Yeah , the one thing you need to do is the hardest thing to do . So often it's like , oh , the one thing I need to do , I need to take a break and go for a walk today , and that's the thing that you're too busy to do .
Or oh , I need to spend time on my CEO time today , and you're too busy and you break that appointment with yourself because a client calls or an emergency comes up . So it's often those things that are really important , but somehow you never get around to doing them , and so it's being able to prioritize that no matter what . And the thing is it is hard .
When you're stressed out . You're like I don't have time to take a break , I don't have time to get more sleep . I spent three months getting four hours of sleep a night , and that's how I now know that , like , my number one priority is eight hours of sleep a night .
Well , I got a 13 month old who never sleeps , so we're trying to figure out her sleep issues still , so I can't control that , but I go to bed early enough that if I was to sleep the whole night , I would get eight or nine hours , because I know that affects every aspect of your life , your income , your creativity , your health .
Welcome to the Web Design Business Podcast with your host , josh Hall , helping you build a web design business that gives you freedom and a lifestyle you love .
Hey friends , great to have you here for another episode of the Web Design Business Podcast .
Now , we've been talking a lot recently here on the show about mindset , but today I want to take a deep dive into a different area here , which is your gut , and we're going to talk more specifically about intuition and how to have you ever made decisions in your business where you just you feel like your gut is telling you something . You follow your gut .
I've made some of those that have been incredible , but I've also made some questionable ones , and I'm sure I'm not alone in that . So it's interesting this idea of running a business and leading your business with intuition , because I think if you're in a good place , it's easy to lead with your intuition .
But if you're in a place where sales are down or clients are not coming in , suddenly intuition can be very muddy and you have no idea whether to trust yourself or not . So for all those reasons and more , I'm really excited to share the conversation I had recently with Alyssa Williamson , who is a business coach and mentor .
She actually has built up a couple of successful businesses as a founder and a marketing strategist and she actually experienced burnout pretty bad . She shares about that here in this conversation and that , even more so , solidified the reason that you wanna build a business around you and around your intuition .
Now she's got some really tactile and practical things that she's learned that she shares here today , so I'm really excited to hear what takeaways you get from this one . Leave us a comment , if you would . At joshhallco slash 369 .
All of the show notes and links that we mentioned here are gonna be found over , or , excuse me , the show notes and links that we mentioned here are going to be found over , or , excuse me , the show notes page there is going to have all the links that we mentioned here in this one . Joshhallco slash three , six , nine . Zip over there After this .
Leave us a comment . I'm sure Alyssa would love to hear from you . You can connect with Alyssa at her website , alyssa Williamsoncom . She's active on Instagram and she does have a free raising your rates masterclass or , excuse me , it's actually raising your revenue . It's a free masterclass .
If you want to pick that up , if you like what she has to say in this one and you want a little more , we'll have the link there to her free masterclass on raising your revenue and , again , all about intuition and trusting your gut in your business . I really enjoyed this one . I hope you do as well .
Joshhallco slash 369 is where to go to leave us some feedback Without further ado . Here's Alyssa . Alyssa , it is so good to have you on here . We were joking before we hit record .
There's probably 100 plus topics that we could dive into for a decent amount of time , but you seem to have a lot of passion and insight on some of the mindset things , particularly like roadblocks and something that we discussed before getting into this was almost like intuitive roadblocks and maybe some things that come up that make us our own worst enemies .
So have you seen that to be the case with all entrepreneurs , or is it worse for creatives and designers ?
That's actually a really interesting question , I would say . I think it's . It's definitely an aspect of being human that there's a point where we'll judge ourselves and doubt ourselves . But I'd say , creatives especially .
It's actually I'll dive into the hope , we'll probably dive into this a little bit more but there's also so there's not only our own lifetime subconscious blocks and beliefs , but , like past generations are passed down too and um , so healers have this where they can't accept , like healers had this old tradition of they couldn't accept money , and I think creatives have
a bit of that too . It's like I'm doing my art for my passion , I can't accept money for this , and this is like old , long school standing belief . So , yes , there's a lot , a lot for us to work through as creatives , as well as just being human and business owners .
Hereditary money problems and mindset problems . That's fascinating and terrifying . It's interesting because I mean , I don't know how much of the previous generations were able to be creative like we can be now with the internet and with literally anything . I mean you could sell literally anything . I don't know if I don't know . That's very interesting .
Like , how many people were artists in , you know , the 1900s and had the ability to charge or not charge , I wonder .
I guess that's interesting . And there's thousands of years like going back to the Romans and Greeks , like there were sculptures and art and mosaics , and then you got to the middle ages and the dark ages , when there was probably a lot less going on .
so there's been different periods too , where there's been more art and then less yeah , and I guess I was thinking more in the context of , like our , our grandparents and great-grandparents and what they like , their mindsets and how that trickles down .
It is interesting , you , we're starting off with this , particularly when it comes to our own roadblocks , and I think I mentioned to you , I feel like a good topic , for this is kind of just the core idea of that we're our own worst enemies a lot of times as creatives , especially when it comes to charging and pricing and all those good things .
But I did notice my grandpa passed away a few years back .
In his funeral there were some things that were talked about that I wasn't actually totally aware of , about how he really enjoyed teaching and he had like a work , a work like a woodshop class I think it was like a workshop wood class , say that a few times and um , and he really enjoyed that , enjoyed teaching .
And then I was like , and he was a little bit entrepreneurial even though he was a military guy , so it kind of was interesting , it perked my interest and I was like , oh , wow , I actually share a lot more with my grandpa than I thought I did in the way of entrepreneurship . So , for good or for bad , that makes sense .
And it's interesting , yeah , those things that you don't know about family members until they've passed away , and you're like , oh my gosh there are all these things we could have talked about that I didn't even realize , yeah , and , but it is .
It's like the timeless stuff Cause obviously he wasn't a web designer in the seventies , but he did enjoy teaching , and he did enjoy like certain aspects of things that are timeless . So , um , I want to dive into this more . I think it would be cool , though , to get just a little bit of your backstory and what led you to this point where .
What are you now ? What do you call yourself now ? Are you a mindset coach ? Are you a business coach ? What's what's kind of your title if you ?
had to say , yeah , I say business and intuitive success coach , but the mindset piece is also a huge part of it . So I have like a trifecta of intuition and mindset is one tripod leg , business systems and marketing strategies is another , and then high performance habits and so the goal is shifting you as the business owner .
