Soulful Business Manifesto: An Invitation to Healers and Change-Makers

Small businesses and soulful solopreneurs are needed now more than ever before.

As our communities and villages erode at escalating rates, we need folks coming behind the destruction to rebuild and re-village our communities. It’s not easy work, but it is meaningful. It’s necessary to create the future story of how we healed the world.

Each of us lives in communities taken over by corporate elites, we’ve watched ma and pa shops shuttered, and we bitterly participate in a growing consumerism culture that is eating our souls, destroying our small communities, and destroying our precious Mother Earth. 

We know that these practices are not sustainable or regenerative. We know that they are not good for our own wellbeing. We miss our rooted communities at a bone-deep level. We know that healing is necessary…but where to start?

We start small. We start with us. We start by claiming our life purposes. We begin by healing ourselves and then offering safe spaces for our people to heal.

If you are called to be a healer, then this is your moment.

Current business practices are hyper-focused on an old and increasingly toxic masculine, colonizer, puritanical approach to work: that of hustle culture, competition, and profit over people and living beings.

Soulful businesses are instead focused on nourishing, slowing down, focusing on building offerings that are healing. They center a feminine approach that is contemplative and reflective. 

They do not devalue their work or undercharge because they “feel bad” (thereby tapping into toxic femininity). They find ways to make their work monetarily sustainable, while also prioritizing what is good for them and their communities. 

Soulful businesses are built on the philosophy that there is enough for everyone and collaboration is priority so we can build communities back up again. Soulful business owners who are healers take the time to heal themselves so they don’t step into the role of Wounded Healer, thereby causing more harm than healing.

Soulful business owners take time to work through their fears and insecurities. They know that imposter syndrome is part of the process of becoming more visible (and a socialized part of our toxic gatekeeper-obsessed society). They don’t allow these feelings to keep them small or invisible. They take time for rest, healing, and emotional processing so they can show up fully themselves in their work.

Soulful business owners walk away from hustle culture and instead embrace wellbeing. They prioritize their own self-care and nourish themselves. They take regular breaks from work. They prioritize relationships over profit-seeking beyond what is reasonable. They know that life is short, death comes for us all, and what is real in this moment is the most important thing in life.

Soulful business owners value their intuition as much as they value data in the process of building their business. They take an educated approach to make decisions, but they are in tune with their gut feelings and prioritize their own inner knowings over an external experts’ Shoulds. They are the experts of their own lives and know what is best for them, their families, and their communities. They trust themselves and they take an embodied approach to creating their business.

Soulful business owners work with clients that are a “good fit” and release the potential clients that aren’t a good fit. They embrace the energy of generous collaboration by sending those individuals to other healers who are a better fit. They know that they are meant to provide healing spaces for those who resonate with their work and how they offer healing. They understand that they cannot help everyone and should focus instead on being a valuable resource for those who are the very best fit for their purpose. 

Soulful business isn’t about perfection, it’s about showing up as a real human being. It’s about connection, love, and ever-evolving, flourishing skill sets. It’s about centering your powerful message that can change someone’s life and harnessing that message as your center of power. It’s about knowing that your business is you, but your work is the business of providing healing spaces for all who can be nourished by your energy.

Soulful businesses balance the needs of the solopreneur with the needs of clients in ways that feel impactful and nourishing to both people. They find ways to grow sustainably and they know when they’ve reached a point of enough-ness (and they take that enough-ness seriously, instead of clambering for exponential growth that cannot heal the world). 

Soulful purposes poured into soulful businesses are one powerful way that we can make an impact and change the world. Together, we can be more powerful than corporate elites or world leaders who are corrupt. Together, we can build that more beautiful world that our hearts know is possible. ♡