ï»żWhen I ask you Laura, what is your purpose? What comes up for you?
Wow, starting with the hard questions, eh? Okay, I like it. Yeah, that one brings up a lot of, I think, instant insecurity. And it actually kind of takes me a bit by surprise because I feel like we talk about purpose a lot and I feel pretty sure of my purpose and I'm on the right path of it. But yet I still feel like there's a hesitation, to even want to speak on it because I got that insecurity of, is it big enough? Is it important enough? Does anybody care? Why should they care? Or even if I start talking about it, am I bragging? Am I making sense? Am I clear? Like there's a lot of instant stuff going on there.
Nah, I love that for you. They're all big questions that you also came up with as a response to that. And I think your response is so normal. A lot of us feel when we even think about that question, let alone when we're asked it by another person to speak about these things can be hard work. Yet, you and I know from our conversations over the years and all the work we do with clients and students of our courses, this is the big question. When we truly know our purpose, we can call it so many other things and we will. But when we truly know what we're called to do, what's that whisper in our heart? Why are we doing what we do in business and in life? then we can share that with the world. And there's going to be other episodes about how important it is to tell our story in a way that resonates with our audience. How can we tell our story if we're not clear on it ourselves?
Yeah, yeah, that's so good. It's so true. I think sometimes it feels very overwhelming. And I feel like a lot of people aren't sure what their purpose is and feel some guilt or shame or frustration around that problem, because we should all have a purpose. We should all know what we want to do in this life and we should all follow that. But yet we live in such uncertain times that it can shake you, because the ground doesn't always feel steady. So you can feel like a purpose you had five years ago might not even feel like the purpose you have now, and maybe the purpose changes and maybe that's okay. And maybe it grows into something bigger that you weren't even expecting, and that's okay. But it's such a good question that I think entrepreneurs need to think about and take some time to reflect and maybe meditate on and get some coaching from you on to help get out of you know, insecurity space a little bit and out of our heads. But I think it's something we need help on. I think that's the point I want to make. It's something we need help on. It's not something that comes easy to most of us. Definitely to me.
Thank you for sharing that and for sharing how it is for you and you use some big words, guilt and shame and they're really heavy words and that's your truth and it's the truth of so many people who ask themselves this question is that can I even share what my purpose is? Is it important? Does it matter? Who cares? There's guilt and shame about putting ourselves first. And I think that's something I'd really love to focus on in this short episode is how is it if we say yes to ourselves first, to give ourselves permission to even have a purpose? Because quite often the blind spot, the block is us not giving ourselves permission to do the thing. So what would it be like listener, viewer, if you just said, yeah, I can have a purpose, I can say yes to myself. And why would that even be important to say yes to yourself? Imagine the possibilities. Imagine what opens up for you when you say yes to yourself.
A story from my own personal experience was that for years people have said to me, oh, Vicki, you're so brave. You just do stuff and you just do brave stuff. And I never thought of it as brave. I just thought of it as, I guess I didn't really think about it as anything at the time, but looking back on it, I can see that I was saying yes to myself in those moments. And other people's perspective is that that's brave because we maybe don't do enough of that in life
and certainly not in business.
Wow, that's some good insight that the reaction was that you're brave. So there was some admiration there for you doing something that they maybe thought they couldn't do or couldn't say yes to themselves or couldn't take a chance or risk or whatever. Because I think entrepreneurs have to say yes to yourself, like because you have to take a risk. At some point, the journey is going to require a risk. It's going to require some big scary steps and things to really get to the next level. It doesn't happen just on its own. And you have to say yes to yourself, even when others are saying no to you. That's a big thing too in entrepreneurship. There's a lot of people that will tell you no. There's a lot of investors that'll tell you no. There are a lot of customers that'll tell you no. There are a lot of family and friends who are saying, no, don't do that. Are you crazy? Why? Why would you take that risk? It's so dangerous. That's so, scary. But you have to say yes. And why do we have a hard time saying yes to ourselves? I think I feel like it's selfish sometimes,or maybe I have to choose between my kids and myself. Or my parents and myself, or my business partner and myself, or a work that needs to be done and myself, a client needs, like we're always kind of having to choose and what do we end up doing is putting everything else before our needs.
