What I enjoy more than anything else is immersing myself in the whole of helping someone be successful with their business!

I am grateful that I have a gift for doing so, and that I have built the hands-on experience to know how, and why, some things work and others don’t. I would like to use my talents to work with a small group to help you grow your business. Let me tell you what I have in mind…

I firmly believe that at this time it is essential – imperative – that businesses transform themselves to work within a changing economy and marketplace. We all know that change is a constant; however, the changes we will experience as new financial-, educational-, healthcare-, business-, political- systems (and more), are created will be unlike anything we can conceive of at this time. The closest example I can give is to try and imagine what it might be like for someone living in 1909 to step into 2009. The way we shop, travel, communicate, work and live is so profoundly different it would be quite a shock for our 1909 person. That same depth and breadth of change is coming over the next decade. Are you equipped to move through, and with, that change?

Are you clear about how you can change to adapt and be prepared? What will you change in your company and why? What will you use as a guidepost when there is so much uncertainty? I know there is a way to make change and the unknown easier to experience, as well as find confidence and comfort in a path to success and happiness in your company and your work.

I am developing a philosophy and process that business leaders can apply and incorporate to their lives and companies so they are not left reeling or paralyzed by the changes we are experiencing financially, economically and personally. And, I would like to have first-hand experience on your thoughts and feedback about it. To do so, I am starting some small groups with the aim of helping your company – and giving me a chance to get your feedback real-time.

If you are interested and really want to work on making growth and progress happen with your company, consider joining me in a business development work-group. We will meet every 3-4 weeks for about 6 months. The group will be limited to 8 people and I will work specifically with everyone to build a stronger company that thinks and moves differently – that can find balance in a sea of change – while feeding the passion and joy that got you in the business in the first place.

I would like to have a kick-off group start either November the 19th or 23rd, and will set the place once I know where people will be coming from (Austin or Georgetown). I think it is important to get some foundational work in now as preparation for an impactful new year. See below for a summary of the details.

So give me a call, or reply by email, to get started!

Thanks and blessings,
Judith Manriquez | Partner | GX Creative Communications
phone: 512.657.5765
jmanriquez \ at \ gxcreative \ dot \ com

As you begin each week, which of these questions will you be asking yourself:

• What do I need to do this week?
• What is my to-do list?
• What will help me accomplish the highest good for myself, my clients, my company and my family this week?

You may not be aware that you are even asking a question. You may just sit down and begin to line out what you need to finish, deliver, attend or start. But there is a silent question that you are answering – and you are doing this all the time. Can you see it? The silent, implied question behind every mental conversation and action you take.

Stop and take notice of those silent questions! Because when you do, you then have the option to re-phrase or re-frame the question so that you create a more powerful outcome, week, project and life.

I much prefer to start my week with the last question. What about you?

If you are going to do anything with life, you sometimes have to move away from it, beyond the usual measurements. You must occasionally follow visions and dreams. Bede Jarrett

Everyone has at least one box. Most of the time we have many. We have spent years building it carefully. So very carefully we often don’t see it anymore. Or maybe we have gotten so good at avoiding bumping into the walls that we just don’t notice them anymore.

This box is made of agreements, assumptions and rules. Everything we have agreed to feel, know, do. Everything we assume is right, wrong or expected of us. Rules about how to be, dress, behave, live and die. This box often makes us feel safe, and often lets us just live our life on auto-pilot.

Recently, while working with a group in a strategic planning session, I found myself realizing that everyone in the group could not see their boxes. I was completely struck by their pent up passion and desire to have something different – for them to be more empowered, more able to direct their resources, more engaged in creating quality and value – while at the same time truly believing that they could not. So here I was with over 50 physicians, nurses and support staff who unfailingly help over 180,000 of the neediest people each year, and who truly wanted to make significant change in the experience and quality care their patients received.

And they were getting stuck in their box. They were not even aware of the assumptions, expectations and rules they had placed on themselves about how to be. They could see the scheduling problem that affected them and their patient’s disposition. (And many other problems they wanted to change.) But they could not see that the problem was controlling them. What they could not see was their ability to define the patient experience, the length of time each patient needs, to set the patient’s expectations. In other words, they have the ability to define and communicate what quality means to them and others. Instead, they were boxed in by the rules they were agreeing to live and work by every day. Rules that say someone else sets the schedule, doctors only do certain things and nurses do other things, more money fixes all problems and the assumption that everyone should know what quality care looks like.

