How to avoid capitalism whilst running a business in a capitalist world?
Even if you don't have a business, you're going to want to read this as it pertains to money and wealth.
I was chatting with a past client who is exploring starting a business.
She thinks she has much more to offer to this world ( 💁🏻♀️ And I couldn't agree more).
She desires to bring peace, comfort, and growth to others.
She wants to create a space where others can grow, be creative, make a change, make great money and become independent.
She shared the following:
“I don't believe making tons of money makes you rich, and I understand that real richness comes from the inside. Don't get me wrong; I would love to make much more money to support my parents growing old and, of course, to feel safe in a world I'm not privileged in.”
She then went on to ask this question:
I'm trying to step into the entrepreneurship world.
It's been a long path of overcoming my fears, and now I'm trying to figure out how to avoid capitalism while having a business in a capitalist world. and so many ethical questions that matter to me but slow me down simultaneously.
I would appreciate your insight on the ethics and capitalism issues or if you have any book recommendations?
I want to know how people with the mindset I have run fair wholesome businesses.
How can we grow a successful business in a capitalist society?”
I LOVE this question.
It's a burning one that passes through the hearts and mouths of many of the clients I work with.
Why?
Because they're heart centered.
They have big dreams, hearts & missions.
They care deeply about humanity, the earth and the people in it.
They desire a world where it's people before profit and not the other way around.
The clients I work with are so beautifully sensitive, it would hurt ( or haunt 👻) them to even think of screwing other people (or the earth) over for profit.
My Response….
If you desire to run a fair wholesome business, there's nothing stopping you.
Don't let the ethics slow you down, let them light 🔥 the fire in you,
to create the kind of business that contributes to humanity in amazing ways.
If the desire is in you, so too is everything else you need.
Don't let capitalism put you off ( I share ‘how’ below 😉).
In fact it’s vital you don’t, because peeps like you ARE the solution to capitalism.
You get to decide the kind of business you desire to create.
You get to decide how to run it too. You're free to choose.
Money and business are neutral, it's us humans who project our thoughts, beliefs and stories onto them. Both are vehicles and you get to choose how you use them.
You can choose to use them as vehicles to feed the detrimental affects of capitalism...
OR ...
You can choose to use them as vehicles and beacons of change and light in the world to create a conscious economy.
If choosing the latter, it will require doing the work on yourself.
It will require completely tapping in fully to the power in you AND healing your own relationship with money, especially if you want to create a space for others to grow, be creative, makes changes AND make good money.
It all starts with you.
How To Not Let Capitalism Put You Off!
Capitalism is focused on freedom and profit which in themselves are not the problem at all.
However I understand that we're speaking of the undesirable side effects and by-products associated with capitalism which are:
1. When private corporations focus on profit over people, the earth, nature etc.
( Fossil fuel companies. Fast fashion companies. Those with the value of profit over people. Those companies that pollute and contaminate water systems and ecosystems Erin Brockovich style.. 😡)
2. Competition which is ego driven.
There's winners and losers.
3. Inequality of income and distribution of wealth.
Colonialism and its impacts to this day.
4. Class Struggle / Exploitation / Racism.
There’s those with privilege and those without.
If we look at this on the collective and individual level, at the root of it all,
is the mindset of lack, scarcity and what I call ‘Shadow Power’.
As I shared above, money and business are neutral. They're vehicles.
It's us humans who project out stuff onto them and into them.
If we're coming from shadow power in ourselves, then money and business fuel shadow patterns in the world.
What's Shadow Power?
Power sourced from your shadow.
When motivated into action by our wounds and our fear, this is shadow power.
If you’re in your shadow power, you’re coming from a place of lack, scarcity, fear and doubt because you don’t feel enough on the inside, which feeds the belief : there is not enough on the outside.
You’re disconnected from your inner world, inner being and from your enough-ness.
Which means that when your soul is desiring MORE ( expansion, truth, growth, true expression of self & joy in your life), the disconnection from your soul means that your ego picks up the desire.
Your ego looks to source the solution more externally in what you have and do, not who you are being.
When I think of shadow power, I think of guys like Trump and Putin, but they are on the extreme side of the spectrum. As a collective and individuals, we are all here to navigate the path from our shadow into our Light.
😳
Shadow power is the outside in approach to life where happiness, worth, validation and self esteem are externally sourced in money, cars, relationship status, other people, in this, in that and in things that are external and outside of you.
This all comes with control, attachment and victim mentality.
