Letting Go of the Have-Tos and Shoulds in Your Business with Linsi Brownson

No matter where you look, you’re going to find messaging around all the things you should be doing in your business. Heck, I talk about it, too!

But the reality is that you need to weigh those “have-tos” and “shoulds” and decide what works for you in your business and your life.

Being a business owner is an amazing gift and challenge and I personally wouldn’t do it any other way. But in my conversation with Linsi Brownson, we talk about how there’s really no one right way to do business. And she gives you permission to allow you to look at business differently and embrace the way your personal life merges with your business.

As the world opens back up and we’re getting back to our old habits, let’s let go of the hustle culture and lean into the space and downtime that we all need.

Listen in!

Mentioned in This Episode

About Linsi Brownson

Linsi Brownson is a coach for creative entrepreneurs who want to say buh-bye to burnout and grow their business while enjoying their life.

As an entrepreneur in creative industries for 15+ years, she understands the unique pitfalls and possibilities of running a creative business. Linsi is a certified life and business coach who has helped dozens of perfectionists, people-pleasers, and busybodies alike, take charge of their energy and operations so they can create more and live better.

In addition to coaching business owners, Linsi hosts a podcast called “Be Brilliant In Your Business” where she shares insights on habits, productivity, and happiness.

To learn more about Linsi, check out her website, Instagram, or Pinterest.

Transcription

Abby Herman 0:08
Hey there, and welcome to Episode 139 of The Content Experiment Podcast, a podcast that supports the idea that content and marketing are ever moving targets in any business. And it’s okay if you don’t feel like you’re doing it all right all of the time. You have permission to experiment with little tweaks and changes in your content to find what works for you, what increases value for your audience, and what grows your business, and most importantly, what feels good for you.

Abby Herman 0:37
I’m Abby Herman, content strategist and coach for online business owners who are ready to make a bigger impact online. I firmly believe that success isn’t about what big marketing brands and so called gurus think is the right thing. It’s about you and your business, your lifestyle, and, frankly, your values and belief systems. You get to do business in a way that works for you.

Abby Herman 1:00
Now, raise your hand, if you’re feeling stressed out right about now, as this podcast is being released, we are nearing the end of summer 2021. And if you’ve intentionally taken time off the summer, you may be coming to terms with the fact that it’s time to go back to work. Or maybe if you’re like me, you are in the middle of some life changes that are taking up time and energy. If you’re on my email list, I’m going to be spilling some of those changes in my email this Friday. So if you’re curious what I’m up to, and you haven’t been paying attention on social media, I will fill you in.

Abby Herman 1:42
The thing is, we need to make space for ourselves in business, if we want to be around for more than just a season or two. That means finding a solution to the stress and overwhelm and creating a business that works for you. The conversation that I’m sharing with you today, with Linsi Brownson couldn’t have come at a better time for me both the interview itself, and the timing of its release to you. And honestly, neither of these were really planned to coincide with my own life, which I think makes the reflection of it even more powerful for me. I hope that this finds you right when you need it too, as well.

Abby Herman 2:23
But before we get to the interview, I want to welcome you to the podcast. I work really hard to make sure this podcast is full of no nonsense support to help inspire you to get your message out there and give you the actionable steps you need to make it happen. So you can get on with doing business your own way. I try to stay away from fluff because really no one has time for it seriously. If you liked what you hear, hit the subscribe button so you don’t miss another episode. Okay, back to our guest.

Abby Herman 2:55
I’m chatting today, Like I said, with Linsi Brownson, host of the Be Brilliant in Your Business Podcast, where I actually was a guest recently. I’ll have a link to it in the show notes. We talked about batching and repurposing your content, which is so incredibly helpful if you are planning to ditch the overwhelm like what we talked about today. But let me tell you more about Linsi.

Linsi Brownson is a coach for creative entrepreneurs who want to say bye bye to burnout and grow their business while enjoying their life. As an entrepreneur in Creative Industries for more than 15 years, she understands the unique pitfalls and possibilities of running a creative business. Linsi is a certified life and business coach who has helped dozens of perfectionist people pleasers and busy bodies alike take charge of their energy and operations so they can create more and live better. In addition to coaching business owners, Linsi hosts the podcast Be Brilliant in Your Business, where she shares insights on habits, productivity and happiness. And here is our conversation. Hi, Linsi, thank you so much for joining me.

