I want to talk about an essential part of my coaching philosophy today — the Catapult Method, which is a fun way of looking at the 3 Cs of Brave Yes CEO coaching and methodology.
Two episodes ago, I talked about the goal of my work with women founders and entrepreneurs is all about the A-Factor — that focuses on alignment, audacious self-worth and authenticity. If you haven’t, check out that episode.
And in the last episode I went deep on my own personal word of the year — untamed — and how I see it playing out in my business this year.
Today I’m going to be a bit more practical and talk about the 3Cs of a Brave Yes CEO. Plus a bonus C for fun.
Clarity
Capacity
Courage
When I beganmy first business in 2012— 10 years ago — I definitely didn’t have the 3cs. But over time I learned they were essential and where I eventually began to put 80 percent of my investment and resources.
Ready to Uplevel Your Business? The 3 Cs of a Brave Yes CEO
CLARITY.
When we lack clarity we spin our wheels and end up very, very distracted and off our path.
Lacking clarity is something that evolves — the more input and ideas we consume, the less clear we become. The possibilities become endless.
I definitely made this mistake early on in my first business. I wanted to do it all — I am a manifesting generator in human design after all! And not only did I want to do it all. I did do it all. until my business was a cluster%$##.
I used to get to my desk on Monday with more ideas than time and be stuck in gridlock on what to do next.
Until I put all my energy and resources into clarity and un-complicating things — and this is exactly what I work with my clients on when it comes to YOUR vision and clarity.
Clarity is powerful.
Clarity is motivating.
Clarity is energizing.
When you know, you know.
Clarity brings forth an inner knowing of what’s next.
This doesn’t mean once you find clarity you will always have clarity.
The more clarity we have the more projects we finish. The more clarity we have the more time we use effectively. The more clarity we have the more momentum we feel in our businesses. The more clarity we have the more we communicate clearly and with impact.
Some signs you need to invest in finding and cultivating crystal clear clarity:
— you don’t know what you should be doing
— you are stuck on spin cycle of what you where you want to take your business
— you spend a lot of time on the same few tasks in your business
— you aren’t sure who you really want to be or who you really want to serve
CAPACITY.
Capacity is what we need to do our work and tend to ourselves and our families and not burnout. Capacity is the energy and vitality you need to do big, bold work in this world.
I remember when I started making capacity and well-being a big part of my creative work. My daughter was a toddler and began having huge, huge meltdowns. These meltdowns continued for years. They were so big and so overwhelming that when she would go off to school or go to bed, I felt absolutely zapped.
I had to find a way to make sure that her emotions didn’t become mine.
And that’s how my first business, Abundant Mama, was born, honestly.
And it’s still so much of the coaching work I do with my clients — clients who want the capacity to write a book, launch a program, charge more, take on more 1:1 clients without burning out, do more art, etc. etc.
We all get 24 hours.
Some of us are going to use those 24 hours super efficiently and others are not and a big part of what decides that is your capacity. Your capacity to hold space and energy for all the things.
I am a woman who likes to do all the things.
My wellbeing work is essential and includes a ton of spiritual wellbeing and emotional. I work with my clients on nurturing your WHOLE self.
Signs you need to invest in boosting your capacity:
— you fall into extremes in your productivity — supercharged productive days or weeks followed by total inaction or very unmotivated dips.
— you want to do something out of your comfort zone but you are so tired and so exhausted from the day to day of your work
— you dread some of the things you need to do to move the needle in your business or work and just don’t have the energy for it.
— you play smaller to protect your wellbeing because you are afraid that upleveling is going to “cost” you time and energy.
— you spend more time in emotional upheaval than you’d like
— you wish you have more energy for LIFE beyond work
COURAGE.
Courage to live and lead a Brave Yes mindset — that allows for that A-Factor around alignment, authenticity and activating your superpowers — is essential.
It’s the difference between a boring business and one that lights you up.
It’s the difference between playing small and having more impact.
That web is filled with a bunch of self-sabotage and limiting beliefs such as — > I can’t make the time to write a book or launch my dream offer. Or, I’m not good enough or confident enough.
Whatever it is that’s stopping you from living and leading from your most courageous self it’s keeping you safe and comfortable.
I like safe and comfortable.
