12 Authentic Business Values

The values in a business are what drive the strategy and also what determines what is meant by success in a business. Is it making the kind of impact that it is intending to make in the world and on the people that work in the business? I created a set of 12 values I'm calling the Authentic Business Values. I want to share them with you because I'm hoping that these kinds of values will get out there in the world and inspire more of all, any of you watching this to take on some of these values into your own business as well. Borrow all of it if you want to. As you listen to each of these values, I encourage you to reflect on whether it aligns with you or if you have any questions about it, or if you have any suggestions or something else that you, you want to take on instead. So I'm going to go ahead and read to you what I wrote here for the, for the values and for each one, I'll. I'll say a little bit more. Number one, our business is not just a way of making money. Instead, it feels like a mission or cause to us, if our business were to succeed, the ripple effect it would have in the world. That vision is much of what inspires us to grow our business. So this is, you know, when I hear people say, oh, I'm, let's make some money, let's make a lot of money. Or they see me being active in my, in my work work and they say, wow, George, you must be making a lot of money. I'm like, that's beside the point, gratefully making enough money. But I am driven by the vision that if my business and the things that I put out there were to succeed and really make an impact on those that consume the content or the, or use the services, then their lives would generally genuinely be better. They would be more skillful to make a positive impact on others as well. I mean, that's what drives me. Because if it was just about making money, then what happens is if a launch doesn't go well, or if, yeah, whatever reason the money isn't there, isn't as, as good in a given month or quarter or something, then, you know, I can get depressed and I can think about quitting and all that. But if I think of it as, no, no matter what, I'm here to create more of a positive impact. And if I stay true to that mission and that passion, it will drive the creativity and the consistency that naturally creates interest in my products and services. But more importantly, it creates the impact that makes me feel genuinely Fulfilled in doing what I do every day. That's point number one. Point number two, we are continually dedicated to serving and uplifting humanity through the ways that we do business. And along the way we are deeply dedicated to our own personal growth, becoming more wise and loving by the year. This is why we work. It's our authentic business. So what I mean is that, you know, I, I've seen certain spiritual teachers, you know, popular spiritual teachers or healers or, or like people who, you know, purport to have deeper values in their business. They have a mission, just like I said earlier. And yet the way they do their business and their marketing is so scarcity or fear driven or it just doesn't feel truly heart based. And the way that we do anything is as important as whatever result happens to be because how we do things gives permission to others to do it in that way. So if we are saying, oh, I want to uplift humanity, I want to, this service is so good, I'm going to get it out there by any means necessary. So I'll use all kinds of different kinds of scammy types of marketing or things that just then it's like others who watch us do it, they say, oh, maybe it's okay to use marketing as a means to an end or whatever. And, and so, or like I've known of supposedly, you know, spirits, like I said, spiritual teachers and healers, they don't treat their staff well. Or you know, it's like if you, the closer you got to that person as a, as a staff member or as a client, the more you realize, oh, that person is not really that nice of a person or that honest or something like that. Even though publicly they seem like they're, you know, expounding good values. So the way we do business has a ripple effect that is hard for us to understand. And it's probably more powerful than the ripple effect of the results that we get for clients or the end product. It's the way we do business. So that's number two. Number three goes a bit into that. Marketing is not a means to an end. It's not just a way to get more clients. Although over time marketing obviously does help to get more clients. Authentic marketing, Authentic marketing is an effective vehicle to evolve our understanding of our calling, fulfilling our career purpose and to serve humanity through authentic content. That's a mouthful. Let me explain this a little bit. When people think of marketing, oh, I, I do marketing so that I can get clients so that I can make money. Fine. That yes, marketing does have that effect eventually. But what if marketing isn't just a necessary evil? Like what if we understand that the marketing we do, how we do our marketing, the emails we send, the social media posts, how we send the emails, how we posted, you know, the spirit behind which we post these things or send these things out, or have conversations with prospective clients, the way we do our marketing actually makes a difference for others. Even if they never buy from us, they are impacted by it positively or negatively. So I think about that a lot. I think the more successful marketing is, the lower my conversion rate should be because the