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Capacity: The Real Business Model · The Expert Method

• speaker-0: I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and I thought, who is that person? Who are you? How does Ian want to feel every day, right? Capacity is the compass to everything in a business model. speaker-1: What is the actual process that you guide them through to help them stop spinning and start finding some sense of serenity again? speaker-0: When we build our business models for me and my clients, we're building this business model around how you want to be. speaker-1: Most founders never consciously choose the scoreboard that they're playing with. They inherit one. So they set goals like more revenue, a bigger business, or adding another offer. And because those targets can look like progress, it can take years to notice that the business is being built around something and towards something that you may not even want. The model starts shaping your life instead of your life shaping the model. So with that, I'm excited to be joined by Braun Watson. Braun is a business owner, nurse, educator, and founder of the Serenity Project. And she brings a rare mix of practical business experience with real lived perspective about what happens when life forces you to rethink what success means for you. In our conversation, we discuss the business model that Braun had to shut down, why hustle can just be a badge of significance that doesn't actually serve you, and the small practices that she uses to help people come back to focusing on the next play. If you get value from this conversation, be sure to subscribe and share it with a friend. And now here is my conversation with Braun Watson. Braun. Thank you so much for being here. speaker-0: You know what? Thank you so much. It's great to be here. speaker-1: Absolutely. So Brown, a lot of founders are taught to treat capacity like a mindset issue. And I know I've thought this way for a long time. If I were just more disciplined, more committed, more willing to push, I could just keep going. Right? I could just keep getting more done. But from what you have lived through and what you teach now, I get the sense that you think about capacity a little bit differently. So what happened in your life that made you realize that capacity has to come first? That you can't just keep building, pushing, or scaling if the person underneath the business is running on empty. speaker-0: It's such a great question. And one I feel people don't appreciate until they have to. Because it's it's not till you can't, because you have no capacity, do you realise the importance of it? So just some context there. So yeah, Bronn here in Australia, mum with five boys, started my first business called Nurse Power, had a most amazing mentor, love her to this day. She's still a very dear friend. And grew this business because I've had a cu dual career of of both marketing and nursing. So I was nursing education. Built the business and then a couple of years in there's reason to this story, just so you know, is that I had a lot of people saying to me, Well, Bron, how did you get out of nursing? How did you become an entrepreneur and and that's your life, that's your job. And so I started to teach other people how to build their businesses online. Using social media and using obviously digital marketing. So it was end to end from lead generation to lead nurture through to the whole thing. So became that business mentor for years. The thing is, which I can now say in hindsight, is that I built a business model that was for someone else. I built it from other people's because I was just modeling what everyone else did, which is what we do online, right? And so I hustled a witches, you know, wore it like a badge of honor, like everybody else did, been in business for 14 years now. So grew this business, which started out as I always liken it to the saber-toothed tiger, right? So I've got this little kitty cat, picked it up from the from the pet shop, this gorgeous little cat. ⁓ nice little kitty cat. Okay, my business. ⁓ my god, it's taking a lot of energy, capacity, and I'm padding away. And before I know it, I'm riding this saber-toothed tiger, my business model. And if I get off, it's gonna kill me. But I didn't know that at the time. And so I built this incredible business. We did the, you know, we did the retreats, we did the workshops, we did the online courses, we did all of the things that we we are shown that that is how we build a successful business. Until I had cancer knock on my door. Not once, but twice. So breast cancer in two thousand and seventeen, diagnosed on a Thursday, on the operating table the following Wednesday. No time to process, no time to do anything. And it's that time that it's like the brick is hit through the face and you know I was as healthy as healthy of everybody else listening to this show or watching. I had no signs, no symptoms, nothing. And now I'm faced with this massive adversity. I'm on a curable path of cancer. We go through all of the treatment. After the second chemotherapy, I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror because I had delivered a Facebook Live to my group. And I thought, who is that person? And I realized, ⁓ my God, Ron, it's you. What are you doing? And I literally pointed a finger at myself and I said, Do you want to die? Because if you keep this up, you're gonna be in a lot of trouble. And that is where I started the hard lesson of learning about capacity. And fast forward, did a lot of growth there, pivoted, literally shut my mentoring business down overnight with no plan B. So we were talking in terms of success of business in and where things were at in terms of turnover and things. So we were on similar paths. And ⁓ I shut it down with no plan. Was it easy? Absolutely not. Very, very challenging. Evolved, grew, created the social coach, which is a like a work with you kind of marketing agency. Then February 2023, this time For on you have incurable blood cancer. whole different ballgame, which I know many people can't relate to. But adversity comes in all shapes and sizes. So to get from my lessons with capacity, ⁓ my gosh. Capacity is the compass to everything in a business model. I call it the compass, right? So what does compass give us? It gives us direction. It g it tells us where to go. It gives us a path. And so when