March 31, 2025 • 23 mins
Helping Ordinary Women Build Extraordinary Businesses, Brands, and Lives They Love While Unpacking Their Inner SHEEO with Episodes Enriching Your Mindset, Wealth, and Faith Factor
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Rachel Medina is an Entrepreneur, TEDx Speaker, Christianpreneur, Mommypreneur and an ordinary woman who ditched the C-suite for the SHE-suite by tapping into the new and exciting laptop lifestyle in the SHEconemy, and who built multiple businesses from home, after divorce, as a single mother over 40!
The Rachel Unpacked Podcast is here to help you avoid common mistakes by learning the lessons she learned along the way! Whether you're a corporate baddie wanting to ditch the grind or a single momma ready to learn a new money making skillset from home, the Rachel Unpacked podcast is for you.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to another episode of the Rachel Unpacked podcast.
I am your host Rachel Medina andin every episode we talk about
mindset, wealth, building and faith for every girlie who is
looking to change and level up her life.
If you want to follow me on social media, you can do so at
Rachel Medina 101 or visit my website rachelmedina.com.
But if you are ready to build a business in a life that you
(00:23):
love, head on over to our new She eox.com site again She EO
x.com where you are going to find a tribe of like minded
business building, dream aspiring girlies just like you.
Connecting, learning and growingtogether.
And a new CEO X Partnership program means we attract the
(00:43):
talented, experienced and successful women who are ready
to teach you how they did it so that you can succeed too.
Let's go. One of the most challenging
things I've ever had to do as anentrepreneur and now heading
into the thought leadership space is actually explain what
entrepreneurship is and what it's like because so many people
are like, oh, you know, you havea dream, you have a passion, you
(01:06):
have a purpose, you can build a business around it.
And I myself am guilty of doing this on stages.
In fact, I spoke at Ted X and Ted X and basically was like
telling my story about how I broke up with corporate over the
age of 40 and, you know, went all in on my purpose and fueled
by my passion and all these different things.
And yet and still I now, even since then, can circle back and
(01:29):
go, well, wait a darn minute. Because this thing called
entrepreneurship has a life cycle and it has a pulse and it
has varying stages of its identity and varying stages of
its pros and cons, peaks and valleys, if you will, Right.
You may have remembered in a previous episode me mentioning
(01:50):
it or comparing it to Mount Everest and what that's like.
And so in my doom scroll that I sessions that I do often in the
evenings at night before bed. I'm not saying 10 out of 10
recommend, but it's the way I tend to sort of end cap my my
days. And I saw a video from Alex
Hermosi and his wife Leila. They're they're pretty
(02:11):
brilliant. And and he broke this down on a
podcast about the life cycle of entrepreneurship.
And it was the first time that Ireally heard it framed in a way
that I said this, this is it. This is exactly it as as a as a
woman who's been through it and more than one time, by the way,
(02:33):
people say, oh, don't call yourself a serial entrepreneur,
but you know, as an Omni entrepreneur, Omni passionate,
I've started, you know, different businesses, created
several different brands. And I am here to tell you this.
What I what you are about to hear in this episode is the
reality. This is it.
This is what it is. And This is why if you're on the
(02:54):
journey, you feel stuck, OK. And in listening to this, I want
you to really ask yourself, whatstage are you in?
Because if you're barely at stage 1 and Stage 1 is not what
you think it is and you realize,oh, I'm actually at Stage 2.
And if that's not what you thinkit is and you look around and
(03:14):
you go, Oh my God, I thought I was already on like stage five
of having to decide whether or not I got to stay in business or
shut it down. No, you're just getting started.
If you're even having that feeling.
And, and this breakdown is just,is just brilliant.
So here, here we go. I'm going to get into it.
Stage 1 is uninformed optimism. OK, What Steve Harvey said about
(03:40):
this in one of his books that was brilliant is he says the
dream is free, but the hustle issold separately.
People can have a great idea, they can have a big dream and
they get excited and they get all the warm and fuzzies and
they think that that's the fuel.They think that's it.
I think you just need like a good, like a, a good idea and
enthusiasm and you're good to go.
And it's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
(04:04):
Like that is not enough gas thatthat just, that just is not a,
you know what it's like, It's like, do you remember buying
toys for your kids or anything like that?
And it came with batteries. And it's like these off label
batteries, you know. And yeah, it works with those
off label batteries. But there's like this sense of
knowing, oh, my gosh, I am podcasting with the window open.
(04:25):
So you can only imagine. But there's a sense of knowing
that it's not going to last thatlong.
They're not going to, you know, like stand the test of time.
You're going to have to get something better.
