702: The Gorgeousness of Cha-cha-changes… with Guest Elizabeth Guarino

Today we're going to talk about why we're afraid to change, what gets in our way, what stops us. We're also looking into how to better connect with other people to get over our stuff and be able to ask those questions of them like can you help me? And I really need to know this. We also talk about why and how fear gets in the way of of.

Us owning our next steps.

And one of my personal favorites, why trusting and listening to your heart will very likely do the opposite of getting you in trouble. Instead, it'll get you out. I get to have all of these topics and this wonderful discussion with a special guest, Elizabeth Hamilton Guarino. Stay with me. Flow Dreaming Still Kinda Woo Woo is just what it sounds like. An escape into the world of woo. Also a ride into you and how to feel happier, wiser and more self aware in every way. It's your ultimate journey into personal growth and inner power. We'll explore ideas like how your energy self influences the kinds of opportunities you encounter, or how your personal growth can drive your business growth, or even how that feeling of being stuck is really always coming from something else. We just have to figure out what that's right. We're a dash of Woo woo. A sprinkle of self care, a heap.

Of problem solving and pattern busting, and.

A giant cup of encouragement. We're going to relight so much passion, purpose, self love and confidence in you that you practically stagger. I'm Summer McStravik, your host and welcome to Flow Dreaming Still Kinda Woo Woo. Elizabeth is the Founder and CEO of the Best Ever U Network which she created to help you live your best life and you can find that@besteveryou.com she's also a Certified Master Coach and she specializes in mindset, strategy and change.

She teaches and trains organizations and individuals.

All over the world. She's also a multiple award winning author of books in the self help and children's book genres including her latest the Change Guidebook, how to align your heart, truths and energy to find success in all areas of her life.

And that's really how I got to.

Meet Elizabeth and what inspired today's show.

You can also find her on her social media where she's got a bajillion followers.

Look for her on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter either under Best Ever U or her name, Elizabeth Hamilton Guarino. With that, let's jump in and get some juicy discussion going around what your heart wants to say to you and are you listening.

Elizabeth? I just had the best interview with you on your podcast. I'm like, now I'm having you on mine. It's fabulous.

Thank you for having me. Yeah. Wasn't that fun? I love talking about books and change and stuff. No better taught me yet. Thanks for teaching me stuff.

Yeah, well, as everybody knows, best ever, you, you are the force behind the throne. Also, of course, your book, the Change Guidebook, which I want to talk to you about today. We have some amazing overlaps in what we do, and I want you to open up some of these ideas that maybe some of my listeners have heard me talk about. But you're going to come at it from a different angle, a whole different perspective, and just exponentially add on. You ready?

Yeah, I am. I am ready.

Okay.

So are you ready? Yeah.

Yeah, I think I'm ready. I think I'm ready.

I'm talking a lot. We're both ready. Let's go.

All right. One of my chapters in my book, Stuff Nobody Taught yout, talks about the king and the queen, the head and the heart, and their relationship to each other. Now you of all people talk about heart energy. Like you, I feel like you could just go from here. Who is this heart of ours and why do we shut it down? And why is it so dang hard to trust it? Take it away.

That's so true. Yeah. You know, our heart is our. Is our life force and it's our. I think it's our guiding. It's our guiding point. And I think a lot of people think it's your brain and you think with your head all the time and logical and all this stuff. And I think just sometimes you gotta. You know, that's useful. I get it. But we gotta go all hard on it all the time and really, truly think with our heart and figure out what our passions are and what things really, really mean to us. And I think when you think with your heart, you get a different result. I think the heart is the internal guidance system for the most part. But I do truly believe that when you align your heart, align your truths and align your energy, anything's possible. And you can apply that and find success in just about any area of your life that you hope for. I really do.

What about, though, when someone feels like they've trusted their heart and it let them down A wrong person, Prickly, briar filled path.

