How to Grow Your Business Intentionally and Authentically with the 4 Ps | By Marcy Nelson-Garrison (UPDATED)

The following article is adapted from an article that first appeared in Choice Magazine V8I1, March 2010.

In Marcy Nelson-Garrison's really helpful previous article she described The 3 Stages of Building Your Coaching Business - and asks where are YOU in this process? This great follow-up article looks at the 4 Ps of intentionally and authentically growing your business.

Building a coaching business takes a lot of time and effort. It's a creative process that cannot be rushed - with a natural rhythm which is different for each person. Just like an artist, while we cannot rush or force the creative process, there are steps you can take to be more intentional with your progress towards full authentic expression in your business.

So, in this article we're going to explore the four P's; Passion, Permission, Play and Prototype - and how embracing them can help accelerate your movement in growing your business authentically.

The 4 P's of Intentionally and Authentically Growing Your Business Are:

1) Passion

You must create from passion regardless of whether you are putting together a business model, writing an ebook or designing a workshop or retreat.

Your passion is the energetic compass to your essence, your gift and most importantly what you are hungry to deliver to your clients.

It's important to carve out time to listen and let that energetic compass be your guide. Ask your self; What am I called to do? What am I hungry for? What gets me excited about the work I do?

Passion is magnetic and will draw resources and help to you but more than that it comes from your core essence. But over-doing is a sure fire way to get disconnected from passion, so it's important to guard your time and energy for the best possible results.

2) Permission

You have unique experiences, wisdom and expertise – claim it! You must give yourself permission to know what you know.

One of the most important assignments I give my clients is to spend time with the question "What do I know?"

Carve out a couple of hours to mind-map and reflect on this question in the context of the work you do with your clients.

Choose a context that you have passion around. For me it started with a simple question – what do I authentically know about creativity and the creative process? For you it might be asking what do I know about transition or wellness or relationships?

3) Play

Creating is a blast, it's playtime and anything goes.

Play means fully engaging in a creative brainstorming process without a judge and jury sitting on your shoulder. So schedule regular time to brainstorm and play with words and ideas. And add plenty of stimulus to get the ideas really percolating.

There are a number of "fields" to play in when it comes to stimulus. I developed the three circles of stimulus to help guide clients in generating ideas.

Begin by spending more time in the outermost circle I refer to as the "Cosmic Soup". The field of play here engages imagery, intuition, prayer, play, movement, meditation, guided visualization etc.

These methods offer the most direct route to your deep wisdom and knowing.

4) Prototype

For the creative process to flourish and expand feedback is essential. So you have to put your creation (your prototype) out into the world and see what happens.

All feedback is useful even if it's not what you want to hear; it guides you to refine your message, your product, your brand. Feedback is in effect your creative partner, and as you receive and use the feedback your ideas will evolve and deepen.

As you create, hold your passion, direction and intention close to your heart and be flexible with the form it will take. Carve out time for creative play and to listen for your own deep wisdom. And most of all, trust the creative process.

Questions for you to consider:

1. PASSION: Are you creating from Passion - if not, why not? What's stopping you? Where do you need to trust your intuition more?
2. PERMISSION: What do you know? Where do you need to give yourself Permission to create, to be seen?
3. PLAY: Are you Playing enough? Where do you need to let go of the judge and "go for it"? How can you bring more Play into your work?
4. PROTOTYPE: What do you have that is "good enough" that you could put out in the world and ask for feedback on? What ideas do you have that you could develop an initial Prototype as a way of getting started (whether it's a tool, product, book/ebook, workshop, coaching program or something else?)

If you liked this article on authenticity, intention and growing your coaching business, you may also like:

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• 12 Easy Ideas to Get More Done AND Have Fun Too!
• It's Showtime! Powerful Lessons in Authenticity From Two Movies | By Ben Dooley

Contributing Author:

Marcy Nelson-Garrison is a transformational product mentor, certified professional co-active coach, visual artist and the founder of the Coaching Toys online store. Coaching since 1999, Marcy has a passion for applying creative processes to personal development. She is the Author of Creating Aha Moments, Creative Right-Brain Coaching Exercises for Individual, Group and Team Breakthroughs, The card deck: Q? Basics, Open-Ended Questions For Coaching Mastery and the popular Card Deck Master Class. You can sign-up for Marcy's newsletter and download the eBooks Creating Aha Moments and 10 Ways To Profit From Creating a Card Deck free here >>

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