How you show up will affect how your business grows .
I like that holy trinity of business success with mindset system habits . That's genius , that's beautiful .
And it all came from my own experience . So I started my business . I'll actually go . I was thinking I went way back . I started I taught myself to program websites when I was 12 years old , like way back in the nineties , when they were like you , just Google just started , and so I'd started that and that was sort of my first indicator .
That was my first business . And then I went to college , studied computer graphic design and started my business . I got clients . I graduated May of 09 , started getting some clients , but I already had clients in college and one official 2010 , self-employed . It was also because no one was hiring 09 . I was looking for work . No one was hiring .
Everyone's like , oh , come back when you get more experience . And I was like I spent all my time job hunting and then I started getting clients and I was like why am I trying to find a job when people are paying me ? Let's focus on this side of my business and talking about things running in the family . My grandfather was an entrepreneur .
My parents were consultants , self-employed . So it was sort of like why am I trying to be an employee ? That's the weird thing in my family . Let's go be an entrepreneur . And so the biggest thing is what I find and I know because I live this is when you first start your business , you're like , okay , I need to set a money goal .
This is how I know I'm going to be successful . And so , like , what do you do ? Okay , 10 K months . That's my first sign of success and so that's what I was pursuing . Hit it my second year in business to getting consistent 10 K months .
But I didn't know all of the other pieces Like now I need to raise my rates , or now I need to be more selective in clients , and I was just burning out overwhelming . I was all by myself . I was like , okay , I built this business . And so this is my first looking back now . My parents were immigrants , my grandparents were immigrants .
I had this immigrant mindset If you work really hard , you're going to be successful . I was living it . But I was working really hard , working 80 hour weeks , doing all of this time , putting all of this in , and I went through some shifts .
I had a business partner for a while , went back on my own um , built my business to quarter million dollar years , and then I um , I just didn't enjoy it anymore . I was like I don't , like I built my business to what I wanted to achieve . I've got the recurring income , I've got all these projects and clients I used to enjoy and now I don't .
And it was about this time that I moved . I moved from the Bay area up to Eugene , oregon , and I was like you know what ? I'm just cutting out all the things I don't want , cutting the clients that I no longer um conserve , the projects that no longer serve me , that no longer bring me joy . And that was sort of the start of it .
That was when I started diving into mindset too . I actually did some theta healing training so I started using that to shift my own subconscious blocks um in Oregon , shifting my environment from the rat race of the Bay area up to Oregon , where it's a lot calmer and quieter . I was like my gosh , I don't have to be working all the time .
I could take a Friday off , like part of it is the environment you're living in too , and what is everyone else doing . And then I did the intuitive . I came across the intuitive success coaching program and I was like I know I'm intuitive and I know I ignore my intuition . My intuition was like do this .
And so I did that program and at the end of it I was like , oh my gosh , I finally traveled .
For the first time in five years , I no longer working 7am to 7pm , like I've stopped at work at 3pm and I'm still making more money than I was before , like these are all the pieces that are coming together , and so it was this combination of doing my own mindset work , connecting to my own intuition and then really discovering what I wanted to create my
business .
So I want to dive into intuition here , but I have to ask first is it fair to say that you achieved your business goals and you had set up business goals , but you didn't set up lifestyle goals ?
Yes , and that is my big sort of proponent as a business coach . Now is like let's choose your lifestyle first and then have your business . Support . That , whether that's whatever the income is , whatever the life , the way your days look , that's how we work now .
I really love that idea . I think it's super important , especially we're we're having this conversation right in the beginning of the new year and as people are goal setting and thinking about the year ahead .
I still primarily base my stuff off of an annual revenue goal , but it is based around my lifestyle , like I've chosen the lifestyle and the schedule I want to keep to and the type of work I want to do . And then how do I support this ? Well , it's this revenue goal , this annual goal .
Yes , and that's . That's exactly it , because you need a number to know what you're achieving . But you can't just be like I want to hit quarter million dollar years , oh , I want to hit a half million dollar year this year , and it's like , well , what are you sacrificing to get that and what is it really getting you ?
Yes , and I think that's why it's so important to think lifestyle first . I totally agree , because you can have a nice revenue goal , even six figures . For somebody starting out . For example , six figures is often the key metric to success as far as being able to support yourself in the States .
But then the question becomes after that , in particular , if you have a revenue goal , what is well number one , what are you going to do with a certain amount of revenue ? But also , I've found it's like I almost don't recommend choosing a revenue goal until you look at your offers and make sure those are matched up perfectly .
Because if you have offers that require you to kill yourself on time and then your revenue goal is just amping that up , then you literally your only resource , is just more time to be able to get to those goals , which sounds like it's probably what you experience , like you just have to kill yourself , working 90 hour weeks in order to hit a certain goal .
Yeah , and I like , looking back , what would have really helped me was a business coach knowing hey , look , it's time to raise your prices . You're a bit more experienced now , Like . But I needed that confidence and I didn't .
I was right fresh out of college and suddenly I had this 10K 10K months and I was like , okay , but now what ? I've got no experience or no know how of what I want to do next . And , yes , all the things I teach now are what I learned and wish I had back then when I started out . How long did you go from ?
Like , because it's honestly understandable and I think pretty cool that you got to your goal of 10k months in a couple years . But then the hope would be that you really start to work on the mindset stuff and get it down to where you're not burned out .
But it sounds like you really needed to completely change your scenery and change your environment and change everything . How long were you in business until you hit that point where you had to move and just go through ? It sounds like a pretty big pivot .
So that was about . So officially started 2010 , hit 10K months , 2011 , and I moved 2017 . 10k months , 2011 . Um , and I moved 2017 , but in that time I'd had a business partner . We I explored building an empire and having this team to like have all , do all the things . And through that journey is when I learned that you know what I don't enjoy an empire .
I would rather be boutique , hands-on with all my clients . And so there's there's benefits to go in the solo route and there's benefits to go in the agency route . And so there's there's benefits to go in the solo route and there's benefits to go in the agency route .
And so my opinion is every there's a path that's perfect for you , but there's not one path that you have to do Like . It's finding what you desire , and that's where connecting to your intuition comes in .
