Support at The Uncommon Way 5/20/25 Support at The Uncommon Way 5/20/25

Ep 150: How ABBA'S Global Fame Strategy Will Work Better For Your Business Than What You See Most Entrepreneurs Doing Today

Ever wonder how some people create such high success and creativity in such a short amount of time—and how you can do the same?

If you’ve ever felt pressured to follow conventional business rules, confused about what steps to take, or just surrounded by people who don’t really ‘get’ you, this episode shows you how a ’70s pop group’s uncommon strategy can help you sell out your offers, embrace your unique voice, and reclaim your three-day workweek.

Episode Summary

Ever wonder how some people create such high success and creativity in such a short amount of time—and how you can do the same?

In this episode you will…

Discover why ABBA’s global fame—despite being dismissed by critics and ignored by America—might be the success strategy your business needs.
Learn what one of the world’s most iconic music groups can teach you about creating standout offers, irresistible messaging, and work that spreads itself.
Uncover the surprising truth about contentment, and why creating from joy might be the most radical, world-changing act of all.

Resources Mentioned:
Be the first to hear about our upcoming Days of Deals Week and get a special gift with purchase only for waitlist subscribers: A personal audit from Jenna of your website and social media to dial in your messaging, make sales easier, and move you closer to a 3-day workweek.

Episodes Mentioned:
Ep #34: The 'Too Braggy' Fear and What I'm Doing About It

Ep 149: Why Imposter Syndrome Is Costing You Hours Every Week—And How To Stop It

Schedule a call with Jenna about joining the Clarity Accelerator--the same mastermind that we talk about in this episode--to unlock your inner genius, streamline your strategies and offers, and dial in the mindset that lets you work smarter, not harder.

https://www.theuncommonway.com/schedule

Sign up here to get on the waitlist for Power & Potency, the new mastermind for highly accomplished women entrepreneurs, and hear all new information as it's released:

https://www.theuncommonway.com/waitlist

Find Jenna on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theuncommonway/

This podcast dives into the challenges of leadership, decision making, and delegation, helping women business owners and mompreneurs overcome overwhelm, decision fatigue, and the guilt of working less. Learn to build powerful habits, embrace smarter working, and master time management by streamlining tasks, implementing business systems, and even prioritising self-care. We explore efficiency, productivity, and automation to create passive income, reduce overworking, and finally take time off—without the fear or shame. Say goodbye to imposter syndrome and people pleasing while running a small business: It's time to shift your mindset, reclaim your work-life balance, and thrive!

Full Episode Transcript:

Jenna Harrison: [00:00:00] In this episode, you'll discover why Abba's path to global fame despite being dismissed by critics and ignored by America. Might be the success strategy your business needs. Welcome to the three day work week, helping women entrepreneurs run profitable, meaningful businesses in just three days a week if they like without stress, guilt, or sacrificing growth.

I'm your host, Jenna Harrison, sharing practical strategies, mindset hacks, and even some woo, to help you work smarter, lead boldly, and find true balance. Let's dive in. Welcome, welcome back to the three day work week. We've got a short, fun episode for you today, but it's still packed with really valuable insights that will help your business and your mindset.

Starting today, we'll be talking about the new Netflix documentary on the seventies pop band, Abba, and six great lessons it gives us as entrepreneurs. In this episode, you'll discover why Abba's global fame, despite being dismissed by critics [00:01:00] and ignored by America, might be the very success strategy that your business needs.

And you'll learn what one of the world's most iconic music groups can teach you about creating standout offers, irresistible messaging, and work that spreads itself. You'll uncover the surprising truth about contentment and why creating from joy might be the most radical or world changing act of all.

If you are new around here, you probably don't know that I'm a huge fan of the seventies. I mean, maybe you got keyed in by the look of the disco podcast art, but honestly, that was not premeditated. It's just something we happened upon and I loved it. But anyway, I love that decade. I love that the introduction of the birth control pill created an unstoppable cascade towards equality for women.

I love the paradoxical fashion aesthetic where you had these earthy, [00:02:00] chunky wood accessories and boho looks and world influences. On the one hand, I mean, think about how different that was compared to the sixties and the fifties and the forties and everything before that. But then you also had the glitz of Halston and Diane Furstenberg.

No more corsets. No more pushup bras. And I especially love the music, which was revolutionary in almost every genre. So of course when I saw that Netflix had a documentary on ABBA last night, I just had to devour it right away. After all, I was a toddler when my mom and I were in Greece and Abba was first popular.

We were living the mama Mia experience decades before the musical was dreamed up. Their music was what was playing on my little cassette player in my earliest elementary school memories, along with Blondie and Olivia Newton John. But what I wasn't prepared for when I watched that [00:03:00] documentary were just how many insights their story would reveal for entrepreneurs.

I was sitting there with my mouth open, telling my husband, Ben, remember that part, Ben? Don't forget what he said just there, because I always trust his memory more than my own. It was so good, and I can't wait to share it with you, but first, just in case you don't know, Abba is one of the bestselling music acts in history.

They've sold over 400 million records worldwide, and that's remarkable because they were only active for about a decade and they sang in English even though that wasn't their first language. And their music is the basis of one of the, the most successful musicals of all time, mama Mia, which brought in Get this $4 billion Globally across both stage and film and royalties from just one Abba song alone.

Chicky Tita have contributed more than $4 million to UNICEF for children's welfare initiatives around the world. They [00:04:00] were one of the first major pop acts to donate a hit songs royalties to charity. They really helped pave the way for music-based philanthropy. Now, before we dive into my top six takeaways, I wanna let you know that we've got something really fun and exciting coming up for you this summer.

Our days of deals that we had back in November with such a hit that we're gonna be bringing them back again and this time with completely fun new different offers. Now, I'm not gonna share too many details yet, but let's just say they'll have to do with working smarter, not harder, and it will be perfect timing in order to let you go out and enjoy your summer.

To enjoy your summer without guilt, knowing that on the business front you've got it. I want you to pause right now and head to the link in the show notes so you can get on the wait list because everybody on the wait list who makes a purchase during the days of [00:05:00] deals is going to get a free bonus offer that some would say is even more exciting than the deals themselves, but I don't know.

I'll let you decide that, but it's a free audit from me of your website and your social media. I'll help you see what your people see when they first come to your sites. What information about any of your limited beliefs might be showing up in your copy that might be creating energetic blocks between you and your ideal people.

And I'll also help you work smarter, not harder with the very assets you already have to tighten up your messaging. Shorten the buyer's journey for your clients. And create far higher results with the same amount of effort. So again, if you wanna get in on that, go to the link in the show notes or visit the website@theuncommonway.com slash DOD bonus that stands for Days of Deals [00:06:00] Bonus, DOD bonus.

And now without further ado. Let's talk about six top takeaways from the new ABBA documentary about success, work-life balance, and creating your best and most impactful work in the world. Number one is it all begins with the song, with the right song. Success is inevitable. They knew that no matter what their most important work, their highest leverage activity was to create a song.

There were periods when they were out touring for too long, when they weren't able to do that. We'll talk about that in a minute. But in order to get back to what they loved and people loved about them, because that's the intersection that we all want to live in all the time. In order to get back to that, it had to be about the song.

A reporter was once with Benny and Bjorn when they were creating, and he asked, but aren't you gonna [00:07:00] take notes of any of this music that you're coming up with right now? And they said no because their goal was to create a melody so memorable that you couldn't get it out of your head. If they forgot it, then this obviously wasn't that.

So if the melody wasn't memorable enough to stick, they scrapped it, they moved onto the next one. What if you treated your messaging the same way? What have you treated your offers this way? We are here to stand out and be seen. And I think so often people interpret that to mean that they need to be dancing around on Instagram.

But really what we're here to do is to create our thing to really touch people and impact the people that we are here to work with. And that comes from ideas. It comes from an offer they can't ignore. It comes from words you say that pierce right through them. You are creating something that makes an [00:08:00] impression that commands attention unapologetically.

Now, if this is making you shift in your seat a bit with discomfort, because it would be so much easier just to kind of do what everyone else is doing and fly slightly under the radar. Then I've got two episodes that I'm gonna link to for you. You've gotta check out episode 1 49 on Imposter Syndrome and episode 34 called The Too Braggy Fear and what I'm doing about it, lesson number two, you might not be everyone's cup of tea.

It doesn't mean that you're not great. Lots of people hated Abba and lots of people loved them. In their own country. There was a particularly negative attitude. People felt that they were a manufactured band that was soulless, that had come together just to make money, which is ironic because there was an 85% [00:09:00] tax that they were paying in Sweden for being in an upper tax bracket.

So the country basically guaranteed that nobody would become too rich, but people thought they were in it just for the money. Many critics dismissed them. People laughed at them, their flamboyant costumes after lots of harsh newspaper articles written about them. There were critics calling them shit right there in print.

People interviewed on the street would say the same thing, but at the same time, they were selling record after record. Their music kept topping the charts. They would take entire countries by storm. Australia, for example. And some of their final concerts at Wembley, I think they could have, they sold out maybe four nights or five nights, and they said, people said they could have sold out 16 easily.

And the who's who of Rock would come to these concerts to see them. Pete Townsend famously told them that [00:10:00] SOS was the best pop song ever written. So what I'm getting at here is that what matters is that you keep creating for your people rather than trying to be something for everybody. It doesn't matter how many people don't like you, it matters how many love you.

Or maybe we should say the quality with which you people love you. So next time you have someone say something offhanded to you or write something offhanded and you find yourself thinking about it on repeat. Just watch this documentary. It's gonna give you such a lift. Things could be a lot worse. And really if someone has different taste and doesn't vibe with what you're doing, 'cause that is kind of inevitable, after all, you can still be wildly, wildly successful.

You do you. You be you unapologetically, and your people will find you. Point number three, rest breeds creativity. When they were touring too much, they weren't [00:11:00] able to compose. They were tired, they were cranky with each other. One couple ended up divorcing. They composed best when they were at home, barefoot, sitting on their porch.

Two guys and two instruments. And I mean, we all can get by on stress and pressure, right? We all can produce in that way, but can we produce at that level? And what if we were challenging ourselves to compose at that level, songs that the whole world was humming and the people still know 50 years later.

That kind of work didn't come from pressure. They needed to stop the frenetic schedules. And get back to themselves to create rest and fullness and then compose from there. Point number four, you don't have to follow the common strategy. At that time, everybody thought to become known worldwide, you needed to break into the American market.

It was a must do. [00:12:00] Abba tried at one point, but they had just produced a disco album right when there was a huge backlash to disco in the United States, fueled by a lot of closed-mindedness and homophobia and racism, but they did it without America. No one could believe it. They were huge in Europe, and they became huge in Australia, and finally they were huge in Latin America.

And this is just such a good lesson for us to take to heart because you don't need to conquer America or follow anyone else's rules to build something the whole world loves you. Get to do it your way. Fifth point, action and political action. Take various forms. One of the criticisms of the group was that they seemed too happy and out of touch.

We'll talk about that in a minute, and that they weren't overly political in their music. Again, this is the seventies. So think Vietnam. Think [00:13:00] military coups in Latin America. A lot of strife around the world. But Abba, what they did was they created music that uplifted people, and they donated the charity.

As I mentioned before, they fueled $4 million through royalties for unicef, specifically with the song Chick Tita. In the beginning, they were donating 50% of their royalties, and they later signed over 100% of the royalties of that song to unicef, and that really paved the way for philanthropy with music.

So do the thing that you do because, yeah, they could have worked in another profession. I'm sure there was somebody out there saying that music was unnecessary unless it was political or that it was somehow wrong unless it was political. There were other people probably saying that if they were musicians, they should be doing it differently, but too many people judge from the bench.

They're not out there [00:14:00] living your life or doing your thing, but they have an opinion about how you should be doing it, and it taken too far. They'll even say you are flawed somehow because you don't care enough about their issue. And I get it. I get frustrated sometimes when I hear men talking about or doing something that I perceive is unfair or just unconscious about women's issues.

But at the same time, I know that I'm choosing to care about these issues and educate people about these issues by choice, and that's not going to be everybody's choice. We all have different choices, different ways of doing things. My family laughs at me to no end because I wash every single piece of Saran Wrap that we ever use.

I never buy Saran Wrap. I reuse. I reuse, I reuse. But it breaks my heart to think about throwing plastic in the trash. I donate to organizations that help with women's trafficking. I donate every year to [00:15:00] organizations that support women's empowerment with education and entrepreneurship. And there are 50,000 issues in the world that I don't know enough about that I'm not supporting, quote unquote enough.

The same is true for each and every one of you and each and every person in the world. Ideally, we would do it all, but since we can't, we might as well do things in our way, in the way that we perceive we'll do them best. So for you, if that is through your business, great. If it's not through your business, great.

I, for one, am not going to judge you and label you as uncaring. Let's review these quickly because they all kind of lead up to the final point I wanna bring up. So the first is it all begins with the song. It all comes back down to that thing you do or you offer. And as you really slip [00:16:00] into your expression, you might not be everyone's cup of tea.

But even so, you can still be wildly, wildly successful. Number three, rest breeds creativity. We talk about that a lot here. And also, number four, the strategy that you choose. You get to do it your way. No matter what industry you're in, there is some norm, some group thinking about how things have to be done to be successful in that industry.

I promise you it is not true as long as you are connecting with people, creating real solutions and value for people, you good. Number five, action takes various forms, so really just sing at the top of your lungs here. Let's not be ashamed of how we're helping and let's try not to judge others for how they're helping.

And number six, as you're doing all of this, you're developing a deep sense of trust for [00:17:00] yourself, but also contentment. And contentment, my friends, is counter-cultural. A big part of why they were so criticized is because they were too cheerful. They were too content. There were the European intellectuals that thought that we had serious things to focus on.

But of course, as we know now from history, it wasn't the only time in history that there have been serious things to focus on. We've continued to have serious things to focus on as we do to this day. And there were very like strong, angry movements that were wonderful, right? The punk movements, rock movements, social upheaval, and there was a lot of pure expression there.

But that doesn't mean that others need to be criticized for not sharing that form of expression. Traditionally youthful people feel a lot of fire, right? And then [00:18:00] often elders are quite grumpy, like a grumpy old man. And people who are in their family years are perhaps, you know, disillusioned and they're just getting by and they're in the grind.

There's a norm of discontent because humans have a natural or wired in negativity bias. On top of that, there's like a glorification of that discontent. I remember when I lived in New York City in my twenties, and I'd grown up in kind of a happy suburban neighborhood, and I found New Yorkers who were kind of gruff and neurotic and misanthropes, you know, they didn't like people.

And I found it so refreshing, and I also believed it to be kind of more sophisticated and more real. But now having lived in different places, met different people. Done more loops around the sun. I'm also realizing that's a cliche and it's an easy way out. Let's break that cycle. What if we admired and rewarded people who [00:19:00] create contentment rather than demonizing them?

There was a really funny point in the documentary because they were juxtaposing abba and some of the interviews Abba was doing, where they were always polite and smiling, and even when interviewers were asking some really impertinent questions and they were comparing them to the Sex Pistols and the Sex Pistols were just out to tear everything down, destroy social norms, they would sit there with interviewers on TV just cursing them out, and they were.

Critical of everything. And yet the funny thing is that they were interviewing a roadie who had toured with the Sex Pistols, and they said that the one cassette tape they were listening to on repeat was Abba was Dancing Queen, and it was the road's job to turn over that cassette tape when the side ended.

And heaven forbid the roadie didn't turn it over in time. This is a beautiful tension we have as humans. How we move back and forth between contentment and [00:20:00] discontent. How we can find joy and beauty even in our most difficult times, and how crazily, even in some of the moments when we're kind of the most blessed, we feel the least satisfied.

But when someone creates a life on purpose that brings them contentment. And when someone is brave enough to talk about that, even though so much of the social discourse is about finding what's not right with a situation that's worth celebrating, cheerfulness is not a character flaw. You know, they were mocked for being content, but what if joy is actually the boldest action of all, and that creating from joy.

Can produce work that is just as impactful as people who are creating from hardship. Oh, who knew from a documentary about such a lighthearted pop band? There'd be such deep themes and currents running through it. I hope it's leaving you [00:21:00] feeling inspired and refreshed and ready to take on the world like it did for me.

Drop me a note or leave me a review here and let me know how your week goes. And let's talk again on Tuesday.

Thanks for joining us here at The Uncommon Way. If you want more tips and resources for developing clarity in your business and life, including the clarity first strategy for growing and scaling your business, visit the uncommon way.com. See you next time.

Support at The Uncommon Way 5/13/25 Support at The Uncommon Way 5/13/25

Ep 149: Why Imposter Syndrome Is Costing You Hours Every Week—And How To Stop It

Ever catch yourself rattling off reasons you aren’t “ready yet,” even though others tell you to just go for it?

If you have a nagging voice inside that says you’re not good enough or qualified enough yet, this episode shows you how to unwind imposter syndrome and get back to scaling your business faster, better and easier.

Episode Summary

Ever catch yourself rattling off reasons you aren’t “ready yet,” even though others tell you to just go for it?

In this episode, you will:

Discover how to embody deep confidence without faking a thing—so you can lead, sell, or serve powerfully, even when you’re doing something new.
Learn the daily practice that rewires your brain to own your brilliance and silences impostor syndrome faster than any mindset journal ever could.
Hear the energetic shift one entrepreneur made that transformed her client relationships from “Can I just get the bare minimum?” to “Thank you, I’ll take it all.”

Press play to discover how to transform doubt into confidence and stop wasting your precious time on compensatory behaviors you don’t need.

Resources Mentioned:

Download your Thought Cleanse tool to help shed imposter syndrome and experience a different way of showing up in the world. You’ll be able to feel the results immediately in your business: https://www.theuncommonway.com/thought-cleanse

Episodes mentioned

Ep #47: Safeguarding Against Burnout with Rachel Hale

Ep #80: How to Find Your Secret Sauce: Tactics, Mindset and Beyond

Ep 134: 15 Data-Backed Reasons Only 2% of Women-Owned Businesses Reach $1 Million in Revenue — And How to Break Through

https://www.theuncommonway.com/schedule

Sign up here to get on the waitlist for Power & Potency, the new mastermind for highly accomplished women entrepreneurs, and hear all new information as it's released:

https://www.theuncommonway.com/waitlist

Find Jenna on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theuncommonway/

Jenna Harrison: (0:00 - 0:29) In this episode, you'll discover how to shed imposter syndrome and feel deep confidence without faking a thing, so you can lead, sell, or serve powerfully, even when you're doing something new. Welcome to the three-day workweek, helping women entrepreneurs run profitable, meaningful businesses in just three days a week if they like, without stress, guilt, or sacrificing growth. I'm your host, Jenna Harrison, sharing practical strategies, mindset hacks, and even some woo to help you work smarter, lead boldly, and find true balance.

(0:30 - 5:28) Welcome, welcome back to the three-day workweek. Just this week, I was speaking with a woman who had amazing stories to share about her many very impressive personal and business successes. But if you looked at her website, you would just never guess.

And she admitted that she rarely talked about those things and often kind of forgot about them. And that pattern of thinking was severely limiting her potential because when she thought about launching a new business or even committing to a program that would help her, she felt deep self-doubt that she would be able to do it. And maybe you've been there too in some shape or form.

I mean, I know I have. In fact, a study that I've quoted before, and we'll link to that episode in the show notes, it shows that women not only experience imposter syndrome more frequently than men, but we feel it more profoundly too. And I know that my clients go through this as well.

I remember once I challenged a client of mine to think through the lifetime value that her clients got from working with her, and she found it really challenging. So she decided to plug it into ChatGPT and was blown away by the hundreds of thousands of dollars that it calculated. And really, only then was she really able to let herself start believing it was true.

But isn't it so interesting that it took an outside source, an official seeming source, to grant her validity and permission? Because when we hold ourself in the imposter position, we're telling ourselves that we don't know as well as someone else does, instead of sourcing our own truth from within. So today, I want to help you increase your sense of self-worth and really own your superpowers, and decrease your imposter syndrome. In this episode, you will discover how to embody deep confidence without faking a thing, so you can lead, sell, or serve powerfully, even when you're doing something new.

You'll learn the daily practice that rewires your brain to own your brilliance, and it helps silence the imposter syndrome faster than any mindset journal ever could. And you'll hear the energetic shift one entrepreneur made that transformed her client relationships from, can I just get the bare minimum, to, thank you, I'll take it all. But first, a little PSA.

Imposter syndrome is more than just an uneasy feeling. It is a mindset that infiltrates every decision you make and every action you take, often without you realizing. It undercuts how much you make, how fast you grow, the impact you make, the way others treat you, and even how your children think about themselves.

Often when I first talk to women who've joined the Clarity Accelerator and they want to learn to step back from hustle culture and create powerful businesses that give them more flexibility, we find that so much of the unnecessary work they've been doing and the mental hoops they've been jumping through stem from imposter syndrome. You second guess what you're saying or putting out because there's that voice in the back of your mind going, who are you kidding? You say yes to challenging clients because deep down you don't think you're capable of working with those other people. You're prepping double time for meetings because you've got to make sure you can pass for knowing what you're talking about.

You stuff your offers with more services because deep down you don't think that core thing you do is really worth all of that on its own. And you micromanage team members because deep down you don't think you're capable of attracting top talent. If you suspect that this or something similar is true for you, work with a coach or therapist consistently until you shift things.

And get around other women where you don't need false humility to be liked, and in fact you're celebrated for leading into your gifts. Because imagine if you could just sit down and write out that speech or even speak extemporaneously with a few bullets because you believed your ideas were that valuable. What if you didn't need to prep that much for a meeting because this is your life's work and you know it like the back of your hand? And what if you were supported by top talent and each week they were surprising you with what they were bringing to your business? Don't waste your precious time trying to DIY your way out of such deeply ingrained beliefs and patterns.

Other things maybe, yeah, you hear a new way of thinking on a podcast and you're like, oh, I'll try that on and it's easy, right? But this just is not that. And you will never be able to see your own brain as easily or objectively as someone outside of your brain, right? Even a brain surgeon can't do surgery on herself. So please get support and please encourage your colleagues and sisters to do the same and call it out when you spot their imposter syndrome.

(5:29 - 6:13) Because together we can shift how women are showing up in the world, how they're experiencing the world, and we can get more women a seat at the table, right? Have them show up fully, get more wealth into the hands of women, and help the world benefit from the genius of more women. Okay, rant over. Without further ado, please enjoy the replay of our listener favorite, episode number 81.

Hi there, welcome back. Today we are continuing our mini-series on the secret sauce. In our last episode, episode 80, we talked about finding your secret sauce, but now we're going to go a step further and we're going to talk about owning your secret sauce.

(6:13 - 9:10) And this really goes hand in hand with imposter syndrome, which keeps so many women from playing full out. But also it's important because it can sneak up on you at any time. Maybe you think you're past it and you set your sights on some new goal and boom, there you are all over again, questioning everything.

I was talking to a woman the other day who had founded a software company that was extremely successful, but when she thought about growing it even more, she couldn't help thinking, maybe I've reached my limit. Maybe this is the Peter Principle and I'm just done. Here's where I stop.

And when we talked about potentially selling the company, she was saying, I just don't think I'm the kind of person that could go out there and sell it. So this comes up at all levels, my friends. And whatever is going on for you, wherever you are, I want to help you overcome that like yesterday, because you've got big things to do.

So today, as always, you'll get three super useful and actionable tips. I'll give you one tactical to-do, one mindset related tip, and one about the energetics of the situation. My tactical tip for you today is that you have got to desensitize yourself to talking about it, to owning it.

And you are going to need baby steps here. It's like when my son Dylan decides that all of a sudden he wants to change where his hair is parted. But his hair, of course, is used to parting where he's, well, where I've always parted it.

Now he's doing his own hair. Of course, he wants it to go the other way, because he is, after all, my son and wants to do his own uncommon way. But that's not going to happen overnight.

It's going to take consistent, repeated action to coax the hair in another direction. And whenever you are having thoughts of being an imposter or not being good enough, I guarantee it is not the first time you've ever thought that. That is not part of your higher self and your natural essence saying, you know what, maybe I'm an imposter.

No, that is conditioned thinking, something that's been given to you, and that your brain has thought over and over again, and it's become a pattern. It's become a pattern that jumps up every time you're moving into a new level. So I am going to challenge you to talk about your secret sauce or what you do so well once a day.

And each time you do, I want you to think in your head that you're using a hashtag not sorry. Not sorry. I'm not sorry for just speaking truth about what I do so well.

(9:11 - 15:25) I'm not sorry for owning this. Now I first tried this for myself when I was doing something a bit unrelated. I was taking my son for the first time for a month in Greece.

This is when he was not even two years old. And it was something I dreamed about and saved for. And yet when the time came up, I noticed myself feeling really bad about sharing it on social media.

And when I started investigating that, I just questioned, why exactly am I ashamed about this? And it coincided with a lot of inner work that I'd been doing. And I realized how much resistance I had to being perceived as too braggy and to owning accomplishments and owning an uncommon lifestyle. So I decided to go the other way and to actually start a series of posts about my trip to Greece, where I wouldn't be checking myself.

And I'd kick it off with a post with the hashtag not sorry, just listing 10 things about myself that I no longer wanted to be sorry about. Well, it really struck a nerve and caught on. And so many women started joining with me in this.

And somewhere, for instance, in their post, you would see, and I went to Oxford, hashtag not sorry. And it felt amazing. It was like in the Barbie movie when the Pulitzer Prize winner says, wait a minute, I did write a book.

And through consistent repetition, and especially if you're lucky enough to have others join you in this, so you're not alone, it will start to feel like you're waking up out of a fog. I really recommend that you try this for 30 days to see what a difference it makes. And just to let you know what's on the other side, here I am, years later, I've made these month-long trips part of our yearly routine.

And we are now moving to Spain because I did so. Many women have told me how much that inspires them. Now, when I was talking about the hashtag not sorry, I was using that on social media.

But you do not have to do this 30 day practice on social media. You might choose to do it on social media, in which case, you could just be dropping one line into your post that has to do with you owning your secret sauce just in passing and oh, this is something I do. Or this is something that clients love.

Or this is something that I've just always been good at. Or you could choose to do it as an entire post, maybe resurrecting a moment from the past where this has just been so innate for you, or how you've cultivated it, or how you've used it in service of your clients, or even getting real about how it can be challenging to recognize and own our own gifts. But if you've been with me for any amount of time, you probably know that I am not tied to social media.

I don't even think you need to be on social media. So some of you may prefer to not use social media at all, or to sprinkle in your 30 day practice with other places. Even just mentioning it to your family is a step forward.

Even just saying it and passing to an acquaintance or a stranger. There are so many opportunities and venues for you to just express. And that is all we're talking about here.

It's where you become comfortable with taking something that is inside you and expressing it out into the world to be received. Okay, let's talk mindset, shall we? The mindset that you want to maintain comes through parsing out all of the different things you do that add value. In whatever situation your brain might be telling you that you don't add enough value.

And not only are these things valuable, but specifically your secret sauce is so valuable, that it might be worth paying you, regardless of whether it brings the specific result that the person wanted. Now stay with me here, because some of you might be freaking out, thinking, oh no, that is just bringing up all of my worst fears about being salesy and not having integrity, if I'm not actually going to get these results for people that I promise. What I mean is that those results could just be the cherry on top.

And it's worth you doing the inner work to really think through this, to stretch your mind into how it might be true that just your secret sauce alone is worth an investment with you, or is worth your price tag, is worth your entire price tag. You can think through what you do, you can think through the way you do it, and you can think through how you are. All of those are entry points for you to begin this little exercise.

Maybe your people didn't really know that thing existed, and that alone is going to be so life-changing over the course of their life, or being surrounded by it will be so helpful for them to believe in it, or it will just be so reassuring for them to have it. I'm thinking of two examples here. One is, once I was talking to one of my first coaches about this new client I was bringing on, she had this amazing new concept that had just never been done anywhere before, and I was so lit up and excited.

And my coach looked at me and she said, Jenna, I would never take on that client. The fact that you get so jazzed up about uncommon businesses, and are willing to be a champion for those people, and to do the extra work of having to understand industries that you don't already know, that's going to be life-changing for those people, because up until now, they haven't fully believed that it can work. And now here you are as a business coach saying, I can't wait to work on that with you.

(15:25 - 16:07) So you see how over the course of that person's life, of potentially going off in some other direction rather than that business that they really wanted, but then they meet me and through that interaction, plant their stake in the ground and say, yes, I'm doing this. How that is so worthwhile, that alone. And I'm thinking of a landscape architect I worked with, who was just a genius at making people feel comfortable and really managing all the different personalities and all the different priorities of all the teams that have to come together in order to create the kinds of magnificent backyards that her clients wanted.

(16:08 - 19:17) And her clients could feel that right away. And it was so worthwhile for them to move forward with her, just because it was a load off their plate, a load off their mind. They weren't going to have to be coordinating between different companies or worrying about personality dynamics.

They just knew that it would be done smoothly and handled and felt so reassured. Even if they had to hire a separate landscape architect, that job alone was worth so much over the course of the four months or six months, whatever it was that this project was being completed. In the Clarity Accelerator, we have an exercise where we really pull this apart and give ourselves the opportunity to ground into how this is true for us and our specific people.

And once you've really, really taken this in and accepted it, it makes it so much easier to sell with integrity. Because you know the value you're giving people is so much higher than they're even really recognizing at that moment. If we had time right now, I could go through client by client, every single one of my clients, and tell you exactly why their secret sauce is so fundamentally important for their precise people.

And I know I believe that 100%. And I know they do too, because they've worked on this. This is the perfect time to talk about the energetics.

Now the energetics of really overcoming imposter syndrome and owning your secret sauce is about shifting into your welcome energy. Let me tell you a story about Rachel, who was a client that tended to be really overworking and doing everything for her clients, but even then was plagued with a bit of imposter syndrome that they wouldn't really recognize and appreciate all of it. And as you could imagine, that could lead her to compromise on her price, on what she would and wouldn't do for them.

Sometimes they would say things like, well, could you only do this instead of doing all of the things? Could we just get this one little piece from you? And I told her, Rachel, you have gone through so many things in this journey. You've spent so much time learning the ropes and can keep them away from so many pitfalls. She does luxury brand consulting that every time you are interacting with a new client or a current client, you need to show up like you're welcome.

You are welcome that I've done all of this for you, been through all of this, learned the hard way so that you don't have to. You're welcome that I'm here to help you. Sometimes you can completely change a dynamic just by you remembering who you really are and deciding to shift into that energetic.

(19:17 - 21:13) Now, I don't think that requires too much information. And I know that you love these episodes to be bite-sized and digestible. So I'm going to stop here.

But if you want to hear more, you can go back and listen to my podcast episode with Rachel. It's episode number 47. So there you go.

Let's quickly recap what we talked about here so you can put these tips into practice and show up like you deserve to be here as much or more than anyone else, starting today. Number one, stretch yourself to talk about your superpowers and accomplishments in some way every day in order to desensitize yourself to doing so and release the shame around Remember, owning your secret sauce isn't arrogance. It's integrity.

Because you are literally expressing who you are in the world. You can't be more in integrity than that. So the not sorry isn't just a hashtag.

It's a muscle that you build every time you speak the truth about your gifts. Number two, stretch your mind to think through all of the benefits you bring to the table for your clients. Remember, the value you bring isn't measured only in one specific result.

The more clearly that you see the myriad of ways you create value, the more confidently you'll own your worth, the more conviction you'll have selling your offers, and the more easily you'll call in your clients. And number three, the real transformation happens when you stop asking, am I enough? And start saying, you're welcome. It's not about being full of yourself.

It's about owning the journey you've walked, the way you are, and the fact that your client just got a fast track to something that really matters to them. That energy shifts everything. And at this point, if you're thinking, okay, Jenna, I really see that this is not only an issue for me, but also that I do not have to live with it.

(21:13 - 22:54) But whenever I try to change the way I'm thinking, that same voice, it's just still there telling me, come on, you really think that if you just think happy thoughts, it means you're somehow more qualified or capable. No one else is going to realize that you're not half as great as you're trying to be. And that's when the doubt rushes in, right? That maybe this is just how you are.

And you really need to just keep your nose to the grindstone so you can finally arrive at a place where you feel accomplished enough that these thoughts go away. If so, that's exactly why I created a tool called the Thought Cleanse. It's to help you release persistent nagging thoughts in the same way you do a juice cleanse or a spring cleaning.

It's a short email course. You get one email a day in your inbox, and it helps you step out of the vicious cycle and experience a different way, which is exactly what's needed for so many of us who are gripping so tightly. Am I right? So if you want to grab this tool so you'll be able to feel better about yourself and also feel like you're making actual progress towards a different way of being that you'll actually be able to see reflected in your business throughout the course of this week, then click the link in the show notes so you can download it for free.

All right, get out there and own your gifts and accomplishments, my friend. And let's talk again on Tuesday. Thanks for joining us here at the uncommon way.

If you want more tips and resources for developing clarity in your business and life, including the clarity first strategy for growing and scaling your business, visit the uncommon way.com. See you next time.

Support at The Uncommon Way 5/6/25 Support at The Uncommon Way 5/6/25

Ep 148: 4 Steps to Get People to Respect Your Work AND Downtime Without Guilt

Ever wish you could guard your Fridays—and your sanity—without feeling like you’re letting everyone down?

In a world that praises hustle and constant availability, setting firm boundaries as a woman entrepreneur can feel like swimming against the tide. This episode tackles why it’s so hard to disconnect—especially when guilt creeps in or others don’t “get it.”

Episode Summary

Ever wish you could guard your Fridays—and your sanity—without feeling like you’re letting everyone down?

In this episode, you will…

Uncover four practical steps that help you actually get your time back and help the people around you respect it.
Discover the unexpected mindset shift that makes setting boundaries feel less like confrontation and more like leadership.
Hear the five-second story that changed how I think about asking for help—and why it might shift everything for you too.

Press play to discover how kind, firm boundaries will create a win-win for everyone and propel your business forward.

Links Mentioned:

Grab the Ultimate Self Assessment for Unlocking Your Next Level here:

Episodes Mentioned:
147. No Time, No Spark, No Problem: The 10-Minute Ritual to Reignite Creativity

https://www.theuncommonway.com/schedule

Sign up here to get on the waitlist for Power & Potency, the new mastermind for highly accomplished women entrepreneurs, and hear all new information as it's released:

https://www.theuncommonway.com/waitlist

Find Jenna on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theuncommonway/

Full Episode Transcript:

Jenna Harrison: [00:00:00] In this episode, you'll discover four simple steps to protecting your work and downtime without feeling guilty. Even when others don't really get it. Welcome to the three day work week, helping women entrepreneurs run profitable, meaningful businesses in just three days a week if they like without stress, guilt, or sacrificing growth.

I'm your host, Jenna Harrison, sharing practical strategies, mindset hacks, and even some woo, to help you work smarter leap boldly and find true ballots. Let's dive in. Welcome, welcome back to the three day work week. Today we're going to talk about a line of questions that come up so often, and not just from clients, but from people in my own life too.

It's probably one of the biggest friction points when you decide to shorten your work week or protect the white space in your life. And sometimes it's even a fear that keeps you from trying it in the first place. And the questions are, how do I get people to respect my shorter work week without me [00:01:00] feeling guilty about it?

How do I get them to honor both my work time and my downtime? If you've ever tried to be more focused at work, only to be interrupted repeatedly, or you've carved out space for yourself only to get hit with a last minute favor or a hey, since you're not working on Friday opening, you are not alone.

Because when you try to get more done in less time, people still interrupt you. It's just that you have less ability to entertain their interruptions and with more downtime, they often assume you're more available for whatever is top of mind for them. So in this episode, we're going to get to the root of this and you will uncover four practical steps that help you actually get your time back and help the people around you respect it.

You'll discover the unexpected mindset shift that makes setting boundaries feel less like confrontation and more like leadership. [00:02:00] And you'll hear the five second story that changed how I think about asking for help and why it might shift everything for you too. But first, can we talk about something a little weird?

There is this unspoken belief a lot of women carry that being available all the time makes you a better person, that if you're not responding quickly or showing up constantly or just being there, I. You are being selfish or unhelpful. I mean, how many movies have we seen where there's a parent or partner or friend or child who's portrayed as cold and damaging and in need of redemption of some sort because they're focused on their career or they're too focused on themselves.

They are demonized until they finally see the light and mend their ways. And I mean, I really enjoy a lot of these movies. I. The Devil Wears Prada or Baby Boom, that's from the eighties. I don't know if you've seen that with, uh, Diane Keaton? Is that her name? I think so. [00:03:00] Um, elf, which my family Rees every single Christmas season.

But this message can be toxic. So often in those movies, people have to quit their jobs, right? They have to have these blow up confrontations and completely give up on their dreams in order to, uh, move forward. And I think that can be really damaging for a lot of us that that's kind of the right thing to do.

That's what the good people do. But really, what if it's backwards? What if you being constantly accessible is the thing that's holding you back from being your most impactful, creative and yes, supportive, connected self. I. Because here's what I know, the most effective grounded leaders that I know are the ones who protect their downtime like it's sacred.

They know that their best ideas, their clearest leadership and their deepest fulfillment, really it doesn't come when they're constantly rushing from task to task. It comes from [00:04:00] space. They also know that on top of that, when they're well feels full, and when they do feel fulfilled and when they do are getting these great ideas at work and their business is booming, right, they come back to their other relationships.

Every relationship in life, so much more present, so much more available, so much more interesting to the people around them. And so there's just this false dichotomy that really irks me about how it has to be either or. What if it's not either or? What if it's just about clear boundaries? So if you've been wondering how to make the people around you, honor what you've chosen to do, then here's step one.

It starts with you honoring it first. The very first step is that you have to believe it's okay. This might sound obvious, but it is not. So many people think the issue is other people not respecting their time, right? [00:05:00] Because it's the fault of the other person. But the deeper truth is we don't always respect our own time, not fully.

And that's true with both your work time and your downtime, but it's even harder with downtime, especially when guilt comes in. So we're gonna focus on that. This first step is very internal, right? You have to believe, truly believe that it's okay. Maybe even that it's necessary for you to have some white space.

Now, I'm not talking about downtime as in crash on the couch after a 14 hour day with a glass of wine, 'cause your brain stopped working. I'm talking about intentional guilt-free time, that's just for you. The kind of time that doesn't even have to be productive or that pointedly is not productive in the traditional sense where you can just exist, right?

