9 Fundamental Business Practices and Mindset Shifts for the Prosperous Empath

Catherine Wood (00:01):

Hello, hello, and welcome back to this week’s episode of the podcast. The inspiration for today’s episode is what inspired me to launch this podcast. The journey of thriving financially as an empath in business has been a huge part of my journey in business, and it’s also a topic that I have supported countless clients in overcoming over the years. So today I wanna share with you nine of the fundamental business practices and mindset shifts that have been key to both my and their success. And before we jump in, I just wanna take a minute and thank you <laugh>. Thank you for listening to the podcast. Thank you for being here with me today. This is our fourth episode of the podcast. It’s also my fourth solo episode of the podcast. And many people don’t believe me when I say this, but this is uncomfortable for me.

Catherine Wood (01:01):

<Laugh> launching a podcast and speaking into a void when I can’t be with the energy of another person on the other side of a screen or a phone call is not something that I’m familiar with. And this has been an intentional practice in service of stepping outside of my comfort zone for my own growth. And it has been just that it’s been deeply rewarding and a practice for me in owning my own thought leadership, a practice for me in taking up space and a practice for me in sharing the message that I wanna contribute with the world. So thank you for your comments. Thank you for your reviews. Thank you for being here with me. It means so much. I also wanna extend an invitation if the journey of becoming a prosperous empath is a journey that you find yourself on in business, I wanna invite you to reach out and have a conversation with me about the Inbounded Mastermind.

Catherine Wood (02:00):

We have opened the doors of the Mastermind through the end of November, and we’re inviting a few select women to join us in the mastermind. Women who are interested in experiencing coaching, done in a powerful way with sensitivity and femininity. And if that resonates with you and you’re interested in up-leveling your community in the next year, I would welcome having a conversation with you. Running the Mastermind has been a deep joy, and being a part of intentional community has been foundational to my own success as an empathic entrepreneur. So, with that, let’s jump into today’s topic. So let’s set the scene. <Laugh>. It is hard to thrive as an empath in business because of how much we care. We care so deeply about others, about the world we want to serve. We want to be generous, and it can be challenging to serve others and to be as generous as we so intrinsically are, while also including ourselves.

Catherine Wood (03:15):

This has been a huge part of my journey because the, the organizations, the relationships, the people that I have committed to over the years, I have committed to with an fully open heart, sometimes oftentimes to the detriment of myself. So, learning how to care for others while also caring for ourselves is a fundamental mindset shift and transformation that empathic entrepreneurs must overcome in order to thrive financially, in order to not be taken advantage of at the negotiation table, or in the boardroom, or in hiring conversations. And I don’t know about you, but these are exactly the types of entrepreneurs that I wanna see with more economic power. The ones who will invest responsibly, the ones who will give back, and the ones whose financial decisions will help, causes that they believe in. Because the entrepreneurs who believe in what they do so deeply, like empathic entrepreneurs do, are typically the ones whose beliefs carry over to every other area of their lives.

Catherine Wood (04:36):

We, as empathic entrepreneurs, we redistribute money into the hands of those who will continue to allow money to heal and to help and to grow. Whew, I’m getting you a little impassioned about this. So with that, I wanna share with you nine of the foundational practices that I think will make all the difference for you in your journey of becoming a prosperous empath. So let’s jump in. Number one, a reminder, there is no magical potion to make money. There is simply a healthy dose of courage required and a willingness to take one brave and consistent step after the next. Let’s be honest, sometimes we, we think some people have it and some people don’t. Some people are lucky, some people are unlucky, and there is just no such thing. There is only bravery and courage in charging what you’re worth, in continually growing your edges and continually leaning into your own, in your, into your own edge of your comfort zone, just like I did with launching this podcast.

