• There is a new kind of product on the market. The demand is immense. The competition non-existent.

    It is not a product that can be held in your hands. It is not manufactured in factory, or assembled from components.

    It is not a product that gives you the answer, or instructs you how to. It is not based on scientific proof, or the secret that makes a million dollars.

    It is a product that is irreplaceable. It is a product that has untold power.

    It is the product of your own wisdom.

    When the Merchant meets the Artist

    This new product is the child of very different parents – the merchant and the artist.

    The merchant is concerned with offering something that solves a problem.

    She is concerned with the needs of her customers and clients, and she works hard to satisfy them so she can profit from their mutual exchange. She is concerned ultimately with improvement, and by providing something that her customers want.

    She could be selling incense, software, smart phones, tarot readings or business coaching, the economics are the same. She can produce her product for less than she receives from her buyer.

    Her and her customers both profit from the trade. She makes an honest living. They receive things they need at a fair price.

    The artist has a completely different concern. He is not concerned with improvement, he is concerned with expression.

    He seeks to express an aspect of his experience, of the human experience, of the mystical experience, through some kind of medium. He creates.

    The artifact he creates could be a painting, a song, a book, a play or a show. While the form varies, the intent is the same – to express the inexpressible without conclusion.

    He creates beauty through ambiguity and imperfection. And his audience is able to deepen their own appreciation of life through his representations.

    Historically, these two vocations were separate. Merchants were concerned with meeting existing needs. Artists were concerned with creating new realities.

    Merchants were about consolidating society. Artists were about changing society.

    These two things are no longer separate.

    When the merchant and the artist are combined, and create something, it is a new thing.

    It is a wisdom product.

    A wisdom product is an artifact that contains the service of the merchant, and the expression of the artist.

    It is a business product, something designed to be of service to another human being in a particular circumstance, with a particular type of suffering. It meets the needs of both beings, in an enhance of mutual value.

    And it is a piece of art – a provocation of the audience’s experience, not an answer to a problem. It is a story, not a manual. A painting of ideas and experiences, not a blueprint of correct and incorrect.

    A Revolution in Product Development

    A business that creates wisdom products is a different kind of business.

    The supply chain for this business does not involve the shipping of goods. The research and development for this business does not involve scientists in laboratories, or marketers with clipboards.

    The greatest asset of this business is consciousness.

    It’s you, living life, failing, succeeding, and telling your story to other brave souls suffering at the hands of the same challenges that you yourself have faced.

    It asks you to be you, to discover who you are, not as a hobby, but as the product development of your business.

    When you offer your wisdom, as product, it calls forth a deeper relationship between you and your client. A wisdom product does not tell your customer how they should do something, or the correct way to achieve an outcome. It is art.

    It transmits your consciousness and your experience, and helps them walk their own unique path, inspired by your footsteps.

    The wisdom product enables your clients to transform in your light. It enables you to make a business from consciousness. It enables the world to create an economy from awakening.

    Take your Wisdom and Create

    Make it.

    A wisdom product is always imperfect. It is not meant to be perfected. It cannot be perfected.

    If a braking system for a new car is imperfect it creates damage. It damages life, people die.

    If a wisdom product is imperfect it cannot create damage. It can create change.

    A wisdom product is simply a single step on a longer and undefined journey.

    A wisdom product is the step you take along the path to becoming a more awake human being, and a more powerful servant to your clients.

    A wisdom product is the intermediate step before you create the next wisdom product. Because in this sense it is art. And art is never finished.

    And yet, a wisdom product is created to serve, to improve lives. And so it’s ultimate success is not judged by the artist, but by the results it achieves for its purchasers.

    In this sense, it is business.

    The creation cycle of a wisdom product is much faster than the cycle of a physical product. Because it’s not about perfection, it’s about iteration.

    Apple brings out a new phone once a year.

    Seth Godin writes a new blog post every day.

    That’s the difference.

