September 3, 2025 • 13 mins
Think excellence is the gold standard? Think again. In today’s episode of the Free Your Magic Challenge, Christine DeHerrera reveals why “toxic excellence” may be the sneaky culprit draining your energy, keeping you stuck, and pulling you away from your true genius. If you’ve ever been rewarded, praised, or even paid well for doing things you’re great at—but still felt unfulfilled—this episode is a must-listen.
Christine pulls back the curtain on the dangerous trap of excellence, explains why it’s the enemy of your soul’s work, and shows you how to reconnect with your unique zone of genius—the work that lights you up, magnetizes opportunities, and gets you paid exponentially. Along the way, you’ll get practical exercises, personal stories, and the encouragement you need to stop over-functioning and start reclaiming your magic.
By the end, you’ll see that being “excellent” isn’t enough. Your genius is waiting to be rediscovered—and devoting even a few minutes a day to it can change everything. Press play now to uncover the toxic trait that could be holding you back from your next level.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
From Chaos to Mastery: Navigating the 5 Stages of Business Growth--Episode 10 Listen on apple or Spotify
Interested in working 1:1 with Christine? Book a free consultation to learn more about her services and if they're a good fit for you. Click here.
If you're loving You Are The Magic, please follow the show and leave a five-star review.
Did this episode get you thinking? I'd love to hear from you. Text me at link at the top of the page.
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Learn more Christine and how she helps high achievers reach next level business success on her website.
Thank you for listening and just remember, you are the magic!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Christine DeHerrera (00:01):
Welcome to day two of the Free your Magic
podcast challenge.
How did yesterday's challengeon toxic positivity land for you
?
Did you learn some interestingthings about how our fascination
with constantly looking on thebright side can actually keep us
from feeling our feelings andtaking action to make the change
we really desire?
(00:22):
If you didn't get a chance tolisten to that episode yet,
definitely go back and hit play,because it's an important,
foundational piece of what we'redoing here in the challenge.
Some of you reported back thatlooking at positivity in a
different way was reallyeye-opening and led to an even
greater realization about whereyour attention is going and why
(00:46):
you're taking an action to beginwith, which was just amazing
feedback to get.
I'm so excited for you if thatwas the case, so make sure you
send me a text here in thepodcast feed or DM me on
Instagram.
I'd love to hear what thischallenge is inspiring you
toward and what changes you'realready making and the results
(01:09):
you're already getting, becauseeven just one day, it sounds
like some of you have beenhaving some amazing results.
Toxic trait this is becomingthe toxic trait challenge, which
is pretty funny because it isthese things that we're doing
that we think are super usefulfor us that are holding our
(01:31):
magic down, keeping our energystuck, keeping us from moving
forward.
So, as we lean into day two,let's revisit your intention
that you set yesterday and thelens that you're using to work
towards this intention.
So, for me, I wanted to create apodcast challenge that was
(01:52):
going to help people get unstuck, help people kick off the fall
season.
The lens that I'm using to dothis for me is fun.
How could I make creating thispodcast challenge as fun as
possible?
And I've done something I'venever done before, which is I'm
actually not recording theseepisodes in my office where I
(02:13):
have my mic, my big mic and allof those things set up.
I'm actually recording these onthe go in order to bring more
forward momentum, energy andjust to make it more fun.
And normally I have a podcasteditor and I'm editing these
myself because if you've beenfollowing along on the show,
you'll know, before I everlaunched my podcast, I learned
(02:34):
how to edit podcasts on likethree different software,
because that's how we do thingsover here and I'm super glad I
did.
It's useful.
I'm editing this podcastbecause I wanted to keep the
momentum and the flow and thefun and, believe it or not,
producing these challengeepisodes myself is actually
really fun for me, but shout outto my podcast editor, don't
(02:57):
worry, you'll be getting a fullseason.
So what is the lens that you areworking on your intention
through?
