Divine Timing in Business: Lessons I Learned from My 42-Week Pregnancy [Ep 46]

Welcome to the Thriving therapyneur podcast, the show for ambitious therapists who are ready to unapologetically make more money, scale their impact and build their dream coaching business. I'm Carly Hill, therapist turned coach turned CEO of a seven figure online business. I created the Thriving Therapeutic Podcast because I'm obsessed with helping big hearted therapists outgrow the office and build successful and sustainable online businesses. So if you are wondering how you can continue to make an impact without sacrificing the life you love, welcome, Therapreneur. This is exactly the place for you. Think of it like the business school we never had. I am so excited to dive in with you. Let's get started. Hello my Therapreneur friends. Welcome back to the show. I feel like I need a welcome back myself. This is the first podcast episode that I've recorded in quite some time, actually the first podcast episode that I've recorded here in our new house, in my new office. I've been on maternity leave and we're going to talk about the parallels between birth and business today. I batched a bunch of podcast episodes prior to going on maternity leave and I'm still on maternity leave right now at the time of this recording. And I'm dabbling with work here and there. I mean, when you're the CEO of your business, you're never fully on maternity leave. I have had such a wonderful, awesome break though. I am so grateful for my team. Spoiler alert. I was going to say later in this episode, but I am on track to make half a million on maternity leave. So I'm revamping. What going back, like, quote unquote, going back to work even means knowing that I was able to have this revenue while on leave. As the business was continuing to thrive, the team was running the show. Students and clients were learning from me, from my courses and digital products, and from all of the coaches that I have trained. So this is part of my story right now is figuring out, well, what does going back to work actually look like? So this episode today, when we talk about the parallels between birth and business, it's a little different. It's deeply personal. I gave birth to my son in the middle of March. I was due at the beginning of March after going a full 42 weeks pregnant. And let me tell you, that waiting game, it cracked me open in ways I never expected. What I didn't realize was just how much that experience would reflect the journey we go through in business, especially when we're building something new. I thought about my clients so often throughout my pregnancy, especially towards the end. So today I want to talk about these sacred parallels between birthing a baby, birthing a business, and how both journeys ask you to surrender control, trust your body, trust your intuition, and really allow something bigger than you to move through you. So let's start with the waiting. Let's talk about that because maybe because I had so many friends who went two weeks early, I was mentally prepared to go into labor at 38 weeks when my guest date came. And I like to use that word guest date instead of due date when my guest date came and went with mixed emotions, I had asked ChatGPT to write me an inspirational love letter after telling it how I was feeling. And this is such a Carly thing to do. I use ChatGPT for so much in my life, so I asked it to write me this inspirational love letter. I really needed it. I was going to bed and it came back with exactly what I needed to hear. So I'm going to read you some quotes because it really got me thinking about you all in this process of releasing the timeline when you're adding something new to your life, like coaching. And I won't read you the whole letter, but a few lines that stuck out to me that really helped me towards the end of my pregnancy was Divine timing is never late. That was my favorite one. Divine timing is never late. I'm such a big believer in divine timing. My second favorite one, which is really powerful, is you aren't waiting, you are preparing. You aren't waiting, you are preparing. Let that soak in. Another one was there is no rush, no deadline, only the wisdom of the universe working through you. You are exactly where you need to be. I tell myself that often. And the only timeline that matters is the one unfolding within you, guided by trust. You are doing this perfectly and beautifully. So I hope those lines bring you some comfort wherever you are in your journey. Maybe it's something personal, maybe it's not even business. You can apply them to so many areas of your life. But talking about business, I deeply know that adding coaching, creating new offers, putting yourself out there, starting a new adventure, it all comes with anticipation, wonder, excitement. It's like you've imagined it in a million different ways and you wish you could take a hop, skip and a jump because you're excited. You can see the light at the end of the tunnel and I get it. But naturally, these doubts, these what ifs, the overthinking, the pressure, it comes floating in at times and you think you're behind, or you think that time is running out. But I want to remind you that you haven't missed a thing. And like I said, you're exactly where you need to be. It's this perfect unfolding, even in the moments that feel uncertain. So just like that little soul that was growing inside of me, your journey is growing. It's evolving. It's preparing to be born in its own divine time. And remember, that divine timing is never late. So it's not a pause, it isn't a setback. It's sacred. I like to call it a sacred pause. It's the space where something big is about to happen and it feels like it's empty, right? The space before something big happens. But it's not empty. It's full of alignment. It's full of unseen shifts. Everything is