Episode Summary

In this episode Jenna gets to the root of outgrowing your business, how to identify if you have outgrown your business, and the beauty of committing to change. 

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Show Notes

It can be hard to identify if you have outgrown your business. Are you eager to embrace change or are you avoiding a challenging shift within your current format? Knowing how to listen and work with your truth is essential in building intentional, grounded, aligned, and successful businesses.

What if you embraced that idea that keeps resurfacing, rather than stifling it? When you are ready to build the business you want, despite the challenges, you are working with your soul’s alignment and desire. These are the business changes that are rewarded time and time again. 

This week I share my experiences working with folks that have outgrown their businesses. I explore how you can build a profitable business around anything you want as long as you understand the pillars of your business’ foundation. Let’s blossom in business, listen in to find out how.

What You’ll Learn From This Episode:

• Some of the ways uncertainty affects the way you show up in business.

• Two common themes of a struggling business.

• How to identify if it is time to pivot your business.

• What the cornerstone pieces of my business are, and why it is essential to build my business around them.

• Some common phrases of internalized patriarchy.

• Why a pivot or restart is an opportunity, not something to shy away from.

• How a coach helps in identifying and building upon an outgrown business.

Listen to the Full Episode:

Featured on the Show:

• If you'd like to talk about working together, book a call here.

• Click here to sign up for my newsletter and find out how the Connect The Dots Method has helped clients in all stages of their business.

• Follow me on Instagram for behind-the-scenes content and daily value bombs!

• Ep #6: How Entrepreneurship Made Me Woo

• Ep #32: Should I Say Yes or Should I Say No (Tapping into Intuition)

• Ep #36: How to Harness Spring Energy for your Business

• Ep #38: Getting to the Root Issue in Your Business

• A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle

• Frozen 2- Into the Unknown - movie

• George Carlin's American Dream by Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio - HBO Special

Full Episode Transcript:

Is something off about your business? Do you feel like you've fallen out of love with it? Maybe there are a lot of parts of it you do love, but there's this voice inside that's telling you to do something different. Like, you're becoming more distant from the past and evolving in some new direction. You might have outgrown your business, my friend. Just like a potted plant that now needs a bigger pot in order to flourish. Let's find out if this is you, or if it might be something else, or let's get you prepared in case this happens in the future.

You're listening to The Uncommon Way Business and Life Coaching Podcast, the only podcast that helps you unlock your next level in business and life by prioritizing your clarity and your own Uncommon Way. You will learn to maximize your mindset, mission, messaging, and strategy in order to create a true legacy. Here's your host, top-ranked business coach, and reformed over-analyzer turned queen of clarity, Jenna Harrison.

Welcome back to The Uncommon Way, everyone. I've got to tell you; I've picked up on this pattern that I never noticed before. I get inspired for a podcast idea, I record the episode, and then a week or a week and a half later, when it gets released, I write my email newsletter to my list.

I've noticed that once my brain has had a week to digest the episode, I tend to come up with some new angle to express what I was talking about. Or there's some extension of what I said that I believe will be really valuable for you.

So, the other week, I did this episode on harnessing the spring energy for your business. I included a seated meditation practice in there, and afterwards, I was walking my dog and I realized that there's a powerful walking meditation that I, myself, do frequently when I'm walking my dog. And I thought, “Oh, that would have been perfect to have included. Let me share it with everyone so that they can use this too, if they want to.”

If you are a regular listener to this podcast, you should get on my email list because you'll get even more of the kinds of things we talk about here in digestible bits. Just go to TheUncommonWay.com homepage, scroll to the bottom, and choose one of three free gifts, or all of them if you want.

At the time of this recording, one is a training on how we set our businesses up for clients on autopilot. It's called the Clarity First training. Another is a checklist to see if you really are as clear as you could be in your business. And the third, is a clarity practice with seven daily prompts that you can repeat over and over for increasing clarity.

Those can be used for journaling or for social media, so that your audience is getting clearer and clearer along with you. And you never have to struggle thinking about what to write that day.

All right, last week, I introduced you to the concept of an ungrounded business. And I told you that this week, I'd be telling you about an outgrown business. This all spurred from a conversation that I had with a friend of mine. She was asking what kind of people came to me. And without thinking I just said, “Well, their businesses are either ungrounded or they've outgrown them.” And she said, “What does that mean?”

Right away, I realized what was perfectly clear to me wouldn't necessarily be clear, at first glance, to others. And so, they deserved an episode. Because to me, these two are endemic in the entrepreneur space. And yet, no one's really talking about them.

So, if you listen to the symptoms of them, they'll sound a lot like what a lot of entrepreneurs are talking about. Maybe they're not seeing the sales they want, or they're working too hard, or on and on and on. But the point of these two episodes is, hey, let's get to the root of what's really going on. Because there are two common themes that spur all of this, all of these symptoms. And I'm going to break it down for you and tell you what those two things are, and what to do.

If you've been thinking that maybe it's time to pivot, or even dramatically change your business, this episode is for you. And if not, that might be you in the future, so you might want to listen to it and that way you're prepared if these things start to happen.

