Presented by David Neagle and Suzanne Evans, the event found itself short a speaker at the last-minute, and Kim Castle, co-creator of BrandU, was invited to fill the gap.

With only a few days to prepare an entire new presentation from scratch, Castle found herself faced with the type of opportunity she teaches the entrepreneurs she mentors to grab with both hands and soar.

“For 20 years, we’ve been refining our experience working with entrepreneurs on how to create a unique brand and a reliable business,” says Castle. “Over the past seven years, we have further refined that knowledge into a reliable process-based system called BrandU so that any one can develop a business—even if they’ve never done it before.

“We are about to take entrepreneurial support and development into a whole new era through successful conscious business, and suddenly, out of the blue, here was this fantastic opportunity to talk about it. Of course I said yes.”

The thrust of Castle’s talk, In the Pursuit of Whole Wealth®, which both surprised and delighted her audience, spoke to the changing paradigm of 21st century business,   the struggles of new entrepreneurs to sort out the flood of information coming their way, and how to ensure they get tangible support to truly grow.

Listeners were shocked to hear Castle proclaim that the age of guru is over. The age of information is over. “Putting other people in power by thinking they have all your answers and letting information run all over you is doing you more harm than you realize,” she says. “It’s just stays on the surface, without the personal investment to really help you get where you want to go.”

In Castle’s view, “The difference between information and knowledge is an investment of self. When you invest of yourself in knowledge, the result is wisdom, and wisdom sets you on the path to whole wealth.”

Says Jacqueline Haddon, Los Angeles host for the “More Life Tour” event, “Kim Castle kicked our minds into hyper gear at the More Life Tour stop in L.A. with her “Triple Purpose Bottom Line—’Good for people, good for profit, good for the planet’—way of Branding. WOW, is all I could say when I found out who she is responsible for branding! Wait until you see what she’s got up her sleeve. It’s going to change this industry!”

Helping entrepreneurs understand their core values—and hence their lasting brand—has been the specialty of Castle and her partner Vito Montone for 20 years. Moving forward, the concept  of conscious business and the pursuit of whole wealth takes that brand value to an entirely new level, one backed up by solid statistics that show “conscious” businesses outperforming the Standard and Poors index by over 1100%. Castle’s audience literally cheered when she shared that news from the stage.

“I believe they were so enthusiastic because they recognized the truth in what I was saying,” she said. “That to be happy, you must believe in what you’re doing, and to get to that level, you have to invest some time, sweat, and deep understanding of what you want, who you are, and the impact you’re having on the people and the world around you through your business.”

Castle also took this opportunity to officially announce a $50 million micro-business subsidy  to support entrepreneurs in building their business. To find out how you can take part in the subsidy, visit www.wholewealth.com.

Written by Sue Bolich

Continue Reading Shock and Awe at the More Life Tour in Los Angeles

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Well, it’s simple, actually. Women just aren’t “designed” that way.

As Alison Armstrong explains in “Making Sense of Men”, Mother Nature split survival responsibilities between the genders. Men are single-focused by nature, enabling them to hunt and put food on the table. This ability, driven in part by testosterone, makes them naturals for pushing ahead in business. It also makes them completely unaware of the socks on the floor right in front of them.  They’re not insensitive, just…micro-focused.

Women, on the other hand, fulfill the role of gatherer, taking their cues from their senses as it relates to the environment around them. It was the woman’s role to find berries, to know which are safe and when to pick them. It’s why when a woman walks into a room, everything in it talks to her.

Women are wired to notice our surroundings every second we’re awake, making us natural multi-taskers with minds constantly searching for new input. This can make focusing on a single issue for extended periods of time challenging, and puts demands on our adrenal glands to make it happen, since women don’t have the testosterone that men do.

Working with women entrepreneurs in my Monarch Circle program, I’ve discovered  that many struggle with this “focus” deficit—myself included. To help them grow their business quickly, I’ve developed a focus technique that gets Mother Nature to play along by doing what comes naturally.