Linsi Brownson 4:10
Hi, Abby. I’m so happy to be here.

Abby Herman 4:13
Yes, I’m excited to chat. I’m just excited to catch up because we did meet in person A long time ago. And I feel like we haven’t really connected since then. So this is gonna be really fun.

Linsi Brownson 4:25
I’m looking forward to it. I think it’s been a couple of years, but we added a whole extra year with quarantine year.

Abby Herman 4:31
Yeah, no kidding, right?

Linsi Brownson 4:32
Energetically, like six years since I’ve seen you.

Abby Herman 4:36
Yeah, something like that. Well, I’m really excited to chat and I feel like this conversation we’re gonna have today is really necessary right now. And it’s also really timely for me personally. So I’m excited to chat. Before we get started. Can you share with the audience members what you do and who you do it for?

Linsi Brownson 4:55
Absolutely. So I am a coach for creative entrepreneurs and I help creative business owners who are feeling overwhelmed, burnt out or on the verge of burnout really get back to a place where they are excited, inspired, energized in their business. And in order to do that, we’re doing all kinds of things like learning time management, setting boundaries, breaking rules, and really just more than anything, figuring out who you want to be in the world and how you want to show up and structuring your business around that.

Abby Herman 5:28
Boundaries. That’s a huge one, right. That is a huge one for business owners. It’s a huge one for myself, too. I just personally and in business, so Oh, I’m excited. Okay, before we go further, though, can you share how you work with clients, and then how does the way you work with clients, maybe set your own boundaries for how you want to live the lifestyle that you want?

Linsi Brownson 5:54
So I work with clients one on one, I think that’s almost like a unicorn business model anymore. In the business coaching world, so yeah, I meet with most of my clients I meet with every week, at least for an early initial period, and we really get to, like dive deep into their business, and create those boundaries, really create a business model, they love, we set up systems automations, we go real deep. And all along the way, what we’re doing is kind of, they’re learning more and more about themselves, and the kind of business that they want. And they’re coming up against some of the pain points that they’ve run into as business owners before that maybe through the way that they’ve been marketed to or how they were raised, that they really have been told they’re supposed to do business a certain way. And as we’re kind of breaking through and creating a new paradigm for them. They’re seeing those things play out in real time and getting to actually work through them. So that they come out the other side, not only having a business that they love, but really being that person that they feel like they can truly conquer the world.

Abby Herman 7:01
Yeah. And I think that we hear so many messages about you need to do this in your business. And this is how you should do this piece. And your back end should look like this. And it’s really confusing for newer business owners or business owners who are transitioning or making a pivot or whatever. Because, I mean, there’s only so many things that we can do right at one time, there’s only so many tasks that we can take on and changes that we can make before we’re up to our ears. And we’re, you know, ready to explode. Right?

Linsi Brownson 7:38
Yeah, absolutely. And I think that for creative business owners especially, and I would argue that all small business owners really are creatives. But for creatives, we need a lot of creative, free time. So there’s this creativity management that we need to have built into our lives and into our schedules. And then there’s the actual business management, and serving our clients and doing our work. And then there’s all the administrative stuff. And that’s just for the business. That’s not even taking into account that as a human person. And as a creative, especially, we also want a lot of other things in our life. We want relationships that are strong and healthy. We want downtime, many of us are introverts, and we need a lot of quiet time.

Linsi Brownson 8:25
So it’s really like we take this very extroverted approach to business. I think that’s mostly what’s taught in marketing and in the business world, is this very extroverted, like hitting the pavement, hustling hard. And following all these steps, and like you said, do the 18 million things to market and grow and run your business. And most of us just can’t even operate in a system like that. So we have to be willing to break that system and come up with a new one that works for us.

Abby Herman 8:55
I never really thought about what you just said that we are taught this extroverted way to run a business. I never thought about that. It is so true. It is absolutely true that we’re taught to push I guess, I guess is the word I’m looking for. You’re pushing out instead of pulling in or finding that space for yourself. So yes, I totally agree.