We just have to revisit thosethings.
I don't know about you, but Ihave to revisit all of these
things constantly throughout theday, or I find myself wondering
what am I actually doing?
So our toxic trait today, Ithink, may surprise you as much
(03:19):
as toxic positivity might havesurprised you yesterday.
Our toxic trait today is toxicexcellence.
I'm just going to let that landfor a minute, because
excellence, that's a good thing,right?
Well, maybe not.
So I don't know if you have readthe Big Leap by Gay Hendricks,
but he identifies four quadrantsof things that we're doing in
(03:43):
our life and our job.
The two that I'm interested inare working in what he calls
your zone of excellence andworking in your zone of genius,
and excellence is the enemy ofgenius.
Now, excellence is rewardedhighly in our culture, right?
If you're excellent atsomething, by definition you're
in the top 10% at producing,performing, whatever your work
(04:05):
is.
It means you get paid well andpeople will notice that you're
excellent at your work.
The challenge is you get stuckin your excellence versus your
genius.
Your genius is something that'sinherent in you.
It is your soul's blueprint ofwhat you were made to do here.
This is your unique point ofview on something you love.
(04:28):
Your zone of genius gets youpaid exponentially.
Your zone of genius gets youinto a whole new stratosphere,
and we're going to dig into thisa little bit more.
Examples of my own zone ofexcellence I am really excellent
at creating publicity andadvertising campaigns for
clients and I'm really excellentat creating customer experience
(04:51):
.
To counter that, in my zone ofgenius, I see the potential of
my clients Due to being anempathetic and empathic person.
I see potential.
I can see these unbelievableoutcomes.
I can see your zone of geniusand this is the important part I
know how to create theenvironment to bring out that
(05:14):
genius, through both energeticand strategy.
So, in the language of JenniferKim, the author of Unicorn Team
, which you should 100% read, Iam a strategizing visionizer.
So I see the vision for you andyour life and your work and I
know how to create a strategyaround it, and for me, strategy
(05:35):
is always both the energeticpiece and here's what to do and
when to do it.
So those are two specificexamples.
For me, as I mentioned before,excellence gets you paid
handsomely and people willnotice that you are excellent
and they may send people yourway for that excellence.
The downside of excellence is itkeeps you out of your zone of
(05:56):
genius and often it requiresover-functioning and
over-responsibility, whichdepletes all of your energy and
makes your personal geniusslowly slip away, whereas genius
puts you in a category of oneand gets you paid exponentially,
and this is the fuel for yourlife.
(06:16):
Right, your genius is whatkeeps you up at night and gets
you up in the morning and lightsyour soul on fire and makes you
magnetic to everyone around you.
Now here is something that Ithink I don't know if I've ever
heard this talked about.
We all have many zones ofexcellence and we all have many
zones of genius, and our geniusand our excellence change over
(06:39):
the course of our life.
Because, yes, I personallybelieve we have a soul's
blueprint that we came here towork on, but our lived
experience and how all of thisis processing through our body
changes our excellence andgenius, and it's okay to change
along with them.
I feel like another myth aroundexcellence and genius is that
(07:02):
there's just these one or twothings that you might be a
genius at, but that's not truein my opinion.
And what you were attached towhen you were 20 years old
versus 30, 40, 50, 80, 90, we'reall gonna be living a very long
time.
That genius can change as well,so don't be afraid to lean into
(07:23):
your zone of genius.
I wanna give you a couple moreexamples on my side, because
this will help you get tothinking about them when we get
to your homework Again.
If you listen to the show, youknow how my publicity and
advertising business started,and it did start with my genius.
At the time.
I was writing, loved media andI loved research and I was a
(07:44):
horse person.
I am a horse person, so I spokehorse, and learning how to
speak the language of your zoneof genius is part of the process
of bringing your genius to life.
And all of those thingscoalesced with a person I was
interviewing for an article,asking me to write a press
(08:04):
release for her, and that is howmy business started.