I'll tell you about the conditions in which I would encourage my clients to go ahead and pivot or change businesses even. And when I would not. Basically, when is it the next right move for you? And when is it all brain trickery, and you probably are best served doing some other work first?

So, let me start this off with a couple of visuals. When we talk about an outgrown business, I think it's really helpful to think about this in terms of a plant that has really outgrown its pot. You can have a plant that is thriving, it's doing so well, but it will get to a point when the roots just grow large enough that it will start to, unfortunately, wither and die just because it needs space to breathe. It needs a bigger pot. It has simply outgrown its pot.

There was nothing structurally wrong with the pot, right? There's nothing wrong with the soil. There's nothing going on like that, it just needs a bigger pot. And then, so often when you transfer these plants into the pots they need, all of a sudden, you finally start getting the blooms and the flowers that just weren't happening as the plant was wilting in the old pot.

Another way that I think about this is my son has a book by Eric Carle called A House for Hermit Crab. Hermit crabs, they live in shells. But the shells don't grow when they grow. They're always growing bigger, so whenever they get to the point that that shell gets too tight, they have to go out into the ocean again, and they have to find another shell.

As they're preparing for that transition, they're probably not too psyched about leaving their shells, right? Imagine you're out in the ocean, you're being bandied about by the currents, you're vulnerable to predators, and so maybe you won't leave your shell. But eventually the discomfort of that smaller shell grows uncomfortable enough that it becomes worth it for you to venture out and find your new place.

An outgrown business is just like that. It serves you at the time, it's what has allowed for so much of your growth, and you're grateful for all that it brought you. But now there's a disconnect. It's no longer a fit. And in fact, it's starting to feel constricting. Or maybe it's been feeling constricting for some time, and you've been trying to ignore that sensation.

Now, the change that your business needs, that could be a tweak, or it could be a broadening or narrowing, or it could be a massive overhaul, or you could just blow up your whole business. But at this point in time, it is an outgrown business. And an outgrown business is actually a form of an ungrounded business, which I talked about last week, because it's not in alignment.

So, if you're getting a hint that this might be you, then definitely go back and listen to that episode too. Because I kind of go into more specifics about ways that it might be showing up in that way, and exactly what you need to have to have a grounded business.

But here are some ways that I've seen an outgrown business show up for friends of mine, for clients of mine, for people I've just been like stalking and spying on. Sometimes it's just that you're being moved to share new things with your audience or a new side of yourself, and you're consumed with doubt.

You're wondering what people will think. If it'll affect your sales. And you're wondering if this is just a phase that you'll get over, so you really shouldn't mess up a good thing. So funny, I'm just realizing, I said that I see it with friends, and I see it with clients, and out and about, but I didn't turn that camera on myself, because this has definitely been me at several points.

I've outgrown my business several times. And it was me for about a year before I released the podcast episode that's called “How Entrepreneurship Made Me Woo”. I held on to that for probably a year. Eventually, I was just sharing it with my clients. And then I started sharing it with my newsletter.

But it was no place where it was written in public, or spoken about in public, kind of for posterity. At a certain point, I just couldn't contain it any longer and keep it inside in integrity. And then, that was really a kind of pivotal moment for my business.

Okay, so another thing is, you could find yourself thinking, “This is so not me.” When you write copy and when you coach your clients, you're going through the motions. Or you're taking so long to write copy because you have to keep checking, does this even relate to them? Or how can I say this in a way that's more palatable for them?

Or it might be even more exaggerated for you. One of my clients said it made her want to poke her eyes out. Hopefully, that is not you. But I've been with six- and seven-figure business owners who right out admit that they've lost the love for their business, and they are only doing this for the money. They could really care less what they're teaching or what they're selling.

So, you're probably spending a lot of time with mental somersaults, right? You're making pros and cons lists. You're talking to your partner friends about it. You are spending time in increasing complexity, which is the opposite of clarity and simplicity. And so, you’re tentative, and you, in tentative energy, holding back, doesn't serve you or the world.

Like I mentioned last week, in that episode on ungrounded businesses. An outgrown business, it's actually a type of ungrounded business, like I said before. It just tends to happen later in your entrepreneurial journey. But you no longer either believe in, or are even clear on anymore, those cornerstone pieces of a service business. Like, what you're doing and why, who you're doing it for and why, how you're doing it for them and why.

And those are the absolutely critical, no ifs, ands, or buts, things that you need in a service business, if you want to be operating at full potential. Otherwise, you're hamstrung. You're on that wobbly barstool that I was talking about last week.

Okay, what else do I see? Maybe you're seeing a wave of strange clients coming in, right? You can tell that your energy is off. It's like your uncertainty is messing with your field. Or the same clients are coming in, but you just feel very disconnected or even bored with the topics that your clients are interested in. Or you might be seeing stagnant or declining revenue, you're not creating as many sales as you want.

That can be from you no longer feeling motivated to work in your business, or the fact that your copy is off. Or you could keep everything the same and yet sales still drop, because there's an energetic disconnect that your clients can feel.

