E6: The 1 Thing You Can't Afford NOT To Do As An Entrepreneur

As a busy purpose driven entrepreneur there are always a million and one things for you to do.

Between social media engagement, content creation, client work, having a high converting website, maintaining your SEO, to delivering a value driven and profitable launch plus everything in between lets face it: IT'S A LOT!  

Which is why in this episode we talk about the 1 thing you can't afford not to do to be sustainably successful and incredibly impactful.  

Press play to listen as we dive into: 

• The common denominator in your life that impacts everything  
• 3 phases of launch or promo that are vital to consider and how to prioritize your energy in each  
• 3 essential components that are essential for you to cross the finish line of your goals and be sustainably successful   

Register for the free live ALIGN YOUR LAUNCH training session here: https://www.megan-nolan.com/a-to-a-3-secrets-ppp  

Get the free LAUNCH LIGHT Checklist here: https://www.megan-nolan.com/launch-light-ppp

Please find the show notes below. Since it is a transcription there may be spelling errors and/or weird grammar. Ignore that and enjoy!

Did you know that there's 1440 minutes in every single day? Next question, how many of those minutes do you spend on yourself? Next question, how many of those minutes do you spend with yourself? Ie not just on your phone, but really inside your body.
Most people live life as an out of body experience.
Ie it's above the neck in their heads.
But as a purpose driven business owner and as a purposeful powerhouse CEO, you know that when you spend time on and with yourself, it has an incredible roe return on energy, which also means it has an incredible ro I return on investment because there's a factor that's common in all parts of your life.
And I think you probably know what it is.
So this isn't really a trick question.
But see if you can find the common denominator.
It's kind of like the reverse of that Sesame Street.
Like just one of these things is not like the others.
Can you find which one is the same? Your team, your clients, your email list, your social media, your Facebook group, your email list, your taxes, your vision, your goals, your energy.
I know.
You know, it's all yours.
So, that means it depends on you who it's exciting in a way.
But ha, it's a lot, isn't it? Yeah.
No wonder it's no wonder the 50% of all business owners either have or will experience burnout because it's a lot.
It's a freaking lot.
And then you throw in a situation like, hm, I don't know, launching an online program or an offer leading a big promotion, opening a brick and mortar, doing a big project and Holy Mole all of a sudden that to do list gets another million miles longer.
And you're just like, what, what do I even do? Where do I even start? I don't even know.
And you just wanna pull the covers over your head and run and hide and listen to podcasts all day.
Hopefully this one.
Right.
I know.
I know because you guessed it.
I've been there too, crashed out in the burnout zone.
I got that one way ticket to burnout town and Holy Moly, it was a long way back and it was rough.
We've talked a little bit about that about that.
Getting to the point where I felt like I was just pouring everything I had into my business and not only was the cup cracked, it was leaking out the bottom and they got to the point where I was, like, resentful because I felt like I was doing so much giving so much and I just was not making them the headway that I was hoping for and I was like frustrated and really in that doubt spiral and really feeling like, is it even worth it? And do I have what it takes and getting caught up in those patterns of the self defeating talk that can so easily happen? And especially when we're stressed, right? Because when we're stressed, the survival center of your brain and especially when you are moving towards a financial goal and you really are needing to generate that revenue.
And so there is that neediness and that like action and the attachment to the goal that can trigger a lot of stress.
And it certainly did for me because I was, you know, I really needed quote unquote the launch to be successful.
And so I placed such this like incredible amount of pressure on myself.
And so I would just keep powering through even when I was exhausted and get to the point on the other side of like doing the launch, doing the promo, whatever it was.
And then getting to the point where I was just flat out defeated at the end, depleted, burnt out.
And we're gonna talk about that in another episode of the crash after you close the cart during a promo promo or launch a promo.
That's the fancy way of saying it because what happens to a lot of people that come to me and, and to myself and that I see a lot in the entrepreneur communities is that push, push, push, go, go go energy of with everything that you need to do to make the launch a success.