Since women connect to the environment through their senses, I use those same sensory impulses to support focus, satisfying the part of your brain that’s wired to be on the lookout and freeing the rest to concentrate on other things.

Explore these sensory suggestions to discover the one that best works for you:

Smell
Light a scented candle or burn incense when you begin a major task. Let the aroma surround you while your mind concentrates on the work at hand. When you find your mind starting to wander, take a moment to breathe in the scent.  You’ll find immediate focus renewal.

Touch
Ever twiddle with your hair while you work? You could be the type who focuses on tactile sensations. Find a fuzzy scarf or shawl that pleases you and drape it around your neck. Take a moment to caress it if your attention starts to stray.

Sound
Your favorite music on the stereo in the background may be just the distraction your external senses need to allow your mind to stay on point. You  may have to experiment with the right kind of music. Lady Gaga may not be appropriate. Remember: it’s to help you focus, not take you away.

Sight
The color or clutter of your working space may be distracting you. Try adjusting the colors, creating a clear place, or even putting a couple of framed images of your best friend or favorite quote on your desk. They might just provide the momentary distraction you need to stay the course.

Taste
For years, whenever I would start a client project, I would prepare a big bowl of popcorn and a whole bag of celery. I found that crunching stimulated my creativity. Other possible support foods: fruit, jicama, radishes, baby carrots, even a good cup of tea or a couple of crackers can soothe that sensory craving and allow your mind to dig into the project at hand.

You might find that one or a combination of the senses will do the trick.  Also, try to schedule your focused time in two- or three-hour chunks, and give yourself time in between to connect externally before diving into the next one.

For women struggling to meet deadlines, try working with Mother Nature, and watch your focus—and your business, grow and grow and grow!

P.S. For you guys with female partners or employees, this works so much better than “scatterbrained.”

Written by Kim Castle

Continue Reading Why Can’t I Focus? 5 Ways to Get Mother Nature’s Help

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I came across this article in Women Entrepreneur.com of two friends who started a jewelry company by accident and ended up helping others along the way. Women Helping Women

Reading their story, I am reminded of the jewelry business I started in my third year of college to support myself through school and the ups and down it took me on even after I graduated. Until I too found myself in the same situation they share in this article.

Hopefully you’ll find yourself in their story Women Helping Women and refuel to stay the course on your own passionate path in your business.

Written by Kim Castle

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In “Delivering Happiness” the new book written by Tony Hsieh (CEO of Zappos), Tony candidly shares his dreaming about having a successful business when he was eight…starting with an idea to making millions of dollars with worms. Yes, worms. Yes, he thought of making millions when he was eight. (In contrast, when I was eight I thought about cuddling with puppies and dancing with David Cassidy.)

Tony transitioned to businesses in: lemonade (with a twist), paper routes, garage sales, newspaper publishing, direct mail, pizza retail, video games, web support, venture funds, all before he found his success…inside and out…with online shoe retailer Zappos.

Reading Tony’s honest, and simple…(yes simple), account of his journey in business from those youthful endeavors, to losing his business soul, to finding it again and negotiating a billion-dollar deal with Amazon, got me one step closer to uncovering the answer to a question that I ask myself several times a week, “are entrepreneurs born or are they bred?”  In Tony’s case, not only was he born with this commerce-driven gene…it’s hard wired into his DNA.  So is caring about people and their well-being.  A powerful combination for success for sure.

Having heard Tony speak live, and loving his conscious approach to business (and the ability to buy shoes online risk free), I couldn’t wait to read “Delivering Happiness.” Fortunately, being selected to receive an advanced copy as a blogger, I didn’t have to wait too long. This gracious opportunity came with a ‘cross-my-heart promise’ to write an honest review…the one you’re reading now.

Honestly, between you and me, I didn’t want to put the book down…even though I had to a few times to do things like work, eat, and take my pup for a walk. Reading “Delivering Happiness”, I felt like Tony was bringing me into his world and having a personal conversation with me over a coke and a burrito…like…I was a friend of his. Apparently that IS how he treats everyone. It’s his “special sauce.” Between the pages of this book and his journey he lets you in on the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ to add this special sauce to any business recipe.