Catherine Wood (05:49):

So I want to I want to gift you a healthy dose of courage and bravery and a willingness to follow up with that lead Once more, ask for continually higher rates, expand what you think you’re worthy and deserving of being paid for your services. Share with your network about your programs and your offerings, and invite them to purchase, invite them to work with you. So that is number one, to remember that there is only a healthy dose of courage and a willingness to be brave in the way of thriving financially. Number two, consistency is queen. Do you like how I renamed that? Not king, but queen. Consistency is queen. I share this story in my mastermind, but when I started out in business, I had this this fuel to serve and to contribute. I deeply saw a future for me in becoming a full-time entrepreneur.

Catherine Wood (06:58):

And I knew that consistency is what was going to get me there. And when I started out I offered sample sessions to anyone who would who was interested in exploring coaching. And clearly I wasn’t going to invite people close to me, like family and friends to hire me. But I, I did ask every one of those people for referrals or who they knew in their worlds that I should talk to. And I think we all have kind of a unique road to getting our first client. And I also had a very unique journey because it took me 37 no’s to receive my first yes. And I often think back about that number, that lucky number 38, because first of all, eight is my lucky number and my favorite number. But I think back about 37 and the idea of what if I would’ve stopped at 37 sample sessions? What if I would’ve given up on my dream, on my goal, on my future vision at 36, at 35, at 37, if I had just not continued to pursue my vision? And we have to confront and conquer that someday Cinderella mindset, the idea that, you know, someday our luck will come someday, our, our our path will turn for us. It, it’s not someday. It is consistency. Consistency is what creates today. Consistency is what will create that experience of winning

Catherine Wood (09:10):

Practice. Number two is the reminder that consistency is queen. I often remember my own journey in business back in 2014 when I was just starting out as a coach and I was really fueled by a passion to quit my job and go into entrepreneurship full-time. I really saw a future for myself in coaching, and I was terrified and I didn’t let that fear stop me and on that road to not letting practice. Number two is the reminder that consistency is queen. I often think back to my own entrepreneurial journey. And when I started out in coaching back in 2014, I didn’t know many people who were coaching and practice number two is the reminder that consistency is queen. I often think back to my own entrepreneurial journey back in 2014 when I first started coaching and how many sample sessions it took me to receive my first yes. Now I had colleagues left and right front and center getting hired all the time, and that was really hard not to compare myself to their journeys, but I did my best and <laugh>, Okay, we’re gonna get this. Haley. Number two is the reminder that consistency is queen. I often think back to my own entrepreneurial journey back in 2014 when I first started coaching and how many nos it took me to receive my first yes, I had clients. 

Catherine Wood (12:00):

Number two is the reminder that consistency is queen. Number two is the reminder that consistency is queen. I often think back to my own entrepreneurial journey back in 2014 when I first started coaching, and I think back to my experience of getting my first full pay client as a coach. Oh my god, Luna.

Catherine Wood (12:47):

Number two is the reminder that consistency is queen. I often think back to my own entrepreneurial journey and coaching back in 2014 and the experience of getting my first full pay client. I had colleagues who were getting hired left and right who were charging double what I was charging at the time and how many no’s it took me to get my first. Yes, it took me 37 no’s to get my first full pay client on my 38th sample session. She hired me on my birthday, and I often think back to that number and the reminder of, what if I had given up on myself at 37? What if after getting 37 no’s I had decided, oh, this wasn’t for me. Oh, other people can do it. Oh, just not me. And being fueled by a goal, by a vision for what I wanted to do and how I wanted to contribute to the world is essentially what allowed me to take consistent action.