We get into that state of not giving back to ourselves and so focused on the doing that, we forget about the being, the being doing, the doing and the alignment with the vision and the alignment with the energy because we're in that sort of, it has to work sort of energy and we get really attached to it.
And believe me, when I say I've been there many times over myself and that creates a really tight contracted energy because we're in stress, right? And so that's really the hallmark of a worn out entrepreneur of getting to that point when you can really just like you're running on fumes, but you're continuing to go, go, go, go, go because you feel that stressed out anxious feeling in your stomach and you're trying to override it.
And for me and I know that for many of you who deal with high functioning anxiety, that's something that happens to a lot of us if we're not mindful of taking these intentional moments, right? Taking a chunk of those 1440 moments that you are so beautifully gifted in each day and being really intentional.
And that's really the foundation of the work that I do inside the mindful strength method is to really help you to create routines and rituals around that.
And in a previous episode, we talked about creating your own meaningful morning routine and how that's the foundation for how you feel and how you show up and being able to show up in, in alignment.
But it really does help to cultivate this resiliency, this steady state of connected awareness in your nervous system and bringing your attention inwards, right? And showing yourself that you are in fact a priority.
Because when we just go into go mode, then you're giving that signal that everything else is so important and more important than how you feel.
And that's what I am so honored to help you to do is to prioritize your health and happiness and come out of the spiral of everything that's happening in your head and come back into the wisdom and the guidance of your heart.
Because when we are able to press pause and take a power pause, which is another tool from the mindful strength method to take a power pause, to really align your energy with your goals, you shift out of stress, right? And we know that when we're in stress, that's where the patterns of self sabotage live like perfectionism and procrastination and overworking itself down and being hyper vigilant in all the ways that we sabotaged, right? The the saboteurs they live in the stress response.
And when we are in that worn out entrepreneur, push, push, push, go, go, go energy, then we're more likely to self sabotage and we're not tapped into the higher wisdom and guidance of the mind.
And so what I wanted to share with you today is really taking some time to be intentional before you go into a big period of promotion in your business or in your life.
You know, or if you're like creating a big project and you want to bring it out into the world is having these three phases of preparing yourself to really show up in alignment with your vision so that you can achieve your goals without exhausting yourself.
And so that's what I wanted to share that there's these, these three phases, right? Of when we're, we're setting these visions for yourself and your goals, which you maybe did at the beginning of the year or maybe it's the beginning of the month thing or the week or however you do it, but really taking the time to pause and this is an activity that purposeful powerhouse CEO S know is so important is having that vision and having the goals but not just having the numerical income goals also taking some time to create impact goals.
So what does your program make possible for people? What does your products or your service make possible for them? How many people are you going to impact? And yes, this is, you know, directly correlates to how many people sign up for your free event and therefore into your program, hopefully.
So how many lives are you going to impact? Because that helps you to go deeper.
And in the coming episode, we're gonna talk about expanding the vision.
But so I'll just leave that there as to creating more of a, a feeling around the goal so that you can drop into that as part of, you know, that bit of time that you give yourself each day.
And so getting into that energy because you're the being doing the things, right? And that's so important and you know, we, we often say, oh, I don't have time to do this.
I don't have time to, you know, um take these little minutes for myself.
I have so many other things to do.
I would say that you really don't have time not to because as the foundation for everything, your energy affects everything and you want to show up in, you know, quote unquote the highest alignment.
But really that translates to a calm centered resilient state within your nervous system, a grounded and connected state within your nervous system.
Because if you show up in the red zone, right? So if that's, if the green zone is the vibe, right? The energy, the open, the magnetic, the all the things, right? That is the the vision of your, of what you wanna feel like and what you will feel like when it's all come to fruition.
If the red zone is the like frantic and frazzled and like spinning out and about to lose it.
And you're like walking the thin line between having a meltdown and losing it.
Then we wanna make sure that you're setting the goals from the place of the green zone and you know what it feels like so that you can drop into that energy and really set some intentional goals for yourself as to how you're gonna make sure that that happens.
Because if you look at the strategic goals of a launch or a promo, you know, there's action steps required, but in order to feel a certain way, there's also action steps required.
