“Lift your spirit to a higher place, open your heart to a kinder earth, and destiny will knock.” 

These words became my driving force after an accident that left me on my back for a year, and wondering why I’d survived when the doctor clearly had no explanation, other than saying, “you are one lucky lady.” While I had no pulse, I didn’t have a near death experience but I did wonder why I was spared. 

After asking deeper questions of myself, this sentence came to me, and led me to name my company EarthKind®. They are the words I live by every day, after I discovered for myself what all entrepreneurs say is the key to success: “find your passion.” I go one step further and call it: “find your purpose.” Ultimately, we all have to unearth our unique purpose to begin to discover our true potential.

Now, I’m not a “straight line” kind of person. My inspiration can appear erratic, but there is a pattern and there is a final outcome, and having built a $10 million company I would say, trust the coincidences, or series of events happening around you. If you start asking, “why not me?” instead of, “why me?” you’ll discover the unique way in which only you can serve humanity. Never in a million years would I have planned to do what I’m doing, it’s just that no one else stepped up to do it. Destiny did knock after I’d opened my heart to thinking that there must be a kinder way to control pests. 

So let me try to connect some dots here, to illustrate how the ‘epiphany’ turned into a revenue generating, job creating, industry changing business. I believe every business needs its own DNA, and purpose, because that’s what keeps it going and growing. They work together. Here’s how I created EarthKind’s: 

• My farming background had me connected to the earth, so I drew a lot of parallels from her – creating, growing and maintaining a healthy environment is as important in business as it is in farming. 
• Healthy organic soil is where the best things grow. It keeps plants healthy and ironically pests don’t attack the healthiest plants. 
• Nothing grows without work, nurturing and some TLC. There is constant weeding (not using artificial fixes like anhydrous ammonia, which create short term growth but age the soil). The soil needs to be treated as a living, breathing organism, and the same with a business. If you treat either with “poison” the outcome will be disastrous. By being a good steward and watering, nurturing, tending and recognizing her changing needs, I found that my business lifted my own spirit to help me make it a force for good in the world. 

Here are three key ways in which I continue to use Nature as my guide:

1. I honor Mother Nature by employing her plants to share their life force for healing and harmony in the home. Pests cause disharmony and the traditional methods to deal with them cause even more disharmony. The fear that the pest control industry creates is a negative force that I am working to change. Our marketing messages empower, rather than create fear. We are heart-centered and our mission is to illuminate the path to a naturally pest-free home.
2. I think of my products as a ‘plant force’, my people as a ‘human force’ and our mission as our ‘life force.’ All combined are a powerful DNA for using business as a force for good. I create and lead change by reinventing policy, industry, business, and anything that stands in the way of a kinder earth for all families. 
3. I’m a scientific creative, viewing everything through the eyes of biology, ecology, psychology, physics, and all the natural laws. Science is all intuitive and the research to prove my theory is all math and logic, so by using Nature as my lab, I constantly challenge the status quo of everything not in harmony with what I can see is possible.

A “force for good” is action inspired by a genuine concern for humanity. When we act with compassion, the seeds we plant today can change the course of our shared tomorrow. We really can transform the world in practical and positive ways – each and every one of us. If you believe you were born to make a difference, then use what you have, wherever you are at, however you can, to become the change agent you desire to be.