"I am not interested in enlightenment if it means detachment from the emotional body, the earth plane, the challenges of being human. I am interested in enrealment, because it means that my most spiritual moments are inclusive, arising right in the heart of all that is human: joy and sorrow, shopping list and unity consciousness, fresh mangoes and stale bread. Enrealment is about living in all aspects of reality simultaneously rather than only those realms that feel the most comfortable. We are not just the light, or the mind, or the emptiness, or perpetual positivity. We are the everything. It’s ALL God, even the dust that falls off my awakening heart." - Jeff Brown Jeff Brown is an author, teacher, enrealment activist, and grounded spiritualist - and I adore his work. Again and again, he captures my thoughts and feelings in eloquent and impactful words. Jeff says, "If you want to live a more spiritual life, live a more human life. Be more truly, fiercely, heartfully human." I couldn't agree more. You can check out Jeff's work here, and sign up for his newsletter here. I am, through and through, a seeker. I want to know how things work, and why people are the way they are. I want to understand the mysteries of life, love, and fear. I find the investigation of being human endlessly fascinating. Am I am bag of meat infused with electricity, was I fearfully and wonderfully created by a God with specific attributes, or am I consciousness incarnating again and again into human form? I grew up in the Christian church, and as a young girl I won awards for memorizing bible verses at AWANAs. As a pre-teen, you could find me at Church 4 days or more a week - Sunday sermon, Tuesday bible study, Wednesday youth group, and Thursday morning prayer breakfast. I was fully invested. Then things started to go really sideways in my life (you can read some of my personal story here). I questioned why God would allow me, a devoted child of god, to experience such an unfair allotment of hardship. Oh, yeah, I knew all the answers... but they didn't jive with my soul. The thing is that truth holds a certain weight. You can feel truth. When I started to dig deeper into the explanations that Christianity provided for the way things were, they just didn't add up. I had to admit that as a child, the pretty stories were... pretty stories, but the deeper truths that my soul was seeking couldn't be answered by Christianity. In fact, I found the explanations it offered offensive. In my 20's I became deeply involved in the spiritual community. I sat with gurus and spiritual leaders and participated in rituals and processes. A 90-day intensive process, which included chanting the same mantra every day for 90 days, led to me meeting (with no logical explanation) the goddess Kali in an Ashram in India. I learned how to meditate and access my theta brain waves, alone and in groups. I saw my past lives, and experienced (completely unexplainable) shared memories of past lives with another person. Overall, I learned a great deal from this lifestyle, but to my surprise, I also found one of the largest collections of inauthentic, ego-driven assholes that I've ever - to this date- experienced in one niche of life. For some reason the allure of being 'spiritual' attracts a certain type of person... and, the plain truth is, I don't like or respect that type of person. Of course, I also met lovely, humble, authentic individuals in this community, but they were few and far between. Finally, in my 30's I had created an authentic spirituality that fit whoever this "me" is that I am in this lifetime. Hinduism teaches that there are two experiences of God - nirguna or saguna, and that based on your personality, you are either attracted to one or the other of these experiences. Nirguna is a god without form or without qualities, the eternal all-pervading and omnipresent divine consciousness. Saguna means with form or with qualities. So for those of us in the Western world, an example of this would be believing in Jesus, and feeling comforted and inspired knowing (or pretending to know) what he looked like, what he said, what he felt. He is a god with qualities. Saguna. My personality lends itself to the nirguna experience. When I think of the vastness of everything that is, the extreme wonder of it - I feel that expansion in my heart. Any words or explanations I try to put to that experience, limits it. When I say, "This is the answer", I feel my soul constricting and getting smaller. I enjoy living into the questions, the wonder, the 'stale bread and the fresh mangos' - ALL of it. Being fully myself, being the most authentic and true version of myself, the most human that I can be - this (I believe) reveals the most god that I can be. To use Jeff's word: enrealment. All of these being said, if you have a different experience, if you believe in a god with attributes, Jesus or Kali, - I don't think you're wrong. I don't think that I'm right. I don't know. I would, however, enjoy exploring the questions of life with you and learn more about where your soul has led you to find the answers. That I find endlessly interesting. Not the rules of a book, but YOU. I can't think of anything I love more than learning what resonates for another person's soul.
