How To Conquer Fear As An Entrepreneur

Tune in to find out what it means to lie to yourself in a good way, the value of a pro’s con’s list in managing fear, and the power of asking, “But what if I love this?” Learn about how to talk to your fear and take the driver’s seat and why saying, “I’m committed” can help you overcome your fear once and for all.

Transcript

Welcome to Mindset Reset Radio where we're on a mission to help millennials get intentional in life,

Business,

And career with practical advice and real stories of living with intention,

The good,

The bad,

And lots of the ugly.

I'm your host Jess and my goal is to flip your perspective on what's possible with the help of the amazing intention getters I get to have as guests.

Find my community on Instagram at Jessica Tiefels so we can keep these conversations going while supporting one another to stay intentional every day.

And finally,

If you love this podcast,

Please subscribe,

Share,

And review.

I would greatly appreciate it.

I am so excited to welcome our next guest,

The most amazing guest for you intention getters out there who are running a business.

Meg Ladd is a coach for female leaders and entrepreneurs.

She helps them break past their barriers and feel unstoppable as they take their work and lives to the next level.

I have personally been witness to Meg's coaching.

It's amazing.

I'm so happy to have her here today.

Welcome,

Meg.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you for having me.

So excited to be here.

Yeah,

I'm so excited for us to really touch on and talk to entrepreneurs right now.

Because I feel like that's really your sweet spot.

But before we do,

Tell us a little bit more about what you do,

Who you work with.

Give us a little bit.

So I work mostly with female entrepreneurs who've been in business for a bit but find themselves getting stuck,

Usually coming up against their own stuff.

I'm sure you've experienced before running your own business is like entering the advanced course of personal development.

You can no longer run and hide from all of those blocks.

You can't blame a boss or co-workers or your job for the stuff you're bumping up against and the walls you're hitting.

And running your own business can be a great opportunity to work on your own growth.

So I love diving into that stuff with my clients so they can get to the next level in their business,

Really combining that inner work with the outer abundance they want to create.

And I also love incorporating spirituality into the process.

A lot of my clients look at things through a spiritual lens naturally and have been in personal development work before.

And it just adds this different perspective that pulls you out of your own stuff.

So I tend to combine those more spiritual perspectives and approaches and themes with more business-focused,

Action-oriented processes.

So the way that I see it is the best of both worlds,

Really integrating that soul work with the more external goal-focused work.

Yes,

I feel like that is why I was immediately attracted to you.

When did we first meet?

Did we first meet at a hatched collective?

I think so.

I think we were outside in Little Italy,

Sitting around that table at the bakery.

Yeah,

That was so fun.

Oh my gosh,

Right.

Oh,

I love that.

So tell me why business owners,

Entrepreneurs,

Why we can't run from this personal development?

What about being a business owner puts us in a place where we have no option but to look it in the face?

Oh my gosh.

Well,

As I mentioned before,

Once you don't have those outer circumstances to blame and it's just you,

All of a sudden it's like your stuff is just staring you right in the face.

And there's so many opportunities to put yourself out there.

That's basically what I would say running a business is in a nutshell,

Is just consistently putting yourself out there again and again and again.

And you essentially have to fail forward if you're going to make progress,

Which the way that we're wired as humans is super uncomfortable and we pretty much want to avoid at all costs.

So as long as your business is growing and you're consistently taking it to the next level,

You're bound to encounter those inner obstacles and coasting really isn't an option.

So every time you have a chance to step into the next level version of yourself,

It's so normal for that self-doubt to come up,

Really normal for imposter syndrome stuff to come up like,

Who am I to do this?

I don't know if I can,

Haven't done it before.

And of course,

You're going to have those thoughts if you haven't done this exact thing before.

So a great example might be like going on a podcast,

For instance.

It's a great way to just connect with new people and to share your message if you haven't done it before.

Totally normal to be nervous,

Normal to want to back out.

So one of the things I teach my clients is to get really good at paying attention to that first instinct when you have an opportunity or a business idea come forward before the fear voice can rush in.

So for instance,

If someone asks you to be on a podcast and your gut response is excitement and yes,

And I want to do this,

Honoring that before you have a chance to talk yourself out of it.

But it's interesting as the opportunities come in and even as you come up with ideas for yourself,

What tends to happen is the idea is there,

You know what you want to do next,

You know what the next level looks like,

You get a glimpse of it.