Yeah, you know, I think that happens, and it definitely happens where you just. You learn maybe from things that have happened to not trust your heart. But, you know, we're here to just kind of tip that upside down and get you rooted in your heart based thinking. You know, I work with people to kind of strip that fear and that hurt and that maybe things need to heal a little bit, but we gotta go while trusting on our heart all the time. Because heart based thinking is all about us individually and uniquely us. And I just think so many people are just caught up in overthinking and really, truly overthinking. But when I say trust your heart, think, a lot of people don't. You know, I think people go, oh sure, you know, I'm gonna protect myself. And I think when you protect yourself like that, you don't learn, you don't grow, you don't, you know, you don't open yourself up to being vulnerable to what you really, really want. You're always protecting yourself. Yeah. And I don't know, I just, I think the other thing I always think is, you know, people always tell you, you know, that inner self awareness, you know, listen. But you know, I do truly believe, listen to your gut, your heart, your soul and you'll learn. Because I think, you know, when you're mostly on the receiving end of somebody who's not thinking like that. Yeah. Don't. You know when you bump right into somebody who doesn't think with their heart.

It'S like, whoa, yeah, I do, I do.

How is that?

Yeah, yeah. And sometimes it's just like I feel compassion because I'm like, you are so up and your head, like I just want to, I just want to grab your mind and I want to put my hands around it and still it and say sh. You know, drop down from there because you're, I call it head spin. They just go round and round and round and it just sucks all the life force out of them. Then, you know, other people think with their heads because it's all strategic because the heart is this mistrustful little animal that you never ever want to give any attention to or it'll rise up and bite you like a lion. And I say, well, you need to get a home, new relationship going.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I know you've got something to say here too on this, so it's a cool conversation. But you know, when things aren't tangible, whether it's, you know, a change and you don't know what's going to happen next or you know, oh, I'm going to, she's going to tell me to think with my heart and you know, I'm, I'm looking at my bank account going, how do I apply that you know, how do I think with my heart? When I'm looking at my bank account, it says $10 instead of a million. You know, it's like, okay, yeah. And I still say you can think with your heart and you can listen to how what your heart says. You can listen to what your heart, how you feel. You can listen to a number of things there and your heart will tell you exactly what you need to know. The thing about it also is that sometimes your heart speaks the truth and you want to just ignore it. That's really where I think people get into trouble is when your heart, your gut, everything's like saying, oh, I really want to do this. And then you start thinking. It's like, ah, no, no, no, no. There's the, there's a thinking that came in and you just blocked all that energy up. Yeah.

And the response is, well, I can't afford it. Oh, I could never do that. Oh, it's not the right time in my life for that. Oh, so and so will be disappointed in me. And this mile long list, like a list of Santa's naughty children appears.

I had this one client, I talk about this in the book a little bit, you know, is somebody, you know, apply to anybody whether, you know, it could be anybody's client, they'll come up to you and say, well, you know, I want to quit my job. And, and then they'll be like, oh, I can't, you know, I've outweighed. I have clients who produce incredible lists, you know, like the pros and cons and the this and that and everything. And I'm like, well, hang on, what? I'll say, what does your heart say? And they're like, well, I want to quit my job. I hate this. And then they'll come back in their overthinking. Oh, this is a really hard choice. I'm like, mmm, what does your heart say? My heart says I'm miserable at the job and I want to move someplace else kind of thing. And it's like, well, there's your answer. But then what happens is your head starts thinking and you're like, oh man. Okay, there's that list again of these 10 things if I make this choice from my heart that are going to come full on reality. And so we get caught up in those weeds of the actions that, that lay up after we make a choice with our heart. And I still say, you know, lead with your heart, think with your heart, you know, and go from the heart based thinking.

Yeah.

It doesn't steer you Wrong.

I think for me it drops down into. When I don't listen to my heart. It's almost always because of some kind of fear. Oh yeah, a little. A fear of one. If I could figure out what the fear is, then I know why I'm rejecting or neglecting what my heart wants. And so then I have to pivot my attention and say, okay, fear, what the heck are you doing here? What do you want from me? And then go and explore that.