Or maybe you're just playing small, right? You don't sign up for the partnerships. You don't launch the new promotion. Maybe you aren't applying for, I don't know, an award or something, because maybe you feel like you're on the edge of a decision and so, you don't want to put extra work into something that you're going to shut down. Or you don't want to seem inconsistent later if you do end up changing your business or changing something about your business.

It can also show up as you being completely overworked physically or feeling overworked and exhausted mentally, because you're resisting what is, you're trying to action your way back into the way things used to be, and you're beating yourself up mentally. So, you're spinning into action in order to avoid thinking about what's really going on for you.

Maybe you're starting to voice your thoughts to people around you and they're telling you to just keep your head down. Keep your head down, focus on what you're good at, come on. Or maybe they're telling you that your mind is just tricking you, and you just need to think yourself into loving your offer.

One of my clients said people kept telling her, “Just stay in your lane. Why do you distract yourself like this? It's almost self-sabotaging. Because if you just focused on this business in front of you, you could grow this into a huge business and be wildly successful. So, don't get distracted.”

Now, I hate to always harp on the patriarchy, because some people can take that as ‘us against men’, when really, it's all of us against outdated, toxic norms. That's really what's going on. But when we squelch our desires, or someone else thinks that you should squelch your desires, that can have a lot to do with internalized patriarchy.

Historically, women's desires have been feared. They've been suppressed. They've been made wrong at every turn. So, can you hear the subtext when someone's saying, “Just stick to what you're good at”? Because here's what I hear:

Women need to stay in their lane. They're not very good with business. They get themselves into a lot of trouble following their “intuition” and desires. They need help being logical. A good woman doesn't just do whatever she wants, she puts others first. She is satisfied with just what she has. And besides, your clients right now need you. Maybe your own family needs you. You don't want to risk a drop in income or extra time away as you pursue this harebrained idea of yours. What kind of a mom would you be? What kind of a partner would you be? I mean, your wants aren't really important compared to those really important things.

Does any of that sound familiar? Because that's what you've been told, directly or indirectly, over and over again throughout your life. And so has your mom, your grandma, and your great- great- great- great grandma as well. Your soul, meanwhile, is like, “I am boundless and infinitely resourceful. And me stepping into my potential and power will rock this world. In fact, that’s why I'm here, to live my fullest expression. So, you know why I'm being called to step into this? Because it is inevitable. And you know why I'm going to do it? Because I'm a grown-ass woman and I want to. I don't need to justify anything. I desire it, and that's okay.”

Look, as you move into higher frequencies, you're called to do work that more closely matches where you are. And to work with people that more closely match that, too. Nothing has gone wrong, and there's nothing unusual about us procrastinating on taking action on this.

Or maybe you'll keep trying to fit into that box that doesn't fit, or that shell that doesn't fit. Like the hermit crab, you'll keep trying to convince yourself that it's okay to stay here, or that it's best to stay here, or that you're just not ready yet to do the other thing. Maybe you need more experience or credibility first.

I remember a client of mine, Karima, she was in that loop. She was doing digital marketing, but deep down, she dreamed of being a branding expert and web designer. But her brain kept telling her she couldn't do that, so she was trying to squash it. But there was this little whisper inside that wouldn't shut up.

And I don't know if this is you, but I've talked to clients who really worry about suppressing what they truly want, because they think it could lead to adverse health issues. Maybe they had health setbacks in the past, and they believe there's a correlation. I'm bringing this up, again, I don't know if it's you, but I have talked to enough people that have this thought, so I just I want to bring it out there. You're not alone, if it's you, but I know that it can weigh on you.

So, the question for Karima, the one whose soul was dreaming of something that seemed too big for her to wrap her mind around, the question for her became, but what if I could? But what if that desire were there for a reason?

Four months after she started marketing herself in that way, she was making more than at her day job. And a year after she started marketing herself that way, she was consistently on track for a six-figure business. And now, she has a multiple six-figure business. And that's been, what, four years now.

So, when you try to ignore that voice inside, and you tell yourself that it's not really there, that's not only gaslighting yourself, it's stifling your inner calling and your highest potential and your revenue. It's delaying the direction that your soul wants to take you.

Maybe you're starting to be like, “Okay, Jenna, tell me more. I don't know, I still have some doubts.” That makes sense. Otherwise, you'd already be building the new business, or you'd be putting out the new offer or incorporating the new content, whatever it is.

So, I want to give you a way to evaluate whether taking action on this will be a good move for you or not. I want to let you in on how I teach my clients to think about pivots or restarts. It really comes down to you figuring out the source of your current experience, right? Going back to those roots and asking yourself, why do I want to make this change? And then, just pay attention to the answer.

Do you think it'll be easier? Maybe then you'll be able to sell more? Or are you avoiding feelings, right? Something about my next business steps feel kind of scary, and so my brain is tantalizing me with, “Maybe we could start doing something else instead?”

Or maybe something feels hard, right? So, you're avoiding the feeling of discomfort, because whatever; I don't know how to get beyond this financial plateau. I don't like how it feels when I haven't figured out how to deliver this better. Or how to attract better clients.