you're building a business, please people build it on your capacity. I had borrowed years in advance my energy and my capacity, and then I had to claw it back. And yeah, it's pretty shocking and and people sort of think, ⁓ my God, Bron. But my lesson or my my the reason why I share this in is because it doesn't have to be that way. When we start listening to that little voice inside, that intuition, that gut, call it whatever you want, capacity. is the compass to all of what we should be doing in business. speaker-1: And when you say capacity, what exactly do you mean? speaker-0: I'm talking energy here. I am literally talking rather than the old brawn which would have busted her to build something to another sales funnel, another this, another that, another course. Irrespective of what is going on in her life, I would have built with capacity. What I'm talking about is can how am I feeling? How am I in a this is please don't take this as woo woo, it's not. It is a literal what is bronze battery doing? Capacity is your battery. So, you know, you have a mobile phone, right? When the phone goes down, what do you do? You stick it on charge. A lot of entrepreneurs don't stick themselves on charge. So when your when your energy is down, you're gonna borrow it from somewhere. Does it have to be built today? And you know, when we were talking about we are As an entrepreneur you want to run your own race and then when you get your own race you think, Holy sh now what do I do? Now what do I do with this damn thing, right? What do we do? We keep working and we keep working and we keep working. So are you capacity guys? It's like your mobile phone. speaker-1: Yeah, and if you don't take the time to recharge and build that capacity back up to your point, you're borrowing it from the future or you're just gonna kill the battery. Right. You're just if you keep running it on empty, you're just gonna kill the battery and and and decrease the capac the potential capacity that it has to maybe I'm getting too like tied to the the battery, the mobile phone battery, but it's literally like speaker-0: It is a good analogy 'cause it's true. Yeah. speaker-1: Right, absolutely. So what do you think could be some of the signs that people could be seeing that they are stretching their capacity too far? speaker-0: I think for me is that I would have this little tiny voice inside my head, inside my heart, saying, Bron, this isn't right. I didn't listen. I knew it was there, but I didn't listen. I was too busy. I was too busy building the business. I was too busy delivering this or doing that for my clients. So the very first sign is to start listening to yourself. What is that voice saying? And to hear it, you have to slow down. Cause you're if you're running a marathon and you got the music pumping, you can't hear a damn thing. But if you just slow down enough, you'll hear it. So when you hear it, you listen up. It's not fear. People go, it's fear. It's not fear. It's just listen to it and then let's see what's next. Then we can determine. What exactly it's saying. For me, that voice was saying, Braun, this business model, it's not right for you. This is not you. I knew, Ian, for years I built the damn thing. I knew. So what I'm saying is that it's not burning everything to the ground as you know some people like to do. We're gonna burn it all down and start again. Absolutely, you don't have to do that. Just start listening. speaker-1: Yeah, and I think that idea, again, I'm just speaking from my perspective and hearing what you're saying, the idea of stopping sounds scary, right? So what do you think that idea of like what does that hustle idea, like I'm just gonna keep working, I'm gonna keep grinding, I'm just gonna do whatever it takes, just not even stop to think about myself, like I'm not even a part of this equation. Like I just need to keep doing the work, right? It's like what do you think that hustle identity gives entrepreneurs emotionally that makes it so hard to let go of? speaker-0: What I think it does is give significance. It's certainly going to give you cash flow and improve your bottom line. We know those things, right? But there's always a consequence to all. There's always an action and a response or reaction to something. Think of science here and I and I suck at science just saying. But you know, there there's always going to be something. So what happens when you are what I call being relentless in your work? You know, ⁓ where I live here in Australia, we have two in my front yard, I live on Acreage, I've got two, I've got, well, there's a lot of trees. But one is the gum tree, that tall eucalyptus tree that is so tall and so solid, and it's seen many, many, many different kinds of seasons. And what'll happen is that it's so solid and relentless and it's growing up, and you think, wow, what a magnificent tree that is, and the storm will come. And Because it's so stiff, it it doesn't move a lot. And what does it do? It drops branches. In Australia we call them widow makers back in the day when they were when they were chopping the trees down. They were called widow makers because these branches were just randomly full. I'm talking big branches. So we have lived where we are for a year. We've had one tree at the front drop three significant branches that would kill someone if it landed on them. So just near that tree, there's the willow tree. It's nowhere near as as are huge and and stand out. But it has beautiful branches. And what'll happen when the storm comes? It moves and sways and goes with the storm. Branches never fall off. So the gum tree is being relentless, hustle your butt. What'll happen? Something will give, whether it be a financial thing or a business partner, or in my case health. It could be relationships. Something will give if you're not going to look after yourself versus the willow tree. Now that's resilience. Equally as powerful and way more sustainable. So hustle has its place, but it's not sustainable if you don't give it if you don't rest. And rest doesn't necessarily mean stop. But you can go and go for a walk without your phone. Imagine that. Go on a hike. Do something that gives you joy. Okay. Now I'm sounding old. But it's true when it comes to looking after yourself. You've got to charge that phone somehow. You've got to charge yourself somehow. How do you want to charge? What brings you energy and strength? Because