This problem, this box, was overriding their ability to see and feel their passion, their heartfelt calling to help those who need it most. They had lost sight of, and connection with, the powerful drive that gives meaning to their lives. As a result, they are living in such a way that protects and maintains their box, so it keeps them boxed in – and it’s making them feel tired, ineffective and frustrated.

This is a lesson for all of us. Remember, we all have choice. Always. We make that choice by our actions. We can make choices and take action that supports our passion. Or we can not. I find that living from your passion is always more fulfilling, exciting and energizing. (Surely you remember the feeling?)

So, if your passion isn’t able to breathe and grow, then change the rules, expectations and assumptions you hold. Re-write them and re-make them so that they do support your passion. You don’t have to ask permission and you certainly don’t have to wait to be told that you can do it.

This is a reminder to all of us who started our company, or signed on to that amazing job, that we have an exceptional passion. Re-connect and feel your passion and take a look at all the assumptions, expectations and rules that have boxed it in. Our business passions can not afford to be stuffed into boxes. Every company – big and small – and every employee throughout every organization, is being called on to un-stuff their passions. Our society, our economy, our environment desperately needs to have the means to breathe easier and it can only happen as we let our own passions out of their box so they can grow again.

Fundamentally, what I do – help a business inform, promote and sell its product or service – has not changed, but my perspective of my service and the marketplace it sits in has changed.

The nightly news reports daily on the “global financial crisis” and Forrester Research reports that global corporate companies have cut their marketing budgets by 20%+ and their advertising budgets by 60%+. Then there are giant bailouts of some of the largest corporations in America and the quiet closing of small businesses in our communities. And the personal stories of friend or families who have lost a job or the hard reality of owners and bosses who have had to reduce hours or layoff employees.

Clearly, all of us – companies and individuals alike – are in a very different marketplace and economy. On an individual level we are facing change and uncertainty. And we have a choice to move through that change in fear, anxiety and stress, or use the opportunity to dig deep and find our inner strength so that we move through that change in grace, peace and happiness. This is, of course, each person’s personal journey of self discovery.

What I have noticed is companies make a similar journey. You may not have considered it in this way but all businesses have their own separate personalities and lives. They have their ups and downs, are born from a passion and move through life refining and refocusing who they are. They weather challenges and change. They go in and out of relationships. Some even give birth to new companies and products.

And right now, companies and their relationships are shaky and uncertain. Each and every company must now find its way through its ‘personal journey of self-discovery.’ What does that really mean?

It means accept that change is a constant; it can’t be held back or controlled away. It must be embraced and incorporated into your processes.

It means you and your company really have to clear the clutter and go right back to the flame of passion that birthed the enterprise. Find the spark that was the motivation and inspiration. Notice all the corporate practices that have become routine and have drained the energy from the original inspiration. The rules you have for employees, vendors and customers that focus on money or safety or control, rather than passion and inspiration. Change the rules, change the practices to make way for the flame. Give your passion some breathing room again.

It means you have to let go of the status quo and society’s expectations. This is the big one. Accepting and sticking to the safety and surety of what has always been done – what is expected in your industry with regard to your business model, with regard to your relationship with employees, vendors and customers, with regard to just how it’s done – will be your death knell. Take a moment, take all the time you need, but look – REALLY LOOK DEEP – at why you are following the status quo and society’s expectations. If it has anything at all to do with being safe, mitigating risk or following along, then get ready to let it go. Look at what it is and consider if it really feeds the flame, or just safely contains your flame. If it’s not feeding your flame then get rid of it now! It might leave you feeling a bit exposed for a while, but you will find that it quickly gives you space to create a new rule, new structure, a new process, that supports and nourishes your flame.

These are the first steps. And when embraced, will take you a long way to building a stronger business and a stronger marketplace.

Try it. Really. You will be surprised at the inspiration and passion that is sets free again. And isn’t that why you got into business in the first place?