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I am a third-generation entrepreneur. Both my parents were small business owners, and so were both sets of my grandparents. My childhood was deeply engrained with the entrepreneur experience (you can read my entrepreneurial journey here). I opened my first business in 2002, and I've owned and operated 4 small businesses since that time. I have also served as the Executive Director of a Business Association and worked with hundreds of small business owners, helping them navigate their challenges and celebrate their wins. During my lifetime of working with small businesses, I have noticed a gap in services. This gap has grown larger in the last decade as marketing has dramatically changed. This gap is a lack of marketing & support services for small businesses. Larger companies and firms offer these services, but they usually aren't a good fit for the small, growing businesses. That's why I've decided to offer business services specifically for small businesses, mom and pop shops, and solopreneurs. I am able to provide flexibility, affordable pricing, and the ability to shape my services and prices to the exact fit and needs of a particular business. Most small business owners feel like they are barely keeping their heads above water. There is never enough time to do everything that needs to be done. Just when you think you're going to reach a stage where you can sit back and breathe a bit, an employee quits, a pipe breaks, the computer crashes, or your largest order of the year gets delayed. It's always something. As a small business owner, you often think, "Now, if I could just clone myself, or grow another set of arms, then maybe...." This is where I come in, I'm your extra set of arms. Need to develop your social media, no problem. Looking to start a newsletter? I've got your back. Finally decided to put together a business plan and 5-year budget forecast? Let's do this thing. Desperate to have that poster created that you kept meaning to make, and now you need to email to the printer by the end of the day? I know how that is. I've been there, and I can help. Here are the biggest gaps in support services that I've identified:
Here are the reasons these gaps exist:
Here is how I fill in these gaps:
I believe that small business matters in big ways. I hope that you will allow me to help you and your business be the best that it can be. Contact me today, and let's talk about where you are, where you want to go, and how I can assist you in getting there.
Satsang is a Sanskrit term derived from two root words, sat meaning true and sanga meaning community. A Satsang, therefore, is a gathering together to seek the truth. The human life can be challenging and fraught with many obstacles. Questions, concerns, confusion, and doubts may arise at any time. All of us sometimes get stuck or feel like we're just spinning our wheels living a construct of a life, without really getting to the deeper experience of being alive. Being a human also presents us with the opportunity to go after every experience that we desire. It offers unending pleasures and awe to each of us. There is a South African phrase, ubuntu (oo-boon-too) which means "I am because we are". The term is derived from the phrase Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu, which translates to "a person is a person through other people". Former US President Barack Obama referenced this word at Nelson Mandela's funeral saying, "We are all bound together in ways that can be invisible to the eye; there is a oneness to humanity; we achieve ourselves by sharing ourselves with others, and caring for those around us." Satsang fosters both of these things: the seeking of truth, and the sharing of self. A few of the requirements of a Satsang group: Each person must be committed to bringing out the best in another Each person must be committed to the investigation and "not knowing" Each person must be curious about the deeper meaning of life and the human experience When a group gathers under these conditions, it can have a profound effect. In a shared space of support and unity, the veils of illusion can be more easily lifted. When we talk about Satsang, and sitting in the "truth", we are referring to the truth being what is real, what exists. So all there is, is truth. Whenever something increases your experience of the truth, you heart opens and your mind quiets. Conversely, whenever something (such as a thought, fear, or judgement, limits or narrows your experience of the truth, the heart contracts and the mind gets busier. We are all equally endowed with the capacity to discriminate the truth. Therefore, we are all the teacher. Rumi said, "Out beyond the ideas of wrongdoing and righdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there." This is Satsang. The field where there is no right or wrong, only investigation, and further expansion. The purpose of Satsang is not to provide devotion to a spiritual teacher or acquire spiritual knowledge - the purpose is to come home to yourself. (For a practical look into Satsang, the the kinds of questions explored, take a peek at this excerpt from the book Nothing Personal, Seeing Beyond the Illusion of a Separate Self by Nirmala.) 🗓️ January 27, 2012 My self-confidence dropped with a squish, like a pair of wet swim trunks hitting the bathroom floor. I stared at the New York Times on my phone in disbelief, all of my pride leaking away and transforming into a puddle of chagrin at my feet. Was it just a few moments ago that I felt joy? It seemed like an eternity from this moment, standing barefoot in my kitchen with tears forming in my eyes. How could I have been so stupid?... 