Hello from Lisbon on my birthday! (PART 2)
🎁Today is my birthday and although I told myself I wouldn't "work", I find myself on my laptop typing this message to you, my beloved community.
I can't help but feel reflective but also grateful as f*ck for YOU, reading this, right now.
🙏We all have different stories, ways of relating to the world, points of view, and definitions of "success", but here's the thing.
I believe that there are no coincidences and that you are here, reading this email, for a reason.
And I want to thank you for your time and attention in this noisy world.
You see, the gift of presence is so special to me, after healing my relationship with my mother and finally creating a space for her to feel SEEN by me.
❤️I've seen firsthand how creating a space of compassion to listen, and just BE in the same space with someone can magnify their light and radiant their entire being, instead of fighting for the past or trying to change what cannot be undone.
Through forgiveness, cultivating presence from a deeply loving place of "enoughness" and not pushing myself to the brink of burnout to run my business anymore, I've learned a few lessons along the way I though I'd share.
--> Here is part 1 of the 10 lessons I sent last week.
⬇️Here's part 2 ⬇️:
6. When we heal ourselves, we heal the world. In my healing journey with my mother, my mother did not change or embark on this journey to heal her inner child. She unfortunately never had the community, lexicon, resources, or tools to do the work I was fortunate enough to do with somatics and psychedelics. But by healing myself and no longer getting triggered by things she would say or fighting for her to see my point of view, I was able to let go of anger and resentment, so that compassion and love can fill its place. This meant that I was more patient and understanding with my mom, and started to make her feel seen by prioritizing her needs and desires instead of always attending to my hurt inner child first. This radically changed my mother's entire being, as she lit up in happiness and a feeling of finally being seen, loved, and appreciated by her daughter, who always seemed to want to pick a fight previously. That's why I believe that the most important work we are all here to do is work on ourselves, so that we can literally heal and change the world around us.
7. It can feel RICH to make less revenue. Sounds counterintuitive, but many of the people I know who are making 7+ figures in top-line revenue, get to keep very little of it for themselves while sacrificing nearly all of their time to feed this huge beast of a business they've built and managing the complexities of not just growing their business, but leading their big team. Their health, relationships, and happiness suffer, even though on the outside their business looks 'successful'. When my revenue dipped this year and was not on "track" to be the same as last year, while at the same time going from a team of 7 to 3 this Spring, I was a hot mess: crying late nights thinking I failed in catastrophic ways with my team leaving and everything pulled from underneath me. I now realize it was a message from the universe for me to slow down and simplify so I can create more spaciousness and a business aligned to the energy I want to project into the world: one of peaceful confidence, and not of scattered, high pressured scarcity that thinks nothing is ever enough. Instead of trying to hire more people to replace my team members who left, I am finding that taking back control of my messaging (like writing all of my emails and captions), and LETTING GO of certain projects so I can do less, but better, feels SO GOOD. I now do NOT want to scale a big huge business and truly feel happy when I can cultivate a community of PR members that get face time and check ins from me, so they feel like a unique individual and not just a number in a large faceless community where they get zero individualized support. Sure, it might mean I make "less top line revenue", do less speaking and events, but the feeling of RICHNESS that comes with doing less but serving our members at a higher level is incredible. Best of all? As I stepped back from my business, more people joined our PR program and our ads/marketing have never performed better, AND I get to still spend my birthday in Lisbon eating fresh seafood!
--> That's why I am having a "lazy girl" birthday giveaway sale you can check out here.
8. The more you grow, the more you say "NO". When we grow into a higher level of focus and commitment to only the top priorities for us, we inevitably will start saying NO to opportunities that before looked like they would be great. I used to say YES to every opportunity coming my way but now I am very picky with how I spend my time and the ROI for the work that i do. This year, I have less FOMO if I am not invited on certain panels or if I see an opportunity that seems like "I missed", because I truly believe that what is meant for me will come to me at the right time. I feel like I matured as a business owner when I feel less FOMO and feel more relief when I wasn't invited on a panel that wasn't meant for me as I do not believe that busy = successful (anymore).
9. It was never about the software or tools. I used to overload my business with comparing the best in class software and tools, thinking that if I picked the right one, all my problems would go away. After literally trying everything under the sun, I now just have my on-demand PR masterclass on a simple page without any webinar software or analytics, so people can get the information they want with the least amount of friction. I do think software/tools do help, but often times we as biz owners get tripped up in deciding which one to use that we delay action-taking or forget that sometimes, simple = best.
10. Be careful who you follow and get advice from. I know that in this online world, it can be a competition where the "loudest in the room" gets the attention. But here's the thing: with online businesses and the flexibility we have to design our lives however we want, we need to be careful who we follow and trust for advice, because there are SO MANY ways to build a business, and SO many ways to “pretend” to be an expert. Instead of only following advice from people who boast about how they've built a 7-figure business (which, again, means nothing since it doesn't tell you what their profit margins are), look into that person's values and who they surround themselves with. Who are their internet besties, who do they invite onto their podcast, what kinds of people do they attract into their program, and how do they define "success"? How do they structure their offers and charge for their time (for ex: are they more about exclusivity or accessibility?) Talk is cheap, but values speak much louder.
💗Cheering for your most unapologetic self,
Gloria
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