Episode #92: How to Run Your Business Your Way: Advice From 12 Business Owners

Ruth Poundwhite 0:06
You’re listening to creatively human with honest conversations about what matters to us and how it really feels to build an online business, put our work out into the world, make an impact in our own unique way, and importantly, to get well paid for it. I’m your host Ruth Poundwhite business mentor to quietly ambitious humans. Hi, and welcome back to the creatively hearing podcast. Now today’s episode is an extra special one. Before we dive into today’s episode, let me tell you about a brand new challenge I have got coming in May, is called success without sacrifice for sensitive business owners. And it’s all about rewriting the rules around what it takes to scale your business. As a sensitive and quietly ambitious entrepreneur. We’re going to dig into my rest framework, which stands for radical entrepreneurial self trust that makes anything possible in your business, using your feelings and intuition as a business tool, rewriting the rules about who you think you need to be and actually using your sensitivity as a superpower. rewriting the rules about what you think you need to do, and the art of aligned action taking to help you launch with ease in a way that deeply connects with your right people. Five days together to explore what it means to successfully scale your business without sacrifice. It’s going to be amazing. And I would love to have you join in. Just head to Ruth poundwhite.com forward slash challenge for more details. And make sure you sign up soon as the challenge is happening in early May. And if you’re listening after that date, go ahead and sign up anyway as I have something else for you. If you need that link again, it’s Ruth poundwhite.com forward slash challenge. Plus, it’s all in the show notes on my website, Ruth Poundwhite calm this season, I have interviewed 12 incredible women. And every time I interviewed them, I actually asked them all the same bonus question at the end of the interview. And I didn’t include that question in the original episodes. So what you’re about to hear is all of their answers to the question of how they run a business based on who they are. Before I go into that, though, let me just say this has been a bit of a weird season of the podcast, not in terms of who I’ve spoken to or what I’ve spoken about. But in terms of just how long it’s been. I think I started this season when I had the opportunity to interview Kate Northrup, which was mega scary, but also mega exciting. And she was lovely. Definitely go listen to that if you haven’t already. So yeah, I started that back in October. And here we are. It’s April. That is a long season of the podcast. Because I’ve taken many breaks, I’ve shuffled things around life has happened, everything has been going on. But I’m really proud. Especially having listened back to all of these clips to put this compilation together. I’m really proud of all the topics that we’ve been able to cover this season. And the podcast is gonna take a little break after next week. But we have already got a whole season’s worth of guests who have said a provisional yes to the next season. And I promise you, it’s going to be amazing. So yeah, just a little note to say it’s been a weird season. But I’m proud of it. And I’m grateful for you for listening. And also, if you haven’t already, please do go rate and review the podcast in your podcast app, it makes a huge, huge difference. So thank you to those of you who have already done it. Thank you to those of you who have been listening, however long you’ve been listening for.

And yeah, I think that you’re going to find a lot of words of wisdom. In this episode with this bonus question that I asked everyone. Now the full question was actually what is the biggest thing you’ve done that has made the difference in running a business that works around who you are, what you need and what you value? And their answers were, of course, incredibly wise, and they were all different. So we had answers from tuning into your cycle, to trusting yourself and even things like hiring a nanny. There is honestly so much goodness in this compilation episode to round off this season of the podcast, although we do still have one more solo episode coming next week. And something that you’ll notice as you listen to this is that none of this is about finding a magic strategy that works for everyone. It’s really about tuning into who you are and what works for you. So I really do hope that it helps you trust yourself even if just a tiny bit more than you do now. And just before we dive in, let me tell you who is included in this bonus episode. First up, we have the incredible Kate Northrup we Have nikolina wertha we have Genevieve paka Hill we have Fiona Thomas Helen Redfern Shanti Raja Kelsey mek Villa main mass, Jane Ashbury, Kat Cuthbert racv, deep core, and Neha vasti. Such an incredible group of women all running an online business in some form, and all of them have something important to share. So enjoy. So first up, we have the incredible words of wisdom from Kate Northrup, I was so honoured and not going to lie nervous to interview Kate earlier on for this season of the podcast in Episode 70. We talked about being supported to do the work. That’s true to you. So definitely listened to that one if you haven’t yet. But Kate’s answer to this question was exactly what I hoped it would be. And it is something that she has massively supported me with. In her own podcast and her membership, community origin. I’ve learnt so much from her. And her answer is all about cyclical living, which is just a game changer. And I’ve got to do a podcast episode all about this at some point. Anyway, I’ll leave it to Kate to explain how this has made such a difference to her business.

