NOTE: This should probably have been the first in this series but here it is now. :)
When Spiritual Workout was ready to launch beyond the developing and test-marketing I’d been doing with whomever showed up with whatever they wanted to talk about — not by default but by design — I became quasi-obsessed with the notion of creating Spiritual Workout for Entrepreneurs. Indeed, seemingly out of nowhere, “entrepreneur” imposed itself on my psyche as a specific audience to target, despite never having had a conscious thought to do so before. I immediately saw that it made perfect sense from a business standpoint but it also resonated deeply with me personally. Listen to inspiration.
The more I thought about “entrepreneur” the more I also thought about “artist.” I started to see and talk about entrepreneurs as the artists of the business community. Years prior to any of this, I’d also had a stint as the owner and operator of a retail art gallery for a couple of years (a fun entrepreneurial adventure story for another time), the ultimate combination of entrepreneurship and art. All of which led to my believing that any artist who wants to make a living doing their art is an entrepreneur and any business person who wants to create something new and/or have impact in the world via business is an artist.
So, while Spiritual Workout in no way excludes anyone, ever, my personal intention for appealing specifically to artists and entrepreneurs is connected to Howard Thurman’s famous quote:
“Don’t ask what the world needs, ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs are people who have come alive.” — Rev. Howard Thurman
Artists and entrepreneurs are people who are already clear about what makes them come alive. But artists and entrepreneurs often have all kinds of struggles and bad experiences with and/or resistances to producing what they want to produce and getting it out there. We have anxiety and worry that we won’t be accepted. We doubt we can make a living. We don’t feel supported. We unwittingly erect roadblocks, create detours, and can’t seem to keep up with repairing the multitude of potholes that materialize on the road that connects us to those who will consume what we offer. Plus, it’s my personal belief that we couldn’t and wouldn’t have drive within us in the first place— drive to produce, to create, to offer — if there wasn’t also a force of desire outside of us asking for what the artist/entrepreneur is excited about creating. It’s a symbiotic, win-win scenario when everyone’s creating freely.
So my intention for working with artists and entrepreneurs is simple: to help us stay aligned with the deepest truth of what we are desiring to create, to remain in the flow of that and allow it to lead us, to believe that what we want is possible, and to create the life we want to live as an artist/entrepreneur. The degree to which the artist/entrepreneur is aligned with their desires/visions/ideas/projects, believes in them, is enthusiastic and excited about them, is the degree to which society benefits. If Spiritual Workout can help that person or that team keep clear the road between themselves and those who will consume their work — and it can — that’s a huge win.