LOVE is the ONLY strategy- How we ranked in the Top 100 Companies in America

This year Entrepreneur Magazine increased our rank from #260 to #87^th best entrepreneurial company in America.

Most people think we got here by being really, really good at making money. Actually, money is a byproduct of our strategy, while LOVE is at its focal point. Let me tell you what I mean.

 

I am fortunate to have joined The Author Incubator team just in time for the Annual Staff Retreat. The whole team sat around one of those long corporate-y tables, fashioned with swivel chairs and a projector screen backsplash! We all know what this sort of conference room looks like. But this annual check-in meeting was anything but the usual dry staff-reporting extravaganza. There was nothing corporate-y about this meeting.

The Staff Retreat was two-days long. Day one started with yoga and skits (complete with a juice and omelet bar) and day two featured a Holiday Shopping spree from Angela, featuring local metaphysical and self-care businesses in our very own Author Training Academy lobby! In the two days, the team meditated, stretched, picked out a crystal or two, some art work and even skin care products.

So, when did the ACTUAL work get done? For starters, that WAS part of the work! Self-care is a HUGE part of our business philosophy here at The Author Incubator. And, after our self-care, we covered all of the other nuts and bolts of how we’re going to be serving your future readers in 2019- from mission, finance and key performance indicators to project management and goal-setting!

This was one of the most energizing, efficient and productive company meetings I have ever been in. Instead of leaving tired and drained, the entire team left on a high because we have agreed on a plan to double our impact next year, and improve more lives than we ever thought possible.

But it was at this retreat that I realized exactly how it was that Dr. Angela built her team around her vision. She’s been extremely strong on making sure that EVERYONE she’s hired into The Author Incubator team is bought into a key set of spiritual and moral principles. These guiding principles WORK…. OMG… and we thank Entrepreneur Magazine** (as well as the Inc. 500) for validating our success.

**Full Disclosure: There is a fee to apply for this award, but most applicants don’t get a spot on the list and the criteria to participate is intense. We have been under a microscope and the view was good! We were evaluated based on five metrics: impact, innovation, growth, leadership and business valuation.

To be honest, I had never been part of a company that values the employee’s spiritual health and physical health the way that Angela does. The whole staff retreat was developed in such a way that team-building was facilitated, all the while making sure that the whole team was safe, clear, and in alignment with our mission and philosophy.

And now we’re thanking the Universe for the results that our collective mission and business philosophy have gotten for us, our authors, and most importantly all of the readers who are in desperate need of the messages of hope, healing, and transformation our authors are putting in their hands.

Here are the core principles that have gotten us these results and the philosophy we adopted, which have taken us to our ranking.

Core Principles:

• A servant’s heart is required for success.
• Discomfort is necessary for growth.
• Results matter most.
• Magic is real.
• Love is the only strategy.
• The prize never chases.

Business Philosophy:

• Systems enable scale.
• Scale enables impact.
• Discipline creates space for self-care & family time.
• Self-care is required for excellence.
• Fresh blood is the life blood of our business.
• Nothing works without a keenly curated customer base
• Everyone deserves and gets the right tools to do their jobs.
• Every relationship is a win-win. If it’s not a win-win, it’s a hell no.
• We are a Team not a Family.
• We don’t skimp on customer experience.

Rules:

• Self-care first (Burnout is for people who are too lazy or too disorganized to schedule self-care).
• Lead with love (and remember, Love loves boundaries).
• If it’s not a hell yes, it’s a no.

Again and again in the retreat we agreed that these principles all boil down to LOVE IS THE ONLY STRATEGY. Our mission is to amplify the voices of Healers and Magic Makers by helping them write, publish and promote their non-fiction books. If LOVE was not at the core of our values as a team, we would not be able to lead all our inspiring thought leader authors by way of example.

We have what a lot of business people would call an “alternative” or even “new age” belief system at the core of our company.

And our results are proof that they work amazingly well.