The only draw back to this book is that it is written in such a casual way, that I couldn’t help but feel a bit old reading it…even though I’m only a decade older than zen master T. Ummm, strike that, it was so informally written that I felt a lot older. But even with that drawback, it helped me see where I’ve become too static and serious in my own business and to put things in the right perspective.

Will reading this book give you the actual steps to creating a fulfilling and financially rewarding business  like Zappos…of course not, but then you wouldn’t expect that from reading a book…would you?!

What “Delivering Happiness“does do is just that….deliver happiness…and drives home a tangible connection between happiness and generating sustainable profits. It also stimulates that the key ingredient to being truly successful in business—is profound and unshakable belief. And it does so in such an infectious way that you realize that succeeding financially in business truly does come second. You’ll have to read the book to find out what comes first.

Written by Kim Castle

Continue Reading In the Pursuit of Delivering Happiness

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Says Montone, “The conference brought together top players from both academia and business, from places like MIT and Harvard Business School and major companies like The Container Store, Stonyfield Farms and Whole Foods. While I knew that conscious business was becoming more common, I did not know that major schools are beginning to offer courses about it or that they see this as something every company should actively embrace.”

Conscious business, also called conscious capitalism, is when a business chooses to imbue every aspect of its operations with practices grounded in the universal values of sustainability and respect thoroughout their stakeholder eco-system. For instance, Stonyfield Farm set out to change the dynamic of corporate dairies, where cows seldom live more than three years and, because of a diet designed for maximum milk production, produce large quantities of methane gas, which has been pegged to climate change. In contrast, Stonyfield Farm’s cows live four times or more as long and produce almost no methane.

Study after study has shown that companies who practice this conscious adoption of business methods that resonate with their own—and their customers’—values, have consistently outperformed the Standard and Poors index measure of growth, and by huge percentages: 1111% vs. 122% growth. Moreover, these companies spend less on marketing and advertising because the word of mouth is so good. Gross margins are typically ten points higher than other businesses, and the savings in marketing costs can go directly to business process improvements and higher wages, earning employee loyalty as well. The Container Store’s conscious commitment to its customers and its employees has put it at the top of FORTUNE magazine’s list of top 100 places to work for the past 11 years in a row—and it did not lay off a single employee during this recession.

“Perception of the role of business, and its ability to do things we know need to be done, is changing,” says Montone. “People aren’t necessarily looking to government for the answers. They’re rolling up their sleeves and simply making it happen. I had no idea that everything we’ve been developing over the past twenty years, and the past seven specifically with BrandU, was really at the forefront of this wave. In fact, we complement CCI by filling a niche that’s outside their core focus.”

CCI, explained Montone, is by its very nature focused on the top end of the business spectrum. BrandU is and always has been focused on micro-businesses, those under a million dollars per year in gross revenue. Yet the principle is the same, and can be—arguably should be—embraced by every entrepreneur and small business owner.

“The vision comes from within,” says Montone. “We have always taught that your business, your brand, arises from your values, your connection to it, and your vision of the impact your company has. We’re not talking about donating one percent of your revenues to charity. We’re talking about choosing a way of “being” in your business that makes conscious capitalism work.”

Montone came away from the conference excited. “This dialogue we’ve been having with our Members is about to become a major movement,” he says. “We’ve always said that small business will save the planet. How you do that—how you use the power of your brand—is unique to your business, so there’s no right or wrong way to go about this. We guide people how to become that in all that they do in their business, and they will be forever happy, more successful, and more impactful when they do.  And really, that’s conscious capitalism in a nutshell.”

The old ideas of get rich quick or that business is necessarily an “I win, you lose” proposition are fading in the light of this new realization that business can be a force for good for everyone—especially the owner/entrepreneur. According to Montone, every individual can become a conscious capitalist. BrandU has long been a pioneer in guiding small businesses in how to become not only successful, but a positive force for change. It is, he says, a matter of discovering the spark within, rolling up your sleeves, and creating the changes you want to happen.

