[0:00] Music.
[0:13] This episode is for the girl out there who feels like she is swirling in endless, limitless ideas and opportunities. If you feel this way, maybe you felt like for you coming up with ideas is actually the least of your worries. You might feel like you're actually drowning in possibilities and options a lot of the time. This is something that I hear from my clients a lot and it sounds a lot like, I have so many ideas of things that I want to share and talk about, but I don't know where to start and I don't know what to pick first and so I just end up not sharing anything. I think this is super common and it totally makes sense why this is happening. If you have been struggling with a lack of clarity about what to do next in your business or about what to say next in your marketing or about what next steps to take in general, I wrote this episode for you. I want to help you find something concrete that you can stand on so that you don't have to keep swirling anymore.
[1:11] This swirling feeling is kind of actually how I would describe how I've been feeling for the last little while. It kind of feels like I have an infinite number of amazing options and opportunities in front of me. And I have some data about what I want and what I don't want, but picking just one thing feels really hard because that would also mean cutting off all the other amazing opportunities that there are, which can make making decisions feel like a big deal in your business and you
[1:38] might be facing one or many of these decisions right now. And they may sound like, what do I want to sell? What are the details of this offer or this program? What do I want to call it? What's the name of it? Who do I want to sell it to? Who would this offer be perfect for? When do I want to launch it? How do I want to launch it? How do I want to talk about it? When do I want to talk about it? What do I want the messaging to be?
[2:04] When you're trying to choose from one million possible options, those questions can feel really overwhelming. But I want to give you some additional questions that you can ask and journal and reflect on that will help you make powerful decisions so that you can feel like you have solid ground to stand on and a clear path forward that you can break down into steps and then start taking steps forward. word. I actually don't think it's always a bad thing to be swirling in ideas. Sometimes I think for me, what's actually happening is not so much that I'm spinning around in circles and going nowhere, but it's actually more like my ideas are germinating like a seed. So me and my kids have been working on planting our very first garden in our backyard. We put in garden boxes last year and then I got a little bit too scared and shy to plant this garden. So I can't wait to bring you guys along for the ride because this garden is already turning out to be the perfect analogy for what happens in my business all the time.
[3:06] But last year I felt too overwhelmed and worried and scared to mess up my garden. So I just ended up not doing anything. But this year it was like, you know what? I can do this. I ended up getting some help and support from my dear friend, Jessica. Shout out to you, Jessica, who has like walked me through the process step by step.
[3:22] Anyway, so my mom helped my kids make these cute pots that are sitting on my kitchen counter and plant some seeds in them. And so the last couple of weeks, I've been basically watching these little seedlings grow up in a very up close and personal way every day, which just makes me feel even more like I identify so strongly with a seed. Which, side note, can we just talk about how crazy seeds and plants are for just a second? So this is basically what happens. You put this little pellet shaped thing in the ground.
[3:55] Is it a rock? Is it a grain of sand? Is it a worm? Or is it a seed? It's hard to tell sometimes.
[4:03] I've been thinking about all the different seeds that I planted in our garden in the backyard and how different each of the seeds were, all different shapes and sizes and colors and textures.
[4:13] Anyway, this seed sits in the dirt for a few days, sometimes a few weeks, and soaks up water, and it looks like nothing's happening. But under the ground, covered by dirt, there is a miracle happening. How a seed becomes this tiny little green arm that pops up out of the dirt one day randomly, and then gets taller and thicker and bigger just by drinking water and breathing air is fascinating to me. And that's without even talking about the whole process of flowering and then depending on a honeybee to pollinate it and then dropping seeds for the next generation of plant babies. Like how on earth does this tiny seed know exactly what to do? It drinks water and then all of a sudden it turns green and pops out of the ground and just keeps getting bigger. It's It's actually really weird and crazy if you stop thinking about it. So basically, this swirling feeling is how I would describe how I have felt for the past little while, but I am choosing to just think of it instead that I have ideas that are germinating in my heart and in my mind, and when they pop out of the ground, I don't know. I can't predict, but I know that when that clarity comes through, that it's in perfect timing.
