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Sometimes you just have to take a leap and build
your wings on the way down. –Kobi Yamada

Important Note: This post is by my business partner, Tracy, who runs pretty much everything around here and shields you all from my weirdness and complete inability to get more than one thing done per day. (If our business were publicly traded, Tracy would be the CEO and I would be the crazy guy blowing shit up in the research labs). Anyway, before the rumors start you should know that Tracy is happily married and I have an amazing girlfriend.

Many people talk about their love of personal development and spiritual growth, but they often try to practice it in a vacuum.  They’ll read books, meditate, go to seminars, write about it and dialogue with other like-minded people.  I’d like to suggest a radical paradigm shift. Let’s take personal development out of a vacuum and place it squarely in the midst of business.

I’m going to tell a piece of my own story here, though it feels uncomfortable for me to do so because this post isn’t about Clay or me.  However, I felt that sharing a bit more about our work relationship might embolden others to take the same risk.

I had never heard of Clay before the day I joined one of his courses in April 2009.  I wasn’t into Internet Marketing and I didn’t know anyone connected with Clay. I stumbled across something he had written, saw that he was opening up one of his courses for the first time and I jumped on board. Part of the lifetime membership included a half-hour private call with Clay.  Those 30 minutes changed both of our lives because as we talked business my intuition was telling me there was a greater connection to be made there. My inner compass was pointing true north.

Every person has this same inner compass, though most are unaware of it.

After that first call, I made sure I was on every mentorship call, listening to Clay and trying to understand what the connection was that I knew needed to be made. I finally saw an opening: There were a couple of things in the first edition of his website that I thought could be better organized so I volunteered to help Clay with that.

After several months Clay offered me a position, which I accepted after he and I had fully explored the pros and cons of bringing me on board. Many have wondered why I originally volunteered my time. Here’s the reason:

I believe that every person’s purpose in life is to give love to everyone we meet, though the expression of that love will look very different for each one of us.

I’ve heard so many people say, “I want to keep my personal life separate from my business life.” I find that attitude deeply disturbing because I think that is precisely what is wrong with most businesses today. Everyone loves to talk about authenticity and accountability, but few are willing to enter into the risk it takes to see these things worked out in their own lives.

I’m not saying that we need to be best friends with every person we work with. Nor am I advocating that we indiscriminately share all parts of our lives with everybody we work for. What I am suggesting, though, is that we bring the very best of who we are (not just what we do) to our workplace. Wouldn’t you love to deeply impact at least one person where you work? I want to impact others with love and compassion, with challenging them where needed, and with speaking words of life if they’re open to it. And I welcome the same from others, both in and outside of work.

Imagine how amazing our world would be if people were as focused on loving everyone they work with as they are on actually doing a great job.

Customers, clients, employers, independent contractors and affiliates would be impacted. Clay often says that work is sacred. That’s true on so many levels. Picture the transformation that would take place if we each committed to fiercely loving at least one person we work with. What if we looked at all of our relationships as the primary place where personal development took place?

I’m not saying this is easy. It isn’t. It is so hard on some days—brutally hard—that it brings me to tears. Literally. It often requires great sacrifice—either of time, ego, self-will, or sleep! But that’s okay. Who said love was easy? Some days I’ll have a huge pile of work to get done, and that will invariably be the day Clay wants to talk about personal stuff. Other days Clay is working hard to meet some tight deadline but I need to process how I’m feeling about a mistake I made that’s going to cost us in some way. Sometimes we’re both at full throttle but one of us needs to be called on our BS right in the midst of it.

We always make time for each other because the other person takes precedence over “work.” This is the greater work that the business is nested within.

Personal growth and development rarely happen on a timetable when it’s convenient. Here’s the amazing thing we’ve found: When we put each other before the business and before work, we find we actually get more done because we have an increase in emotional energy to do dynamic work. It enables each of us to do what we do with greater love for all. Not only that, but even though I have never worked this hard in my life, my husband often comments on the amazing joy and energy that I have.

