Celebrating One Year of the Prosperous Empath

Catherine A. Wood  00:01

Hello there, welcome to the prosperous Empath cat here. I am celebrating with you this week, y’all we are celebrating the one year anniversary of launching the podcast, I can hardly believe it. We have been publishing a weekly episodes for the past year. And we’re finally one year old. Woohoo we raise a glass with me i honestly all i It is highly, unlikely unrealistic, unreasonable for me to be here. I hate the sound of my voice on a mic. I don’t like talking into a microphone off of myself. This is not my natural jam. This has been a growth journey. For me. It’s been a challenge. And it has been one I have been deeply honored to lean into. Because I really believe in the message of what we’re here to talk about. I am such a stand that we need more Empath entrepreneurs are thriving in business. So thank you so much for being here. For the last year, it has been a wild ride. And I’ve learned so much. And on today’s show, I want to share a little bit about some of my learnings and learning how to be fully authentic. So much of our work in becoming prosperous. Empaths has to do with this idea of learning how we can become fully self expressed authentically ourselves in business, in relationship and everywhere else. And so to end today’s episode, I want to share with you some of the lessons that have supported me in overcoming that roadblock, and also some of the guests that we’ve had on the show that have really spoken to this concept. Before we dive into today’s episode, I want to share a couple of really fun mile markers and stats with y’all because you know this this gal here is a former senior economist for the government loves her data. So we officially hit 5000 Donald downloads for the podcast this week, which is wild. And the show has been listened to in 24 countries. Now a lot of the countries I have connections with and know people in but some of the countries really surprised me. We’ve had people tune in from Cyprus, Singapore, Finland and Serbia. So well, let’s see. So if you’re Novak Djokovic, please reach out because I would love to interview you on the show. And if you’re from any of those countries, I’d love to connect with you and hear from you. How cool is that? So without further ado, let’s dive in. Because I want to set the scene here. It is incredibly challenging for us as empaths to be authentic. And here’s why. For many of us, growing up, myself included, many of us wore these labels, such as being the good girl in our lives or being the good boy or the good child like really developing that quality of being a people pleaser, where we got to do things for other people, in order to feel good about ourselves in order to be validated and loved and accepted and cared for. Many of us were natural caretakers, natural helpers in our families and in our in our childhood. For these reasons, I think many of us also make excellent business owners. But one of the consequences of that is that we became disconnected with ourselves when we were being the good girl and the people pleaser in the caretaker and the helpers, we were connecting with our own sense of worth, our own sense of inherent value as a human being, through our actions through what we did through our OIC our output through what we produced or how we served other people. And so we needed to do something, or be someone for someone else, in order to feel connected with ourselves. So can you see where I’m going here? So when we as children learned that we needed to do things a certain way, do things a good way do things the right way, in order to receive that validation and that praise. We naturally started to embrace and embody these labels, and these labels started to become who we were. So we started to become the people pleaser. We started to become the good girl. We started to become the helper and in my own expense Ryan’s along the way, and became really disconnected with me and who I am. And that just really loud, adventurous, spunky, joyful person that I am, who has a loud voice, who has a big laugh, who, oh takes up a lot of space, like I lost that connection with her through the journey of finding myself through my actions, and my output. So naturally, through this experience, many of us become disconnected from ourselves disconnected from our own authentic self expression, let alone our own personal needs, and desires and wants. When we are defining our value as a human being or our worthiness as a person or an individual, based on what we are producing. Naturally, we become disconnected from our own inherent internal needs. Now, you can imagine that this impacts us across the board, not only in business, as well as in owning our expertise, and our value add, but also in our romantic relationships, let alone from being truly authentic. This has been so much of my own personal journey, but it’s also a journey that resonates with so many of the folks that I have connected with over the past decade of being in business. Now, I want to normalize a couple things here. It is super vulnerable to be authentic, there is something inherently wrong, fear provoking about sharing our most authentic truths, our most heartfelt desires, needs and wants. And having that kind of fear of that truth being rejected or denied, or told no, like for many of us, that fear of rejection or being told no, really holds us back. Because when we are defining so much of our value, based on, again on our actions and our output, and how we make other people happy or pleased, then naturally we’re going to be very sensitive or going to take very personally people’s responses. So we might have this experience that we won’t be liked, if we’re authentically ourselves that we won’t be approved by some that will push people away or experience rejection. And yes, you absolutely will. Absolutely, you will. But in the process will also find our power people will attract those individuals that we’re meant to serve will naturally attract those authentic people we are meant to be in relationship with to support to connect with because when we can authentically share and communicate our truth, we make room to attract other people who share the same values and believe in the same things. I also want to say that through practicing being authentic through taking up more space, through getting into relationship with