So that's where I would start as far as like visioning for the launch, preparing yourself for it and looking at, you know, this is something that will then contribute to the success of the outcome and the possibility of the outcome because you're aligned with it.
And you know, some people say that it's like 80 to 90% of the game is the inner work that's happening.
And so when you drop into that and when you learn how to control your mind so that it stays aligned with the vision.
And you notice when you're stressed, when you feel those like tight, I just have five more things to do.
I can't stop, I can't stop right now.
I have to be so bad, but I'm gonna do this one more thing I get it because hello, clearly been there.
Done that.
And so we wanna make sure that we, we are aware of those and where your, your attention is, right is where you're feeding your energy into.
So being aware and for many of us that have anxiety, we have a, a vigilance, a high level of vigilance of we're constantly watching, you know, and maybe it's the worst case scenario thing until we learn how to train it.
So can you be vigilant about your own energy and your own alignment so that you can catch yourself? And that's the thing is we're never going to be able to completely override and, and, you know, de install these patterns is that we, we get to rewrite and we get to rewire at the level of the brain by just catching yourself when you're in that pattern of perfectionism or procrastination or whatever it is and taking a power, pause, taking a moment coming back into presence, use your body, right? You can do the technique of the, you know, what are five things you can see four things you can hear or touch, you know, and sort of count yourself down with that ground in meditation or as simple as just breathing in and breathing out uh and hearing the sound of the breath, the universal ha OK.
And just using the breath to bring you back into a, a more centered state.
So that's the prep, how do you want to feel? How do you wanna show up, what are you going to prioritize? And then when you're during the launch, when you're doing the promo or whatever it is, stick with the plan.
Of course, there's gonna be times when, when it comes to your strategic plan, you're gonna get to realign a little bit and, and what have you, but we wanna stick with the plan as far as you, the prioritization of your energy, your vibe your interstate because we wanna have that steady state because things are gonna happen, right? Zoom.
I mean, it just has this uncanny way of wanting to reboot or upgrade itself right before you wanna go live on doing your thing, right? And so how can you have that steady state? So that when things happen, you're not all the way up here in the red zone and you're not like losing your shit, you're able to, ok.
This is happening.
Oh OK.
Here we go.
Breathing grounding, doing the things and you're able to handle the challenge or when you notice that you're procrastinating or you're over there nitpicking on the details and recreating your downs sell offer because nobody signed up last time.
So you maybe should make it totally different and start all over right now.
Just catching yourself doing the things, doing the things because what you're doing there is defaulting to an old pattern because it's hardwired into your brain and God bless them.
Universe, love all that is bless them.
The people that raised you, they were doing their best, but they taught you to do these things.
Right.
And now you get to upgrade because that's what a purposeful powerhouse does is learn to think on purpose and being vigilant about the thoughts and not letting the thoughts that don't align with the vision, the old thoughts of like, I don't even know what the point is.
No one's gonna sign up.
What am I even doing? Launching is so hard, all of that.
And there is a challenge to it, right? For sure.
But how can you keep coming back into that place of alignment and presence, which is then down regulating and quieting the stress response so that you're back into that state of presence and creativity and connection and confidence, that's the vibe that you probably want to show up in.
Ok.
So that's during, stick with the routine.
Make sure you're doing it because it's one of those things that, you know, we're like, oh yeah, it's so important.
I'm totally gonna do that every day.
And then when things go crazy and you grab your phone first thing in the morning and you're like, oh shit, the links are blown and then nobody opts in overnight or whatever, you know, derails your sweet, calm, mellow vibe that you start the day in.
Then you find yourself like kind of mentally pacing around and then you're like, OK, I should work out and then you're, you know, half the time when you're working out, you're doing your squats and you're like on your phone and doing the things and you're not really present those minutes that you're dedicating of the 1440 aren't really truly present.
And that's the thing.
Our mind wanders about half the time, right? This is the, the core work of the tool set that I use called mental fitness.
Your mind wanders half the time.
