Inspired Actions:
What is a Lifestyle Business?
Editorial
Welcome to our first edition of Inspired Actions. Inspired Action’s main focus is empowering and inspiring you to create and grow a business that supports your ideal holistic lifestyle.
Director/Curator: Lori Lynn Smith
Each month we will bring you a new topic with articles and interviews that we hope with information and enlighten. Contact Us Sacred Earth Partners Training and Retreat Center Inc. 6326 37th Ave NW Edmonton AB Canada T6L 1H8
We encourage you to download each edition so that you can easily click all blue underlined links to valuable resources without losing your place while you are reading. If you have any questions or suggestions for future topics, please feel free to contact me at info@sacredearthpartners.com. Thanks for reading and we hope you enjoy!
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What is a Lifestyle-Business?
What is a Lifestyle/Freedom/Mirco Business?
Colin Wright believes a (Freedom) business exists to create value, and to receive value in exchange.” Everett Bogue says “a minimalist business is flexible and instantly profitable (because there’s no overhead). It is easy to change its direction at a moment’s notice. You (the business owner) make all of the important decisions and put them into play immediately.” Henri Junttila defines a Lifestyle Business as “My definition of a lifestyle business is an online business (in my case) built around my passion, which allows me to do what I want, where I want, and when I want.”
There is most certainly a LOT of really great information out there, but how do you adapt it to your life and your business. This is always the tricky part. Not because you can’t follow exactly in someone else’s footsteps, but because you do not want to. You would like to be as unique as a snowflake.
I like the direction these gentlemen are going and I feel that it is very close to where I would like to be, but I think that we can take this to a whole new level. How would it feel if we brought in “Right Livelihood”? I believe if you add together a fluid everevolving minimalist business that is built around your passions using only methods aligned perfectly with your core values, you will create YOUR ideal Lifestyle Business, doing what you want, where you want and when you want.
This we can do, very very easily! You and I are not the same, you are you, and I am me. Each of our personal life experiences and lessons have lead us to this spot and this spot might even be a very similar place, but we are as unique as the snowflakes.
I also believe that you can design exactly how your life and your business work together so that success is effortless and amazing.
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So taking all that, following an example of the people that have successfully gone before us and created the paths for us, we can create amazing things, like that perfect lifestyle business.
Mary Jaksch What I love the most about having a lifestyle business is that I can support others in creating the life they want. I enjoy creating content that people can put into practice – and that can really make a difference. Website: www.goodlifezen.com
What does a Freedom Business look like?
You have decided that you want a lifestyle freedom business, great! But what does that really look like. Well as we have been talking about so far, it is really up to you! You get to decided, this is where the freedom really comes in. The idea is to create exactly what you would like based on your own preferences, strengths, style, personality, and goals. Time - Work when you want Owning a lifestyle business means you can set your own hours. If you need to step back from work and put your energy towards other things going on in your life, no problem. As Practitioners there definitely is an aspect of your business where you are face-to-face
Maybe you are not interested in moving to a mountain cabin, but you would like to spend a week at a monastery in meditation or spending time with speaking to the dolphins in Hawaii.
with your clients. And for many people that is exactly what they want to be doing. Just keep in mind that if you need to change your hours because of a family issue or because of a personal health issue, this will impact your lifestyle.
Creating your business with many sources of income allows for time away without worry.
Being prepared by including other forms of income will allow you to take the time without the worry of the number of clients.
Money - Earn as much as you want
Place - Work where you want Similarly, you should be able to work where you want as well. If you need to spend some time with family in another city, no sweat. You can run your business from anywhere! That includes your mountain cabin in the Rockies too by the way.
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In a lifestyle business you’re free to earn as much as you want. If you bust your butt to serve more clients, or create a revolutionary new service, you can earn as much as you possibly can from it.
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YOU can set the amount of money you want to feel comfortable. It could be 100,000 or it
could be 1,000,000 the choice is yours. Work - Do what you want It’s your business, make it exactly what you want. If there’s a service you hate performing, stop offering it. If you want to take things in a new direction, grab the reigns!
Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.
This is one of the aspects of a lifestyle business that make them so fulfilling to their owners. Each of us is created uniquely, and so each of us finds unique ways to serve in a way that suits our strengths, personality, and style. As you can see you really are able to decide on all the factors in your lifestyle business and how you want to interconnect your business with your life.