those aspects of our personalities that we feel shame around or that we don’t like or that irritate us, that through repetition and practice, we take a less personally people’s responses, or we have less self judgment or less insecurity around those very habits and tendencies. And that’s totally been my experience, hosting the podcast because let’s be honest here, I pause a lot in my speaking, I sometimes close my eyes when I’m trying to connect with my intuition or get to the heart of what I want to say. I have a soft voice that over the years I’ve been like, like, you know, what do people think of the way I talk like these are all aspects of my own communication style that I have had to reckon with. But through practicing being authentic through putting on loudspeaker some of those like weird habits and behaviors that I sometimes wonder how others perceive I’ve I’ve accepted them. And I’ve also found some some lightness with them and they don’t really hold a lot of significance for me anymore. And at the end of the day, the truth of the matter is that for all of these reasons, this is why we as empaths are so valued in leadership roles because we care so deeply because we have such an orientation towards mission and values, alignment and purpose, we make great leaders. We’re also naturally trusted in business, we create instant rapport in our relationships with folks, because of how deeply we care, because of how open heartedly we give, because of how intuitively we listen, we have so much to contribute in the business world. And last but not least, we have such high morals. And we as empaths are so values oriented, that we and we care so deeply about others. And in the world, we have a predisposition towards high conscientiousness. So it is necessary that we thrive in business. In my experience, it’s fundamentally necessary that we thrive in business because of how much we care. And because I truly believe that we can change the metaphorical rules of the business world, through our care and our empathy. And we need to lean in to our own authentic voice, our own authentic self expression, our own authentic beliefs and values and communicate them in a way that feels good in our nervous systems in a way that we can embody. So that we take up more space in the business world, because honestly, the world needs our empathic leadership and the business world would be forever changed through more empathy and compassion. So with that, I want to jump in and I want to share six of the lessons that I’ve learned over the past year that have really supported me in not only connecting with my own authentic truth, but it also being able to take up more space and share authentically. So the first one is self judgment. I think one of the reasons that empaths struggle with being authentic is because we have a natural pre orientation towards heightened self judgment. Now, I think this makes a lot of sense because as ambitious empaths, were high achievers, were performance oriented, we’re really driven. And it’s typically that drive that ambition, that not only causes us to achieve. And the opposite is true as well, like the louder you the ambitious drive, you have the louder your inner critic, because it’s the it’s the yin to the Yang, it’s because our her imposter syndrome, our inner critics are what caused us to push ourselves further, to set bigger goals for ourselves to be even more ambitious. So please don’t try to suppress or crush your own self judgment, there is a reason that we judge ourselves so dang hard. So rather than try to suppress it, or judge it or push it down, I invite you to own it, to acknowledge it. There’s something around really seeing, really embracing, really connecting with the parts of our ego with the parts of our shadow identity with the parts of our fear based aspects of ourselves that allows them to not be so loud. Man, I, I believe this so true so deeply. When I started just acknowledging how loud my own inner critic is. I noticed that the dial to turn down and I didn’t feel so self critical, so consistently anymore. And honestly, I feel like these days, all of the high performers, all of those women, identifying folks that we admire are talking about imposter syndrome. I love how Michelle Obama talks about her experience in overcoming impostor syndrome in her book becoming it is so true. So if you can’t change it, if you can’t suppress it, which I encourage you not to, then own it, embrace it, look for the ways that you can get into relationship with your own inner critic. That’s the first lesson. The second lesson is one that was really highlighted for me in my interview with Bonnie Kasam massima. Bonnie is an expert on intuition. And something that really stuck out for me from our conversation was that when we create space when we create spaciousness in our routine, when we create spaciousness in our minds, when we create spaciousness in our thoughts, we allow our intuition to emerge. We as empaths are naturally intuitive. But for so many of us, we busy ourselves, we are so geared towards performance and an orientation towards results. And doing that we become disconnected with our intuition because we are literally not carving out the physical time and space in order for her intuition to emerge. Our intuition is not something that there is to force or perfect our way through. It is really a practice in creating the time space and quiet in order to allow for that authentic truth to emerge. I don’t know about you, but for me, like I noticed that my morning routine is consistently where I connect with my intuition. And it could be in any of the practices that I do consistently. It’s sometimes on the beach with my dogs. It’s often on the meditation cushion when I’m meditating. It’s frequently on the yoga mat when I’m practicing, but it’s truly when I steal my mind when I allow my racing thoughts to subside or to take a break that those intuitive downloads come through. And I always try to write them down in the moment before I forget them because I so often do so that’s number two. The third lesson is one that has caused me a lot of personal angst and an exhaustion in my own life. Haley I’m waiting for the dog to stop barking. So that’s my second lesson learned when we create physical and mental space in our daily routine, that is when we allow our intuitive knowing our authentic truth to emerge.

