Authenticity is the outgrowth of listening to your heart and making decisions that align with your deeply held values. Do this consistently in business and combine it with well learned and executed skills and magic happens.

1. Authentic Business is Not Stuck in the Box
Lead With Your Authentic Heart and Good Business
Will Follow
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business-will-follow/
Deborah Tutnauer
Authenticity is the outgrowth of listening to your heart and making decisions
that align with your deeply held values. Do this consistently in business and
combine it with well learned and executed skills and magic happens.
It can be a struggle to run every decision through this filter. Sometimes the current is moving in a different
direction. Occasionally “experts” will tell you that your method is not the best one. In the midst of the noise
it’s easy to lose connection with your own voice and certainly challenging to listen to it, when all around you
there are other opinions, ideas and strategies.
Good Business is tied up in integrity and an authentic heart. It’s also intimately connected with being
about to see outside the box and even live outside the box! Being an authentic entrepreneur is not about
being only unique. It’s about being true to yourself after exploring all possibilities – even the ones that are
hard to see.
This morning I had the eye-opening experience of
interacting with someone who appeared to live in
very small rule dominated box that allowed no
room for even common sense. The bus stop
where I put my daughter on the public bus is on a
rural but busy two lane highway. For many
reasons the stop is poorly situated. It’s at a T-
intersection where a variety of things are
happening at one time. Those in the leg of the T
are turning left or right and merging into both North
and Southbound traffic running along the top of the
T .
Southbound traffic is going straight or moving into
the left hand turn lane. There is only one stop sign
and that is on the leg of the T that intersects the
highway. In addition, there is natural gas pumping equipment next to the bus stop sign. Add in a location
that has winter for 6 months per year and often ice and snow on the ground non-stop for the majority of
that time. The leg of the T is the exit from a 700 family community. People at the stop sign are either on
their way to work or school in the mornings. The rolling stop is a bit too normal as is people talking on
phones or even texting as they get to that location.
Here comes the bus!
In order to protect the kids from the potential of sliding cars and other mishaps as much as possible, we
have developed a ritual of how to park our cars and wait for the bus and then walk the kids to the door. The

2. Bus has also paid attention and pulled up at the edge of a driveway about 50 feel south of the bus stop
sign, so the kids can stand clearly off the road and not have to go anywhere near the natural gas
equipment either. We’ve been doing this at this location for a number of years and it’s worked out well.
Last week a new bus driver arrived on the scene. The first day we encountered her she stopped the bus 50
feet north of us, even though we were standing where we always stand. We walked up and I suggested to
her that it was safer to move further up and she responded that her boss told her to stop right at the sign.
So I called her boss who I’ve known for 15 years and explained the scenario. He agreed with my
perception of the danger of that bus stop and with the safest place for the bus to actually load and unload
passenger. He said he would talk to new bus driver lady.
Today, she stops again 5o feet north of where we are standing. I walk my child along the roadway and past
the natural gas pipes and say good morning. I ask her if her boss (Stuart) had spoken to her. She said he
had and that he told her to follow the rules and stop at the exact place where it says “Bus Stop“. I
explained that he had actually agreed with me that further up was safer. She told me I should then ask the
bus company to move the sign. I attempted to again explain the safety issues and she again explained to
me that her job was not to think but to follow rules . {My words – a bit of sarcasm here.} She also
proceeded to try and instill in me a fear that I was not allowed to complain because the bus was free.
What?!! I pay for that bus with lots of taxes . And since when did riding a free bus mean giving up a
right to safety and common sense and communication?
You may be wondering why I’m telling you this story. It has to do with THINKING for yourself
versus rule or even crowd following.
It’s only in THINKING for yourself that you can build an
authentic heart centered business.
I pity new bus driver lady for her inability to grow beyond a rule follower. By not even considering
alternatives, she is putting kids, riders and herself in a precarious situation. By the way – every other bus
driver this year and in years past, does NOT stop at the sign in question, but moves up 50 feet to the safer
location. And when I called her boss – Stuart – again this morning, he indicated that her perception of what
he told her was incorrect and in fact he had told her to pull up next to the safe driveway.
Lead with your Authentic Heart and Good Business will follow is a powerful mantra even if you have a
job instead of an entrepreneurial venture. Opening your brain to see possibilities outside a small narrow
box of rules is so necessary for living life to it’s fullest. Examine the rules for sure. Many exist for good
reason. But don’t ever give up your own authentic perceptions and understanding. Don’t negate
what your own examination and intellect tell you. Nazi war criminals tried to use the excuse that they
were only “following orders” and thus were not liable for their atrocities. That logic didn’t hold during the
Nuremberg Trials and doesn’t hold today either.
What kinds of good things happen in business when you lead with your authentic heart?
For me, I have worked with this concept for a long long time. For awhile I was swayed to a type of
business that was fun, lucrative, certainly had integrity, but was not my true path. I made a lot of money
and many friends. I had great experiences and ended up awarded on stage in front of 4000 people! But in
the end, it was side step to my true calling . I think it was a chance for me to learn and grow in a different
way, so I could return to my deepest self and be able to give more to my clients.
I have also been swayed by the marketing monster! So many “experts” are online sharing how to make
more money; get more leads; bring in more sales; build a better funnel, etc.. Not to say all that information
isn’t CRUCIAL for building an authentic business that is also financially sustainable and hopefully

