The Power of Presence: A Mindful Approach to Entrepreneurship

coach, a consultant, an entrepreneur, a speaker, an author, you're a business owner, and you start your business and you're full of vim and vigor. I mean, you're really excited about your business, and then you get to a point where the business starts to take over you and you start to question whether you're in the right business. Let me know if that's something that you can relate to, this idea that you start to feel like you're losing yourself in the process. Because if you felt like that now or in the past, then today's interview on Cashing on Camera is for you because Harrison Marr is here. And this is Harrison. You're just somebody who I just love to connect with because you're all about embodying and kind of reclaiming and going back to that place of remembering who you truly are. Like, I love the work that you do. Because this is something that happens in entrepreneurship, I feel, that we lose ourselves. What has been your experience in the people that you've worked and that you've served? Do you find that people lose themselves in entrepreneurship?

So the short answer is yes, my friend, and for many reasons. But the thing that drops in in this moment is in the business entrepreneurship both a part of, there are so many labels and boxes and personas that we put on, and many of them are beautiful. However, if we're not mindful of the current mask, I'll call it, here in this moment, and what it is producing in our world, if it is producing a lot of negativity, most likely unconsciously, it's going to produce stress, it's going to produce a lot of inner tension, and it's going to produce a lot of stress, which often leads to burnout.

Stress is something that is a killer on so many levels. It can kill your sense of intuition. I think it can also kill your sense of creativity. And those are important aspects and qualities to keep intact as, as, as an entrepreneur. So how might we be able to safeguard that?

Well, first of all, it's understanding that those things never really go anywhere, right? If we feel like we've lost them, is to, is to with love, say to ourselves that this is an illusion, right? You never lose your intuition. You never lose your inner power. You never, you never lose your inner inner knowing. It's always there. The difference is the amount of separation that you are creating internally between it. So the first tip, Cheryl, is to remind yourself of that, that it's not a gaining of, but it's a remembering in, a remembering through. More practically, what that looks like is creating time in your day to be present, right? And that's a big word in the spiritual community at the moment. I know it's the name of our chat today, but it's— it is really that— I don't want to say simple, but it is that process. And becoming present can look like many things. It can be incorporating meditation, it can be incorporating breathwork, it can be incorporating just detaching from a meeting and going outside and connecting to the God that is in nature. But to sort of land here, Cheryl, it's creating more present moment awareness throughout your day so you can come back to what your current truth is.

Entrepreneurs are notoriously busy, especially in the early stages, because we are doing likely everything. We're the cook and the pot washer, right? We're doing everything. And so we get caught up in a lot of busy work, not to mention that social media, the presence online, a lot of Zoom meetings and all of these different things. And so it's really easy for us to get caught up in all the busy work. How, from a practical perspective, can we be more present when we're busy?

Well, I laugh because, you know, I'm there with you. For one, this is not a, you know, Cheryl Harrison is detached from this. This is— we're in it, as you beautifully just highlighted. I think where my heart goes intuitively is busting the limiting belief that when we stop the busyness or stop the doing or stop the ticking off of all the— that we're not valuable, right? I know that I haven't incorporated meditation, stillness, presence, mindfulness, breathwork, all the things I just mentioned. I haven't placed them in my busy work day because I had the limiting belief that stillness isn't valuable, that stillness isn't productive, that stillness isn't getting it done. And that's one of the biggest limiting beliefs of all, right? I've produced more work in doing nothing than I've produced work in the doing of all the things. So just to wrap that up there, it's catching that belief when it comes in. That's that's causing you to make the choices of not incorporating the stillness, of not incorporating the meditation, of not incorporating the moments of silence, and reminding yourself that you have just as much power, value, and worth when you are sitting still and doing nothing as you are when you're ticking off all the things in your busy workday.

I want to dig into that a little bit more because you hinted that this has been your personal experience. In that you have actually accomplished and done more in the stillness and in the quiet times and taking that and being present than you have when you were doing the busy work. So tell me a little bit about your story then in terms of your own experience of how this has worked for you.