Catherine A. Wood 00:00

That was my second lesson learned that when I routinely created the mental and physical space in my daily routine, and for me specifically through my morning routine, that is when my intuitive knowing my authentic truth, started to emerge more consistently. And I highly encourage you to jot those intuitive downloads in the moment. Alright, number three. So, my third lesson learned, is really an experience that I don’t think I have personally experienced in the last year. But I do think it is one of the key signifiers that gets in the way of empaths being authentic. And it’s that we’re all were burned out. I cannot tell you how many ambitious empaths that I speak with, on a regular basis, who are experiencing burnout who have experienced burnout, who created a huge career transition on the heels of experiencing burnout. And I think it makes so much sense. impasse, care so deeply about the people that they serve, that they can often give and give and give at the expense of their own well being at the expense of their own self care, at the expense of their own work life balance. And the truth of matter is that we cannot pour, or create, we cannot create from our most fully self expressed, fully enlivened place from an empty cup. That is a lesson I learned, I would say, near the beginning of my business, but honestly, folks, it is, it is probably the most consistent conversation that I have with clients or people exploring coaching is really, really ready to lean into this huge pivot in their business or their leadership as a result of overcoming burnout. There’s a great podcast episode that I recorded on healing from burnout as an ambitious empath. So we’ll link to we’ll link to all of these episodes in the show notes. All right, the fourth. The fourth, fourth lesson learned is actually one that Kiva Slade highlighted for me on a more recent episode, we I recently recorded with Kiva. But for me, she really put something into words that has been a deep value of mine for the past decade in business. So her episode was called strategic business planning for empaths. And something that I really appreciated with Kiva was that permission she gave, for us as empaths, to create our own KPIs to create our own key performance indicators. To create our own key performance indicators, because in reality, many ambitious empaths go into business for many different reasons than other folks. They go into business for more time, freedom, more permission to do things their own way more room to impact the audience, the community, the causes that they believe in. And we need to have metrics that can track that that can have us experience winning at the games that we are committed to playing, because so often, the games that we’re committed to playing are different than from other folks. So I want to heartily give you permission to create your own KPIs. One of the things that really sticks out to me about this for myself, is some of the feedback that I think I’ve consistently received in business since starting is that I exude a lot of joy in my photos in my copy in my messaging, and joy is a KPI for me, like if I’m not experiencing joy in a deal on a daily basis in my business and in my lifestyle, then for me, that’s a sign that I’m doing something wrong. So I want to heartily give you permission to create your own KPIs and for and to allow them to authentically guide your approach and business. Alright, that was less than four. All right, we have two more so The fifth message is one that Kristin kiddos by Yona highlighted for me in our episode called tapping into your message and and I loved what she had to say. So Kristin really shares about this idea and enrolled me in why it is so paramount for empaths to connect on a deep level with our why, and then learn how to authentically speak from that place. Now, for me, this has been really huge with the podcast because I, as a high achiever tend to have a predisposition to be perfectionistic in my work, and I can often default to perfectionism when I’m trying something new. Now, I have a decade of working with my own coach and I have transformed my relationship to perfectionism a lot. But have you ever heard the saying, new levels similar devils. So typically, whenever we start a new project, or create a new goal for ourself or start something new, we experience similar cousins, to those old, those old shadow selves to those old limiting beliefs. And for me, that is my perfectionism. So from for me with launching the podcast and in doing these solo episodes, when I notice my perfectionistic tendencies coming through of wanting to speak something the perfect way wanting to remove all the filler language from my speaking, I noticed that when I can sit and reconnect for a moment with my why, for sharing this message, for speaking about the importance of why I believe empaths need to thrive in business, why we need to carve out more space for us to become prosperous. It allows me to be more authentic. And I know that when I’m authentically connected with myself, that my message is so much more likely to land with you. Alright, that’s number five. And last but not least, my sixth and final lesson learned was highlighted in a conversation that I had with Philippa Girling. This is one of my favorite episodes that we published over the past year and the episode was called Bringing your pipe dream to life. And you’ve you may have listened to this episode because I’ve talked about it in a lot. But Philipa pivoted after 25 years in the banking and finance industry to buy a chateau in southern France with 50 other female identifying startup investors to launch a summer camp for women. And something that was hugely pivotal in her journey was allowing other people to be enrolled and hold the flame for her own dream, when her confidence played peekaboo with her. Something I loved that she shared in that episode was that she posted about this idea on Facebook before buying the Chateau and she asked if she was crazy, and she got so much so much of a positive response, so much feedback from her community that they loved the idea that they saw this for her that she had been talking about this for so long, that it helped Philipa become more self enrolled in her own dream. And I think whenever something matters to us deeply, that’s when our confidence is most likely to play peekaboo with us. And we need other people to remind us of our dreams in the face of our fears. So whether that is a post on Facebook, whether that is a mastermind, whether that is a therapist, a coach, a consultant, a mentor, a friend, an entrepreneurial colleague who shares the same values as you, we all need people to remind us of our dreams in the face of our fears. For me, I had two former clients who have become close friends who have been challenging me to launch a podcast for three years. They believed that I could do it long before I did. And I am so glad that I finally listened. Thank you so much for being here. I am deeply honored that you carve out time with me. Until next week.