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March 21, 2024 • 17 mins

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This year, I've noticed a pattern that my business slows down through the winter season. Instead of panicking like I used to in my first years of business, I am learning to embrace the slower pace, much like tending to a garden awaiting spring's touch.

This episode isn't just about roughing it through the quiet periods; it's about learning the seasonal patterns of your business to build resilience. This means taking a broader perspective on your year to build a plan. By identifying the cycles of feast and famine, we transform potential stress into a plan for empowerment and growth.

Kat HoSoo Lee is an Emotional Alchemy Coach, Spiritual Business Mentor and host of The Emotional Alchemy Podcast.

She loves playing in the space where science and spirituality converge because this is where we get to experience emotional alchemy. In her work, she educates space-holders about somatic physiology and environmental biology so they can deepen their practices of listening and presence which ultimately helps them expand their capacity to hold space for others.

As a Spiritual Business Mentor, she guides soulful entrepreneurs to approach their business as a spiritual practice. The work bridges the emotional landscape with practical tools which allow them to cultivate businesses that are rooted in conscious values, relational marketing and purposeful service.



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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello friends.
So today I want to talk aboutwhat a lot of people are
experiencing, which is a dip insales to the winter time, and I
actually think that this is oneof those cases where it's not
actually tied to how you'remarketing and, without giving
away any sort of privacy, I alsowant to share bits of

(00:23):
conversations that I've beenhaving with my clients and also
with my friends.
So a little bit of context.
I had been noticing in my ownbusiness a bit of a dip in sales
, starting back in November, andright around mid-February I
started feeling the stress ofjust watching my business
savings that I had sort of savedup for these like ebb times.

(00:46):
It's starting to diminish andluckily I am so, so grateful I
have these two men in my life.
I've got Andre, who is mybusiness partner, and I've also
got Sean, who is my wonderfulhusband, and you know they both
said to me right around the sametime like we've been through

(01:06):
this before and if I remembercorrectly, you went through this
like right around the same timelast year and actually as soon
as they said that, I reflectedback and I was like, yeah,
you're actually totally right,because I recorded an entire
episode about this.
I talked about how to shiftsome of your thinking when your

(01:31):
business goes through these ebband flows, and I talk about,
like, some of the lessons that Ilearned from what that
particular ebb felt like in thecontext of that ebb last year
and that was episode 111.
And that helped me just get outof that catastrophizing thought
process that I was starting tovortex into.

(01:54):
I, too, am a human being.
I, too, get dysregulated.
Even though I do a lot of thisnervous system work, that
doesn't mean that I'm completelyimmune to this stuff.
Right, like it is such a realexperience to look at your bank
account and be like, hey, thealarm bells are starting to go
off.
So what that encouraged me todo personally is to actually

(02:20):
look at my business statementsfor the last couple of years.
So I went back and I looked atmy P&Ls those are my profit and
loss sheets and notice actually,this is a cycle in my business.
If I am talking aboutbusinesses being a cyclical
experience, this is one of thosecycles that my business

(02:41):
naturally goes through, and Ithink that there's a couple of
things that account for that.
An important piece is that myown energy naturally goes down
during the winter time I go intoa bit of a dormant phase.
I don't feel like marketing.
You know there's not a ton ofconsistency in how I show up in
Instagram or on my podcast.

(03:01):
If you go through and look atmy podcast you can see that like
some months I might have justput out like one episode instead
of the usual weekly episodes,and so that's a big part of it
for me.
And what we're also looking atis what's happening in the
broader world.
And November people arestarting to think about the

(03:21):
holidays, and in Decemberthey're like fully in the
holidays, and then in Januarythey might be feeling the sting
of some of the purchases thatthey made over the holidays, or
travel plans that they had overthe holidays.
And then at the end of JanuaryJanuary 31st is when W2s are all
due, and so you know people arestarting to look at their taxes

(03:45):
in February typically.
And so until April comes around,my business and this is the
sort of like logical explanationthat I've come up with is my
business goes through a prettybig ebb between November and,
like mid-March, early April.

