How 2024 is Leading Me to Shift How I Run My Business in 2025

INTRO: [00:00:00] After generating over a million dollars in sales and selling one of her businesses with a single email, your host, Kathryn Thompson, takes an unconventional approach to marketing and sales. So if you're ready to tap into a more powerful way to be seen, heard, and a sought after entrepreneur in your industry without having to spend endless hours marketing your business and chasing clients, you're in the right place.

Be The Sought After Entrepreneur Podcast is here to help you ditch the cookie cutter, one size fits all approach to marketing and use your unique energy to effortlessly attract the most aligned clients. When you do this, you can spend less time marketing your business and more time doing your soul work and enjoying the richness of your life.

Welcome to Be The Sought After Entrepreneur Podcast. And here's your host, Kathryn Thompson.

Kathryn Thompson: Hey, hey, super stoked that you're tuning in this week's episode and I cannot wait to dive [00:01:00] in today's topic because I want to give you sort of a recap of what my journey has looked like in 2024 in my business and where I feel like I'm being called to shift and change and evolve in 2025 and beyond. And the beautiful thing about Life and business and all of this is that we are in a constant state of change and evolution if we allow it and if we let it.

And my default tendency for a very long time in my life was to try and control scenarios, things, people, relationships, you name it, to try and control the shift and the change. When I felt like things were different or things were moving in a different direction, my natural default was to grip and to hold and to try to do everything that I could to preserve or keep or whatnot.

And I think a lot of people can relate with that, right? [00:02:00] Is that change is and can be a scary thing even if You look like you are this sort of bold action taker, this high achiever that goes after what they want. Behind the scenes, it can be scary, and there can be a lot of fear that comes up, and there can be a lot of default tendencies that We have within ourselves and for me, my default is to try and preserve, fix, keep constant and the same.

And so if you've been listening to my podcast for a while, you've probably heard me allude to the fact that at the beginning of 2024, I felt this real energy shift around me, but I couldn't quite pinpoint what that shift was. And my natural tendency is to try and find the solution to try and solve the problem, quote unquote, like what is this energy shift?

Where am I being called to pivot, [00:03:00] change, go grow, you name it. And so what I did was invest a lot of time and resources, money into Trying to optimize my ads because that felt like the next best thing to do, right? It's like you're in this business, you've reached these really great places of success, and now in order to continue to grow and scale, you've We've got to optimize what we're doing.

We've got to scale what we're doing. And the natural tendency when you're running ads is, is to scale ads that are converting is to put more money into the ads. And so that's actually what I did between March and May of 2024 was put about 25 percent more into my ad spend. And industry standards would say that if you spend more in a converting [00:04:00] audience, right, your ads are converting, your masterclass is converting, whatever it is that you're doing is converting.

So if you up the ad spend and you're seeing a 2x return, a 6x return, whatever it might be. You'll naturally see that, right? You'll just, it's, it's a numbers game. We hear this all the time. It's just a numbers game. And if you just play the numbers game, things will work out. What I've experienced in my business is that's not always true.

And it's not always true because life and business is very nuanced. Meaning what works for somebody else might not work for you. And it's not because You're not doing a good enough job or you're not trying hard enough or whatever. It's just that business and life isn't cookie cutter. And the experience that I'm here to have in the world and what I'm here to do in business and life is going to look drastically different than other people.

And so I increased my ad spend [00:05:00] by 25 percent and Granted, we had way more sales calls getting booked. Granted, we had way more people coming through my masterclass. Granted, we were seeing a lower cost per lead, quote unquote, things were looking promising, but business in life is nuanced. And so it really depends on.

what you want in your life and your business and what are those numbers showing you in relation to that? Well, we had a lot more sales calls booked. We had a lot more no shows. Well, we had a lot more people inquiring about the work. There were a lot more people who weren't qualified for the work, who weren't quite ready for Spellbound.