And then it's quickly followed by the voice of fear,

Your inner critic.

So that's how it tends to show up.

It's like,

You know what's next,

And then your brain tries to talk you out of it and back into the cave where it's safe and familiar.

Yes,

I feel like I say a lot and I think a lot.

If you are living with intention,

If you're moving actively toward the next level,

What is important to you,

That fear is going to be there.

It's never going to go away.

You're always going to have that feeling of like,

Oh shit,

Can I do this?

That was starting the podcast.

I had an idea to do an Instagram IGTV series,

Which basically was going to be exactly like this podcast,

But we would both sort of be on live video.

I think I would do it live and save it as an IGTV after.

And that was the initial idea.

And I'm like,

Oh my god,

I love this idea.

It was going to be like,

Mindset Monday,

Every Monday,

Blah,

Blah,

Blah.

And I had that idea at night and the next morning I woke up and I was like,

Oh crap,

Is this supposed to be a podcast?

It just hit me.

But I was like,

Okay,

Let me sit down because my first reaction for podcast was like you said,

Wow,

That feels awesome.

I've never literally thought about starting a podcast very much.

It was just sort of like,

Well,

People do it.

Maybe I'll do it sometime.

And it hit me and I was like,

Okay,

This could be cool.

But then immediately I was like,

I don't know how to do that.

I don't know what kind of equipment to have.

I don't know how to record.

I don't know how to produce.

I don't know any of these things.

And so I sat down with it and realized like literally as I did pros and cons,

The only thing that I had as a question in my mind was like,

I don't know how to do this and I'm scared to do it.

And so I guess what I want to talk about is like how,

So I had that moment and I know how I move myself through it.

For me,

It's often just pure grit.

Like I'm like,

I'm like,

Buck up sister.

You've always figured it out in the past.

But what would you say to someone who is at that place where they're excited,

But they're really scared and they're maybe too scared to take that first step?

What are some approaches to use there?

Yeah.

So my favorite approach is actually,

It sounds like what you described for yourself,

Which is separating out the voice of fear and your highest self.

So the way that I like to talk about it with my clients is it's this continual process of making your highest self the CEO of your business.

And what that looks like practically,

But you know,

The way you described it,

You did a pro con list and the way that I'm envisioning it is,

You know,

You're tapping into the voice of fear,

Letting it say it's peace.

What are all the reasons not to like lay them out there?

It can be helpful to give it a voice and just let it get it out of its system.

And then you're also kind of tapping into your highest self and you're reviewing it and looking at all the reasons.

That's like not your fear primal brain.

That's your more evolved brain,

Like pulling back,

Like let me actually assess what are my reasons to do it?

What are my reasons not to?

So on that same note,

Just a practical exercise that I love is just listing out the reasons for both basically a pro con list and then step two,

Making sure you like your reasons.

So often that'll play out like,

Here's all my reasons to do it.

Okay,

Here's all my reasons not to.

And just feeling into the energy behind both.

And then the example you shared,

It sounds like you could feel,

Oh,

All these reasons on this one side,

This one column to not do it are kind of based in fear.

And just seeing that can be helpful for being like,

Which energy do I want to make this decision from?

Even if it feels scary,

Is it worth it to me to make them from this place?

So just making sure you like your reasons.

Another great question I love to play with when making any decision is what if both routes work out?

So with the example you shared,

If I were to start a podcast and it worked out,

Would I choose that?

Or if I were to not start a podcast and things still worked out,

Would I choose that?

Just because our brains tend to naturally go to what if it doesn't work out for both options and we go down the worst case scenario rabbit hole,

It's basically doing the opposite of that and taking it to the best case scenario.

And I find when you do that,

The options and the choices just become so much clearer.

I totally agree.

I mean,

I'm always loving the perspective shift of what if it doesn't work,

What if it does?

I mean,

I feel like one of the most classic personal development sort of mindset shifts,

But it's such a powerful way,

I feel like,

To move past that initial fear.

And also because I read something a long time ago on the website,

Greatest,

Like way,

Way long time ago.

And they're talking about body image and they said,

If you're going to look in the mirror and lie to yourself with all this negative self-talk,

Which is basically usually a lie,

You're more critical to yourself about yourself than anyone else,

Then why wouldn't you look in the mirror and lie,

I'm putting that in air quotes,

About how good you look?

