What is alignment and why is it imperative for business success? In this episode of the Business & Life Conversations Podcast, my guest Suzy Ashworth is going to answer these questions and so much more. Our interesting conversation on alignment is one that will open your mind to its importance in your business and, most especially, your life. We’ll talk about the components that make up alignment, the business benefits, and how value, impact, purpose and play equal business success. Join us in this episode and be ready to get your mind blown!
Important Links Mentioned in the Show:
Australian Business Collaborative Facebook Group
Angela Henderson Active Business Facebook Group
Angela Henderson Facebook Business Page
Prefer to read Are You In Alignment with Your Business with Suzy Ashworth? Here’s the transcript:
ANGELA:
You’re listening to the Business and Life Conversations Podcast with Angela Henderson, Episode 71.
Hey there, you’re listening to the Business and Life Conversations Podcast. My name is Angela Henderson and on this show, we talk about improving your business, life or both. By having amazing and rich conversations with brilliant guests who will inspire you and who will give you tips and tricks to help you grow both in life and in business.
Well, hey there amazing people and welcome back to another episode of the Business and Life Conversations Podcast. I’m your host, Angela, from Angela Henderson Consulting where I am a Business Consultant helping women in business to develop the foundational framework and strategy they need to grow sustainable and profitable businesses.
Alignment. Alignment, I believe is the word that gets thrown around a lot and at the same time, I personally feel gets pushed to the side in our oh so busy world. Yet, being in alignment is so important. In fact, it’s imperative for business success.
On today’s episode, I’m excited to have guest, Suzy, here on the show, talking about what is alignment, what are the components that makeup alignment, what are the business benefits for being in alignment and how does value, impact, purpose and play equal business success? Suzy will be joining me all the way from Mexico so get your maracas ready, your tequila ready and get ready to rock and roll.
But before we get into today’s episode, I just want to let you know that this episode is specifically sponsored by my new on-demand Business Masterclass, The Ultimate 4-Step Framework for Creating a Sustainable and Profitable Business. In my 60-minute jam-packed Masterclass, you’ll learn my signature four-step framework for creating a sustainable and profitable business without sacrificing time with your kids, without the overwhelm or without wasting any more cash. I’m also going to teach you the four big business mistakes that everyone in business makes and why they’re keeping you from growing your sustainable and profitable business. And I’ll also touch upon what is working for businesses now and why most of what you’re being taught about growing a business is outdated and wrong.
To sign up for my on-demand Masterclass, you can simply head to bit.ly/masterclasswithangelahenderson and you’ll be ready to rock and roll. For those of you that missed that link, again, it is bit.ly/masterclasswithangelahenderson and we’ll also have the link in the show notes.
Welcome to the show, Suzy.
SUZY:
Thank you so much for having me, Angela. I am super excited.
ANGELA:
Yes, I know. And we’re both just giggling before we press record on the podcast because for our time of recording, it is the crack of dawn for Suzy in Mexico and it is buttcrack at night here in Australia. So I think we’re pushing 10:30 at night here and I think you said it’s 7:30 a.m. in Mexico for you, Suzy?
SUZY:
Yes, I love the wonders of modern technology.
ANGELA:
I know; the beauty of it and how we can still connect. And speaking of connections, I only just met you this year, really, Suzy when we were in San Diego for a 2-day Masterclass with Caitlin Bacher. And during those two days, you and I were table buddies, and I just love listening to your passion about women in serving business and women in business, your passion about leading with love, too. I just love your energy. And from that, after we came back from the Masterclass over in San Diego, I reached out to you to get you on the podcast. And yes, I just knew that you’ve got so much to add to the podcast and to the listeners. So, I’m really excited to have you here today.
SUZY:
Oh, I cannot wait to share, yes, share a little bit of my; I don’t know, my little special juice with your people.
ANGELA:
Fantastic. Now, before we jump in the podcast into any episode, all of my guests, I’d like to ask a little bit of a fun question because I think it’s important for the audience to get to know you, Suzy, for who you are and not just your business hat. So the first question that I want to ask is I know that you’ve just moved, you and your family, over to Mexico. And from what I can see from your levels of awesomeness on your Instagram feed and your Facebook feed; having so much fun with your family; I’d love for you to share with us the most magical spot that you have found in Mexico to date with your family and why has it been so magical for you?
SUZY:
Oh, there are so many magical spots. That is a tough one. But something that I did this week with my son and my friend who was visiting from Hawaii with her son, we went to check out the Bioluminescence and it was so, so beautiful. It was amazing, first of all, to have that time with my son because I’ve got three kids. And so, with work, business, husband, life, sometimes to get that quality timing is difficult so it was amazing that it was just my son and I and her son and her. But we went out to a lagoon about half past 8 at night, so it was completely dark; and then hopped into a boat and then we just jumped into the lagoon in the pitch black and saw our body glow up like the X-Men.
ANGELA:
Oh my goodness. That sounds amazing.