And that's what I've noticed Particularly in my business, and I'm not saying this is across the board in everybody's business, but every time I've raised my ad spend to quote [00:06:00] unquote scale based on what people will often recommend, what I've noticed is is that I'm not always getting the results that I.

desire, which is people that are ready and a right fit for the programs that I'm offering. And also people who are going to book a sales call and show up to the sales call without a lot of coaxing, right? Without a lot of like reminders and whatnot. There's the, the action taker that's going to book the call and they're going to show up to the call.

And if they don't show up to the call, then they communicate why they're not, or they go ahead and they cancel it. Right in advance. Now I get things happen. I get life happens. I get emails get lost in junk and all of those sorts of things. Hands down. I'm not looking for people to be perfect in how they're showing up.

And I really don't want people to expect me to be perfect. Either, right? I make mistakes. Sometimes my wires get crossed to my calendar. Those things happen and I totally get it. [00:07:00] But what I've experienced, like I said, is that sometimes the thing that we are quote unquote trying to fix or solve or shift in our business or our life, we take these actions that aren't really the right next best step for ourselves.

And that's sort of what I realized in. Between March and sort of May that I was being shown that things were shifting and changing and rather than getting curious because my default is to fix right my default is to remove myself from the uncomfortable feeling of change and to fix something and I can control ads.

So I think, and I can control doing work around ads, and I can control all these little things I'm doing. It's a distraction, right? And we know this. It's a distraction. Those actions and whatnot are a distraction. Also, what I know about myself is, is that even [00:08:00] though that's my default, and I know and I'm aware of it, Sometimes I fall back into that sort of pattern.

Sometimes I repeat that pattern. And it doesn't mean that I'm less embodied or I just haven't like, learned my lesson yet, quote unquote, right? I think a lot of manifestation personal development wants us to believe that like, you just haven't learned it yet. No, sometimes it's just a default. And as a business owner who wants to do good work in this world and is heart led and wants to put the work out there, again, I think our natural tendency is to be a creative problem solver.

And I don't think that that's a bad thing. I think it's having the awareness and the recognition that sometimes we try things that might not work. and they might not go the way that we want them to. And it might be that we try the thing, we vest a lot of resources and time into it, only to realize, huh, this isn't quite it.

And there's nothing right or wrong about that. And there's nothing to shame ourselves around it. And there's nothing to further the spiral of negative critical self talk, right? That's [00:09:00] where, that's where that key awareness comes in, where we can say, huh, I made the mistake, probably isn't the direction I want to go.

Maybe I defaulted to how I had done things in the past, but I tried. You know, and I'm going to move on from this with this radical self acceptance of like, it's okay to make mistakes. It's okay for things not to work out. It's okay for things to change. And so in May, this nudge within me became louder and louder and louder that what I was focusing my attention on and where I was focusing my attention wasn't it.

And so I, for the first time in a really long time, really pared back my ads, turned my ads back down from what I was spending over the last three months, which was a 25 percent increase, dialed it down, got a little bit more intentional with the ads and the content that I was putting out there. And June was one of my best months in my business.

It was my highest gross month [00:10:00] in my business. And I, you know, Contemplated and sat there for a minute because a lot of my journey that I've experienced in life and business is usually counterintuitive. People say, do it this way, and I do it that way, and it doesn't really pan out. And then I try to do something totally different, and I get exceptional results that don't even quite make sense on, in metrics.

And so, I spent the summer and sort of early fall just sort of sitting with the notion that I knew things were shifting and changing but still with the idea of like I'm going to show up and serve my clients as I always do because I don't know what the shift is. But there were a lot of things coming up throughout the year that I started to sort of question.

And anytime I start to question things and or I get a deep sense of like this is what I want. Even if it doesn't make sense to anybody else, I really sort of sit with that. And some of the things I started to really [00:11:00] question or contemplate, and I've probably felt it, you know, prior to 2024, but one of the big things that I really started to contemplate in 2024 that came really apparent to me that really started to pop out in other people's like content, things that I really started to see that were like so clear to me that maybe I hadn't seen before, is all around sort of this ego driven approach that we often see in business and marketing, and we probably see it in corporate, right?

