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But what if the thing holding you back isn’t strategy, it’s capacity?

In this episode, I’m talking about the survival brain, fear of the unknown, and why so many entrepreneurs get right to the edge of their next level… and then stay stuck.

Listen to learn how to tap into your most strategic, aligned mind as you grow your business.

Key Takeaways

• What “building capacity” actually means
• 2 CEO mindset shifts I had
• Why white space is a MUST for entrepreneurs

 ___________________________________

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READ THE EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Emily Hirsh:

Instead of becoming obsessed with dissecting all of this stuff and figuring all of this out, I want you to become obsessed with who you’re becoming.

Because where you put your attention is where you put your energy, and that’s what creates your reality. So start to also recognize in business when fear is taking over, as an entrepreneur, you are on the biggest personal development journey of your life. You have to literally, continually become a new person in order to have the next level of your business.

Embodied CEOs don’t chase trends. They pave the way they lead from within. Move by purpose, unshaken by noise. When you are the source, you do not need permission.

Hello everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. I hope you guys are having an amazing day wherever you’re tuning in from. Today I’m just gonna talk a little bit and share a couple of top of mind things. Things that have come up in coaching conversations, and sometimes out of this, some really big golden nuggets.

Come. Last episode was very heavy marketing strategy, so try to balance it out for you guys. Can only talk about so much marketing strategy, I swear. If you are an expert on something, there’s only so much I can teach on marketing and also it is only such a small part of what moves the needle to results in a business.

So there’s two things that I wanna talk about that have come up a lot in my coaching conversations, but also it’s been interesting. I’ve been, more involved with our sales team and our sales process because we are implementing a strategy that has greatly increased our call volume. And it’s so interesting to me witnessing people considering making a decision, investing in their business, and the amount of fear that comes up with that.

And it’s just interesting, like to watch humans allow fear to dictate so much of their life. And I was running yesterday. I had a long run and so it’s always a great time for thinking. I swear it’s someone told me once that walking and running is like similar to EMDR therapy where, because you’re doing like bilateral stimulation and so you can have like really good ideas or processing things and anyways, I was running and I was like, you know what?

I think that this could surprise some of you guys, but I’m like, I think that I’m actually. Being too filtered with sometimes, like how I show up and how direct that I can be in calling some things out, and I’m gonna be a little more spicy is what I was thinking on my run. I’m like, people need to hear some of these things that I do think there are like some things, right?

Like I’m a human so I’ll be like, I don’t wanna hurt someone’s feelings or make someone feel bad. But also if someone is. Able to hear it and willing to hear it. It’s helpful when like I know my favorite people in my life and my favorite friends are not the ones who tell me what I want to hear, but tell me what I need to hear and reflect back to me perspective and opinions and like perspective that I couldn’t see.

And this happened to me the other day. I called a friend and I was totally venting and I was totally thinking that they were gonna be like. Oh yeah, you’re right. Like you’re right. And that’s so stupid, right? And that’s what a lot of people do is like they want a yes person in their life. They want someone to just agree and bitch with them when they’re upset.

I don’t want that. Like I want my friends to stop me and go. Let me give you a different perspective. Let’s take a step back and let me say yes, I hear that you’re upset and let’s look at it this way because I respect that so much. We get into this.

Reality that we think is reality based off of the stories we tell and the perspective that we’re looking at. And all it takes is just like a little shift and the entire way that you look at something can change. So anyways, I want to continue to make sure I am that person who is holding people lovingly accountable for what they’re really capable of.

And the reality is, so many of you, myself included, get in the way. Of yourselves and can’t see it and convince yourselves that things have to be a certain way or are just that way, or they won’t change, or things are true that are not true, and you need people in your corner, and you need people in your life, and hopefully you are able to get yourself to a place where you can hear it.

Who can lovingly call this out? Because. As long as you can’t hear it or you aren’t willing to hear it, it will keep you stuck. So the two things that keep coming up in conversations and what I have observed, the first one is the amount that fear drives people. That fear is. the driver of decisions or indecisions or action or inaction in showing up versus not showing up.

And it is for all of us in different ways and understanding that this is because. We have a brain, and our brain is wired for survival. It is not wired to thrive and to flourish and to break through barriers and do new things, and like absolutely crush life. Your brain is wired to make sure you survive, to make sure that you don’t die, to make sure that you are not exiled from the tribe because that equals death.

