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Do you want to find your “right livelihood?”
Want to break through to work that does more than pay the bills?
Work that you love?
Work that makes the world a better place?
Just plain good work?!
I can help.
Countless owners of small and really small businesses, plus employees from both for-profit and not-for-profit organizations, have benefited from the practical guidance I have been providing since the 1980s.
“I consider Claude as my mentor…. I feel incredibly helped by Claude and his Good Work Guidance, helping me develop my teaching of writing through my independent online school.”
Andy Couturier
entrepreneurial writing teacher
“I am impressed with Claude’s ability to educate and understand. He had a good feel for our special needs. I especially enjoyed the collaborative and cooperative manner in which he works.”
Nina Sazer
non-profit development professional
“You took the time to understand the business before contributing your clear and effective advice. Your ideas were really helpful, and you pin-pointed the key problems with our company. Thank you for all your help over the last two years."
Tom Asher, ArtVenture
clothing manufacturer and retail mail-order firm
My clients come to me for:
- Workshops
- Guided individual study
- Group sessions
- Private one-to-one sessions
Almost four decades ago, I started introducing the concept of right livelihood to my small business clients to share what I was learning through my own professional growth process. I now pursue my own meaningful work as a writer, teacher, and advisor to employees and entrepreneurs who dream of a more meaningful work life.
“What I get from your workshops is a chance to assimilate what right livelihood means. You were always guiding, but you were also thinking, wondering, listening, observing – and applying what you were getting from the businesses we visited.”
Deanna Marquart
legislative analyst
It all began because of some unhappy people.
I started out, like most of us, as an employee. Then I became an entrepreneur and soon a business educator and business consultant.
I consulted with large corporations like Apple, Fujitsu America, and Pacific Bell, just before the feds broke up Ma Bell, but I found my greatest satisfaction working with small ventures.
Providing them with practical advice was, and still is, rewarding to me, but I started to see a troubling pattern: an awful lot of my clients—and colleagues and friends—were unhappy in their work.
I wanted to help.
Drawing on my longtime interest in personal growth strategies, Eastern philosophies, and educational theory, I spent several years developing a system I call Good Work Guidance™ that I have now provided to more than 500 individuals (and some couples in business together).
Good Work Guidance™ consists of this simple four-step process:
- Step 1. We focus on your personal life purpose and the goals and objectives implied by that purpose.
- Step 2. We clarify your challenges and opportunities and uncover your personal strengths and weaknesses.
- Step 3. We develop a plan of action that uses your strengths and compensates for your weaknesses to overcome your challenges and make the most of your opportunities.
- Step 4. You lay the foundation for ongoing right livelihood through the practice of:
- Mindfulness
- Simple Living
- Self-reliance
- Service to your community
Throughout, you receive:
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Ongoing coaching guidance
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Consulting or technical advice as needed
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Handouts as needed, including:
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Practice exercises
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Worksheets
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Tip sheets and checklists
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Bonus articles and essays
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“Claude Whitmyer is an invaluable consultant who harmonizes matters of the marketplace with those of the spirit. Without him, I wouldn’t know that “right livelihood” is a practical reality, not just a philosophical ideal.”
Maureen Redl
psychotherapist
When I teach the practices of Good Work Guidance™ to my small and really small business clients, I call it Good Business Advice™.
Why me?
Three seminal experiences have profoundly impacted my approach to Good Work Guidance™ and Good Business Advice™:
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I am the longtime coordinator of The Briarpatch, a global network of several hundred right-livelihood businesses.
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In this volunteer role, I have provided guidance and support to hundreds of creative, cause-driven, or entrepreneurial individuals who share my values of collaboration, integrity, and mindfulness.
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I was a founding board member and chief financial officer of The Apprentice Alliance, a non-profit that was active in the 1980s and 90s matching eager learners with experienced artists, artisans, crafts persons, and makers, as well as experts in the trades and business.
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This work greatly expanded my notion of how people can move toward more meaningful work.
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I was a founding board member and chief financial officer of Compumentor, now TechSoup, an agency that matches tech experts with non-profits that need low-cost technical support.
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This is where I learned that technology can be the great equalizer for really small ventures.
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I’ve reported my own learnings in three print books and dozens of ebooks about right livelihood, meaningful work, and information technology.
My three print books are:
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Running a One-Person Business: Business as Lifestyle (Ten Speed Press. 60,000 copies in print).
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In the Company of Others: Making Community in the Modern World (Tarcher/Putnam. 10,000 copies in print).
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Mindfulness and Meaningful Work: Explorations in Right Livelihood (Parallax Press. 23,000 copies in print).
Take your next step.
“It felt good to talk about the issues I’m facing and to be understood. I appreciate the concrete suggestions and look forward to another session.”
Kat Gootee
market researcher
If you’re ready to start down the path to more meaningful work, check out the free practice lessons and resources for self-assessment.[add link here]
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It was the best of times.
It was the worst of times.
It was the age of wisdom.
It was the age of foolishness.
It was the epoch of belief.
It was the epoch of incredulity.
It was the season of Light.
It was the season of Darkness.
It was the spring of hope.
It was the winter of dispair.
We had everything before us.
We had nothing before us.
We were all going direct to Heaven.
We were all going direct the other way.
In short, the period was so far like the present period that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
From A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens (1859).
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