Episode Transcript
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Speaker 2 (00:13):
Hi, I'm Lizzie and
I'm Nikki.
Have you ever felt that yourlife was missing purpose, joy or
deep connection?
Welcome to the Modern ZenCollective podcast, where we
embrace holistic living for ajoyful, purpose-driven life.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
In this podcast,
we'll explore holistic practices
, consciousness expansion andspiritual alignment.
We will dive into personaldevelopment practices that
connect mind, body, spirit andshare secrets that ancient
cultures have known forcenturies.
Together, we aim to guide,educate and connect individuals
eager to transform their lives.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Join us weekly on the
Modern Zen Collective podcast
and elevate your mind, body andspirit.
And now on to today's episode.
Hello everyone, and welcome toanother episode of the Modern
(01:10):
Zen Collective Podcast.
Your hosts here, lizzie andNikki, to talk about some things
that are happening with us inreal time these days, so welcome
.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Welcome everyone.
So happy to have you here andto talk about this really just.
You know raw conversation abouthow life happens and you can
plan and things just come up andit's totally fine.
So we're going to talk aboutthat today from the point of the
perspective of Lizzie and Icreating and building our
business together.
(01:42):
So we are excited to have youhere with us.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Yes.
So both Nikki and I, we comefrom a corporate background,
which you guys have heard ustalk about in our first episode
and kind of how we got here.
And then we are both also soloentrepreneurs and now we are
partners in the Modern ZenCollective, our joint venture
and the reason why we're heretogether on this podcast.
(02:07):
And so she and I have both gonethrough starting a business
from zero all the way up byourselves.
We've done it with somebodyelse and we've also done it for
somebody else.
So I know, at least for mymother-in-law.
When I was working in corporate, I actually worked for my
(02:27):
mother-in-law's company, whichis a whole nother thing when you
add family into business.
But yeah, I was lucky enough tobe behind the scenes and see
how she ran a big business anddifferent things like that.
So we kind of have thatperspective as well, things like
that.
So we kind of have thatperspective as well.
But both Nikki and I haveexperienced things both
(02:48):
personally and through watchingother people do these things in
business that seem to be reallygreat ideas.
We try them.
They're not working, not for us.
We continue to do them, wecontinue to do them, we continue
to push, we continue to try toget the buy-in, we can continue
(03:11):
to try to make it work with oursystem, whatever it may be, and
we hold on, and hold on, andhold on.
And then we finally let it gopivot to something else and
we're just like why did we waitso long to make this change that
we knew was something thatprobably needed to happen a few
weeks or a month afterimplementation off quickly for
(03:46):
making decisions and knowingwhen something wasn't a fit.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
And it's us getting
over that and understanding when
we can.
We have the freedom, which isthe beauty of having your own
business.
You have the freedom to pivotquickly and make decisions if
something's working or notworking, and the beauty of it
with anything, withmanifestation or spirituality or
anything from that perspective,when you make a decision and
you move energy, then youreceive the feedback from that.
(04:09):
So either you realize it wasthe right decision or it wasn't,
and you can pivot again.
So we are realizing that aswe're adjusting.
When we first started tocollaborate together last year,
when we first joined forcesalmost a year it was just about
a year ago and we started tobuild everything.
We had grand plans ofeverything, of how it was going
to go, what it was going to do,our structure, how we're going
(04:31):
to have everything programmed,how many things we were going to
have, etc.
So we had this entire grandplan of what it would look like
and we thought it was fantastic,which, honestly, I do still
think it's fantastic.
I think what we planned wasfantastic, but it's also, you
know, the realization of whereour strengths are, where we see
(04:52):
the audience and what they needand our clients and what they
need, and also what's workingand not working.
And and I think the primarything is what's, you know,
sparking us with not to be tooMarie Kondo, with joy, and
what's draining us Like, whywould we want to do something
and push, push, push forsomething that's draining us,
when it could be somethingreally small or big in our
(05:14):
business, when we can pivot anddecide to, you know, share
something that ignites us, andthat's where the power of your
purpose comes into play andthat's where you draw in clients
, that's where things grow, whenyou actually are sharing
something that you're passionateabout and it doesn't feel like
it's a drain because anyone canpick up on that.
