Imagine having a great job at a top fashion company and building a property portfolio across the east coast of America. I mean, what else could a girl want in her twenties? Well, imagine having all of that and feeling dead inside. What do you do? Well, of course you up and go and work in a nudist colony in Spain.

What else would we do? I would love to introduce you to, to Jenna Harrison. Has completely changed the way that I think about working. And Jenna, welcome to the show. Please tell me about the nudist quality because I don't know this story. Oh my gosh. Thank you so much for having me, first of all. And what a fun introduction.

I mean, I would listen to this episode if I were doing it, if I were on the other end. Complete transparency. It was a nudist beach, not a nudist colony. Oh. Although I don't think it would've phased me at that point in my life. Well, actually here in Spain, which is where I am based now. Again, funny how life, you know, works in circles because I was here in my twenties and now I'm here again later in life.

But here in Spain it's re, it's really common to just have a beach. People will go to, they'll be nude for the time in the beach when they're in the water, put their clothes back on and go about their. Their day. So it's not a huge lifestyle choice. It just seems like, do I wanna keep my bathing suit top on or not?

It's that simple for them. But obviously coming as an American and all of our puritanical values, it was a big deal to be working on a nudist speech. For me, and I didn't set off to work on a nudist speech. It's just that that's the job that I found and I was actually fully clothed while I was working.

People ask me that all the time, which is, I was gonna ask you that question. Were you serving tables naked? No, I was not. I did have my clothes on, but yes, when I went to the beach, I'd just take everything off and be one of the people. Wow. That is, can I just say that is so liberating. I live in a beachside suburb now, and I don't think that I'm a prude.

Like I'm, I'm all good for everybody taking their clothes off, just not me. I don't, I, that's not where I'm going. And we have a lot of European people who come to, uh, Manley where I live, and it is not unusual to see them in the showers at the beach naked. And of course, you know, Australians not dissimilar.

It's kind of like, oh, walk past, you know, gotta close your eyes. Don't look, don't look over there, don't look over there, don't look there. I, I can imagine going and working in a place like that, but then I can also imagine, I'm just trying to think of the word that is a really nice word. Being surprised at how comfortable people are with their bodies, all of that to say.

Were you comfortable right from the beginning or did you have to have a bit of a mindset shift? It was more of a, let me just do it and not think about it. And then once I did it once, it was completely life-changing because here's what you won't think is gonna happen. You actually feel less self-conscious when you're naked.

I know, I know. It sounds crazy. Really. Yes, because when you're in a bikini, it's meant to highlight certain areas and camouflage others, and everybody's looking at everybody and there's more of I, in my perception, there's more of a kind of sex quotient. On the beach, there's more of an appearance based culture.

Mm-hmm. When everybody is just free doing their things, people don't really look that sexy, honestly. They look like human bodies, and there's one body that looks like this and is this shape another body that looks like that and is that shape, and it just. Changes your perception so fully that it brings you out of, of the identity and the mindset you've grown up with, and you're just in this completely new environment, which for me was riveting because that is what my whole brand is about.

Is about really seeing things uncommonly and finding your uncommon way. And so when I found this thing that I had been mired in for so long without questioning or believing it could be any different and then experiencing it firsthand, oh my gosh. It was just so mind opening. It's interesting, I just, before this call, I was on a call with our coaching team and it was interesting that we were talking about how.

Like the people that we work with, sometimes you tell them, you know, you don't tell them. Sometimes you work with them on something so small that in this case it was some time tracking, which made them realize that the, the owner of the business doing their own bookkeeping when we, we mastered out. It was costing around about $23,000 a year.

And if they just gave that to a bookkeeper, they wouldn't be paying a bookkeeper $23,000 a year. And how much money they could save by giving it to an expert, but also how much time they regained. And so your, your thought process there of like, sometimes it, you just have to put yourself in a different environment to realize that the way that you think.

Isn't not necessarily the right way, but it could be different and get you a different outcome and that outcome might be better. Huge. Absolutely. And that's really what that process is, what we shortcut when we work with a coach, because I like to say even a brain surgeon can't do surgery on themselves, right?

So when you are in it, it just feels like that's the way it is. It never would've occurred to me living in the United States to say, let me just take off my clothes and see if it feels liberating. Right? But because I had the opportunity and I was there and other people were doing it. It. It seems so natural, and that's another testament to the power of community and group.

When you're around people where other people are caring about this, working on this, believing it's possible, changing their own identities and perceptions, then that is like lightning fuel for you. I feel like you would just, on this call that we had on the coaching team, because one of the coaches literally said exactly what you just said.

He said, sometimes you think. Someone will give you some advice and you think, oh, well, I've like, I've tried that before and it hasn't worked. And then you'll be in, in a group of people and they've tried the same thing and it did work. And all of a sudden your mindset is like, huh, well, if it worked for them, maybe I, maybe I didn't do it right the first time, or, or maybe it just didn't work then, but it works now.

And so I swear you have, like you were on that call without a zoom without being there. Yes. You obviously still don't work on the nudist speech. Tell me about the transition from serving, what was it? The waiting tables on the nudist speech? Yes, not the nudist colony. To being a business coach who helps people change the way that they think so they can work less.