(04:05):
So my question to you is haveyou identified any cycles like
this in your own business and,depending on the industry that
you're in, your cycles are goingto look really different, right
?
You know, I have a client who'san accountant and he actually
gets super busy during this timeof year because people are, you

(04:29):
know, really fantasticallytrying to find an accountant and
he actually has to, like, turnpeople away during this time of
year.
So very, very differentbusiness, very different
business cycle, right?
And so that's the firstquestion I want to ask you is
what is the cycle of yourparticular business?
Now, what this helped me do is,now that I know this about my

(04:50):
business, it helps me tell mybusiness hey, I recognize that
what we're going through rightnow is an ebb in our, in our, I
guess, productivity.
So then the question shifts tohow can I love my business when
it's in a dormant phase?
Because it's so easy to loveour businesses when it's

(05:11):
abundant.
But how quickly does thataffection, does that love, turn
to fear and scarcity andresentment when your business is
not being, quote unquote,productive?
And you know me, I'm alwaysgoing to bring in a garden
analogy here.
But you know, when I look at mygarden, I know that I can love

(05:31):
my garden and it's just a littlebit easier for me to like love
my garden versus loving mybusiness.
It's easy for me to love mygarden through the winter
because I know that it needs torest and as it's resting, it is
composting and breaking down andconsolidating.
So it made me think about okay,so if my business is also going

(05:53):
through a winter, you know, andit just happens to also align
with winter, when my own energywants to slow down and
consolidate, how can I love mybusiness in this phase?
And so the way that I havedecided I'm going to love my
businesses and this is from aconversation that I had with
Andre today actually is we arepulling back on any sort of

(06:17):
pressure to market this monthand instead we're focusing on
creating a website.
It is embarrassingly long sinceI've had a full website.
I actually think that the lasttime I had a full running
website where I was like all thepages are done, I think that
was back in like 2019.
And so it is time, and sothat's what consolidation is

(06:41):
going to look like for me thisseason, as I'm like moving out
of this winter cycle.
Right, I'm also thinking abouthow can I revisit my community,
how can I figure out the waysthat maybe my communication can
be improved, is my communicationstill relevant?
And so these are the kinds ofquestions that I'm asking myself
as I'm in this cycle of ebbingand loving my business through

(07:07):
this dormant ebbs cycle and Ithink that's another thing I
want to talk about with you islet's normalize the ebbs in a
business.
I can tell you that I've beenhaving really really tender,
honest, vulnerable conversationswith folks from people who have
100 followers to people whohave over 50K followers, and let

(07:31):
me tell you that we are allexperiencing the same thing.
I think part of that is becausewe all have very similar
businesses.
We're all like in the onlinecoaching world, and so
no-transcript, you know.
I think that a lot of times wecan look at oh my gosh, that
person is launching somethingright now and they're doing such
a great job.
That marketing is amazing.
They must be having a ton ofsign ups, and we can compare

(07:54):
ourselves and actually createthe cycle of like, gaslighting
of like.
Why aren't?
Why isn't my business doing anybetter, you know?
And that's not helpful in thesetimes.
What's actually helpful is to,like, root deeper down into you,
know who your community is, whoyou want to be serving.
How can we create some sort ofconsolidation for you?

(08:18):
And I want to give you a peekinto a conversation that Andre,
who helps me run this business.
For those of you who don't knowwho Andre is, he is I cannot
run this business without him.
He is my ex-boyfriend, actually, but he designs all of my
graphics for me.
He does all my website design.
He is the producer for mypodcast.
He is the person that I go toto help me like poke holes in

(08:43):
different controversial thingsthat I might be wanting to say.
He is like my biggest support.
I am not overstating it bysaying that I cannot run this
business without Andre, and sohe and I had a really important
conversation today and we wereable to hammer in hey, this

(09:04):
actually does happen every year,and what I mean by this is this
ebbs cycle from November toabout end of March.
So if this is a pattern in ourbusiness, what do we want to do
about it?
Now, I get that it is soimportant to have a good
understanding of being a goodpractitioner, being an effective

(09:26):
marketer, but you also have tostart looking at your numbers to
feel truly empowered in yourbusiness.
There is so much information inthere.
So what we did is we pulled upthe PNL's for 2023.
Like I said, we have a very,very transparent relationship.
This may not be the kind ofrelationship that you have with
your boss or your employees, butthis is me and Andre.

(09:49):
We sat and looked at the 2023numbers and discussed hey, if we
are on track to bring in thesame amount this year in gross
revenue, how do we want to usethat?
And so we decided together thatwe are going to come.
We decided together that we aregoing to cut back on contractor
work.
In real terms, that means thatI am not hiring an assistant.

