Episode #96: Making Space for Possibility (& Trusting It’s Already Happening)

Ruth Poundwhite 0:00
Today I’m posing an important question, and it’s one that has the potential to create huge magical changes in your business. If you can allow it, are you ready? Let’s dive in. You’re listening to quietly ambitious with conversations about how it really feels to build a business that honours your whole self unapologetically. And that includes who you are, how you feel, what you really desire, the impact that you want to create, and importantly, the money you want to make. I’m your host, Ruth Poundwhite. And my superpower is supporting sensitive and ambitious humans to make more money by fully expressing and owning all of who they are. Let’s dive in. Hi, and welcome back to the quietly ambitious podcast. So I have wanted to record this episode for a while I’ve wanted to talk about making space for possibility and for magic in your business. And I realised I’ve been putting it off. And what I just bought just became clear to me as I was preparing to record this now is that it’s because basically, this episode isn’t about strategy. And me giving you all the tips, I basically just want to pose a hopefully powerful question for you. And I want to take, I want you to take that away and to play with it. And the emphasis really is on the word play here, I don’t want you to take away and work on it, I want you to take it away and play with it. And then as I was working on all of this stuff, I actually realised that I want to take this conversation to a whole other level. So what I’m going to do is I’m going to be running a whole workshop on this subject, it’s called play with possibility. And it is free. So this, consider this podcast episode, the start of the conversation, and then know that we actually get to play with everything that I’m posing here during the workshop that is happening on December 7, with a limited replay of you can’t be there live. Now I know some of you will be listening to this after the replay has ended.

But hopefully, you’ll be listened to at the time. It’s I’m considering this a one off workshop. So go sign up for that Ruth poundwhite.com forward slash possibility. If you missed it, you missed it, you still get to play with what I talked about today. Okay, so the first thing I’m going to talk about now is the and it’s something I have actually spoken about in an older podcast episode. So it was episode 45, which is about big leaps, and how they can happen when you least expect them. So I would recommend you go and listen to that episode. For more of the detail, I’m not going to repeat everything that I said in that episode, I would consider this one to be a bit of a secret, a bit of a sequel to that episode. But yeah, To cut a long story short, and you can hear more about it in the other episode. Since I started my first business in 2008, I have had several periods. And I never even knew. So clearly until I literally I think it was a couple of years ago, I literally sat down, made a spreadsheet. And I’ve continued it since I first did it a couple years ago, where I wrote down my income for every single year since 2008, since I first started working for myself, so I highly recommend that if you’ve been in business for a while literally getting this bird’s eye view, it was really interesting for me, it made me have so many amazing realisations that have I’ve been able to take with me that have been really powerful. So yeah, I sat down, I wrote, I created this bird’s eye view for myself of all the income I’d made in different years of my business. And what I noticed is that I had several periods where my income increased dramatically from one year to the next. Now at first, like I’ll be honest, it was because I was barely earning anything at the beginning. But later on, I was already earning really good money, and I increase my income like so many times over, like I doubled it many times. And I actually did the math on this one from 2019 to 2020. I actually increase it by 400%, which is just amazing. And this is the thing I love about running my own business. Like, don’t get me wrong, it’s hard when things are going slowly. It’s hard when your income drops sometimes because that did happen for me too. And it does happen it will happen. But it’s also just amazing to think about how much is possible when you work for yourself how much things can change even in the space of a single year. And sometimes it doesn’t take just one year. But the the point is here that things can jump and change And sometimes when you least expect it. And, like I said, Episode 45, I do go into some of the things that I noticed that I, I feel played into those jumps. But what I want to talk about now is the kind of difference between planning in your business, like planning to double my income from one year to the next, versus playing, planning versus playing, and leaving room for magic and for possibility in the way that I’m running my business. So there is obviously a time and a place for strategy, but this podcast is not it. And there are specific strategic things you can do to make more room for magic in your business. So for example, something that I have done and do and recommend to my clients is to make sure that your business model supports, for example, making three times as much as you actually want to make. So for me, while it’s not necessarily likely that it’s going to do it is possible. It’s more than possible, actually, because I’ve got courses for sale, I’ve got different ways for people to work with me. So there’s just one strategic thing, but I’m not going to be talking about strategy. And the reason for that is that strategy is actually kind of limited, working strategically