more successful my marketing is, the more people are spreading the word of mouth and lots and lots and lots and lots of people are hearing about it. And of course the conversion rate goes down. Because if a hundred thousand people heard about me, I don't expect the same conversion rate as if 10 people heard about me. If 10 people heard about me, I probably talk to each of them one to one. And the conversion rate or the rate at which someone goes from I just heard about you or I I know about you to becoming a client, that's called the conversion rate. That's a terrible word, by the way, in my opinion. But that's the, that's the term marketing. The rate at which someone becomes a client is higher when your audience is smaller and your marketing is more one to one. But the larger your marketing becomes, the more successful it is, the lower the conversion rate should be because you're making an impact. And it's just lots of people and lots of people aren't meant for you. A lot of people, you know, they, they come across your videos or your articles or your we upside and they're just not meant for you. They're not, it's not what they're looking for. But you still made an impact on them. And that's the point number four. We understand the importance of actively distributing our content, for example, through collaborations or paid ads like Facebook ads, Instagram ads, LinkedIn ads, as an important way that we make a positive difference to our audience the in our industry and the world. So meaning content is not just for getting clients. Content is ministry, in my opinion. Meaning the when someone watches your video, read your website, reads an article from you, listens to your podcast, they are either healed by it or wounded by it, or it's neutral. They are either positively transformed or negatively or neutral. And by putting our content out there, when we create, we do it, you know, as an exploration and as a heart based, sort of like humble service to humanity. But then we have to distribute that stuff. You can't just be writing or posting on your, you know, your social media and expect, okay, it's going to go viral now. Lots of people are, okay, I put my website up there now people better find it. No, it doesn't really work like that. You have to actually learn how to use ads or collaborations to get your content out to a lot more people just by posting it. It doesn't really do anything. As you probably know, this whole skill set of collaborations or paid ads, I do both. To get the content out to a lot more people is really what makes a big impact and positive impact. So that's number four. Number five, we are dedicated to working with joyful productivity on a consistent basis. It's part of our life's purpose to bring our higher values into our work and to optimize the balance of our work with our self care, our play and the rest of our life. So if you've watched my videos, you know how, how much I value this idea of joyful productivity. It's really a suite of skills. But the, but the bottom line idea of joyful productivity is that we can, we can create flow and inspiration and intuition and, and like brilliant. Sort of like. Yeah, let me say this over. We can create flow on demand by practicing it and the, the act. For example. I mean I always say this and it's always true. I never feel like starting any video. Like I, when I started this video, I didn't, I'm like gosh, I'm so good looking and my people love to watch me and I better go on video now. And I'm so smart. I'm. No, I, I never feel like starting any video. I don't, I, if I get, if, if the world were fully enlightened and fully fed and everyone was, had reached their potential, I wouldn't make a video. Why would I? There's no. I make videos like I said, for all the reasons above because I believe it might help somebody even if I show up imperfectly. So I just press go, I just press publish, I just press record not being ready. That's how I do all my videos. And then as I get into it, I generate the flow. I generate the inspiration and the intuition and the sort of like, yeah, momentum, you know, of it. So that's what joyful productivity is about. Joyful is about practicing the generating of momentum and flow on demand. Not waiting until I'm inspired and which never, you know, never, almost never happens. I make videos because it says 2pm it's time to make a video. So I press go here here I am. I, I, I work like a robot within boundaries of my schedule. But then within those boundaries I flow like a hippie human being. So it's like I follow my schedule like a robot, but then I flow within my within. Like I'd say it's time to make a video now. It's all I know. I'm going to make a video now and press go. And then within that boundary I then now flow like a hippie. I can make mistakes and I can go all over the place as long as it's more or less on topic. So this marriage between left and right brain or being a robot and being a hippie, it's like the marriage of that makes makes it truly, truly authentically powerful or authentic business. The authentic side is a hippie side, business side is a robot side. It's like marriage marrying that. So, so yoga productivity is this being strict to show up, lenient with the results and gentle to refocus again and again. And by doing that we find a deeper character. We are really when we work. When I work, I'm really practicing a deeper character of integrity and service and practice, you know, the principle of practice and personal growth. That's why I work. I work for my deeper personal