business ethics – Bridging the Paradigms: re-connecting people and the planet

Introducing LaBelle Construction

October 28, 2011 by Robyn

At Alchemy West and our magazine, Bridging the Paradigms, we promote community: from creating healthy, balanced lives with our animals, homes, businesses, and nature to creating connections between good businesses and good people.

Let me introduce LaBelle Construction, and my adopted godson, Vincent LaBelle, and his friend and coworker, Brian Meuller. Viincent is a general contractor, and Brian is a skilled tradesman.

I call Vincent my adopted godson because he’s my beloved goddaughter’s brother, and I decided I needed another godchild and latched onto him. Sometimes life is easy like that. And it means I can say he’s a great man and fabulous musician (trombone! plus he records for ‘avant garde jazz musicians’). He’s also worked for me, and I will vouch for him being a wonderful general contractor. Here’s what he has to say about his business:

“LaBelle Construction specializes in restoration, renovation, remodels, and repairs of old homes (pre-1950). We are a full-service general contractor capable of everything from framing to finish work, kitchens, bathrooms, flooring, painting, drainage and waterproofing, and much more. And while we specialize in older homes, we are more than happy to work on any project you may have. We’re a small operation, and we’re happy to take on small projects and repairs. See samples of our work at www.labelleconstruction.com.”

Call Vincent. Interested in a remodel or simple projects? Call him.

Filed Under: Living Tagged With: business ethics, good businesses

Choosing Our Way in the New Economy

October 15, 2011 by Robyn

He didn’t mean to make me smile.

He had been loitering by my shopping cart.

We were both stocking up on office supplies. I was, as usual, simply exhausted by the choices. Wouldn’t life be easier if we didn’t have so much to choose from?

Think about it. I do. A lot. Even choosing a donut is fraught with anxiety: should it be raspberry filled, triple chocolate peanut butter, lemon glazed, or pistachio cream cheese?

With so many options, is it a really a donut, or a lifestyle choice?

Okay, maybe donuts are a lifestyle choice, but, really, isn’t it less stressful, less complicated, and equally satisfying to order coffee and a cruller than a caramel macchiato and a blueberry coconut cake donut? While we’re standing there, weighing our choice as if it really mattered, have we done one thing to connect with the people around us, made one step towards building community?

Yesterday in the office supply store the choices weren’t nearly as delectable as donuts. From the store’s towering shelves to the competing bins of goods it was confusing, tiring, and boring. I needed supplies to keep my business running and I’d had a traumatic few weeks. Which is to say I had a lot on my mind and it wasn’t just donuts and office supplies.

I was headed back to my chock full shopping cart when I saw him.

Mid-thirties, clean cut, he stepped away from my cart as he caught my eye and shyly waved at my cart. “I was leaving you something.”

He shrugged sheepishly, then walked back to my cart, picked something up off my stack, and handed it to me. “I thought you could use this.”

It was a coupon for $30 off a $150 purchase.

I laughed and thanked him. We smiled at each other and he left.

Just like that, the day got a whole lot better.

This is the thing I like about the new economy. Yes, it seems like people are a whole lot meaner and greedier. Fear seems to have stripped many of us down to some desperate level where we run right over anyone, or anything, we even suspect might be in our way.

But even more people are paying attention and reaching out to connect, even as simply as handing a shy smile and a $30 coupon to a frazzled stranger.

Those are the things that keep me going. I’m still overwhelmed by the choices in things we can buy. Fewer choices would be simpler, but it might not be better. Don’t know.

What I do know is that sometimes the choices are simple. As easy as handing a stranger a coupon and getting a smile back.

These are the choices I’m liking in the new economy: how we’re finding simpler ways to connect.

What are you choosing?

Filed Under: Living Tagged With: business ethics, creating community, culture, good businesses, inspiration, new economy

Living on the Planet of Awesome and Forever

October 6, 2011 by Robyn

I live on the Planet of Awesome and Forever.

I have proof.

Sometimes my planet is real and physical: I revel in the sun and rain, the dark and stormy, the people and the beings who make me laugh and think while challenging me to be my best, no matter what.

