How do businesses impact your life (small or large)? And why is it important to sift through the information streaming at you, through you, with discernment?
I’ve worked in business for 25 years, and for the last 13 years I’ve owned my own business. Through this history, I’ve witnessed a lot of poor behaviour and a lack of social accountability in the business world.
Business is an extension of who we are. When we build a business, we’re putting ourselves and our beliefs out there, and yet most of us haven’t considered how our belief systems impact our businesses and our communities at large – in either helpful or unhelpful ways.
Business has been a huge teacher for me; I had to reckon with self-doubt, beliefs that I wasn’t enough, my tendency for ‘people pleasing,’ and my wounded and reactive self. It’s been a journey that’s matured me, broken me, and taught me how to let go. It’s tuned me into what I want to contribute to the world. It’s been painful and joyful; I’ve experienced immense joy and intense sadness.
I’m not perfect at it, and I continue to learn and grow. However, what I’ve cleaned up in my business and life is what I want my community to experience when connecting with my business, which is peace, calm, connection, and love.
I believe that business should be a way to create connection, not promote competition. To create ease, not more stress. To support instead of take. To create with integrity and not create environments that feel like you have to discard one business in order to support another. In this era, we’ve been influenced by the forces around us in ways that most of us haven’t questioned.
We’re being sold this idea that popularity is more important than authenticity. In a world obsessed with flash and bling, our ability to differentiate what’s genuine with what’s sparkly is distorted. We want the immediate, shiny, and hollow instead of the simple, genuine, and subtle. It’s a ‘look at me’ culture instead of ‘this business cares and isn’t wasting their precious time and resources to get the next influencer to promote their offerings/products.’
If those spiritual ‘teachers’ adorned with all the beads and feathers, or the big-talking businesses that tell you how to live instead of helping you find your own truth (the ones in the traveling psychedelic circus that leave town with your money and dignity) leave you feeling confused and emotionally wrecked – why do you think it’s you that needs to heal instead of questioning the motivations of this display of ‘spiritual wisdom’ that depleted your soul?
Why is it that the businesses that show up with subtlety, the ones who aren’t flashy, the ones that put their time and attention into giving more and supporting others without showcasing it, that act with integrity instead of trying to be popular, why do we miss seeing them? Why do we believe that consumption is more important than attunement? I see this in small business and big enterprise.
Businesses are all too willing to give away their products for free to have influencers, athletes, and the popular showcase their stuff. Yet, they are so unwilling to create programs to help the less fortunate, the ones who could use the support but have no following.
If another business approaches me with, “hey, buy my product and I’ll tell all my followers how amazing you are,” or “donate to my cause and I will tell my 10,000 followers that you’re the business who is the most charitable and they should love you for that,” I’m going to lose my marbles.
Why don’t we support businesses that prioritize honesty over the currency of popularity? There’s a desperation to follow the pack, there’s a sense of urgency to be included and not miss out on the newest trend. We do that at the cost of our relationship with ourselves, we lose ourselves in the chasing and in wanting to be included in the ‘next’ thing.
It’s like a drug, it becomes more addictive, the chasing and needing to be included. When there’s nothing we can ever do that will allow us to feel fulfilled, we end up feeling depleted. When we support businesses that do that, it depletes us, takes our energy, and makes us feel emotionally off and confused.
Our chambers of commerce chase what’s exciting and new, they chase the sparkle; our communities are built on a foundation of sand, constantly shifting to what’s HOT or the NEW thing. The sparkly new business comes in hot (as we all do) with all sorts of fancy advertising, and our community’s trip over themselves to support them, but over time the business just becomes another business. Those with integrity are working hard to make a profit and trying not to lose their ethics or ethos in the process.
You get to decide who you want to support, who you want to partner with, either as a customer or consumer of product. Why do you want to support them, how do they show up in the world? Does it actually make you feel better or does it contribute to your own chasing? Does this business contribute to your own desire to be seen and popular, to your own discomfort, anxiety and fear of missing out, or does it contribute to slowing the negative thoughts in your mind and add calm to your life?
This matters, because everything we’re contributing to, both emotionally and with our wallets, affects the state of our world. What kind of world do you want to live in?
Love, Noelle