Bridging the Gap Between Self-Development & Entrepreneurship

Welcome to The In Between Podcast. I'm Astrid.

And I'm Alexis. And we're 2 best friends on a journey to living a fun, intentional life.

We know it's easier to share on a season of life once it's behind you, but what about when you're in the middle of the growth, confusion, and decision-making?

This lifestyle podcast is for the everyday gal who loves to travel, talk about business, relationships, fashion, and everything in between. Hello friends, and welcome back to another episode of The In Between Podcast. We took a little break. We're back. We're so excited to be here.

Um, and I'm one half of the pod, Alexis, and this is the other half, Astrid. And we missed you guys. At least I miss recording. I miss our community, getting the DMs, getting to plan everything. It was a much-needed break. And also it felt so weird to not have the podcast happening in my life.

I agree.

I was like, I feel like I should be recording something. I just found myself opening up voice notes and just talking I'm kidding. I did not do that. But I did miss the weekly recording and I had to ask myself, what am I in between right now? I didn't have the podcast to help me do it.

Same. I kept saving tabs in my mind. I'm like, this is a big thing in my life that I want to talk about on the podcast. This is a breakthrough and I want to share it. And so hopefully I remember everything.

Yes, absolutely.

Well, we have a really special guest. on the podcast today, Nicole. And I'm really excited to talk about just the creative journey and the mindset around entrepreneurship and a lot of the imposter syndrome that can come into play and fears that can come into play when it comes to building a business. And we're going to learn a bit more about Nicole's story as well. But we couldn't start the pod without sharing what we're in between right now. So Nicole, first, Say hi and then maybe share what you're in between right now.

Oh my God. Hi. I love watching you guys live. This is like the best thing ever. Um, but yeah. Okay. What am I in between? Okay. Honestly, transparently, I'm in between right now the phase of like, oh, you're like, you know that you're about to get engaged at the end of the year and married. So you're looking at houses. And so I'm like, okay, I'm leaving this like I'm grieving in a beautiful way this like period of my independence and like what once was singleness. And so it's like this weird phase of like legit the in-between, like, okay, I'm not that person anymore, but I'm not a married person yet. So yeah, that's where I'm at right now.

Oh, that's so good. I feel like being in the wedding industry, I witnessed that so much as well, where people are very excited for the next step. And also when you have Built a life that you're proud of, built a life that you love, and suddenly there's a whole new world to figure out, a whole new set of routines that are going to come with that world, a whole new set of values that you're going to create together. It's exciting. And also that grieving process of that chapter is closed or it's about to close. So almost congrats that you're in that season of journey. Right?

Let's hope. I'm pretty sure my boyfriend's on that page.

We'll block him.

Yeah, we'll block him. It's fine.

Make sure he doesn't listen to the pod yet. Yeah, I relate to that so much. Whenever I was getting engaged and leaving Nashville and moving to— leaving the place and leaving my community there, there is a serious element of grief. And I think it's really beautiful that you're starting that mental process now. I actually don't think I did that. And then I started grieving like after I got married. Like my first couple months, I was like grieving the loss of my friends and my community. And I was so sad. And I felt this like weird tension of I'm so happy that we got married. And like, gosh, this— the last 5 years of my life, like those— this was so meaningful. So I think it's cool that you're being so intentional with processing a lot of that now and being really mindful of that.

Oh, thank you. Thank you. Yeah, it's crazy how grief shows up in beautiful places too.

Yeah, so true. Astrid, what about you? What are you in between right now?

I have been stockpiling my in-betweens, so I'm trying to choose which one to share.

I have 6 things.

6 things. It's been a big month. The one that came top of mind is I am in between leaving the messy habits of my life and really shifting over to my extreme organization ones. And so for a long time, I was extremely organized in my business and my goals and all of that side of things. But it wasn't until our discipline episodes and theme, the last one that we did in June, that I started really evaluating my habits at home. And so when I have great weeks, I will organize my house. But when I had horrible weeks, it just was chaotic. And so I just kind of recommitted to myself this past June after our episodes and our theme to just maintain a peaceful space and maintain a clean home. And it didn't have to be perfect. And it's been insane how I've kept it up for almost 5 weeks now amidst all the launching and stuff. And I made time for it. I was like, Astra, we are not this person anymore. We can budget in 10 minutes to just put the dishes away. You can do that. And so shifting my mindset has made me realize how little time things take. And at the same time, I just love this season of recommitment to myself and breaking a habit that For a really long time, just felt like I couldn't get past. It was one of those last few ones that I just could not get over. So yeah, so I am shifting over. And so then I reward myself this past month with some organizing things. So I got matching black bottles for my bath, my shower. And so all of my stuff goes in there. And then I got new black hardware for my walls as well to hang the towels. And so now I'm extra organized. I don't want a single thing out.