But when you are doing the reps and you're grabbing it and you're bringing it back, you grab it and you bring it back and you do it over and over, right? You're learning to control the mind.
It's kind of like training a puppy, right? Is when you tell the puppy to sit and you sit and it sits and then you just walk away and you don't give it something to do.
You know, it might sit and you walk away and you look back and it, and it's like chewing on the table.
Like, because your mind, that's the nature of your mind is to go binga bunga bunga all over the place.
So we wanna give it something to do.
That's where power pauses come in because you know, taking a break, quote unquote and grabbing your phone and just scrolling mindlessly on Instagram for inspiration, quote unquote.
And I mean, I'm all about it and I think it's important to do isn't necessarily the most impactful way to refuel and it certainly doesn't down regulate your ner nervous system and center you like a power pause where you're breathing and moving and getting back into that presence of body, out of the head, into the body, out of the head, into the heart and come to your senses, right? We tend to be in our head and we're not in our body and we have kind of lost touch with our senses.
And so I love that expression of, you know, come to your senses, use your senses to come to the present moment.
So that's what you can do during and then after your promo or whatever it is or your big event, just do a compassionate.
Look at what happened and be gentle, right? We wanna look at this through the eyes of the heart, easier said sometimes than done, but do power path come into presence and we wanna look at it with a nonjudgmental discerning eye because when we are in the patterns of judging ourselves and judging the situation, which is a hallmark of the inner critic if you will.
But the judge is much more than that because the judge in our mind of which we all have one is judging ourselves, judging others and judging the situation.
It's not just the inner critic, it's critiquing everything the judge.
And so we wanna make sure that you're in the heart and you're in your sage, you're not in the saboteur, you're not in the stress mind, you're in the heart, you're in your wise self so that we can look at it with a softer perspective and have that nonjudgmental self-awareness, which is the hallmark of mental fitness.
It's the hallmark of mindfulness of Buddhism of Yoga, of martial arts.
It's the wisdom, that's the warrior wisdom, right? And so we wanna look at how things went from that perspective because we wanna look at it to learn, we wanna look at it through the lens of either we achieve the results that we're looking for.
And therefore we have a gift of what you were looking for or you receive the lessons that you needed to grow, to be able to be the one that achieves the goals or achieves and lives into the vision, right? So it's an opportunity.
So it's a really potent way to look at what happened in, you know, in the event to launch the pro or whatever it is.
And so being willing to look at it and learn also, you know, easier said than done.
And I will say to you like when I was in that old patterning and frustrated with myself, I had a launch that, you know, in my mind flopped because I didn't achieve the goals and no one signed up.
I have done so much work and nothing, you know, nobody said yes to it.
And so I felt rejected.
I made it mean so much about myself because that's often what we do because as humans, we're meaning making machines and we want to put a lens on everything and, and make it mean something about us.
And that's the judge though, right? Because the sage knows that nothing means anything about you.
And it's all there for your growth and your evolution.
We get to choose the, the impact that it has on us by the story that we tell about us about it, excuse me.
And so, you know, my launch had flopped in my mind.
And my coach said, well, what can you celebrate? And I was very hijacked by my saboteurs in this moment because I remember and hearing the critical tone that it came out with, I said nothing and I was so angry and frustrated, you know, looking back, I'm like, oh, I just wanna hug that version of myself because maybe I hadn't achieved the goal, but I had learned so much.
I had created assets.
I had learned about marketing.
I learned what didn't work, right? Because, you know, my coach James says, um success is a crappy teacher.
And so, you know, looking back through kinder eyes, I was able to reframe that a little bit and see the growth and see the lessons and see the progressions because, you know, success is in a linear path.
It's like up down and all around like the unal alone, you know, perhaps you've seen that symbol from the Buddhist.
And if you have video right now, you can see it on my wrist.
It looks like it's a straight path and then it's zigzagging and then it's a spiral to get where we're going.
And so it's all part of it, but yet all we see.
Well, not all, but a lot of what we see on social media is these massive successes, massive major launches, thousands of people opting into the free event, hundreds of people, thousands of people signing a million dollar launches, million dollar days and you're like, never make a dollar.