Yeah. And fear is tricky though, don't you think? Because fear is fake. Fear is. I basically think people like, let's say I make a decision, okay, I'm going to quit this job. Well, in pops up fear. There it is. It's like, whoa, all these things. And fear is just basically not knowing what's going to happen next and us as people trying to like, I want to know the outcome, don't you? I want to get things in as tidy of an order as they can possibly be. And here's this fear. It's like free flowing chaos is kind of what people think. Like I've made this choice and here's all the fallout of fear. And we oscillate between being super decisive and super fearful all the time with change. Yeah, I think, I think always in there is fear and how you're managing fear with change. And there's people though. Like, I've had moments in my life where I'm like, I'm doing this and bring it on and all sorts of crazy stuff pops up with that choice. And I'll be. Sometimes I'm brave and sometimes I'm fearful depending on it. But I've made some doozy choices in my life, divorces, I've moved across the country. And sometimes I am a human being who will make the choice, take the action and then think later.

Yeah, I have written down one of the questions I have for you. It's like perfect segue here. Why is change so hard? You should know, you wrote a whole book on how to do it. Yeah. Is it because of the fear? I mean, we often say I want to change, but it's so hard. Like I can't tell you how many times people say that. I'm like, well, why is it hard? I mean, why? We're in the midst of change all the time. You're just conscious. You've just chosen a kind of conscious change as opposed to an unconscious change. Like what do you say we do.

Change all the time. And again, this is so different for all different people. So I mean, you could put 50 people on here and everybody would have different response. Like some. I was teaching this class once and everybody's like, I love change. I'm like, oh, this is interesting.

Who are these people?

Part of it is, I think we're kind of wired that way. A lot of us are wired to just not love things changing. And I can tell you there's a lot of things that I wouldn't want to ever change. I'm like, why does that have to change? Oh, no, you messed with my Levi's or you messed with my Clinique makeup, or you, you know, why did you change that? It was perfect. You know, and so we're kind of that way. We like things a certain way and we like our low comfort zone. And we're here and, you know, we're comfy, so why change it up? And some things don't need to be changed up, but some things just flat out do. And, you know, you can come from your comfort zone or you can come from your growth zone, and I love to come from the growth zone and have that open minded, infinite possibility kind of cool, flowy way about change. And once you kind of get that in your makeup and your best life toolbox, you know, it makes change a little bit easier. The other thing I think about change is, and that's why I wrote this book, is people don't know enough about the topic. And I think the cozier and comfier you become with change, the easier it is. If there's a book on how to navigate change a little bit easier and you read it, when change pops up, that's difficult, you go, oh, wait a minute, okay, I know how to do that. And it becomes safety for you.

Exactly, exactly. And one of the ways that you give to create some of that safety, I think we all often forget about is we think that we're doing it all by ourselves, we're doing it alone. And if we mess up, it's irrevocable. And the fact is, most of our changes are not irrevocable. I mean, there's a few, you know, getting pregnant and getting divorced, losing someone you love, like some are really big, but most of the changes we make, we can walk back from. And not only that, but we're not alone. Like you say in chapter eight, engage, you're changing with other people. So how do you use that support system?

Well, here's the thing about this book too. I wrote it so you could kind of give it a hug and keep it with you. And I included 20 people from the world in the book. So you didn't feel alone. So with each point of change that's in the book, and there's 10 of them, you. There are human beings with you in that chapter to make sure you're not alone. So it's not just me, but other people that are sharing their stories. And then in chapter eight is. You know, I kind of love the. You know how people like the beginning of the book. I kind of like the end of mine. I wanted to write a book people didn't put down. And you can read this one in reverse if you want to. But I love Engage, Master and Impact because I don't think that in life we do very much alone. I really believe in the power of. I always say percolate. I percolate me, percolate us, percolate we. And that makes us percolate peace. And I just really believe in the collaborative universe of we and us. I think you should. When you encounter human beings and they're in your path, I wish we would treat everybody with grace, compassion, a sense of collaboration, kindness, all of these things that make that encounter just way more positive and peaceful. When you talk about aligning your energy, which is the whole last part of the book, there are some really cool ways that you as a human being can engage other people, help the world, help other kids, adults, whoever it is that comes your way through. Engage, Master and impact. You have an impact on every human being you meet, one way or the other. And I say make it a beautiful, positive one.

Yeah.

Because we all need each other. Absolutely. 100%, we all need each other.