One business at a time.  — S.B.

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Well, I just have!

To quote a favorite movie of mine, Joe Versus the Volcano: “…It’s been a long time coming to find you. Did I ever tell you that the first time I saw you, I felt like I’d seen you before?”

Attending the 2nd Annual Conscious Capitalism Institute: Issue, Insights and Implementations, felt just like that. I was home.

Here at BrandU we’ve had our heads down working over the last six years with entrepreneurs from around the world to solve a problem we felt in our hearts and gut was pervasive: How to apply non-denominational spiritual principles to business creation and development. Independent business is the way the world can solve all its ills, but only if it is deeply personal… i.e., conscious.

Our only feedback during this time was our own members’ experience, and what a gift that was. Every step of the way of developing the business-building curriculum, we knew inside that we were on the right track. But last week truly confirmed it.

I was invited to meet with other groups who were feeling that same thing in academia, major business and government—and are doing something about it.  What a blessing that was. It certainly has hit home.

These groups have been focused on research around the approach of conscious business.  What did they learn? That it not only works—it out-performs the S&P. Exciting news to say the least.

This group studied how conscious business operates (and some were companies worth half a billion dollars or more…The Container Store, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods and Stonyfield Farm, to mention just a few), so they know what conscious business is, but what was fascinating is that even though they know that this approach to business is very successful, they were still pondering how to get business owners to a successful application of this approach in their business.

Having spent the last seven years creating step-by-step conscious business-building processes called the BrandU Business Profit System using Unified Conscious Development (UCD) and successfully guiding you…and entrepreneurs like you around the world through the process with great success, we have that reliable way to guide business owners to develop sustainable conscious business that benefits them and the world.

Armed with this validation and new insights, we can now accelerate our work as we have hoped, with solid research and case studies behind us, and worldwide network of conscious capital just waiting to support budding conscious entrepreneurs.

We really are saving the world together.

Written by
W. Vito Montone

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Business doesn’t have to be all about the bottom line. In fact, highly successful businesses from Wal-Mart to eBay have embraced the notion that business shouldn’t just be all about getting rich. Says Steven Quinn, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Wal-Mart: “In the emerging world of extreme transparency, customers and employees will trust companies that are truly making a difference in their lives. Being good will trump looking good.”

With so many consumers becoming aware of their impact on the environment and on society itself, a business that continues to blunder ahead in blind pursuit of monetary riches risks becoming like the pariahs of Wall Street—seen as greedy, soulless, willing to trample the planet and everyone on it into oblivion so long as the insider few “get theirs.”

Entrepreneurs can do so much better than that! They can become conscious capitalists.

The idea of a triple bottom line that focuses on people and planet as well as profit has gained enormous traction ever since Anita Roddick first built her cosmetic company, around the idea of conscious business—using her company to advance social values such as green consumerism. Anita fought lifelong to stop the use of animal testing commonly used by every cosmetic company except hers. She built The Body Shop into a successful global company without ever once compromising her principles.

What a great way to use your business—to not only enrich your own life, but to improve the world around us. You can marry your social consciousness to your entrepreneurship—in fact, you’ll be in excellent company.

Patagonia not only makes gear for exploring the great outdoors, it does it in the most socially conscious way. The whole company is dedicated not only to helping people access and appreciate this beautiful world of ours, but to preserving it.

Likewise, Zappos, a billion-dollar shoe and apparel retailer, built its whole corporate culture on the notion that people really can be happy at work. How can you not love a company with a motto like “Create Fun and a Little Weirdness”, that actually prefers to connect with customers by telephone instead of leaving them to flounder in the wilderness of voicemail?

These companies understand the notion that you can consciously use your business to strengthen, not weaken, the bonds between people, while serving your planet, your employees, your fellow travelers on this great journey we call life—and your bottom line.

BrandU, too, embraces the idea of conscious business; in fact, the entire product line is built around helping others achieve their dream businesses. Our effort to create a $50 million micro-business subsidy to support business owners today is just one way we are using our passion to support entrepreneurs in making sure our world is a better and more prosperous place.