SUZY:
It was amazing. It was incredible. It was just such a beautiful experience. We also saw a water snake and I was really like, “I’m not getting in that lagoon.” And then my son dived in and I was like, “No, I want to see. You’ve got to do this.” And yes, it was such a beautiful moment to share. So yes, if you ever come to Puerto Escondido in Mexico, which so far is my favourite place to be, then you definitely need to do a Bioluminescence Tour. It’s one of the best in the world. We have like 100% visibility, so it really; it was just like your whole body would glow. And yes, it was incredible.
ANGELA:
Pretty magnificent. And I’m sure your son, also equally shares that level of happiness and gratitude that he was able to spend that time with you. Because as you’ve said, we are juggling a million things in our life and a one-to-one quality of time with our kids and family actually can be difficult. So I can only imagine that he was just stoked to be able to be with you.
SUZY:
Yes. I think so. I felt that.
ANGELA:
Now, for the listeners out there, they’re like, “Okay, Anj. Suzy doesn’t really sound like she’s from Mexico and she’s not from Australia.” And so, let’s kind of give them a little bit of background about Suzy, about where you’re from, how you ended up in Mexico, I guess, and just a little bit about where you’re at in business right now.
SUZY:
Yes. So, you would be right. If you had detected that I didn’t have an Australian accent, it’s because I am from the UK. I was born and bred and wasn’t done quite a bit of travelling when I was younger. I haven’t really left the country since I was about 24. So I’ve just turned 40 in October last year, and about; I don’t know; it’s about March-April time, my husband looked at me and said, “Do you fancy a year in the sun?” And I was like, “Yeah? Of course.”
ANGELA:
Like, “Yeah.”
SUZY:
And so, we literally; it was like a finger on the map and it was like, “Where is hot most of the year?” And there were a few countries that came up and Mexico was one of them. So we then did a [Inaudible 07:37] in the November and we went to a place called La Paz, which is just kind of; if you’re in the States, just below California. And we met a really, super cool, good-looking, surfer guy and we spent about an hour and a half with this guy talking about surf, talking about the waves, and I know something, he loves the water so much and by the end of this conversation, I was like, “I’m going to surf every single day.”
He was so magnetic and romantic. But he also said, “If you love it here, you need to check out Puerto Escondido. The surf is better and the people are more chill, it’s less Americanized and I think that you would really vibe there.” And so, we took his word for it. And we went home, we booked some tickets to the Puerto, and in January 2019, we got on a plane; well, first myself and the older two children got on a plane and headed out here. And then, my husband, our youngest and our dog followed a week later.
And the rest is history. We’ve been here for six months, so far. And it’s great to have been able to build a business that has enabled us to live this life, which is ultimately what I am all about. It’s helping women to achieve economic freedom in their business so that they can live a life without limitations, whilst doing good shit in the world.
ANGELA:
Fantastic. And you have a bunch of different, and we can talk about this a little bit later, but you have different programs that women can get into and all that levels of goodness. So again, you’re able to do, remotely, no matter where you are in the world.
SUZY:
Yes, we’re doing it.
ANGELA:
Again, and I think, I talk to women and I think they go, especially women with kids, right? They’re like, “Oh, I don’t know if I could do this. I don’t know if I could do this.” So you really, I say this often to podcast; but people have choices. Anyone can do anything they want. You just have to choose to do it and you’ve got to make it work. Now, it might not always be easy, like, I’m sure you had to either sell stuff or put stuff in storage or it’s not like, it’s necessarily a picnic in the park, but once you get there, you can really, again, you can do anything you really want to do.
SUZY:
Do you know what really bugs me is that I hear so many times about women in business, the ones who are really successful don’t have kids. And it’s like, yes, we have lots of examples of women in business who are very successful who don’t have kids. But we are the Moms of doing it as well. And yes, we have different challenges. Don’t think that when we’re working with people and choosing who our mentors are, I think that it can be a real advantage in working with women who have children because we have a different understanding of what’s showing up has to mean because that has to work around our families.
ANGELA:
Totally.
SUZY:
But really; I want to be the example because I think that too many people, the story; the most common narrative is, is that you have to wait until your kids are in high school, 15, 16; basically, self-sufficient until you can build a business. And I don’t believe that is the case and I also don’t believe that you have to sacrifice your family in order for that to be the case either.
ANGELA:
Listen. You’re speaking my language. And I totally appreciate you having that conversation with us because it is something that I, too, I notice at different events where it’s male-heavy events. There’s not a lot of women in my bracket where they have kids; small kids or I often get asked, “How are you able to go?” Like, I’m about to head to The Maldives for my Mastermind Class. Or “You went to America? How did you do this?” I was like, “I just made it work,” right? And then, they’re like, “Didn’t you get guilty that you’re leaving your kids?” And I’m like, “Listen, I think that’s again a story we make-up because that’s what we’re told in society that the Mom needs to be at home.” But I honestly believe that I can equally be a good Mom as I can equally be a good businesswoman and I can equally still feel guilty but also feel excited about the adventure that’s going to happen.