Yeah. So what do you suggest? Do you have any real practical thing? I mean, your book is full of practical. Every. Every chapter ends with something you have to do. But what would you say to someone.

Then here engaged or. Oh, boy, you know, I just flat out look around and if you need help, I'd ask for help from someone. Because I think if you start out and you don't, like, if you encounter somebody and you don't say, what's in it for me? But what's in it for us? And you can just simply ask somebody for help. I think when you ask someone for help, if we end this show and two days later, I'm like, you know, Summer, I'd really love your help with this. That isn't a sign of I suck or weakness or anything like that. It's a sign of greater greatness.

I'm just doing a pregnant pause Because I 100% agree with you.

You know, and if we could do that instead of like, oh, my God, she asked me for help. What she want? You know, it's so much cooler if you've got that, you know, collaborative thing. I love your pregnant paws, by the way. But, you know, and that starts with sort of like, you know, I say this time blue in the face all the time, like, treat each other. Treat somebody else as hard as if it were your own.

Mm.

You know, that's huge. Yeah. And it's a pre. It. It sounds kind of funky, but if you put that in practice, it's kind of cool. Yeah. Think of that. If everybody you encountered all day treated you like they treat their. You know. And again, this excludes people who don't treat themselves nicely. I know.

I was just thinking that, like, how many people do I talk to? I'm like, you gotta love yourself more.

Like, seriously, I saw that in your book. I mean, the love yourself chapter is so well written in your book. I read that before you came on my show and I'm like, oh, I love this. And so, yeah, excluding the fact that some people just absolutely hate themselves and treat their own heart terribly, you know, you bump into those people and, you know, to, you know, keep going. But, you know, for the most part, especially like, if you're dealing with little kids and things like that, and their little hearts and minds are so cute and sweet, be nice. Especially if one of them asks you for help. That younger, 25 year old crowd right now, all the kids have been through Covid, if you're listening to me, you know, parents of kids who've gone through Covid, they've lost years of their life, they've lost events, they've lost everything. Those are where, you know, we. We pay very close attention to our youth right now and make sure they're all okay, 100%.

My daughter lost her last two years of high school. No prom, no graduation ceremony. She just got dunked into college, like almost as a. As a sophomore, essentially. So it's been. It's been tough.

Truth be told, they're not okay. If you poke that scab a little bit, they'll tell you. Yeah, it's interesting. So, yeah, and I absolutely love teaching people to root in gratitude, too. And that's one way you can have an amazing impact on other people. You can see it when people aren't rooted in gratitude and you can just give a gentle, you know, everything rooted in gratitude, it changes the whole perspective. Yeah.

Just to go back for a second when you said, you know, ask for help. And you don't seem smaller if you do. That's a theme that I also kind of obsess on. I obsess on a lot of themes. If you could tell by now, right.

We have so much in common, down to pretzels. It's cute.

Yeah. But I obsess on that idea of when we don't ask other people for something. I think it's often I see it in my own students. There's two reasons. One, we've learned how to become a lone wolf because our hearts have been broken, and we just decided that it was easier to retract and pull back, and so we just do it on our own. And I see so many really highly successful people who are loners to the bone, and they are so tired and they're so wrung out. And, you know, I have to kind of explain to them, well, you maxed out that path. I mean, that's as successful as you're going to get. There's no more. You have to actually learn the thing that you dumped a while back on the road to go to the next phase. And that's. You've got to ask. You've got to be vulnerable. You got to show that I don't know how to do this and maybe you can help me. And I don't care if it's somebody above you or below you. You're asking for help in your own mind. Above and below, relative. You have to do that. Like, I want you to feel that. And then the other kind is the people who say, well, I can't ask for help because who would want to help me? I'm not. I'm not there yet. I'm not deserving. They wouldn't want to help me. And then we go into, like you just said, well, how about if we get some love going here? You know, you are worth it, baby. So, yeah, I. I don't know. That's. That's my 2 cents on that.