Abraham Lincoln
What places have you been thinking about taking your business? How can you shape it to fit these four characteristics?
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Kathleen Gage What I love most about having a lifestyle business is just that, a lifestyle of my choosing. With the right focus, vision and commitment and am at liberty to live where I want, work when I want, with whom I want. Through the business I have created I am able to serve my market in ways I only once had hoped for. I can impact those who know their life’s work is to impact their market in a positive, conscious and loving way. There is a new economy many entrepreneurs are embracing. It is the economy that allows us to create the life and business we once only dreamed of. Website: www.kathleengage.com
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Passionate Living: A Simple Guide to Doing what you Love
Henri from Wake up Cloud has written a great guide to turning your passions into a Lifestyle business called “Passionate Living: A Simple Guide to Doing What You Love?” Of course I was attracted to it because I love anything that dives into how “passion” and “lifestyle” go together. The guide is a 92-page page program that guides you from the beginning to the end in starting your journey toward your passion. The part that I enjoyed the most was very actionable worksheet that takes you through the process. There are a lot of extras as well! I asked Henri several questions about that guide and he was happy to give us the inside scoop!
Q: What do you feel is the #1 reason that people don’t follow their passions?
Q: What led you to write, “Passionate Living: A Simple Guide to Doing What You Love?”
Belief.
It came from the questions my readers where asking me. I was receiving emails about the same topics over and over again, so I conducted a survey to confirm my suspicions, and then wrote a guide to cover all of those questions.
And when you do not belief you can follow your passion, you don’t take action, which is one of the keys to making progress. It sounds pretty obvious when I put it like that, but it’s true.
I have a feeling that that is what has made the guide so successful. Now a few years after I’ve written it, I still receive emails from people saying how it was one of the catalysts for changing their life. And that’s something every writer/creator wants to hear!
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It’s not by getting things perfect that you make progress, but by starting and moving forward even before you think you’re ready. You learn as you go. You have to be willing to face you fears, make mistakes, and hit your head against hard objects to really succeed.
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Stop waiting for something and start today. What can people do to overcome this fear? I haven’t yet found a way to completely eliminate fear from my life, so what I do is take things one step at a time. What often happens is people start imagining worst case scenarios and then they keep playing their imaginary movie until they became so scared they do nothing.
Q: In the chapter “How to Find Your Passion Once and For All”, talk about the steps to finding your passion; Brainstorming, Elimination and Experiment. Do you find the most people stop at step 1? I’d say that most people are more than happy to brainstorm, but when it comes to actually doing something (experimenting) they stop.
But the truth of the matter is that you don’t know what will happen, which is why you have to take action.
Many have dozens of passions they would never want to live without, and the good news is that you can often combine many passions (if you’re building a business around them), but sometimes you can’t.
If you do one thing each day, you will make progress.
And we have to be practical, at least in the beginning.
Accept the fear and do it anyway. Stop trying to figure things out, and … yup, you guessed it — start!
But the good news is that even if you pick one passion to play with today, it doesn’t mean that you eliminate the rest from your life. Look at it like a buffé. You have all this food in front of you, but you have to start some-
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where, so you pick one, taste it, and see if you like it. Then you can go back for more. But if you do nothing, nothing will happen, and you will, in essence, be forfeiting all of your passions.
Q: I love how you are supporter of keeping your day job, until you are better able to support your lifestyle, do you feel this would eliminate the average persons fear of following their passions? It definitely eliminates a lot of stress. I like to be practical, because what really matters is that you make progress toward your goals. If you feel like you could do better without a day job, then go for it, but for most of the people I’ve come across, that isn’t the case. We have to bargain with our fears. There’s no need to face them head on and scare the living daylights out of yourself if there’s an easier way.
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Keep your job if you feel like it’s the best choice, but keep taking action toward your passions every day. Q: Once you have found the intersection between money and passion AND you are doing it in a non-desperate way, what do you feel is the easiest or first way to start making money? The first thing anyone should do is build a platform, which usually means a blog or a website. Then build an audience around the topic of your passion (hopefully where you’re solving a problem). And remember to build an email list. Once all that is in place, you will have people telling you what they have trouble with, and the way you make money is by helping people eliminate or alleviate those problems. You make money by helping people. Some-
times that means affiliate marketing, sometimes it means putting together a coaching service, and sometimes it means creating a simple ebook.
