Ep# 106: How to Break the Pattern of Difficult = Successful for High Achieving Women Entrepreneurs
Episode Summary
Have you ever felt like a part of you feels more worthy when things are difficult, and maybe you’re contributing to the overwhelm and chaos in your life? What if you could detox that pattern and create a totally different life?
In this episode, you'll hear from Lauren, a former engineer turned interior designer who was experiencing overwhelm and chaos while her business suffered the consequences. Her story is truly inspiring and will resonate deeply with anyone who has ever felt like they're not fully achieving their potential despite their best efforts.
In this episode you will:
Learn to detox your life and business to create a smoother, more successful workflow.
Gain confidence in your decision-making to help propel your business forward.
Understand how high-achieving women unknowingly self-sabotage by creating difficult situations, and how to reverse that tendency.
Don’t spend another day making you business more difficult than it has to be -- press play now to detox your life and business, and start making powerful, confident changes today!
Schedule a call with Jenna about joining the Clarity Accelerator to dial in signature offers and strategies and a first-rate mindset.
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The Uncommon Way is led by business coach Jenna Harrison, who helps women entrepreneurs feel confident, find their ideal clients effortlessly and avoid overwork so they can manifest money and abundance in their business and life.
This podcast empowers female entrepreneurs to overcome imposter syndrome, perfectionism, and limiting beliefs through somatics, mindset, and spirituality, create 7-figure offers, and build an online coaching business with clarity and alignment.
Episode Transcription
[00:00:00] What does it really look like to move from feeling like a hot mess to feeling capable and powerful?
You're listening to the Uncommon Way business and life coaching podcast. The podcast that helps women entrepreneurs get clear on signature offers and strategies that sell themselves. So you can lean back and stop the hustle. You will learn to maximize your mindset, messaging and strategy and step into the uncommonly successful business and life you are creating.
Here's your host. Top ranked business coach and reformed over analyzer turned Queen of Clarity, Jenna Harrison.
Welcome back to The Uncommon Way. I've got a really fun show for you today where you'll hear from my client, Lauren, who has detoxed so many things that just weren't serving her and is really transforming her business to make it [00:01:00] work for her and flow more easily. Lauren, welcome. I'm so glad you're here. Let's talk about what was going on with you that even had you looking for a business coach. so much. Oh, it was like one of those middle of the night things.
Um, I had a rather dramatic entree into this period of my life. We all go through phases in life and mine involved a lot of like personal strife and I don't know, anxiety and antidepressant. And I had been a practicing interior designer before that period of my life and COVID hit and there was a lot of things that including having two kids.
And We had moved to Oregon and I was like ready to start my business again, and I just could not get traction. I was super frustrated. I had tried a number of different resources to really try to jumpstart the process, and I was not succeeding and not [00:02:00] getting the clientele that I wanted, though they were lovely.
They were just not the direction I was trying to go. And it really was like a middle of the night, okay, so there's something has got to give here. And I think I've mentioned this to you before. I think you were like the second or third page based on the search criteria that I had used. Right. Which I couldn't tell you now, but I found you and I read your website and I was like, it was like a full body.
Yes. Like everything in me was like, this is my person. This is who I need to talk to. And so I sent you a message. I don't think I even sent messages out to any other coaches and you got back to me and it was like, okay, this is. It's crazy and I'm not making enough money in my business to like pay for this.
And yet I'm going to figure it out and I'm going to do it because it's like this or I just have to go out and get a job because either this or I have to give up on being a business owner and an entrepreneur. I remember you [00:03:00] had a very keen awareness at the beginning, even when you were filling out the questions before our call, where you knew that you were the thing getting in your way.
It's And not everyone has that understanding. It's like you're walking down a road and you see this giant boulder sitting in the middle of the road. And you're like, what do I even do here? Like the woods are dense on either side. What on earth is happening? And you look up and you're like, why does that look familiar?
And you look around and you're like, Oh, why is my face carved in that rock? It's literally me. I am the person. I cannot pass through here because I am literally the person standing in the way. Yeah.
How do you think things that you haven't thought and do things ways you haven't done them and just get out of your patterns and ways of being? I think it's great to let people know that you are a person that they can absolutely relate to because you went from being this high [00:04:00] achiever, engineer, doing all the right things to then taking a step in the direction of your own self interest and what was actually moving and meaningful to you by moving into a more creative path, an interior design, Then there was still this legacy thinking that we needed to start detoxing in order for you to really blossom in your own way of being.