In fact, I toggle between wanting to change the world and curl up in my cozy clothes and shutting out the world. This toggle life requires me to do the work of courage and leaving my comfort zone.
I work my clients on discomfort in the messy middle or in the stretch zone because our emotional override is to keep us small, still and peaceful.
But there’s nothing small, still and peaceful around launching anything – a book, a new offer, a new identity, a new life or business. Change is hard. It brings up a lot of shit.
And yet change — and Brave Yes CEOs need to make changes — is essential to keeping our businesses relevant with the times and the market.
Change doesn’t have to be burning it all down either.
Changes can be powerful and subtle. Like in how you set boundaries — see Boundary Boost for more on this — or how you choose to do your work.
Some of the signs you need to invest inner courage work:
— You’ve had a big dream or goal on your list for years.
— You know you need to take your biz to the next level but something is holding you back.
— You self-sabotage a lot and need to get out of your own way.
— You are the bottleneck of your business.
— You desire more bold marketing and visibility but keep hanging back and hiding.
So that’s my Catapult Method: Clarity, Capacity and Courage — and my Brave Yes Coaching Program helps you with ALL THREE of these areas.
LET’S WORK TOGETHER: You are invited to schedule a call with me! If you need help boosting and cultivating clarity, capacity or courage than my coaching method is ideal as you consider upleveling your role as the leader of your business. All coaching discovery calls with me or free and pressure-free. They are simply a zoom conversation to see if private coaching with me is what you need right now to get unstuck, do what feels good in your business and start to move the needle and find more momentum on the business you dream of having.SCHEDULE HERE.
I’ve been paying close attention to what my body wants me to know about my word of the year — untamed — and how I can have an untamed business mindset.
This, of course, isn’t always easy to do in the business world.
Our tendency is to conform. We’re taught this at such young ages.
And more importantly, we’re taught to be three things: small, hidden and quiet.
In today’s Soulcast Episode on The Brave Yes CEO Show, I’m talking about this very thing and how I’m applying an Untamed Mindset in my work and business this year.
Are you feeling trapped in your business these days? As if there is too much to do that doesn’t feel good and you haven’t had time for the good stuff?
There is one thing that makes my heart hurt and that’s when a woman CEO tells me she feels bored and trapped in her business and it’s impacting her wellbeing.
If there is anything I’ve learned as a Brave Yes CEO and entrepreneur over the past almost 9 years, it’s this: Nothing in business is ever worth losing my own mental health and self care over.
We often go into being our own boss for the freedom. That was absolutely the case for me. I wanted to be home for my girls when they got home from school. I had been a latchkey kid in the early 1980s — as many of my GenX friends were — and so being home with them was important to me.
FREEDOM in entrepreneurship is vital.
Many of us learned in the 9 to 5 world that it’s not for us. we don’t want to be boxed in. We want …
Freedom to do as we please — including taking better care of ourselves and our families.
Freedom to be more fully ourselves — dress as we please, work at our best times and express ourselves our way.
Freedom to use our creative genius — being in business allows our strengths to shine.
And yet eventually, just like with any longtime job, we can fall into a rut and forget that freedom was the mission. We can find ourselves feeling just as trapped in our business as we did in a regular full time job.
We work more or longer hours
We lose authentic ourselves by catering to the clients and customers
We get trapped under the rubble of the daily work and lose sight of our gifts
We get caught in a survival mode cycle
Feeling Trapped in Your Business? A Framework to Keep Freedom at the Heart and Soul of Your Entrepreneur Mindset
Running a business shouldn’t feel like you are trapped.
Never.
One of my Brave Yes CEO Power Tools is setting Bolder Boundaries — to make sure you have the time to BE the CEO you want to be of your business. I’m hosting a FREE podcast series on this now. Learn about the Bolder Business Boundaries Boost here.
I help my coaching clients dig out from that feeling of being trapped in their business — or industry — by co-creating a Brave Yes Business Blueprint that gives you a clear vision of how your want to show up as a CEO who is totally aligned with your soul’s goals.
I’m all about alignment, freedom and authenticity.
It is essential that you are able to carry your most authentic self into your work — through your marketing sales and offers — and to cultivate audacious self-worth by activating your highest superpowers.
I call this your A-Factor as a Brave Yes CEO.
