There are some standard exercises that you might expect executive coaches to assign clients. For instance, role playing to rehearse for a specific situation, or filling out questionnaires to identify values or thought processes. Lorin Beller does things differently. She'd prefer that her clients go kayaking and meditate on how their businesses fit with their spiritual selves. Beller has developed a coaching method for entrepreneurs that focuses on an integrated mind-body-spirit-money approach. The technique borrows heavily from Eastern religions like Zen Buddhism. "When we tune in, we take better care of ourselves, we take better care of our businesses. It becomes a positive cyclical experience," Beller said. Beller may sound ethereal, but her feet are firmly planted on the ground. She owned and sold a successful Internet firm in the 1990s. Her more material skills also include sales and marketing. She spoke with Investor's Business Daily recently about her methods. IBD: How did you come up with your approach to coaching entrepreneurs? Beller: I studied biology and psychology at college and later did a master's in health education. I've always wanted to pull these three things together. As I developed the approach, I found that as I became more in tune with my spiritual self, my business became more successful. IBD: How do you build interrelationships between mind, body, money and other elements? Beller: We use a program called Big Fish Nation. It's a way for entrepreneurs to focus on the vision of their business and look at how they are taking care of their mind, body, energy and spirit. IBD: How do you do that? Beller: The program consists of a yearlong course with three components. The first component is made up of teleclasses where entrepreneurs get trained in front of their PCs in the comfort of their home offices anywhere in the world. The second component is private coaching sessions twice a month over the phone. IBD: Who does the coaching? Beller: Myself or one of my trainers. IBD: What's the third component? Beller: It involves national media exposure. We have media partners who follow the participants whom we call "Big Fish." The partners chart their progress and help them get their successes publicized. IBD: Should the entrepreneurs be developing some kind of plan to get all these components working together? Beller: A one-page business plan lays out all the goals a Big Fish participant wants to achieve in 10 year's time. The trick is: They don't look at it from where they are in the present. They develop it strictly from the 10-year end goals they have in mind. IBD: What do you mean? Beller: The participants are starting in the future and backing into the plan into the present. This is opposed to starting in 2004 and working out into the future to achieve your goals. IBD: What's the point of that? Beller: The problem is when we set off to reach our goals from the present, we tend to (figuratively) work with all this stuff on our desks. Instead of starting in the future in terms of where we want to be, we carry a lot of stuff on our desk (in the present) that we don't need and can be thrown away. IBD: Can you give an example? Beller: In the here and now as entrepreneurs, we tend to say yes to many things. But if we have a clear vision of where we want to be with our business in the future, we might say yes to fewer things. We can take these things off our desks because we don't need them. IBD: Can you give examples of how your technique helps entrepreneurs reach their goals? Beller: We have a Big Fish duo that owns a jewelry store, a husband and wife team. The store was doing moderately well and they knew there was room for more growth but weren't sure how to get there. Upon entering the Big Fish program, they each wrote their vision stories. What they learned is that they both had similar visions. IBD: What was the upshot? Beller: From there, they are learning the importance of loving the days in their work and finding that it is not about selling jewelry, but about the impact they are having on the community in which they live. The store is having its best year ever. IBD: Does your business philosophy have a bottom line? Beller: Give energy to what you want to grow. It's very Zen. So many of us focus on what's not working. My goal with all my clients is to focus on what is working and to help create what works.