the hustle is not sustainable. And unfortunately, online. Unfortunately it appears as if it is, but it is not. speaker-1: Yeah. Be the when the harsh winds blow, be the willow. Bend with the time, kind of make the adjustments. Yeah. Don't be the gum tree that's holding firm and just stream. Yeah. speaker-0: And you know, adversity comes in all shapes and sizes, as I keep banging on about. But in business we have ebbs, we have flows. And, you know, that is where we wanna we have periods of growth, but we also have periods of rest, which is what the seasons do. What does winter do? It just hibernates. Everyone just chills down. And obviously in America you have a lot of snow. In Australia we don't. But it's a time to slow down. So we use the seasons. Not season, not not winter as in, you know, stop growing your business or not working. But just giving yourself that little bit of space, guys. speaker-1: Yeah. And when I'm hearing you explain this again, I'm hearing it's reminding me of a lot of these symptoms or these decisions that you make on a day to day basis can always be attached to like, what are you optimizing for? Right. What is your goal? Right? What is the outcome that you want to achieve? Do you want to just build a business as big as you can possibly build it? Right. And just make as much money as you possibly can. And that is the what you're optimizing for on a day to day basis. Well, if that's the case, then yeah. Then the right move is to just work as much as possible, right? Because you you're not even taken into the equation of the outcome that you want to create. All it is is about this end result of building a business is build as big as you can build it as fast as you can. Correct. For most people, and for me, that was something that I just kind of adopted because I read all these biographies of all these amazing people building gigantic billion-dollar businesses. I never really took time to actually do self-reflection and figure out what is it that I actually want, right? Am I just adopting this. idea, this goal, this vision from other people without ever taking the time to stop, pause, and do the hard work of internal self reflection of uncovering and answering the question of what do I want? Everybody talks about when you're growing up, you're always being just told just like do what you want, like find what you love. But it is an amazingly difficult question to answer. Do you find or do you agree with the idea that maybe a lot of these mistakes or the over hustling, I guess, without really taking yourself into consideration, is oftentimes a symptom of people not really having the the goal right, I guess, of like the five types of wealth by Shaheel Bloom. He argues that society places way too much emphasis on financial wealth as the only scoreboard for life. Right? Like you're only successful in life in modern society if you've made a lot of money. But he argues that there's actually five different types of wealth that make up the scoreboard for life. ⁓ and that book just completely changed Everything about what I'm trying to build in my life. So do you do you see where I'm kinda going with this? speaker-0: One hundred percent and could not agree more. And definition of success, you know, in terms of, you know, how many times when you've had business mentors or when you've gone to workshops or conferences, what's your definition of success? And how does that play out? And as you say, oftentimes people attach it to a financial monetary goal rather than what it will feel like or who you're going to be, remembering that we are human beings. We are not human doings. And the quicker people people listen up on that, you're a human being, which doesn't mean that everything you do is all about the doing. Being means being in the present. It means let things be. Like some people would say to me, well, I had one business mentor say to me once, ⁓ Brian, you just gotta let it go. You gotta let it go. It's like, well, I would if I could. I don't know what you're talking about. How do I let something go? Now, nowadays, okay, you know what, just let it be. And what let it be means is literally not give it energy. Choosing not to think about it. Because what that does is provide space for you to start working out what is success. See for me, I used to have the numbers. That was my th my you know, my goals was always around a number. Been there, done that. And the next. Next is, you know, success for me now is that I am ⁓ my cup is full, my battery's charged every single day. And that I have discernment around what is and isn't applicable to me and my businesses because there's two now in how that shows up. And so to me how that comes about Is literally your business model and your processes will help you because we we're usually the the bottleneck in business, especially small business when you haven't got much of a team. ⁓ it it takes practice to learn that, you know. So yeah, I am one hundred percent agreeing that there are different kinds of success. And when people say what's your definition of success, we bring in all five. Thank you very much. speaker-1: So what is your definition of success now? You talked about you had the financial goals, you had the numbers. What is success now? speaker-0: I I've had it all. For me, success is that I am speaking my truth to myself, to my community, and I'm demonstrating that through my actions. So, success for me comes from the inside out that I'm looking after me first. Because I used to think the self care was a luxury. I really did. Like, what the hell? Where did I learn that belief? We're not going to unpack it all, people, relax, but it's really around understanding that there are so many aspects to a human being. And my definition of it, SES is that I make every day count. speaker-1: Amazing. I think that's a great definition. Make every day count. Yeah. And I think to just put an underline on the topic of I guess goals and like what you're optimizing for, which we kind of stumbled our way into that conversation, which we did. Important because I think it is. The it always starts with the end, right? Like what is it that you're trying to achieve is going to inform the decisions that you make today, right? It's your you should be using the goals that you have for your life as the filter for how you make decisions day to day, week to week, month to month, quarter to quarter, right? speaker-0: Absolutely. In business, right? Yeah. That that's first. That comes first. And then you build the business around that. speaker-1: Yes. Yeah. Like you're what are the goals that you have for yourself, right? The business is just the vehicle that should help you achieve the life that you want to live. And money itself, like it's so weird now. As I was hearing you say it, like, and maybe I need to go back and kind of revisit my goals because I think they maybe still are too focused on like the number instead of kind of what the money is just a tool to get you the things that you want, whether that's the material things if you're into that or like the experiences and the lifestyle that it enables for you. Right. So I feel like if you're Setting your goals around a number. For me, like I historically, you know, I've been like a million dollars, million dollars, just arbitrary number randomly doesn't make any sense. Like I don't really know why, but it's just like a million dollars sounds like you'll but yeah, at the same time, it's like that doesn't actually really mean anything to me because I don't know what that million dollars actually looks like in my day to day life. Like so in the book again, kinda going back to five types of wealth, and I've heard you talk about this stuff too, but like you should really take the time to think about what is the ideal lifestyle that you want to be living. speaker-0: And that's your goal, which is great. speaker-1: ⁓ on a day to day basis, three years from now, five years from now, ten years from now. Right. And then you really just sit down and do the math. Like, okay, what does what is everything that I want to be spending money on on a month to month basis? Like, okay, vacations every year, going out to nice dinners, you know, me, I want to be a member at a country club, right? I want to ⁓ you know, these things, right? Then you just add it up and then you will get a number at the end. So like sit down and actually do the math. Of what does the lifestyle that you want to live actually cost? Like how much you're saving, right? Just sit down and really meaningfully take the time to do the math. And you have a number that really means something. And for me, it was way less than a million dollars. Right. I do not need a million dollars to live a lifestyle that I really want to live. But ⁓ it's just I feel it's like almost just throwing a number out there like randomly. It's almost like a lazy way to set goals. Yeah. speaker-0: It is, and it's detachment, right? So for me, right, I haven't I haven't set because of obviously through health for the last three years. And I I thank every day for the team that I have who've who've helped me through some very dark times. And I finally set some goals for twenty twenty-six. And the word I used to put the goal in the middle and then, you know, 'cause I'm such a visual, I'll draw it out or put it on my iPad or mind map it. Look, insert whatever tool you use. And My goal in the middle is called healing. Because I'm on a path of healing. Now, from out of that, you're thinking, what the hell has that got to do with business? It has everything to do with life and business. Because of what it means is from a business strategy and tactics, as I'm laying out the 12 months, is it in alignment with healing? No. Okay. Doesn't go on the plan. Writing the book? Yes. Is it coming out this year? Yes, at last, taking 10 years, but it's coming, right? It's called, you know, be where your feet are. So what that does, and then what I do with it next. So the numbers are there, but the numbers not the primary goal. It's how I want to be, being a human being, which is on my path of healing. I'm never healed, I'll always be healing. You know, and I'm in full remission right now. So I'm taking my leave pass, right? I have an incurable disease. It may or may not show again. I don't know. I don't give it energy. What I do give is healing today. So when we build our business models for me and my clients, we're building this business model around how you want to live, right? It's not how you want to live, it's how you want to be. Who are you? How does Ian want to feel every day, right? Because then you're going to feel it every day. You want to anchor that in. As if it were now, now we've got the coaching hat on, right? But as if it were now, right? Because our brain, psychologically, from neuroscience, it tells us that it'll believe whatever you tell it. So if you're telling, ⁓ my God, I'm on the grind, I'm grinding, grinding, ⁓ okay. Ian wants to grind, okay, let's grind. Versus Ian loves golf. Ian loves the country club. He's that's his happy place, connecting and having a fabulous time at events. ⁓ great. All right. We're going to do more of that. It might not be physically like that, but metaphorically speaking, when we whatever we tell our brains, that's what's going to happen. So for me, I'm on my path of healing. That is a goal. And then everything, whether it be speaking, whether it be the podcast, whether it be my book, whether it be the community, whether it be my my clients, my the social coach clients, it doesn't matter where it goes, it all goes to healing. And guess what? That all equals dollars. But the dollars is not the gold. speaker-1: Right. speaker-0: It's a different perspective. But let me tell you, it's sustainable. And it's a lot more real. A lot more. I mean, I look at my goal. I've still got my 90-day plan for my very first 90-day plan. And all I wanted to do was earn $100, $100,000 in a year. As we all do, as you've just said, right? If you'd pluck this number out of the sky, because that is what the internet tells us to do. And I laugh at that because I can remember the stress and the anxiety I had around reading that. I didn't understand what it meant. Now I could do that in my sleep. But it's more but I had to go through that. And there was a lot of anxiety and stress and overwhelm, let me assure you. speaker-1: Yeah. And you just like like you talked about detachment, right? Obviously you've done this a very long time. You can kind of summarize it. I just kinda clicked for me what you meant by that. But ⁓ yeah, you're just like not connected to that goal, right? If it's just that hundred thousand dollars, like what does that even mean? Like why I'm not connected to that, doesn't mean anything to me. Right. But it's like just thinking beyond that