Here’s Powerful Framework to Keep Freedom and Authenticity at the Heart and Soul of Your Business Mindset
—> LISTEN TO THIS BRAVE YES CEO EPISODE NOW OR KEEP READING FOR A SHORTER VERSION:
— Authentic Actions — I have dabbled in all kinds of marketing and branding of my businesses over the years. The only time traction happens for me is when I’m being my most empowered, authentic self.
— Activating your Superpowers — Your strengths — not your weaknesses — is what will get you ahead of the curve and help you stand out and help you feel joy. I help you unlock your superpowers so you can build on them and bolster them.
— Audacious self-worth — and enoughness — Part of your superpower system is your self-worth that gives you the inner POWER and confidence to do more of the brave work needed to be successful, to create momentum in your business, and to do the work that feels good.
— Alignment with your soul’s goals and values — A Brave Yes CEO must always feel aligned. Aligned with your soul’s goals. Your values. Your needs.
BOLDER BUSINESS BOUNDARIES BOOST kicks off this week! Over the course of this FREE podcast series you will hear more about how boundaries will ensure you can live by the A-Factor that I use in my coaching with women CEOs, founders and entrepreneurs. LEARN MORE AND SIGN UP HERE.
In many ways, the mere act of starting a business — freelance or otherwise — is a Brave Yes.
The second you step out of that 9 to 5 trap and into a life with more time freedom, you are essentially saying YES to yourself.
That is always the first Brave Yes™ — a threshold of beginnings, uncertainty and hope.
It’s scary.
It’s liberating.
But, the truth is that no matter how scary and liberating that first step is, the success of your business is entirely up to your willingness to adopt a Brave Yes CEO Mindset and begin planning in a way that allows you to maintain, scale and even grow your business in the way you desire.
And, the other part of the equation is about YOU loving your business and the life it’s bringing to you over and over, year after year.
So a Brave Yes CEO, as I see HER, is living and leading a bit differently than the average CEO. She’s …
Making decisions based on her own soul alignment — not just on what will sell and make money.
Not doing business as usual.
Living and leading in a way that is operates in her integrity and values.
Choosing systems that promote ease and joy over exhaustion for herself.
Using her strengths and superpowers for good, for impact and for deliberate action.
Focused on leaving a legacy not just a business.
Taking imperfect action and courageous risks often out of her comfort zone.
Doing the hard work on herself to have the clarity, capacity and courage to make those bold moves she wants to make — without experiencing burnout.
There will be more to say on what a Brave Yes CEO is over the course of this year.
First, it is going to be the name of my podcast.
Secondly, join my newsletter … For the first half of 2022 — the first 26 Weeks — I will be unpack The ABCs of a Brave Yes CEO.
Finally, let’s work together in 2022!
What could you do if you had more creative momentum and positive energy in your life? The possibilities are endless … let’s make it happen.
I’ve been enjoying a very slow final two weeks of 2021 and I can’t tell you how needed it is. It’s been a year.
So I thought I’d share my own Year in Review – and a glance at the year ahead. As I write this, it’s a Friday and I’m at my co-working space downtown and I’m looking out the big wide windows at the quiet world. And at the same time, my teenagers went off to school under some mysterious warning of a possible school shooting.
It was courageous to send them to school. But honestly they didn’t even ask to stay home so I didn’t want to project my fears onto them.
Moved boldly into clarity, capacity and courage coaching by launching The Brave Yes. This was my first month not running a membership community in 8 full years so I think I mostly felt lost with not having 24/7 responsibility. I saw my creativity begin to flourish again and it was beautiful. The girls turned 15. And we got a puppy! My girl Jasmine “Jazzy” Jazzercise.
FEBRUARY
Oofph. This was a hard month. Dark, snowy, cold February in a pandemic and the kids not in school — especially the one who needs people in her life daily. I don’t want another month like this one in the future. But, I launched my Brave Yes Voices series on the podcast and really started to love those courageous, personal stories.
MARCH
I started to really find my voice in my new body of work here and began planting some seeds. I also enlisted a coach to help me find clarity and find some support to regroup.
APRIL
The girls were back in school four days a week this month and I was able to start to imagine what my work life and business — and coaching programming — would look like. I spent a lot of time writing and re-writing the copy on my website. I spent so much time on this … and I’m happy I did. I get a lot of comments on how much my words are resonating.