So the last few months have beenmore of a realization and step
(05:37):
back, where Lizzie and I havecome to each other and said I
don't think this is workinganymore, we shouldn't do this
anymore.
And it could be something asbig as how we were planning.
You know, a major facet of thebusiness or a major avenue of
the business or our platformthat we were using, that we were
spending a lot of money on anddeciding not to move forward
with it.
So we really decided to moveforward with who we are as
(06:01):
business owners, together, tomake decisions quickly and pivot
, so that we can then receivethe feedback for what's working,
not working, and then alsoignite that joy inside of us.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Yeah, I think you
know.
The thing is that we're reallysharing today is to allow
yourself to pivot more quickly.
I think often we get stuck onthese quarterly or six-month or
annual check-ins where we checkin with the business in
(06:36):
different aspects and differentavenues and in that moment is
when we decide, okay, we'regoing to look deeper into this
and maybe we start doing allthese things to look at
something.
But then sorry, jackson isbeing crazy.
Hey, thank you.
Part of our real life, yes, yes,one of the reasons why we are
(07:00):
pivoting.
So what I was saying is I thinkit's to recognize things
quicker.
It's not?
You don't have to wait till theend of the quarter to
reevaluate something.
It's like OK, you decided tomove forward with this specific
platform.
Say it's a CRM, say it'ssomething to help you with
social media, maybe it'ssomething to help you with your
(07:22):
email marketing.
Or even for us, it was ourplatform that hosted all of our
content, all of our classes, allof our workshops, all of our
meditations, everything that'spart of our membership our free
library, you know the meat, thething that hosts our entire you
know company for everyone to beable to interact with everything
.
It just wasn't doing what weneeded it to do for how we are
(07:48):
trying to share with y'all andhow we're trying to help and how
we're trying to provideresources.
And so Nikki and I were likewe've spent you know X amount of
months five months, six monthstrying to make this work we had.
We're spent hundreds of dollarsevery month.
It's we're willing to spend themoney.
It's not that we're not willingto spend the work.
We're spent hundreds of dollarsevery month.
We're willing to spend themoney.
It's not that we're not willingto spend the money.
(08:08):
We want the money to be onsomething that is actually
working for us and allowing usto grow easily.
I think the thing is startingfrom zero, from nothing, really
making sure that our foundationand our processes and procedures
are very easy and clean.
If we do want to be able toscale or have someone come on
(08:28):
and help us where we aren't theones doing it.
We want to make it asuser-friendly as possible and
not clunky, and so I think whatwe're trying to share with you
is just in real time.
We're going through this asbusiness owners, as partners
with the Modern Zen Collective,and seeing what pieces of the
(08:49):
company are working, what piecesaren't working, where are we
meeting resistance?
Like, is there a task that Nikkiis doing or is there a task
that I'm doing that we're having, like, major procrastination
issues with?
Maybe we shouldn't be the onedoing it and also looking at
where our strengths and whereare things that really we're
just not very good at majorprocrastination issues with.
Maybe we shouldn't be the onedoing it and also looking at
where our strengths and whereare things that really we're
just not very good at or we'renot very focused on, and for
(09:11):
Nikki and I, honestly, it'ssocial media.
So shout out out there anyonewe're looking for a social media
digital intern here that wantsto work for free but also build
your portfolio and help us builda business from the ground up.
So holler at us if you knowsomeone.
We do need somebody.
We need help.
Please, please, please.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
We've all done it.
Some of my best connectionswere from free internships where
I enjoyed myself and had funand had freedom and creativity.
But, yeah, that's somethingthat we realize is not our
strength.
It's never been something thatI've been super interested in
and whenever I try to do it andtry to be consistent with it
even my personal I don't doanything with it.
So we all know Our strengths.
(09:53):
Well, lizzie and I know ourstrengths and know what we are
good at and what we can reallypush into and whatnot.