You know, it's. It's hard. Especially, you know, we're in this period of time where people are. You see more and more people shifting over into life coaching, and they don't know quite what they're doing. They don't have their life coaching yet. You see people wanting to write books, work from home, do all these new things, and people are in a period of time where a lot of people are unsure and they're taking on new careers and doing new things and everything. And I've had a lot of people reach out and say, can you show me how to do a podcast, can you show me how to do a website? Can you show me how to write a book? Can you show me how to do. I'm like, heck, yeah, I can. And it may not be perfect, but I can get you going. You know, people will. If you've done something that people, you know, like visible, for example, they'll just go there. You know, there's all sorts of things, you know. But let's say, you know, you've written a book. There are a lot of people listening to us right now, Summer, who are like, how did they do that? How did they even do that? How did they. And they will call, they will email. They will. I mean, I had like 10 emails in the past couple weeks from people like, how'd you write a book? Did you get an agent? I just sent my manuscript in automatically, you know, kind of thing. And they look for guidance. And I'm proud of people when they do that because they're shown a little bit of vulnerability. And the other thing they're doing that is so awesome is they're putting their goals out into the universe. When you have a goal and you say it out loud and proud and you share it with the world, guess what? People can show up for you. It's incredible. That's the coolest thing. I remember way, way, way back when, a hundred thousand years ago. Now. I'm in my mid-50s, and when I was 39, I said, I want to write a book by the time I'm 40. And I think I want it to be a children's books, because I've got a children's book because I've got all these little boys here, and I'm doing story times and cookies and all this stuff. And I said it out loud. My friend Deb Landry was like, well, I can help with that. I know how to do that. I'm like, bring it on. Let's do it. And that was a cat's eye view of Maine. Two little kids illustrated it from high school or middle school, and it wasn't perfect, but it was done. And that's so cool. People will show up for you once.

You put it out there. Exactly. They can't show up for you if it's still a hazy, secret idea inside your own being. You've got to make the energy live. You've got to let it go, let it loose so people can see it and respond to it.

Yeah, exactly. And it. And it grows from there, and. And there's plenty of room for all of us. That's the other thing. People are like, oh, it's my idea. And I'm like, oh, come on. If you've got the idea, 10 people have it too. So just out with it. Let's get the goal. Get the goal accomplished. You know, you can even see, like, similarities in our books. You know, it's. There's plenty of room for all of us. Yeah, exactly. You. I'm me. I'm authentically me. You're authentically you, and it's awesome. Yeah.

And Elizabeth, I mean, you've done so much. You like, you're a highly productive person. As I would say. What is that, an HPP? You're a highly productive person. You've got besteveryou.com, a magazine, a podcast. You're an author. I mean, like, you've got. So how. How. How have you created this empire? I mean, let's talk about not just how to write a book, but, like, do you just do one piece at a time, or are you just following your heart and you're like, this is what's moving me now, or.

Yep, exactly that for sure. This is kind of what moves me now. So sometimes it feels a little all over the place to. When people know me closely, I'm like, oh, the magazine needs some focus, or podcast needs some focus, or something like that. But basically, most of me is in the financial services industry. I grew up. Everything about me is financial services. And with two small kids, at first, that proved to be quite something. Traveling around 250,000 miles a year with two little kids, kids in tow, and a nanny. And I just basically got divorced. And this long story a little bit, but I'll shorten it up. Got divorced, got remarried, had two more boys, and stayed home with the kids for a really long time. And in there, I was like, oh, I'm losing myself a little bit here. And so I was like, you know, this is going to be really cool when the little one goes to first grade. Guess what I'm going to do? Put those heels and suit back on and go back in and be vice president. And that is what I did. And summer, every moment of that, basically was torture.

Yeah.

