“Burn it all to the ground”…have you ever had that urge in your business? In those early stages, we’re taught to hustle, sacrifice, and maintain tunnel vision – it’s all about survival.
But what happens as you evolve and the landscape shifts? Suddenly, mere survival no longer suffices. You yearn for more, you crave a life that’s truly alive.
Fresh from a soul-reviving hiatus at my family’s cattle station, I’m back, brimming with energy and eager to guide you through a profound transformation. Join me in this episode as we embark on a journey to reshape your schedule – not as a mere grind, but as a wellspring of pleasure and joy.
Key Episode Highlights:
- Transform your mindset from survival mode to a legacy-focused approach as your business matures.
- We delve into the radical idea of placing pleasure and joy at the forefront of your business strategy.
- How to avoid chasing after fleeting “shiny objects” and break free from the monotony of a traditional schedule.
- How a pleasure-fueled schedule can become a sanctuary, nurturing your nervous system and enabling you to show up for your work with unwavering focus, energy, and authenticity.
- Unearthing the magic of whitespace in your calendar as the canvas for your creativity.
- The step-by-step process to design your schedule in a way that’s both prosperous and nurturing for your soul.
Get ready to flip your calendar upside down and craft a schedule that fills you with inspiration, vitality, and an irresistible spark!
RESOURCES:
Download the Pleasure-Fuelled Business Playbook here.
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CONNECT WITH AMANDA:
Instagram: @iam_amandahunter
Website: https://amandahunter.net
WORK WITH AMANDA:
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- Breakthrough Intensive – Dismantle the resistance and and reprogram limiting beliefs to step back into your power.
FREE GIFTS:
- Say goodbye to the *Shine and Shrink* cycle and become a stand-out authority and leader in your industry. Check out our FREE masterclass – Elevate to Expand – to break through your internal glass ceiling and fully embody your leadership.
- Discover an untapped source of creativity and magnetism where your magic flows through you more potent than ever. Download my FREE Pleasure-Fuelled Business Playbook to cultivate a soul-nourishing business that you won’t want to burn to the ground.
- Schedule a FREE 15 minute Vibe Session to see if we’re an aligned fit and discover how we can best work together.
Big love,
Amanda xo
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Transcript
Hello. Beautiful. And welcome back to another episode of feminine luminary. I’m so glad to be sitting in the podcasting chair again, because it’s actually been a little while.
If you’ve been watching my Instagram stories you’d know that I’ve been away on my family’s cattle station. And let me tell you, it was absolutely incredible for so many different reasons. We were there for about a month. And part of this is to escape the Perth winter, because I’m just someone who’s not built for the cold. I love the sun. I love the warmth. It just fills me with so much energy. And so any excuse to get away from the cold I’m there.
But also it’s a chance to get back to my childhood. I spent many, many summers when I was younger. Being on the station, hanging out with family and just. Being able to really deeply connect with those loved ones around me. And that was what I was able to do this time round. So I was able to catch up with family, just spend long, lazy days, not having anything to do and just going with the flow.
And really creating space for my kids to be added to exactly that as well. So it was just [00:02:00] absolutely magical and, oh, it’s almost hard coming back and fitting back into life again.
And that’s really been the motivation for this particular episode, which I’m going to turn it into a two-part series because there’s actually so much to talk about this. But when I came back from being away, One of the things that I really struggled to do was to reintegrate back into my old life. And I know it was only a month away, but during that time and having the whitespace to r eally sit and contemplate life business, all of these things. And having the space to just continually deepen my own work to continually up level and continually grow. When you come back and try to slip back into the old way. And I say old with inverted commerce here, the old way of doing things.
There’s this disconnect.
And all of a sudden it becomes really apparent the growth that you’ve incurred during that short period of time. And so when I came back, I felt that things had shifted. In me. And what worked before wasn’t working now. And so what happened is I felt really uninspired. I felt really blocked. I felt unable to actually take action back in my own business because I was continually hitting up against this same brick wall again.
I was really struggling to get going and just found myself procrastinating. And so I thought, you know what? I need to actually take a leaf from my own book. I need to actually take my own medicine on this one. And this is something that I am so passionate about in creating a schedule that feels nourishing, that feels juicy and just.
Oh, absolutely lights you up.
And so that’s what I did. I sat down and had a really hard look, hatch. What is working for me, what isn’t working for me. This is both in life and business because everything is integrated. It’s all meshed into one. We can’t separate the two. What’s lighting me up and, and where can I actually go ahead and fill that void?
