Episode Summary
Why is it that right when you’re ready to tackle a new level of revenue, visibility or leadership, it can feel like you’re taking two steps back, instead of moving forward steadily?
If you’re a smart, capable woman stepping into a new level of business or leadership, this episode names the subtle power shift that often happens right when growth begins—and why it can leave you feeling unmoored, overly focused on outside opinions, and disconnected from your own authority. You’ll hear why this isn’t a confidence or strategy problem, how it quietly shows up as effort increases and results slow down, and what actually restores momentum when nothing seems “wrong” on the surface.
In this episode, you’ll gain:
Insight into why entering a new level of growth often feels disorienting for high-achieving women—and how to recognize the exact moment your power starts subtly shifting
Awareness of the early signs that you’re in “growth mode,” so you can course-correct before effort increases and momentum slows
A simple lens you can use immediately to reclaim authority, make decisions faster, and feel potent again—without adding more to your plate
Press play to understand why this phase of growth isn’t a failure—and how learning to wield your power differently is what allows expansion to feel expansive again, not heavier.
The Uncommon Way is your go-to resource for mindset mastery, strategy, and power moves tailored to ambitious women entrepreneurs and leaders ready to break the mold and lead with confidence. This top female business coaches podcast covers leadership coaching for women, business growth strategies, and the female entrepreneur mindset to help you craft magnetic messaging, attract your ideal clients, clarify irresistible offers, and leverage your secret sauce to stand out authentically.
Each episode from top-ranked women’s business coach Jenna Harrison addresses common pain points like overwhelm, decision fatigue, entrepreneur burnout solutions, and the guilt of stepping back from hustle culture. Jenna shares tools to streamline your business systems, cultivate powerful habits, and delegate with intention—all designed to help you reclaim work-life balance and boost your freedom.
Dive into transformational mindset shifts and energetic alignment that empower you to become the powerful force you were meant to be—creating aligned growth, breakthrough clarity, and unapologetic success. Whether you’re a female entrepreneur building impact, a leader navigating change, a woman founder scaling your organization, or a business coach for women entrepreneurs, The Uncommon Way equips you to design a business and life that reflect your true vision. Leave behind imposter syndrome, overworking, and pleasing people. Embrace clarity, confidence, and unapologetic success.
Work with Jenna
The Clarity Accelerator Mastermind — If you want to be surrounded by other visionary entrepreneurs while rapidly aligning your business to the conditions and strategies that let you thrive and excel naturally, this intimate mastermind will stretch you into your next level. Schedule your call today here or visit this page to find out more.
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Social Media
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Full Episode Transcript:
In this episode, you'll discover why smart, capable women lose power the moment they enter
growth mode. Welcome to The Uncommon Way, where high-achieving women entrepreneurs and leaders
pitch the rule book and design success on their own terms. I'm your host, Jenna Harrison,
a top-ranked business coach sharing business growth strategies, mindset mastery,
and power boost to help you attract ideal clients, leverage your unique genius,
and scale with freedom. Let's dive in. Welcome, welcome back to The Uncommon Way. Today's episode
is so near and dear to my heart. I wish that I had understood it when I was struggling with
clarity for two decades, trying to figure out what I was really here to do and how to turn it
into a business. And I wish I had understood it in this specific way I'm explaining it to you
when I decided to scale from multiple six to seven figures in my business. But at least now,
I get to save you a ton of time and angst if you're going through anything similar yourself.
In this episode, you will learn why entering a new level of growth often feels disorienting for
high-achieving women and how to recognize the exact moment your powers start subtly shifting.
You'll also learn the early signs that you're experiencing this growth mode phenomenon,
so you can course correct if necessary before effort increases and results slow down. And
you'll also get a simple lens you can use immediately to reclaim authority, make decisions
faster, and feel potent again without adding more to your plate. There is a very specific
moment in a high achiever's journey where everything starts to feel harder. Not because
she's doing something wrong, but because she's entered growth mode. You see the distance between
where you are and where you want to be, and the first thing we become aware of is a knowledge gap.
Why haven't I gotten there yet? What's it going to take to get there? What do I have to do? So
you start picking up more courses here and there, maybe watching more webinars than you used to.
You start really paying attention to what everyone else is doing in order to get where you want to be.
You start delaying decisions to make sure that you're going to be doing everything right.
And when you do take them, they just feel heavier. And ultimately, you subtly downgrade your own
authority. Now, this isn't a failure of confidence or competence, right? It's a power shift,
and it's incredibly common. Now, a beginner's mindset can be really useful when entering a
new phase, right? There's definitely value in learning and observing and trying new things on.
