Yes You

Wholesome Business: A framework for good

• Annie Carter

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What if your business could be good for you, good for the people around you, and good for the world?

In this episode, I’m sharing the heart of what I call Wholesome Business - a simple but powerful lens for building a business (and a life) that feels nourishing, sustainable, and deeply aligned with your values.

We explore what it means for a business to truly serve its founder (that’s you), to care for the people connected with it - from partners to team to clients -  and to play a part in making the world better.

I share examples from my own businesses, and how it's an ever-changing blend.

Whether you’re building something new, checking in on your established business, or reflecting on your life more broadly, this episode will help you explore and blossom into something really good (as defined by you).

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Hello. Welcome. I'm Annie, and it is my pleasure to welcome you to. Yes, you. After having kind of a week off last week with just a teeny tiny episode that I shared, I am really happy to be back and sharing with you once again. It's been a really busy time for me lately, and I think the combo of that and just the intensity of the world that we're living in right now, meant that it was important for me and helpful for me to just give myself a little bit of extra space last week.

So I hope that that encouraged you. If you did listen to that little teeny tiny episode last week that they encouraged you to do that for yourself to where you need it. It does feel like a part from any of the details of our individual lives, just the intensity of what's going on in the world right now is enough to really take its toll on all of us.

And in some ways it's like, well, that's only appropriate. Like, it would be weird if it's not taking a toll on us in some way. I think of a quote from Krishnamurti where he said, it is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society or a sick world. And that really rings true for me at the moment with some really, really horrific things going on around the world.

If that just sort of sat fine and we all felt completely fine, I would think something is up, like something's not quite right in me. If I found myself just feeling completely okay. And so yeah, it makes sense, I think, to to have a mix of enjoying moments, appreciating life, feeling gratitude for all of the blessings and the beauty and the privilege and everything good that we experience, and at the same time letting ourselves be disturbed by what's not okay, and actually using the resources that we have and the privilege that we have to actually do whatever we can about those things.


Before I go further, I want to acknowledge where I am. I'm looking out of my window. It's beautiful trees I'm here on. We're under country and I want to pay my deep respect to elders, past and present. Today I want to chat with you about an idea that I was kind of pondering for quite a while and have brought together as a framework for how I look at business, and it's helped me to look at meaningful business as I define it, and I hope that it will help you.


Whether you're a business owner, I certainly think if you're a business owner, then this is a framework that you might like to reflect on your own business and, and just kind of see if the balance, the mix is feeling good for you through this framework. But even if you're not a business owner, there's plenty in this for you too.



You can have a look at your life, you can have a look at the work that you do. You can have a look at the ways that you spend your time. I think that this framework will still be relevant and helpful. So the framework that I'm talking about, I call wholesome business, and it's in some ways I still don't feel completely settled on the world wholesome, because it almost has a bit of a kind of saccharin quality to to it.


Whereas I believe this to be powerful and yet potent. And what I mean by wholesome, well, the meaning of wholesome is something that is good. And what I mean in this framework is looking at business as being wholesome in three different ways. The first one being good for you as the business owner. The second one is the business being good for the people who are part of your business, connected with your business, whether we're talking clients, whether we're talking other stakeholders, whether we're talking partners or team.


And then thirdly, wholesome in the sense of being good for the world. And that might sound really kind of broad and lofty. I'm going to break it down a little bit more. For me, it's a beautiful and important aspect of considering what I'm doing in my business. So this framework is something that I see even through the studios that my business and also the business mentoring that I do.


And it's something that I share in the Orchard, the business mentoring program that I offer, inviting business owners to reflect on their businesses in this way as well. So I'm going to break down these three different areas and give you something to consider for yourself. Like I said, whether it's for your business or just for your life more broadly.


So the first area of wholesomeness of goodness is being good for you. In my case, it's about being good for me. So what does that mean to me? My business being good for me means these things. It means that I enjoy it. It means that it is satisfying and fulfilling to me that it feels like meaningful work. It also means that it is challenging for me, that it engages me, that I stay interested, and that it feels like a bit of an adventure.


It's also good for me if it feels creative. Another aspect of business being good for me is that it's something that I'm proud of. If I don't feel good about my business, if I don't feel proud of it in some way, then it's not as good for me as it could be. Other aspects are that it gives me freedom and flexibility, while also some stability.


Obviously, there's the financial aspect. So, that it pays my bills as a starting point, but also that it does give me some freedom financially to contribute to the things that I want to contribute to. To be generous with, for people in my life, to be able to save up for things and not to be stressed financially.