Because in either scenario,

You feel like you're lying when you're saying how good you look,

But you're lying when you're saying how bad you look.

So which one do you choose?

And I feel like that's the same way with taking on something that feels really big and scary.

It's like,

You could lie to yourself and say,

You can't do this,

But I know you can.

So change that conversation in your head and a pro-con list or just for me even,

Just writing it,

Just physically writing things out is often what I need to get past that cloud of fear and uncertainty that often comes up immediately.

Totally.

And it's pretty easy to be onto your brain once you get it out of your head,

Even verbally.

Sometimes clients will start sessions and they're totally spinning out about,

Do I choose this?

Do I choose that?

I have all these options.

And sometimes I encourage them to just do a quick brain dump.

And it's fascinating how once it's out there,

They can be onto themselves and they can tell where different things are coming from.

And of course I help them see things they might be missing,

But we can tell,

Right?

When you write it down or when you say it out loud,

Is this coming from this place inside that's just scared,

Which is totally normal.

And giving it a chance to say it's peace and be seen,

You then get to decide with intention.

Right,

Exactly.

And writing it out,

I feel like forces you to really look at it.

It forces you to really see the options or see what's possible.

There's definitely,

I don't know the science,

But there's for sure that connection between like physically writing things out,

That like brain connection with clarity that I feel like is so key.

So listeners,

If you have a big crazy idea that you're super scared about right now,

Maybe step one is just getting out that journal,

Dusting it off,

Sitting down and writing out a pro-con list or just writing the idea out.

Sometimes for me,

I just have to play it out.

Like I said,

Beyond this initial idea of podcasts,

What comes next?

What does this bring me?

Where do I go from here?

And sometimes that's enough to get the excitement going because I'm like,

Oh yeah.

Once I get over that hurdle,

I have this whole new platform.

And then it turns out I ended up freaking loving it.

I found this whole new thing that I love doing and sharing with the world.

So yes,

Writing it down,

I feel like is a great step.

And you know,

As you're saying that,

I'm just reminded,

Even bringing it back to what you were saying about looking at your body in the mirror.

And if you're going to tell yourself lies,

You might as well tell yourself positive lies.

One of my teachers in my spiritual psychology program used to say,

You might as well win in your own fantasies.

And I just love that,

You know,

As you're talking about journaling,

So often we go down that worst case scenario rabbit hole,

But it's still using our imagination.

So if we're going to use that faculty of our brain,

Why not challenge ourselves to take it in the other direction,

Which isn't how our brains are wired for survival,

But we're still capable of doing so even as a writing exercise,

Going to the place of what would it look like to win?

What could be even better than I'm expecting right now?

And you don't even have to fully believe it yet.

But questions,

You know,

What you were just saying,

Gave me the idea questions like,

What if I love this?

What would that be like?

I love that because then it also puts you in that place.

It automatically puts you in that positive,

Where you're less thinking about the negatives because you start getting wrapped up in the excitement of what is possible.

Yeah,

I just did this with a Facebook group because I had so much resistance to starting a Facebook group.

And yet part of me thought it would be cool and fun.

This voice in my head was like,

Oh,

It's going to be so much work and it's going to be draining and nobody's on Facebook anymore,

Which is so funny because of course there's tons of people on Facebook.

But it was telling me all these things like nobody wants to connect there,

Blah,

Blah,

Blah.

Nobody will come.

And I thought,

What if people show up,

What if my people show up,

Like the people I love connecting with and people who love talking about business and spirituality going hand in hand,

That would be so fun if it worked.

And that's actually what got me to take those steps to finally just do the thing because it was fun to think about what if it worked,

Whereas I've spent,

You know,

The majority of the time up until that point kind of dismissing all of it,

Thinking it wasn't possible.

And telling myself those lies that aren't reality at all.

Yes,

I love that.

Can we talk a little bit about resistance,

Which is like precisely what was happening is all those little lies you were telling yourself,

Which is you resisting.

Can you talk to me about what resistance is,

How it shows up,

Like how can listeners start tuning in and noticing that resistance coming up when,

You know,

Maybe making big business decisions or whatever the case may be?

Yeah,

So earlier when I was talking about,

You know,

Honoring that first impulse that comes up,

The reason why I encourage people to do that is because you say,

You tune in very quickly,

You notice in your body and you can start noticing the cues and getting more familiar with them over time,

But you can notice in your body if it's a full body yes or if it just kind of falls flat.

