Does Religion Belong in Business?

...And if so, where? My loyal readers (and customers) know that I love me to ruffle some feathers, but not always in the ways you would expect. For example, I actually TRY not to bash people and call them out by name. Sometimes I just can't help myself (Nannygate), but I try not to name names.

Oh, well, I guess I do complain about the LAX Starbucks, but seriously, they should know better. In general, I try to keep my rants to myself or without getting so specific as to hurt someone's feelings, at least on purpose. You'll also notice that I don't really talk too much about politics and religion. Maybe that's as a result of my upbringing AND the fact that my mother realized I have a big enough mouth anyway that me talking about politics and religion is probably not in my best interest. Again, there are exceptions. As you all know, I am OBSESSED with Weinergate and in general, all things Anthony Weiner. I am fascinated that someone with so much to lose could be so stupid. However, I don't really consider that to be a polticial discussion (did you know they now have an Anthony Weiner doll?? - my assistant actually emailed it to me on vacation because she knew it would make my day.) In the same blog post though, I mention Schwarzenneger and his lameness so it wasn't exactly one sided. I plan to continue to focus on lame people who cheat in TMZ-worthy ways. Deliciously juicy.

But here's something that I do want you guys to weigh in on: This whole thing about religion and business. While I haven't talked much about religion in most of what I do, it has come out once in awhile. I supposed if people dug deep enough they could figure out my religion of choice. I definitely believe in God, the Universe, Buddha, karma and all kinds of things that could be contradictory. Bottom line is that I think there's a LOT that we don't know about how our world runs and how it got here, but in general, I'm not running my mouth on any particular religion's stand on a topic.

Now here's the point of this blog, though. Two and a half years ago I took a weekend seminar that changed my life and basically launched my online businesses taught by a particular "guru." To the best of my recollection, there was no mention of God, the Universe or anything else at that seminar. It was about taking a core competency, marrying it with questions that your audience has and expanding or creating a new business. In the last 2.5 years, I have followed this woman's work in order to continue to hone my own skills. I now have 2 online companies that are growing by the minute (literally) and I LOVE the work that I'm doing in them. Because of that original training, I hired a coach and worked with her and her partner for two years. Through her, I found out about another woman whose weekend seminar I attended this past weekend. I took this latest seminar to brush up on my sales skills and in general keep feeding my brain about new techniques. I wanted to stay fresh and get good info so I can boil the nuggets down and deliver them to my own private coaching clients and through our live event, Uncensored! happening in October in Austin. This past weekend, I was struck by how many times this speaker referred to "Source" and God. How often she prays to God, asks Source for answers and in general makes decisions by the feedback that she gets. Do I care that she believes in God? Of course not. Do I care that it came up in every other sentence throughout the weekend? Kind of.

This lecturer hasn't always been so forthcoming with her views on God, etc. It seems now though, it's different. What started to rub me the wrong way was that it began to feel a little bit manipulative. Sitting in my chair I started to feel a little bit like I was in a cult. Here, drink the Jesus juice and join our tribe. But what if I didn't want to do the kumbaya thing and chat about Source? What if I just wanted to learn how to organize my business better and work on my systems. Did I still have to talk to "Source" about it all the time? I got back from the conference and this was kind of sticking in my craw because it felt a little like it was getting shoved down my throat. Then the next thing happened. I got a regular ezine from my coach, with whom I have worked for two years (mentioned above) and her journey with Source, community, etc. Clearly she has been shifting a lot in terms of her business model, communication and where her focus is. Then yesterday, I got an email from the original guru (the weekend seminar that gave me the idea to launch both businesses), and she talked about how she was going to discuss something that she "never had revealed before." I saw that in the subject line and I ran me right through that email. The email was announcing a teleseminar that she was holding that was going to reveal how she now is going to be more open about her conversations with Source, God and how she prays about things and the help it gives her. While this was teleseminar worthy, I'm not sure, but to each his own. More power to her if that's the direction she'd like to take her business. Go for it. But with THREE people with whom I've worked/paid money to/studied under now talking about how God/Source guides their businesses in just ONE WEEK, I kind of started to wonder - what's going on?

Is this some new trend in business marketing? Just pull the G-0-D card and everything is possible? Just talk to Source, give me a million dollars and it'll all be ok even if it means losing your house in the process? I don't know. I'd love to hear your opinions on this by commenting below. Do you want to hear about your coach's/an business figure's God life mixed in with their work-smarter nuggets? Maybe yes? Maybe this is another great way to segment one's target audience - if you believe, you're for me? Not sure. I can tell you this, I'm throwing it out because I'm curious, not because I'm going to start using it as a tactic.

Let me know so I can go back to my rosary in peace.

Ciao.

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