Kate Northrup 6:26
The biggest thing I’ve done in regards to that is cyclical tracking and cyclical planning. It’s just getting to know my own body, getting to know what it needs at different times of the month, getting to know my own energy levels, and giving myself grace, and aligning my life and business with how I actually feel has been the biggest game changer

Unknown Speaker 6:47
of my life.

Ruth Poundwhite 6:49
Yeah, and I know you’ve got like a whole lot. It’s in your book, but you’ve also got a whole podcast episode on that. So I’m gonna link to that in the show notes. Because it has been a massive game changer for me to still learn. There’s so much to learn. But yes, it makes a huge difference. Awesome. Thank you so much. Kate, I love that chat. Thank you.

The next piece of advice comes from nikolina worth. Now in our original interview, we dove into all things introversion, high sensitivity being an empath, what the differences are, how we can play to our strengths, how we can grow stronger, it was such a juicy episode if you identify and one of those categories. And her answer to the question was definitely something that I would have said as my answer to this question to all about getting to know yourself and understand yourself. Which is why I’m so passionate about kind of talking about what it means to be sensitive, talking about what it means to identify as an introvert. And I know that not all of you listening may be introverts, but I’m pretty sure that most of you listening are thoughtful business owners who can only benefit from having this certain level of self awareness. So yeah, here is what nikolina has to say about that.

Nicolina Werther 8:03
Yeah, definitely self knowledge. Yeah, getting getting to know myself better and better. Understanding what moves me what lights me up, what’s meaningful to me, like, kind of these things, and aligning them what I do with that, which can sometimes be like really sad possible. Yeah. And I’m again, I’m currently having another round of doing exactly, that’d be like, Okay, what is really me? And because that I mean, of course, because I’m a coach. It’s quite in a way maybe quite easy to me to say, okay, it’s quite linked to also my personality and my own journey. And I think for every business business owners, it’s important. But in my case, I guess in your case, it’s, it’s particularly it’s like closely linked, I find, yeah. Missing if there’s anything else I can add to that.

Ruth Poundwhite 8:58
I was just curious, actually, in Do you have any, anything that has helped you the most in gaining that self knowledge and self understanding?

Nicolina Werther 9:08
So it’s funny. I think my originally bypass started with things like spiritual teachings and meditation and mindfulness. And then I kind of went into other direction. But I know that especially let’s say the mindfulness is still a lot more at the bottom of everything I do, then I’ve thought for a while, because it helps me to have that awareness and keep expanding it. I mean, I’ve done like intuitive and a bit of psychic work, which kind of goes into the same direction, but just not my main focus. And actually, that currently, yeah. I don’t know if I should say that links back to what we spoke before. And it helps me to well understand myself better. understand others better It was kind of empathy and understand circumstances better the world around me. Yeah, I think I know this is a very you sound a bit woowoo, I find it really helpful actually. Because it can as well as you know, the bigger things of what’s my purpose or my focus, as well as the smaller things of like, how do I, you know, increase my productivity, something like mindfulness can help you with both. And I’m not a super big advocate of mindfulness. I mean, I am, but I guess that is not my main thing. And coaching as well, actually, all these things I’m doing now I find, of course, super helpful for myself. That’s why I’m offering to the world and to others, because I see how much they affect work, but my life in general, my own well being as well.

Ruth Poundwhite 10:58
So next, we’ve got some wonderful advice from my mastermind sister, Genevieve Parker Hill. I didn’t expect this to be her answer. But actually, it is such a bloody important thing to talk about in terms of the support we have in all areas of our lives. So yeah, I’ll leave it to her to explain what that support is. But I just think that more and more of us need to talk about what it means to be supported in all ways that may not seem directly related to our business, but are in fact, exceedingly related to how we do our business and how much like mental space, we’ve got to take it all on. So are we in? Yeah, and we I spoke to Genevieve, originally in Episode 72 of the podcast all about writing, self publishing. So make sure to listen to that episode, if you haven’t yet. But yeah, here is Genevieve with her wonderful words of wisdom.