It's that, it's that that's whatit's like to come up with a
great idea that you get all excited about.
Get the warm and fuzzies. You might even get a bunch of
people going. Yeah, you know what?
That's pretty great cheering foryou.
(04:46):
That'd be perfect for you. I could totally see you doing
that. And then like Steve Harvey says,
the dream is free, we all have one and but the hustle is sold
so separately. It is so separately.
And what Alex Hermozi basically describes as he says, at this
stage, everything looks excitingand full of promise.
You see someone else's success and believe that you can
(05:09):
replicate it effortlessly. Keep in mind that if you are
doing something innovative and brilliant and in neat and maybe
it's getting a lot of attention,you are going to have a lot of
people that are going to try to copy you.
But they don't got the sauce. They don't got the sauce, they
don't they don't got the inner workings.
You know, they're not exactly sure how to feel it forward.
And so just just know that we'vetalked about that before as
(05:31):
well. So they're going to try to
replicate it thinking that it's going to be effortless.
OK. There's little awareness of the
challenges ahead and enthusiasm is at an all time high.
I mean, this is it. This is like the peak, the peak,
the peak. And it's funny because in the
book The E Myth, The E Myth revisited, excuse me, we talked
about this book inside of the CEO community.
(05:53):
Many entrepreneurs start with itwith what Gerber calls an
entrepreneurial seizure. Oh my God is so brilliant where
they believe they can turn theirpassion into a business without
understanding the operational complexities.
So true. It's just, it's like falling in
love, you guys, when you fall inlove with someone, especially
like love at first sight and you're like, oh God, it's so
(06:15):
amazing. You're on cloud 9.
You just you just those, those red flags.
They're just these little, little, little, little pink
little little butlings coming out of the ground and you're
like, oh, look how cute. These little pink mushrooms.
OK, that's, that's what that's like.
OK, that's what that's like. And and then basically what ends
(06:38):
up happening the second stage isinformed pessimism.
My goodness. Another quote from Mike Tyson.
He says everyone has a plan until they get punched in the
face or in the mouth or whatever.
He says it is so true. Everyone thinks, Oh, yeah, you
(07:02):
know what, What I'll do is I'll just take, you know, these
$10,000 or this 100,000, and I'mgoing to do this and I'm going
to put it here. And then I'm going to bring
these people on board because they're cool as heck.
And like this person over here seems, you know, tenacious and
enthusiastic and eager enough toto drive things forward.
And then you realize, no, they're not equipped.
That's not enough money. You, you didn't see those turns
(07:26):
because you're not from this industry.
Next thing you know, you're crashing and burning and getting
hit in the mouth like Mike Tysonsays.
OK, Alex says as the reality starts to set in, the challenges
and complexities of business become evident and doubt creeps
in. Entrepreneurs start seeing the
effort required, leading to the frustration.
(07:47):
Because why? Because they were so excited and
they like sold themselves the dream and they sold everybody
around them about how passionateit were.
They were about those dreams. But the hustle, the hustle is
very real and it's unavoidable. If you are a Jim Gurley, you
understand the whole no pay, no gain thing.
Many of us. I'm a soft, I'm not a hard body.
(08:07):
I'm a soft body over here. And I am like the less pain, the
better for me. But then all that happens is no
pain equals gain, weight gain, weight gain.
And so many people love the highof like an idea and like making
it happen. That's, you know, what I've
encountered is people that get addicted to that type of
(08:30):
feeling, to that high of the ideas and, and the doing of
those ideas is they come up withlots of ideas and they do lots
of different things. And it looks like they're moving
forward. It looks like they're just being
people like, you know, thinking and do it and get it done.
And the reality is they're just throwing spaghetti against the
wall to see what sticks. Like they're just chasing the
next high. They're not building anything
foundational. They're not building anything
(08:52):
long, long term. They're not building anything of
real value. They're just chasing the next
little win, the next little experience.
And those people are difficult to align with because the it's
almost like entrepreneurial ADHD.
It doesn't, it doesn't go reallyfar and it goes like in circles,
like it's just round and round and round and round and kicks up
(09:12):
a lot of dust. But if you're if you're serious,
let me tell you, you're going to.
It's unavoidable to go through entrepreneurship without hitting
each and every one of these thatI'm listening here today.
OK. The next one is crisis of
meaning. He calls this, this is Alex
(09:36):
Hermosi, the valley of despair. This is crisis of meaning.
He calls it the valley of despair.
Napoleon Hill. Oh, my gosh.
Love thinking grow rich. You know that.
He said most people give up right before they see success.
