Cindy May successfully battled breast cancer this past year. Simultaneously, her marketing business grew by 25 percent. Jim Corning, owner of Novakinetics Aeronautics, had a divorce almost three years ago and then more than doubled his business in 2014. How were they able to grow their businesses despite discouraging, perhaps even devastating, personal circumstances?
Both May and Corning attribute their business success to positive thinking and a heart-centered foundation forming the basis of their business management. “The idea that if we believe that we can create our own reality, then we can choose what we create and we can be responsible for what we choose,” said Corning.
“Positivity in anything you do is going to be a good and powerful thing,” said May. “When you are in that negative space, you are not going to attract the possibility that is otherwise out there. It just doesn’t come that way.”
May graduated from Northern Arizona University with an advertising, marketing and public relations degree and has worked in a family company, a non-profit and a corporate business before starting Cindy May Marketing in 2010. She is currently handling the marketing for 15 companies and has a team of eight employees. May believes in authenticity, staying true to oneself and working from a place of integrity in her business. She works as a relationship marketer and mentions “true connectivity” as a driving force for her professional approach.
Her positive attitude is a big factor in her resilience and ability to find new business. “I don’t focus on the people that are saying no. I focus on what might be the next opportunity that is out there for me. And there always is,” said May.
Corning graduated from MIT with a mechanical engineering degree and worked for a few companies before starting his own in 1996. He moved his company from Ft. Worth, Texas to Flagstaff in 2001 and has diversified with three different businesses that specialize in ballistic armor products for military aircraft, solar energy installation and composite manufacturing products for airplanes and other machines. He employs 25 people on average, and emphasizes the importance of honesty above all else, for everyone. Corning encourages each employee to contribute his or her ideas, even if they conflict with his own.
“As a small business person, you can solve problems in a number of different ways,” Corning said. “I used to think you could analyze yourself into a heart-centered solution. It’s so much easier and straightforward to just listen to your heart.”
Both Corning and May have a meditation practice that begins their day. In fall of 2013, Corning started getting up a half an hour earlier for his manifestation meditations, visualizing what he wanted to see and create. “Lo and behold, stuff started happening. It was amazing how quickly things started showing up,” he said. One meditation, called “Liquid Luck” from Joe Gallenberger, preceded a day of amazing success, with a phone call that landed a $600,000 contract and the resignation of an inefficient worker.
“The thing is, it’s a lot more empowering to think that you’re responsible for what is happening, whether its good or bad, than to feel like you’re a victim or subject to the whims of fate. If it’s empowering, that works for me,” said Corning. “I really think that you can create a lot. We don’t give ourselves credit for the power we have.”
May also takes responsibility for her positive attitude, and consciously creates the intention to deal with people and her business in a heart-centered way. “Positive thinking is a frame of mind that I put forth, and step into whatever work I’m doing that day. I feel the energy of beauty, wonder and possibility around me. It provides a moment of pause, to center myself again,” said May.
Both Corning and May encourage compassion and kindness as a business principle, and are creating their own genuine, heart-centered environments, finding it empowering to be so genuine. “Our whole society doesn’t want to hear much from men about our emotions, so we get very good at burying them and not listening to them,” said Corning. “What a revelation to discover that our emotions can become a huge source of power.”
They stress that it is a choice to stay emotionally positive, and can be a challenge sometimes. During her cancer, May made a conscious decision to stay optimistic and lift the spirits of other women in the cancer center by handing out scarves. “I never let myself think that this was going to be any more than just a time or a period in my life,” she said.
Corning’s business doubled its profit in 2014. This financial prosperity is mirrored by his personal happiness; Corning is engaged to Holly Jaleski, who meditates with him and taught him much about the heart-centered approach to life.
May is cancer-free as of last month, with ambitious plans for growing her business. “That whole year of mine, it might have been the biggest blessing of my life, despite all the challenges. I can stand in my power. My power is positivity and kindness and love and care,” said May.
The entrepreneurs credit the power of positive thinking as a great influence in their personal and professional success. FBN
Further Reading:
Corning and May mentioned a few books and speakers that have impacted them and their business practice. Here are their top recommendations.
Cindy May:
- “Happy for No Reason: 7 Steps to Being Happy from the Inside Out,” Marci Shimoff
- Kendall Summerhawk
- Joel Olsteen
Jim Corning:
- “Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah,” Richard Bach
- “The Law of Success,” Napoleon Hill
- “Power vs. Force,” David Hawkins
- “You Can Have it All,” Arnold Patent
- “The Power of Now,” Eckhart Tolle
- Hemi-sync, Monroe Products
- Holosync, Centerpointe Research Institute
By Elizabeth Hellstern, FBN