Catherine Wood (13:59):

Now, that’s not to say I didn’t struggle and I didn’t experience challenges along the way. I absolutely did. But consistency has been key to my success. It is crucial in the journey to becoming a prosperous and Beth and being connected with your larger vision. Your larger what for your larger why is a really helpful reminder of what you get to stay consistent in service of or for. Number three is the invitation to design and live a life you love. And I wanna, I wanna actually read a quote. I wanna kick us off with a quote by this book that I’m reading right now. It’s called Do Nothing, How to Break Away From Overworking, Overdoing and Under Living by Celeste Heley. And she says, Pushing Harder isn’t helping us anymore. We can and must stop treating ourselves like machines that can be driven and pumped and amped and hacked. Instead of limiting and constraining our essential natures. We can celebrate our humanness at work and in iness, we can better understand our own natures and abilities. We can lean in not to our work, but to our inherent gifts. So what I know about thriving as an empath and business is that having a life I love having a partner. I love having passions and hobbies that I love have been key to thriving and creating a business I love.

Speaker 2 (15:51):

Okay,

Catherine Wood (16:00):

As conscious entrepreneurs, our journey isn’t about thriving in business at the expense of every other area of our life anymore. That was so 2020 of us. Now there’s an invitation to design and live a life that you love and create a business you love in alignment with that life. When you create and when you create in harmony, when you create that experience of holistic success in your relationships, in your wellbeing, in your joy, you will thrive that much sooner in business. So, so far we’ve talked about number one to find that healthy dose of courage and bravery required for your success. Number two, the reminder that consistency is queen. Number three, the invitation to design and live a life you love. And number four is the reminder that your sensitivity is your superpower. I cannot tell you how many times I have been told throughout my whole life, cat, stop being so sensitive, <laugh> and hearing that as a critique, as an offense.

Catherine Wood (17:13):

I wanna remind you that your sensitivity is your superpower. That your sensitivity is a gift that you get to nurture, that you get to value, and that you get to respect in how you do business and in how you operate as a business owner, the way you were trained or what was modeled for you in terms of thriving, in terms of getting hired. It does not have to be your path. It does not have to be your way, and it does not have to be your model of doing business. I have really had to struggle with this over the years because I was trained in a model of handling objections in coaching to clients objections in a way that felt really awful on my nervous system. It felt like a very masculine approach to selling. And I didn’t have any other model for doing it differently.

Catherine Wood (18:14):

I didn’t have any other feminine or sensitive approach to selling to follow. And it took a lot of inner work to realize and to gain a healthy sense of permission that the way I was trained, that the way it was being modeled for me did not have to be my approach. I wanna remind you that your sensitivity is your superpower. It is also your north star. You get to trust and follow your sensitivity and find the aligned path of doing business in a way that feels good in your nervous system, that feels good in your soul, that allows you to maintain relationships and and essentially works <laugh>. Okay? Okay. All right. Number five is the reminder that what you track, you manage. So in my experience I’m a data junkie, right? My background is in economics, but having data in my business around when clients hire me, how long they stay with me, what months they typically hire me in, how many sample sessions I have to have in order to get a yes, right?

Catherine Wood (19:37):

Like how many nos it takes me having all of that data has been an access point to deepening my sense of self-trust in me and in how I operate as a business owner. So what you track, you will manage rather than be managed by it. There is just an total experience for me of peace in my business because I can trust the data of my business. I can trust the back end of my business and what the data shows me around the seasonality of my business, the ebbs and the flows of business. Now, I have worked with so many clients over the years who they can’t trust that experience of ebb and flow. They don’t necessarily understand that, that there will be natural ebbs and flows in business and that that’s actually healthy, that that’s natural, that that’s normal, that just like the seasons change, so do we in business. And as we ebb and flow, we get to evolve and grow. When you have data to back up how you operate in business, you will naturally gain a deepened sense of self-trust and peace in the data that that,

Catherine Wood (21:00):

That you manage. So however you begin to track and manage your data, I I can’t, I can’t highlight enough the value of doing that as soon as possible. All right. Number six is the reminder to celebrate other people’s successes and define communities where you can celebrate and share your own successes and your own journey. It can be naturally uncomfortable to talk about money, to talk about how much we charge, to talk about how much we earn, to talk about how much we save. It is not something that was modeled for many of us growing up. It’s not something that was taught for us in school systems. Many people have a lot of generational shame and trauma about money. It is so important to find safe places where you can share and be celebrated about your own money journey so that you can thrive and, and gain a felt sense of thriving being okay, of thriving, being celebrated, and of thriving being normal.