Just breathe. Rest or be human or daydream. And I get [00:06:00] that this can feel uncomfortable, especially if you're the kind of person who's been rewarded for being a high achiever or praised for always being there. For others. You might be used to seeing rest as something to earn or deserve, and you might have a history of never quite believing that you deserve it yet.

But here's the reversal. Don't think of this as rest. Think of it as CEO time. It's not just your most productive business activity 'cause it's what ultimately saves you tons of time and unleashes your greatest ideas. That's what we talked about in last week's episode, which is a short 10 minute ritual.

So definitely take a listen to that. We'll link to it. But it's really keeping you on top of your game instead of just spinning your wheels, right? And it's also your most fruitful personal activity. It means that you won't be showing up, resentful and short-tempered. You are operating from overflow instead of [00:07:00] depletion.

I've had several clients who were worried about what their partners would think if they actually took some time for themselves. In the end, all of them have been like, wow, whatever you're doing, do more of that. It's like they finally get back that woman they fell in love with in the first place, or an even better version of her.

So just play with this. You don't have to force yourself into something that's too hard to wrap your brain around, but a good journal prompt might be. What would I need to believe in order to feel great about protecting my CEO time? Not saying that you have to believe it yet, but just get curious about what it might be like to believe it and what would look differently in your life or business if you did.

Alright, step two. The next step is talk about it because here's the thing, people can't honor a boundary they don't [00:08:00] know exists. And a lot of us make this mistake, we decide, okay, I am going to shorten my work week, but we don't actually tell anyone maybe because we feel bad about shortening our work week.

So we just hope they'll get the hint when we stop replying to emails after 2:00 PM on Thursdays, or we think. I'm really gonna take some time to reset, but then we feel guilty sharing that and instead we just hope they'll stop asking us for giving us some invitation or sharing an opportunity that tempts us or whatever.

But hope is not a strategy. Hope is not a strategy. When you clearly and calmly explain what you're doing and why you create understanding. You take something that might have felt personal, like, why is Jenna suddenly not available, and you turn it into something purposeful. Oh, Jenna's [00:09:00] prioritizing this so she can run her business more effectively and be more present when we're together.

Now, let me give you an example. One of my clients will call her Maya. Was transitioning into a different way of working, and she had always been the go-to person, always there when her husband wanted to talk about his day, always helping out the PTA group, always sending the handwritten cards and the extra cool gifts, but it was draining her to be that person.

So we had her undergo a series of very intentional conversations, and she shared what she was doing and why, and how she was experimenting with this new schedule and really wanted to protect her creative energy. And she still loved her people. She just needed to try this and something beautiful happened.

Most of the people around her were not only understanding, they were inspired, they started confessing how drained they felt. They got super curious about what her schedule was [00:10:00] like and how she was thinking about it and how she was protecting it. Now, did one or two people get a little weird? Sure. That brings us to step three.

'cause here's the truth, no one likes to say. Even when you do everything right, quote unquote, even when you communicate clearly, there's still a chance that someone won't love your boundary, and that's okay. When you shift how you show up in the world, especially if you're used to being always on or always available, you'll likely encounter emotional resistance.

Now, that could be external, like someone makes a snarky comment about how nice it must be to not have a job, or it's internal like you are feeling so guilty and uncomfortable that you're tempted to go back to your old ways. Neither of those mean anything's wrong. In fact, it means that you have a perfectly functional human brain that's adjusting to a new pattern, and so do they.[00:11:00]

One thing I always say to clients, discomfort doesn't mean you're doing it wrong. It means you're doing something new. And the funny thing is that people don't actually judge us as harshly as we imagine. They'll, there's a famous study published in Psychological Science that shows how we consistently overestimate how negatively others will evaluate us in awkward or vulnerable moments.

And the researchers, they called it the illusion of transparency. Basically, we think people are way more tuned into our inner awkwardness or guilt than they actually are. But even if your aunt doesn't understand why you're not taking her calls during work hours, she'll survive and you will too. And the more you practice doing it, practice being okay with other people having feelings, the easier it gets.

Honestly, the more your perspective shifts and you realize that your aunt [00:12:00] just didn't realize what time it was just she just had a thought she wanted to share and before she forgot it, she wanted to call you and she was totally happy to leave a voicemail. The more your perspective shifts, the more things stop feeling like that big a deal.

Quick personal note here. I remember the first time that I said to my husband, Ben. Actually, would you be able to take the dog to that vet appointment? Since I took her last time, he was in the bathroom shaving and I was sitting on the edge of our bed and I heard him kind of sigh and I literally had to grip the edge of the bed.

I remember it so clearly, and I just breezed like to get myself to survive the next few seconds, which by the way, felt like eons instead of my gut instinct to rebound into. You know what? Nevermind, I can do it. So I breathed through the newness and I just reminded myself that feelings had never killed anyone [00:13:00] until he responded.

And you know what he said? Yeah, totally. He hadn't been judging me and resenting the request. He'd simply been moving his schedule around in his mind and make sure he could do it before he committed to it. That moment changed everything for me. It taught me the boundaries that don't have to come with drama.

We just have to be willing to sit through the five seconds of discomfort it takes to state them or to enforce them until they start to become second nature. Which brings us to step four. You've got to hold the line and give this time to become the new normal. This is where a lot of people falter. They say they want more downtime.

They say they're gonna shorten their work week, or they really do wanna focus and get more done in less time, or they really do wanna commit to that weekly yoga class. But then someone pushes back or a circumstance arises, or they feel [00:14:00] a twinge of guilt, you know, some emotion that they wanna get away from.

Suddenly they're back in the patterns that kept life feeling like such a hamster wheel before they began the project. So look, creating a new boundary is just like starting a new workout routine the first week. Super exciting. And we too, it starts to feel inconvenient and your brain starts to find ways out of it.

If you treat it like a 30 day experiment and you commit to it, no ifs, ands, or buts, the same way that if your child needs to be picked up from school, you know you're gonna find a way to do it, and you're gonna be shocked by how much can change for you. And don't worry, you're not gonna have be that rigid for the rest of your life.

But when you're starting something new, you're starting something new. I remember when a client of mine first started taking Fridays off, even though she informed her client, they were still blowing [00:15:00] up her WhatsApp and scheduling meetings and even asking her to hop on calls. But even though her client brought hundreds of thousands of dollars into her business and she was worried about making them angry, she was able to breathe through it and just not respond until Monday.

When she did, she'd politely remind them that she was not available on Fridays, and eventually it stopped happening and they actually became more respectful and appreciative in other areas too. Remember, we teach others how we wanna be treated, so I recommend making a visible commitment to yourself.

Block the time on your calendar, put your phone on, do not disturb. Create a little ritual that signals, this is my time. Now, whether that is lighting a candle or doing three jumping jacks, or putting a hand over your heart, you get to [00:16:00] train yourself and others that your time is worthy of respect. And yeah, there will be moments where it's easier to just say yes.

Just do it really quickly. Just answer the call. Every time you say yes to something unaligned, you are saying no to the version of you that is asking for more freedom and more flexibility and more access to her flow state. And if that part of you is brave enough to speak up and ask for something different, you better believe she's worth supporting.

So let's recap the four steps to making sure the people around you respect your downtime. Number one, start with belief. You have got to believe it's okay to set these boundaries. Number two, communicate clearly. People can't honor boundaries they don't know exist. Number three, [00:17:00] prepare for discomfort.

Feeling judged doesn't mean you're doing it wrong and feeling wrong doesn't mean you are being judged. And number four, hold the line. Treat it like a real experiment and have your own back. Here's a one last super important point I wanna leave you with. You don't need people to understand your boundaries before you can set them.

Would it be nice? Sure. But it's not a prerequisite. You can respect your own time, even if others are still adjusting. And when you lead with calm confidence, you give them a blueprint for how to meet you. Because training your mind to think uncommonly unlocks a whole new level of impact and possibility.

And at this point, if you're thinking, okay, Jenna, I really think I could do this, but I honestly have no idea how to even carve out time for myself because I've got so much [00:18:00] to do. And it's a huge challenge to even know what to focus on first, to start to change things, and that is exactly why I created the Ultimate Self-Assessment for Unlocking Your Next Level.

It's a tool that lets you analyze where you might be going wrong and refocus on your next best steps, so you're not wasting time and effort on what's ineffective instead of taking advantage of the huge opportunity in front of you to work smarter and not harder. Make more money with more ease. So if you wanna grab this assessment so you'll be able to laser focus on the next step for you, that will actually move the needle.

So you can have a business that supports you and grows even when you're hustling less, then click the link in the show notes so you can download it for free. Alright my friend. Go protect those boundaries. Let's talk again on Tuesday.[00:19:00]

Support at The Uncommon Way 4/29/25 Support at The Uncommon Way 4/29/25

Ep 147: No Time, No Spark, No Problem: The 10-Minute Ritual to Reignite Your Creativity

Ever catch yourself glaring at a blank Google Doc, wondering how your once-brilliant brain suddenly feels like it’s not connecting?

If you’re building a business on a tight, three-day workweek (or just want more life in your life), wasting an hour wrangling one stubborn paragraph costs you money, momentum, and sanity. This episode hands you a repeatable ritual to shake off the fog fast so you spend less time second-guessing and more time on work that moves revenue.

Episode Summary

Ever catch yourself glaring at a blank Google Doc, wondering how your once-brilliant brain suddenly feels like it’s not connecting?

In this episode, you will…

Discover the unconventional 10 minute ritual I personally use and have shared with my clients to shift from being in limbo to creatively unstoppable without needing hours of downtime or divine inspiration
Learn the surprising physical trigger that helps you bypass your inner critic and reignite flow even when your brain feels totally flatlined
Find out why a silly kids’ rock song helped me write some of my best content and how weirdness might be the secret to unlocking your genius.

Hit play now and trade today’s creative gridlock for a fresh dose of flow in less time than it takes to scroll your feed.

Schedule a call with Jenna about joining the Clarity Accelerator--the same mastermind that we talk about in this episode--to unlock your inner genius, step into your leadership, and dial in the strategies and mindset that let you work smarter, not harder.

https://www.theuncommonway.com/schedule

Sign up here to get on the waitlist for Power & Potency, the new mastermind for highly accomplished women entrepreneurs, and hear all new information as it's released:

https://www.theuncommonway.com/waitlist

Find Jenna on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theuncommonway/

Full Episode Transcript:

Jenna Harrison: [00:00:00] In this episode, you'll discover the surprisingly fast and effective virtual that pulls you out of creative fog and back into flow. No matter how myth you're feeling, welcome to the three day work week, helping women entrepreneurs run profitable, meaningful businesses in just three days a week if they like without stress, guilt, or sacrificing growth.

I'm your host, Jenna Harrison, sharing practical strategies, mindset hacks, and even some woo, to help you work smarter leap boldly and find true balance. Let's dive in. Welcome. Welcome back to the three Day Work Week. I'm so glad you're here because today's episode is for every entrepreneur who's ever stared at a blinking cursor thinking, where did my brain go?

You know what I'm talking about? That frustrating creative fog that rolls in at the exact moment. You need to write something compelling or brainstorm something innovative or solve a problem that feels like a total stuck point. We've all [00:01:00] had those moments where you're just sitting there like, I swear it was working yesterday.

Somehow. Today, the entire well feels dry. You either don't know what to say or you write something and then immediately second guess it, rewrite it, tweak it to death, and before you know it, an hour's gone by and you're no closer to actually getting the thing done. Meanwhile, your to-do list is giving you side eye, right.

Here's the thing. When you are on a mission to work a shorter work week, whether that's three days, four days, or just less hustle and more life, you can't afford to waste time like this. Not because you need to be a machine, but because your time is the most precious resource you've got and you've got better things to do than debate whether to smash your laptop against the wall or not.

So let's flip the script. Because we know you've also had [00:02:00] moments, probably more than a few, where the words just flowed. You got into a groove and magic happened. You had the game changing idea. You created something wildly effective. Maybe it brought in money right away or opened the door to something bigger.

What if those moments weren't rare? What if they were repeatable, and what if you could access them without having to go on a week long yoga retreat in Bali or spend the weekend at a cabin in the forest or whatever? Because yes, the world tells you that creativity is this mysterious thing, this fleet muse that may or may not show up depending on the whims of fate and whether mercury is in retrograde, all sorts of things.

But I don't fully buy it. Creativity is not some external force that comes and goes leaving you powerless. It's a muscle, a neurological state, which all of us are born with, and [00:03:00] a rhythm you can learn to access on demand. So today I'm gonna walk you through a simple five part ritual you can do in just 10 minutes to reignite your spark and access your creativity even when you're feeling meh.

Yeah. You know, it's a technical term, meh. So let me be clear though, if you are feeling creatively blocked and you suspect it's because of something deeper, like a fear of failure or fear of success, childhood conditioning, a belief that you're not creative or even a part of you that's suppressing a desire you haven't fully acknowledged, please work with a coach or therapist.

That kind of support is essential and it's costing you both revenue and wellbeing to keep powering through while feeling stuck. But today, we're not gonna go that deep. Today is about your everyday disconnect. The blank screen moments, the mental dullness that sneaks in, [00:04:00] even when you love your business, the feeling of disconnection from your creative flow.

Every human experiences this, especially busy women who have 10 plates in the air and every human can learn to shift out of it. Let's talk about how by the end of this episode, you will discover the unconventional 10 minute ritual I personally use and have shared with my clients to shift from stuck to creatively unstoppable without needing hours of downtime or divine inspiration.

You'll learn the surprising physical trigger that helps you bypass your inner critic and reignite flow even when your brain feels totally flatlined. And you'll find out why a silly kid's rock song helped me write some of my best content and how weirdness might be the secret to unlocking your genius.

But before we get into the ritual, I have to give you the precursor, the thing that determines whether or not any of this will [00:05:00] actually work for you. You have to believe it's worthwhile to reignite your creativity. Some of you are already all in. You know what happens when you're connected to your creative flow, you know, it makes you faster and sharper and more magnetic and more aligned and yeah, more profitable.

Others of you might only give yourself permission to take a beat when things are dire, when the launch is falling apart, when the sales are falling, when you've been aware of the disconnected feeling for too long and it's eating you up. And the difference probably comes down to belief. Do you truly see creativity and whatever it takes to access it as a business critical asset?

Or do you think of it as a luxury? Because here's what's true, the quality of your ideas is the lever that changes everything. Your most aligned magnetic [00:06:00] offers, creative clarity, the copy that converts creative clarity, your connection with the exact people who are craving your secret sauce, creative clarity.

And the reframe that changes an entire industry. You guessed it. Creative clarity. Clarity is queen, and it comes when your mind and body are open and your creativity is ignited. When you believe that accessing your creativity is actually a wise, valuable, productive use of your time, then you start to prioritize it and you stop spinning your wheels trying to push through quick.

Now, let me walk you through the rich. Hey, many entrepreneurs say freedom, but.

If you're past the point of telling yourself that next year you'll finally do things differently and you're ready to align and simplify your business, rewire your brain without guilt, and [00:07:00] actually claim the freedom you started this for all while scaling your business. I'll show you how to do it inside the Clarity Accelerator Mastermind.

Step one is to shake things up. It should take about three minutes. We're talking about a full state change here. You need to shift your vibe and let your brain know that there's a specific before and after songs, music work really well. I like to play a song that has me moving my body in a big exaggerated way, which is fun as hell.

And it's also a hack for nervous system regulation like have you heard Space Unicorn by Perry Grip? It is this weird, wonderful, hard rock kid song that my son introduced me to, and it always makes me laugh and play the air drums. The point isn't the genre, it's the break, right? This is a reset. It creates a definitive line between your old [00:08:00] state, which was that stuck blank, met energy and your new one.

Because you don't need more time to create brilliance. You need a different state. So you wanna move your body in a way that raises your heart rate or takes up space, shake your limbs, you know, jump up and down dance like a muppet. The weirder you feel doing it, the better because it's different than the status quo.

I mean, maybe it's not for you, but it is for me. Because here's our dirty little secret, right? Part of why you're creatively blocked is because you're still giving too many F's about what other people think. The first step is about getting weird, letting go of inhibitions and reconnecting with all the parts of you.

The ones who don't need to be polished to be powerful. You can refine what surfaces later, okay? But for right now, we're after raw. Then step two, this takes about a minute. You need to [00:09:00] activate a sensory trigger so you light a candle or you warm up some essential oil between your palms, or you pull your fuzziest, softest blanket over you.

Whatever it is, create a cue that you can return to again and again. That tells your brain, we are now entering that creative space that we love so much. Think of it like the shower effect. You know how you always get great ideas in the shower? Part of that is because your body relaxes and your mind follows.

The sensory environment shifts and suddenly your brain starts handing you gold. So this is your creative cue. Anchor it in. Step three is to regulate. You only need about a minute for this too. Take a moment just to breathe and center. I know that sounds like a cliche, but this is about tuning into your body and then gently regulating your nervous system.

You might touch something grounding like your carpet, [00:10:00] or put your hands on your chest or just feel the grasp beneath you and notice like what you see, what you hear, what you feel, what you smell. These are activating different parts of your brain. Okay? This isn't just yoga talk. Then remind yourself that at this very moment you are safe.

You are speaking to your limbic brain in a way that it can actually hear when you do these things. Now, you don't need to overthink this, just land. Just bring yourself fully into the present moment, any thoughts that come up, which they will because there's still that active analytical part of your brain as well.

Just gently remind yourself that you will attend to them in a few minutes. But for now, you can just smile at their presence and persistence, and you can bring yourself back to that tactile sensation that you've chosen. Your creativity is never out there. It's here [00:11:00] inside of you, always available, and this step helps you feel that.

Step four is to really connect. Then spend a couple minutes here because this is where we go inward. Close your eyes and do some breath work. Whatever feels good to you, you can do box breathing or I like to intentionally increase the power of my inhales and exhales like,

like that. Get very powerful as I visualize my aura expanding and then changing colors as it fills the room. Right. I imagine kind of the swirling effect as it's moving in and up and out, and I imagine connecting to my higher self, to my truest voice, and then at the end I place my hands over my heart and I say a mantra out loud, whatever comes to me.

Maybe it's like I'm open to what wants to come through, or [00:12:00] the flow of creativity is always available to me. Or I source from truth, not pressure, or I am a creative powerhouse. It doesn't have to be perfectly articulated. You just need to say it with presence and knowingness. You are not demanding brilliance here.

You're simply shifting into what is and inviting what wants to come through. Now, pro tip, as someone who has really tried it, always done it again and again, set a timer for two minutes so you're not distracted by the clock. If you're distracted by the time and distracted by the clock, you keep activating that other part of your brain that you're kind of hoping to shut down a little bit in this process.

So put the timer on. Give yourself that space to just be, and then when the timer goes off, that's when you put your hands over your heart and you say your mantra as many times as you like. Okay, step five is to play. [00:13:00] Do this for three minutes. At least. This is the step that most people skip, but it's really important.

So set a timer and do something that bypasses your inner critic and that analytical part of your mind, stream of consciousness. Journaling is a good one. Doodling is a great one. Watching the clouds float by fantastic. Let your mind wander. Let your hands move if they want. Like no pressure, no expectations.

Because if you jump straight back into that piece of copy you were writing, right? Or any sort of like doing this, you're reentering the pattern that got you here, the part of your brain that said you don't have time for relaxation or whatever it was, and that was so caught up in the pressure that literally closed off your creativity.

So this is where your brain gets out of perform mode and [00:14:00] into receive mode. And sometimes, and this is where the idea drops in other times the idea will come after the ritual. Maybe when you're making lunch or brushing your teeth, that's okay. You've already done the most important thing. You've opened the creative channels and you've tuned your brain to the right frequency.

The more you practice this, the more effective it becomes. Because the truth is you don't have to wait for creativity to strike. You can train yourself to access it. Creativity is not a muse. It is a muscle. You can learn. To say, now is when I create and just trust that something good will follow. And yeah, it might feel like nothing's happening, but give it time, give it consistency.

Because the more you believe that you are the one who activates creativity, the more powerful this ritual becomes and the more powerful you become. You are not [00:15:00] dependent on inspiration. You are the source. And when you really get that, everything changes. You'll stop wasting time trying to brute force your way through stuckness, and you'll stop wondering if you've lost it.

You'll stop telling yourself that creativity is some mysterious magic, only available to a few, probably people who are better than you in some way, right? Because it's available to you, it is available to you right now in this moment through this ritual. So give it a try this week. Save this episode and the next time you feel creatively blocked, pull it out and give yourself 10 minutes to reconnect.

I promise it's. Once you experience the power of this shift for yourself, you'll start to see creativity, not just as something you do, but as a part of who you are. And you'll also start to [00:16:00] question what else is possible for you that maybe you weren't believing right now at this moment? Because training your mind to think uncommonly unlocks a whole new level of impact and possibility.

Okay. That's what I've got for you today. If this was helpful, let me know. Share it with a friend, share it with someone else who needs it, or post your candle on Instagram and tag me or leave a review telling me what landed for you. And of course, if you wanna accelerate your journey into building a different kind of business that actually feels like your most intentional self created it, and one that thrives on a schedule you love.

Then you belong in the Clarity Accelerator Mastermind with us. There's a link in the episode notes to schedule a meet and greet with me and answer all your questions whenever your creative curiosity moves you to do so. All right, my friend. Let's talk again on Tuesday.[00:17:00]

Support at The Uncommon Way 4/22/25 Support at The Uncommon Way 4/22/25

Ep 146: Why You Don’t Need To “Handle It Well” To Grow—And Other Self-Development Lies We Believe : Business Streamlining For Work-Life Balance

Why do your best mindset tools seem to disappear when you need them most?

When challenges hit hard, many high-achieving women feel blindsided by their inability to "handle it well." This episode uncovers why that reaction is not a failure, but actually a crucial insight into your personal development—and what to do with it.

Episode Summary

Why do your best mindset tools seem to disappear when you need them most?

In this episode you will:

Uncover a game changing reframe for your most challenging times
Learn the two self-development lies you're probably believing that are getting in the way of your growth
Find out why I'm talking to you about this even before I've really figured it all out for myself

Press play now to discover how to mine your toughest moments and reveal next-level growth.

Episode mentioned:

Ep #71: How I Structure My 33-Hour Workweek

https://www.theuncommonway.com/schedule

Sign up here to get on the waitlist for Power & Potency, the new mastermind for highly accomplished women entrepreneurs, and hear all new information as it's released:

https://www.theuncommonway.com/waitlist

Find Jenna on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theuncommonway/

Full Episode Transcript:

Jenna Harrison: [00:00:00] In this episode, you'll discover a self-development myth about hard times that's blocking real growth. Welcome to the three day work Week, helping women entrepreneurs run profitable, meaningful businesses in just three days a week if they like, without stress, guilt, or sacrificing growth. I'm your host, Jenna Harrison, sharing practical strategies, mindset hacks, and even some woo, to help you work smarter leap boldly and find true balance.

Let's dive in. Welcome, welcome back to the three day work week. Today I've got a short but powerful episode for you where you will uncover a game changing reframe for your most challenging times. You'll learn the two self-development lies you're probably believing that are getting in the way of your growth.

And you'll also find out why I'm talking to you about this even before I've really figured it all out for myself. This episode is unscripted. I wanted to come to you kind of when I'm in the middle of this and [00:01:00] just tell you about how I was having a conversation with a client of mine, and I've been going through a lot of things lately.

There's been a lot going on just in the period of the last couple of weeks, and the same for her as well. And what I've come to understand for myself is that these periods are really critical in helping you understand which mindset, tools, or self-development growth tools you have really, really integrated and live by, and which you just knew conceptually.

You also get information about what tactical changes you need to make for the future. Maybe you make a week of meals ahead of time if you're gonna be solo parenting. And you can even get more clarity about a pattern that's repeating. You're seeing how this reminds you of other times in your past, and it helps you finally get to the root or get closer to the root.

Like I'm suspecting my current moment has a lot to do with an upper limit or success intolerance, and that [00:02:00] hadn't become clear to me until this moment, but it makes a lot of sense. We've just bought this home. I'm really living a really wonderful life in so many ways. My friendships and my son is feeling very settled and we have this beautiful home and we live in this beautiful place and I've been having a lot of chaos in my personal life, and much of it I have to admit now, is self-created, like deciding to buy the house right after we had settled in to the new country.

My client was lamenting the fact that we'd done a bunch of work together, but then when she entered this really stressful period, so much of it just seemed to go out the window, and it really made her question everything, even about the bigger questions of life. And while she was definitely handling it better than she would've in the past, she wasn't handling it as well as she wanted to.

And doing all the things that she'd, and when I say all the things, I [00:03:00] mean all the mindset things and the self-care things that she thought were now part of her everyday routine when times were quote unquote good. And when I shared with her this concept that I have about how this is actually an information gathering time when you see, okay, these are the things I absolutely lean on, but now these are the ones that kind of went out the window in that period of stress.

And that's actually amazing because I can see what I've fully integrated and what I haven't. She used the term stress test and I thought that is so perfect. If you don't know, a stress test is something that they'll do, for instance, to judge cardiovascular health. So your heart may function perfectly when you're at rest, but when you really increase the stress, you may start noticing abnormalities, but we wouldn't know that.

If we hadn't gone through that stressful period, so think about how differently [00:04:00] you would move through challenging times if you were telling yourself, oh, I'm not supposed to get it all perfectly right now. This is a stress test. This is just giving me information. It could really help us see our difficult periods, not as setbacks, but as opportunities as stress tests.

I think there's a big self-development lie, which is that we're supposed to always handle it well. And another lie is that we're supposed to look like we always have it all together. Neither of those are true. In fact, if they are true, it means you are not growing and perhaps that you're avoiding the duality of life or even gaslighting yourself.

Gas lighting is when you try and tell yourself that it's not really that bad or it's not really happening, but meanwhile your emotional body has a completely different perspective and then that creates a clash. My son [00:05:00] was doing some like a times table online thing, learning his timestables, and he came and showed me really excitedly that he got all of the answers correct.

And I of course told him that's great. But I also have this ongoing thing with him where I'm letting him know if he's getting them all correct, then chances are he's not really stretching himself. And I said, do you think that might've been what was going on? And he looked at me and he is like, actually I was doing only tens, you know?

And yet we all wanna be at a 10 all the time in life, especially us high performers. People socialized as women who are supposed to be able to do it all. Plus, of course, it's human nature to jump through loops to avoid the negative. It's how we're wired. But A, that only keeps you repeating exactly where you are now, and B, completely avoiding challenging [00:06:00] circumstances and emotions is unfortunately unrealistic.

And your attachment to perfection actually brings you out of flow with the universe. There's just no way that you can be learning new tools and then be able to access them perfectly in a time of stress. And in fact, part of the neurological change that happens in our brain is this thing, this kind of, uh, feeling that happens.

Afterwards, when you look back in hindsight and you're like, oh my gosh, I forgot to do X. That is part of the learning mechanism that helps us access those tools or those resources more quickly next time. Now, I'm just realizing as I'm talking here that I'm almost taking this position of. Being on the other side, and I'm like telling you how it goes, but the truth is I'm maybe a little over halfway through the [00:07:00] hump.

And the reason I'm choosing to come on now and talk about it is because of the lie that we have to look like we have it all together or we have to look especially in business or as coaches that we're already on the other side of it and can go back and tie everything up in a perfectly neat bow. And I really wanna let you know that wherever you are in your journey, I'm right there with you.

It may be about different topics or kind of at a different level, showing up in a different way. My capacity for stress might be higher than yours. I'd hazard to save for business things, but that doesn't mean I never arrive at a level that exceeds my current capacity for handling it to the best of my ability.

So you and I may be going through different things, but I am still going through periods just like you are with the same kind of thoughts that come up and the same kind of overwhelm and overwhelming emotions that come up. And then of course, [00:08:00] conversely, your capacity is likely higher than mine for certain situations or emotions, but it's not a race, and this is why we find people that have more of what we're looking for to help shorten our timeline.

And to provide us some support and direction and cushion throughout the process rather than taking the slow route. So I am not done. I am fully learning. So to get specific, when I was going through this really challenging times, that kind of the culmination of it was a kind of life or death situation with somebody that I love a lot.

And luckily everything turned out to be okay, but there was a period where things felt very uncertain. And that was happening simultaneously with several other things as well. And I realized that in hindsight, I was able to look back on it, that I was really from a mindset and resilience perspective, handling quote unquote, handling that well.

And I was [00:09:00] really allowing myself to feel emotions, be with emotions, tolerate them, and not shame myself because of them. And even not shame myself for not being able to, quote unquote, keep it all together. I was giving myself grace with dropping balls. But you know what I wasn't doing? I was rushing around from one thing to another.

I wasn't doubling down on the need in that period to take micro breaks and to take to reset my nervous system. Now, this is something I've known about for a long time. I've worked on a lot. I've done, I've worked through many tools and I teach this stuff. If you go back and listen to an episode that I did maybe a year ago about how I structure my then 33 hour work week, I talk about this concept about how even when things would get a little crazy in the business, I felt like it was a good day because I would take [00:10:00] these.

Mini vacations, right? Or these breaks throughout the day to really recenter myself. And that completely opened up new problem solving and new ideas. And I talked about how this was like a discipline that I had learned, but what we get to see is to what point, right? And this was really helpful for me to see this stress test was really helpful for me to see.

What isn't fully integrated yet, and not to shame myself because of it, but just to be able to access it more quickly last, next time, and to be able to see kind of progress that I have made, growth that I have made and celebrate that. But we know when we get into a head space of I have to handle it well, and I have to keep it all together and I need to look like I have it all together.

People will judge me and I will judge myself. That totally blocks our [00:11:00] access, our visibility on what we actually need to know, and chances are we're repressing our emotions and we're driving ourselves harder into the ground and all the things that are always setbacks. And this from someone who just did that very thing last week.

So my friend in this episode, you've learned really, I believe, life-changing. Reframe that you can put a little post-it note onto your laptop screen to remember about your most challenging times, the two self-development lies that really get in the way of your growth, and that I'm talking to you about this now when I'm still in the middle of it, because I don't wanna perpetuate.

The lie that we have to look like we have it all together or that it's only worth talking about once it's tied up in a pretty little bow at the end. Alright, my friend, I hope you enjoyed this [00:12:00] episode. If so, please share it with a couple of your friends that need to hear it today. Let's talk again on Tuesday.

Support at The Uncommon Way 4/15/25 Support at The Uncommon Way 4/15/25

Ep 145: This is what’s REALLY causing overwhelm in your business

What separates wildly productive entrepreneurs from those just spinning their wheels?

As a high achieving woman entrepreneur, it’s easy to mistake busyness for productivity. If you feel the constant urge to do more, this episode unpacks what’s really going on, why “doing more” often backfires—and what to do instead.

Episode Summary

What separates wildly productive entrepreneurs from those just spinning their wheels?

In this episode you will:

Learn the unexpected thought shift I had in Italy that instantly released the pressure I had been feeling—and allowed me to create bigger results with more ease and trust.
We’ll expose the hidden mindset loop that’s tricking you into overworking—and keeping your biggest results just out of reach.
And you’ll discover what makes clients, sales, and momentum suddenly start flowing again—even if you’re doing less than you were before.

Press play now to trade endless hustle for focused actions that multiply revenue while shrinking your workweek.

Episodes:

Ep #6: How Entrepreneurship Made Me Woo

Ep #13: Allowing Yourself to Receive

Ep #16: Business Minimalism and Why We Overwork

https://www.theuncommonway.com/schedule

Sign up here to get on the waitlist for Power & Potency, the new mastermind for highly accomplished women entrepreneurs, and hear all new information as it's released:

https://www.theuncommonway.com/waitlist

Find Jenna on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theuncommonway/

Full Episode Transcript:

Jenna Harrison: [00:00:00] In this episode, you'll discover what's driving the fact that all your effort might be about as effective as pushing buttons on a kid's ride. You're busy, but not actually controlling the vehicle. Welcome, welcome back to the three day work week. We're bringing back a listener favorite episode today, number 16.

I love that some of these withstand the test of time, so well, I go back myself and re-listen and think. Oh, good point. I really need to apply that this week. So you are going to see why this one was so popular. In this episode, we're talking about what separates wildly productive entrepreneurs from those just spinning their wheels.

I'll share the unexpected thought shift I had in Italy that instantly released the pressure I'd been appealing and allowed me to create bigger results with more ease and trust. We'll expose the hidden mindset loop that's tricking you into overworking and keeping your biggest [00:01:00] results just out of reach, and you'll discover what makes clients sales and momentum suddenly start flowing again.

Even if you're doing less than you were before, enjoy. Welcome to the three day work week, helping women entrepreneurs run profitable, meaningful businesses in just three days a week if they like without stress, guilt, or sacrificing growth. I'm your host, Jenna Harrison, sharing practical strategies, mindset hacks, and even some woo, to help you work smarter, lead boldly, and find true balance.

Let's dive in. Hey everyone. Welcome back. I'm settling back in from Italy. I was really interested in how quickly my brain released the internal pressure of needing to be busy. Those are two separate things, right? The hours you work are one thing, and the pressure you feel to work to be doing things is another.

I was studying myself like, huh, what am I thinking exactly? That's allowing me to do this. As I mentioned last week, I was working what many would consider to be [00:02:00] an obscenely low amount of hours per week, and yet my business didn't suffer. It's because of business minimalism, which is when you're solely focused on the areas of greatest leverage in your business.

And that can only happen when you're willing to not satisfy the urge to work on a bunch of other things too. And you'll only be willing to restrain yourself when you trust that you don't have to do any more to create bigger results. You just have to do what you're doing better to create bigger results.

But before we go there, I wanna give a shout out to some people I know are listening. One is a podcast listener who told me that she goes back and listens to earlier episodes, two or even three times in order to get more out of them. And I can completely relate to this and appreciate it because I remember once I was going to see a coach of mine and I kind of wanted to brush up and I looked over [00:03:00] my past notes and.

There was something from a year ago that was almost exactly what she was just telling me on a call. And so it's like our brains can't fully receive it until we're ready to receive it. And so this is a practice that I've started doing with my own coaching is really going back to refresh my brain and hear things, listen to calls, hear things, or see things.

See my notes several times. In order to absorb more than I would've the first time. So I just really wanna honor her for doing that and really committing to getting the most out of this podcast that she can. Okay. Business minimalism is not the normal way of doing things. That's true for pretty much everyone in the US, but many other countries too.

We tend to pile on more and more and more. If I have more time in the day, that means I should do more things. Let's call it maximalism. At its core, overwork is a [00:04:00] product. If you believe in, you can control your business results through. You believe there's a correlation between doing more and positive business outcomes, which is understandable, especially if you've grown up hearing you can have anything you want if you work hard enough.

Most of our societies still run on a factory mentality. I clock in, I clock out, and I get money for those hours. If I work for more hours, I earn more money, and we start thinking like, how much does that doctor or lawyer make per hour? We're not always thinking about the overall result they bring or the years of investing and honing their skill that now allow them to create those results.

No, we're like $500 per hour. That's crazy. Talk. Plus we see these well-known business gurus with huge teams that are churning out social media webinars, free challenges, live events, et cetera, et cetera, and our brains figure, well, [00:05:00] the more I approximate that behavior, the closer I'll get to that person's success.

Nobody is paying you for the hours you work anymore. You know this logically. I know you've heard it a thousand times. If a dentist says it will take six months to do your root canal, you are not gonna pay her more just because of all the hours she's putting into it, right? You'll happily pay a premium to the dentist down the street who can do it in one day.

And yet we see so much chronic overwork in entrepreneur circles. It's like you're moving the vacuum around frantically back and forth, right? But it's not plugged in. Yes, you have the lines on the carpet to show for it, but that doesn't mean it's effective. I know of someone who posts all the time on social, responds to comments, engages with others, and has built up 40,000 Instagram followers.

I know for a lot of you, you think that must equal success, but she makes no money, none. [00:06:00] It's a classic case of all the marketing in the world won't make up for a of messaging. Now you're probably thinking, okay, Jenna, if doing things doesn't create results, what actually does? This is a huge clarity gap for entrepreneurs at all income levels.

I see six and multi six figure entrepreneurs frequently saying things like, I'm not really sure what creates my results. I think that was just a fluke, et cetera, et cetera, friends. This is of foremost importance in your business. You've got to be attuned to the levers in your business that create the most results.

This is what I help my clients do. I help them find their own uncommon way, and it changes everything. Now there are often overlaps among different people, right? I've touched on several important factors in past episodes, like clarity about what you're offering in your people, for instance. That's a very [00:07:00] important lever, and I'll gladly do a future episode just on the topic of what actually creates results, because I wanna help you plug your vacuum in.

I really do. And then I wanna help you set up your Roomba, right? The world changes with the more women that do this. But what I really want you to take away from this episode is that in order to really hear this discussion about what creates results, you first have to divorce yourself mentally from the reliance on doing, or at least invite in a little bit of space to play with the idea that maybe results don't come from doing.

Don't get me wrong, I want you to do things in your business. I want you to do very challenging things that stretch you and help you grow into exactly who you're here to be, but quality over quantity. When I say quality, it's both the quality of the actions you're taking and the quality of your frame of mind.

So let's break those down. [00:08:00] Hey, many entrepreneurs say they want freedom, but most decisions telling yourself. You're ready to align and simplify your business, rewire your brain without guilt, and actually claim the freedom You started this for all while scaling your business. I'll show you how to do it inside the Clarity Accelerator Mastermind.

Quality of actions means that you're focused on the things and only the things that truly move your business forward. Rather than spreading yourself thin, you're giving more to the few selected things. In beginning of your business, you're solely concentrating on the steps required to prove your business is viable, and that language and assets will with your people in quickest.

You won't be filling your time with all the low yield activities that most new entrepreneurs fill their time with, like creating a website when you are [00:09:00] not even exactly sure who your people are or what they think the problem and solution is and what moves them towards a sale. I. Or spending time scrolling social media, because that's what the algorithm likes or listening to tons of webinars.

You know what you're focused on, why you've chosen that. It makes sense. You are decided and now you're executing it so you're not watching 10 different webinars every day. Now how you go about this can be different for everyone. Again, that's your uncommon way, your secret sauce. If you don't have a feel for this yet, get support to get clear on its stat.