Oh, so fun. Well, there are many decades between those two points in my life, and it's a very winding road, but I'll give you the condensed version. When I went over there, I think what was going on is that I had been in a very high performance culture my whole life. Everything was striving to get towards the university, the college, we were all very competitive.

Everyone's competing with each other, and then once you get in there, it's even harder, right? Then you're really having to. Compete even more, and I was so burnt out and I felt just so completely exhausted that when I went on an exchange trip to Spain and saw a completely different way of living, let me tell you, the coveted job there was a postal worker because you get the most benefits and time off compared to the work that you're doing and people were really living for Whatever happens after.

Their work hours. Right. That's when you would ask someone, what do you do? They'd be like, oh, I play guitar. You play guitar professionally? No, no, no. I'm a postal worker when I play guitar in the evening. Wow. And that was mind, that was mind blowing for me. And so I returned to Spain. Later because I'd had that taste of it and I just knew that I had to experience it.

I had to live it and let myself see if I could unwind in that way. Right. And and change in that way. And it turns out that what I was, I didn't realize. 'cause it sounds great. Oh, drop out. Go live on a beach in Spain. But what was huge for me was that I didn't have a sense of meaning and purpose when I was waiting tables on the nudist speech.

And I realized that if I were going to spend eight to however many hours a day, because they do actually work a lot in Spain, they take a siesta in the middle of the day, but then they're working late into the evening. Do they play guitar on their siesta? Yes. Oh, but of course, and I realized I didn't wanna fill all those hours with something that didn't feel challenging, didn't feel meaningful, and so I decided to go back to the United States and kind of build up my.

Knowledge base and skillset in the corporate America, which I did, hence you intro introd with the fashion company. That's where I went from there, and then I married into the army. Swore that would never happen because I had actually grown up in the military and I was steeped in military culture, and which I equated with sort of this competitive lifestyle as well because my dad was a pilot and then I married in, we moved to Germany and I started to become fascinated with the military.

Now seeing it as an adult rather than as a child. I thought it was fascinating how they would take these young people from, unfortunately, usually disadvantaged neighborhoods. Those were the people that were signing up to become a soldier and somehow working with them, they would turn them in to a US soldier, right?

What happens? For them to change so completely. And at first I thought it was brainwashing, but then it turns out as I learned more about it and I was able to actually do graduate certificate in leadership development with the US Army, and then I actually started working with people with teams. In the US Army, and what I found out was that it went much deeper.

It was much more about identity change and what is the process for creating that identity change. And I was completely fascinated. However, when I then started my business first as a performance coach, and then since I was working with entrepreneurs, people started calling me their business coach, and I started sharing with them everything that I was learning myself about business building, and that combination of the mindset and the business building was really, really helpful for them and created great results.

What I realized was that I was still, I hadn't found a way to break through this, not just 40 hours Selena, but all of my time was going into work. So I needed to find a way through that because it got to the point where I was, I'd had a young child, then later I had my, my son and I was working nap times and evenings every single day for seven days.

A week, and there was one night Friday night where I'd take a break to be with my husband, but it was only because I felt guilty about being a bad wife. That was the only thing that pulled me away from work. The guilt. Exactly. And so I had to find a way. I was gonna say, I want to unpack that, but I just want to go back.

If you don't mind, can we just like reverse just a little bit from when you left Spain? To go back to get the job in fashion. One of the things that you had said was that it was like, it was very liberating and it changed the way that you thought. Can you walk us through what your, I guess, what your mindset was like, or what your, like your brain was thinking if you had gone through that process of, oh my gosh.

People here aren't defined by their career. They're defined by what they do after hours. Everybody here's a lot more relaxed and they think differently. But then when you went back to the US you decided to go back to all the things that you were, I guess, you know, running away from the first time. I told myself I was doing it differently.

At the time, so prior to going to Spain, I was thinking about investment banking and consulting, and that's what everyone was thinking about back when I graduated in the nineties. And one other thing to point out that your audience may not realize is that when I was in Spain, nowadays we have so much more flexibility with the internet to.

Create whatever kind of company we want and live wherever we want and be location independent. But that did not exist back then. There was no way that I could have done that, and so I needed to go somewhere where the work would be. So when I went back to the states, I told myself I was going to do things differently because I was going to enter a creative industry.

And so I was really, this is a. Again, I told you a long and windy story, but when I was in Spain, I spent a lot of time with artisans that are there selling to tourists, and I fell in love with the craft of jewelry making. And so when I went back to the United States, I wanted to get into that world. And so I did take there.

There were some. Jumps. I worked for a company first just to get money to create a home base in New York City, and then I was moving into jewelry and from there segued into fashion. And that's kind of where the story picks up, where you were coming along. But I thought I was doing it differently. And that's really how we tease ourselves, right?

Our brains are so smart that they just keep bringing us back to the patterns and the lifestyle that feels. Known to us and comfortable to us, even if it's what we say we don't really want. Oh, and we are gonna dive into that, aren't we? Yes. If we can go back to where, where we were before we, we, we reversed, we talked about guilt and I know that for me and, and still, you know, 15, 20 years later, I still struggle with the guilt.