Always my planet is a state of mind, clear in the choice of love over fear.

Love drives the Planet of Awesome and Forever. There are a lot of us here. It’s time for everyone else to join us. Here’s why.

I keep hearing how bad things are out there, how desperate people are, how survival means anything goes.

Well, anything does not go. Not on the Planet of Awesome and Forever. Here’s what that means for me.

In many ways 2011 has been a wonderful year for me: I won a prestigious national award for my book, I launched a new kind of intuitive consultation practice—a partnership with my crystal, Fallon—and I’ve met fascinating new people on their own amazing journeys. It’s been both humbling and exciting.

I’ve also faced stunning difficulties:

a virulent flu that derailed most of my year
a crisis that both complicates and enlightens my future
people who learned from me and then stole my work
people who expected me to work for free while they paid themselves (welcome to the new feudalism)
negligent and uneducated vets who endangered my dogs

So here’s what I did:

I took time to get well.
I looked for alternatives that make life easier for me and for my family.
I turned some matters over to an attorney.
I strengthened my resolve to model compassionate, thoughtful interactions.
I continued to quietly build a business that enriches my life as it serves an enlightened community.
I’m bringing the vets up on charges. Oh, you better believe that one!

And here’s what happened, just in the last few weeks.

I am finding answers that are healthy and make sense.
I discovered attorneys can be a good thing, and that controversy can both enlighten and strengthen.
I decided that if I’d had a choice 20 years ago, I’d still choose the pain and limitations of being disabled and having to reinvent a life over being an asshole and a thief and never finding my path.
If you open yourself up to love, fear just bounces the hell off:
- I’ve made wonderful new friends who think my intuitive practice with a partner who’s a crystal is intriguing, fun, and worthwhile.
- Neighbors came running to help my recovering dog.
- A close friend whose mother is dying raced to the vet ER and massaged a painful kink out of my shoulder.
- A dear friend who is undergoing her own family crisis cheerfully bathed my stinking dogs in exchange for a home-cooked meal.
- Two wonderful vets who love my dogs expertly cared for them.
- I finally met my eldest dog’s ‘grandma,’ and we’ll be celebrating life, love, and Cavaliers with her and her family next week, on what will be my multi-species family’s 13^th anniversary together.

Life is awesome!

Choosing Love Over Fear in a Practical World

Here’s what I know. Choosing love over fear doesn’t solve all our problems, because we won’t always agree. But choosing love does model our choices.

My experiences this year have sobered and intrigued me. What I and so many people see out there is troubling and encouraging. Troubling, because serious problems exist. Encouraging because many people are choosing healthy, compassionate ways to explore and resolve them.

We urgently need to define community, whether it’s our work or our social life. How do we want to live together, and how will we?

Make no mistake: living on the Planet of Awesome and Forever is not naïve. It is not turning a blind eye to the problems. It recognizes the increasing hostility in our society, the strange personal and business meltdowns that are justified in the name of survival. The disquiet is everywhere. I’m not the only one who’s noticed.

Make note: it is not only humans who are concerned. Remember, I work as a professional intuitive, I talk with all manner of beings, and they, too, are advocating change.

It’s time for change.

The first change is a truth check:

Anything goes does not work.
None of us will survive if ‘survival’ defines our lives.

So here’s a plan:

Quit counting the desperation.
Start counting the awesome.

Here are my awesomes.

I have the world’s greatest family: a woman, two dogs, and a cat are proving that we’ll always be a family, in body or not, because on the Planet of Awesome and Forever love endures.

If we have to have bad days to get to the good ones, then we will. And we’ll make them count. Because there’s no other real, practical, inspiring choice than love. It’s awesome. And forever.

We live on the Planet of Awesome and Forever:

Where nothing is too hard or too much work or too painful
Where all beings are held responsible for their choices: firmly, compassionately, clearly
Because love and truth are always, always awesome and forever

It’s time to take back love, and community. It’s time to stand up for what’s right, to dig deep into conflict with patience and respect and compassion.

It’s time.

Come join us on the Planet of Awesome and Forever.

It’s your planet, too.