3. lucrative. For a period of time I worked on structuring my entrepreneur coaching business in the
manner expounded upon by the coaching sales gurus. It made logical sense for sure. The nagging doubt
about parts of that ran through my brain and my intuition were addressed by one of my mentors as my own
fear about stepping out and selling my services strongly. Interesting twist huh?
And for awhile I explored that too. Was my 25 years of coaching experience not enough? Was I struggling
with being unworthy of standing my ground and only accepting clients who could engage 100% in my
Signature System and pay top dollar? Was my intuitive sense telling me to create multiple programs for
different needs and even see a client once or twice if that’s all they required, just a fear?
I tried it their way. It worked. But I didn’t feel 100% right and in the end – over the past few months – I
have forged my own marketing path combining the good things about my former mentors teachings and a
lot of my own authentic heart centered understanding of how people operate and how entrepreneur
business owners are best served. The proof is in the pudding – so to speak.
Since I brushed off the doubts laid at my feet by the “box” of how to market coaching services, and
embraced all that I know to be true for me, magic has happened in my business!
In the past 3 months alone:
* I have been invited to be the featured entrepreneur speaker at my undergraduate University Thought
Into Action Entrepreneur Program.
* I am the Kick Off speaker at Westminster College School of Entrepreneurship yearly three day
event – Lectures in Entrepreneurship.
* I’ve been a regular guest blogger on the well respected Launch and Hustle website for Digital
Entrepreneurs
* I have been a Featured Guest on the Fearlessly Questioning Podcast with Joey Giangola
* I was Interviewed by Don Purdum this week on Unveil the Web Podcast
* Enstine Muki featured me as the Initial Blogger profile of 2015.
* I have two upcoming guest blog posts on well known entrepreneur blogs (one being the wonderful
Adrienne Smith’s blog) in the next two months.
* Oh- and I’ve grown my blog traffic by 300%, my comments by more than that, and brought in the
highest monthly income of my coaching career in this past month of January 2015.
Just today I was included on a exemplary list of 20 Top Bloggers to Follow. I was blown away by this and
in fact it was the tipping point that compelled me to write this post today! I was so honored, touched and
grateful for what Enstine Muki wrote about me on this post.
Authenticity is the outgrowth of listening to your heart and making decisions
that align with your deeply held values.
Lead with your authentic heart (in all that you do)
and Good Business Will Follow

4. Just One of 20 Top Bloggers
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Deborah Tutnauer
Entrepreneur Business Success Coach at Deborah
Tutnauer, LLC
Inspiring change in people for over 25 years ,
Deborah Tutnauer, MEd, MSWdigs deep to help
authentic entrepreneurs move away from the stories that
no longer serve them while clarifying and solidifying
those that really do! Deborah helps frustrated
entrepreneurs get exquisitely clear about meaning,
purpose and expertise, then facilitates the creation of a
financially sustainable and joyfully structured framework
in which business and business people thrive.
Coaching both privately and in groups, Deborah is also a speaker, author, event leader
and consultant. Creator of the Foundation and Framework Intensive, Question Master
and Leader of the Entrepreneur Business Success Club, Deborah has been called an
“Architect of Magical Business and Soul Structure”by her clients because she has a
powerful ability to perform alchemy, changing passions and dreams into money and time
by design.
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Latest posts by Deborah Tutnauer (see all)
Four Myths About Coaching Plus One More - February 6, 2015
Lead With Your Authentic Heart and Good Business Will Follow - January 29, 2015
Rant! Integrity Money Selling - January 19, 2015
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