You know, it's, it's a tough pill to swallow sometimes.
And so here's an interesting thing is that um the way the brain works is that when we go back and we think about something and we go back and we berate ourselves for a mistake, you know, for me, if I were to go back right now and say like, oh, that's really crappy that I would said that, that nothing to celebrate.
And that's really, you know, and like having that same repetition of the thought or if you go back and you made a mistake and you're like, damn, I really screwed that up.
Oh man, I screwed that up so bad.
You know what's happening is you're actually fortifying that neural pathway.
So what that means in less fancy words means it's, you'll make it more likely that you're gonna make that mistake again because you're going over and you're mentally rehearsing it in your mind, you're going over that mistake and you're witnessing yourself making the same mistake.
You get what I'm saying, it's like you're, you're going in there and you're um, you're digging a little trough in the garden and you take the tool and you're digging the hole over and over and over.
And so you're, you're making the trough deeper and it's similar to what's happening in the mind is, is in the brain actually is that you're, you're strengthening those neurons that pathway gets thicker because you're mentally rehearsing it.
But here's the cool thing.
And this is why visualization is so powerful is that if you made a mistake, you know, and now me going back into that situation and if I could imagine my coach, I'm picturing her in my mind.
And she says, well, what can we celebrate? I can go from the place of the heart in the sage self and say, you know what I can celebrate that I learned a lot.
I was able to connect with a lot of people in the free event and now they know who I am.
Now, I've given them some value and they can hopefully use that and, and then we can create a relationship.
And now I know more about my marketing and my messaging and now I know what doesn't work.
And so those are things to celebrate.
And so what's what I've done there is have that nonjudgmental self awareness and that empathy and compassion and also creating a new neural pathway so that I am more likely when I rehearse that and when I'm encountering a similar situation in the future, I'm more likely to begin to go that path, right? It's, it's the path in the woods if you will, the well worn path of the superhighway is the one that negative frustration, that inner critic, all of that story.
That's the well worn path of procrastination and perfectionism.
And what have you because we've been practicing it for a long time.
The, the path that we get to create with being able to think on purpose is the path in the woods that you can kind of see and you're like, oh baby and with time it strengthens.
And so that's why giving yourself these moments each day, you can't afford not to.
Because if we just keep defaulting to the old patterns and the old ways and the overworking, overthinking, overdo, over giving over, critiquing all the things we'll get over it really fast.
And if we don't have the energy and the drive and the momentum to keep going because we're so depleted and feeling rather defeated, if we're stuck in that spiral of, you know, setting super high goals and crazy high standards and expectations for ourselves and then really berating ourselves if we don't make them because that's the hallmark of a lot of people is that's where we get caught up in the same patterns, right? And now you know, the neuroscience of why that is.
And so what we get to do is to take a look at the results and see the things like really celebrate the wins, gold star up, right? Gold start up is like in my community, we have gold stars and we celebrate ourselves by putting them everywhere.
We give ourselves hugs, we have little power parades.
We, we give ourselves a hug because there is a little version of you inside of you that even if you didn't achieve the goal or that you did achieve the goal or wherever, it doesn't matter where you are on that spectrum wants to be witnessed, deserves to be seen.
And that's yes your adult mind.
But it's a lot the the inner child that wants to be celebrated regardless of what happens because what happens is when we critique ourselves, we're, we're critiquing and we are um perpetrating these same patterns and maybe in your family unless you achieve the goal and got the A plus, you didn't get the love, right? And so or something similar to that.
So learning to love and celebrate yourself regardless of the results or the outcome is super important as far as wrapping it up, right? So, and then really taking a look at, you know how things went like, did you stick to the plan? Did you stick to your goals as far as how many workouts, yogas, breath works.
Power pauses, whatever it is.
Did you stick to it and, and on the days that you stuck with it, how did you feel? Right.
And so that's really how you can sort of wrap it up and do it energetic debrief as well as an overall debrief of what worked.
What didn't, what were your numbers like again through soft eyes, not hard, critical eyes, soft, gentle eyes of the heart.
