And how to create one with ease

Are you an embodiment professional that struggles to communicate what you do, earn enough income from it, and manage your time well? This post, and the video above, are for you. It may be because you’ve been too shy to create a good mission statement and plant your flag.

The goal of the meditation is to get you out of your head and into your body. It’s not a quick, cognitive process. It will save you lots of time and money if you take this luxurious 15 minutes, however!

A narrow focus on profit can kill your imagination and shrink your impact.

Whereas a clear sense of mission and purpose can inspire the people you want to serve, help amplify all your marketing efforts, and open the door to more clients and profitable business building alliances.

My own story may help you understand why I’m making this point so urgently. I started my now successful business from nothing, but after just 5 years I hit a financial brick wall. I was so tired of having 3 jobs in addition to my dance career – I was super motivated to earn. I was a good student!

Whatever my mentors told me to do, I did. I was told to “think like a millionaire!” but every time I created a business plan, reality never came close to the financial fantasies I’d written down.

When I didn’t earn the income I needed, I felt like a failure. Clearly, making business plans was useless, so I gave up on it.

At the time, I thought “my modality can help everyone. It saved my life! I just need to describe what it is with passion and prove that I’m good at it, and students will come.” That got me started but it didn’t get me very far. A modality is not a mission.

I was avoiding creating a mission statement because it felt fake and grandiose. Every time I tried to write one I came up blank.

It’s more customary, in a service based profession, to focus on “who”, or niche, first, and take “why” for granted. If I couldn’t manifest money, why did “why” even matter? My who was dancers and embodiment professionals – but they have “no money” so how was that going to work? It took me years, unfortunately, to accept the connection between my who, and my why.

Who am I to envision an embodied culture where violating human rights is rare because it feels so wrong to us? Where people don’t litter because they feel as if the earth is part of their own body? Where dancers are considered important, intelligent culture makers and paid well?

Exactly! Clare, that’s who.

The truth is, purpose, or “why,” comes first naturally. You knew why before you even started your embodiment training. You had a transformative experience which impacted all areas of your life, and you wanted to share it with others. That’s why you committed to training in a certain method.

Can you still remember one early transformative experience that set you on the path in your work? One or two that you keep close to your heart, water regularly, and visit when you needed encouragement? Those memories are the key to your mission statement.

What is a mission statement?

A mission statement is a concise description of the reason your business exists. It’s best that it be honest and makes sense to you, and is easy to share with others. Faking certainty will just lead you way off your business development path and waste your time. Don’t worry if your first attempts seem to broad or open, as long as they make sense to you.

It can be also be a sincere invitation to visit the world as you want it to be in the future. Dare to dream!

A simple, classic mission statement has three elements:

• purpose (what, for whom, and why)
• values
• visions for the future

Simple, but not easy. So how can you create an honest mission statement?

Watch this week’s video for a luxurious meditation to access that resonant memory first. 

The prompts below will get you started, but the meditation will add an extra special magic to what you write.

If you don’t have time to watch the video, just think back on why you chose to train in the modality that you practice. You had an embodied experience that transformed you in some fundamental way. That experience was so compelling that you made a choice to learn the skill that had brought it about so you could share it with others. 

1. Why?

2. What experiences, dreams, and real life challenges went into making that choice?

3. How did that catalyst change your life over time?

For me, it was the profound sense of empowerment I gained from recognizing the destructive power of movement habits I had learned – and being given the tools to step outside them. I was free! A whole new world of ongoing, moment to moment life affirming choices appeared before me.

Now, my mission is to provide a creative home for innovative embodiment professionals and help them build profitable businesses, so that the work we love will survive, evolve, and inspire the next generation.

Here is your assignment. After doing the meditation, take 15 minutes and do one of the following.

• Write your answers to those questions

• Record yourself answering those questions

• Record yourself talking to a friend about these questions.

I guarantee that in 15 minutes, you will have 1 – 3 sentences and some unique keywords that are very powerful.

Why do I need a mission statement before I do the rest of my business plan?

Three big reasons.

One: time management

It’s the secret to effective time management. You can use your statement to make day to day decisions about where to spend energy, time, and resources as you build your business. It helps you decide what to say no to, and what to say yes to.

Two: strategic flexibility

A clear mission statement is a compass for all business decisions. It allows you flexibility in how you design your marketing strategy, who you spend your precious time networking with, and how you design your business model. If a current strategy is not working, you look at your compass and say OK! Given your current reality, you have to try something different.

Three: motivation and communication

An honest mission statement with emotional resonance helps you communicate clearly with potential clients and allies. That’s how you will make sales, develop profitable relationships, and earn money.

A good mission statement will also motivate you to do stuff that is not comfortable or easy for you, which I guarantee will happen. Without clarity of purpose, it’s likely you will avoid facing challenges and taking risky actions that could grow your business beyond what you can currently imagine.

Your mission, and your emotional connection to it, is what will get you through those challenges. I wish you all success!

I’m available for a short free strategy session if you’d like to find out how I can help you work less and earn more.