I love that.

That's amazing. This is adulthood. I feel like this is another layer of like, not only am I organized, but I also went and purchased things to help me be more organized. And there is something really gratifying about opening up a drawer and seeing it feel aesthetic. For me, it's like shopping in my own home.

Yes. And it's like, oh, I'm saving money.

I like walking into my closet. It's like shopping in my closet because of the way things are organized, like they would be in a store. And I think it helps get us excited to keep things in order. Proud of you on week 5. Let's go. Thank you. Thank you.

This is the longest stretch I've ever gone with not leaving my room a wreck trying to choose an outfit. But I think the most shocking part of it all has just been how it's trickled into other areas. I will update my budget every 3 days instead of once a month, and I will consistently move my body no matter if it's an intense workout or a light workout. And so that has been really, really lovely. But what are you in between, Alexis?

I'm in my spontaneous era. I feel like I am so planned and organized and I struggle with everything having to be strategic. And I've really allowed myself to just say yes a bit more in situations where I probably would've hunkered in or like, oh, I'm going to work, or I'm going to hang out with Matthew, or I'm just going to have a chill night at home. So I've spent a lot of time being more social and it's been so rewarding. Just spending time with new friends, meeting new people, going to a movie with people I don't know, going shopping with new friends, just opening myself up a bit. Just because things aren't incredibly pre-planned doesn't mean that they can't bring so much enrichment and meaning. So I'm trying to live in between things being planned and leaving room for spontaneity. And I think that's something I have struggled with over the last year or so because I have become such a disciplined person, a more disciplined person. And I think as a result, I have pretty rigid boundaries with my time and my planning and things needing to be on my calendar. And I think as a result, I've kind of lost a bit of the spark of the in-between spontaneity moments because I'm like, oh, it wasn't planned. So hit me up in 3 weeks and we'll get you on the call. I don't want to live life like that.

That sounds—

I don't want to live like that anymore. So I'm opening myself up to being more spontaneous. So yeah.

That's amazing. Has that made you feel more— how has that made you feel, I guess? Because I feel like a part of me would feel anxious to Okay, this is just blank and open, or maybe it feels freeing. How has that made you feel?

It's a great question, great follow-up question. I definitely feel more free. I think there's just been a lot of things lately that I've felt very stressful, and it took literally being with new people in a new environment to give me perspective. I'm like, not that that stress isn't real, but let's actually turn the weight of it down. Like, I don't know, whenever you're just in your house, you're in your office, you're home all the time, you ruminate and overthink about things. So I think opening myself up to be spontaneous and say yes to things has also helped me get out of my head a bit more, which was unexpected. So right now I'm feeling free. Now, will this roll into me booking spontaneous trips like I did in my early 20s?

Let's hope not.

Okay. Because we ain't got the budget for that. But the, uh, the little like things here in Houston has been really nice.

So yeah, I love that for you. That's so incredible. I think like being able to be spontaneous can bring this excitement, and sometimes the best things are like that. Like some of my favorite memories from our trip in Paris were the spontaneous, spontaneous, like just get lost in the city where you're gonna go to this location and just vibe there. And so I love that you're able to experience that in your own city now and more frequently too.

Yeah, me too. Me too.

Okay.

That was fun. Podcast is over. Thanks for coming. Okay. So I have the honor of interviewing both of you. If you've listened to the Imagene Pod a lot, you know that we don't normally have guests, but I thought this was a great opportunity to bring Nicole on because Astrid and Nicole recently launched the Creator Collective and they're both full-time entrepreneurs and Coaches, consultants, experts, and they've both went through the trenches, if you will, of starting something from scratch, bringing this idea, a dream, and turning it into something that is meaningful, brings value to others, either through photography or through mindset shifts, through coaching. So I'm really excited to interview both of you on what the Creator Collective is and kind of the major touchpoints and topics that you cover. In the Creators Collective. How does that sound? Shall we get started?

I love it.

That was such a sweet interview. I was like, that's us.

Yeah, that's both of you.

That's both of you.

You're so sweet.

Before we dive into what the Creators Collective is, I want you to meet Nicole because I got to meet Nicole earlier this year for the first time. I know Astrid and Nicole have known each other for almost 2 years now. Nicole, I'd love to learn a bit more about you. Tell us the spiel.

Yes. I was born— no, I'm kidding. It was a Tuesday.

It was winter.