Conscious capitalism. What a great concept for the 21st century…and beyond!

© 2010 Castle Montone Limited.

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There are five million micro-businesses who earn under $5,000,000 in annual gross revenues and represent more than 40% of the Gross National Product (GNP) not being helped in today’s economy.

So…with a failed government stimulus and finance reform for micro-business, what’s next?

Something must be done; there’s no more time to waste…

So we’re picking up the slack.

We are proud to be working closely with our new COO, Larry Schwartz, to create a successful and impactful micro-business subsidy that will award $50 million in products and services to ten thousand business owners–but they must be ready and willing to do the work.

Are you?

We are…to the tune of sharing everything we’ve been working on for six years with entrepreneurs just like you from around the world…in every business type imaginable.

But…we need your help as to the “how.”

It is our intent to garner vested self-interest in the program for every recipient; therefore we want YOU to offer your opinions and ideas as to how you believe the subsidy program should be awarded.

The power lies in you; you’ll be a living, breathing part of the program development.

We must intend to increase financial independence, jobs and tax base through success and growth. With your invaluable feedback, we can create a program never seen before.

Ready to get started?

You can by sharing your thoughts about “how” you think the subsidy should work.

Just go HERE!

Written by Vito Montone

Continue Reading Fifty Million Subsidy for Small Biz

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Does the word “entrepreneur” seem a little overworked these days? Some might think so. Some think entrepreneurs are just all about get-rich-quick schemes. Billionaire Ted Turner called it another name for unemployed.

So…would it surprise you to know that just about everybody in American history was an entrepreneur?

Ha! Thought so. “Entrepreneur” means a person willing to engage in business without an assurance of profits, someone willing to assume both the risk and the management of a business. It comes from a very old French word meaning simply to do or to undertake something.

All the people who came to America looking for a new life came to do, and they came without a safety net. They were farmers, shopkeepers, craftsmen, each with a dream and the passion to make it come true. They knew that no one else was going to make it happen for them. So they rolled up their sleeves and created farms from wilderness, cities where there was only forest, and the strongest, most vibrant economy on earth based on the idea that what they dreamed could be achieved if they worked hard enough.

Now that’s entrepreneurship!

That spirit is alive and well today, but it’s been overlaid by the “get rich quick” hype that has given entrepreneurship a bad name. You know the spiel: “Buy this program and you’ll be rich!” As if anything, ever, came without work.

Real entrepreneurs know it’s not that easy. Those who succeed and make the rest of us envious went in prepared to put in some sweat before reaping the rewards. If you put in nothing of yourself—nothing is what you’ll get back.

Entrepreneurs flourish anywhere there are people with ideas—and that’s all of us! Who hasn’t toyed with the thought of being free of that dead-end job, being our own boss, living the life we want? It takes courage to cast yourself loose from the day job—but there’s plenty of that still out there, too.

Today’s most celebrated entrepreneurs often are not the ones who bring a new widget to market, but those who find ways to make what they do best—what they love—pay off.

At the age of 13 Debra Jane Sivyer was already using the proceeds from her first job to buy ingredients for the cookies she would later parley into a chain of over 600 stores. Cookies are nothing new. It was her drive to turn her passion into her life work that built Mrs. Fields Cookies.

All of us are entrepreneurs down deep inside. We’re born that way. We are all creative in our own way, all fired by some deep passion that we think “Boy, if I could do that all day, it wouldn’t even feel like work.” Real entrepreneurs aren’t focused on getting rich, but on doing what they love, all day, every day.

Work that doesn’t feel like work is the wellspring of true happiness.

So what’s your passion? And what’s holding you back? Maybe it’s time to take your vision and start down that new road. Roll up your sleeves and get going!

Written by Kim Castle

Continue Reading The Fire Inside—Rekindling the Entrepreneurial Spirit

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And…it’s for a global Fortune 500 brand.  The same kind I used to work with.

Looks like “big biz” is waking up. What do you think? Check out this ad. Leave your comments below.

**Again, I’m referring to the ad on the right not the article.

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