Meet today's guest:

Orange, Liston & Dew

Orange, Liston, & Dew is a marketing shop and business incubator co-founded by a copywriter, business intuitive, & integrator-at-large. They serve coaches, healers, consultants, and brick-and-mortar business owners who love their work and are building singular, sustainable, and satisfying businesses. The trio offers a full range of proposal-based services including strategic vision, writing, planning, and implementation support. As a business incubator, they hold an uncommon and rare place for their clients’ business dreams to be seen, nurtured, and grow in community – while deeply rooted one’s own values. http://beaverbusinessclub.com

On today's show I spoke with three passionate women who have come together to create the Beaver Business Club, a marketing shop and business incubator that helps coaches, healers and business owners build businesses that work for them.

This might not sound like that big of a deal, until you realize that so many people live in a life that feels stifling, stressed and 'should' based…one where they work for a living instead of making their life work for them.

My conversation with Stella Orange, Rebecca Liston and Sarah Dew was focused on what happens when you reach for a life that doesn't just feed your family, but feeds your heart, your soul and your need for positive connection with others.

The 3 of us decided to work together last year and we all came to this from our own successful businesses. We joined forces to make life easier on one another. We were just celebrating this week that we're still in year one of startup mode but the ground feels smoother beneath our feet. I think for me the biggest thing is working in concert with other women.
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Lately I've been playing with this question…how can I make this more fun? I'll ask myself this when I'm doing the dishes, when I'm taking out the garbage because I've noticed for me that part of being an adult is being responsible and doing the things that you know you should do, but then the little kid in me is like, "Okay but how can I make this more fun?" That question has really given me a lot of juice right now so that's how I'm rockin it these days.

We talked about being a single mom, as well as starting a family when you are self-employed. We explored finding that critical time to recharge your batteries both on your own and in relationship with others.

I just got back from a trip with some friends who over the years we've become closer and closer and now we're friends as well as colleagues. That's something that I never thought would become so important to me but actually spending time away from the kids is really helping to make everything easier and to make it feel exciting and not just that day to day drudgery… I've noticed now that my children, my oldest is 11 and I have 9 year old twins (all boys) and they now see that as normal mom behavior. My time is important too – I need to have time for me – and now my boys are seeing that as normal which is really cool to watch.
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We've been wanting to start a family for quite a while and I didn't know how it was going to work when it was just me in business for myself… For me the biggest thing that I see is the power of collaboration and community. And that's really made a difference for me and my vision of what's possible and feeling like I don't have to do it all by myself.
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For me what was important was having quiet built into my own daily rhythm… from time to time my kids go with their dad and on those weekends I've really come to covet that time. That time is just for me I don't fill it with all kinds of activities. I need quiet and I need quiet outside and I need to be feet on the ground out in nature and just quietly sitting on my own… that's the thing that is key to me feeling good about the life that I'm living.

We discussed the parallels between raising kids and birthing a business, as well as being able to navigate a healthy partnership whether you work closely with 2 other women, or are trying to build the kind of partnership we call family.

I think for me the thing that's been most interesting is watching the parallels between the worlds… when you start a business it's like having a baby. Businesses grow and children grow and they go through phases where they are kind of grumpy and they're teething and so do businesses. Then they get a little bigger and you can leave them alone for a little while… and so for me it's been neat to watch as my business and my children follow one another and parallel one another.
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We all do relationships differently and the wonderful thing is when there are 3 of us we all bring our own style to the table. Some of the best stuff comes when we have an all-play and figure it out together. Being able to do a group solve rather than taking all the problems on ourselves.
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There is power in our work and also we can delight in it. The work is holy to a beaver; but they don't work all the time. There's time when we float on our backs and admire the sky or the dam we built.

Tune into the podcast to hear all the wonderful tips and enjoy the magic that happens when a small group of women conspire to make the world a better place.

Find out more about Orange, Liston and Dew at Beaverbusinessclub.com and join them for Coffee Talk – an opportunity to experience the power of collaboration working with you, for you and because of you.

One final quote from the show:

There really is something of value in growing and nurturing a family or business. When we do it together as a team and work together we are all creating an impact of value to the people within it and also to the world at large. The sum of the whole is truly greater than the sum of the parts.