What do you want in ?
your life and then you pick your business . Yeah .
I found , uh , just getting to know more high profile entrepreneurs and business owners and agency owners Now over the years , I found just getting to know more high profile entrepreneurs and business owners and agency owners .
Now , over the years , I've seen a lot of people who have admitted to ensure they haven't used this verbage but ensure an empire like an agency can often be golden handcuffs If you have just created something that you hate basically to show up for . Are you familiar with the seven year itch terminology or the seven year ?
I've heard it , yeah , but not in depth .
It's just like it's something that I didn't really pay any attention to until I found out to be pretty dead on with my experience and I've seen in others as well , and you just alluded to it it was about seven years , it sounds like , before you really had to switch things .
I started my web design business and in seven years , started my passion project at joshhallco . This is year seven of being in joshhallco and now my big focus is on Web Designer Pro and building the community . So I'm just I'm just curious . I didn't know if you had any help on the seven years . How interesting that is .
Yeah and so , yeah , it really is . And then it became a bad of other circumstances . Pit too . But it was like , okay , I just need to get out , I want to go live somewhere else , I want to experience another piece of life . And , um , part of it was my back .
My parent , my family , is from New Zealand and so , going to Oregon I was like , oh , this reminds me of New . Zealand . Like I get a taste of that without leaving the country .
That's cool and again , I don't think everyone needs to base their goals or their lifestyle every seven years , but it is kind of interesting . It's more and more of this like seven year period seems to ring pretty true and maybe that makes sense .
If you're building a business , it probably takes seven years to get to the point where you build it , you grow it , you scale it in a way that works for you and then that's , you know , in a lot of cases not always , but that's often a seven year period . But I do love that you followed your intuition , so I want to dive into that intuition .
What is the because ? This gets a little woo woo for me and I'm not sure what like intuition is compared to mindset . What is the difference between your intuition and mindset ? All the things that have to do with the feeling of business in particular ?
Great question . So intuition is sort of um , and they I guess that they both deal with your subconscious , but your mindset are the beliefs that you have that your subconscious has , like mine , was oh , if I work really hard , I'll be successful . Like , then I'm going to live . That that's just my subconscious beliefs .
Um , some people are like oh , um , it's hard to make money , or it's not safe to have money , or there's a lot of unworthiness or worthiness beliefs , and these , these beliefs control the way you live your life , the habits , the way you show up .
So , for example , someone can make a ton of money , yet they never have enough money at the end of the month because somehow they spend it all , whereas another person may show up as they just aren't making that money and so they're also in money lack at the end of the month . And so there's different ways that your subconscious protects you , because it thinks .
It thinks , if you live outside of this belief , something dangerous is going to happen , like you're going to die , like that's . It's this primal piece of our mind and it only knows what's going on the now . So it thinks everything is happening now . So , um , that's where you can use it to your benefit , and we'll talk about that in a little bit .
But , um , mindset is really the beliefs and the thoughts that are holding you in the programming , and you can connect to that by connecting to your body . Same with your intuition , but your intuition is more of , like you say , your expanded self or your higher self .
It's this part of you that knows your purpose and your passion and , again , you want to connect to your body . So go into your heart and you . Most people feel it in their gut . Some people feel it in different ways . Some people hear things , sometimes see things . I just feel a sensation of my body Like I'll get a tingling up my spine .
I'm like , oh my gosh , that that is full truth , spot on . Or , um , for taking action . I'll be like here's a thought just pops into my mind . I'm like , oh my gosh , I'm super excited about that . So it's positive .
Emotions are also tied to things that are coming from your intuition , whereas your subconscious and your ego , your conscious mind , is often where the fear comes from and the oh , the doubt , and I can't do that . You start overthinking things .
It seems to me by that overview that intuition would be correct . But is there ever a time where intuition is wrong , where you follow your intuition and it's like that was a bad idea ?
Not usually . And there can , like there can be , but usually it's for your best self Like . Usually it's like , oh , you're sitting with a client and you're like , hmm , this doesn't feel great , but you know what ?
I need the money , so I'm going to and this is an easy project , so I'll take the client and that gut feeling of like there's something not right here , and then this is like the biggest headache client ever . It's usually more , when you don't listen to your intuition , that you're like oh , that was my intuition , I should have listened to that time .
Got it .
But it can be things like oh , I'm super inspired by this , I'm going to like write a , do a marketing post or send out a newsletter , and you suddenly get a whole bunch of responses back and it was just something written from inspiration and creativity or it's waiting for . Um , a big part of it is just when you're designing too .
Instead of cause I , I was the oh , I've got so many projects forced my way through . I skipped lunch breaks , I skipped um , I would I have to go to the bathroom . I'm like , no , let me just finish this project . Oh , let me finish this project . And like two hours later , I'm like I really have to go to the bathroom now .
And it was like I was just pushing through so hard .
I did not have time and that was my um . I was in fight or flight mode , hustle culture mode , whereas to come up with creative designs , you need that space , you need that chance .
You go on a walk and then suddenly you get an idea and you're like , oh my gosh , this is an amazing design , and you put it , pop it out in like 10 minutes , whereas when you force it it could take two hours , and so it's pieces of that .
Recognizing how to create space for your intuition and creativity , um , and then recognizing and sometimes that's what you need to do Recognizing oh , I didn't listen to my intuition and this is what happens now . I need to start listening more .
So it sounds like just right there . It feels like what commonly happens in hustle mode or stressed out mode , or if you're just focused on a certain monetary goal and you're neglecting everything else . It sounds like the intuition just gets buried .
Essentially right If you're just if , if yeah , if every if you're , if the behaviors and the habits are not aligned with intuition and what is good for you and that's going to help you move forward sustainably , it sounds like intuition is probably the easiest thing to get buried your nervous system is just dysregulated .
You shut down your fight or flight mode . You can't connect with people , you're in your basic brain survival mode . You like it's where you write those emails that when you look back and you're like , oh , that sounded really cold . I didn't mean to be cold , I was just so focused on writing something and getting it out .
Like you don't connect with people , you're not very creative , you're just blinkers on trying to survive , and so the biggest thing is creating spaciousness in your day , having space , having time and a lot of people , and this sort of goes into a habit .