I might have mentioned this story before, but I had a client who came to me for clarity. She wanted exactly this, she wanted to pivot. She wanted to start a new business. She was a health coach. I asked her why she wanted to do that, because when she started telling me about her life and her interests, it seemed like she was really dialed in and that this was her thing.

She told me that she was just sick of dragging people along to get the results that they said they wanted. So, that wasn't her soul calling her to evolve into something different, that was just that. There was a problem in her business that she hadn't figured out yet, and her brain, to make that situation easier for her, was telling her that everyone in the world that wants health coaching doesn't really want to do the work.

Well, that's impossible, because there are all sorts of different people in the world. And obviously, some of them are willing to do the work in order to get the results, especially if they're hiring a health coach. I don't mean to laugh; I just laugh because these are the kinds of things that brains do. And my brain has certainly done it to me, as well. But thank goodness, we were able to make some quick adjustments to her messaging in order to get her back on track with a business that she loves.

So, if you can tell that there's something that you're avoiding in your business, or you think that the grass will be greener… Because I see this a lot as well, “Oh, I think it'll be easier if I do that business over there,” then don't make any moves from that energy. Work with a coach to get all of that cleaned up.

I have another client right now, as a matter of fact, she was doing the Clarity Accelerator work, and all of a sudden realized that actually, she didn't want to continue working with larger brands, she wanted to become a coach and work with individuals. And the next week, I just had a gut hit and I wanted to check in. It turns out, another Clarity Collective member had also had this, and had checked in. This is how people take care of each other in this group. I love it so much. It also checked in about the motives for that change.

And it was interesting, because on the first week, when she kind of announced this, I said, “Is this something that you really want to do?” I asked some initial questions. And she was like, “Yes, yes. I can tell, it makes so much sense with my mission, my theme.” But I just wanted to make sure, and I told her, “You know, sometimes this can happen if it felt easier.”

And by then, she'd already had a couple conversations with people. And she's like, “Yeah, that's actually what I wanted to talk to you about. I realized that I was thinking it would be easier to work with individuals and to have a business coaching individuals, rather than going after those brands.”

Coincidentally, on that other call, I had really challenged her to go big, and really go after some big, big accounts in way that she hadn't before. I think that might have just freaked her out a little bit. But that's okay, that's what the coaching relationship is for. And it only took a week to get her back on track. So, all is good.

But I just want you to know that this really happens to all of us. And it's just something to watch out for in yourself. If you're not quite sure about the roots of your experience, and you're like, “I can't quite tell. I can't quite tell if I'm just in avoidance or if this is really a calling. I feel it really strongly, but I don't know.” Then, go back and listen to my episode called “Should I Say Yes or Should I Say No?” It's all on intuition.

Or work with a coach who can provide that objectivity and help you get clear. I mean, that's why I work with coaches. It's not so that the coach will tell me what to do, there are lots of times I don't do what my coach is telling me to do. But when my coach says, “Could this be what's going on? I think this might be coming up for you,” then I get an opportunity to tune into myself and to discover yes or no.

Lots of times, it's like, oh snap, that is what's going on and I just couldn't see it. You just can't see inside your own brain sometimes, because it's so good at explaining things to you so perfectly logically that it's just irrefutable logic. It's so brilliant, our brains are so brilliant.

So, I want to be clear that there are times when your experience can feel like you've outgrown your business, but that might not be the whole story. And if you do decide to pivot or switch niches, do it with eyes wide open. Knowing that on the other side, you're still going to have the same brain with the same thoughts.

And therefore, you'll be seeing parallel results for a while. The new niche or the new offer or the new messaging, none of that will solve the problem of your way of thinking, if you don't clean up the way you're thinking.

But if you are longing for this change, despite the fact that it might be hard, or despite the fact that you might lose some money in the short term, when you're willing to do it because of a different type of reason, because of this calling, then we might be onto something, my friend.

Maybe you were totally aligned with your business earlier on, and now you've evolved, right? Or maybe you never really gave yourself a chance to step into what you wanted to create because you were so focused on what you should create. You might have entered into this business because it seemed like a good way to make money. Right? It was just what you knew.

And people said, “Don't overthink it. If you already know how to do X, then help people with X.”

You were so focused on getting out of the rat race, creating financial autonomy, or learning to build a business, which are all great things. Right? And so, at the time, that was totally a fit for you and you're proud of everything you've built.

But now, it's like two things are happening. One, your rational brain is like, “Okay, now I've proven I can make money. So, what next? What do I want to do?” This is the perfectly natural progression on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, right? Once you have the survival covered, you move into obtaining recognition status. Once you have that covered, you're moving towards self-actualization. And so, this is just a very natural progression.

On a deeper soul level, your soul is dying to move into alignment and desire, and you creating the exact life you want. So, there's two things going on. One, your brain is just doing the human brain thing. And then, there's also the soul that has, I believe, kind of known the direction you were going and keeps trying to give you the nudges and navigate you in that direction.