Q: I love that you address the “time management” factor, especially for people that are starting out WHILE maintaining their day jobs, what do you feel is the biggest time waster? and what is the easiest way to get back some time? The biggest time waster is lack of focus. If you’re short on time, you have to learn what 20% of tasks give you 80% of results. You don’t have time to play on social media just for fun. You either do it effectively, or you don’t do it at all. One of the most important things you can do in the beginning is to build your email list (at least if you want to have a profitable online business).
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If you aren’t doing that day in and day out, you’re (often) wasting time. So to get back some of that time, you have to know what to focus on and what gives you results. Then you have to schedule that time and eliminate distractions.
Q: Blogging or really any small business is really about “10 years to overnight success”, :-) what are some great ways to stay motivated when the going gets tough? For me it’s always been that I really enjoy what I’m doing. I don’t see myself as super successful, and I don’t think about the money that much as long as I have a place to live in and food on the table. I keep taking things one step at a time and I enjoy where I am right now. It’s easy to start daydreaming and look at how far you have to go, but instead direct
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your focus to the present moment and learn to cherish what you have right now. Yes, things aren’t perfect, but they never will be. There will always be another goal to reach, another thing to have, or something to improve. In short, find something you enjoy doing, take things one step at a time, and enjoy the process.
Q: Any final motivational thoughts for the reader?
Getting paid to do work you love takes hard work, which is why most people never get there. They end up complaining in a job they hate, but that doesn’t have to be you. You can start today. But will you? Thanks so much for sharing your insights with us!
The most important thought I can share is that of taking action. You have to be ruthlessly focused on taking one step each day toward what you want.
You can read more about Henri and the work he is doing at his website. Website: http://www.wakeupcloud.com Twitter: @henrijunttila
You will face obstacles, run into fears, and feel like giving up, but if you take just one step each day, you will reach your destination.
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Barrie Davenport It’s hard to pin down the one aspect I love most about a lifestyle business — there are several! I love having the flexibility to work when and where I wish. I love being an entrepreneur and the satisfaction of building my own business. And I get tremendous satisfaction in helping people all over the world who are accessible through the Internet. It has opened a huge, new world for me. Website: www.liveboldandbloom.com
How to Create an Awesome Lifestyle Business
I believe there are 3 very important steps that most people over look when thinking about, planning and implementing their Lifestyle Business.
But I also believe that you can ready yourself for these emotions and set yourself up for success, just by doing a small bit of inner work first.
I think that many times there is a couple of really strong emotions, first there is the excitement, we are over the top excited that we have finally made the decision to create a lifestyle business and we just want to dig and get to work.
1. Know your Core Values 2. Visualize the end results 3. Having a clearly written goal with actionable steps
Soon this turns into overwhelm, there is soooo much information out there, so many things you need to think about and some many different opinions about how you need to do it. It can get really crazy!
Included in this section are several in-depth exercises, these are meant to take you to the next level, deeper into your inner self to determine exactly where you want to be heading. You need to know that direction and method of journeying to your success.
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Know your Core Values Have you stopped to consider your core values before? Have you thought about those deep sometimes hidden values that control how you react to life? Your personal values represent what you stand for (and stand on) as your inner foundation. Your values are the principles, beliefs and attitudes that guide your decisions, actions and behaviors. Defining them is essential to clear goals, breaking bad habits and making good choices. Step One The first step in identifying your core values is defining your identity; that is your strengths, weaknesses, preferences and lifelong ambitions. When you understand
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who you are and where you are going it is easier to identify what life governing principles will help you reach your destination. In taking this first step of defining your identity, consider the following questions: (1) What are my most redeeming qualities? (2) What are my weaknesses? (3) What am I doing to network and build alliances? (4) What do I enjoy most? (5) How can I shape my career goals around what I enjoy? (6) What is one accomplishment I must make in my life? (7) How could I correct or compensate for my weaknesses to ensure accomplishment of my lifelong goals? (8) How does my faith shape my sense of identity? Step Two The second step in identifying your core values is defining your destiny. Your destiny will be determined by daily choices and long-term goals you set for yourself. Once you have identified the one accomplishment you most want to make, you need to start
mapping a life plan that will get you there. Ask yourself the following questions: (1) What previous experiences or education will help me arrive at my desired destination? (2) How can my present job situation serve as a steppingstone toward my destination? (3) What will a perfect day look like when I have arrived at my destination? (4) Who might assist me on my journey? (5) What kind of people will I spend time with when I have arrived? (6) In five or less sentences; how will I know when I’ve arrived? (7) How does my faith shape my destiny? The Final Step The final step is to define the values that will help you make the right decisions along the journey. When we have solid core values that govern our decision making; we become more judicial. As a result we respond better in times of crisis and change; giving us a proactive edge over most other people.