(10:11):
I'm doing my own bookkeepingthis year and Andre is taking on
a lot more responsibilities,like posting graphics on social
media, so that we don't have tohire somebody out of house.
We also decided together thatwe are not going to take a raise
, either of us this year, andinstead what we are going to do
is we are going to keep thatmoney in the business account so

(10:31):
we can go into November withmore money than when we went
into November of last year.
So we can sink into this app.
We can relax into this app andtake the pressure off of our
business when it naturally wantsto slow down.
So I used to just for context, Iused to keep three months of

(10:52):
expenses in my bank account.
What I'm finding, based on whatthis year is showing me as I'm
going back and looking at oldfinancial records, is that for
me to truly have a winter in mybusiness, that means that I need
to have six months of expensesgoing into, you know, when

(11:14):
winter literally hits.
So again, we're working withthe cycle right.
Like the same way, it would bekind of stupid to try to grow a
tomato outside when it's, youknow, snowing.
I'm thinking of it in the exactsame way.
Like I don't feel good sellingprograms when people are
celebrating the holidays orworrying about taxes, and so I'm

(11:35):
just going to take that off thetable for a little bit and say
the big pushes are going tohappen starting in spring, and
then I also see an uptick inrevenue going into fall.
So, like September, october,it's like a pretty easy time for
me to sell in those months.
No, I want to just say that it'sso easy to get fixated on the

(11:57):
month to month and, as somebodywho spent most of my adult life
actually I'd say up until thelast four years.
I spent most of my adult lifeliving paycheck to paycheck, and
so it's a really, really easygroove for me to get sucked into
, and it's actually a new skillfor me to start thinking about

(12:22):
life on a bigger time scale, ona yearly time scale, on a five
year time scale, on a decadetime scale and like.
The reason why I think that'sso important to say is because
this work if you're an onlinecoach, if you are working with a
business that is cyclical, thiswork is inherently going to be

(12:46):
a bit variable.
Now that doesn't mean that itis less stable than a nine to
five job, but where, in a nineto five job, you're looking to
your employer for that security.
We, as spiritual entrepreneurs,we now need to take that
responsibility and look toourselves for that security, and
that doesn't mean we then pushoff that burden onto our clients

(13:07):
.
And so what I've identifiedthis year is that my way of
doing that is to create a bigenough cushion so that I can
ride the ebbs of my businesswith more resilience, because
I've been smart with saving, ofinvesting my money when my
business is in a harvest cycle.
Now this is also another waythat we can remain true to our

(13:31):
ethics and our values when itcomes to our businesses.
So if you're here, it's becauseyou want to create a business
system that's profitable whilestill remaining rooted in
sustainability and regulations,so that we can all you know, as
this community, we can all raisethis collective consciousness.
And again, the same way it's soeasy to love your business when

(13:52):
it's doing well.
It's so easy to hold on tothose ethics when your business
is doing well.
It's when the business takes ahit, when it's going through an
ebbs, that you are going to beput to the test.
And you know this is when bromarketing feels appealing,
because it promises fast results, even though you know that the
reason why it forces people tosign up to work with you is

(14:13):
because you are pounding ontheir pain points and
positioning yourself as a heroto get them to take action.
By keeping my business ebbsproof, I am protecting my
clients because I can fully stepback and give them the
sovereignty to come to the workwhen it most aligns with them,
without needing to push ormanipulate or force them into

(14:34):
disregulation to get them totake action.
And the reason why I'm havingthis conversation with you today
is because I've been havingthis conversation actually over
and over again in privacy withmy clients and also with
personal friends of mine, andwhenever I see a pattern like
that, I'm thinking, oh, there'sgot to be other people in my

(14:57):
community who are feeling thisas well, and so I just want to
share this with you so that youcould take a nice big exhale.
It is okay, your business isgoing to go through ebbs and
flows.
That is a completely naturalpart of doing this work of
aligning with cycles, and so, inthe space of that, how can you

(15:22):
create more empowered actions?
How can you use the evidence andthe data from previous years
and, if this is your first yearin business, start taking notes
right now, start jotting downconcepts like this, so that you

(15:43):
can maybe look back a year fromnow and be like, oh, I've been
here before, this happened again, and so you can start tracking
what are the months that arereally good and easy to sell and
are really productive, and whatare the months that are
naturally slow and what can I doleading into those good months?

(16:03):
And what can I do leading intothe ebb months in such a way
that I feel really empowered andso the waves don't feel like
this big, gargantuan, massive,tumultuous ocean wave, and
rather it can start feeling morelike the ripples on a lake,
even when the external stuff isshifting and changing.

(16:28):
So I would love to hear fromyou.
Let me know how this landed.
As always, my DMs are open onInstagram or shoot me an email.
Hello at cathosulicom.
I love having conversationswith folks, and so if this is

(16:49):
something that feels kind ofjuicy or edgy or tender for you,
I want to hear it.
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