And I also think for both my son and for Chloe, that, as I’ve talked about in other episodes, is that I’m role modelling, to Chloe, for example, that I can do both of these things if I choose to. I’m not saying that she has to, but she can if she chooses. But I’m also showing my son, Finlee, my husband does a lot, supports me a lot and I will always give my husband credit for that. But to show Finlee that a Dad can take you to school, a Dad can pack your lunch, a Dad can tuck you in and a Dad can read you a storybook. He is also known, as I say, he is a sperm donor. Okay?
So there is an element of like, I hear people, “Oh, that was so nice of your husband to babysit your kids for you.” “No, he’s not. No dude, he’s the sperm donor.” It’s like, he agreed, we both agreed to tango and this is what happens when you tango. So, no, thank you for that because I think it is something that there’s a story or a belief that goes around with many women who think that again, they can’t have this balance. And I don’t use the word balance slightly because I do think balance is a bit of a bullshit word at times. I do think that you can choose to have both if that’s what you want.
SUZY:
The way that I talk around balance, it really is presence. And for me, that is my ultimate measure of success and it’s something that I am working on all of the time. And then I have it figured out that if I can be present when I’m with my kids, if I can be present when I’m with my husband, if I can be present when I’m supposed to be working in my business and not trying to do all of the things at the same time, then I feel like I’m winning.
ANGELA:
I like that. In presence versus balance. I could see another potential podcast episode there, Suzy.
SUZY:
I’m game.
ANGELA:
Yes, you’re game. Now, listen, I was just watching one of your Facebook lives recently and it was about alignment. And I think this is also something that we don’t talk often enough about because as women in business, kids or no kids, we are busy juggling everything and everyone. And I think something; I personally feel like this alignment conversation gets missed frequently. Again, we’re happy to take our car for a service, we’re happy to take our kids for whatever they need, but I think we forget about our own alignment, both just in life in general, but also in business. And I think it is vital for business growth and individual growth to always be tuning in to your alignment.
In fact, one of the things you stated on your live was something along the lines like when you’re aligned, you see results in how many clients you’re attracting and ultimately how much money you’re making. Which is interesting, we’re going to talk a little bit about that later. But can you just start off by defining what alignment means to you so that we’re on the same page for the rest of the episode?
SUZY:
Yes, sure. So in very practical terms for me is alignment is that you are taking the steps and you are speaking the words that allow you to be the person that you say that you want to be and create the results that you want to create. From a very practical level, that is what alignment is. I think, I don’t know how woo your audience are, but if for the more woo-people, to take that to the next level is that alignment is that you’re vibrating at the same frequency as the highest vision that you have for yourself.
So, the two are slightly different but like, if want to keep it in the practical, it’s just you’re taking the steps and speaking the words that allow you to be the person that you say that you want to be and get the results that you say that you want to get.
ANGELA:
And with that, because I would say the majority of my audience is more practical than woo-woo. I think we all have a bit of woo-iness but I wouldn’t say woo-woo in us, alright? I’d say we’re probably more practical woo-ers. So of the alignment, if we keep it at that simple terminology, what are the key components that makeup alignment then, if we were to kind of dissect it a little bit?
SUZY:
Yes, so first of all, I think it’s really, step one is knowing what you want and being unapologetic about saying this is what I desire. You can’t have alignment if you don’t know where you’re going. The second step is really what I’ve just said; so taking action on a daily basis towards what it is that you say that you want. Step three is releasing anything that no longer serves that bigger mission; stopping associations with people who no longer serve that bigger mission. And then, step four is actually being open to receiving it; so when it turns a [Inaudible 16:59], when the client who wants to pay you, when the podcast invitation happens, you being available to say yes to it. Those are the four key steps components.
ANGELA:
And I think also, too, interesting that on your step three about being able to release things that no longer serve you and I think I saw you there on one of your Instagram posts or somewhere I was reading about like unfollowing people who’d no longer do you good. And it doesn’t mean that you don’t like them anymore, it doesn’t mean that you don’t care for them. It’s just going, they no longer serve you in the way that they need to and it’s almost like, how would you say that, people; you’re not allowing yourself, everything’s so cluttered because you’re following everyone, trying to please everyone, etc. Whereas if you release some of that clutter, it will open up for other opportunities.
SUZY:
Yes, 100%. Yes, you’ve said it exactly how I would say it. And I think the other thing is that our energy; alignment and energy are absolutely intertwined. And when you are engaging in activities that drain you, when you are surrounding yourself by people that drain you, when your own environment drains you, it’s really, really difficult for you to take positive action towards your goals. And so, just from a very practical perspective, it’s like, is this taking me one step closer or one step further away? Is this moving me forward or not? If it’s not moving you forward, let it go. What’s the point in doing it?
ANGELA:
Yes. And I think there’s a bit of fear for women around that, right? Like, “If I do this, what will they think?” And I know, for example, I probably just went out of; I don’t know, 50 Facebook groups over the last month. And some friends have reached out to me going like, “Anj, I want to tag you and I noticed you’re not in there. Have I offended you? Have I done this and this?” There’s this; we jump to the negative so quickly like, “Oh my goodness. They no longer like me.” And it had nothing to do with it.