And so if we think that our brain is us, then now we are going to oftentimes be driven by fear your brain is constantly scanning. It’s going, let me think about the past. Let me analyze the past, let me make sense of the past. Let me understand it so that those things that hurt me never happen again. And then it’s going, let me predict the future. Let me make sure that I take all the knowledge that I have from the past and all the feedback that I’ve been given through experiences and relationships and things that have worked and all the way back to when you were young, right?

Your nervous system stores, all of that and goes, let me take all that and let me predict the future so that I can make sure. That we don’t get hurt, we don’t die. We don’t fail. We don’t put ourselves in an embarrassing situation. And most people think that is their reality, right? Because then from there, what you do is you create stories and you create reasoning.

And most of the time those things are rooted in fear. They’re rooted in what if that happens again or what if that happens in the future? Let me obsess over making sense of this. Neither are actually reality. The only thing that’s true is right now. So I have a really good friend and she was going through some, a tough time a week ago and she was spiraling.

She was sending me messages and they were a lot of this like why did this happen and what if this, and what if this and what if this? And I knew that I was probably the only friend that she had who would be like, Hey, look. You gotta knock it off like this is not serving you. And I knew that most people would just agree with her and be like, yeah, can you believe that?

That’s so terrible. And I know and like kind of feed into this that she was in and she was in this like spiral. And so I sent her a voice message and I was like, look, I’m saying this with love, but you have to stop. You are keeping yourself stuck because you are focusing on. Fear, you’re focusing on the past.

You’re focusing on what if this happens? You’re trying to figure out the future. And I said, all I want you to do is ask yourself one question. What is true right now? What is true right now? And who are you becoming? And then instead of becoming obsessed with dissecting all of this stuff and figuring all of this out, I want you to become obsessed with who you’re becoming.

Because where you put your attention is where you put your energy, and that’s what creates your reality. I also have witnessed, and it’s so fascinating to me, I’ve witnessed so many business owners who they want it so bad. Like they want the next level so bad, and they take all the steps to be able to do it, and all the steps to get it’s almost like they’re standing over the edge, like their toes are over the edge and they’re like ready to jump with their parachute Get to that next level and do that scary thing. And then they start like obsessing over what if this, and what if that? And what if this? And they create enough reason. Sometimes. Sometimes we can get them over the edge. Sometimes they create enough reason that they’re like, I can’t do it. And then they stay stuck and it is a cycle. So what I am offering for you today, because we all have this most of the time we have this and we don’t see it. if I were to ask myself this question right now, like where am I letting fear dictate my actions and my energy?

I think there is definitely parts of me very deep down, like it’s subconscious around scaling a company to a certain level, having a certain overhead and questioning if I can handle it. I think that’s probably like a piece fear for me. And if I don’t put awareness on that and challenge it because the second that you can put awareness on it and put eyes on it, your brain, it’s like it’s caught.

It’s Hey, I see you. I see what you’re doing. Thank you, but I don’t need this. So if you awareness, I used to have a mentor who said awareness is the finish line. Which I don’t know if I fully agree with that statement, but I do think like awareness is the key because without awareness, we’re just now operating reactively.

We’re not in control. We’re not managing how we wanna show up. And so my invitation to you is to think about today, where are you allowing fear to dictate your actions to dictate. Your beliefs to dictate the way that you show up. And you have to put awareness on it and actually accept that the fear is there before you can overcome it.

Because if you run from it, if you’re like, sprinting from the fear and you’re like, I don’t wanna face this fear, I don’t wanna actually even admit that I have this fear, it’s actually just gonna get louder. And so an exercise that you can do is actually think through and go what are the things that I’m afraid of?

What are the things I’m truly afraid of? I’m afraid of investing money in something and it not paying off. I’m afraid of that, meaning that I can’t have a successful business. I’m afraid of not having an offer that’s actually good enough. I’m afraid of not selling my offer. I’m afraid of doing a launch and it not converting.

I’m afraid of putting myself out there on social media and somebody judging me. I’m afraid of saying the wrong thing. I’m afraid of saying something and then changing my mind down the line. What are all those things? You’ve gotta get them out and then go can I accept that? I feel that way? Because accepting it doesn’t mean that you’re going, I’m gonna actually feed that and actually allow that to be my reality.