It was like, what did I just do to myself? I hate this so much. And I realized, oh, girl, you've changed. Okay kind of thing. And so I was sitting there going, you know, I feel torn in 10 different parts between being a mom and an executive. I'm like, there it is. I'm torn. I cannot do both of these things really great. And I'M like, and who do I want to do? Who do I want to turn out better than anything? The kids. So this is gonna go now. And I shut my door. And. Oh, the other thing, too. It was in the middle of four guys fighting. Believe it or not, I have. I have four kids. They don't fight. Yeah, no, there were four guys in the office fighting. And I'm like, I hate this so much. And I closed my door and I'm like, I wrote best ever me. Mmm, that sounds funny. Best ever you. There's gotta be people like me in the same spot. I quit. When I wrote out best ever you, I quit my job. I was like, I quit. I'm going home. And my husband and kids are like, you quit your job? Like, yes, I did. And I went up the street to a friend, and I'm like, hey, I need you to, like, there's these website things. I need you to get me one of them. I had no idea what I was doing. Like, now I can program websites and do all this stuff myself. But she got best everyou.com for me, and I have not looked back a day. And I've had moments where I've wanted to quit, I'll tell you that. It's gotten hard. You feel alone. You feel like you're sometimes doing too bitten off more than you know or can chew. Right. You know, I've definitely been, you know, beat up along the path. I felt like my worth was in question, you know? And it's funny, because you're such a contradiction there. You're trying to help people be your best, and you're like, I feel my worst right now, you know? Yeah. So how's that? It's been a long journey, but I wouldn't change a moment of it. And I feel like I'm. I don't know if this makes sense, but I'm in my mid-50s, and I have such clarity now. I know what I'm doing now. I don't know if that makes any sense at all.

That makes perfect sense, 100% more clear. I'm 51, and I'm starting to realize that the 50s are all about when you finally say, I don't really care what other people think anymore in a very, very good way. And I can take these chances, and they will probably work out. And a lot of the fear that you had when you were younger just starts to, I don't know, melt away. I don't just say that, you know, for people who are successful, because I know some people are Just restarting. Like they're just freshly divorced or their kids are freshly out of the house and they're at total loose ends and don't know who they are and have to find, like, a whole new future. And I feel like, well, you know what? You're still in this phase. No matter what resources you do or don't have, you could still be in this phase. Yeah.

I think it's like you can grow no matter what, but you know how to access all the information a little bit differently. Yeah. And a lot of it, I think, is wisdom from. In my case, wisdom from raising kids, too. You know, we've been married 25 years. The boys are in college or out of college with master's degrees or playing college baseball at Georgetown. It's still going on all over the place. And I don't feel like I'm on such a personal growth journey anymore. I still am, but I feel like I can kind of turn around and help people get the results that they're looking for now with a little bit more clarity.

Exactly.

I used to feel like it was kind of a. Kind of a. Like, well, I'm still trying to do stuff here, and so are you, and I got to take care of me a little bit now. I'm like, I'm good. I can. I can help you thoroughly now. I. I've done what I've kind of wanted to do a little bit. I feel a little bit more secure like that. Like, I've achieved some of the things that I wanted to do that were questionable to me before. Like when I was like, oh, I think I'm gonna go write a book. Everybody. Everybody in my family was like, what are you gonna write about us?

Yeah.

I'm like, really? That's your question? Huh? It was funny. Don't say anything mean about us. I'm like.

Now I'm going to toughen up. Toughen up.

Oh, no, I'm kidding. I would never do that.

But see, that's so funny, because I would say, because I come from a book background, my. In fact, my. My family used to own a small press, you know, when I was growing up. So writing a book is like, oh, of course you can write a book. That's no problem. But quitting your corporate job, oh, my God. How could you do that? See, so, yeah, it's funny how we. We all have very different expectations or understandings of what's going to be hard and what we should be afraid of and.

And what we aren't.

Yeah. And. And respecting that when Somebody's. When somebody comes at you with something that you don't have any familiarity with.

Yeah.

I think one of the beautiful things, too, is in my mid-50s, I kind of know somebody who might know somebody who might know something about that. And so beautiful referrals. And I, you know, I like to connect dots. Mm. I think that's one of my favorite things, is to just make sure we're all interconnected. Yes.

Yes.

And I'm hard to get rid of.

You are. I am now officially putting you in the group of people I call the connectors. You just have an instinctual sense of these people belong together. And it's like you're staring down at a web of everyone you know, and you just know who belongs. You can't help. You just want to. You want to put them in the same pot together so bad and get them to stir up and mix. I love you.

You're so.

You're rare and wonderful.