A lot of people go to bed late , wake up at the last possible minute , rush all morning and rush to work , whereas if you went to bed a little bit earlier , got a full eight hours of sleep . Wake up a little bit earlier , got a full eight hours of sleep .
Wake up a little bit earlier , so you've got time in the morning , so you've got two hours of time in the morning . You get to eat , get ready , sort of have a morning routine and then head into your day focused on what you really want to create .
You're more of a high performer , you're more creative , and so there's all these different pieces that tie together to listening to your intuition , to doing the mindset work , to really showing up the best that you can in your business .
So , practically , I'm really thinking about this intuition thing because I've as you earlier mentioned , people feel intuition differently .
I've always notoriously felt it in my gut in the feeling of like this feels right or this feels wrong , or this feels like this is a good decision , or this feels like it's a bad decision , or something that I know I'm just going to take this on just for the money , or something like that .
And this is very , very timely too , because I just released , at the time of recording this with you , an episode about my business rebound that I had .
2024 was the best year today I've ever had , but 2022 and 23 were down years , and the reason I mentioned that is I really leaned into this intuition thing like deeply , and one of the things that started the rebound for me was an intuition of changing my business model and pivoting from core sales to membership Web Designer Pro .
And the reason I say that is it was not an easy pivot . It felt right in my gut . I knew my customers so well , I knew what was working . I did a lot of things that I would do differently in the midterm of when I launched it and how I sold it and making it more clear . But that .
All that to say , I feel like I obviously last year showed I made the right decision , but it was a very painful pivot at first . If you had talked to me a few months into making that decision , I probably would have said I don't know , I may have just blown up my whole business . So how does that work ?
I mean , I guess it's almost like delayed gratification with intuition . How have you seen that to be pretty common , where your intuition may seem like a bad decision at first but it's actually best for the long term ? I mean , did you experience that when you moved ? Was it tough , you know ? Did you have a revenue drop but then things evened out ?
I'm just wondering how many situations or I'm wondering if my situation is pretty common to where the right move based off of your gut feeling is not a short term right move .
And that's where there's a couple like steps to it too , but definitely like it took you in the right direction , but the how to get there wasn't very clear , and so maybe looking back , you're like , oh , I could have done things better . And so , um , yeah , it led you on the path , but it wasn't the easiest .
And maybe it could have been like , if you'd been more active with your intuition , maybe you could have checked in with your intuition along the way and found some of the answers sooner . But I'm sure , um , that's the thing you have to actively do . That's what I had to learn .
To do is like , how do I check in with my intuition , with my business decisions , to keep moving forward ? And part of it is just a faith and a trust . This just feels right and just feeling that in your whole body and moving forward with that trust , I'm making the right decision .
Whatever happens in the current moment is helping clear the way for it , and sometimes you have to clear stuff too . Sometimes you have to release clients or services that are no longer serving you . Sometimes it's other areas of your life . Decluttering is a part of the process , too , of um just making the room for the new that you're growing into .
It's funny as we're kind of peeling back the layers of this uh intuition onion .
Uh , I'm realizing like the majority of coaching I do inside of my community because I do have a coaching element to focus on the coaching tier and most of the conversations I have with those members , because we do talk a little more in depth about their business and their offers and their pricing it's a lot of intuition stuff .
Case in point , when people are deciding what they want to do on top of their website design services . It's mostly intuition that I found , because a lot of people are like I love SEO , I really enjoyed it , I want to do that . But then some members I've coached have been like I know I should probably do SEO , but I just don't like it .
And I've always been quick to say if you don't like it , don't do it , hire it out , focus on what you like . And I guess that's more of an intuition thing . I didn't really think about it like that , but yeah , and it's .
It's . Sometimes it comes through without us actively , intentionally realizing , and then , once you're aware of it , you can just superpower . It's really a superpower as a business owner Once you can pay attention to that .
Um and I talk about that with clients too I'm like , and that's why one of the first pieces I walk them through is activating their intuition and really connecting them with their purpose and passion , because what you're passionate about is what you're going to have more fun doing in your business , is what you're going to attract people to more easily .
You're just going to talk about it and it's going to be easy . But when you're like , oh , I should do SEO because it's a great income , revenue and I don't really enjoy it , but I'll force myself to do it .
Like that energy is in your business now . Like this oh , I got to do something I really don't enjoy . So , yeah , that's perfect . No , that's great . So how other what are other ways we can I guess you know , using your terminology connect with our intuition ? I don't know . Is this like a muscle that you build over time ? Practically is ?
Is it just , like you said , allowing yourself to have a space to think and to write out your goals ? Yeah , what are , like , the practical things we could do for someone right now who wants to like all right , I really want to get in touch with my intuition . Essentially , like how do you do that practically ?
Yeah , and it's really the great thing is it's really easy . We're all born with our intuition . Um , it's just not something that society really talks about a lot , and so we've just sort of squashed it down . Um , so as simple as like you could just you could be like what , when you're going for drive , like should I go left or right ?
If you're going for a walk , should I go left or right ? Like , just play , like connecting with your intuition . So , as you said , it's like building a muscle . Build this relationship with your intuition . Should I have this for breakfast or that for breakfast ? Should I both ?
Like just start with small , little decisions where you're like what feels good to me right now and start building on that . So it could be little decisions , what you wear , what you're eating , although , at the same time , the more decisions you have to make , there's decision fatigue too , and that's the whole mindset thing of you . You .
You stop making decisions at the end of the day , cause you made too many at the beginning . So make it fun and easy . When it's fun and easy , then it's not another chore , it's not like okay , yeah , I got to start practicing my intuition today . Um , how am I going to force myself to do that . It's more like , oh , what can I do ?
What can I pick today ? That's going to be fun . Am I going to walk this way ?
I'm going to walk that way .
Am I going to do this or that ? Um , and it can be in business too . Should I work on this project first , or this project Should I like ? If you're making a decision in business , let yourself do that . Um , this is more like subconscious work , but I like muscle testing , where you can ask your subconscious yes and no questions .
Um , are you familiar with muscle testing ? No , so this is . I love this . I learned . This is a tool I learned in theta healing , but they use it in a lot of modalities and there's some different ways to do it . So I love giving people this resource . So muscle testing is you're asking your subconscious yes or no questions .
