I was asked by Emory University to write about where I am, currently, with my business.
My first inclination was to write: Being an Entrepreneur sucks, is too hard, and I ain't doing it no more... but that would be a lie.
First off, I am a not /really/ an Entrepreneur, I am a Healer. You can call me whatever else you want based on my degrees, experience, and skin in the game (and my own kids would probably laugh for days and tell you all about the times I have been "mean Mom" and totally missed the boat on healing words and sometimes actions) - but when the rubber meets the road, there it is. I went through my own hot mess of a childhood and young adulthood, found some things I know through experience and research work to get people to a better place of wholeness, and do my best to pay all that forward, despite ever being a flawed and imperfect human being who is sometimes in need of healing as well.
Secondly, I am stubborn. I crave challenges and have been known to create them even when there was nothing in my way. This is both a strength and an obvious weakness, but it means that I see adversity as something to be faced and not given in to. Sometimes this has not served me well, but most of the time things tend to work out ok - and, sometimes, they work out better than I even imagined.
Third, every time I have tried to give up on this path I am on, I have somehow been brought right back to it. Sometimes, painfully dragged, and other times surprisingly just reunited with the old road. And, I suspect, I am not alone in this phenomenon, though I deeply believe it has less to do with Divine Intervention from without - and more to do with the Divine Intervention from within. We do tend to manifest what we bring to ourselves. Not in some sort of cliched magical way, but in a very real way in which we are not only a part of the Universe, but we are microcosms of the energy that ties us all together. Ok - enough of that, for now.
This brings me back to what I DID write:
After I am done with the post grad classes I am taking, I know I need to dig deeper into understanding the financial side of my business ventures, but for now getting a solid foundation of a book and product price lists for my coaching services [has to be] enough.
My struggle has been sort of frustrating to me in the sense that I am trying to create something sort of unique in 3 very "different" markets: even though most people see the connection between education, mental health, and physical wellness, the established systems for providing these services to people are entrenched in bureaucracy, politics, and money. My audience is also split between my own cultures of women's rights, access to holistic education for adolescents, and my connection with helping military and first-responders and their families get adequate mental health care. The current paradigm says to narrow your audience, break each of the services I want to provide into scale-able (and traditional) concepts, but the traditional constructs aren't working in the way I want them to. While you can one size fit all certain programs for certain demographics, the nature of the systems themselves (mental health, education, fitness, women's health, veteran and first responder care) are broken and don't truly serve the majority of people in an individualized manner.
Now, I've been told that my scope is too large and that I am naive to think that I can solve one, let alone more than one, of these issues. I guess my connecting with Seed Spot was an attempt to get some clarity to my actual goals and to have more concrete steps I can take to scale these massive issues down to bite sized chunks. I know that taking on entire Industries sounds ridiculous to some, but we have to change the way we provide education and health services so we can decrease the growing numbers of children, in particular, who are depressed, suicidal, and homicidal. To provide a better quality of life to those who are otherwise marginalized, and to help those who have been victimized find hope and clarity - these are some of my deepest goals. I just need to find out how that's going to look outside my head.
#micdrop?
In my mind, the mic didn't drop. I actually sat there for a little bit and waited for some lightening bolt of awareness to wake me up from this sense of feeling I have of not being where I want to be and being stuck being tired, broke, and feeling farther away from my dreams than ever before. Yet, I know those are untrue and all constructs of an ego that is forever working against me when it isn't being fed with constant accolades and immediate feelings of success.
I also look at the ridiculously small tasks I have placed for myself and think, "How can you create an empire when all you are building is a room?" Yet, I know from my own experience which I used to create my own coaching programs, that you build a room so you can build a house, expand to a mansion, and eventually create your palatial, world encompassing, masterpiece of architectural glory.
You see, we see success as being this massive set of enormous goals we set for ourselves: we strive to lose 50+lbs, run marathons, land the dream job, create a perfect home life, get the luxury car, live in a mansion, walk the red carpet... because that's what we're inundated with in media, and that's what we're TOLD success *looks* like. Can you attain those things? Sure! If that's what you really want, there are ways to attain it. You just have to be willing to do the things that will get you there. Doing those things quickly also comes with more sacrifice - health, love, morals, and sometimes spiritual grace. This is not a truism, but the more we strive for an ideal of success that is not truly part of our own personal paradigms, the more we deviate from real success.
My desire to change not just one - but a few - Industries, is indeed a massive goal. And yet, it aligns with who I am; not only my education, experience, and skin in that game of life - but also with what I believe my purpose is. It's not the size of the goals that is the problem, but how you fit in to the process of reaching them. Sure, society is going to tell me my vision of success is ridiculous, and will tap into my own "group think" ideas of why they are right, because that's how we keep each other from truly succeeding. When your friends are overweight, they don't want you losing weight. When your roommate smokes, they don't want you to quit. When your family are miserable, they don't want you beating your depression. When one person is ready to change, they don't need permission from the village.
So, I will continue to work with individuals and eventually corporations, write my book(s), develop more curriculum, and learn the business aspects of entrepreneurialship that I need to monetize and grow - so that I can help chip away at the old ways of our Industries that are broken. Personally, I will also continue to live as authentically to the life that I teach others to achieve, and build relationships that will foster success in each of us. Because, success is not something we should seek - success is something we build, inside - out.