I think this is a yeah, part of Three Feet from Gold, which I
absolutely love. Alex says this is the breaking
(09:59):
point. Entrepreneurs feel stuck,
exhausted and question if it's all worth it.
Many quit or look for another quote.
Easier opportunity. Repeating the cycle.
You guys, how many times have you felt all the feelings of
like, this is going to be a great idea or this is a great
idea? Oh my God, this is this is the
(10:19):
right people, the right place, the right thing.
Let's do it. It's so exciting.
Yay. RA RA, RA, RA.
You get 6 months and nine monthsa year in.
You're not making the money thatyou thought you were going to
make. It's not as easy as you thought
it was going to be. You're not as equipped as you
thought you were. You're not as well funded as
you'd hoped to be. And you are not as educated,
(10:39):
informed as you now realize you should have been before turning
this corner and starting this business.
And now you're in the valley of despair.
You're in the stage 3 crisis of meaning, and you're questioning
your entire existence. And you're wondering why you did
this. And then what happens is you
have lunch with a friend. You go out with her one weekend
(11:03):
and she says, oh, you know, how are you doing?
And you're like, well, gosh, I'mjust, I'm just grinding and I'm
working at this and it's really hard, but you know what, I'm
optimistic. And then your friend says, oh,
and then you say, how are you doing?
And she says, oh, I just made, you know, $10,000 like selling
socks on the Internet or I just made, you know, this much, you
know, helping people. Do, you know, uncanned tuna or
(11:25):
whatever crazy thing it is. And then what happens?
You start to look at that and go, oh, maybe I should uncanned
tuna on the side and it's not that I don't believe in side
hustles because CEO began with this whole like side hustle
culture thing and even during COVID, I encouraged everybody on
my team of the other business tostart something to just just go
(11:48):
just go do whatever else while you're helping me like hold the
Fort up with this. And so side hustles have their
place in your life and in your in your financial plan for sure,
right. However, when you take on
something like that, that shiny object, because your friend is
making money over there, your friend is having success over
(12:09):
there, your friend is, you know,starting this type of content
and it seems to be working. So now you're like, maybe I'm
going to do that and see if it'll work for me.
You're chasing shiny objects. That is shiny object syndrome.
And that I see that, by the way,as almost like a tool of the
enemy. Going back to the faith part of
it, if you're a faith girlie, the enemy is the king, the
(12:32):
Prince of distraction. And his ultimate goal is to veer
you away from your core purpose,God's purpose for your life and
your core mission of, of, of success, right?
And maybe like success is defined by many different
things, but there are a huge blessings like that hard
business that God placed on yourlap could be the thing that
(12:55):
changes your life, your children's life and the lives of
generations after, after you. And the enemy is going to when
you're in this stage 3 crisis ofmeaning valley of despair going
to bring in this other shiny object to lure you away, OK?
So be very, very mindful of the fact that this valley of despair
(13:16):
is the journey towards success. It's part of the success
journey, OK? And so feeling stuck is part of
the success journey. Craving something easier is part
of the success journey. Regretting the direction that
you may have went in is part of the success journey.
(13:37):
Questioning whether all that youare doing and all the time that
you're spending and all the effort that you're pouring into
this is worth it is is part of the success journey.
Hear my voice when I tell you that feeling of quitting is part
of the success journey. There's no way around it.
OK, that that part right there, by the way, that valley is truly
(14:01):
what separates I believe. And I, I think lots of
millionaires and billionaires believe this.
That is the crossroads that separates the winners from, I
don't want to say losers, right,but the people who truly win to
the people that stay in place. It's that it's what you do in
that valley that's going to makeall the difference.
(14:22):
And when you make a decision to continue to move forward in that
valley with no real sign that there is going to be a positive
outcome because you are convicted in your belief in
that, like God didn't bring me this far just to get this far.
Chances are you're, you're, you're going to, you're going to
(14:42):
see the winds, you're going to end up in a place less traveled.
You're taking the road less traveled.
So the fruits are bigger, the rewards are greater.
The, the views are from higher mountain peaks and that is the
game changer. But not everybody, not
everybody, not everybody makes it through.
(15:04):
OK #4 you reach, then you get through the valley and you're
like, Oh my God, like I don't even have the same identity at
this point. OK.
You come out of there real religious, right, real in your
faith at that point. Real spiritual.
Stage 4 is informed optimism. OK, Alex says.
(15:28):
Actually this is Winston Churchill says about informed
optimism. Success is stumbling from
failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.
I'm going to repeat that one. I'm going to repeat that one.
Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss
of enthusiasm. That was Winston Churchill.