MAY
I enjoyed a lot of public speaking this month — including at a trauma conference where I was able to share my Strong Model for building Resilience. I also started leading labyrinth walks at my church as a fun spiritual wellbeing practice. They weren’t well attended so I stopped eventually.
JUNE
I swam in the sea. Frolicked on the beach. Journaled in a tree house. Did yoga daily on the deck in the woods. And found my waves necklace that I wear a lot. This was a beautiful month where we stopped masking and started living a bit more in the world. This was also the month that I realized that working with corporate America and career women coaching was not my path.
JULY
HOT. This was just a hot month. A lot of swimming in the pool and the familiar juggle of motherhood and working motherhood — loaded with guilt of not doing enough to enjoy summer. However at the end of the month, I did take the girls on a 1500 mile road trip to see my family for the first time in two years and we had a beautiful time. It was the first time being with my one and only nephew. He’s 2 now. I broke down sobbing when it was time to leave.
AUGUST
This was a month I’d love to forget. At first, there was a lot of back to school muck. A new school that didn’t work out. The whole masking and not masking thing made things harder than they needed to be. There were floods. In the middle my husband turned 60. And then 2 weeks later he had a heart attack and I saw him go into cardiac arrest for 45 seconds.
SEPTEMBER
More life struggles continued here. I lived in survival mode the entire month just trying to heal the shock and fear and find our new normal. But by the end of the month, things started to even out and started to see a new passion for my work — being a coach for creative entrepreneurs and CEOs who want to uplevel in their life or business.
OCTOBER
This was just a recuperation month where we started to see everything calm down. Kids were in school 5 full days a week. The puppy turned ONE and she started to be a little more calm, too. 🙂 I also began hosting masterminds for entrepreneurs for a friend’s business this month which has been such a joy to do each week.
NOVEMBER
The big thing this month was that my Sister in Law asked us over for Thanksgiving and I didn’t have to cook or do anything. I know you know how delicious this was.
DECEMBER
I went on a solo trip to Richmond this month and PEOPLED hard. It was energizing and exhausting. And I’m now ready to enjoy two weeks of laying low and working on a few big projects that I haven’t had time to do until now. I’m also resting a lot. It’s been a strange, beautiful and scary year. I’m ready for it to be over. I’m ready for a fresh start.
A LOOK AHEAD
All year in 2021, I offered my coaching to a wide variety of women with the hopes of helping women make a BRAVE YES career change or uplevel. And while that was some of my clients, what I saw most was that my work resonates more with creatives and creative entrepreneurs and CEOs.
And so … in January 2022, The Brave Yes Show is going to be renamed to Brave Yes CEO. And my new newsletter will be focused on what it means to be a Brave Yes CEO.
This, of course, is a Brave Yes in the making as I write and share this. I know this means a good-bye to so many who have been following me over the years.
But if you are an entrepreneur — or if you know one — please subscribe to my new newsletter and start to be a part of the energy I’m creating around stepping up as leaders of our businesses. Of course if you are a leader, this work will still apply to you and may want to follow along as well.
But my coaching will not change. I’ll still work with my current clients but I’ll be focusing my coaching work on helping highly creative and super scattered CEOs and entrepreneurs find the clarity, capacity and courage to uplevel and put their work into the world.
As for my personal life, well: The girls are turning 16 in January so that means a big celebration that right now — fingers crossed — includes going to NYC for a long weekend and, of course, that rite of passage of getting their driver’s permits. We’ll also celebrate Jazzy’s Gotcha Day on Jan. 9.
→ And my big goal for this year is to write my next book — and invest in the resources I need to make it beautiful and successful.
Now, I’d love to say how thankful I am for YOU for being here this year and being a part of this community. I’d love to hear about YOUR goals.
Do you ever wish all that busy work that you are trapped under each and every daywould actually just work, already? It would get you further along on the path? It would spotlight the magic sauce to more ease and more joy?
But.
That’s not what’s happening? Instead you keep spinning your wheels through the messy middle of now with hopes of getting to a brighter future. A happier future.
Well, I am not a fan of wasted action.
I don’t want small talk.
I don’t want big plans that hold me hostage from living a beautiful life.
🔥 I want impact.