    Here’s the production protocol for a wisdom product…

    1. Make it.
    2. Give it.
    3. Receive the feedback.
    4. Let it go.
    5. Repeat.

    You do not need to awaken your wisdom before creating your product. Your wisdom is awakened as you make your product. Give it. People need you.

    Ewan Townhead

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  • I started a group coaching program last week. During the session our couch asked us a question.

    “What are you extraordinary at? World class?”

    We were invited to share our answer with everyone.

    I’m English. We don’t like to talk about such things. It’s not polite.

    But I jumped in. And found myself saying that I am an extraordinary writer. It was uncomfortable to say. I hadn’t said it out loud before.

    I remember a couple of summers ago sitting around in the garden one evening drinking wine with a group of close friends. We were with our sifu – our kung fu teacher – and he and I spontaneously invented a game for us all to play.

    We each had to stand up, and tell each other what we were truly great at – what we were better at than any other person we’d ever met.

    I have never seen a group of smart, conscious people get so twitchy. We were literally squirming in our chairs and laughing weirdly. We all felt extraordinarily awkward.

    What is it about speaking of our own extraordinariness that can feel so nauseating?

    I’m not the only one suffering from the affliction. I see it in my friends, my coaching clients, my facebook feed.

    We’re suffering from a virus of equality

    It’s an epidemic. The symptoms?

    Chronic modesty. Cold sweats at the thought of boasting. Severe aversion to the prospect of arrogance. Unremitting reserve.

    It was a wonderful thing when it first infected the populous. It changed people’s minds. It had them see the inherent value and beauty in every single human being, regardless of gender, race, social status or sexual persuasion.

    But somewhere along the way, we lost our right to boast. Or maybe the rules just changed.

    I feel my own aversion when I see someone proclaim their greatness while their heart is closed. Instead of their greatness, I simply see their insecurity, propped up by a proclamation they don’t really feel.

    I feel my own fear, when faced with the prospect of claiming my own extraordinary qualities.

    My friends at school used to call me ‘Mr. Modest’. I wasn’t actually modest, I was just scared of claiming a standard I could fall beneath.

    We like to cut down great people. Find their faults. Condemn their shadow. Discount their brilliance. The higher they reach, the more eagerly we hack at their pedestal.

    But can you feel that tender spot?

    The one underneath the crusty criticism and condemnation? The one where you know all that judgment is just your own un-owned ambition?

    It’s more vulnerable than pain and suffering

    I remember sitting in a circle at a workshop.

    People were telling me I was extraordinary. They told me I looked like Jesus. They wanted to kiss my feet.

    I was in severe pain. Telling them I didn’t want it. That I didn’t ask for it. I was angry. And upset.

    Mostly I was afraid.

    We don’t ask for it do we?

    God doesn’t check with us before giving us phenomenal, world class greatness. We have to live with it. And we have to use it, or get sick, in weird ways.

    I know how incredibly vulnerable it has been, and continues to be, when I admit my extraordinariness. It makes me quake, and squirm, and rebel.

    It feels more vulnerable than owning my shadows and wounds.

    I got a great education in loving my weakness. Loving my greatness?

    I’m still afraid of that one.

    Mostly.

    You’re extraordinary. Let’s celebrate it.

    I know you’re extraordinary. I know you know it too. How much false modesty are you carrying?

    Let’s play a game…

    What are you extraordinary at? Seriously, ask yourself. Take a moment…

    Does it come immediately? Does it surprise you? Excite you? Scare you?

    What are you better at, than everyone you know? Something that when you say it out loud, the stink of your boasting makes your eyes water.

    You’ve got to go audaciously at it. We’re so adhered to modesty, it needs a bit of bending the other way.

    It’s time to boast.

    Ready?

    I’ll go first.

