This morning, I found myself at my favorite corner table—you know the one, where the light hits just right around 9:17 AM and the barista already knows you want oat milk, not regular. I was watching a woman at the next table, furiously typing between phone calls, her coffee growing cold as she negotiated with what sounded like her third difficult client of the morning.
Her designer bag was real. Her exhaustion was realer.
And I thought about how we’ve gotten the whole “successful business” thing backwards. We chase clients who pay well but drain our souls. We build businesses that look impressive on Instagram but feel like beautiful prisons. We become rich in all the ways that photograph well and poor in all the ways that actually matter.
What if—and stay with me here—what if the real luxury isn’t having clients who can afford you, but having clients who nourish you?
The Cashmere Sweater Principle
Here’s the thing about building a business that makes you truly wealthy: It’s like choosing between ten polyester sweaters that pill after one wash and one perfect cashmere piece that gets softer with time. Both fill your closet. Only one fills your life with that daily moment of “yes, this feels right.”
Your business should feel like cashmere against your life—soft, supportive, getting better with age. Not like shapewear that looks good from the outside but leaves you unable to breathe by 3 PM.
The Four Foundations of Soul-Rich Business Design
Because real wealth has nothing to do with your bank balance and everything to do with your morning mood
1. The Morning Coffee Test (Instead of “Market Validation”)
Before you dive into market research and competitor analysis, try this: Picture yourself five years from now, sitting with your morning coffee. What kind of emails are waiting for you? Not how many—what kind.
Are they grateful notes from clients whose lives you’ve touched? Collaboration invitations that make you genuinely excited? Or are they the digital equivalent of that cold coffee from this morning’s overwhelmed entrepreneur?
I offer four free foundation resources on my site, and the first one—The Strategic Business Foundation Workbook—starts exactly here. Not with business plans or revenue projections, but with this simple question: What would make Monday mornings feel like a gift?
The Practice: Write three emails you’d love to receive from future clients. Not testimonials—real, human messages about how working with you felt. That’s your true north.
2. The Dinner Party Portfolio (Instead of “Client Segmentation”)
Imagine you’re hosting an intimate dinner party. Not a networking event—a real dinner with candlelight and conversation that goes deep. Who would you invite from your client list? Not because they’re your biggest accounts, but because they enrich the evening?
This is your real ideal client profile. These are the people who don’t just pay your invoices; they pay attention to your insights. They don’t just buy your services; they buy into your vision.
My 5-Minute Brand Season Color Quiz isn’t really about colors at all—it’s about understanding the emotional palette of your business relationships. Because the clients who resonate with your authentic frequency are the ones who create that sustainable ecosystem of mutual support and growth.
The Practice: List five qualities your “dinner party clients” share. Not demographics—soul demographics. What makes them nourishers rather than drainers?
3. The Sunday Night Metric (Instead of “Success KPIs”)
Forget conversion rates and follower counts for a moment. Here’s the only metric that matters: How do you feel on Sunday night? Are you dreading Monday’s client calls or secretly excited about the week ahead?
This is where my Quick Brand Clarity Check becomes invaluable. It’s not about what you think you should want—it’s about admitting what you actually want. Because clarity isn’t about having all the answers; it’s about finally asking the right questions.
The Practice: Keep a Sunday Night Journal for one month. Rate your upcoming week excitement level from 1-10. Notice the patterns. What makes the difference between a 3 and an 8?
4. The Voice That Doesn’t Need Volume (Instead of “Brand Messaging”)
Your truest voice—the one that attracts soul-aligned clients—rarely needs to shout. It’s the voice you use with your best friend over wine. It’s how you explain your work when you’re not trying to impress anyone.
The Authentic Voice Finder resource I created came from my own revelation: My most successful client relationships started when I stopped trying to sound “professional” and started sounding like myself—museum visits and coffee metaphors included.
The Practice: Record yourself explaining your work to a friend (really do this). Then transcribe it. That’s your brand voice—not the polished version you think you need.
Creating Your Happiness Portfolio
This week, before you dive into another strategy course or productivity hack, try this softer approach:
Monday Morning: Open one of the free foundation resources (yes, really free—not even newsletter-free, just… free). Pour your favorite morning beverage and spend 30 minutes with it. Not rushing, not optimizing—just exploring what happiness might look like in business form.
Wednesday Afternoon: Review your current client list with new eyes. Use the Dinner Party Portfolio framework. Who energizes you? Who exhausts you? No judgment—just noticing.
Friday Reflection: Write yourself a letter from your business five years from now. What does it thank you for choosing? What foundation did you lay today that bloomed into tomorrow’s joy?
This Month: Start saying no to one category of “good” opportunities that don’t feel great. Notice what space this creates.
This Season: Build one system, relationship, or offering that prioritizes joy over optimization. Watch how it magnetizes rather than chases.
This Year: Trust that the clients who resonate with your authentic frequency are already looking for exactly what you offer—not a louder version, not a more polished version, but the real version.
An Invitation to Think Differently
Here’s what I know after years of building businesses both ways: The clients who make you feel rich in spirit have a funny way of making you rich in reality too. But it never works in reverse. Chase the money alone, and you’ll find yourself at that coffee shop table, successful and exhausted, wondering where you went wrong.
The foundation resources I’ve created aren’t about building bigger businesses—they’re about building better lives with businesses woven thoughtfully through them. They’re completely free because I believe the real transformation happens when you approach this work from abundance, not scarcity. When you’re choosing from desire, not desperation.
Join me in building something different. Something that makes Monday mornings feel like possibilities. Something that turns your business into a dinner party you actually want to attend. Something that makes you truly, deeply, cashmere-sweater wealthy.
Because you deserve a business that doesn’t just pay your bills—you deserve one that pays attention to your soul.
Start with just one question, one resource, one moment of imagining different. The rest unfolds like spring after a patient winter—inevitable, beautiful, and completely on time.