And in our day to day jobs, and maybe in relationships, but this whole notion that I am the best, or I am better than, or I am the only one who teaches it this way and I get exceptional results for my clients, or look at what my 2. 5 seconds working with me. I started to see those messages for what they were, and I had participated in some of that messaging.

So, I'm gonna be really transparent with you, like, this is [00:12:00] old learning, and sometimes what we used to do becomes really clear of, like, this is no longer serving me. And I started to, like, move further and further away from that type of messaging, where I don't want to say I was tooting my own horn, but it was like I was taking credit for client success, but I was also using client success stories to be like, look at me, I'm so good at what I do.

And, or using in very subtle ways in my messaging to show people or prove to people that like, quote unquote, I am the best at what I do. And I started to really contemplate that because It doesn't feel like it's in alignment for me. It doesn't feel in alignment for me to be this guru, this all knowing human that knows the best for what you need and what everybody else needs.

But I also didn't feel in alignment anymore with my values that I [00:13:00] didn't want to use my content to pat myself on the back and to show people through my content why I'm the best and better than, and oftentimes we don't see it, right? We don't see it until we see it. And, uh, Oftentimes we're doing it in our content without us really kind of even realizing it until one day we're like, huh, this doesn't quite feel right anymore.

And that's a big contemplation for me. And I think a lot of personal brands are driven by this sort of ego, messaging or this, I am the guru. So the contemplation for me was, do I want to be a personal brand? Do I want to have people looking quote unquote up to me to provide them with advice? Do I want to be seen as this leader in X, Y topic [00:14:00] or whatnot.

Do I want that type of business? Do I want massive following? Do I want, you know, all eyes on me? Do I want to be somebody that has to say something profound all the time and have this like profound effect on my clients? These were all the things I was sort of dancing with because the reality is, is I don't.

You know, and that is me speaking a hundred percent truth to it, and it's really easy to get wrapped up in the personal development world where we're being told we just need to be bolder, you just need to take up more space, you just need to, you know, get comfortable with tooting your own horn, you just need to, and it's again, something that has to be fixed within you when in reality, it could just be that my life path and purpose is isn't here to be the all knowing guru, isn't here to [00:15:00] shout from the rooftops how amazing I am, doesn't want to be in comparison to anybody, sees the magnificence in everybody, and how nuanced we all are, and how we all bring our own unique gifts to the world, but how we all have so much more in common than often we're led to believe, or that, you know, we're seeing out in the world with all of the divisive messaging with all of the separation and everything.

Do I want to be part of that rhetoric? Do I want to be in that? And that's what personal brands are really foundationally built on. They're built on being the authority. They're built on knowing the answers. They're built on having to toot your own horn regularly. Right? To show people that you know what you're talking about.[00:16:00] 

And there's nothing wrong with that if that's what you want. But for me, oftentimes, it's led with ego rather than soul and heart. And it's led with ego because we're attached to comparison. There's always this comparative, right? Whether we're comparing ourselves to somebody else going, I'm not as good as so and so, therefore, I can't have a voice in this space.

because this person knows more than I am, or everybody else is already saying that and so who am I to step into this space and add to this? That's the comparison of I'm not good enough or who am I to sort of be doing this, which is one side of this. The other side of it is, is I am the best. I'm the only one who teaches storytelling or content creation or Somatic healing in this way.

I am the absolutely only human that does it. And my clients [00:17:00] get these results as a result of that. There's an underlying nuance here. And it's not about being bold and taking up space and owning your message and having that claim. There's an ego there. There's an underlying essence of ego. Because that message only creates further separation from everything else.

I am this isolated human over here that is the best at what I do. But are you really? And I'm not saying that to downplay people. I'm, I'm being honest about it. There's a lot of sabbatic healers out there that do a phenomenal fucking work. There's a lot of doctors that are phenomenal at what they do.