So what you do is you stand up and you face North , so you have to know which way North is . You have to be well hydrated , so make sure you've just had a drink of water and then you close your eyes and the first thing you do is just orientate yourself to yes or no . You can say show me yes , or you could say what is this ? Yes or you could .
My name is Bob and you want a yes or no question . So , yes , you should lean forward . No , you should lean backwards If you're not getting a definite yes or no , make sure you're hydrated , check that you're properly facing north and then keep moving forward and sometimes the strength of the yes and the no will like knock you over as you're standing .
But it's just a little , another little way that if you're like I don't really feel my gut , I don't feel a yes and no in my body , you can get of more out of gut response and the feeling of just like like I can just sense , like my whole body .
I can sense like that felt good or I did that and it was nice , but it didn't feel great . And this is really , really important too .
I think in situations like I went through , where you are in a bit of a stressful situation , where the numbers are going down and you're one , I feel like it can be easier to neglect your intuition , because you may feel like my intuition got me in a bit of a jam here .
Um , so all that to say , like I I may just be a part of maturing as a business owner , but I had a lot of advice thrown at me in those couple years .
Some was really good advice and there actually wasn't any bad advice , because all of those strategies I talked about what people could work , but I had to trust my own gut with my own lifestyle goals , my own calendar goals , what works for you and yeah , there's great strategies out there , but it's like , what's the strategy for you and so , yeah , so the part of
the path to your gut is through your heart .
So you like , put your consciousness into your , your heart , and then drop it down to your gut , because your intuition is based in your gut . But people feel in different places .
So it could be just noticing , oh yes , when I get really lit up and I feel this like excitement in my chest and my heart , that can be my intuition , and when I feel this heaviness , sort of like sinking feeling , that could be the no . But there's a difference between dread and fear and a no from your intuition .
If someone is burned out and stressed out and burning the cano at both ends whether they are killing it financially and things are going great , but they're working 90 hours a week like you were , or maybe they are in a stressful part is , I would imagine . This is probably like the hardest .
One of the hardest things to do is to get back in touch with your intuition , right , if it's like we talked about , if it is buried by you know all these other circumstances .
Yeah , the one thing you need to do is the hardest thing to do . So often it's like , oh , the one thing I need to do , I need to take a break and go for a walk today , and that's the thing that you're too busy to do .
Or oh , I need to spend time on my CEO time today , and you're too busy and you break that appointment with yourself because a client calls or an emergency comes up . So it's often those things that are really important , but somehow you never get around to doing them , and so it's being able to prioritize that no matter what .
And the thing is it is hard when you're stressed out . You're like I don't have time to take a break , I don't have time to get more sleep . I spent three months getting four hours of sleep a night , and that's how I now know that , like , my number one priority is eight hours of sleep a night .
Well , I got a 13 month old who never sleeps , so we're trying to figure out her sleep issues still , so I can't control that , but I go to bed early enough that if I was to sleep the whole night , I would get eight or nine hours , because I know that affects every aspect of your life , your income , your creativity , your health , every aspect of your life ,
your income , your creativity , your health , and so it's sometimes you have to put faith in someone you trust , like like there's thought leaders out there , like Brendan Burchard , oprah , all of those people .
Sometimes you have to just trust other people's stories of trusting their intuition or listening to things and then just jump in ahead and do that , or like a mentor , like clients who work with me . I can share plenty of stories of when I uh push through or versus when I listened to , my intuition made it easy .
And once they start to experience it , once you have that , first when you're like oh , I listened to my intuition and this went really well . Or oh my gosh , I stopped and took a walk today and then I got this brilliant insight . Like you , you start then building your own proof . So it can take time and sometimes it's really like business owners resist it .
They're like I , like I don't want to do that , I don't have time to stop , I don't have time to take a break , I don't have time to do these things .
That's the thing you need to do that's fascinating about leaning on coaches or mentors or influencers whatever term you want to use to listen to their intuition and kind of follow their their ripple effect , if you will .
Um , of course I imagine other people's proof yeah , other people's proof .
This could go very badly , of course , if you're , you know , trying to live someone else's dream that is not your dream . And of course we know especially parentpreneurs like yourself and myself . There's a lot of high profile entrepreneurs that people model themselves after who do not have your life situation , who don't have kids .
I've notoriously said I have a daughter with special needs . We have three kiddos under six . That is a very different situation than I think any other entrepreneur I follow .
So I always keep that in mind , like what is working for them as far as their output and what they're doing on social media and podcasting and YouTube and coaching isn't probably going to align with my schedule because they don't have my situation , but I do like that .
That's just kind of a word of warning for , you know , for modeling something after somebody else . But I do like that idea of it . I guess , particularly if you're kind of stuck with intuition , find some proof , get a quick win and move forward .
That's kind of what I try to help people with when they're in a bind is just get a quick win , get a little momentum , a little bit of confidence boost , and that seems to like settle the whole feeling of mindset and intuition from there , when just get on a positive momentum yeah , you just need that one positive thing , otherwise you're in this negative spiral
over and over again , and it's not always like following them , but it's just like .
They're like oh look , they trusted their intuition and it worked out for them .
I know that , at least for some people , following their intuition leads to great successes and it's just building up that trust , even if you're not like , even if they're doing a different thing , but just like oh look , here's an example of someone following their intuition and look at the way it led them and building up that just bank of okay , there's something
to this intuition thing . Let me start trying it out .
Is that ? Um , this is fascinating to me , just this intuition stuff . So sorry , I'm just really in this because this is . I mean , it's really important in business .
But I'm just thinking back through just my life experience and when I felt that intuition , um , I got laid off from my job as a cabinet maker on that same time that you started your business 2009 is when that happened and then they called back nearly a year later and offered me the job back and it was honestly stupid for me practically not to take the job
back because I was doing side jobs . It would have been stable income and everything else . But my gut told me and my intuition told me , like , if I go back , I'm probably going to have a really hard time getting out of being a cabinet maker for 11 bucks an hour . My intuition said started doing freelance , started enjoying some design , keep on going with that .
There's intuition . Is there like um ? Is it based on maturity age ? When does intuition ? Or can a five-year-old have intuition like ?
kids have the strongest connections to their intuition , because we don't have . They don't have society's beliefs coming in of , oh , that's not possible , oh this and yeah . So they've got a little bit of a fantastical mind to it , like , oh , anything can happen .