I mean, so much I could speak to this, but I'll give one little example in this, in the time that we have here. So for anyone that is in the spiritual path or this on the spiritual awakening journey, which I'm sure many of the viewers here are, it is not an outer exploration. It is an inner exploration, right? The outer triggers our inner exploration, but ultimately the, the spiritual awakening path is one of inner. And this looks like many different things for many different people. For me, it looked like seeking teachers, mentors, guides, uh, and special kinds of schools that you can go to to help awaken mystical spiritual gifts, to put it very simply. So how it's looked like for me, to answer your question, has been one, seeking those mentors, seeking those systems, seeking that educational system to give me structure around my spiritual gifts. But a lot of the teachings that have come out of those educational systems haven't been doing things, haven't been, you know, going to make something or going to produce something. A lot of the teachings that have come in my own experience from seeking these teachers have been going inside, sitting in meditation for 20, 40, hour, hour and a half, minutes, sitting down taking a mantra or taking an intention and just sitting with it in silence and seeing what happens. And when I say to you, Cheryl, that I've done more in that hour of time, just sitting with that one little intention in my inner world versus, you know, I would even say a week of producing things in the external, it's mostly because, and I'll try and keep this very concise because this is a whole big concept in itself. There is no, there is no external reality, Cheryl. There is just our inner state of consciousness that we project out onto the outside world that we create. And the reason for that is because if we can understand that, then we can start to go in within ourselves and start to see that 10 minutes on a meditation mat, as an example, where I hold an intention within my inner world, doesn't just impact my inner world. It impacts every single relationship, every single interaction, every single choice I then make within my day, moving from that mat.

I understand the concept of and the power of meditation from the perspective of having maybe done it a few times here and there. I don't think, you know, admittedly, I don't think it's a daily practice that I'm, you know, but I can understand that there is power in that. Or like you said, you know, maybe breathwork or taking time or being in nature. I think probably being in nature is the one that I do the most consistently in terms of my daily or weekly life. And I love doing that. And so what I heard you say is that when you are taking that time and you're being more present with yourself and you're going inward, that this is— is it helping you to download information or download? Because we often hear the word, I got a download from a creator or God or whatever it is, that source that you believe in. I got a download and then I'm going to act on that thing. Is that something that you believe in? Is that how it works, that we are going inside of ourselves in order to get the download so that we can then act upon and understand better if we're on the right path.

So again, short answer, yes, Cheryl. I think you beautifully highlighted it. I would— that, that is one of the ways I would describe the process of what occurs when you start to have a daily mindful presence-based practice, like going out in nature, like you just described. It is a download, but I, I want to just share something around this, a belief that came up for me around that word download when I first started practicing it and receiving it in my world, is that I grew up in a very religious upbringing, and nothing against that, but I, I learned from a young age that my creator, my source, my higher power that that download comes from that you just described is something outside of me, is something— I'll just use a very stereotypical example— is a man on a cloud outside of me. And I say this with all love in the world, that is probably the biggest illusion of all. So the reason I share that, when we start to understand what a download actually is, Yes, we are receiving something. Yes, we are receiving intuitive guidance or an inspirational idea or a, or a powerful insight that's going to help us with our business. But it's very important to understand within that, that mechanism of the download, that, that higher knowing is you, right? That, that download is coming from you. It is not coming from an outside source. It is coming from a— and I'm just, I'm going to just throw this word out there. This might be new to your audience, but it is coming from a higher dimensional, higher consciousness, higher frequency that is still you. And the meditation, the being out in nature, the breathwork, the chanting, the whatever your meditative practice is, It was the gateway to unlock that higher frequency, higher knowing, that higher consciousness download.

So that means that we already know the answer. Yep. That is super powerful. That is super powerful.

Going back to what I said before, it's a remembering. It's not a gaining. It's a remembering of what's there the whole time.