Catherine Wood (22:10):

Similarly, I really wanna invite you to notice when you can’t be with other people’s successes, when you have a judgment or a reaction in your body about other people celebrating their financial successes, their financial gains, your own discomfort with other people’s wealth or their own money mindset. We of, we so often make that about the other person we might critique. We might judge, we might make up stories about their belief systems. When in reality, whenever we are pointing the finger at someone else in business, there are three fingers pointing back at us in the mirror.

Catherine Wood (23:08):

Your own discomfort with other people’s successes and wealth speaks to your opportunities to grow and to heal. This opportun this highlights opportunities for your own deepened work that’s in the way of you thriving as a prosperous empath. So I just wanna remind you again, it is so important to share your money stories to find safe places where you can put on loud speaker what you’re celebrating and what you’re creating, and be celebrated in return. Number seven, boost your self worth to grow your net worth. This is a topic that I talk about a lot and it’s really been a huge part of my journey. A huge part of my journey in becoming a prosperous empath has revolved around increasing my own lovability, increasing my own sense of of loving myself, of opening myself up to be loved in return by romantic partners, by the people that I partner with, by the organizations that I join and belong to, right?

Catherine Wood (24:20):

Like there, there truly is this transformation of, you know, being generous and loving towards other people while being at the expense of ourselves to this balanced, aligned approach where we get to love others while also including ourselves in the dynamic. The degree to which we love our partners, our wellbeing, our joy, our access points to loving and accumulating our net worth. They go hand in hand. There’s just essential harmony that is required to thrive as a prosperous empath. So whatever ways support you in boosting your self-worth, whether it’s mourn rituals, whether it’s community, whether it’s connection with peers and friendships, whatever those access points are for you to boost your, your self-worth, those are some of the most foundational steps that you can do to heal and to grow. Number eight is the reminder to be of service to others. Now, as empaths, this is not something I likely need to remind you of, but what I notice is that when we lose sight of our gifts, when we become disconnected with our confidence, when our self-worth plays peekaboo with us, when we forget to charge what we believe and know we’re worthy and deserving of getting back to basics and being of service to others is a really powerful way to reconnect with your passion and your purpose for what you do.

Catherine Wood (26:14):

And I wanna leave you with this quote from the book all about love by bell hooks that really speaks to this. She says, Love and action is always about service. What we do to enhance spiritual growth, a focus on individual reflection, contemplation and therapeutic dialogue is vital to healing, but it is not the only way to recover ourselves. Serving others is as a fruitful a path to the heart. As any other therapeutic practice to truly serve, we must always empty the ego so that space can exist for us to recognize the needs of others and be capable of fulfilling them. The greater our compassion, the more aware we are of easy to extend ourselves to others that make healing possible. I think that this is such a powerful reminder because for me, coming back to basics, coming back to being of service is a key access point for me in thriving, in knowing what I’m worth, in reconnecting with who I am.

Catherine Wood (27:25):

And the final practice I wanna leave you with today, number nine is the invitation to surrender the outcome and simply be in relationship. If you have been following me for a while, you know that I’m a deep believer and practitioner of a course and miracles, and today’s lesson really spoke to me. It said, I place the future in the hands of God. The past is gone, the future is not yet. Now am I freed from both for what God gives can only be for good and I accept. But what she gives as what she gives is what belongs to me. That reminder to surrender the outcome, to surrender to God, to give it over to God, whether your God is nature or a purple elephant or higher power or yoga or the ocean, whatever your, your, your access point to that universal knowing larger than ourselves is surrender the outcome to that and to simply practice being in relationship with the people that you contribute to and that you can be of service to. So I really hope that you enjoy these nine reminders and practices. They’ve been really empowering for me to reconnect with myself. Thank you so much for listening.