Callan Rush Thinks Luminaries Shouldn’t Work Alone

Callan Rush genuinely believes in the power of education. As a master educator with degrees in psychology and education, she built her first business, Lucrative Luminaries, along with Justin Livingston, by helping transformational Business Owners host engaging live events and retreats.

But after years with Lucrative Luminaries, Callan has a new focus—co-founder of Transcend Alliance. Along with Dr. Tony Pennells, founding director of MindShift.money, SARK and Justin Livingston, she’s aiming to create a gathering place for transformational Business Owners. She wants these influential educators to build lasting, profitable businesses that create massive change outside their local communities.

Callan has the blessing and the curse of an entrepreneurial mindset. She needed to create her own business.

Making the hard choice to leave traditional teaching

Callan started her career as a teacher in public and private school systems. She taught kindergarten students all the way through grade 12 in almost every subject. But in that system, Callan found she had a hard time genuinely driving change. The established system was just too large, and the inertia for the status quo too great.

Callan shares that, “the day I decided to quit I was teaching a grade 7 math class, and this little boy in the back had his hand up for a question. I literally couldn’t fit my hips through the rows to get to him there were so many kids packed into one classroom. I cried at recess. And I thought, ‘That’s it. My days here are numbered.’”

But Callan loved teaching. So she started looking for other opportunities. In the process, her father gave her two tickets to the Millionaire Mind Intensive by T. Harv Eker. She wasn’t sure whether a program like this was for her, but after attending, her life was completely changed. “I felt like I was asleep and unconscious at the beginning, and at the end, I was wide awake,” she shares.

In that weekend, she realized she had a lot of personal growth to do. So she quit her job and started volunteering for T. Harv Eker’s personal growth company. Quickly rising up the ranks, Callan became the assistant to T. Harv Eker. He put her on stage to do introductions and then to lead segments. “I just loved it,” Callan says, “It was teaching, but it was adults, and I felt like I saw the impact right away.”

Despite her success, Callan has the blessing and the curse of an entrepreneurial mindset. She needed to create her own business.

I believe that education is the key to ending all suffering in the world.

Helping others change lives

In Callan’s business, she wanted to use education to improve lives through in-person events. “I believe that education is the key to ending all suffering in the world,” Callan states. But in the beginning, she struggled.

In talking about that time, she explains, “I was a very good teacher, and I had a great curriculum. But I knew nothing about sales and marketing, so I couldn’t actually get people to my events.” She needed help.

Fate was on her side. At another transformational workshop, Callan met Justin Livingston. He had worked in sales and marketing at T. Harv Eker, but they had never met. Their partnership was like yin and yang. Justin had the marketing expertise Callan needed. And Callan had an engaging curriculum Justin could market.

Together, Callan and Justin created Lucrative Luminaries—a business to teach other Transformational Leaders how to host in-person, education-based events.

“Change, challenge, uncertainty is skyrocketing, and people are scared. And what human beings do then is come together,” Callan explains. This makes live events particularly compelling, both as an educator and a consumer. Done well, live events allow you to see quickly that you aren’t alone. And get the encouragement you need to make significant changes.

While Lucrative Luminaries was a growing and successful business, Callan Rush and Justin Livingston both saw the market maturing. They wanted their own business, and their clients’ businesses, to continue to grow and succeed. But for that, the business model had to mature as well. And that led them to Transcend Alliance.

Creating a platform for platform business owners

To Callan, all businesses fit into two main categories: practitioner or platform. A practitioner-based business needs the owner to succeed. A platform business doesn’t rely on the Business Owner. Rather, there’s a successful brand and operating entity outside the owner’s personality.

To date, most transformational businesses have been practitioner based. You build up your own systems and change the lives of your direct clients and customers. But driving significant change is far more difficult. And when you’re ready to retire, there’s little value to the business without you in the middle of it.

Callan believes lack of collaboration and cost synergy is holding transformational businesses back. To grow in a maturing market, businesses need to reduce cost, market more efficiently to a more informed customer base and collaborate to amplify their message.

“For the most part, these are people-people, but they’re working on their own!” Callan explains. Transformation Leaders thrive when working with others, collaborating and seeing the impact their making. And that impact is a struggle when you’re on your own.

Human beings are social animals. There’s a specific magic that happens when human beings actually get together.

Are you a practitioner or a platform?

Running a practitioner-based business is a fantastic goal. You can change the lives of those whom you touch. But if you want to build a platform and create a legacy of change that extends beyond your working years, you need to do more.

You need to build your business side-by-side with other change-makers. Callan Rush believes that together, you can protect your bottom line from market maturity while amplifying your voice to drive change on a grand scale. Just like she experienced in working with Justin.

“Human beings are social animals. There’s a specific magic that happens when human beings actually get together,” Callan says. “As a collection, we can make a much bigger impact on the major issues.”

The views and opinions expressed are those of the guest author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of MindShift.money.