number and who you want to be, right? The the process that you guide through. So would love to dig a little bit deeper into that process. So when somebody is in the middle of chaos, whether that's in your situation of health, like cancer, burnout, or business pressure or a major kind of life event, life upheaval, what is the actual process that you guide them through to help them stop spinning and start finding some sense of serenity again? speaker-0: So this is going to sound so basic you probably may or may not believe me. So in the actual moment, so imagine we've got our we've got a client and they are they've set the million dollar goal and they put such pressure on themselves that they are in a really big sense of overwhelm. They're feeling the anxiety and the pressure that is completely self inflicted, might I add. And they're going brian, ⁓ I'm stuffed. ⁓ I I don't know what to do. It's just I I don't know, there there's just so many parts to this. And because if you're setting that kind of goal, you're already in business, so you've already made money. So you you know how to make money. But it's this next scalability breaking the ceiling, all of the things that we read. In that moment of overwhelm or insert whatever's going on, I would literally sit down with that person, eyeball them straight like I'm looking in the camera right now. And I'd say to them, please name your emotion. Just name it for me. Anger, resentment, frustration, sadness, whatever the word is. Because from a neuroscience perspective, and this is where I come from these days, and this is from a perspective of experience, guys, is that when we name our emotion of what is going on in the sh show or the chaos, call it what you will. I call it the sh show. When you're in the sh show, when you name it. We literally allow space between us and that emotion, self-inflicted or not, we want to allow that space because in that space, we now have time to pause and what I call control the controllables. We've named that emotion. So there's this old, old saying that came from it's actually the prayer, it's the serenity prayer from Alcoholics Anonymous, where it started nearly hundred years ago, which is God grant me serenity. To accept what I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. So insert God, universe, source, whatever you believe in that sentence. So when we create that space, what we can do is then literally reflect and look at what are the what can I control? What's the controllables in this situation? Because a lot of the time, Ian, you're not going to be able to control most of what's going on. It's going to be out of your control. So that's where we find the wisdom, which is when we can now pause, reflect, and respond. And the what we do next is just imagine you and I were on the court, and you and I, we're running down the court, you throw me the ball, I do the layup, and I miss the shot. The coach goes, Time out, 30 seconds, everyone off. Come on, guys. In that moment there's a choice. You can either pull apart, Bron, what the hell happened? And take through well, Ian, you're on your left foot instead of your right foot, whatever the heck, right? We can focus on what happened or we focus on the next play. It's just the next play, not the whole game, but the next play. Not the season. So in business, when you're in a state of what insert your emotion of what's going on, when you speak your truth to yourself, which is why we name it, and we look at the control the controllables, we then focus on the next play, not the million dollar goal, not the country club, not the this, not the that. But the literally what's the next play, what's the next thing you can do, the one thing. I call it the one thing that you can do. It could be sending that email to someone who you said you were going to reply to, but because you've been in such a state of overwhelm, you've left it for two days. It's just the one thing. It's the next play, because the next play leads to the next play, to the next play. See where I'm going with that? Yeah. It's actually very powerful. It's so simple people go, nah, Bronn, surely not. speaker-1: Yeah. No, it makes sense. It makes sense and ⁓ anytime that you can speaker-0: I have a that it's yeah. speaker-1: Just kind of articulate or like this is something that that you do a lot in meditation. If you practice meditation, you'll recognize this idea of just the awareness, or as soon as you become aware of a thought, you just watch that thought disappear. It just goes away. Exactly. Right. It's the awareness of the emotion. And it sounds like you make that very intentional with your clients of having them give it a name, a clear label. And As soon as you acknowledge, like the half-life of an emotion, as soon as you acknowledge and you force yourself to just kind of like really feel it, the half-life, it just disappears so much quicker. But yeah, I think that's a super powerful intentional practice that if you're in that moment of overwhelm, of pausing, naming it, feeling it, and then shrinking your focus. Cause in those moments of overwhelm, thinking about the big hairy, audacious goal that you have for yourself is just too much to pie along. But focus on the one thing. Break something down into one small piece. Take one small action. And it doesn't have to be something business, right? It doesn't have to be the email. But it could be the going for the walk for ten minutes without your headphones or without your phone. Right. It could just be do one small thing to just kind of get yourself back. Back on track, I guess. speaker-0: you know what? It's not just a one off, like in meditation, it's not a one off. It's rinse and repeat and rinse and repeat. Yeah. And I think in business a lot of times people want all the dots out the front, you know, and there's some very famous people who talk about the dots. And you want the dots and you want to go to A, B, C, D or one, two, three, four, right? But you don't know where the dots are until you've done the dot. So the dots are coming out behind you, and especially in entrepreneur land in in in business. So sometimes there's this saying that I learnt from a health perspective from my dear friend Keritina. She's taught me this saying, which is, I know I will, but I don't know how. I just don't know how, but I know I will. And that's that belief of whatever that goal is or that intention is, I know