But they're sort of just living their intuition oh , I want this , oh , I desire that , let me go after it , whereas as adults we're like that's a lot of work or that's not realistic , we can't , I can't , I'm not going to be able to do that , I'm not going to try .
Interesting . So it's harder to get back in touch with your intuition potentially , uh , when you're yeah like from life or business .
That's the biggest thing I teach my daughter is like trust your intuition , here's how to listen to it . Um , like when I , as things come up , I'd be like what does your intuition say ? So that was a lesson for me . I the tech world is very masculine . The business world is very masculine .
I didn't really think about my intuition of business until I was surrounded by a bunch of successful female entrepreneurs and this was in , it was through Mary Kay and I was . It was a time of my life where I was like I just need more female support and they were always like what does your intuition tell you ?
And it was first time was like I've never heard anyone talk about intuition in business before and I'm like all these successful women around me are like what's your intuition say , what's happening ? And I'm like this is something I really need to pay attention to . And that was before my move . So that sort of like was a stepping stone that triggered it .
But I find that , yeah , woman , we're talking about it more . And now I think it's a bigger part of the conversation , like you're talking about it now you notice when you listen to your intuition .
Yeah , I agree , I do think . Yeah , that's very interesting . I think you're totally right and I think it's because it wasn't talked about in the agency world in particular . I mean so many agency owners and we're already past the time where so many have come out talking about how burned out they were through the early thousands into the 2010s .
It was a boom for agencies and digital marketers and all the things . But yeah , by now , it's like the few agency owners who have lasted through that , regardless of how big the agency is , probably had an emphasis on sustainability or maybe they were more experienced in business at that point . But I think you're totally right .
I think because things like intuition , mindset , sustainability none of this stuff , from my perspective , was really in the conversation . Perspective was really in the conversation and I totally agree .
It makes sense that you know female entrepreneurs are probably going to talk about their feelings and talk about things with heart and mind , whereas a lot of dudes sitting around with cigars are going to be like how much money would make ? Let's work on profit in this and this . It sounds sexist , but I get it . It's totally true .
Um , like I've never hung out with a bunch of entrepreneurial dudes and intuition . I guess we've talked about it in some ways , but it's not the same verbiage that you might find .
It's like oh yeah , this just felt right .
Yeah , yeah , yeah , yeah , stuff like that . So that makes sense and it's interesting to hear that we almost go backward on the spectrum of intuition , where it's like harder to get in touch with yourself . Look the prime example we just got through Christmas season . Elf is the prime example . Elf's have you seen it ? Are you an Elf fan ?
No with the movie . Yeah , Probably once . I don't do very well with cheesy comedy .
Okay , dang it . Well , how dare you ? It's not cheesy , but there is a character there . Elf's real dad is a children and , uh , he's just completely lost himself , like there's no fun , there's no joy . He's just this grumpy money .
Yeah , yeah , kind of yeah yeah , um , and one of the big benefits of the whole movie if you decide to watch it again uh , is that he changes completely at the end . He's like he goes back to being himself , almost like the intuition thing .
So , uh , just a practical example of how , like somebody later on who has neglected intuition , it gets harder and harder to get back to that . So , yeah , I just find that very interesting .
Well , it's almost a piece of like . This is another aspect of . It is masculine energy and feminine energy . Masculine is the action , the doing energy . The feminine is the being a lot of the intuition , that the taking and getting inspiration to then take action . And it's not that one's better than the other .
You can't be full feminine energy all the time just waiting for inspiration to float down and hit you . But you it's best if you can make that space to listen to your intuition , get inspiration and then you go take action , rather than just trying to take action blindly . Like what inspires me , what lights me up today ? Okay , this project .
I know it's at the bottom of the list , but I really , really want to do this project right now . Go do it and you'll get it done so much faster It'll probably come out way more amazing and then you can dive into the next project that's on your list with higher energy . So it's it's learning how to balance , if that's another way to look at it .
Okay , where's my , my masculine energy of doing right now , or my feminine energy of creating and noticing and appreciating and percolating ideas ?
That's interesting , I think , for people who are in the aim or ready fire aim camp , common entrepreneurial trait where you're like I have an idea , let's go , and it's like I didn't plan or think about this or even notice if it felt right . So for those I think it's a good reminder .
But to the opposite point and again , not that either one of these are bad or right or wrong or bad or good , but there is a camp of people who just overthink and just feel for so long but there's no action . And it's like you know who's not feeling is your mortgage company , who's billing you for their payment that month ?
Like there's a time where you've got to do something , you've got to act . So I do like that challenge and a reminder to have a little bit of balance between feeling and thinking and also acting and doing .
They both have a purpose and it's not like , yeah , you need to be all feminine or all masculine , but it's just finding what's the right time and what's the right . There's seasons , too . There's seasons in your life where you're going to be more all this energy , and then there's seasons where you're like , oh , I wish I had that energy . Where did it go ?
Yeah , how do you balance that ? I mean , I knew I kind of figured we would talk about this idea of like energy , um , cause , I mean , gosh man , is that important through every aspect of the business , with how you show up , with how you sell um , with how you come across on podcast interviews or videos or social media . How does this all all translate to ?
Or maybe a more succinct question too as far as like energy , how do you protect that when things are not going well , for example ?
uh , yeah , yeah first thing is noticing it . That's the first thing you can do is just notice , because it's easy to get in that negative , negative spot , negative spiral of , oh , I'm not good enough , or I'm like you'd be , like I'm so stupid , like , or they're so awful , like ranting on someone else .
And so just noticing that , oh , look , I'm in a really negative space right now , um , what kind of ? And naming the emotion . So naming the emotion gets you back sort of into your logical brain and out of just the emotions and dwelling in that negative and then just changing focus .
You can't always and this is sort of a piece of law of attraction you can't always be like , oh , I'm in this negative , dark space of of hatred and rage or just frustration , and you can't be like , oh , I'm going to be happy and joyful in five minutes . But just change in your focus , take a walk , take um to to some deep breaths . Um , you can .
So the cool thing is , our body can control our emotions and our emotions can control our body . So you can then , um , take some slow , deep breaths , get back into rest and digest mode . So when you're stressed out , you have short , fast breaths . If you take , it's either box , box breaths .
