Q. I'm a new business psychologist and trying to build my practice. In The Mentor's Spirit, you write about working on a quarterly basis with corporations. I understand that you facilitate dialogue among senior management teams, but what else do you do in those sessions? What themes are addressed? How do your clients find their way to you these days?

How should I build my practice?

A. If you read The Mentor's Spirit, you know that it's hard for me to list all the things I do. I respond to a company's needs, whether it be start-up activity, change-management, executive coaching or editing of senior management workpapers and professional articles.

I built my practice slowly: First, by doing what, in the world of sales, is termed "cold calling;" later -- and certainly now -- by word of mouth.

For example, The Mentor's Spirit is being used in peer-counseling settings in selected hospitals and pastoral education settings (see upcoming Q & A # 3). That book, perhaps more than most that I've written, speaks to certain leadership principles and yet it does so in a rather autobiographical way. So groups that use it in their work-settings or group discussions often get in touch with me to facilitate a business conference or provide dialogue sessions as described in those chapters.

One reason I started editing for others is to help them gain credibility through publishing articles.

However, it's not enough to broadcast one's work. The only way to build a business is to add value to others' lives. That service is the long and short of success.

To build a practice also means to...

1. Envision ourselves as serving others for the long haul, and to
2. Understand that the success has to be in us before it's reflected in our practice. (That's what I mean by a consciousness of success.)

So much of long-term success is a matter of structuring a consciousness or an awareness of what we love, have and are already as competent, flourishing, talented individuals. Then, like the sun, we radiate that awareness into all the corners of our world. That light reflects our optimal performance and others are warmed by what they sense when they're around us.

The inwardly successful, helping professional furthers the well-being of others simply by being. This is why I wrote that pure "Being is pure power." If we perform well -- truly respect our constituents, keep our word, meet deadlines and budget, conduct ourselves intelligently (i.e., with flawless taste and insight and integrity, etc.), then word of mouth supports our growing a practice.

Conversely, toxic energy like lethargy, antagonism toward the job or someone on the job also communicates. It just seeps out of us. Also, my "performing well" edict doesn't imply perfection. I've made mistakes on the job -- have been abrasive, lacked focus and so on -- yet still received high marks overall. I credit a transcendent Presence for those "high marks," not some personal quality like a dress-for-success outfit, or a winning smile. These may affect others positively, but are not the true Source of success.

The contemplative disciplines that I've been practicing and writing about, especially in Sometimes, Enough is Enough, and the life-style choices you read about in that book and my first, Ordinary People as Monks & Mystics (Paulist Press) are essential to the self-renewal of vital mental energy.

Vital mental energy, and the positive pure being mentioned before, are the underpinnings of creative problem-solving. This includes a productive imagination, the ability to focus, think clearly and positively and conceptually enough to add clarity and elegant, useful ideas to others' goals and purposes. In that way, you serve others as you serve yourself.

If you can, find a copy of Paul Hawkins, Growing a Business, and also read some of the other books mentioned in my bibliographies (see: Mentor's Spirit & To Build The Life You Want, Create The Work You Love). Keep studying as much as you can on this most stimulating issue. You may be surprise at the good ideas that come your way. Remember, whatever enhances pure being, enhances pure, wholesome power and thus true success!

Thanks for your question and best of all good things in growing your new practice.