7 processes for energetically aligned business flow
this post — and these two diagrams — are the distillation of me asking myself one guiding question: how would I do business if I allowed my energy to lead the way? in other words,
what does
“being in alignment with my energy”
look like, in business?
—
on an artist’s resistance to business
I think we’re conditioned to think of business as something difficult, forceful, unnatural, and hard — especially as an artistic/emotional/sensitive person who’d prefer to draw pictures, gather inspiration, or spend an afternoon gathering research — rather than make sales pages and profit plans. I’m in admiration and total envy of friends who can bang out business marketing and sales systems with a detached get-it-done attitude, attract tons of clients, make money, and just move on with their lives.
for me, it’s not exactly that my brain doesn’t work that way — it’s that my brain, for a long time, resisting doing business-y things. it categorized marketing + sales (and thus, making money) as something diametrically opposed to its soulful creative instinct; and thus, it rebelled and procrastinated, all the while marinating in culturally conditioned guilt.
when, eventually, I did put a gun to my head and forced myself to sit down and do something “business-y” — the work felt totally draining. (like, I needed to lie down for a whole day afterwards). whatever I created: the offering, sales page — in retrospect, felt forcibly pushed out. like: I did this marketing/sales/business-y thing because I have to, for the possibility of it making me money — not because I truly wanted to.
and because of how tiring / draining / unnatural doing business felt as an artist — my response was that I just would avoid it, as much as I could. instead, for the longest time, I attracted clients and students to my courses while doing the bare minimimum of marketing & sales.
the truth is: I didn’t know how to do business in a way that felt aligned to me; and for the longest time, I believed that business = forcing myself to do things against my will and natural tendencies.
in these last few months, I’ve realized that this doesn’t have to be true. instead, what if doing business could feel embodied and aligned with who I am? what if, instead of pushing it away and avoiding it, then forcing myself to do it — I inhabited it as a creative practice; a way of playing with creative energy, and flow?
the question is NOT:
as an artist, am I just bad / unnatural at doing business?
the question IS:
how can I make business flow in total alignment
with my creative energy and inspiration?
what would being in
full alignment feel like?
I’d let go of the pressure, the “shoulds,” the expectations. giving up the feeling of “pushing” for something, the tension, the stress, the need for a certain outcome to happen. instead, things would just flow effortlessly, without neither push or pull.
if I am, at my core, an artist — then to be in alignment with my energy, I must create — as a daily act of focused inhalation and exhalation. my wealth comes from my deliberate and abundant creation.
in order to feel recognized and seen for my work — I must recognize and see myself, by being unafraid to show up, unafraid to be seen, acknowledged, and take the stage.
sharing my work on public platforms — instead of filling me with resistance, can feel like a form of creative expression and play. I would build systems and containers to support this process, so that it takes as little energy as possible.
my offerings must be so clarified that they feel aligned with my creative energy — until I feel absolutely excited about them, and the value they bring to the world - that they blur the boundaries between my art + offerings.
creating abundance
creating flow in business is the end result of creative, emotional, spiritual
alignment — supported by systems,
processes, and containers.thus, money is a result of energetic + creative alignment. it is not a product or an event you chase, but a byproduct of intertwined, ongoing processes — flowing from the same creative energy source.
the 7 processes of business flow
REST / NOURISHMENT / PLAY
you cannot create business flow — or any sort of creative flow — from a depleted place. thus, the first foundational step is to nourish your inner resources, and you do this through REST, NOURISHMENT, and PLAY. this process is the act of making deposits into your internal energy bank and psychic ecosystem — before you ask it to give anything back to you.for me, resting is getting lots of sleep, allowing myself the guilt-free indulgence of watching TV shows in bed, reading, napping, laying with my eyes closed, yoga nidra. nourishment is reading, listening to podcasts, doing yoga or movement practices, collecting inspiration, cooking what my stomach craves. play is playing games, exploring the city, making crafts.
ENERGY ALIGNMENT
after you’ve nourished your energy, you practice listening and sensing into it. energy alignment is finding resonance between what your inner creative instinct wants to do / has the energy to do — and the tangible projects and endeavors that need your investment. the simple rule of this process is: listen to what is aligned with your energy, not what your mind tells you to do. it is listening to the subtleties of your creative impulses and urges, rather than following rigid to-do lists.
in this process, you also hone your sensitivity at discerning energy, and managing and directly energy — knowing when to stop and take breaks, and when to continue pushing just a little. following energy alignment is how you work from an intuitive, graceful place — the path of least resistance. it is like working with the force.
DECONDITIONING
the act of deconditioning is to shed light on — and let go of beliefs, wounds, fears, tensions that block your energetic, creative, business flow. it is the act of de-programming and letting go of the “shoulds” — as well as untangling the sources of resistance to the work. deconditioning is mostly beliefs and mindset work — a variation on deep journaling — shedding light on internal scripts that don’t serve you, and deliberately choosing a new vision / set of beliefs to focus your attention on. for me, deconditioning mostly happens through journaling + meditation work.