Aw, thank you. And I'm loving you too. I knew I was going to when I started reading your book. I'm like, oh, I love her. So it'll be really fun as we get to know each other more and more. But, yeah, I've always considered myself a dot connector. Like, even when I was itty bitty, I'm like, okay. And have matched people up and just. I'm a dot connector, and it's hard to not be. It doesn't make sense to me when people are like, want to be alone? I'm like, no.

So I come from the loner side, and I've had to teach myself.

It's okay.

It's okay. You can talk to them. You can let yourself out. You don't have to do it all by yourself. You can see I had to teach myself that over time. It sounds like you did too, to some degree. But you. You have a more natural sense of.

You know, like, some wounds here and there. I can pick in the wrong people or whatever. Yeah, no, it's all good. Yeah.

Or.

Oh, I had one recently where they were like, you know, I'm like, oh, my God, I love your art. Just absolutely adored their art. I mean, from my heart. Just like, I emailed them in Instagram. Like, I just absolutely love this. It's the cutest thing I've ever seen. Let me help you. I want to help you grow huge. Like, let me connect you with my agent. Let me connect you so your brand takes off. She's like, you just want my company. I'm like, oh, my God, you didn't hear me.

What?

I don't want anything to do with your company. I think your art is cute and I want to see it on calendars, honey. And she's like, I don't trust you. And I'm like, okay. So sometimes you get that with being over connect.connectish.

But you just gave them an opportunity to get through it. So I think you did your job. Hats off.

Yeah. And I left her alone. I'm like, oh, she's gonna learn. She's young. It was a 20 something. And I'm like, yep, okay.

Hopefully.

Yeah. My husband's like, just leave it. And I'm like, oh, but she's so cute. And he's like, you gotta leave it alone.

Yeah, it's funny.

I can see it all unfolding. Nope.

Yeah, yeah. You have a huge Instagram following. I know.

On a platform that bugs me about Instagram. I'm like, oh, this platform, it doesn't link. It doesn't link back to any articles or any shows or anything. I'm like, what do I do with this? I'm like, okay, cats, get ready.

Yeah, but you figured it out, right? And it's okay. Can you tell people how can they see you on social media? Because you know they're gonna want to at this point after we've been talking.

I hang out on Twitter actually. If you really want to get me, tweet me at best ever, you. But other than that, I'm on Instagram, I'm all over Facebook. You got to look for the blue checks on everything of mine. Everything's verified.

Okay.

If there's not a blue check by it, that is not me. I'll say that I've been verified on Twitter for years. All that good stuff. I hang out on Pinterest even too. There's a blue check by that. But I love social media. I'm active on every platform I'm there. It's either my full name or best ever. You. Yeah, I love it.

So, okay, let's go back to your books then for a second too. You've got the Change Guidebook and then you've got your book percolate. What is the subtitle on that one?

Let your best self filter through.

Let your best self filter through. What do you think? Which of the two is the most salient for people right now, today? That's a hard question, right? But just given what we've all been through, like, what one would you say? Pick this one up.

Okay, here's the thing. I would say if you have A health crisis or somebody in the icu, pick up, Percolate. Because that was written when my dad was a stroke survivor and going through rehab and all this stuff. And we were in the icu. So that book lives in ICU waiting rooms. Oh, my gosh. I hear all the time from people that if you've got right now, though, what I would say is if you don't have that going on, pick up the Change Guidebook. Because I wrote it to kind of meet you in this moment right now. Like, if you've got something you want to change or you have a change that you have that you didn't ask for, like those clubs we don't want to join. This book is designed to meet you right there and go forward with you. Okay. Just like yours.

Yes, yes, absolutely. Yeah. It's full of exercises, a lot of, you know, juicy self insightful questions. And then you offer, okay, and now do this. And I mean, that's my favorite kind of book. Let me actually do something. I want to do something.

These are great. I think these books are going to live together actually, because both of them are great books to get like unstuck and moving forward. Like if you've got that foggy feeling like, oh, something's not right or something's right, but it could be better or whatever that is that like unknown, kind of like, I need to do something. I don't know what it is though. And I got to kind of sort through you got kind of inclination of both. These books are really good for that. Yeah. Wonderful stuff. Nobody taught you. And the Change Guidebook. They're good.