I don't work nine till five. I don't even always work seven till three. I have that ability to go to the gym or to go to the doctor's appointment, or when my daughter was littler, I could go to do the school thing. But every time I took that time off, I always felt guilty that I should have been working on my business.

I would say to myself, well, that's okay. When you are in the business, work on the business. When you're not in the business, you know, be present with your family. When you have your own own business, it is all consuming and it's so hard for those lines to draw a harsh line to draw, say, okay, this is work time, this is family time.

How do we get rid of the guilt? Does it ever go away? 'cause I'm putting my hand up and saying, 20 years later, I still feel guilty. Yeah. I think our experience of the guilt can change. So your brain will still do brain things where it will bring up a thought that you maybe should be doing something else.

But really how you react to that is what changes. And what I found for myself was that just trying to think my way into new thoughts wasn't really doing it for me. I actually had to. Go deeper into the nervous system and realize that there was a pattern, there was a response mechanism that would kick in, would get triggered by certain things, and it would keep bringing me back into these old patterns and habits.

Tell me more about that, because as you say that, it makes so much sense to me and I think for me. It is that when you're a kid and you are constantly told, you know, if you work hard, you know, get a good job, you will be successful. And it's so ingrained that, and when you have a job, if you work more hours, you generally get paid more.

Like, you know, unless you're on a fixed salary, you, you work more, you get overtime. And so that reinforcement as we or you get the promotions, you get the promotions. And so that reinforcement all through our working lives, if you didn't. Go straight into entrepreneurship outta school is work more, earn more.

But you and I both know that that is actually not the case. In fact, we haven't got there yet. But the re the perfect segue, the reason I brought you on in was to help me and the the listeners understand how we can create and grow a business in a three day week. Do I just say that? Yes. Yes. To be clear, some of my clients come to me working 60 hours and they just wanna work 40 hours, right?

Or they just want to be able to close the laptop and then go home without still thinking about work and running through all the scenarios in their mind. But they're, once you start doing that, what's so fun is that you start questioning what else is possible. Could it be possible to work a three day work week?

Right? So, or could it be possible for me to change this other part of my life? I have so many clients that come to me thinking they're coming to me for one thing, but in the end, we end up losing the weight or moving locations or doing other things in their lives that they thought were impossible. And then it turns out that they're entirely possible.

We just have to apply this process. I always have so many questions. How do you, I'm really interested to hear, because we did not discuss this beforehand, so I am doing that thing you should never do when you are like on air, which is you should never ask the question you don't know the answer to, but I'm going to ask you anyway, which is I.

How do you determine what to focus on for a client? And if, if it's okay, I will just jump in and tell you. My brain works very strategically and so I am very much focused on. What is the biggest constraint in your business That if we just fix that one thing, a whole bunch of other problems would disappear.

And I honestly, for years thought I was freaking brilliant for coming up with that. And then I built out my five core pillars of retail success and I segmented out the business and I'm like, if we just focus on the one of these things that that is the problem, your whole business will change. And then I was listening to this podcast one day.

And this guy was talking about exactly what I just said, but in a different niche. And I was like, dude stole my idea. Yeah. And that's the theory of constraint and I'm like. So someone else came up with this before me, like I felt so validated on one hand, Zoe, I know I've been there. This is a thing. Yes, yes.

I'm brilliant over and over again. And whenever you come up with a new concept, does that happen again? And then you just happen to hear about someone who's already doing it. Yes, yes. Yeah. I'm like, so this is a whole thing in the, you know, psychological world and I just have, well, you know, I must be okay if I thought of it myself.

I'm very much strategic by looking at a business. And going, okay, well you tell me that you need more customers, but actually if I got you more customers, that's not gonna fix a problem at all. All that's gonna do is actually create a bigger problem. What you really need is move some old inventory and free up some cash flow.

Or, you know, you tell me that you need better marketing, but actually your sales team aren't converting. If we fix that problem, your marketing's just fine. I would love to know how do you decide how, what to focus on. Let's be honest, probably just about everyone has got a DHD or is on the spectrum and we're all doing a million things.

Yes. And we all think this thing is our problem, but as you've just said, a lot of the time it's actually not. Yes, yes. Such a great question. I was so excited to talk about it because I knew we'd come at it from different, different directions, but there are some overlaps too. So I think of it in three buckets because that just is always easier for my brain if I can simplify.

And so the three things that are necessary in order for you to work less and work smarter, not harder, is. What you are selling, right? Does that create demand? Does it create interest? So offers are very, very important. The second thing is how does the business operate? You know, how does it run? Is it running smoothly?

Are you wasting a lot of. You know, of your energy and time putting out brush fires, you know, putting out dumpster fires or is it like a well-oiled machine? And then the third thing is who you are as a CEO. How you think, how you, how your nervous system's operating. And so. When someone comes into me, it's really like triage.

I'm sure you feel the same, where you quickly have to identify where will be the biggest bang for our buck, right? Because nowadays people want the highest ROI for their energy input, right? If they're gonna spend the time to try and learn a new system or to, you know, work with a coach and to implement new processes, they want the hi highest ROI for that energy.

