You're listening to the life friendly business podcast. I'm your host, Erin Thomas Wong, business coach, mentor, author and founder of the cocoon VIP membership, empowering women around the world to build businesses on their terms. If you want to grow and scale, a business that works in harmony with your family and your life, this podcast is for you.
Hello, this is Erin at the life friendly business podcast, I just wanted to say a quick hello to all of my new listeners, thank you so much for reaching out and telling me what you've resonated with in the things that I've been speaking about. It honestly means so much. And I'd love to hear from you on today's episode and what it brings up for you.
So for those of you who haven't met me before, I've been running my own businesses for the last 13 years, while bringing up my two sons. So I've learned quite a bit about how to build a life friendly business, which basically means that I can have a nice pace of life, I can run a thriving, successful business, but not at the detriment of my own well being and my family's well being. So that's what I am all about. And I really hope that you enjoy listening to the podcast.
Today we're talking about something really juicy, we're talking about getting ready to step up. Now, you might hear this phrase quite a lot in the online world. And what we're really talking about is taking you up to that next level in business. So maybe you've already had one of those moments where everything kind of clicks into place. And you realise that you know what, you're a bit sick of playing it small, and that you think you're ready to take things to the next level. It's such an empowering moment when you realise that there's no reason why your business can't be a huge success. And there's no reason why you can't make double or triple your income.
Now, if you haven't had this moment yet, please don't worry, it will come maybe even from listening to this episode. So this moment of realising that you're ready to step up in a big way, first happened for me back in 2018. And I should just point out then that, you know, I started my businesses years ago in 2008, or 2009, I believe. And I kind of had little moments along the way where I had these kind of big surges, where I was really excited about what I was doing. I was always quite excited about what I was doing. But those moments when it feels like something really significant is about to come. But the massive one for me was really 2018. That was the first point at which I felt like do you know what things are really starting to happen now, and I am ready. So I'd been building my own audience for years. And I was very comfortable in what I was doing. And I was practising a lot of Facebook Lives and getting myself out there to my own audience. But it was really at the point when I realised that if I wanted to scale what I was doing, and I wanted to reach more people, I was going to have to push myself out of my comfort zone and start going out to other people's audiences. And what I'm talking about here is public speaking, and also hosting webinars for people and things like that.
So this is incredibly daunting. And as you would have heard in my, my own story, back in episode two, I used to be really, really nervous about this stuff, I'd get sweaty palms, I'd be tripping over my words, I'd always feel like I wouldn't be able to speak eloquently, and that everyone else could do this stuff much better than me. And it was at this point that I truly learned the power of investing in help. Because it was back in 2018, when I realised that what I really needed to do is go and do some guest webinars for people to get myself out there that I invested in the help of an energy healer, who I had met. And her whole thing was about unlocking and unleashing the power within you. And I had a session with her. And you know, it was amazing. I felt like do you know what I'm ready to do this. Now I then went and did a webinar for 100 people to have someone else's audience. And it was one of those moments of thinking, right, come on now Erin, you've got this, you need to keep going with this. So it was soon after that, that I actually did my first big big investment in coaching.
So I signed up with a business and mindset coach, and I actually worked with her for the following two years to really help me take that massive step up. This also coincided with the time when I went to attend Tony Robbins Unleash the Power Within a four day immersive life coaching event. Now, for those of you who've heard me speak before, you're probably so bored of me quoting Tony Robbins. But he did have such a huge impression on me. And still to this day, a lot of things that I learned at that event have stayed with me and the tools and the strategies to help me change my mindset and to react in a more positive way.
So these things, these investments that I made in my own personal development, and also in helping me with the business, were absolutely pivotal in helping me to take that big step up. Also reading The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks, which came recommended by so many well respected people was a brilliant book, and I highly recommend it, I'll put the link in the show notes, he talks all about leaning into your zone of genius, your zone of genius is where everything seems to flow, and everything feels easy. And that's where we want to be living. And, you know, I really resonated with this because a lot of the mindset stuff that I was struggling with, especially around money, which is something I still work on today was around the fact that when it comes to mentoring, I love it so much. And I find it easy to help people and to untangle their thoughts and lay everything out and then help them to make a clear and strategic plan for me, it doesn't feel hard. And so I was really struggling to charge for that service. But I finally learned to recognise the difference that it made for those people, I was able to help them make life changing decisions, and to help them feel in control of their lives again, and that's because it is my zone of genius. And I think when you accept that, and allow that and realise that about yourself, it makes it much more easy to live in that zone of genius. So by investing in support for myself, both in my business, and for my mindset, I learned to recognise my own true value, and therefore any barriers to stopping me stepping up, were melting away. Because deep down, I knew that wholeheartedly, I could help people. And now I love being able to do that for other women and helping them to realise that for themselves.