Yeah, it was a sunny day on May 29th. No. Okay, so long story short, essentially what happened was I was doing that whole Gary Vee thing in my senior year of college where he was basically like, go work for anybody. And make no money, just learn from them. And I was like, absolutely, I can do this. And I was leaving a very abusive relationship. I had just moved to Texas and I was like listening to the Ed Mylett Show every single day. And I loved Ed. He's top entrepreneur in the world, one of them, 50 Under 50, like very, very high achieving. And I thought if I could just get connected with his media team, I could somehow figure out how to like, I'll do whatever. At that point, I had majored in communications and psychology. I wasn't even fully interested in marketing. It was just kind of something I fell into when I ended up actually finally working in this position with Ed. But ended up basically starting at the bottom of the barrel, doing all of the admin stuff for Ed, working my way up, starting to help with his writing, help with his media production, and later leading his media team. And so that was a really phenomenal experience. I was able to see kind of like how entrepreneurs need to show up in their business, as well as all of the people that he was interviewing. Did that for a bit. Then I realized, okay, I really want to do this corporate thing. I want to see if I can scale and I can move quick. So I went into corporate, became a director of marketing for a logistics and tech company about like within the year. And then during that time, I knew in my heart, like probably at that point for 10 years, I had known I'm supposed to help people, and I just didn't know why. And I know that we all kind of have that like urge. And so I went through the Tony Robbins Breakthrough Intervention training. I got my trauma recovery practitioner certification, did all of the polyvagal nervous system stuff. I really got like deep in the weeds of like, why are we the way that we are? How is our body working? And how is our brain working? All this time I was in corporate still, ended up kind of like ripping out the carpet from under me and being like, I'm going to build this business. And I built a coaching company, which was a sisterhood. And it was, at first it was Wounds to Wisdom. And now it's From the Inside Out. But it's basically helping women, you know, walk through traumas and reinvent themselves. And then during this time, I was like, you know what, I worked with Astrid, and I realized I love the idea entrepreneurs are like, Creatives in general are just so fun to work with. I see myself in them. I know that I learn from them every single day. And I wanted to build something with somebody that could really like help who I kind of was 2, 3 years ago when I was building my own business. And so that's kind of how I got to where I am today. So yeah, with Creators Collective.

Yeah. Oh, I love, I love hearing the arc of your story and how how much you leaned in and listened to yourself. One, how quickly you were able to scale in businesses. You're like, I started here and then I scaled. And then I started here and then I was director of marketing. I just want to highlight that. We love a woman in leadership. But I think it's really amazing how you leaned into your intuition. And I know that's something that both of you feel really strongly about. Astrid, for those of For those of the listeners that might not know a bit of your background too, before we go into the mindset around entrepreneurship, give us a background on everything that's led you to this point too in launching the Creators Collective.

Yes. So it's such a crazy journey because I kind of was just focused in on going into corporate life for a very, very long time. And so I went to school school for marketing. I ended up getting an internship in a company that was absolutely wonderful, picked up a camera back then just to help our social media. And then a few years later, found myself launching my photography business, which is what I do now full-time. And so within that company, I scaled their marketing as well. I was there for about 2 to 3 years, was their marketing manager while going to school, and then loved marketing. Absolutely loved it. Could not see myself going full-time in anything but that just because of like the, the dream side of things, the creative side, the diving into why did you even start the company? Why are we doing this project? Like, why should I care? And then pulling everything from there to create marketing strategies was just fascinating and still is to me. And so that led me to my next job in marketing, which was at a water utility company. It was a nonprofit, loved working for a nonprofit and really looking at profit itself was not the bottom line, it was impact. And so my heart was just very, very drawn to that, was able to do a lot of really cool projects there. And the leadership there was so entrepreneurial that I was able to learn a lot of things from them to implement into my business. And I credit them so much for a lot of the strategies that I put into my business. And a lot of times creators and entrepreneurs find themselves like they are so talented, have the skills, have the service, and then there's like the skills of running a business and that takes a whole other side of things. And so for me, they were indirectly my mentors. So while I was in corporate, they, I was, performing my service of marketing manager and at the same time getting mentorship, which was really lovely. And so all of during that time, personally, I've always been into personal development, but I also went through a very traumatic experience. I went through a divorce that was really, really hard to go through, especially during the pandemic. And so hence I started therapy for the first time. And so that journey completely shifted my mind, completely shifted my value system because it was no longer— these goals didn't even matter at that point. My business, I loved what I did and I didn't even have the energy to be able to create goals and to dream and to anything other than survive. And so that whole journey became how I found myself again. And I'm so grateful for where it led me to. And so after years of therapy and getting to a more grounded space, I was then looking for more coaching than I was therapy. And so I ran into one of Nicole's TikToks, which was just wild that it's social media. But it was early December of, what would it be, 2021? Because it was 2022 that we did the course.

