9 Lessons from 9 Years in Business
By Lian Brook-Tyler
(I could have waited until it’s 10 years to write this but it felt right to do it now - see #8)
1. Creating a successful business takes time. I remember being about 2 years into running my own business and sharing the challenges with a close friend, she recalled that her father said it typically takes 3 years for a business to become successful, that was so helpful to hear back then. And…
2. I’ve realised since that “success” is in the eye of the beholder, and really and truly - in the eye of the soul. If there was a mixing deck of success, we’d see sliders for all kinds of things like impact, depth, wealth, simplicity, freedom… and each soul would have a ‘success setting’ that’s uniquely aligned for them.
3. We only *don’t* need strategies for success when we have embodied them so fully we no longer need them - we’ve become an energetic expression of what was previously a strategy. Despite mine and Jonathan’s previous decades of experience of business and specifically in sales and marketing, we have invested so much time, energy and money on continuing to learn more - because it’s essential in creating a successful business. Anyone who says otherwise is either a freak of nature or is consciously or unconsciously telling porkies. This is why this year’s Waking The Wild Medicine, as magical and mystical as it is, was extended to include even more time for focus on teaching business strategies.
4. Talking of magical and mystical, if you are a magical one, i.e. someone who is here to work with spirit, soul or magic (though if you’re a coach you might not realise that yet - link in the comments to a recent podcast episode that will be both helpful and annoying), then you might want to get comfortable with paradox and uncertainty. We can keep going down the spiritual rabbit hole of desperately seeking the certainty of the truthiest truth, and dismissing the lesser truth we were evangelising about only yesterday, or we can recognise that consciousness isn’t called “the hard problem” for nothing… which means you don’t need to have all the answers or criticise other teachers, paths and methods, in order to serve others deeply and powerfully with whatever you’ve embodied and found useful so far.
5. And about magical ones (actually, I don’t know if I’m much good at or too interested in talking about business with anyone else so let’s just agree from this point onwards, if you’re still reading, you’re magical and I’m speaking to you)… you can not and will not create true success by any other means than discovering and becoming whatever it is you’ve been uniquely created to be and do… and accepting that it will be as magical af.
6. That ‘magical uniqueness’ is what we call Medicine, and being your Medicine is really being fully you, living the life and doing the work you came here for. I’ve just returned from holiday and have spent the last couple of days drenched in deep appreciation for the utterly gorgeous life and business I returned to. The Insta quote goes “Create a life you don’t need a vacation from” and that kind of life is what being your Medicine creates (you might still choose to fly off for adventures now and then, if only so you can return and feel even more sickeningly grateful.) In short, being your Medicine is the most fulfilling, rewarding (in all the ways) and fun way to be in business.
7. And also the hardest. I often tell our students that creating a business based around being your Medicine is likely to be the deepest spiritual work they can do. It will illuminate all the skeletons in the cupboard, it will trigger all the shame and fear you’ve spent your life up until now trying to avoid, and it will feel hopeless, foolish and even pointless at times. And it’s only by doing this deepest of spiritual work that we can move beyond what feels safe and/or possible within the limitations created by our conditioning and wounding. Which brings us to…
8. There comes a point when we can navigate in business simply by what feels right… not by targets, expectations of self or others, the fearful whispers of shadow, or strategies (though they have their place - as per #5)… if something feels aligned, I will do it, if it doesn’t I won’t. This includes decisions to work with specific teachers and mentors, to hire team members, to create an offering, to stop offering an offering (however in demand it is), to completely change business direction, brand and all, for the six millionth time (ok, the third time - it’s just taken six million years to birth the latest one), to devote myself to something my human bucked and screamed against (shamanism, I’m looking at you), and right now to write this post. And it’s taken almost a decade of intense focus (note: I’m autistic, so when I say intense focus, I mean an “all consuming and with the power of the sun” level of focus) on Soul, Sovereignty and Spirit to get to this point of knowing what is aligned and then acting on it. Your mileage may vary but this journey is the one we all need to take to get to this kind of “She makes it look so bloody easy” gnosis.
9. The best bit… this is the game we came here to play! It’s a privilege, an opportunity, a gift, a blessing and something we can look back on at the end of our lives and know that we lived fully and can die complete. (And I’ve long accepted that death gets everywhere - even in my posts about business, I guess this is why I’ve been described as “Our joyous, radiant Handmaiden of Death!”)
Enjoy it all while you can!
P.S. or maybe 9.5. If you’re reading this and know I’m describing you and your journey, I wish you the courage, devotion and spirit of adventure to continue becoming what your soul came here for. It *will* be worth everything it asks of you and more.
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