(15:50):
What Alex said about Stage 4, informed optimism is at this
stage the entrepreneur gains clarity.
They see both the challenges andthe opportunities, learning to
manage risks and optimism and learning to manage risk, risks
and optimize their business. This is where you do.
(16:10):
You come out of the Valley and this is where we're at.
We're at, we're at like stage 4 here coming in with CEO, right?
We're coming out of the Valley 1000% at the time of this
recording. And we are coming out of there
bumped, scraped, bruised, battered, some parts are
shattered. There are things that we started
(16:32):
with that we're not moving into the future with.
And we come out of this with a massive amount of sobriety, OK,
and clarity. And we're like, oh, all right,
then we get it, OK. And there is like this deep
rooted understanding and it's and it's and it's interesting
(16:53):
because the only way to it is through it.
That's it. Like there's no way around it.
And people try to throw money atit.
People try to throw, I mean, allkinds of things in the valley.
They try to do so many things tosurvive and pacify and avoid and
numb the actual painstaking journey of the valley.
(17:15):
But there's just, there's no way, there's no way to get to
stage 4 or 5 or 6 for that matter.
And the, and the place that you're trying to get to success
wise without going through it and growing through it.
OK, OK #5 Stage 5 Success and breakthrough Henry David Thoreau
(17:40):
I know I'm pronouncing it wrong,says success usually comes to
those who are too busy to be looking for it.
Oh my goodness, do I love this episode.
Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking
for it. When I tell you I know, and I
can say this with regards to CEO, I know that it's different
(18:02):
because I've started other businesses.
I know that this is different because of the level of nuance,
like the level of focus that I have on the day-to-day to from
the tiniest asects of it to the biggest steps that we need to,
to take in order to move things forward.
(18:23):
Every aspect of it. Normally I have a Google Earth
view, I have a 360° view, have avery high level view of very
broad strokes. With CEO, not only did I go
broad, I also came all the way down to St. level and I and I
and I St. sweep. I am sweeping the streets of CEO
on a regular basis and that is alevel of pruning and nurturing
(18:48):
there really takes love and in something that I didn't realize
that I didn't have and in the other business that I obviously
clearly have in this business, there's an attention to detail
that I have here, but it makes me personally so laser focused
(19:08):
that I'm not actually looking upat the goal necessarily or the
brass ring. And it's a really interesting
thing because the other businesswas all about that and I did
have success with the other business.
And so there's an irony to this,but that's where these things,
when I hear Alex and these otherpeople say these things and
share these thoughts, it remind,it really brings into focus the
(19:31):
fact that what we are creating with CEO specifically is
massive. It's it's, it's big and it's a
game changer. Alex says about about stage 5
success and breakthrough. He says after pushing through
the challenges, entrepreneurs start seeing the rewards of
their persistence. They now understand how to avoid
(19:54):
mistakes and maximize success and create a system that works.
That's why I was saying that I know we're in this stage because
the success that we've experienced is.
Notoriety, it's earned media, it's all these interviews, it's
it's these features. It's the high level expert women
that are stepping forward wanting to align.
(20:15):
It's the thousands of women fromaround the world that are
entering the community. Those are all the we're getting
pinged left and right that we are on the right path, that
we're heading in the right direction.
That is our fruits currently that are sustaining us and
nurturing us and giving us the fortitude to know, OK, like
(20:36):
let's keep going. Let's keep going.
Because again, money is not the only signal of success, right?
It's a goal, it's a tool, but it's not the only signal.
And so you're going to receive lots of signals along the way.
And so I love this in the, in the part of like, you know,
you're maximizing your success and then you're creating systems
(20:57):
that work around that. That's us right now what we're
doing. We went through the valley of
the shadow of death in that laststage and, and as a team, by the
way, and as a brand. And we came out of it, like I
said, battered and brewed brews.But what we also came out of it
was realizing what we need and don't need and the things that
(21:19):
we do need and that do work and that we are comfortable with.
We are creating systems and processes around those things.
And we and what we were saying the other day is it's almost
like our entire higher process and mechanism is collapsing on
itself and compacting itself down to like three to four core
elements of the business. Yet even at the stage of an
(21:42):
enhanced clarity, it's still work, right?
There's still work to be done and there's still moves to be
made. And yet and still we can see the
light though at the end of the tunnel, like our revenue
channels are becoming very clearto us and our audience needs are
even clearer and what our community is ultimately serving
(22:05):
is even clearer than that. And so most of you ladies who
are starting businesses don't even get this far.