Shadow power looks to control others - it’s ‘power over others’ which is very different to true power which is ‘power with others’.
With control comes anxiety as there’s a lack of trust in life, survival fears and emotional instability.
Ending Capitalism Begins Within And Starts With You.
It starts with you clearing your fears and making choices from a place of love, not fear, lack or scarcity.
It’s about clearing the conditioning and the past from your energy body, so you’re investing your energy in what you desire, not investing it according to your past or by the way things have always been done in your world.
And honestly, this is challenging. Letting go of fear and leaning into faith, love and trust, especially when it comes to money and business is no mean feat. I’m a work in progress.
What I can say is that it’s worth it. Because if you be or do anything outside of what your soul is calling you to be or do, or you play it safe due to fear and hold yourself back, there’s no avoiding that low grade, pervasive niggle that tugs at your sleeve saying: Hey. Something is not right here.
You can try to avoid it, numb it & dumb it all you want, but it just gets louder and louder, all the while you’re wondering why you’re feeling more and more miserable and dead on the inside.
Hence why a lot of the clients I work with share, that they can’t NOT pursue their dreams and desires because it’s too costly to their health and happiness.
As Stephen Pressfield shares below: the work then becomes, in its own demented way, a practice.
True Power: The Solution, The Antidote And The Remedy to Capitalism
True power IS the power in you.
It is internally sourced. The void within can only be filled by honouring the call of your own spirit.
This is what creates fulfilment AKA being fully filled on the inside by you, nothing external.
(There... the secret is out 🤭. )
When a client arrives to my doorstep and they’re lacking fulfilment, I know they're not fully tapped into the power of their spiritual body. This is where our work begins to help them reclaim their joy.
When you're being true to yourself and the desires of your own soul,
you create from a place of potential, enough-ness, love and abundance.
Not from fear and not from shadow.
There’s so many beautiful, heart centered peeps like you being called to step up, do business in new ways and shift our world from corporate to conscious.
From ego to soul. From fear to love.
Corporate comes from the world 'corpus' which literally means body.
To shift from corporate to conscious requires us to stop viewing the world through the physical eyes of the body, which are limited . Instead we are being called to see through the eyes of the soul, which are limitless as they can look beyond the physical 3D world and see limitless possibilities.
To be the kind of person who runs a fair wholesome business requires that you are fully tapped in the power in you AKA your 4 inner foundations and 4 bodies of power: the spiritual, mental, emotional & physical.
If you're not fully connected to your power, you don't get to create what you desire to create. If you do, it comes at a cost, sacrifice or price.
Porous inner foundations mean that you leak your power in various ways which means you move into depletion, lack, scarcity, shadow power and energetic debt. These massively impact your relationship with money and money is a foundational energy in business.
For those clients of mine who don’t have businesses, reclaiming their power naturally opened them up to receive job offers out of the blue where they worked less, were less stressed and got paid way more. It was a natural bonus side effect of the work we did.
Heal and dissolve the need for depletion, lack, scarcity, shadow power and energetic debt in you, and the world is your oyster. You then get to be the antidote to capitalism, and contribute to a conscious economy where money is circulated around our world in conscious ways that serve all.
A conscious economy takes the best of capitalism which is freedom and profit, whilst leaving the rest.
Your Official Invitation To Join Other Heart Centered Peeps & Create A Conscious Economy ✨
Let’s FREAKIN’ do this.
It’s time. It’s already happening too. Let’s join together and birth this new way of being in business, which is that of a Conscious Economy, which focuses on:
1. People, earth, nature AND profit.
There's no either/or scenario playing out, we get to have both and profit is used to benefit and serve humanity, AND the planet ( Nature/ Wildlife / Biodiversity.. etc).
Profit here is not just measured in monetary terms, but also in terms of joy and energy.
Profit in energetic terms is overflow which is an abundant state.
To be clear: if it hurts, harms or exploits others, the earth and nature, and if it personally depletes us, it's not profit.
Conscious businesses expand us, humanity, nature and have zero negative impact on the planet itself.
( This is something I'm even looking at now with my carbon footprint of my business 😳.. )
A world of conscious businesses make up a Conscious Economy where there's still plenty of money because money itself is not bad at all, but we are moving it in ways that is in alignment with the heart.
Money that serves the heart. YES.
The heart serving money. NO.
In other words, it’s serves the freakin’ greater good.
2. Collaboration over competition.
There’s women doing the exact same work as me, if it’s not the same, it’s the same same but different.