Filed Under: Living Tagged With: bridging species, business ethics, creating community, family harmony, good businesses, human-animal bond, inspiration, intuitive communication, multi-species families

How a Company’s Raffle Prize Helped an Animal Shelter

September 13, 2011 by Robyn

On the weekend before the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show back in February I attended a pet writing conference in New York City, the day before I won the Merial Human-Animal Bond Award for my book, Bridging Species: Thoughts and Tales About Our Lives with Dogs. Yay!

It was a fun weekend and I met some fabulous people. Winning the Merial Award, a coveted prize in the dog writing world, plus a cash grant, was wonderful. The recognition for writing about new ways to think about the human-animal bond felt great.

I also got lucky and won a raffle prize from Hartz at the writing conference. A few weeks later this enormous gift basket arrived in the mail, full of Hartz treats, combs, brushes, a toothbrush, toys galore, and a wonderful note from Jennifer Dombkowski, Integrated Marketing Manager at The Hartz Mountain Corporation.

It was far more than my multi-species family could use, although these pictures prove that they were fascinated! And, yes, played with a toy or two.

The feature photo here is a shot of the complete gift basket at our vet’s office in Port Hadlock, WA, as the gift was on its way to the Jefferson County Animal Shelter. (My apologies to Hartz, as the gift arrived perfectly wrapped, but was inexpertly unwrapped and rewrapped by, you guessed it, me.)

Thanks to Hartz’s generosity at a pet writing conference in New York, a group of homeless dogs and cats in rural western Washington had some fine treats and toys. Jefferson County’s animals have taken a hit with the tough economy, and this briefly helped.

Every time you think that a nice gesture doesn’t count, think about what tossing a business card into a raffle basket can do for an animal near you. Yep, a nice advertising plug for a company, and a good benefit to some needy animals.

Awesome and forever, two of my favorite words.

Filed Under: Living Tagged With: animal care, bridging species, business ethics, cats, Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, good businesses, human-animal bond, multi-species families

How We’ll Make the Economy Work Again

September 9, 2011 by Robyn

We’ll get the economy rolling again when we start taking it—and ourselves—seriously.

That means we start saying ‘NO’ because we should have said that way back at some crazy point when buying things became convenient, and price and ethics didn’t matter.

What is a fair price? What is a fair profit? How do we exchange goods and services so everyone is comfortable?

Granted, this is a big discussion, but it all comes down to one thing: how we create a worldview that includes an economy that makes sense for all of us.

Like this:

The big retailers are now into ‘rollbacks.’ Yay, they’re reducing prices so goods are cheaper. Score one for … can’t say.

Because what were they doing before? ‘Rollforwards?’ Scoring bigger profits than they needed? So they needed to ‘rollback’ to keep us buying?

And you still do business with them why?

Give a good, sound, win-win answer to that for all of us and our economy will work again.

For all of us.

Filed Under: Living Tagged With: business ethics, business mentors, good businesses

It’s Summertime: Lavender and Good Business Are Both In!

August 27, 2011 by Robyn

It’s been a strange summer in Seattle, in fact, two stranger summers in a row. Cooler than normal, and damp when it’s usually dry.

But all’s well because the lavender is here!

I use lavender for my business. I keep huge bunches of the grosso variety everywhere, clumped in vases, draped over towel racks, and enjoy it all year.I keep bunches of the giant Hidcote variety, modernist yet exuberant, in my bright, busy office. Lavender is everywhere here, because it’s our home and our office.

I teach out of my house. My home is a carefully balanced place where many beings visit, many who aren’t human, as my intuitive practice involves talking with all life. My home is a peaceful, energizing space where students come to study storytelling and learn how to intuitively communicate with all life, where clients come to meet and work with me and my crystal partner, Fallon, the citrine Lemurian quartz sphere.

True confession: it’s sometimes difficult for me to do business. I have particular views about how the world should be run, and how we should live in it. I don’t always live up to my ideals, but I believe in tolerance and grace, respect and compassion, humor and good judgment.

That’s why my lavender is important. It is beautiful, it is one of the few plants Grace the Cat won’t eat, it smells great, and it’s a wonderful, vibrationally clearing plant.

