Mackey's Insight Client Focus: Michelle Greenfield, Third Sun Solar and Wind Power Willingness to Live on the Edge Thanks! Buy the Book      Dear     I was thinking of entrepreneurship, and taking risks, when I wrote this month’s article.  Many of us, business owners or not, could use a little more “living on the edge”…that place of excitement and adventure, where you really know you are alive.   What better way to jump into summer, than to question the status quo and to be at the front of a new wave, with new views and new opportunities? Here’s to you…wishing you the aliveness of living on the edge, today and everyday that you walk this earth. “If you’re not living on the edge, you’re taking up too much space!” --Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi                                                                                                                        {Back to Top}

Client Focus: Michelle Greenfield, Third Sun Solar and Wind Power   Michelle and her husband Geoff heard about Mackey through her mother, who had read Mackey’s book The Intersection of Joy and Money.   In 2004, her mother gave a copy of the book to her and her husband.  The philosophy of the book spoke to them, and they contacted Mackey to set up a meeting. Once they came together, the vision and structure for Third Sun to make the transition from a “mom and pop” business to a viable firm in the marketplace began to take shape.  Mackey’s first advice was to restructure the business for bookkeeping, accounting, and tax planning purposes. I asked Michelle if she and her husband’s outlook on their business had changed since they began to work with Mackey.  “Yes.  We have less fear about charging what we’re worth.”  Geoff and Michelle are considered experts in a technology that is foreign to and misunderstood by most of us.  Given what is being published daily about fossil fuel depletion, their expertise will become even more valuable in the future. Michelle also told me that her and Geoff’s relationship to money has changed since reading The Intersection of Joy and Money.  She said “We are no longer afraid of making money and being profitable.”  There is a money fantasy that Mackey often talks about…the one that says “if you’re doing good work in the world, you have to struggle.”  When companies are profitable, they can grow.  And who could argue with the benefits derived by all of us through the profitability and growth of Third Sun, when we’re using more solar power and burning less coal? Michelle also said that she and Geoff enjoyed doing the exercises in The Intersection of Joy and Money.  “We liked going back and looking at how we were taught about money.  That work has helped us in our business as well as in our partnership.” When I asked Michelle “What do you want people to know about your firm”, she said “We are one of the foremost experts in the state of Ohio in the installation of renewable energy systems.  We have two nationally certified installers on staff.  We are now doing a lot of our installations in the Cincinnati market.  Projects are in place with the Cincinnati Parks Board and our largest installation is in Kenton County, Kentucky.” In closing, Michelle said “As we sought to become more professional, we needed a professional accounting firm to establish credibility with our insurers, lenders, and bonding agencies.  And we wanted a firm that was aligned with our values.  The Advisory Team was the answer.” How would you like to be “on the edge” of this new technology?  State grants are available that can cover up to half of the cost of a solar installation, and Third Sun will even assist you with the application process.  Check out their website at third-sun.com.  And you can contact Michelle at michelle@third-sun.com.                                                                                                                   {Back to Top}

Willingness to Live on the Edge    At a recent breakfast, a long time colleague said to me, “Mackey…you are always on the edge.”  I took his comment as a wonderful compliment.   Years ago, I stopped thinking of myself as “on the edge.”  Instead, I began to think of myself as someone who was willing to leave the pack and jump head first into a new adventure.  It didn’t feel like risk.  It just felt like what I had to do.   On my twenty three year journey as an entrepreneur, my most valuable and exciting moments were when I was “out there”, on the edge.   The CPA business was very different in 1983 than it is today.   There have been BIG shifts in many areas, marketing included.  One of my most memorable “edges” was deciding to run an ad in the local paper.  There were two non-conformist aspects of this.  First, at the time, CPA firms did not run ads as it was considered unprofessional.  Second, my marketing consultant suggested that the ad include my picture.  I was embarrassed at the idea of being front and center, even in my own company. As soon as the ad came out, one of my competitors called me and said “We don’t do things like that in Northern Kentucky.”   At first I was mortified.  I felt like a child who had been scolded.  As the ad continued to run, I got over the fear and embarrassment of having my picture in the paper.  Best of all, the ad began to work.  I went from being an unknown transplant to someone whose name was remembered long enough to be considered an option - a huge step in a tight- knit community.   I came to realize that getting out on the leading edge and doing things differently was a two-step process.  First, I had to question the status quo and ask myself “What norms am I unconscious to, so much so that I haven’t even considered that there might be a better way?”  And once I took the time to consciously question the norm, and a better way became clear, the second step was to face the fear and do it differently, despite whose boat I was going to rock.  To give you an idea of how difficult step one can be, here’s a simple story.   I was married at the age of eighteen.  And on my first Easter Sunday in my new home, it was time to cook a ham.  I had seen my mother cook a ham many times, so I knew how to do it the right way.  She would always cut the ham in half, put one half in each of two pans, and put both in the oven.   As I was cutting the ham into two pieces, my husband came into the kitchen and said, “Why are you cutting the ham into two pieces?”  “That’s they way my mother did it,” I replied.    His curiosity got the best of him, so he called my mother and asked her why she cut her ham into two pieces.  “Because that’s the way my mother did it,” she replied.  His curiosity growing stronger, he called my grandmother with the same inquiry, to which she replied, “When I first married, I did not have a pan big enough to bake a whole ham.”  Two generations, and many years later, my mother and I were still doing it the way we’d be shown…without question. What are the parts of your life and your business where you are cutting the ham in two pieces, because “that’s the way we’ve always done it,” rather than questioning the status quo?  And if you succeed in finding what you perceive to be a better way, what fear might you have to step through to be on the edge and make it happen? We live in a time where change is constant, fast, and sometimes furious.  It took the telephone thirty eight years to win a place in thirty percent of U.S. homes.  It took the television only seventeen years.  It took the Internet just seven years.  Those of us who keep cutting our ham into two pieces are likely to find ourselves out of business.   The honest truth is that in business, being “me too” is a boring, uneventful, and often, at best, a moderately-profitable place.   What is it that so challenges us about being on the edge?  Why don’t we question more?  What might happen if we did?                                                                                                                    {Back to Top}

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Buy the Book   The Intersection of Joy and Money exposes the fantasies and illusions that sabotage your money life, and then offers a step-by-step guide to create a life of prosperity and abundance.To purchase your copy of The Intersection of Joy and Money please click here.                                                                                                                       {Back to Top}