CREATION
creation is the act of pouring your vision, ideas, knowledge, insights, wisdom, experiences, perspectives — into a vessel outside of your being. the form doesn’t matter — it could be a piece of writing, a drawing, an audio note, a video, a photo. you could call it art, or content - at the end of the day, it is a creation. it is the act of collecting and/or making something from nothing — which other people can connect to — as a vessel for your creative force.
SHARING
sharing comprises of two parts: the containers — which spaces and platforms you share your work on (website, newsletter, social media, youtube, podcast) — and the sharing systems — processes which make the steps to sharing feel more smooth and seamless. if creating is what builds flow between you and your inspiration / your life, then sharing is what creates the flow between you and those you service.
I’ve found that my blockages with sharing is usually because I feel reluctant or uncomfortable about the containers (digital spaces) — in that I haven’t yet inhabited them fully with my energy. or, I don’t have a repeatable system. or, my blockages relate to insuffiencies in one of the previous processes — for example, (#4 - creations) I don’t have enough creations to share, or (#3 - deconditioning) I’ve put too much pressure on myself, such that I’m feeling blocked and paralyzed.
OFFERING
after you’ve built flow with your audience through (#5) sharing your creations, eventually, you sense into which offerings can serve them in a deeper way — and which offerings excite you the most. the act of building aligned offerings requires that you (#2) are fully aligned with your energy and (#3) have deconditioned from limiting beliefs — such that you can show up and share your offerings with full embodiment; giving your wealth, and be open to recieving wealth in return.
offerings composes of two parts: creating the offering (intuiting, ideation, planning, building a landing page, getting feedback) — and sharing the offering — through the same systems as you shared your creations. seen in this way, an offering is simple an evolution of your creations — with more focused, deliberate energy that people would exchange money/energy for.
SERVICE
the last step is creating and delivering your offerings. this step happens at the very end — after you’ve nourished your being (#1), aligned with your energy (#2), deconditioned from limiting beliefs, blockages, and pressure (#3), created work as your vessel (#4), shared it with others (#5), proposed an offering to work together more deeply, shared it (#6) and then, once your customer/audience accepts your offering — you show up to deliver it. in this step is the act of creation — providing the service or creating the product + systems to make it take up less energy, and feel more effortless.
structuring flow: pyramid + circular map
I made this pyramid to show that these processes build upon one another in a hierarchical format. you cannot deliver your services (#7) unless you’ve made an offering (#6), and making offerings is much easier once you’ve built trust through creating (#4) and sharing (#5) your knowledge, wisdom, and insights. if you’re blocked by perfectionism and resistance, your creation flow will be blocked, therefore, you’ll need to do deconditioning work (#3) and listen to your energy/inspiration (#2) to tell you what to work on.
this pyramid is my antidote to overwhelm. this pyramid reminds you of what is most essential — which processes build upon what, and relates to what. if you focus on the top few tiers (sales + marketing) without paying any attention to the bottom, you could easily be working without having first found alignment with your energy and values. therefore, it’s crucial that you have good energetic foundations and systems for the processes bottom up — and then, the sales and marketing tiers (#5 & #6) can feel easy.
of course, in real life these systems might happen simultaneously — and feel overwhelming and insurrmountable because they happen all at once. don’t think you have to work on them all at once.
you work on them one process at a time.
the other secret is — not only is it built upon each other as a pyramid — but the entire system of business processes is circular. it doesn’t end.
you grow in circles by iterating through this cycle.
think of delivering your offering as giving the fruit from your tree. your client eats the fruit, and what’s left is the seed. you plant the seed, and begin the cycle again with (#1 - rest). steps #1-6 are the processes of care and nurturing that lead to this step of bearing fruit.
what does this mean?
you don’t work on one business process and be done with it — you continue to integrate, iterate, and evolve ALL your processes and systems — one by one - as you evolve and grow.
business flow is about moving through the 7 processes in circles, in iterative growth. instead of getting stuck on one step, try going more rounds through the circle.
allow your intuition to guide you through this circle. it’s like eating a 7 course meal. how do you know you’re ready to move onto the next course? let your stomach / gut help you decide — you could move through this flow in 1 day, or 1 week. there are smaller circles within bigger ones, too.
end notes
I spent these last years developing a process of creation — as an act of taking creative life energy and turning it into art. now, these are my notes for the next phase: which is taking creative energy and turning it into material wealth.
inherent in this outline is the concept of the ongoingness of flow.
flow is circular and iterative
flow builds upon other flows
you tend to flow — one process at a time
every process is a flow
wealth comes from being in flow
in this system, I see wealth-building as an artist as an extension of creative practice — in honoring our energy, and living in alignment and embodiment of our flow.
I send guide.notes — a weekly newsletter on the process of nurturing the creative life, as well as a monthly artist’s digest.