BizLightenment.com is a conscious business directory and the brainchild of a team of entrepreneurs who recognize that a global shift is happening in the world of business. A Conscious Business operates with heart and soul and seeks to be aware of its impact on the lives of its employees, its customers, its community, and the world.

BizLightenment.com is a great resource for anyone who wants to find a conscious business, organization or service provider. For example you can find conscious businesses on their site related to beauty and body care, books and media, auto, art, lawyers (yes conscious lawyers apparently do exist =), computers and internet, entertainment, financial services, pets, real estate, yoga and spiritual development. There is an easy search tool that allows you to search for conscious businesses in your field of interest. You can also post your own business, service, book or organization on the site.

Right now, they are having a raffle to give away ten conscious gift baskets, each filled with conscious business prizes worth over $750. All you have to do to enter is sign up for their monthly newsletter. The raffle ends June 15th, 2009 and winners are announced June 19th, 2009.

You can visit BizLigthenment by clicking here.

The Hollywood Note Foundation Presents: Change the World Humanitarian Awards Gala this Sunday at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. These awards honor and celebrate the Hollywood Community for making an important impact in the philanthropic world. Michael Beckwith is receiving the Visionary Spotlight Award. Other Honorees include Nancy Cartwright, voice of Bart Simpson, Ed Begley Jr., Leonardo Dicaprio and Aimee Teegarden. For more information, you can visit www.changetheworldawards.org

      In the video below, T. Harv Eker talks about how rich people think and the secrets of having a millionaire mind.  There really arn’t any secrets in the interview, but his observation about people having a preset financial blueprint is interesting.  He also makes some good points that rich people do have a particular mindset when it comes to money and says that you can use your perception, thoughts and feelings to develop that mindset.

(PS.  If you don’t want to read about a fortuitous consequence of the economic slowdown, then you can skip the post below and just watch the video clip which features James Ray talking about some of the mistakes he made as he tried to turn his passion into his career on the Fox Business Channel)…

      The often unspoken, yet prevailing mantra taught by society, is to find a practical profession to make a steady income; and to avoid taking a risky career path such as pursuing your personal passion.  Many students get degrees in Finance, Accounting or Law simply because they believe it is going to guarantee them a good income.  This line of thinking has now been proven to be severely flawed because, unlike past recessions, many major investment and law firms on Wall Street (and across the country) today are firing highly educated, qualified and experienced investment bankers and business attorneys.  Thus, the prescribed path of hard work in college leading to a lucrative job is no longer the case.

      Although this has created financial upheaval for many people, one fortuitous consequence is that is has also given people an excuse, freedom and the time to focus on what they really love without any guilt that they are making an unnecessarily risky career move.  Now the “prudent” job choice in finance and law is no longer a practical career move.  Thus, many people can now be excused from the unspoken, ingrained doctrine of choosing a “traditionally safe” profession in order to make a lot of money; and instead can devote themselves to finding a livelihood that offers passion, fulfillment and even fun.

      In the video below, James Ray talks about the process he went through turning his passion into his business.

      Spiritual entertainment is an emerging genre that is getting closer to reaching a critical mass.  In order to reach a larger main stream audience spiritual entertainment, in particular movies, engage in creative marketing strategies.  For example, Wayne Dyer’s Ambition to Meaning movie will utilize a unique distribution method for its release. 

      Four methods of distribution for Wayne Dyer’s Ambition to Meaning movie include a traditional theatrical release, screening the film at bookstores and wellness centers, selling DVDs over the Internet and allowing people to host an exclusive screening of the film during a period where it will not be made available to the public. 

      Any time after Jan. 1 2009, Hay House is allowing people to host a screening of the film for a price based on how many people will be attending.  If there will be 100 viewers, you can host a screening for $600 and receive 50 expanded versions.  If there will be less than 100 viewers, you can host a screening for $250 and receive 20 expanded versions and if there will be less than 10 people you can host a screening for $150 and receive 10 expanded versions. 

       Additionally, the film will get a theatrical release premiering in New York City Jan. 5th at the New York Directors Guild Theater and the Lloyd E. Rigler Theater in Los Angeles, California on Jan. 8th.  The DVD is available to purchase online Jan. 13 for $15.96 or $20.00 for the expanded version.  For more information you can visit the homepage for Wayne Dyer’s Ambition to Meaning movie at AmbitiontoMeaning.com and watch the teaser trailer below.

      Ever since The Secret, there have been a lot of copy cats and movies that attempted to replicate its success.   Ambition to Meaning looks like it might distinguish itself from other movies within the spiritual entertainment genre because it has well known actors including Portia de Rossi, will get a theatrical release and tells a story as opposed to being a documentary that simply presents theories with visual depictions of those ideas.

Below is a link to a 45 minute presentation that Joe Vitale gave.  Joe considers this Karmic Marketing because he is essentially giving this presentation away for free.  You can watch the presentation by visiting the link below:

http://blog.mrfire.com/prosperity/inside-attract-wealth/

Mike Myers is coming out with a new comedy, The Love Guru, this summer June 20.  The Love Guru is about an American, Guru Pitka (Myers) who is left at the gates of an Ashram in India as a child and raised by gurus.  He returns to the US seeking fame and fortune in the world of self-help and spirituality.   According to the website, his karma is huge.  Jessica Alba, Justin Timberlake and Deepak Chopra also make appearances in the movie.