And you know when these thingscome up that you want to pivot
yes, in business, but it canalso be in life, like it can be
as simple as you've been goingto the same hair girl for five
years and you don't feel likeyou're getting what you want
anymore and you've beencommunicating it, what you want
(10:18):
anymore, and you've beencommunicating it.
So it might be time to switchor move around or whatever.
It can be anything, anything inlife, to make those decisions
and know that you don't need tostay in a prisoner state of
where you are just because it'swhat you've been starting and
committing to and you don't wantto explain to others that
you're switching and adjusting.
That's something that comesinside of me.
I have some of that shadowinside of me where, if I start
(10:40):
something and I move forwardwith it, I have that shadow I'm
working on of explaining that.
Oh, I'm readjusting this againand again and that didn't work.
So we're doing this and doingthat and I feel like I've really
worked on healing that to beokay, explaining when I'm
pivoting and not going throughthe A to Z like everyone else
(11:01):
does.
And that's something I thinkLizzie and I have in common,
where we go against the grainand against the status quo
that's out there for what'ssocially accepted, for what to
do and not do in jobs.
And you know, like exactly whatLizzie said, with not having to
wait for the quarter, makingdecisions quickly, moving fast
(11:21):
with that and moving the energyand also that.
Can you know what she said aboutprocrastination?
That can also be in life.
Are you procrastinating onsomething and it could be
something that is, you know,meant to be part of your purpose
, and you're procrastinating onreaching out to that business
partner or reaching out tosomeone to pitch your business,
or you know it could be, youknow, writing your book or
whatever it is.
(11:42):
So the procrastination isusually a sign that, one, it's
either not for you and someoneelse can do it better, or, two,
that's your threshold to pushthrough, to get through the fear
, to launch into what you'dreally love to do inside of you,
and that you're holdingyourself back.
So it's finding that balancewith it and with us, with our
(12:05):
business Lizzie being a lifepurpose coach, myself being like
a spiritual life coach, both ofus having our yoga teacher
training or meditation trainingeverything that we've, you know,
done in our self journey withlooking inwards, I think we both
have a pretty goodunderstanding of where our
thresholds are, of where we want, where we are keeping ourselves
(12:28):
from pushing ourselves past ourthreshold to get into more of
our purpose, and where we knowlike, no, absolutely not, I'm
not good at this, that'ssomething that only you know.
Whenever you really start tolook at yourself, have the
introspection and understand, isthis something that you are
procrastinating because you feelnervous about it, or is it
something you're procrastinatingbecause you just know you're
(12:50):
not particularly great at it?
So, having that adjustment andthen also knowing that life
happens, we can make plans andhave the plan for what we want
to do with our business or withanything, and then there are
things that happen and it'sbeautiful.
The life piece is beautiful.
(13:10):
That's the part to celebrate,that's the part that what
beautiful things anddistractions in life that allows
us to fully feel and not, youknow, be wrapped up in the to-do
list of everything we need todo.
And having that ability to befluid in how we evolve so that's
something we've also been doingis just honoring each other's
(13:31):
cycles, ups and downs, in life.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Yeah, I think you
know we can always have the best
of intentions, and that's withanything.
We can always have this grandplan.
And yet it's about remainingflexible with life and being
communicative about it, becauseit's one thing if you don't tell
anyone what's going on andyou're choosing what to do and
(13:55):
what not to do, and where tospend your time and what not,
people don't understand whyyou're making these decisions,
and it might look one way fromthe outside, when it's actually
something completely different,and I have found that you often
get a lot more grace, you get alot more understanding, you get
a lot more leeway to do thingsin the way that you feel like
you need to do them.
(14:16):
In that moment, when you areupfront with people, when you're
honest with people, when you'revulnerable, honestly being
vulnerable is such a beautifuland powerful thing that can
actually cut through a bunch ofbullshit and get you where you
want to go and what you need andwhat you want you know pretty
easily, because people willunderstand, because we're all
(14:36):
humans and we all experiencedifferent things and they will
affect people in similar or notsimilar ways, but we all know
what the feeling feels like, andso I think even like becoming a
mom now.
I oftentimes am drawn now toworking more with women or for
women, because I know they willunderstand the things that are
(15:01):
hardships for me or things thatare popping up for me because
I'm a mom now.