Listen, I had to do a big dump, a big cleanse because stuff was just showing up on my feed, I was getting distracted, I wasn’t being as efficient and productive as I could be. So for my own thing, it had nothing to do; they’d done nothing to me but it no longer serve me. It was cluttering up everything in my brain. I was getting distracted so I just had to let it go. I still stay in touch with them in other ways but it was; there are some things that I just needed to let go.
SUZY:
Yes, and this is what step one is; knowing what you want and being unapologetic about that.
ANGELA:
Yes, I like that. Unapologetic.
SUZY:
Yes. We feel that we’d have to ask for permission, we worry about judgment of wanting the dreams that we have. And what that means for a lot of people is that you end up living a life or building your business that isn’t actually what it is that you want when building it because you think that it’s what you should do. You’re doing it because what Jenny from; you know, Jenny from the block; you’re doing it because you think that that’s what you need to do to gain approval.
And when you are building your business in that way or living your life in that way, I think that that’s when it feels hard, I think that that’s where you have the capacity to wake up after working really hard and things will fall and you’ll say, “What the hell am I doing? What is this about?”
ANGELA:
And then again, I would say that again, in those instances, businesses are probably also struggling emotionally, financially and a variety of other; there’s like a ripple effect, you could almost say.
SUZY:
Yes.
ANGELA:
Now, when we look at the alignment and the definition that you gave us and we looked at some of the key components that make up alignment, I can only assume that there’s multiple benefits that come from staying true to yourself but equally staying aligned. Can you talk to us a little bit about what those benefits are when you start going through these steps that you’ve identified and really honing in on that?
SUZY:
Yes, I think that the biggest benefit is that you are living an authentic life. And I think that no matter how much; what do you do in what a person development work or not, on a day-to-day basis, we feel good or we feel not good. And when you know that when you are living in alignment, more days than not, you wake up feeling good. And for those of you who are like, good is good but great is better…
ANGELA:
Yes.
SUZY:
The more you are living into what you desire and you’re really honouring that, the more days you’ll wake up feeling great. And I think that that’s the biggest benefit. Like, we go into business because; for most of the people I’m working with, they are caring individuals who want to make the impact in the world and they want to give back, they want to be of service. And I think that that is super, super important. But underneath that is a desire to be happy. You can give all that you want and be of service, but if you wake up in the morning and feel depleted, feel resentful, feel like you’re living somebody else’s life, then you only got a limited amount of time you can do that for before things start to crumble.
So the one thing that only depends living in alignment the way it’s possible; what’s important to be living in alignment is that happiness phase. And it’s not to say that then you’re happy every single day and bad things don’t happen and challenges don’t happen, of course, they do. But ultimately when you are living into your highest purpose and you’re living into alignment and you feel great. Now when you feel great, you tend to be more magnetic when it comes to attracting more clients and earning more money and things just tend to flow so much more and easily. Have I answered your question there?
ANGELA:
100%. And I think that’s the thing is that again, we start; it’s like that, when we were kids or when I was a kid in a science class and you play with the magnets and then you would like repel everything with the magnet and then things that would stick. And I think it is very true that, in our life, we do the same thing, whether or not we’re conscious of it or unconscious of it. And I think it is important that people start to become more and more attuned with themselves, where they’re aligned, where they’re sitting, what they need to change because I’m really big about business is great and you can take all the strategy you want.
But I believe successful business owners is so much of it comes down mindset. And it’s this mindset where I think is mindset and alignment go hand in hand as far as I’m concerned. And that you really can’t have one without the other. What are your thoughts about that?
SUZY:
Oh, absolutely. You have to, in order for you to live your life in alignment, you have to have a mindset, first you have permission to do that in the first place. And yes, I agree with you 100%.
ANGELA:
Now, listen, on your live; now, we’re talking about alignment in life, in general. But for the purposes of this, I want to take it one step further and this is what you talked about in your live video is you talked about four components that you have found with working with women in business that kind of leads to more of a business success. Am I framing that right, Suzy?
SUZY:
Yes.
ANGELA:
And that the four components is something that women in business really need to; on top of their day-to-day alignment, but in order to be successful in business, need to be checking in because if you start to not really look at these four components, it could have detrimental impacts on your business. So I’d love for you talk a little bit more about what those specific four components of alignment for business success look like if you don’t mind.
SUZY:
Yes. So the first is living in alignment with your purpose. So are you doing the thing that you are supposed to be doing? So for me, my purpose is living a life without limitations. And so, when I think about how I show up in my business, the question I’m asking myself on a daily basis is how would I choose when I’m unlimiting myself? Or am I making this decision based on; so for me, living a life without limitation means saying yes to the things that I want to say yes to and no to the things I want to say no to.
And so, when I am looking at my business on a day-to-day basis, I’m like, am I living in alignment with that purpose? Am I finding myself saying yes because I’m worried about what somebody thinks of me or am I saying no because I’m scared? This is a big thing when it comes to investing in yourself and in business. Like, if am I living in a place of fear and scarcity and worried about how am I going to be able to make this up or am I going for it because I absolutely know that if I take that step, then it’s going to take me one step closer to fulfilling my big vision. So, are you living your life on purpose?