And tapping into the knowledge and the wisdom through a higher level of consciousness or frequency that's there all along. But because we are having, we're in a human body and we're having a physical, a soul, our soul is having a human physical experience. But really it's the power of presence and how to be mindful in how you approach entrepreneurship. And there could be an application here for entrepreneurship is that you, are taking these practices, and you've named off a whole bunch of different ones, and maybe you do some or all of those, to be present inside of yourself so that you can tap into what you already know, the wisdom that's already lying within you. And I too grew up in a religious— I have a religious background as well. And you're right, we were taught to believe that it's somebody, something outside of us.

Something outside of us. Yeah.

I wonder if you could speak to your mantra. I know you have a sort of a mind, body, soul mantra that I'd love for you to share with the rest of the audience who are watching the videos or who are listening to the audio right now.

Yeah. So this mantra actually flows beautifully onto what we're already talking about, right? This connecting to this knowing that's already there. Right. If we could, if you've understood up to this point that what we've just been explaining, I think the next logical question is, okay, why can't I tap into that knowing all the time? Let's, let's use the entrepreneurial context. How come in my business day, I'm just not, I'm just not always in that connection to my higher source or my higher consciousness or getting the downloads all the time. And that why is probably the best question that you can ask. Because, you know, you could speak to many experts around, you know, what is, what is the separation that we are causing? But to put it very simply here in this moment, back to that, my mind, body, soul synchronizing, it's, it's a disconnect between the holistic being that we are, right? We aren't just, as you described before, we aren't just the spiritual being. We are a very human being having a human experience. And that human being is made up of a physical body. And it's also made up of a mental body that holds your emotions as well. So if we are looking to be in, I would call my recent book that just came out, I call to it being the open, the being the love frequency or the love channel, right? And to be the love channel where you're getting those downloads, it's not just about being spiritually aligned. You need to synchronize your physical body and you're those thoughts and those emotions.

I feel like I have had moments in my life where I've felt maybe more synchronized than others. Yeah, you know, and specifically around the body side of things in sort of the way of, you know, it's like, am I, am I exercising? Am I moving my body? It doesn't mean necessarily going pumping iron at the gym. It's just like, am I being Present in my body? Am I honoring my body? Am I walking? Am I physically active? And I very cyclical with that over the course of my life, especially my adult life. Um, in terms of, of that, you know, what are some things that we can do to better synchronize if we are entrepreneurial, we are running a business, we are busy? Do you have some tips on how we can be more present. And again, I'm just speaking from my own experience that I feel like the, the, the, the part that I've struggled the most with is probably more on the body side of things. I'd love to know if you have any tips on how we can integrate this more into our lives.

Yeah. I'll give, I'll give 3, Cheryl. I'll give, I'll give 3 tips with the physical, the mental, and the emotional, because we've already talked about the spiritual side of things with those practices. Right. So I'll give, I'll give 3 from the other sections of our being, holistic being, right? So from a physical lens, the biggest tip I can provide, and this is going to connect to all the physical activities you end up doing, pumping iron, going for a walk, swimming, yoga, whatever your practice is, the biggest tip to understand is the physical body is your outlet, is your expression of the channel or of the downloads that you talked about before. We need to nourish the physical body. There needs to be devotional appreciation for the physical body. And the reason I say this is because in many spiritual communities, there is this teaching and understanding that we need to transcend the body, that we need to forget the body, that we need to overlook the body. So a tip in itself from a physical lens is to see how valuable and how beautiful the body is. And that in itself will motivate you to do all the physical things that you end up deciding that is good for you, right? A mental tip. If you have not delved into the world of healing or inner child love, child self-care, self-love, I would put it on top of your list, right? And we could do a whole separate podcast on what that is in its entirety, but just to simply outline it as a practice, what it looks like is connecting back into that inner child energy that is, is still you, right? I don't want to get too deep here, but just to simply describe it, there is no time when you start to go to in your inner world. And what that means from an inner child lens is that any inner child belief, any inner child wound, any inner child trauma, pain, separation that is left unaddressed still exists inside of you. So from a mental lens, if there is a— let's just use one example— there's a limiting belief around, as a child, you were, you were told that your voice doesn't matter, that you should be seen, not heard. And that's still in your programming. That is projecting into your business, that is projecting into your entrepreneurial activities in all of the ways, right? And then finally, from an emotional lens, you need to understand that your emotional expression is the answer to you showing up more bright in this world, right? And I could break down many different Avenues of what that actually means, but just to be very simple and quick right here in this moment. We spend so much time in our mental capacity, in our mind, which is beautiful and we need that, but we forget our heart and our heart often holds and stores and expresses the emotions that move through us. And when we are in the entrepreneurial environment context, And Cheryl, you've actually pointed this out to me. We can channel our emotions through our words, through our voice, and that attracts people, that brings people in, and that starts to synchronize us across those different sections.