That weren't things thataffected me before and I didn't
know those things before, when Iwasn't a mom.
Of course you don't, you're notin it, you don't understand
really in the same way, and sonow it's really interesting.
But looking for people that canrelate is also a good way, you
(15:23):
know, to kind of guide yourself.
Had to do that with each othernow as partners, going from
being a solo entrepreneur makingall the decisions yourself to
making a partnership, having apartnership and making decisions
(15:44):
together.
It's like, look, nikki, this iswhat's going on in my life
right now.
I'm unable to give you morethan this much for the next few
weeks, and then I'm able to giveyou this much.
Then let's talk again.
I think it's knowing thatthings will change and always
being open with each other toallowing things to change, but
(16:05):
also, if something isn't okay,we have set up that dialogue to
where be?
Like Nikki, I really need youto do this right now because of
this, or like, can you pleasestep up in this way?
Or hey, do this right nowbecause of this.
Or like, can you please step upin this way?
Or hey, where am I not steppingup for you?
And I apologize that I'm notbeen showing up in the way that
I need to, and I know I haven't,you know.
I think the other thing isreally taking accountability
(16:28):
when you're not showing up ornot able to do the things,
because people also like to hearthat as well.
It's nice to know that peopleare thinking about you when
they're making decisions to door not do something as well.
I don't know how do you feelabout that, nikki, because,
honestly, it's been more on myside recently where I've had to
be like, hey, I'm sorry, I can'tshow up this week as much,
(16:49):
because Jackson's sick or mybabysitter's gone, or now
Jackson's not in daycare anymore, like, what am I going to do
today?
You know what am I going to do.
I don't have any help, you know.
So it's um, how does it feelwhen I'm like, hey, I'm sorry
about all this, like I, I feellike I always acknowledge it
with you and when, like I wasable to give so much energy on
(17:10):
the front end before we launchedyou know publicly and then in
the first month, but I literallygave birth three days after we
launched, and so my energy andmy ability has looked very
different after we launched abusiness than it did before when
we were ramping up.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Yeah, no, those,
those conversations that we have
are some of my favorites.
Just having that honesty andthat openness and you think it's
all you, but it's definitely meI've had some times where I've
been dealing with something orfeeling off and telling you like
a days that we want to record apodcast, that I just don't feel
(17:46):
like myself, and we've bothbeen very open into that.
You know, opening to, holdingspace, not to sound cheesy, but
understanding each other andwhat our needs are.
So when you bring things likeup, like that and having that
awareness and understanding,just that open communication is
huge.
And it goes back to what yousaid about.
(18:07):
You know, when you have thishumility, when you aren't a
perfect human we're not supposedto be perfect and when you
aren't a perfect human and youhave things that happen in life,
it really creates this depth toyou and to anyone and just
allows you to open up andconnect more.
So I feel, you know, with bothof us doing that, it's brought
(18:29):
like, created our foundation tobe even stronger, to be able to
be super direct and be able toopen, take feedback, change,
adjust, as we need everything inthat regard and it's been nice,
especially with having theflexibility of owning your own
business and doing it.
(18:50):
You know, having thiscommunication with you because
being in corporate, when I wasin corporate and startups,
corporate, startups, corporateback and forth until 2021.
And when I left 2021 and I cameto you know, leave, just take a
time off and I thought to myselfI'm going to take a few months
off just to reset and then I'llget back into people and culture
(19:11):
, hr, recruiting, et cetera.
I realized how hard my nervoussystem was working and how I
would push.
So I bring that up because Icould never really say in
corporate, I'm having a reallybad day, I can't have this
meeting today, or I dropped theball on all of this and I can't
(19:32):
produce it for you this weekNothing.
It was very much theexpectation of go, go, go, get
it done, hurry up, and myselfbeing more of a perfectionist to
always want to do 110% reallyexhausted my nervous system.
So, being in a place, that'swhy I love entrepreneurship.
(19:54):
Yeah, there are the ups anddowns.