    4 Things I’m extraordinary at

    1. Writing – I’m seriously fucking good at writing. Despite my superego telling me every single time I sit down to write that I’m not. Most people can’t write like I do. I’ve made a lot of people cry with my writing. I move people, inspire people and amaze people with my writing. A dear friend told me once I wrote like Rilke. Not many people can boast that.
    2. Listening to depth – I’m an extraordinary listener. I can listen with deep presence, the kind of space where people share things they’ve never shared before. And, I’m exceptionally good at listening to what is not said. Sooner or later, I’ll pick out the answer to the pattern before anyone else has even realized there’s a question.
    3. Seeing ideal futures – I’m a master at seeing what’s possible. My mind just sees it as a vision, vividly. I can look at something, and use my imagination to repair all the dysfunctions I see, unblock the flow in the system, add time, and describe what it would look like in the future as a result. Like, I’m shit hot at that. And scarily accurate most of the time.
    4. Marketing – I didn’t want to write this one. Because I have an exceptionally ambivalent relationship to marketing. But I have skills. You know what I’m sayin’? My super-charged strategic mind can map out master plans, and my writing and charisma craft compelling stories. My marketing talents have made a lot of money for myself and others the last few years.

    OK, your turn

    Put on your boasting socks, and strut your stuff.

    The more it makes you squirm the truer it is (probably).

    Own it, and it won’t own you.

    Speak it, and it will speak through you.

    You’re incredible. I know it. You know. So proclaim it.

    What are you truly extraordinary at?

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    Ewan Townhead

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  • I started asking myself this question just over a year ago.

    Last autumn I went through one of the toughest periods of my life.

    After returning from 7 months of traveling in June of 2013, things were on the up. I was full of audacious ideas, a new business partnership, renewed juju.

    And then it all started to crash.

    The woman I’d met in Bali, and for whom I’d returned from America to be with, was not happy with how I was being. Our relationship was really struggling. I was really struggling.

    While I was finding success in the work I was doing – the entrepreneurs academy I’d co-founded was doing really well – I was not happy.

    The new business partnership I’d started in San Francisco had petered out before it really got going. I knew I wasn’t doing what I actually wanted to do, but I couldn’t think of what that was. And I needed money.

    So, when my relationship hit crisis point, and I realized I didn’t have anywhere to retreat to (I’d been crashing with my woman in her room – big mistake), I had to take drastic action.

    I called my mum in tears.

    “Mum, things have got really bad here, and I don’t have anywhere else to go. can I come and stay with you for a little bit?”

    That ‘little bit’ ended up being 4 months, split between my parents houses (they’re separated). here I was, at 31, living back with my parents, my relationship on the rocks, my business ideals in tatters. My ego was crushed.

    My bright mind couldn’t get me out of the twisting maze.

    1. I’m not doing the work I’m supposed to.
    2. I don’t know what that is, or how to get paid from it.
    3. But I need money to get a house, and get myself grounded again.
    4. But I can’t do work that my heart isn’t in anymore.
    5. Repeat.

    I kept trying to strategize it – come up with the smart plan that would get me what I wanted, without stress, and without betraying my heart.

    But it just kept looping, around and around.

    So I turned to God.

    I don’t know why. It just seemed like the right thing to do. Even though I didn’t really know what that meant. And I still carried a bunch of Christian allergies. But I went in.

    I started reading Christian mysticism, and meditating and praying profusely.

    And somewhere in the tumult of swirling experiences, the question was given to me.

    What is being asked of me?

    It’s a question I’ve asked myself countless times since then. And one I’ve asked my clients, and friends too.

    I like it as a question. Deeply.

    It’s powerful. Fucking powerful. And yet, it doesn’t assume anything, except that something is possible. And that that possibility is greater than I am.

    It pulls at my edges. It pulls at what I consider possible. It pulls at the edges of my individuality, connecting me to a greater whole. A greater plan. A greater play.

    And so, as I sit back and reflect on this year, it is this question that has pulled and called me forth into things I could not have manifested alone.

    It’s the question I ask when things get confusing. It’s the question I ask when I’m freezing up in fear. It’s the question I ask when I want to connect with something infinitely wider than my mind.

    I could list so many things that this question has opened up for me.

    Here are 5 big ones.

    1. Quitting the Business Academy I Co-founded

    It wasn’t simply the academy that I stepped away from, but the business partnership I’d had for two and a half years.