Output. And so for some of my people, when they come in so stressed out, putting out dumpster fires, we can't even create a space for their greatest ideas and their greatest power. In the situation, then we do have to start with the category of them as A CEO, right? Mm-hmm. Before we even change any offers, before we try and get any systems in place, we really need to work on this piece.

Other people come to me where they're kind of managing, but like you said, kind of with the inventory, the sales really aren't coming in even to support the business in the right. And so that's where we really have to focus on, let's get you a standout offer. Something that people are really desiring, let's position you correctly.

And then yes, through that we're also gonna start bringing in some of the mindset. But we're gonna kind of put that aside until you, because it's really challenging for people. Uh. To move into kind of more, I don't know, high frequency or elevated states of being when they're stuck in Maslow's hierarchy and they're in such a fear response and such scarcity.

So I think that it really is a person by person question that we have to solve, and it's worthwhile to solve it for the individual. Rather than kind of having a blanket statement of this is what we do for everyone, it sounds like your coaching is very much the same. Yeah, and I guess what we look at the, the, the, the CEO part that you just talked about that correlates without impact pillar, which is brand and leadership.

So there, there is some stuff around, you know, exactly what you said. Who is your brand? How have you positioned it? But mostly we talk about leadership like you do you have the systems, do you have the processes? And I would love to know how do you, I guess, what angle do you take when someone comes to you and potentially says, you know, my sales have dropped.

I want you to help me work on my sales. But actually, when you are looking at it as the unbiased third party, what you see is actually you as a person, as the CEO. Need to change either the way you think or maybe the way that you are showing up or your systems or your processes. You talked about everybody wants the biggest bang for their buck, but most people want that in revenue.

So I would love to know what angle do you take this approach when realistically the thing that needs changing or not changing? The thing that we need to work on is the person behind the business. Yes, yes. Well, luckily a lot of people are very, there are always going to be people that are not open to new solutions.

But I think with my branding and my positioning being the uncommon way, the people who come to me, they want these out of the box ideas. And solutions. And so I have definitely had people like that who come in and say, for instance, I think I remember one that was just so random. She was so focused and determined.

She knew exactly what she needed. She was a home organizer and she knew that she needed to create more exposure on a specific platform. We have here in the states called nextdoor.com, and it was so interesting to me that she came knowing exactly what she needed, but when I looked at her website, I could just see that there was so much scarcity built into everything she was saying.

All of her pricing structure, and I knew that what was happening, the reason she wasn't making the sales that she wanted to make was because of how the people she was calling in and how she was thinking about positioning and selling her offer. So there have been many instances like that, and I just believe in telling it like it's, I'm just very honest and straight up.

I say, look, if you're gonna come and work with me, we're gonna start here because otherwise, X, Y, Z. We're gonna keep seeing the same situation play out. And it doesn't matter if you're bringing in a lot of clients from nextdoor.com, they're still gonna be hoarders that really don't wanna create change in their lives and are not willing to pay very much.

I was gonna say. And not willing. And those are not your ideal clients, right? And those are not your ideal clients. Can we just talk about that a little bit? Because I think it's quite interesting. The idea of calling in the wrong customers. And if I bring this back to a retail focus, I'm thinking about when we've worked with clients and they say, you know, oh, I'm so sick of having customers that send me an Instagram DM at 10 o'clock at night, and they expect a response, wanting to know where their parcel is, or you know, oh, we've got these, our return rate is so high, and I look at it.

And say, well, like you are too cheap. Like you're, you're bringing in the people. I'm specifically thinking of one person we worked with, and I remember her saying to me, the customers that are coming in are arguing with me about a $5 pair of flip flops. And I'm like, who argues about a $5 pair of flip flops?

And she's like, well, this is the kind of people who are coming in and we complete, we completely changed that. And, and, and I said to her, well. The people that, who are the people that you want to bring in? And she's like, well, I'm a doctor's wife. I want the doctor's wives, I want the, you know, the nurses and the teachers.

Like, I want the blue collar workers to come in. And I said, well, let's just look at your store and is there anything for them to buy? And it was like one of those moments where, uh, it was, we were on Zoom and she, she was in the store and she looked around and she just went, no. Oh, like when, where did I go?

So wrong. I love those light bulb moments. I was just gonna say, can you give us some tips for maybe if people are trying to do a bit of a self-evaluation, and I would love to hear like if people are think if listen to this going, well, I think my problem is X, but someone from the outside thinks it's Y.

How can we do like a little bit of a self audit? But if that is something that we find is the case where we have that wake up moment and we're like. Oh my gosh, I'm bringing in the wrong customers. How do we go about changing that? Yes. Such great questions. First, I just have to give a little plug for your episode on selling to, I forget the exact title, but it's like Selling to High or Selling to Rich People.

I think it was that simple. An episode of yours. It was so good. And a little behind the scenes here is that when we were trying to first coordinate our, our conversation here, there was no way for us to meet and because we're on such a. Different time zones where my little 7-year-old would not be running around just screaming his head off.