It kind of seems like you have. But unless you've gone through
that valley, you're probably notgoing to make it all the way to
the other side. You're going to just, and I
don't mean pivot, you're just going to get distracted by the
shiny things. But the reality is there is a
(22:28):
profound and understanding and pride of like we made it to the
other side. And many people are constantly
in a in a perpetual state of avoiding the hard things.
And like the cliche say, saying says, your highest self, your
(22:50):
success, your joy, your peace, your everything good that you
imagine for yourself is on the other side of the thing that you
are avoiding. That's it.
That's the episode.
Welcome to another episode of the Rachel Unpacked podcast.
I am your host Rachel Medina andin every episode we talk about
mindset, wealth, building and faith for every girlie who is
looking to change and level up her life.
If you want to follow me on social media, you can do so at
Rachel Medina 101 or visit my website rachelmedina.com.
But if you are ready to build a business in a life that you
(00:23):
love, head on over to our new She eox.com site again She EO
x.com where you are going to find a tribe of like minded
business building, dream aspiring girlies just like you.
Connecting, learning and growingtogether.
And a new CEO X Partnership program means we attract the
(00:43):
talented, experienced and successful women who are ready
to teach you how they did it so that you can succeed too.
Let's go. One of the most challenging
things I've ever had to do as anentrepreneur and now heading
into the thought leadership space is actually explain what
entrepreneurship is and what it's like because so many people
are like, oh, you know, you havea dream, you have a passion, you
(01:06):
have a purpose, you can build a business around it.
And I myself am guilty of doing this on stages.
In fact, I spoke at Ted X and Ted X and basically was like
telling my story about how I broke up with corporate over the
age of 40 and, you know, went all in on my purpose and fueled
by my passion and all these different things.
And yet and still I now, even since then, can circle back and
(01:29):
go, well, wait a darn minute. Because this thing called
entrepreneurship has a life cycle and it has a pulse and it
has varying stages of its identity and varying stages of
its pros and cons, peaks and valleys, if you will, Right.
You may have remembered in a previous episode me mentioning
(01:50):
it or comparing it to Mount Everest and what that's like.
And so in my doom scroll that I sessions that I do often in the
evenings at night before bed. I'm not saying 10 out of 10
recommend, but it's the way I tend to sort of end cap my my
days. And I saw a video from Alex
Hermosi and his wife Leila. They're they're pretty
(02:11):
brilliant. And and he broke this down on a
podcast about the life cycle of entrepreneurship.
And it was the first time that Ireally heard it framed in a way
that I said this, this is it. This is exactly it as as a as a
woman who's been through it and more than one time, by the way,
(02:33):
people say, oh, don't call yourself a serial entrepreneur,
but you know, as an Omni entrepreneur, Omni passionate,
I've started, you know, different businesses, created
several different brands. And I am here to tell you this.
What I what you are about to hear in this episode is the
reality. This is it.
This is what it is. And This is why if you're on the
(02:54):
journey, you feel stuck, OK. And in listening to this, I want
you to really ask yourself, whatstage are you in?
Because if you're barely at stage 1 and Stage 1 is not what
you think it is and you realize,oh, I'm actually at Stage 2.
And if that's not what you thinkit is and you look around and
(03:14):
you go, Oh my God, I thought I was already on like stage five
of having to decide whether or not I got to stay in business or
shut it down. No, you're just getting started.
If you're even having that feeling.
And, and this breakdown is just,is just brilliant.
So here, here we go. I'm going to get into it.
Stage 1 is uninformed optimism. OK, What Steve Harvey said about
(03:40):
this in one of his books that was brilliant is he says the
dream is free, but the hustle issold separately.
People can have a great idea, they can have a big dream and
they get excited and they get all the warm and fuzzies and
they think that that's the fuel.They think that's it.
I think you just need like a good, like a, a good idea and
enthusiasm and you're good to go.
And it's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
(04:04):
Like that is not enough gas thatthat just, that just is not a,
you know what it's like, It's like, do you remember buying
toys for your kids or anything like that?
And it came with batteries. And it's like these off label
batteries, you know. And yeah, it works with those
off label batteries. But there's like this sense of
knowing, oh, my gosh, I am podcasting with the window open.
(04:25):
So you can only imagine. But there's a sense of knowing
that it's not going to last thatlong.
They're not going to, you know, like stand the test of time.
You're going to have to get something better.
It's that, it's that that's whatit's like to come up with a
great idea that you get all excited about.
Get the warm and fuzzies. You might even get a bunch of
people going. Yeah, you know what?
That's pretty great cheering foryou.
(04:46):
That'd be perfect for you. I could totally see you doing
that. And then like Steve Harvey says,
the dream is free, we all have one and but the hustle is sold
so separately. It is so separately.