If you do four breaths in four hold four out , exhale four hold or you do a longer exhale than an inhale , that will help calm your nervous system down . So it's noticing , naming the emotion and then just shifting , shifting your emotional state to try and get to a more neutral place .
And often it is moving your body , like you're all in your head in this emotion . Get out , get fresh air nature , go ground your feet in the earth . If it's a nice time of year , do something to just shift , even for five minutes . If you're like , oh , I don't have time to calm down , five minutes will change everything in your day .
That's great advice , very sage advice , especially as I was thinking about like in summer of 2023 , when things were probably the darkest that I felt , with the business numbers really dropping and some stuff that we went through . In the personal side , my energy was at a point where I was I'm a naturally happy state person , but I was being grumpy .
Even my wife said , like you've been complaining a lot and kind of grumpy , it's not normal . That's kind of how I released it . I wasn't like a raging maniac , but I was just more grumpy , started to get a little cynical version of myself and I totally agree . It was like getting physical and changing my state as much as possible to help .
Because reality is we all , we all know business is a roller coaster , so you have to expect high times and low times , but in those low times , I really love this principle and idea of just getting to baseline .
Like , understandably , unless you're a really good actor , not too many people are going to be super depressed and angry and then have a client call and be like , hey , how's it going ?
Everything's great Cause yeah , that's fake anyway , like it's not a real happy positive , unless you literally can do that .
But yeah , if you can get that baseline , I really love that idea .
And sometimes it is . Sometimes you have a great client call and suddenly you end it and you're like , oh , I'm in a good mood again , and so it was that shift . It was changing your direction and focus onto this client call , someone you enjoy , project you enjoy , and that can lift you out of it too .
So it doesn't always mean , oh , I'm in a really bad , negative state , I should cancel this client call because I'm not going to show up . Well , but just knowing yourself , are you going to ruin a call from negative energy ? Or are you going to be like you know what I like this client .
Usually I'm not in a good mood now , but hopefully , like I'll do what I can to show up . And then you leave the call and you're like , oh , I'm all excited again .
It's amazing your perspective when you can be like oh my gosh , life is terrible , I'm a failure , my business is going in the dumps , and you have one good call like and something like oh , what was I so worried about ? Like , everything's the same , my project list is all the same , but now I can handle life again .
That's such a good point . I think , regardless of whether somebody is extroverted or introverted , people need people like we need each other , and sometimes it can be a client call to turn things around .
I'm a big proponent of people having some sort of support group in the way of a mastermind or something like that , where you do get supported and , like you rightly said , alyssa , here it's like what was I so worried ? We're our own worst enemy , especially when we're in solitude and secluded . I found that to be a big thing .
I think that's why I personally relied on reaching out to a lot of mentors and colleagues and I'm sorry , this sounds like a therapy session , which is great , yeah , as I'm practically thinking about helping people through this too , whether they're in a hard time or a good time , it is so good to lean on other people .
One of my members who was on the podcast recently , whitney , talked about this too , where she tends to like to just be in solitude and do her work , and she started to do less and less client calls and less and less calls with customers .
But she realized , looking back , that those calls were what really inspired her , and after she left those calls she was feeling invigorated . She wasn't feeling that , just being alone doing the work . Sometimes you do need that good balance . So , yeah , I really really liked that idea .
Again , whether you're introverted or extroverted , I mean , for me it was like I'm going to my networking group regardless , and I always felt good leaving that .
Well , yeah , because I'm a total introvert and I think it's also how you get your energy recharged . So as an introvert , I know I recharge my energy at home and quiet with my family , whereas extroverts get recharged going outside . But I've had a lot of people be like , oh , you must be an extrovert and I'm like , no , I just when I'm recharged .
I enjoy being around people , but to recharge I have to go home and have my safe space . And my favorite thing is , yes , there's this . I love just focus time .
And actually when I first started my business , one of the reasons I became such a workaholic is I was answering client calls and emails all day long , no boundaries , from like 8am to 5pm and then 6 to 10pm . I was like I can't work done without people interrupting me .
6 to 10 PM I was like I can't work done without people interrupting me , and so I would just dive into that , whereas if I would just put boundaries up during my day and not answered calls and emails , I could have had that focus time during the day and not spread it out .
Um , but as my business evolved like I love the strategy I loved having I would build into my clients um programs that we would have a once a month call so I could get an update of where they were and what was going on in their world and how I could support them , whether it was web design , graphic design , marketing strategy .
Um , because there was that piece of interaction like they're my client , they're paying me , I want to serve them to the best of my ability , and so I was like , the better I , the more I know what's going on in their world , the better I can serve them , and so that was a big piece of um .
Uh , some of the what I train clients on , too is how to build their relationships stronger with their clients .
Yeah , yeah , and a lot of times calls and interactions with even clients don't need to be like a sales call . It could be more of a relationship builder , which for introverts I know is a big deal . I'm more extroverted , but for folks on the introverted spectrum I know the thought of , like , being on and selling nonstop .
Um , that's why a lot of introverts probably don't want to be realtors . So you know , like . But uh , just because you have a call on your calendar doesn't mean that it's a sales call or a marketing call , like it .
No , it call or a marketing call , like it no it can be a relationship call . this is my , this is my recurring client call each month where we get I get to hear what's going on in their world and build a relationship . And that was another piece of what I did way back was I ?
I was young female um and I was like I have to be professional to get clients and so I built up this wall and like I didn't share any of my personal life and like , looking back , I'm like how did clients like , why did clients choose me ? It must've been my personality without the , without any of the um , like personal stuff .
But as I've evolved , I'm like people choose to work with me because of who I am and my personality and knowing my life . So , like my , I'm friends with clients on Facebook and they see my personal life as well as work .
And then they there's deeper conversations , like I have a client that we chat with and the first couple of minutes are just a little personal catch up . What'd you do for the holidays ? Like what's going on in your week right now ? Even my coaching clients , I'm like what's going on in your world ? What's a win ?
What , uh , what did you do for fun this week ? Because a lot of business owners don't have fun .
So I had to start asking them what do you do for fun each week ? That's great . I love that tip . Keeping it a little bit personal too . I think in the age of AI too , I think that's going to be one of the biggest draws . Is there anything we can do to be a little more personalized ?