coming together in a way that's bigger, that we can even imagine. And right before we level up, most times, everything gets harder. Doubt creeps in, progress stalls, setbacks, hit back to back. You've probably experienced this, and most people take it as a sign to back off or give up. But I'm here to tell you, it's not a warning to do either of those. It doesn't mean back off. It doesn't mean give up. It's really just a threshold. It's a test to see if you are truly ready for what comes next. Hey there. Did you know we give away one of our incredible digital products every single week? All you have to do is leave a review for the show, then submit proof using the link in the show notes and you'll be entered to win. Prizes include amazing resources like our passive income course, the license protection bundle, top business trainings, my best selling book, and so much more. It's super simple. And your review helps us reach more listeners just like you. So take a moment to share your thoughts, enter to win, and maybe you'll be our next winner. And all of these things that I'm talking about right now, they're just massive reframes. We can look at life and business and birth and any journey for that matter in different ways. So it's all just a series of reframes that I'm doing here in this episode. So I want you to take a breath and trust that timing is unfolding for you in ways that you may not even realize yet. The excitement, the anticipation, it's all part of it. And when the moment comes, when the thing that you've been waiting for arrives, you'll look back and you'll know it was Always right on time. And I'm holding that trust for you. Just like I had to hold it for myself. And I really had to hold it for myself. I mean, guys, I was walking two miles every day, 42 weeks pregnant, down my dirt road. Definitely shed some tears. I was doing all the damn things. I was doing the dates, the tea. I had a tincture I put in my tea exercises on my ball, sex bass, primrose oil. I was pumping for nip stimulation. I had Reiki sessions, like, every single freaking trick in the book. And it felt like nothing was happening. And I felt like I was going to be pregnant for forever. And, yeah, physically, I was drained. I was huge. But that wasn't even the hardest part at the time. It was the mental game that was hard, Especially because everyone and their mom kept asking me if I was still pregnant. Like, I needed a daily reminder that I was still pregnant. And I was so excited for this next chapter. And each morning I would wake up and it would just be another normal day. So maybe this sounds familiar for you. In business, you launch something new, you show up, you're doing the right things, but it feels like nothing is happening. Every day just feels like another average day with no real movement. And perhaps family and friends are even asking you, like, how's your new business venture? And you don't even want to respond and explain yourself because you're in that in between phase and moment. It's not where you started, but not yet where you want to be. And that's where I was. So in both pregnancy and in entrepreneurship or in other journeys in life, you can be in that in between space. And that's gonna mess with your head unless you can learn to trust the timeline that you can't physically see. And this is exactly what I had to do. So I had to find some inspirational music that would help me release the timeline. I reached out to Positive Support Systems. I leaned on my husband. I practiced pretty much every single coping skill I knew how to practice. I also deeply held on to the fact that I knew my son wanted to choose his birth date and the time that he was born. And when I looked up his birth chart, I was like, wow, this makes perfect sense. It was so cool to see. And funny story, I actually had him on the 18th, which was the day after St. Patty's Day, and we really didn't want St. Patty's Day, baby. We thought after waiting for so long and having an induction scheduled that we could possibly skew it a bit, but nope, we ended up checking in on St Patty's Day, everyone's wearing green in the hospital after 48 hours of me having on and off contractions at home. But sure enough, he wanted his own day. And he was born at 12:01 in the morning. So his birthday was not on St Patty's Day, it was the following day. It was pretty comical how everyone was watching the clock as I had that last final push. And then we welcomed Elias into this world. But I digress with that story. Let's go back to the principles, the parallels of birth and business. You have to surrender. Surrender is not passive. It's not giving up. It's not. It is what it is. I think that's what a lot of people think when they think of the word surrender and they correlate it with being passive. But it's actually the most active trust that we can offer ourselves. At least that's what I believe. It's this ultimate expression of power. And just because it's active doesn't mean that it's forcing it either. It's really about allowing. Allowing in all capital letters, not forcing, allowing. Allowing. What is wanting to move through you to happen when it's supposed to happen and how it's supposed to happen. It's about trusting. It's holding the vision close in your heart, but allowing it to unfold how it's supposed to. And I always say if we knew how and when it would happen, it would ruin the surprise anyways. And what I've come to learn through both birth and business is you can't force timing. You can only prepare your space, prepare your body, prepare your energy for what's to come. Because it's not about hustling or controlling every detail. It's about creating the conditions for life to quite literally move through you. And that was a big lesson for me. I had this vision, I thought I knew how it was all going to go. And maybe that's just the Type A in me. Like