[Transcript starts at 1:23]
Hello, hello, hello my podcast people, and thank you for joining me for yet another episode of my favorite podcast. So if you're watching the video, you can see that it's actually quite bright, uh, because the sun has come out. It's funny because I, when I wrote this episode, I wrote the, uh, outline for this episode, I did it this morning a few hours ago, and it was still gray. It was not raining, but it had been raining and just, it was very blah. Um, which that general blahness and grossness definitely contributed to some of the inspiration for this episode.
But I am happy to say that for the time being, the sky is blue, but the rain is coming back tomorrow. It's coming back Wednesday. It is the worst. And yes, I'm gonna keep talking about it because it is actually relevant to today's podcast and to things, uh, in general. But, the main inspiration for today's episode, the primary inspiration for today's episode is actually a Mafia dinner that at time of recording this was last week. And my girl, Laura Jean, we brought her on the podcast before, if you could link that, thank you, Courtney. Uh, she asked at the end of the, the call, um, she asked, what do you think is going on in the space? What do you feel like is going on in the space? Just what's going on? You know, what are you seeing?
You know, she knows that I, I coach a bunch of people and she's like, what do you think is going on? And she wasn't just talking about customer trends or consumer trends. More specifically, cuz if you listen to, if you know Laura Jean, she's @dietitianvalues on Instagram, we'll link all of that.
But if you know Laura Jean, you know, that she, she cares and she's always like, you know, big picture. She's a deep thinker, but also a big picture thinker. And she was actually ask, actually asking about how people are feeling. And I loved it. And we had a phenomenal discussion around that. Um, and I've been thinking about it since and wanted to do an episode specifically about it because it's relevant and, uh, yeah.
So in general, I think that right now people on the whole are feeling tired. And I think that the pandemic has a lot to do with it. It's interesting cuz you know, I, I stay on Instagram just enjoying myself and I saw a post the other day and I was talking about like, you know, the mental health component of the pandemic.
And it's not that I disagree with the post. The post was, it was a, a funny post, right. It was like talking about like all the weird shit that people did during the pandemic. But I do think that there, there was a very, it was a, a tremendous amount of good that came out of the pandemic because of the forced pause that we had to take.
And I've spoken about this before. You know, articles been, articles have been written about, I didn't make it up, but viewing the pandemic as The Great Pause, that really allowed people to say, hold up. Wait a minute, let me put my 2 cents in a note. It allowed them to say, hold up, wait a minute, what do I actually want. All right. And I sent an email out in early May, 2020. So that's a little less than three years ago, right? I'm recording this, today is March 13th. This will come out on March thir, uh, March 20th. But in early May of 2020, and this is just a few months into the pandemic I sent an email out to my email list and I asked people, what do you not want to see come back?
And again, this was just a few months into the pandemic and people already knew. That pause was there. And I think about it sometimes I'm like, there was a time when it was actually nice, like after we got outta the scary part and you were just like, it was summertime here. It was actually sunny.
I remember working out in the driveway and there was something nice about this. And apologies if, you know, you listen to this and you're triggered cuz you're like, it wasn't nice for me. Well, I'm sorry. Like for many people there was a, a nice part of this where we were forced to slow down. And so I asked people, what did you not wanna see-
come, what do you not wanna see? Come back. I got 120 responses and I actually turned it into a a PDF. If you want that, I haven't made the URL thing for it yet, but if you want that, I'll get that together and it'll be in the show notes. Yes, you will have to opt in for the email. Um, that's how it's the easiest way to do it.
Um, but if you wanted to check out that PDF and, and it's all, um, what is the word, anonymous, but if you wanna see what other people had to say, you can read it there. Um, so we'll link that in the show notes. Thank you, Courtney. Um, but. I pulled a few of them and just pulled out some words to share right now and things that people didn't want to come back:
Urgency. So much to do in a day. Traffic. Long commutes. Rushing. Full schedules. Guess what folks? That shit is back and this is the pandemic boomerang that I think we are seeing and people are tired. And it's not just that it's come back, it's that it's come back. It's that people had a chance to not have it.
It's that, people said, I don't want it to come back. And yet it's still, you know, things happen and they, they make their way back into your life because it's routine. And then we pair that with the fact that, you know, the economy is doing what it's doing. There are financial concerns and I think people are very aware of how much work it's going to take if they do want to pursue their happiness and they do wanna change things. And they had a taste of it.
Right. We add on top of that, circling back to the beginning of the episode, we add on top of that the shitty weather that that we're having here. So on the East Coast, excuse me, on the West Coast, we're having just horrendous weather for us, right? There's lots of rain and I'm not the only one who doesn't do well with it. That's why most people live here is for the weather.
Uh, and we're not getting the weather that we pay for. And even when it is sunny, it's still really cold. Um, and I think the flip side we're seeing on the east coast is that it didn't get that cold. And one of the things that happens, I lived on the east coast for a majority of my life, right? I've only been in California since 2016, and I was born in 1985.