ANGELA:
Purpose:
SUZY:
Yes, so that’s the first one.
ANGELA:
So purpose is like key, so it’s kind of like it will lead us into the other thing because if you don’t understand what your purpose is and are you staying true to what you’re doing every day with your business purpose, then obviously, things are going to start to falter. So what would be the next component of that alignment part?
SUZY:
So the next piece is value and there are two elements to this. This is the value that you place on yourself, like how much; what’s your self-worth? What is your self-esteem? Do you value yourself as an individual? And then, the second part of that is how much value are you putting into the world. And those two are incredibly important and I think that we’re often, I think that women, run; particularly women, run into difficulty is that we connect our value with our output and the two are separate.
So I’ve given you two elements. Those are two elements of value but they’re not combined. So where we want to get to in a place if we’re understanding that my worth and my value are absolutely independent to my output. And the reason that that is important is the more we understand that regardless of my success, regardless of how much money I’ve got in the bank, regardless of how many clients I booked today, I am a valuable human being, I was born valuable.
And what I say often to my clients is, “Do you think about when you had your baby?” Your baby came out and they have inherent value. You don’t say, “When you can speak I’m going to love you more. When you can walk I’m going to love you more.” They’re just enough as they are. And we were all that baby. And when you are able to be really, really clear in that, it makes making decisions in your business way easier because you’ve become less attached to whether you are making the right or the wrong decision.
Like, a lot of the time, we are held back from moving forward, we spend way too long working out whether it’s the right decision or not because we think, “If I get this wrong, my inherent value then go through the floor.” And when you can take that away, God, it makes it much easier. It’s like, “I’m going to do this because it feels like it’s taking me one step closer. It feels good because this, I think is going to take me one step closer to my vision. But if it doesn’t work, I’m just going to try something else.” Do you know what I mean? It just, it lightens everything up. So that is; that’s just really important, our own self-worth and value.
And then secondly, when it comes to us making more money in the world, that is to do with output. And that doesn’t necessarily have to mean a huge volume; I talk about charging and pricing based on transformation. But make sure that if you’ve got a package that you’re putting out there for $2,000 or $5,000, that you and your heart know that the value that the person is getting is going to be $10,000 or $15,000.
Or when you’re doing a Facebook live, you’re not just doing a Facebook live for the sake of doing it, you’re doing it because you want to create a mini transformation for anybody who’s watching. And the more value you can put out in the world like that, the more you can charge basically, the more income you’re going to make.
ANGELA:
Yes. And I also think there’s a great book, The Go-Giver. Have you ever read that book, Suzie?
SUZY:
I haven’t actually.
ANGELA:
The Go-Giver. I’ve read it like 900 times. But he also talks about the importance of just giving in value first and then eventually, you will receive it back, right? And so, so many people I think are always like, “Oh, how can I flip the next dollar? How can I do this? How can I do that?” Well, he talks about leading, similar with love, like [Inaudible 30:55] we talked about. But he talks more about like leading through value and generosity. And if you can just treat people like humans, then you will be will receive it. Like, good things will happen, right? And so, I mean that’s really in the natural but I would highly recommend for those that haven’t read the book, The Go-Giver, absolutely brilliant book.
But similar to life, that value, is that you know deep in your heart that you’re giving value whether or not it’s a Facebook live and you’re adding; like you need to genuinely be adding value to people’s lives than; I think so many times, businesses are too concerned about, “Well, I did a live and I ticked the box.” But they’re forgetting about what goes behind that live, how does it impact on people? And I guess, one of the other components I think you’re going to be talking about is impact.
SUZY:
Yes, what’s the impact? Are you living into your first impact? So what I mean by that is how are you showing up? Like, are you only; if you can imagine like a rung on the ladder, are you on rung one when you know that you can be on rung number five. Are you going all-in on yourself and how you know that you can help people? What’s the impact of the work that you are doing? And again, that does not mean to say that unless you are talking on global stages and being a keynote speaker at AFES; it’s not just that. Of course, that’s one side of it.
But when you show up and you’re looking at the work that you’re doing with your clients, how grounded are you, how confident do you feel in the impact that you are making on each individual person’s life? And I think that when you feel really great about that, and you are playing all in, again, that’s reflected in the success; business success, financial success, the number of clients, the types, the quality of transformation that you are able to facilitate. Does that make sense?
ANGELA:
100%. And I think again, there’s impact I think also; and correct me if I’m wrong, Suzy, but we can have impact with our clients. But I also think that sometimes we forget about the other impact that we can make because of the audience or stage that we may have, whether or not that’s a blog, whether or not that’s a podcast, whether or not that’s doing a live.
For me, my impact is this that I have a voice to talk about business but mental health is also very close to my heart, not only because I’m a Mental Health Clinician of 15 years but I’ve also had depression and anxiety myself. And so, I also look at impact about that I’m able to have on other people from a business point, but what other impact can I have that’s not directly related to business.
SUZY:
Yes, 100%. Yes, totally.
ANGELA:
And one of the other things that you talked about as a key component, and this is actually my favourite one; I’ve actually been thinking about it since I’ve heard your live, is the importance of; what’s your final component?