Genevieve Parker Hill 11:58
Hiring a full time nanny, who cooks? And does the laundry. Oh,

Ruth Poundwhite 12:02
I love that answer. And how was that for you making that choice to do that to support you and your business?

Genevieve Parker Hill 12:11
It was very difficult. Because it’s a family decision. It involves the whole family. And mom guilt is real. And it was difficult. And it’s you know, it’s an expensive thing in the family budget. But it absolutely supports my business and my ability to work on it and have space, I also need a lot of space just to do nothing or to be creative or to dream or journal. And it supports that really, really well.

Ruth Poundwhite 12:52
That is so such a good answer and not what I expected. So thank you for sharing. And do you feel has that guilt about it? Is that still there? Is that something that you’ve let go of now.

Genevieve Parker Hill 13:06
It’s still there a little bit, I’m letting go of it. But it’s still there a little bit, I think. I don’t know if it’ll always be there. Just because of the messages are so strong in our society. And like growing up by hat, you know, my mom was pretty much the one. And I didn’t really have I never had like a full time nanny. And then just the messages of you know what it means to love, love languages, what it means to love and care for my children are. They’re not even messages. They’re like expectations on women, on mothers. And so I it’s there that I don’t know if the guilt will ever fully disappear. I hope so though I would love to get rid of that. I would love to just completely get rid of that.

Ruth Poundwhite 13:54
So next up, we have the words of wisdom from Fiona Thomas, who spoke to us about why pricing and raising your rates is good for your mental health. That was such a juicy episode. So I would definitely definitely go back. And listen to that. We also talked about why we under charge, how it feels to make decisions to raise your rates, the importance of stepping back and looking at the bigger picture. But in her answer to the question today, she talked about challenging, a very, very strong limiting belief that creative work doesn’t pay well. And she also shares what happens when she did challenge. It was just amazing. So here is Fiona.

Fiona Thomas 14:37
For me it has been basically challenging, a limiting belief that I had, which was that creative work doesn’t pay well. So I worked with my friend Joel, who I think you’ve worked with before Jo from Mad and Sad club over the summer and she we were talking about Martin offerings and what I say and stuff like that. And I basically kind of said off the cuff, you know, I’ve got my creative work, which doesn’t pay very well. And then I’ve got my client work, which pays really well. And that funds the creative stuff. And she was like, Oh, that’s interesting. Why do you think creative work doesn’t pay? And I was like, I don’t know. I just, that’s just what I think. So she challenged me to kind of think about that. And my, that has completely transformed my business. Because basically, she said, think about creative work. And think about if there are any ways that you could work creatively that would, that would be profitable for you. So I basically just gave myself permission to come up with some ideas. And that’s how I came up with my creative writing programmes. And that makes up like, I don’t know, 90% of my income now. And it completely shifted within the space of a month, really, I came up with ideas and then started implementing them. And it’s just gave me permission to work creatively make creativity, like a big part of my work in my daily life. And do it in a way that feels comfortable and feels fun. And I get to show up and give creativity to other people and work with creative people who really understand what it’s like to have a creative mind and the creative struggle and all that kind of stuff. So yeah, it’s just like, surrounded me with people that totally get me and respect my work, and just made my life so much, so much happier.

Ruth Poundwhite 16:41
And aside from having it pointed out to you in the first place that you have that belief, what was the biggest thing that you did that helped to shift that ingrained belief,

Fiona Thomas 16:53
I think launching my first course, which was called find your voice. And having lots of people show an interest and lots of people sign up. And to have lots of people say, Wow, you use look like you’ve really found your groove. Everybody was saying You look like you’ve really, really found what you want to do. And you’ve found your place. And you can everybody was saying we can tell that you’re really excited about it. And it felt easy to sail because I was like, this just feels like so much fun. And it feels like it’s got so much potential. So yeah, I think actually just making that change, and then launching something within quite a short space of time. And like kind of promoting off my own excitement was like the biggest shift I think saw and I saw that crushed. Success. It sold well. The Quarter went well. And I was like that’s it. That’s what we do.

Ruth Poundwhite 17:57
Yes, love it. So next up, we have Helen Redfern, who I interviewed for Episode 73 of the podcast. In that initial interview, we talked a lot about confidence in putting your work out there Helens a writer, but she’s also talking about it in terms of all creative pursuits and putting stuff online. And when I asked her the question of what has made the biggest difference to her, I love the fact that it was really taking some of the less tangible feelings and desires that you have around why you do the work that you do, and turning them into something practical and real. So yeah, I’ll let Helen explain it all to you.

