The Hidden Energy Blocking Your Next Level

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I work with a lot of people in that identity framework where a lot of times we have and hold shame and guilt and lower energy of previous experience, maybe even trauma. And what, what shame and guilt tell us is, I hope nobody finds me out. Well, on the other side of it, success can also create a block in that we're sitting here, we're at the height of our game, and we're like, I hope nobody forgets.

Now, one of the biggest mistakes that entrepreneurs make is becoming so attached to their business that they lose the ability to actually see the business evolution itself. And we get stuck and we're missing all sorts of opportunities. And I'm so excited because we're gonna get some incredible breakthroughs on why we're getting stuck, getting us to the next level, helping us evolve our business ourselves. I'm so excited to bring into Inside the Speakeasy podcast, Candice Elizabeth, out from our amazing Charlotte chapter. She's an international speaker, retreat facilitator, private advisor, founder of The Warrior Within Healing. She works with a ton of high-performing professionals, entrepreneurs, and business leaders who are navigating seasons of growth and transition. And she helps them create alignment between who they have been and who they're becoming. She is the person that every time you walk in a room and see new faces, everybody grabs somebody they know, their fellow entrepreneurs, and say, you gotta get with Candice. And we're gonna find out why today. And we're excited cuz we're bringing her to Inside the Speakeasy podcast today. Welcome, Candice.

Oh, thank you, Eric. I'm really excited to dive into this today.

All right. Well, I mean, before we get into the really good stuff, cuz I know you have lots of nuggets, we were talking in the green room and I was like, oh, hold that thought cuz I wanna learn more. But I'd say, but you know, you're on Charlotte. Tell us a little bit of how you got to where you are today.

Yeah. So part of my background has been helping franchise owners build their business. So I had no idea that I would be taking all of those skills and applying it in my everyday life now, in that when you're working with a franchise owner, they're usually, I got this brand and it's just going to build itself. But in reality, you have to build the foundational elements to make that brand successful. Doesn't matter if it's a fitness facility or a green juice place, you have to build the community around that. And, you know, going back, even, you know, when I was in college for early childhood development, a lot of it was psychology and connecting the dots and understanding human behavior. And then I'm just a book nerd and I love to read everything there is about science and spirituality. And so combining all of these skills that I've learned over time really developed what I'm able to do now, where it's like seeing the limitations, hearing the language that people use, that is really the pattern that they're holding is a part of my secret sauce.

Love it. Okay. So I'm going to slow us back a little bit. Did you grow up in Charlotte? Are you from there?

No. So I grew up in Texas. I am now a military spouse of 10 years. So I've quite literally lived in 5 different locations in the last 10 years, everywhere from Washington State. We went from Washington to Washington. That was kind of fun. And then out to Southern California, Kansas. I've lived in Tennessee. So I've lived in multiple places and we're finalizing our stay, uh, AKA my husband's retiring the 31st of August.

Yeah.

So this has been a really expansive year of being able to build what I'm ready to build. You know, having your business live in different states, there's a lot of complications that can go with that, but you know, you learn and you adapt and you grow. And so that's what brought me here to Charlotte and kind of getting into what I'm building in this season.

And just the difficulties for people traveling around so much for whatever reason and how you're adapting to that. Cause I know that can't be easy. That builds a tough core inside of you to do that. How did you get into this world? You mentioned that like you started working with people that are franchise owners. I didn't realize that you're like, you buy a franchise or like, okay, I spent all this money buying a franchise. Let me set it up and let's go. We're going to start making money based on the brand itself. And you're like, ah, it doesn't work that way. How did you get into that side of the business?

