What's the Big Idea? A Holistic Business Plan Riff

What's the Big Idea? A Holistic Business Plan Riff

Hi, True Blue Coaching fans! A young couple visited me last week. They're writing a holistic business plan. It's not the kind of business plan that I've seen before, and I like this version a lot. They're farmers in Vermont. They've had a dream of owning their own farming business for years, so they decided to learn the ropes by working for other farmers, first. Now they have a chance to make their dream come true, in a small way at first. The woman was raised in suburban Connecticut. She got started in farming when she left a job that wasn't satisfying, even though it seemed at first to fit exactly what she'd wanted while in college. She left that city job and city life and in a matter of weeks, took a job as a shepherd on a distant relative's farm in Vermont. The man was raised in Detroit. They met when she sat down in the only empty chair at a coffee shop, and next to her was a guy reading a book by Wendell Berry (a great writer, a big advocate for being good stewards of the land). Having Wendell Berry as a shared interest was a strong connection, and within weeks, this guy joined her in Vermont.

Now, 5 years later, they've lived and worked on farms. The first, of course, was the farm that turned sheep milk into high quality cheese. The farm had been in the farmer's family, so the farmer had long experience in taking good care of the sheep and the land - and used movable electric fences to make sure that the fields weren't over-eaten. (I'm sure there's a technical farming term for that, but you get the idea.) Then came a farm whose product was meat. The couple cared for goats, lambs, chickens, Jersey cows, and veal calves - veal calves who had plenty of room in the barn and frolicked in their paddock, too. (Can animals that big really "frolic"? Well, when I saw them, those calves seemed really happy hanging out together in their paddock, kind of like kids at recess - and boy, did they move fast when they knew it was time for yummy goat milk!) The animals were raised humanely, and eventually were slaughtered.

The meat was sold through a co-op to high-end restuarants in New York City and Boston.

The third farm that they worked on had a lot going on. The farmer plowed the soil for vegetable farming without a tractor! Saved fuel. Didn't pollute the air. They use a team of 2 Really Big Strong Horses to pull the plow. You can tell that I can't remember what kind of horses they were, right? I have never seen such big horses in my whole life. This was the biggest farm this couple has worked on - they cared for pigs, lambs, chickens, sheep, and Jersey cows. The farm rotated the animals on the land, so the fields didn't get worn out - the soil actually prospered from the animals who lived on it. The farm sold vegetables, but primarily meat, as a Community Supported Agriculture (CAS) business.

Let's see if I can explain what a CAS does - let's say, it's like subscribing ahead of time to buy the products from a farm.

Now this young couple are doing the groundwork to build their own farming business. The standard model business plans that they'd examined just didn't suit them.

Then they found a new kind of business plan, one that includes a whole-life outlook. Their Holistic Business Plan includes a great big vision, and great big values, not only for income but for what the money can buy ...and for what the money can't buy - a community of people who love and support the couple, and well-cared for land that will support not just this couple and their hoped-for children, but also generations to come.

They're planning how to get what they really want out of life - for their life as a married couple, for the family they want to have, and for whoever lives off the land after they're gone. They told me that what they want is a great life that serves and enhances the lives of people...

But not only people! They're also planning to protect and enhance the quality of life of the animals they'll raise, the vegetables and fruits they'll raise, and the land itself. That means the life of the soil, and the microbes that live in the soil. That includes the water supply and waste water, what they put into the air, what they put into their own bodies...

This is BIG thinking, a big plan. It'll take a lot of attention. A values-based life does take attention.

True Blue Coaching is all about values, figuring them out and paying attention.

The Biggest Decision You Need To Make For True Blue Success

This issue of True Blue Coaching is about about hope, values, success - and the biggest decision you have to make: What's your YES?

I've found a video that's a must-see. If you've hit bottom ... or feel like you're heading toward hitting bottom. If you don't know what you want. If people are confusing you with advice that's not right for you. If you can't make a decision. If you lose your focus too much. If you've already defined what your success is and just want more. If any of this is happening to you or someone you care about, you owe it to yourself to watch this video.