So I've called this episode, ready to step up, don't do this, because I wanted to share something from my own experience. And something that I know holds lots of my clients back. So imagine the feeling that I was talking about that you're totally fired up, you're in your zone of genius, your creative juices are flowing, everything feels aligned, you're actually getting stuff done, you're really being productive. And it feels like all areas of your life are working in harmony. But then something happens. You get sick, your kids get sick, you have problems in your relationship, you have a family, bereavement, all of those amazing power moves that you had vanish overnight. Can you resonate with this? Has this happened to you? It's happened to me. I know it's happened to lots of women around me, you know, stuff happens, some less serious, some very serious, but it really, really knocks us when we might have been in this amazing space.
So what do you do? Sadly, many of the women that I work with take this as a sign that you're not meant to be stepping up that it's not the right time that your business isn't designed to be any more successful than it is. But this is where I want you to stop and think for a moment. Imagine this whole stepping up thing as a beautiful spiral staircase in a hotel with lots of spacious landings on the way up. So you might just get to the first floor or the second floor before something happens to knock you off course. But that doesn't mean that you need to tumble back down to the ground floor and land on your bum. You can just hang out on that first floor landing or the second floor landing. You can just chill and you can admire the stairs that you've already worked up. So it might just be days, weeks, sometimes months before the things around you maybe the external forces around you resolve themselves. But when you get your mojo back, you can take the next flight of stairs and every time you're climbing that bit higher stepping up a small steps at a time.
So don't see stepping up as one giant big step. help that you need to scale that you're trying to climb up and you keep falling down. See it as lots of small ones with nice spacious landings to chill out along the way. I'm reading another really great book at the moment, actually. And, you know, it's always quite hard for me to read books, I have to admit, because that just doesn't really fit into my day. And that's something that I want to sort out. But I'm reading this book do less a revolutionary approach to time and energy management for ambitious women by Kate Northrup, I'll put the link in the show notes as well. And I'm only kind of partway in, but I'm really resonating so much with what she's saying. And she talks about farming. And she talks about the fact that farmers never expect their fields to be good enough to harvest crops all year round, the soil needs time to rest and lay fallow before it can then harvest more crops. But yet we as humans, expect ourselves to be productive, or, you know, creating crops all year round, every week, every month, all year round, 12 months in a row. And it's really, really unrealistic. So we have to be much kinder to ourselves in terms of what we are expecting, and also allow for the things that come up the unexpected things that come up in our lives. And you know, not to feel like that's taking us back to stage zero. It's just taking you back to that first floor, the second floor, the eighth floor.
So just because you're not able to clamber up one giant step in one go. Don't tell yourself that you're not ready to step up. Don't tell yourself that you're not good enough to step up, or that you're not meant to step up. Take your time. Running a life friendly business is all about doing it on your terms and at your own pace. And you get to decide how the staircase looks for you. Just make sure that you take that first step. If you need some help getting ready to do this, getting ready to step up and step into the light please do reach out to me at lifefriendlybusiness.com
I really hope you've enjoyed this episode. If I have inspired you to think Do you know why I've been waiting and waiting for this thing to come up and tell me when I'm ready. But you know what, I am ready now. Please do share it with me. I'd love to hear from you. You can find me on social media @lifefriendlybiz on all the channels or drop me an email at [email protected] take care see you next time.
How often do you work on your business rather than in it? I'm here at Life friendly business to help you carve out much needed headspace time so that you can feel more clear focus and strategic with your business planning three times a year I hold the impact interactive online workshop. This is a three hour session to help you create time to reflect reassess, and plan to help challenge your thinking and offer ideas on how to shape your strategy. And the event leaves you feeling uplifted, calm and confident. By joining us for a morning of learning networking and masterminding. You'll come away with fresh perspectives, new ideas and an actionable plan to move forward and make waves in your business. Book your ticket for our next event now at lifefriendlybusiness.com
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