Jayne Ashby 18:46
The biggest thing has been discovering my purpose. And my goal, a specific goal that I can quantify. And then breaking those two things down into projects. And then breaking those projects down into tasks. And for me, this system has been so helpful, it has enabled me to be so much more productive. It has stopped me from worrying about going in the wrong direction. And it has motivated me because I can see every day the progress that I am making. So a lot of what I do are really big projects that can take six months or even a year to complete. And I find that really overwhelming but by breaking it up into really small tasks and then what I do is have a board and then I move these tasks on posts from one board to another And this has really made a difference and enabled me to stop having more of a hobby to actually having a proper business.

Ruth Poundwhite 20:15
I like that answer. And how do you how do you get in touch with that big purpose in the first place?

Jayne Ashby 20:23
It’s funny really how it came about. But I was thinking, a lot of it happened for me, during the lockdown. And I, I was doing all my journaling. But I was also going out every day with my husband, five o’clock in the evening, in the summer, we would take the dogs out, and I would bounce ideas off him. And he was a very good sounding board. And I was trying to work out what I enjoyed, what I was passionate about what people needed from me, and how I could earn an income from it. So all those different things came together and enabled me to find what my purpose was. And that, I think, I mean, there are models out there that tell you those different things. But for me that happened naturally. And I started with Well, what do I love doing? Well, I love writing. So let’s bring that to the centre of it all. What do people want from me? Well, they like it when I write about creativity and confidence and procrastination, and all the different mental things that can go on and and how can I make money from it, and then that’s where I earn an income from it. And I thought, well, I could write a book about it, I could do a course about it. I could take on clients, and all that. So all those different factors came together. And I thought, well, that’s my purpose, I am going to go out there and help other creatives with confidence issues. And that’s how it all came together.

Ruth Poundwhite 22:09
I love that because it’s taking something quite, quite sort of just an idea and feeling about things and making it practical, making it real. Exactly.

Jayne Ashby 22:19
It was a feeling at the beginning. And it was very difficult to kind of bring it together. And you know, there was all these different strands in my in my journal, all these different things and eventually all started to come together to a clear thought, a clear focus and a path that I could go ahead. Oh,

Ruth Poundwhite 22:41
great answer. Thank

Jayne Ashby 22:42
you so much. Oh, you’re welcome.

Ruth Poundwhite 22:45
Next up, we’re hearing advice from shintani. Raja about the power of really tuning into yourself and learning how to trust yourself, and some of the ways in which she has cultivated that sense of trust in herself over the years. Now, in the original interview I did with Shan Tani, she talked us through her really powerful, intuitive emotional writing technique. So definitely go and listen to that episode, if you want some practical advice, exercises, and also just more in depth about why this kind of practice can be so powerful not just for our businesses and the way we connect with our people, but for ourselves and for healing those difficult parts of ourselves that we sometimes try to suppress. Anyway, I’ll leave it to Shantanu now to share with you all about her journey with self trust.

Shantini Rajah 23:41
So I want to say that taking the time, having the patience, and giving myself the space to learn to trust myself, to cultivate my intuition and to trust myself because I am I am naturally a very intuitive person, Ruth, but I, for the longest time I I couldn’t I didn’t trust myself. And I felt like what happened then was I was like a reflection of it felt like I was a reflection of everyone else. So when I learned to trust myself, everything started to fall into place. That the pieces of the puzzle, it started to make sense. It started to feel my business started to feel like me. It started to feel like home. So yeah, I would say that that’s the biggest piece, self trust, cleaning stuff.

Ruth Poundwhite 24:45
Well, I can definitely relate to that one. And my question is, what what were the biggest things that helped you in cultivating that self trust.