🔥 I want to be doing transformational work with those who want to do transformational work — because WE are the ones building this new world.
🔥 I want flow that feels good and in my values of how I want to lead and live.
Let’s forget tactics.
Let’s build beautiful things.
Let’s light up the darkness.
Let’s move mountains with our divine rage.
Let’s forget the rules and follow our brilliance.
Let’s set fire to the things no longer working — in ourselves, in our businesses, in society and in this world.
It’s time to plant the seeds for your tomorrow and our new and much better world.
It’s time to get off the sidelines.
It’s time to stop playing small.
It’s time to get clear, summon the capacity and dig deep for the courage to put your #BraveYes into the world.
This year I’ve been playing with a new methodology around intention setting since my work is about playing bigger and really rising up and shining more in your life and specifically your work.
I have a general rule — well, it’s more a bit of an anarchist/non-conformist/anti-authoritarian streak — where if you tell me exactly what to do, I’m not going to do it.
My clients know this about me. 😄
So, when all the craze several years ago was picking a word of the year, the more my brain tried and tried, the more my heart and soul resisted.
So I started setting intentions instead and that was all great.
But sometimes intentions are a little too comfy.
How to Set Brave Yes Intentions for your Business and Life
I’ve been testing this approach with some of my coaching clients and it’s all about setting your Brave Yes Intentions and THAT has felt great for me — and my clients are loving it as well. Just enough push to keep us in flow — and not too much to create overwhelm or exhaustion.
Setting Soul Goals & Brave Yes intentions is not a left brained exercise.
It’s right brained.
It’s spiritual.
It’s time consuming.
And it needs to be done in the perfect environment — a safe space or spaciousness — where you can really open up and allow all possibilities to step out of hiding. Otherwise you end up choosing intentions based on shoulds or false illusions — those things that are based on what is beckoned to you, that shows up in front of you and suddenly you need to — like my daughter with Starbucks. She doesn’t need it until she sees it and it sure is everywhere.
For me, it begins with a bit of a ritual: spiritual practice of journaling, meditation and contemplation and then digging deep for the questions I need to ask myself.
The best questions make us think harder and go deeper within. So I want to coach you today on finding your personal Brave Yes Intentions.
Let’s just pretend for a second that we’re together on Zoom and you are being coached. I would ask that you have a notepad with you to take notes. You’ll want to capture the ideas that rise up.
The first question I’d ask you — and one I’ve been asking my clients this month — is what seeds do you want to plan in 2022 to create the new world we could help design and take shape?
Sit with that for a minute and let it rest with you. What seeds do you want to plant? YOU. Seeds of _____.
For example, if you want a kinder more just world — your personal Brave Yes Intentions will be to do more justice or kindness work in your life. How can you operationalize or systematize climate justice or Black Lives Matter?
Sometimes the best way to find your Brave Yes Intentions is to look back at the past year and reflect on what unfolded that you did not serve you and start to wrestle with what life could be like without that — whatever it is.
For years I’ve been walking women through these very intentions though in the past they were geared to staying small, being peaceful and falling into a cozy quiet place.
Now, my work is the complete opposite.
I’m here to work with women who are ready to blaze their own path.
To play bigger
To be at the tables where change is happening.
To rise up and let divine rage take over.
Let’s keep going.
Take a deep breath and ask yourself this:
What do you want more of this year?
What do you want less of?
What do you want to make sure you keep prioritizing?
What do you want to start or stop?
When I think about my own intentions for 2022, especially after the nearly two years of this pandemic and the shock and fear we experienced as a family due to health issues, I’m seeing a need to have a set of intentions around living life more. Our girls are going to be wrapping up 10th grade and going into 11th in 2022 and the time is slipping away for us to be together. It’s already slipping, honestly. And we learned that life is short and not at all predictable. That we need to live more for today.
So my Brave Yes Intentions are very much around playing bigger and taking more risks than ever both personally, professionally and certainly creatively and in my coaching programming.
And, the funny thing is that while doing the inner work to find my 2022 Brave Yes Intentions — I found my absolute perfect Word of the Year. It came naturally to me and powerfully. So 2022 is definitely going to be very interesting. I’m already feeling the power of my word and my intentions and I see the possibilities opening up.
What’s ONE Brave Yes Intention you have for yourself, your life or your business — for 2022?