(1) What are my moral absolutes? (2) How do I define right from wrong? (3) How would I define my work ethics? (4) What values will help me build strong relationships? Do your personal Values align with your path to success? Now you’ll know both what is really important to you in life AND where your priorities are! This puts you head and shoulders ahead of anyone who has never taken the time to do this exercise :-) Finally ask yourself: “Am I living my life according to my values and priorities?” If you answer “no”, you need to work out what you are going to do to make sure you are living congruently?
Answer the following questions as you begin considering your personal core values:
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Thom Chambers The ability to let life happen. When your work is a passion and a mission rather than a chore, you’re happy for it to be part of who you are rather than simply something you do. You’re happy to work every day, because work is more fun than fun. And when you work every day, doing work that matters, you make progress. You get ahead, slowly, one day at a time. Work and play, in harmony. You have to be patient. It will take time before your lifestyle business actually feels like it’s providing the lifestyle you want. There’s a lot of work to put in before you see any reward. You have to be willing to put in the hours, days, months, and years of groundwork first. It’s worth it when things start to fall into place, though. Website: www.mountainandpacific.com
Visualize the end results I believe that both journaling and visualization are awesome ways to really clarify and create the world and feels you would like to see as your end result. Start by journaling your answers to the questions and once you have a very clear view, then change to visualization to create your end result filling in the sights, sounds, smells and feelings to match. (1) How would you start your perfect day?
(8) In what ways are you living your life to the fullest? (9) What kind of goals do you have, and why? (10) What have you achieved? Tell the Story of your Perfect Day Simple write out your perfect day in the form of a story‌ give it depth and character to enhance your view.
(2) What is the first thing you do when you get out of bed? (3) What is important to you? (4) What are you thankful for? (5) What is your health like? (6) Where do you live? (7) What is the perfect career/business you have created for yourself?
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Having a clearly written goal with actionable steps
measurable (it will be easy to tell if you are making progress or not).
Goal-setting seems like it should be so simple, doesn’t it? You decide you want something, create a plan, and then go get it! Unfortunately, you can probably think of many times when you did just that – but you ended up NOT achieving the goal, right? You are not alone! The truth is there is more to goal-setting than simply having a plan.
In addition, you should have a general timeframe during which the goal will be achieved. Keep in mind that sometimes it’s not possible to control the timing of events, especially when some of them may be out of your hands.
Events don’t always adhere to the plans you make, and if you’re not careful you can easily get sidetracked by obstacles, fear, procrastination and more. We are going to give you an easy-to-follow blueprint to help you move steadily toward the achievement of any goal you set. Do you already have a clear goal in mind? If not, take some time to figure out what you really want – but start with just one thing for now.
“Some people dream of great accomplishments, while others stay awake and do them.” Anonymous
Your goal should be both achievable (it will challenge you but is still realistic), and
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However, you should be able to determine a general length of time in which your goal can be achieved. Equally important as clarifying what you want to achieve, is understanding the reasons WHY you want to achieve it. Please take your time here because if you don’t have solid reasons for wanting something, you will not be able to stay motivated long enough to accomplish it! So, be sure to write down your goal in as much detail as possible, along with the general timeframe in which you want to achieve it, and then be sure to write down exactly WHY you want to achieve this goal.
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One thing you may find helpful during this process is thinking of the end result you want and then working backwards to where you are now.
What qualities or benefits will it contribute to you and your life? What do you stand to gain from the achievement of this goal? What do you stand to LOSE if you do not achieve the goal?
Which actions were needed in order to bring you to that final result? Once you’ve got them all written down, take a close look at them.