And so what I’m going to take you through today in this podcast episode is the exact process I went [00:04:00] through. To create that really pleasure fueled business schedule. Oh, it is good. It is so good. So it’s something that is a work in progress at the moment. I have implemented phase one, as I am speaking, if I want to call it that I am about to implement phase two next week, which will actually be in place by the time that this episode goes live.
So. It is something that I am embodying. It’s not just something that I am telling you to do. It is something that I am definitely doing myself. And I know it works, so, oh, I can’t wait to get into it. Let’s do that.
So before we get started, what exactly is a pleasure fueled business? And I want to actually really get granular in our understanding of what that is, so that we can then build upon that. In essence, though, it is essentially one that allows you to feel alive. And allows you to be connected to your internal alignment and is built from this place of joy.
We want to remove the shoulds. We want to remove any of that traditional rigidity that comes with most businesses. Particularly if we’re talking about the corporate world, the nine to five. We need to shed that belief. We are entrepreneurs. We have our own business and we get to create what it looks like.
So one of the simplest things you can actually do is ask yourself. Does your work and your day feel restorative. Or does it feel depletive? How do you actually feel at the end of the day, do you feel alive? Do you feel good? Sure you can feel tired. We can, I mean, it takes energy to be able to bring all of ourselves into our work. That is fine.
That even if you are feeling tired, Internally behind that tiredness. How do you feel. Are you feeling lit up?
Because if you’re not, then that’s a good clue that maybe your schedule isn’t restorative it’s actually depleting. You. And so what you want to do is to schedule [00:06:00] your day around joy, and there’s a liveliness. To really allow your magic to come through.
You want to tend to yourself first? Because you are your business.
So let’s talk about evolution of priorities, because this is something that is really big when it comes to creating our business. Because what happens when we first start as early stage entrepreneurs, our priorities are very, very different to where they are now in our business. They shift and change as you grow.
When we first start out in business. Generally where we have focused on is survival. We are focused on the money. We need to actually bring in those clients. So where am I clients coming from? How am I going to pay the bills? Oh, I’ve got to make this work . and that is really what we’re focusing on. We are sitting in that survival mode.
Anything beyond that, it feels like a complete luxury. And so that’s quite often what is taught to early stage entrepreneurs or people starting out in their first year of business is that it’s all about. The money bringing in the clients, we’ve got to make this work. There’s no fun. Now when you are a later stage entrepreneur. So when your business is more established,
You are earning consistent income. You know, the money’s going to be there. You created some success in your business and you’re feeling pretty confident that more success is coming. And so you’re starting to look for what else. That, what else could be your legacy of focusing? What does that look like for the future?
You’re also focusing on bettering your craft or becoming better at what you do.
You’re looking to then step into that leadership level.
Whether that looks like physically leading a team or physically leading other people. Or maybe it’s more just in terms of really being a leader in your industry. You’re also shifting from being a solopreneur to really being the CEO of your business. It’s much more elevated in the way that we are approaching things.
We are thinking in a completely different way. We are no longer [00:08:00] simply in our business all the time. We are then working on our business as well as being in it. And the other things that we really starting to feel into who we are. Who we are at our essence. What is that character? We are becoming really assured as to who we are and who we are in a business.
And these are really what our needs are now. What felt like a complete luxury in those early stages of entrepreneurship is exactly what we need. And if we don’t have these things, when our business is built, purely on strategy. As it is in those early days and it doesn’t have any form of pleasure. It’s actually going to strip away all of those elements that you, as a six figure, multiple six figure moving towards seven figure entrepreneur really need to function.
Because the money’s coming in, you’re doing the work, but the excitement’s gone. And if it no longer feels fun. Kind of like, well, what’s the point? I mean, you can have a six figure launch and feel numb. Whereas an early stage entrepreneur is going to go, oh my gosh, this is incredible. A six-figure launch. And they’re going to be celebrating and shouting up from the rooftops.
And the thing is that’s because your needs have changed.
And so this is why I quite often see these hugely successful business owners that are turning around and saying, you know what? I just want to burn it all to the ground and start again. They fallen out of love with their business. And the problem is when you fall out of love with your business, your clients can feel it.
Energetically. They can feel it, even if you were consciously trying to hide it. It doesn’t quite work.
And this is because business has not been built around. Pleasure. It’s been focused, purely on strategy. And even in the early days, I think there is still a need for pleasure. I’ll come to that later. But. We have moved. Beyond that when we are later stage entrepreneurs, we need more. So then we asked the question of, well, what can entrepreneurs do to improve their actual [00:10:00] experience and satisfaction of running a business? And let me tell you, it starts with joy. So you’ve probably heard of Simon Sinek’s book and his Ted talk, start with why. And the premise behind this is really that successful leaders differentiate themselves by focusing on the why to why they do what they do instead of emphasizing the, what they do or how they do it. And what Simon talks about is the, why is essentially the core purpose, the belief or the, or the cause that drives an organization and inspires it, inspires its actions.
