Increase Your Impact… and Your Triple Bottom Line
Featuring Ryan Eliason
Interviewed by Christine Kloser
CHRISTINE: Let me introduce my friend Ryan. Ryan Eliason is a radical tree hugging revolutionary who decided a while back that supporting social entrepreneurs was the best way that he could make a leveraged positive impact on the world’s most pressing problems.
He started six successful businesses over the last two decades, and just in the last few months, more than 70,000 people joined his rapidly growing network of change makers which he calls the Social Entrepreneur Empowerment Network.
He is now one of the world’s top coaches for social entrepreneurs and has hundreds of clients from twenty countries currently enrolled in his sold-out training programs. So, welcome Ryan.
RYAN: Thank you Christine, I’m excited to be with you.
CHRISTINE: And I’m excited you’re here! I’d love to begin by asking you to define what you mean by “triple bottom line business.””
RYAN: Sure, Christine. This basically means that the purpose, mission, and driving force of your business is not just about making money. This means that you may be in business to make money, but you’re equally motivated by serving the greater good – including people as well as the planet.
You probably already discovered the joy of service or you wouldn’t be here right now. But, my guess is that you could really take things to the next level if you made a commitment to triple bottom line with deliberate focus through your business.
There are a lot of big companies that talk about serving their customers and providing value, even Chevron talks about “changing the world”
But, most of these companies are really only interested in one thing, and that’s PROFIT. It’s what they call the bottom line. This single bottom line is only interested in service or providing value if it makes money.
Many of them are just as happy to destroy the environment or make people’s lives worse as long as it makes a profit. They don’t want you to know this but that’s really the truth.
Social entrepreneurs, like you Christine and everyone here, are people who run businesses or non-profits with this triple bottom line at the heart of their purpose.
Now, there are as many definitions of social entrepreneurship. My simple definition is that you’re utilizing a business or a non-profit enterprise to create a positive change in the world – for people, planet and profit. This isn’t just about doing no harm. It’s about embracing the higher purpose of healing and transformation for all.
Sadly, many of these social enterprise organizations don’t even care about making a profit – they just want to serve. However, my opinion is that they should care. Because when you make your business profitable, it becomes both sustainable and scalable. In other words, you remove the struggle and you make it possible for your organization to grow and have a much bigger positive impact in the world.
CHRISTINE: I love this definition Ryan! And I have a feeling we have some people here who may not be clear on what their calling even is? What would you say to them?
RYAN: The reality is, probably a lot of people listening to this don’t feel like they’re quite following their calling a hundred percent yet, right? Or, maybe they’re way off because even if you have your own business, there’s a way in which we often compromise our most authentic, passionate self-expression because we think we need to somehow make the business profitable, to somehow make it acceptable, right? So we don’t stay true to who we are.
A lot of us just come down to a path in life that has taken us away from what we’re most passionate about, out of the need to feed our families.
I think if we were to take a poll in America or even the world, the vast majority of people are not really happy with their jobs, maybe they’re partially satisfied.
But, this is tough stuff, this is real tough stuff to figure out how to do something with your life that you’re passionate about and make a great living doing it. It’s a challenge that’s worth embracing. Because as I’ve seen with my clients and students when they embrace this challenge and really do it, amazing things happen!
CHRISTINE: I just want to make sure that everyone here is opening up to this seedling of possibility.
Because I know some of you fall into that category of not being clear, so I want each one of your right now to imagine that there is this seed inside of you that maybe in the past had been dormant – or that you didn’t believe could really grow – but is now coming alive in you, ready to bloom and make a difference. It is there for a reason.
RYAN: Beautiful.
CHRISTINE: I want all of you to understand that seed is not going to be a full tree by the time you go to sleep tonight, but it will be more alive! Now, Ryan, I’d love for you to share some of the positive belief statements you’ve used to help you grow your own business, and teach your clients to adopt as well. I think those will be very helpful.
RYAN: I’d love to share them, but first let me say that this isn’t about “affirmations”; this is about truly assessing these belief statements on a scale of 1-10 so you honestly know where you stand… so you can work towards getting up to a higher belief level.
This is about alignment with the truth of these statements. I love seeing when my clients really shift into strong alignment in their beliefs because then everything else in their business – and life – changes for the better.
OK… so here are the statements. Write down your number rating with zero being not aligned with the belief and 10 being fully aligned.
The first one is this statement, how true is this for you that:
“I have many inspiring and empowering role models and mentors for what I want to do.”
So, 1 would be that you have reached none of your potential with this; and 10 would you’ve reached a 100% of your potential, like there’s no room for any improvement here.
So, your bigger vision, your sacred, amazing vision of where you’d like to go. Most of us are lacking inspiring, empowering role models and mentors for what we want to do. So, rate yourself from 1-10 because that’s the real key area for us to improve.
It’s a key to manifesting your vision. If it’s low, you’re going to want to improve it. So, it’s really good to be able to see “Oh, hey. I’m low in this.”
The next one is:
“I believe 100% that it is possible to be of service, change the world, and make a great living doing it.”
This is that one where that myth about money and service don’t go together. Just look and see, are you really living as if this is true? If you’re totally living and if that’s true, you can rate yourself high here but most of us are probably going to rate ourselves low on this one.
The next one is:
“I have healed my money wounds.”
This is so critical for those of us who are in a mission to really make a difference and to not only survive but also thrive financially. So rate yourself from 1-10 on that one. I know we all have money wounds and none of us can rate ourselves at a 10 on that, but maybe you can rate yourself on the high end if you’ve been working on it for a while. But, most of us have some pretty serious unhealed money wounds.
The next one is:
“I abide in a state of oneness consciousness, and I operate my business from this awareness.”
This is not just that you believe that’s true, you’ve read it in the books and it sounds nice, this is like “do you actually come from a place of not being separate from others and from the rest of life?”
Next is:
“I have embraced marketing in a way that feels great, is in integrity and produces massive results.”
We’re going to talk about this in just a minute, just how critical marketing is. So, have you found a way to market your book or your products or services in a way that it feels great, is in integrity, and produces massive tangible results? Rate yourself from 1-10 there.
The last one is:
“My business is designed to manifest a triple bottom line, including people, planet and profit.”
So, rate yourself from 1-10 there. My belief is that every business can be designed to serve a triple bottom line. It’s possible to redesign your business if you’re not already doing that.
As I mentioned before, I’ve seen in my clients over and over again that when they do this honest assessment and let me help them truly come into alignment with these beliefs, and take aligned action in their business, it’s amazing to see what they do in the world, and the success they enjoy.
And that’s what I want for everyone here… to serve people and planet while making a profit.
CHRISTINE: Thank you Ryan. This has been eye-opening.
RYAN: You’re welcome Christine. It’s been my pleasure.
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To learn more about how Ryan can help
you grow your Triple Bottom Line Business go here.
NOTE: If you decide to work with Ryan to grow your
business, as a gift I’ll be giving you my brand-new
“Freeing the Messenger’s Heart” training.
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