Episode 2 A+A podcast: What is Business Alignment and what might your aligned business look like

What does business alignment actually look like, and what do I mean when I am talking about business alignment?

I'm going to take you through a model that's going to help you to think about the different aspects of your business and to consider whether you feel like those aspects are in alignment with you and are in alignment with the business that you really desire to create.

As we're going through you might find yourself thinking about other people's businesses and particularly mentors or people you admire. You could use that as an example when we're going through the different aspects and think, "Okay. So that's what that could look like."

That is not intended to be a comparison; do it if it is a source of inspiration. Remember, what is an aligned business for you is going to be completely different to an aligned business for somebody else.

This is what I'm really all about; giving you permission, if you need it, to say, "Hey, this is what I really want. This is what I really value, and therefore, I am making these decisions so that I can support myself to create that because that is what inspires me."

It's not about learning somebody else's model or how they create their business. It's you really stepping up as the leader in your own business and saying, "Look, there are a lot of different ways that people can do things. There are a lot of different things that work and that can be successful, and this is what I am creating, and these are the reasons why," and then taking those beautifully aligned actions to support you to do that.

A business aligned to you can vary according to the time of your life.

For some people, they might be in a time of their life where they have got really a lot of time, they've got a lot of energy and passion, and they are really motivated by a big income goal or impacting on a certain number of people. They want to do that as quickly as possible, and that's what feels really inspiring for them.

For somebody else, they actually might have a similar goal. But actually, they don't want to work very many hours. So they want to keep it to a set number of hours that they are working a week, but they still want to have a really big impact and a significant income but recognise it may take longer to get there.

For somebody else, their version of aligned business might be quite different. It could be, "I want to replace my part-time income, and I want to be able to work whilst the kids are in childcare a day or two a week, or whilst my kids are at school. So, for me, an aligned business might be balancing my home and my work commitments and having a really beautiful flow."

I really just want you to think about what an aligned business looks like for you at this time of your life.

Let's go through some of the different elements.

We will look at:

• Alignment foundations. That relates to your own energy
• Alignment purpose. Why are you actually creating this business? Yes, to generate an income. Yes, to help people, but what's really sitting behind that? What are the other aspects of that?
• Alignment structures - business model, types of services
• Alignment goals - what specific things are you working towards?
• Congruence. Your words, your feelings or emotions, your thoughts and actions, and how in alignment they are with what it is that you are trying to create in your business, and what it is that you really desire.

This is an introduction - there's so much more to explore within each of these elements.

I really want you to step into this place of possibility with me that you do have the power to create what it is that you want in your business.

You might need to make some changes. You might need some extra support. You may need a little training in certain areas. However, it's all doable. It's all possible if you take the right aligned actions.

Let's dive into each of these aspects. As we go through, you might like to think about how this is sitting for you at the moment in your business, whether this is feeling really in alignment for you, and if not, some reflection that you might do and some changes that you might make.

I will be exploring different aspects of this in future podcast episodes as well. This is a bit more of a top-level view, but I know that you're going to be able to take some really cool stuff away from this. It's going to give you a bit of a different way to think about your alignment.

First - your alignment foundations.

This is your energy. For most of the people I work with, you are the brand. You are the face of your business. Your energy is so important. That is what people are attracted to. That is why people choose to engage with your business, to work with you, or to sign up for your programmes, or even sometimes to buy things from you. It's because of you and because of the way that you show up and what they believe about you, and how connected they feel to you. So you need your energy to be really vibrant and vital as much as possible. It needs to be in alignment with your business and what you're wanting to create.

How do you create more alignment in your energy?

First of all, it's considering those real basics, diet, exercise, and sleep. Now, that might sound so super boring to you. I'm actually going to go into those in episode 3, which is called Dopamine and Business Alignment. So look out for that one, but those things are vital because they are the building blocks. They are the foundations of your energy levels.

If you eat really well, eat really nourishing foods regularly, you also exercise most days, and you sleep well, your alignment is going to be better. Your energy is going to be better over time. You're also going to be able to make better decisions, and to discern when things are not working in a particular way, and to address that more readily rather than just running yourself into the ground.