🗓️ January 24, 2012 (3 days earlier) With a skip in my step, I walked through our small downtown from my fitness studio to my coaching office. As I waved and smiled at people I knew, I felt alive, healthy, and purpose-driven. It was going to be a good day. As I headed up the steps to my office, I received a phone call. It was an unknown number, and half expecting a spam call, I answered. A crisp and silky voice on the other end of the line identified himself as Spencer Morgan with the New York Times. Oh jeez, I thought, this must be a spam call, but then he went on to say, "Through our research, you've been identified as a successful coach under 35, and we'd like to ask you a few questions about your coaching practice." Thrilled that my work had reached the ears of the NYT, I chatted with Mr. Morgan for about 10 minutes, and he said that he would email me a link to the article when it was published. I never thought to ask what the title of the article was, or the story he was pursuing. I just assumed it was going to be something amazing. 🗓️ January 27, 2012 ...And then my husband walked into the kitchen, to find me stunned, barefoot, coffee in one hand, phone in the other, with tears in my eyes. "Babe, what's wrong?" he asked To which I have to explain that the New York Times wasn't praising me and the thriving coaching practice I'd built - they were slamming me. The title of the article was, "Should A Life Coach Have A Life First?" and it proposed that at 33, I hadn't lived enough life yet to be an impactful Life Coach. I rebelled against the idea, all of the evidence pointed to the truth that I was, in fact, extremely effective as a Life Coach. My clients had a track record of achieving their goals, conquering their insecurities, and making courageous changes in their lives. "But what if..." a small voice said inside of me, "...what if there are things that you don't know you don't know?" I sat with the question for a few days and decided that because there was no way for me to answer it, I must put it to rest and continue on my path. 🗓️ October 3rd, 2022 Fast forward 10 years, 8 months, and 2 days... to now. I am 43 and besides more frequently cranky knees and an earlier bedtime most nights, my life looks much the same as it did on that January 27th day in 2012. However, with a decade of perspective, I can once again sit with this question, and this time, I do have the experience to answer it. At 33, did my life experience limit my abilities as a Life Coach? Is there an age that is too young for this profession? At 43, am I a better Coach than I was a decade ago? How does age impact effectiveness in any professional position? Upon examination of these questions, I discovered that there are 3 ways to "know" something. The process of deepening our levels of 'knowing'' is solely a function of experience, but age itself does not dictate the wealth of experience any one person has. The 3 Levels of Knowing Level 1 - Intellectual Knowing The first level of knowing is to intellectually understand a concept or idea. This means that it makes reasonable sense to your mind. For example, you can objectively 'know' and mentally understand that getting defensive hinders a conversation and fails to move it forward. However, knowing it as a concept doesn't really have an impact on your life. In the moment, when your emotions are high and your amygdala is about to get hijacked, you still find get defensive (and let's be honest, you totally feel like you're in the right doing so). Level 2 - Gut/Emotional Knowing The second level of knowing something is to understand it at an emotional level. This is the "ah-ha" phase of knowing, when you've had enough experience with something that you finally go, "Oh, now I get it". This is when knowledge is pulled down from your mind and into your heart (or emotional body). For example, when you 'know' at the gut level that getting defensive hinders a conversation, you still get defensive some of the time, but it's less frequent, and when you recognize that you are doing it, you cop to it, apologize, and course correct. Level 3 - Modus Operandi (MO) Knowing The third level of knowing something is 'know' it with your entire body. This is when the knowledge is fully integrated with your mind, emotions, and body. For example, when you 'know' at the MO level of knowing that getting defensive hinders a conversation, you just don't do it anymore. It doesn't even come up for you, it doesn't make sense to you, and it's no longer an option in communication. When a certain behavior becomes the way in which you operate every single day, 365 days a year, then you can say that you truly "know" something. This is level 3 knowing. So let's jump back to the original question, "Should a life coach have to have a life first?" To which I would answer: If a Life Coach is ICF certified and follows the tools and methods of their training, they can be effective at any age. In the coach/client relationship, a Life Coach should never be giving an opinion, giving advice, or sharing their personal life. A good Life Coach should be asking key questions designed to unlock the client's wisdom, providing new ways to look at things, suggesting powerful reframes, and providing acknowledgment, validation, accountability, and encouragement. Providing a Life Coach has a (minimum level one) 'knowing' of coaching techniques and emotional intelligence skills, they can be extremely effective as a coach. So, what benefits do the deeper levels of knowing offer a client or customer? There are many, but these are the top three. As an individual deepens into more level 3 knowledge of the world around them, they can offer:
Based on my life experience, it is clear to me that there are strengths in every particular stage of life. Even naivety has its gifts. I love Ken Montgomery's suggestion that any professional over 40 needs a mentor in their 20's. We all can benefit from the wisdom that comes from each of our unique life experiences. While I might have deepened my levels of knowledge about many things in my 43 years on the planet, I have no idea what it's like to be 25. A 25-year-old has grown up with the internet, social media, helicopter parenting, increasing income disparities in our culture, and the doom of impending climate change in their lifetime (just to name a few). I have no idea what that experience is like, and that experience certainly has things to teach me. In short, we all have something to bring to the table. Don't hold back what you (and only you) have to offer. Play full-out and leave it all on the table. That is how we get the best results for our lives, relationships, business endeavors, goals, and ultimately, the world.
