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She's on Fire
The business empowerment podcast! Empowering determined emerging entrepreneurs to believe in themselves, stand out with powerful confidence and attract freakin clients like magic by being authentic to their core and unapologetic in everything they do! We use magical, powerful marketing and mindset strategies to create your unstoppable businesses!
She's on Fire
Unlocking the Transformative Power of Clarity: A Journey through Loss and Reflection
When my father passed away, I found myself at a crossroads in my life and my business. It wasn't until I stepped back and took a much-needed break that I was able to gain the clarity I needed to move forward with purpose. In today's deeply personal episode, I open up about my own journey and reveal the transformative power of clarity in entrepreneurship.
Throughout the episode, we discuss the importance of taking time off, whether it's a vacation or just a few hours of solitude. By stepping away from the daily grind, we can reassess our goals, values, and vision for our business. We also explore activities that can help us reconnect with our personal values and identify areas for improvement. Join me as we uncover the secrets to creating a business that truly reflects our authentic selves, empowering us to achieve even greater success.
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All right, welcome to the She's on Fire podcast, the show that explores the challenges and triumphs of entrepreneurship for mama entrepreneurs and helps to empower you to unleash your magic and ignite your power. I'm so happy to be back here. I'm your host, jen Gaines, and in today's episode we're going to dive deep into the topic of really stepping back from your business to gain clarity. All right, so six months ago I wouldn't have done this podcast episode, but it was through my own trials and tribulations and gaining my own razor sharp clarity that I realized just how necessary this really is. All right, so if you're on my email list, you would have gotten an email about how I took time off from marketing my business for a few months because my father passed away. I had two dad's growing up. My father was actually my second dad, the one that passed away. He was my second father, but we had a really close relationship for my entire life And it really hit me All right and I had to scale back somewhere And I obviously couldn't tell my clients that I was working with. Oh hey, see you later. I'm going to take off a few months, right. So I decided this was the best avenue for me to go and to really step back a little bit. I had not planned on stepping back to gain clarity Literally was because I was like in a fog, okay, and I was devastated. So I really honestly felt blessed for so many reasons, and one of them being that I do have a business where I don't have a damn boss telling me I have to go back to work after three days because my grief, time has been used or whatever the hell they call it. Now I have no idea what they call it, but I'm lucky in that I am grateful that I don't have to deal with that, like how inhumane is that? Oh, your father died. Sorry, but here's three days. That you get to yourself And I was walking around in a complete fog for weeks after Three days is a joke. It really is five days. I know some places give you five days. It's still a joke. It's not humane. It really isn't.
Speaker 1:I feel like even when you have a pet who passes away, who dies, who you might have to use, who you might have to use and eyes, that is a super heavy thing to go through too, and it's like you don't get anything for that. Sometimes our pets are the ones who are always with us, like the unconditional love. You don't get anything for that. It's a hard thing to go through, so I felt very blessed and lucky and grateful that I was able to do that. But anyways, we're not here for me to bash company, even though I could go on and on all day about how entrepreneurship can be so amazing. Right, we're here to talk about clarity, and the reason why I'm talking about this now is because I really want other women to understand something. Sometimes we need to reassess things.
Speaker 1:Okay, my business started to feel really heavy. There were things that I wasn't happy with, but I didn't really know. I didn't actually see this until I was in my grief process. Hold on, i need to drink a water. In my grief process, and even my own business coach gave me the side eye a few times because she was like are you coming back? What are you doing? You know, quite honestly, it was the absolute best thing I could have done. It really, really was, and that's why I want to talk about it, and I'm not telling anybody here to take months off. That's not what I'm saying. I was really able to take myself through a process and figure out what wasn't working for me right? What wasn't working? It's not that my business wasn't working, it's what was heavy for me. What did I need to change when I started really thinking about all this? And my hope is that my own process can help you understand how crucial it is to reassess things from time to time, and how to do it without stopping for so long. Right, i'm not telling you to take months off, that's not what I'm saying But it's important to take some time, especially if something doesn't feel right, if some things don't feel right.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I want you to think about the concept of stepping back from your business. Why is it so important for entrepreneurs to take this step sometimes? Because, entrepreneurs, we often get caught up in the daily grind and lose sight of the bigger picture, the sight of the vision that we once had, the sight of our mission right. Stepping back allows us to gain a fresh perspective, reevaluate our goals, our mission, our vision, and ensure that our business aligns with our personal vision. It's imperative we do this, all right. So how is really the question? how do you do this?