Wow. That should be the last sentence we say here. That's it. You nailed it. Both of them. Blah, blah and blah blah. Get them. Go get them. No, just kidding.

I've got them together. Yours is like double the size of mine. You're really. You've got a thick book, but they're written differently. Your book. Look, you know, you get it and you're like, wow, that's a big book. And then you go, oh, wait a minute. It's like two pages, three pages at a time, chapter wise.

Yeah.

So it's little bits and pieces of things that you can actually do with exercises, which is cool.

Yeah.

Tiny bites. Tiny bites. That's what I tell everybody. Take tiny bites. You'll still get through your meal. Just take tiny bites. Whatever size works for you. So. But yours, yours too. Full of success tips for anybody. I mean, you know what I love how you could just go to like, say Amazon and Kind of peek inside the book. I always do that. So everybody go do that. See what. See what's in there.

Wouldn't that be nice? Yeah. To everybody Hang out over on Amazon. Like, I think some, like, 90% of the books these days are sold on Amazon. I know. So as authors, I always give this speech now. You know, like, as authors, we really kind of need you to go to Amazon because it determines the life of us in a way. It's kind of funky. But on the same token, I have absolutely loved the local bookstores here in Maine. Like, my books at all the Shermans here and everything. I'm like, oh, that is sweet.

Yes. Yeah.

And book signings, and they're like, you know, that's cool.

Keep your independent bookstores in business, please.

Yeah. Because there's nothing worse than a book signing. And you go there, and then there's nobody there, and you've got, like, crickets at your book signing. Yeah, that's a weird feeling. And I've had that happen before, but not with Sherman's. The people from Maine, you know, like, were steady coming in. It was cool. Okay. This is fun.

All right, Elizabeth, well, thank you so much. It's been an enlightening conversation, and love some of your perspectives, especially on the heart and change and connecting. I think we hit some really interesting topics. I hope people listening right now. You guys have maybe heard something about yourself in some of the things we've brought up, and you've been shooting your hand in the air saying, that's me. That's me. Oh, that's me. That's always my goal. And then what do you do with it? Or how do you get through it? So thank you so much.

Thank you for having me. It was really fun.

All right, be sure to look up Elizabeth, everybody, besteveryou.com. get her magazine that you'll see there. Pick up her book, the Change Guidebook, listen to her podcast, or find her on your favorite social media. She is a little bit like me. We're kind of everywhere. So pick your favorite place and go. And that's a wrap for today. I hope you guys got something. Hmm.

Like, got some good, juicy feeling of.

Yeah, you know what? I think I'm gonna be a little more flexible.

I think I'm gonna lean into this. I think I'm gonna see where these new trade winds are blowing.

In other words, you feel a bit more inspired.

I can allow myself to flex, to move into new spaces. It's gonna be okay.

Really will, actually.

It really will be okay. No matter what you choose. Sometimes I think we forget that whatever.

You choose, it'll be okay. If you want it to be okay.

It'Ll be okay with that. I'm closing up today's episode, but hang out. I have a little announcement here at the end. Yes, MI School is enrolling. If you love personal inner power, if you love intuition, if you love all of the topics that I delve into on this podcast, you will love being in a group of like minded kindred souls, fired up and passionate about making gorgeous and transformational changes in their life. I shepherd a crew of these little birdies through every single year into doing absolutely amazing things in. You could be one of them. So hang out, listen and I'll see you next episode. MI School is happening and it only happens once a year. This year we're starting in September and it is a wild and wonderful ride. In fact, last year more than half of the students were taking it for.

Their second or third time.

Which is crazy. What it tells you is that one MI School is epic for learning how to awaken or accelerate your intuition, learning to manifest at a richer, deeper level, and for creating those long standing desires, making those things in your life finally real. And two MI School works. It just works. So head on over to flowdreaming.com MI School we are registering you right now. I really hope to see you as part of our MI School class and one of the next people on this planet to graduate into their next level self. Again. Just head over to flowdreaming.com/me school and learn all about it.