And he shows this beautifully through a golden circle diagram where the Y sits at the epicenter, the house sits around it. And then the, what comes as the last ring on the circle. And so what I want you to do is to think about this particular concept. But instead we’re going to apply it to a pleasure fueled business.
So I want you to visualize joy sitting at the center, the very center of the circle. And then your life. This is next. And then your business comes around the very last circle. So the very edge of that. And the reason that I want you to think about this is we’re going to actually flip the way that we approach business. We’re going to flip the way that we approach our schedule.
Which I’ll come to. So when we’re talking about early stage entrepreneurs, they start with the outer circle. They start with business and it takes up all of their focuses. Absolutely no space for life or joy. It crowds them out.
And whilst it is kind of okay. And I say this with a caveat that. It can’t last for too long. There needs to be an intentional timeframe around this and intentional container placed around us that it doesn’t just continue to leak out further than it should.
It’s kind of okay. To be focusing very heavily on a strategy and making sure you have the foundations in place when you’re first starting up your business. But. If this is continuing on for too [00:12:00] long, it becomes the norm. And when it becomes the norm, all of a sudden we forget about these other aspects that we need life joy.
Oh, we need those. Now latest age entrepreneurs. They want to be looking at the other two circles and it is no space for joy or no space left in that life circle. They are empty. Guess what you’re going to feel empty. What you want to do is start with joy. So what actually creates a feeling of a liveliness that elation, that, that feeling of joy.
And this is where you want to actually start feeling this end. So fill your life with joy and allow it to then overflow into your business. Not the other way round. You want it to feel expansive. Rather than feeling like it’s caving in on you.
And when we infuse pleasure into our work, we end up in this state of flow. It is just incredible being there.
And when we feel joy. How has your mindset? I can tell you what mine is like. It’s oh, it’s just overflowing. I had this instant, positive mindset. I have this resilience that is built in that little things. Aren’t going to knock me anymore because I am feeling incredible. I am feeling as though I can’t be taken down by anything purely because I am overflowing with joy.
So, what we want to do is actually lean into joy and lean into pleasure and use this as an anchor to guide our work. Because when we do. It fuels our passion and our enthusiasm. And when we are feeling passionate about things. Oh my gosh. Let me tell you creativity, innovation, free thinking, exploration, experimentation, all of these things.
They just feel like fun. They are something that is fostered. By the fact that you are feeling alive and joy-filled and your business. It encourages you to tap into this natural curiosity that you have and open yourself up to new possibilities.
I recall I [00:14:00] was sitting down playing Lego with my son. And at the time I thought I really should be going and doing some work.
But I was like, you know what? Be present, have some time. Hasn’t really quality time with him. And so we start there tinkering, and I thought I’ll give this like 10, 15 minutes. And a half an hour later, still tinkering away an hour later loving it. Absolutely. I think I was more invested in the Lego at that point in time than he was.
But we had the most brilliant morning sitting there playing Lego. Having that deep sense of connection, really leaning into my creativity. And I can tell you when I stood up after that, I was just over brimming with ideas and inspiration in my business. So even though that playing with Lego, it had nothing to do with my work.
It just allowed me to sit and to be, and really nourish myself. And so when I stood up. I wrapped my phone and was I all right. Open up the notes and does blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. The downloads were coming thick and strong and it was just like, get it down as quick as I could.
And it’s something that seems so insignificant, completely unrelated, but it’s amazing how, when you lean into that joy and that pleasure. It starts to fill up or other areas of your life.
The problem is that when we neglect to pleasure, We actually start to feel really devoid of our purpose. And I’m sure you’ve probably encountered this, even if it’s just for a fleeting moment. Is that you go ahead and you create a new program, you launch something and in the buildup you feel absolutely incredible. It’s so exciting because it’s new.
And then after that excitement starts to fade. It can kind of fell a little bit monotonous. It can feel a little bit boring. It feels a bit too easy because you’ve done it before. And instead what you then do is you find yourself searching for the next shiny object or stuck on the hamster wheel of constantly creating new programs and masterclasses and different things for your [00:16:00] audience and your community.
That maybe aren’t necessarily necessary simply just to fill that void.