Ali Brown is a tremendously successful internet marketer. She's true blue to her own values. What she says in this video applies to each of us, business-builders or life-builders. She's talking about how to make decisions, about making your vision come true.

What strikes me in this video is the way Ali values the advice her mother gave her. It wasn't the right advice for Ali, but Ali values why her mother gave her that advice.

I was also struck by Ali's sense of her own value. Listen to the way she values the gap between where you are and what you want. Even to value hitting bottom, because the bottom forces change, opens possibilities. When you're in your True Blue self, you'll be doing what Ali does.

Ali keeps stepping into her next "YES."

Where is your dream, your big YES? Can you envision what you really want? (C'mon, what you really, really want. Not what you "should" want.) Imagine that what you want is right there ahead of you. Value your vision. Value your abilities. Value your decision to go get what you want. Value your loved ones who tell you to change your decision -- maybe they've got their own fears and want you to be safe. Maybe by trying to "protect" you from possible disappointment and failure, your loved ones are loving you the best way they know how.

But you get to choose. What do you want? What's the biggest possible YES you could want? How do you keep from being distracted from stepping into your next YES?When you think about changing, believe it or not, change has already happened at a level you're not even aware of. True Blue Coaching will be there with you, each step of the way, holding high what your True Blue values are and what your YES is.

So where is this video, anyhow? Truth is, I can't figure out how to embed it in a post, so it's way, way down at the bottom of all my postings. Here's what to do:
1. Click on my email address, AnnCorcoran@TrueBlueCoaching.com Now you've got a blank email address sitting there, from you to me, right? 2. Scroll all the way down to see the video.
3. Go back to your email message, & fill in your message to send to me at True Blue Coaching. Tell me what you want. I'd really like to know. When you're ready, let's talk about what decisions you can make, and tell me how you're going to get to your own YES.

Here's to your YES! I'm rooting for you!

P.S. 30-minute **free** True Blue Coaching can be yours! Email me, and we'll set up a nice, private time to talk.
AnnCorcoran@TrueBlueCoaching.com

When Times Are Tough, How Do You Keep Going?

Welcome to another post of True Blue Coaching!
A couple of days ago, my daughter and I were talking about Mother Teresa. Mother Teresa worked with the most desperately poor people. She said that her belief in God had led her to look for Christ in each one of the people she cared for. But then, after her death, stories in magazines told us some surprising news. Mother Teresa had a long, dark night of the soul: she had lost faith that there was a God. That bleakness never left her. Up to the day she died, she didn't regain her faith.

But just think. Despite the fact that she felt no God existed, Mother Teresa got up each day and did the same things she had always done. She ministered to the poorest of the poor, people in desperate need.

My daughter was amazed to learn this... just like I was, when I read those news stories awhile ago. Back then, I had wondered, what gave Mother Teresa the determination, the strength, the grit, to get up and go back each day to reduce human misery and suffering, just the way she'd always done.

Seems to me that it was Mother Teresa's values that gave her strength. No matter how she felt, she let her values guide her. She was True Blue. Coaching? I wonder who or what helped keep her strength up.

Mother Teresa was awesome. Probably a saint. I don't know that I could do what Mother Teresa did even when she did have faith in God.

She cared for the "least among us", even when she felt that there was no God to believe in. Mother Teresa stuck to her values. No matter what, she went out and did what was the right thing for her to do. I'm inspired. What a woman of integrity. Mother Teresa is probably the highest model I can think of, of how to live out our True Blue Values, no matter what.

So I wonder... What do you think? What do you think Mother Teresa's True Blue values were? And, if you care to share, what's your story? What are your values?

Ann

P.S. Remember to email me at AnnCorcoran@TrueBlueCoaching.com for your free 30-minute coaching session.
P.P.S. There isn't a website for True Blue Coaching - not yet. It's in the works. I just couldn't wait, so this blog came first!

True Blue Coaching is to bring out the True Blue You!