I've had clients that were big networkers and their method was creating group offers and doing things like running Facebook groups. I've had others who were really great in person and tested language at networking events. I've had others that would invite people to free mini offers so that they could really have that one-to-one experience for a lengthy amount of time.

[00:10:00] So many ways. There's no one right way to grow your business the right way is the one that plays to your strengths. And later on in your business, you are still focusing on the few selected levers that create the most results, but your work now lies in creating higher degrees of value and impact for your people.

You must trust that your current portals or methods are enough. By portals, I mean the places through which people can find you, and that's hard work. Trust is. Becoming a business minimalist is scary work. It requires vulnerability. It requires a leap of faith. Believe me, I know I've been doing a lot of this work myself for the last few years so that I can now help my clients through it more easily, and I know how hard it is to stop moving all the controls and pushing all the buttons.

Okay. Okay. That's a fun image. It's like you're on one of those kids rides where you put in the coin and then it moves [00:11:00] up and down. Right? Dylan became obsessed with this Spider-Man ride in Italy. I lost many, many euros to that thing. But anyway, there's the airplane and you're pushing all the buttons, but really it's inserting the coin that makes a thing go up and down.

All the other things are distractions that give you the illusion of control, but really all it's doing is making you feel better to push them. Oh, I pushed this button and the plane moved up at the same time dopamine hit. Right? That's not a perfect analogy 'cause I would never advocate for anyone to just sit there and let the plane move up and down, but relinquish the superfluous stuff.

Just let it go. I know of many coaches that have seven figure businesses purely through referral business and their own networking. There's my mentor, Brooke Castillo. She has a 40 million business and until this year wasn't on social media. She created that through her podcast and Facebook ads. My own [00:12:00] multiple six figure business comes through a few different places where I'm featured with all of the above.

The people are working less than 40 hour work weeks. And that is the power of clear focus. It's also a product of really knowing yourself, knowing your people, and learning to speak to how those two connect. Of course, it's creating assets that work in the world on my behalf, so I don't have to hustle to get clients.

They come to me now. I thought I'd just share with you some of my thoughts that I identified while I was in Italy, so you can try 'em on and apply them to wherever you are in business if they're a. It will get done. This was my absolute favorite. I could compare that to some thoughts that I have here sometimes where I'm thinking there's not enough time to get everything done right.

And in Italy I was thinking it'll get done. I love it. There was another where I said, if it's important enough, I'll get to it later. So [00:13:00] that was showing me I trust my mind not to forget it. And I trust my mind to be able to sit with something and then have that discernment to decide if it really is important enough later.

If it's meant for me, it won't pass me by again. There's that trust, right? I don't have to worry about jumping on this offer or launching this new initiative right now, because otherwise I'll lose that opportunity. For instance, I'm thinking of maybe a person that markets with scarcity and they say that right now is this great offer, this discount or this opportunity, and I could hire them right now.

Again, if it's meant for me, it won't pass me by. I can still take advantage of this when it feels aligned. And then this one will be really big for a lot of you. There are plenty of people within my current pool. I can reach my goals within my [00:14:00] current pool, so of the areas of the portals I have where people can reach me, there are enough people there.

For me to reach my goals. Like I was talking to a client the other day who was going to be doing some market research and she was concerned about whether she should be talking to her network or going into Facebook groups, or, you know, trying all different angles. We broke down the numbers and she had 20 people that she tended to message just within a very close networking group, and I know they all know 20 people.

Right. And so maybe you're looking for three people. To speak to, to interview, and you've gotta remind your brain that it's very possible and very likely that it will be the easiest solution at all. You'll just send out a note to your friends and all you need is three people. So there's plenty of people within my current pool to reach my goals.

Therefore, I don't need to add anything extra to my business. The [00:15:00] only question is if something extra at. And I'm not alone in this. Now, this is something I personally believe that the universe wants to bring my clients and I into contact the universe will help them find their way to me. Like I had a client who happened to pull out a t-shirt from a conference from five years ago and it said, an uncommon way of living or an uncommon way of life or something.

And she just had the random thought, oh, that would be a great name for a business. And she Googled and found me. Right. So there's no way I could have made that happen through effort. Okay, well, I shouldn't say no way. Maybe I could have created the top view Super Bowl ad or something and, and she would've seen it, but she wasn't even looking for a business coach until she read my site.

So anyway, that is always powerful for me to remember that I'm not alone in this and that what I'm searching for is searching for me too. What I [00:16:00] want wants me. It really allows you to relinquish a lot of the nervous energy that drives you to do this in the first place. And we'll talk about that in a minute.

But bottom line, you can work smarter without working harder and create even bigger results. Alright, that was quality of actions. Let's talk about quality of your mindset. The need to do, do, do is always driven by some form of discontent. Discontent is the emotion you feel when you're asking for more than you're letting in.

I'll say that again. Discontent is the emotion you feel when you're asking for more than you're letting in. You might wanna go back and re-listen to the episode on allowing yourself to receive in order to fully understand what I'm saying there. But when you're tapped in, when you're really in alignment, things are unfolding steadily.

You may not have the exact result you want yet, but it. [00:17:00] There's so much happening, so much unfolding that you don't have space for discontent. There's too much gratitude and excitement and anticipation, but when you're asking for more than you're letting in, there's not enough action in the world to compensate for that misalignment.

Again, think of pinching the flow. I talked about that in the receiving episode. You're saying, I want a million dollars. Where's my million dollars? A million dollars isn't happening fast enough. But there's a million dollars right on the other side of that hose. You are the one who's pinching the hose.

It's like the clients are definitely there, but we're effectively blocking that sale. We aren't able to tap into our creativity. We aren't showing up as our most grounded self, or we're missing opportunities, or maybe we see the opportunity, but we're like, Ugh, I just don't have the bandwidth for that.

Patience is what you need when you aren't tapped in. Believe me, I know about [00:18:00] this. I'm an mg. For those of you that are familiar with human design, we want everything to move fast, fast, fast, and I'm intimate with the frustration that comes from impatience, but we can catch ourselves when it's happening, right?

We all have this ability. Let's talk about that aligned word. Let's break that down. When I say alignment, I mean a few things. One, there's integrity between what you're preaching and how you're living. You're actually using the tools you're talking about and are a product of those tools. Big one. I also mean that you're aligned with who you are.

You're following your true north, your uncommon way, your design, and I mean that you are rested and well-nourished and have a balanced nervous system. And then again, you are not pinching the flow if you're asking for a six figure or a seven figure business, but deep down you're thinking, I don't really want that many clients because I won't be able to deliver for them all, and then they'll all hate me and I'll feel [00:19:00] awful.

Then you're not in alignment. Or if you're thinking, I don't really want that big of a business because then I'll have to work too much and I don't wanna burn out. You're not in alignment. Your internal world is not aligned with what you're asking for. And it's okay. None of us are perfect with this in every way at every moment, but having this knowledge helps expose us to where we're not in alignment, where we're not aligned with our higher self, our highest potential, and we're grateful to have that exposed.

I. So that we can heal it, so we can work on it and grow. We're now beating ourselves up. We are where we are for a thousand. Very understandable reasons. It's all good, and thankfully we're seeing where our areas of growth are. You exposing an area of growth doesn't mean you're doing it wrong. It means you're doing it right.

It means things are happening for you. Change is unfolding right in front of your eyes. Shift is happening. When you can start moving [00:20:00] away from this whole, why isn't it working type of energy, you will start to see your world transform. I have a, a client who has really dived into this work, and now she has more clients than ever.

She's booking more sales calls than she can believe. Her Instagram has exploded, and she's doing all this inspired work and gets thousands of views and really good engagement. Much better than really well-known coaches with huge followings by the way. Her clients come to her when she's staying out of her head, out of her doubt when she's riding the wave.

I have another client with a product-based business who uses Facebook ads and when she is in an aligned place, her revenue increases. When she's not, it declines and these are set it and forget it ads she's got going in the episode. That's called How Entrepreneurship Made Me Woo. I talk about my own journey through this.

I don't change my copy, and yet the clients coming to me [00:21:00] change. Maybe this is correlated rather than casual, all the things I just mentioned, right? Maybe this is all chance or confirmation bias. I'll let you make your own decisions about that. But for me and many of my clients, we believe our alignment and whatever we're working on in our growth at that moment plays a huge part in our business results.

The work of this alignment is work, and that's the kind of work you need to be focusing on frequently for maximum long-term results rather than filling your time with all the frantic busyness. A little bit of balance, please, and focused intentional effort. This is business minimalism, focusing on what really matters.

Your efforts are going into the quality of your actions and the quality of your mindset. And before we wrap, I just wanna say that we don't do any of this because we're afraid of working long hours or [00:22:00] afraid of burning out. You never wanna be resisting something to be moving away from something. You wanna be moving towards something.

We don't need to be scared of working long hours because it's not the long hours that create burnout. It's the mind that creates burnout. When you're in flow, when you're in alignment, it can be hard to stop yourself from working because you're so loving what you're doing. So for those of you who are under working.

I meet some of you sometimes too. You're underworking and not moving your business forward effectively because you're so worried about overworking and burning out. Probably. 'cause you've done that in the past. Obviously, if you knew how good it feels to be in alignment, you wouldn't be afraid you'd be doing more of it.

You'd be trusting yourself to balance the alignment side with the productive action side. The reason we purposely choose to work fewer hours isn't to avoid work. It's so [00:23:00] that we have full multidimensional lives and so that we give our nervous systems a chance to rest in order to do the big scary things that really move us forward, but challenge us emotionally because we have human brains.

Not things that require time necessarily, but things that require chachas right for you. That might be telling old colleagues that you're now a coach, totally activate your nervous system, or it might be holding a live event. And we also choose to work fewer hours in our business so that we can be working on ourselves, on the alignment pieces that fuel our business in so many ways.

Alignment really is the assignment. Okay, my friends. That's it for today. Remember, deep down, you know who you are and what your strengths are. Each day, you're moving forward into what you're here to create.[00:24:00]

Thanks for joining us here at the Uncommon Way. If you want more tips and resources for developing clarity in your business and life, including the clarity first strategy for growing and scaling your business, visit the uncommon way.com. See you next time.

Support at The Uncommon Way 4/8/25 Support at The Uncommon Way 4/8/25

Ep 144: POV: The Future of Capitalism—and How to Make the Most of It

What if capitalism isn’t the problem—but the story we’ve been told about it is?

Many women entrepreneurs feel torn between values and the pursuit of financial success—but with the historical and forward-thinking evidence in this episode, you’ll be able to rethink that internal conflict. This episode explores how outdated beliefs around capitalism may be limiting your growth and reveals what’s coming next for capitalist societies so that you can not only position yourself for growth but feel great about it.

Episode Summary

What if capitalism isn’t the problem—but the story we’ve been told about it is?

In this episode you will:
1) Discover a future-forward vision of capitalism that aligns with both your values and your ambition—changing everything about how you show up in business.

2) Learn how money flows create more value, not less
3) See how evolved thinking—not hustle—drives true wealth

Hit play now to unlock a radically empowering vision of business that honors your genius and expands your impact.

Episodes Mentioned:

Ep #42: Time and Money: When to Dial It Back

Ep 134: 15 Data-Backed Reasons Only 2% of Women-Owned Businesses Reach $1 Million in Revenue — And How to Break Through

Ep 140: The Surprising Truths That 3-Day Workweeks Taught Me About Growing My Multiple-6 Figure Business

https://www.theuncommonway.com/schedule

Sign up here to get on the waitlist for Power & Potency, the new mastermind for highly accomplished women entrepreneurs, and hear all new information as it's released:

https://www.theuncommonway.com/waitlist

Find Jenna on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theuncommonway/

Jenna Harrison: [00:00:00] In this episode I'll show you why capitalism doesn't have to clash with your values and how rethinking it can unlock more profit. Impact and peace of mind in your business. Welcome to the show that helps women entrepreneurs run profitable, meaningful businesses in just three days a week without stress, guilt, or sacrificing growth. I'm your host, Jenna Harrison, sharing practical strategies, mindset, hacks, and even some woo, to help you work smarter, lead boldly, and find true balance. Let's dive in. Welcome, welcome back to the three Day Work Week. Today I wanna introduce you to a vision of the future and of capitalism specifically.

That you might not have considered, because when you know where you're going, it changes everything about how you get there. If your vision of the future feels bright and certain, you'll show up enthusiastically and with conviction, but if not, there will be an invisible anchor weighing you down. Whether you realize it or not, you've been raised with a lot of [00:01:00] negative associations about both money and capitalism.

And I've found that these interfere significantly with women in business in both obvious and unnoticed ways. If you haven't yet, you have got to check out episode 1 34 called 15 Data Backed Reasons Only 2% of Women owned Businesses Reach $1 million in revenue. We'll link to it, of course. Now my aim here is not to brush aside any of your probably valid critiques of capitalism past or present, but just to present a way forward that lets you coexist with both your integrity and your pragmatism, and maybe even to garner your partnership in creating this vision.

Because the more of us who are daring to do differently, the better. In this episode, you will discover a future forward vision of capitalism that aligns with both your values and your ambition. Changing everything about how you show up in business. You'll learn how [00:02:00] money flows, create more value, not less, and you'll see how evolved thinking not hustle drives true wealth.

Before we dive in, how's the audio? I've finally moved into my new house and before building a big old pillow fort around me like I used to for acoustics and our rental. I thought I'd just give it a try this way. I was testing it out on a Clarity Accelerator call the other day, and they told me it sounded great through Zoom.

And I mean, I am staring at a mountain of rugs and linens 'cause we've just dumped them all here in my office while we try to figure out what to do with everything. So maybe that'll cancel any echo. We'll see. So why this episode and why now? Well, A, it helps you get to know more about what we're really doing here at the Uncommon way.

And if you wanna be a part of this movement. B, there are public figures in the news who are prioritizing money over other things that many [00:03:00] of us hold dear, and that can bring up a lot for us. Maybe you start wondering, hmm, maybe money does corrupt people, or at least make them really out of touch. Maybe capitalism by its nature, conflicts with ethical behavior and the big one.

Am I heading down the same path each time I try to make a profit? Some people think about these things a lot and some only briefly in passing, but if it's there, let's surface it and talk about it. It's actually really healthy to ask these questions of ourselves and have a gut check. The part of you doing so is protecting you from becoming someone you don't wanna be.

The problem is when that protectiveness is dialed up to a 10 rather than a three, that's when it becomes self-sabotaging rather than constructive. What if the headlines told a different story, one where people leaned into their zones of genius [00:04:00] and created extraordinary services or products that the others wanted to pay for and vice versa.

But instead of the old barter system where I'd directly trade my pine nuts for your wine, we exchange via money because it's more durable and universal. These people are much more connected to what they're creating, and that helps them value what other people create. Like I see such a difference between how I consume content and how my husband consumes content, and I know it's because I myself am a content creator and he's not.

I happily pay for my favorite content sometimes with my money and sometimes with my time via reviews or likes or comments. But Ben doesn't. He gets angry when things aren't true and he's a lurker. He is. He'll admit it in the same way. It can be challenging for people who aren't really putting themselves out there or sharing their true genius with the world to appreciate other people's genius.

I. So [00:05:00] in these imaginary headlines, people are really deeply in flow and they're channeling their best work. They're really appreciating others doing the same, and they're exchanging money. And guess what? That exchange expands the size of the economy. So in turn, there's more for everyone. Are you going?

Well, if they're just exchanging money back and forth, then don't they all just have the same amount? That is where the multiplier effect comes in. This is a widely studied economic principle that shows the ripple effect of change, including a change in spending. So for instance, when Henry Ford started paying his line workers more so they could afford to buy cars.

They then also bought auto accessories and spent money after taking a drive somewhere and all sorts of other things. Then the recipients of that money turned around and made investments, paid employees who then spent money on other things as well. And the total amount [00:06:00] generated in that micro economy.

Let, let's say it was Detroit, the net effect of economic activity was not just equal to the total amount of wages paid to the line workers. I. It was much more because of this multiplier effect, the flow of money creates more money and economists can chart the exact amount of the multiplier of different types of spending in different locations.

So the government of Ghana, if they decide to build a freeway and they pay their citizens to build it, that will have a different multiplier effect than when the United States builds a freeway. All this to say that these headlines, these imaginary headlines, are painting a positive and inviting picture of what it would be like to have a business.

How differently would you feel about selling, about promoting yourself and even about your role in the world about now? You [00:07:00] might find yourself thinking, but Jenna, is that really possible? After everything we've witnessed throughout the centuries with capitalism gone wrong, where's all this hope coming from?

I touched on this earlier in episode one 40. We tend to think of capitalism as being a system based around the accumulation of money and the prioritization of money. But the word itself actually had a very nebulous beginning with no consensus at all about what it actually meant. It rose in usage throughout the last millennia, first capital, then capitalists, and finally capitalism.

But the word capital actually comes from the Latin adjective, capitalis, which is based on the name for head kaput. So capital was of the head, which is so interesting, right. Ever since the meanings of capital and capitalism have evolved, [00:08:00] Oxford now defines capital as wealth in the form of money or other assets.

Owned by a person or organization or available for a purpose such as starting a company or investing emphasis on or other assets. I believe your greatest asset is your brain. I also think it's interesting that Adam Smith often referred to as the father of modern economics, said that people act not necessarily to accumulate money, but they act in regard to their own self-interest.

That changes things because your self-interest could be money, but it could also be something else, which means it's about the person, not the system. This actually jives with the data. Economists have found over and over. The people don't always make decisions based solely on money. So a few centuries ago, the concept of utility was introduced, hypothesizing that people [00:09:00] actually act in accordance with their personal satisfaction.

Rather than monetary interests, which would help explain why some people with the same disposable income buy $4 bottles of wine and others buy $40 bottles of wine. Both bottles are made from grape juice, but one person receives higher satisfaction or utility from the more expensive wine. The concept of utility has been refined over the years, but it was groundbreaking in proving that people value things differently, and so the actions they take to maximize self-interest will also be different.

I believe that as our consciousness evolves, our interests change, our decisions change. I have a podcast on when to scale back that talks about how it's totally okay for you to prioritize whatever you want to prioritize. In your business and life, we'll link to it. So has business activity resulted [00:10:00] in sweatshops and environmental degradation and a whole host of other problems?

Yes, but I'm arguing that this is due to an unevolved psychology rather than a specific system or even the nature of money. Like recently, we had a situation where I received a call supposedly from the electric company. Saying they were giving us a lower rate. If I agreed, I said, great. I'd talk to our attorney.

'cause it turns out the property attorney set up your utilities here. Go figure. But the woman told me, no, no, the offer is only for today for our newest clients. So I smelled something fishy and I hung up. The next thing you know, we're receiving a notice that our electricity distributor has changed. And sure enough, we had to get our attorney involved to unwind it.

And I'm thinking, who is the owner of this company? Or the sales executive or the sales person who goes to sleep at night thinking this is okay, it's [00:11:00] unevolved thinking. But there are many examples of entrepreneurs who've made profits while making ethical decisions. And also examples of four purpose businesses that choose to purposely reduce profits.

Look at Patagonia with the environment, or a tech company called 37 Signals. It used to be Base Camp. It prioritizes the wellbeing and work-life balance of its workers intentionally limiting its growth to do so. And when Anita Roddick started the Body Shop, she said business is a force for good and distributed wealth throughout the supply chain and reduced company profit.

Not that ethics and profit are mutually exclusive. I'm just providing examples to help reinforce the point that there are all sorts of ways to do business and you get to choose. I think it sells us short to say money corrupts. That assumes we lack the agency to stay true to ourselves as we grow, which [00:12:00] just isn't true.

Decisions are choices for better or for worse, and we always have the power to choose my friend. You and I are doing the inner work to make clear, conscious, aligned decisions. We are running businesses we're proud of, and showing our neighbors what's possible and creating momentum for our planet to continue to move in this direction.

We're evolving capitalism, we're moving it forward. Capitalism isn't inherently corrupt. It evolves when we do. That's why the way we live and work is so important too. The younger generations are watching carefully and every time we act like we're in a sweatshop burning the midnight oil. Treating ourselves like machines and living in grind and hustle because we are mistakenly like linking hours and how hard something feels to the [00:13:00] profit our businesses can create.

We're living out legacy beliefs that no longer serve us or serve the rest of the world. We aren't working a farm with primitive machinery that requires our hands six days of the week. As entrepreneurs, the value we create comes from the milestones you meet, not the hours you keep. As one of my clients brilliantly said.

In the creative economy, creating wealth means you've created something valuable and something valuable doesn't require hustle or grind or lots of time. And wealth can mean many things. Monetary wealth is a one form of wealth, a very wonderful one that I think all women should experience. But I also think we should experience having a wealth of time, of health, of joy, and of creativity.

Because after all, if your greatest asset is your brain, then your creative capacity is the [00:14:00] primary capital you trade. If capital really comes from of the head, then capitalism is just the centering of our creative capacity instead of our productive capacity. What this new way of thinking requires is greater intentionality at every stage, not just going along with how things have been.

For instance, maybe you were taught that money is scarce and you need to prioritize it above your time, above your health, above your enjoyment. But when you start questioning things, you're like, wait. Even the richest companies spend down capital or issue debt in the form of bonds because they realize that time is more valuable than money.

If they can invest the money now rather than waiting, they'll corner the market now and make more in the long run, not less. Hmm. I didn't even see that when I was busy scrimping and saving all my pennies. Maybe I could [00:15:00] think of money, not like a pie that I have to fight for, but a current I can step into, redirect and expand by contributing something meaningful.

The real question to ask yourself is how do I want this to look? How do I want my business to look? How do I wanna show up? And then, then how am I gonna make that happen? At first, you might think, I don't see how it's possible, but I encourage you to keep going, keep digging. If you can't come up with an answer, talk with someone or some people who can help you get outside your own brain and don't stop until you've created the solutions that you set out to create.

Because that solution, whether it's a change in mindset, strategy, systems, whatever, is usually the one you needed in order to get to your next level of profitability anyway, it pays to be an innovative [00:16:00] thinker and find your uncommon way. Now, you might be thinking, Jenna, how can you say all this about evolution when it feels like the world is regressing?

It's because history is non-linear. In the course of evolution, there are adjustments back and forth, but if you chart the trajectory over time, you see an upward trend. I've been alive for many decades now, and the shift in cultural norms and business practices is tremendous. Besides, I've had some successes with seeing trends before they materialize.

People thought I was off my rocker when I said telecommuting was the way of the future. Now look at how normal that is. So if you are up for rethinking how business can look and create value on your terms, I'd love to hear what shifts for you after this episode. Come share with me. You can do so by leaving a review.

Definitely the most helpful way for the [00:17:00] longevity of this podcast, or if you're on my email list by responding to anything I send you, I'll write back. Personally, I. Remember training your mind to think uncommonly always unlocks a whole new level of impact and possibility. Let's talk again on Tuesday.

Thanks for joining us here at the Uncommon Way. If you want more tips and resources for developing clarity in your business and life. Including the clarity first strategy for growing and scaling your business. Visit the uncommon way.com. See you next time.

But if you chart the tra, but if you chart the,

but if you chart the reject, my goodness.

Support at The Uncommon Way 4/1/25 Support at The Uncommon Way 4/1/25

Ep 143: 3 Key Shifts That Turn Your Business Into a Well-Oiled Machine

Is your business running you instead of the other way around?

If you're overwhelmed by endless to-do lists and feel like there's never enough time, this episode offers a fresh perspective on achieving more by doing less.Create a business that grows and gives you your life back!

Episode Summary

Is your business running you instead of the other way around?

Discover the hidden factor keeping most entrepreneurs stuck in the cycle of overwork—once you see it, everything changes.
Learn how to make sales feel effortless and exciting.
See how loosening control in your business can actually make everything run more smoothly—while increasing revenue and impact.

Press play to learn how to simplify your business practices for greater success and personal satisfaction.

Episodes mentioned:

Ep #25: From $65/hr to a $6k Offer with Carrie Coffin

Ep #35: Reinventing Who You Are with Lindy Schmidt

Schedule a call with Jenna about joining the Clarity Accelerator--the same mastermind that we talk about in this episode--to create your own well-oiled machine.

https://www.theuncommonway.com/schedule

Sign up here to get on the waitlist for Power & Potency, the new mastermind for highly accomplished women entrepreneurs, and hear all new information as it's released:

https://www.theuncommonway.com/waitlist

Find Jenna on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theuncommonway/

Full Episode Transcript:

Jenna Harrison: [00:00:00] What if your business could run like a well oiled machine without you having to be the one turning all the gears? In this episode, I'll show you how. Welcome to the show that helps women entrepreneurs run profitable, meaningful businesses in just three days a week without stress, guilt, or sacrificing growth.

I'm your host, Jenna Harrison, sharing practical strategies, mindset hacks, and even some woo, to help you work smarter, lead boldly, and find true balance. Let's dive in. Welcome, welcome back to the three day work week. One thing I notice as I look around is that most entrepreneurs are chasing the wrong things.

They think success is about producing more, more, more, or appearing a certain way or having some specific type of funnel or number of employees. But the truth, the businesses that truly thrive and give their owners freedom operate differently. They function like well-oiled machines of their own accord.

We don't need any of the things I just mentioned, and [00:01:00] today I'm breaking down the three key shifts that make that kind of business possible at whatever stage of growth you find yourself in. If you've been feeling like everything's on you and like growth always requires more from you, I want you to listen closely because I'm gonna walk you through the three key shifts that allow you to turn your business into a well-oiled machine without adding more stress or hours to your plate.

These shifts are what allow you to step into your highest level of leadership and create massive impact while having more of a life. And I want you to really imagine, well, what would it feel like to have a business that runs smoothly without you having to hold it all together? If you woke up in the morning and you just knew things work and sales would grow, how much a looser do your neck muscles feel?

What kind of weight just got lifted off your shoulders? You know, your team takes ownership, your sales [00:02:00] process works, and your clients really love collaborating with you. That's when your thoughts can turn to, okay, what would be really fun? Now, how do we grow from here? What's required for our next level?

Pretty delicious, right? That is what we're talking about today. In this episode, you will discover the hidden factor keeping most entrepreneurs stuck in the cycle of overwork. Once you see it, everything changes. You'll learn how to make sales feel effortless and exciting, and you'll see how loosening control in your business can actually make everything run more smoothly while increasing revenue and impact.

Let's dive in. Shift Number one, it's loosening control in favor of trust. Let's start with something that might feel counterintuitive letting go. Most business owners hold on too tight. They think they need to control [00:03:00] everything and through sheer grit, move everything across the finish line. They come up with great sounding logic to justify it too.

I'm committed to excellence. I'm leading by example. I have a responsibility to. But just because it sounds logical doesn't mean it's not self-sabotage. Your business can't thrive if you are its biggest bottleneck. When you shift from control to trust, you free yourself to focus on the things only you can do.

I've been working on the issue of trust recently with a client who felt like it was irresponsible of her to even allow herself to trust and feel safe about something in the future. Because there's zero evidence that it's happened, obviously, because it's in the future. But then we realized that there were several times in her life where she had trusted herself or others that worked out really, really well for her.

And so she's been working on growing [00:04:00] her trust muscles, and just this week we were reflecting on her progress around self-trust, and she goes, I just feel safer, more sufficient and calmer. She said, when she starts to feel that frantic energy again, she now knows that doesn't mean it's time to dive into extra work.

It's a signal to take a step back because otherwise she's slipping into outdated patterns that don't serve her. The beauty is that when you get to that place of trust and cool headedness, that's when things start working better, because then your business and team, if you have one, can actually function the way they're designed to.

Because you now have space to innovate and think in a completely new way. This client I just mentioned, her Q1 revenue is already near half of her entire 2024 revenue, working less and loosening her grip of control definitely isn't hurting her one bit, and the data support what I'm saying too. [00:05:00] A study in the Harvard Business Review found that leaders who empower their employees rather than micromanage, see a 31% increase in productivity and a 25% boost in overall performance.

That's a massive difference. So trust not control leads to better business outcomes. Hold that thought because I'll talk about it again regarding Richard Branson when we get to shift number three. Branson is famous for telling his employees. If you don't try to make a mistake, you are never going to make anything great.

Hey, many entrepreneurs, freedom.

If you're past the point of telling yourself that next year you'll finally do things differently and you're ready to align and simplify your business, rewire your brain without guilt, and actually claim the freedom you started this for all while scaling your business. I'll show you how to do it inside the Clarity Accelerator Mastermind, but [00:06:00] before we move on, I have two.

First, I get that it's challenging to seed control. I'm going through it right now in my own business, so I am right there with you. There are always new layers of trust to evolve into or blind spots you didn't notice before. For me, it's sales calls. I still personally spend 90 minutes or more vetting the people who are interested in joining the Clarity Accelerator.

I've been telling myself that I wanted to stay in touch with my audience and keep my finger on the pulse. But I'm seeing the deeper reason was that I wanna control the vibe of the group and the quality of people coming into it. Now, nothing wrong with that in theory, but who says I can only do it through a 90 minute sales call?

So I decided to test the waters with that scholarship I offered recently, I did not meet with the candidates personally. Instead, I really felt into the energy of their application, and I really trusted my intuition. And I've gotta tell you, [00:07:00] it was a very beautiful experience. I have a very high level of certainty that this person will be amazing, and when I reflect on it, I can't help but wonder what was I waiting for?

This is amazing. So my point here is that we are all in this together. We're all high achievers who want things to turn out well, but this is good, worthwhile work that stretches you and opens your eyes to what you've been missing. The second thing I wanna call out, it's that this shift applies even if you don't have a team yet.

Trust isn't just about delegation. It's also about trusting the process, trusting yourself, trusting that there are empowered, ideal clients who are looking for you, trusting that when you focus on the right things, results will come. It's about letting go of the frantic energy of trying to force growth and instead leading from a place of clarity and calm confidence.[00:08:00]

So here is a question for you. Where are you holding on too tight? And how could trust actually maybe make your business even more successful? Alright, shift number two, repeatable tested systems. You might hear systems and think, Ugh, I don't have the budget for complicated CRMs, or, I'm not at the point where I need a bunch of SOPs or anything.

But here's the truth. Systems are not about being big. They're about being effective. They keep you from recreating the wheel each time, and they lessen your cognitive load so that instead of having to mentally keep all the balls in the air, you can channel that bandwidth into something of higher leverage.

Every thriving business from your favorite coffee shop to a billion dollar company has repeatable ways of doing things. They know exactly how they staff the [00:09:00] counters, how they attract customers, how they deliver an incredible experience, and how they keep those customers coming back. For example, if I asked you, how do you create clients?

Could you answer that with a clear, repeatable process? Or is it mostly guesswork or something that requires creating something new each time? What about how exactly do you move people through to their result? If you don't have a structured, repeatable way of doing these things, you are making your business harder than it needs to be, and it's inconsistent, which makes scaling 10 times harder.

Here's what I help my clients do. We clarify exactly how they create, serve, and retain clients. So they don't have to reinvent the wheel every time, and that's what makes a business feel like a well-oiled machine and a hell of a lot of fun too. A great example of this is McDonald's. Whether you love fast food or not, [00:10:00] their business model is a masterclass in systems.

No matter where you go, the process is the same. The consistency is what allows them to operate smoothly without requiring the owner of every location to be present 24 7. Another example, Amazon. Jeff Bezos famously said, good intentions don't work mechanisms do. Amazon didn't become the e-commerce giant by accident.

It became dominant because of its relentless focus on systems automating, optimizing, and ensuring repeatability at every level, and don't overcomplicate it. Your systems can be as simple as a checklist. What's important is that you can repeat your results and could easily explain to someone else how to create the same results, or you could automate the process.

When you shift into thinking, how could I do this once now so that it creates time for me from this point forward, [00:11:00] that's when you truly feel safe to scale to the next level. That's when more clients don't mean overwhelm. They don't mean your business breaks, and they don't mean you start delivering inferior service.

So ask yourself. What's one thing that I could take off my plate if I just took a couple of minutes to gift my future self? This peace of mind. Shift number three. Highly in demand offers backed by conviction. Finally, let's talk about the thing that makes everything easier, steady sales, which comes from having an offer people deeply want and selling it with unshakeable conviction.

A lot of entrepreneurs put out mediocre offers. How do we know they're mediocre? Because people aren't that enthused. They comparison shop, they price shop, but people delude themselves into thinking this is normal, and that's just the way things [00:12:00] are. Kind of like a 40 hour work week. That's normal. It's just the way things are.

But I challenge you to think about your favorite companies, the ones that come into a rather stale selling space with an offer that was so superior to anything else that was available, and you were like, oh, must have it. I'm not talking about the consumeristic throwaway impulse purchase. I'm talking about those offers that speak to you.

They call up something deep inside you. They're like an extension of you. It's as if this business owner listened to your every thought and then designed something just for you. Apple's a great example. They designed a revolutionary product that was not only gorgeous, but invited you into a way of being.

It promised convenience because it was a closed ecosystem, so your device wouldn't constantly be crashing and restarting, and then they amplified the [00:13:00] allure with apple geniuses. And it was like saying, look, nothing's gonna go wrong, but if it does, we've lined up geniuses to resolve it. ASAP, prior to that, nobody knew how mediocre the PC offer was.

People thought you buy this ugly thing that's gonna give you tons of problems, and then you find some local repair guy who hopefully will be able to fix it. But once Apple entered stage left, we couldn't unsee it. Here's another example. Virgin Atlantic's upper class flight option. Virgin Atlantic was founded by Richard Branson, who's known for empowering employees to take risks and innovate and make really bold decisions.

He is the one I quoted earlier as saying, if you don't try to make a mistake, you're never gonna make anything great. Well, his employee, Neil Thomas listened. He was part of Virgin Atlantic's marketing team and involved with customer experience. Together with his colleagues, they brainstormed a [00:14:00] totally new business and first class experience.

They imagined it to be something fun and luxurious and super personalized. Neil worked tirelessly to convince Branson and then the board to invest in things like life flat seats, which nobody had done before, nor thought would be feasible and personalized food options. All of a sudden we became acutely aware of how stiff and stodgy, and not even all that comfortable the business class offers were on other airlines.

This is what I mean about how so many offers out there now are mediocre. We just can't see it yet. It takes visionaries who are willing to break from the status quo and make the effort to really understand their people at a deep level so they can design the kind of offer that feels like. Where have you been all of my life?

When you have an offer like that, business gets a lot easier. Apple, after all, is [00:15:00] the largest company in the world at the time of this recording and doing pretty well too. I checked and their passenger revenues increased by 324 million pounds from 2022 to 2023, reaching 2.4 billion pounds according to the company.

This growth was largely driven by strong demand for premium leisure travel, and enhanced comfort and amenities. Ding, ding, ding, upper class and the association we now have with Virgin because of upper class. The takeaway here is that the most magnetic businesses don't sell harder. They create offers. So good people can't imagine saying no.

And as you can imagine, once you have one of these offers, you'll feel a lot of conviction about selling it. That's your job, after all, to communicate just how special your offer is. The Clarity Accelerator is absolutely [00:16:00] one of a kind, but if I just said it's a business program, nobody would know how special it is.

A lot of entrepreneurs hesitate when it comes to selling. They worry about being pushy or wonder if their offer is good enough, but we've all been on the receiving end of people who love selling their offer and fully believe in what they're offering. It's magnetic. Their confidence helps you believe in it too.

You don't feel bad about buying. You feel excited about buying. People buying a seed in upper class aren't going, Ugh, I wish I didn't have to spend this. Maybe I shoulda just flown American instead. They're thinking, oh my God, this is going to be amazing. I'm so glad we have upper class and I don't have to fly American.

That's the experience we want for your people too. If you are struggling to sell, the first question to ask is, do I believe without a doubt that [00:17:00] my offer is the best option for my ideal client? One of my clients, Carrie, struggled with sales before we started working together. She had created an offer that she assumed people wanted, but since people weren't buying as much as she'd like, she questioned it.

So her sales conversations felt really tentative, like she was asking for the sale, instead of confidently offering the client a no-brainer solution. Once she started thinking about how to create something truly unique and did the accompanying work of connecting the dots all the way from her unique secret sauce.

To the people who would most appreciate it, then really got to know them and designed something. Taylor made everything changed. All of a sudden she was filled with clarity and confidence and conviction. She didn't have to convince anyone and she didn't have to compete on price. She just made sure the person in front of her was in fact her ideal [00:18:00] client, and then helped them understand what she had designed or why, and what benefits came from it.

She stopped pitching and started leading and her sales skyrocketed. You can hear her tell her story herself by listening to episode number 25, which we'll link to. This is possible for you too, my friend. If your offer aligns with your true gifts or your company's uniqueness, alignment really does create ease.

Look, what I'm suggesting isn't the only way to do business. You can definitely try to separate your business from yourself and what you're really here to do. You can sell in a pushy way and you can make a buck, lots of bucks. People do that. After all, it feels vulnerable to go out on a limb, to admit to yourself in the world that you think you have a special genius or vision, and then constrain yourself to speaking only to the people who will really get it.

That's [00:19:00] some graduate degree level personal development right there. It takes grit, but if you look the really great most successful companies go through that because of what's on the other side, and you wouldn't be listening to this if you wanted to play small. So if you are going to play big, play big, let yourself have an amazing aligned business and an amazing aligned life.

Own your gifts and let people laugh at you for offering life flat seats for God's sake. You can laugh too all the way to the bank, and during your ample downtime, while your business runs like a well-oiled machine. Let's recap, shall we? A well-oiled business isn't built on more effort. It's built on the right shifts, releasing controls, so you can lead from your highest level creating repeatable, proven systems to reduce [00:20:00] friction and even let things run without you selling an in demand offer with full conviction.

So growth happens naturally. Because training your mind to think uncommonly always unlocks a whole new level of impact and possibility. Let's talk again on Tuesday. Have a great week.

Support at The Uncommon Way 3/25/25 Support at The Uncommon Way 3/25/25

Ep 142: The 3 Sneakiest Time-Wasters That Keep You Overworking

Are you constantly working but still feel like you're getting nowhere fast?

Even the most driven women entrepreneurs fall into patterns that look like productivity but unnecessarily drain your time. If you’ve ever wondered why you’re so busy, this episode will open your eyes.

Episode Summary

Are you constantly working but still feel like you're getting nowhere fast?

In this episode, you will:

Discover the hidden habits that are keeping you stuck in overwork, and how to break free for good.
Learn to reclaim hours of your time without sacrificing results.
Uncover the sneaky productivity killer that could be costing you hours every week without you even realizing it.