Nobody wants to end up burnt out. I have done it. I did it in 2011. It's not fun. If you've done it, you will know that as well. Just don't mess around with your energy.

Another aspect of your alignment foundations to consider are your physical environments.

First, your work environment. That may be your home if that's where you work. Is your home office or the space that you work out of really supportive of your energy? Do you need to make any changes? If you work outside of the home in a studio, or a clinic, or an office, or a co-working space, how supportive is that of your energy? Does it feel like the right fit for you?

If your home environment is different to your work environment, consider that too. Does that feel supportive of you as you are growing your business? So just give that a little bit of thought. I mean, sometimes it may not be something you can do something about immediately, but it's knowing that when you are in the right environment, that does support your energy.

Think about your relationships, including your love relationship.

Your primary relationships in your life are so important and have such an impact on your energy levels. So if you have a love relationship, think about that. Sometimes people can find their love relationships are really supportive, and that's great. Other times, maybe not so much. Sometimes people might find their love partner doesn't really understand what it is they're doing. They're concerned they're not making enough money. They're concerned about the amount of time maybe this person is devoting to their business or something like that. So just know that if that is going on, of course, it is having an impact on your energy. It may be something just to really proactively address, whether that is with counselling or in some other way, but just know that it does make a difference to your energy.

Also, think about your relationships with your business peers + mentors and how supported you feel.

A lot of us work on our own, and so you need to quite proactively develop, nourish, and cultivate relationships with your peers. We are so lucky these days to have the ability to connect online. I know for me, most of my business buddies are people I've met online, and then I've ended up meeting a lot of those people in person. That might happen at conferences. That might happen if you travel to the location where they live, and you've developed relationships. You arrange to meet up.

I talk to a lot of my business buddies on WhatsApp or on Voxer, so that we can have that really motivating and inspiring connection because I know how important it is so that you don't go into those kinds of negative spirals, and you can stay more positive. You can bounce ideas off of each other, but just check in as well, like just mental health check, an emotional check. Just being a friend to other people who are doing similar kind of work to you.

Consider, "Do I feel like I've already got that, or is that something I can develop?" Another really good place to do that is obviously through online courses. I know there's been relationships that have been created in my Align + Attract course group, and also for myself in groups that I have been in over the years in different courses. You do create connections with people and can build really strong bonds. So it's another bonus, isn't it, of joining certain courses that have that as a part of the offering and have a really good culture in their groups.

You might also look at the support you receive from mentors, coaches or teachers.

These business foundations are some of the basic things that help you feel good within yourself. Identify if you've got the support around you that you need so that you can thrive and if not, make changes.

Purpose and your alignment with your purpose.

Think about your business mission. If I was to ask you what your business mission is, can you answer that, or even if you need to think about it, does it inspire you to think about? Because I know that for many of us, just running a business or just waking up each day and working with clients, that's not probably going to motivate you long-term without this bigger picture as to why it is that you're really doing this work. I think for most of my clients, it is this bigger picture that motivates them longer term. It may be that your mission is to have a positive impact in the world. It could be really quite broad, but think for yourself, "What do I feel like my mission is in my business?"

Values alignment.

It's helpful to know what your values are. What is actually important to you, and are you living in alignment with those values? For example, I've had clients who have said, "My family is a really important value," or love, or relationships. But then, it feels like business just creeps into that, and they might feel like they're losing time with their family or they're always distracted. That would be a value misalignment, something to actually look at and think about how you can change that.

There are lots of different ways that you can look at your values. There are so many different values lists online that you can find and use as a tool for reflection. But as you define your values, it's really important to ask, "Am I living in alignment with that value at the moment, or what would it look like if I was living in alignment with that value? What is it that I would actually see in the real world if I was in alignment with that?"

We all have different priorities.

Your priorities will vary at different times in your life and it's important to continue to check in with your priorities. "What are my priorities at the moment?" Maybe your priority is growing your income. Maybe your priority is attracting more clients. Maybe a priority is making sure your kids are settled into school, but also being able to work in your business and work with beautiful clients. Maybe your priority is expressing your creativity and being paid for it. Our priorities are all going to vary and it's really useful to think about what yours actually are.