So I was like, uh, it's 'cause it's not gonna work, isn't meant to be. But I had already downloaded some of your episodes and I was in the car driving him to summer camp and I happened to put one of these on. It was that episode and I thought, we are so aligned. We absolutely have to talk. So anyone listening to this, please go back and listen to that episode.

It was just so well told with the storytelling and such true, so such truth. Speaking. Such truth. A self-audit. Okay, that is challenging, right? Because like I mentioned before. We, we are in it at the time, so I, I always say it seems like we're in the ocean. We think we're in the ocean, but actually we're in a fishbowl in the ocean.

And that fishbowl is our mind, right? Those are the limitations. Those are the places we don't see the opportunities. It just keeps us swimming in our own little circle. So if I were going to give one tip for self-diagnosis to try and think new thoughts that you hadn't thought before, which by the way, is a skill that you build, which is what I teach, but.

The first place I'd start with is a powerful question where you ask, where you say to yourself, I just wish that, and then you fill in the blank, right? Some complaint you have something that you're frustrated with, so that fill in the blank. I just wish that I weren't working all the time so I could have some space to breathe.

When you ask yourself that question, you're getting a lot of information because it's showing you what your brain is not creating for you. It's not creating those circumstances, and then you can ask yourself why? Why is that? And that's when you can start to get a little bit, you get a little bit onto yourself and you say, huh, maybe there's a reason.

That I actually do want to be busy. Not all of me, right, because we're not masochists, we're not talking about that, but there's some part of my brain or my nervous system or something, right? I don't even have to know what it is yet. I just have to isolate the problem first and that there's some part of me that's keeping me in this loop.

So, and then I don't get to experience the, the other thing, the X, Y, Z and for instance, for my client that I mentioned, the home organizer, she could have said something like, I just wish that I had more revenue, right? So that I didn't have to stress so much. But she was the one actually keeping herself from earning the more revenue by charging the lower prices and not seeing the value in herself and her offer.

I, again, have many questions. I love that thought process. I just wish, so that, and I, I don't wonder if a lot of people can't actually answer the, so that, you know, we hear a lot of the times, I just wish I had more sales. So that what, and and they, it's very hard to articulate what the, so that is, so if you are listening, say this, and I think saying it out loud is also probably going to be a lot more powerful.

It's like, I just wish I had more sales so that what? So that you're not stressing as much so that you could work less so that you could hire somebody else. And then when you come back to the why, it does make you think. But can we maybe break? I, I think in the current economic climate, that is something that probably a large portion of the people listening would come out with.

I just wish I could get more customers, more sales, more revenue so that I wasn't so stressed. How do we go about changing the thought patterns for that? Because it's, I'm always a how person, like examples are great, but now what do I do? Like I understand the concept. But can you, can you tell me what to do next?

Yes, we can dive way into this. Um, but I do wanna just make sure that we drive home the point of hi of how important the so that is because if you said, I wish I had more sales so that I could hire another person, there might be something that is holding you back from hiring another person, right? It might actually be about letting go of control.

Right. Or it might actually be about feeling guilty that you shouldn't be spending the money on a bookkeeper when you can do it yourself. Right? That gives us so much information if we do fill in this of that. But let's just take a lot of my people who are just wanting to take a break, right? They just have so much going on.

They're, they're very overwhelmed. I think that really in today's day, chaos is the new normal. It's very uncommon to create a life without chaos and to build up the boundaries and the structures so that you can have that kind of life. Um, but let's just take a person who says that they really wanna relax.

That actually gets to the point I was making about the nervous system. There's something in our nervous system that makes it feel very unsafe. To relax and that is a patterned response. The one that I see so often is over-functioning, and so just how we can have a fight response or a flight response to some sort of stressor.

We have many of us. I certainly did, and I still sometimes do. By the way, I just catch it so much more quickly now and I know how to back myself out of it, but. Most of us have an over-functioning response where most of us high performing women, right? This is how we've been taught. It's to do all the things right?

Something is going wrong, there's a sickness, or you know, heaven forbid something you know happened with a neighbor. We go into hyperdrive, right? We are making all the meals, we're reaching out. We're making sure that this, you know, is okay. And that is a. It's a pattern to nervous system response to help us deal with the situation at hand.

And that's why for me, when I kept trying to say, it's okay if I'm not working right now, I don't need to feel guilty. Kind of like we've said, I. That is so important. Up to a point, you really do need to see your thoughts and start creating new ways of thinking, such as My time does not create money. The value that I produce creates money, right?

The experience that I'm giving my customers when they walk into the store. That creates money. I could work a 12 hour day or a six hour day, but if I have set up that experience where they walk in and they're enthralled and they wanna spend more time there and they feel happy leaving there because fill in the blank, then I've created value that brings money into my bank account.

So that's really important for us to start rethinking. All of the ways that we have been thinking, but there also has to be this other piece, which is the re-patterning, the rewiring of these nervous system responses that are just so buried within us. I want to know how to fix this because, okay. I feel like you are just talking to me.

I don't care if anyone else is listening, but I need to know the answer because I, I've always been the fixer. Even when I was a child, I was the person who was relied on to fix the problem, which is probably why I am so good at what I do now. Like I fix businesses, I, you know, I find the problems and I find the solutions.