The issues come when A, you're staying there too long, and B, you're believing that these things
will make or break you. When no, those things are just tools. So there's a difference between being
open and being unmoored, like completely adrift and just kind of lost. And you can feel that in
your body. There's a saying I love, which is, it's the wizard, not the wand. The wand is a useful tool,
but at no point does the wizard see the wand as all powerful. If the wand gets lost or broken,
the wizard improvises. He grabs a twig or he uses something else to channel his power.
The power is still his. If you're feeling unmoored right now, a little out of it, not feeling as
powerful as you know you can be, you're not alone. I have definitely been there. Every entrepreneur
has been there. Some just don't talk about it. I remember the exact moment I decided to scale to
seven figures. I was sitting in my office chair in Pennsylvania, staring at my screen, and I just
had this flash of, it's time. What brought it on was something really simple, but kind of monumental
for me in my business. A client had just done something successfully on her own, something I'd
always needed to guide people through before. And I had worked on the training, the way I taught it,
I'd refined this worksheet, and I really cared about making it something people could do for
themselves. And when she sent it back completed, I remember thinking, she got it. And right then,
seven figures didn't just feel possible, it felt right. Like, I can scale the work that I want to
be doing in the world in a way that feels right to me. Up until then, I was very happy at multiple
six figures. I had a steady income, amazingly cool clients, and I'd done a lot of work to detox
from hustle and separate my identity to how hard I worked or how much I made. Life felt really good.
I mean, yes, I was still trying to tweak this process I'm talking about, but if it didn't work
out, if I just stayed a one-to-one coach with really, you know, an intimate mastermind, that
was still an amazing business, and I was good there. But now, after that one switch, I was like,
okay, it's go time, right? This was my signal. And energetically, everything lined up in my life,
too. My neurodiverse son, who had been undiagnosed and unmedicated before then,
he finally had a care regimen that made life feel manageable. And those of you who've been there,
you can feel me on this one. Like, I had capacity now, right? And I also had the means,
and I was ready. And then, something shifted. I entered growth mode. And I can see it clearly
now, but at the time, I didn't have language for it. I started doing all the things that I'd
overheard seven-figure business owners talk about. I didn't do it consciously, it just kind of
happened. You know, I hired the ops manager, I focused on SOPs, I turned my attention to
cold traffic. And over time, I became someone who didn't feel like me at all. I mean, I outsourced
my certainty to bro marketers who told me I needed to completely change my positioning,
change my podcast title, everything, because this is what works for cold traffic. I eroded
my profit margin with all sorts of support. I abdicated leadership, and I let my ops manager
assign tasks without any oversight. I mean, one day I looked at what a VA was actually doing,
and realized she was listening to every single podcast episode, taking notes for show notes,
and making sure the editing was perfect. And that is not what I had asked for. And definitely not
what I wanted to be paying for. And that's when it clicked. This wasn't just inefficiency. It was
actual leakage. Leakage of money, leakage of authority, and leakage of influence and power.
Even my brand felt diluted. You know, podcast listenership declined, email opens dropped,
the resonance just wasn't there anymore. But the worst part, by far, was the feeling that I didn't
know what to do. Like I was needing something outside of me, you know, the market to change,
or the guru to come, or the strategy to finally become clear in order to fix things for me.
And that potency that I had had before when my business was humming along, and I knew I can
create whatever I want. That power had become scattered, right? And nothing had gone wrong
exactly. I was just moving into new ways of doing business. But what was a problem was that I had
quietly handed my power to the idea that someone else must know better. And here's what I've
realized. Power doesn't disappear. It gets diffused. What I did maintain through all of this,
thankfully, was deep trust. I trusted that I was being guided. I trusted that abundance would
continue. Even it didn't come through the most logical business path. I trusted that I would
find my way through. And I could manage my mind. I was not spiraling in self-criticism.
I had the emotional capacity to hold uncertainty and disappointment, you know, without collapsing
or something, and regressing. And I was able to, in my daily life, to move back to joy and pleasure
in this new life that we were creating here. Honestly, my clients were more freaked out than
I was. They could see the numbers in the mastermind decline, and they would ask,
how are you okay? But I was. I wasn't telling myself I was a bad coach or a bad business owner,
and I knew clarity would come. And it did. What I understand now, and what I want to share with
you on this podcast, is that when I started implementing these practices, everything shifted
again. Clients came in, direction clarified. And the way that I'm scaling now, no one else told me
to do it in this way. In fact, I've had very successful coaches, multiple seven-figure coaches
that I've been working with over the past year, I've had them actively disagree with some of the
choices that I'm taking now, and some of the positioning methods and messaging that I'm talking
about. And that's fine, because they're not me, right? They don't have my business. My coaches are
thought partners, right? They help me arrive at my conclusions. Sometimes the greatest clarity comes
from hearing a perspective and knowing, no, that's not it, right? Or that's not quite it. Which
brings me to something I'm seeing more and more, which is women outsourcing power to ChatGPT.