Listen now to reclaim hours of your week and unlock the mindset shifts that let you work less while achieving more.

Episodes Mentioned:

Ep 137: How to Easily Destress Without Changing Anything in Your Business

Schedule a call with Jenna about joining the Clarity Accelerator--the same mastermind that we talk about in this episode--to dial in signature offers and strategies and a first-rate mindset.

https://www.theuncommonway.com/schedule

Sign up here to get on the waitlist for Power & Potency, the new mastermind for highly accomplished women entrepreneurs, and hear all new information as it's released:

https://www.theuncommonway.com/waitlist

Find Jenna on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theuncommonway/

Full Episode Transcript:

Jenna Harrison: [00:00:00] If you feel like you're working harder than ever with no end in sight anytime soon. This episode reveals the three biggest time sucks that make your hours vanish, and how to reclaim your time while achieving better results. Welcome to the show that helps women entrepreneurs run profitable, meaningful businesses in just three days a week without stress, guilt, or sacrificing growth.

I'm your host, Jenna Harrison, sharing practical strategies, mindset, hacks, and even some woo, to help you work smarter, lead boldly and find true balance. Let's dive in. Welcome. Welcome to the three day Work Week. If you've ever felt like no matter how much you work, there's always more like you're running on a treadmill that just won't slow down.

You are in the right place today. I wanna let you in on a little secret. Most of the time you're spending in your business isn't actually moving the needle, and that's not your fault. [00:01:00] You've been conditioned to believe that hard work equals success. But what if that's not the full story? In today's episode, we are gonna talk about the three biggest time wasters that keep entrepreneurs overworking.

You will discover the hidden habits that are keeping you stuck in overwork, and how to break free for good. Learn to reclaim hours of your time without sacrificing results. And uncover the sneaky productivity killer that could be costing you hours every week without you even realizing it. But before we get into that, here's something interesting that you must know.

The people who struggle the most with these time-wasters, they're often the most ambitious, the most driven, the most capable entrepreneurs. Does it sound familiar? It did for me. If it does for you, I am so excited for you to kick these time wasters to the side [00:02:00] and start improving your business outcomes because of it.

Let's dive in. Our first time waster is context switching. It's like the invisible time drain. Context switching is what happens when you constantly shift between tasks, answering emails, checking in with a team member, bouncing to social media, and then trying to get back to writing that sales page. Or maybe you have a client call and then 45 minutes of work time, but then another client call.

But that time between isn't enough to really do much. Each time you switch, your brain takes time to recalibrate. And studies show that this can reduce productivity by up to 40%. And here's the kicker. When you are switching contexts all day, your brain is working overtime, but you don't actually feel like you've accomplished much.

Have you ever had one of those days where you were busy all day, but [00:03:00] somehow nothing got done? That's context-switching at play. You would see completely different outcomes if you batched your client calls, set boundaries and timetables for checking emails and social media, and actually gave yourself some focus time to work on your business rather than in it.

But one thing that keeps us from doing that though is that a lot of people think they need to be responsive to be a good leader or to be successful. But if they don't check in or respond to every request, or every opportunity or every issue, things will fall apart. But actually, what makes you a strong leader is protecting your time so you can make those high-level decisions that move the business forward.

Hard work isn't the secret to success. Working on the right things is. A study from the University of California Irvine found that it takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to regain full [00:04:00] focus after a distraction. Think about that. That means every time you glance at your email or check a notification, you're losing almost half an hour of deep work.

No wonder it feels like nothing gets done. And if you're telling yourself, oh, no, no, no, no, I get back into it just fine. Just think about what it would've been like if you had continued with the deep work. You don't even know because you switch context. What great insight would've come to you? And as we all know, one great insight can bring in loads of cash, change the direction of our business, or just all of a sudden make everything feel happy and peaceful.

Just a quick aside, you can also use this information about the 20 minutes to really motivate yourself with a task that you don't feel like doing, because now you know you won't be fully engaged, most likely [00:05:00] until about 20 or so minutes in. So I recommend telling yourself, I'll just work on this for 20 minutes.

That's all. And then chances are, once that time has elapsed, you'll actually be engrossed or in such a good flow that you won't wanna stop. Just try it out. But back to context switching. Let me tell you, once you have experienced the benefits that come from batching or reducing this context, switching, you can't unsee it ever again.

Over the last week, I have been contact switching so much because. Our new house has some issues in it that are keeping us from actually moving in. Little things like no hot water. And so since I'm the Spanish speaker in the family, I've been working out of that house as workers and installation. People come in and out and they've been giving me updates and asking questions.

So I'm very aware now of what it's costing me, but it wasn't always that way. [00:06:00] I used to be in my inbox and messages all day thinking that that was productive. But when I stepped back, I realized I was treating the requests from others like my to-do list instead of focusing on the things that actually would grow my business.

Once I implemented structured work blocks and batch production, I was able to cut back my work hours and increase my revenue. That shift alone was a game-changer for me. And let's take the example of Bill Gates. He's known for his intense focus and the ability to work really deeply on problems. In his early Microsoft days, he realized that constantly being interrupted and multitasking was really slowing him down.

So to combat this, he started implementing think tweaks where he would isolate himself in a cabin for a full week with no distractions, just books, notes, and time to think. These weeks led to some of Microsoft's [00:07:00] biggest innovations. One of those was the company's pivot to the Internet in 1995. Isn't that crazy?

Things we take for granted now, used to be visionary, but apparently Gates read a paper predicting the massive impact of the internet, and then he immediately wrote a now famous memo called the Internet Tidal Wave, which completely shifted Microsoft's Strategy. It led to the creation of Internet Explorer and Microsoft's pivot towards all of their web-based technology, and those are moves that really help the company stay competitive in that evolving digital space.

This is a perfect example of how eliminating context-switching and creating focused time for deep work can lead to game-changing results. So imagine how your business might change if you had hours of focused high-level work every day, or a [00:08:00] day per week, or a week per month. What could you create? How much smoother would everything run?

You'd be showing up, more present, more strategic, and feeling in control instead of constantly reacting. You'd probably be a lot kinder to yourself and everyone around you too. That is what's possible when you break the cycle of context switching. But let's talk about the second time waster. And this is really the mental time waster.

It's ruminating. This is one of the sneakiest ways that we waste time without even realizing it. It's when you get stuck overthinking decisions, replaying past conversations, or second-guessing yourself. You're technically not working, but your brain is still burning energy like you are. And usually, my clients have no idea how much time they're spending in this [00:09:00] category until we do some sort of time audit.

Or until they're able to see kind of a before and after where they look in the past and realize, oh my gosh, in the old days this would've been something that took me a week to get over and now I just processed it and moved on and I'm fully engaged in my work again. Now you might think that thinking through every possibility makes you a better business owner.

Maybe you avoid pitfalls. You avoid burning bridges. The truth is successful entrepreneurs make decisions quickly and with confidence because they trust themselves to course correct if needed. So often the things that my clients are most worried about are actually their zones of genius. I'm like, you of all people should be the least worried about messing up in that way.

You've already done the learning around that. You've put in the hours, you're good [00:10:00] overthinking, just keeps you stuck. So the difference between stuck entrepreneurs and thriving ones, it's just the ability to move fast, trust themselves, and stop overthinking. One of my clients had really spent years overthinking.

She had plateaued in her business and she kept just going around and around doing the same things. For every new initiative that occurred to her, she would talk herself out of it, or she'd compile so many good ones that she just couldn't choose which ones she should really focus on. Once we worked together, she realized that that had cost her years of higher sales.

We implemented a simple filter to help her prioritize and constrain. Within a couple of months, she implemented a new launch that blew past even her highest goal for her business, just because she [00:11:00] stopped hesitating. I mean, Oprah Winfrey has spoken openly about how she used to overthink and second guess herself, particularly in the early days of her career.

But once she embraced the philosophy of trusting her intuition and making decisions quickly. She saw an exponential rise in her success. She often says doubt means don't. Meaning. If she starts ruminating over a decision, she recognizes it as a sign to step back, trust herself, and move forward decisively.

And that's a great idea because research from the University of Michigan found that excessive rumination increases stress and anxiety, making decision-making even harder. Your brain is literally draining energy on thoughts that aren't moving you forward. Learning to break that cycle is key to freeing up mental bandwidth and actually enjoying your life If you haven't already, I recommend you listen to my podcast, episode [00:12:00] number 1 37.

We're gonna link to that for your convenience, and it's called How to De-Stress without Changing Anything in Your Business. Because picture what it would be like to move through your days, feeling calm and in complete confidence to make decisions quickly. Take action without holding back, and trust that you've got this.

No more losing time and energy to self-doubt. Imagine if things didn't feel like such a big deal to you. No more losing sleep because you're lying awake, replaying the day's conversations. That's the kind of clarity and freedom that's waiting for you when you stop overthinking. You ready for our third time oyster?

It is being too in the weeds instead of, which is usually about perfectionism, I'll say, which often shows up as perfectionism, spending hours tweaking a social media post or redoing a memo 10 times or [00:13:00] micromanaging your team because no one does it quite like you do. Studies from Stanford show that perfectionists often experience lower productivity because their fear of making mistakes leads to procrastination and to overworking.

Letting go of perfectionism actually makes you more effective, but we stick with it because most entrepreneurs think their attention to detail is a strength. I mean, after all, it helped you get through school and helped you prove yourself as a good worker, right? And so now it would really mess with our sense of self to churn out something that's substandard.

But the real power move, it's knowing we are good enough is actually good enough. I. Moving on, because perfectionism isn't usually really about high standards. It's about fear. Fear of being judged, fear of failure, fear of letting go, [00:14:00] fear of giving up control. For me, this showed up big time when I was creating my first website.

One year y'all, one year tweaking, rethinking, rewriting. No, that's not exactly what my business is about. Nope, that's not exactly how I wanna say it. I wanted it to be perfect before I told the world that I was in business, especially before I told my old college friends that I was in business. But perfectionism cost me a year of business when I could have been out there doing things that would give me the specific types of clarity that I desperately needed.

Now I've pivoted my business several times and each time I spent a couple of hours rewriting the webpage and that's it. Hit publish. Done. So basically I've made multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars on web pages that were draft versions of [00:15:00] what I currently have. It's time for you to create some really lucrative drafts.

I think Jeff Bezos's story is one that we can all learn from. He built Amazon with a mindset of good enough to launch, then iterated early on, he realized that trying to make everything perfect was going to slow their growth. So instead of obsessing over every detail, he encouraged this 70% rule, which is if you have at least 70% of the information needed, make the decision and move forward.

So you'll notice failures built into this model because it's impossible to make the quote-unquote correct moves a hundred percent of the time with only 70% of the information. That's the uncomfortable truth that people at Amazon have to learn to tolerate both of themselves and with the people that work for them and of their bosses too, right?

Tolerate their [00:16:00] mistakes. But this willingness to let go of perfectionism allowed Amazon to scale quickly and dominate e-commerce. So what if you trusted yourself to move fast, to create, to launch, and let things be imperfect and still wildly successful without guild that you're doing something wrong for that, or that you don't really deserve it because of that?

Imagine the freedom of believing that your 80% is still 100% effective. You don't have to overwork for success. You can let go of perfectionism and watch your business grow. How much more relaxed would that make you feel? What would you do with all of your extra time? That is the life. Those are the kinds of champagne problems that you create when you step out of the weeds and into your full potential.

So to recap, if you want to [00:17:00] stop overworking and start making your time actually work for you, I. Start paying attention to where you are. Contact switching, jumping between tasks and losing hours of productivity or ruminating, getting stuck in your head instead of taking action or getting lost in the details and the busy work.

Spending too much time perfecting or obsessing instead of progressing. Recognizing these patterns is the first step. But if you want real transformation, if you wanna shift from knowing this to actually living it, that is where I can help inside my programs. I work with entrepreneurs not only to create better workflows and priorities, but to rewire the habits and beliefs that created overwork in the first place so they can scale their businesses without scaling their work hours.

If you found this episode helpful, hit subscribe and share it with a friend who needs to hear it. [00:18:00] Let's redefine success together because most of our world stays stuck in the habits that keep them overworking, but by training your brain to think in uncommon ways, you gain an edge that unlocks a whole new level of impact and possibility.

Thanks for being here. Let's talk again on Tuesday.

Thanks for joining us here at The Uncommon Way. If you want more tips and resources for developing clarity in your business and life, including the clarity-first strategy for growing and scaling your business, visit the uncommon way.com. See you next time.

Support at The Uncommon Way 3/18/25 Support at The Uncommon Way 3/18/25

Ep 141: How I Structure My 3-Day Workweek for Optimal Growth and Work-Life Balance

Are you curious about what a 3-day workweek might look like IRL?

This episode will walk you through how I’ve prioritized freedom, flexibility, and intentional strategy to scale my business without overwork and without sacrificing income so that you can do the same

Episode Summary

Are you curious about what a 3-day workweek might look like IRL?

In this episode, you will:

Discover the exact workweek structure that allows me to scale my business while maintaining flexibility, so you can see how to apply it to your own life.
Learn why simplifying decisions—everything from breakfast to business strategy—can unlock more creativity, productivity, and ease in your workweek.
Find out my biggest challenge in maintaining a 3-day workweek and how I navigate it—because knowing what to expect makes all the difference.

If you’re ready to create a high-impact business while working smarter (not harder), hit play now and start designing a workweek that actually fits your life!

Episodes mentioned:

Ep 71: How I Structure My 33-Hour Workweek

Ep 134: 15 Data-Backed Reasons Only 2% of Women-Owned Businesses Reach $1 Million in Revenue — And How to Break Through

Ep 140: The Surprising Truths That 3-Day Workweeks Taught Me About Growing My Multiple-6 Figure Business

Schedule a call with Jenna about joining the Clarity Accelerator--the same mastermind that we talk about in this episode--to dial in signature offers and strategies and a first-rate mindset.

https://www.theuncommonway.com/schedule

Sign up here to get on the waitlist for Power & Potency, the new mastermind for highly accomplished women entrepreneurs, and hear all new information as it's released:

https://www.theuncommonway.com/waitlist

Find Jenna on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theuncommonway/

Full Episode Transcript:

Jenna Harrison: [00:00:00] Today, I'm giving you an inside look at how I structure my three-day work week for both success and balance. So you can start designing a business that works for you instead of the other way around. Welcome to the show that helps women entrepreneurs run profitable, meaningful businesses in just three days a week without stress, guilt, or sacrificing growth.

I'm your host, Jenna Harrison, sharing practical strategies, mindset hacks, and even some woo to help you work smarter, lead boldly, and find true balance. Let's dive in. Welcome, welcome to the three-day workweek. The last time I did an episode on this was over a year ago, so it's definitely time for an update, especially now with the launch of our new title.

I think if I do these episodes every year or so, you'll get to see how my workweeks evolve as different priorities come into play. One of the biggest misconceptions about this approach is that it only works for certain business levels or circumstances. But hopefully, by sharing my schedule and what I see working for my clients, [00:01:00] you'll start to see how this can be possible for you, too.

Now, before we dive in, let's get one thing straight. This is not about working less just for the sake of working less. If you're looking for a shortcut to bare minimum success, this isn't for you. But if you're here because you want to create a high-impact, high-profit business while living a life that feels deeply aligned, you're in the right place.

In this episode, you will discover the exact workweek structure that allows me to scale my business while maintaining flexibility, so you can see how to apply it in your own life. And you'll learn why simplifying decisions, everything from breakfast to business strategy, can unlock more creativity, productivity, and ease in your work week.

And you'll find out my biggest challenge in maintaining a three-day work week and how I navigate it. Because knowing what to expect, it makes all the difference. Let's dive in. Let's dive in. [00:02:00] Right now, my work week is about 24 hours but spread over 4 days. People are often like, you can do that? Remember, this isn't about rigid rules.

If you haven't yet, take a listen to last week's episode. We'll link to it. The whole point of a three-day workweek is allowing yourself to believe that you can create whatever you want. If we got super strict about exactly three days or exactly 24 hours, it would totally defeat the purpose. That said, I do love an actual three-day structure because of how many days it gives your brain to decompress.

Which, actually supports business growth. For me though, I work Monday through Thursday because most of my clients and team members are in the U. S., and there's a very small window of time between when they wake up and when my son gets home from school. So, shorter, more frequent work days make more sense to me.

[00:03:00] If your business involves working with clients in different time zones or managing family responsibilities, you might find that shorter, more frequent work days work better for you too. So, here are what mine looks like, typically. About 10. 30am to 2 pm, I have focus work and communication or oversight. That adds up to about 14 hours a week.

And then from 3 to 5pm, I usually have client calls and meetings. That's about 8 hours per week. Plus, I have two floating hours for flexibility. Now, typically, I work Monday through Thursday, but it's so flexible. If we want to go on a hike on a Wednesday or there's a school event on Thursday, no problem, I'll work on Friday instead.

The key is to establish a structure first so you can be intentionally flexible. I have a rough routine throughout the week. On Mondays, I check in with and I respond to private and mastermind clients on WhatsApp. [00:04:00] I review podcast materials before they're posted. And then I either calendar in my week or I work on a growth initiative with my freshest grain.

Then I have, in the afternoon, about two to three calls. On Tuesdays, I have an open morning and then in the afternoon, I have some calls with clients or team members. On Wednesdays, I write my podcast in the morning and take afternoon calls. You're seeing a trend here with my afternoons, right? And then on Thursdays, I record my podcast, I interact with clients on WhatsApp again, and then I take additional calls.

Now throughout the rest of the week, I fill in the remaining time with things like working with my coach or handling finances or reviewing social media content, writing newsletters and doing that strategic CEO time thinking about client delivery or improvements and future initiatives. Most recently, we've been working on the back end of the business.

We've been switching accountants, [00:05:00] bookkeepers, and my entire bookkeeping system. So, all that hiring and onboarding has required my personal involvement. PSA, do not use 1 800 ACCOUNTANT. They are not just the worst accounting, bookkeeping, or payroll company I've ever worked with. They're the worst company I've ever worked with, period.

If you're curious I can share more about my experiences in a future episode, just let me know. Ask me questions about anything in my work week, please. I'm happy to get more detailed or share more of my way of thinking about any of this. I've always loved picking the brains of my coaches and I want you to feel you can do the same so you can begin working differently and create your uncommonly successful business in life.

The best way to get in touch with me is just to reply to any email you receive via my email list. If you're not on the list yet, you can access that on our homepage at the uncommon way. [00:06:00] com. But in the meantime, here are some common questions I've heard in the past. 1. Do you ever work more than 24 hours?

Yes, occasionally. For example, when I was working on episode 134, which I consider to be one of my best and will link to it below so you can get to it easily, but I got so into the research that I worked way into the night. My husband slept in another room because he'd be like, hun, we should probably get to bed now.

And I just wouldn't even register that he'd said anything. The real question you want to ask yourself is, is this an anomaly or is this routine? Look, I know some people love to wear their long hours like a badge of honor. If that's your thing, go for it. But I'm here to show you another way. Because if your business requires you to work endless hours just to keep it afloat, that's not a business.

It's a trap. When I used to [00:07:00] overwork all the time, my business became bloated, my growth stalled, and I felt constantly exhausted. Now when I find myself wanting to work beyond my set schedule, I pause and I ask myself, what's really going on here? Am I being rigid about what I must accomplish this week? Am I people-pleasing?

Is there some system that I need to put into place that would make this easier in the future? Or do I just need to detox from the cortisol? That desire to work more is a good thing. It gets my brain working about how to solve for that going forward. So that I can avoid this discomfort in the future. But it doesn't mean I have to give in to the urge to actually work more.

Because like I said, I know that leads to bloat and slower growth and exhaustion. And I wouldn't be able to tap into my greatest creative capacity. I'd be working for my business instead of my business working for me. Many entrepreneurs say [00:08:00] they want freedom, but most aren't willing to make the decisions that truly create it.

If you're past the point of telling yourself that next year you'll finally do things differently, And you're ready to align and simplify your business, rewire your brain without guilt, and actually claim the freedom you started this for, all while scaling your business? I'll show you how to do it inside the Clarity Accelerator Mastermind.

Okay, here's another. Why do you prioritize doing a podcast? I like having one long-form content channel that can be repurposed. This is something I set up in the early days of my business when I only had a few hours a day to work as I was taking care of my newborn. Back then it was Facebook Lives, not a podcast, but it's the same idea.

And I'm not saying that every coach needs long form content, by the way. You get to do business in a way that aligns with you. The real work is expanding your mind to see how you can make your chosen strategy work with a minimal time input. [00:09:00] I love how creating a weekly podcast expands my thinking and deepens my intellectual property.

Of course, my brain tries to tell me to skip it when it feels hard, or to change strategies altogether because this other one would be easier, or, you know, it'll slip in some negative judgments about myself. But learning to move through those moments and build emotional tolerance is key to successful entrepreneurship.

Because no matter how big you grow, that brain will still be in your head there doing brain things. Number three, do you still eat the same breakfast every day? I get lots of comments about this still, because in my last episode, I mentioned how I eat the same breakfast every day to help minimize decision fatigue.

So yes, that's still true on work days. Every day, people come to me for decisions. My son is wondering if he can have ice cream today, a contractor bringing me a problem and how do we want to proceed, [00:10:00] or I'm deciding how to help a particular client integrate a concept, or there's an immigration lawyer asking which avenue we want to pursue.

By simplifying and creating routines, I conserve brain power and then don't feel like those decisions are so taxing. Right now, my go-to is avocado toast with hard-boiled egg slices on German whole-grain sourdough bread with lots of olive oil. I have the avocado already mashed up in the fridge, so I just toast the bread, array some egg slices, and I'm good.

I also still simplify my wardrobe, and I mostly wear black in winter or one pieces in the summer, so I don't have to think about what to put on or how to mix and match things. I wear tinted sunscreen and mascara only, and I do my hair once or twice a week. Number four, what is your biggest challenge in maintaining a three-day work week?

Honestly, wanting to do too much. I have [00:11:00] so many growth initiatives that I would love to tackle, and pacing myself is a constant practice. Right now, for example, my focus is on streamlining our accounting and creating a refined podcast pitching system. I'd love to be in a learning phase to improve my group facilitation skills, but I'm making that a Q3 initiative.

In Q2, we'll release some fun new little offers and we'll hold another scholarship round, but mostly I'm allowing for a very relaxed July and August. By then, we'll be fully installed in our new house, our final visa application will be submitted, and it'll be nice to give myself some relaxation and family time after what has been a very chaotic challenging year.

So I'm always thinking ahead, like, what's Q2? What's Q3? And by limiting myself to just a couple of new initiatives at a time, I do my best work and I keep my schedule sustainable. The secret [00:12:00] to sustainable success isn't doing more, it's making smarter decisions about what actually moves the needle.

Number 5. You seem so calm. How do you stay that way? It's a mix of nature and nurture. I grew up on the west coast of the U. S., where a more relaxed culture is common. But I used to be very stressed, constantly overthinking, constantly pushing myself. What changed was learning tools to rewire my brain. And I didn't get those until I was in my 40s, after starting this business.

So if you struggle with stress, know that it's absolutely possible to shift your mindset and let go of the guilt around working less. That's what this podcast is all about. So now I'd love to hear from you. What's one question you have for me or one thing that might make it difficult for you to create a three-day workweek?

Reply to any of my emails and let me know, and I might address it in a future episode. [00:13:00] Here are some final takeaways. Your workweek should be designed to support your business and life, not the other way around. The key is setting up a structure that gives you both flexibility and focus so you can create a rhythm that allows for growth without overwork.

Pacing yourself in business is a power move, not a limitation. The more intentional you are, the bigger the results. When you do this, you open up new possibilities, not just for your business, but for your life as a whole. Because training your mind to think uncommonly unlocks a whole new level of impact and possibility.

Okay, my friend. Let's talk again on Tuesday.

Thanks for joining us here at this uncommon way. If you want more tips and resources for developing clarity in your business and life, including the clarity first strategy for growing and scaling your business, [00:14:00] visit the uncommon way. com. See you next time.

Support at The Uncommon Way 3/11/25 Support at The Uncommon Way 3/11/25

Ep 140: The Surprising Truths That 3-Day Workweeks Taught Me About Growing My Multiple-6 Figure Business

Is your overpacked schedule sabotaging your entrepreneurial dreams?

Learn why adopting a three-day workweek isn't just possible but could be the catalyst for your business's next breakthrough, and how this played out for Jenna in her own business

Episode Summary

Is your overpacked schedule sabotaging your entrepreneurial dreams?

Learn why adopting a three-day workweek isn't just possible but could be the catalyst for your business's next breakthrough, and how this played out for Jenna in her own business

In this episode, you will:

Know why my business grew the most in the seasons when I was forced to work less—and why I ignored the lesson for far too long.
Learn the hidden beliefs that kept me trapped in overwork (even after I knew better) and the moment everything finally clicked.
See why waiting until you “hit the next milestone” to create freedom is a trap—and how shifting your approach now changes everything.

Stop waiting for the perfect moment—hit play now to discover how working less can transform your business and your life.

Episodes mentioned:

Ep #42: Time and Money: When to Dial It Back

Ep 135: How Lisa Boosted Revenue & Work Life Balance Simultaneously, w/ Lisa Stryker

Schedule a call with Jenna about joining the Clarity Accelerator--the same mastermind that we talk about in this episode--to dial in signature offers and strategies and a first-rate mindset.

https://www.theuncommonway.com/schedule

Sign up here to get on the waitlist for Power & Potency, the new mastermind for highly accomplished women entrepreneurs, and hear all new information as it's released:

https://www.theuncommonway.com/waitlist

Find Jenna on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theuncommonway/

Full Episode Transcript:

Jenna Harrison: [00:00:00] I used to believe that working less was something I could figure out later. Until life forced my hand and I realized that freedom wasn't the result of success, but the thing that created it.

Welcome to the show that helps women entrepreneurs run profitable, meaningful businesses in just three days a week, without stress, guilt, or sacrificing growth. I'm your host, Jenna Harrison, sharing practical strategies, mindset hacks, and even some woo to help you work smarter, lead boldly, and find true balance.

Let's dive in. Welcome, welcome to the three day work week. New title, but similar focus. And do you not love the disco vibe in the photo? I do. It cracked me up when I saw it. I'm such a lover of the 70s. Both that boho side and the disco side. All of it. Well, actually the rock and the country too, come to think of it.

The 70s was just such a revolutionary [00:01:00] decade. Anyway, if you've been here for a while, you know the Uncommon Way has always been about rewriting the rules. The three day workweek? It's just the next evolution. And don't worry, you can make your workweek exactly what you want it to be. We'll talk more about that in a sec.

Everything I've shared in the past is necessary for creating a three day workweek. So, if you've loved what my clients and I are talking about here, then keep tuning in. But now, you'll just get some more specific advice, too. So, the first obvious question is, why create a three day workweek? And I get it.

At first, it might seem like something to think about later, after you've hit some big milestone. I used to think that way, too. But what I finally figured out changed everything. And that's what we're diving into today. By the end of this episode, you'll know why my business grew the most in the seasons when I was forced to work less, and why I ignored the [00:02:00] lesson for far too long.

You'll learn the hidden beliefs that kept me trapped in overwork, even after I knew better and the moment everything finally clicked, and you'll see why waiting until you hit the next milestone to create freedom is a trap, and how shifting your approach now changes everything. Okay, let's dive in by calling out the two most important things you need to know about the three day workweek.

One. It's really a metaphor and part of a much bigger picture. And two, it improves your business results, not detracts from them, so you owe it to yourself to at least try it out. Now, before you panic, let's clarify what I mean, because I get it. If you're anything like I was, the idea of working less might feel impossible.

In the early days of my business, I was so driven to make it a success that even though I had a newborn, I worked naptimes and evenings [00:03:00] seven days a week for two years. Well, that's not fully true. I'd take off one evening a week to watch a movie with my husband, but only because I felt so guilty about being an absent wife.

But even then, I sought efficiency, like my early content repurposing system. But instead of using that extra Time for downtime, I filled the space with more work. What I didn't realize until later was that since I was so tired, stressed, and overworked, everything I was doing took probably five times as long as it could have.

Until finally life forced my hand. A cross country move during a pandemic and months of living in a hotel room with my two year old. I physically couldn't work much, and yet my business grew. You'd think that would have been my wake up call. But nope, old habits run deep, and I kept falling back into my usual ways of overworking.

And that's why I [00:04:00] totally understand if you feel like a racehorse stuck behind the starting gate. Ready to go, full of energy, but not quite sure how to pace yourself differently. But you also know that the status quo is not sustainable. It's not really the life you want to live. Even though our society has made some great leaps forward and we're no longer willing to slave away for 45 years, thinking that someday we'll retire and we can live well, we're still tied to the thought error Um, everything will change once I reach X milestone.

But the truth is that these patterns become so ingrained that we just start finding new reasons to maintain our old ways of being. So your future self won't thank you for working harder. She will thank you for building smarter. The key to an amazing future is starting it now. I speak from personal experience.

I would [00:05:00] break the overwork cycle for a few days or a week. Only to slip right back. Stress shuts down your ability to problem solve well, so your only solution is to work more. It's a vicious cycle. Whereas when you finally get a great night's sleep, or go for a long run, or a yoga class, all of a sudden you're like, Wait, I can just do XYZ and problem solve.

Or, I could just write the email this way. And you can't even believe that felt like such a huge problem a day ago. Oh, I remember it well. I finally got help. Coaching, therapy, all of it. Turns out, guilt was a big culprit, along with a patterned response that sent me into overfunctioning every time I felt out of control.

Once I saw that, I didn't just change my business, I dove into helping my clients break free too. I started scaling back my hours, and sure enough, my [00:06:00] income kept rising. And of course, I was sharing all my learning with my clients, so their lives and business results started changing too. It's funny because all of them always get surprised by how this work supercharges their business.

They'll create some new result or reach some new milestone after doing less, and then they'll look at me in disbelief and say, it's just so crazy. It's like, yeah, I've heard you say it, Jenna, and I've heard some of my mastermind sisters say it, but wow, it actually works. Yes, it works, and I can tell you why it works.

Business is pretty simple. You provide value for people. You solve problems. Nowhere in that definition does it say that this needs to take a lot of time. We are the ones who overcomplicate it and make it harder. Usually because we're afraid to do the thing that we really need to do, so we spend lots of time doing other things.

But let's be clear. Simplifying your business does [00:07:00] not mean avoiding work. It means being bold enough to make the hard decisions. The ones that free you from busy work, distractions, and unaligned clients. So if you're looking for a way to sit back and have success magically land in your lap, this isn't for you.

But if you're willing to build something smarter so you can work less without earning less, you're in the right place. One of my favorite things about the three day workweek is that introducing constraint naturally helps you solve the problems that you need to solve anyway to get to the next level in your business.

You just solve them earlier. Invariably, you run up against the question, Hmm, how the hell am I going to do this in only 24 hours? At first it seems impossible, and maybe you don't succeed in doing it in 24 hours. Then you figure it out. And the answer is always the process or system or decision or mindset [00:08:00] shift that ushers in a new era.

My natural inclination is to have seven unread books on my nightstand. I don't naturally love constraint, but I've learned that it can lead to stellar results in business. Of course, I always leave open time on my calendar for unstructured time and, you know, ideation, and it's not like I've become a robot.

But when it's time for business, it's time for business. So while I won't make you do anything you don't want to do, I'll probably still keep reminding you that You got the doing part down. No problem. You're good. Adding in that one new thing isn't the answer. Now it's time for the being. For where you're headed, we don't want you overwhelmed, dropping balls here and there and white knuckling.

We need the CEO who is calm, focused, and has healthy boundaries. We want you [00:09:00] being a boss and unlocking your creative genius. So, maybe you'll choose to try working 50 hours instead of 70. And then maybe 30. Maybe you do that in two 15 hour marathon days. Or, like me, you spread your hours out over four days.

The 3 Day Workweek isn't about rigid have tos. It's a metaphor for living life on your own terms and making the impossible possible. It's a very powerful entryway into the uncommon way, which is the name of my company if we haven't yet been properly introduced. But there are many other entryways into this philosophy too.

Because success isn't about how much you work, it's about what you build. You don't get a gold star for working the most hours. You get freedom, impact, and wealth by designing a business that doesn't rely on you 24 7. If deep down you believe that's the better way and you're [00:10:00] ready to build it, then come back next week and the week after.

You need to bombard your brain with evidence that this is possible and start understanding the steps required to get you there. But if you love being busy, you'll probably tune it all out. If you want to feel busy so you can feel successful, Then maybe come back next year. Some entrepreneurs wear busy like a badge of honor.

They pack their schedules, they love it when people say, I don't know how you do it all. And convince themselves that grinding harder is the only way forward. But I have a feeling you already know that's a lie. The real power move? It's building a business that works in three days so you can enjoy all the things in your life that matter.

So that you can pick up the phone and call that friend to celebrate their milestone. Or create a memory for your child by taking them on a surprise picnic. Or actually make it to that get together. Or just have time for something [00:11:00] random. Like, did you know soap carving ASMR is a thing?

Whispering affirmations while sculpting tiny soap animals? I guarantee I'd get a business idea from it, and people would be like, oh yeah, Jenna, the one who's obsessed with soap carving now. No seriously, I've come a long way since the time when I worked 7 days a week for 2 years. It's a very nice life.

And interestingly, it's exactly like the one I was trying to hustle my way to back in the day. It's just that I had to start actually living that way first so I could be the woman who created those results. I've been able to retire my husband early, move my family to our dream location, buy a dream home, and live the Blue Zone lifestyle overseas.

I have a bunch of fun, interesting friends and we're always going on hikes or meeting up for lunch. I go on date nights with my hubby, I get to walk my son to school without rush, and also, [00:12:00] I get to rest. I get moments to truly relax and be present and smell the jasmine. And of course, disappointments happen, things go awry, it's still real life.

But I love feeling like, at least I'm squeezing the juice out of my time on this earth and enjoying all areas of my life, not just one. I think about how precious time is and all the things I used to prioritize ahead of my time. Money, doing things the right way, keeping up with unrealistic standards, but by being brave and questioning all that, and developing the discipline and the mental toughness to create change even when it felt really messy.

And even a little foolish, in the beginning, I've created a life I'm really proud of. Now before we sign off, let's zoom out for a second. Because this isn't just about our personal work [00:13:00] schedules. The way we work shapes the world we live in. And that's why 3 day work weeks matter on a bigger scale. We're evolving capitalism and redefining what success looks like in our society.

Capitalism gets a bad rap because it supposedly prioritizes money above all else. But it's actually about people acting to maximize self interest. Now, for some people, their greatest self interest has been money, at all costs. But these days, people like us don't want to run a company where we put profits above the well being of the employees.

We'd feel worse, not better. So our self interest is not maximized. And if that's true, then we need to look in the mirror and see that we're perpetuating an outdated legacy when we do it to ourselves. And when more of us wake up to the fact and start to actually live it and model it to others, then we are contributing to a better world.

I have a client who [00:14:00] not only works three days, but encourages the people who work for her to work for three days. And now all her friends and colleagues are super interested in this whole three day work week thing. They're constantly asking her how she does it, and could she talk more about how it benefits her so they can wrap their minds around it too.

I love how contagious that is, and how privileged we are that we get to go first. And I love imagining how different our world would be if everyone worked three days. How much more fulfilled, how much kinder, more connected, and how much higher quality everything we produced would be too. Let's build that world, shall we?

So here's what I want you to take away from this. A three day workweek isn't just about working less, it's about working better, creating more from less, designing a business that truly supports you, and breaking free from the cycle of guilt or whatever else is driving you to do, do, do. [00:15:00] You don't have to wait for some day to build the life you actually want.

You can start shifting things now. Many entrepreneurs say they want freedom, but most aren't willing to make the bold decisions that create it. They keep adding more offers, more clients, and more hours. Then wonder why they feel trapped and over it. If you are past the point of telling yourself that next year you'll finally do things differently and you're ready to simplify your business, rewire your brain, and actually claim the freedom that you started this for, without guilt and without grinding, hit subscribe and bring a friend along for the ride.

Let's redefine success together. I'll talk to you again on Tuesday.

Thanks for joining us here at The Uncommon Way. If you want more tips and resources for developing clarity in your business and life, including the Clarity First strategy for growing and scaling your [00:16:00] business, visit theuncommonway. com. See you next time.

Support at The Uncommon Way 3/4/25 Support at The Uncommon Way 3/4/25

Ep 139: The Hidden Cost of Caring What Others Think and How to Break Free w/ Lisa Stryker & Lauren Dito

How much of your business success (or struggle) is actually tied to the fear of being judged?

The biggest growth hack isn’t another marketing strategy—it’s freeing yourself from the need to fit in. In this episode, Jenna Harrison sits down with two of her clients, Lisa Stryker and Lauren Dito, to uncover the sneaky ways people-pleasing and seeking external validation show up and undermine your results—and how to finally break free from them.

Episode Summary

How much of your business success (or struggle) is actually tied to the fear of being judged?

In this episode, you will:

Discover how letting go of people-pleasing and external validation can unlock a new level of personal power, confidence, and business success.
Uncover why overanalyzing and second-guessing yourself is stalling your growth—and the mindset shift that finally breaks the cycle.
Learn the simple yet powerful messaging tweak that helped my client attract more of the right clients—without working harder or changing her offer.

Press play now and get the tools to stop second-guessing yourself and start making bold, aligned moves with confidence.

Schedule a call with Jenna about joining the Clarity Accelerator--the same mastermind that we talk about in this episode--to dial in signature offers and strategies and a first-rate mindset.

https://www.theuncommonway.com/schedule

Sign up here to get on the waitlist for Power & Potency, the new mastermind for highly accomplished women entrepreneurs, and hear all new information as it's released:

https://www.theuncommonway.com/waitlist

Find Jenna on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theuncommonway/

Full Episode Transcript:

Jenna Harrison: [00:00:00] Getting real. Does your desire to be accepted or approved of change what you say and do? Then that's definitely impacting your growth potential and causing you extra work. A couple of my clients are here to share their stories and what it takes to leave that behind. Welcome, welcome back to the Uncommon Way.

For the first time ever, I am joined by two of my clients at once for a roundtable. Because every single human on the planet can relate to the tug of war between being yourself And wanting to be appreciated and validated by others. Now, it's natural to want that, but it becomes a problem when you step back and you see how it's impacting your business.