SUZY:
Play.
ANGELA:
Yes.
SUZY:
And even more than play, now, I think I would say pleasure. I think the world, the entrepreneurial world; let’s be really real, can be tough, particularly as a woman in business, particularly if you are the key breadwinner and particularly just working it all out. Like, the learning curve from just starting out to getting your first client is high. And so, we can just; there is a tendency for us to just all work and no play. And what do they say? “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”
ANGELA:
Yes.
SUZY:
And it’s like, I really, really; how can you lighten up? How much play can you have in your business? How much pleasure can you create in your business? And how much pleasure and play are you having outside of work? And it is no surprise for me that whenever I get on a plane, that is; and you know, if there’s no WI-FI and if you’re just chilling, is that, that’s when the inspiration comes, that’s when the creativity comes. When you’re able to, for me, it’s going to the ocean. It’s like hearing the waves, giving real appreciation like, “Oh, this is amazing.”
Let’s look up and smell the roses. Let’s look to see where we can increase more playfulness and more pleasure and do what it is that we are doing. Because it’s that energy that opens the space for the creative thinking, not when you are stuck behind your computer screen and not when you are trying to force your way through your problems. So Einstein is the person who said you cannot come up with the answer to; how do you, do you know the quote I want to say? You can’t create a solution from the same energy that the problem has originated from.
ANGELA:
Which is so true.
SUZY:
Yes, take a step back. And as soon as you start to relax; my background, I started out as a hypnotherapist and psychotherapist. And in hypnosis, what do you do? You are deeply relaxing somebody and when somebody is deeply relaxed, that’s when it is easier to make the change that we want at the brain. It’s the same in real life. We don’t have to go into a state of hypnosis, we can just relax and play. And only does that make our business way more enjoyable and it makes us the business fools.
ANGELA:
And I know like; the same goes, you know like, how many times you speak with someone, “Oh, I was in the shower and I had this great idea. Oh, I was in the shower and I had this great idea.” It’s because, yes, you connect TVs in your showers, I know people have do that, and yes, you can now like write stuff down in showers and all that; I get that. And there’ll be some people shaking their heads, going, “Yes, I do that.” But the majority of us probably don’t have that, alright? And we’re just in the shower; we’re washing our hair, we’re shaving our legs, whatever, alright? But the reality of it is, is how many times we’re like, “Oh man, that’s a great idea. Oh man, that’s a great idea,” because you allowed yourself the ability to relax, be present, be in the moment and now that creativity just flows literally. Like, the whole water that you’re in the shower with.
So I think it’s super important. I know I just did an event here in Brisbane. And I took a bit of a risk but because, basically, what you’re saying there, Suzy, is that I believe business owners are not having the ability to take a timeout for themselves, from a self-care perspective but even one-step further, the ability to just again smile and laugh. I think people are taking it so serious that they’ve lost the ability to belly laugh, etc.
So I took the risk on it and it was the most; best feedback I’ve had in regards to this. So it was just a 3-hour event here in Brisbane and I rented out an entire movie cinema. And what I did is we just sit there, like there’s really cool energizer that I do; ice breaker, you could say. Then we went into the actual movie theatre and I did my presentation as they sat in reclinable seats watching me talk. We had a quick little break and then we watched an hour and a half movie, The Hustle.
Now, the comments and the feedback that I had post-survey was, “Oh my goodness, Angela. I really felt guilty at the beginning of the movie because I was sitting there taking time away from my business, but it was exactly what I needed. Thank you so much for doing something different. Thank you for giving me the chance to just to laugh and be around other women who are laughing. I haven’t been to the movies in months.” Right?
So it was really something again, I still incorporate learning but I still incorporated the connectedness with the women, but I took it one-step further about that self-care and that playfulness again. And yes, it was super, it was great to see these women and hear their stories post the event and how that impacted them.
And it’s something so simple, like, it’s not; it wasn’t rocket science, right? But it was going against what everyone else is saying, like the Instagram memes, “You got to hustle. You got to do this. You got to do that.” And I’m not saying that me, you and I, haven’t worked hard to get where we’re at but not at the detriment of everything else and I think that’s important.
SUZY:
I love the fact; what really struck me about what you just said is that it’s experiential. And in order; my belief is that in order to make the quantum leaps that you see people making with ease, with grace and alignment, we have to get out of our heads more and into our bodies and how we do that is through tangible connected experiences. And so, that’s what you did, that’s what you helped to facilitate and created with that cinema experience. So it doesn’t surprise me that you’ve got that amazing feedback. The same reason that we go in retreats and all of that good stuff. So, yes.
ANGELA:
It was just like, again, it was, you got to spell it like people are laughing and talking, you know how it is. I mean, listen, you go to a lot of these events, too, and it‘s just again, people again, they shouldn’t have to give themselves permission but I think again, in a world where we are so; what’s the word? Climatized isn’t the right word I’m looking for. It’s so ingrained in us that we have to do certain things in a certain way that we have to unwire ourselves to do things differently and give ourselves permission that it’s okay to do that.