And if you haven't heard thatstory, you can scroll back down
to some of the earlier episodesfor a little bit more about that
.
But I'll never forget exactlywhere I was, in my house, on the
phone with this woman when sheasked me to write a press
release, and it was like an ahamoment.
Even though I didn't totallyunderstand what a press release
(08:26):
was, in that moment I knew thatit was media and I knew it was
writing, and that changedeverything for me.
And then my zone of excellencekicked in, because I started
delivering publicity andadvertising campaigns at the top
10% level and won tons ofawards.
And again I can rememberexactly where I was when I found
(08:48):
out that my agency so me and myteam had won the All Industry
Best in Show Award overadvertising agencies from the
big city, and what a feelingthat was.
That's an amazing success in myzone of excellence.
So I'm a genius at helpingpeople get paid for what they
(09:08):
love and who they are and how tobring all of that into
storytelling, and if I'm notcareful I can trip into focusing
just on my zone of excellence,which people love to pay me for
too.
The exercise I want you to dofor today is to ask yourself
where am I living and working inmy zone of excellence and just
(09:33):
write it all down.
You may be so excellent thatpeople ask you to be on the PTA
at your kid's school.
You may be so excellent thatyou're helping your entire
family organize all their healthcare and medical needs.
And by whole family I don'tmean just you and your immediate
family, I mean you may behelping all of your brothers,
sisters, aunts, uncles,grandparents, parents that may.
(09:57):
You may be excellent at thatand might be a little toxic, for
example.
So make the list of where areyou living and working in your
zone of excellence, rememberingthat people love to see you work
from there.
And once you have that list,you can start asking is this
draining all of my energy?
Is this becoming toxicexcellence?
(10:18):
I also want you to make thelist of your zone of genius.
And here's the kicker.
If you've been spending thevast majority of your days and
weeks and hours in your zone ofexcellence, your zone of genius
may be hiding out by itselfsomewhere, just standing around
waiting for you to remember itwas there.
So if you can't think of whatbelongs on your zone of genius
(10:39):
list, do not be disturbed ordismayed.
Start by just making a list ofwhat do I love.
I love to read romance novels.
I love to listen to podcasts Ilove to whatever and slowly but
surely you can start to unravelthat and see where you can bring
more of that genius into yourlife.
Start with what you love.
(11:00):
What you love is the key thatunlocks the zone of genius.
Everything that you need iswithin you.
So start by taking just 10minutes a day to do absolutely
nothing.
I'm talking lie on your bed oron the floor or under a tree and
do nothing.
And at first your mind is goingto go really, really fast and
(11:22):
it's going to give you a list ofall the things you need to do.
And it's often helpful to justwrite those things down, because
then your mind will relax.
Then you can start to daydreamagain and remember what your
genius says I told you today wasgoing to be a doozy.
Toxic excellence is the enemy ofyour soul's work, your genius.
So gently identify where you'vebeen stuck in your toxic
(11:45):
excellence and begin to devotetime to your genius, just a few
minutes a day.
And if you're running abusiness and you're very
successful those first years Iwrote there's a whole podcast on
that.
I'll drop that episode in theshow notes.
It's the one about phases ofbusiness.
If you're running a successfulbusiness.
Most likely you started in yourzone of genius but then you
(12:07):
drifted into your zone ofexcellence, and that's required,
in my opinion, for that firstphase of getting a business off
the ground.
So don't beat yourself up onthat.
You're going to need to,because you're going to wear all
the hats, including your zoneof excellence, and it's in that
next phase that you start topull back on your zone of
excellence, you start to hiremore people to do those tasks so
(12:31):
that you can stay focused onyour core genius in your
business.
And if that's something you'reinterested in getting help with,
because that's the phase wherebusinesses go to die sometimes,
which is the saddest thing,because if you've gotten a
business off the ground and it'sworking, and then you just
completely burn out and you endup having to go back to working
(12:51):
for someone else For mepersonally, that's the saddest
story in the entire world Well,one of them.