on our business is limited, because our minds are limited as to where we will allow ourselves to even go. So how can we strategically work on making magical things happen in our business? If our minds are not even going there in the first place? Do you see what I mean? So we’re creating a strategy to get to a certain level, when there’s so much more beyond that, that we need to give our minds room to play with in our business. And there’s a few reasons for that. So firstly, none of us actually know what’s possible. And I think that this is actually really important to highlight. Most of you listening to this will be running your own business, you’ve basically invented a job for yourself. And those of us who are doing it online, we’re doing it on technology that is still so new. We’re doing things that even a few years ago, people didn’t necessarily have a business doing. We’re basically making up a business as we go along. Most of us just don’t even know what’s possible for ourselves. And I look back at myself when I first started my business, honestly, and you can listen to my earlier episodes for more of my journey on this. But I basically fell into it because I couldn’t get a job. And what happened after I fell into it is it opened my mind to this whole world of online business that I had no idea about. And I had no like back then all I wanted to do was earn enough to pay the rent, right to move out of my parents house. And I had no idea what was possible for me, I didn’t even imagine it, let alone expected. So that is the first thing that I think is really important for us to remember most of us actually have no idea what’s possible, like our mind can’t go there, because we don’t even know. And that is just so exciting and incredible to remember. But then there’s the kind of the more kind of negative side, I guess, of why we don’t allow us our minds to even go there. We kind of protecting ourselves, I think is a nicer way to put it. So what if the goal doesn’t happen? You know, what if I disappoint myself? What if I fail? What if I mess up? What if I fall short? And even worse than that? I think definitely for me is what if people see that I failed? What if people see that I fail? What if I make a fool of myself? And I think that sometimes these things show up very consciously. And I think often, maybe more often, these things show up very unconsciously as well. So this is the reason why I think we all need to give ourselves permission to play, to play with possibility in our businesses. And it’s something that I come back to again and again, and don’t get me wrong, I do get out of the mindset of playing with possibility. And I do get stuck within the limits of what I think is possible in this current moment in time, but this is really what I wanted to remind you of in this podcast episode is that you do get to play there is so much more possible than you can even imagine right now and you do get to play with it. So what if you decided today that you get to be surprised in your business? What would you play with if you were imagining for a moment that anything was possible? What if you decided that people are going to find you in unexpected ways, or that you’re going to make money in unexpected ways that you can’t always predict. I actually really like this kind of mind experiment. Because when I start getting into like stressing about what is or isn’t happening, I get to remind myself, No, it’s okay, I decided that I’m going to be surprised. So therefore, it makes sense that I don’t know right now how it’s happening, you know, so it’s just a way of calming myself down. And honestly,