<3 ~ Jonni Khat
My first inclination was to write: Being an Entrepreneur sucks, is too hard, and I ain't doing it no more... but that would be a lie.
First off, I am a not /really/ an Entrepreneur, I am a Healer. You can call me whatever else you want based on my degrees, experience, and skin in the game (and my own kids would probably laugh for days and tell you all about the times I have been "mean Mom" and totally missed the boat on healing words and sometimes actions) - but when the rubber meets the road, there it is. I went through my own hot mess of a childhood and young adulthood, found some things I know through experience and research work to get people to a better place of wholeness, and do my best to pay all that forward, despite ever being a flawed and imperfect human being who is sometimes in need of healing as well.
Secondly, I am stubborn. I crave challenges and have been known to create them even when there was nothing in my way. This is both a strength and an obvious weakness, but it means that I see adversity as something to be faced and not given in to. Sometimes this has not served me well, but most of the time things tend to work out ok - and, sometimes, they work out better than I even imagined.
Third, every time I have tried to give up on this path I am on, I have somehow been brought right back to it. Sometimes, painfully dragged, and other times surprisingly just reunited with the old road. And, I suspect, I am not alone in this phenomenon, though I deeply believe it has less to do with Divine Intervention from without - and more to do with the Divine Intervention from within. We do tend to manifest what we bring to ourselves. Not in some sort of cliched magical way, but in a very real way in which we are not only a part of the Universe, but we are microcosms of the energy that ties us all together. Ok - enough of that, for now.
This brings me back to what I DID write:
After I am done with the post grad classes I am taking, I know I need to dig deeper into understanding the financial side of my business ventures, but for now getting a solid foundation of a book and product price lists for my coaching services [has to be] enough.
My struggle has been sort of frustrating to me in the sense that I am trying to create something sort of unique in 3 very "different" markets: even though most people see the connection between education, mental health, and physical wellness, the established systems for providing these services to people are entrenched in bureaucracy, politics, and money. My audience is also split between my own cultures of women's rights, access to holistic education for adolescents, and my connection with helping military and first-responders and their families get adequate mental health care. The current paradigm says to narrow your audience, break each of the services I want to provide into scale-able (and traditional) concepts, but the traditional constructs aren't working in the way I want them to. While you can one size fit all certain programs for certain demographics, the nature of the systems themselves (mental health, education, fitness, women's health, veteran and first responder care) are broken and don't truly serve the majority of people in an individualized manner.
Now, I've been told that my scope is too large and that I am naive to think that I can solve one, let alone more than one, of these issues. I guess my connecting with Seed Spot was an attempt to get some clarity to my actual goals and to have more concrete steps I can take to scale these massive issues down to bite sized chunks. I know that taking on entire Industries sounds ridiculous to some, but we have to change the way we provide education and health services so we can decrease the growing numbers of children, in particular, who are depressed, suicidal, and homicidal. To provide a better quality of life to those who are otherwise marginalized, and to help those who have been victimized find hope and clarity - these are some of my deepest goals. I just need to find out how that's going to look outside my head.
#micdrop?
In my mind, the mic didn't drop. I actually sat there for a little bit and waited for some lightening bolt of awareness to wake me up from this sense of feeling I have of not being where I want to be and being stuck being tired, broke, and feeling farther away from my dreams than ever before. Yet, I know those are untrue and all constructs of an ego that is forever working against me when it isn't being fed with constant accolades and immediate feelings of success.
I also look at the ridiculously small tasks I have placed for myself and think, "How can you create an empire when all you are building is a room?" Yet, I know from my own experience which I used to create my own coaching programs, that you build a room so you can build a house, expand to a mansion, and eventually create your palatial, world encompassing, masterpiece of architectural glory.
You see, we see success as being this massive set of enormous goals we set for ourselves: we strive to lose 50+lbs, run marathons, land the dream job, create a perfect home life, get the luxury car, live in a mansion, walk the red carpet... because that's what we're inundated with in media, and that's what we're TOLD success *looks* like. Can you attain those things? Sure! If that's what you really want, there are ways to attain it. You just have to be willing to do the things that will get you there. Doing those things quickly also comes with more sacrifice - health, love, morals, and sometimes spiritual grace. This is not a truism, but the more we strive for an ideal of success that is not truly part of our own personal paradigms, the more we deviate from real success.
My desire to change not just one - but a few - Industries, is indeed a massive goal. And yet, it aligns with who I am; not only my education, experience, and skin in that game of life - but also with what I believe my purpose is. It's not the size of the goals that is the problem, but how you fit in to the process of reaching them. Sure, society is going to tell me my vision of success is ridiculous, and will tap into my own "group think" ideas of why they are right, because that's how we keep each other from truly succeeding. When your friends are overweight, they don't want you losing weight. When your roommate smokes, they don't want you to quit. When your family are miserable, they don't want you beating your depression. When one person is ready to change, they don't need permission from the village.
So, I will continue to work with individuals and eventually corporations, write my book(s), develop more curriculum, and learn the business aspects of entrepreneurialship that I need to monetize and grow - so that I can help chip away at the old ways of our Industries that are broken. Personally, I will also continue to live as authentically to the life that I teach others to achieve, and build relationships that will foster success in each of us. Because, success is not something we should seek - success is something we build, inside - out.
<3 ~ Jonni Khat
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