This movie is taking advantage of the viral nature of the Internet with video clips on YouTube, a Myspace page, Facebook page, and a blog by Guru Pitka on Intentblog.  This movie and some of its viral marketing has already raised controversy as it pokes fun at Eastern spiritual traditions.  Interestingly enough, Deepak Chopra, who is an advocate for Eastern philosophies, is in the movie and also makes jokes about some of the stereotypes associated with himself and other Eastern mystics.  Chopra also hosts the blog for Guru Pitka at his website, http://www.intentlbog.com 

The humor in the movie is just that.  It is simply humor.  The movie reminds us not to take ourselves so seriously and that life is capable of being a cosmic playground for us to enjoy, laugh at and have fun.

You can watch the trailer of The Love Guru at http://www.lovegurumovie.com/

What once started out as a grass-roots campaign, Earth Day, to celebrate the environment, has now become a marketing bonanza.  April 22, Earth Day, may become the next Christmas for brands looking for a way to stand out in the market place.  Companies such as Wal-Mart, Banana Republic, and News Week all offered special discounts for the weeks surrounding Earth Day.  The entertainment industry also jumped on the bandwagon with green logos and environmental campaigns seen on the major television networks. 

To be fair, some of the companies genuinely do care about raising environmental awareness and increasing their own sustainability.  But, others are simply touting their environmentally friendly company policies and marketing efforts to raise their profits and increase commerce.  Their intentions are not exactly consistent with the 1970 grass-roots campaign for a national holiday honoring our planet.  Even the FTC has stepped in by saying it will be stricter in monitoring the validity of companies’ claims that their practices and policies are “green” or environmentally friendly. Does the intention to make more money really matter if the company is helping raise awareness for the environment or changing their companies’ policies to increase sustainability? 

 
The ultimate decider of whether green marketing is effective is the consumer and many of the consumers are starting to be skeptical.  “Consumers can see through messaging that is not backed with a longer-term commitment to green,” said David Wigder, senior VP-Digitas and author of the blog Marketing Green. “Moreover, if consumers are bombarded with too much messaging, they may simply tune it out.”
 

Consumers often voice their concerns and criticism in the blogosphere.  Bloggers are known for meticulously checking facts and companies’ claims.  Thus, a good source for whether a company is truly green or environmentally sound is the blogosphere. According to Nielsen Online, Tree Hugger, World Changing, The Oil Drum and Alternative Consumer are among the most popular sustainability blogs on the web.  Tree Hugger is the largest environmental blog with 10 regular staffers and 50 contributors from around the world.  The staffers include advocates, scholars and experts.  David Binkowski, senior VP-director of word-of-mouth marketing at Manning Selvage & Lee explains, “[It] better not just be window dressing, because bloggers fact-check everything.”

So whether or not green marketing is just the latest fad or a legitimate platform to raise awareness for both brands and the environment remains to be seen.  However, companies that advertise their environmental claims are sure to face more scrutiny and will need to deliver a product that meets the consumer’s expectations.

On Earth Day, Disney revealed that it is creating a new production house, Disneynature, that is focused on documentaries about the environment. Their first movie released in the US is ”Earth”, from Alastair Fothergill, producer of “Planet Earth” series.  It will be narrated by James Earl Jones and released April 22, 2009.  

   
Disney prexy-CEO Robert Iger explained, “Disneynature is a concept we look forward to building across the company and across the globe for years to come, and we hope these films will contribute to a greater understanding and appreciation of the beauty and fragility of our natural world.”

Disney’s emphasis on nature docs is similar to when Walt Disney was running the studio.  From 1948-1960, Disney’s True-Life Adventure series won eight Oscars, including best feature documentary for 1953’s “The Living Desert.”      

No matter what your job is or no matter how much you like or dislike it, you have the opportunity to turn it into a spiritual experience.  St. Francis gives us some guidance about how to do this when he said:

“Make me a channel of your peace.”

If we can apply this ideal to our jobs, then our day at work can become a form of spiritual devotion.  While prayer and meditation are powerful and effective, in order for us to reach our full potential as human beings, it may be helpful to begin to see all aspects of our life, including our jobs, as an opportunity to have a spiritual experience.

For example, how many times have you ever noticed your coworkers stressed out, angry or in the need of some extra help.  What if you approached your colleagues from a mindset of peace and service by giving them the extra help or simply asking them if you can get them a cup of coffee?  Everyday there is an opportunity to emote love and peace to our coworkers.  These simple acts of kindness do not go unnoticed and their effects are both practical and profound.   

The interesting paradox is that by approaching work with a mindset of peace, service and giving to others, the more we will receive on both a spiritual and objective level.  For instance, your coworkers will begin to notice that you are a source of peace for them throughout the day and be that much more inclined to help you in return when the time comes, or give you more responsibility and think of you when it is time for a promotion.  Additionally, people are more effective workers, have increased creative thinking skills, and increase their overall productivity when they are experiencing peace, love or joy.   

By recontextualizing your job as a form of spiritual devotion, the pressure that you may feel throughout the day begins to go away because you are focused on serving others or some higher purpose instead of seeking some end result or gain for yourself.  This practice can actually become a form of meditation if we ask God or our Spirit to take over for us throughout the work day. For example, instead of over-thinking every little detail about how to get the job done, we can simply allow our Spirit to make the decisions throughout the day for us by trusting our inner guidance and intuition. 

It is easy at times to separate our spiritual and work life.  However, if we can begin to view our job as an opportunity for personal, emotional and spiritual growth, then the job can become an authentic spiritual experience.