This is important, don’t skip it! Answer these questions with as much detail as you can Here’s example: A goal to obtain an educational degree is made up of many smaller goals like enrolling in a degree program, successfully completing all of the coursework and assignments, and eventually graduation, right? Unless your goal is very small and simple to begin with, you can probably see many smaller goals that make up the bigger goal you have in mind. Now you’ll be breaking down that big goal into smaller goals. Depending on your goal, it might not be obvious how to break it down, but do your best.
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Most likely you’ll have steps related to: • Research and education. If you don’t already know everything you need to know in order to achieve your goal, you’ll probably have to do some research and information gathering in order to proceed efficiently later. • Planning and preparation. Before you begin moving toward a goal, it’s best to know exactly what you’ll need to do, and how you’ll go about it. • Preliminary steps. You might have some minor legwork to do before you can really begin working toward the goal and tackling the larger action steps.
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All of this will depend on your specific goal, of course. If some of the above items don’t apply to your goal, just disregard them.
You want your action steps to be like a map that leads directly to your chosen destination!
way of seeing your goal that reduces pressure and increases your sense of satisfaction as you go along.
You’ll probably notice immediately that there are a few clear steps that should take place first.
Once you’ve got your action steps in the proper order, consider whether some of them might be unnecessary or redundant. For example, if you plan to do much of your research online, you might not need to visit the library after all (or vice versa).
Let’s call it a FOCUS. What is this focus?
Write down what those steps should be, like so: 1) Research degree programs in my area. 2) Inquire about tuition fees and educational requirements. 3) Borrow books on the topic from library, study them. This list will probably resemble a “to-do” list, and in effect, that’s exactly what it will be – a list of steps that you need to take in order to begin moving toward your goal! Once you’ve written down as many action steps as you can, take another look at them and consider whether they are listed in the proper order or not. Ideally you’ll want to have them listed in the order in which they will be taken so you don’t get scattered.
Seeing the path to your goal as the goal itself.
Sometimes we tend to make things more complicated than they really need to be, so this review process can help you avoid that. If you notice any steps that seem excessive, go ahead and cross them off your list. Then read over the list of steps one more time. (I’m not trying to annoy you with constant repetition; it actually helps cement your goal and the steps required to reach it in your mind!) Does everything look good on your list? Now I’d like to cover something that can help you stay on track long after you would have given up in the past. You could call it a mind-set or attitude, but it’s really just a
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Let me explain. When most people set a goal, they are interested in only the end result. Nothing else along the way will satisfy them, so it seems to take forever to reach their goal because they are focused on the lack of having what they want. Even worse, if they fail to achieve the goal for any reason, their sense of disappointment is much sharper than it would be for someone with the right focus. When you adopt the kind of focus we’re referring to here, you understand that the journey itself is the most important part of any goal-setting process. You understand that who you become through the achievement of your goals is much more important than the goals themselves.
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You learn to take pride and pleasure in each step of the journey, rather than pinning all of your expectations on some far-off result. You’ve probably heard the phrase, “Progress, not perfection” before, right? If you can adopt that type of focus throughout the entire journey to your goals, you’ll become flexible and adaptable – and nothing will be able to break your spirit! You’ll face challenges with ease, overcome obstacles in record time, and generally have a much easier journey than someone who sees only the finish line.
Keep that in mind as you go along, and your journey will be much smoother! Turning inward to find your core values, listening to your inner voice, creating your personalized visualization and planning for your ultimate success is going to be the pathway to success in your lifestyle business.
“Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.”
Over the next editions of Inspired Actions we will continue to build on this foundation, stone by stone, we will show you how you can create an amazing business.
As you move steadily toward your goals, remember that progress is the real goal. If you are always striving to improve yourself and your life, there will be no such thing as failure; ever!
Maya Angelou
You’ll always be a success no matter which stage of the journey you’re in – and the end result will simply serve as a great bonus. The real prize will be the confidence and self-mastery you gain along the way.
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Thanks and Attributions Thank you so much to every one that made this months magazine a success!
Images: • • • • • • • • • • •
Ian Sane Vvillamon ashraful kadir Gemma Stiles Jasmic Ian Muttoo Nicholas_T jenny downing Jonathan Kos-Read jam343 Nicholas_T
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