[5:38] I'm really familiar with this feeling of the unclear, messy middle. It happens a lot for me, and sometimes it's about big things that I want to
[5:49] do in my business, and sometimes it's about small things. But the best way that I have found to stop swirling is to write in a journal. Last weekend for my birthday, I told Nate that what I really wanted more than anything else would be to have a full day away where I could be in a quiet place to get some of my thoughts out of my head and onto either a piece of paper or into a Google Doc on my laptop so that I could have some information to use to make some decisions.
[6:21] So I was thinking about going to a hotel because I've heard women talk about the amazing wonderfulness of staying overnight in a hotel by yourself. And I've always wanted to do that. I actually have one time, but it was for a different occasion. But anyway, I had this idea. What if instead of going to a hotel, which would be great, except for that the check-in time is three and the checkout time is 11 and I don't really want to stay for two nights, but I need a full day to like sit in a chair or lay in a bed with my journal. And so I ended up deciding to go sleep overnight at my grandma's house, which I haven't done since I was probably a teenager. And it was just me and her and it was so fun. We didn't really do anything exciting or crazy because I was writing in my journal most of the time or sitting and reading.
[7:09] This experience basically turned into a six hour long journaling session.
[7:16] And that wasn't all in one sitting. It was kind of spread out. I did a little bit in the morning, a little bit in the afternoon, a little bit in the evening. I also created some fun stuff for my business and I read a little bit. But by the end of the day, I felt like I was standing back on solid ground. I felt like I had a clear plan and I felt like I could see a path ahead of me instead of seeing 500 possible paths. And what's really beautiful to me is that the way that I got that clarity wasn't by reading more information. It wasn't by scrolling on social media. It was just me sitting with my mind, with my heart. For me, it was like a prayer to God, like, help me, help me know what to do next. Help me make some of these decisions. And so I want to give you a peek behind the scenes of what I was journaling about for so dang long. And I also want to show you the questions that I was asking myself so that you can use these questions for yourself to help you make decisions in your business.
[8:12] Basically, the theme for my journaling was the things that got you here, where you are right now, won't get you there. That's a quote from Rich Litvin, who's a coach that I like to listen to. And I think I butchered it a little bit, but basically the principle is this,
[8:29] that the things that have gotten you to where you are right now. The steps that you've taken, the decisions that you're making, the kinds of thoughts that you think, the kind of beliefs that you have have gotten you to where you are right now, but they will not get you to where you want to go. And we know that for sure because if they did, they would have by now. So I used to think this phrase is kind of frustrating because it was like, okay, cool. So if I want to get there, then how do I get over there if it's not by doing the things that I've been doing. But now I kind of feel like this phrase is fun and exciting and it feels like good news.
[9:04] Because if you've been feeling frustrated that you're not where you want to be yet, whether that's a financial location, whether that's a financial result that you haven't experienced yet, like sales, whether it's a vision that you have for something that you want to sell, for something that you want to offer, maybe it's for a specific client, or maybe it's for a group of women, or maybe it's some kind of impact that you want to create for a certain number of women in a certain way that you haven't been able to yet. But there's something that you haven't tried yet that will get you to where you want to go. That to me sounds kind of fun. It sounds like a mystery instead of feeling like this frustrating experience, right?
[9:51] Bonus, Mother's Day weekend is coming up. So you could communicate with your spouse that what you want is some time away where you can sit and pause and have time to reflect in a quiet space. But I don't actually think you need an occasion to communicate that with your partner. I think that you can do that whenever you want to. But if you're like me, I know for sure that clarity, the kind of clarity that I have been craving does not come when I'm cooking in the middle of the day or running around cleaning or running off to school drop-off or heading to school pickup or hanging out with my kids or watching a movie with Nate at the end of the day. I know that what I need for that kind of clarity to come through is first, silence.