It doesn't mean everyone needs to put their family on social media and be an influencer , but by golly , if you can keep it a little more personal , I am a living testament to how far that can go , especially when it comes to your vibe attracts , your tribe Like .
There may be no better way to get your ideal clients than being you on how you present yourself and letting your personality come out .
And that's really it , and you want your personality to repel the people that don't want to , don't want that , so that you don't deal with that , and that you yeah , you attract your tribe , and so it's a little bit of coming back to intuition , too , is do you really know yourself or are you just doing what you think society wants you to do ?
And part of it's gaining maturity and confidence in myself . I had to go through that journey and now I'm like this is my world and but , as when I was starting out , I was like I'm yeah , I'm young and female and blonde , like there's different , like just societal expectations I feel like I have to overcome .
Is intuition , basically , like our compass , our guiding light .
Yes , it's your compass , your North star to what you really truly want in life . And so when you're connected to that , then you could know . You know what I really want to be able to take vacations several times a year . Or I want to go take a month long vacation and you're like I'm feeling trapped in my business because this isn't possible right now .
And so first is noticing what it is that you really really want and desire and then making it possible , finding a way to make it possible . What do you have to change in your business or shift ? Like , do you have to just tell clients you're going to be gone for a month and build up your projects ahead of time ?
Or maybe maybe you build certain systems in place , or maybe you do this or that and and finding that out , but you can't make that plan or decision until you know what you really want . Maybe you just want . Fridays off every week . Like maybe you just want to end up every day at 3pm , Like finding what that is . Finding what lights you up ?
What are your hobbies that you really enjoy ? What do you wish you did more of ? Did you really used to enjoy photography and now you don't like ? Well , I used to love art and then design became my job and so I stopped doing like drawing or doing anything .
Um , and then , as it comes back , like maybe you notice , oh well , this became my job , so it's no longer my passion . What is another passion I can enjoy ? Maybe you just enjoy reading in the middle of the day . Like I think that's a luxury . I talk about helping clients find their luxuries . It doesn't have to be money .
What if it was just being able to read a book for half an hour in the middle of the day ? Like a lot of people , that's a huge luxury . You know .
To just take a hot shower at 5 pm and just soak for the evening , Finding these things that light you up and refill you and make you feel like you're not just giving , and giving to your business or to everything else in your life too .
Great way to put a cap on this one . Alyssa , that's awesome . That's really good advice . One final question here for you , but I want to give people a chance to pick up . I know you've got some free stuff . Where should people go to connect with you ? And then I think you have a a reason , a free resource , to like a masterclass .
Yes , so um , alyssa Williamson , a-l-y-s-s-a , and then Williamson is S-O-Ncom is my website , um , and you'll find access to just a little bit more information .
I've got several free trainings , but the main one I'll share , um , shared with you that you can put in the resources , is a raising your revenue masterclass , and it's really about how to bring the trifecta of mindset , intuition , strategy and habits to increase your income , but do it in a more efficient way , so you get time back and you get your life back , um
. And then another great place to reach out to me is Instagram . I'm Alyssa Williamson underscore coach and I always just love chatting . If you just want to be like hey , I heard you on the podcast , got this question or really enjoyed this point , I would love to hear that .
Awesome . Well , we'll have all that linked in the show notes for sure for this one , alyssa . Final question here for you real quick , particularly to the business owner , who has been at it for a while and is very far removed from their intuition what would be like if they could do something right after this chat or after they push pause on the podcast ?
What would be like an exercise or something you would recommend they do , just to start the process to be a more intuition led entrepreneur ?
Definitely do some slow , deep breaths . So just just getting back to your body . The problem is we get so caught up in our minds and that connection to your subconscious and your intuition is in your body . So just spend a minute , set a timer so you're not counting , and just do slow , deep breaths .
Put your feet on the ground and sort of visualize , like your energy going out from your body in roots and sort of grounding to the earth , and then just ask yourself , like what do I want to do in the next five minutes ? What do I want to do this afternoon ?
You don't have to ask a big life changing question , but just be like what do I want to do right now ? Like maybe I want to go get a snack , maybe I just want to go outside and take a breath now . Like , after I've listened to this podcast , what do I feel inspired to do ? And write it down .
If it's not something you could do right away , but at least take note of it and make sure you do it at the time when you can .
Boom there we go . All right , listen , thank you . Do it at the time when you can . Boom there we go . All right , listen . Thank you so much for for your time today and for chatting about this . This was really interesting and , uh , I love that we're talking about this more .
Even as a dude entrepreneur , I'm not in the hustle crowd , but , um , I definitely am a huge proponent of listening to your intuition and building a business that you want to show up for and doing this sustainably and not burning out .
So to that I say thank you for your intuition and your advice and all the work that you've done to be able to help a lot of folks . So thanks so much for sharing everything today .
Yeah , thank you , josh , and I love this and I love that it's becoming a conversation and something that people maybe this will open a few eyes to where they are intuitive and have been ignoring it , or opening new doors to new opportunities .
Heck , yeah , alyssawilliamsoncom , and we'll have all the resources in the show notes for this one and we'll have your masterclass linked . And yeah , definitely go check her out on Instagram . Thank you , alyssa , till next time , appreciate it . Thank you , bye , josh , appreciate it .
Thank you .
Bye , josh . Big thanks again to Alyssa for coming on and sharing all about intuition and trusting your gut . Leave us a comment , if you would , at joshhallco slash 369 , to share any takeaways or thoughts you have based off of this one . I'll let Alyssa know to check the comments over there on the show notes .
All of the links we mentioned can be found there as well , again at joshhallco slash 369 . Alyssa is currently active on Instagram and you can find her at her website , alyssawilliamsoncom . And remember she does have a free masterclass you can pick up today for completely free .
It's a raising your revenue masterclass that will be linked at the show notes for this one as well . All right , friends , hope you enjoyed this one . Cheers to running your business based off of trusting your gut . I hope it works for you and I really hope you enjoyed this conversation .
Make sure you subscribe if you are not yet subscribed , wherever you watch or listen to the podcast , because we've got some doozies ahead and , yeah , fun stuff ahead . All right , guys , I'll see you on the next one .