You work super, super hard foryour baby, your business,
everything but you really get tohave these adjustments where
you can be human and if you finda company that can do that that
you're working at amazing knowmy experience and Lizzie's
experience.
It's very beautiful to have acompany that understands your
(20:14):
ebbs and flows and honors it andgets it and is like, yep,
absolutely, we got it.
No problem, I'll pick up theslack when you do this, or you
pick up the slack when I do this.
So when you bring those up,lizzie and I don't know if you
feel the same about me, but whenwe bring those up, I feel like
it creates a stronger foundationfor us to be able to even be
(20:34):
more creative and do more thingsand look at things differently.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
Yeah, and I think the
other thing also being, you
know, owning our own businessand working together is that we
can move at whatever pace weneed to move at.
So there are certain times whenwe are blowing and going and
when I tell you we're blowingand going, nikki and I can get
on a 75-minute call and we canknock out a week's worth of work
(21:03):
.
I swear to God, when we're justlike in the zone, it's insane.
So it's pretty incredible howquickly things can happen and
move through when they'realigned and when it's working
and when we're just in the zone,it's insane.
So it's pretty incredible howquickly things can happen and
move through when they'realigned and when it's working
and when we're just in the zone.
And then you know, on the otherside of the coin is what we've
been talking about.
You know me giving birth, oryou know experiencing different
(21:24):
difficulties within ourrelationships.
Our families are just notfeeling good.
You know I got sick last week,really sick.
You know, then, able to slowdown and really what's great is
when you're working as a part ofa company, as part of a team,
not on your own.
That's the beautiful part isthat when you're not able to do
it, things don't stop, thingscontinue to move.
(21:46):
So to me it doesn't see as likea bad thing for one person to
be slowing down and one personto be picking up.
It's kind of like it alwaysteeter-totters.
It's like one of thoseteeter-totters at the park that
kids are on.
Everything is always going tobe moving.
One side might be workingharder than the other, or there
(22:09):
might be a time when everybody'sworking in perfect unison and
everything is just like motoring.
So I think it's not seeing, youknow, needing to scale back or
push forward as a negative or apositive, but seeing it as part
of the collective energy movingforward.
And so if you have less to givein a certain moment, it's
(22:31):
better for you to speak up, takesome time to get to a good
place, step back in, rather thanpush, push, push until you're
completely burnout and it takesyou quitting or doing something
drastic, like leaving for anentire month and cutting off all
communication just to be ableto get yourself to be okay again
.
So I think it's like pivoting,like taking the time to
(22:57):
reevaluate, and pivoting is notadmitting failure, it's really
showing intelligence.
It's like the faster you'reable to course correct, the
faster you're able to grow, thefaster you're able to step into
new iterations.
And the really exciting thingabout Modern Zen Collective that
Nikki and I have discovered isthat our content, our resources,
(23:19):
our way of sharing with youactually fits better in an app,
and so we're going to completelyswitch from having a website
subscription membership based onlike an online platform to
having our membership in ourlibrary, in all of our stuff, in
our very own Modern ZenCollective app.
So it's really exciting.
(23:40):
It actually has opened the doorto more creativity, more
excitement, things that arereally getting our juices
blowing and wanting us to showup each and every day for
ourselves.
When this business is a passionproject, it's not something we
have to do, it's something wewant to do, and so, you know, I
(24:00):
just want to impress upon youthat pivoting is nothing
negative.
It's actually a huge positive,and being able to do it on a
quicker basis will really allowyou to level up and level up and
level up.
And so, like, really, we want tochallenge you to take inventory
of your business right now, ofyour life right now, of your
(24:24):
processes, how you do things,and look at, like, what's
draining you draining you, likewhat is not working?
Where are you procrastinating?
Where are you butting your headagainst the wall?
Like just take a look for amoment, and if you had to make
like one really big change, whatwould it be?
Can we just make one change?
(24:45):
It doesn't have to be huge, butwhat's a change that could feel
huge Like it could be a smallchange, but it lifts a big
weight off your shoulders.
It clarifies things.
It simplifies things.
It allows you to move with moreease.
Like what's that one thing?
Can we?
Can we try that?
Can we try that?
