by Daryn Kagan

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Here, former CNN anchor Daryn Kagan shares how a “belief plan” can be even more important than a business plan.

I’m thrilled to be back with you this month on LadiesWhoLaunch.com, bringing you the latest news and tips from the frontlines of amazing people who are making a difference in the world.

Back in March I shared with you the first tips on making a difference, including that “big bummer could be your big chance to change your life” and “healing comes through service.”

Now we move onto one of the best tips I’ve learned in creating DarynKagan.com, the Web’s one-stop destination for inspiring news. It’s a twist on creating a business plan for your new venture. Even more important than the business plan is making a belief plan.

This means sitting down with a piece of paper or in front of your computer, whatever is comfortable for you. It’s all about getting clear on your purpose. What are your values? Your intentions? Your non-negotiables? What is most important in your life? What will you not compromise?

This is something you can and should do no matter where you are in the journey of creating your own business or nonprofit. It’s important, even if you’re in that “straddle” mode of working on your venture while also still working another full-time job. A belief plan will help you get clear on what you should be doing and who you should be working with, and how it supports the kind of lifestyle you envision for you and your family.

This came up for me just as I was launching DarynKagan.com. I was getting overwhelmed with suggestions and pressure certain people were giving me. One advisor wanted me to raise $2 million in venture capital and create a celebrity board of directors for the Web site. I knew instantly none of those ideas was a match. Not that anything is wrong with any of those ideas—it’s just that having taken the time to do my own belief plan, I knew that it was important for me to start small, creating a Web site I could afford to finance myself. I didn’t need a bunch of celebrities to tell me what DarynKagan.com was supposed to be—I was very clear on what I wanted it to be.

Indeed, I believe a big part of my success so far has been my authenticity. When visitors come to DarynKagan.com, they aren’t getting some marketing-engineered product designed to be the next big smash. They get my vision and passion for inspirational news. You can’t fake that.

My belief plan has been an almost unconscious guide as the Web site has grown over the last 20 months. In addition to the site, I’ve produced and shot two documentaries and published my first book, What’s Possible! 50 True Stories of People Who Dared to Dream They Could Make a Difference.

I ran across this idea of a belief plan while interviewing one of the women in my book. Marie Hesser is part of a chapter titled “Elite Repeats.” That happens to be the name of the upscale consignment shop she created with some other women in Stillwater, Oklahoma. This group of older housewives had zero to little business experience between them—but they had a vision and some common values. They believed that even though Stillwater already had four other consignment shops, it didn’t have one featuring upscale items, a store that gave the feel of a regular retail operation when you walk in.

These ladies believed Stillwater could use a consignment shop like this and they knew just the causes they wanted their profits to support. They approached the local domestic abuse shelter and the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity.

“They looked at us like we were these cute little old ladies who were going to have a bake sale or something,” Marie told me. “Let’s just say $1 million in sales later, they don’t look at us the same way. There’s nothing like making a million dollars with the express purpose of giving it away!”

No doubt many people told the ladies of Elite Repeat that they were nuts to start a fifth consignment shop in a town that only has 40,000 people. This leads me to one of the biggest challenges any of us have when we set out to make our dream come true: critics. If you had a dollar for everyone who tried to discourage you, you’d have enough to finance your business, right?

I know I had my share of critics when I stepped away from network news to create a Web site featuring good and hopeful stories. “Where are you going to get your content from? There aren’t enough good news stories to fill a Web site!” “Don’t you know the basic premise of news is if it bleeds it leads?” Those were just the kinder remarks that I heard.

All that negative talk led me to look at what I call my “energy budget.” It’s pretty simple. Anyone who’s starting a business or running a household knows they have a financial budget. You know there is a set number of dollars in your bank account that you can spend on rent, supplies, etc. I would suggest the same is true with your energy budget. Each day when you wake up, you have a limited amount of energy to spend for that day. Of course, any of us launchers know the list never ends for all the things that need to get done. That’s why I simply choose not to spend any unit of my energy on my critics. To do so simply strikes me as a really bad investment. In financial budget terms, it would be like throwing money out the window.

This isn’t to say I’m not open to learning or listening to constructive criticism, but people who are only interested in tearing me down? Sorry, no room in my energy budget for you!

A young mother named Jill Youse found this out as she developed her idea—shipping extra breast milk to orphans in Africa. It all started one day when she was getting frustrated with all her extra breast milk taking up so much space in her freezer. “Shoot, I could feed half the babies in Africa,” she mumbled to herself. “I think I will feed half the babies in Africa.”

That’s how Jill set off on the first part of her journey—attempting to ship her extra breast milk to an orphanage in Africa. Not only did her husband and parents tell her she was crazy, even the orphanage thought she was a little confused. “Thanks for your offer,” they responded to her e-mail, “But we’re in AFRICA!”

“That’s exactly the idea,” Jill insisted. Had she listened to all those naysayers, the idea would’ve died there. But Jill was too busy trying to figure out how to make her idea work to sit around and listen to critics.

Not only did Jill figure out how to get her first shipment to Africa, she went on to create the International Breast Milk Project, which now collects extra breast milk from thousands of American mothers and ships it to Kenya and Tanzania. The IBMP is now building health clinics in Africa as well.

You can read more about both Jill Youse and Marie Hesser in my new book, What’s Possible! You’ll also find more stories about people like them on DarynKagan.com.

My intention (which you will find on my belief plan) is that you will not only enjoy these stories, but that they’ll help spark some “What’s Possible!” dreams of your own.