Even though we shouldn’t have to give ourselves permission, the reality of it is, is like, we just have to embrace and go with our own gut instinct. Go with what; like you said, go back to what our purpose is, what our value is, what feels good, what our alignment is. And that’s where again, I think people get a little bit out of alignment.
Which I guess, kind of leads me to my next question, Suzy, is for those women out there, obviously, we’ve got alignment, collectively, which we’ve been talking about. But then we talked about the four components also of alignment around having that successful business, which you’ve talked about, is the value, your purpose, impact and playing and pleasure. But for those women out there, what is the simple test that they could potentially do just to kind of check with themselves on their own alignment around those four components?
SUZY:
So, there’s two things. So the first thing is to check in with how you feel. And I know that that is; that might sound like a big thing to say, but how many times when somebody says, “How are you?” and you say, “Fine,” and I think that that answer, that “Fine,” it’s like, “I’m not great.” You know, you’re used to living with a low level of anxiety, a low level of discomfort and low level of disdain, and by checking in consciously, “How do I feel?” Ultimately we should be waking up and feeling good and feeling excited about what is coming next because we are striving daily towards our big vision. And if we wake up and we’re not feeling good and we’re not feeling great and we’re just feeling meh or worse or worse, then, that is a huge sign that we are not living in alignment.
And then, secondly, it’s look at the results. Look at the results that you are getting in your life and if you are way out of the [Inaudible 42:39] when it comes to the results that you are living versus the results that you are wanting, that’s a huge sign that you are out of alignment. Or if you’re getting the results and you’re still feeling meh, often, you are living someone else’s purpose rather than your own. So it’s how do you feel on a daily basis and then looking at the results and then coming back to how you feel.
ANGELA:
And when you look at the results, could they also dig one-step further? I think in your video, you talked to them about doing like a scale test, 1-10, and checking in and giving out a number and monitoring it? I think that’s what you were talking about, Suzy?
SUZY:
Yes, which is super; and I think it’s results and also how you feel. So if 10 is the best, or 10 is the closest you can be to; this is absolutely living on purpose and 1 is the furthest away, where are you feeling on a daily basis? For me, you want to be up around; it’s totally normal, I’ll have to say, I have bad days and alignment doesn’t mean that everything is comfortable all the time.
ANGELA:
Totally.
SUZY:
And this also feels really important to say, I shared a story on my newsletter last week about being in Columbia and cliff jumping. And I’ve already said it, I’m not very great with the water and I ended up jumping off the side of a cliff. Now, the preamble to this is that the day before, I’ve been in the water. I’d hated it, I made a whole big drama about it, everybody knew about the drama, nobody thought I was going to be jumping off the cliff.
But because I was in a boat with a guy called Glen Ledwell, who’s the co-founder of an Australian brand called Mind Movies, he was not allowing me to live into my fear, basically. And because his highest vision for me and for the boat was that we were all going to jump off, I did it and that did not feel comfortable. It felt really, really uncomfortable right up until the minute I actually jumped off the cliff.
And so, the alignment piece doesn’t always mean that the steps you’re going to take feel easy. It doesn’t always mean that the steps you are going to make don’t make you feel anxious or scared but it’s about what is going to take you one step closer to your overall mission. And my overall mission is to live a life without limitations. So, am I not going to jump off because I’m scared? Or am I going to jump off because actually, I believe that that is a massive breakthrough that is going to enhance my life while the route take me one step further away from it? And so, that feels, with the scaling, I don’t want people to think that unless it feels good, then I don’t do it. Alignment doesn’t always feel good.
ANGELA:
So you’re saying, they’re going, “Okay. I’m going to look at the scale of 1-10,” where you said 1 is you got some work to do; 10, you’re kind of nailing it.
SUZY:
Yes.
ANGELA:
It’s like, “Oh, play today. Waa-waa.” Or is that a negative zero and then, they’re like, “Oh my God. I’m so bad. My life sucks. I didn’t do any play today.” It’s not about the test of, to make you feel like shit. It’s about making you aware because when you are aware, you have choices and you can make a change.
SUZY:
Yes.
ANGELA:
So, I think it just comes down to that mindset for those that are listening out there is you have choices. Like you can go, “Okay, great. I actually didn’t have play today and that’s okay. But tomorrow, I’m going to be more mindful of it. I’m going to jam with it and I can make choices then.” It’s about rewiring your brain and just being consciously aware of the decisions that you’re making.
SUZY:
Yes, yes, totally. And small incremental changes; slow and steady wins the race.
ANGELA:
And like I always say, Rome wasn’t built in a day. That took time; it took energy. I know since leaving Caitlin’s Mastermind, one of the things she did on that, on the last day was around like your mindfulness and saying six phrases every day, ten times; I think, two times a day. And I’ve been doing that since I’ve come back and it’s something so simple but the rewiring of my brain, it just now becomes naturally; that every day, like I get off the phone tonight with the podcast; it’s about 11:10 here now in Brisbane. And I do this thing every single night, I walk around my house for 15 minutes, and not only I get exercise but I repeat this mindfulness stuff that Caitlin taught us every single night.
