Conscious Business and Transparency

Sarah Anne Dordel, leader of the Conscious Business Network, joins Justin Recla to discuss the importance of conscious business and how to leverage transparency. Sarah Anne specializes in helping others awaken their businesses. Her clients are emerging leaders, and she teaches them how to launch, lead, and build their own large-scale network in order to position themselves as powerful influencers through trust, visibility, and savvy event-marketing. Listen in as she shares advice for developing a conscious business.

Welcome to the In The CLEAR podcast, I’m your host, Justin Recla, and today, we are going to take our conversation a little bit further. We’re going to go to the edge of consciousness. We’re going to go to the edge of exploring things that you may have been feeling in business, you’ve been paying attention to, you’ve been noticing these things, and I’m super excited for this conversation because I have no idea where it’s going to go and I’m super excited for that because our guest today is Sarah Anne Dordel. She is the founder and creator of the Conscious Business … Why don’t you just tell us what it is you do, Sarah?

Yeah, I know, because I gave you a full bio there. It’s the Conscious Business Chamber of Commerce, and the Conscious Business Chamber of Commerce is really my intention to massively upgrade the community that I built here locally in San Diego so that we could take it to other countries … I’m sorry, cities across the country and beyond.

Okay, so you see what I’m talking about folks? This is something … This is one of the conversations that I’m going to love because this really captures the essence of how we run our business here at the Clear Business Director and over at Super Power Experts, and more and more people are awakening to the fact that there is a better way of doing business, and that is through … that’s by running a conscious business, operating in transparency, and doing things different, taking it to the next level. So, Sarah, what does that mean for you in your world?

Yeah, that’s a really good question, and it’s so funny because I was having a conversation with one of my strategic partners lately, and we’re in the conscious community here in San Diego, and that word has always felt a little off to both of us because what it’s really about … It’s not about perfection. I mean, if anybody knows me well, they’ve looked at my life, and for a lot of it, I was a train wreck. And I’m very transparent about that because, frankly, I wouldn’t want it any other way.

I’ve learnt a lot, and if it hadn’t been the way that it had, it wouldn’t have been very interesting, and then I certainly wouldn’t be the evolving person that I am today. And I think that being conscious in business is just about being committed to being as conscious as you possibly can, both in business but more importantly outside of business because you can’t really separate the two anymore.

My inspiration, like I said, I used to be frustrated by things, and now I’m inspired by my frustrations. I create from it. It’s really, you know … We can’t be one or the other, and I really stand for that because when we allow ourselves to be transparent in who we are, we don’t have to hide things, and we don’t have to be one person in business and one person outside of a business relationship.

Oh, absolutely, and I love the fact that you highlight that because transparency is fairly a new concept to a lot of people. I love the fact that you said that by being transparent, you don’t have to hide.

Right.

And coming from the counterintelligence world, transparency is something that you don’t often talk about. You know, you got secret and classified information and all this kinds of things, but ultimately, being on this side of the fence now, being an entrepreneur, being in the business world, that transparency process, it really expedites trust because when you’ve got nothing to hide from, then it disarms any argument that somebody may use against not working with you.

Exactly, exactly.

You know?

I mean, I’m not proud of all of the things that I’ve done in my life, and I’m still imperfect. This is a process, and we’re human, and we all have our shadow, but when you can learn to honor everything that you’ve been through in your life … and this is actually part of soul branding, which I work through with my clients. When you can honor what you’ve done really well in your life, especially in work, but you can also honor all of your, what I call the epic fuck-ups … I’m sorry. I said I wasn’t going-

Now, but we did … You heard it, folks. We actually had a conversation about this prior to the break that either she or I, one of us, was going to drop the f-bomb at some point in time. I didn’t realize it was going to happen four minutes into the show, but there it is, folks, the f-bomb dropped.

Let’s just get it out. Okay, so now it’s transparent. But, it’s like, when you can honor these epic shameful moments in life, let’s just call them that, then you can really from them and evolve from them and just … It’s through those moments where you also realize your pain and you realize what you’re passionate about and what really makes you upset because when we have those moments in life, we realize who stands up for us. We realize how we should have stood up for ourselves, and we realize how we want to be better, and that leads us into a moment and into a space of passion. And passion brings forward the emerging leader.

Yeah, and not only that, but it attracts clients because you connect with people in full authenticity, and you just show up at a … If you look at the leaders in the business world today, the ones that are out there really making a change, the ones that people resonate with, the reason why they connect with so many people is because they just show up authentically.

Yeah.

They’ve got nothing to hide. They’ll be the first person … You ready for it? They’ll be the first person to tell you they fucked up.

Yup, exactly.

Right? And, in owning that, it removes the concept of separation. Right? And there’s this theory in business that you have the business and you’ve got customers, and the only two places that those two shall ever interconnect and interchange is in the exchange of money. And it’s so much deeper than that, and I think we’re seeing more and more business … well, I know we’re seeing more and more businesses come online with this, is when you can meet your clients and your customers in a place of transparency and authenticity, you not only get clients but you get loyal fans for life.

Yes, that’s exactly it. You know, fans that just … They’re raving fans, if you want to call them that. It’s like you have to not apologize for who you are and stand up for everything that you believe in in a way that isn’t polarizing, or may be a little bit, but is respectful of all paths. I think non-judgment really lends itself to transparency, and I believe in creating a safe space for transparency where people can be like, you know what, this was my past, and these are the things I’m still working on, and yeah, by the way, I’m a good person. I’m a good professional.

I absolutely love that, and I want to dive into the concept of polarization a little bit more, especially how it kind of ties into the conversation here. If you’re just joining us, we’re talking about conscious business and transparency with Sarah Anne Dordel. She’s the founder and creators of the Conscious Business Chamber of Commerce. So, Sarah, can you give our listeners your website where they can find you?

Yeah, so my personal website is sarahannedordel.com. The Conscious Business Chamber is found at consciousbusinesschamberofcommerce.com.

Fantastic. And you’re listening to the In The CLEAR podcast, and when we get back, we’re going to dive a little bit further into this conversation around conscious business and transparency and dive into a little bit further into the conversation around polarization. So stay with us.

To listen to the entire show click on the player above or go to the In the Clear podcast on iTunes.