If I'm as passionate as I say I am about my mission on this planet, then it's brilliant that others share a similar mission. It’s brilliant that we are sharing similar messages and doing similar work because it's means this mission gets to be fulfilled.
And I don't need to do it all myself...gooooooooo earth team ✊.
We each have a role to play and when we step into our calling, that's where the riches are ( inside and out!).
If you step into your's, it doesn't mean that I can't step into mine.
If I step into mine, it doesn't mean that you can't step into your's.
You have a unique path and so do I.
When we choose abundance, it’s knowing, choosing and living the truth that when you're playing your part and I'm playing mine, there’s enough for all of us.. We need us all playing our parts for the collective.
There’s enough.
( Repeat that a few times and feel into how feckin’ good it feels to say that. )
If you're being called to do work that you love that serves the planet... and I'm being called to do similar work that I love, that serves the planet, it's not competition. We're teammates.
Your success shows me what's possible, and likewise my success does the same.
It’s business done from the place of abundance.
From a place of enough-ness.
Of collaboration over competition.
Conscious over corporate.
Soul over ego.
Abundant and wealthy over lack and scarcity.
Women supporting women.
Everyone supporting everyone.
3. Contribution.
No giving with obligation and resentment.
No giving because you’re afraid of what others will think if you don’t give.
No giving to get which is transactional giving, where expectation is pre-planned resentment.
No giving from depletion.
In other words…. no injecting anything toxic into your giving or service in the world.
We’re talking true giving and service, which means no green washing ( pretending to care about the environment when you actually don’t), light washing or performative acts of fake service.
This starts with giving to ourselves, and allowing ourselves to be ok with receiving from ourselves, so no more feeling guilty right after you say no to others and yes to yourself..
It’s giving from a place of overflow.
It’s giving and receiving with abundance.
I'm enough. You're enough. There is enough for all of us. As Rha Goddess shares, we operate from an economy of love, with a willingness to rise to new levels of generosity.
YES!
And all from a place of desire rather than expectation and obligation.
It feels good to even write this out… ❤️
4. An egalitarian society that is anti-racist.
Privilege is recognised, acknowledged and addressed.
Anti racism and equal opportunities are build into the foundations and structures of our lives and our businesses.
As a white person, it’s acknowledging our ignorance, our privilege and the role whiteness plays in our lives and business. It’s being committed to being an ally for those less fortunate or marginalised, whilst also creating a business that is a safe space for women/ people of all colours and races. That can be as simple as owning a book store that represents diverse writers/ authors, where all people including little kids, feel represented and seen in your bookstore (and it’s not all books with pictures of white kids… ).
It’s understanding that those in marginalised communities are tired from living in a world that is not set up in their favour.
If you’re black, brown or from a marginalised race or culture, it’s getting inspired by those who, despite racism and lack of equal representation in society, are leading the way. Women like Rha Goddess, Rachel Rodgers, Suzy Ashworth, Layla Saad, Hiro Boga and so many more. It’s opening your mind to the possibility that you too get to have wealth and power.
It’s feeding yourself with the stories of those who have gone before and are laying the path. It’s healing the layers of trauma that race inflicts, whilst also nourishing your soul on the days when you need to as well. It’s ensuring you receive support from those you feel safe and truly seen with.
For all of us, it’s committing to speaking up and not being afraid to be speak up.
It’s all of us dealing with fear and coming from a place of power, where we get to honour the call that is currently bellowing loudly in all of our hearts.
So, yes. You can 100% grow a successful, wholesome business and use it as vehicle to create a more conscious society for all.
You will have days where everything feels hard, impossible and like an uphill struggle.
You will have other days where you’re in the energy of your vision and you feel alive with zero doubt in your heart.
Engagement brings clarity.
Fear will meet you at every level AND that’s how you know you’re on the right path. You get to use it as your guide and support your growth.
Entrepreneurship is the biggest energetic declutter-er there is. Yes, it will strip you bare but in all the best ways, and it will grow you too into the person you came here to be.
And finally, know this: it’s all there for you, you just gotta choose to be open and available to it.
The question you just asked wouldn’t be alive in you, unless the solution and manifestation was alive somewhere inside of you too.
I 100% believe in you.
Brona x
P.S As a fellow book nerd, here’s a few of the book recommendations too:
It’s Not Your Money by Toshia Silver
Everything is Figureoutable by Marie Forleo
The Calling By Rha Goddess
Earth is Hiring by Peta Kelly
We Should All Be Millionaires by Rachel Rodgers
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