So coming back to this idea of cultivating a pleasure fueled schedule, how do we actually do that in practicality? Well, there are two parts. The first one is a mindset shift and the second one is about practical implementation. So I touched on this one before the mindset shift. It really is not about having to be sat in your seat. Hey, I was playing Lego with my son. And here I was all of a sudden led to a boost in my productivity, my inspiration, my creation.
Now had I been sitting in that old mindset of, I need to be sitting at my desk in front of my laptop to be able to achieve anything. Uh, it wouldn’t have happened. So the first one is that mindset shift.
It’s this old societal conditioning where we’ve been taught that. Ours working is where we should be focusing. Not necessarily output. So I want you to scrap that I think about, okay, well, it’s all about the outport. Not about the hours that you actually sit in your seat.
The other thing that we really want to do is create this white space in our calendar. Because this is what’s going to allow us to really reside in our state of a liveliness. It’s going to spark that creativity, that magnetism, and to really increase the potency for our work.
Then we come to the practical integration.
So when we were actually going to put this into practice, First of all, we need to understand what are our values. What is it that lights us up. What are your non-negotiables and maybe you’ve let them slide early on because again, I’m setting up my business. I need to focus on.
Getting that out into the world. And therefore you’ve made some sacrifices and that is okay. If you have been conscious of them. If you’ve been conscious that it’s only for a set period of time, and then we’re going to bring that back in. Okay. That’s fine. But maybe you’ve got some non-negotiables that you’ve let slide and they’ve been squeezed out and they’re stayed that way.
And if that’s the case, we need to get those back in.[00:18:00]
What is it that makes you come alive and fills you with joy and pleasure. So, is it something like spending time out in nature? Maybe you’re a mom and you want to be available for school drop-offs pickups or sport days. All of the different activities. They’re a non-negotiable can’t miss those. Or maybe it’s someone who loves traveling the world and exploring new places.
Or it could be that you want to take a month off. Once a year and just go completely off grid, go for a Trek through the mountains. Or maybe you love yoga. And you’ve got a serious yoga and meditation practice and you want to, again, disappear, take some time off from work. Well, maybe it’s more about only working three days a week to be able to pursue your other interests. Guilt-free.
Whatever it is. That’s up to you. You, you decide that.
And you want to identify things that exist outside your business, that invoke joy, because then you are going to either incorporate them directly into your business or create space for them to co-exist.
And then we’re actually going to play your schedule. And I’m not talking about opening up your actual calendar at this point in time. It’s deleting everything that’s in there. No, please don’t do that. We’re simply just going to temporarily Clair it or have a new one. And I’ve actually created one that you can have a play around with.
It’s an old link that in the show notes that you can download that. So, what you’re going to do is start with a clear schedule. And you’re going to intentionally block out time for joy and pleasure first. So you’re going to set your non-negotiable boundaries around these activities and prioritize them in your schedule.
Because what gets scheduled gets done. It’s very easy to say, you know what? I love going to Pilates. I’m going to make sure I go four times a week. If it’s not in your diary, I can guarantee you. We’re not going to be coming four times a week. There’s always going to be something else that slides in there that, ah, that’s more important. I’m going to do that.
So we need to actually make sure. That there are specific time slots, whether it’s daily, weekly, or monthly, whatever it is that you require. For those [00:20:00] pleasure focused activities. And then once everything is slotted in there. You’re then going to start adding in the other items.
So for me, what did that look like? Well, it looked like taking my schedule back to nothing as I suggested. And what my values are. I truly value my family, being a mom and having time for that real sense of connection with my kids.
And because we’re a FIFO family, it means that my partner is away for extended periods of time, which means it is just myself looking after the kids. And I absolutely love that. But what it also means is that because there are extended periods of time where it is just myself and the kids. I wanted to be really conscious of our own need for independence.
The other thing that I really wanted to focus on for the rest of the year was getting back into my own fitness routine and focusing on my own health and wellness again.
And one of the things that was a barrier in the past was the lack of childminding whilst I was actually going to Pilates. And as part of this, I went on a search for a new Pilates. You and I absolutely love my previous studio. But the barrier was the childminding. And so what I ended up finding was a gym and I’ve never been someone who’s really big into gyms for me. It’s just the environment. I’m very experiential. I’d like for things to feel nice. And if they don’t feel nice, then. I’m not going to go. Simple as that. So I had to find a gym that really was going to feel like it was my kind of place.
It had to have reformer Pilates. It had to have a creche. And I found one that’s. I was like, alright, tick. That’s awesome. So I have signed up for the gym and this is one of the things that now goes into my schedule. I have blocked out set times where I am going to attend my Pilates class. I am also going to attend other various different classes and I’m going to put my son into the creche. Well done. So amazing. That particular need has been met.