One of my favorite fictional stories is the story of Queen Elsa, in the Frozen Disney series, and the second one, specifically, Into the Unknown. It is so great because… By the way, spoiler alert! Spoiler alert! If you have not seen this, you've got to see it. It's so good. It's so funny. I wrote a note to my friend, she'd been telling me to see it. I wrote a note, she's also a coach, after I saw that movie.

And I said, “Well, I can just give up coaching now. I can just tell everyone, ‘Go watch that movie because it has everything in it,’” it's so good. But if you haven't seen it, go watch it. And fast forward this 15 seconds, or 30 seconds, because I'm going to totally do a spoiler.

So, there's an opening scene where the queen is kind of inundated with, I don't know, like accounting, administrative type tasks, and she's hearing this voice calling her in the distance, but she continues to push it away. There's even a beautiful song she sings, where she's like, “I can't hear you, I can't hear you.” Because she's surrounded by love; she loves her family, she loves her kingdom, everything's good. Why in the world would she give that up? Why would she give it up?

She's just like, “Quiet voice, I don't want to hear it.” And yet, it continues to call to her, and she eventually goes off and seeks the source of this voice. She ends up transmuting herself into half spirit, half human. I'm telling you the story, for those of you that want a reminder and want the perspective and are wondering how this even ties into what I'm talking about. The seed of that was already within her when she was hearing that voice.

The voice that was calling, the part of her that was resonating with that, that was moving her forward, that already was her. Those seeds were already there. So, I believe that you just can't suppress this calling inside of you, because the components are already there, and the desire would not be there for nothing. There's a reason that it's there.

I don't know if I should clap. What should I do for the people that want to come back? Come back! We're done talking about Elsa. It's all good. Because this is important, and I don't want you to miss it. So, the way I think of pivoting your business is, if this move is getting you closer to your mission, then yes, do it. If you've discovered a way of even more fully expressing who you are and stepping into your genius, then yes, yes, a thousand times, yes.

Whether you have an ungrounded business or an outgrown business, get in touch with your truth and align everything to it, every fucking thing. Give yourself permission to go there. Remember that Marianne Williamson quote that I brought up last time? “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.”

It's our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. And so, our brain finds delay tactics. It would much rather stay in the safety of what it knows. And yet, we can still put on our big girl pants and do what we know we need to do, right? But that's only possible if you're clear on what this new version of yourself or your new business would look like.

Otherwise, you can't take action. And this is where I meet a lot of my clients. Some of them, they know what they want, but they're looking for support to get there. But others aren't. Right? They want to take that nudge that they're feeling inside, or all the little ideas that they have on Post-Its scattered around the house, and they want to turn it into an actual concrete thing.

The way you do that is exactly the same as for an ungrounded business. You've got to give yourself some focused space and time, with a real commitment to knowing yourself, possibly more deeply than you ever have before. Or the more accurate term, I guess, would be revealing yourself to yourself. Because that truth and clarity is always within, it just hasn't surfaced.

But when you get serious about figuring it out, your brain will start to reveal what it knows. I have seen this over and over and over again in the Clarity Accelerator. We tease these truths out through a variety of tools. Tools that I used myself to get clear, and tools that my clients have now taken to new heights since then.

So, we ask deep questions about our why, we connect the dots through our memories to find the themes that have been showing up for us over and over again. We identify our secret sauce; we do this in a few different ways. And then, we also use our Human Design charts to give us more nuance and understanding about everything that we've discovered.

And together, it paints an undeniable picture of what we really care about, right? What we are primed to dedicate ourselves to, and where our gifts truly lie. And usually, what happens is that when that evidence is presented to you, it unlocks so many things. And what was once mysterious becomes obvious.

My clients have told me that, then, even though owning all of that can seem intimidating, going back to that Marianne Williamson thing, it is disconcerting to see our greatness like that, on paper, in front of us or in our journal. Right? Even though something has changed, they just can't unsee it, they can no longer deny it.

This is what creates a grounded business. Because everything in your business becomes very intentional. Understanding your why and who you are, naturally informs which clients it makes most sense for you to work with, and then what your offer will be, and then how you'll position yourself and create messaging that calls in your people.

But you've got to create the time and space for this. Because when you're all distracted with the day-to-day, putting out brush fires, most of us don't have the space for intentional thinking or for daydreaming. And so, the days slip, by the months, or the years, in my case, the decades. It's when you take it seriously, when you constrain yourself to this and prioritize this, that's when you see results. Like everything in life, right?

It sends a message to your brain and the universe that you're serious. And then the dots can connect, and the pieces can align. You'll want to put yourself around people who also care about this. That don't think you're being ridiculous. That don't tell you, “This isn't really important. Aren't you getting a little full of yourself?”

Put yourself in a room with women like you, who are highly driven, but also highly committed to alignment in their business. Bounce your ideas off of them, right? Let them reflect back what they see and support you as you make decisions and move into action.

Groups are amazing because we live our lives thinking we're swimming in an ocean of possibilities. But really, we're in a fishbowl, in the ocean; that fishbowl is your mind. It keeps you trapped in a very limited set of possibilities. And as long as you're perceiving the world and yourself and your possibilities in that fixed way, you won't even consider the opportunities that are out there. You won't even see yourself as stepping into that.