But you’ve gotta acknowledge it. You have to acknowledge and accept it, and then you can choose, okay, how do I wanna show up? And when you are making a decision in your business or your life. Making a decision from fear is, has a very distinct feeling. Like you, you know what I’m talking about. When you make a decision from fear, it feels urgent, it feels panicked.

If you think about making an investment decision and you’re like, okay I don’t wanna do this because here’s all the reasons why that I can’t do it. And then you’re like panicking and you’re like, I can’t do it. I gotta run away from it. You know that fear is taking over in that we also make decisions from fear when we avoid things, especially in relationship, like I’m afraid of somebody’s response and so therefore I won’t speak truth.

There is a very distinct feeling when you are operating from fear versus alignment. Fear versus truth and alignment feels very grounded. It can still feel scary because you’re doing something new, but it feels right. It feels like I, I know deep down that this is the right thing, that this is in alignment and it’s, even if it’s hard, sometimes the hardest things actually have that grounded peace feeling in them because they are.

In alignment. So start to also recognize in business when fear is taking over, when you go to create that content, have that webinar, do the new thing, hire the team member, whatever, invest in the mastermind, hire the coach, hire the marketing team, whatever it is, like that next step. Is going to feel scary as long as it feels in alignment.

Notice when fear starts to take over. Acknowledge and accept it, but don’t let it drive the ship. And most humans are living out of fear. They are living outta fear of the unknown. Fear of what if this happens? What if that happens? This happened in the past and I don’t want it to happen again. And it’s controlling their life.

I see it so much, especially with new entrepreneurs in their beginning stages. And I saw something the other day that I loved. I saw this reel that said it was an interview with somebody. I wish I could remember who it was. It was actually, I think it was a big name, so people would probably know them.

But he said, nothing bad has ever happened to me. And then he went on to explain that. I think he had a tumor and he’s had these things happen to him in his life, and he said, but I don’t believe anything bad’s ever happened to me. People are like, what? You had a tumor? You had these issues. And he’s because if I didn’t get that tumor, then this wouldn’t have happened and he named something. And if I didn’t have this happen, then this wouldn’t happen. And I just it stopped me. ’cause I was like, what a great mindset to have to offset being afraid because if you operate from the place of nothing bad can ever happen to me.

Because I fully trust that everything that’s happening is supposed to happen to lead me to the next place. Now, you’re no longer afraid. You make the decisions from the place of alignment, from the place of truth, which all of us, you all can get there. You just have to get quiet for a second. And my favorite saying, I have hats for my events, shirts for my events that say it.

You already know. You already know the answer. You already know if you should make that investment. You already know if you should take your business in that direction. You already know if you should change your offer. You already know you are just waiting for permission to actually make that decision, and you’re so filled with noise that you can’t get clear.

So you gotta get clear. When you have that alignment, you make that decision from alignment, and then you go about it from the place of nothing bad can ever happen to me. I will always be okay. You’re gonna make decisions not from a place of fear. So I loved that perspective. So that’s the first thing I wanted to talk about because I just think it’s so important as an entrepreneur, you are on the biggest personal development journey of your life.

You have to literally, continually become a new person in order to have the next level of your business. And. In order to do that, you have to face fear so much, and you have to recognize what you are afraid of. And also you are constantly in a state of the unknown because you have never run a business at the level that you want.

I’ve never run an eight figure company. There’s so much unknown and so naturally I’m gonna feel uncomfortable at the different stages. I have to build the capacity and the awareness and the skill to do that just like you do. And if we let fear drive things, our brain, your brain literally wants you to stay exactly where you are because exactly where you are is safe.

It’s known, it’s predictable, it is safe. our brains are incredible. They have a very important job. But if you take them so serious that they are reality. It will be very hard in your life, and it will keep you so stuck. You’ll keep yourself stuck. You have to get beyond yourself like Joe Dispenza says.

So that’s the first thing. The second thing I wanna talk about is something I have been really obsessing over and not even obsessing over, just really passionate about and really like leaning into, and I’ve talked about it a little bit on the podcast, but I truly think that in this coming year, in these coming years, the entrepreneurs who.

Prioritize space, prioritize the ability to have white space, prioritize time to think with no stimulation, and create that capacity for themselves are going to flourish. Because I’m always a fan of like when everybody goes right, I go left. That’s always worked for me in my life. and right now, majority of people, if you’re saying everybody goes right, are subscribing to noise, packing their days to the brim, constantly stimulated.