Yeah.

And so it was all— the course was named Wounds to Wisdom. And there was just something that I just felt so connected to it based on my story and based on where I was at in life. And I was ready to also connect with more women that kind of had been through that trauma. And I was in the middle of healing my nervous system and realizing how it had impacted me and how it impacted my energy every day and how I showed up in my business and how I needed to rest because of that. And so anyway, I'm so grateful. I feel like it was divine intervention to have run into that course. So I took that course solely for personal reasons, just to continue healing and continue in my journey, and then ended up quitting my job 2 months later. So it was great. And so now really we collaborated on this project because it's been such an impactful journey personally as well as entrepreneurially. And so we just want to share it with others as well.

I love that. I love your— both of your hearts are very focused on like taking what you've learned and what you've experienced and wanting to guide and support other people who are either in it or are working to be on the other side of it. So I think it's really beautiful, both of your origin stories and how they've now intertwined into starting the Creators Collective. So my first question around like when you're a creator and you're just getting started, I know this is part of the kind of person that you're helping is people that are starting a business and they're kind of like in that fledgling stage. There's so much paralyzation. There's so much overthinking. There's procrastination. There's a lot of just getting over yourself in order to just start. So I'd love to hear how you've both navigated starting your business and even launching something new. Maybe you're not even just starting, but you're launching a new product or you're starting a new segment of your services, there's so much overthinking that can come into play. So how do you both navigate that?

Yeah. Do you want me to go? Yeah, go ahead. I'll go after.

I should have directed that to someone.

No, you're good. You're good. I was waiting for Aspen. I would say for me, when you're starting something like a business, Or any sort of project that is near and dear to your heart, there is going to be matter-of-factly a lot of resistance that shows up. And resistance is a force that paralyzes us. Like you were saying, that word is so true. And I think resistance is actually something that we can lean into. It's something that we can identify as an anchor in the sand of I am moving towards something that scares me. That's something that leaves me vulnerable, something that I'm positioning in a way to show my true heart. Like a lot of the times when we're creatives too, we're producing art, we're writing, we're doing photography, we're doing whatever it is that we're doing. And what's so like scary about it is that it is truly like our art. It is the deepest part of ourselves. And that's just the authentic truth. And so navigating that is I wish that there is an answer in which I could get rid of the resistance. I think understanding your body, And your nervous system and understanding your brain and how it's trying to protect you is really important. But I think sometimes the resistance is really acknowledging it, which sounds— I mean, it's so simple, but so much harder than it sounds. Acknowledging it, having that awareness around it, and being like, am I willing to lean into this regardless of how scared I feel? Am I willing to do this if my lip is quivering? Am I willing to do this if I'm scared beyond words and I don't feel like I even have the words? Like, And this could even be as simple as like, you're continually trying to post again, you're trying to grow an influence, you're trying to write a book where you know that nobody's even watching you, but you feel like every eye is on you. It's about showing up, I think, every single day and building these like actual masculine habits, but showing up in a feminine container to be like, this is my structure, I've committed to these things, I'm going to lean in regardless. And I think it's just kind of like a muscle that we have to work.

Absolutely. Yeah. I think, um, adding on to what Nicole said, that was things that I learned throughout my entrepreneurial journey, as well as through the course that she had created. And the crazy thing was there was no lack of ideas in my entrepreneurial journey. There was so much lack of execution and I felt so paralyzed by it.

Yeah.

And so for me, I realized I guess at that point I hadn't realized how much my trauma had played a role in my entrepreneurial journey of paralyzing me. Because somehow along the way of our life experiences, how we grow up, what our parents tell us, what our friends tell us, what our teachers have told us can paralyze us, can damage that journey. And so whenever we're in this vulnerable experience of sharing ourselves and crafting something that we so deeply care about and put it out into to the world, it's going to be exposing and it's going to be this trigger that then is like, why am I so terrified? I think there's also a difference between being absolutely terrified and paralyzed to having resistance. I feel like resistance doesn't actually fade. You will continue to face as you continue to do different projects.

Yeah.

But that fear and paralyzation is perhaps a sign that there's something deeper. And so that's something that I found in my journey of, Okay, I have a scarcity mindset on money. And so I will sabotage my own pricing and my own projects and how much I will scale because I'm scared that I will fail. I will sabotage my schedule and work a full-time job and run my business because I'm scared that I can't make enough money. And so there's all these mindsets and limiting beliefs that we have that we have to work through first. In order to achieve those things. And so I think that that's the underlying layer behind being so scared to launch a project or a business.