Shantini Rajah 24:56
It’s been a long, long journey. But I would say In the last couple of years, it was it’s been about being really consistent with my spiritual practices. So that includes meditation, mindfulness, breathwork, and yoga. So I would find I’m by no means, you know, like, one of those fabulous people you see on Instagram, striking to pose an impossible pose, and by no means that at all, but I mean, like basic stuff. So moving your body, I suppose if I were to break it down, I’d say it’s like, on every level on the mental level, on the emotional level, and on the physical level. So my work so my breathwork, my yoga, mindfulness, and meditation connects all of those, it’s like it, it taps into all of these areas. So working on all of that at the same time. Oh, and journaling? How can I do anything queen. So yes, journaling, it’s been huge, huge in open, because I started to see that, hey, you know what I, I do know what I want. And I can make it happen in a way that is aligned with who I am. So that made a huge difference.

Ruth Poundwhite 26:20
Next up, we’ve got a wonderful piece of advice from Kelsey Mack. Now, when she was originally interviewed on the podcast, we talked about all things self doubt, anxiety, where it comes from all the kind of shoulds and expectations when it comes to success of our businesses, and how we can break free from that and kind of define success on our own terms, and kind of have the courage to listen to ourselves, and trust in our own unique way. And Kelsey is thoughts about the thing that’s made, the biggest difference for her in building a business around who she is, and what she needs, is really about listening to your body. And she has some really brilliant advice for Firstly, why it makes such a difference. And also how you can do a really quick and simple daily check in if you want to tune into your body more and what you need. So I’ll let Kelsey do the explaining.

Kelsey Mech 27:16
So I think for me, I mean, it really comes back to listening to my body, which is an ongoing process. Because I definitely still have a lot of resistance to that and have so many, you know, internalised beliefs that originate from capitalism, patriarchy, my own family, that get in the way of that, but when I can really listen to my body, listen to my emotional and mental state, and give myself what I need. And sometimes that is like pushing through, right? Sometimes I what I need is to get something done, because that’s what’s going to make me feel better. It’s not always just, you know, in resting or, or sort of self care in those ways. But when I can really put myself first and work in collaboration and relationship with like, my body as this entity that needs care, and that needs, respect, and needs to be honoured. That’s been the biggest game changer for me, because it’s allowed me to work in sort of ways and structures that are totally outside the norm and feel really good. It’s allowed me to know, when I need to, like pivot or change things, or leave a job or start something new or end an offering. It’s really been pretty transformational to kind of get out of my head. And not always think I have like the answer logically, rationally for something, but to really give myself that space to connect and go, you know, how does this feel? Or what do I physically need right now, from my business from myself, and how I show up for my business? That’s just been been huge for me.

Ruth Poundwhite 28:58
And if you were to give, like one piece of advice to people who are hearing this, and they want to start listening to their body more, what would that advice be? Yeah,

Kelsey Mech 29:08
I would do a check in every single day. So you know, whatever works for you, I like to do sort of a daily check in in the morning. But if you can’t fit that in, because life, any time is great. And it can take you know, two minutes, five minutes, but just asking yourself and practising, you know, sort of showing up asking yourself the question of like, how am I really feeling right now? How am I really doing how am I? And like, what do I What do I need?

Kelsey Mech 29:37
Or, you know,

Kelsey Mech 29:39
how do I need to show up for myself today? These are really important questions. And often when we start this work, we might not actually have the answers, right, because we’ve sort of been disconnected or shut off from our body for so long. And I often find when I do this work with clients, they’re like, I don’t know I did that for a week and I just got like radio silence. I’m like, it’s because you’ve been disconnected from your body for So long so it’s kind of been like, well, if she’s not gonna listen to me, I won’t tell her. Right? So we need to show up in that practice of daily checking in and going, Okay body. Okay, emotions, like I’m here, I’m listening, even if you don’t have anything to tell me yet, like, I’m gonna keep showing up for you. And so I would really do that right? How am I feeling? What do I most need every single day. And, and just notice, notice what comes up and notice what it feels like to start to kind of enter into that relationship with your body and yourself in that deeper way.

Ruth Poundwhite 30:33
Next up, we’re hearing from business strategist and certified online business manager, Villa main mass. And she is talking about shaping your time and the way you work around your priorities in life. If you want to listen to the main interview I did with her it was all about systems and being supported to basically work as much from your own zone of genius as possible and leaving the rest to other people’s Who are the people whose zone of genius is to do that stuff. It was a really juicy episode. But for now, I will leave you with Villa Maine’s words of wisdom.