But it happens,

It has to happen really quickly because resistance usually comes in,

I think of it as like the ego or the voice of fear that's just trying to keep you safe and it's like,

No,

No,

No,

No,

I don't know if this is a good idea.

This might not be good for you or your business or maybe it'll be a waste of time.

And what if nobody shows up?

Basically all those inner critic kind of thoughts.

And I'm a firm believer that sometimes the more resistance you have to something,

The more important it is for you to go for it.

I find with my clients that the things that tend to feel very sacred to them or are deeply held desire or something they've wanted to do for a long time,

It's like the closer that is to their heart,

The more resistance they often feel to putting it out there because it just has this vulnerability attached to it and that fear of failure feels bigger,

Right?

Because they're attaching more meaning to it.

This is what I really want to do.

So if I put myself out there and I do it and it doesn't work,

That will be more devastating.

And really I love to look at resistance as kind of smoke and mirrors that think they're supporting you,

Think that they're looking out for you,

You know,

Wired for survival over here.

Just like all humans,

We want to stay in familiar territory.

But when you're signing up for entrepreneurship,

You're kind of,

You know,

Signing up for the ride of a lifetime buckle in,

You're bound to encounter resistance at every phase.

And I love thinking about it as this is just a sign I'm right on track.

I'm pushing up against my growth edge.

I'm leaning in.

This is my chance to be brave right now.

Nothing has gone wrong.

Yes.

Yes.

I love that.

And that reminds me of something you said actually in your pre-show notes that I pulled out because I loved it so much,

Which is the discomfort of growth is inevitable,

But the extra layer of suffering is avoidable.

I love that.

That is such a powerful statement.

The extra layer of suffering,

That's the resistance,

Right?

Yes.

And the judgment,

Right?

Like making things mean things about ourselves often.

You can make it mean things about your business,

But I find that the self-judgments attached to your identity tend to be the most painful one.

So if you're in the midst of some growth in your business and you're getting results or you're not getting results yet and you're making that mean something about you and your capability or how successful you can be or how worthy you are or things like that,

That's just adding this layer of pressure and stress and discomfort.

This is the suffering on top of the discomfort that it's like at any point in time,

It's going to feel uncomfortable to your system to lean in and do something new,

But what you make it mean about you,

You have full control over that.

Yes.

I was just sort of actually working with my coach a few weeks ago on this in terms of Instagram.

It's a main community for me,

A main platform for me to build this sort of intention getter,

Intentionality,

Mindset community.

But there's always been sort of this like block for me with Instagram and I feel like I can't grow there,

Which let's talk about lies.

If I looked at the growth,

It's been great,

But never enough.

And because it's not working well,

I felt like it was tapping into this shit that I have from middle school where this one girl decided to turn literally every girl in the class against me.

And we were a class of like 16 students.

So like one day I just went into school and no one would talk to me because this girl told them not to.

I don't even know to this day the details of it,

But I basically went from being someone who everyone likes to someone who no one liked.

And so I was thinking like there's this ping there,

This little poke like,

Oh,

No one's liking your Instagram posts.

You're not cool.

You're not popular.

But something we talked about in the coaching call was this element of commitment and how one way to take that judgment or that criticism out of it is to just simply say,

I commit to this.

I commit to doing X.

So for me,

My commitment is offering myself in whatever way feels right that day,

Monday through Friday,

No questions asked.

But that takes out the element of judgment because I'm not doing it to be liked.

I'm doing it because I've committed to making,

To offering that to my community.

And I think that can be a really interesting method as we talk about here with the discomfort of growth.

But then,

Avoiding the suffering is maybe you're just committed to the growth.

And that means nothing about you.

It means everything about your business.

And so instead of taking it personally,

You're just making it black and white.

I'm committed to making this change in my business and I'm going to do it and detach yourself in that way.

Does that make sense to you?

Yeah,

Totally.

And I would say even one step further,

As you encounter these moments where you do take it personally,

Also not making that mean anything about you.

Like,

Oh,

I fell out of commitment or dang it,

I'm falling into that old trap again,

Or I can't believe I still have this pattern,

Like recognizing that nothing has gone wrong and this is just part of being human.