Yeah.

Let's dive deeper into some of the self-sabotage because some of our self-sabotaging tendencies are conscious. We're aware of it. We know what we're doing. We're playing a game, like internally, we know what's happening. And then some of our self-sabotage is actually subconscious. I think there's also a part of us that continues down the path. We take a couple steps forward and then we take a couple steps back. We take a couple steps forward, we take a couple steps back. How do we take less steps back? So it's not that necessarily the self-sabotaging tendencies completely go away. Do they go away? How do we navigate that?

I would say 2 things. One, when we think about the brain, there's obviously our conscious and our unconscious, like you were saying. Our conscious mind is processing 40 bits of information per second. Our unconscious mind is processing 40 million bits of data per second. 90% of what we do by the time that we're 25 years old is completely autopilot. All of our behaviors, our tendencies, even our belief systems and stories. Like if we're not willing to ask empowering questions, it's very often not that we're going to live in the same story, which is going to be the same behaviors that bring us to those self-sabotage mechanisms. Now, the thing about self-sabotage too, I think personally for me, is we hear self-sabotage and we think, oh, I'm doing this because I hate myself. I'm doing this because I don't believe in myself. I'm doing this because I don't feel like I'm worthy. But really what it is at the deepest core is what I found with clients is that self-sabotage is this deeply rooted protective mechanism of keeping us from being seen. And so what happens when we're trying to launch something or build a business or fight against all of the belief systems that have been programmed and conditioned into us for years and years and years. All of these doubts come up and we say, this is too scary. I'm going to create things in my life to sabotage myself from getting to the next level without realizing that there is this, like, it's actually kind of sweet. Like, there's this inner child, this inner teenager that was wounded so deeply that loves us so much, this part of ourself that we need to tap into that's asking ourselves to say like, wait, wait, whatever you're trying to do is way too much for me. I cannot handle this level. And you need to meet that part of yourself and try and mend those 2 parts and see, okay, can we merge into this space and place and really disintegrate whatever self-sabotage is happening? Even like affirming yourself of like, you know, and that's why the nervous system is important is like regulating yourself in the moment before, right before a launch, leaning into the pain, leaning into the resistance. and being like, I am safe here. That part of me that is afraid to be seen can be safe in this moment. So I think— I don't know if that answers your question, but that's part of what I'm thinking.

Absolutely. That was so beautifully said. And I think that gives so much insight into how who we are at our core and our life experiences can impact the self-sabotaging tendencies that we have. And I think especially in the entrepreneurship world, we have a million self-development books, right? And then we're told like, okay, well, Break this habit by doing this thing, and sometimes yes, you can do that. And then other times you're like, why can't I break this habit? Why is this still stuck there? And perhaps there's this underlying layer that we have to work through, and that will impact us as entrepreneurs so much because we will sabotage a launch. We will sabotage something that we deeply care about because we're protecting the identity of us that we don't actually believe that we can be that person that launches that. project, that runs that kind of business.

Yeah.

And so something that has really helped me is every morning, or most mornings, being able to repeat to myself what I know has been placed in my heart and the vision that I have for my life, and repeat that over and over and over. And that has helped me regulate my nervous system because whenever I'm so stressed and everything seems absolutely impossible and like, oh my gosh, I am in over my head, That reminder that actually I am walking towards it and I am capable is able to bring me back to center and be like, okay, actually how exciting. I'm stepping into that and these nerves are great. They're normal. And back to your question, I don't think that self-sabotage completely goes away. I feel like each layer of us stepping into a new project, new side of the business will bring out a new layer that we have to deal with. But the point is, do we have the tools to navigate those? Have we learned how to do that? Or are we just pushing through and saying, I'm not supposed to feel this, I'm going to push this aside and stick to the launch goal? Yeah.

And I'll say too, just to touch on that, you speaking those things out loud to yourself, I do the same thing. And Um, I think that what's happening is that we're remembering who we are. We're rebuilding a memory of who we are. And that's what we have to remember is that we are conditioned. Like we're conditioned. We've been conditioned by imperfect teachers teaching us imperfect lessons. And so if we have the story, even if it's in our subconscious of like, oh, I'm not good at math or I'm this or I'm that, it is something that replays over and over and over again. And so literally speaking out loud to yourself is such a great actionable tool. It feels silly, but once that gets programmed back into your cells, into your spirit, it is absolutely life-changing.