    It was a huge decision.

    I didn’t know where money would come from afterwards. I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do instead. I didn’t know whether I was being sensible or idiotic.

    But it was what was asked of me.

    I could feel the truth of it. And I could hear the truth of it from the mouths of loved ones around me.

    All the while my rational mind was going loopy. It couldn’t make sense of it. And my anxiety was spinning itself up, telling me what I was doing was ‘not safe’.

    I kept checking in. Is this what is being asked of me?

    “Yes.”

    It was the hardest decision I made this year. It was the best decision I made this year. It’s changed my life.

    2. Reaching out to a Mentor

    For about 3 months, I kept having intuitions about it.

    A voice kept saying: “Reach out to him, ask him to be your mentor.”

    I couldn’t make sense of it. He’s an incredibly busy guy. A leader of a big and successful business. I don’t even know him that well.

    So I’d let it go. And forget about it. And a few weeks later, it would pop up again.

    “Reach out to him. Ask him to be your mentor.”

    This is what’s being asked of me? To reach out?

    “Yes.”

    So I did. And he said yes.

    We meet every month. It’s incredibly powerful. I feel so blessed. Being with him and receiving his help has had profound effects on me and my business.

    3. Signing my First Long-term Coaching Clients

    They wanted to work with me.

    I’d coached them through the academy I’d just stepped out of. I’d gone way beyond the coaching they’d paid for, because I just loved them and their business.

    I’d coached people on and off for several years, but I’d never signed my own private clients to a long-term package deal before. I’d always done it on a session by session basis. But this needed something way bigger than that.

    I wrote them a proposal. It took me two days. The package and price I quoted them scared the shit out of me. It was big.

    Is this what I’m asked to do? Is this what I’m asked to quote them?

    “Yes.”

    Fuck.

    I sent it to them, and felt all the tension drip off me.

    I’d spoken my pure truth. I wasn’t anxious about what they would say. I’d spoken my heart. There was nothing more I could do.

    And then they said yes.

    And then I called them and checked their commitment level. I could feel some hesitancy in them, and I wanted it to be a full yes.

    They said that had them trust me even more.

    We did some fabulous work together. We learned a huge amount. They’re now some of my favorite people on the planet.

    4. Hiring a Coach I Couldn’t Afford

    I’d known for some time that I wanted to invest in a coach of my own. I knew it was time for me.

    I’d spoken to Steve Chandler, one of the biggest coaches around. He was an option. But it didn’t feel right. I half-approached another couple of people I knew, and sounded them out. But none of it felt right.

    Then my friend Lisa had an intuition I should reach out to Sam, a coach and good friend of hers. Which I did.

    We ended up talking for two and a half hours. It felt so right to be coached by him. And the price he quoted me scared the shit out of me.

    I slept on it, and went for a walk in the park early the next morning. I tuned in.

    Am I asked to sign up for this?

    “Yes.” Fuck. But I’m scared. I can’t afford this.

    I’m really asked to do this?

    “Yes.”

    So I biked over to a cafe, and sent him the money.

    The coaching with Sam has taken my business to another level. And it’s taken me to another level of myself.

    5. Publishing Things I Didn’t Want to Publish

    It must have been just before I finally launched this site (it took me over 7 months from sketch to launch, seriously). I was meditating, and could feel that there was something wanting to come through.

    I tuned in deeply, and cast my closed eyes upward. There were two guys sitting there in big stone chairs. One was old, un-attached, immovable. One was younger, fiery, charming. I trusted them completely, immediately.

    What’s being asked of me?

    The answer was instant.

    “Ewan. You must speak. You must speak.”

    I knew it was true. Truer than ideas or concepts. Truth in its rawest form.

    So I vowed to speak. To speak the things I felt in my heart, but was deeply resisting to utter with my lips.

    I published the blogs here on this site. And each and every time I could feel the counter-force fighting me. I’d squirm as I hit ‘share’ on facebook.

