresa made a pretty big impact, didn’t she?

They said that I had to own my entrepreneur-ness and make loads of money or my business was just a hobby. That’s also BS, but also what’s wrong with a hobby? Hobbies are fun, right? I’m doing this because it’s super fun—and because I love changing lives.

It’s not that I don’t want to receive an energetic exchange for my work. I do. I very much want to receive money (or something better) for my writing, speaking, coaching and teaching (and any other way money wants to come into my life!)

But money doesn’t drive me. (It actually truly drives very few of us.)

My desire to uplift and create drives me. My mission is to bring more joy to the world and change people’s lives for the better. That’s what I’m here for.

What are you committing to in 2024? Please share in the comments.