I use lavender to make a clearing, cleansing product I make: Fallon Lavender Salt. It’s a combination of coarse ground Himalayan sea salt from Solay Wellness and lavender, in proportions that both look and feel good, which is then infused by my crystal partner, Fallon. It is a unique product, and it makes me laugh, because I never thought I was a crafts person, but then I never thought I’d be an MBA with a crystal ball, either.

But the product itself works first because I only buy the elements of it from people I trust and respect. Salt from Solay Wellness, where I’ve also purchased salt lamps and salt products for over four years. Lavender from Cedarbrook Lavender and Herb Farm in Sequim, Washington.

For two years now I’ve happily called Marcella Stachurski at Cedarbrook. I receive prompt, courteous service, advice on handling the lavender, and neighborly interest in exactly what I did with that much lavender. This year was a strange one: the lavender was a month late, even for the reputedly dry climate in Sequim.

I am impressed with businesses that make an extra effort, particularly in a time when even basic courtesies are missing from our dialogue and behavior. It makes a difference to me that the owner of Cedarbrook was particularly concerned to find the longest-stemmed lavender for me, in a year when it just wasn’t warm enough for the lavender to grow as tall as it usually does. How she decided not to send a variety I was interested in because it didn’t meet “her standards,” and generously gave me extras to make sure I had enough.

I will appreciate their good business for the next year, and so will my family and my clients. Every time I look at the lavender I’ll smile and think that a simple brief business connection yielded a few minutes of warm conversation and an order created just for me, and for my business.

It’s not hard to do good while doing business. I don’t know why it doesn’t happen more often, but for now I’m grateful my lavender is here. We’ll sleep well for the next few weeks as it dries. We’ll smile at our house. We’ll do good business in the coming year, because good people have done good business with us.

Isn’t that the way it should be?

Filed Under: Living Tagged With: business ethics, good businesses, intuitive communication, lavender, Solay Wellness

Hug Sale: Get Yours Now!

August 9, 2011 by Robyn

Vote yes Yesterday I took the afternoon off to have some fun. I loaded up on tasty candy at my local food co-op and headed off to see Cowboys & Aliens with a new friend. Sure, Wall Street was acting up big time (again, and pointlessly, really, how should we handle a spoiled brat?), but I had time off! What could be as cool as that?

Then I saw it, the sign that changed everything.

“HUG SALE!” it read, in large caps. “HUG SALE!”

Awesome! (Awesome is my new favorite word: spin it right, and everything is awesome.)

Just like that my new economic policy was born.

What works in a world that doesn’t seem workable? Where is our strength? Our refuge?

In hugs. In hugs we trust.

Everything works better with hugs. After all, what is a hug? Acceptance, community, peace, fun, humor. You can trade a hug for food, for a good joke, a flower, a business referral, a chance to make a new friend.

You can weigh hugs for value: a quick handshake between strangers is an ‘almost hug,’ worth a quick, shy smile. A quick two-arm hug is worth a friendly hello and genuine interest in ‘what you do.’ A brief shoulder hug acknowledges that we’re in this together, whatever ‘this’ is, and seats us peacefully around the negotiation table. A full-on body hug is the stuff communities are built on: it’s worth everything.

Hugs are barter that makes sense. Tangible, visible proof that what they’re trying to scare us with won’t work. That maybe they’ll have us all in bread lines before it’s over, but we’ll at least be there together, and then we’ll go out and create a world where all life is working, and playing, where together we can create healthy, balanced lives of integrity and meaning.

What would a hug mean to you? How would you barter a hug?

Oh, yeah, about the afternoon off.

My new friend is delightful: funny, warm, and thoughtful. The candy was delicious (I figured chocolate peanut butter malt balls were a curiosity, and possibly edible, but the yumminess was a bonus!).

And the movie? I haven’t been to a movie in years, and Cowboys & Aliens was worth the wait: played straight, so you were as dumbfounded as the people in that town, and, finally, proud. Thrilled that fundamentally flawed, damaged people could put aside their pettiness and effectively collaborate to save family and community, which included complete strangers (but you just couldn’t resist a naked woman, could you, boys, even though it was pointless?).