Abby Herman 9:22
And I think too, so we’re recording this at the end of May 2021. And so we’re to a point where things are starting to open back up so people are getting vaccinated. COVID-19 numbers are down and the world is opening back up again, or at least in the US. We’re opening back up again and a lot of business owners that I’ve noticed have made a lot of changes in the last year and some change.

I would love to hear from you as someone who has been working with business owners kind of behind the scenes, what you’ve been seeing as far as Like energy levels and adjustments that people are making, or even maybe you’ve worked with people who are brand new to the business world, or to self employment to the creative space in the last year in some and maybe like how they’re organizing their business, because I for one, I’ve been in business for a long time. But I’ve been really letting things go in my business in a positive way, like, I’m removing myself from obligations that I had, because I know that I need more space for myself. Can you talk a little bit about, like what you’ve been seeing out there?

Linsi Brownson 10:36
Yeah, absolutely. And I’m nodding my head along. Yes, I totally agree with you. And I think that if I were to summarize it in such a broad way, that that’s really the bulk of what I’m seeing as well is that we were initially forced to slow down. And so depending on different personality types, some people really got on board with that easily. I wasn’t one of those people, I was really going at a very fast pace. And I think in some ways, you know, just because we attract the people who are similar to us, as our clients, like a lot of my clients had really big plans, big launches, planned new products and services in person events, tons of stuff. That was, like you said earlier, a lot of this like outward motion, this outward pushing energy. And it was like just cut short, so abruptly, that I think we all needed to take some time to reconcile that and to understand what that was all about and what to do with that situation.

Linsi Brownson 11:40
And so I feel like it was almost like this death happened in the industry. And we all had to grieve in our own way and process it and figure out how we wanted to move that forward. So I’ve seen it over the course of anywhere from last summer, into the fall. And even right now that it’s sort of people are coming out in phases, like you said, almost like groundhogs, like starting to poke our heads up a little bit, and really look around and say, Oh, so I can go back to some of the things that I did before. How would I like that to look? And what would I like to do in terms of as the business owner, a lot of what I’m seeing is people really feeling that need for face to face connection, like going back to conferences, going to in person events and seeing people and like being around that energy of the collective, again, as almost the little kickstart that we need to really get our bearings on what we want to do next.

Linsi Brownson 12:39
And I think that that is gonna massively impact the way that we structure our products and services moving forward, because I do still think that a lot of people, while of course, I’m working with business owners who have been working this whole time, it’s not like we all took a nap. But I do think that a lot of us slowed their businesses down so much to the point where they’re almost still trying to figure out what they want next. They’re not super clear as of today. So we’re kind of working through that, like, what do we expect moving forward. But to be a little bit more specific, I think what a lot of what I’m seeing is that people, like you said, really stepped out of anything that felt like pressure in terms of, Oh, I have to show up on social media six days a week, I have to do a certain number of reels per day, I have to have an email going out to my list twice a week and one of them as a camp, right?

Linsi Brownson 13:37
Like all of those have-tos, I think what I’m seeing, and certainly what I’m encouraging, always, is for people to say if there’s a half two or a should and that sentence like it’s an immediate No. And so if those were taken away from you, what would you do instead? And so to start to approach this with a gentler, more inspired, and almost like, slower, like nurturing energy behind the decisions we make for our businesses.

Linsi Brownson 14:03
So again, I’ll go all the way back to something I said at the top of this conversation, which is, it’s kind of rare for service providers. And that’s primarily who I work with, I work with lots of people, but that’s the bulk of them. I think before the pandemic, there was a lot of high pressure around service providers not being service providers anymore. It was like how can you automate and get your hands off your business? How can you hire and step out of your business? How can you have courses and have completely passive income and there were so many buzzwords around that.

And I think that that created a lot of confusion and frankly a lot of shame for service providers who did enjoy and want to be one on one with people or wanted to stay small in a way that their business was just this context thing that they could understand. And it was simple and it worked for them. And I think the pandemic has almost forced us to take away some of those other options. Because maybe for a number of reasons, I’m sure you actually have way more to say about this. But the marketplace got so crowded that it’s like, well, that just wasn’t really an option for everybody anyway.

Linsi Brownson 15:15
So to bring that back to my point, I think a lot of service providers who were previously feeling like the business they had wasn’t good enough, because of X, Y, and Z that they were seeing outside of them have really come back to this place of just saying, you know, if, at the end of the day, what I have is a business that I love doing, working with clients that I love serving, and that I really feel like I’m on mission with something like, I’m happy with that that is good enough for me.