Yes. Yes. We de-prioritise ourselves. Who here watching recognises that you de-prioritise yourself? Because it's the one person who's not going to push back.
Exactly.
It's the one person who's not going to berate you or shame you.
Not pay you or make you feel guilty.
Yeah.
Yeah. And this is where the work gets done, right? Because you talked about, if I do this, it'll take time away from that, and that's a mindset that we can help people with. We can do all of the important things. It's about choosing what's important and why. And the why is the biggest part of why we do, of us doing anything. Our human behavior is driven by internal motivation, we do what we want to do, even when it's stuff that we say we don't want to do and we're still doing it, like, I don't know, eating a box of chocolates every night, right? We're doing it because it serves us. So back to business and back to doing those things. There was another thing you mentioned was,the stuff that feels hard, that people might judge or say no to. I see this as well with people who just are fearful of putting themselves out on social media. It doesn't have to be a big risk in our mind. It can be the smallest little things that have the greatest impact.
How many clients have said to us that they don't want to be the face of their brand? How many times have we heard that? And how many times have we told them, no, you need to be the face of your brand.
And you can be and you can choose to be, right? It's not a must do, It's not a have to, It's not a should. Let's not should on ourselves in 2025. Okay, or any year thereafter, no more âshouldingâ on yourself. Right? Choose it. We always have a choice, we always have an option. So let's choose to be the face and the voice of our brand. Let's do that because we care deeply about our business and the impact we can create in our business and we believe in our business, our idea, the people we serve and ourselves. It all comes back to saying yes to ourselves.
Yeah. And you can't build relationships with a faceless brand. I mean, you build relationships with other people. And I think all of it is built on relationships. Like all of it. All our life, all of our happiness, our joy. Everything is built on the relationships we create with each other, which has to start with the relationships we have with ourselves. And I think that's exactly the point you're getting at. Tell me if I'm wrong. But it's about saying yes to yourself, creating a beautiful relationship with yourself, trusting yourself, taking a chance on yourself, and living within that space, and then seeing what opens up.
Yeah, easy to say, not as easy to do, but it takes practice like anything else. And I'd really encourage you as you listen and watch this, if this is resonating with you so far, I'd encourage you to take time to yourself to investigate and inquire, what is it that your heart is calling? What is your, call it your purpose, your calling, your gift. But it's not so much about what you do well, it's about who you are deep down inside and it takes some quiet reflection. So if you're in a space right now where you can do that, then do that. Take a deep breath, feel the chair and your body against the chair if you're sitting down. If you're standing, feel the strength of your feet on the floor. This is Earth. and take a long, slow, deep breath and feel it in your lungs, feel it in your belly and breathe it out. And you can do that again, take a long, slow, deep breath for the count of four and sigh it out for a count of six. Then you might begin to notice how deep down there's a part of you that already knows your direction, your heart is gently guiding you to. And as you begin to relax into this moment, you can allow that deeper knowing to surface in whatever way feels right for you. Beautiful. And let your mind wander, let your mind explore. You have all the answers within. And you've given yourself permission to go wherever your unconscious mind guides you. Trust it. Trust you. You've got this. It's all exactly as it's meant to be. So take time to investigate inside your inner voice. And it's a great time to journal when you've taken that moment to pause. You can free-form your thoughts, your feelings, your beliefs, share it all. No one else is going to read it. It's just about getting honest with you and giving yourself permission to say those things that we couldn't say out loud yet.
Yet, I love that. That felt so grounding. I really did feel that piece, that grounding, that just, it was just a moment, just a moment to just ground, get deep, look within. Beautiful. Thanks partner. That was awesome.
You're so welcome. And I'd invite you to commit to doing this even once a week for say three weeks and see what differences you start to notice in where you say yes to yourself in life and in business. And what are those small things that feel big right now that are starting to feel more familiar, more doable, more accessible to you because you're saying yes to you. Your life will shift. Things will change. You don't even need to try to make it happen. When we tune into who we are, that's the guiding light. So I'm excited. I'm excited that if you do take on this challenge, I'd love to hear what kinds of things change for you and what you notice. yeah, let us know. If you're loving and learning from this, what are you taking from it? What's your key takeaway? You can journal that too.
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