And the other aspect of it being good for me is that my business positively impacts my relationships. Like my intimate relationship and other relationships in my life. And I guess the flip side of that is if my business is negatively impacting my friendships, my family relationship, my intimate relationship, then it's not as good for me as I would like it to be.


For me, when I think about Eve looking back, we're talking more than ten years ago. There's been a mix of, how this kind of business being good for me has looked. And there's times where I'd say it's been really great for me and times where it hasn't been as great for me. It might have been good for the people, and but that part of my business, or it might have been good for the world more broadly.


But in terms of how good it is for me personally, individually, there's been times when it hasn't been as great. So let me just share just a little bit about that. So in the really early days of Eve, where I was just pouring all of my time, all of my effort, all of my money into the business, it was really good for me in the sense that it was exciting, it was creative.


It was fulfilling. It felt really meaningful. It was an adventure. So that was filling me up in lots of ways. It wasn't so good for me financially. I wasn't, personally making any money from it for the beginning, and it actually was placing quite a bit of financial stress on me at that time. It also wasn't amazing in terms of my relationships.


I pretty much neglected most of my relationships for at least the first year or so of a while. I just poured all of my attention into it. There was a time later on, a few years into Eve, and I've shared about this in previous episodes where I talked about burnout, where I. Yeah, it wasn't great for me in that I really pushed myself so hard that physically and mentally I was exhausted.


And so in that sense, at that time, my business wasn't amazing for me right then and then things have shifted over the years. And at at this point, I would say my business is really great for me. I feel fulfilled, I feel satisfied, I feel challenged. Financially, it does provide stability and some, it gives me some freedom and flexibility.


And I am generally more free to spend time with the people that I love to put more into my relationships. But to be honest, that's also an ongoing one for me. Partly because I am an introvert, and because the nature of my business is being with people a lot of the time, which I really, really love. But I will find that after, say, spending a day in the studio, surrounded by people or spending time with, business owners that I'm mentoring and connecting with them, that when I have my own time outside of my business, that I may not be so inclined to go call a friend or connect with with somebody else in my life, because it's almost like the the people time quota has already been filled. So it's something that I, I'm just always having to balance for myself, because I also know that those personal relationships, the friendships and relationships that I have, that existed before I started my business and that, unrelated to my business are really important for me as well.


And so even where I might not always have that urge or instinct to contact those people in my life and to nurture those relationships, I know that in the bigger picture, I really do need that. It's good for me. Apart from it being good for those actual relationships and the other people that I'm in relationship with. I, in the last year have started, offering The Orchard, which is a business mentoring program.


And so that has shifted the balance of my work a bit and has filled my time up some more. And while it's been amazing for me in the sense that I really love it. It's so fulfilling and I get to connect with all these amazing business owners. Being the first year that I'm running it, and as a 12 month program, it's definitely filled my time more.


And so that's something that I'm having to be mindful of as well. Just to kind of strike that right balance because I know how important having some space, having some downtime and rest, ease for me, for all of us. But for me. So there's some of the aspects of what business being good for me means to me.


I wonder what it means to you if you think about your business, or if you're thinking about this more broadly as your life. Is it working for you? What does working for you mean? What does good for you mean to you and are you seeing that in your business or in your life? Other areas that maybe could use a little bit of extra attention, perhaps some adjustments, changes?


Let's move on and have a look now at the business being good for others. And like I said before, this could be anyone else who's connected with the business. So it could be your business partner, other, the stakeholders. It could be suppliers that you work with. It could be customers, clients. It could be staff, team, anyone that you're, connected with in your business.


For me, if I start with the team, I have an amazing team. At Ave, we have five managers that I deal with a lot that we work together closely through day to day. And then I have a team of teachers, over 35 people who are just these incredible people, and some of them I get to see a lot, and some of them I don't get to see as much, but they're all part of the team.


And when I think about the business being good for them, I essentially want the same things for them as I want for myself. I want them to find they work in my business satisfying and fulfilling and creative, and that it feels meaningful to them, feels like something that they want to do. I want it to be financially supportive of them, but also supportive in other ways.


And I think that that's really important to acknowledge. Money, obviously, is really important, and if people are employed, then money is a key part of of what that needs to look like, what that exchange is, but it's not the full picture. And so to me, when I think about my business being good for my team, yes, I want them to be paid well.


And on top of that, I want them to feel supported, and I want them to feel like they are challenged and they have the opportunity to grow. And that there are, yeah, opportunities for them to learn and to step into new things that suit them. I also want them to feel like I care about them. And so it's about kind of finding different ways to express that.


