Strive Sessions
Throughout the majority of 2020, I ran free weekly support groups called Strive Sessions. These groups were set up on the back of the webinar I ran back in March entitled "How to Survive the Financial Crisis from the Guy Who Wrote the Book On It".
Whilst these groups were very much appreciated and well-received, they weren't actually achieving their prime goal. To put it bluntly, we haven't actually hit the financial crisis yet, due to the continual propping up of the economy by the government.
That support will not continue forever and there will come a point when the Strive sessions get brought back into play – but for now, they remain on ice.
Charity contributions
The underlying secret of Business Enjoyment is about connecting to Purpose and finding meaning in what you do. It has always been the intention for there to be a charitable element to my business and it hasn't been that easy to decide on where to put my focus. Charity for charity's sake is not meaningful.
The original intention for Breathing Spaces was that each local group contributed to a local charity but again, finding the right one was important.
In 2020, it became clear what that charity should be.
The Business Enjoyment Model is, as you should know by now, based around Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. In Maslow's model, the bottom layer is Physiological Needs. In my model that gets incorporated into "Feeling Safe".
In business terms that includes earning enough money to pay the bills. In personal terms, that becomes about earning enough money to put food on the table.
I can do what I can to help businesses and business owners survive and thrive whatever the world throws at them, but it's all a bit irrelevant if society can't even feed itself.
Inspired by the local food bank that is less than half a mile from my house, I have nominated The Trussel Trust, which runs it and the majority of food banks around the UK, to be my charity of choice for the foreseeable future.
Not only will a percentage of turnover be paid across to the trust every month, but I will also be making a donation when certain non-financial events take place. Every time someone listens to my podcast or downloads the book on my website. Every time I do a talk to a group of business owners or receive a Google Review. And so on.
In essence, every time something good happens to me, then something good happens to somebody else.
It should really have occurred to me sooner and so I did make a retrospective payment to cover 2020 and will be making monthly donations going forwards.
If anybody wants detailed information on what, how, or why I'm doing this, don't hesitate to drop me a line.
Book News
Two bits of book news that you may or may not have seen.
Award Winner
I alluded earlier to the webinar on the financial crisis and the book that the title of that webinar related to was "Hope Won't Pay the Wages".
This was the first book I wrote. Combining the learnings of victims of the 2008 recession along with my own experiences as an insolvency practitioner, this book helps business owners cope with the emotional stress caused by a failing business.
Last month, this title was declared winner of:
Editor's Choice Top Three Books of 2020
by Business Game Changer Magazine.
The fact that it was first released 8 years ago was apparently not an issue, although I did update both the content and the cover last year. However, I suspect that the current environment helped with their decision.
Personally, I'm thrilled and it just goes to show that rewards are not always instant.
International Best Seller
Also last year, I contributed a chapter to a collaborative book entitled
Transforming Your Life – Volume III
20 Incredible Stories Showing the Strength of the Human Spirit.
In it, I share some of the challenges I faced in life and how digging deep into personal traumas revealed my true purpose to me.
I'm happy to announce that Transforming Your Life became the Number 1 Best Seller in 11 countries across 77 categories, including the UK, the USA and Australia.