So if you're in that phase whereyou've built something off of
your genius but you recognizehey, I'm stuck in my toxic
excellence era then it's time toget help.
And that is one of the thingsthat I work one-on-one with
clients.
(13:11):
So if you're interested in thatyou can book a free discovery
call.
I'll drop the link to book oneof those calls in the show notes
as well, and I'm really excitedto be back tomorrow with
another doozy.
That's all I'm going to say.
You got to tune in to see whatit is, because if you think
toxic positivity and toxicexcellence are like what You're
(13:35):
going to love this one too.
Thank you so much for listeningand just remember you are the
magic.
Welcome to day two of the Free your Magic
podcast challenge.
How did yesterday's challengeon toxic positivity land for you
?
Did you learn some interestingthings about how our fascination
with constantly looking on thebright side can actually keep us
from feeling our feelings andtaking action to make the change
we really desire?
(00:22):
If you didn't get a chance tolisten to that episode yet,
definitely go back and hit play,because it's an important,
foundational piece of what we'redoing here in the challenge.
Some of you reported back thatlooking at positivity in a
different way was reallyeye-opening and led to an even
greater realization about whereyour attention is going and why
(00:46):
you're taking an action to beginwith, which was just amazing
feedback to get.
I'm so excited for you if thatwas the case, so make sure you
send me a text here in thepodcast feed or DM me on
Instagram.
I'd love to hear what thischallenge is inspiring you
toward and what changes you'realready making and the results
(01:09):
you're already getting, becauseeven just one day, it sounds
like some of you have beenhaving some amazing results.
Toxic trait this is becomingthe toxic trait challenge, which
is pretty funny because it isthese things that we're doing
that we think are super usefulfor us that are holding our
(01:31):
magic down, keeping our energystuck, keeping us from moving
forward.
So, as we lean into day two,let's revisit your intention
that you set yesterday and thelens that you're using to work
towards this intention.
So, for me, I wanted to create apodcast challenge that was
(01:52):
going to help people get unstuck, help people kick off the fall
season.
The lens that I'm using to dothis for me is fun.
How could I make creating thispodcast challenge as fun as
possible?
And I've done something I'venever done before, which is I'm
actually not recording theseepisodes in my office where I
(02:13):
have my mic, my big mic and allof those things set up.
I'm actually recording these onthe go in order to bring more
forward momentum, energy andjust to make it more fun.
And normally I have a podcasteditor and I'm editing these
myself because if you've beenfollowing along on the show,
you'll know, before I everlaunched my podcast, I learned
(02:34):
how to edit podcasts on likethree different software,
because that's how we do thingsover here and I'm super glad I
did.
It's useful.
I'm editing this podcastbecause I wanted to keep the
momentum and the flow and thefun and, believe it or not,
producing these challengeepisodes myself is actually
really fun for me, but shout outto my podcast editor, don't
(02:57):
worry, you'll be getting a fullseason.
So what is the lens that you areworking on your intention
through?
We just have to revisit thosethings.
I don't know about you, but Ihave to revisit all of these
things constantly throughout theday, or I find myself wondering
what am I actually doing?
So our toxic trait today, Ithink, may surprise you as much
(03:19):
as toxic positivity might havesurprised you yesterday.
Our toxic trait today is toxicexcellence.
I'm just going to let that landfor a minute, because
excellence, that's a good thing,right?
Well, maybe not.
So I don't know if you have readthe Big Leap by Gay Hendricks,
but he identifies four quadrantsof things that we're doing in
(03:43):
our life and our job.
The two that I'm interested inare working in what he calls
your zone of excellence andworking in your zone of genius,
and excellence is the enemy ofgenius.
Now, excellence is rewardedhighly in our culture, right?