So how do I structure my business around this person I want to be now and you know, moving forward the next year, a couple of years. And just be happy with that and see what it turns into see how we continue to evolve it naturally, instead of trying to fit it into this box, and push things forward at such a rapid rate that sometimes it feels like it’s not even your business anymore. It’s outside of you.

Abby Herman 16:04
Absolutely. I’m all for doing business in a way that feels good to you. And I actually just recorded an episode, it’s Episode 123. That’s going to go live later, the week that we’re recording this all about, like the lessons that I’ve learned in business, because I just hit my eight year anniversary of being full time in business. And one of the things that I’ve done is- eight years is a long time.

And you know, I never aspired to be a seven figure business, I’m not a seven figure business, I still don’t aspire to be there. Because I like having that personal connection with my clients. I don’t need to have my hands and everything. And I don’t have my hands and everything anymore. But I think that we have to do what works for us and what feels good for us. And if that means growing a team, which is what I’ve been doing, then great. If that means being the sole service provider in your business, then great. And I think that to try to fit yourself into a box that someone else has created isn’t gonna feel good to anybody.

Linsi Brownson 17:08
Yeah, and I don’t think it works.

Abby Herman 17:10
No, it doesn’t.

Linsi Brownson 17:12
Congratulations. That is awesome.

Abby Herman 17:16
So when you think back to the conversations that you’re having with clients, and the changes that they’re making in their businesses, and the way that they’re growing, the way that they’re offering their services? How do you weave in the conversation about the personal side, because as small businesses, everything that’s happening in our personal lives is going to impact your business, too. So how do you have that conversation? Do you look at Do you have people kind of strategically planned personally, along with looking at what’s going on in their business? How does that come into play?

Linsi Brownson 17:49
Yeah, it’s kind of a funny, little backstory. When I started really coaching more I, because I was doing a lot of consulting, and brand development and operations before coaching really came into play. And I remember these early days of being a coach and really wanting to talk about root cause issues like what’s really behind like, Yes, I know, you want to talk Instagram, let’s look at why you think your Instagram isn’t working, and why it’s so frustrating to you, and why, you know, the algorithm keeps you up at night. Because there’s more to it than that, right.

Linsi Brownson 18:21
And I remember really having this almost like tension between business and personal. And what I ultimately realize is that it’s because I had that tension in myself, like I really was still struggling to see that business and personal are not different things, especially as a small business owner. But I mean, I think for anyone who is working, your work really isn’t separate from you. So how I weave that in, it kind of depends. I would say at this point, most of the people that I’m working with, they’re coming to me because they’re feeling something, they’re feeling overwhelmed. They’re feeling like their office is so disorganized, that they can’t even- like they go in there on a Monday morning. And they just sit and stare at the wall for two hours because they’re not inspired. And they don’t know where to start. Or they’re feeling completely burnt out and thinking that they want to leave their business but they’re not quite there yet. They’re not willing to give up everything that they’ve built. And they’re feeling really frustrated and stuck around that.

Linsi Brownson 19:18
So that’s usually kind of an easy starting point, a conversation to really dig into, like what is behind that because there are a lot of tangible things that we can look at. If you’re dealing with a lot of distraction during your work day there. Of course there are things that are distracting you, but the natural conversation is like why are you getting distracted? You know, why is it when an email pops up and you get a notification on your screen? Like why is that your go-to, to click on it. What do you think is going to happen if you don’t? The world’s gonna fall apart, right?

Linsi Brownson 19:53
As business owners especially like talking about hustle culture in this like pushing an instant gratification The thing that we’re used to, we do have this idea that, you know, if a client calls us and we don’t answer them right away, that they’re going to fire us, or that something terrible is going to happen, and we’re going to end up homeless on the street and, you know, in trying to beg for food. So we do have to, like break that cycle of believing that we have to react in order for things to continue moving forward.

But the very simple answer to your question is really, that it never is hard to weave together. Because there’s a very clear connection between how you’re thinking, how you’re feeling, and what you’re doing in your business and the results that you’re getting. And they’re never separate. They’re always just one in the same story.