[10:43] And yeah, definitely silence. Second, I need to have zero risk of being interrupted. I need to know that there's another adult on standby who can and shield the snack requests and the diaper change necessities. And third, I also found it really inspiring to have a change of location. I just know this about myself too, that I really enjoy having different visual stimuli. I think it's a huge part of the reason why I love to travel so much because I just love to see something different. My brain really thrives when I'm in a physical environment that lends to feeling inspired and excited and refreshed. And so I got all three of those and it was really, really special. Honestly, it was really special. 10 out of 10 would recommend it for you if you haven't had an experience like this, where you're able to have time to be silent, to be uninterrupted. Also, it was important to me that this journaling session didn't have a certain end time that I needed to like rush home by and so it felt really good to just know I have the entire day and I can go home whenever I want to but I don't have to rush home for anything so I can take as long as I want.
[12:00] So the next time that you get your silent uninterrupted hour or session, however long you want it to be, I want you to come back and listen to this episode again and then go through these questions when you have a pen and a paper in your hand. And then I want you to pause in between each of these questions and give yourself time to write because I know you will be amazed at how much clarity you can
[12:22] discover on your own just from listening to your own intuition. Intuition these questions will help draw the next right decision out of you they will help you light up one clear pathway and then darken all the other paths so that you can know which one to focus on so here are the seven questions should we get into it number one i want you to just write here's what i know colon and then brain dump a huge list of all the things that you know pretty much for sure. So things like, here's what I know I really love. Here's what I know I enjoy to do with my business. Here's who I love to serve. Here is how I love to serve. Here are the different kinds of offers I love to create and sell. Here's what I know I don't love. Here's what I know I want. Here's what I know I don't want.
[13:24] So I'll just give you a little peek. My journaling session mostly focused around ideating for my group coaching program, The Greenhouse. So when I was writing things, it was like, here's what I know. I freaking love this program.
[13:40] Here's what I know. I want to get as many women into this program and to experience the magic of group coaching and also the content that I teach and also the community that you get access to when you join. I want as many women to experience this as possible. I've also learned that I really love coaching a lot of different women. I have also really loved creating the experience touch points of this experience, this program. I've been designing sweatshirts that are going to go out to every single woman inside the program. I've been designing thank you cards. I've I've been creating a community inside a Facebook group and thinking of prompts and things that I can ask and information I can drop to them to help make their experience inside this program deeply transformational. Those are some things that I love like crazy and I know that for sure. So I'm using the things that I enjoy as data. I also know that the ladies inside of this program also love all of those things too because they tell me during our weekly coaching calls And I've also been sending out surveys to get more data from them about what they love. But basically, you can use the things that you like and dislike as data to help you make a powerful decision.
[14:57] You can also use data from things that you have sold or offered in the past to bring to light what you know for sure that you really love or don't love, which leads straight into question number two. Once you've brain dumped a list of all the things that you know, then I want you to brain dump a list of all the things that you don't know. These are the things that you need to find clarity on. And like I said, I want you to just make a brain dump list as if you were like going full-on Marie Kondo on your brain. I want you to get those things out of your head and onto a piece of paper where they can live so that you can let go of them a little bit. These are basically the problems that we're going to solve for. Some of these things might be able to be solved just by making a powerful decision instead of going back and forth and questioning yourself and waffling on it. Some of them you might want or need more help or support with. Some of them might just be big questions that you don't have an answer to right now. Maybe you don't necessarily need one right now, but getting it out of your head onto paper will help make it so much easier to sort through it and categorize all the things that you don't know.
[16:08] Then third, I want you to make a list of what do you want to be known for? This question was really hard for me. It kind of grew throughout the day. When I first sat down and wrote the question, it was like, I don't really know. But here's some other prompts to help get your brain, get your wheels turning about what do you want to be known for? When there's a group of girls getting together at a girls' night and one of them says, okay, you need to follow, insert your Instagram handle, she is fill in the blank what do you want them to say about you what do you want them to notice that you are uniquely able to do that no one else can do as well as you and I know as soon as you ask this question your imposter syndrome is going to activate like crazy just tell it to shush for a second this is the question what are you uniquely able to do that no one else can do as well as you.