There's A lot of content creators that are amazing messaging coaches, you name it, copywriters who are absolutely brilliant at what they do, but what makes them the [00:18:00] best? And that's an honest question, right? When someone says, I am the best at what I do, or I am the only one who does it this way, and therefore my clients get these results.

When someone Other people are coming to me from other programs, right? There's this comparison, this, I am better than so and so, but in what regard, because I've had many clients that are like, Oh my gosh, I love what you do. You're so amazing. Da, da, da, da, da, right? Those clients easily. Could have gone to somebody else who does messaging and got amazing support as well.

And I guess that's where I'm sort of looking at it from, right? This is the deep contemplation that I was like, huh, where do I want to sit in the personal brand space? And do I want to be in the personal brand space? Do I want to be in the knowledge space sharing my wisdom and knowledge? And if I am in that space, [00:19:00] how do I want that to be?

And just because people contemplate where they're at and where they want to go and really putting everything out there on the table to have that open curiosity about doesn't mean they're burning their business down. Doesn't mean they no longer like their business. None of that, right? This is the curiosity that I find is so needed.

When we feel like things are shifting in our business or our life is to really unpack it, to get really curious about all of the things so that we can see all of the possibilities. If I was narrow viewed and I said, well, I can't burn my business down and I can't pivot industry and I can't pivot products or services because this is what it is, then I would be limiting myself to the possibility of what's possible beyond.

The confines of what I have. Right? Innovation doesn't happen while we're working within the box, right? It's we have [00:20:00] mastery in what it is we're doing, or we have a vision of something that could be better served within an industry, right? If you think about the Dyson vacuum cleaner, right? He was looking at all of the other vacuum cleaners that are in the market and was like, huh, I could create something that.

offers a more lightweight product, uh, no like plug in cord, which is one of the biggest headaches when it comes to vacuuming, right? It's like, I can't imagine not having my Dyson now, because I can't imagine having to plug in all of the time and then have to drag this huge thing around. He was innovating the current vacuum system, right?

That is only possible. When we're willing to look at the current system and go, what is working? What isn't working? What could be improved? [00:21:00] If he was sitting there going, what has to be plugged in? There's no way that we can build a vacuum cleaner without plugging it in. Then he'd be limiting himself to the possibility of what is possible beyond.

What is the current system? And so if I'm looking at my business and I'm looking at where I want to go and the evolution of it, and I'm also listening to my heart and what it's guiding me to do, I have to put everything on the table and I have to come at it from every possible angle. And so, That was one of the biggest contemplations that I was having this year.

Do I want to be the guru? Do I want to be the all knowing, right? And not that I'm going in it with that. And sure, I could say, well, I don't want to be a guru and all knowing, but in the knowledge and coaching space, right? Yes, you can lead and guide your clients and whatnot, but they are looking to you [00:22:00] for support.

That doesn't mean that everybody comes in going, well, you have to tell me what to do and how to do it and where to do it. But they're still looking to you for support in an area that you are an expert in, right? Majority of people, that's why they're hiring coaches. We are seeing a shift of people going, I want to create my own self mastery and sovereignty.

Absolutely. That's the work, right? The work is to develop more self trust is to lead more from that place. But they're looking to, to, to find that support. So, that was a big contemplation. Because, for me, like I said, I didn't want to have my posts coming across that I was better than everybody else, and that I was the top messaging person on the planet, and that I'm the only one who teaches this.

because for most of us, [00:23:00] yes, we might have our own unique play on it. And yes, our clients might get exceptional results, but there are a lot of other people out there that have clients getting exceptional results too. And again, I'm, I'm not coming at it from a mediocre place. I'm coming at it from when there is ego driven in a lot of the messaging that we're putting out there.

And I think a couple, Earlier this year I had said, you know, you can still be an exceptional guide for your people without having to put other people down in your content. And that can be very overt and that can also be really subtle. So subtle that it's just the energy behind it that is like, I need to prove to these people that I know what I'm talking about.