Speaker 1:Taking breaks, whether it's a vacation or simply a few hours of just solitude. That means to yourself, it means without other people, it can work wonders. All right, engaging in activities that bring you joy and relaxation really helps clear the mind, and by yourself, okay. One of the things that I did by myself was take a day alone and go to Disney. Now, i know, yep, there's tons of other people there and they're all over the place, but it gave me the perspective that I needed and it really helped me dial in the things that I wanted to do and the things that I wanted to not do. All right, it wasn't the only time I did that, it wasn't the only time I was alone, but that was a huge thing. All right, i've never done that before, and it allowed me the space for new ideas, new insights to emerge and me to use my imagination and have new ideas flow into my mind. I have so many different things I want to do now and I'm super excited. I feel very grounded. This is what I said in my email. I feel very grounded, but also like I'm soaring at the same time.
Speaker 1:Okay, take time by yourself, though. This is the crucial thing. No kids, no friends, no partners, so that might not be feasible for you to go and take a vacation. That's okay, but you can take a day to yourself. You can, somehow you can find a way to take five, six, seven hours to yourself, all right, It's crucial to do that.
Speaker 1:Think about the things that really matter to you, the things that really just light you the fuck up. What do you love about your business? What do you hate about your business? Let's change these things that you don't like, things that don't light you up, and do more of the things that do. What do you truly desire to do, to talk about, to bring to the market, but maybe you're afraid to do? There's been things that I've been afraid. Right, i talk about confidence, a lot. Confidence building is really finding the courage to step out, okay, and then your confidence comes in. All right.
Speaker 1:So, after gaining clarity, evaluate the current state of your business. Where are you at? Assess your goals and the strategies helping you to get there. What are your operations? This was a lot of what I needed to reassess my operations. All right, buy areas for improvement or things that you feel that could give you a better business. Change things. Do it now. Don't wait until it becomes heavy. All right, don't do that, because that's what I did, and I want you to learn from my own mistakes. All right, i'm gonna be talking about this a lot with my clients. Now that I've seen it and seen what it can do for me, i'm gonna be talking about it a lot with my clients.
Speaker 1:This process often leads to strategic pivots, new initiatives, a reimagining, a revised vision, or maybe you find that vision that you lost along the way. You've gotta think about your personal values. Our personal values should be the driving force behind our business. Stepping back is gonna allow you to reconnect with those values and ensure that your business reflects them. All right, we want our authentic selves. People talk about authentic self. Authentic self. We really want this in our business In 2023, there is no way you can't have that in your business. You have to. All right. So this alignment creates a sense of purpose and fulfillment, both personally and professionally.
Speaker 1:It's crucial to do this. Whatever you do, embrace the process wholeheartedly. Don't do it half-ass. Okay, i'm very serious about this. Once I started to realize what I needed to do, i was like diving in. I'm like, i am all in. I need to do this and I need to put my whole heart and soul into it. So I do it the right way. Right? So do it wholeheartedly. Don't do it half-ass.
Speaker 1:Stepping back can really feel uncomfortable at first. There were times where I felt really guilty until I allowed myself to get over that, all right. It did feel uncomfortable, it can feel heavy in itself. It can feel heavy to do this, but it really opens up a world of possibilities. Let yourself dream, but you've gotta execute on that dream too. Trust yourself, trust your intuition and really remember that clarity is the catalyst for growth. It really really is. When you become clear, you grow, you innovate.
Speaker 1:All right, so this is something where clarity can change everything. It really can. It can make your business and your life so much better and easier and flow better. Now, not every day in your business is gonna be easy. A walk in the park be the best day ever, right, not every day can be, but you can have more of that when you do this work. So I hope this inspires you to dive in and take the steps so you can truly have the business you desire, because I know there are so many women who are holding back and have an amazing queen inside of them who's really burning to bust out and be that person that they've always wanted to be and make their business what they really, really desire, and maybe that's you. So, if it is, now is the time to take action and empower yourself to a new level. I hope this helps and I'll talk to you soon. Bye.