I remember years ago, job that I did where the boss at the end of every week would say, thanks for your work this week. And if I really noted that at the time as something that meant something to me as an employee, I was being paid for the work. It was a fair exchange. So he didn't need to thank me for the work.


But the fact that at the end of every week, he did express gratitude for the work that I had done. And I'm not talking about me going above and beyond or doing anything extra. He was just expressing gratitude for the job that I was paid to do and was doing, and that meant something that made working in that job more good for me than it would have been if he hadn't expressed that gratitude.


And so that's something that I try to bring into my business, and something that if you have a business you might like to consider for yourself. Essentially, when I think about a team, I want their lives to be enhanced by being part of the team. Like to really boil it down. It's like I want their lives to feel better because they are on this team than if they were not.


And then the same goes for clients. So if I think of the clients at Ave, the amazing community who are part of our studios, it that's kind of the really simple way of looking at it, that I want their lives to be enhanced by being a part of A's, and the same for the business owners that I mentor.


I want their lives and their businesses to be enhanced through being part of the mentorship that I offer, and really, for me, it's about creating an environment where people experience acceptance and where they experience love, that they experience those things on some level from me and also for themselves. And so that's about creating an inclusive and accepting space for everybody who is connected with the business.


And as I reflect back on Eve and on the mentoring program that I offer, I can see times where I've done that better and times where I've fallen short with that. But it's something that I just keep coming back to, to look through the lens is what I'm offering here. Good for the people who are connected with this business?


Is it good for them? You might like to think about it yourself. Who are the people who are connected with your business, or who are the people in your life? If you're thinking about it that way, is being part of your business or being connected with you good for them? What does that look like for them? What could it look like for them?


And are there any changes that you might like to make to bring that to life a little bit more in your business or in your life?


And now let's move on and have a look at being good for the world. And yes, that does sound really big, but actually doing the first two business, that's good for me and business. It's good for the people who are connected with my business actually is being good for the world. So I think if we can do those first two on some level, we're already doing it for the third.


For the world more broadly. The other thing is that I believe that when we feel safe and accepted and at ease, our tendency is to do good in the world. And so. By creating a positive environment through my business, I trust that actually that is contributing to bringing people to a point where they will do good in the world in their various different ways, other aspects of being a business that is good for the world, things like supporting causes that matter.


And so that could be about supporting Aboriginal community controlled organisations. It could be about supporting the environment in different ways. And some environmental organisations, perhaps it's about advocacy, or maybe it's about supporting organisations that are for positive body image or mental health. Supporting young people or against homelessness. So supporting causes that matter is a really powerful aspect of having a business that's good for the world.


And I'd encourage you to think about this. If you do own a business, how can you do this if you're not already? And one thing that I would say is that it's easy, especially for a small business, to think, oh, I'll do that when my business is big enough. But these things I'd suggest are best brought in when you're small and, proportionate level to the size of your business.


So it might be that, yes, when your business is much bigger, then yes, you can give a whole lot more, but it doesn't mean that you can't give anything when your business is small. I do need to recognise that sometimes standing up for the things that matter to you and doing good in the world in this way sometimes comes at a cost.


It comes at a financial cost. If, say, you, donating money. And that could be in the form of, say, donating a percentage of your revenue or of your profits, or it might be about doing some fundraising events, or if you sell products that the, profits from a particular product go to support a particular cause. So obviously there's that financial cost, but there's also the potential that it costs you in other ways.


There's always a possibility that not everyone is going to agree with you, and that's something that you take a stand on, is something that other people will push back against. And you might experience some resistance. You might even have some people stop buying from you or stop at, yeah, connecting with you, doing business with you. And I guess that's something that we need to come into mind fully and to consider whether it's worth it for me, in my business, there have been times where the there has been a cost in those different ways through supporting things that mattered to me, and yet I consider it still worthwhile.


I don't want to under estimate or understate, I guess, the potential impact of that. And I it's actually something really significant for business owners to grapple with. And I know that sometimes if you don't own a business, it's easy to look at businesses and going, why aren't they standing up for their soul? Why aren't they, donating these or, or whatever we might expect from business owners?


But sometimes it's, complex. Sometimes it's really challenging as a business owner to think through these things. But I would encourage you to think them through and to really dig deep within yourself around what matters. Because I do believe that owning a business is a profound opportunity to make a difference in the world, both just through exactly what you do for these different causes, but also for modeling a different way.