And some days you can be full on committed and like,

This is not at all about how much people like me and I'm just here for it.

And then also it's totally normal to have days where you're feeling maybe extra sensitive or just aware of that desire to be liked a little bit more.

And again,

Using that as an opportunity to notice without judgment.

Yes.

And maybe for me,

Sometimes when I'm in that moment of criticism or judgment,

There's the awareness piece of it and then there's the honoring it and then the shifting out of it.

So if I feel that I'm in there,

I actually like to use mindful self-compassion to shift out of that space of criticism.

So that's a three-step process.

I don't know if you're familiar with this from Dr.

Neff,

Meg,

But the three steps are recognize it very simply and plainly.

I'm criticizing myself because of X.

Then bringing in common humanity.

So many people criticize themselves because of this.

This is so,

So common and totally normal.

And then C,

The last one is talk to yourself the way someone who really loves you would talk to you in that moment and assuming that they know everything about you.

So even if they don't know what you've been doing,

Assuming they do.

And so for me,

I'm often like,

Who is this?

Is this my coach?

Is this my friend Caitlin?

Is this my friend Tracy?

Is this my therapist?

Who's going to talk to me and give me what I need right now?

And then you just say,

You're doing such an amazing job.

You are killing it.

You have done X,

Y and Z.

It's totally normal to feel this way.

But just remember to give yourself grace in this moment because you're doing so incredible.

Whatever the issue is.

But I find that to be so powerful in terms of also getting more aware of those moments.

So instead of letting them steamroll over me and then potentially affects the whole rest of my day,

I'm able to grab that moment of criticism and honor it and then nip it in the bud and move forward.

It's amazing how well that process works.

Yes,

I love bringing in that self compassion.

One thing that's really supported me too is thinking how I would coach a client through it and the benefit I will say of being a coach is that you get to see how all of our brains are wired pretty similarly.

And it really that step that I think it was step two,

You were talking about the normalizing and this is something a lot of people experience.

It is so helpful to remember that.

Something I like to do also to bring in self compassion is separating my brain from my essence and who I am,

You could say my soul,

Realizing that my brain is an operating system and helps me function and is designed to help me survive as a human,

But it's not me.

And you hear people say a different version of this is you are not your thoughts.

But for some reason,

I always heard that you are not your thoughts and it logically made sense.

It didn't necessarily sink in and fully resonate.

But once I started thinking of,

Oh,

This is what my brain is telling me and then I can be the observer of that and the observer,

That's me,

That really pulled it out of feeling so personal.

And I noticed this with clients too,

Will be like,

Your brain is doing this or your brain is telling you this and they can start looking at their own thoughts with less judgment,

Their own patterns with less judgment and it's just no longer making it about them.

Right.

I love that.

Just getting,

Allowing yourself to get objective,

Sort of like,

I mean,

That's sort of like step three,

Right?

Talking to yourself from the point of view of someone who's speaking to you objectively with kindness,

Of course,

But from the outside.

So yes,

I think anytime you can take yourself out of the conversation that's happening and recognizing,

Like you said,

That it's just your brain doing what it was designed to do,

That this is going to keep happening.

This is what we will be like for the rest of our lives.

And the sooner that we can recognize that and pull ourselves out of that story,

Out of that conversation,

The sooner we can shift into an energy or a place that we want to be in that helps us be more effective in our business.

Because if we let ourselves sink into that,

We're not going to get anywhere with our business because we're always going to be dipping into those pockets of criticism or we will,

It's just going to be a lot harder.

Totally.

It's horrible.

I love the metaphor.

I don't even remember I heard this the first time.

I've used it in many sessions and it seems to resonate with people.

So I'll share it here.

I love the metaphor of being in the car and just taking whatever it is,

The fear or the self-doubt or the judgment and taking them out of the driver's seat,

Putting it,

Buckling it into a car seat in the back.

It's like,

Okay,

I see that you want to run the show right now.

I'm going to let you stay in the car,

But you do not have front row privileges.

You're in the back.

You can hang out here if you need to and I'm going to allow you to be there,

But I'm also going to put my highest self or put my commitment,

It might be for you,

In the front seat and let that drive the car and using the example you shared before showing up for Instagram that day,

Like that voice might be there.

There's nothing wrong with it being there.

It's just human.

It's in the back seat,

Buckled in,

Commitments taking over and going to run the show.