Personal development isn’t just about supporting each other in some woo-woo way. It’s also about challenging each other. When business is moving at the speed of light and a problem arises, it can be easy to stop moving from our true selves and move into closure and a defensive position. When Clay and I encounter a difficult business situation, if one of us closes down and starts to get negative about it the other one points it out immediately. We’ll say to each other, “Let’s open up and make this decision fearlessly, not from a shut down, defended stance.” The other day Clay said this to me: “Truth is like a cleansing fire. Truth is like un-distilled life. Truth is life-giving.” Sometimes that truth is wonderful to hear but other times it’s really hard to hear. Really. Hard. But when that truth is given in love, it truly does bring forth more life.

Imagine what the world would be like if every business decision were made from a place of truth and love, rather than from a place of deception, closure and fear.

I was hesitant to use the “L” word in this post because many people have a pretty funky view of what love really is, what love really looks like. Listen, we still have to make some hard decisions. We still need to say “no” to some requests. Love doesn’t mean being a sap and letting people walk all over us and the business. But it does mean that when we need to say no or make a tough business decision that we do it from open, undefended hearts and not from a place of fear and self-protection.

If we need to have a firm or difficult discussion with someone, the goal is to always uphold the other person’s dignity and to speak from a place of deep love and respect.

There’s no tolerance at all for showing disrespect. It’s not that we always handle things perfectly. Not even close! But Clay and I are right there to call each other back up to higher ground—to our true, loving selves. We don’t step into inner flogging and beat ourselves up. Instead, we pick ourselves up and get right back onto the path of love.

It’s my hope that the commitment we have to continually uncover and discover the love we have within spills over and somehow touches each person that is in any way connected with our business.

I understand many entrepreneurs’ fear of moving onto this path. It’s definitely very messy. The lines are blurred. Clay and I are now business partners. I hold him accountable when it’s needed–and he does the same for me. We’ve also become friends, the kind that insist on deep levels of gritty integrity, no games. On top of all that we challenge each other nearly daily to live from our deepest selves. We often fail the other. In short, we are human.

If you don’t like messy, this isn’t for you. It takes a deep level of commitment to stick it out and not walk away. Yes, it will cost you. But it’s so worth it.

I know it’s scary to think about entering a relationship like this—whether you’re the entrepreneur or the employee. The unspoken question is, “What if it fails? What if this person stabs me in the back?”

Sure, there’s risk, but the alternative is to have a business like any other: Run on fear, control and self-protection, focused solely on acquisition. And a business run like that will cost you—and the world—even more in the long run.

I believe that love is never a waste, no matter the outcome. There have been times when I’ve poured love into others and have been metaphorically slapped in the face for it. I don’t care.

Love is never wasted. Never.

What we stand to gain in the world as we begin to take a risk and love when it seems scary, ridiculous and even foolish to do so seems completely worth it to me. Clay once said to me, “We have the opportunity to change the face of Internet Marketing.” On hard days I remind myself that creating massive change often requires sacrifice and that it’s completely worth it.

I want to invite you to step into this beautiful risk. Let’s move our businesses into the realm of personal development by taking the first step and choosing to love all we come into contact with each day as we work. You may think it needs to be a two-way street with both parties agreeing to this, but it doesn’t. You can still love, you can still give freely and you can still insist on personal development for yourself in the workplace whether or not the other person ever chooses to join in. Start today by being ridiculously generous when it comes to issues of the heart.

I’d really like to know what do you think: Would you welcome a work relationship like this? Do you think the risk is worth it? Are you willing to be a business owner who would welcome your independent contractors and employees to speak the truth to you, even when it’s hard to hear? Where do you think love’s place is in the business world? Let me know your thoughts.

The Marketing Program is a step-by-step, walk-you-by-
the-hand bootcamp.

Each month, we give you ONE (and no more than one) "marketing project" to complete in your business.

You do that one project each month . . . and we guarantee that if you do the stuff, you'll double your online income during the next 12 months, or we'll double your money back.

Anyway, each monthly marketing project is a plain -as-day, from A-Z, step-by-step, no B.S. blueprint (that has been tested and proven to work over and over again) for getting multiple on-demand cash infusions into your business.