Getting All Business-y Up In Here

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Did I tell you yet about the awesome stuff that is happening with my business? No?

I CAN’T BELIEVE I DIDN’T SAY ANYTHING HERE YET. It must be business-awesomeification-itis. :)

The first thing that happened was that I went to Lift Off.

Remember this post? I was still soaking in all that wonderful love and supportive energy when I wrote it.

But then, I started to lose that fuzzy-warm feeling, and I started to think that maybe I’m not so awesome after all, and I was sad for a while. I saw new friends of mine catapulting into new vistas of awesomeness, and I felt like the n00b-iest newbie ever.

I felt embarrassed to have gone somewhere to mingle with seriously incredible people, when I was just a simple little web designer, making websites from the home office room that used to be my oldest son’s bedroom. (Don’t worry, he’s not sleeping in the garage now – he’s sharing with his brother.)

Then I got a HUGE SMACK IN THE FACE.

Okay, it was more like a bunch of great compliments, encouragements, and affirmations of my actual, provable awesomeness – but taken as a whole, it was pretty much a HUGE SMACK IN THE FACE. Of love.

I started to do things, rather than sit sadly in my office, wishing to be just a little more awesome.

I redesigned my online persona, and moved all my posts here. (And I haven’t updated my Twitter background yet. Eek!)

I redesigned my business website, and put it up willy-nilly in the middle of the week one day. I even made new prices and packages and published all of it, even though some of it’s still not done. (Eek!)

I decided to form an LLC, and bring in people to be on my team (which needs a better name, like maybe Havi’s Pirate Council).

I hired one of my new friends, the friendliest tax attorney you’ll ever know, to handle the paperwork and make shiny new contracts for me.

And I started to realize one Very Important Thing that I’d never even considered before.

I used to think that business was this Thing, you know?

A Thing That Is Difficult.

A Thing That Only Jerks Are Good At. (Eek!)

A Thing That I’m Not Qualified To Do.

Until a few days ago, it hit me square between the eyes (thanks, Universe, for all the smacks and poundings lately – I really do appreciate them):

I’M GOOD AT THIS.

Not only that, I LOVE DOING THIS. And, I think this is one of those Things I Was Meant To Do.

It all comes back to Superpowers, I think.

One of the first things that Charlie and Pam asked us to think about, on that first evening of Lift Off, was: what is your superpower? What is your medicine? What do you bring to the world, what makes you excited and happy and bursting with joy when you do it?

The first thing I thought of, and then immediately assumed it was ridiculous and stupid and lame, was my Superpower is Love.

Rabbit trail: when I said this to Charlie, and I was already embarrassed to have said something so lame, I thought that HE thought I was silly. It took me weeks and weeks to realize that I went to Lift Off expecting someone to give me instructions, directions, and affirmations – so that I could know deep down that I was on the right track. But what Lift Off actually gave me was a pair of eyeballs to see that I was already wearing my own jet pack, that what I was doing was ALREADY awesome because I was doing it and it had meaning, and that it is up to me to choose my own path.

What’s love got to do (got to do) with it?

I’m still working through understanding this better myself, so here is a messy-ish explanation:

I love people. I love to take care of people, especially the people that I already know, because knowing them makes the love even more real.

I love work, because when I bring in money, I have a chance to be generous. Being a business owner means that I can be even more generous, because I can pay people (whom I love) to do work of their own. And then those people can spread love even further.

Business, for me, is the perfect combination of people + love.

Now I’m going to sit here and drink this cold cup of coffee, and bask in the awesome glow of being awesome.

Want to join me?

P.S. I’m making this post the first one in a series, because this business stuff is a journey, and I’m taking you along for the ride.