For many women, this alone is the root of their overwork, but it can show up differently for different people. That's why I wanted to give you two unique perspectives from women who have recently worked through this for themselves. [00:01:00] So, in this episode, you will discover how letting go of people pleasing and external validation can unlock a new level of personal power and confidence and business success.

You'll uncover why overanalyzing and second guessing yourself is stalling your growth. And the mindset shift that finally breaks the cycle. And you'll learn the simple yet powerful messaging tweak that helped my client attract more of the right clients without working harder or changing her offer. So let's dive into this powerful episode.

You're listening to the Uncommon Way business and life coaching podcast, the podcast that helps women entrepreneurs get clear on signature offers and strategies. That's sell themselves so you can lean back and stop the hustle. You will learn to maximize your mindset, messaging, and strategy, and step into the uncommonly successful business and life you are [00:02:00] creating.

Here's your host, top ranked business coach and reformed over analyzer turned queen of clarity, Jenna Harrison.

All right. So thank you both so much for coming on. Thank you for having us. Oh,

Lisa Stryke: thanks for having us. So looking forward to this.

Jenna Harrison: So we started, we've been talking kind of individually and then in groups just about how powerful it is to let go of the need to care what others think or to people please or to be liked by others and just to really finally let that all go and just do you really.

And Thank you. This is such an important topic. I know so many women were just so caught up in it. But the reason I wanted to bring it here is because so often if we do want to create a three day workweek or we do want to break through to our next level in business, we're not quite sure what are the levers, what are the things that we really need to [00:03:00] work on.

And sometimes it's this. And so I thought there's no better way to really show how that all works. How would this potentially impact our business revenue or the time that we're working unless we all talk about our real stories of how we've noticed things were showing up and how our business has changed now that they're not.

So here you both are so generous for joining us. Why don't we just really quickly introduce you to the audience, even though you've both been on the podcast before, but let's see, Lisa, you want to start?

Lisa Stryke: Sure. Yeah. I'm Lisa Stryker and I'm a career advancement coach for leaders. I help leaders get out of their own way so they can lead with and make a difference the way they want to.

Lauren Portland: Thank you. Lauren? My name is Lauren Ditto. I am a Portland based residential and commercial interior designer, and my goal always is just [00:04:00] to allow my clients to let go of their stress and pursue interior design in like a really organized and cohesive way, all the way to their most beautiful space.

Sounds so good. Sounds so

Lisa Stryke: peaceful. It

Jenna Harrison: does. Yeah. That's the goal. That's the goal. That's the goal. So good. All right. So, I was thinking it'd be fun if we kind of jumped right in the middle. You know, who is like Aaron Sorkin? Who's that playwright who always starts, or that script writer who always starts right in the middle of the action?

Yeah. Let's do it. Let's start right at the moment where you realized, kind of had this awareness that you weren't going to do it anymore. Because I think a lot of us have awareness for a while that we're doing it or that we're holding back because of what these imaginary figures might say or these real people might say, but then there's kind of this moment where you're just like, mm, mm mm, no more.

Lauren Portland: Yep. Lisa, do you want to start or do you [00:05:00] want me to?

Lisa Stryke: I'll let you jump in. I think you have a juicy story at the ready. Go right ahead.

Lauren Portland: Yeah. I was on vacation and I had gone through, I call it like a winter in like my season of friendships where like I had been ghosted and I had a really good friend who kind of dropped me and I was experiencing some struggles in like connecting to potential clients and it all just felt.

There was an invisible wall and no matter what I did, I just kept running up against it. Sometimes face first. That's how walls work. And I was on vacation and I had a little bit of time to myself. I have two small kids, so that was rare. And I realized that I Which is like taking every setback, every criticism, even subtle sign that somebody was unhappy with me personally or professionally [00:06:00] as like a personal failure.

And it really created this cycle of me not feeling confident in my interactions. And then having that reaction, that tepid or that kind of ghosting reaction as like a confirmation that I wasn't worthy of that relationship or of my job, it really manifested in so many ways. And I had this moment where I was like, I am handing over all of my personal power to other people and hoping against hope that they will turn around and hand it back to me.

And that's really all I was doing was having this experience of being like, will you like me please? And handing them my power and then them being like, what do I do with this? Stuff that you've given me and like dropping it on the ground and walking away and fair because why would I hand somebody my power?

[00:07:00] Right? Why would I hand somebody my vulnerability at the beginning of a relationship? And so I realized I was manifesting a lot of like lack of trust in myself and hoping that there were other people who could really validate me professionally and personally. And it was kind of an inflection point for me in that I was like, I don't want to do this anymore, but it really transitioned into like an on ramp.

Like I started to notice where I was having those moments and when I would catch myself in the middle of them, I would like stop and pause and back up and really like reassess how I wanted to behave in those moments. And I started to really reflect on them afterward and not reflect on them in a way that Oh, what could I have done differently?

I'm such a failure, but like reflect on them and like, how could I have come into that interaction more confidently, more empathetically, more myself so that as I move forward, I can be [00:08:00] exactly who I am, be my best self and show people that I'm interacting with. This is who I am, and this is the kind of value that I bring to every relationship.

Jenna Harrison: So good, because I was reflecting on all of the learning and all of the conditioning that goes into creating these habits that we have, right? And then we finally have these moments where we realize we've been doing it, but you had a background in a very male dominated field. And so part of this is also your survival was fitting in and was being accepted and was being one of the team, I'm sure.

So. I don't want to

Lauren Portland: like make assumptions, but it's true and like we talked briefly about how women especially are often conditioned from a very young age to fit in. And in reality, I was the opposite. My parents were like liberals in the middle of Oklahoma. Like I was never going to fit in. It was fine.

Nobody cared. Nobody in my family cared. [00:09:00] Everybody was weird and that was glorious. So I didn't. really feel that pressure to fit in or to like sit down and shut up until I was in my 20s and I had a boss who was male, and I was one of three women in a technical capacity. I was working as an engineer in aerospace and there was a lot of sit down and shut up.

There was a lot of blonde jokes. There was a lot of sexual harassment to be perfectly honest. And it became increasingly intense pressure and like this. really high level of demoralization. And the reason that I ended up quitting engineering was partially that and partially because I realized that who I had to be to do that job was not somebody that I liked or wanted to be.

And so there were

Jenna Harrison: already the seeds back then of your, of your movement. Lisa, what did you notice in [00:10:00] corporate when you were in corporate?

Lisa Stryke: Oh, my gosh. Well, I was sitting here listening to Lauren's story and realizing I've had several pivotal moments. It hasn't been just one big epiphany, but one of them actually was absolutely incorporate where I was.

The leader of a high profile team. I was in a fortune 150 running their first social media, managing their first social media team. So it was very high visibility, lots of pressure, lots of newness in a very old company, male dominated, same thing. And I really put my heart and soul into that job. And I was inherited by a new manager and he and I really did see eye to eye.

And, like Lauren, took it on as there's something wrong with me, what am I doing wrong here? It was always, what can I do to fix this? What have I done to create this? I didn't take a lot of consideration into that this was a two person [00:11:00] relationship until a little ways in when it started to become very, very uncomfortable.

And eventually I got laid off from that job. And I don't think that's a coincidence and that's okay. But the biggest impact that had on me was I realized after The job was taken that just brought full front and center to me that I had really relied on that title, that position, that role in that big company to define me.

And when it was taken away, it felt a little like a house of cards. I was working with someone I didn't even really enjoy working with, right? I was really giving my all. There was so much to learn from it, but yet, immediately following that experience, all I could think was, I blew it. You know, they don't see any value in me.

I'm not valuable. I messed it up. I failed. And there was just not a lot left for me to stand on. And it really, really opened my eyes after the [00:12:00] initial, you know, it's a gut punch. And for me, it took some time to of course recover. But as I started to recover, I felt a little like the Phoenix rising. I was like, wait a minute.

I could rise in a ball of fire here after feeling so defeated. If I could just remember to focus on what I think of me, I was relying so much on what how everyone else saw me, I kept forgetting to consider what do I think of me? Yeah. And that was a real eye opener.

Jenna Harrison: So how did that show up in your business when you became an entrepreneur later on?

Lisa Stryke: Oh, yeah, so it's so interesting, Jenna, and you know this, I thought I had it beat, right? Oh, I've overcome the layoff, the house of cards was put together into this castle of steel and then I very bravely quit another job that I loved and [00:13:00] started my own business and oh, yeah, then all the chinks in the armor started to show and it was back.

It's kind of sneaky, you don't even realize. how much you're relying on other people's opinions because of the ways it shows up. And for me, it was, oh, you know, what if people don't like my message? What if that they criticize the way I look in that video? You know, I didn't even articulate it to myself that way at first.

I just felt very frustrated. Like I was getting in my own way and I couldn't figure out why.

Jenna Harrison: And it was

Lisa Stryke: thoughtful about what are people going to think?

Jenna Harrison: Yeah. Specifically for you, I remember you have such great IP, intellectual property. You have such great ways of explaining things and concepts that you think of, but you wouldn't share those because what if someone else had said it before or what if you were just regurgitating information?

What if someone else could say it? Better, well I don't know if that last one were you, but there was definitely a holding back [00:14:00] in sharing what you knew to be true. Because of how people would be able to fact check it or evaluate it or, right? Do you remember those? Yeah, like

Lisa Stryke: who was I to be sharing this?

Oh, yeah, because for decades, I've been obsessed with personal development, human behavior. I've read all the books. I've researched all the things. But I'm not a researcher, you know, and I kept telling myself, well, you're not coming up with something new like Brene Brown, so who are you to share this? And it's taken me, and still, it's still something I have to work on, it's taken me quite some time to recognize that some people need to hear it from me.

I don't have to be reinventing the wheel, but I'm very effective at helping the people that I help, and that was just another way. being liked and being approved of was showing up in that sneaky Underhanded backdoor way that it tends to

Jenna Harrison: yes. So what was your big breakthrough moment? [00:15:00] Was it wicked? Oh, that was wicked.

Lisa Stryke: Oh, yeah, that's a great story. Thank you for reminding me of that. Well, so one of the Challenges for me is, I was brought up to not express my strong emotions and so that has stopped me up, I'll say, as a, it's like entrepreneurial constipation. We went there, y'all. Yeah, there are a lot of emotions. There are a lot of emotions when it's one of the biggest, most challenging personal development journeys you can go on.

And so when my work with you, Jenna, and over time, I've learned to follow my instincts more, and something kept telling me to go see Wicked. So I took myself to the movies. I didn't even know why. I didn't question it. enjoyed the movie, really loved the closing scene where she's just defying gravity. It moved me so much.

I listened to the soundtrack all the way home [00:16:00] until I suddenly found myself in a rage, a full on rage. Like I was yelling like a nutcase in the car. If anyone could have seen or heard me, probably people did. They were worried about my Stability. But you don't

Jenna Harrison: care anymore. But I didn't

Lisa Stryke: care. I didn't care.

I was like, I don't care. This is coming out of me and really what it was, was that an emotional release of the feeling of being held back by what I was worried people were thinking about me. That's really what it was. It was like the culmination of 50 plus years of trying to twist myself in a pretzel and be palatable.

Jenna Harrison: Yeah, because that's what the Elphaba song is about in that movie is that she's been trying to play someone else's game that she's not going to win and she's finally ready to be herself and really unleash her power. I mean, it's a great scene. For anyone who hasn't seen it.

Lisa Stryke: It changed my life in ways I [00:17:00] couldn't have expected.

Lauren Portland: Yes. I love that you had like an emotional detox. Like all of a sudden it all came out. It was so good. It was so good. It was like I needed a glass of wine after.

Lisa Stryke: The best part is that after you learned to just allow those big emotions when it's time because it's like a purging. Then you, it releases something in you that I didn't realize I was feeling on the daily.

That kind of undercurrent of anger that I couldn't express.

Jenna Harrison: And I have that recording because you left me a recording right away and it is so raw. It was pure power, though. Like, I'd never heard you speak so forcefully. Like, there was so much power just flowing through you. It was like, whoo! I get shivers even thinking about it.

But you were like, I'm done. I am done. I am not doing this anymore. It really felt that way.

Lisa Stryke: Yes. It's not the first time, but it was [00:18:00] definitely the most power. It felt like an eruption. Yes. It just kind of boils over after a while. You get sick of it.

Jenna Harrison: Well, and that's what you and I reflected on, Lisa, is that, Lauren, you may not be able to, especially if you grew up with great liberal parents and you're younger than Lisa and I.

I have a different perspective, but I'm so like curious. Okay. I mean, Lisa and I have very vivid memories of being young women, young girls. And what was expected of us and how we were trained for all of our thoughts to constantly be monitoring the room and making sure that we were pleasing everybody around us.

Oh my gosh.

Lisa Stryke: It is, looking at it now, reflecting back, it is almost bizarre, like how well conditioned you can become.

Jenna Harrison: Yes.

Lisa Stryke: And it's the water you're swimming in. And I call it my finely tuned antenna. You know, I'm like always boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, trying to figure out, is everybody okay? [00:19:00] Is anybody mad at me?

I don't want to disappoint anyone. And what you don't realize is it is so exhausting. And this is so important. You don't know who you are because you're never asking yourself, what do I think? What do I want? You're so busy focusing on what you think everyone else. wants or needs or what they actually are expressing that you forget to ask yourself.

And I've had to make some really big life decisions. And that was another kind of pivot point for me when I realized I don't even know what my own opinion is.

Jenna Harrison: Oh, that's so huge. Yeah. I remember you talking about how like, You had done everything you were expected to do. You went to the school and you got married at this age and you had the family and you had the two point however many kids and right?

It's actually two. But I remember. Actually three. No, all three. Oh, okay. I'm sorry. I was off on that. But there used to be a statistic. Do you remember? For like 2. 1? [00:20:00] Yes. Average or something. Yes. So you did all the things and you did all the things you were supposed to do and really hadn't questioned it until later and you're like, I don't remember how you described it.

I'm thinking of it as a river. Like that's just the way the river was going and you just had

Lisa Stryke: to go with the river. I was like a jellyfish on the tide. That's how I think about it. It's like, I'm just going to go wherever life takes, you know, I'm the good girl. That's how I thought of it. I get the good grades and I have the nice family.

Um, we all look nice going to church and all the things, but it's all a facade.

Jenna Harrison: Yeah. And when I grew up, my dad was in the military, I've told this story before, but they would get a report each, I don't know, every six months or so talking about their career progress. But on that report, It was listed how well his wife was contributing to volunteer duties and how well behaved his children were.

Isn't that amazing? Isn't that amazing? [00:21:00] It is amazing. There are many opinions about

Lisa Stryke: that. Yes. We could do a whole second podcast on this.

Jenna Harrison: Yeah. Actually, I was just watching. Have you all been watching Zero Day with Robert Watergold? I haven't watched it yet.

Lisa Stryke: But it is on the list.

Jenna Harrison: There's a line in there where the man says, like, one of the men is saying about the president, whose daughter's a congresswoman and does not agree with him, or he's the ex president, but the man says, I mean, obviously he can't be a good leader because he can't even control his family.

Look at what his daughter's doing. And I have a feeling nowadays, younger women watching that would be like, Ha ha, isn't that some weird old thing to say? That used to be how it was. Oh no, that's real. That's real. Oh yeah, I

Lisa Stryke: feel that. I feel that. Like, I feel 12 years old again. Like, I have to be good. I don't want to ruffle any feathers.

I want everybody to tell me how good and well behaved I am. Oh my gosh.

Jenna Harrison: Yeah. I mean, your family security [00:22:00] depends, you know, the breadwinner's livelihood depends on how well you have demonstrated his leadership.

Lisa Stryke: Oh, what's so bananas about that? What's so bananas about that is that we can't control other people, you know, like, so in other words, are you saying you have to rule with an iron fist, right?

Because really the only way you could try to control his butt through fear, right? So there's so much there, but I just shudder to think about how I fell in line.

Lauren Portland: Yeah, I had a different experience because I didn't have those parents and the child thing, like, it makes me laugh to think about how much older generations than us considered children to not be human beings, like, with their own autonomy.

I have an almost four and a five and a half year old. And they would run the world if they could. They would. Yeah, wait till they're in their 20s and 30s. Oh, I'm not ready for that. I need them to [00:23:00] still love mama for a little while longer. But I didn't grow up with that. My parents were very supportive. I did not wear dresses.

I played in the dirt and my dad taught me how to punch when I was 12. Like, I did not have to be the girly girl or the one who stood in line, but my parents died when I was very young. My mom died when I was 25, my dad died, and two weeks later I found out I was pregnant with my oldest. So I didn't get the experience of parental expectation and or support as really a fully formed adult.

So I come from this perspective of like really leaning on other people's opinions because the people whose opinions I had leaned on to validate me were not there. And so then I had to go back and for any of you who have lost somebody who's important in your life, Especially those people who are like, you are people who understand you and really understand where you're coming from in any given situation.

The idea [00:24:00] of having to learn how to reparent yourself is really daunting. And that's what I ended up having to do. And that's so much of what I have to do moving forward in these situations is not so much overcoming my rage at being told to conform, but actually caring for myself in the way that a parent would care for a child.

And Jenna and I talk about how. Many people live inside my head. There are a lot of them. There are many many facets of my personality that live inside my head and one of them is the parent and I don't think I Really understood how valuable that was to me until I was a parent and I realized how kindly parents Often talk to their children and then I reflected on the inner voice that inner critic that I had who was talking to me so meanly in a way that my parents would never have talked to me, in a way that I would never talk to another person.

And I was able to kind of create this comparison between how I talked to my children and how I was talking to myself. And a [00:25:00] big part of some of this change in behavior was when I was having those moments of self criticism and self doubt and thinking that I was a failure at everything. I didn't lean into, you're fooling yourself, that's not really true, or anything that was really factual.

I leaned into almost like gentle parenting where it's like, it sounds like you're having a really hard time. Why don't we talk about it? It sounds like you're feeling really down right now, but you know, there are people who love you. Here are the people that love you. you are really good at your job.

Here's how you know you're really good at your job. And I had to like relearn how to teach myself to be a human BA, like a valuable, wonderful human BA. And it was such a shift in perspective for me because when you have those really supportive parents who are like, yeah, go do engineering. Oh, you're doing interior design.

Okay, cool. Go do that too. When you have parents who really like you for who you are and think that [00:26:00] you should be liked for who you are, then. They're gone. All of a sudden, who's there to validate that you are actually a likable, wonderful, lovable, professional, capable of going out and kicking ass in the world?

It has to be you. It can't be my husband. God bless him. He's amazing. But he doesn't have those same neural pathways in my brain. I don't know. Like, he just doesn't have the same key. And so it has to be me. I can get that from really close friends. I have friends that I've had for 20 years who know all of my foibles and hang ups, and yes, they offer me that support, but it has to be me.

And I think that was really the realization was that I had the power to validate and care for myself in the way that I needed to make me feel like a valuable person.

Lisa Stryke: I think that's really true for all of us.

Lauren Portland: I agree. I

Lisa Stryke: was just gonna say, so my heart goes out to you to lose your parents so young and [00:27:00] eventually as adults, I think it's so important for us all to embrace that idea that we are responsible for validating ourselves because if we don't, it's a very precarious place to be.

Lauren Portland: Yeah. Agreed.

Lisa Stryke: Relying so much on things that are way out of your control, whether or not someone else is going to validate you.

Lauren Portland: Yeah. It is that house of cards, like you were talking about, right? In the corporate world, like you're reliant on all of these external things. And if you can find a way, find the tools, and that's really a lot of the work that I've done with you, Jenna, is like finding the tools that help me build a really firm foundation that doesn't rely on somebody else's approval.

That's right.

Lisa Stryke: Exactly. And that's what lets you go out and do big things in the world. I'm a big fan of cooking competition shows and so many times my heart just breaks for these people who are in their 30s, 40s, 50s and [00:28:00] older still saying I just want to make my parents proud. And while I understand that, I also think, what about you?

Like, isn't it enough for you to feel proud? Can that just be enough? And it just tells me a lot about the state of adults in the world. And we are not alone. I guess that's what I'm saying.

Jenna Harrison: No. Oh, that is really powerful. So let's get really tactile and talk about what changes when we change in this way.

In the way, like, if we can really drill down into, I'm about to write a post and I find myself thinking X, or I walk into a room. I don't know, like, let's go, if we were flies on the wall and we could really see what changes in the business, what comes up for you?

Lisa Stryke: The first thing that comes to my mind that is, has been so powerful in my life is, as I've [00:29:00] done the work to feel just fine about myself, like, I don't even say, I love myself because that's almost like the opposite and still puts a lot of work into it.

I want to get to the place where I don't have to think about myself that much. It's like, I'm fine. Let me just go out and do my thing. And so getting to that place, the closer I get to that place, the more I can think about other people in a way of contributing and adding value. So when I sit down to write a post, I think someone's going to read this today.

It could change their entire perspective. Or I walk into an event or where there's people, I'm going to meet people. I think, how can I make them feel more comfortable? How can I make someone laugh? How can I make a connection that, where someone remembers our conversation? In other words, I'm not thinking about me and there's so much freedom in that.

Jenna Harrison: Yes, this is so huge. Well, and even time freedom, Lisa, right? Because then we [00:30:00] use our brain time and space to be thinking about how to game it out and how to make it right. But oh my gosh, I love this idea about the post because so often we're told focus on your clients, think about your clients. But it is.

Basically impossible to do that when you're in this place of if you think of Maslow's hierarchy like you need to survive and fit in and so your brain always goes to. But if I say this, will I suffer the backlash? Like, will I suffer the ridicule or, you know, if I say the wrong thing, do the wrong thing?

And like you say, it's so sneaky. Very few of us at this point are really telling ourselves. Like, Oh, I can't post because I'm so afraid, but we doctor little words here and there, right? We change a little sentences and it seems so innocent. We

Lisa Stryke: water it

Jenna Harrison: down. And so what we're not doing, if we think about what that creates for our results, then [00:31:00] we're just not going full out and we're not letting people connect with us.

They're connecting with us. That's exactly right. It blocks connection.

Lisa Stryke: It blocks connection. I call it having your own back. And I have actively learned how to basically comfort myself, like, everything's fine. You're going to be fine. If you meet someone today, great. If you don't, that's okay. If this post gets great attention or negative attention, no matter what, you're fine.

You're going to be fine. You have to get to that place where you're just not thinking about yourself so much. I mean, that's really what it comes down to.

Lauren Portland: Lauren, how do you

Lisa Stryke: see it?

Lauren Portland: I think that's such a fantastic way of thinking about it, and also a way of like getting out of your own head, which I think people who are really struggling with what we're talking about, so often you find yourself overanalyzing, overthinking, and you're stuck inside of your own head, and what an awesome way of being like, I don't need to be in here, like let's go be out in the world.

[00:32:00] That's fantastic. And it

Lisa Stryke: feels

Lauren Portland: so much better. Uh, yes, I totally see that. I have some of that and I'm actually like in the middle of this period of time where I'm like actively trying to just be present in whatever moment I'm in, which is kind of the same. It's like, just go be out in the world. But when I do find myself really struggling and sometimes it's with like deliverables for a client where I'm like, this has taken too long and now they're going to be bad or like this just look right and they're going to be upset.

Like I always assume that my clients who are incredible, kind and wonderful people. are going to have these like explosive reactions. I don't know why. I've never had a client freak out on me. But sometimes I'm just sure of it. And sometimes I'm just like, you know what? Even if that happens, you can learn something from it.

Even if the worst thing in the world happens, you can take something positive out of it. So we're just going to do This is the best you can do in this moment. [00:33:00] We're gonna call this closed. We're gonna put it out there. And if it happens that like all of your worst expectations come to fruition and somehow your post creates a tsunami of hate, You're still going to learn something from it.

And that has really been my refrain. I was like, even if I mess it up, even if I do it badly, I can learn something and move forward. And that has helped a lot. Which is such a winning mindset.

Lisa Stryke: Absolutely.

Lauren Portland: Lauren, would you share your grandma's story? Her refrain. Oh, my grandma was a badass. My grandmother looked like Mrs.

Claus, just to preface where we're at with the situation. Big ol curly halo. And was one of the most irreverent human beings I've ever met. It was my favorite thing about her. And she, you know, if there was anything shocking, because she was from Oklahoma, she would call me darling. If there was anything shocking to her sensibility, she would be like, well, it's okay, I went to art school.

But her way [00:34:00] of living life was it's either a really great time or it's a really great story. Sometimes it's both. But I'm either going to have a good time or a good story after this, and that's all that matters. And she would tell stories that I swear to God every other family hides in the back of their closets.

Oh no. No, no. She was pulling them out and she was showing them to you and she'd start giggling in the middle of them.

Jenna Harrison: There you go. See, you have it in your blood, Lauren. Yeah, that's right. I mean.

Lauren Portland: Share away. I mean, I do. So I feel like so many people have those stories and they're embarrassed to tell them.

So, you know, I'll go first. It's fine.

Jenna Harrison: Yeah. Yeah. I thought I remembered stories. Haven't you felt a shift when you go into vendor rooms now as well, since you've had this trip, like a different view there. Talk about that.

Lauren Portland: So I go into showrooms and. A lot of what happened when we were, I was in [00:35:00] Bogota was very much around like, I have a rather unconventional way of dressing and that's what makes me feel good.

It's what I enjoy. I like big jewelry and loud clothes and it's fine. And I always felt because of the overall environment that I'm in that like I should dress more conservatively. And after Bogota I was like, you know what? I'm just going to do what I'm going to do. I'm going to wear what I want to wear, and I'm going to feel good in it, and I'm going to move on with my day.

And going into vendors and subcontractors, and a lot of times I'm, I'm in construction, so I'm talking to contractors on site, and I'm wearing these like, bright, paint splattered looking pants. And I definitely get some side eye, but I'm like, I'm the artist in the room here, y'all. You're just not going to have to deal with it.

You're going to have to deal with it. And people have actually been kinder and more respectful and more fun to talk to since I have just [00:36:00] kind of made these adjustments

Lisa Stryke: than they

Lauren Portland: were before. Oh, love it. And like I've been able to meet them in this

Jenna Harrison: great place. All the inner work pays off. Yeah. You start seeing completely different things reflected back at you.

Yeah. Wow. I love that.

Lauren Portland: It's really been great. Like the growth. That I have experienced personally, like professionally, yes. And the professional of course is so much of why we're here, but like the personal growth that has created the foundation for the professional success is incredible. And I know that it will continue to stand me in good stead forever.

And that's, Yes,

Jenna Harrison: that's the kind of thing sometimes in coaching we joke about when we're afraid to charge a certain amount to our clients. And then we go forward and we think, okay, now imagine that you help them get these results in their life. They're feeling different now. Would they pay that money with, if you could give them that [00:37:00] money back, would they choose to go back all the time?

We're like, Oh hell no, I spent a fortune on my coaching and my development. I would never. They could pay me. Five times, ten times that, I still would not go back to how it used to be in my head.

Lauren Portland: I had a conversation with somebody yesterday and I was, they were like, really coaching? And I was like, listen.

The growth that I have experienced in the last 18 months is greater than what I experienced in the previous five years, and also greater than what I could accomplish by myself. I think almost no matter how much time happened. Like there's something about having a wise person who can see inside of your head because you are kind of like a ninja, Jenna, like I don't understand it always.

Like she says things to me and I'm like, why do you have to say things that are true? And to have somebody be like, but wait, [00:38:00] what about this thing? And you're like, I guess I'm going to have to work on that. It makes such a huge difference. And there's nothing really like it. That you can do by yourself or on your own.

We all need a coach.

Lisa Stryke: Lisa. Oh, yeah. Lisa's a coach. A hundred percent agree with that. Yeah, we can't see our own blind spots. We just can't. I mean, that's just the way the human brain is designed. Yeah. Yeah. Silly brain. Yeah. Silly and amazing. Like, it's pretty marvelous too, in a lot of ways, but yes, it really can trip us up because it doesn't come with an operating manual and our culture and society doesn't teach us how this thing is working.

And with all of the way that. Technology and culture and everything is advancing so quickly. I'm a brain research person. Our evolution has not kept up. So our education has to meet us where we are right now and help us understand what's at play. And this is really at play worrying. It's a natural thing to worry about what [00:39:00] other people think.

And then it's conditioned into us in so many ways. And then we condition ourselves. And if you're not on the lookout for it, it will hold you back in a thousand ways that you just don't even realize. Well said.

Lauren Portland: Final thoughts, Lauren? I think that really when it comes to letting go of other people's opinions, there's no perfect way to do it.

There's no pill that you can take that fixes it. We are evolutionarily programmed. to seek approval from others. But I think that we can using thought exercises, using our own sense of logic and using help from people like you, Jenna, we can find a way to intake people's opinions and keep what's worthwhile and meaningful and let go of the rest and then find a way to build community around us that supports who we want to be and where we want to go.[00:40:00]

And I think that's really the work.

Jenna Harrison: Yes, yes. Changing internal and external voices. I love that because I believe in it so much too. We need to build better groups of Yes, community. So important. Lisa, do you have final thoughts? Anything we I know

Lisa Stryke: that there's a lot of talk out there of like, just don't care what other people think.

You know, stop caring what other people think. And I just think that's nonsense. So of course you care what other people think. I don't even think it's good if you don't care what other people think. Just look at what you think first. And then start considering the impact or the input or the opinions of others.

If you keep going back to that, you'll retrain yourself to really understand who you are, what you stand for, and who you want to be in this world. And other people's opinions won't have as much power over you.

Lauren Portland: Lisa, you mentioned [00:41:00] check in with yourself first. And I just want to add on to that, if you can start to build trust with yourself.

Build faith in yourself and your opinions and your value, then it becomes a lot easier to check in with and trust yourself first before listening to the opinions of others. And I think it's that self trust that is so valuable.

Lisa Stryke: Well the thing is, the only way to do that is to start making your own decisions and living through it, right?

So yes, it's like a virtuous cycle. Listen to yourself, even if you're not sure, go with it, and then the confidence and the trust it builds. Every bit of growth we encounter requires some courage. And that does too, where you have to have the courage to just say, you know what, I'm going to go with what I think this time, and I'm going to have my own back no matter what.

Awesome.

Jenna Harrison: And that drives some people crazy. They're like, [00:42:00] tell me what to do. I think I was one of those, in fact. We all are. Oh, I've

Lisa Stryke: definitely been that person. We all are. I probably still am. Tell me how to fix it. Sometimes, yeah.

Jenna Harrison: Yeah. I think it's like some measurement compared to how high we believe the stakes are.

Right. Oh, I believe that. So it's really, we need to up our game over time in terms of the kinds of decisions we're willing to make.

Lisa Stryke: Do you know what's so interesting? I was just listening to a podcast with a Secret Service agent who's a human behavior specialist, of course, right? She interrogated some of the biggest criminal minds in the world.

And she said, the more important this decision, the more you should go inward for the answer. I agree. And that struck me and I thought, because I think the same thing, the more important the decision, the more others, I need to find out what do you think, what do you think, what do you think? And she said, it's just the opposite.

And I believe that.

Jenna Harrison: That's awesome. That is awesome. Ladies, thank you so much [00:43:00] for coming, talking, sharing vulnerably, openly, and yeah, letting us all have such a great laugh with our own journey.

Lisa Stryke: If you're not laughing, what are we doing here? We might as well have fun on this journey. But thanks for having me.

This is so fun.

Lauren Portland: Thank you so much.

Jenna Harrison: Thanks for joining us here at the uncommon way. If you want more tips and resources for developing clarity in your business in life, including the clarity first strategy for growing and scaling your business, visit the uncommon way. com. See you next time.

Support at The Uncommon Way 2/25/25 Support at The Uncommon Way 2/25/25

Ep 138: How to shift from overwhelmed and overworked to thriving and profitable

Are you constantly juggling tasks but never feel like you’re getting ahead?

The "hustle culture" has convinced women entrepreneurs that being busy equals being successful. But what if that’s the very thing holding you back?

Episode Summary

Are you constantly juggling tasks but never feel like you’re getting ahead?

The "hustle culture" has convinced women entrepreneurs that being busy equals being successful. But what if that’s the very thing holding you back?

In this episode, you will learn:

Discover the single most powerful mindset shift that instantly makes everything in your business easier—and why so many people unknowingly ignore it.
You'll finally learn how to break free from self-sabotage and implement simple, game-changing systems that truly support you—rather than adding to the chaos.
Get an exclusive look at the exact steps my client Lauren took to completely transform her business and life—so you can start applying them today.

The stress-free, thriving business you want is possible. Let’s make it happen—listen now!

Episodes mentioned

Ep 137: How to Easily Destress Without Changing Anything in Your Business

Schedule a call with Jenna about joining the Clarity Accelerator--the same mastermind that we talk about in this episode--to dial in signature offers and strategies and a first-rate mindset.

https://www.theuncommonway.com/schedule

Sign up here to get on the waitlist for Power & Potency, the new mastermind for highly accomplished women entrepreneurs, and hear all new information as it's released:

https://www.theuncommonway.com/waitlist

Find Jenna on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theuncommonway/

Full Episode Transcript:

Jenna Harrison: [00:00:00] Do you think doing more is the answer? If so, you're probably hustling too hard already rather than doing what we'll talk about in this episode.

You're listening to the Uncommon Way business and life coaching podcast. The podcast that helps women entrepreneurs get clear on signature offers and strategies. That's sell themselves so you can lean back and stop the hustle. You will learn to maximize your mindset, messaging, and strategy, and step into the uncommonly successful business and life you are creating.

Here's your host top ranked business coach and reformed over analyzer turned queen of clarity, Jenna Harrison.

Welcome. Welcome back to the uncommon way. Today we're talking about the initial shift that signals you're leaving behind the hot mess cycle [00:01:00] and becoming a calm and totally together CEO. In this episode you are going to discover the one mindset shift that makes everything in your business easier and why most people overlook it.

You'll learn how to stop self sabotaging and set up simple systems that actually support you instead of adding to the chaos. And you'll get a sneak peek at the exact steps that my client Lauren took. To transform her business and life so you can start applying them too. Now you might have a lot going on in your business, and probably your life, and you can end up feeling like a hot mess.

Balls get dropped, errors get made, opportunities pass you by, and you realize last minute you forgot about something really important. Often when I talk to women in that place, they think the solution is to just keep managing the way they have, or to do even more than they've been doing. So [00:02:00] please end there with even more than they've been doing.

Maybe they're thinking, oh, if I just spent more hours training my team, we wouldn't have these issues. Or if I just marketed myself more, we'd have more clients, and then I wouldn't have these issues. But the real answer is getting out of that hot mess cycle, rather than doing more. It's about making a shift so powerful that your business starts working for you instead of the other way around.

My client Lauren did exactly that, and I have an episode I'll link to where we talked about how she went from scrambling and second guessing to signing higher paying clients, streamlining her business, and feeling much more confident and in control as a CEO. Lauren came to me feeling overwhelmed, trying to do all the things for all the people while she was running her interior design business.

And she was working so hard, but still felt like she was never quite getting it right. And honestly, that's how so many entrepreneurs feel. We think that [00:03:00] being successful means handling everything ourselves, working longer hours, and pushing through exhaustion. But here's what I tell my clients. If you're constantly feeling stretched too thin, it is not a personal failing.

It's a systems problem. And almost always there's a mindset reason that is holding you back from creating those systems in the first place. So here's the biggest business shift that Lauren made. She stopped treating her business like something she had to chase and started setting it up to support her.

That meant detoxing everything that wasn't working, from outdated beliefs about success to clunky back end processes that made every project harder than it needed to be. And it meant stepping away from the constant chaos and building a structure that made her work easier and more profitable. And guess what?

Once she made this shift, the results followed fast. That is really [00:04:00] the one mindset shift that makes everything in your business easier because it allows you to start dialing in the business systems and the mental systems that you need. But most people overlook it because they assume that working harder is the only solution, and they're in reactive mode rather than proactive mode.

In reality, making this shift frees up your time and your energy to do what you And it increases your confidence to create real momentum in your business. Lauren set up systems that allowed her to deliver an amazing client experience without having to burn herself out. And she realized that she didn't have to run on stress and overwork in order to be successful.

And in order to see herself as successful, she was able to break that tie. And because of these things and other mindset work we were exploring, Lauren started attracting higher end clients who didn't blink at her new higher rates. This is such a perfect [00:05:00] example of how self sabotage creeps in, because before making these changes, Lauren didn't even realize she was keeping herself stuck.

But once she shifted her mindset and set up the right systems, things started falling into place. And once Lauren started showing up in her business differently, everything else started shifting too. She found herself feeling more present with her kids. More confident in her decision making, more willing to take the space she needed to actually enjoy her success.

She even started helping her own children develop a more empowered mindset, because when you step out of survival mode, that impact ripples out all around you. That's why I say this work isn't just about business, it transforms everything. Lauren's journey shows exactly how powerful these shifts can be.

And you can apply them too. If it's possible for her, it is possible for you. And if you want to hear more about how she did all of this, we break it all down in [00:06:00] the full episode. You'll hear how Lauren completely changed her approach to work, and the exact mindset shifts that made the biggest difference, and the surprising action that took her from overworked to thriving.

If you've ever felt stuck in the hot mess cycle, like you're always reacting but it's capping the potential of what you could be doing, Then, this is the episode you need. We'll link to it in the show notes. Hey, if you want true clarity about your secret sauce, your people, your best way of doing business, and how you talk about your offer, then I invite you to join us in the Clarity Accelerator.

I'll teach you to connect all the dots, the dots that have always been there for you, so that you can show up like you were born for exactly this. Come join us and supercharge every other tool or tactic you'll ever learn from Facebook ads to manifestation Just go to the uncommon way comm slash schedule and set up a time to talk.

I can't wait to be your [00:07:00] coach

Thanks for joining us here at the uncommon way if you want more tips and resources for developing clarity in your business in life Including the clarity first strategy for growing and scaling your business visit the uncommon way calm See you next time

Support at The Uncommon Way 2/18/25 Support at The Uncommon Way 2/18/25

Ep 137: How to Easily Destress Without Changing Anything in Your Business

What if I told you that stress isn’t caused by your workload—but by your response to it? And better yet, what if you could change that response today?

The high-pressure, hustle-driven way of doing business is outdated. You don’t have to grind to grow—you just need the right tools to step into ease and alignment.

Episode Summary

What if I told you that stress isn’t caused by your workload—but by your response to it? And better yet, what if you could change that response today?