And what Alex Hermozi basically describes as he says, at this
stage, everything looks excitingand full of promise.
You see someone else's success and believe that you can
(05:09):
replicate it effortlessly. Keep in mind that if you are
doing something innovative and brilliant and in neat and maybe
it's getting a lot of attention,you are going to have a lot of
people that are going to try to copy you.
But they don't got the sauce. They don't got the sauce, they
don't they don't got the inner workings.
You know, they're not exactly sure how to feel it forward.
And so just just know that we'vetalked about that before as
(05:31):
well. So they're going to try to
replicate it thinking that it's going to be effortless.
OK. There's little awareness of the
challenges ahead and enthusiasm is at an all time high.
I mean, this is it. This is like the peak, the peak,
the peak. And it's funny because in the
book The E Myth, The E Myth revisited, excuse me, we talked
about this book inside of the CEO community.
(05:53):
Many entrepreneurs start with itwith what Gerber calls an
entrepreneurial seizure. Oh my God is so brilliant where
they believe they can turn theirpassion into a business without
understanding the operational complexities.
So true. It's just, it's like falling in
love, you guys, when you fall inlove with someone, especially
like love at first sight and you're like, oh God, it's so
(06:15):
amazing. You're on cloud 9.
You just you just those, those red flags.
They're just these little, little, little, little pink
little little butlings coming out of the ground and you're
like, oh, look how cute. These little pink mushrooms.
OK, that's, that's what that's like.
OK, that's what that's like. And and then basically what ends
(06:38):
up happening the second stage isinformed pessimism.
My goodness. Another quote from Mike Tyson.
He says everyone has a plan until they get punched in the
face or in the mouth or whatever.
He says it is so true. Everyone thinks, Oh, yeah, you
(07:02):
know what, What I'll do is I'll just take, you know, these
$10,000 or this 100,000, and I'mgoing to do this and I'm going
to put it here. And then I'm going to bring
these people on board because they're cool as heck.
And like this person over here seems, you know, tenacious and
enthusiastic and eager enough toto drive things forward.
And then you realize, no, they're not equipped.
That's not enough money. You, you didn't see those turns
(07:26):
because you're not from this industry.
Next thing you know, you're crashing and burning and getting
hit in the mouth like Mike Tysonsays.
OK, Alex says as the reality starts to set in, the challenges
and complexities of business become evident and doubt creeps
in. Entrepreneurs start seeing the
effort required, leading to the frustration.
(07:47):
Because why? Because they were so excited and
they like sold themselves the dream and they sold everybody
around them about how passionateit were.
They were about those dreams. But the hustle, the hustle is
very real and it's unavoidable. If you are a Jim Gurley, you
understand the whole no pay, no gain thing.
Many of us. I'm a soft, I'm not a hard body.
(08:07):
I'm a soft body over here. And I am like the less pain, the
better for me. But then all that happens is no
pain equals gain, weight gain, weight gain.
And so many people love the highof like an idea and like making
it happen. That's, you know, what I've
encountered is people that get addicted to that type of
(08:30):
feeling, to that high of the ideas and, and the doing of
those ideas is they come up withlots of ideas and they do lots
of different things. And it looks like they're moving
forward. It looks like they're just being
people like, you know, thinking and do it and get it done.
And the reality is they're just throwing spaghetti against the
wall to see what sticks. Like they're just chasing the
next high. They're not building anything
foundational. They're not building anything
(08:52):
long, long term. They're not building anything of
real value. They're just chasing the next
little win, the next little experience.
And those people are difficult to align with because the it's
almost like entrepreneurial ADHD.
It doesn't, it doesn't go reallyfar and it goes like in circles,
like it's just round and round and round and round and kicks up
(09:12):
a lot of dust. But if you're if you're serious,
let me tell you, you're going to.
It's unavoidable to go through entrepreneurship without hitting
each and every one of these thatI'm listening here today.
OK. The next one is crisis of
meaning. He calls this, this is Alex
(09:36):
Hermosi, the valley of despair. This is crisis of meaning.
He calls it the valley of despair.
Napoleon Hill. Oh, my gosh.
Love thinking grow rich. You know that.
He said most people give up right before they see success.
I think this is a yeah, part of Three Feet from Gold, which I
absolutely love. Alex says this is the breaking
(09:59):
point. Entrepreneurs feel stuck,
exhausted and question if it's all worth it.
Many quit or look for another quote.
Easier opportunity. Repeating the cycle.
You guys, how many times have you felt all the feelings of
like, this is going to be a great idea or this is a great
idea? Oh my God, this is this is the
(10:19):
right people, the right place, the right thing.