growth and for the sake of maybe something will benefit the world. That's joyful productivity. It's not about getting stuff done and, you know, having fun along the way. Sure, it all happens, but it's more about the deeper, the deeper aspects of of work and how it grows our character and helps benefit the world overall. That's number five. Number six is says this. We believe in healthy money relating to the world of finances in ways that support our mental and societal health. While we aim to be responsible for our finances, we also practice letting go of fixation on the numbers. We aim to notice when money starts to strain relationships both personal and professional. We aim to use money as a way to connect human beings for societal improvement. There's a lot here. I've written quite a bit about healthy money. You can look on that on my website for all the topics about healthy money. But essentially, money is not the root of all evil. Greed is maybe the root of all kinds of evil. But money is a tool that can be used for evil or used for good. And I choose to try to discover what it means to use the money for good. To receive money with gratitude. As much as people want to give me money, I receive it with gratitude and I receive it with Gratitude and humility and try to give back as much as I possibly can from the money they gave me. I try to give back in a, in a way that's within my boundaries, not to overstretch, but in a way that's really sustainable, to give them as much value as possible, but within my boundaries. Like a robot, right? Not, not like a hippie, like, oh, you call me any time of day or night. You gave me a dollar. Oh my God, you gave me a thousand dollars. Whatever. Oh my God, you call me any time of day and night. That's not boundaries. Money and boundaries are very related as well. Healthy boundaries and stuff like that. And yet we don't make money because, oh, the numbers are so exciting. I'm going to make more money this year than last year. Why? Why do I have to make more money this year than last year? What? Who's. Am I a failure if I don't make more money? This. Why? Who's telling me, where am I getting these messages from? You know, do I have enough? Can I charge money with? From enoughness and compassion is always what I'm exploring and wrestling with myself and, and practicing as best as I can. So money as a way, as a tool really for our own spiritual growth, to wrestle with enoughness, with compassion, with abundance, with receiving, with humility, with giving value, with having healthy boundaries and not having to give in to the societal messages that more is always better. So, all right, so that's number six. Number seven, we prioritize net caring. Net caring instead of networking Net caring, which is the ongoing practice of connecting from the heart with colleagues and clients, current and potential, with genuine enjoyment instead of the typical mindset of agenda laden networking. Agenda laden networking. We love collaboration or learning from each other and exploring potential win win relationships. So that one should be fairly clear. I won't go too much into that one. But basically it's like, have you ever had people reach out to you and you're like, yeah, I can. I can smell the agenda you have. Like you're just saying hi because you really want me to sign up for something or you want me to, you know, hear about your latest thing or whatever, or you want to ask me, you want to ask some resource from me or something like that. Whereas you could tell when someone's saying hi because they actually like you tell. So someone's saying hi and messaging you because they actually enjoy you. Imagine that. So the net caring is the practice of really coming back to our heart again and again and how we treat other people and like when we reach out to someone, because most people are terrible at keeping in touch. So if you keep in touch with people, you're like one of the few people that they, that they hear from. Right. That's true for everybody. So you reach out to someone not because, oh, maybe they can refer you clients. Sure. Eventually, if you talk with them, they might ask you, hey, what, how's it going with you? What's up with your business these days, whatever. And then if it's natural, then yes, the conversation goes there. But even if it doesn't, you like, you have genuinely enjoyed another human being today. You've genuinely spent a few minutes giving them love. Like, isn't that good enough? Isn't that what we're here for? And then obviously the client referrals and all the business benefits and the, those come naturally as being a person who keeps in touch with people, number one. And number two, does it from a place, from the heart. People like remember you for being, oh yeah, that person is a good person. And if they need your services, you're going to be the first person they think of. Right. Number eight, instead of pushy sales, which is what most online marketing is, instead of pushy sales, we optimize our offerings so that they're truly aligned and delightful to our audience by continually conducting market research in various ways. So this is a bit of a strategic, I guess, value. But the idea is that you can get lots and lots of clients in two different ways. Okay, two ways to get as many clients as you want. One is to bother the whole world is to like, you know, do whatever you can to spam the whole world. And you'll get some clients by doing that. You'll like, be as pushy, as manipulative, as scarcity driven as possible. And the more you