The high-pressure, hustle-driven way of doing business is outdated. You don’t have to grind to grow—you just need the right tools to step into ease and alignment.

In this episode, you will…

Understand how to take back your power in any situation, no matter how dire it feels.
Discover why pushing through stress isn’t the answer (and what to do instead).
Get simple, effective tools to shift from overwhelm to clarity in minutes.

Press play now and learn how to step out of the stress cycle, take back control, and create a business that fuels you instead of draining you.

Schedule a call with Jenna about joining the Clarity Accelerator--the same mastermind that we talk about in this episode--to dial in signature offers and strategies and a first-rate mindset.

https://www.theuncommonway.com/schedule

Sign up here to get on the waitlist for Power & Potency, the new mastermind for highly accomplished women entrepreneurs, and hear all new information as it's released:

https://www.theuncommonway.com/waitlist

Find Jenna on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theuncommonway/

The Uncommon Way is led by business coach Jenna Harrison, who helps women entrepreneurs feel confident, find their ideal clients effortlessly and avoid overwork so they can manifest money and abundance in their business and life.

This podcast empowers female entrepreneurs to overcome imposter syndrome, perfectionism, and limiting beliefs through somatics, mindset, and spirituality, create 7-figure offers, and build an online service business with clarity and alignment.

Full Episode Transcript:

Jenna Harrison: [00:00:00] Do you dream of feeling calm, cool, and collected in your business someday? I'm going to show you how to have it right now.

Here's your host, top ranked business coach and reformed over analyzer turned queen of clarity, Jenna Harrison.

Welcome, welcome back to the uncommon way. You know those days where it feels like it is just one thing after another, your to do list is endless, deadlines are looming, and the [00:01:00] stakes feel impossibly high? You're stressed. And if I asked you why, you'd probably say, Because I have so much to do. Or because I'm short on my revenue goal this month or something like that.

But here's the truth. Stress isn't coming from your workload. Stress is optional. And today, I am going to prove it to you. More importantly, I'm going to give you practical tools to break out of this cycle without changing a single thing about your business. In this episode, you will understand how to take back your power in any situation, no matter how dire it feels.

You'll discover why pushing through stress isn't the answer, and what to do instead. And you'll get simple, effective tools to shift from overwhelm to clarity in minutes. Let's test out this idea. Imagine two business owners facing identical challenges. Client deadlines, revenue [00:02:00] dips, packed schedules. One is panicking.

They're losing sleep and spinning in anxiety. The other is handling it with calm and confidence. Same situation, different response. What gives? It's because their internal stress capacity is different. I'd love to compare myself to Neil deGrasse Tyson. Don't ask me why, he's just always my go to. The man is everywhere.

He's running a planetarium, writing books, hosting podcasts, doing speaking tours. Keeping his calm during live debates with prominent figures and still showing up for his family. I look at that and I think, wow, his capacity is off the charts. And here's the thing. Capacity isn't just about how much work you can get done.

It's about how much emotional discomfort you can handle without losing your cool. And I've seen this shift in myself. The old me would have gotten [00:03:00] completely derailed by having to promote myself publicly, or a day where I had to be on and in front of people all day, or even a stressful conversation on the playground with another mom.

Now, I can navigate all of that in a single day and still end up feeling like it was a good day. The only difference? I have better tools now. I've trained myself to regulate my emotions and my nervous system in the moment instead of being ruled by them. Any argument that you throw at me for why your stress is inevitable, it is a thought error.

If we were on a coaching call, I could walk you through exactly how to unravel it. Let's take one of the most extreme examples, Jenna. This isn't optional for me. I have to keep a roof over my kids heads. Yes, that is a serious situation. And yes, most people would find [00:04:00] that stressful. But the thought error is that you think you need to stay stressed in order to avoid that from happening.

It's like you think it's your duty to be stressed. But your stress response isn't helping you find a solution, it's actually making it harder. So it's your job to de stress yourself as quickly as possible and get back into your power where you're like, I can absolutely find a solution to this. Or another one I hear, if I miss this deadline, we won't get the next contract.

Who is forcing you to work with clients who make you feel this way? You are the boss. You created these conditions. And that means you have the power to change them. Through working with different kinds of clients or constructing different offers. There are so many possibilities. We, as women, have so much power as entrepreneurs, more than we've [00:05:00] ever, in some lineages, ever had.

But we don't always see it. We've been conditioned to feel helpless in certain areas. But it's time to snap out of it. We have a lot of impact to make, and women need seats at the table. We need to be showing up in our biggest ways. So stress isn't your fuel, it's your roadblock. Okay, so, now that you're on board with the idea that stress isn't serving you, what do you do next?

The first step is noticing, I'm in a stress response. And then I need to do something about it. Because otherwise, you'll either continue with less than optimal action, or your brain is going to start looking for quick dopamine hits to counteract the stress. Booze, overworking, doom scrolling, online shopping, but that is [00:06:00] just anesthesia.

It doesn't solve the problem. So instead, I recommend moving your body first. Hard. Fast. Run in place for five minutes. Do some jumping jacks. Why? Because part of your brain thinks you're being chased by a tiger, and you need to convince it that the danger's gone. For some of you, it might be blasting your favorite song and lip syncing into a hairbrush, or for others, it's a short meditation, or a walk, or even a nap.

One of my clients, she recently had a revelation. She was feeling completely drained, unproductive, and stressed about what she still had to do. But then it hit her. Wait, I'm an entrepreneur. I don't have hours I have to keep. I have milestones I need to meet. So instead of muscling through an exhaustion, she was like, I could just take a nap.

Which leads to a complete reset and the [00:07:00] ability to knock work out in record time. Usually, we feel too guilty to do things like that. But what if we didn't? The takeaway here? Stress is optional. You have tools. Use them. Okay, final thought. Here's the truth. Your business isn't what's stressing you out. Your response to it is.

And as soon as you pattern in new behaviors and responses, You unlock a whole new level of power, creativity, and success. So, next time you feel overwhelmed, remember, your stress isn't the signal to push harder. It's the signal to pause, reset, and step back into your power. And if you want help mastering this, if you want to be the kind of CEO who leads with clarity and confidence and even ease, I'll support you with this transition inside the Clarity Accelerator.

Because when your business supports you, [00:08:00] there is no limit to the impact you can make or the life you can create. Alright, that's it for today. Let's talk again on Tuesday. Hey, if you want true clarity about your secret sauce, your people, your best way of doing business and how you talk about your offer, then I invite you to join us in the Clarity Accelerator.

I can't wait to be your coach

Support at The Uncommon Way 2/11/25 Support at The Uncommon Way 2/11/25

Ep 136: Announcement: Full Scholarship Opportunity Opens Tomorrow

What if six months of expert business coaching could transform your business—for free?

Scaling a business as a Black woman entrepreneur comes with unique challenges—but also unique opportunities. With this scholarship and coaching experience, you can set yourself up for the future with smart strategies that enable both generational wealth and balance.

Episode Summary

What if six months of expert business coaching could transform your business—for free?

In this episode, you will…

All the details about the full scholarship and how to apply.
What makes the Clarity Accelerator Mastermind different and how it helps women entrepreneurs scale their businesses while working smarter, not harder.
The underlying key to business success—and how this program transforms not just your strategy, but your confidence and leadership, too.

Episodes mentioned:

Ep 134: 15 Data-Backed Reasons Only 2% of Women-Owned Businesses Reach $1 Million in Revenue — And How to Break Through

Ep #86: Black Women Entrepreneurs Share 3 Secrets to Success – Part 2 with Germaine Foley

Ep #85: Black Women Entrepreneurs Share 3 Secrets to Success – Part 1 with Sade Curry

Applications open February 12th—don’t let self-doubt hold you back. Go to https://forms.gle/VjpBriaH7uPeTFMYA to apply or share with someone who needs this opportunity!

Schedule a call with Jenna about joining the Clarity Accelerator--the same mastermind that we talk about in this episode--to dial in signature offers and strategies and a first-rate mindset.

https://www.theuncommonway.com/schedule

Sign up here to get on the waitlist for Power & Potency, the new mastermind for highly accomplished women entrepreneurs, and hear all new information as it's released:

https://www.theuncommonway.com/waitlist

Find Jenna on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theuncommonway/

Full Episode Transcript:

Jenna Harrison: [00:00:00] Want to win a full scholarship for six months of business coaching? Here's how.

You're listening to the Uncommon Way Business and Life Coaching Podcast. The podcast that helps women entrepreneurs get clear on signature offers and strategies that sell themselves so you can lean back and stop the hustle. You will learn to maximize your mindset, messaging, and strategy. And step into the uncommonly successful business and life you are creating.

Here's your host, top ranked business coach and reformed over analyzer turned queen of clarity, Jenna Harrison.

Welcome back to The Uncommon Way. I am excited to use this space this week to share the details of a full scholarship we'll be granting in honor of Black History Month in the hopes that you will either apply yourself Or, share this [00:01:00] opportunity with whomever you think might be a fit. We really want to cast a net as wide as possible, and so the more people you tell, hopefully the more they'll tell, leading us to our amazing winner.

And in fact, we might be offering an exciting free gift for the person who's most active in helping us spread the word, so please check Instagram for more details. In this episode, you'll get full details about the scholarship, then I'll give you some information about what I'd be inviting you into and what we're all about here at The Uncommon Way, and finally, I'll share the why behind why I'm doing this.

Starting tomorrow, February 12th, applications will open for this opportunity. One black woman with a service based business or an idea for a service based business. We'll receive six months of semi private business coaching with me inside our Clarity Accelerator Mastermind at zero cost. Now, at its normal 10k price, [00:02:00] I believe this mastermind is the best value available anywhere.

But this? This is Next Level, so let's run through some frequently asked questions. Number one, who can apply? You need to be a Black woman entrepreneur from the United States. Since Black History Month is about honoring the story and contributions of Black Americans, we're keeping this local. Stay tuned, though, for future scholarship opportunities if you don't meet this requirement.

Also, your business is more than just a financial tool to you. While we love money and we know how important it is, this program is meant for women with a strong sense of purpose and meaning in their work. Next, you need to be able to fully commit for six months to transforming yourself and your business.

I said zero cost before, but the truth is you'll need to contribute time and you'll need to contribute focus. And I'll be real, the Clarity Accelerator isn't [00:03:00] for tentative, half hin people. It is work. Not because business is hard, but because being in business feels hard. In large part, because what we need to do for ourselves in business butts up against so many things we've been taught to think and do.

And that's 10 times true as true for black women in the United States. I recommend so strongly that you listen to my episode 133, which we'll link to, where I lay out statistics about why more women don't reach 1 million in revenue. It is really mind blowing research, and you'll never think about yourself in quite the same way.

But back to my point, you do need to be committed and all in, and that includes taking action. This is not a program where we just think about things and create business plans or wait until everything's perfect and we have perfect funding in order to take action. We are [00:04:00] implementing with whatever we've got, we're gathering data, we're adjusting, we're implementing again, we're gathering data.

I need to know that even though you're not paying, you have a lot of skin in the game and you are going to stretch yourself to show up differently, you're going to take action you've never taken, while of course being totally supported by me and a loving group of women who are cheering you on and they want to share whatever they can with you so that you can succeed.

And lastly, you need to be able to attend the majority of our weekly calls on Thursdays at 10 a. m. Eastern. Another question, you might be wondering about the dates. So applications open tomorrow, February 12th, and they'll close on February 21st. The winner will be announced on February 28th, and you'll begin the six month program as early as March 28th.

Okay, how do I apply? Tomorrow, you just go to theuncommonway. com forward [00:05:00] slash scholarship, and you'll get all the information about how to apply. Basically, you're going to be filling in a form, and you're going to create a short video so we can get to know you and what you're all about. You might be wondering, okay, how much time will I need to dedicate to this?

It really varies per week and it varies per person. Some people might come to the calls, watch a couple of pre recorded trainings, and then implement those tweaks and see huge changes in their businesses. Others will choose to work through every single worksheet and then maybe redo them and then journal on them.

Who knows, right? We are all in different places in our business and as CEOs. If you're just starting out, I'd say give yourself 10 hours per week for this work and business building combined. If you've been in business for a while and your business is functioning well, then give yourself two to three hours.

Now, if you know that you're a person that tends to take longer on things, Then extend that a little [00:06:00] bit, give yourself some buffer. If this is your first introduction to me or the Clarity Accelerator, here is what you need to know. The Clarity Accelerator was, it was created to answer one big question.

How do we build high profit and high purpose businesses that actually give us work life balance? My mission is to help women live uncommon lives of their choosing. And that starts with having the autonomy to call your own shots. For over seven years now, I've refined a simple, proven framework that works for service based businesses of all kinds and all levels, from just starting out to already at seven figures plus.

It's helped hundreds of women across four continents build their businesses without sacrificing their lives to stress and burnout. As you evolve into the CEO your business needs, we will refine your unique genius into really compelling no brainer offers [00:07:00] that attract the right clients. You'll craft powerful, meaningful messaging and sales strategies while expanding your vision of what is really possible for your growth.

But thriving as an entrepreneur, it requires more than strategy. It demands personal transformation, too. And many aspects of entrepreneurship, like I said, they challenge societal expectations of women, and even more so for Black women. That's why the Clarity Accelerator also focuses on mindset and emotional mastery.

You will develop a resilient, calm mindset to handle challenges with poise and confidence. Emotional regulation skills, so you'll calm your nervous system and lead from a place of grounded strength. And self trust, making decisions with clarity and tapping into your intuition as a really powerful guide.

Through smarter, more intentional work, [00:08:00] I want to see you thriving on just three focused days of work per week. If that's your goal. Because that constraint, it really unlocks your creativity and it fosters better solutions, and it transforms you into this strategic embodied leader that you're meant to be.

Now, you might wonder, why clarity? I'm already clear on what I'm selling. I just need someone to brainstorm with me about what to do and in what order. It is because even with the best business plan, There's always something critical yet to be discovered for your next level. If clarity weren't the missing piece, you would already be there.

Clarity drives everything. Your messaging, your strategic planning, even manifestation. That is why it's Queen. The Clarity Accelerator helps you quickly pinpoint what's required to accelerate your growth, whether that takes a few weeks or a couple of months. You will [00:09:00] never regret investing time to think strategically and dial in the pieces for game changing results.

And then we'll spend the rest of our time together implementing what you've discovered and finding even more high leverage opportunities. My job, it is to give you a proven framework, to help you implement it effectively, and to keep reorienting you towards smarter work, all while staying true to your vision and your values.

We do this through weekly calls that I host, a WhatsApp group that I'm in throughout the week, and the support of your mastermind sisters who collaborate and cheer you on. This is a mastermind where everybody knows your name and your business. You'll receive high level coaching in a supportive, semi private environment.

Because when your business supports you, there's no limit to the impact you can make or the life that you can create. If you're curious about my motivation for [00:10:00] creating this scholarship, it is because I've always wanted to do it. As soon as I started creating Good Profit in my business, I created this podcast where I'm able to help more people than could afford to work with me.

And now that my program is at the point where it's Basically runs itself. I'm able to bring in additional clients without it taking a lot of additional time from me. And so this moment in time is really a dream come true. If you're curious and you want to hear more about how I've thought about accessibility and balance that with unwinding some of the conditioned thoughts that women are good people only when they're working basically for free and putting other people's needs ahead of their own I've linked to episode 37 called Price Accessibility for Your Clients.

And lastly, we're going to be calling this the Mary Rainsway Scholarship in honor of my ancestor who came over from Ireland as a young woman and in so doing put the wheels in place to break [00:11:00] the legacy of poverty in my family line. It feels so meaningful to be able to honor her bravery and her legacy.

Please apply if this is for you, just do it. We all know the stories about how women will refrain from applying to jobs because they perceive they won't get it, or they talk themselves into believing it's not for them, or that they can't do it right now. Whatever. Don't let this be you. Last year, during Black History Month, I had a couple of successful Black coaches take over the podcast episodes to share their best lessons learned for other Black women entrepreneurs.

I'll link to both of those. They're great. And one of these coaches, Jermaine, opened by saying that she almost didn't put her name in the hat because of the things I've just described. She got over it luckily, and she did it, and she came on and did an amazing podcast. So be like Jermaine. If you want it, you have got to go for it.

And if this is not for [00:12:00] you, please share it far and wide so we can find the person. It is meant for. All right. That's it for today. Let's talk again on Tuesday.

Thanks for joining us here at The Uncommon Way. If you want more tips and resources for developing clarity in your business and life, including the Clarity First strategy for growing and scaling your business, visit theuncommonway.com. See you next time.

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Ep 135: How Lisa Boosted Revenue & Work Life Balance Simultaneously, w/ Lisa Stryker

What if working less and stressing less could actually make you more money?

Many women entrepreneurs and corporate leaders believe that success comes from grinding harder. In this episode, Lisa shares key strategic tweaks that took her from overwhelmed and overworking to more revenue and ease—without overhauling her entire business.

Episode Summary

What if working less and stressing less could actually make you more money?

In this episode, you will…

Discover how minor tweaks can completely transform your business outcomes without requiring a massive overhaul.
Find out how shifting your focus from doing more to doing what matters can unlock your thought leadership and attract opportunities you never expected
Find out why overthinking is actually under-feeling: Learn how shifting away from intellectualizing your emotions unlocks a new level of success.
Break free from the cycle of guilt and shame: Hear how a simple mindset shift helps you show up unapologetically and increase performance.

Hit play now to hear Lisa’s transformation and the mindset shifts that changed everything.

Get in touch with Lisa Stryker here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisastryker/

Schedule a call with Jenna about joining the Clarity Accelerator--the same mastermind that we talk about in this episode--to dial in signature offers and strategies and a first-rate mindset.

https://www.theuncommonway.com/schedule

Sign up here to get on the waitlist for Power & Potency, the new mastermind for highly accomplished women entrepreneurs, and hear all new information as it's released:

https://www.theuncommonway.com/waitlist

Find Jenna on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theuncommonway/

Full Episode Transcript:

Jenna Harrison: [00:00:00] There are some mind blowing truths about what it really takes to increase your revenue while working less and actually enjoying your life. And the sooner you learn them, the better.

Here's your host, top ranked business coach and reformed over analyzer turned queen of clarity, Jenna Harrison.

Welcome, welcome back to the uncommon way. I have got an episode for you today with one of my clients who has managed to create [00:01:00] more revenue while doing less and stressing less, and it is packed with jewels. Lisa Stryker is a leadership coach who has transformed herself and up leveled her business in six months and is graciously joining me to have a conversation about how she did it so that you can do the same for yourself.

In this episode, you will discover how minor tweaks can completely transform your business outcomes without requiring a massive overhaul. And, find out how shifting your focus from doing more to doing what matters can unlock your thought leadership and attract opportunities that you never expected.

You'll find out why overthinking is actually underfeeling. Those are Lisa's words, so good. And you'll learn how shifting away from intellectualizing your emotions unlocks a new level of success. And I'm going to give you a fourth takeaway to look forward to, just because there are so many gems in this [00:02:00] episode.

You'll break free from the cycle of guilt and shame. By hearing about how a simple mindset shift can really help you show up unapologetically and increase performance. So, let's get into it. So Lisa, thanks so much for coming on. Oh, thank you for having me. I'm really happy to be here. So, I think today we just want to help people who are really in it, right, in it in terms of the work, in it in terms of the stress, and we just want to show them how it's possible that by changing that you actually improve your results, which sounds so crazy when you're in it, and yet you're living proof of it.

So yeah. In this month alone, you told me you'll make more than you did in the first quarter one of last year, right? Yeah, that's absolutely right. I don't think I would have believed it was possible back then, so that's what we'll talk about today. Yeah, so let's talk about back [00:03:00] then. I think it's so interesting to always see like what you were coming for, what you really thought was important.

And then we'll talk about what you ended up working on and how that changed everything. But what was going on with you when we first started talking? Well, you know, I come from a corporate background and I was always a really good student. And so to me, I could felt like I could just hard work my way through anything.

So when I started this was this, I thought. I know how to do this. I know how to do hard work. I know how to figure things out. What I hadn't counted on was that when you start your own business, there's not a structure the way there is in school or in corporate, like there's no rubric for this. And what I can see in hindsight is where I was, is I had so much fear of making mistakes, fear of failure when things in my mind stopped working, which I think about that differently now.

But back then I thought, Oh, it's not working anymore. I'm going to fail and it stoked [00:04:00] all this fear that I had made a mistake going into this business. I had been so proud of myself for leaving a good job that I loved to follow my passion. And when things slowed down, I took it as a sign that it was not working.

And I put so much pressure on myself to just make it work and make money. And I was holding on so tightly because I could not tolerate the idea that I wasn't figuring it out fast enough for me. And to me, that sparked so much shame, the idea that I had made a mistake, that I was failing at so much shame, so much frustration.

I made it so much in your business. Yes. Invested a lot. Yeah. I really had had. Back then and I do now so much faith that it was going to work But what I've realized looking back is I was totally It was so much more challenging than I expected. And I [00:05:00] made that mean I wasn't up to the challenge. Oh, that's deep.

And it felt really bad, really bad. And I didn't always know what to do with that. So, yeah, I think I said this to you. I was, I recognize that I was totally in my own way, but I really had a hard time figuring out. how to get out of that place. You know, what exactly was in my way? And what did I need to change to elevate myself and expand?

Because when you're in it, it's hard to see that maybe your expectations were just out of line, or you couldn't have known what you didn't know. It really feels like there's some tactic I'm missing, or there is something that's, right, that must be going wrong, that needs to be fixed immediately, because this isn't how things should be.

Yeah, and I can't stay here. This is terrible. This feels terrible. I need to figure it out right now. In fact, I even remember thinking, because I had been [00:06:00] in a mastermind for quite a while, and I remember thinking, There's something that they know that they're not telling me. I mean, it seems silly now, but I know I had that thought.

Like, they're looking at me, and they're seeing what I'm doing wrong, and they just don't want to tell me. Yeah, it's really interesting because we all kind of have these thoughts, and we usually just shove them aside. We don't even really know full out necessarily that we're having those thoughts, but we are, and they're really messing with our game in terms of growing our business.

Oh, heck yeah. Messed with your game big time. And I know, I'm convinced that this is, well, first of all, I feel like coaching is what has kept me from quitting because what I've been through, this feeling and these thoughts and this sense of, I should have figured it out by now and I, I can't figure it out, which is a thought I've had is what leads a lot of people to [00:07:00] give up.

Yeah, and it's really all about perspective, because I'm noticing, I'm thinking about as we're talking in this interview, anybody listening to you right now, they don't know what level of income you're at in your business. And I really want everyone to know that. It doesn't matter because I've talked to women that have zero clients that are saying what Lisa's saying, obviously, Lisa, you're in the middle.

I've talked to people that are approaching seven figures and they're having the same thought. I can't get to seven figures. It's never going to work. I'm doing it wrong. There's something they know I can't do it. So it really isn't about everyone tends to think when I get to X number. Then I'll feel better.

Then I'll know I've made it, but it's not about the number. It's about the brain pattern. It's about the way of thinking. I can see that now, Jenna, but I wouldn't have believed you back then. I would, I remember thinking if I could just get to this [00:08:00] goal, then I'll know it's working. But I've been around enough people who are making far more money than I am and having the same struggles to know that what you're saying is true.

Yeah, sad but true. Yeah. Yeah. And it doesn't have to be that way. I hope that that's the message that comes out of this interview is I'm seeing the light now. It doesn't have to be just. One long river of misery. It really doesn't. Right, right. And in fact, as long as you keep it, one long river of misery, it prolongs the damn river.

Yeah, I've heard this, the more you're in a rush, the longer it will take, you know, that whole kind of maxim. I get it now. I get it now. But when you don't get it, then you think the solution? Is to keep your nose to the grindstone and work harder. Oh, absolutely. Yes. Yes. I mean, that's been my MO my whole life.

If something [00:09:00] quote, isn't working, I just work harder. Just do more. You can't just keep doing the same thing harder. At a certain point, you just hit a wall. And I think that's what people call getting stuck is. I know a lot of really hard workers, high achievers, people who really value having a strong work ethic and getting things done.

And I thought I could hard work my way through anything. What I didn't get was that the kind of work I was thinking of doing was not the work that I needed to do. And that the work you were doing, for instance, I'm thinking about if your messaging isn't on point, then you can keep putting out, you can work harder, quote unquote, and put out a post every day or two posts a day.

But if you're not really connecting with your clients and you don't really believe that you could attract those clients. Yada, yada, yada, then the posts don't do anything for you. They just waste time. Oh, [00:10:00] and that just feels like such a hamster wheel because I remember thinking, Oh, I just need to put out more content.

I need to be on more platforms. That whole cliche of do more, do more, do more without stopping to really think about how can I be more effective here? And also, I think. It's really insightful for, it's helpful for me to see that I also, when things stopped working the way I thought they should, or the way they had been, I felt like I had to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

It's like, well, this isn't working. So now I need to change everything. And it was just that running away from those negative feelings, those feelings of failure and shame and fear of looking stupid that put me in this place of trying to outrun. It really is. It's like you're trying to outwork or outrun those feelings instead of looking at them face on and [00:11:00] figuring out what they really mean to you and how to work through them.

Yes. So let's definitely talk about feelings because I know it's a big part of your story and your journey in a second. But I also, since we were just talking about messaging, you're right. You did not have to throw out the baby with the bathwater. You're still coaching women in corporate careers and you are still an amazing coach and everyone still knows you for doing the same type of work, but you made some really important tweaks.

Yes. And so, I know that if I were thinking high level about the tweaks you made, I would think about how you went deeper, first of all, into your own place of alignment, but then you also got really, really strategic about understanding exactly how your people talk about the problems that you know they want help with.

So, that's my assessment, but of course, people aren't tuning in to hear my [00:12:00] assessment. They want to hear from you. Yeah, yeah. How would you describe the tweaks you made? So, yes. When you say tweak, I just want to sit on that word for a second because that has been a really big change in my own perception of how to do this work.

And in other words, building a business as a solopreneur and finding my own voice. Is when things are not moving in the direction I want them to, it could be just simple tweaks. I mean, for me, I can't overemphasize the importance of that because we have a tendency, or at least I have a tendency to think I have to overhaul the whole thing.

And so to answer your question, the tweaks involved me spending much more time thinking about who I want to work with, the people I love working with. And how they talk about what their struggles are, what their hopes [00:13:00] are, what they want to achieve. And, you know, honestly, letting go of my own judgment. And getting out of my coach brain and allowing it to be what it is.

This is the way they're thinking right now and having so much compassion for that. And there's a certain amount of ego that comes into it. I think sometimes we're no, no, no, that's not what's happening. You think it's this, but it's really that. And. I mean, why am I, who am I arguing with, right? So I would say that the biggest shift for me was spending a lot more time going back through client notes, watching client session videos, doing market research and testing, testing the messaging and then recognizing what's catching and then where.

I'm saying the same thing, but in a way that is much more recognizable and resonant to my potential clients. [00:14:00] In a way that's landing, and you know it's landing, like you can see it, you can hear it, you're like, oh my gosh, and they repeated my words right back to me. Yes. Everything that I said, that's how they're describing themselves.

That is the best. Yes, then you know, and you know, it just creates such a beautiful feeling of connection. That I didn't even really expect that part of it. I always think of it as marketing, you know, it's part of my business, but really what it does is it deepens your connection with the people you work with because they feel so seen.

Yeah. And you feel, I mean, at least I feel a sense of safety when I know that the person I'm talking to is in fact my type of person, the person that I know I've called in. Right. It instantly creates a connection there because it's like they're saying, Oh, you're my person. And I'm saying, Oh, you're my person right then, you know?

Yeah. It's like what they say about listening to understand, you know, I'm in leadership [00:15:00] development and that's such a mantra, you know, active listening, listening and. Listen to understand listen before you speak and I kind of want to knock myself over against the side of my head because I was not doing that I was saying things the way I thought they should be said and not listening.

So listening to people and really spending more time getting in their heads and getting out of my head. But let's also talk about how much you resisted that and why, because it was so hard for you to take CEO time for yourself and work on these, like, deeper is my word, but these more strategic parts of your business.

Because you were in the doing, doing, doing. Oh, that's big too. Yes, you're absolutely right. I call it super thinking time and I actually really enjoy it. The time when I can just open up space in my calendar to really be strategic and refine my messaging [00:16:00] and review things. I mean, if you look in my hallway right now, my foyer, there's giant post it notes all on the walls.

Oh, so nice. I have taken the time to do that. Yeah. It's so fun. And my husband came home from work and he thought, Oh, and he said to me later that day, he said, I see what you've been up to. Um, and it's gives me so much joy, but it's been a long road to be able to give myself the permission to take that time.

Because I thought. If I can't take time away from creating clients, that was the way I thought about it. I need to be out there. I need to be visible. I need to be talking to people, posting content. And it goes back to what I said earlier about not listening. I have to listen to myself too. And I have to synthesize that information.

And really, that's the work that takes you from good to great. It does. Yeah, and you've just, your thought leadership has increased so much now that you've given yourself that space, and it just [00:17:00] is flowing forth, you know, and from what you tell me, there were aspects of it that were always there, but then you would stop it and overthink it.

And I've heard that from my clients too. So talk about that. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Overthinking has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. And I think what happens is I want things to work instantly if they don't in whatever I decide is it's working, right? Yeah. Yeah. And it was just, it has been in the past a rush.

It was intolerable to let something float out there and feel like, oh, people don't get it. They're not understanding or I'm not saying it right. And I wouldn't give it enough time to actually figure out whether that was true or not and allow myself that space to experiment. Let's face it. That's what entrepreneurship is.

It's one long experiment and being curious and observant instead of judging [00:18:00] myself and telling myself, Oh, just more evidence that I'll never figure it out. That inner judge has been really strong through this whole journey. We have to talk about that for sure, because I think that's one area specifically where I've seen you just like much faster than many clients I've worked with, where you've been able to turn the table on that inner dialogue.

So we'll talk about that for sure. Along with emotions and how that has been. Strange, and yet freeing. That sounds right, strange and freeing. Yeah, yeah, you captured it right there. And didn't you also think with your thought leadership, maybe that's been said before, or you'd compare it to other thought leaders, and then it felt like you couldn't say it yourself?

Talk about that because you're not the first person. Yeah, that came up a lot. And I still notice it coming up where I tell myself, well, [00:19:00] this is nothing new. I'm not a social scientist. I'm not discovering new things. And I would feel like I'm just regurgitating someone else's information. And I would make that mean that it just wasn't valuable.

And so you wouldn't even put it out. Yeah. So I thought a lot of times I would think, why bother? You know, this has been said before so many times. I need to figure out something new. And at this point I have to interject. Yeah. I have to tell everyone that you are famous for your Lisa isms.

Every time you're in the group, you will say something in such a way where I'm like, Oh, I'm going to use that. Oh, that's a really good one. And your thought leadership, it's been such a, uh, such a, I don't want to use the word shame because we're going to talk about shame, but it's to tamp that down is a disservice to the world because so many people say to [00:20:00] you when you're explaining things, Oh, that's so good.

Oh my gosh, that helps so much. I get it now. It clicks. You tell me I love people say that they love when I say X or when I say it in this way, they really love it. And all of that was kept bottled up inside instead of going out and rocking your people's world. It's true. And it makes me a little sad just to even think about it now.

But then I really redirect to how proud I am. But like, even when you said my thought leadership, there's a little Like, can I call myself that? Well, I didn't, you did, but I really received that because it's true. My clients tell me all the time, I hear you in my head saying, love your reasons, you know, decide ahead of time, all the things that I teach them.

And I love that. And I take it as motivation and a sign that I do have something new to say. It's my way. of [00:21:00] saying all of this. I think I was telling you this, Jenna, but I started listening to Mel Robbins new book, Let Them. And there's not anything in that book that hasn't been said before, but she says it in her own way, her simple way and makes it so actionable.

And then that's what makes it so valuable. And she's got a huge audience. So it really kind of slid that into place. For me that idea that I all I need to do is find my way and and that's going to be helpful to my people and your people Resonate from with you and they want to hear it from you in your way And they won't hear it in the same way from someone else.

Yeah, I really believe that And it happens to me all the time, right? Same thing for me. Someone will say, Oh, this book is amazing, and then I'll read it and I think, Hmm, is it? Yes. So, let's talk about feelings. Actually, why don't we just go straight there and why don't you tell the [00:22:00] audience The amazing practice of like, just screaming, go rage.

Yes. Jenna, you have unleashed the beast. Yeah, I mean, in a nutshell, my life, a lot of my life was spent not allowing big feelings. It was just not permitted in a large part of my life. So I really never learned to how to allow and process. Really big feelings and tolerate. Yes. Yes. It felt very intolerable.

And as I've worked with you and the practice of really learning to tolerate and process and allow all of those feelings. It brought up some real rage in my, in my life. And I went to see Wicked one day, I took myself to the movies and I didn't know why. I've learned to trust, you know, I kept thinking, I need to go see this movie.

I don't know why. I'm just [00:23:00] going to trust that. I took myself to the movie. and something about it and defying gravity, that whole, there's this whole dramatic scene in there. That's amazing. Yes. I came out of that movie and I was so filled with rage and fights and real and the rage was coming from, I'm just sick of holding myself back.

I'm sick of not being able to express myself, not having the courage, not doing the things I know I want to do. And I'm telling you, I was in the car screaming. Somebody would have thought I was a crazy person if they really saw what I was doing, but I didn't care because it felt like it needed to come out.

And that was really freeing, honestly. Yeah. And I came home and I was crying and my husband, I said, everything's really fine, but I just, I just have to get this out of me. And he's amazing. He's so there for me, but just being able to tolerate is a [00:24:00] great word process, allow those big feelings has built my capacity to keep going and keep building.

Yeah, and the open thing is that you find as you do that that you don't need to scream as much That's right. And all the things that you were doing to avoid screaming like overeating or whatever it might be Yeah, that's definitely a thing anymore. That's right. Talk about that as well. Yeah I'm so glad you said that because I know when I first came to you.

I remember saying I've never cried so much Since I started this business and turns out I needed to cry, but what I recognize is I'm not crying as much, you know, I don't feel the need to rage. I don't feel that bottled up tension and anger and the lump in my throat because I'm trying not to cry. I just don't have that.

And I think what happens is I'm not afraid of it, for one thing, and I [00:25:00] allow all the feelings that come with. So they come at more in small doses now and it doesn't all build up to where I have to have this big emotional release. What that lets you do is you're not afraid to feel anything anymore. I really am moving to that place where I am so with myself where this may be disappointing, but okay, we can handle disappointment, you know.

Somebody might judge me or think this is not a good idea, but can we handle that? Yeah, we can handle that. It's fine. And sometimes I might have to cry or get angry, and that's okay. I know what to do with that now. And that's when you finally start doing all the things that would have made you, that you found all these convenient excuses not to do in the past, or you didn't even consider in the past, or you kept, you were still two years later trying to work up the nerve to do the things, right?

[00:26:00] But now all of a sudden you're like, nah, I can handle that. I can tolerate that. It really is like that. I mean, it sounds so cavalier in a way when I hear you say it, but it's really true. This is really how I talk to myself now. I can handle that. I'm just going to do it. I know I'm so much more in touch with that quiet voice that is the real me, the me who feels driven, who has a mission, who's in touch with her values than that scared.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. In touch with my intuition. And not letting the scared part of me drive the bus all the time. Yeah. So I know when you first came to me, we're really kind of impressed, you said, with my calm demeanor and my quiet certainty. But what people don't realize is that to get there, you have to go through it in the way that you have.

Because now you are so calm and you have a quiet [00:27:00] certainty, which you always did, but now it's even more grounded, right? And you bounce back even more quickly. Well, there was an edge, I think, to me before. You know, I'm a mom, I've been through lots of hard things in my life. I know how to handle things, but in the past there was always an edge to it.

Like, I can power through this. I can handle anything, but it was more like a, uh, I don't even know how to describe it, but it felt different. It felt like I had to maintain control where now I feel like I can handle anything and I don't have to be in control. Which is true power, it really is, because the truth is, we don't have control, right, right, so right, you can recognize that and not be afraid of it.

Yeah, then there's nothing you can't do. What exactly what could stop you? Or do you feel comfortable [00:28:00] talking about how when you are in that, like, I can get through this, I can keep it together mode, that it somehow leaks out in different ways, and for you it was overeating, for other people it's like obsessive exercising, like there's usually some sort of, they call it buffering activity, right?

That happens when you can't just You know when you don't know how to tolerate emotion big emotion. Yeah, do you mind talking about you've seen in that? Yeah, it's Unexpected I guess but if I really think about it, I'm a coach I know that this all goes together. But yeah, not being so afraid of the feelings or finding them unacceptable I realized that I just found them unacceptable like I shouldn't be angry.

I shouldn't be afraid. You know, I was just judging all of the feelings. And so I would definitely, my buffering of choice tends to be overeating and watching TV. Those are, and if I could do both at the same time. [00:29:00] Yeah. Yeah. Even better, but not better. So Be getting to this place where I realize I don't have to be in control and that's okay, like I'll figure it out releases that need to try to get away, like somehow not think about it, not deal with it, try to push it down, stuff it down.

Like when I'm overeating, I feel like I'm stuffing it down. It's not acceptable. So I need to cover it up. And so the more I move away from that, the less I rely on that. And the more I cannot leave this out, the more I give myself permission to have fun. This can be fun. I don't have to always be thinking about work or doing something, quote, responsible around the house.

The more fun I have, the more creative I am, the more courage I have, the more energy I have, it all goes [00:30:00] together. That's right. The more usable you are, the more, yes. That's right. Yes, and the more relaxed you are and then you have creative ideas and you sit down and write amazing content. Let's talk about that because I know that you felt really guilty and I've talked about this before so I have a feeling you'll be totally open book to talking about it but really feeling guilty that your husband is making more money than you and that you're not contributing as much.

Absolutely. It still comes up and I still have to put it in its place. But yeah, dealing with it's a great example because that was something I didn't want to look at. Yeah. I didn't want to recognize it and deal with it. And so I definitely felt so guilty in what it drove me to do this overworking thing.

Like, I have to make this work. I need to figure this out because I don't want to have this feeling anymore. I don't want to feel guilty anymore. Instead of facing head on, [00:31:00] like, what's really going on here? Yeah. And by the way, how about you have a conversation with him? Because, you know, I have an amazing marriage.