So I've done the majority of my life in, on the, on the East coast and what I'm seeing, because there hasn't been much snow, right? We had, they had snowfall, you know, the first time not too long ago. People were really excited about it. Uh, and I think that what's happening on the east coast is that because it hasn't been as cold and it's been more mild, there hasn't been a break, there hasn't been that winter break where people kind of just hibernate and slow down and so you kind of just keep going and doing things and people are fucking tired.
I, this is what I feel like I'm seeing on the whole. This is not everybody, but when, you know, I, I get posed the question, what am I seeing in the space? What am I seeing? You know, I'm feeling, that's what I'm feeling. Is that people are tired. It's the same fatigue that people had going into the pandemic.
It's the same fatigue that was alleviated by the pandemic and by having that great pause and now it's back.
So I know that this is like, you know, kind of a business podcast and from the financial side, yes, I am seeing that some sales are slowing, but there's a bunch of different factors here. Right? And largely number one, this the, the age of the business.
Like do you have a business that you've been around for a long time? You had a lot, have a lot of trust, not being as affected. Right? We saw it during the pandemic where the, the businesses that had been around, that had a lot of trust, really delivering, um, had that really loyal base, they were fine. Both brick and mortar and online.
Um, so trust. Amount of trust, the, the age of the business, the price point of what's being offered definitely is gonna affect things. What's actually being sold? Things that help people make more money will always be fine. They'll do okay. Things that help people be better, not they sometimes struggle, right?
So what is being sold? What's the problem that's being solved? Um, what's the duration of the offer? So, you know, last year definitely saw people being more willing to commit to like longer term things and wanting to be in these containers, if you will, that um, solve problems and kind of go deeper with things.
And I think that was also a product of the, of the boomerang. That was a product of the pandemic where people were forced to be apart and they wanted to be together. And they're like, okay, I want to, you know, be back and, and be around people. Um, but now I think we're seeing the actual boomerang and we're back to how things were before the pandemic and people, I think I'm tired and people are worried about it and people are frustrated by it and feeling like things are outta their hands, outta their control. Because not only these things coming back, but then again we have the financial situation. And then I think that people are concerned about government involvement and there's a lot of just heavy stuff and anger on social media and, and I don't think people are really doing well with that.
There's a lot of uncertainty, a lot of unhappiness. Um, so. Another thing that, before I, before I go into the action items here. Another thing that was brought up by Laura Jean was that she's also seeing, you know, she's like, I totally agree, agree a hundred percent. She's like, and I'm also seeing that people are, despite this, you know, feeling tired, they're not willing to, wanting to lean into rest.
Right? Cuz there are obviously accounts out there that promote rest and you know, that is the actual thing that they're selling is things about rest and there's a hesitancy to lean into their that rest. I personally think that there's he hesitation, hesitancy to lean into rest, purely rest, because people know that rest won't get them the outcome that they want because they've already tasted that outcome.
Right. They had it during the pandemic and it wasn't resting that got them there, it was not doing this thing. It wasn't like I just need to slow down. It was, yes, I need to slow down cause I need to remove these things from my life, which means I need to actually work and fill them in with something else.
And that's a lot. I think there's a very big overwhelm with that. A great point that was brought up by another one of my Mafiosos, Tina Dominguez. I'll bring her on the podcast at some point. She's got a brilliant mind. She's got awesome sense of style. She does a lot in the- I don't wanna say a lot. Um, she does the digital side of things as well and um, has a business around that.
I was gonna say, she's just a lot of the graphic design stuff. That's not what I wanted to say. I wanted say digital stuff and it's the tech side. She's so good with that. I love, I love nerding out with her, but she made a great point in the Mafia in response- I posted about this in the Mafia and then, and Tina wrote back that rest in and of itself is an action item.
So if you're, if you are in the camp that you're like, I gotta be working, then under, and I gotta be doing things, then understand that like REST is doing something. Uh, but what Laura Jean had commented and what I think Tina was actually describing, um, kind of inadvertently describing was pausing, which we saw during the, during covid, right?
But there was a pause. It wasn't a rest per se, we got a rest, but it was because things paused. And I think that in general, when people are going after happiness, pausing can be an absolutely viable solution and an absolutely viable strategy. And when I say pausing, it doesn't necessarily mean pausing everything.
It's pausing, you know, extreme focus on getting that specific thing. To me, this is addition by subtraction. It is chasing happiness by not being obsessed with trying to catch it. It's leaning into what feels good for you now, and maybe we're pausing some of those other specific endeavors where like, you know, like things they talk about with relationships, that you find a relationship when you're not actually looking.
I think that that speaks to this as well. Um, so if people are in a place where they're like, I don't necessarily know what I want, or I thought I was supposed to want this thing. But I'm not sure. Then I think taking a moment to not chase it, taking a pause, can absolutely be helpful. If you know what you want, then taking that pause may not be the most helpful thing.
If you're like, no, I want that outcome, then we have to work and, and, and put things in place to get it. So there's the both and of that situa of that, um, I dunno scenario. Um, all that to say I love my Mafiosos and we just have the best discussions.