Yes. But even as you are talking, I thought you were going to say over-functioning was something like, I cannot sit still and watch a movie. I will have to paint my nails at the same time. Like I can, oh, even just drink a cup of tea, like something I have to be doing something else. But then you didn't say that.

What you talked about was, I'm gonna say the work, the work that we put in the effort. Like it's not an effort to paint your nails while you watch tv, but the things that you are talking about were focus and effort. If I have to, I. Make sure the dishwasher is on and I have to make sure that the products are uploaded to my website and I have to make sure that my child gets picked up from school and I have to make sure that I go and talk to the neighbor because they were complaining about the dog barking.

Like all of these things feel like a mental load and, and I think that's probably the things that we do lump together in the mental load. And I would love, you've just given us one tip that we can use, which is coming back to. You know, I guess almost validating that concern, like if I work more my business will make more money.

It's like, well, actually no, my worth is not tied up with how many hours I work. And I think if anyone thinks that they will know that. I mean, not even counting the point of diminishing returns where you just work more and you get less productive. But that, we all know that if we just focus on something for two hours, we get way more results than if we spend a whole day because.

We just get bored and tired and we lose our focus. So can you please gimme some more tips on when I feel like I have to do all of the things? Selfishly I asked. Yes, absolutely. Yes. Yes. We could go on all day, but here are some really important things to think about. Go back to times in your life where you have felt a, a state of flow, right?

Where it has been, like the, the big idea came to you, right? The, the really inspired hit where you really felt like you could trust your intuition and you were like, brilliant. I'm gonna implement that. Most times they don't come from your most stressed out moments where you're running around worrying about the neighbor and all of the other things, so never, sometimes.

Yes. Sometimes what we need to do is that depending on the level of activation of our nervous system, basically in common terms, depending how stressed out we are at the time, we actually cannot get back to a regulated state by thinking, right, by just telling ourselves to do something. So we actually have to go into the primal brain and we have to move, right?

That's why after we've had a really good workout. Sometimes that's when we get our great ideas, right? That's when things feel better. It's because our brain thinks they were tigers chasing us and we were there trying to think our way out of it, and it kept escalating the situation. Do you not see we are gonna lose revenue, we are gonna, everything is gonna go to pot or the, for, in my case, it would be, you know, something will happen with.

My son or the principal is going to call again to say that he is disrupting the classroom. Right? And what we need to do is understand that that's creating a level of activation in us that isn't going to work, is isn't going to regulate itself, right? We need to run, we need to fight, we need to do something, move in a way that allows our body to think.

We've created safety. So that is one example of a nervous system approach that would never come, would never get fixed in that moment from either, um, trying to implement a new system, which is a long game. Effort or just thinking a happy thought or taking a deep breath or telling yourself not to worry at the body's level.

It's like, no, no, no. We need to get out of Dodge. This is serious move. So can I just clarify that I've interpreted this correctly. If we're in a scenario where the thoughts are beating us down, we are in this negative repetition of, I just need to get more sales. I just need to get more people in the door.

We just need to move, like we need to get out and is am I, did I get that right? It's like you just have to go out and move. Go to the gym, go for a walk, go for a swim, go for a run. Just get out and move your body. You could even go into the back room and do jumping jacks. For 30 minutes, right? You could do kickboxing, you could do some squats.

You could do something that makes your body feel like just run and play or something that makes your, that we call it a pattern interrupt, and we have just so much more information now thanks to everything they've been doing with neuroscience and how they've actually measured change in the brain to know what, what steps are needed, right?

But the. First one that I think most of us miss 'cause we haven't been taught it, is that there comes a certain point of stress and it's creates such diminishing returns because we can clearly see that the centers of the brain that are required for entrepreneurship like problem solving, like our creativity, like our, our compassion and care, right?

So that we're not just. Snapping and biting the head off of that employee or our child or our husband, right, or whomever it might be. All of those centers literally shut down when we're in a place of activation, of nervous system, of stress, of nervous system activation. And what that means is that we are cutting off the best parts of us.

And so it, one of the important things to do, and this is not the only thing we're doing in. Re-patterning the nervous system, but we've gotta start creating the belief. We've gotta start actually creating the evidence and data of what are truly the needle moving activities for me. Are they doing the bookkeeping or would it be to overcome the guilt and actually go for a walk?

Like what really moves the needle in my business? And that can help you ease into something that felt so foreign before, because you can kind of pacify the logical side of the brain by saying, oh, actually when I do this, um, you know, when I do go to the gym, I tend to get a great idea after that. Now finally, I can sort of justify going to the gym.

I'm terrible at building a community online. I will put my hand up and say, I, I, it's just not where my brain goes. I'm a talking person. You and I meet, we are gonna be friends forever. Put me in a room. Yes, I could talk to anybody. Stick me behind. Like I can talk on a Zoom, but stick me behind a Facebook group.

And I really struggle to find a way to connect. And so I got the advice of building a community my own way. And one of the things I put together was walk. It's very exciting. It's called Walk Club, where we do exactly that. We go walking and we talk about business because I, all this came from exactly what you just said is when I am stuck in my business, the answer never comes to me when I'm sitting behind my desk.