I will. And you're letting go or letting be of the how. Because the control factor is why it feels so bad in the first place. You're letting go of ⁓ because people they don't like to hear about the control because they don't think it's control. But if you're trying to line up all your dots, you're trying to control it because you're wanting to feel safe, you want to feel certain, you want to know that the path is gonna work. We know how hard it is to build a business, right? You know, and it's it's it's when you can let go. Or let be that the dots will come and you just have faith and believe in yourself, not anyone else. When you believe in yourself, that the right dots are gonna show up because you know there's a whole lot of dots out there. That the right one will show up for you. speaker-1: Absolutely. There's a great quote from Rumi that sticks with me. And it's ⁓ as you start to walk on the way, the way appears. One hundred. And then, you know, there's other there's a lot of great quotes about this idea of planning, right? There's the great quote of ⁓ you know, planning is everything but plans are nothing, right? This isn't to say that you shouldn't think things through and write plans. speaker-0: No, no, you definitely do strategy. We we Yeah, yeah, yeah. We love the strategy, but write in pencil so you can rub it out. And Remy also talks about allowing emotions in, but opening the door at the back. That's not the not their words, of course, clearly. But you allow the emotions in, but you open the door at the back so you don't you don't carry them with you, which is where that weight, literal feeling of heaviness, of overwhelm comes from. Because it's all coming in, but it's not going out, which is why we name it. Because as you said, when you when you When you bring that awareness, it will just dissipate in front of your eyes. speaker-1: Absolutely. And another part of your practice that you brought up is the serenity prayer. And this is something that ⁓ Has been hitting me the last couple of months. So in your practice, right, you have them articulate the serenity prayer, or maybe that's just like an inspiration for the practice itself. But you talk about the idea of asking for help, right? That just looks like asking for help from the universe, from God for to helping you to right, from whoever, right? And ⁓ in the book A Return to Love, Marion Williamson makes the point that God, the universe, the creator, whatever, created us with free will because it was the greatest act of speaker-0: Whoever. speaker-1: Extending his creative expression that there there could be, which is a pretty cool idea. And I think the best argument for the belief of in free will that I've ever heard. Free will versus determinism. So I hundred percent am on the in in that boat. And it's there to help you, right? The universe, God, again, whatever you want to insert whatever term is comfortable for you, is there to help you, but it's it or he isn't gonna help you without you asking for it. Right. So intentionally inviting God, the Holy Spirit, the universe into your life to help you is the only way that it's going to step in, right? Because we do have free will. But intentionally making that ask. And it's just been pretty miraculous, the things that have started to happen in my life over the last few weeks, as I've begun for the first time ever in my life, intentionally making those requests and asks for help through a prayer or through those intentional messages to the universe or to God. ⁓ it's been pretty powerful. speaker-0: It's so powerful because what we're doing when we do that and insert whoever you believe. All right. I did grow up in in a Christian faith, but this prayer for me is not based on Christianity. It is based on letting be and letting letting go of control. Because what that does is it allows that space, which is, you know what, this is bigger than me. And I don't have the answers. And when you ask for help, like I honestly, as a mum of five boys and business and the whole shebang, I suck at asking for help. Because I'm the one giving all the damn help, right? So for me it was very difficult to accept that I didn't have it all, that I couldn't be it all. And Whether it be for yourself, 'cause remember, business and life are not separate. I mean, I know people love to say, Well, I've got self this lovely balance. Well, that's that's great for you. Well done you. It's more because you are who you are, right? So asking for help doesn't mean, you know, please, I need an answer, which is literally it's allowing it to let it be. I talk out to the universe, out I out to my trees, the environment, and I'm not woo-woo guys, just so you know, about my gratitude. And that I'm open for unexpected miracles. Because when you put that out, the gifts will come. Like what you're saying. You experience the gifts. Why? Because you're actually allowing things to sit and let be and you've let go of control. And it means that the answers will show up because they'll only show up if you allow yourself to see them. They're all there. They're there if you want them. speaker-1: Right. And even if you're just like a pure, you know, scientific type of person, right, you going back to what you had brought up earlier. Yes. Your subconscious, like if you tell those things, if you intentionally think those thoughts or say those things, right, your subconscious is going to be wired to start to recognize and receive those. Correct. ⁓ just from a the purely neuroscience, if there's nothing else going on. speaker-0: It backs me up 100%. Yeah. It backs me up, right? Because, you know, we have fight and flight. And what is it, what is your brain designed to do? It's designed to keep you safe, to keep you alive, to keep you away from the saber-toothed tigers. But you know what? In terms of where you're at, the saber toothed tiger has only got the strength if you give it the power. Bring that what I say, bring that power card back. And the way we do that. is as you've just said, which is literally working together with whatever you want to believe. It's a huge it's huge learning, you know? I wished I was you I wish I was your age when I'd learned it. speaker-1: Yeah, I've been lucky. I've been ⁓ lucky with the conversations that I've had with people and ⁓ honestly just very tired of just doing the same thing and nothing changing, right? So it's just doing something