That's really beautiful. I think you both touched on how— neither of you necessarily said this word, but being a business owner is quite triggering. And whenever I started my business and quit my tech job and went full-time as an entrepreneur and as a coach, I remember feeling incredibly triggered from past trauma that had nothing to do with my business. But I feel like one of the most revealing things to do and one of the most healing things is to start a business because I feel like it surfaces so much of your past self. It surfaces so much things that you can heal, things that you can work towards. And I find that A lot of my past experiences actually influence the way that I show up in my business and the way that I treat myself and the way that I show up for clients. So I think that's so beautiful. And my next question is around rewriting the story. So we know the story exists, we know the self-sabotage is there, we know that it might not necessarily go away, but how do we, as you kind of mentioned, Nicole, bridging the gap between our younger self and our current self and kind of like rewiring our brain and those neuropathways of when this is triggered, I go here. This is my default response. How do we rewire and re— I always call them mind ditches. We've dug this ditch.

Yeah.

And so water goes where it flows. And so if that's what your mind always does, Like, it's just going to continue doing that default behavior. So how do we start to build new ditches?

Yeah, I love that. Ditches for sure. Like, little ditches.

Ditches.

Can you tell that I'm from the Midwest? I'm like, how do we dig a different ditch? Let's dig a different— yeah, let's go to a different well.

Yeah.

All right, continue.

Yeah, so for me, I would say there's a lot of different things as far as like Looking at— I mean, there's— you could go into all of the neuroplasticity ways and NLP and understanding. When you understand the way that your neurons are firing and you can go into deeper meditations and go into deeper present states while you've already accounted for new truths in your life, I think that that can really help create new pathways. It's really like anybody that tells you that it's just a one-time fix is completely lying. It truly is just this practice. Um, saying, speaking things out loud to yourself, making sure that your language is a certain way. Like, we are constantly conditioning ourselves. I'm really liking that word today, conditioning ourselves. Um, I would also say— oh, what was I gonna say? It was good. I don't want to forget. Uh, maybe I wasn't meant to say it.

Maybe it'll circle back.

Maybe it'll circle back in my neural pathways. Oh God. Well, wait, ask me the question again.

No worries. So around rewiring the brain, digging new ditches, like finding new ways to speak life into our businesses and speak life over like our vision instead of a lot of the negativity that we tend to sometimes go towards.

I love it. Thank you. That was the word I needed to hear. Vision. It's looking at the conflicting beliefs, I think, as well. Oftentimes we believe everything that we think and we can't just get rid of all of our thoughts, but we can renew ourselves with new thoughts. And so asking ourselves empowering questions, like if every single day you're asking yourself, why am I so stuck? Why can't I do this? Why can't I move my feet in this direction? That is, your brain is programmed to figure out an answer. It doesn't matter if it's a crappy answer, it's going to give you an answer. And so making that shift of like, how can I ask myself something different about why am I stuck? Why am I feeling like right now Um, moving forward in the direction of my business doesn't feel safe. What doesn't make me feel safe right now about this? Asking yourself different questions. The conflicting beliefs are so powerful because, for an example, like, if you value security as your highest value, but you really value love and connection, but you value security more in the way of like, I would rather not get my heart broken, but I know that I really need love and connection. You will forever, if security is your number one, you will never open up your heart to get the thing that you really want, which is love and connection. And often we value security more than love and connection of getting your heart broken because we've been wounded in such a way that we need to stay safe. And so often if people come to me and they say, I really want this thing, I have this huge problem. I'm like, I don't actually believe that that's your problem. I think sometimes we think that we want things, But there's actually something deeper rooted where it feels safer to not have it. And so getting down to that root and ripping it out and being like, what is the truth? What is happening right here? Yeah, then we can have enough awareness to really make shifts in our life.

Absolutely. That was so well said. I feel like we can all relate to that, of being able to rewrite the story, rewrite the connection, and being able to say Okay, what is actually the connection there? What is actually beneath all of that? And to that, I will add, Alexis, you asked, how do we rewrite our story and how do we go back to that vision? Something that has really helped me specifically this year as coming in full-time is in the beginning of the year, casting vision, actually dreaming. I think having tools for how do you even dream? We worked on a really beautiful workbook and we had a whole workshop as well that had specific questions on how to dream. And that was incredible. And I also think a lot of entrepreneurs don't have tools like that to be able to dream. And so for me, this year started with dreaming and then it was the execution of the every month of, okay, how does my actions every month tie back into that dreaming stage? Does that dream still apply to me this month? Well, how am I limiting myself? Okay, well, if that's my dream, but my habits aren't matching that, then why is it not matching that? And so if I want to make X amount of dollars by the end of the year, but I'm not putting in the work, then why am I not putting in the work? It's not because I'm lazy. It's not because I'm running out of time. It's actually much deeper than that too. And so I think it's almost like a graceful handholding for entrepreneurs of how can we navigate these habits that a lot of times we're so harsh on ourselves for. We're like, I am just so lazy because I said I was going to do this project and I never did it. Or I am so fill in the blank. And like Nicole said, those words are so powerful because every time that we didn't fulfill that task, We are telling ourselves this truth that we believe about ourselves, and then hence we're stuck in the cycle of not doing it. So what happens is we can learn to rewire that by speaking the opposite and saying, you know what, today that didn't get done, and I choose to be a different person moving forward because I am an intentional creative who launches things, and I will relook at my schedule and see if things are realistic. Like, let's be graceful. So really it's about navigating these different projects and also being kind to ourselves and the story that we tell ourselves throughout that whole journey as well.