A friend recently told me I was going to launch this offer, but ChatGPT talked me out of it.
And I remember thinking that would never happen to me. I would never let ChatGPT override something
my body and intuition are telling me is right. Although, like I've just mentioned, I have been
in places where I wasn't even checking in with my intuition. I wasn't even having this new idea
to then get it shot down. I was just sourcing everything externally. And then there are the
clients who won't move forward until ChatGPT confirms it's a good idea. We don't want that
either. And this is what I'm leading up to. Most high achievers do not have a strategy problem.
That's why no tool, including ChatGPT, can give you a fail-safe strategy.
What they have is a power deficit. And power, as I'm talking about it, it shows up as decisiveness,
as internal authority, as a sense of command, commanding your surroundings, commanding your
business, and this kind of energetic coherence. When power is intact, when it's focused and
utilized, strategy works faster. Any strategy works faster. And you naturally find the ones
that are most resonant for you. But when your power is fragmented, no strategy sticks.
So pay attention to this for yourself. Like, look for signals, early warning signs, if you will,
that this is happening. It may be that you ask for opinions that you don't even actually want,
but you're just getting the information from everyone around you. Or you delay decisions that
you already know the answer to. Maybe you don't want to take that step, or that's going to be
painful, or you still just don't quite trust that it's the right thing to do and you want that
validation. Another one is that you feel busy, but you don't feel potent. Maybe you have this
feeling of constantly just like spinning your wheels and getting nowhere. You can't actually
gain traction and achieve momentum. You might notice yourself consuming more than you're creating.
You might notice everyone else's language seeping into your own. And you might notice that you keep
preparing instead of leading. The sooner you catch this kind of stuff, the less momentum you lose.
Now before we wrap up, I want to introduce something I'll come back to often on this podcast.
Let's call it the power lens. It's simply a way of looking at familiar business and leadership
challenges, not as things to fix or optimize, but as signals about where power is either
concentrated or quietly leaking. Once you start seeing your business through this lens,
a lot of things that used to feel confusing become surprisingly clear. So instead of asking,
what should I be doing differently? You know, what do I have to do? How can I figure this out?
I just want you to notice what's happening with your authority. So let's take just one of the
things I mentioned before, consuming more than you're creating. Now on the surface, you're just
thinking, I need more information. But the power lens interpretation of that is that power has
shifted outward, right? Authority is being borrowed instead of embodied. And you can restore that
sense of command with one clean shift. Just ask yourself, well, what would I create this week if
I trusted that my perspective were already sufficient? And once you see it that way,
the next step isn't about effort. It's about returning to a place where you command the
situation. This is the kind of recalibration I'll be guiding you through again and again,
because power needs maintenance and even amplification when you're expanding.
So everything that I'll be sharing with you going forward, the tools, the practices,
the way I think about business and leadership, it comes from what allowed me to reassemble
my power as I talked about earlier. So in future episodes coming in 2026, we'll be talking about
things like how to compress the time it's taking you to make decisions and building businesses that
respond to you rather than you always jumping through hoops to try and keep up with your
business or push your business along. We'll talk about commanding your time, commanding your focus,
and the kind of leadership that magnetizes your audience and your clients and your team.
If you take one thing from this episode, I'd love for it to be that when smart, capable women enter
growth mode, it's natural to look outward for a moment. That doesn't necessarily mean you've lost
confidence or lost your direction. You're just sourcing information to stimulate your own new
ideas and perspective, and that's necessary to get you somewhere where you've never been before.
But when that outward focus lingers or you undermine your own authority with someone
or something else's, like chat GPT, your power naturally diffuses. Decisions slow down and
everything requires more effort, and things that used to feel fluid start to feel really heavy.
That isn't a strategy problem. It's a power dynamic, and the work isn't to drive yourself
harder, you know, and make yourself better or smarter or more disciplined. And power starts
to return the moment you come back into commanding your decisions, your attention, your authority,
even situations in your life. That's where real growth begins to feel like good again,
you know, like expansive again. All right. Now, if you have not listened to last week's episode
about the no offer offer I have going on for December only, I really recommend that you do
that. I don't expect to be offering anything like this again, ever, as I've just described in this
episode, I have big plans for 2026. So this is a really, really great time to move on this,
if you actually want to move on this. And if you did listen to the last episode that you just
forgot, this is your friendly reminder. I did receive one question, which is, can I set this
up now, but use it in 2026? Because I've got so much going on with the holidays. And the answer
is absolutely yes, but we do need to get it scheduled and decided right now. Because in 2026,
I am hitting the ground running. I have so much prepared. I'm really excited to share with you.
All right, my friend, that is it for today. Remember, training your mind to think uncommonly
unlocks a whole new level of impact and possibility. I'll talk to you next time.