Willemijn Maas 31:13
For me, that is taking time whenever I need it. So I definitely designed my business and the way I work with clients and the hours I work and the work that I do around the things that I think are important that I need. And that in a way that I can take care of myself first. And that means, for example, that I don’t work on Thursdays and Fridays with clients. And I think that for everyone else, it could be something else. But this for me is very helpful in managing my energy. So that’s my conscious decision and the way we shape our business needs to be the way we want to shape our lives and not the other way around.

Ruth Poundwhite 32:03
Next out, we have wise words from Jane Ashby, who originally came on the podcast to talk about inclusivity and business, it was such a good episode, I really recommend you listen to it. But her advice about running a business in a way that honours who you are and your energy actually comes down to her relationship with social media. And I know a lot of you will probably resonate with this one. So I’ll let Jane take it from here.

Jayne Ashby 32:30
limiting my time on social media that has been that has changed everything. And it is ridiculous as to how small a change is. But from social media and my kind of general mental health, we’re not necessarily evenly matched. It doesn’t ever feel like it’s a fair fight. And so from really wanting to help people and obviously encourage people to use my business. I was thinking I’ve got a post all the time, and I’ve got to be doing this and then you’re looking at other people and you can see what they’re doing and you just oh god. So I made the conscious decision to communicate when I have something to communicate and not to have you know, the kind of anticipation of the likes the shares the whatever. As soon as I stopped that something in me clicked. And it’s made running a business more enjoyable.

Ruth Poundwhite 34:00
I love that. And was there anything you did or anything you read or learned that helped you to stop it? Cuz I know it’s a bit hard to untangle from that sometimes.

Jayne Ashby 34:14
One of the people who I follow somebody on Instagram Susie Sarke, I think her name is and she’s always talking about you’re constantly writing, you are very good at communicating in that way as well. And also, you had a podcast with writer Helen red and red fan. Yeah, read for Yeah, as well. And it was just, again, you sort of start to look for things that really resonate with you don’t you naturally sort of comes to the surface doesn’t it? And I was just reading more and more about how people are just using social media in a way that works for them. For me, social media primarily should be about looking at dogs and cats doing the certain things. That’s what I want. Yes, and fun. means that’s where and kind of Yes, it’s there as as a part of my business, but it’s only a small part of it. And yeah, I can’t even expect it just makes me happier to go on social media as well. And also just thinking about what I’m doing, why am I on there? So am I, am I using it for work? So am I looking for, you know, people to work with or for, you know, just being a little bit more intentional and not just not beat myself up about, you know, likes chairs? So, okay. It’s all right. It doesn’t devalue me or what I do. It’s a noisy place out there, and people will come to me, and I think it’s having that belief as well, is that the right people will find you. I’m still there. I still post just not all the time. But yeah, I just believe it’s the right people will come to me whether or not I’m there on Instagram, or whatever, every day, because they’ll come to me. Yeah,

Ruth Poundwhite 36:08
love that. And I’m sure that will resonate with a lot of people. Thank you. Next up, we’re hearing from cat Cuthbert and I originally talked to cat about all things working around your natural tendencies, who you are, and your unique needs as a human. So whether that’s working around a chronic illness, disability, mental health concerns, or whatever it is that you need. So definitely go and listen to that episode, as I know, a lot of you will resonate to not necessarily being able to conform to the traditional ways of productivity household getting things done. For now, though, I’m going to leave you with cats, words of wisdom, all about the importance of being flexible, listening to and attending to your feelings.

Kat Cuthbert 36:58
I think.

And I suppose it comes to fold is flexibility. So flexibility in more specifically, like how I actually run the business, with my planning for it. So like my goal setting is quite fluid and holistic. It’s not necessarily based on specifics, but also flexible in kind of allowing myself to be whoever I need to be at that point. It’s a really,

it felt really counterintuitive to me to go into business and focus on how I feel about things. But being flexible, and allowing those feelings to be whatever they are, and attending to them kind of in the moment has been huge. shoving them down, never worked. But listening to them really made a difference, I think.