    But I trusted it. I knew it was what was being asked of me.

    What is being asked of you?

    It’s the most powerful question I know.

    It’s one you can’t get wrong. You can’t get it right either.

    But you can ask it. Deliberately. Resolutely. Faithfully. And you can feel the truth of what is asked in return. And you can make a choice. To listen.

    What is being asked of you?

    Really. Be with it. Now.

    What is being asked of you?

    It’s not a homework assignment. It’s the call of your being.

    What is being asked of you?

    It’s already there. The question is already in you. You just need to reach out and listen.

    What is being asked of you?

    Write it down. Breathe it in. Offer it up.

    Ewan Townhead

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  • It is I who am your greatest longing.

    I long for you to open yourself and receive all that is.

    For when you do so my dear, you will realize that there is only This. Only Love.

    Can you feel me when you are moved?

    Can you feel that there is no other way but to surrender yourself to the beautiful pain that is the very substance of This?

    Can you be ignorant enough to allow that which you don’t realize you know?

    Can you be big enough to feel that which is bleeding for you, in every moment?

    As I sit here, looking out over the fields of a simpler existence, I feel the sadness. Not of loss, or not having, but of that which I dare not fully allow myself to feel.

    Out there, beyond the trees is a golden sun, waiting to burn you up in its glorious fire.

    Can you allow yourself to burn in Love and release that in you which is not really alive?

    14604002_mI am so in love in with my own reflection.

    I’ve worked very hard to preen his image, and yet I hate him for it. I hate him for being something untouchable, like the stranger in the mirror. A reflection of something I invented.

    Every crumb of suffering I am fed has the same elusive imprint.

    And as I invite the taste of them in just enough, so as to follow the trail back to the one that dropped them, they lead to the same lakeside.

    The one where I’ve forgotten who I really am.

    The one where before I knew how to, I created an image in the water, and loved him so desperately.

    I cry for him, as I hate him for stealing my skin and pulling the strings of innocence.

    I curse him for doing all he can to keep his own freedom. He who has been my greatest love, and my oldest friend. So delicate.

    And yet, as I feed him I starve. And I am so very hungry. Hungry for the beauty that I am. Hungry for the space that I am asked to exhibit.

    I love you my young friend, so very dearly. You are everything I thought I wanted.

    You are nothing like me, and for that I love you unconditionally, as I offer you up.

    Remember. There is only This. Only love.

    Ewan Townhead

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  • We can think of marketing as having two different ways.

    The first way of marketing is presenting ourselves, skillfully, strategically, deliberately.

    It’s writing our persuasive website copy, designing a logo that gives just the right feel to the brand, it’s concocting our taglines that inspire and inform people.

    This is the common form of marketing. It’s important.

    The second way of marketing is revealing ourselves, transparently, vulnerably, passionately.

    It’s sharing the blog that we don’t want to share because it’s too personal, or feels inappropriate. It’s offering our naked heart, without agenda.

    This is the less common form. It’s essential.

    You could think about the first kind of marketing as being about surfaces. How do I appear to the world? What will people’s first impressions be? Will I be attractive to my ideal clients?

    Surfaces are not less important. It’s like wearing clothes, or getting a haircut.

    The second way of marketing is about the heart. It’s revealing who you really are, even though you may doubt the strategy of it. It is removing the curtains, beautiful though they may be.

    The realized entrepreneur understands both these ways of marketing. For he understands that he is both depth, and surface. She wants to be seen for her true heart, and for her true skin.

    He works hard to create surfaces that reflect his depth in powerful ways – marketing that can attract people magically.

    And she also remembers that the heart of meeting is in revealing herself, and relating to the world from chosen nakedness.

    This First Way of Marketing Is Like Makeup

    I love it when my partner wears mascara and eye-liner. It brings out her big beautiful blue eyes in such an evocatively delicate way. It draws out her natural beauty. It helps me see more of her. I love seeing her.

    And then there’s the woman whose make-up is so thick and loud, that I cannot see her true face. Her natural beauty is smeared over like a mask that she hides behind.

