Heal Your Business Battle Wounds

Lesley Glenner is the founder of HoloBeing and the HoloPreneurs program for holistic entrepreneurs.  She is a licensed psychotherapist as well as a holistic financial and business coach.  Read more about Lesley and the HoloPreneurs program here.

Every week in my private practice and business coaching sessions I encounter another one, there’s always some nuance as no two are the same, but at the core it is always this - a tender, raw, throbbing injury impairing your ability to hit your stride, find your flow and be free from pain - in your business. These life-suckers are what I like to call your Business Battle Wounds.The pain is not physical nor is it readily recognized as pain. It feels more like a dull aching dread, a vague disenchantment, a fear or an apathy and it resides in your mind, heart and spirit. Your business battles wounds make themselves known whenever you interact with your business, for example whenever you write an email, attempt a new marketing strategy, create an income goal, write copy for your website, do an ‘elevator pitch’, schedule a sales call.  They keep you small, steer you away from your growth edge, they stifle your professional development and they separate you from life. Business battle wounds can manifest slowly or rapidly. They can start with a traumatic event or can develop almost imperceptibly and seemingly from no cause at all. They have much to do with perceived failures, unexamined beliefs, unfulfilled desires, unrealized dreams. They whisper things in your ear like, “you’ll never make it”, “you don’t have what it takes”, “you got lucky this time”, “you’ll never be as successful as so and so”, “it won’t work”, and on and on. They manifest as unattempted ventures, missed opportunities, unmet goals and feelings of failure. And as such, they feed on themselves, they grow.  In short, business battle wounds are no fun.AND, its not all doom and gloom. There’s good news. Business Battle Wounds are completely and totally healable! When you apply the tender loving care of shining a warm soft light on the vulnerable spot it vanishes. Poof. Well, not like poof. It takes something. Time, care, skillful listening, understanding, reflection, introspection- it really takes something. But, just like with a paper cut- the natural process and right conditions lead to health and wholeness. That’s one of my favorite things about humans- we are holotropic, like flowers shine their sweet faces toward the sun and seek its light and warmth- we seek wholeness, integration, health.My business battle wounds are many and each one is multi-faceted, like a many-faced monster. Most of them manifest as fear of being seen (read marketing) but they stem from insecurities, internalized messages, safety and self-worth.Even as I write this I feel vulnerable. I’m reminded of the dull yet blunt ache my battle wounds have caused.  In the past, marketing was synonymous with exposure, lack of safety, failure.  So, I avoided them for a while, a long while. I felt justified in that. So there I was avoiding blogs, ads, email solicitations, posting on Facebook, talking about what I do, all of it. Perhaps you can imagine how challenged I was when every business event, training, coffee date or sales pitch involved at least one of the above tasks because as we all know as business owners; marketing must occur.  But as I began to reflect and unpack my marketing aversion, something happened. I saw that my allergy to marketing wasn’t an allergy at all, it was a deep wound and inside of it lay a wisdom nugget- a key that unlocked crucial information about myself. Some of that information was incredibly painful and challenging to embrace. But in time I noticed that I didn’t need to avoid marketing I just needed to do it in a way that was supportive of me. Now marketing means standing tall and fortified in the face of potential failure, being vulnerable, flirting with rejection and being seen while feeling undeniably safe. Same concepts different tone.Business battle wounds come in all shapes and sizes, some are ancient and some are fresh. Fortunately all business wounds heal from the same salve- witnessing, acknowledging, grieving (if appropriate), increasing awareness and then holding the gained insights as an intention from which to work. Rinse and repeat.This is my gift. This is my contribution. This is my version of ‘think globally - act locally’.Once you’ve healed your business battle wounds you can get on with your professional life and take the next right action. The world needs you. So I invite you to join me in acknowledging that you have business battle wounds and being willing to face them with love. Battle wounds can be address alone but I have learned they can be addressed more expeditiously with a container of intentional community that offers skillful feedback, support and insight.  That is the very reason I have created the HoloPreneurs community, so that we can heal our business battle wounds together and take the next right action. THIS is my next right action. What's yours?In Wholeness and Trust,Lesley 

The HoloPreneurs program is expanding beyond our walls... read more here about the supportive community and unique business and marketing transformation that the program offers.