And if you're looking for a Life Coach, my advice is to trust your hunch, and work with any coach (regardless of age) that some part of you says quietly, "Yeah, this one." Before you start your own business, it's important to do your homework and conduct market research. By definition, market research is "the process of assessing the viability of a new product or service through the gathering and analyzing of data about potential customers." In other words, market research is all about understanding your target audience and what they want or need. There are a number of different ways to go about conducting market research. Here are a few methods you may want to consider: 1. Customer surveys 2. Competitor analysis 3. Focus groups 4. Social media listening 5. Google AdWords Keyword Planner …And more! Market research is an essential part of starting your own business because it allows you to determine whether or not there is a demand for your product or service. If you're thinking about starting your own business, be sure to do your market research first! Customer Surveys: Customer surveys are one of the most commonly used methods of market research. Why? Because they allow you to directly ask your target audience questions about their needs, wants, and pain points. There are a few different ways to go about conducting customer surveys, but one of the most popular methods is using an online survey tool like SurveyMonkey or Typeform. Competitor Analysis: Another common method of conducting market research is competitor analysis. This involves taking a close look at what your competitors are doing—everything from their branding and marketing initiatives to their pricing models—and figuring out how you can improve upon it. When conducting competitor analysis, it's important to keep in mind that you should never copy your competitors exactly; rather, use their strategies as inspiration for how you can set yourself apart from the rest. Focus Groups: Focus groups are small groups of people who are brought together in person or online to discuss a particular topic or issue. When it comes to market research, focus groups can be extremely helpful in getting feedback about things like advertising campaigns, product concepts, or even packaging design. Focus groups give you the opportunity to get real-time feedback from potential customers so that you can make changes on the fly based on what they say. Social Media Listening: Social media listening is all about paying attention to what people are saying about your brand on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Not only does social media listening give you insights into how people feel about your brand, but it can also alert you to any negative sentiment so that you can address it quickly and efficiently. In addition, social media listening can also help you keep tabs on what people are saying about your competitors—giving you a leg up in the market research department! Google AdWords Keyword Planner: Last but not least is the Google AdWords Keyword Planner—a free tool that allows users to see how often certain keywords are being searched for on Google. This information can be extremely valuable when trying to determine which keywords to target in your marketing efforts. In addition to showing you how often keywords are being searched for, the Google AdWords Keyword Planner also provides insights into which keywords are most relevant to your business. There's no doubt about it—market research is essential if you want to start your own business. By definition, market research is "the process of assessing the viability of a new product or service through the gathering and analyzing of data about potential customers." In other words, market research is all about understanding your target audience and what they want or need. And there are a number of different ways to go about conducting market research, including customer surveys, competitor analysis, focus groups, social media listening, and more! So if you're thinking about starting your own business, be sure to do your market research first!
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AuthorMindy Amita AislingAuthenticity EmpowermentLife Coaching for Big-Hearted Overthinkers & Entreprenerds🐲Own Your Weird
🌎 Change Your World ⬇️ DIY Courses 👩🏻💻1:1 RemoteCoaching Fully Accredited ICF Certified Mindy Amita Aisling, is a professionally trained and board-certified leadership, authenticity, and entrepreneur coach.
Mindy exceeds all requirements set forth by the International Coaching Federation (ICF) for Master Coach certification. Mindy is also a licensed mediator, communications coach, and conflict resolution practicer. As a mediator, she has worked both in private practice and as a court appointment mediator at her local county courthouse. Through her innovative approach, she assists clients in examining their limiting beliefs, questioning their assumptions about how the world works, and releasing the notion that they are anything less than perfect. As a result, individuals who work with Mindy cultivate the ability to stand firm in their beliefs, live authentically and decisively, and discover an experience of life that is easy and graceful. In 2021, Mindy founded How to Be Human and Entreprenerd. These programs have enabled her to share her wisdom and knowledge with a broader audience in service of her vision of helping others live authentic lives This, in turn, has empowered more individuals to lead their most TRUE and COURAGEOUS lives. When she is not working, Mindy can be found playing outdoors in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, creating art, spending time with friends & family, or with her nose deep in a book. You can sign up for her newsletter here. Archives
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