    Salt, I find, is a wonderful ingredient for bringing out the flavors in a dish. I taste them more. But too much and it tastes like something fake and unpleasant. Sometimes, food can be so salty, I don’t know what the natural flavors actually are, or even if there are any.

    So many people are marketing themselves with mountains of makeup and salt, while our hungry marketplace is crying out for something real, something heart-full, something truly beautiful.

    Marketing Is Simply Relating

    Marketing is a practice of relating with the world around you, not persuading the world of your worth.

    Marketing is about seeing your community, clients and customers. And being seen in return. It’s a practice of speaking and being spoken to.

    Makeup is good, and fine. Use it to bring out your attractiveness, and have those with roving eyes notice you amongst the crowd.

    But don’t hide behind it.

    The first way of marketing is an invitation, not a mask.

    What’s in your heart? What do you care about so much that you feel ashamed to shout it to the entire world?

    I want to meet you, feel you, see you.

    Know you.

    Will You Show Yourself?

    You are beautiful.

    It’s not a beauty that can be assessed according to a universal scale, or compared to the beauty of another. It’s yours. Truly and completely.

    And the more you are able to push the voice of your anxiety away, and disclose that beauty, the more the natural world will rise up to meet that beauty.

    When you reveal yourself, your true self, your true community will discover you.

    If you fake it, and manufacture your image from the form of another, you will attract people who are meant to be served by another.

    If you craft your marketing with thick makeup, trying to persuade the world that you are someone you are not, you will attract customers who relate with you as that someone you are not. And they will expect of you, the promises of that someone you are not.

    And they will not be served.

    And you will not be seen.

    Let your marketing be a full expression of who you truly are, and not a mask to divert people’s powerful gaze.

    Let them see you.

    Let those who turn away, turn away.

    Let those who come closer, come closer.

    Ewan Townhead

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  • “It’s not about you Ewan. It’s not about you! What right do you have to say people aren’t worthy of your help? That you aren’t worthy of theirs!? What right!? It’s blocking you. You’re not fully giving your gifts to the world.”

    Her words echoed around my consciousness for weeks.

    As any great friend would do, she’d let me have it. The loving sledgehammer applied with precision to a fragile pride. My heart felt the truth in her words immediately.

    My ego felt rather grumpy about the whole thing.

    “What the hell do you mean it’s not about me? I’m very special don’t you know!”

    When I think of ego I think of a small child. One who has just discovered their will, and power. I want does get.

    “Look at me mommy, I’m climbing really high, look at me, look at me!”

    Yes, dear.

    And we celebrate it don’t we? It’s new and fresh, and beautiful.

    But it doesn’t stop with children.

    “I just made $12,000 in a single phone call. It was so easy. This is the sign of progress, and really owning your power. All you need to do is just believe in yourself, just like I did, and you can have anything you want, whenever you want. Look, I’ve got 274 facebook likes on this already. Wow, it’s so simple!”

    It may be dressed up in adult drag, but it’s the same voice at the core. “Look at me, look at me! I’m a big boy!”

    At some point appropriateness kicks in.

    Just like it’s generally not appropriate to shit in our pants past the age of 3, it’s probably not the best idea to wave a 3 year old ego about when you’re 33 or 63.

    But hold on, let’s also put this in perspective.

    Getting an Ego is a Groundbreaking Move

    It’s a developmental stage.

    In child development, the development of the ego is paradigm shift in perspective. Groundbreaking. Suddenly you can see your own identity as distinct from everything around you. You’re no longer fused. You are you.

    “I’m TOM! And I like trains!”

    You can possess things, want things, have things, take things.

    The ego transformed culture too.

    It enabled people to determine want they did and did not want. To realize they could take it or defend it. They had their own power. It’s what enabled humanity to move from small tribes, to big powerful clans.

    It was a totally groundbreaking shift. And, it was also 10,000 years ago now.

