Episode 3: Wholeness in Entrepreneurship with Dr. Glenn McElhinney

Today we’re joined by our guest, Dr. Glenn McElhinney. He is president and CEO of Transformed 4 Life, a company helping people to experience wholeness through change in mind, heart, and behavior. He brings over 35 years of experience in counseling and consulting individuals, couples, families and organizations. Dr. McElhinney was an associate professor of psychology for over ten years, holds a Doctor of Ministry in Pastoral Counseling from Westminster Theological Seminary and a Master of Divinity from Grace Theological Seminary.

His work with Transformed 4 Life is based on the belief that people don’t have to be stuck where they are. There’s always the opportunity to transform your situation, becoming better and different at what you’re doing. This comes by learning what true wholeness is and using that as the lens to view all aspects of your life.

Me, An Entrepreneur?

Dr. McElhinney came to entrepreneurship “through the back door.” It began when he was doing his graduate work. His internship required that he complete 900 counseling hours, but the clinic available to the students only had two hours per week available for the program’s interns. As a result, he contacted organizations to find out if they needed someone one hour a week to provide counseling services.

Thirty years into his career, after budget cutbacks at his employer, he once again he started making contacts, seeking people and organizations who might need his services. He also worked with a coach, who advised his assessment showed he was an entrepreneur. He hadn’t thought of himself as an entrepreneur but soon realized that his behavior of immediately seeking solutions rather than waiting for the opportunities to come to him was, well, entrepreneurial.

Wholeness. What is it and why does it matter for an entrepreneur and their career?

Our culture thinks of wholeness as this ideal of perfection. Dr. McElhinney views wholeness as a sense of contentment with who you are and who you’re designed to be, and not trying to pursue being someone else. The moment you start comparing, it becomes an enormous distraction from relying on and going deep with who you are as a person. Wholeness does not mean there will never be sadness, betrayal, or injustice, but it does mean we have the opportunity to transform the more we dig deeply into who we actually are.

Focusing our full energy on developing who we are frees us from the distraction of trying to be something we’re not. When a person knows what their core theme, their core value, is, then the environment is irrelevant. Wholeness gives us a clarity into our competency.

The reason a lot of people get stuck or feel like they’re spinning their wheels in work and life is because they spend a lot of time working on who they’re not and trying to improve that, which is never going to accomplish anything. If you think you need to be, or that you are, a complete package in your work, you’re hurting yourself because you’re not open to the notion that there are other people who could help you excel to accomplish your goals.

Embrace the Lies You Believe about Yourself

What?

Dr. McElhinney’s work has shown that internally, people know who they are, but they end up believing the lies about them. One of the exercises he does is to have people list the lies they believe about themselves. The reason a person believes these lies is because there’s often some element of truth in it. They then need to identify the kernel of truth and not let it define them in life.

For Solo PR Pros, this can mean that we use these areas of weakness and design our businesses around it, by not offering a certain service or by building our team to fit those needs.

From Assessment to Wholeness

Dr. McElhinney uses the Pro-D Assessment. It takes into consideration:

• Your Mission (passion),
• Your Competencies (aptitudes, abilities, strengths)
• Your Styles (behaviors and characteristics that make you unique)

 The Pro-D Assessment converges the three to give you a uniquely complete profile, including: 

• Career value areas
• What work culture you’re best in
• Educational areas to help you continue to grow
• Caution areas
• Who you are when you’re a team leader and when you’re a team member.
• Core Theme of your passion

When you can look at this profile every day it and know it’ll never change, there’s great freedom to move forward, embracing what you’re not good at and to let that go. The assessment prevents the second-guessing. Doubt is the greatest destruction of any entrepreneur. This removes the wasted time and energy of asking “What if?”

As Dr. McElhinney says, “Solopreneurs are transforming the culture with what they’re doing. It’s exciting to come alongside people who are really interested in success.”

Visit www.transformed4life.solutions to learn more.

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