There's no reason for me not to be. Talking to him about things. So yeah, it definitely drives you to this place of where you're trying to force something to happen instead of being thoughtful about it. Yeah, and I know that it's also it was very self punishing because even when you were trying to enjoy time with him or with the family or any time outside of work, your way to make sure that you were still thinking of content or right still thinking about the business.

Or at least feeling bad enough as you should that the business wasn't where you want it to be, right? And so you could never have fun. And the ironic thing is that now your business is doing better and you have like real quality time. Like, talk about Christmas, talk about the holiday period. Oh my gosh, yeah.

We had a very quiet [00:32:00] holiday time this year and it was a lot of just relaxing and spending time together with family, with my husband. And I didn't feel compelled to constantly think about work. I was able to turn my, that part of me off and fill my cup. You know, I worked up until I decided I was not going to work anymore and then I stopped.

And, and then also there were a couple things I wanted to do through the holidays and I just let myself do it and not make it a big deal. That was a decision. It wasn't doing it out of compulsion, but I came out of the holidays. not just feeling revitalized and creative and energetic and full, but I also recognized that I needed to make some changes about how I That guilt was preventing me from going out and doing things that I really enjoy that create that feeling that makes me want to work, that makes me want to serve, that makes me want to think about my [00:33:00] clients and what they need from me.

And so I've been doing a lot more fun things, including things I really want to do, like exercising. I wouldn't even make time for that sometimes because I thought, no, I need to be working. I should be making more money. And yeah, it's, it's a mess. Oh my goodness. I know so many people can relate. to all of this.

I'm sure. I'm sure. So the last thing I want to make sure and then I want to see if there are any loose ends for you, but I want to talk about this thing that happens, this difference in this qualitative, I don't know, sensational difference when something finally lands in your body. And what that means is, for you, you've done a lot of personal development work, you yourself are a coach, and there have been things, though, that we know intellectually, and talk about what changes when you've described it to me, you're like, oh my gosh, I can tell this has [00:34:00] finally landed in my body.

So talk about that. Yeah, well, you know, I'm a thinker, you know, I love to live in my head and, and it serves me really well until it doesn't anymore because what I've discovered is I can't think, figure it all out cognitively. I need to. Let my body be connected and I think it all ties back to what we talked about like Allowing the rage and just getting it out of me letting myself feel guilty and getting curious about that You know, why do I want to keep feeling guilty?

Is this helping and Letting myself feel my way through these ways that I want to be who I want to be and not just being a platitude and affirmation a quote that I heard somewhere, but actually letting it sink into my body and letting it land and become like a groundedness in me. What that means to me, like, I feel a visceral [00:35:00] shift when I am letting go of resistance.

I guess that's what it is, is not allowing for the new way of thinking to change me. Whereas, I think what I used to do was if I think hard enough, if I think about it hard enough, then suddenly I'll be a different person, you know, but I was gatekeeping from my body. I was not allowing it to Sink in to like, I really believe so much in the mind body connection now, and I've decided that overthinking is underfeeling and it just keeps you stuck if you're overthinking because you're trying to avoid feeling.

And when you let go and just relax into it and lean into it and let it feel however it's going to feel, sometimes it feels uncomfortable. Sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it feels like amazing, but you'll never know if you don't allow it to travel through you. [00:36:00] And that's when things really click and you start behaving differently.

And I call it sticking with it long enough for the magic to happen. Sometimes it feels the most uncomfortable right when it's going to take hold. Yeah. And just relaxing into that and letting it ground you. Yeah. And then it shows up all throughout your life and people start noticing. I remember you had a big family event that before probably would have gotten you all triggered in certain ways, but you noticed that you were like the central grounded piece of it.

And that everyone was actually thanking you for your presence throughout that week. Am I getting that right? Yeah. Yeah. We had a couple of, we had a big family gathering, you know, as with big family gatherings, there are a couple of sticky situations that come up and I just show up differently now. I handle things with a calmness.

But also I allow for like a sense of humor, you know, it's not we have to fix this It's you know, how can [00:37:00] I lead through this? You know, I'm all about leadership. So showing up as a leader is Being an integrity being centered being the calm in the storm and I really take pride in doing that in a much More, you know, I think people have always known they can rely on me, but there's a certain calm confidence that I feel that I hadn't felt in the past, because now I truly believe whatever happens, I'll figure it out.

Such a good note to end on. But let me just make sure before you tell people about exactly where they can find you and if they know anyone that needs you. Is there anything that you would want to let people know? It could be anything we haven't talked about, any like, misconceptions that they might have about working with me, or the process, or what we do, about coaching.

Well, I've learned that [00:38:00] you really can release shame, but first you have to recognize when it's showing up for you. I realized through my work with you, I think it was already bubbling up, but it really started to come to the surface and recognizing that shame was driving me and maybe like trying to avoid shame was driving me, but I didn't recognize it as shame right away.

And I think it feels like is feeling ashamed or in anticipation of feeling ashamed and prevents you from doing things you want to do. So what I have realized, and I've put this framework around it that I love sharing with people is that once you recognize it or that you're anticipating it. you can have a little talk with yourself and say, is shame appropriate here?

A shame is only appropriate when I'm acting out of integrity with who I want to be. So if I'm intentionally hurting someone, for example, I want [00:39:00] shame to come up because I don't want to be that person. But if I'm thinking about launching a workshop and I'm worried that no one will sign up and I'll feel so ashamed of that.

No, no, no, no. That is not a place for shame. If nothing else, I can feel proud of myself for having the confidence and courage to put it out there. So I now recognize when shame is coming up by how it feels in my body or the anticipation of shame. And I can simply decide, is shame appropriate here? And if not, I can move on to something that's more helpful.

And that is such a good takeaway. Yes. It's a complete revelation. When I hear myself say it, it sounds so simple. And it is simple. And it is incredibly profound, like it literally is changing my life day by day to be able to see it and put it in its place and decide that I'm not going to let it hold me back anymore.

And I think there's [00:40:00] so many women who are being controlled by their shame and they just don't even realize it. Yes. It doesn't have to be that way. Their shame and their guilt, absolutely. Yeah, and I really think they go hand in hand. Absolutely. So I just could not share that. No, so good. Because I even said earlier, that was one of the things I wanted to talk about because you've been able to release that so much more quickly than many people that I've worked with.

And that, and also your ability, like we all come in with such a strong negativity bias. And so many of us live so much of our life in that space, not realizing that it's optional, that we actually don't have to live in that way. And you're another, that's another thing because we're in now our second round, but it's really just been those six months that we were working together where all of these huge changes were happening for you.

And that happened just really quickly that you were able to just. absolutely gain leadership in your [00:41:00] own brain of those parts of you that were driving the shame or driving the negative thinking and driving the keeping yourself safe from getting too excited or anticipatory or believing that something like be happier in your work and you'll actually make more money like any of that craziness.

Yeah. Right. What are you talking about? I just have to work harder. That's always the answer. Yeah, absolutely. It's incredibly freeing. And I think I heard myself say leaders lead themselves first. One too many times and then I realized, what am I doing here? I have the opportunity to lead myself. And so I'm stepping into that and it's just incredible.

I can't overstate the effect it's had on myself and I look forward to seeing how that's going to play out in my business. Yes, and that is a perfect example of landing in the body. Yes. You can say it over and [00:42:00] over, lead yourself, be the leader in your own mind, and right, and you can say that we shouldn't feel shame and that shame is And you can say these things and know them intellectually, but it doesn't, you know, there's a point where it finally sinks into your body.

And I think that's what you and I, why we're talking today. We wanted to let women know some of these, you know, more advanced concepts or things that were not taught in high school, right? But know that if you're on the path there as Lisa was, right, it happens. There comes a point where it will land in your body, you'll, you'll listen to the podcast, or you'll find the book, or you'll work with the coach, or whatever method it is for you, these shifts will happen, and then it will just, oh, you'll just be different.

Yes. Yes. You just be different. Stick with it long enough for the magic to happen. It is not linear. It is messy. It is emotional [00:43:00] and it's all the things that we perfect achievement oriented ladies want to avoid. We want to always look like we're so put together, let yourself fall apart a little bit, and then put yourself back together in a way that feels so much better to you.

So good. Lisa, if anybody knows. anyone that needs a leadership coach. And you can maybe give us a little more detail about who your people are, but we want to know what that is, what's available to the people that work with you in if they do the work, of course, and then also where people can find you, please.

Yeah, absolutely. I love working with corporate women who are either already in leadership or aspiring to. Move into leadership and I help them cultivate their leadership presence and when the respect and recognition they deserve because you know, you want to make an impact out there and you, the only way to do that is by developing your own [00:44:00] self respect.

And this is new, but I'm going to share it and learning to brag. We're going to take back the word brag ladies. And Brad, to me, is boldly recognizing achievement and growth, and we need to be out there doing that. Yes, yes, yes, I love it. You actually, because of the date of this recording, you have not heard the podcast where I have all of the statistics about how women are.

Right? Consistently underrepresent themselves. So that it's fun because everyone will have listened to that and then they'll be hearing you. And it hopefully will really, really land. But that was so well said and so beautiful. And I know that all of you listening are like, feeling like I am into Lisa's thought leadership and how we do want to hear her voice and how she says things because.

They're so clear and they're so, yes, they just land for us so well. So keep up the good work. Lisa, where can people find you? [00:45:00] Well, go look for me at lisastriker. com or I spend a lot of time on LinkedIn. You can find me there. And I would love to talk to anyone that you know, who's looking to elevate their leadership and learn to brag.

Let's do this. Let's do it. Yes. Thank you, Lisa, so much for coming on and sharing your story. Thank you for having me, Jenna. I have to say that it's so funny to think about, probably a year ago, I couldn't wait to meet you. And now here I am on your podcast. So fun. Yes. Love it. All right. Bye. Bye, everybody. Oh, I hope you enjoyed that as much as I did.

There's so many great nuggets and takeaways. So to wrap up for you, remember, you can't just work harder at the same thing and expect different results. Sometimes the smallest tweaks change everything. And since entrepreneurship is one long experiment, don't be afraid of tweaking things. Success comes from [00:46:00] curiosity, not perfection.

Plus, overthinking is just underfeeling, in Lisa's wise words. The more you try to outrun fear and shame and other strong emotions, the longer they chase you. Facing them is where freedom begins. You no longer need to be in control of everything because you can handle anything. That is true power. Okay, my friend, that's it for today.

Let's talk again on Tuesday. Hey, if you want true clarity about your secret sauce, your people, your best way of doing business, and how you talk about your offer, then I invite you to join us in the Clarity Accelerator. I'll teach you to connect all the dots, the dots that have always been there for you, so that you can show up like you were born for exactly this.

Come join us and supercharge every other tool or tactic you'll ever learn, from Facebook ads to manifestation. Just go to [00:47:00] theuncommonway. com slash schedule and set up a time to talk. I can't wait to be your coach.

Support at The Uncommon Way 1/31/25 Support at The Uncommon Way 1/31/25

Ep 134: 15 Data-Backed Reasons Only 2% of Women-Owned Businesses Reach $1 Million in Revenue — And How to Break Through

Why do only 2% of women-owned businesses reach $1 million in revenue—and what can we do to change it?

If you’re surprised and disappointed about that statistic, you’re not alone. This episode disrupts the myth of “equal opportunity” and peels back the layers that limit women entrepreneurs—plus offers solutions to help you shatter them.

Episode Summary

Why do only 2% of women-owned businesses reach $1 million in revenue—and what can we do to change it?

In this episode, you will:

Learn how societal biases and internalized stereotypes silently impact women’s business decisions and strategies—and how to overcome them.
Explore actionable insights to secure funding, rethink business opportunities, and build a high-growth business in industries where women are underrepresented.
Understand the profound connection between mindset, delegation, and a thriving business—and why stepping back strategically can propel you forward faster than ever.

Listen now to learn how to dismantle the obstacles keeping women entrepreneurs smaller than they could be.

Episode mentioned

Ep 131: Break Out of the Fishbowl: Reinvent Yourself This Way to Fast-Track Business Growth as a Woman Entrepreneur

Ep #34: The 'Too Braggy' Fear and What I'm Doing About It

Schedule a call with Jenna about joining the Clarity Accelerator--the same mastermind that we talk about in this episode--to dial in signature offers and strategies and a first-rate mindset.

https://www.theuncommonway.com/schedule

Sign up here to get on the waitlist for Power & Potency, the new mastermind for highly accomplished women entrepreneurs, and hear all new information as it's released:

https://www.theuncommonway.com/waitlist

Find Jenna on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theuncommonway/

Full Episode Transcript:

Jenna Harrison: [00:00:00] Get ready to discover the hidden barriers that hold women entrepreneurs back from experiencing the same success as their male counterparts and the powerful strategies you can use to shatter them.

Here's your host, top ranked business coach and reformed over analyzer turned queen of clarity, Jenna Harrison.

Welcome back to the uncommon way. I'm so excited to share all of the research I've been diving into this week. I [00:01:00] started with one small question and then went way down the rabbit hole because I was enthralled, to the point that I delayed this episode's release in order to continue working on it night and day in full hyper focus mode because it was that compelling.

We all know that there's an income gap between men and women. For the same job, a woman is paid less. Many of us moved into entrepreneurship so that we could work for ourselves and earn what we wanted. But unfortunately, women tend to earn less in entrepreneurship, too. And as of 2017, the last census data from the United States, just under 2 percent of women owned businesses there had reached 1 million in revenue.

Today, we're diving into 15 reasons behind this phenomenon and how to get ahead of them or fully shatter them. This is a heavily researched episode, as I mentioned, and on our show notes page we're linking to the original [00:02:00] source material if you're curious to dive deeper into the topic. This is information that not just every woman business owner needs to know, but every woman needs to know.

It will completely change how you think about yourself, and you'll be motivated to get out there and change these kinds of statistics. In fact, I have no doubt that our next census data will reveal more favorable numbers, and the data after that will reveal even more favorable numbers. So let's get you into that growing percentage.

Here are just three of the takeaways you'll get from this episode. You will learn how societal biases and internalized stereotypes silently impact women's decisions and strategies and how to overcome them. We'll explore actionable insights to secure funding, rethink business opportunities, and build a high growth business in industries where women are underrepresented.

[00:03:00] You'll understand the profound connection between mindset, delegation, and a thriving business, and why stepping back strategically can propel you forward faster than ever. But first, how are you? I am doing so well. We had such a fun, busy weekend with different festivals and get togethers, and I find myself Thinking back to this very minute, like this month, last year, when we lived in that isolated town in Pennsylvania with so little to do in the winter, it is, I think, just such a testament to the power of designing your life to meet your desires rather than just staying with what's easy.

Because it has not been easy moving overseas. But it was so worth it. Kind of like entrepreneurship. Okay, let me own up to what inspired this episode. In my episode 131 which was called Break Out of the Fish Bowl Reinvent [00:04:00] Yourself This Way to Fast Track Business Growth as a Woman Entrepreneur I shared a statistic that I did not fact check.

And I apologize. Sometimes things come to mind as I'm talking and I'll share them to illustrate a point but usually I remember to say Okay, I don't remember the exact numbers, I think it might have been this, but don't quote me, but the point I want to make is, whatever the point is. But in that episode, I didn't give you that caveat, I just blurted out the statistic.

Which is so irresponsible because now more than ever, we need to understand facts, not regurgitated clickbait. So, going back and recording an addendum there, but I wanted to call it out here too. What I said was that just 2 percent of women owned businesses reach 7 figures. Well, 30 percent of mail loan businesses do.

That 30 percent figure is likely incorrect. I'll explain why later in this episode. But I set out to get to the bottom of [00:05:00] the exact number and quickly became completely engrossed in the topic. Now, it is true that as of 2017, which is our last census data in the United States, Only 2 percent of women owned businesses reached the 1 million mark.

And women owned businesses overall earned one fifth of what male owned businesses did. Even though we had nearly 70 percent as many businesses. I'll be linking to the U. S. Census Bureau report and the National Women's Business Council study that show this. Plus, the percentages are much lower if we look at women of color.

Every single thing that I'm about to share here is exacerbated for women of color, whether that's access to capital or societal expectations. So let's educate ourselves and create some change, shall we? In no particular order. Here are 15 reasons why less than 2 percent of women owned businesses cross 1 million in revenue.

Number [00:06:00] 1. Under representation in high growth STEM fields and stereotypes about STEM subjects. From a young age, girls are less likely to favor STEM topics, and later, less likely to pursue careers in STEM or other high growth sectors. And yet, the American Association of University Women report, titled Why So Few, shows that by 2007, girls started to outperform boys in math and science grades, and outpaced boys in the number of math and science college credits they received while in high school.

It's fascinating that girls do so well in math. Because I hear the women tell me that they aren't good with numbers and aren't good with the business side of things and kind of dread learning because it's just not interesting either. But even though they do well in class, when it comes to high stakes tests, girls and women underperform ever more so as they progress through school.

This according to an article in the Journal of [00:07:00] Personality and Social Psychology by Brian Nosak and Mazarin Banaji. Apologies if I'm mispronouncing those names. So, to understand why, we need to go back further, to the kind of thing that was revealed through a test where participants grouped different words together that had to do with math and art, and men and women, during the period since its inception in 1998 through More than a half million people from around the world took this test, and more than 70 percent of test takers more readily associated male with science and female with arts than the reverse.

Even when they did not consciously believe in the stereotype that girls and women aren't as good at math and science. But okay, back to the high stakes tests and the evidence that a majority of people carry an implicit bias that math is more of a male trait, which would of course seep into parenting and teaching and the [00:08:00] media.

A large body of research shows that stereotyped groups are negatively affected by stereotypes, especially when under pressure. In that they fear being viewed through the lens of the negative stereotype, or they fear conforming to the stereotype. It's called stereotype threat. It was first identified with black Americans in test taking, and then in 1999 the same type of study was done with women.

I'll link to that study by Spencer et al., where male and female first year university math students were divided into two groups. All of the subjects strongly identified with math, and they all had similar aptitude as demonstrated by their grades and test scores. One group was told that men tend to perform better, so that was the threat condition or the pressure.

The other group was told that both men and women tend to score the same, alleviating that pressure. Well, guess what? The women performed worse than the men in the threat group, and on par with the [00:09:00] men in the non threat group. And according to the Why So Few report that I mentioned earlier, in the following decade, more than 300 studies have supported that finding.

One of which showed that the threat can be induced just by having someone indicate their sex before taking the test. Another, in the journal Psychological Science, showed that women's test scores are negatively affected by having even one man in the room. And guess which test had the highest disparity in mass scores between men and women?

The SAT, one of the highest pressure tests we have in the United States. That's from the Nosek and Banaji article that I mentioned earlier. There's another ramification to stereotype threat. To avoid being judged by the negative stereotypes, girls may start to say and believe that they're not interested in those fields.

It's called disidentification. Oh, well, I'm just not a math [00:10:00] person. I like these other subjects more. Sound familiar? Ugh, it does to me. I feel like this explains why I and so many of my clients have had lifelong struggles with perceived feminine traits and have overcompensated to become so logic focused and hard charging in our earlier lives.

We don't want to be perceived through the negative stereotype of being emotional and weak and irrational. Instead, I believe we should be rewriting stereotypes, seeking balance, and delighting in the many diverse gifts that we bring to the table. Both the stereotypical masculine traits and the stereotypical feminine traits.

I also believe that doing so vastly improves business success. Before we move on A very natural question is, wait, but what if there's a biological difference driving the underrepresentation in STEM? For instance, men do consistently, and very [00:11:00] significantly, outscore women in spatial reasoning skills, especially mental rotation, which is the ability to mentally rotate objects in your head.

And these skills are considered especially important in high level STEM subjects and a predictor of success in those fields. I got that both from the Why So Few study and a 2019 meta review study in Psychological Bulletin. The same study showed that preschool boys and girls test equally for those skills.

And then in the first years of formal schooling, males take a slight advantage and then they continue to do so over time. I'm quoting here. Twice as many men as women are top performers in mental rotation, making it one of the largest gender differences in cognition. End quote. An author of the paper says that previous research has shown that parents use more spatial language when they talk to preschool sons than daughters.

And that girls report more [00:12:00] anxiety about having to perform spatial tasks than do boys by as early as first grade. And that children are aware of gender stereotypes about spatial intelligence during elementary school. I mean, this is totally anecdotal, but my son has gotten super excited about Legos and Minecraft.

After slightly older boys he admires have referenced or shown interest in them. So we can see how both perception and practice are influencing the skill development. But here's some good news. It turns out that the brain can be trained to improve in this area. When this training was given at Michigan Technology University, spatial skills test scores among women improved from an average of 52 to 82 percent in 10 weeks.

And 77 percent remain enrolled in the School of Engineering or they had already graduated from it, compared to only 48 percent of [00:13:00] women who initially failed the test and then did not take the training. So often women tell me they're not good with business stuff. They just want to, for instance, help people.

Or, they turn over parts of their businesses to consultants or they hire team members because it's just not their strong suit. Or they overwork or take on additional, frequently demanding clients because they just don't understand their true numbers and they feel so out of control. And these all feel real.

They're not making it up. They're not calculating the most appropriate gender conforming thing to say. It's their perception of their experience. Like, my client who was so worried she was hemorrhaging money, but then it turned out she had extremely high profit margins. Or it's like when I was little. If you asked a girl what she wanted to be when she grew up, it was a secretary or a teacher.

Those were the expected professions for women. Maybe a nurse. [00:14:00] And I remember thinking when I was five that what I really truly wanted was to be a secretary. Thank God I had a dad who immediately replied with, or you could be the president of the company. I'm also one of the girls who thought I was terrible at math, even though I was the only junior in my AP Calculus class.

If you could see me right now, I am shaking my head side to side. And rolling my eyes. This gets me so fired up. I'm so grateful for all the studies I've been quoting and others like them which are helping us step back and say wait, what if all of these ideas were given to me and are not necessarily true?

What would be possible for me if I believed that these were skills I could absolutely learn? That I'm really good at them, or these possibilities are absolutely open to me. And if I feel resistance, it's understandable, but I'll likely soon have a very different perspective. This is why so [00:15:00] many of the episodes in this podcast are about reinvention.

When we take off the blinders and move forward in a fresh way, we can accomplish things that our earlier selves couldn't ever have imagined. So let's develop our abilities in STEM subjects and encourage all the women we know to rethink their assumptions too. And let's help all the girls we know understand what they're up against and help them recognize how competent and capable they are with STEM subjects.

and develop their interest in them as much as we possibly can. Let's move on to point number two. An auxiliary problem to what we just discussed is that there are fewer women in the most high growth industries, bringing our averages down. Women owned businesses are often concentrated in industries like retail or services, which can have lower profit margins and scaling potential compared to tech or manufacturing.

These industries also tend to require less human [00:16:00] capital and formal qualifications, and thus become lower value sectors, according to a World Bank report. Luckily, services can have high profit margins. But many women owned businesses are in human care industries, which are not always the most profitable, and many don't know how to set themselves up for higher profits.

Back when I was in the States, the company that I had come to our house cleaning was woman owned, and I talked to the owner frequently. There were several problems going on with people calling out sick, of course, it was the time of COVID. And so very frequently she would have to cancel services and I perceived that she was undercharging for her services as well and I was having candid conversations with her about this because obviously my pet topic is empowering women and I knew in my heart of hearts that it was important to me to support a woman owned business, that it was important to me to have [00:17:00] stability that I always knew the house would be cleaned and I wouldn't have to deal with reschedules.

I wanted to support how she helped her employees, other women, and really went above and beyond for them. There were so many things that meant that I would love to pay her more. I would absolutely stick with her if she, and would have even signed on with her. As she had presented her company to me in this light and really made herself stand out.

Unfortunately, she didn't listen to the advice and ended up closing her business, which I found so tragic. In my opinion, after nearly a decade in the business coaching space, what creates a seven figure business are seven figure offers. Pure and simple. If you don't have a blue ocean offer that sets you apart from the competition and really calls in your best fit clients.

And you're trying to compete in a saturated market on price or loyalty alone? Your profits will remain low. [00:18:00] I've had several clients who branded themselves as having such fair and affordable rates. But after working together, we realized that their desire to do so was based in their own perceptions of what they thought people wanted or what they thought was the right thing to do.

And when we questioned that, and they subsequently created new offers and repositioned themselves, Their profits increased and their workloads decreased. Let's move on to number three, access to capital. Women receive less venture capital and bank financing compared to men, limiting their ability to scale businesses.

In fact, all women teams only received 1. 9 percent of total venture capital. According to a TechCrunch report, in a pattern called mirroring, people want to work with people who look like them and lend to people who look like them or look like very successful entrepreneurs. And in a Medium [00:19:00] article by Richard Kirby, where he posted his own data set listing every single person in venture capital in the United States.

In 2018, a whopping 82 percent of venture capital employees were men, and 70 percent of all employees were white, by the way, and 40%, 40 percent had attended either Stanford or Harvard, just two schools. And yet in the 2018 McKinsey report that was called Delivering Through Diversity, We see why it would make better business sense to lend to people who don't look like them.

I'm quoting, Companies in the top quartile for gender diversity on their executive teams were 15 percent more likely to experience above average profitability. And companies in the fourth quartile for companies in the top quartile, profitability was 30 percent higher. A mass challenge and BCG study of 350 startups that received funding showed that startups that were [00:20:00] founded or co founded by women returned 78 cents per dollar of funding it.

While male founded startups returned 33 cents. This is why I've said before, and I'll say it again, to me there is no better bet than a woman entrepreneur who is motivated and committed. I'd invest in myself over the stock market any day. And my clients too. I have to admit, when I was first taking notes for this episode, I questioned whether or not women were being persistent enough in seeking funding, and if they were showing up confidently enough with potential investors.

But after getting into the research, I can see that that is blaming the victim. So where do we go from here? We can, of course, choose to start businesses with low startup costs, which is what most of my clients do. And we can also educate ourselves and each other about funding opportunities that do exist.

I'm linking to iFundWomen, a funding platform specifically for women led [00:21:00] businesses. Invest Atlanta, which is an example of the many local funding opportunities available, and an article from LegalZoom listing the best grants for women in 2025, such as the Her Rise Micro grant, which gives a thousand dollars monthly loans.

Hey, if you want true clarity about your secret sauce, your people, your best way of doing business and how you talk about your offer, then I invite you to join us in the Clarity Accelerator. I'll teach you to connect all the dots, the dots that have always been there for you, so that you can show up like you were born for exactly this.

Come join us and supercharge every other tool or tactic you'll ever learn, from Facebook ads to manifestation. Just go to theuncommonway. com slash schedule and set up a time to talk. I can't wait to be your coach. Let's move on to number four, limited networks. Women have less access to [00:22:00] influential business networks that could provide mentorship or partnerships and funding opportunities just because, traditionally, those were male spaces.

Our presence there is only slowly increasing. That's why, simultaneously, we need to create our own networks. When I added a group of mastermind component to the Clarity Accelerator, I saw a huge improvement in client results. But it's not just about learning from people who've gone before you, although that's what everybody seems to want, right?

I want to put myself in rooms with people who are far ahead of where I am currently. But, it's a huge benefit to you to help others, too. You really solidify your learning, and you naturally re examine your own situation with fresh eyes. I get so inspired talking to my clients, and they come up with amazing ideas that I wouldn't have considered and teach me things and connect me to different mentors and strategies.

If you think you can't learn from people who earn [00:23:00] less than you in business, or have a lower audience size or whatever metric seems most important to you at this particular moment, you are shooting yourself in the foot and are missing out on the opportunity to start reversing the trend of women's lack of access to networks.

What's important is that you get into community and you open your mind to all of the benefits there. You can join local or national meetups and organizations, you can join us in the Accelerator, you can even create your own group. We need more women joining networks, creating networks, and committing to networks.

As more women succeed, succeeding becomes easier for all of us. Alright, number five is starting smaller. I found limited data for this, but a Kauffman Foundation study analyzed 570 high tech firms in 2004 and revealed that women owned businesses were more likely to be sole proprietorships, often home based, and less likely to [00:24:00] have employees.

Now, 2004 was a long time ago, but it may suggest That women either anticipated smaller operations and it became a self fulfilling prophecy, or faced resource constraints that limited their scaling, or just felt bad or uncertain about seeking funding before they were actually making money. It's also possible that they were balancing caregiving responsibilities.

Those things might have restricted their initial growth potential, or long term growth potential, in that fast paced tech landscape. And even as women progress in business, the 2012 U. S. CENSA data showed that fewer than 20 percent of women owned firms had any employees aside from the entrepreneur herself, and women employ only 7.

5 percent of all employees. But obviously, you're restricting your company's growth if you don't allow yourself to be supported. So the invitation here is to consider what is [00:25:00] preventing me from dreaming bigger and going bigger. It's like when a client of mine shared in our group that she wanted to someday sell her company for X millions, and the rest of us were immediately like, No, in 10x that.

It's a challenge to see when you are playing small or when you're stuck in your own fishbowl. That's why I highly recommend that you find someone who can challenge you, or someone, some people who can challenge you, and then point out to you what you're not even considering. Number six. Undervaluation of services.

Societal biases tend to undervalue women's work, as evidenced by the wage gap and women's disproportionate unpaid domestic labor. But women entrepreneurs themselves often undervalue their offerings, leading to lower revenue. Carnegie Mellon University's Program for Research and Outreach on Gender Equity in Society has highlighted that women entrepreneurs tend to undervalue their worth, which results in [00:26:00] underpricing their services and products.

A report by the American Association of University Women corroborates this and also shows that women tend to undervalue and diminish their professional skills. In adolescence. . Yes, as early as adolescence. So I'm going to leave you with something very wise that my client's teenage daughter said to her when she was worrying about charging too much.

She said, mom, isn't it probably more likely that you're undercharging rather than overcharging? Number 7. Limited Marketing Budgets. Because of many of the reasons mentioned previously, women owned businesses may have smaller marketing budgets, which can mean limited visibility and lower customer acquisition.

A study by the United States Bureau of Labor in 2023 showed that marketing contributes about as much to growth as the contributions of either R& D or software. [00:27:00] So it might be time for you to rethink your marketing budget or get creative about low cost, high return guerrilla marketing. And I'll tell you one thing other than budget that gets in the way of women marketing themselves, and that is number eight on our list.

It's exposure intolerance. Now, that's a term I made up, but it fits. Many women experience greater discomfort with public visibility than men and are intolerant of that discomfort. But visibility and personal branding are key aspects of business growth. For instance, a study on academic seminars from the peer reviewed megajournal Plus One Found that women asked fewer questions after academic seminars compared to men, and reported internal reasons, such as not being able to work up the nerve.

Additionally, research from the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics on goal setting behaviors revealed that while men performed consistently across both private and public goal setting environments, Women's [00:28:00] performance declined in public settings, indicating increased discomfort or pressure. Think about it.

Women are physically more vulnerable than men and have needed to be more vigilant to protect themselves. This is just my theory. I've shared in episode 34 my own fears and challenges with this regarding my upbringing, sexual assault, and having had a stalker. I'm linking to a study examining neighborhood safety interventions where women reported increased fear after the intervention.

Whereas men reported decreased fear, highlighting gender differences and perceptions of safety and comfort in public spaces, and how impacted we can be by even the idea of threat. My clients tell me that they fear the pitchforks, too. They fear the public animosity or censure in reaction to something they say or do.

My take on that is that our ancestors survived and procreated by being the women who kept their heads down and remained safe. [00:29:00] We were bred for this. And conditioned to this too, obviously, in the same way we talked about with STEM subjects. Luckily, we can desensitize ourselves to any emotional intolerance with proper support.

I had one client who decided to go cold turkey, and after only having gone live a few times on social media and feeling terrible doing so. She decided that she wanted change, and she committed to going live for 30 days straight. By the end, it felt like business as usual, and she continued to build her business around these types of social media engagements.

Now, that cold turkey approach is not for everyone, but if it's not too triggering to you, I recommend at least some baby steps starting today. Where is the edge of your comfort zone, and how can you safely stretch it? And also, how can you support other women in their visibility, even if their efforts are imperfect?

And [00:30:00] also, how can you support other women in their visibility, even if their efforts are imperfect, rather than slipping into judgment? Let's talk about number nine, stereotypes about leadership. Women can face skepticism about their leadership abilities, impacting their ability to secure partnerships and funding or lead teams or be considered for contracts where leadership will be required.

In another report from the American Association of University Women called Barriers and Bias, they report findings that illuminate how traits traditionally associated with effective leadership, such as assertiveness and decisiveness, are frequently viewed as masculine. Therefore, it's easier for men to be selected for and to fulfill leadership roles.

When women do step into leadership roles and exhibit those traits, they may be judged harshly and disliked because they don't conform to the typically female behaviors. If they don't exhibit those [00:31:00] traits, they might be judged as not a competent leader. It results in a double bind where they are criticized whether they conform to or defy the gender norms.

And unfortunately, that criticism can come from other women as well. I noticed with women active duty soldiers that I was working with in the U. S. Army, to lead troops, you need to be able to project your voice and not be perceived as a pushover. But for many women, in order to project our voices, even in boardrooms, We need to increase tension on our vocal cords, leading to sounding more strained.

That can be perceived as more emotional or insecure, obviously not prized leadership traits. And some of these women admitted that after years of being the butt of jokes or not taken seriously, they possibly had learned to compensate in ways that would not be their chosen behavior. Now, obviously, this is totally anecdotal and a very small sample.

Meant, really just to illustrate, but before we [00:32:00] move on, there's something else, really crazy. Memory can be affected by expectations. In a 2012 paper called Gender Stereotypes and Workplace Bias, the author cites four different studies supporting how, quote, a woman's behavior that is consistent with expectations held about her is more likely to be more readily recalled by evaluators.

Whereas, her behavior that is inconsistent with expectations is more likely to be forgotten. End quote. So not only do women have to land the position and then perform in the position, they have to moderate the narrative about their performance after the fact. Our work then, my friend, is to question and stretch gender stereotypes about leadership.

Even the ones we notice in ourselves as we evaluate other women. Of course, we also need to educate ourselves and others, and to hone our individual style of leadership, and build standout, [00:33:00] highly productive teams of people who are excited to work with us. Number 10. Under representation in leadership roles prior to entrepreneurship.

Because of perceived leadership inferiority, male entrepreneurs may enter entrepreneurship with more experience in management and other key positions. A research article in Frontiers in Organizational Psychology examined how various types of prior experience affects the early stage performance of new ventures.

And found that prior leadership experience aids in helping build teams and develop business planning, among other skills. Women who have not had these experiences might need to be prepared for a steeper learning curve, while still recognizing that they likely bring many other skills to the table.

Unfortunately, in my line of work with high achieving women who have big expectations, I see a lot of shame crop up around what we know and don't know, and where our skills are [00:34:00] highly developed or where we still have room to develop them. My goal in providing this perspective were Business is just a learning curve, and where the skills you might lack coexist with other highly developed skills, is to remove some of that shame.

Number 11. Imposter Syndrome. Many women experience self doubt that can hinder their willingness to scale or go after important opportunities. A comprehensive meta analysis that we'll link to, encompassing over 100 studies and involving more than 42, 000 participants. revealed that women consistently score higher on both the occurrence of and the intensity of imposter syndrome.

Maya Angelou said, I've written 11 books, but each time I think, uh oh, they're going to find out now. I run a game on everybody and they're going to find me out. If you've been listening to this podcast for any length of time, You know that what you're [00:35:00] thinking and believing affects everything from the action you take to the opportunities you notice To the decisions you make to how you show up.

So this points to the why Behind many of the phenomena we've already discussed, such as women undercharging. So if women are on average more affected by self doubt than men, it stands to reason that we will see differences in outcomes as well. Luckily, imposter syndrome is a highly curable affliction, it just takes re patterning your thoughts.

A 2020 study published in Frontiers in Psychology has separated over 100 new employees into three groups. One group received coaching to develop their mindset, another received training, and a third was the control group. The coaching group was able to sustainably reduce their imposter syndrome scores and improve their self efficacy while reducing the tendency to cover up errors and the [00:36:00] fear of being evaluated poorly.

Number 12. Reluctance to delegate. Research indicates that women entrepreneurs often exhibit a reluctance to delegate tasks, which can limit their ability to focus on strategic growth initiatives. They may feel the need to manage every detail of their business, increasing their own cognitive load, and taking their eyes off the prize.

They may desire to act communally rather than delegate, or feel guilty if they delegate. And they may fear backlash, too. This according to an Academy of Management Journal article that we're going to link to. The same article points out that when women do delegate, because of their negative associations with it, they have lower quality interactions with their subordinates.

This is an example of why the three day workweek model that we promote at The Uncommon Way can be so powerful. It's the constraint that forces you to reconsider every moment of how you spend your [00:37:00] time, and the consequences of not delegating, and how you're building your team and your processes, and Then, with your extra time, you have more space to reflect and to think strategically.

And like Peter Drucker said, follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action. I recently had a client do a time audit and it's sparking a substantial reorganization of her priorities. Her workflow and her strategies. Once you see the time and effort that you have been leaking unnecessarily, you can't un see it.

It's a beautiful thing. Number 13. The second shift and expectations about caregiving. Women on average bear a disproportionate share of caregiving responsibilities, whether for children, elderly family members, or household management. leaving them mentally or physically taxed and distracted compared to their male counterparts.[00:38:00]

It's known as the second shift, to describe how we'll often work a full day but then continue with more unpaid domestic work. A 2019 study by the International Labor Organization reports that women dedicate on average 3. 2 times More time than men do to unpaid care work, and a study published in the Journal of Gerontology found that caregiving exacerbates gender differences in depression and physical health, too.

On top of that, these expectations create a situation where working moms feel guilty. Fraun Morgan is a researcher who studies the well being of working moms. And she's remarked on the, quote, perverse social acceptance of, in fact, social expectation for working mothers to experience guilt as a result of their choice to work, end quote.

And they do feel guilt, appropriately, like they're supposed to. Morgan's doctoral [00:39:00] dissertation revealed that for women in her study, 85 percent routinely experience feelings of guilt more than any other. A 2019 study in the Journal of Vocational Behavior reports that this mom guilt also lowers well being and brings on destructive behaviors.

Also, I'm quoting, One way in which mothers may compensate for feeling guilty is by limiting the time and energy they invest in their work, spending this time and energy on their family instead. According to Morgan, the depth and the impact of this guilt are not easily identified by the working mother experiencing it.