I like my calendars, my timelines, my to do list, my birth plan with the highlighted sections, like you get the vibe. I thought I could prepare for everything. I envisioned a peaceful home birth, the tub, the music, the candles, the moment. This is actually what I envisioned for years. And my husband and I decided very early on to, after some hard discussions, that that wasn't the route that we were going to go. I definitely had to grieve this vision. But then I had a new vision and it was a water birth in the hospital, unmedicated. And after doing all the things like I said I still ended up at 42 weeks after 48 hours of Pajamal labor, which is on and off contractions. I mean, they got down to like six minutes apart at home. Like I was in freaking labor. No sleep for 48 hours. And eventually I had a hospital birth and I chose to have it medicated. Was that what I had planned? No. But was it exactly what I needed? Absolutely. I would say, especially after a nine pound baby. But all of this taught me something that I couldn't have learned in any other way. I would say this control was like a comfort blanket. I feel like we cling to it when we're afraid that the universe might not catch us, but when we actually let go, we find out we're always held. And that it reminds me of actually the. The book the Universe has yous Back by Gabby Bernstein, where she talks about this. You know, not in these exact words, but the principle is about releasing control, letting go, figuring out we actually are held in ways that we just can't see and feel in the moment. And we're just clinging to control because we feel like it's this comfort blanket. We're afraid that the universe doesn't have our back. But it does. The birth didn't go to plan. The business probably won't either. And still, it will be okay. Something's not going to go to plan in your life and it's going to be okay. And in fact, it might actually be even more beautiful than the version that you had mapped out yourself. And birth can open that portal. Not just for our babies to come into the world, but for us as women to be reborn and redefined. And since birthing my baby and being immersed in mom life, I'm actively redefining what business looks like for me. Like I said earlier, I'm on track to make half a mil on my maternity leave. I haven't taken one coaching call. The business is booming. I have systems in place. I have a badass team. I have curriculum, I have courses, I have digital products. Students learn from me every single day. I'm in their earbuds while I can be present doing tummy time on the floor. So, yeah, I'm working to reevaluate what work looks like for me. I feel like this motherly instinct that I have is actually my secret sauce to making more money, having more ease inside my business. In a nutshell, having my baby, it really pushed me to redefine all areas of my life. And I'm loving this active revamp. I feel like in A revamp is so healthy for all of us. And the version of me who gave birth is not the same woman who walked into that hospital. The same goes for who I was before launching my business. We evolve through both of these portals. So I really do feel like I'm being reborn in an incredible way. And I invite you to have this reborn rebirthing process for yourself as well. Birthing my son wasn't just about bringing him into the world. It was about becoming a new version of myself. And we actively become new versions of ourself every single day. But it's not by doing more. That's the kicker. It's not by doing more. It's by surrendering more. So if you're in this season of waiting, you feel like the results aren't showing up yet. You're questioning whether you're cut out for this. I want this to just be a reminder. You're not behind. You're not broken. You're building. Say that to yourself. You're building. And just like birth, sometimes the biggest expansion comes after the longest wait. At least for me. So whether you're building a business, birthing a baby, becoming a new version of yourself, your body knows, your energy knows, your spirit knows. Just allow it to move through you. Just like before you have a baby, you nest, you prepare the space. You clean, you rest, you create safety. So same goes for launching a business. Allow yourself to be in a business nesting phase. Prepare your space, do the healing work, clean up shop. Prepare for what's to come. Just focus on the foundational pieces. So if this episode resonated with you, I want you to share it with another coach, a therapist, a mom who's walking through the unknown. You never know who needs to hear that message, that you're right on time. Divine timing is never late. And if you're ready to build a business that honors your rhythm, your values, your energy, I would love to support you. My team would love to support you. I'm a big believer in support in all areas of my life. Throughout my birth, I had a doula, I had a midwife, I had mom friends, my family, my husband. Of course, I took multiple online courses. I do that for everything in my life. I just take online courses, so that's no surprise. But you need community. You need mentorship systems in business and in every area of your life. Check out the show notes for ways that we can work together. And until next time, trust the timing. Trust yourself. Remember, you are already becoming her. My love is with you. You got this. I'll see you in the next episode. Thank you so much for listening to the Thriving Therapy New York Podcast. I hope that this episode has inspired you to reduce burnout, work smarter and see the freedom potential you have as a therapist. We would love to have you inside the Therapist to Coach Access Accelerator Facebook Group where we have live trainings and cheat sheets on all things marketing, sales and adding coaching ethically and legally. I am here cheering you on and I'll see you around.