What are your actual business goals?

Get clear on what it is that you are actually working towards and wanting to create because that will give you some very good information. So, for example, you could have this enormous to-do list. But if you're really clear on your values, priorities, goals, and you use that to go back and to look at your list, you might be able to cross a bunch of things off, realising they're not actually so key to what it is that you truly desire. We'll explore goals more in episode 9. 

Notice your beliefs.

We all have beliefs about ourselves and about our business, about our work with clients, about what's possible for us, and so on. So it's quite useful to gain some clarity on what we actually do believe.

You'll probably find that you can identify that readily when things are going really well and maybe the clients are flowing in, or you're doing a launch, and things are working, and you would probably hear yourself saying really positive things like, "I always work with amazing clients. Everything I do just seems to turn to gold at the moment. Everything is going great." 

Likewise, if something goes wrong, notice what it is that you think or you say. So it could be, "I'm not cut out for business. This isn't for me. I'm not good at blah, blah, blah." So remember, belief aren't set in stone. You can change beliefs. We explore beliefs in episode 6 of the podcast. It's one of my favourite topics and something I work on with my clients all the time.

Alignment structures.

This relates to your business structure. That could include how it's structured at a tax level, like are you a sole trader, or are you a company or whatever else? I'm sure it would vary according to the country that you're in. Also, how do you want your business to look as it grows? For example, some people love building a team. They love having lots of different people who are working for them and doing lots of different things in their business. They can really enjoy managing a team, and that's how they grow. Other people hate that idea. For them, they need to find ways to leverage or to grow their business without involving having a lot of other people. For someone else, they might say, "For me, that feels too stressful. I would prefer to have a smaller business." I'm not saying you have to have a smaller business if you don't have a team. However someone might decide, "I am choosing to have a smaller business because I don't want some of the complexity of having a bigger business."

Think about these different structural elements with questions like, "What kind of size of business do you see yourself having, how do you see yourself working and how many people do you see yourself having in your business?"

Revenue goals.

For some people the dream would be to create a six-figure level business and to make enough to pay themselves a salary. For somebody else, the goal might be to have a $500,000 business or a million-dollar business. Then, that's obviously going to require different things in terms of structures because, of course, it requires you to look at what you're offering and how much each of those offerings are. Also, how many people that you would need to be servicing or working with to be able to generate that kind of revenue.

That's obviously something that takes a little bit longer to delve into, but you can easily tell if it's out of alignment when, for example, if you're making, let's just say, $80 an hour or $100 an hour, and if your goal was to make $200,000 in your business, and then you do the math, and you're like, "Actually, that just doesn't even add up... I can never get to that amount unless I worked 80 hours a week or whatever." Then, you know, "Okay. That is not in alignment. I actually cannot do that. I would need to make some changes to the way I structure my pricing for a start and the number of people that I'm able to actually physically work with."

This will include working with people in different ways and really looking into all of the different models that are out there and what's right for you. So that could be, as a model, "Do I include one-to-one? Do I have any online courses as a part of my business model? Do I have a membership site? Do I have any masterminds?" There are so many different ways to do things. Of course, you need to do that deeper reflection to know what is in alignment for you and for your ideal clients. What is the best way for you to work with them and to help them to achieve the outcomes that they really desire? 

Alignment goals.

It is really crucial to think about what it is that you're wanting to create in your business, and then to develop your resilience muscle. Sometimes people can get a little bit put off by having goals because they might think, "Well, I could have a goal to have a million-dollar business, except I can never do that," or, "If I have a big goal and something goes wrong, then I just fall in a heap or I think, 'Well, what's the point?'"

Now, that comes back to beliefs that we talked about earlier. It's like you might need to upgrade your beliefs so that you could have a goal, and then have beliefs that actually support you as you work towards that goal.