This is brilliant, and I know that we could go on for an hour easily, easily. And we have had so many wonderful conversations so far, and I'm sure we'll have many more. Harrison, this has been wonderful, and I so appreciate you coming on Cashin' on Camera today to share these, these practices, these ideas with us so that we can better tap into what's already within us. And I think that the work of entrepreneurship is something that is so important. I think we both agree that when you feel called to entrepreneurship, it's because you feel a calling to want to help others. And so it comes from this wonderful place And one of the things I appreciate about you and having been on various calls with you in certain groups that we're parts of is that you'll be asked a question and you've done it even here today. You'll be asked a question. And I know that you're tapping into your own intuition in terms of the answers that you're giving. And I think if we all did more of that, it would transform things.

Yeah. And Cheryl, you nailed it. It's not a Harrison thing. Right. It's in, I'll use you as an example, right? I'll take the praise and I'll throw it back to you, right? The reason that you get, and maybe you don't even realize this yourself, my friend, the reason that you get so excited when you see it happening in me is yes, because we're friends and you connect and you appreciate the value that I'm giving the world. But I would say the deeper side of that is the side of you that has that same capacity is getting excited in that moment. Right. So maybe this is the last tip I can share here today before we finish is when you, from an emotional lens, get excited about what someone else is doing. Yes. Hold gratitude, hold praise, give them love, kindness. That is beautiful. But also take a moment in that, in that expression to acknowledge if it exists in them, it also exists inside of you. And the reason you're excited in that moment is because that same piece wants your acknowledgement.

Wow, that is fantastic, Harrison. Thank you so much. And how do people get in touch with you? Tell us a little bit more about the work that you do, and, and I'll show the website on the screen as we look through your media kit.

Well, Cheryl, I just want to say thank you for having me. It's been a beautiful conversation, and I felt your love in this, in this conversation just as much as I've been able to share mine. So people can go to my website, HarrisonMah.com. That's Mah, M-E-A-G-H-E-R. You can find out what I'm doing in the world. I do a lot of one-on-one coaching and mentoring. I also have a book that just came out, Your Cosmic Love Antenna, which breaks down the, the synchronizing that we just talked about, the mind, body, soul synchronizing, as well as getting those downloads and, and expressing more of yourself. I also have a podcast that Cheryl is going to be on very soon herself called the same name, Your Cosmic Love Antenna. And that's also another way that you can tune into my frequency and what I'm doing in the world.

Harrison, this has been a pleasure and an honor to have you on the show. I'm so glad that we have— we know each other and that we're friends. And I so appreciate you coming on and sharing your thoughts today. So thank you for being here.

My pleasure.

And for those of you who want to know a little bit more about the work that, that I do in Cheryl Plouffe Media, you can certainly connect with me on social media. You can find me @CherylPlouffe, especially if you're listening to the podcast right now. Find me on social media @CherylPlouffe and you'll find my signature card in the profile. You can click that if you're watching the video. You can take a picture of the QR code on your screen and connect with me as well. And you'll find out where I'm, where I'm speaking, who I have coming up on the show, resources that are available to you. You can learn more about the work that I do with Scalable Business Accelerator, YouTube, as well as digital products and podcasting as well. Thank you so much for being here today, and I look forward to seeing you in the next episode.