This year I became a beekeeper. It wasn't intentional but when our farm intern's hive swarmed, we were able to catch it into a new hive with a new queen. Both colonies survived and when our intern left, she gave me the new hive as a parting gift.  Suffice it to say that I am brand spankin' new at this. Given my high self-expectation barometer, I think I've done fairly well: I've spotted the queen...

The first call for the fall cohort of Foundations is next Tuesday and I have to say I am so excited about the group who have chosen to join us this round. This work is introspective, it's worthwhile, and it's not for the faint of heart. But one of the things I love most about the folks who come into this work is that they're not afraid to work toward positive change : in their...

Last week I told you to “plan for chaos” and if you were reading that thinking, sure Helen, but how about in real life? I wouldn’t blame you. Because it’s one thing to plan and a whole other thing to put that plan into action. Luckily, that’s my sweet spot: moving big ideas into the real world. Helping you make the extraordinary happen. The thing about chaos is that it’s always unexpected. Rather, I’m using the...

Recently I was having a conversation with my friend, Nikki Groom (stay tuned for that podcast episode) and we were talking about planning for chaos. If that sounds super nerdy, you’re absolutely right & I love that about us. Essentially, most of the planning apps/agendas/courses out there will have you plan for a best case scenario. They assume that you won’t have unexpected “unproductive” (aka rest) days. They assume that you’ll be consistently producing. They assume that you...

Can we all agree by now that growth for growth’s sake is a garbage idea? Our news feeds are filled with examples of how it breaks economies, destroys ecosystems, and damages communities. Growth for growth’s sake is a revenue-focused mandate, reaping wealth for shareholders while workers require food stamps to get by. And this is exactly why we as entrepreneurs and CEOs, as people who are modeling a new status quo, need to redefine growth,...

Last week I wrote to you about marketing (or rather, marketing in a way that isn’t an example of the sleazy, slimy, manipulative tactics we see all over our feeds). But something came up in the most recent Motorcycle Club call so important to this marketing conversation that I had to share it with you…and that’s GROWTH. There are 2 types of growth: expansive and deepening. As the CEO of your rising business, you absolutely must be discerning about...

Something that comes up a lot in the Love & Badassery Motorcycle Club is the topic that marketing feels icky, slimy, manipulative (see last week’s post), and downright tiring. This makes sense. The Motorcycle Club attracts people with high-standards of integrity. So I’d like to share with you what I shared with them, hopefully offering a mindset shift around marketing your business in a way that feels good (or at least, not so icky). First, separate yourself...

Is it just me or are you feeling tired of takedown culture as well? For clarity, I’m not speaking about accountability. I’m speaking about our particular brand of pitchforks and torches when someone screws up…or as mentor Tanya Geisler refers to it, “canonization/demonization”. We place online entrepreneurs up on pedestals where they can do no wrong (canonization) until they make a mistake, at which point we collectively attack and take them down (demonization). The very...

Last week when I was talking about being an artisanal business owner (and neither Gucci nor Walmart — ICYMI you can read that post here), I asked you about your goals. What do you want from your business? What do you want in your life? But when we’re speaking about designing regenerative businesses, we want to go deeper than your next goal. We want to consider the ripple of your work. I recently saw a post...

I’ve been chewing on something since I listened to a podcast snippet the other day. This person was talking about being very happy setting their business up as a “Walmart” model instead of a “Gucci” model — aka high volume vs high ticket. I love this for them: they’ve realized they want to be affordable for almost anyone and they feel quite successful with this model. AND It got me thinking: I don’t want to...

As much as I like to break the rules, there’s one I try very hard to abide by and it’s this: the 90 Day Marketing Rule. This rule says that what you do today, you will see the result in 90 days. Of course, life and business have flex and some things happen faster than others but, if you look back to the end of March and what you were doing then…chances are you can...

I was speaking with a client recently about our roles as leaders, as people who want to effect change in the world, as human beings who feel passionately about justice and equity. These conversations aren’t separate from the work I do, they’re an integral part of it. In order to build a thriving business, we need to define your role as a leader. We need to know how you show up best in the world....

Phew. This post was initially going to be about takedown culture. It was going to be about our particular brand of pitchforks and torches, and how we have a tendency to place online entrepreneurs up on pedestals where they can do no wrong until they make a mistake, at which point we collectively attack and take them down. Then the news happened...and all of a sudden, I needed to speak about more than that. I've...

  I'm a karate parent and the other day, while I was sitting on the benches at the dojo, I was watching the kids doing their warm up routine. When we started going there, my kid couldn't do a single sit up. But every week, twice a week, she did her small crunches. Now she can do sit ups with the best of them. We see this metaphor in the fitness industry allthetime: start where...

Happy almost summer! In all this talk about regenerative business design, I thought you might want to peek behind the scenes on my own business a little. Summer is almost here and that brings a lot of changes around here. You probably already know that I live on a permaculture farm. We host certificate classes here throughout the summer months and during the growing season, there's a lot to do outside. With the kid home...

Last week's email resonated with a lot of you and I'm so glad. Many of us were raised to be subservient, to not speak up for ourselves, and to shy away from conflict. Moving into a place of unapologetic BEINGness isn't easy; it takes work and we will make mistakes in the process. If it wasn't clear in last week's email, being unapologetic doesn't mean "don't apologize when you fuck up". A good apology (and...

I’ve been reading The Body Is Not An Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor and it has me thinking about all of the ways we apologize for being. For being in bodies that don’t fit the media norm. For being in bodies that speak, behave, and believe differently than the status quo. For being in bodies that have historically (and presently) been intentionally marginalized. Of course, this is the job of the book — to get us thinking...

One of the things I notice in my clients when the news cycle gets extra hard (hello, over and over again for the last 2 years plus) is that they start fretting over the plan, iterating their business design, and organizing their To Do List. It makes sense. We're sensitive folk and when the world feels like it's on fire, your To Do List is one thing you can control. So let's lean into that, shall...

I've got big feels right now, including righteous anger, judgement, and desperate frustration. When I see rich white male folks in power making decisions they know nothing about! that will actively harm millions of lives, it makes it kinda hard to focus on my own page, my own business, my own profitability. So when I sat down to write to you, I wanted to come back to a topic that's dear to my heart:  how...

"Why can't it be simple?" tl;dr: it can be. Sorta. One of the reasons I'm so anti-hustle / bro-marketing (one reason of many) is that it's victim shaming: if their formula doesn't work for you, then it's your fault...not the fault of the formula. One of the reasons I love permaculture design so much is that it's agile, responsive, and iterative all while being based on what's actually happening on the ground. As an entrepreneur,...