So that's what I wanted to share with you today of how giving yourself some time really does lend to the success of your goals of your vision and really lends to having a more holistic approach to your business and a holistic approach to your health.
Yes, obviously, that makes sense, but a holistic approach to your success because it's not just the financial goals, that is a kind story that we want to be checking off mental health goals, emotional health relationships impact all of that.
That's the the whole pie if you will of success.
And so it's important to just take a look at it from that perspective of, you know, the different layers of you, the different parts of you, the, you know, the mind, the body and the spirit, right? It's like in order for somebody to win or qualify as an Iron Man to cross the finish line of the Iron Man, they need to have completed all three parts, right? The bike, the swim and the run in order for you to get to the goals of your finish line, whatever that is for you, you need your mind to be on point and align with the vision.
You need your body because that's the vehicle for you to actually do the things, right? You know, the typing and the calling and the D ming and the lives and the whatever and you also need your spirit and your spirit is your nervous system.
We need our nervous system to be in a calibrated state because in order to attract, in the opportunities, we need to feel as though that's safe, safe for you to be able to serve that number of people safe for you to go out and share vulnerably about, you know, whatever it is you're gonna be sharing about flop launches and nasty inner critics, whatever it is, right? And so there's work to be done around that, that we get to play with that because your mind, your body and your spirit, the holistic view of you is really conducive to the success of your business.
And there's those words again, right? Your mind, body, spirit, your business, your vision, your launch your goals, you, you it all depends on you and that's daunting and exciting.
At the same time, at least for me, I'm like, oh, but luckily you have tools and hopefully you got some tools from this episode.
I do have tools and gifts for you as you may have heard at the beginning.
I do have a brand new training coming up.
Yeah, I, I'm gonna be writing jingles soon.
Everything in my world has a jingle now.
So my friend was laughing and saying I'm ne and I'm gonna be a jingle stress soon anyways I digress align and achieve is coming up in February and it is a brand new training giving you a proven method to overcome, launch anxiety and anxiety in general, really, but really getting dialed into the launch situation to overcome launch anxiety and achieve your goals without exhausting yourself in just 15 minutes a day.
So we're going to learn more about this incredible framework that I've been alluding to here.
But you're gonna learn more about it because it's an incredibly impactful tool set to be able to take control of your mind.
So that's a free event that's coming up on February 22nd and I would love to have you join us.
So the link to join us is in the show notes, but because I don't want you to wait till then in case you got the things coming up, I have a brand new little freebie for you.
It's called Launch Light, Launch Light.
And it's a checklist of those three time periods of when we get to be really intentional about your decisions of what you're gonna be doing in order to align your self care with your sales strategy.
Ok? So it's a freebie and it's in the show notes, you'll be able to grab it.
It's called Launch Light.
It's a must have checklist.
See, there I go again.
And you know what that is is when we sing and when we're lighthearted and when we're jovial, that's an indicator that you are in a playful state.
You're in the ideal state of the nervous system which is stay and play, right? And so that's what everything here is all about is, is helping you to come back home to, you, come back home to that, that state, right? The state, I'm air quoting that we hear so much about the ease and flow of the light, the playful, the creative, the calm, the v the that that energy that is magnetic when you're feeling it authentically.
So that's what I want you to feel and I hope that you can feel that for me and I hope that you have some tools you will.
Now when you grab the the checklist to be able to and when you join us for the live training that you'll be able to really go to that state, live from that state, choose that state because just like you choose your outfit that you wear every day, the clothes that you wear every day, you get to choose your thoughts, you get to choose what you're focusing on.
You get to choose how you show up.
Are you gonna show up as your purposeful powerhouse CEO S self or as the worn out entrepreneur who knows you decide.
So until next time, thank you for taking the time and making the effort to learn how to think on purpose, move your body on purpose and show up on purpose as your true purposeful powerhouse self.
Thank you for listening and watching.
And until next time sending you all the loves, all the good launch vibes, all the grounded vibes, all the things you need.
Loving you lots, take care.
Thanks for being here.
Bye