And I also need to prove to them that I am the best. And I also am a bit jaded because I'm coming at it from, I'm seeing maybe people not getting the delivery that they want, or I'm having people come [00:24:00] into my world saying they've tried all these things and it hasn't worked. And why is that, right? There must be something wrong with the coaches or the mentors they've hired.

And that can come across in a very sort of judgmental way. And. There was this feeling of like, I don't want to be part of that, right? I want to be part of a collective where we can all fit beautifully and without that separation, without that ego driven, without that I'm going to climb over top of you to get to where I want to go, um, And without the proving energy that you are enough, I think one of the biggest conversations that we've had in Spellbound this year was all around like, what do I need to do to be valuable?

And it's such a beautiful question because it reveals so much about where we put value. So much of the value we put out into the world is [00:25:00] so that somebody else can tell us that we are valuable. There's nothing really you need to do to be valuable. Some of the most profound experiences I've been part of is just having somebody witness with no response, with no advice.

With no, like, do these 10 steps and you'll be better sort of thing. Like, some of it is just like, let me just share what's on my heart and hopefully that just be a mirror that I'm able to just process in that witnessing. And that is just someone showing up as who they are. So, that's kind of where I landed in the fall of this year was like, Okay, if this being a personal brand and being the face of the business and all of that requires authority building, all of the things, is this where I sort of want to take?

my [00:26:00] business. And I went away to Hawaii for two weeks. And prior to going to Hawaii, I had an astrocatography reading, which is locational astrology. So based on your astrology, where in the world are places that you could be more creative, spiritual healing, relationships, you name it. And I didn't know my locations.

prior to having this reading. Now, I will preface that in the summer, I was feeling really called to like go inward and internal. So a lot of the thoughts that were coming up for me in the summer was, I want to not necessarily teach, or if I am teaching, that's a component of my business, but there also is another arm of my business where My expression, maybe I'm creating a product, is something that is quote unquote sold.

So similar to when I own my wine business, right? I sold and produced wine. It [00:27:00] wasn't a requirement for me to be like, I am the leader in producing wine. I am the, you know, like it had nothing to do with I am, it had to do with the product that was being produced and delivered. Of course, we had to deliver on our promise, which was quality product.

The thing that I learned about that was, and that has come sort of full circle with me is, is that my people talked. I didn't have to talk. I didn't have to say that we had the highest quality or the best quality or the best wine. I didn't have to say any of that. because my people did that for me. And that's something that I want to sort of leave you with in this podcast is that if what you do is so damn good, you won't need to shout from the rooftops that it is because your people will talk for you.

And I think that's a big piece that we're missing in the personal brand space, specifically coaching and knowledge base and the guru space, right? Is that I have to be the one that gets online and has a live [00:28:00] and tells everybody how amazing I am. and how much money I'm making and how many clients I'm serving and all of the things that I have to be the one that does that.

What I think was the revelation for me this year was that I didn't have to ever do that in my offline business. It was never a requirement. It was never a requirement to showcase how many bottles of wine we sold. It was never a requirement to showcase how much money I was making. It was never a requirement to, you know, show that our wine.

had won medals in wine competitions. Like I never had to do any of that because my clients talked for me. They're the ones who told people. They're the ones who left reviews without prompting. They're the ones who told their friends about it. And yet again, in the personal development world or personal brand world, it's like we have to toot our own horn.

And I'm not saying that owning what you do and owning your brilliance is [00:29:00] bad. I'm just saying that there is a balance. And I think that's where the resistance for me has been this year. And when I say resistance, I mean the thing that's coming up, that's having me get curious about where I want to go.

And the curiosity is coming from, huh, interesting, why is this a requirement in personal brand, specifically coaching? And having the experience that I've had outside of this, I'm able to sort of contemplate these things and also then innovate and change the way we do things because I have past lived experience.

You have the same, right? You're coming into your world, into your area of expertise, into wherever you're landing with your own knowledge and expertise that you're bringing to the table, which means. It's getting curious about what feels like it's not in alignment with you. Again, not from a judgmental place of like, they're doing it wrong.