I would say that, you know, sometimes I’ve had really great months, and I’m using money as an example, money is not everything, obviously. But it is great as well. Sometimes I’ve had really, really great money months in my business that have been kind of predictable. So what I mean by predictable is I decided I was launching a new thing, or I went, I did a really like full on launch for group programme or something like that. So that’s kind of predictable, and strategic, and all of that. But other times, and this literally just happened a couple of months ago for me, I take time off, I, you know, I kind of think to myself, You know what, it’s fine. If I make less money this month, you know, I’m taking time off, it’s okay. And then it just seems to come out of nowhere. I cannot tell you how many times in my business, that that has happened for me. And by the way early on in my business or wasn’t making much money, I probably would have been a bit annoyed. listening to other people talk about this. So I just want to remind you, I’ve been through those times as well. And I know that some of you listening will be in those times right now. But you get to decide to play with this at any time, at any time honestly, set the intention that you’re going to be surprised that the intention that you don’t even know what’s possible, yet set the intention that exciting things are happening in your business. So that’s really the main point of this episode is for me just to ask you what could happen if you played with possibility, what would happen if you decided that you get to be surprised. And before I finish, I just want to say one other thing that has really, really helped me allow myself I guess, because it is a bit of a muscle that you have to stretch. And I would say that I’ve become less fearful over time and more playful over time. But I do realise that it takes practice, something that really helped me to allow myself to practice is this idea that what I want to happen is already happening. The big goals I have for my business are already in motion. It’s just that I don’t know when. And as frustrating as that can be for my ego. It is also very soothing at those times when it’s not happening on the timescale that my ego would like. And I’ve been working with a coach Susie Ashworth. So I want to give her a shout out because she has been massive in really embedding this idea for me that what I dream of happening, that big goal that I have, it’s already happening, it is happening. I just don’t know exactly when. And that. That statement that belief has really allowed me so for example, some of things that it’s really helped me with is for example, playing with much bigger numbers in my business. So in the past, I might have set like an income goal. And, you know, done the plan to make it happen. These days, I set goals based on how it feels like, Okay, this goal feels big, but it also feels really exciting. It gives me a little tingle. And I don’t think it’s actually like, you know, a goal where I set a detailed plan to make it happen. It’s more like, Okay, this goal would be possible because I have different offers in my business, is it likely I don’t know. But this is the goal I’m going for. And it is happening at some point. It just takes off some of those fearful protective things that come up in our brains when we’re setting goals. And just to give you an example, early on in 2020, I remember saying to my coach at the time, that and this I think this was when I was really starting to play with increasing my goal setting a much bigger goal than the one I actually thought I wanted. And by the way, sometimes when you increase your goal, you’ve got a goal that you want you increase it, you realise actually, you didn’t want the lower goal in the first place. But you’ve just now allowed your mind to go to the bigger one, you’re like, Okay, that’s actually what I wanted. But anyway, I remember saying to my coach at the time, that I just had this realisation and this knowing that if I carried on doing what I was doing, it would be inevitable that I would be making 10k months at some point. And bearing in mind at that time, this was like early 2020 I was making way less than that. But I just had this realisation you know, okay, I don’t know when it’s happening, but if I carry on, it’s pretty much inevitable. It is happening. And that was such a powerful realisation. And I think for pretty much most of the people that I work with it is also true. It really is.

I think that what gets in the way is all the questioning. And by the way, this is very natural and very normal. But all the questioning of the timescale, is it happening quick enough, there’s so much evidence that it is happening that does that just so happens to not be related to the money we’re earning as well, that so many of us don’t pay attention to. And just just working on that belief that it is happening, I don’t know when helps you to see all of that other evidence along the way as well. So yeah, that’s what I wanted to say. And finally, there is an episode coming out in three weeks. So it’s going to be Episode 99, which is all about what your results mean about you as a business owner. So how, for example, if I don’t meet my goals, how does that make me feel about myself. And that is an extra important part of that conversation that has allowed me to play a bit more with possibility because just basically being more sure of my value as a human no matter what happens, has made me feel more safe to possibility. So I definitely recommend you check that out. That’s coming out. If you’re listening to this at the time, it’s originally released, it’s coming out in three weeks. And if you’re listening to it later on, then go search for episode 99. Now, because it’s definitely important part of the conversation, but yeah, before I finish, I’ll just remind you to go ahead and play with possibility like what is the worst that can happen? Are you going to fail? Or you’re going to fail in front of people? Probably, I mean, it’s part of the journey, right? But what will it make possible for you if you just allow yourself to play if you allow yourself to weather the ups and downs along the way, because it’s happening, you just don’t know when yet. So I hope that’s been helpful for you. And don’t forget to come sign up for the full workshop. It’s happening December 7, and there is a limited replay. So go to Ruth poundwhite.com forward slash possibility to sign up, we’re actually going to do some of the work together, the collective energy is hopefully going to be really strong to power us through. And it’s not about doing extra work or adding things to your to do list before the end of the year. It really is about playing and putting something out there into the universe and allowing magic to happen in your business because it absolutely can is so possible. Thank you so much for listening to another episode of quietly ambitious, if you have a moment to rate and review know that it really does make a difference. And if you’d like to carry on the conversation, then you can connect with me on Instagram at Ruth Poundwhite Join me in the Facebook group or my personal favourite. Sign up to my newsletter letters to quietly ambitious humans. Just go to a Ruth poundwhite.com forward slash newsletter to subscribe and keep doing what you’re doing because your work really does matter.