If you are at the stage of your inspired work journey where you have already done the deep inner work to get clear about the unique contribution you are here to make (i.e., your purpose, vision, and mission) and you have also birthed your work in the form of a valuable offer, the next step is to connect with the people you want to serve.

One of the elements I see visionaries struggle with the mos...

The fact is we all have bills to pay. At some point, most of us have made the choice to take on a job we don’t necessarily want for the reason of paying those bills. Sadly, we end up paying for them with our life. We sacrifice our vitality for the sake of eking out “a living”. We banish our dreams from our consciousness because it’s too painful to keep them alive. Meanwhile, we try to mollify our ...

This week I celebrate the anniversary of The New School for Inspired Work. I birthed this particular expression of my work just over 16 years ago. Back then, the idea of a “new paradigm” of work was so unheard of that when I spoke of it outside my inner circle, I mostly received looks of pity from others. They worried for my sanity. Inwardly, I worried for theirs. I could see what was coming. I’ve...

There is a poignant moment we all reach in our inspired work journey when we realize that our work is not about us. It is for us and of us, but it’s not actually about us. It is about those we are meant to serve.

Within each of us, there is so much fear bound up in our work. We fear failure. We fear success. We fear being unsupported. We fear being judged. We fear that we are incapable. We fear t...

On my former island home, I met a gentleman with whom I was going to collaborate on a community development project at the time. During our initial conversation, our rapport was easeful and we were aligned on many of the issues, but then he said to me, “This island has too many trees.” Cue the awkward silence. I’m sure he could see my entire body stiffen. I let the silence grow between us to indic...

We are all keenly aware of the upheaval that is rippling throughout our current world state. While a new paradigm has been gestating beneath the surface of our conscious awareness for a long while, the physical reality of what is being transformed just started to become more obvious during the pandemic. It is a catalytic time of change for us as a humanity and the ongoing metamorphosis will only c...

I’m not one for overly manicured landscaping. I tend to prefer my nature on the wilder side. It’s a good thing I’m comfortable with a little disorder because the endeavour of growing the seeds of ideas into a thriving business can be unruly. But given the right conditions, your inspired work can flourish into a splendid garden that provides an endless bounty of fruit.

Your inspired work can flour...

When I was young, I received some “bad advice” from Corey Hart. I don’t know how global his musical reach is, but if you don’t know who he is, Corey Hart is a Canadian singer-songwriter whose hit singles topped the charts way back in the early 80s. My mom, bless her, indulged my young teenage fandom and accompanied me to several of his concerts. Now that I’m an adult, I don’t know how she managed ...

Decades after his burial, I stood at my dad’s grave reading the words etched into the simple gravestone: Service to others before self. I thought, “Yeah, and we buried him in the ground way before what should have been his time.”

My dad died from a brain tumour at the untimely age of 46. Although it was complications from cancer that ended his life, I contend he had lost his will to live long bef...

When I was in my 20s, I was in a relationship with a singer-songwriter musician. He wrote a few songs for me, some to me, but there was one song he wrote about me. He called it “Fearless”. When he told me, I thought, “Wow, he really doesn’t know me at all. I live in a constant state of anxiety and fear.” But he saw me differently than I saw myself at the time.

I was with him through a significant...

Many people who come to work with me identify as being “unconventional”. Regular-type jobs make them feel trapped. Old structures and systems stifle their adventurous spirit. They like to take the status quo, scrunch it up into a ball and throw it into the fire. They’ve spent much of their lives trying to reconcile the way they perceive the world with the way others proclaim it to be.

The unendin...

“They need to learn the value of money, but they don’t want to get a job.”

Because of what I do for work, some of my friends who are parents of teenagers vent to me about their “lazy” children. “I lined up a well-paying summer job for them and they refused to take it.”

My response is, “Good.” Usually followed by an awkward silence.

I ask, “What is it your children actually want to do?”

My frie...