And it’s been a game-changer; I’ve been doing it since March when I came back. And it is, again, but it’s taking time. And yes, some days, I don’t get to do it just because I might be in the middle of the air somewhere flying or whatever, but I don’t beat myself up about it. I just go, “Okay, I didn’t do it yesterday, that’s okay. But I have done it for these other three and a half months or four and a half months.” So, yes, it’s changed; it takes time and we’re never perfect. It’s always; I always say, “Done is better than perfect.”
SUZY:
Yes, and I think that what we focus on expands and that’s the why that’s the fallout. I think that you train, even train your brain to look for evidence that is supportive of you or you can train your brain for that poor evidence that you’re no good and you’re never going to succeed and everything’s crap. And, which is more helpful? And I’m always like, “Is this a helpful thought? Is this helpful?” And if the answer is “NO,” then I’ve got a pin on it.
ANGELA:
Yes. Put a pin on it. Be done with it. Now, for those women and gentlemen that are here listening, just like we review our goals on a potential monthly, quarterly; depending on what you do; yearly basis, just like we have a business strategy, how important do you think it is to constantly being reviewing your alignment, generally, and then obviously the four components of business alignment that we talked about today?
SUZY:
So, you are choosing alignment on a minute-by-minute basis. And a client said to me the other day, “The first time you said that to me, I wanted to punch in the face.” I know it’s annoying. The thing is, you can have the attitude that that is annoying and it’s too much. Or you can have the attitude that my mission and my vision for who I wanted to be as a person and what I want to create in the world is important to me. And it is way too easy to not be; to be taking actions that are out of alignment with ourselves, with our integrity, because we are careful.
And so, yes, for sure, at the very minimum, on a day-to-day basis, you want to be asking ourselves, “How do I feel?” But for me, every time I’m making a decision, I’m asking myself, “Has this been in alignment with my big vision or not?” And when you start asking yourself that, watch you, of course, you’ll still make decisions that are based out of fear and scarcity, it makes it harder because you’re showing life on it.
ANGELA:
You have insight to it because, kind of the same, like out of sight, out of mind; whereas the more you practice this, the more you’re attuned with your alignment, the more it will just become second nature inside and you can make informed decisions. So it’s like, the more present it is, the more helpful it’s going to be. So if you do that every day, and like you said, get to it every minute, then, the positive impact is going to be so great.
SUZY:
Exactly. It’s like a snowball, it’s a muscle that you are; a snowball or a muscle. And the more you stretch it, the more powerful it becomes.
ANGELA:
Fantastic. This has been super, super helpful, not only for me because I always learn from all my guests, but also, I’m assuming for all the listeners out there. I’ve got two final questions, Suzy, before we wrap up, and one is, what do you know now that you wish you knew when you first started in business?
SUZY:
What I wished I’d known when I first started is that the blueprints and templates are definitely important but you always have to find the one that is aligned to you. Like, if it was just one wave, just one thing, then everybody would be doing it and we’re all doing it definitely.
ANGELA:
Fantastic. And for those listeners who want to get a nice piece of awesomeness with Suzy, how can they find you, where are you, do you have any new projects coming up, anything being released? What can you let us in on?
SUZY:
Yes. So I don’t know when this is going to be airing but in September, I start a really exciting new project called The One Incubator while I work with a group of women and a group coaching environmentally, hang out on Zoom every week where I will focus on one thing to really make either one person that leave talking about clients, saying, “I’ve got a work with her.” And as I say, there’s a 90-day period and it’s about making sure that people finish 2019 in the best possible shape ever to really springboard into what is going to be an incredible decade because we’re going into 2020. And it’s about setting you up so that you are ready to fly at the beginning on of the year. So The One is coming up and then I do retreats and I’ve got my messaging, so there’s lots.
So you can come out, you can find me on @suzy_ashworth on Instagram and Suzy Ashworth, too, on Facebook or you can sign up for my Abundance Blockers if things are getting in the way of you really receiving as much as you can receive. And my website is just suzyashworth.com.
ANGELA:
Fantastic. And for the rest of you, please just remember that we will have all of these links in the show notes and also the transcription, which we’ll have at angelahenderson.com.au. So don’t worry if you weren’t able to get all those, we’ll make sure that we have the links in the show notes, and like I said, the transcription later on. And of course, I cover all sorts of related business and life topics inside my Facebook community, The Australian Business Collaborative. At the time of recording, we’ve just hit 6,000 members. It’s a super active, very fun and engaging community, so make sure you join us over there at The Australian Business Collaborative.
And for the rest of you, have a fabulous day or night, depending on when you’re listening to this. And I look forward to you joining me next week for another amazing episode of the Business and Life Conversations Podcast.
Thank you so much, Suzy. I hope you have a brilliant day over in Mexico and I look forward to connecting again with you soon.
SUZY:
Thank you. Thanks so much for having me. Bye, guys.
ANGELA:
Thanks for listening to the Business and Life Conversations Podcast with Angela Henderson, Suzy Ashworth. www.angelahenderson.com.au