In terms of action items because, you know, we, I don't want this to be like a Debbie Downer episode.
I'm all about, all about, uh, solutions and taking action. And I was actually just at Karen's. So Karen, and I've spoken at her before. She's, I wanna call her my chiropractor. She's a friend. Um, but I was out there still working on my back and stuff. Um, and we were talking about this, and I love her for so many reasons, and I can't wait to bring her on a podcast, but before I even said what my action items would be, she just was talking about what she's doing and I was like, this is why I love you.
So the action items that Karen had said and that I also agree with, number one, is as a leader, ask, listen, think. You can ask and you can also just listen to see if you can pick up what are your people feeling right now? What is the general sentiment? Um, one of the things that's really cool, I know I'm kinda out order, but this is my brain.
I have an outline, but still this is where my brain's at. Um, one of the things I talked about in the Mafia was, and this ties in. One of the things I talked in the, that we talked about in the Mafia is that we have a bunch of people that do fitness things there and they're noticing that people are opting for shorter workouts.
And I was like, yes. We do tend to see the switch seasonally. We're oftentimes in the winter, you're kind of inside, it's cold anyway, so like you don't mind necessarily being there longer, doing longer workouts. As it starts to get warmer, you're like, I wanna get outside. I wanna do like more fun stuff. And so we like the shorter workouts.
I think that this shift is happening a bit earlier this year because people are just like, I'm tired of it. I want something different. I want some more happiness in my life, um, outside of this thing. So as a leader, ask, listen to the answers, but also just listen. Listen around the edges. Listen to see are people opting for shorter workouts sooner? What does that mean?
Number two: Stay steady. And this is not out of out, not out of obligation. And this is not, you know, obviously if you don't have the capacity to do this, don't do this. But as a leader, People are looking for that and they are comforted by that, by that predictability. And so don't give into the, you know, volatility of the market and things like that.
Stay the course. This is the whole point of, you know, if we, if you turn, put the, put the business hat back on. This is the whole point in bun- running your own business or one of the whole points is that you can be in control of things. You control your finances, you can control of how things are going.
You have reserves, you can, you know, have the bandwidth, have the capacity, you can create the capacity to just stay steady and ride things out. And that is huge for people. This is something I spoke about during the pandemic. You know, not rushing to the switch and do a million different things and be like, oh, I gotta go change!
But being there for your people. Yes we can rush to be there for people, but not rush to change things. And I think we saw that. People that stayed steady through the pandemic and just kept showing up and kept showing up. Where are those influencers now that did went live every single day and did a million pushup challenges?
They're all dead. I think they pushed it up themselves to death, like. That ain't the way. Can you stay steady with this? Stay the course. That provides a tremendous sense of stability, a tremendous sense of comfort, confidence for your people.
And then number three is lead from the front.
Ideally, you have created your happiness. You're living your happiness. Share that. Give people hope with your own actions. And this is largely what Karen was talking about, and she was just like, you know, I am taking time now to go and, she travels- I love it. She takes time to go and see her friends, to see people that care about her. She's like, I, I'm, and then she, she's not big on social media.
She's like, but I've been making a point to share that more because I think that it's helpful and if it even impacts one person, obviously, you know, it's worth it. She very much, and I very much as well believe in that ripple effect where you influence, impact one person, inspire one person, they inspire, impact, influence another person.
And we get, we can absolutely have that, that a big impact and have that ripple effect. So I think one of the best things to do for your people right now, because I think they're tired, but I think the tired, the tiredness, the fatigue is coming from being unhappy. It's coming from thinking about how much they need to do in order to change their situation to become happy.
Because we know folks, no one's coming to save you. Come on like, let me, let's call a spade a. But you can save yourself. I firmly believe that. And if you are able to, as a leader in your community, if you're thinking about what can you do for your people, if you're able to show up and be like, yeah, this is me living my life, creating my happiness, saving myself, leading from the front, sharing my joy, experiencing joy, that will absolutely have a tremendous impact on your people, and giving them the permission that they didn't need, but that they're looking for oftentimes to go after and pursue their own happiness.
So the call to action today is, I would love to hear what you are feeling, what your people are feeling, what you're seeing in the space where things are in general. I I, I'd love to, you know, keep this conversation going. So shoot me a DM @themovementmaestro, shoot me a text, 3 1 0 7 3 7 2 3 4 5. It will be green cuz it's my sideline, but it will be me, I promise.
I'm looking at the outline, I'm looking at the things. That's all that I got for you today. Emma, we cut it a little bit short. I think maybe you like that, right? We kind of switched it up a little long, a little bit shorter. I hope you all enjoyed this episode.
I had a blast recording it. It's been in my mind and I was like, uh, lemme get this out. And I'm really happy with how this turned out. So would love to hear from you. Would love to keep the conversation going. So slide onto the old DMs, shoot me a text. Whatever flips your pancake. Yeah, I said it. All right.
Gonna wrap it up before I say some more wild shit. Until next time, friends, Maestro out.
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MOTM #343: Start with Your Values with Laura Jean
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