If you're excellent atsomething, by definition you're
in the top 10% at producing,performing, whatever your work
(04:05):
is.
It means you get paid well andpeople will notice that you're
excellent at your work.
The challenge is you get stuckin your excellence versus your
genius.
Your genius is something that'sinherent in you.
It is your soul's blueprint ofwhat you were made to do here.
This is your unique point ofview on something you love.
(04:28):
Your zone of genius gets youpaid exponentially.
Your zone of genius gets youinto a whole new stratosphere,
and we're going to dig into thisa little bit more.
Examples of my own zone ofexcellence I am really excellent
at creating publicity andadvertising campaigns for
clients and I'm really excellentat creating customer experience
(04:51):
.
To counter that, in my zone ofgenius, I see the potential of
my clients Due to being anempathetic and empathic person.
I see potential.
I can see these unbelievableoutcomes.
I can see your zone of geniusand this is the important part I
know how to create theenvironment to bring out that
(05:14):
genius, through both energeticand strategy.
So, in the language of JenniferKim, the author of Unicorn Team
, which you should 100% read, Iam a strategizing visionizer.
So I see the vision for you andyour life and your work and I
know how to create a strategyaround it, and for me, strategy
(05:35):
is always both the energeticpiece and here's what to do and
when to do it.
So those are two specificexamples.
For me, as I mentioned before,excellence gets you paid
handsomely and people willnotice that you are excellent
and they may send people yourway for that excellence.
The downside of excellence is itkeeps you out of your zone of
(05:56):
genius and often it requiresover-functioning and
over-responsibility, whichdepletes all of your energy and
makes your personal geniusslowly slip away, whereas genius
puts you in a category of oneand gets you paid exponentially,
and this is the fuel for yourlife.
(06:16):
Right, your genius is whatkeeps you up at night and gets
you up in the morning and lightsyour soul on fire and makes you
magnetic to everyone around you.
Now here is something that Ithink I don't know if I've ever
heard this talked about.
We all have many zones ofexcellence and we all have many
zones of genius, and our geniusand our excellence change over
(06:39):
the course of our life.
Because, yes, I personallybelieve we have a soul's
blueprint that we came here towork on, but our lived
experience and how all of thisis processing through our body
changes our excellence andgenius, and it's okay to change
along with them.
I feel like another myth aroundexcellence and genius is that
(07:02):
there's just these one or twothings that you might be a
genius at, but that's not truein my opinion.
And what you were attached towhen you were 20 years old
versus 30, 40, 50, 80, 90, we'reall gonna be living a very long
time.
That genius can change as well,so don't be afraid to lean into
(07:23):
your zone of genius.
I wanna give you a couple moreexamples on my side, because
this will help you get tothinking about them when we get
to your homework Again.
If you listen to the show, youknow how my publicity and
advertising business started,and it did start with my genius.
At the time.
I was writing, loved media andI loved research and I was a
(07:44):
horse person.
I am a horse person, so I spokehorse, and learning how to
speak the language of your zoneof genius is part of the process
of bringing your genius to life.
And all of those thingscoalesced with a person I was
interviewing for an article,asking me to write a press
(08:04):
release for her, and that is howmy business started.
And if you haven't heard thatstory, you can scroll back down
to some of the earlier episodesfor a little bit more about that
.
But I'll never forget exactlywhere I was, in my house, on the
phone with this woman when sheasked me to write a press
release, and it was like an ahamoment.
Even though I didn't totallyunderstand what a press release
(08:26):
was, in that moment I knew thatit was media and I knew it was
writing, and that changedeverything for me.
And then my zone of excellencekicked in, because I started
delivering publicity andadvertising campaigns at the top
10% level and won tons ofawards.
And again I can rememberexactly where I was when I found
(08:48):
out that my agency so me and myteam had won the All Industry
Best in Show Award overadvertising agencies from the
big city, and what a feelingthat was.