But when you have a coach and a full support group of women who are thinking about these things, and they're watching you and seeing you in that light, they can show you where your fishbowl is, they can help open you up to your potential.

I remember, once I had a client and she was telling me that she really couldn't decide whether or not she wanted to launch some course on some sort of, I don't know, how to do something on LinkedIn; I don't even remember what it was. Or if she wanted to do high-end art consulting. You all, we were on Zoom.

As she was telling me this, she was laying back on this chaise lounge. She was just surrounded by this gorgeous art, in this really cool, eclectic apartment. I said, “I want you to just look at the screen and tell me what you see.” It was so apparent and yet, well obviously, what she really wanted to be doing.

But she didn't think that it was that obvious because she's so used to living in it. She's so used to seeing it in her mind, she probably thinks everyone lives like that, and everyone could put that kind of a room together, and everyone thinks the way she does. But that's not true. It was very, very obvious what her soul wanted to do.

This is where I'm different than most business coaches, right? That would be heresy for some business coaches. I'm sure they'd be listening to this going la-la-la-la, not even wanting to hear. Why would you tell someone to pursue something, I don't know, that doesn't fit, that doesn't conform to the typical business model? Even though it does, that's a bad example. But doesn't conform to “the top three moneymakers” of health coaching, or weight loss coaching, or financial coaching, or whatever, whatever, right?

I believe that we can build a profitable business around whatever we want, as long as we're smart about it. As long as we don't skip any of the pillars of our business foundation. Again, listen to last week's episode. As long as we really understand our people and the problem as they see it, and can then create a compelling offer for them, that's it, that's business.

So many of my clients have told me that working through it piece by piece in this way is something they never got to do when they were starting out. And they wish they had because it would have made everything so much easier and more straightforward. Giving themselves the time and space to gather their thoughts and shore up their beliefs is the best thing they ever could have done for themselves.

Because it's like a pro athlete prepping themselves or psyching themselves up before the big game. And that goes for you creating a new business, or a new offer, or just a new angle of your messaging. You want to get that all dialed in. You want to believe it so that your clients, your audience, can believe you.

And when you get into alignment and you get those pieces dialed in, what happens? Well, first off, I mean, right off the bat, a part of you feels really damn great. Hey, you know what you deserve to feel. Feeling dialed in and aligned is our natural state. It's just that we get pulled away from that by our fears and all the shoulds that we internalize, right?

And those are often, really just based on the opinions of a few people. People that we wouldn't even want to have at our party if we were sending out invites. We are wired for freedom, for thrill, for expansion. That is a core human need. There's also a strong desire to hide away and stay in the cave, right? And that tension makes life so interesting. But your body wants this on a visceral level. And you've felt it before, you know why it's so intoxicating.

I mean, think back to when you were younger, and you were in a relationship that didn't really serve you, but you kept hanging on. And then one day, maybe it was just your realization, or maybe the person did something really insensitive for the last time, but there was that final line in the sand where you were like, “No, I deserve better.” Afterwards, do you remember that feeling of liberation? Maybe you were crammed in the middle seat of a commuter plane.

We're heading to Houston this week to see my husband's family's, thinking about uncomfortable travel experiences. I think I do that whenever I travel with my son. It's like, “Okay, get my mind together. What's going to happen?”

But imagine, now this has happened to me, I know it's happened to you, but when you're crammed in a middle seat of a commuter plane, and you're in between two really big dudes whose shoulders and arms are clearly encroaching into your seat, and you're just right in the middle. Maybe there's no overhead space either and your carry-on is under the seat in front of you.

And you're just waiting and waiting for those people to deplane. You're like, “Can they move any faster?” And then finally, it's your turn to stand up and your body is just like, “Yes. Oh, my God, the freedom, it feels so good. Right?

That is the feeling when you finally make the change in your business. Moving into that feeling of or that simplicity of, ‘I know exactly who I am. I know what I'm doing.’ You are moving from that confusion into that clarity. You're not the only one who deserves to feel great, right? Your business and your clients deserve that, too.

Okay, let's break those down really quickly. Your business, sometimes it's helpful to think of it as something outside of yourself that kind of has a will of its own. And if that's not helpful, you can think of it as an expression of you that has the ability to bring into focus the deeper parts of you that you're not fully acknowledging.

But either way, your business doesn't want to be hampered by your ideas of what it must or must not be, it just wants to be. There's a water component to our type of business, service businesses. They thrive with fluidity. They're not meant to be blocks of ice. Even if you see people that have large businesses with the same types of offers, you will hear change and transformation in their messaging, or different types of offers that they're launching. There is evolution happening.

And then breaking down that second part, your clients. Especially when you're a solopreneur, they deserve to know who you are too. They don't have to know all the details of your private life, but the fewer masks that you are wearing, the better. Let them make an informed decision. Give yourself the gift of being seen and appreciated for who you really are.

If you're trying to be what everyone else needs you to be, you're not getting to experience true connection, either of you; you or your client. And if you're hiding behind the mask of, ‘I really enjoy this still,’ is it really right to bring them on as a client? Do you want to let them find someone who's overjoyed to help them? This is Relationships 101.