Let’s see, we already know we have dim-witted and unpatriotic politicians. Even they should learn something from this movie. Hurry up and see it, guys, then line up for hugs!

Hugs for politicians? Absolutely. Full on body hug. They get my acceptance, my thanks for being such obvious idiots that we don’t have to tolerate them any more, and I get my country back. Fair and square.

Hugs. Barter. Community. Let’s go for it. We have nothing left to lose that wasn’t gone years ago. We have a world to gain. Let’s hug it back.

You in?

Filed Under: Living Tagged With: business ethics, culture

Yellowstone: It’s Why I Buy Canon USA

August 9, 2011 by Robyn

Sure, I love my Canon printers. Even the non-techies among us can use them, and if you can’t, they have excellent customer support. I should know: this summer the kind folks at Canon have had to help me install my printer drivers for two printers on three different occasions, as I dealt with computer issues.

Sometimes it isn’t always a great product or great service that makes me like a company. Sometimes it’s what the company does.

In this case, it’s Yellowstone.

Yellowstone National Park is one of my favorite places. I’ve been going there since I was a kid. Thanks to Canon USA, I can go there every day via the webcam service they sponsor.

Every day I get to smile and enjoy Yellowstone, from Old Faithful to Mammoth to Lake Yellowstone.

I don’t get paid to promote Canon, or to tell people what I like. I can say that people always look at the bad things in life, forgetting that there are more people, and businesses, who take the ‘bad’ out of things every day. I’m happy they are there, building community, one person, one business, one national park at a time.

Sure wish I’d known about the Yellowstone webcam before I bought my digital camera. I’d have bought a Canon. You can bet I’ll always look there first next time I’m buying something. Just because they offered not just something I like in a webcam service, not just because they were smart about advertising (sure, they’ll get business just because they sponsor things like this), but because sometimes selling is about service. And having some fun while we’re all at it.

And thanks to the people who maintain the webcam and keep it up for all of us.

Check it out! The Yellowstone Webcam: http://www.yellowstone.co/webcams.htm.

Filed Under: Living Tagged With: business ethics, good businesses, Yellowstone

You Are Your Brand: How Being a Lousy Criminal Can Be Good for Business

January 15, 2011 by Robyn

Yes, being a lousy criminal can be good for our business. Let me explain.

We are our brands. As entrepreneurs, as people living our daily lives, everything we do reflects on our business, good, bad, or indifferent. It makes a difference. So how do we make that difference a good one?

By always thinking about how we build relationships, from our business to our personal and community lives. Because it always matters, no matter the task.

With the media spotlight on 24/7, we notice this on a large scale every day. What we don’t always consider is the small scale, where most of us live. How does our own behavior affect not just our business but our community?

Impressions stick, to our brands and to us. They affect what people think about our business and about us, what we think about ourselves, and, because I work as an intuitive, what our businesses think about themselves.

It’s not hard to be nice, but is it a winning strategy? Well, are you in it for the long haul, to both build a great business and contribute to your community, or are you planning to move to Mars?

Great businesses depend on developing—and keeping—good relationships. Especially when you goof up. How quick are you to recognize a problem and try to solve it so everyone benefits?

Here’s an example.

I’ve been going to Barnecut’s in West Seattle for over 20 years: I gas up my car, get flats repaired, get air for my tires. I value their friendly, concerned service.

Then came the day I stole gas from them. It was an accident. Honest. I slipped my card in the slot, pumped gas, wrote it down in my gas log, and drove off.

A few months later I drove up to get gas and the owner came out, smiling, saying: “Robyn, did you come to pay for your gas?”

Puzzled, I said: “Sure, but I have to pump it first.”

“No,” he said, “this was a few months ago.”

Puzzled, I followed him inside. A young attendant waited behind the counter, shaking in righteous excitement. “It’s her,” he said. “I recognize her and the car. She did it.”