Abby Herman 20:42
Yes, I agree. I’ve seen a meme go around, that is a little boy looking into a mailbox. And it says something to the effect of what would your neighbors think if you checked your mailbox as often as you checked your email, when they can go along with slack and with voxer, and Facebook messenger, and Facebook and all of the other things that we get notifications for that we’re taking all the time, and it’s not going to fall apart? And I’m told, and I’m totally guilty of doing that I’ve taken all the things way too much.

Abby Herman 21:16
So you have a statement on your website that says, Would you believe me? If I told you that stress, hustle and overwhelm, were holding your business back? And yes, I do believe you. Yeah. Because I have experienced that. And some days, I still do. How do we work past the feeling that we have to be hustling? And that we have to say yes to all of the things and just being stressed out in general?

Linsi Brownson 21:44
I mean, the first true answer is a new level of self awareness. It’s like really deciding that you want to not just change the behaviors that are causing the stress and the overwhelm, or that is perceived to be causing it. But really changing how you’re thinking about your business on the whole and how you’re approaching it. So I like to start with, we look at the actual business model that you have. So what actually is going on behind the scenes in your business, understanding how you run it, who you’re working with, what you’re doing for them, how often you’re operating, what your time management is, like how you take care of your body, it’s really, it’s the whole picture of what is your life and your business look like today. And then we can start to like, pull out some of the pieces. So there’s usually some pretty big offenders in that.

Linsi Brownson 22:36
So when someone is hustling, as one example, there’s some really big pieces of their business or their life that feels like well, I just have to constantly hustle. So again, a good example is Instagram. I just feel like I’m on this content hamster wheel, and I can’t ever get out. And I’m not getting the results that I want from it, but I can’t stop, which is when you really back up from that and look at that statement, right? I think we all have that experience. And we can all see it objectively, when it’s not our experience. We’re like, well, it doesn’t make any sense. It’s not working for you, and you’re gonna keep doing it six hours a day. Like, that’s, why are we going to do that? So starting to really get awareness of what’s actually going on is the true reality of the situation.

Linsi Brownson 23:23
And then some simple coaching questions to start to understand, well, what do you really want? I think that one thing is that when we are in hustle mode, especially but any of the things that you said, disorganized, overwhelmed, stressed out, burnt out, we’re so in it, it seems so permanent, and so intense, that it’s kind of impossible. We don’t even let ourselves think in a different way, think with a more spacious attitude, right. So we really need to quiet the outside noise. That’s where I like to start. So we really need to start by quieting the external noise.

Linsi Brownson 24:02
So most of the time, we’ve got a ton of internal noise. That’s just human nature. Our minds are crazy chatter bugs. And then we also have a ton of external noise. So it’s all the social media, it’s the family members asking you questions and people, you know, what’s going on in your business? How are things going, it’s the clients who need things from you. So to create noise first, I think we just shut off everything that’s outside of our internal chatter, then we start to look at our internal chatter, because that’s where the change is going to come from. Either way. You can’t set boundaries with the client until you are clear on the boundary you want and you’re willing to honor it for yourself, right.

Linsi Brownson 24:38
So like, we can’t change the outside world until we really have an understanding of what’s going on inside. So quiet the external noise, get outside of tha.t maybe that looks like a social media break, a detox, maybe it looks like telling your clients that you’re taking a three day sabbatical, but whatever you need to do to just be able to actually slow down a little bit next week. Hold down your nervous system, another conversation, but really the physical responses that we want to address to get everything quiet or get like the energy movement, a little bit more static, so that we can tune in to our own internal frequency and start to ask those questions.

Linsi Brownson 25:17
What do I really want? How do I want to be in my day? How do I want to feel? while I’m working? How do we want to feel at the end of a week? And I like to focus on the feelings more so at least in the beginning than the actual results? Not what do I want to create? Just how do I want to feel? How is this process of creation? You know, what’s that experience? Like for me if I’m doing it the way I want to? And so once we can just tune into that, and I think for most people, creators, especially we’re not far from that it’s not like we don’t know those answers. It’s just that we’ve got so much going on that we’re not able to hear it. And we’re not willing to listen, when we are in that constant push forward kind of mode.