How dare they do it that way? Cause that's ego. [00:30:00] Right? If you think about control and certainty, right? Trying to control somebody else's behavior, trying to control an entire industry, that's an illusion. We don't have the control over that. And that's the high achiever, the hypervigilant, oftentimes the empath in a lot of ways, but it's, we're trying to control it.

If I just get them to change the way they see things, then I'm doing my job. If I just change the way we do things in this industry, and I Use every ounce of willpower and force to do it, then I've served my mission on this planet, when that is ego, that is 100 percent ego driving that. Sure, you have a mission here, you have a mission on this, you were born with a soul path, 100%, but it's not, your soul path isn't to control how the world [00:31:00] works.

That's not what your soul path is. Right? And the impact that you have on people is out of your control. 100%. That's another big revelation for me when we come back to sort of the value piece I was talking about, and how a lot of us were talking about, like, what do I need to do to be of value to my clients?

The impact you have on people has nothing to do with you. You can create, you can show up, you can share your message with the world, like I am doing right now. What you take away from this podcast, I have zero control over. And when I try to create content from a place of, well, if I say this and this and this and I want them to do this, this and this, that's control.

So that was the other big piece of my contemplation post Hawaii. So, I went to Hawaii, There was a lot of energy there for me. It was a really great place for me [00:32:00] to be, specifically this island, Hawaii Island, the big island, as a lot of people call it, if I would have gone to Maui or Oahu or Kauai, it would have been very different, but the big piece of my sort of realization post this was, and I've talked about it a lot in my content, but it was like, where else am I doing this in my business, right?

Where am I? Thank you. overcompensating to ensure that people get what I'm talking about and what I see. And a lot of content is created from that place. I need it to make sense to people. I need them to understand it. If they don't follow it the way that I've described it, and then they don't get the results, then what does that mean for me?

And when we're creating content and we're expressing from that place, that energy, We're just trying to control when we really have no control. I have no control what you'll do with this episode. I have no control what [00:33:00] insights you're going to garner from this episode. And why would I? All of us are unique.

All of us come with different perspectives. All of us are at different levels of what we want and are here to receive. Similarly with If you create a program or a course or a digital product or you produce and sell wine, I can't control whether or not you like that particular wine. That's up to you to decide.

And yet lots of us turn ourselves inside out to try to make the person happy. I just want you to like my wine. I just want you to like that wine. Well, if you don't like it, it's not my, it's out of my control. So that was another sort of big piece of this. Where else in my business am I overcompensating?

Where else am I overcompensating to put people [00:34:00] on the track to quote, unquote, get the results that I want them to get, right? When your results have nothing to do with me and the results that you want to create have nothing to do with me. That's totally up to you. So here we are going into 2025 and what I know to be true for me and my businesses, what 2023 was asking me to do was to Reinvent the way I thought I needed to show up on social in my business, right?

I really pared down my social media content creation. I posted, like I said, four to six times a month and had one of my best years in business. And, This year, going into 2025, 2024 was definitely a contemplation, introspection, further letting go, further releasing control, but also [00:35:00] becoming more and more aware of, like, my default and what I tend to do and really sort of taking that and how I do things.

So, thanks knowing how to move through that now going forward in a lot of ways, but also the introspection and the notion to not rush my process, meaning I had the feeling there was an energy shift in January, I felt it even deeper in May, and I felt it even deeper leading into going to Hawaii and now sort of seeing what 2025 is asking me to do.

And 2025 is asking me to really look at how I view and how I navigate my personal brand and what that actually looks like. Meaning in 2023, I was asked to like, slow down. Can you post less and still thrive in your business? Right. 2025 is like, can you really do [00:36:00] things differently when it comes to how you share content, how you create content, whether you're the face of it, like, can you be different in the business?

And then what does look, what does creating a separate brand sort of look like, meaning something from your creative expression that isn't marketing and business, right? Now, one might say your creative expression is marketing and business, and it is to some degree, but I'm talking about If we look at brands and business that like write books and not books for business, not books for authority building or brand building, I'm talking about writing like a nonfiction book, right?