It's when I'm walking the dog, when I'm going to the gym, when I've gone for a swim, when I've just even walked upstairs to make a cup of tea. That it's like removing myself and my brain from the environment to be able to have the space to think. Differently. I'm so glad you brought that up because I just would love for your listeners to take a moment and imagine that they are people who really allow themselves to act on intuition, first of all, that give them the, give themselves the opportunities, right.

Of going to the gym and then they get an inspired hit and they implement that, or they have their employee implement that and boom, revenue spike. Right. Or brilliant idea that brings in so many new clients, right? Maybe it's just a marketing piece. You know that you've done more for your business, creating that one.

Oh, I know I have a great idea. I could do a cross promotion with X, right? In that one moment, you've created more value, more revenue, more productivity for your business than if you had stayed doing your bookkeeping all week. When you can really imagine a life where like all I do is I get up and I talk to interesting people, I come up with great ideas.

Of course there's some good hard work. Maybe I spend three hours in real focus time because now I actually can focus because I don't have all the baggage that I used to. And then I go on, and these are my days. They're very much in flow. I have very strong boundaries. I protect myself from a lot of the cognitive load that would normally be coming at me and just like feel the weight, feel the change in your shoulders as you think about just like putting it all down, putting that weight, that, that heaviness and that responsibility just to the side and imagining a different way.

Yeah, interesting. As you were saying that, it reminded of right of me. I, I'm, I'm heading off to my mastermind over in California next week, and when I was there a few months ago, for the first time ever, after going to an event or a conference, I actually took two more days at the hotel with nothing booked in.

And I remember I had the best, it was honestly the most stupidest, but easiest, simplest thing to implement. While I was sitting in the spa. Yes. Does not surprise me. I think this conversation has not really ended up where I thought we were going to go, but I think it's become a very important conversation.

And I think for me, I was gonna say what I've taken away a lot from what you've just said is being okay with giving yourself space to think that is your highest leverage CEO activity is you thinking. Jeff Bezos is famous. He's told his execs they need to take more time away because at their level, he wants their highest thinking.

That's what we do. That's where we earn the money is in this realm, not in the busyness. And that that's, I just have to ask. Absolutely. Oh yes. Go. I just have to ask Selena, when you were on that mastermind, is that when you saw the wealthy people that then you made the podcast about? Yes. Yes. That was the pool that, and now here we are talking.

If you hadn't taken those extra two days, you never would've created that episode. I never would've been here speaking to you right now. I mean, no. There's something to be said for, I, I haven't, we haven't even gone into the energetic realm here in terms of what that creates for you when you are in alignment and flow.

But I mean, this is an example of it. Here we are, there we are having the conversation. But yes, it was at that pool. It was on that same day. I had they that was on the lounges and I had just gone to sit in the pool. It wasn't, it was like a, it was a day that it was maybe. Like 21 degrees Celsius, which is kind of like, not warm.

It's warm when you're in the sun, but not when you're not in the sun. And so the sun had gone behind a cloud and I'd gone into, how do I remember this? And I'd gone to sit in this bar warm back up again. And I, I remember just sitting there thinking, huh, like that could bring in. Six figures in revenue. Why have we not done that before?

Like it was just, I wasn't even thinking about it. It just came to me. Yes. And I was like, right. Then I came back to my notebook that was on the lounges next to those, that two, the two couples, and started to plan out what that looked like. And so it's, yeah, for me it is. I mean, this has been, I feel like this is a very selfish episode for me because you've given me so many things to.

I was gonna say, think about, but that's not actually correct. So many things to digest and the tips to help me when I'm in those scenarios, and you didn't say this and I I was going to ask you, but in the scenario where you said the example, which was like, I just wish I could make more money so I could hire somebody so that I could hire somebody else.

My brain then went to, so that. Like, what is the so that after, after, so why do you want to hire the person? And then it's, is it so that I'm less stressed? Is it so that I can grow the business without doing this thing? I don't like doing? And I, I was, I was once told by a copywriter and I will never forget, she was on the podcast and she said, whenever you write copy, you should always end with.

So that, and I've actually taken that and put that into my life a lot. It's like when. I'm an inner situation, so that like what is the outcome that I want? And sometimes I don't know the answer and that makes me stop and think like, you are so hell bent on this, this thought, this concept, but you don't even know why.

You don't even know what the outcome is that you want to achieve. Like let's just take a little bit of a step back here.

Yes. Yes. And that's, it's interesting because when we are moving into new territory like that, something we think we wanted, but maybe there was a part of us that was holding us back, we not only need to unwind the, the things that would keep us from moving forward, right? Like the part of, uh, the maybe a belief or a pattern of fear around.

You know, letting go of control, like we, as we, an example we mentioned before, but then we also have to acclimate to the new normal, right? We have to unwind the fear of losing control, but we also have to acclimate to the new normal of being supported, which is a whole other thing there. They're two separate things.

Yeah. Yeah. And that can feel uncomfortable. Yes. Always. Always feels uncomfortable. Change, then what happens inherently feels uncomfortable. Yeah. It's interesting. We go back, back to our old patterns, we go back to our old 'cause it's starting to, to feel uncomfortable. Exactly. And, and, and you're, you're saying that, and I'm thinking of scenarios when, you know, I've been in a room and it's like, you know, do I belong here?