wrong. And ⁓ yeah, it's pretty apparent that it's just the refusal of asking for help and just wanting to be the person that has all the answers and not wanting to show any vulnerability and you know, there's a lot that goes into that, right? But ⁓ yeah. It's just a lot easier. speaker-0: And yeah, and vulnerability is not a sign of weakness. Vulnerability is a sign of courage. Absolute courage. And courage, remember with serenity prayer, you're wanting the serenity, finding the courage to know what is controllable and what's not, and then the wisdom. We all have the wisdom. So it's listening to ourselves because we have the answers. W we've just gotta allow them to come rather than try to force it the whole time. When you force stuff, guess what happens? It f does it not feel like it, especially in business when you're forcing it. And you gotta grow, right? I g you know, but but in life and I think it's so much more important and and and listening. listening to to people around you and I I just love the fact that like even ten years ten years ago hustle was worn like a badge of honor. Whereas now people are going, hang on a minute ⁓ I'm not doing that and I think that is the best thing ever. speaker-1: I completely agree. I completely agree. It's just gonna create so much more sustainable success and also just more like people oriented and people focused businesses, whether it's the internal people within the organization, the founder themselves or the people that they're serving. Yeah. And that kind of goes hand in hand, right? If the organizations, if the businesses are built to serve the needs and the capacity of the people within it, the founder, the team, they're gonna be more capable of serving and doing great things for the people that they that they help within their business. So I completely agree with you. Yeah. So, Braun, when people resonate with your ideas and your work, when they understand the idea of serenity, capacity, boundaries, and doing everything that we've talked about, where do you find that people still get stuck actually living it out and putting it into practice? speaker-0: I feel they get stuck while they're building the muscle. Because remembering for a lot of people, they're unlearning. They're not learning, it's the unlearning. So people get stuck when habits and the way things have been done for decades for some people just automatically come through because that's that's what your brain does. It'll be it's gonna go for the least it's gonna go for the super high super highway rather than the track over the hills, isn't it? So where people get stuck is that they get stuck in not staying in the present. Meaning that they're focusing on what's going next week or next month rather than being where their feet are. And I think that is why the book's called Be Where Your Feet Are, because when we bring it back and it takes repetition and every single one of us can do it, this is learnt. All right? This is all can be learnt. It's not something that some people have and some people don't. But it's breaking those old habits. You know, look at the Joe Jody Spencer and the work that he's done about breaking breaking ourselves because they're so they're super highways. And you've got a pickaxe and you want to change the direction of the traffic with a pickaxe. So we've got to have that relentless backing of ourselves. That when we hit the roadblock, it's that awareness go, hang on, mate, that's right. So we okay, back to where we are, back to where our feet are and the next thing and I know it's simple, but it absolutely works. Because the more we do it, like playing golf. Man, how much practice do you need with that? ⁓ we need years. You know, we need a lot of practice to hit that ball around. And the enjoyment that comes. The better you get at it, the more enjoyable it becomes. But at the beginning it's darn well fronted frustrating. And how many balls have you lost? Just a few. Yeah. Talking from someone with experience. You know, so it's no different. So it's taking to those superhighway habits that has served and supported you until this moment when you're going, that night, we're not going on the superhighway anymore. We're going to go on the goat track. And breaking up that superhighway one little step at a time with a pickaxe. So that's where people get stuck is the fact that they just I do it all the time. I'm falling back to old habits. And it's just that awareness creates awareness. And as you say, it dissolves what's coming next. And that muscle grows to the point like in my space, when I walk into a cancer institute and I've been going, I don't know, I'd have to have 50 appointments by now. I can walk into that so consciously present. I'm going to come up with a bronze word for it. I am so consciously present and staying where my feet are that I have no anxiety and no fear. No matter what's gonna happen through those double doors. Because every month for me is a ho it's like a box of chocolates. You know, like Forrest Gump. It's we don't know what's coming. Yeah. Right? So never know what you're getting. You know, it's you don't know what you're gonna get, you know, and it's I don't know what I'm gonna get, but I'm so consciously present because I've learnt and I'm learning. It's never I'm never gonna learn. I'm always learning to be where my feet are. And I feel when we start turning and and focusing just on that, all of the things come in the most amazingly beautiful way. speaker-1: Yeah. Amazing. So you've described that doing this, like that's the hardest part, right? Doing that is the challenge. So what part of that challenge and working through that process and and going through this journey and this movement as you call it, right? The serenity movement. What is the value of working with somebody like yourself or somebody on your team who can kind of help you through that? Like what does somebody or maybe even if somebody just wants to do this? on their own, right? And they they listen to this conversation and they say, Hey, we want to start living this way. Can you you be like my accountability partner? Like what does somebody who's helping you in that journey, like what would you want them to do for you? When you're working with a client, guiding them through this journey, what are the things that you're helping them them with? Like kind of are is it just conversations? Is it reminders? Are there