And women may judge other women for their work choices. According to a report from the Journal of Applied Psychology from 2021 that was looking at cross gender attitudes about deprioritizing childcare, female participants were more likely to perceive that when a parent deprioritized childcare for self [00:40:00] care reasons, That parent put their child at greater risk.

Luckily, guilt is not a necessary component of being a working mom. When women were given tools to re evaluate and re frame their experience, 67 percent in the study reported enhanced positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning slash purpose, And four months later, their experiences were similar.

There are many lessons here. Choose your partners wisely, critically examine your actions, especially those knee jerk reactions to take on more tasks or take over caregiver roles, and get coaching or therapy if needed. Examine the breakdown of labor for everyone in the family and create healthy, [00:41:00] equitable boundaries for yourself.

Number 14. Societal pressure to do it all. In addition to being good moms, Working women often feel societal pressure to be good partners, good friends, good daughters, good community members, whether that's organizing and shopping for social get togethers or gathering toys for tots at Christmas. They're also expected to look a certain way and act a certain way.

That pressure to do it all can result in burnout, reduced focus on scaling businesses, and a reluctance to delegate tasks or hire help. An article in the Review of Economics of the Household reports that women feel more exhaustion from paid work, both mental and physical, than men do. Investigating the reasons for that, they uncovered that women who were identified as traditional We're more likely to experience burnout, leading the researchers to conclude that it was the women's perspectives [00:42:00] regarding their role in society that created the large gender gap in burnout.

Regarding the pressure to look a certain way, a study out of Harvard's School of Public Health calculated that women's body dissatisfaction cost the U. S. economy 305 billion. An appearance based discrimination costs the U. S. economy 501 billion. We could easily do a podcast series on the pressure to do it all, but I'll end here so that we can move on to our final reason.

Number 15. Decrease self promotion. Many cultures discourage women from self promotion, making it harder for women entrepreneurs to advocate for their businesses or publicly celebrate their successes. This affects branding, visibility, marketing, internal team dynamics, key elements of business growth. In a Harvard Business Review article, the authors of a study on women's self promotion in the [00:43:00] workplace remarked that, quote, in every setting we explored, we observed a substantial gender gap in self promotion.

Women systematically provided less favorable assessments of their own past performance and potential future ability. Then equally performing men. And when over 100, 000 clinical research articles on PubMed were analyzed, researchers observed that male scientists are more likely to use words like unique and unprecedented to describe their work than women are.

Even though papers that use these kinds of descriptors are more likely to get cited. This was reported in an article in the British Medical Association's journal called the BMJ. In a fascinating research article called A Test of Three Theories, which was examining why women inhibit themselves from self promotion.

They had university women write a scholarship competition essay. Some groups of these women were [00:44:00] told that their name would be identified, and others were told that there would be a pseudonym. The results showed that women could self promote more effectively when writing under a pseudonym, but also that afterwards in group discussion, they would advocate on behalf of other women receiving the scholarship rather than themselves.

Both of these results pointed to women's fear of backlash if they were seen as self promoting. When three women owned firms conducted a national survey about self promotion, they noticed an interesting catch 22. 83 percent reported being inspired by hearing women talk about their successes and accomplishments.

But 69 percent would rather minimize their own successes than tell people about them. And 50 percent of women would rather downplay than talk about their strengths and abilities. And get this, 27 percent of women even said they'd prefer to visit the dentist than talk about themselves [00:45:00] in public. It also showed that women age 55 and above are more averse to self promotion than younger women.

That's good news that the tide might be starting to shift, but also unfortunate because older women might have more career accomplishments. And the younger women need to see role models self promoting. And yet in a report that analyzed many different strategies and tools for career advancement, the most important one for women was, you guessed it, making their achievements known.

I'm quoting, When women were most proactive in making their achievements visible, they advanced further, were more satisfied with their careers, and had greater compensation growth than women who were less focused on calling attention to their successes. All the strategies used by women, making their achievements known, by ensuring their manager was aware of their accomplishments, seeking feedback and credit as appropriate.[00:46:00]

And asking for a promotion when they felt it was deserved was the only one associated with compensation growth. Boom. This report came from Catalyst, an organization advancing women in the workplace, and they utilize some of the world's largest firms to gather the data. So you and I have got to do more of this, my friend.

I love the reframe that self promotion can actually be an act of service to women. Inspiring them to also speak up about their accomplishments. Part of the reason I love it goes back to that social conditioning. We're conditioned to want to help people, even if it causes us discomfort. So when we frame it in this way, we're more likely to allow ourselves to act on it.

This is a fantastic brain hack, but it's also the smart thing to do and the right thing to do. Why shouldn't we be proud of our accomplishments? I've [00:47:00] mentioned this before in this podcast, it's a trick that I learned from life coach Rachel Hart. But look at a picture of yourself as a little girl and imagine telling her, oh, it's not that big of a deal, or, oh, it doesn't really count because of X or Y.

No. If we were talking to her, or even to a friend, we'd be like, this is amazing, well done, you knocked it out of the park. So, after all of this research, I am now more committed than ever to helping women earn more money and create more autonomy. We can go further, and we need to go further. Especially in today's climate, when we're watching some of the bros acting with total self interest.

And are thinking, we'd do things differently. It is precisely why women need more power. And I believe that we can not only create more revenue, but we can refine capitalism as we do so. We can create a more [00:48:00] responsible capitalism where we're not destroying our workers. And that starts with ourselves. And no longer working long hours and feeling stressed out all the time.

It's time for a new way of doing business. Especially for most service businesses, where you do not really need to work more than three day work weeks. And when we stick to the old five or even seven day work weeks, instead of constraining ourselves, we rob ourselves of the high level thinking that propels us forward.

Okay, couple of quick technical notes and some additional fun and encouraging facts. I mentioned earlier that it was hard for me to find the exact percentage of male owned businesses that crossed the 1 million mark, according to census data. That's because the way people report the data varies. Some are aggregating non employer businesses only.

So of course, there are going to be relatively few solopreneurs or freelancers making over 1 million in revenue. Usually when you're getting into multiple six [00:49:00] figures, you have at least one employee. And since there are over four times as many non employer businesses as there are businesses with employees, according to our last census data, that skews the number significantly.

And then there are some people reporting that are aggregating both types of businesses together. One more thing, just a PSA, really fact check the sources that ChatGPT offers you. I'm so grateful for AI because I can't imagine having created this episode without it and wouldn't have found all of this amazing research.

But often, it would give me an article and include a brilliant sounding description, but then when you read the report itself, it doesn't say anything like that. So, check everything. Now for some encouraging news. Women owned businesses are rapidly increasing. Between 2012 and 2019, businesses owned by U. S.

based women grew by 16. 7 percent in comparison to 5. [00:50:00] 2 percent for male owned businesses, according to the National Women's Business Council. And while many businesses still fail in their first year, That number might be reduced by half if they have mentorship, which is what the SCORE Association found in their own survey.

Another fun fact, 76. 9 percent of women business owners are over the age of 35. So for all of my youngins out there, way to go, badasses. And for everyone over 35, You are the perfect age to have a business. Keep going. All right my friend. That is it for this week. Let's talk again on Tuesday.

Sources:

https://www.jpmorganchase.com/institute/all-topics/business-growth-and-entrepreneurship/1-million-annual-revenues-as-a-small-business-milestone
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/04/22/a-look-at-small-businesses-in-the-us/
https://www.score.org/resource/blog-post/are-women-owned-businesses-successful-male-owned-businesses
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https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315326910_Gender_Differences_in_Financial_Risk_Tolerance
https://www.aeaweb.org/conference/2018/preliminary/paper/BYb6nnGk
https://www.cmu.edu/dietrich/progress-equity-leadership/resources/negotiation-perspectives.html
https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/zh/400121542883319809/pdf/Female-Entrepreneurs-How-and-Why-are-They-Different.pdf
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https://www.ifundwomen.com/
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Ep 133: From Survival Mode to Success: Unlocking Your Creative Genius as a Woman Entrepreneur

Stepping into your next level of growth doesn’t mean doing more—it means operating differently.

Understanding the physiology of stress could be the game-changer that transforms your daily struggles into opportunities and makes achieving your big dreams lighter, simpler, and more joyful.

Episode Summary

Stepping into your next level of growth doesn’t mean doing more—it means operating differently.

Understanding the physiology of stress could be the game-changer that transforms your daily struggles into opportunities and makes achieving your big dreams lighter, simpler, and more joyful.

In this episode, you will:

Learn why ongoing overwhelm is sabotaging your problem-solving abilities—and how a simple shift can help you achieve your goals faster.
Discover the key neurotransmitter that fuels motivation and long-term vision—and learn how to access it more often for compounding success.
Unlock the hidden power of your brain to thrive under pressure, transforming stress into clarity and creative genius.

Dive into this episode now to discover the clarity, creativity, and strategies to transform your business!

Episode mentioned

Ep# 92: Get Through High Stress and Overwhelm Quickly, for Peak Performance, Joy and Better Results as a Service-Based Entrepreneur

Schedule a call with Jenna about joining the Clarity Accelerator--the same mastermind that we talk about in this episode--to dial in signature offers and strategies and a first-rate mindset.

https://www.theuncommonway.com/schedule

Sign up here to get on the waitlist for Power & Potency, the new mastermind for highly accomplished women entrepreneurs, and hear all new information as it's released:

https://www.theuncommonway.com/waitlist

Find Jenna on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theuncommonway/

Full Episode Transcript:

Jenna Harrison: [00:00:00] When you're in Survival Mode, you're not actually surviving well. You can survive and thrive. If you learn to operate differently,

you are listening to The Uncommon Way Business and Life Coaching Podcast, the podcast that helps women entrepreneurs get clear on signature offers and strategies that sell themselves so you can lean back and stop the hustle. You will learn to maximize your mindset, messaging, and strategy, and step into the uncommonly successful business and life you are creating.

Here's your host top ranked business coach and reformed over analyzer turned queen of clarity. Jenna Harrison.

Welcome. Welcome back to the uncommon way. When life piles on one too many things and stress seems to rule your [00:01:00] days, it can feel like you're in survival mode. And you are. But you're not actually surviving well. You can survive and thrive if you can learn to operate differently, in a way that gives you access to your best creative thinking and your long term vision, even when the pressure is on.

Today, we're diving into how to tap into the untapped genius that lies within so you can create greater success in your business and feel amazing while doing it, like the boss you truly are. In this episode, you will learn why ongoing overwhelm is sabotaging your problem solving abilities and how a simple shift can help you achieve your goals faster.

You'll discover the key neurotransmitter that fuels motivation and long term vision, and learn how to access it more often for compounding success. You'll unlock the hidden power of your brain to thrive under pressure, transforming stress into clarity [00:02:00] and creative genius. My friend, let's get real.

Chronic stress is actually your brain's worst enemy, especially when you need your creative and problem solving faculties the most. Here's the thing, stress isn't just an uncomfortable part of life, it actually pulls you out of the mental state that you need most as an entrepreneur. Stress locks down parts of our brains, and it diverts resources to the brain regions that are most necessary in order to run from a tiger, or whatever other prehistoric threat we used to encounter that our brains on some level think we are still encountering.

But we don't need to run from tigers today. We need to solve business problems. And stress shuts down the very faculties that make us great problem solvers. It also shuts down the faculties that make us great [00:03:00] big picture thinkers and high EQ leaders. When you're stressed, you are in survival mode rather than in the higher level thinking mode your business needs from you to thrive.

That's a very serious issue when you're trying to build something big, because you're doing things the hard way. It results in lots of extra time spent, and lots of extra aggravation felt. So, how do we get back into that high functioning state? It's called a responsive state, where we have access to our full capacity.

It starts with understanding the physiology of stress. When you are under threat, even if it's just the threat of too many emails, or a looming deadline, or a tight cash flow, You naturally switch into fight or flight mode. That is an activated state instead of a responsive state. And that's when your brain makes these familiar but unhelpful decisions about how to divert [00:04:00] resources.

But here's the key. When you calm your nervous system, you re engage those higher brain functions, giving you the clarity and insight you need. This is why, when you're feeling stressed, but then you have a great workout, or you get a good night's sleep, or even just take a shower and stop thinking about the problem, all of a sudden, a solution appears.

You say, oh wait, I could just do it this way. Or even I don't know what I was so wound up about, it's not even that big of an issue. So when you regulate your nervous system, you don't just calm down, you unlock your motivation and your clarity and your big picture vision. Some of you are listening to this thinking, oh wow, point taken, okay, I'm changing my ways.

But others of you aren't convinced. You feel like maybe what I'm saying doesn't really apply to you. Because you're still super smart even when you're stressed. [00:05:00] I see you. I used to be you. And I have so many clients just like you. But what if the 100 percent that you give under stress is only 50 percent of what you're truly capable of?

Imagine what could be possible for you. I think it's time to at least find out. Don't you? Hey, if you want true clarity about your secret sauce, your people, your best way of doing business, and how you talk about your offer, then I invite you to join us in the Clarity Accelerator. I'll teach you to connect all the dots, the dots that have always been there for you, so that you can show up like you were born for exactly this.

Come join us and supercharge every other tool or tactic you'll ever learn, from Facebook ads to manifestation. Just go to theuncommonway. com slash schedule and set up a time to talk. I can't wait to be your coach. [00:06:00] And here's something else. When your nervous system is in its responsive state, dopamine is released.

Dopamine feels great. But, did you know it's also a primary driver of your motivation and your long term goal setting? Think about it. Have you ever been really tired and stressed, and then you notice yourself thinking, ugh, why even bother? But, when you're on vacation and you've just gone on an amazing hike, you think, Oh my god, I could totally double my business this year.

I am going for it. You really feel motivated and you feel that desire to go bigger, to be more, to stretch yourself. Yep, that's dopamine, folks. So, when we allow ourselves to de stress, we're not just making ourselves feel better in the moment, we're not just facilitating the solution of whatever problem happens to be in front of us, although those are both great, [00:07:00] but we're also setting big goals and dreaming big dreams and laying the groundwork for long term success.

But how do we actually do it? How do we break the habit of being in survival mode almost around the clock? The answer is simple, but not always easy. We start by regulating your nervous system. I have a full podcast episode where I share strategies for this and more information on the topics we're covering today.

It's episode 92. And it's called Get Through High Stress and Overwhelm Quickly for Peak Performance, Joy, and Better Results as a Service Based Entrepreneur. We're going to link to it in the show notes. In that episode, you'll get tactical tips you can start using today, as well as a mindset tip, and even a tip that's a bit more woo.

But this is why I always tell my highest performing clients to prioritize rest and nervous [00:08:00] system regulation, because they are capable of so much, and I need them operating at their highest capacity. It's not about doing less, really. It's about doing smarter. And we can't work smarter with all of these old crappy legacy habits of overworking and overstressing.

So, what's next for you? Take a moment today to reflect on how you can calm your nervous system, get your dopamine flowing, and reconnect with your big picture thinking. Get out of the weeds. Because your dreams need you sooner rather than later. The more you can step into that high functioning state of responsiveness, the faster you'll see those dreams becoming your reality.

And trust me, you definitely want to check out episode 92 if you are serious about creating this kind of change. Tune in now and start shifting your decisions. Behaviors and problem solving today.[00:09:00]

Thanks for joining us here at the uncommon way. If you want more tips and resources for developing clarity in your business in life, including the clarity first strategy for growing and scaling your business, visit the uncommon way. com. See you next time.

Support at The Uncommon Way 1/14/25 Support at The Uncommon Way 1/14/25

Ep 132: Coming in 2025: new podcast focus, a Spanish villa, and other updates

Are you ready to unlock the path to a balanced life and thriving business with a three-day workweek?

This episode explores how women entrepreneurs can prioritize what’s essential in their business and makeover their mindset to create both growth and stability in 2025.

Episode Summary

Are you ready to unlock the path to a balanced life and thriving business with a three-day workweek?

This episode explores how women entrepreneurs can prioritize what’s essential in their business and makeover their mindset to create both growth and stability in 2025.

In this episode, you will:

Unlock a powerful mindset shift to embrace both the ordinary and change, paving the way for balance and growth in your business and personal life.
Learn how periods of “capacity-building” can strengthen your resilience and foreshadow breakthroughs, even during life’s most overwhelming moments.
Discover how intentional constraint fuels creativity and innovation, opening doors to new revenue streams and next-level success.

Dive into this episode now to discover the clarity, creativity, and strategies to transform your business and life in 2025!

Episodes Mentioned:

Ep# 115: How I Moved to Spain and Navigated Spain’s Digital Nomad Visa: Personal Experience and Tips for Women Entrepreneurs Who Want to Move Abroad

Schedule a call with Jenna about joining the Clarity Accelerator--the same mastermind that we talk about in this episode--to dial in signature offers and strategies and a first-rate mindset.

https://www.theuncommonway.com/schedule

Sign up here to get on the waitlist for Power & Potency, the new mastermind for highly accomplished women entrepreneurs, and hear all new information as it's released:

https://www.theuncommonway.com/waitlist

Find Jenna on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theuncommonway/

Full Episode Transcript:

Jenna Harrison: [00:00:00] What should you prioritize in 2025? Today, I'm breaking down my personal and business priorities. So, who knows? Let's see if ours overlap.

You're listening to the Uncommon Way Business and Life Coaching Podcast. The podcast that helps women entrepreneurs get clear on signature offers and strategies that sell themselves. So you can lean back and stop the hustle. You will learn to maximize your mindset, messaging, and strategy. The Uncommon Way.

And step into the uncommonly successful business and life you are creating. Here's your host, top ranked business coach and reformed over analyzer turned queen of clarity, Jenna Harrison.

Welcome, welcome back to the uncommon way. Today I'm sharing a few of my priorities for 2025, both in the personal and business [00:01:00] realms, and I'll share why those are priorities, because obviously the why is so much more important than the what. In the old days, I used to talk more about personal updates in every episode, but as I have constrained myself to create more brief and actionable episodes for you, I tend to save that for episodes like this.

Which is fun. I feel like I'm catching up with an old friend. I hope you'll enjoy this behind the scenes Here are some of the main takeaways you'll walk away with from this episode You'll learn a powerful mindset shift to embrace both the ordinary and change Paving the way for balance and growth in your business and personal life You will learn how periods of capacity building can strengthen your resilience and foreshadow breakthroughs Even during life's most overwhelming moments.

And you'll discover how intentional constraint fuels creativity and innovation, opening doors to new [00:02:00] revenue streams. That you'd never even thought of. Well, let me tell you, for me, this last month has just been extra. There has been a lot going on. How about you? In The Accelerator, we refer to those times as capacity building periods.

Because when you're doing more than normal, it's always increasing your capacity. Your capacity to handle things, your capacity for resilience, although of course, it usually feels like overwhelm. So, It usually feels like too much. It's very similar to working out in the gym. Yes, you are taxing your system.

But it's okay. Because later you leave the gym and that's when those muscles build back even stronger. Right? It's during your off days. And this is a different kind of workout. In life, when life hits us, right, it's a workout for your brain and energy levels. Or when business hits us. [00:03:00] Where we get into trouble is really when we stay at that mental gym from the moment we wake up until we go to sleep, month after month.

And then we wonder why we're not actually seeing gains in our business and life. And it's because you need to offset that capacity building with regeneration. But I am getting into the teaching and away from the updates. I can tell this episode's gonna be a bit rambling, but the point is that capacity building periods aren't a problem as I see it, and they don't mean you're sliding backwards into old habits.

It just means you're stretching yourself. Maybe because you've set a new goal, or you're taking on something new, or because life is happening. Either way, you can do hard things. It's all good. Capacity building moments might feel like overwhelm, but they are the workouts that strengthen your resilience and expand your possibilities.

In my case, in this [00:04:00] last month, life was really happening. In the span of a month or so, I was running a new Black Friday week promotion. My mom came to visit, so we were taking some extra trips around Europe. We found out some information about our Spanish residency that had us scrambling. My son was off from school for nearly three weeks because the whole country shuts down here for Christmas.

Which, when you have a neurodiverse kid like Dylan, you constantly have to find ways to keep him exercised and interested. Otherwise, next thing you know, he's like, trying to have a wrestling match with the dog, even though the legs don't bend in that direction. And then, unfortunately, my husband had an injury and it put his arm in a sling, so he couldn't drive.

Couldn't do anything, really. So, I was picking up a lot of extra to dos. And, oh, right in the middle of it all, we decided to buy a house because we are [00:05:00] masters of diming. So, as I think forward about my personal priorities, I want simple pleasures. I want to nest and create stability and a routine that maybe even feels a little boring.

After this year, boring feels like a luxury. Cultivating boring is not something that I would have imagined myself seeking out when I was younger. But then I do remember in my thirties After, when Ben was stationed in Germany, we'd travel for a weekend every few weeks I was travel blogging and I realized how serene and delicious it felt to come home and nest and enjoy the day to day.

It's like after Thanksgiving or the holidays when you're so happy just to have your boring eggs for breakfast. So what I've been thinking about a lot is how [00:06:00] often What our soul actually needs is not what our ego wants. I just sent out an email about this last week talking about how what I thought I needed in the beginning of my business turned out not to be what I needed after all.

I was only interested in tactical knowledge. I wanted to geek out on increasing vanity metrics and likes and open rates and I was really leaning on tactics and conversion copy and funnels and But what really ended up making the biggest impact was when someone pointed me to what I actually needed, which was in the mindset and energetic realms.

Afterwards, when I just got really, really curious and I was like, okay, how could these things make such a shift in my business? And then what are the different components needed to accelerate business growth and how can I offer those [00:07:00] comprehensively to my clients? And I feel like I've been having that ego soul realization again lately because, for instance, the home that I chose is nothing like what I would have imagined myself in.

I thought I'd be in a traditional Spanish villa overlooking the sea. But as we looked around at what's available and what we could afford, Mallorca is very expensive. We were seeing these million dollar Apartments that still had, like, air conditioning units in their windows. I was like, once even said right in front of the realtor, I was like, Okay, this is what a million dollars will get you in Palma.

And this place that we found is really nice, but it's also very modern. There's nothing traditional Spanish about it. And it's small. When we brought Dylan to see it, he was like, But where's the rest of the house? I kid you not. Good. And what I came to realize as we looked [00:08:00] around and saw different styles of places and different locations is that Yes, the way a place looks and the energy that it has is really important to me.

And I do want some place that is lovely to live in. But what really felt right and felt like the priority on a deeper level? was lifestyle. It was really about location, location, location. So, this place is within walking distance to Dillon School, and many of our friends live in the area, and there are lots of shops and restaurants, and as well as the beach, and so it is going to be a huge lifestyle upgrade.

We've been living in this nice residential area up until now, and we do have a view, and while there are lots of pluses to living here, it We realized, you know, we're recreating an American lifestyle. We had stepped right into a situation where you [00:09:00] don't know anybody but your most immediate neighbors and you need a car to get anywhere.

This new place, it's very blue zone, like there will be lots of walking and walking up and down hills. There are trails right behind our building that lead up into the There's a playground where kids actually play. And we're still technically in Palma, although on the outskirts, so we can get into the old town and into the downtown easily and enjoy all the coolness that that city has to offer.

Come join us and supercharge every other tool or tactic you'll ever learn. From Facebook [00:10:00] ads to manifestation. Just go to theuncommonway. com slash schedule and set up a time to talk. I can't wait to be your coach. So as I've alluded to, the new place has no sea view. It's a ground floor apartment. But it has a yard and a pool so we can have Dylan's friends over after school.

And Santa has already promised him a trampoline. And it's surrounded by greenery. And it's very private, which is great because we have these huge sliding glass doors in every room. And of course we'll want those open, right? We'll want to enjoy that indoor outdoor lifestyle. It is brand new, like I said, it's fully furnished already and super modern, top of the line everything.

One fun fact is that new buildings here in Spain have a 10 year guarantee, by law, for everything, including appliances! Like, [00:11:00] a 10 year guarantee on our appliances. So you see how this is really contributing to the serenity and stability, right, that foundation that is becoming such a priority. Now, the path getting to that serenity and lifestyle has not been fully serene.

However, as a foreign business owner, the banks have required a mountain of paperwork, which we had to rush to turn in before everything closed for the holidays. Thanks. Because that was the only way the owners would agree to keep the house off the market for us, if we'd already initiated the mortgage process.

And also, there are all of these crazy rules about a home buying that we were not expecting. For instance, there's a 10 percent tax that you pay as a buyer when you buy a house. Each time you buy a house, Yeah, you don't pay property taxes, but still, that adds up, right? Then, because we're [00:12:00] foreign, they'll make us put down 30 40%, which we were not expecting.

And we can't even get a 30 year mortgage, because we're 51, and all mortgages have to be paid off by your 75th birthday, I kid you not. It's like, everything kept adding up, adding up, adding up, but such is the cost of living in paradise. These are manageable problems, luckily, thanks to our situation now.

And, good news, the interest rates are insanely low over here. So, even though our savings accounts just diminished significantly, our monthly payment should be less than we're currently paying, which will be amazing. But, oof, things we learn. That's our new family hashtag since moving over here. Things we learn.

I really need to go back and create a preamble to the episode 115 that I did, which is the one where I shared the behind the scenes of our move to [00:13:00] Spain. Because it turns out it's rather inaccurate. We were misinformed regarding the best way to become legal residents and what that would mean for our taxes.

And we found this out just during this crunch period that I've been talking about. And we were a bit panicked because we were also told that we needed to declare ourselves as tax citizens on January 20th, six months after we arrived. Meaning, we had until then, just a matter of weeks, to figure out how to, like, restructure the business, potentially, and choose a status which would have a huge variation in tax consequences.

Now, that would be a tight timeline anywhere, but it was extra tight because, like I said, everything shuts down here for weeks over Christmas. So we threw thousands of dollars into meeting with various tax attorneys to get different points of view and good news. It turns out, we don't [00:14:00] have to have everything figured out by January 20th.

We have until next summer, six months after the tax year starts. So it was a huge load off, as you can imagine, but obviously this is still a big 2025 priority, going from uncertain tax and residency status to the decision made. And then, once the decision's made, that's just how we remain for all following years.

And going from, you know, nomads living in a temporary home to truly settled, which really facilitates this simple pleasure, this lifestyle that I talked about earlier. I'll just walk my son to school, have some friends over. Go to a cafe or meet at the beach for seafood and go on my hikes and explore Palma.

There's really nothing I want. There's no, like, [00:15:00] travel or big personal development things. There's nothing I want other than being here. Living this life and just enjoying a weekly rhythm. But, in business? That's a different story. There will be quite a few changes. The stability at home, I feel like it facilitates my ability to shape things up, starting with the podcast.

So, I do practice what I preach. I advocate reinvention and also actively listening to your clients and audience, because together, right, those are really the two pieces that make up the magic of your business. It's this intersection of you and your clients. You know, you're evolving, they're evolving, so the clarity around what your business is and who your people are, that's always evolving too.

And reinvention isn't just about changing who you are, it's about uncovering the version of you that's [00:16:00] ready to create the life that you've been dreaming of. You end up creating stagnation and rigidity when you resist that. But you create flow when you embrace it, when you embrace that change. So I'm reinventing the podcast both because of my own reinvention, and due to what I've heard and observed from you and my clients.

We'll still be helping women entrepreneurs learn to work wiser, not harder. But we'll have a focused result that we'll be creating together. You ready? A three day workweek. Still coupled with business growth, but with the constraint. Three day workweeks are something I have personal experience with, especially during the last year, but even the year prior I was working steady 30 hour workweeks, which can easily be accomplished in three days.

Mostly if you don't have kids, but it can be done. These three day work [00:17:00] weeks are insanely powerful for two big reasons that I see. One, it gives you the balance that so many of you have told me you want to feel in business and life. And it turns out that balance is nutritive. It's all about balance. It's like we talked about earlier with the gym analogy, your downtime, that's when those muscles actually grow.

And it's when you get amazing downloads, and skyrocketing creativity, and problem solving. According to neuroscience, and my personal experience, and what I've seen from my clients. But you know what else? When you constrain yourself to do less, it forces you to think smarter and wiser. You innovate. You become more resourceful.

It's those new ways of thinking that open up revenue pathways you've never considered. When you constrain your time, you unlock your creativity. And that's where your next breakthrough begins. I heard an [00:18:00] interview once, which I think was with Jack White of the White Stripes. Don't quote me on that. I do have a tendency to mix up names, but I rarely forget a good moral.

So here it is. He said that he would purposely practice with one string out of tune on his guitar to force his creativity in ways that he wouldn't otherwise consider. The moral is that often, less is more, and constraint breeds creativity. Paradoxical, but true. I'm realizing this is kind of the opposite of what I was saying on the personal front.

Because there I said sprints of doing more increases your capacity. But here I'm saying that doing less also increases your capacity. Especially for creating value, which of course is what creates money. I love paradox. They're, they're everywhere. Now, I have received some positive feedback about the short hot takes episodes that I've been [00:19:00] putting out lately, so I might just go to a twice weekly episode format.

I don't know. Now is where I'd really love to hear from you. It's your chance to make your voice heard. Go ahead and leave me a review on Apple, and tell me what you like most about the current podcast, the things you don't want me to change, and of course, if you have anything that you'd like to see in the future, let me know that too.

Okay, enough about the podcast. Something else we'll be changing up is the sum of the business model. Typically, I've had my mastermind program, and my private coaching. But, we had such a blast with the Black Friday Week promotion, and I know that the people on my list did, too, because they told me. So, watch this space for something similar, happening again this spring or summer, Because I'm going to start releasing more of these surprise offers that you can't get [00:20:00] any other time of the year.

For me, it was really just fun and energizing and they were really well received, so I want to provide more of that for you. And then we will also be launching the new advanced mastermind, Power and Potency. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you can see the details by going to the Uncommon Way website under Coaching Services and then click Advanced Mastermind in the drop down.

We'll also link to it in the show notes. But I know many of you know exactly what it is because you have told me how much you would love to be a part of it. In fact, I think that is the The offer that gets the most interest, and I haven't even actually launched it yet. I love it. And I mean, yeah, why wouldn't it be interesting, right?

We are going to be meeting in amazing global destinations, and the focus of our work will be like anything that I have ever heard [00:21:00] of, personally. But enrollment will be limited. You won't be ready without the work in the accelerator, so you want to get in the accelerator now. Some of you have told me, oh, I can't wait until I get to the point where I can just play in business and life like it says on your landing page.

But That play, it doesn't come about because you are earning 7 figures or 8 or any other figure than what you're making right now, which is where most high achievers brains go. Oh, if I hit this specific number, that's when I'll be able to finally relax and breathe. That is not how it works. You are able to play when it has really sunk into your bones that you are the creator in your life.

When you know that you just get to make shit up, and you know you can create whatever you [00:22:00] want to create because you trust yourself to accomplish and manifest your goals. You step into being the woman who finally understands how you create your best results. Not how other people tell you to, but what truly works best for you.

You're no longer afraid of your superpowers. And of course, your business is set up for that kind of play, too. If you're running around like a chicken with its head cut off, doing all the things, you are not going to be able to play. Even when you get to seven or eight figures, you'll still be embodying the same patterns because they're so habituated.

So, wherever you want to go, it starts now, my friend, not later. And if you want that kind of lifestyle, start the training for it now. Join us in the Clarity Accelerator. So that's it, my main personal focus for 2025, and the three [00:23:00] things, I guess, let's see, the podcast, more spontaneous promotions, yes, and power and potency, and the three business efforts and priorities going forward for me there.

Okay, my friend, it has been so fun catching up. Don't forget to leave me a review telling me what you like most about this podcast that you want me to carry into its next iteration. Bye for now.

Thanks for joining us here at The Uncommon Way. If you want more tips and resources for developing clarity in your business and life, including the Clarity First strategy for growing and scaling your business, visit TheUncommonWay. com. See you next time.

Jenna Harrison 1/7/25 Jenna Harrison 1/7/25

Ep 131: Break Out of the Fishbowl: Reinvent Yourself This Way to Fast-Track Business Growth as a Woman Entrepreneur

What if reinventing yourself is the first and most important step in reaching your next level in business, because the other dominos will follow naturally?

For women entrepreneurs, our old ways of thinking, acting and choosing often create unseen barriers—find out how the reinvention process can help you radically transform your results naturally.

Episode Summary

What if reinventing yourself is the first and most important step in reaching your next level in business, because the other dominos will follow naturally?

For women entrepreneurs, our old ways of thinking, acting and choosing often create unseen barriers—find out how the reinvention process can help you radically transform your results naturally.

In this episode, you will:

Learn a powerful mental shift that helps you break free from autopilot thinking, opening the door to opportunities you may never have considered.
Uncover the hidden reasons why so few women-owned businesses reach seven figures and the actionable steps you can take to rewrite your story and create extraordinary results.
Discover how reinvention can lead to sudden, transformative shifts that unlock exponential growth in your business

Hit play now to start your reinvention journey—you won’t believe what’s waiting for you on the other side.

Episodes Mentioned:

93. The 1,2,3 of Reinventing Yourself and Realigning Your Business for Next Level Success As Women Entrepreneurs

Schedule a call with Jenna about joining the Clarity Accelerator--the same mastermind that we talk about in this episode--to dial in signature offers and strategies and a first-rate mindset.

https://www.theuncommonway.com/schedule

Sign up here to get on the waitlist for Power & Potency, the new mastermind for highly accomplished women entrepreneurs, and hear all new information as it's released:

https://www.theuncommonway.com/waitlist

Find Jenna on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theuncommonway/

Full Episode Transcript:

Jenna Harrison: [00:00:00] What if reinventing yourself was the key for unlocking next level success in your business? Because then all the rest will come naturally.

Here's your host, top ranked business coach and reformed over analyzer turned queen of clarity, Jenna Harrison.

Welcome, welcome back to the uncommon way. I've got a little hot take for you today, a short, but sweet episode. And our [00:01:00] focus starts from this one simple truth. You can't create new results with the same brain you have today. We are all living in our own fishbowls, thinking within the same limits we've always had, and missing out on the endless possibilities just beyond our mental frames of reference.

And if you want to level up in life or business, you've got to break out of that fishbowl and start thinking in new ways. In this episode, you're going to learn a powerful mental shift that helps you break free from autopilot thinking, opening the door to opportunities you may never have considered.

You'll uncover the hidden reasons why so few women owned businesses reach seven figures, and the actionable step you can take to rewrite your story and create extraordinary results. And you will discover how reinvention can lead to sudden transformative shifts that unlock exponential growth in your business.

Right now, your brain is running on [00:02:00] autopilot. It's filtering everything through old lenses. Mine too. It's not our fault. Our biology is wired that way for survival. Your mind is trying to protect you, it's pushing you to repeat the behaviors and beliefs and ways of thinking that have worked so far. But, that same autopilot is also what's keeping you stuck where you are.

Stuck playing smaller than you need to be and holding back from the growth that you're capable of. So a great example of this comes from my client Carrie. She was stuck in a scarcity mindset, believing that her clients wouldn't pay more for her services. What she didn't realize was that this belief had infiltrated her website copy, her offers, and even her energy in conversations with potential clients.

She wasn't seeing the invisible ceiling that she had created for herself. She thought she was living in a world that was just the way that it was. Whereas, my client [00:03:00] Lauren had a different challenge. She prided herself on always accomplishing her goals. Which sounds fantastic, right? But this belief actually held her back from taking risks, because the fear of failure kept her in her comfort zone.

Reinvention is about identifying and then breaking through those mental blocks. We always run smack into the parts of us that most need to heal or be released or transcended, I've found. It is part of the entrepreneurial journey, especially for women, because our society has conditioned us to avoid risk, to downplay our gifts, and to keep giving without charging what we're worth.

And those patterns don't just vanish because we want them to. They're baked into how we move through the world. That is why only 2 percent of women owned businesses hit the seven figure mark, while 30 percent of men owned businesses do. But here's the good news. This reinvention [00:04:00] process works. In fact, it works so well that I've made it the very first module in my Clarity Accelerator program.

I prioritize it because of the mind blowing transformation it brings. I have seen women blow past business goals they have had for years. I've seen them build their dream businesses in record time. And it all starts with being willing to reinvent yourself. Even though it can feel really scary and uncomfortable.

Hey! If you want true clarity about your secret sauce, your people, your best way of doing business, and how you talk about your offer, then I invite you to join us in the Clarity Accelerator. I'll teach you to connect all the dots, the dots that have always been there for you, so that you can show up like you were born for exactly this.

Come join us and supercharge every other tool or tactic you'll ever learn from Facebook ads to manifestation Just go to the uncommon way comm slash schedule and [00:05:00] set up a time to talk I can't wait to be your coach. So how do we begin this reinvention? Let's dive into just one powerful practice you can start today, reframing possibilities.

Now you might have heard this before, but we're going to look at it a little differently. We're going to look back to your past. Look back on your life and identify five things you never considered were options until hindsight made them obvious that they were. So, for instance, did you ever consider not going to college, or not finishing college once you'd started?

It turns out that was a possibility you didn't even realize you had. This exercise, it isn't just nostalgia, it's a thought game to see how much your perspective has already broadened over time. If that was a possibility in the past, imagine what could happen if you intentionally expanded your thinking for the future.

When it comes to business, this [00:06:00] kind of mental stretching can unlock extraordinary opportunities. I'm doing this regularly, my clients are doing this regularly. I remember a client who wanted to grow her membership, but secretly she didn't want to be seen. She considered herself more of a behind the scenes person and a certain type of person, but that hidden resistance, it affected her marketing decisions and her ability to connect with her audience.

And once she recognized it and rewired it, her results skyrocketed. Specifically, a goal that she had wanted since she started her business happened within a couple of months. This is just the tip of the iceberg. In the full episode, I reveal even more steps to help you reinvent not only your mindset, but also your entire approach to business.

We explore how to shift from have to thinking, doing what feels expected or necessary, to yes and energy, where you create a business you are [00:07:00] genuinely excited about. And what else? Because when you're in that kind of alignment, you don't just show up differently. You draw in clients, opportunities, and results that feel almost magical.

Ready to dive deeper? Head over to episode 93, the one, two, three of reinventing yourself and realigning your business for next level success as women entrepreneurs. We're going to link to that in the show notes, and it'll give you the exact tools and strategies to step into your most visionary, empowered self.

Trust me, this could be the reinvention. You didn't even realize you need it. See you next week.