What ends up happening when you take off the mask, is that the ones who are your people become more your people. Which starts to show that this is not just a move to feel good, although that's wildly important in my opinion, it's actually a really smart business move.

Listen, I get how scary and vulnerable it can feel to remove the mask. Like I said, that was happening to me before the woo episode I put out. And then afterwards, it was no big deal. People were like, “Yeah, obviously, woo.” And the people in my audience who weren't very woo, they were still like, “Yeah, I don't know. I don't know if that is really me. But I'm willing to listen, and I'm here for other things. So, it's all good.” My business grew, not shrank. My clients and I started having more fun, not less.

It's like when Madonna changed her image. Everyone was all, “Oh my god, it's career suicide. She was known as a blonde, and what now? She's a brunette and she's dancing around in a church with crosses? And wait, what is going on?” But through her metamorphosis, people became more interested, not less.

I've mentioned this before, but I love the documentary on comedian George Carlin. Judd Apatow did it just last year on HBO. George Carlin made these radical turns in his career, sometimes totally alienating his current audience. And his following just grew bigger and bigger each time he grew more into alignment.

That has been my personal experience, as well. When the pandemic hit, I totally blew up my business. It was scary, and it was also one of the most thrilling things I've ever done. There was such rightness, such freedom. It was a truly kind of untethered, unbound, soul move on my part. And my business and life were much better for it. I am so thankful that I'm doing what I do now, rather than what I was doing then.

So, you do make money. Right? Not always, at first. There can be a lag, full transparency. And that's okay. Because for most of the people listening to this podcast, you love money, sure, but not at the expense of your deep satisfaction and living your truth.

That is why you left corporate, because you didn't want to sell your soul just to make money. Staying with a business you've outgrown just for the money is the same golden handcuffs as when we were in corporate, or when you watched your dad staying in a corporate job he hated because of the money. This is not the life you want to lead. Right?

A dip in income is fine if it nets me so much more in terms of life satisfaction. But in the long run, you will make more cash too. All the brainpower that is being used for mental somersaults, and back and forth-ing, and resisting what is, and trying to talk yourself into whatever is no longer working, you can direct all of that brainpower to leaning in and growing your business. Right?

You move away from anxiety and forcing it or faking it, into productivity and creativity and problem solving. Which is how you make money, right? You use your brain to product events, solving problems, and communicating effectively with your people. When you are dialed in, your clients feel that conviction, and conviction sells. I say that over and over again.

When you serve them, you're doing it at a different level, and they feel that too. So, people are sending you referrals, they're telling friends about you, people want to be part of your audience, they want to experience that energy. Plus, the money you do make, you actually get to enjoy more because you're loving your life.

I personally am convinced because I've seen it over and over. The universe rewards you for stepping into who you're meant to be. It rewards your trust fall. I mentioned my client Kat last week, she has transformed herself from being a visual artist to a highly respected strategist for social good organizations. I didn't know what that meant either before I started working with her, but we talked about it a little bit, if you go back and listen to her podcast episode.

In that episode, you'll hear about the synchronicities that were happening for her right as she was making these decisions in her mind. And as she was moving closer and closer into her alignment, as witnessed by the clarity work she was doing, and evidenced by her Human Design chart, it just made so much sense that she had been holding back, as we all do, a bit on the action or on the moving into that decision. And then, as soon as she was clarifying that and speaking that into being, it was just like, boom! It was amazing, you should listen to it.

I remember when I blew up my business during the pandemic. Right after that is when I started ranking on Google for coveted search terms that made my head spin in disbelief. There was, it seemed, like no rhyme or reason.

Now, a quick note for any of you that have disappointment or past trauma from a time when you felt like you were tapping into expression and you wanted to take this trust fall, and then the effort “failed”, failed in some way. You might want to disentangle your thoughts about the rightness of pursuing your truth, from your thoughts about how quickly and easily your desires should manifest or come into fruition.

We are not entitled to immediate rainbows and lollipops as soon as we take a leap of faith. Sometimes it does work out that way, and that is wonderful. But if it didn't for you, it might just be that you had some really important lessons to learn first. It doesn't mean that the direction you chose was wrong, just because the experience was more challenging than you anticipated, given that you had never actually done it before, and you didn't know how it was going to go.

Maybe the lesson you were learning is that your conviction wasn't quite strong enough yet, and you needed another year or two to more fully understand for yourself why you want to do this.

Okay, here's something else that tends to happen when you listen to the call inside, you bring in awesome clients. It's funny, because when we aren't dialed in to energetics, we have this idea that everything rests on our shoulders. That the exact words we use and the platforms we choose are solely responsible for the clients we bring in. And all that stuff certainly plays its part, right? I love me some messaging.

I built a great business based on the strength of the conscious and subconscious messaging that I've put out there, that I've deployed to help attract my ideal clients. But I know the truth is that my messaging is just reflecting my own clarity and beliefs. And it's the clarity and beliefs that attract the clients, even more than the words in black and white.