A fiction book, sorry, and being something along those lines or getting back into photography, right? Where I'm using my creative gifts and skills to Thank you. Maybe create a business, maybe not, maybe just like deepen into my [00:37:00] hobbies. Who knows, right? But 2025 is going, how can you create more simplicity and elegance in your business?

How can you spend less time and resources into cultivating a beautiful, sustainable business? And then when is enough enough? Because. We're always striving for that next thing. We're always striving for the next money milestone in business. And if I'm being honest with you, I truly a hundred percent believe those messages are going to start to fall by the wayside.

And if you're relying on big grandiose promises, this is an invitation to get really curious about how effective those are going to be in 2025 and beyond. Um, because I just think that they're going to start to fall by the wayside. And I always say. I get these predictions, right? And my predictions have been pretty bang on when it comes to the way the industry is shifting.

I just have a sense, which is why I think in the beginning of [00:38:00] 2024, I got this sense things are shifting. And the reason I say that, I'm not saying that the coaching industry or the knowledge industry is going to fall by the wayside. I absolutely don't think that that is true. But what I believe to be true is that the way in which we share knowledge and the way in which we coach and the way in which we sell our knowledge based services, Is going to change.

So the notion of being the authority, the guru, more and more people are going to want a guide, a mentor that isn't all knowing, that isn't, um, you know, using some of these, ways in which of selling to sell their products and services, more and more people are going to feel the words and go, huh, that person's really trying to like try really hard to sell me on the fact that they're the best at what they do or that the only person that does this, right?

Like, are you really the only person? That's, those are the types of questions that people are going to start to ask, right? They're going to see the messages and [00:39:00] they're going to go, but really are you the only person? Cause the last five people I invested in said the same thing, right? Right. At what point do we see through the messages, through energy and through integrity and intention, that's going to start to become more and more apparent as we continue to grow and evolve.

And so, and that's across the board, like if you're selling a product as well, right? Like the best skincare product in the world that helps you with X, Y, and Z, we're starting to see more and more people go, prove it. And like, not from a like a messaging perspective of like, prove it with client testimonials and all the things.

But when you say you're the cleanest skincare product, or you say you're the cleanest protein powder, right? And then someone goes to your ingredients and they look and they look at the ingredients and they see that it actually isn't as clean as you claimed it to be, people are starting to question that.

Or they're starting to question claims on face value. So if you're an authority, [00:40:00] quote unquote, and you're somebody with a bigger following, and you're sharing messages out into the world that are not 100 percent in integrity and truthful, they're not really backed by anything, these are the things that are starting to come under scrutiny or light.

Right? And that's what I'm talking about when I'm talking about the whole authority guru world, right? And my sort of contemplation of like, huh, can I actually make that claim and stand by it? Or am I just making that claim for the sake of making that claim so that I look good? That's ego. And that's where my, that's where my heart started to go.

I don't know if I fit in this, right? And I'm not here to fit into anything and nor are you, but I'm like, I don't really jive with those messages, these claims that are being made that are easily made, you can just make a claim and nobody's going to look into it. That's changing. And when I think about the claims that I've made, I've always made them in integrity, [00:41:00] right?

I've always said things like I've generated, you know, close to a million dollars in sales. I've never said I'm generating millions of dollars in revenue, right? Which is revenue and sales are very different. Or, When I share client testimonials and stories, it's really their story and it's their truth that I'm sharing about their experience and I truly believe that whether they're in my world or they're getting support in someone else's world, they're going to create beautiful things.

And I always say that to people. Whether you work with me or you work with somebody else, I just want you to thrive in whatever it is that you're wanting to thrive in. And that is true non competition, right? Like if you need to go and work with somebody else, and I've given people recommendations, like here, let me give you five other messaging people that you can reach out to and have a conversation with, and I'd rather you do that than just hire me.