I stared at him. He was stunned that he’d ID’d a criminal. Me. He held up a receipt they’d taped to the counter, convinced that I’d pumped $23.03 in gas and driven off without paying. They’d been keeping an eye out for me for two months, but apparently not a keen one, since I stop regularly.

I looked at the receipt. “Well, I see the name, Robin,” spelled wrong, as usual, “but I don’t have a Camry.”

“But it’s you, I recognize you,” he insisted. “And your car.”

Okay, this was getting tense. I went for humor. “So why didn’t you have me arrested?”

Well, they’d known me for 20 years, like you know a lot of people you bump into or buy things from, but they didn’t actually know how to find me. Arresting seemed extreme (and difficult). So they waited to get lucky.

What was hilarious and absurd was now serious. A long-term customer relationship was hanging. The owner was smiling, but tense. The young attendant was uncertain about pushing it. And I was what we all sometimes are: confused.

I hesitated. I could have a temper tantrum and walk out, upsetting all of us and ruining my reputation, and everybody’s day. Or I could calmly try to figure this out.

“Well,” I said. “I am clearly the worst criminal in the world. Not only did I have no idea I’d stolen anything, but I clearly didn’t get away with it.”

They cracked up and the tension immediately evaporated.

“So, would someone fill my tank for me while we figure this out?” I asked.

Another attendant ran to do that while I retrieved my gas log and we matched records. Sure enough, I’d written it down but there was a glitch in the pump system, so it had allowed me to pump gas without recording my card.

“Criminy,” I said to the owner. “People must drive off all the time without paying.”

“No,” he said, grinning. “Just you.”

We promptly settled up and I left. The next time I got gas, the young attendant who’d ‘caught’ me came rushing out to help me.

I laughed. “You’re never gonna let me pump gas again, are you?”

“No, ma’am,” he said. Then laughed.

So here’s the thing. Barnecut’s and I both had proof that I was an accidental crook, a lousy criminal. What would I have done without proof? Pay up. Why?

Because I believe in their brand. And they believed in mine enough to hang onto a receipt until the next time they noticed me come in.

A year later I’m still buying gas from Barnecut’s, and they still tease that I can get free gas any time I want: after all, I’d been coming back for 20 years. But for a few minutes that day, a relationship and a reputation hung in the balance: theirs and mine. I chose to be a customer who listened to a business’s complaint and tried to resolve it. The same way I would if the situation were reversed. That was good for both our businesses and for me. It boosted my brand because I am my brand.

So how do you react when things go wrong? Do you figure out and and resolve the problem, or do you sever relationships and move on?

Business or customer, are you your brand?

Filed Under: Living Tagged With: business ethics, creating community, good businesses

Starbucks—Good Enough to Pee At

January 10, 2011 by Robyn

I used to be proud to say that I was one of Starbucks’ earliest clients, back when they opened their first store in Seattle. Even though I didn’t know what they were talking about until I acquired a taste for espresso in Spain, and brought home a stovetop espresso pot for my parents.

Starbucks was different in those days, at least I think so (but the coffee is just as bad). I was more idealistic and naïve, then, a lot less cynical. Or maybe I just wasn’t paying attention.

But now I’m officially done with Starbucks. It’s not the coffee or the people. It’s the $15 million.

This is Howard Schultz’s fault. I have no problem with people creating a good company and making a decent profit if they take care of their employees and their customers and their community. That’s how you build a healthy, balanced world. As long as we’re using money to drive it (another story).

I don’t think Starbucks does that any more.

Howard Schultz took home what, a $15 million bonus, the same year they closed stores and laid off employees? Really?

The second shocker: why do people put up with it? I’ve heard: ‘not interested, ‘it’s okay because they needed to cut stores, they needed to cut employees, and some of our neighbors and friends still have jobs,’ or ‘the economy is bad.’ Come on!

If any of that is true, why didn’t Schultz turn back his bonus to keep people in their jobs? That would be giving back to the community.

Yes, I admit that I’ve been to Starbucks once since I declared I’d never go back again. The dogs and I were on a road trip and we had to pee.

I say no to Starbucks, and I’m voting with my latte dollars. What do you think?

Filed Under: Living Tagged With: business ethics, creating community