When I talk about this new paradigm of life and leadership in the introduction to this episode, this is part of what I mean, that we're actually practice to seeing a different way of doing things where it's not just about kind of corporate social responsibility of like, oh, I have to donate this to be seen as being good or whatever, but actually, like, really genuinely going, what's the opportunity that I have within my business to make a positive impact?


Another aspect of being good for the world, as I see it, is challenging the status quo. So the status quo being a world of stress and exhaustion and overwhelm and competition and self-loathing and self-criticism and self punishment, or it's of empowerment for some but not others. And in business we get to challenge that and to flip that where we can.


So to create environments that are inclusive and that are empowering and encouraging, that expand the circle of who is included it. And again, in my own business businesses, it's something that I as I reflect, it's like, yeah, I've done that. Well at times not done it as well as I would like to at other times. And so there's always room for growth.


For example, being an inclusive space is really, really important to me. And a lot of the feedback that we get, say, at Eve is that people feel like it's a really inclusive space. And so I love that. But we also, from time to time, get feedback that some people don't feel that it's inclusive, that it doesn't feel like a space where they can, feel at home, where it feels like theirs.


And so that's something that I want to continue to hear and not just go, well, lots of people say that's inclusive and just kind of disregard any feedback where it's not. I want to really hear that and keep doing better at that without going in to kind of beating myself up. Yeah, giving myself or team a really hard time around that.


It's just about okay, there's always an opportunity to do better. So let's do better. One really clear way that businesses can do good in the world is to demonstrate respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and that can be expressed in lots of different ways, and I'd encourage you to find ways to demonstrate it. So yes, having an acknowledgment on your website is good.


It's just a starting point. And then from there it's about, well, what other ways can you demonstrate that respect and that acknowledgment of First Peoples? A really, really obvious one is paying the rent. And if you haven't come across the concept of paying the rent yet, I would encourage you to look into it. So essentially, it's about contributing a portion of your income to Aboriginal community controlled organisations.


And there is now an organisation called Pay the Rent so you can donate to them, and then they donate or they distribute the funds to different organisations. And that's just a really, really basic way. Again, kind of like starting point level. I think it's something that we all need to be doing. Those of us who are not indigenous, if we are part of colonizing lineage, then it's to me it's a requirement.


We need to pay the rent. So that's something you can look into if you're not already. Apart from that, you might connect with a particular Aboriginal community controlled organisation for May at Ave, it's Djirra Victoria who support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women who have experienced domestic violence or have, escaped domestic violence. And yeah, you might form more of a connection with a particular organisation and really follow their lead in terms of things that you can show up for, things that you can contribute to, things that you can advocate for.


There's lots and lots of different ways that you can do this. So there the three things business that's good for you, business that's good for the people around you and connected with your business and business that's good for the world. More broadly over the years. For me, the mix of those three has shifted with emphasis on different beneficiaries at different times.

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So there's been times where the business has so been great for the clients in my business and maybe great for the team. But where I've been struggling and it hasn't been as great for me, there might be other times where it's been great for me, but perhaps we're not having as much of an impact in terms of it being good for the world.


So it's not a static thing, and it's not something that you kind of strike the balance and then it just stays. It's a living thing and in that sense, I find it a really helpful and powerful framework because you can just always just be reflecting, checking in on a regular basis. If you think about this mix of creating a wholesome business that has these three aspects of being good, like how is that balance right now?


And are there changes that need to be made to bring more balance? If this feels like a meaningful framework for you?


So I hope that this encourages you. And if you're running a business just living your life, that this encourages you, that you get to bring good for yourself, for the people around you and for the world. And every little bit counts. You get to shine your light in your way and play your part. So I hope that you can take something from this episode and that you can go away and have a reflect on what do those three different aspects of being good mean for you in your business and in your life?


And are there any adjustments that you might like to make at this time? And they might be a little things that you can put in place immediately, or even big things you can put in place immediately. And some it might be even just creating for yourself a vision of what a fully wholesome business looks like to you, and then setting a course to head more and more in that direction.


As I mentioned earlier, this is something that we do explore in The Orchard, the business mentoring program that I offer. And so if that's something that you might like to consider being part of, please get in touch with me. You can head to my website. Any to accommodate you or just connect with me on Instagram to me a DM.


I can send you some more info and we can have a chat about whether it might be a good fit for you. Going forward. Okay my friend, thank you so much for listening. I hope that this encourages you to keep on shining your light in your way. Maybe you find some more ways to even do that. Sending you loads of love and I will chat to you next week.


Bye.