Hey, if you want true clarity about your secret sauce, your people, your best way of doing business and how you talk about your offer, then I invite you to join us in the Clarity Accelerator. I'll teach you to connect all the dots, the dots that have always been there for you, so that you can show up like you were born for exactly this.
Come join us and supercharge every other tool or tactic you'll ever learn, from Facebook ads to manifestation. Just go to [00:05:00] theuncommonway. com slash schedule and set up a time to talk. I can't wait to be your coach. Yeah, engineering was hard. So I became a materials engineer. I specialized in titanium. It's terribly nerdy and I loved it, but I worked in aerospace manufacturing.
And for any woman out there who is working in a business that is not friendly to women, believe me, I know where you are coming from. And I spent two years trying to figure out what that lateral move was going to be, because I knew I wanted to leave engineering. And my husband actually was like, why don't you do interior design?
And I was like, what am I going to pick out, Kurt? Like, what is this thing? And we lived in LA at the time. And so I took a class and it happened to feed into this certificate program that fed into a master's program. And I took one class and I called him and I was like, okay, so I'm done. Like, this is what we're doing now.
It's like finding your website. Clearly there's a pattern here. [00:06:00] And four years later, I had my master's in interior architecture. And yet, like you, that's not the end of the story, right? That seems like the happy ending to the story. And yet, then I went through the process of trying to learn how to become an entrepreneur.
And that education, that ongoing education is insane and humbling and incredible. So well said. Because we do. We're so used to just Achieve whatever checkmark you need to achieve now. And then we get into entrepreneurship and we're like, what is this? What is this mess? Yes. Which is why it's such an amazing journey because we really get to find out who we are and how we want to do things and step into a really, a more powerful orientation
each of us in our own ways are going through multiple individual experiences of overwhelm that maybe in a singular form would be fine to handle, but you [00:07:00] still have to feed yourself and do the laundry and take care of the dog and mow the lawn and manage the people and plan the retirement party.
It's exhausting. Yes. So for you, I think what had happened was you and I had been working on Reinvention work, specifically, and detoxing some of these patterns that we were recognizing weren't helpful, and stepping into what would be possible and what you could create, what you could call in terms of really thinking bigger.
And then there was this point where it all just started, like you call it a flow on effect, where it all just started happening. We started seeing evidence of it start popping up. Can you talk about that? So I have primarily been a residential designer working with people on their homes and I have had amazing success with some of my clients.
I still have clients in LA though I am currently in Portland and have loved that part of it. [00:08:00] But I had a friend reach out to me, I had done some work for him and his wife who's also a very good friend of mine on their home and he decided to build his own plastic surgery practice and he was like, I have a designer that I'm working with who does doing the space planning.
But. This is a high end plastic surgery practice and it needs to be reflected as such. And so he and I started working together and built out this design that was just like amazing. I don't know, like it's rocker ish, we're using like black granite, but it just is so aligned with his vision. He started out with, I want this particular style and the more he and I talked about what his personal brand was and like who he wanted to be in this practice.
It became something completely different and it was a really amazing learning experience for me because I was stepping into commercial design, but also because it made me realize that I [00:09:00] had this really special way of handling my clients in that I was able to, even in the commercial space where it can feel very, everything's like copy paste, really nailed down what his personal style was and help him reflect that in his practice.
And that space is under construction now, and it's going to be so amazing, I'm so excited about it. I love that because I'm helping you step away from the shoulds for you and really create something very cool and interesting and powerful, and then you're helping your clients step away from the shoulds and create something really unique for them and individual and powerful.
Yes. Yes. And it ripples out. Yes. Yes. Yeah. So there were other ways too. So you were bringing on different clients. I remember you had told me, we just got on a call and you're like, Oh, and I decided to systematize all of the backend procedures for my business. Yes. I [00:10:00] signed up for Dub Sotto and I've started creating all of these emails and it was such a huge break and departure from what before would have been.
The hot mess, challenged mom who's running around with like, whatever food, and just doing her best, and I remember once you had this really powerful image of you being at a park talking to another mom, and like, you had one child on one hip doing one thing, and the other one's being crazy, running around doing something else, and like, you were in the middle of this chaos, just, yep, this is just the way it is.
And we started playing with that, right? We're like, what if that no longer is the way it is in my life? And who would that woman be? What would she be putting into place? And then I remember, yes, there was that day where you came back and you're like, oh, and I've just decided to completely systematize everything and make this.