Ruth Poundwhite 37:45
And next up, we have the beautiful words of wisdom from Ravi deep core. And I really want to encourage you here to go back, listen to the episode that we did originally, because she has such a wonderful way with words. And although the topic that we were talking about can be and is uncomfortable. And that was anti racism as a means of collective healing. It is so important, it is so important to do this work to be committed to it over the long term, to prioritise our energy in this work, and she just had so many useful things to share. So definitely go and listen to that episode. But for now, we’re going to hear how she has learned to be present and to speak with herself with self compassion in order to run a business that is true to who she is and what she needs

Ravideep Kaur 38:40
to continually heal from the world. Everything that I’ve kind of said previously, but to show up in your authentic self, your authentic voice is to continually heal and see where the deep conditioning shows up for you. To be kind of the compassionate voice that I like to speak to to my clients, I need to be using that voice for myself because that’s again how I sit in integrity and show up the way that I do in fullness.

Ruth Poundwhite 39:15
Do you have any kind of tool or a practice that is your go to for connecting with that side of yourself?

Ravideep Kaur 39:24
It’s it’s just really simplistic, being present in the here and now and I bang on about it so much but it’s revolutionary like to be just present in your life. To really, really just be content, to go out into nature and understand how to understand how we’re all connected to understand how what one person does affects another but to live your life on your own kind of rules. Not Look, I always question why my clients and I do it to myself as well like when I’m journaling, or when I’m kind of in nature, like I walk a lot, connect with, like the universe, but it’s like, who else is gaze is there? Right? When you’re not showing up fully? Who else is there? Who else is kind of tapping you on the shoulder? Usually a system. But who else is there telling you that you shouldn’t be doing it like this, that or the other? And I think it’s just having that level of awareness is just so so powerful.

Ruth Poundwhite 40:34
Who else has gazes? They’re really powerful question. Yeah,

Ruth Poundwhite 40:37
thank you.

Ruth Poundwhite 40:38
Next up, we’re hearing from Neha vasti, all about how working on her mindset has really made the biggest difference in building and running a business that works around who she is. And please do go check out the original interview I did with her. It was all about finding your voice, and hearing, having the courage to use your voice and how that is a massive superpower in your business. And I know that episode will be really useful to lots of you listening. Anyway, I’ll leave it to nejad to explain all about the mindset stuff.

Neha Awasti 41:14
I work on my mindset a lot. More than outside, I work on my mindset a lot to really remain true to myself, that was something that was just inherently very, very important to me. And I can see all the threads that throughout my life, that has been one of the messages that have been really important to me to stay true to who I am. And to be able to do that in the outer world. In the business world. I really had to shift a lot of stories and a lot of mindset drama around that.

Ruth Poundwhite 41:55
And if you could give your top advice to anyone listening, have the best ways that you’ve worked on your mindset, what would they be? Or do you have any, like regular practices that you still work on now to keep staying true to yourself?

Neha Awasti 42:09
I do a lot of journaling. That would be my only regular sort of practice. Like I asked random questions to myself and I self coach myself a lot. Like you know where I want to be. And I create sort of believability. In those things. Like, you know, I recognise through the power of mindfulness, I guess, like, you know, I recognise what I’m thinking right now. And where I want to be going, what do I want to be thinking and then I try to bridge that gap through through journaling through writing the Lord and exploring and spending time with my own self. But caveat is without berating or reflashing myself, because oftentimes, when we do these things, it becomes an exercise in, oh my god, like, look at all this stuff that I need to work on, I must not be good enough, how long will it take. So without any judgement is a very important disclaimer to that exercise.

Ruth Poundwhite 43:06
So there you have it. 12 incredible online business owners sharing what has made the difference to them in running a business that works around who they are and what they need. Like I said at the beginning, I really hope it gives you a little bit more permission to do things your way, there is no one right way to do business. There is no magic bullet. It’s all about listening to what you need as a unique individual. So I hope you enjoyed it. And I will catch you again next week for the final episode of season five of the creativity human podcast. And before you go, don’t forget to go to Ruth poundwhite.com forward slash challenge to sign up to my free challenge which is coming in May. It is called success without sacrifice for sensitive business owners. And it’s all about rewriting the rules about what it takes to scale your business as a sensitive and quietly ambitious entrepreneur. It’s going to be amazing. Thank you so much for listening to another episode of creatively human. If you have a moment I’d be so grateful if you could rate and review the podcast, it really does make a difference. And if you’d like to carry on the conversation or ask a question for a future q&a episode, there are three ways to connect with me on the Facebook group on Instagram at Ruth Poundwhite or my personal favourite, my behind the scenes newsletter. Just go to Ruth poundwhite.com forward slash newsletter to subscribe and keep doing what you’re doing because your work really does matter.