That's great.

I love that. I think we've covered a lot of the mindset pieces. And one thing I have learned from you, Astrid, and you as well, Nicole, is your ability to execute. And so it's understanding the importance of Knowing yourself, knowing your triggers, knowing your past, and speaking life into your mindset. And then also the strategies and the systems in order to do the work. So if we're clear on who we are and what we want, and we even know some of our roadblocks, we're like, these roadblocks might come up. How do we also understand what systems we need to put in place in order to be able to execute? On the bigger, the bigger vision? Nicole, take it away.

Okay. I was like, I don't know. I would say systems, like success is 80% psychology, 20% strategy. But once you figure out your psychology, like you're saying, like you cannot get anything done if you are just not willing to execute. So it's building out a system that works for you, that's blueprinted to your daily schedule. Like nobody is the same. Sometimes there's single mothers, sometimes there's mothers with 5 kids, like there's always things going on. And so it's finding a system that works for you, that you can monitor like on a long scale or a short scale, that you can create to basically do the top 3 things every single day, the most critical things to push that needle forward. I think that my whole— like, that was really— I mean, of course, I struggle and still struggle sometimes. But with All of the resistance, the mindset, the imposter syndrome. I struggle with that. But once I was able to get my execution and like systems set up the way that like even if I was feeling upset and I was like, I know what I have to do on my schedule. If I just like do those 3 things first, then I'll reevaluate my mindset and see where I'm at. Those systems helped so much because it it made it so that I wasn't taking one step forward, two steps back. It was like I started to program myself to be like, I can win, I can succeed even if I don't feel great, even if I don't feel perfect, even if I don't feel like— or if I do feel like an imposter, I can still do that. And so systems are everything. And I think honestly, in this world today, like, I'm so grateful that I was able to be in a director of marketing position and see it and see the entrepreneurial side of Ed Mylett and everything, because I feel like people kind of gatekeep like systems. I don't know, right? Like, I feel like people don't really like share that. And so I had to learn that the hard way. And, um, yeah, it's a— it's an absolute game changer.

Yeah, it can be kind of secretive, like, right, working behind the scenes of people's businesses as well. Like, you see how things actually play out and you're like, oh, y'all don't really talk about this, you know?

Yeah.

Uh, what about you, Astrid? What are some systems or Or how has implementing those systems like helped you be able to bridge the gap between like the mindset piece and the execution?

Absolutely. Um, tying it back to what I mentioned earlier on the pod of my, um, anxiety around money and like that was a huge part and huge part of my decision of not going full-time for a while is I work through that anxiety by having clear numbers in front of me, by having clear budgets in front of me. By planning ahead. And I know I'm not the only one that struggles with that. So I think it's about bridging, like, what are those things that trigger us as entrepreneurs, whether it's your habits, your execution, your time, like you are overwhelmed, like you feel like you don't have enough time to execute on the things that you want. Well, do you, right? Let's look at your calendar and your schedule. And if this is really important to you, how can we make it A, digestible, B, enjoyable, and C, doable in the timeframe that you want. And so it's really about restructuring a lot of the things that we have in our lives already and building systems to support that, to reduce anxiety or stress towards something that we want to launch. So that's something that I am super excited that we're including on here. We have lots of templates, lots of things. that have helped me, um, during my journey. I recently built like a new Notions template for, um, my finances and how to like project everything moving forward. And so I was like, well, duplicate, we'll just add it onto the course because there is honestly just so much to figure out as an entrepreneur and we don't want to gatekeep. Like, why make you go through the stress of going through all of this when this is what we know and we're still in our journey. We're still learning so much. And these are the tools that have helped us get to where we're at. And we feel like this could be super beneficial. So systems definitely bring freedom, I think.

Yes.

I could not agree more. Okay. So you've launched the Creator's Collective course. It's an 8-week program. Tell us, who is this a good fit for? If people are listening and they're like, okay, this sounds a lot like some of the things I'm navigating, things I'm struggling with. Like, who was the creator? Who did you create it for, I guess, is a good question.