    We don’t consider it particularly cool or honorable to just take other people’s stuff anymore. What was once paradigm-busting, is now hopelessly insufficient for our ideals.

    I Have an Ego Apparently

    And then it happened.

    I got hit over the head by a priestess.

    “It’s not about you Ewan. It’s not about you!”

    What? But surely it’s about me? I’m the one impacting people, blowing their minds, transforming their lives. I’m the one they’re paying a lot of money to, to coach them. What do you mean, it’s not about me!?

    Of course, my heart actually knows already. I’ve known all along. Much to the annoyance of my partner.

    “Stop being a moron Ewan, why do you always make it about you?”

    She’s a priestess too, and relentless in her teaching of me. I hazard to think what would happen to my ego without her.

    My ego thinks about what would happen without her a great deal.

    “Freedom! No more complaints! As much lazy, bullshit self delusion as I can stomach!”

    Today it sounds like hell. Sometimes, it still sounds like heaven.

    Apparently I need to be reminded. A lot.

    It’s not about me, or propping up some idea of who I need to be to feel worthy. It’s about answering the call, burning through the karma that is required, and serving those I’m sent to help.

    I forget that sometimes. So, thanks to the women, and two in particular, for reminding me.

    And What About You?

    This is the part where I want to not make it about me, and make it about you instead. Because then I’ll be ‘serving you’. Or something like that.

    But what I actually want to say is…

    You’re amazing, and beautiful, and powerful. You are worthy, by the grace of being alive. You are as worthy as worthy gets.

    It’s just that you have to open your heart wide to truly remember that. And there are a squillion reasons not to do that.

    For me, they’re all some variation on “Fuck that! I’m not going to show the real me, no-one will love that!”

    My coach said to me: “what would happen next week Ewan, if you just didn’t make it about you?”

    It felt like such a yummy question.

    So, I’m posting this blog…that’s about me. Except it’s not really. It’s about each and every one of us, and how we’re all scared to truly show up in one way or another.

    I know I’m outing myself, because my ego is begging me not to show it to you.

    It’s saying, “you can’t post something that’s almost all about you”.

    Ha, the irony.

    So, here’s to not making it about me. Or you.

    What would happen today if you didn’t make it about you?

    Ewan Townhead

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  • It was April. I’d recently stepped away from the business academy I’d co-founded the previous year. People were surprised.

    But I knew I had other work to do. Even if the details were sketchy.

    I had a concept. Something about integrating creativity, spirituality and business, and people actually living it as a practice.

    I’d created an accurate, yet cumbersome and unmemorable title for it.

    “I don’t think the name works Ewan.”

    I noticed a sinking feeling as soon as my friend said it. I’d asked him his opinion, and he’d duly delivered.

    “But it’s accurate. It says what it’s about, it’s not too definitive, it’s got movement in it. And it took me ages to come up with.”

    Despite being highly creative, I find names really hard to come up with.

    “Yeah, I understand. It doesn’t work though.”

    Shit.

    I called him back a little later.

    “Hey buddy, I have another name. In fact, it was the first one I came up with during the original idea birthing. But I dismissed it. I don’t want to call it this. It feels arrogant and presumptuous. I’m really uncomfortable about it.

    “What is it?” he replied.

    “The Realized Entrepreneur.”

    “Yes. That’s it. Call it that.”

    Shit. (Again).

    This is a Business, About a New Kind of Business

    This is my fourth, or seventh business, depending upon how you count. But in many ways it feels like my first.

    It was born from somewhere deeper, more essential, and I think it’s going to take someone deeper and more essential to manifest it.

    I think this is one of the powerful things about creating something from deep inside – it will ask everything of you. And if you embrace the challenge, and kneel to its will, it will deliver the exact realizations that you always needed, but could never see.

    For that, is what I see as the path of a Realized Entrepreneur. A mission manifested through business, that was born in the soul, and will be enacted by the integrated human being.

    Who is The Realized Entrepreneur?

    The real answer is, I don’t know. That’s why I created this space, to discover it, uncover it. And, it’s a question I’ve asked myself hundreds of times over the last few months.