And I'm like, that is what future Lauren would do. Yeah. And it like so much of the work that we did [00:11:00] created in me a willingness to. Lean into the possibility that it could be easier. I no longer felt the need to make things difficult as a sign of success. And I realized that it's okay for me to automate things that can be automated well, to reflect my brand properly, to communicate with clients, especially those who are onboarding easily with a minimum of effort so that I can focus.
on the ways in which I bring the most value, which is doing the design work. It's not sending out the welcome email. And being in your most creative place when you do that high end design work. Yes. So it really, I feel like so much of the work that we did created the room for the possibilities of it being different.
Like it wasn't necessarily that we laid out a plan, right? We just literally played with the idea that I [00:12:00] could. Do things differently, and that could be better than where I am now, even if I can't imagine it that way, it just, it could be, maybe it'll be terrible, but maybe it'll be amazing. And that amount of breathing room was exactly what my brain needed to start spinning off in all directions.
And I have really spun into many directions. Like, you know, me, I love tech. I love the nerdy, like, how do I make this work? Well. There's always a different app every time you talk. I always have an app. Every time. I'm like, have you seen this app? Have you seen this app? But what it has created is, I realized that I was willing to invest financially in certain things.
But somehow I wanted to cheap out on creating the proper flow for my business, which is silly. Like it was such a mental block. Right. Because that's what a person who's running around in hot mess and a [00:13:00] part of you potentially wanting to perpetuate that hot mess ness would never organize the shit out of the back end of their business.
Who wants to pay for software that works? I mean, honestly, that sounds like a terrible idea. So yeah. Yeah. Okay. And that's what I love seeing with you all, are those little breakthroughs when the evidence starts coming back in terms of what you've integrated. Not just what you've thought about, uh, hypothetically maybe, but when it starts sinking into your bones and you're like, it maybe started with the way you were showing up with your kids or it started with the way you were, I remember doing your hair and getting dressed, but then all of a sudden you're just making decisions in your business.
That align with that future person and like confidently making them like I might need to change this later but this is the right decision for me right now and Confidently making business decisions for me was like an unattainable unattainable [00:14:00] dream It felt very unachievable It felt like I was constantly skating on this really thin ice and I could never see where I might break through and plunge down into the water.
Making any sort of business decision confidently was a weird experience for me. And yet, because we had created room for the possibilities of so many positive things, once it finally clicked and it happened, it was like, Oh, Of course, I would do that. Of course, I would take care of this part of my business.
Of course, I would serve my clients in this way. And of course, I would then find that I feel that I am worth more to my clients. And of course, I would then reflect that in my prices. That's right. You've raised your prices. Significantly. In fact. Yes. Yes. Really had no pushback on that. No friction. None. Who knew?
Literally nobody is like, that's too expensive. Everybody's like, oh, where [00:15:00] do I sign? I'm like, clearly should have done this a while ago.
We've had so many conversations, Jenna, and like the bits that you remember sometimes are very different than the bits that I remember. So, I remember this moment of clarity where you said, my ideal clients are the ones who want their house to look like what two years from now will be all over Instagram, or three years from now will be all over Instagram.
So not the ones that want to look like everybody else, and I just think that anyone that's drawn to this podcast and the name The Uncommon Way is really looking to, so a lot of those people. Want help with their homes and the space that surrounds them and they should talk to you. That's what I'm trying to say Please talk to me.
That's great Also, like my drive for design has always been how do I take this individual? this imperfect and beautiful and [00:16:00] incredible individual and make their house feel like You walk in and you're like, Oh, this is you in your like most ideal state in that state where you have had the coach and you have done the work and you've built this great life that you are proud of and comfortable in.
And that's the space that you walk into. We have such different businesses, but we're all doing the same work. It's all, it's all the work of people. And life, and individuality, and success, and artistry, and growth. And authenticity, and growth, and stepping into who you're here to be, and, oh my gosh, so awesome.
And generally being badasses. I mean, let's be honest. Oh, Lauren, it was so great having you on. Thank you for taking the time. Thank you again for having me. It's always wonderful to talk with you.
Thanks for joining us here at The Uncommon Way. If you want more tips and resources for developing clarity in your business and life, including the Clarity First strategy [00:17:00] for growing and scaling your business, visit theuncommonway. com. See you next time.