Let's do it. It's so exciting.
Yay. RA RA, RA, RA.
You get 6 months and nine monthsa year in.
You're not making the money thatyou thought you were going to
make. It's not as easy as you thought
it was going to be. You're not as equipped as you
thought you were. You're not as well funded as
you'd hoped to be. And you are not as educated,
(10:39):
informed as you now realize you should have been before turning
this corner and starting this business.
And now you're in the valley of despair.
You're in the stage 3 crisis of meaning, and you're questioning
your entire existence. And you're wondering why you did
this. And then what happens is you
have lunch with a friend. You go out with her one weekend
(11:03):
and she says, oh, you know, how are you doing?
And you're like, well, gosh, I'mjust, I'm just grinding and I'm
working at this and it's really hard, but you know what, I'm
optimistic. And then your friend says, oh,
and then you say, how are you doing?
And she says, oh, I just made, you know, $10,000 like selling
socks on the Internet or I just made, you know, this much, you
know, helping people. Do, you know, uncanned tuna or
(11:25):
whatever crazy thing it is. And then what happens?
You start to look at that and go, oh, maybe I should uncanned
tuna on the side and it's not that I don't believe in side
hustles because CEO began with this whole like side hustle
culture thing and even during COVID, I encouraged everybody on
my team of the other business tostart something to just just go
(11:48):
just go do whatever else while you're helping me like hold the
Fort up with this. And so side hustles have their
place in your life and in your in your financial plan for sure,
right. However, when you take on
something like that, that shiny object, because your friend is
making money over there, your friend is having success over
(12:09):
there, your friend is, you know,starting this type of content
and it seems to be working. So now you're like, maybe I'm
going to do that and see if it'll work for me.
You're chasing shiny objects. That is shiny object syndrome.
And that I see that, by the way,as almost like a tool of the
enemy. Going back to the faith part of
it, if you're a faith girlie, the enemy is the king, the
(12:32):
Prince of distraction. And his ultimate goal is to veer
you away from your core purpose,God's purpose for your life and
your core mission of, of, of success, right?
And maybe like success is defined by many different
things, but there are a huge blessings like that hard
business that God placed on yourlap could be the thing that
(12:55):
changes your life, your children's life and the lives of
generations after, after you. And the enemy is going to when
you're in this stage 3 crisis ofmeaning valley of despair going
to bring in this other shiny object to lure you away, OK?
So be very, very mindful of the fact that this valley of despair
(13:16):
is the journey towards success. It's part of the success
journey, OK? And so feeling stuck is part of
the success journey. Craving something easier is part
of the success journey. Regretting the direction that
you may have went in is part of the success journey.
(13:37):
Questioning whether all that youare doing and all the time that
you're spending and all the effort that you're pouring into
this is worth it is is part of the success journey.
Hear my voice when I tell you that feeling of quitting is part
of the success journey. There's no way around it.
OK, that that part right there, by the way, that valley is truly
(14:01):
what separates I believe. And I, I think lots of
millionaires and billionaires believe this.
That is the crossroads that separates the winners from, I
don't want to say losers, right,but the people who truly win to
the people that stay in place. It's that it's what you do in
that valley that's going to makeall the difference.
(14:22):
And when you make a decision to continue to move forward in that
valley with no real sign that there is going to be a positive
outcome because you are convicted in your belief in
that, like God didn't bring me this far just to get this far.
Chances are you're, you're, you're going to, you're going to
(14:42):
see the winds, you're going to end up in a place less traveled.
You're taking the road less traveled.
So the fruits are bigger, the rewards are greater.
The, the views are from higher mountain peaks and that is the
game changer. But not everybody, not
everybody, not everybody makes it through.
(15:04):
OK #4 you reach, then you get through the valley and you're
like, Oh my God, like I don't even have the same identity at
this point. OK.
You come out of there real religious, right, real in your
faith at that point. Real spiritual.
Stage 4 is informed optimism. OK, Alex says.
(15:28):
Actually this is Winston Churchill says about informed
optimism. Success is stumbling from
failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.
I'm going to repeat that one. I'm going to repeat that one.
Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss
of enthusiasm. That was Winston Churchill.
(15:50):
What Alex said about Stage 4, informed optimism is at this
stage the entrepreneur gains clarity.
They see both the challenges andthe opportunities, learning to
manage risks and optimism and learning to manage risk, risks
and optimize their business. This is where you do.
(16:10):
You come out of the Valley and this is where we're at.
We're at, we're at like stage 4 here coming in with CEO, right?
