How to Write a Heart-Centred Business Plan

Jun 14, 2016

Heart and Soul Business Development Plan | www.nalumana.com

Business plans:  they’re a little bit necessary to sustain many functions of running a modern-day business, yet they are steeped in old-school concepts and perspectives that can give the average heart-centred entrepreneur the willies.

 

How are you supposed to have an abundance mindset when you’re listing your competitors and describing how you’re different or better than they are?

When you’re a heart-centred entrepreneur, your business represents so much more than just a way to make money.  It is usually a carefully considered offering to the world which truly represents who you are and how you want to be of service in your lifetime.  It is the result of your search for meaning in both your career and your life.

The truth is, business planning is a very masculine process – ordered, black and white, and not entirely functional in the ever-evolving, fluid, and shapeshifting world of entrepreneurship.  It may not really be the kind of thing that makes your heart go pitter pat, but there is something to be said for balance between these approaches.

Over a year ago, I created a Heart and Soul Business Development Workbook.  At the time I was coaching a few women who were starting businesses, and it seemed like I was asking them to explore a lot of the same questions – questions that were simultaneously pragmatic and soul-stirring.  

I worked with women who were exploring everything from the “why” of what they were doing right down to the “how exactly precisely are you going to make money and how much and when.” 

 

I never did share the Heart and Soul Business Development workbook widely, but I feel the time has come.  So many of the women that I work with now who are going through their Third-Life Alignment are feeling the need for more alignment specifically in their careers.  Many of these women are finding this by exploring entrepreneurship, and so business development often becomes part and parcel of how I end up supporting women through the Alignment process.

The Heart and Soul Business Development workbook touches on a pragmatic but soulful plethora of business-related questions, including taking you through the process of clearly identifying exactly what the focus of your business is, precisely who your target market is, and how you can grow a supportive community of other entrepreneurs, friends, and potential clients to see you through your business journey.

I hope you find it helpful.  Please don’t hesitate to contact me as you’re working through it if you haven any questions or want to share an “aha” moment.

The Becoming Podcast has been on a short hiatus while I focus on writing my book, but oh what a comeback episode I have for you!

This month, I spoke to Toko-pa Turner, who many of you may know as the unofficial patron saint of many of my circles and gatherings because of the sheer number of times I’ve quoted from the wisdom of her book, Belonging.

Toko-pa is a Canadian author, teacher, and dreamworker. Blending the mystical teachings of Sufism in which she was raised with a Jungian approach to dreams, she founded The Dream School in 2001, from which thousands of students have graduated. She is the author of the award-winning book, Belonging: Remembering Ourselves Home, which explores the themes of exile and belonging through the lens of dreams, mythology, and nature. This book has resonated for readers worldwide, and has been translated into 10 different languages so far. Her work focuses on the relationship between psyche and nature, and how to follow our inner wisdom to meet with the social, psychological, and ecological challenges of our time.

Here’s some of what Toko-pa and I talk about in this episode:

> The dream that changed Toko-pa’s life, causing her to question her career and, ultimately, her identity

> How we can court our dreams to support us during times of radical transformation – and the reasons so many of us have a hard time remembering and working with what shows up in our dreamscape

> Toko-pa’s perspective on the message of Belonging after the divisiveness our society has experienced in the years since it was published

> What happened for both Toko-pa and I when we fell out of belonging from the ideologies of the “wellness world”

> How to build community when you’re under-resourced

> “The Big Lie” when it comes to belonging, and how we can reclaim a sense of belonging to the greater family of things, as Mary Oliver so famously wrote

Listen to the episode on iTunes

 

Show Notes

Toko-pa’s Website

Belonging:  Remembering Ourselves Home, Toko-pa’s book

The David Abram video about animism mentioned in the interview

Toko-pa’s self-guided program, Dream Drops

Companion, the program that accompanies Belonging

 

Also, while you’re at it, if you enjoy The Becoming Podcast, I would be so grateful if you would rate and review, and even subscribe to it on iTunes.  That goes a long way to helping more and more people find and benefit from hearing these interviews!  Thank you so much!