    Who is the Realized Entrepreneur?

    “The one who, in submission to that which burns in his soul, sets out upon a spiritual journey to manifest the dreams of which she did not choose, but will always be answerable to.”

    Under whatever name, I believe this new way of being – the Realized Entrepreneur – will be one of the most revolutionary archetypes of this still young century.

    It’s a way of being that I can hear beckoning to many of us.

    Who is (s)he?

    He is one, I believe, who is dedicated with full surrender to his own inner journey, the facing of his own shadow, the owning of his own essential glory, the dissolution of his own pre-centauric-self-concept.

    And yet, she is one who is also, at the very same moment, fully invested in the creation of material value, the building of her business, the freeing of her enterprise, and the transformation of the souls she has been sent to serve.

    It is not a path of balance.

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    It is not about adjusting the expression of his inner world to match with her outer creation. It’s not about keeping them in harmony.

    It is about both of these being the expression of one Self, one soul.

    It is also, not about simply espousing some abstract philosophy with unnecessarily confusing terms like ‘pre-centauric-self-concept’.

    It’s about a lived practice, a living practice. Surrendering to your own unique expression of this universal way. Surrendering, with full commitment, to the one who is called.

    One whose quest for real business success, and deep self discovery, are the same journey.

    One who masters both meditation and marketing. One who is guided by strategy and soul. One who creates through product design and poetry. One who integrates business plans with being.

    One whose artistic expression is their business. One whose spiritual practice is their work.

    One. Not two.

    This is how I’m going to explore The Realized Entrepreneur

    Here are four ways (well, more like 3 plus a mystical miscellaneous) that I’m going to be exploring this way of being.

    Or, in other words, here’s how you can learn with me…

    1. The Podcast
    (a.k.a. Meandering conversations with fascinating friends on the path)

    The Realized Entrepreneur is a character who’s expressions are limitless, but who’s heart is universal. A path, not a person.

    Which means there are already amazing trailblazers out there, walking this path, even though they may not resonate with the name I’ve evoked.

    I’ve begun interviewing some of these extraordinary people, exploring with them what shapes and guides them, and how they’ve created their businesses, and discovered their own nature.

    And I will be sharing all of these conversations with you in The Realized Entrepreneur Podcast.

    2. The Blog
    (a.k.a. Self-revelatory musings and teachings on the living of the path)

    In one way, I see this business as a science experiment, with myself as the first guinea pig. What is it to walk the path of a Realized Entrepreneur, like, really?

    I see this way-of-being as one of radical authenticity. One of becoming more of yourself as you already are, through the creation of business and free enterprise. And not hiding either side of the journey, but having it be your marketing and brand strategy.

    So, I’ll be practicing this self-revelatory strategy, and sharing my own discoveries, understandings and advocacy, right here on The Realized Entrepreneur Blog.

    3. The Coaching
    (a.k.a Intimate and transformative in-person support on the path)

    None of us can walk this path alone. My own friends, coaches and mentors have enabled me to step into places I simply could not have reached were I a solo-traveler.

    And so I will be offering coaching and group programs where we can together, reach heights otherwise inaccessible.

    As I’ve begun to seriously teach and coach people over the last 12 months, I’ve seen how truly transformational it can be. I’ve seen people create programs and products that looked literally impossible at the start of the journey.

    So, this is what we can co-create together, through Coaching, when you’re called to a new level of yourself and your work in the world.

    4. The Unknown
    (a.k.a. Stuff I haven’t found the grace to discover yet)

    If I’ve learned anything over the last 3 years of my own entrepreneurial path, it’s been that true transformation and business creativity come from the field of The Unknown. That place beyond your history, beyond your imagination, beyond your strategic plans and well meant assumptions.

    And so, as I sit writing this first blog post, I’m smiling, as realize that I have no idea where this journey will take me, or you. But I’m grateful you’re here, and reading these words.

    I’m excited, and humbled that we get to play together.

    More soon…

    Ewan Townhead

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