[17:10] That question might feel confronting because your brain is probably going to offer that there are so many other people who can do it just as well as you. And I want you to really ask your brain to help you witness what your own gifts are. There is something that you are uniquely able to do that no one else can do quite the way that you can. And if we can harness that and put words to it, that will really help you make decisions about how to move forward in your business? What's the thing that you are talking about that no one else is talking about? And it's okay if there's multiple things, but we just need to get clear about what those things are. I also love this question. What would I love for someone to say about me? So here's what I want to be known for. I want to be known as the girl who talks about how to grow a business with God. I want to be known for the girl who is growing her business while she has little kids and that she has super strong relationships with them and loves to be present with them and does spend as much time as she can with them. I want to be the girl who talks about growing your business with your intuition instead of by hustling and pushing yourself and trying to follow all the rules from all the different gurus that conflict.
[18:29] Basically, those are all the things that I wish that I would have had a mentor or someone in my feed saying that those kinds of things were possible, but I didn't find anyone saying those things for a really long time. And so I just became the person who does say them. It's really important to me that the women in my audience know the truth that you have the option to build your business with God. A lot of the business mentors that I had in my world were not saying that, but not even that, but it It kind of felt like, it almost felt as if the growth of their business made them question their faith in God. And because that's a personal value of mine, it was like, that's kind of a non-negotiable. That's not acceptable for me. I want my experience growing my business to strengthen and develop my faith in God, not to change it in any other way. I also found it really hard to find a business mentor who was growing her business with tiny kiddos. There were a lot of business mentors that I followed who either started their business way before they had kids or started their business way after they had kids. There was not very many people that I knew of who had tiny babies and toddlers at home who were growing a business. And so it became really important to me to be that person or someone else. Question number four.
[19:50] What are the things that I've done in the past that worked well? This one was really fun for me because as I was ideating about the greenhouse, I started to reflect back on my experiences selling my first course that was called the Etsy Seller Goldmine. And I was reflecting back on launches that I did for the goldmine over two years ago. But it was a really fun exercise to recall what did I do then that I know worked really well? And are there any principles that I can pull from some of those past launches into this next launch of the greenhouse?
[20:25] It was a really fun question to ideate about. If you haven't or if you don't have an offer like that that you've launched that's worked super well before, that's totally okay. But if you do, you might be surprised by the information download that's available to you when you pull some of those principles through from your past offers.
[20:43] Question number five, what's my vision for the future? What's my vision for this offer? Is this an offer that's going to stay around for a long time? Is this an offer that I'm using to gather more data? Basically, is this offer a test for something that I think I might like to create more of in the future? Could I see this offer becoming one of my signature offers? first? And how much money would I love to make from this offer? Those are some of the questions that I was asking. Obviously, the greenhouse is here to stay for a long time, but that truth became more and more and more clear as I went through these questions. And it was like, I want to be known for the greenhouse. And I want to nail launching this. And I want to nail my messaging and my marketing because I want as many women as possible to join this program. Once I had that clarity, a lot of these other decisions became so easy.
[21:47] Question number six, what am I resisting?
[21:51] What are the things that you know that you should do but you're not doing for some reason?
[21:57] This one's really fun to play with because I found that for most women in business, there are at least some things that you already know how to do. You already know what to do, even though your brain is going to try to trick you and make you think that you need to take another course before you know how to post on Instagram or take another course before you know how to send an email. You probably know the basics enough that you can be very effective.
[22:22] So what are the things that you already know that you should do, but you're resisting? Some reason. Maybe there are actions that you need to take, but you're not because of things like procrastination, which let me just say, if you find yourself procrastinating, it's just because your brain doesn't want to do that thing. And that's totally okay and totally normal. You don't need to shame yourself for not wanting to do the thing, but that can actually give you clarity. If there's a task or a thing that you would like to do more frequently in your business that you find your brain resisting, there's probably a good reason why. And we can either solve that problem by figuring out why, seeing if we can flip the thoughts around that thing on its head, or maybe it's just something that you're scared to try because you're scared of being seen.
[23:11] Being new at this, or maybe you're just scared to be seen figuring it out. But whatever the reason and is, I want you to get very specific about what are the specific actions that I have not taken. And this might be a little bit confronting. You might have to get super honest with yourself. And I love that for you. What are things that you should say in your Instagram content or in your emails? There might be things that are on your heart that you wish that you could say or or that you have thought or wanted to communicate very clearly, but you haven't because you're scared of how people will react, or you're scared because it might be a little bit polarizing? Is there something that you're resisting saying that you kind of want to?