things that you give them? speaker-0: Do, right? So I call them Serenity Now moments, right? So they're little small practices that, you know, and it was the same when I was in marketing. And my philosophy is we want to keep it so simple, we want to make it doable. You know, because the world loves to complicate things. And like AI is so amazing. I love it. And it solves so many problems, but it also creates other problems. So we want to make this so doable. So I have what I call Serenity Now moments, which are small practices that come up depending on what emotions coming up for the day. Cause, you know, in terms of sir th this whole serenity movement, okay, yep, it's focused on people living through cancer, but you could literally go living through being an entrepreneur, living through marriage, through things it's adversity comes in all shapes and sizes, right? And it's the same process, it's the same way of working through it. You know? So it's it's just these little moments in time to build the muscle through what I call these serenity moment activities. They are small, they're short, they're sharp. Because we have a very cluttered world now. We have a very the you know, knowledge is not the problem anymore. It's discerning of that knowledge or of that education or that information because it's at your fingertips. But there's so much of that. How on earth do you bring that into your own individual life? So that is where I we want to keep it simple and make it doable. Because in my world, we've got people who are facing some very, very, very serious issues in life that I pray you don't have to ever experience. And so when we're going through that, we want to make it so that they can go, you know what, I can do that too. Yeah, I can do that. speaker-1: Amazing, simple, so that it's doable. And it's just the little moments and even like every single session of meditation that I that I finish, the the guided meditation that they do, he leaves you with like one kind of task, I guess, for the day. It's just like in this moment, the next time you sit down at your computer, just kind of pause and try and find this practice in that moment of just conscious aw like full awareness of consciousness. ⁓ and just in those transitory moments throughout your day, finding these serenity now moments, ⁓ or just pausing and creating that space for yourself. I love it. Braun, I have one last question for you. Yeah, go ahead. speaker-0: Yep. ⁓ all I was going to say with with moments, right? That's why I call them Serenity Now moments, right? Because the moments are how we make the memories or how we make everyday count. But we don't make everyday count. We just do the moment. So I love the fact that you're saying sitting there and being consciously so conscious. That's what I mean. I've got to come up with a bronze word for I haven't got a bronze word for it yet. So if you've got one, let me know. Yeah, it's it's so simple that people will question that until they do it as you are. You've found your own your serenity in your way that you're living. Like is that not the coolest thing ever? It's just you'll have your word for it. speaker-1: Yeah. Amazing. So, Bron, I have one last question for you. It's a recurring question I ask every guest, but before we get to that, how can people get in touch with you? speaker-0: So I think the easiest thing, obviously, I'm on LinkedIn and on socials as Bron Watson. Look, hit me up, questions, anything ⁓ if you are experiencing or you know someone living through cancer, please head them over to Serenityproject.com dot AU. Great little newsletter that comes out with practical serenity moments all the way through it. It's all about the value. So yeah, any question, please ask, whether it be business or life related, I I will always reply. speaker-1: Amazing. We'll have all the links to all of Braun's social medias in the description. ⁓ so hit her up there. But Braun, my final question for you is if you had a giant billboard that everyone in the world could see for ten seconds, what would it say and why? speaker-0: It would be be where your feet are. Yeah. It would be B wee or feeder. And ⁓ literally I I cannot Yeah, that that's it. That's my billboard. You've just sparked a memory in me now, so I might actually have to do that one day. speaker-1: Yeah, I love it. Yeah, go s go buy a bunch of billboards down the the See where your feet are at. That'd be pretty cool. Amazing. Braun, thank you so much for your time today. speaker-0: I'm not gonna buy a new one. Look, thank you for having me. It's been great. speaker-1: Thank you for listening. The main thing that I took away from this conversation with Braun is that you have to be careful and intentional about what you put at the center of your business. Braun talked about building a model that looked successful from the outside, but it was built around a version of success that she had just copied and inherited from other people. It wasn't something that she had really thought through on her own. That is an easy trap to fall into, and I'm sure we've all been there before. I know that I have, and it's a real process that we have to go through to make that shift, right? Historically, we just pick the revenue number, focus on just making the business as big as possible, the next ceiling, the next thing that we want to push to. And then the model starts shaping my life around that target. Instead of my life and the desired lifestyle that I want to live, shaping the target that I want to get to and knowing what enough looks like and means to me. Brown's shift in her experience was a focus on putting healing at the center first. And then ask what kind of business could fit into that lifestyle. The difference Is the order of operations, right? The business becomes the vehicle that helps enable the lifestyle that you want to live. So if you want to get connected with Braun Watson, you can find her LinkedIn, social links to other social media accounts in the Serenity Project in the description. If you run a coaching program or you have an you're an author, you want to increase the probability that somebody engages with your ideas. You can download the free program execution system toolkit in the description. It'll show you how to install what I call execution infrastructure and AI companions, build AI companions for your book. Thank you for listening and I'll see you in the next one.