Linsi Brownson 26:02
So when I talk about business alignment, I’m really talking about getting that sense of connection with yourself again, and that connection with purpose. And then looking at what that actually would, how you would show up in your business, how a business could operate. If you decided that you were only going to work three days a week, and that you were still going to make the same amount of money, like how do we do that?

Abby Herman 26:26
And I think that it goes back to, why did you start your business in the first place. So many of us left corporate or I was a teacher, you know, a lot of us left what we were doing so that we could have more control in our lives and in our businesses. And in the time that we spent every day, the nine to five time that we spent every day. And I feel like we have forgotten that we’ve gotten so wrapped up in the hustle and the bustle and getting stuff done and doing all the shoulds and all of that, that we’ve forgotten why we wanted to build this life in the first place.

Linsi Brownson 27:02
Yeah, for sure. And we get into a state where we’re so driven by the fear. Now things are really on the line here. When you have a corporate job, or any job, you have a different level of certainty. And there’s struggles in that space to write but when your actual livelihood and everything you want everything You are everything you’re capable of, it’s all right here in front of you. And I think we give that a lot of power in a way that motivates us from fear rather than from inspiration and excitement.

Abby Herman 27:35
Yeah. So if we make the choice to slow down in our business, what does that mean? What does that look like in our business? And then what could that potentially look like in our lives?

Linsi Brownson 27:46
Yeah. So I think that I really help people do two primary things when we’re getting into the action phase. And one of them is creating systems that support you and your business. And really, systems, in my opinion, are built to give you flexibility. It’s like we create structure so that we can have lots of freedom and space. And so slowing down is about making choices around how much money of course, how much money do you want to earn? And how do you want to earn it? And I think so many of us when we’re in the noise, we’re thinking more and more and more, how do I want to earn it, it’s to do more. And when we’re willing to slow down and ask that same question.

Linsi Brownson 28:30
Like, okay, I’m no longer willing to do more or do too much. But am I still going to earn the amount of money that I want? What could that look like? And we start to really explore other options, right? If you need to keep your same income, but have the number of hours that you work in a week, we know that that’s possible because other people do it. So it’s just a matter of saying like, how could I do it? What could that look like for me? And that’s where we start to get creative. Like we have this amazing creative power in our brains, we just need to use it for good instead of for anxiety and overwhelm.

Abby Herman 29:06
And that, like you said before, it just rolls over to our personal life too. Because there’s really no separation. There’s no, your personal life is your business life and vice versa, because we’re small businesses, and it impacts us so much how we operate and business impacts our personal life and vice versa.

Linsi Brownson 29:25
Yeah, absolutely. And the beautiful thing is when you do start to learn some of these practices in the way that you show up in your business, you start to implement it in the same way in your life. The mother in law, that was a boundary creeper, isn’t so much of a problem. When you’ve learned how to set boundaries with your clients. It’s like you’re just translating this skill set from one area to another, like whatever the biggest pain point is.

Linsi Brownson 29:50
That’s where you get to put your power and say like, Okay, I’m a creative, badass person who can solve any problem like how do I make this one better? How do we feel better? How do we make sure my needs are met in situations where I’m uncomfortable? We’ve already done that in other ways. So how do we apply that same thing to what you’re dealing with? Now?

Abby Herman 30:10
This is so good. So you have an ultimate business clarity, meditation and action plan workbook that really aligns with what we’ve been talking about here. Can you share what that is? And where can people find it?

Linsi Brownson 30:24
Absolutely, yes. So I created this, we start with the meditation, it’s just a 10 minute guided meditation, where I kind of walk you through coming up visualizing this business that you would love to have. And like I said earlier, it’s really about the feeling and what that translates to into these tangible experiences in your life that get you very excited. And then the action plan workbook is immediately after you do this meditation and your head’s all like buzzy with beautiful images and inspiration, excitement, then it actually walks you through some questions to help you figure out what some of your next steps are going to be. And to help you figure out how to implement those same feelings that you just generated in your body into your daily activities.

Linsi Brownson 31:08
So it’s really about implementing it immediately. When you’ve got that entire body feeling. It’s the best time to take action because you’re in the zone, you are living your ideal life at that moment. And then we start to make some decisions that help you keep that going. Yeah, so people can access that I have it inside my Maverick HQ, which is my free resource library. There’s all kinds of goodies in there, if you go to LinsiBrownson.com/Maverick, you can get free access to the vault there. And it’s called the ultimate business clarity, meditation and action plan workbook.

