Thursday, August 26, 2010 at 10:00AM Turning Over the Keys to the Castle
Some would say it's crazy to start a business in the middle of a recession-depression. I've found it to be profoundly energizing and smart, and doing so has enabled me to take a great big leap into a new adventure. In the next few weeks I will phase out Craving Balance, and finish the work of creating the LLC with my business partner Victoria Pynchon at She Negotiates.
So how did I go from Balance to Negotiation?
In my work with women I began to notice a repeating theme. We can answer the questions "who am I" and "what do I want" with relative ease. We can connect our values to our daily choices, and prioritize the mountain of tasks of daily living. We could achieve a certain level of balance, but the remaining question, "how do I get there" was a trail full of pebbles, rocks and boulders, sometimes tall rock walls that often seemed to end the trail abruptly. So we stepped over the boulders and in many cases bushwhacked new trails.
Deep into this trail we find ourselves having to ask for what we want, and stay diligent and focused and persistent. And here's the rub:
We women do not like to ask.
It's not nice. It's pushy. We don't want to be strident. We have internalized (agreed with) the culture's whacked out perspective of what it means to be a woman. We've swallowed it whole and are suffering an indigestion of the soul. In our everyday lives it looks like this:
- We hope that someone will notice how wonderful we are at our job rather than ask for a promotion or a raise and so we suffer being passed over and forgotten and become overworked, underpaid and bitter.
- We don't ask for a small business loan because we have to project our value in the marketplace, and this value feels uncertain.
- In our families and our workplaces, we put our needs and wants and dreams aside to be of service to others.
- We fail to notice and take stock of how the world changes for the better when we are in charge of our destiny.
Learning to negotiate gives us the keys to the castle and holds the possibility of transforming our relationships, and our work in the world. Negotiation allows us to express ourselves purposefully. And that purposefulness, above anything else, is what we will refer to when we're taking our last breath. "I'm happy I contributed something of value to the world."
So now, I'd like to turn over the keys to the castle. Here's my offer:
- Take Craving Balance and start your own business in the middle of the recession-depression :)
- Learn to negotiate by taking one of our phenomenal virtual, interactive courses.
- Leave a comment and tell me your thoughts.
- Email me to discuss any of the above: lisa [at] shenegotiates.com

Craving Balance,
Negotiation,
she negotiates,
work life balance | in
Negotiation |
Lisa Gates 


















