Be the change you wish to see in the world

Dear Lovely Business Owner,

This last  week, discovering that twenty two young people after enjoying a wonderful concert in Manchester were sadly killed, breaks my heart, and many others. It takes me back to when I was a student studying Peace, yes you read that correctly, I studied Peace Studies at Bradford University and graduated with a BA Hons in Peace Studies. During the course of my degree, we did spend time studying  how the seeds of wars are planted  and indeed how the seeds of peace are planted. We did of course study all about Gandhi .His famous phrase which he embodied ” Be the change you wish to see in the world,’ for me is more poignant than ever. As violence, and aggression rarely if ever resolves any issues, and it is the same with Manchester, only love, compassion, and empathy can do that.

This week, seeing the outpouring of love, compassion and empathy for those in Manchester has been enormously moving, and for those around the globe who have been affected, even a visit from the Queen, helped I am sure people to know that they mattered, that they were not alone and that were in the hearts of her Majesty and many millions of others.

Gandhi’s quote transports  me back to last Saturday, when I spent time with Leigh Daniel and her Project Positive Change members. Their work, to me, is more important than ever, as people more than ever before wish to see that their lives have meaning, that they matter and that they can make a difference to others, especially those who are struggling, who are in pain and who are needing help to turn their lives around. These ethical businesses and sensitive, heart-centred  business owners, who were present in that room close to West Brompton tube station, were doing extraordinarily lovely and life-changing things…

Enter.. the lovely, and equally entertaining Ruby Mcguire. She shared with us all how to make a little bit of content go a really long way, which truth be told was not only inspiring it was hugely practical as when you are running a business there are quite a few moving parts, and content marketing is one of those ongoing parts that works whilst you are sleeping, or having a cuppa or even chatting with a client, when done correctly. Ruby shared this, and shared from the heart her journey, which had us all close to tears. You felt her journey, you felt like she reached into our hearts and she shared her most vulnerable Brene Brown moments. She shared with her special sparkle of wit and compassion, which drew you into ‘Ruby worlds,’ and then she produced this gorgeous hand-made cards with uplifting quotes on and a colourful printed out flowchart in them reminding us all how to recycle our content in easy steps which even a blonde like me could understand It was what Seth Godin, calls a ‘lynchpin,’ moment… You can find more about this lovely and thoroughly witty lady Ruby here: http://www.rubymcguire.com

Next up was the lovely James Sanderson then shared his networking stories, which honestly, were both surprising and  fascinating. Truth be told, I have not done much face-to-face networking for a while, after a few years ago being put off and ever since I have spent far too much time than i would care to admit networking online which really is nowhere near as fun.. James explained how close were really all were to those who we wanted to contact, it was.. mind-blowing. For example, one of us wanted to get to know  Beyonce better and someone in the room knew someone her husband had worked with… He encouraged four of us to share our why for each of our businesses and one ladies story moved me to tears.

She is called Sam Livermore, even now I am tearing up just thinking of her and her work.  She has an auto-immune condition called Ankylosing Spondylitis. And in 2012  started writing anonymous love letters and leaving them in the hospital where she was receiving physiotherapy. She discovered that these letters just by writing them had a profound healing impact on her, as well as those who received them. Having a complete stranger write you a loving letter was restoring their faith in humanity and in themselves and ,now she does this all over the world. To me, this is such a life-changing, simple and powerful concept it moved me to tears and even now I am deeply moved by it and by Sam and her work.

I am so deeply moved by Sam’s work, as the vision of my work and my purpose has always been to re-connect people back to themselves on a deep level, especially emotionally. When we re-connect back to ourselves  there is a limitless ‘return on connection.  Our ‘return on connection,’ to ourselves; when this is done, when we love and accept ourselves, when we listen deeply to ourselves, when we acknowledge ourselves, when we see and honour ourselves, when we share our gifts with each other and the world; we become limitless.  Sam discovered that as she did this, she started to feel better and has been on a healing journey ever since. You can find this lovely, gentle and powerful lady, who truly is a ‘Gladiator of Love,’  here: http://sharetheloveletters.com and join her wonderful inspiring, life-changing movement.