That's an amazing success in myzone of excellence.
So I'm a genius at helpingpeople get paid for what they
(09:08):
love and who they are and how tobring all of that into
storytelling, and if I'm notcareful I can trip into focusing
just on my zone of excellence,which people love to pay me for
too.
The exercise I want you to dofor today is to ask yourself
where am I living and working inmy zone of excellence and just
(09:33):
write it all down.
You may be so excellent thatpeople ask you to be on the PTA
at your kid's school.
You may be so excellent thatyou're helping your entire
family organize all their healthcare and medical needs.
And by whole family I don'tmean just you and your immediate
family, I mean you may behelping all of your brothers,
sisters, aunts, uncles,grandparents, parents that may.
(09:57):
You may be excellent at thatand might be a little toxic, for
example.
So make the list of where areyou living and working in your
zone of excellence, rememberingthat people love to see you work
from there.
And once you have that list,you can start asking is this
draining all of my energy?
Is this becoming toxicexcellence?
(10:18):
I also want you to make thelist of your zone of genius.
And here's the kicker.
If you've been spending thevast majority of your days and
weeks and hours in your zone ofexcellence, your zone of genius
may be hiding out by itselfsomewhere, just standing around
waiting for you to remember itwas there.
So if you can't think of whatbelongs on your zone of genius
(10:39):
list, do not be disturbed ordismayed.
Start by just making a list ofwhat do I love.
I love to read romance novels.
I love to listen to podcasts Ilove to whatever and slowly but
surely you can start to unravelthat and see where you can bring
more of that genius into yourlife.
Start with what you love.
(11:00):
What you love is the key thatunlocks the zone of genius.
Everything that you need iswithin you.
So start by taking just 10minutes a day to do absolutely
nothing.
I'm talking lie on your bed oron the floor or under a tree and
do nothing.
And at first your mind is goingto go really, really fast and
(11:22):
it's going to give you a list ofall the things you need to do.
And it's often helpful to justwrite those things down, because
then your mind will relax.
Then you can start to daydreamagain and remember what your
genius says I told you today wasgoing to be a doozy.
Toxic excellence is the enemy ofyour soul's work, your genius.
So gently identify where you'vebeen stuck in your toxic
(11:45):
excellence and begin to devotetime to your genius, just a few
minutes a day.
And if you're running abusiness and you're very
successful those first years Iwrote there's a whole podcast on
that.
I'll drop that episode in theshow notes.
It's the one about phases ofbusiness.
If you're running a successfulbusiness.
Most likely you started in yourzone of genius but then you
(12:07):
drifted into your zone ofexcellence, and that's required,
in my opinion, for that firstphase of getting a business off
the ground.
So don't beat yourself up onthat.
You're going to need to,because you're going to wear all
the hats, including your zoneof excellence, and it's in that
next phase that you start topull back on your zone of
excellence, you start to hiremore people to do those tasks so
(12:31):
that you can stay focused onyour core genius in your
business.
And if that's something you'reinterested in getting help with,
because that's the phase wherebusinesses go to die sometimes,
which is the saddest thing,because if you've gotten a
business off the ground and it'sworking, and then you just
completely burn out and you endup having to go back to working
(12:51):
for someone else For mepersonally, that's the saddest
story in the entire world Well,one of them.
So if you're in that phase whereyou've built something off of
your genius but you recognizehey, I'm stuck in my toxic
excellence era then it's time toget help.
And that is one of the thingsthat I work one-on-one with
clients.
(13:11):
So if you're interested in thatyou can book a free discovery
call.
I'll drop the link to book oneof those calls in the show notes
as well, and I'm really excitedto be back tomorrow with
another doozy.
That's all I'm going to say.
You got to tune in to see whatit is, because if you think
toxic positivity and toxicexcellence are like what You're
(13:35):
going to love this one too.
Thank you so much for listeningand just remember you are the
magic.
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