Abby Herman 31:46
Awesome. I love it. I’m gonna go grab mine. Soon as we get done here. If listeners were to only take action on two things that they learned here today, by listening to you, what do you hope that they take away from this conversation?

Linsi Brownson 32:01
So the first one is, I would say carve out a few minutes today, to have some quiet time and to just actually do a check in with yourself. So you can grab a journal, you can go for a walk, however you like to do it. But really just to check in and say how am I feeling right now? Is this aligned with how I would like to be feeling in my day, in my work day in my life? How am I feeling right now? How would I like to be feeling and just get a sense of where you’re at, without trying to fix anything or make any decisions. It’s a skill that we build, to be able to truly just be who we are in the moment and observe ourselves. So that would be my first recommendation.

Linsi Brownson 32:43
And the second one is, I really believe that most of us are so much closer to the business that we want to have than we realize. And when you’re doing that quieting the noise and just getting present with yourself, you are able to see that more. But I think the second thing really is to have a little bit of gratitude to really consider the business and the life that you have right now and do this in your quiet moment as well. But really consider what you already have that’s really working for you.

Abby Herman 33:15
I think that’s so simple. Yet, I think we forget that so much to have gratitude for where we are right now. And you know, the work that we’ve done to get to where we are as well. So that’s so important. Absolutely. See, this has been so great. So much great information, so much insight. I love it. And I really think that people can go back. And I mean, I would listen again and gather all of these nuggets of we don’t have to do at all. We don’t have to hustle, we can take a step back and approach things from a different perspective, the way that we want to approach them. So thank you for that.

Linsi Brownson 33:59
Yes, my pleasure.

Abby Herman 34:00
Where can people find you if they want to learn more about you or to follow you online? Where are you hanging out these days?

Linsi Brownson 34:07
So you can find me on Instagram at LinsiBrownson. And I also have a podcast called Be Brilliant in Your Business. And the Instagram for that is BeBrilliantPodcast. So Instagram is my jam. And you can also find me at LinsiBrownson.com.

Abby Herman 34:27
Fantastic. And we’ll have links to all of that in the show notes. Thank you so much, Linsi for being here.

Linsi Brownson 34:33
Thank you, Abby. It’s been so fun.

Abby Herman 34:37
I would love to know how you’re feeling after listening to this episode. Do you feel like you have just a little more permission to slow things down and to stop doing things in your business because you feel like you should do them? How do you really want to feel? And are you really listening to yourself? When Linsi and I recorded this I think I mentioned at the beginning of the Episode I had just let go of several things in business things I felt like I should be doing, like leading a networking group, participating in a mastermind group and being a part of another networking group. And there are a bunch of things in my personal life too, that I felt like I should be doing. And as we recorded, I had just let these things go.

Abby Herman 35:23
And as I’m recording this outro, about a month later, I have to tell you that it’s been a month and I feel so much lighter. I’ve been working on opening up time and creating more structure in both my life and my business. So I can take more time for myself, and for giving back and giving back. That’s another conversation for another time. So stay tuned. Like I said in the intro, I truly hope this episode reaches you at just the right time. I get a lot of messages from you both via email and Facebook, direct messages, and Instagram direct messages, that somehow my podcast episodes are reaching you right when you need them and giving you exactly what you need. I love hearing that. Thank you so much to everyone who takes the time to let me know that you are enjoying what you’re hearing.

Abby Herman 36:19
I’d love to know if you take Linsi’s advice and check in with yourself to see how the things you are doing align with your day, with your life, with your business. And are you stopping to find gratitude in your day? I sure hope so. That’s something that I’m definitely working on as well.

Abby Herman 36:38
If you found value in what you learned here today, be sure to share it on social media. Take a screenshot of the episode on your phone and share it over on Instagram stories. tag me at the content experiment and tag Lindsay @LinsiBrownson. It’s L i n S I B R O W n s o n. The more you share, the more we can get the podcast into the hands of more business owners just like you who need to hear the message that they are not alone. Until next time, take care

Transcribed by https://otter.ai