Not a moment to think, eventually leads to burnout and aren’t present. So much noise from social media to books, to podcasts, like it is an overload. If you look at the difference in the last 20 years to how much constant stimulation we have as humans, it’s astonishing. We’re not meant, it’s our phones, like we are not meant to know everything, to have everything at our fingertips.

Like you think about in this book I’m reading, it’s you used to go in a grocery store and have to wait in a line and you’d have nothing to do. You used to be driving and at a stoplight and you’d have nothing to do. You used to be on an airplane and you finished your book and you still had an hour and you sat there.

Those moments are nowhere to be found today unless you create them, and I truly think for. Massive clarity and creativity and inspiration. You have to find those moments. I go back to the book, I read such a good book, shoe Dog, which was the memoir of the Nike, founder. And he talked about, obviously he built Nike I don’t know the years, but before two thousands, the eighties I think.

And he talked about how every night he’d come home and he’d sit in his chair. In his loving room. And he would just sit there, like he would just sit there and he would think, I think it was like after dinner, his kids were in bed or whatever, and he would literally just sit there and he would think, and I’ve always thought about that as I I want my chair, I want my chair that is sitting at the end of the day.

And I just think, and so finding and creating discipline for yourself. To find those moments. And don’t, you can’t say that you don’t have time because it’s actually in the little moments. Drive your car, try this, listen to this episode, try this, and tell me if you do it. Drive your car to wherever you have to go with no music, with nothing on, and don’t touch your phone.

And if it, 20 minute drive and just tell me how it goes because I do that all the time. I have to drive a good amount, and sometimes I wanna listen to stuff and have learning, but then I notice myself being like, okay, we’re trying to pack, make it productive. Like I’m trying to make all my drives productive and either take a meeting or listen to a podcast.

It’s what if we just, what if productive was actually no noise, no stimulation. Every moment of your day does not have to be quote, productive because it’s actually productive to have the moments. With no noise. And so you can’t say you don’t have time for this because you can create the moments in these micro experiences, driving your car, waiting in line on a flight, sitting at your kid’s practice yeah, watching your kid.

Sometimes at a practice you can’t see them or whatever, and you go on your phone. Don’t do that. Sit there, watch the sky, watch the clouds, watch the sunset. Say hi to somebody. Let’s bring that back a little bit, and also I think it will create so much. What it will do is it will create, yes, creativity, inspiration.

You’ll be able to make decisions better. You’ll be able to connect to that inner knowing that I was talking about, but also I think that you are increasing capacity when you do this to be able to handle the stress and the chaos. That’s what I notice when I create the space for myself in my day-to-day life.

I don’t pack it to the brim, and I am not trying to be productive every second because I feel this is productive. When I do that, I have more capacity to handle the chaos of life. I have more capacity to handle the meltdowns that my kids have. I have more capacity to handle when something happens in the business, when the team meets you, when somebody else is dysregulated in front of me.

You know what I’m talking about. When someone else is dysregulated, you’re super dysregulated. Like your kids have a massive fight, and then you’re like, oh my God, I can’t handle this. When you’re in this state, those things become easy. And what do you think is necessary to grow your company to the next level?

To grow a team? To increase the overhead that you have more money, more problems is a real thing. More impact, more pressure You have to. Make yourself bulletproof to handling those things. So those are my two things. Figure out where fear is driving your life, and then I challenge you for the next week to find as many small it can be two minutes, moments of presence.

Put the phone down, put it away. Because I believe that in those moments. Are the moments you connect back to yourself, and I think that is also whatever you believe in, how you connect to God, the universe, source, whatever is in the moments of the stillness. You can’t, you are so disconnected from it. When you’re constantly on and stimulated, it’s taken us away from that connection and that connection back to yourself again, it leads to the clarity and the decisions.

It leads to the clarity the direction you need to go and the awarenesses you need to have. S truly a secret weapon and magic when you do tap into that, but it takes discipline because our environment is constantly pulling us away from it, between work, phone, kids, packed schedules, all of it. It’s gonna pull you away.

It’s gonna pull you away, and you’re gonna constantly have to have the discipline to come back. All right, everybody. I hope you enjoyed today’s episode. If you do decide to go do that challenge of driving in silence. Let me know. Thank you so much for tuning in, and I’ll talk to you next week.