Because let's not discount the reciprocal forces at play here. It's not just you wanting the clients, it's the clients wanting you. They are looking for the answer to their prayers. Your clarity facilitates that process energetically. You become the lighthouse that they're able to see.

I’ve spoken before about how the messaging on my website doesn't change. And yet, the types of people coming through there do change, based on my mindset. That seems like hocus-pocus until you start experiencing these things for yourself. And like I said, I certainly wasn't woo when I first started my business journey. But now, I'm not alone.

I know I'm not alone. I’ve talked to so many entrepreneurs who experience similar, seemingly unexplainable things. We just can't chart the cause and effect. It seems like, how could this lead to that? How do you explain that? So, your clients are looking for you and they need you to burn brightly enough, unashamedly enough, to not be dimming your light and energetically blocking them from finding you.

And then there's a third force, which is the universe. It behooves the universe to connect you with your people, once you're both ready, of course. Because you get to help each other rise to your next level. You help your clients; your clients help you.

Most of us understand that we help our clients, but do you know how much your clients help you? If you're a coach, you get to integrate your knowledge even more deeply through teaching, and through being nonreactive and non-judgmental towards the parts of yourself that you see reflected in your clients.

If you're a designer, you get to stretch your creativity. You get to step in the flow through the challenges and vision of your clients. Right? And that goes on, it's true for any service business.

So, my friend, if you know that a part of you is kind of turned on, perked up, right now during this episode, it's listening very intently, it's nudging you to pay attention, and that there is some further evolution in store for you, you can feel it bubbling up, why wait a second longer in that small pot of yours, which is too small, right? It's stifling you.

I spent two decades waiting to get clear. And in my experience, clarity doesn't come from waiting. Clarity comes through your commitment to getting cleared now rather than later. So, maybe you're waiting because of some kind of fear.

Two really common objections I hear are: I don't want to start all over or start from scratch, or whatever. I've already put in all this work. And another one is, what if this doesn't work?

To respond to the first I say, your future self will never be like, “Oh, why did I take that extra couple months, or six months, or however long it took to realign my business and create this amazing thing that I now have today?” Said no future self ever. And the future selves are like, “Thank God, thank God, she did this, so that we could have what we have today.”

And also, just clarification, it isn't actually from scratch, that is black-and-white thinking, kind of catastrophic thinking, that our brain brings to us. But actually, you have all of these transferable skills from what you've already built-up learning in your business. And now, you're just changing your offer, it goes so much more quickly.

All right, that second one, what if it doesn't work? A lifespan avoiding failure is not a life lived, right? I mentioned this last week to my client. Lindy was saying that she realized she had been playing not to lose rather than playing to win. And if you live your life trying not to fail, you don't grow because you're staying right where you are. And you don't accomplish anything new. So, you fail in advance.

Usually what we're most afraid of when we say we're failing, if you ask someone, “Well, what would happen then?” All that happens is that you go back to exactly where you are. If someone's in corporate and they say, “Oh, what if I try and become an entrepreneur and that fails? Okay, well, what would happen? Well, I guess I'd have to find a job.” Yeah. And you already have a job right now, so you'll be no worse off basically, than you are right now.

And yet, our brain tells us that failure is so terrible. That this feeling in your body, that this little wash of neurochemicals going through your body is so terrible, that you can allow it to dictate your life. That you can hold back on your wildest dreams because you don't want a little flush of feelings. Come on.

What awaits you on the other side of playing to win is not just the fact that you're now living to your max potential and earning to your max potential, as is only possible when you're all-in rather than holding back in that tentative energy. It's not just that, there's more to it. Because now you've radically increased your self-trust muscles, right? You bet on yourself. And you've had the lived experience of seeing what you're made of. Right?

Maybe you've had some cuts and bruises along the way; you've increased your mental toughness. You have increased your tolerance. So, a couple of years from now, who knows how, you'll be stretching yourself. Then, if this feels like a stretch now, once you go through this, who knows what you're capable of?

Maybe you'll be going through a whole new evolution. Who knows? If so, I hope you'll rejoin us in the Clarity Accelerator; come back again. With each iteration, you'll be getting bigger, you'll be glowing brighter, you'll be feeling even more tapped in.

Maybe this moment you're in, it's not the make-or-break decision and experience that it feels like. Maybe it's just the training ground for a life of transformation and growth. It is just the tip of the iceberg for what's to come. But a very, very necessary next step for you.

How fully can you live into your uncommon way? How much of your light and your greatness will you allow yourself to experience? Allow the world to experience? Allow your children and other young girls to witness? Really, how good can you allow things to get?

The answer to all of those questions come on the other side of you answering this very honestly, as if your life depended on it: What is the next evolution that's calling to you? And what would it take for you to cultivate the courage to step into that?

Okay, my friends, that is it for this week. Remember, deep down, you know who you are. And, each day, you're stepping further into what you are here to create.

Hey, if you're a coach who wants 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 TheUncommonWay.com/schedule and set up a time to talk. I can't wait to be your coach.

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 for growing and scaling your business, visit TheUncommonWay.com. See you next time.

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