do that, the more clients you do get. It's true. But what kind of person are you becoming and what kind of reputation are you building? Right? So that's one way of getting clients, which is so much of sales and marketing feels like that to me. The other way of getting clients is, is by making our product so good that nobody can ignore it, at least the people who are right for it, like, oh my God, that product or that service or that package, that program, that event, that retreat, that workshop, it's so, so exactly what I need and want right now and at such a good price, at, you know, the price and the value comparison is, is what a good deal doesn't mean that's low price. It could be high price, but it's like, oh, that's exactly what I want. What a great deal. Offer that, that, that something that I want right now. So by optimizing our offering in that kind of way so that people really want it, and that takes market research and conversation. Then, then, then we can whisper. We can whisper our offerings and people go, oh, my gosh, I heard that. Because that is exactly meant for me. So optimizing our offerings is a way to make more sales rather than trying to push and manipulate and, you know, all that stuff that, that unfortunately we so many of us have had learned in marketing. Okay, number nine is we remind our audience of our aligned offers by consistently doing gentle launches. Gentle launches. With aligned offers, our promotions feel more like gentle conversations from grounded integrity rather than desperate attention seeking and manipulation. So it's similar to the point above, but this idea of gentle launches, like, you got to be consistent in letting your audience know. Not like every day and every hour. No, but just like two times a month. That's it. Twice a month. Just gently say, oh, by the way, this is the service I provide everybody in case, you know, post it on social media, send it to your email newsletter or wherever you, wherever your audience likes to hear from you. Okay, that's number nine. Number ten, even if our income is doing well, we are not complacent with the state of our product and service. We are truly committed to the mastery of our craft to continually upgrade the value we offer our audience. And what I mean by this is I see people like colleagues of mine from years ago. Like, I go back and I go, okay, they, they haven't really. I don't know, in my opinion, maybe I'm being too judgy, but I, like, they're offering the exact same thing. It feels to me at the same level of quality that I encountered 10 years ago or five years ago. Like, and maybe they're making good money at it. Maybe it's a product that sells really well and that's great. And it's so easy to become complacent. Oh, this thing is selling well. I'm just sit back and make money again. If it's not about the money, but if it's about the value given and about the growth that we do ourselves, then we are dedicated to mastering our craft, to saying, no, I can make this even better for my clients, my customers, my students. And by that process of making something better, I grow myself too. So that's number 10. Number 11. In our community, we accept and explore all beliefs, political and religious, as well as apolitical and areligious, knowing that each person has barely even a grain of understanding compared to the truth Capital T which encompasses the whole. Therefore, we are gentle, caring and curious in our communications with each other. So hopefully that's, that's self explanatory. I think I said I had 12 values. I thought I had 12, but it looks like I have 11. I should come up with a 12 one. Maybe I'll come up with it right now on the spot. We believe in play and improvisation and the genius that happens when we allow ourselves to explore without judgment and humbly put our experimentations out there in the world. There we go, number 12. So with that, I want to thank you for joining me for this. Thank you for watching all the way to this point. You are truly someone special and probably resonant with these values. But I would love to hear or see below in the chat which of these values resonate the most with you. You can scroll back or rewind and, and watch this again on 2x twice the speed if you want to. Which of these resonate with you? I'd love to know if you have any questions about any of these values or any adjustments you would make that resonate more with you, like changes of wording or whatever. I'm always open to seeing your suggestions. So thank you so much. I hope that these values do get out there. So if you. I never say, please watch, you know, subscribe and like and comment and share. I, I don't care that you do that, but I do care that you share these values. So if you want to, if it's easy for you to share this video, great. If it's easier for you to copy and paste, there's a blog post associated with this. If you copy and paste it, you know, I don't care if you credit me or whatever, it doesn't matter. Just copy and paste these values and share it and hopefully others will be inspired as well. So. And copy and paste whatever aspect of it. My all my free content, the content you see that's public for me. It's all Creative Commons zero. So you can claim my content as your own. You can't copyright it, but you can claim it as your own. You don't have to ever mention me or you don't ever have to mention my name at all. I just want these ideas to get out there. So thank you. Thank you again and I look forward to seeing any comments you want to add below. Take care. Blessings.