Yes,

I love that.

I often invite that voice to come hang out with me too.

That's another way that I,

Similar to what you're speaking,

Talking about.

I'll be like,

Okay,

I see you.

Totally fine.

Also,

A lot of this too is just habit.

We've naturally been self-critical our whole lives.

For me,

This is a major part of body image stuff for me.

I've been so critical of my body for so long that it pops up so often even though I'm really making a lot of progress and really moving away from that space.

So when it comes up,

I just invited to come hang out.

As if it's across the room,

I'm like,

Come over here.

It's all right.

I totally know.

I totally know why you're saying that.

I know that you just want to take care of me,

But we don't need that anymore.

We don't need you to protect me like that anymore.

So just come be with me and we'll be okay.

Something about putting them in the back seat or inviting them over,

Something about making it a physical sort of thing,

I don't know,

For me seems to be really helpful.

I totally agree.

I think it humanizes it and especially if you picture it as a little being or a pet or something.

I don't know.

Randomly,

I always think of the characters from the movie Inside Out.

And I picture fear from that movie.

And he's so endearing.

He's totally freaking out all the time.

Poor guy.

Can you imagine operating like that 24-7?

When I think of that,

I just want to give him a hug.

And I've heard clients say before,

I'll have them greet that part of themselves from their highest self.

And usually it looks something like giving it a hug.

And then that part just softens because it doesn't really know what else.

It's like,

Whoa,

I thought you were going to come back at me with some resistance.

But when you engage with resistance,

It's just this locked in,

Nobody's making progress kind of dynamic.

Whereas if you soften towards it,

I just picture it kind of like melting into the embrace and being like,

Oh,

I haven't experienced this kind of acceptance before.

And just relaxing into that.

Yes.

Oh,

I love that.

I love this conversation so much.

I think about this all the time.

So I feel like we talked about the journaling and sort of maybe making the fear an object or getting objective with the way you're talking about it.

In terms of for business owners who are making big moves right now who do want to level up,

Are there any other practical tips or a process or something that you could leave us with that would be helpful for them?

Yeah.

So I'll share.

I have a three step process that I do with my clients.

And we've touched on different elements of it today.

But basically,

When it comes to moving forward in your business,

Getting to the next level,

Whatever that looks like for you,

The first step is connecting in.

So that would be like,

If you are thinking of a certain project or an opportunity,

Or a partnership or something has come up that you have to make a decision around,

Connecting in and noticing the full body experience as quickly as you can.

And if it's been a while and the voices have been going off in your head,

And you're kind of swimming in maybe different people's opinions,

You've been looking for different answers outside of yourself,

Now you're more confused than ever.

You just have all these different routes,

Maybe you've gone down an internet spiral.

The first step is connecting back in.

So I love the exercise we talked about before just writing it out.

But finding some way to just quiet and look inward.

I think it's really easy to,

You know,

With all of our amazing modern day technology,

It is also really easy to lose sight of what feels most aligned and authentic to you.

So if that's,

You know,

Seeing what other business owners are up to,

Feeling like you should be doing more,

Comparing yourself to people,

Being aware of all the different options for directions you could take your business in,

It can all feel like a lot of noise and disconnect you from what you feel most called to do in the moment.

So I always recommend slowing down and,

You know,

Clearing out all the different mental clutter,

Quieting that voice of fear and connecting back into what feels most aligned to you.

So that would be the first step,

Connect back in.

And when you're in that space of clarity,

Outlining the steps,

So actually coming up with some tangible ways to move forward from that space.

You're tuned in,

Now you know what to do.

And then the last step is to do those things and run straight towards them and take courageous action.

So it's like you're tuning in,

You're getting clear on next steps,

So you have this plan for yourself.

You don't even need to know what the whole road looks like.

Just like I'm sure you experienced with your podcast,

You didn't know exactly what opportunities or what it would lead to,

But you knew how to get started.

You knew enough to take those first steps of getting it set up.

You followed the impulses after you checked in with yourself.

And then that last step of just continually showing up courageously,

Being willing to lean into the resistance,

Allow the resistance,

Which of course clears it or helps you clear it and do that consistently,

Taking action and then bringing it back around to the first step.

Okay,

Now I've done these steps,

Now time to connect back in with myself or my coach,

Get clear on how to move forward and then run like hell towards my growth before I have a chance to talk myself totally out of it.