I loved how James encouraged us all to go a bit ‘old school’ and really get clear on who we knew, which felt like a step back in time in a good way. It felt like we were just looking into our communities to see how we could help each other, which felt really empowering and uplifting for all of us.

Then, we heard from the gorgeous Karin Monster-Peters, whose journey had been quite an emotional rollercoaster which was heart-wrenching at times living with an narcissistic parent, for example and , yet she kept on sharing how with each seeming disaster she managed, I really do not know how, to turn it around and find a positive . For example, she  found a way to turn her life around from leaving her homeland to after her time at University radically creating her own unique role and starting up  her own child psychologist practice  helping the gift and highly sensitive children.  Her confidence, her practicality, her courage even now was awe-inspiring.  …

Her unquestioning sense of purpose, with each chapter she shared was like nothing I have witnessed and was quite extraordinary. I loved how she kept sharing how she just kept adding tools to her ‘tool box,’ like the Passion Test;  a process which she went through with Leigh, which revealed just how important her furbabies were to her, and just why her Project Positive Change meant to her, and the ever-growing community.  Highly enlightening. Karin now lives in Holland can be found at http://www.highlysensitiveparents.com

And then there was Suzie Bartle, who was  adorable, bright and lively, to put it mildly.  She shared with us her journey from traditional PR, to training as a health coach back to her own Conscious PR, which was like pictures from a movie. She revealed  how one client during Paris fashion week wanted her to do whatever it took to get her needs met, no matter who it hurt, or what it took, and how she suddenly started to question what she was doing, even though it might have looked outwardly glamorous, it was not sitting right with her.

Her dramatic story took her our of her then beloved PR world and took her on a journey of retraining withe Institute of Integrative Nutrition, promoted by a diagnosis of Crohns Disease. She thought that she had closed the door on PR, but people kept on coming back into her life wanted her, the adorable Suzie to do their PR for her. They kept on coming and we all know that what you resist, persists don’t we?  Well, eventually she went back to it and listening to the universe, as at first it’s a few nudges and then it becomes louder and louder and louder, until it becomes unavoidable which was what happened to Suzie and so her company  Well-spirited PR was borne and she can see and feel she loves her work now as it is on her terms with her values and working with people who she adores who treasure her and who she equally treasures. She not only does PR for clients, she teaches it and you feel her care, her empathy and compassion with which she does it too. Suzie can be found at:http://www.wellspiritedpr.co

Truth be told, I had a bit of ‘Bridget Jones Moment,’ and  I arrived a little late on the Saturday morning, as I could not quite work out on the Tube Map, what the disjointed lines meant, so  got a bit lost, and when I eventually realised, I asked a lovely London Underground chap, who guided me out of the Tube station in the direction of two overground trains to get to West Brompton, where Leigh’s event was being held… so.. I missed the lovely guy Sean Patricks, better known as: ‘That guy who loves the Universe,’ and only caught the very last few sentences literally. He kindly gave us all one of his gorgeous ‘Spiritual Swag,’ mugs in our Goodie Bags, and mine could not have been more perfect, the writing on it was: “Freakin’ Miracle Worker,’ which I totally love and feel like I am sometimes, not always 🙂

You can find out all about lovely Sean here. https://www.thatguywholovestheuniverse.com who was talking about the publishing books, as he has started his own publishing company, bless his heart, how inspiring 🙂

To ‘Be the change you wish to see  in the world,’ like Gandhi embodies, requires support, so Leigh Daniels membership community for heart-centred entrepreneurs most definitely provide this, you can find out more about joining here: http://www.ProjectPositiveChange.com

You will need help and support with being a ‘Freakin Miracle Worker,’  and with  getting your message out into the world, as it is tricky to ‘be the change,’ and let others know about it,  which is where I can help, here’s more information about how I can help you here : http://www.theblondepreneur.com/spiritual-pr/

There was so many other lovely, and inspiring people in that room that day, who touched my heart, and inspired me and helped me so much to continue my new chapter in business who I will always be grateful to having met, you know who you are  and do get in touch as I’d love to blog about you too 🙂 I’m a bit shocking with names, so do forgive if I cannot remember yours, it’s nothing personal, and it most certainly does not take away the profound impact you had on me that day and continue to, not one little bit.

Much love, Carrie x