Big Hearted Business

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Hello new economy

Judy Wick’s Good Morning Beautiful Business is an inspiring read. Judy speaks plainly about her journey of entrepreneurship from  the late 70s through to the present day. She describes the values of cooperation and community that shape her and later underpin a style of business that is genuinely life enhancing.

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This book has changed the way I think about business. I have always viewed entrepreneurship with a degree of skepticism, those who succeed seem to attract an almost religious following. Money for it’s own sake has never made sense to me and is certainly part of what is driving the Earth into crisis. Yet I’ve also grown disillusioned with the community and not for profit sector I have worked in for the last 15 years.

The largely thankless (by which I mean poorly paid) work of the community sector is so much at the whim of the politic of the day and rarely seems to generate the kind of radical, long term, sustainable change that I know is necessary. I’ve been looking for alternate ways to make a difference and Judy’s vision of the Local Living Economy is compelling.

In her book she describes money as just one strand in the commercial relationship. When business owners live in the communities they serve, they can see the results of their efforts, for better and worse. They become accountable to the community in a way giant corporations never can be.

I don’t have the skills to run out and start a business but, after seeing what Judy managed to create, I’m prepared to add it to my list of castles in the air.

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A wake up call

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On Sunday I went to see the delightful Clare Bowditch do her Big Hearted Business morning tea thing. It was inspiring, it was energising, it was a relief to hear someone talk about passion for saving the world as an asset instead of rolling their eyes. It was also a profound eye opener. I hadn’t really considered that the work I want to do could be a viable business. I’m not actually sure that a business can be inherently ethical in the way I would want it to be, I need to think about it some more.

I spoke to lots of interesting people, it would have been great to do even more of that. I haven’t started a business but I’m branching out into new territory just wanting a career that I am whole heartedly involved in, that engages the best parts of myself. I need to speak to others who can affirm that that’s possible and that it’s a worthy endeavour.

At one point Clare started talking about marketing, what things come to mind?

slick, sales, targeting, awkward, segmentation, niche…

Then she asked – who knows what problem they are trying to solve?

I don’t know if it was because I raised my hand a little higher than the others. Perhaps the audience didn’t have a lot of people who really knew their problem. Maybe it was completely random but I suddenly found myself talking to my hero, Clare Bowditch.

The problem I want to solve is connecting people with nature, so that they understand they are actually part of it.

How are you going to do that?

I run workshops.

And what’s your background, is it therapeutic?

No, I have a buddhist practice and I’ve worked in the community sector for 15 years.

(Satisfied, Clare turns to the audience) Okay, so who here knows someone or feels that they themselves need to connect with nature?

Everyone. raised. their. hand.

(Clare turns back to me, nodding appreciatively. Thunderstruck I can barely bring myself to look around the room.) Okay so how are these people going to find you?

Ah, they can’t actually.

Right, thank you for your honesty, that’s what marketing is for.

That’s what this blog is for, so people can find me. I have the luxury of full time work, I’m not looking for an income, I’m looking for deep conversation.