Or you, you, you've, you've taken that next step. And it's interesting. I, I had this thought the other day about. Oh, you know, well if the economy doesn't get better, like what? You know, where are we gonna do? What are we gonna do? And then I took a step back and I was like, um, if you had told like 14-year-old you who had to leave home, that you would have what you have now.

Like if we took nothing else and it's like you are, you home is on the beach. Like you could have that is all you ever wanted when you were a kid. Like if we take away everything else and we went back and said to 12, 14-year-old, you. You will get everything you ever dreamed of. And then, but then when you get it, you are going to want more like 14-year-old.

You would be like, never. I've always wanted that, but it does feel like it's kind of like new level, new devil. And so we do get comfortable. Yes. But then we feel like we have to have the next thing. It's almost, it's like this is the perfect segue to the perfect. Circular back to where you were talking about how you were constantly striving.

And so with that, I know that you mentioned that you have a thought cleanse. Can you, I've never heard of such a thing before. Can you tell me a little bit about that? Yes, it is a five or seven day program through email that's delivered to help you start cleansing some thoughts in very specific areas that I see come up for women over and over again since I exclusively work with women.

And so there's different thought patterns that come up, and it's really just a little digestible bit in your inbox each day. Nothing fancy, no. Thing, training you have to watch or anything like that, but it's just highlighting these areas that are, that it's just time to, to detox. Just like when you have a juice cleanse or something.

These thoughts just need to go and we need to bring them up and see where they're, where it actually is sneaking in before we can do that. Awareness is the first step. Yes. Like I, I think, how do we have, how do I get this? Yes, please come. I'll give you the link so that you can pop it in your description.

Please come take advantage of it. It's, it's fun and it's also such worthwhile work for us because for generations, women have been conditioned and inherited all of these. You know, all of these thoughts, all of these ways of thinking that put so much responsibility on us and have us be everything to everyone, and they're not actually true, and they're not actually serving all the people that we think we're helping and serving.

And really, when we get back to our most grounded, powerful. Boundaried and inflow selves is when everyone else really gets to experience that light and feels a lot more connection with us, feels more connected to our brands and when we really see the how good life can get. Oh, so how do we, how do we get that?

Yes. So I will give you the link. I believe it's the uncommon way.com. Slash thought cleanse with a, but we will, we will pop the link in the show notes. Jenna Harrison. Yes. We originally started this conversation talking about how to work three days a week. You kind of let us down how we can do an audit of our business.

We maybe didn't end up there, but I feel like we ended up on the conversation that we were meant to have, which is and, and I feel like this is going to be one of those episodes that people bookmark because we got to a meaty. A meaty part of the conversation where we started talking about how like worth and validation and how we show up and how that affects the people around us and, and our businesses and our revenue and our customers.

But at the center of all that is us. And if we're not feeling good about ourselves and if we're not looking at the thoughts that we're having and if we're not getting ourselves in a state of. I was gonna say state of flow, but that's not the word I'm saying. In a state where we are moving, so flow, yes, but not the state of flow that's in air quotes.

Like to me, the state of flow mm-hmm. Is actually out there moving. It's why I think exercise is so important, especially when you're a business owner, all of that. I think for the people listening, it's probably going to be. So much more valuable than maybe the conversation where we originally started. Yes, we wanna work three days a week, but actually what we really, I'm sure everybody listening inherently wants, is to wake up, feel good, have a thriving business that customers love, and know that the world is a better place for us being in it.

Oh, that is so beautifully said. The one thing I'd add is that we also want to feel powerful and in control, and interestingly enough, so often that really comes from allowing our us to be supported, right? But it feels like we are not a victim to all of these circumstances. It feels like, Nope, today's the day I create that great new idea that's gonna bring in a couple hundred thousand dollars.

Jenna Harrison, thank you so much for sharing all of this with us. Thank you for having me. It's been such a pleasure. So that's a wrap. I'd love to hear what insight you've gotten from this episode and how you're going to put it into action. If you're a social kind of person, follow me at the Selena Knight and make sure to leave a comment and let me know.

And if this episode. Made you think a little bit differently or gave you some inspiration, or perhaps gave you the kick that you needed to take action, then please take a couple of minutes to leave me a review on your platform of choice. Because the more reviews the show gets, the more independent retail and e-commerce stores just like yours that we can help to scale.

And when that happens, it's a win for you, a win for your community. And a win for your customers. I'll see you on the next episode.

Hi. I’m Jenna.

and I help highly driven but slightly uncertain entrepreneurs develop the kind of clarity, strategy, messaging and mindset needed to run a high-earning, for-purpose business. Plus show up and act like it!  

Which is good, because you’ve got a lot more to do in this life than wait around for things to finally click.

My superpower is helping you hone your superpowers and your own uncommon way of doing business. Because once you do, it’ll make selling your ta tas off SO much more effortless.

If you’re ready to get strategic about creating the business you’re here to run and the woman you’re going to be, let’s get started.