Since my son is young and hasn’t started school yet, one of the things that I really wanted to focus on [00:22:00] was being able to spend. As much time as I could in these formative years with him. And so playgroups are not the thing for us. So once a week, and we go to playgroups, I’ll put that in the diary. No, one’s going to touch that.
I also want it to be available for school drop-offs and school pickups. And so that also initialed the diary. So those times are blocked out. Non-negotiable no one can touch.
Then there are also other activities that my kids do. My daughter does dancing. My son goes to playgroup. He also does another sports programs. So those also go into the diary, blocked out. No one can touch.
Yeah.
As part of focusing on my own wellness, I also want to do things that I previously would have considered. Uh, nice to have, but didn’t have the time for it with my old schedule and that is about attending an infrared sauna. And the one that I found just feels like, oh, like a day spa. And such a beautiful thing. So that also goes into my diary, blocked out. No one can touch.
I also wanted to focus on the need for one-on-one connection with each of my kids. And this is something that is very important. The fact that we are all three of us together, all of the time when my husband isn’t here. It’s very easy to slip into a space of us all spending time together all the time. And this doesn’t necessarily meet the needs of my kids to feel independent, to feel as though they are their own person. And so what I’ve also done is create a dedicated time that we are going to have some sort of activity or something that we do together just one-on-one. And so it, that then it really helps them feel like they are loved. They are their individual person. They are not just part of the children in group. So that, that also goes into the diary. And there’s also myself. I need alone time as well. And so that goes into the diary too.
So that is one of the kids have a sleepover. I get to have my own time go out with my friends and that fulfills one of my needs as well. So all of these things have gone into my diary. And it may sound like it’s really full.
But it’s [00:24:00] not, there is still plenty of space in there for work. And so then once I’ve done that, once I have feeling fulfilled, I am feeling nourished. I am feeling completely lit up and alive. I then start to get into the business. And so what I have done with my business is I have blocked out different days for different activities.
So one day is my CEO day. That is my data, checking on my business. What needs tending to it’s my data, create content. It’s my day to do any of my post-production for my podcast or anything like that. This is something that is a non-client facing day. That I do. And then I have two days, which are client facing days. So that is where I have my one-on-one calls. My clients.
I also allow my podcast recordings to happen then as well. And it really just has me focused on the task at hand, which is okay. I’m interacting with clients, interacting with guests. It allows me to be fully present in that particular energy.
Then I have another day, which is focused, purely on projects. And this is where I am working on my latest project, whether it’s something new that I’m going to launch or whether it was something that is already in progress and I’m just refining. This is really what I saved my project day. And then of course, scattered throughout that I do have my client check-ins as well. So. All you know,
It’s a way of building out my schedule. That feels really good for me as a person. It feels really good for my clients and holistically in creating my schedule this way. It allows me to feel really alive. It allows me to have that. Focus on different areas at different times. And nothing is taking away from the other. I feel nourished. My kids feel nourished. My business feels nourished instead of my clients.
So this is something that I highly recommend having a look at and just seeing how your share tool at the moment sits with this. Maybe it’s for you. [00:26:00] Maybe it’s not, I’ll allow you to use your discernment around that, but I want you to get really curious and think. Do you feel lit up? Does your business operating in the way it does feel really restorative.
‘ cause my desire for you love is to really have that. So nourishing a highly successful business that is based around your desires. It incorporates your non-negotiables. And allows you to have that really pleasure fueled business schedule. So the process that I’ve talked about here, I go into a lot more depth in a beautiful playbook that I put together to create that schedule that really aligns you though to desires and cultivates, that nourishing business that you just don’t want to burn to the ground. I’ll link it in the show notes here. But if you want to jump onto it, now you can go to the https://amandahunter.net/playbook to download the pleasure fueled business playbook.
This has been such a game changer in the way that I approach my own schedule. To make it just feel. Oh, juicy really, really juicy. And so it’s something that I encourage you as well as a powerful and inspirational leader to really embrace this joy and pleasure in your business. Because it allows you to tap into your full potential.
To inspire others and to really create that transformative experience. Because by staying anchored in your purpose and harnessing your power and infusing that joy into your routines. You actually get to pay the way for a pleasure fueled business that brings you that sense of fulfillment success and an enduring legacy as well.
So my love, I hope this has to help to really inspire you, to look at your schedule in a different way, and to create that one that makes you feel alive. To create one that feels filled with joy and. Nourishes you from the inside out.
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