Yes,

I love that process.

I'm definitely,

Definitely continually in that process.

Me too.

Something I want to remind listeners is taking action.

For me,

Honest to God,

Taking my first step of action for the podcast was researching.

I think I literally typed in how to start a podcast.

I did that the other day too.

It's so easy to think you need to take these giant leaps.

But start with research.

Start with asking a friend.

If you're running a business,

You're fucking brilliant.

If you're running a business,

You have a lot more going for you than you might think.

So trust that you're going to.

.

.

Once you take that first little step of research,

It's all going to start becoming clear.

That's exactly what happened with the podcast.

I very quickly realized,

I don't really need to do anything.

And then I can just pay someone to put the audio together for me or whatever.

So just a reminder,

That first step can be really,

Really,

Really,

Really simple.

It does not have to be huge.

It doesn't have to be as scary as recording your first podcast,

Which was definitely nerve-wracking.

Yes.

And actually,

As you're saying that,

Something that I'm reminded of,

Just as you were saying,

If you run your own business,

You are so capable.

Also just reminding yourself that you know your business better than anyone else.

So even if you are working with a coach,

Usually what that looks like is guiding you,

Peeling away all of the layers of self-doubt and opinions and worries and fears and getting to your truth because really,

It's like your baby.

And nobody knows it like you do.

And so remembering that as you're making decisions from this place of empowerment,

You can trust yourself that you know what's best for you and the health and well-being of your business.

Yes.

I love that.

Trust in self.

That's one of my biggest focuses right now.

That's a hard one.

It can be at least.

So Meg,

This has been so amazing.

Thank you so,

So much for sharing your insights.

No listeners are going to love it.

I have one last question for you.

Tell us what your current intention getter,

Most recent intention getter story is.

What are you getting intentional about right now?

So my word for 2020 was surrender.

And what that means to me is being willing to let go of how I think things should be based on my limited human perspective and being willing to open up to whatever's for the highest good.

So opening myself up to the magic and delight of what the universe has in store for me beyond my scope.

And I've done this before in 2015.

This was also my word and it kind of felt like everything transformed,

Like so much fell away and then so much amazingness came into my life and it really blew my mind.

So I was thinking,

You know,

2020,

I'm going to go into it.

I'm ready to do this again.

I'm ready for some massive transformation and just to open myself up to all kinds of things that I can't even think of on my own.

And of course,

Very quickly into 2020,

Probably a week in,

My husband got a job offer from or an interview offer from Amazon and Seattle.

We were living in San Diego.

I had never really pictured us leaving San Diego.

It's my favorite place,

Our favorite place.

And yet all the signs were there and you just kind of took it step by step,

Did the interviews visited and things just fell into place in these kind of cosmic ways.

And I knew I had a feeling this is part of our surrender process and something was in store for us.

And so we followed that lead,

Could not have of course predicted the coronavirus stuff,

Which from my perspective feels like we're all being given a chance to surrender our plans,

Our individual plans to know something that we can't control that's much bigger than us.

And I've been viewing it as this kind of sacred pause and opportunity to just release and allow and become more adaptable than ever before.

So that's something I've just been very conscious of this year,

Something I'm continually working on deepening and relaxing into.

And I know we've talked about this before and it just feels like right now the alternative to surrendering is resisting.

And that can even look like,

I can't wait for all this to be over or I just want things to go back to normal or I'm so frustrated with how things are right now and all feelings are valid.

But what I've noticed within myself at least is that the more I'm in that place,

The more tension I feel in my body and the harder everything feels.

Whereas it's this kind of daily practice for me right now of just relaxing into things exactly as they are and accepting them and I've been doing that every day.

So that's where I'm at right now.

Beautiful.

That's where I'm sure a lot of people are at right now.

So I love that.

Meg,

How can people find you?

How can they connect with you?

Well,

I'm on Instagram at Meglad,

M-E-G-L-A-D-D.

And I did launch that Facebook group finally.

And it's been so fun so far.

My super high vibe is called spiritual and successful female entrepreneurs.

So people can find me there too.

That's where I'll be hanging out.

Awesome.

Well,

Thank you again for joining us today.

Everybody,

We will talk to you again very,

Very soon.

Thanks so much for having me.

Absolutely.

See you later,

Intention getters.