We're coming out of the Valley 1000% at the time of this
recording. And we are coming out of there
bumped, scraped, bruised, battered, some parts are
shattered. There are things that we started
(16:32):
with that we're not moving into the future with.
And we come out of this with a massive amount of sobriety, OK,
and clarity. And we're like, oh, all right,
then we get it, OK. And there is like this deep
rooted understanding and it's and it's and it's interesting
(16:53):
because the only way to it is through it.
That's it. Like there's no way around it.
And people try to throw money atit.
People try to throw, I mean, allkinds of things in the valley.
They try to do so many things tosurvive and pacify and avoid and
numb the actual painstaking journey of the valley.
(17:15):
But there's just, there's no way, there's no way to get to
stage 4 or 5 or 6 for that matter.
And the, and the place that you're trying to get to success
wise without going through it and growing through it.
OK, OK #5 Stage 5 Success and breakthrough Henry David Thoreau
(17:40):
I know I'm pronouncing it wrong,says success usually comes to
those who are too busy to be looking for it.
Oh my goodness, do I love this episode.
Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking
for it. When I tell you I know, and I
can say this with regards to CEO, I know that it's different
(18:02):
because I've started other businesses.
I know that this is different because of the level of nuance,
like the level of focus that I have on the day-to-day to from
the tiniest asects of it to the biggest steps that we need to,
to take in order to move things forward.
(18:23):
Every aspect of it. Normally I have a Google Earth
view, I have a 360° view, have avery high level view of very
broad strokes. With CEO, not only did I go
broad, I also came all the way down to St. level and I and I
and I St. sweep. I am sweeping the streets of CEO
on a regular basis and that is alevel of pruning and nurturing
(18:48):
there really takes love and in something that I didn't realize
that I didn't have and in the other business that I obviously
clearly have in this business, there's an attention to detail
that I have here, but it makes me personally so laser focused
(19:08):
that I'm not actually looking upat the goal necessarily or the
brass ring. And it's a really interesting
thing because the other businesswas all about that and I did
have success with the other business.
And so there's an irony to this,but that's where these things,
when I hear Alex and these otherpeople say these things and
share these thoughts, it remind,it really brings into focus the
(19:31):
fact that what we are creating with CEO specifically is
massive. It's it's, it's big and it's a
game changer. Alex says about about stage 5
success and breakthrough. He says after pushing through
the challenges, entrepreneurs start seeing the rewards of
their persistence. They now understand how to avoid
(19:54):
mistakes and maximize success and create a system that works.
That's why I was saying that I know we're in this stage because
the success that we've experienced is.
Notoriety, it's earned media, it's all these interviews, it's
it's these features. It's the high level expert women
that are stepping forward wanting to align.
(20:15):
It's the thousands of women fromaround the world that are
entering the community. Those are all the we're getting
pinged left and right that we are on the right path, that
we're heading in the right direction.
That is our fruits currently that are sustaining us and
nurturing us and giving us the fortitude to know, OK, like
(20:36):
let's keep going. Let's keep going.
Because again, money is not the only signal of success, right?
It's a goal, it's a tool, but it's not the only signal.
And so you're going to receive lots of signals along the way.
And so I love this in the, in the part of like, you know,
you're maximizing your success and then you're creating systems
(20:57):
that work around that. That's us right now what we're
doing. We went through the valley of
the shadow of death in that laststage and, and as a team, by the
way, and as a brand. And we came out of it, like I
said, battered and brewed brews.But what we also came out of it
was realizing what we need and don't need and the things that
(21:19):
we do need and that do work and that we are comfortable with.
We are creating systems and processes around those things.
And we and what we were saying the other day is it's almost
like our entire higher process and mechanism is collapsing on
itself and compacting itself down to like three to four core
elements of the business. Yet even at the stage of an
(21:42):
enhanced clarity, it's still work, right?
There's still work to be done and there's still moves to be
made. And yet and still we can see the
light though at the end of the tunnel, like our revenue
channels are becoming very clearto us and our audience needs are
even clearer and what our community is ultimately serving
(22:05):
is even clearer than that. And so most of you ladies who
are starting businesses don't even get this far.
It kind of seems like you have. But unless you've gone through
that valley, you're probably notgoing to make it all the way to
the other side. You're going to just, and I
don't mean pivot, you're just going to get distracted by the
shiny things. But the reality is there is a
(22:28):
profound and understanding and pride of like we made it to the
other side. And many people are constantly
in a in a perpetual state of avoiding the hard things.
And like the cliche say, saying says, your highest self, your
(22:50):
success, your joy, your peace, your everything good that you
imagine for yourself is on the other side of the thing that you
are avoiding. That's it.
That's the episode.
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