(25:07):
And let us know what it is?
Put it in the comments.
And this a message.
You know we might not see itfor like a week, but we'll see
it.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
We will see it
eventually.
Yes, just you knowunderstanding it's okay to pivot
, not feeling you have to staywhere you are just because of
whatever was told to you or theparameters that you have around
yourself or your decision making, et cetera.
Even if it is your typicaldecision making process is to
(25:36):
look at something for threemonths and then make a decision,
what if you switched up thatenergy and did it differently,
to see what happens and see howthat changes things and how that
kind of, as I say, shakes thetree?
When you do something differentthan your standard everyday,
you know day-to-day routinewhere we are.
You know 90%, if not more, onautopilot.
(25:56):
Every day you really invite newenergies to come in and those
energies are going to help topush you forward, open up more
creativity, give you moreinspiration and align you with.
You know other people that havevery similar energies to you.
When you have that energy ofdrain and overwhelm, that's the
energy you're emitting out, sothat's what's coming back to you
(26:17):
from a frequency standpoint.
When you have these, you knowwhether they are boundaries or
making decisions quickly or justhonoring what's important to
you.
You draw those types of people,companies, towards you and I
can attest to that from you know, our practitioners that we have
in the collective, and how youknow wonderful all of them are,
(26:40):
all of them also being veryentrepreneurial and adjustable,
like fluidity as we move and weadjust.
And you know I can't speak forLizzie, but I also feel that in
my other business, my recruitingagency and who I've been
working with, and that you knowvalues align and that same
energy aligns and once you havethat foundation, you pivot, you
(27:04):
move forward, you're doingwhat's honoring you like
self-care.
It's all really back toself-care and you know having
that wholeness within you sothat you feel like you're doing
what's honoring you likeself-care.
It's all really back toself-care and you know having
that wholeness within you sothat you feel like you're like
100% coming back to thatauthentic place.
That's when things really startto open up creativity, etc.
So that's the message we havefor you is you know, pivot
(27:24):
whenever you are, whenever youwant Pivot, quickly adjust, move
, make decisions and see justhow beautiful it can be when you
make decisions and you cancreate what you want to create,
without lots of um but lots ofred tape, lots of being bound by
anything.
You can really, you know, liveyour life like who like there's
(27:46):
that quote, um, that's therelike who are you really living
for, so you can live your lifeand make your decisions for what
makes you happy?
Speaker 2 (28:12):
better place than
when we came in and be happy
along the way and share lots oflove.
So let's try and create more ofthat in our each and every day
interactions.
And that includes our businesslife, because we spend so much
time working, so let's make it ajoyous time.
So thank you so much forjoining us today.
We're happy to share with you,happy to be our vulnerable
selves with y'all, because Idon't know how many other people
will peel back the curtain ontheir business when they're
(28:35):
going through it.
Normally it's like five yearslater when it's like look how
successful we are, and do youremember when we were going
through it?
Now we're going through itright now.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Right, that's
definitely us in a nutshell.
So, yes, thank you for comingon this journey with us, and,
you know, listening to our story, as we're building and we love
building, love creating and,like Lizzie said, this is our
passion project.
Something we're reallypassionate about doing is
sharing this ancient wisdom,sharing holistic tips, sharing
spirituality, creating communityso we're so happy to have you
(29:05):
here.
Holistic tips, sharingspirituality, creating community
so we're so happy to have youhere we are.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
And keep your eyes
open for our drop of our Modern
Zen Collective app.
We will splash it everywhere.
We'll have a digital intern bythen.
You know who you are and justkeep your eyes open because it's
going to be amazing.
So thanks, guys, have a greatrest of your day and we'll see
you on the next episode.
Thank you, Bye, everyone.
(29:32):
Don't miss out on our journeyto living an authentic,
purposeful and joyful life.
Join our membership andsubscribe now to the Modern Zen
Collective podcast on all majorplatforms and take the first
(29:53):
steps towards elevating yourmind, body and spirit.
For all resources mentioned inthis episode and to connect with
us and our conscious community,check out the episode show
notes for all links and ourcurrent offerings.
See y'all next time.