Like just hire me because you came across an ad that then a masterclass, and then you got on a call with me, right? [00:42:00] It's like, Do your due diligence, talk to a variety of different people, get a sense of who would be the right best fit for you, and you'll know that, right? And so, that's what I was wanting to share with you here today, is sort of my evolution, what I've sort of realized, and just to sort of summarize, sort 2024.

Well, I still did really well in business and things were moving. 2024 felt like a lot wasn't moving. It felt like I was in sort of a standstill. Some people call it the void, but it was a really great time for me to continually get clear on where I want to evolve and grow and what parts of my business.

Do I want to maybe change and shift? Where do I see myself in business and as an entrepreneur? And who really is [00:43:00] here to be the person that I'm here to serve in whatever capacity over the next couple of years? As we evolve and grow and change, so too will the people that we want to serve and so too will our business.

And that's a really beautiful place to be. And rather than defaulting to try and fix that, it's to surrender to that shift and change that's happening and therefore continually sink more and more and more into. Who we are at this moment right now in, in this period of our time, and thinking less about where I was and less about quote unquote where I want to go, even though that's what's being asked of me is to evolve and grow.

But it's being in the present moment of like, what does that look like over the next week or month, or five, right? Rather than. Where do I want to take my business over the next decade is really sort of sinking more into sort of that present. So hopefully this episode has given you sort of insight into where [00:44:00] I've been over the last 12 months and what I'm really excited about in 2025 and that's to really deepen my creative expression, whatever that might look like.

Um, and also Continually just sink more and more and more into, and stay more and more into integrity, which is as I evolve and I grow, what used to be my message may no longer, and that's okay, and the more I try to hold on to the thing, The less I move out of integrity. And so how can I deepen that within myself?

So hopefully this episode has been insightful for you to be where I'm at. And maybe you're contemplating things like this in your business. And I would love to hear from you of what you're contemplating and maybe what. doesn't really feel like an alignment to you anymore. Or what was working before maybe is no longer working the way that you want it to.

And not because it's not quote unquote working, but it's [00:45:00] like, you know, you're being asked to shift and change and evolve and grow. And you're trying to discover what that is. I will say to you, a lot of people say, well, how do you do that? And for me, it's a non forced action, right? I can't force it. And there's nothing for me to fix.

So I think that's a big reminder to kind of take away. There's nothing. I can't make it happen quicker in a quicker period of time, right? Like everything's on divine timing. And I think, again, that's another default. We can naturally go, I have to invest in this coach who's going to help me fast track this human experience.

And that's a bogus lie, right? Why do we want to fast track our human experience? Sure, there's blocks and resistance and things that we can move through quicker and we can learn from people maybe that have taken that road and we don't maybe repeat the same mistakes they've made. In saying that, you discovering who you are at the core of who you are and [00:46:00] and where you want to go and all of that is your own unique journey.

And I can't promise you that I'm going to fast track that for you. If you listened to last week's episode where Katie shared her story, she summarized it to a T. I wasn't ready to receive it until I was ready to receive it. And that is a hundred percent true. Everything's divine timing. And so I could say, what I say on this episode 10 bazillion times to the same person over and over.

But if they're not willing or ready, it's not willing. If they're not ready to receive the message and it's not because they're broken or they're doing something wrong, it's just not within their timing at that moment. So with that, I hope this episode has been fruitful for you to kind of get a sense of where I'm At, uh, in my business and my life and, and all that jazz.

And I'm really excited for 2025 and what that's gonna bring. And really the new creative endeavors and opportunities that I know are going to come into my world, um, while still [00:47:00] serving my amazing people inside of spellbound with messaging and copywriting because. I am a messaging wizard. I love to put things into words and you can spew things onto me and I can take that spew and turn it into an articulate into beautiful words.

It's my genius. It's one of my geniuses, but I've got multiple geniuses that want to come out. And so I'm excited to share that with you. when I'm ready. So with that, I hope you have a fab day. Cheers. 

INTRO: Thanks for listening. We'll see you right back here next time. You can also find us on social media at Creatively Owned and online at creativelyowned.

com. Until next time, keep showing up as your authentic self.