For example, you might have a big goal and something goes wrong. Rather than thinking, "I'm never going to get there," an upgraded belief might be, "This is pretty challenging goal. I'm really going to have to really think about this," or, "There are some new things I need to learn in order to do this. I need to figure out what those things are," or, "I know that other people have done this. I wonder how it is that they have done it?"

You might need to think about it in a more creative way. Sometimes there might be something that you do need to learn or somebody that you might benefit from working with. There are so many different ways that you might be able to tackle that, or you might feel like, "I feel like it's something internal. I feel like I am stopping myself." Well, that's a great time to work with a Kinesiologist because that is what we do. We help you to shift those internal beliefs and blocks so that you're more aligned as you move towards your goals.

In Align + Attract, my group programme, we focus on aligning to your big picture, aligning to your ideal clients, aligning to your fees, your income goals, and then the numbers of people that you'd love to attract to work with you either personally, or in your programmes, or in a different way, and helping you to find out what specifically is blocking you or getting in your way so that you can shift that and to come into alignment. This then means you can have clarity and you can take actions that are in alignment with your goal. You can be in a more resourceful and resilient space, so that you're actually taking action, and you're not just feeling deflated, or disappointed, or stuck.

Those are just some of the business goals you might align to, of course. As you get started with that process, there are so many different business goals that you could work on. Even just writing them down is a really good start because a key aspect of creating alignment is knowing what you want, and you could, honestly, just write down your goals. You've probably heard people say this before. You just want to write down your goals regularly. That process alone is going to help you to come into a greater state of alignment because it's helping you to focus forward. "What am I wanting to create? Where is it that I'm going? What is it that I want to do?" So you're in that forward motion.

Congruence.

This is noticing our words, our feelings or emotions, our thoughts, and our actions and how in alignment they are with our goals. That's something you can work on quite consciously. So you might have this goal, "I want to create a successful business." But then, you're talking to a friend and you're just like, "I'm never going to be able to do this. I'm not as good as so-and-so. This is too difficult. I don't know what I'm doing. Whatever." You notice that your words are really not congruent with what it is that you say that you're really wanting to create.

You might look at your emotions, and you might feel like, "I am up and down so much, and that is not congruent with what I'm trying to create because I'm spending more time trying to balance out my emotions, and to feel better, and to feel okay, and I am not able to just get on with things and focusing on creating my successful business." There are so many different ways that you can learn to balance your emotions. Kinesiology is one of them. My alignment process helps you to balance your emotions and I teach that in my DIY Kinesiology Kit and Align + Attract.

There are so many different processes, and it's really about you finding what works for you and you using it. A lot of the people I work with will find managing their emotions to be a bit of a challenge at different times in their life, and this can be situational. It could be something is happening outside of your business, which is causing a lot of emotion and impacting on your business. We live in this multidimensional world and have these multidimensional experiences. So lots of different things can cause us to come out of being focused on our business and on our goals.  It's beneficial to learn how to manage our emotions, balance them, and to get ourselves back on track when we want to and when we need to.

Next up, our thoughts. So again, you've got this goal to have a successful business, and then we just notice our thinking is really, really negative. It's really limiting. Our mind is bringing up lots of stories from the past perhaps. It's just not supportive of us creating the type of business that we would really love to create.

Finally, our actions. So if we are wanting a successful business, but instead, we are procrastinating, or we're spending a lot of time on the types of actions that no one ever really sees, or that are really in the detail that really are not going to move the needle and really not going to have any kind of impact, or are not in alignment with our goals, that is a lack of congruence.

There are a lot of different aspects of business alignment to think about.

I could have gone into so much more detail with each of these aspects but this is really an introduction to get you thinking. You might like to go back to this episode at another time, and do another round of reflection for yourself.

Giving yourself these moments to think about your business, and what feels to be in alignment for you and what doesn't, is going to be a really valuable process. It helps ensure you are creating the business that you really want - that is why you created a business in the first place. 

If you would love to work on one of the foundational aspects of your alignment, being your energy, I would love to invite you to sign up for my Refresh Group Reiki Healing, and you can do that over at alignandattract.com/refresh. It's completely free, and I will support you energetically to refresh your energy now.