[24:01] My vote, I think you should say it because if you want to attract people, just like a magnet where there's a north and a south end, you have to be willing to repel some people. That's what it means to attract people is that some people are going to feel like, hallelujah, why has no one been saying this? Where has this girl been my whole life? And some people are going to be like, not for me. And that's a good thing because it helps the people who are for you stick and stick for a long time. Lastly, is there anyone who you should reach out to, to ask for more support, to ask for help, to ask for guidance?
[24:40] What are you resisting? What are you holding yourself back on? What truth do you sort of know intuitively in the back of your mind, but maybe you haven't been completely honest with yourself yet. And then finally, question number seven, what powerful decisions do I need to make? This is how I finished my entire journaling session, and it was really cool to kind of go back. I basically went back to the list that I made at the beginning of what are all the things that I don't know, and I basically kind of forced myself self to either make a clear, powerful decision on it, just a yes or a no. We're just making a decision. We're not going to keep waffling on this. We're not going to keep questioning. We're not going to keep going back and forth. We're just going to choose. There were also some things that I wanted support on or help with from my coach. And so here's some powerful decisions that I needed to make that I did make. I made a clear plan for how I wanted to launch the greenhouse. And so I made a clear plan for how I wanted to launch the greenhouse. I made some clear decisions about how I wanted to message this greenhouse launch and other things like how many women do I want to have in the greenhouse by the end of the year? How many more times do I want to launch it this year? When do I want to launch it next?
[25:58] What steps do I need to take before it's ready to launch again? It felt really good to just sort of, once I had all this information pulled through with deep clarity about what's important to me, about what I really like, and about what I really don't like, it made some of those decisions really easy. When I knew that I wanted to be known for the greenhouse, it made a plan for how I want to get the greenhouse out there more clear. When I figured out the things that I was resisting or holding myself back from, it pushed me to ask myself to be really honest with myself, which resulted in
[26:37] clarity that I have been searching for for a while now. Now, one huge bonus that I want to share with you that you'll enjoy once you have clarity around what to sell and when you want to sell it is that you will also have instant clarity in your marketing.
[26:54] Instead of thinking, what should I post about? There's infinite possibilities that feels really overwhelming when you know what you're selling and when you will have built-in constraints. And creativity loves constraint. So once you know what's the thing that you're selling and when, you know exactly how much content you have to create. You know exactly what the call to action is going to be in the content that you create. It's going to be either join the program or grab the freebie or something like that that will move people on a a path toward the thing that you want to sell. And it will help you know that basically the topic of conversation in your content is going to be a topic that will lend people to seeing themselves as having a need for whatever the offer is that you're selling.
[27:42] Finally, let's recap the seven questions. Number one, here's what I know. Brain dump a whole list. Number two, here's what I don't know. Brain dump a list. Number three, what do I want to be known for? How do I want people to see me as different than everyone else who's doing something similar to what I am?
[28:07] Four, what are things that I've done in the past that worked really well? Five, what's my vision for the future? Six, what am I resisting? And seven, what powerful decisions do I need to make? And don't forget my invitation, carve out a silence session for yourself in the very, very near future. Capitalize on the opportunity of Mother's Day if you need to. But I know that if you will allow yourself the time and the presence and the silence, your intuition or maybe God probably has some answers for you that have been trying to get through to you but haven't been able to because you have a lot of great things going on in your life. But when you sit down and ask your brain some of these confronting questions, I know that clarity will come through for you so you can stop swirling and start moving forward with clarity and confidence. That's what I want for you. I hope you loved this episode and I will see you next Wednesday.
[29:06] Hey, I hope you loved this week's episode. If you did, I know you would love to be a member of my community, The Greenhouse. It's where I teach you how to build an amazing, fruitful life while you build an amazing, fruitful business. It is a movement for women who want to unsubscribe from the traditional success path that says that life has to be a struggle and instead learn how good making more money can get, how fun marketing can be, and how much joy and presence you're capable of feeling as a woman and as a mother. Find out more and join at kaylenpriest.com slash greenhouse, and I'll see you there.
[29:46] Music.