Oh, I love that. Um, I would say that we created it, and Ashley can touch on this too, but I say we created it for that person who has had a basically dream on their heart that they've been wanting to build out. Somebody that's maybe been in the game and has not seen any repetitions work. Maybe somebody that's trying to get to a new level and needs more accountability, needs to scale, needs to have some systems in order. Also the creatives that are like, oh, I have all this content. Like I find that a lot. Like we have all this content, but we don't have the right strategy or we don't have like the accountability to just like put our stuff out there. I think that that's really important. And I would say just, you know, it's called the Creators Collective, but it's really any entrepreneur that has a desire to succeed at what they're doing and just needs help executing. Like, I truly believe if you have the right people around you that can guide you, support you, show you your blind spots, and then give you the systems and the literal, like, do this, do this, and then this will equal this. It's like business at the end of the day is a numbers game. And if we can get you the mindset right and then we can get your numbers right, you will succeed. And so I'd say anybody that's Looking for that is the right person for us.

She nailed it.

Okay. She did.

She's really amazing. I think in general, entrepreneurship does not have to be painful. And so if you find yourself in a season where you are ready for that new level, or you find yourself paralyzed, or you find yourself wanting more, this bridges your personal development with the business side of things to help you Yes.

I love that. Sounds like it could serve me now. It could serve me in the past. It'd probably serve me in the future. I feel like no matter what layer you are in your business, whether you're side hustling it or you're full-time, it sounds like this is a good fit for either. What specific problems, because I know there's multiple modules that cover a lot of different topics, what specific problems, if you could narrow it down, do you feel the Creators Collective will help solve?

solve? Yeah, so we have like a full framework. And so it's, it's our mindset, it's our past, it's understanding what kind of conflicting beliefs are there. Then it's our systems, it's strategy, things like the money template, things like content template, figuring out your ideal client, all the way to like, like I said, marketing, branding. And then we have a, like a full module for how do you execute this now? Like, let's just stop talking about it. Let's figure out What are the next steps for you to win? That's pretty much it. Yeah. And then we have some resources. So yeah.

Love it. Okay. So how can people join? Is there a deadline? I know it's live because there's an element of working with both of you, which is such a massive value. I know they get coaching with you. What does it all include and when's the deadline to join?

Yeah.

So right now we're accepting applications and it will be open until August 11th. And so from now until then, you can go ahead and apply on our website. You can go to Instagram to click on that link and then connect on there. So it's— our Instagram is creators.collective.cc. And yeah, so basically what does the course include? So we have the 8-week program and we're going to do calls every other week with everyone that's in the program. So One thing that we have found is as entrepreneurs, we could be chronic course buyers, and we did not want this to be another course where it just sits in your email box and you did not complete. And accountability is such a huge part of getting through the course, such a huge part of the learning experience of how everyone is digesting this information as well. And so we will be doing biweekly calls. And then People will also get an hour of one-on-one coaching with Nicole, as well as an hour of one-on-one coaching with myself, and then access to the course lifetime as well as we continue to upgrade that. And yeah, is there anything that I missed from what's included in the course?

They also have daily access to talk to us on Slack.

Yes.

So like if anything pops up, we can like, we'll run it by and see if we can help. That's amazing.

That's important too. Those little questions that come up or roadblocks and you want to be able to talk to somebody. I think that's amazing. Okay, so you mentioned going to your Instagram. We'll also have that linked in the show notes of this episode. We'll actually have the landing page linked here so you can just go in the show notes of this episode, click the link, learn more, and apply. I'm so proud of you. I'm in awe of both of you. Congratulations on the launch. I just love how This Creators Collective embodies so much of your story, so much of your expertise, and I just know it's going to change people's lives. And I'm so proud of you both.

Oh, thank you. Thank you for being such an incredible interviewer too. It's so different being on this side of the pod too, but I love it. And you did an incredible job.

Thanks. And thanks for being on. And I'm honored to be on. Yeah.

I was going to say, thank you so much for being on the pod. This is so special.

I'm so honored. I love it because I'm always listening to it. So it's fun to be on it and then hear you guys live. And I just love it.

Yeah, you're in the inner circle.

Hey. Awesome.

Well, we're so excited to kick off this next month too. The whole month of August is focused on communication.

Oh, we love it.

So I get DMs all the time on how do I set boundaries? How do I handle this communication with my family or with my partner, with my friends at work? So we're doing our entire theme for August is on communication and we're super excited to go deep into that topic with you. So with that said, we'll see you next week.

Bye.