It really is. So my first quote unquote big girl job was working for a gym. And I was 22 when I became a manager at a gym and had to learn everything. That's back when you had to still like actually data enter things. But, you know, learned early on how to be a leader, how to connect and do B2B, B2C relationship building. So that set the foundation. And then, you know, getting into working for— I worked under a franchise owner for Yoga Six in Virginia. After the height of COVID So not only were permits a thing, like everything stalled that building from opening that was possible, but it was my first major project to take on after being out of the industry for so long. So I had worked with Anytime Fitness in Washington State. COVID happens, then we get our orders to move anyway. So you can just imagine, and I'm kind of fast forwarding a little bit here, but essentially I came out to Virginia and had to go into a whole different field because there were No jobs open in the fitness industry. That was closed down. We were actually reversed a stage in Virginia. So I went into emergency veterinary care. I did zero background. Okay. I really say they probably needed a living, breathing body there. And so they brought me in, but I learned, and this is something that I took later, is that I was observing the patterns that people were going through in that they were DoorDashing 3 and 4 times a day. They were depressed. They were not exercising. They weren't— They're mental health was really negative. And so, I needed to kind of be in it again to see and help build what I would build next, which was launching a yoga studio from, you know, 4 walls and a concept to a community of 450 members. So, we hit the ground running hard with the knowledge in the background of like, okay, this is abnormal for people already. How do we reach them in a place that they're at? They're coming out of COVID They want To take care of their body, but they might not know how to do it. So again, every single piece of my journey helped really inform why I'm so good at what I do, because I pay attention and I see how people interact in their everyday life. And how I got into consulting and coaching was that I met my practitioner. So I'm an energy practitioner on top of coaching. So I do a combination, more conscious work. I do work with business owners who are more consciously inclined. And again, I met my practitioner and I was like, wait, You're talking about this in public and nobody's like saying anything in like Virginia. So I need to know what you're doing because you have a really great energy and I just want to know more. And then I had a session and I was just blown away with how I felt and the clarity that I had. And I was like, okay, this is what I'm meant to do. I know that I'm meant to teach this and I know I'm meant to incorporate it somehow. I didn't know I was going to build a business solely on all of that work until much later. And so I launched my business and I had like instant success. I had 20 clients right away. It was like, I mean, it was like unheard of how fast my business grew. And then we had to move. And so when we moved from Virginia to Southern California, I thought, okay, everybody in Southern California has to be into this. Like it's going to be a cakewalk.

Wrong. Wrong.

Nobody knew what I was talking about in the area I was in. And so I had this like whole year of silence where I kind of like got in my feelings. I worked with clients, but nothing really consistent. And then it was like a year later, I did all this inner work and did some other contracting work. And I like sat with it and I was like, I know I'm meant to do this. So what is not, what is not moving it forward? And if I could play Taylor Swift's song, It's Me, I'm the Problem, that is what was playing because it was me not doing the business needle-moving things I knew to do that I had been teaching people how to do in my, throughout my career. I wasn't doing it for my own business. I wasn't taking my business seriously. And the moment that I started changing things, it was like my first client came in. Then I had 4 clients and then it was just like boom, boom, boom. And by the end of that following year, I had 92 clients, 2 fully booked retreats, speaking engagements were starting to come in. It was like everything changed. And so yeah, that's what got me into even being in the season I'm in this year where it's like I'm doing global speaking. I'm facilitating an event, like I'm doing even bigger things. But again, I built that foundation and understanding and belief. A, that I could do it, but then I just went for it and started doing it.

Okay. So I know we have a lot of entrepreneurs that are doing high-level coaching training. There's a lot of leaders within our community and others that are listeners out there. And before we get into the gold that you're teaching, what are those— you said, okay, it snapped. Cobbler shoe issue. It's me. I'm focusing on others. I'm doing myself. And you went from 0/1 to all these clients. Looking back and reflecting and saying, oh my God, I should have done, you know, what were the top 2, 3, 4 things you started doing in your own, like, seems obvious, but like, you know, it's a good reminder of the fundamentals that you should be doing.

Yeah. So I got really comfortable about talking about the work that I do, first of all, and I got really good at positioning myself within conversations. The big thing that I was missing is I was going into conversations looking for a client instead of going into it looking for a connection. And what has really shifted is I now get hired more from having a conversation with me Than I ever would if I were pitching myself to somebody. And I mean, like quite literally changed how I present myself, knowing all that I know about sales and how to really guide the conversation forward in a way that invites curiosity. I also got on LinkedIn and took myself seriously as a business owner.

I wanna unpack what you just said, 'cause I think there's a good lesson in there. So you went from meeting people to say, hey, I'm Candace, this is what I do. Give me an example of what you would do instead.

Yeah. Previous me would've been like, hi, I'm Kandice. I'm an energy practitioner. And like very shy about even saying it first of all. But then, you know, kind of leaning too much into what I do and even the method instead of first letting them go first so I can hear who they are, where they're coming from. It was less about me, it was more about them. But then guiding it and saying, yeah, in my work I'm most excited about listing. And then I would list. This breakthrough happened over here instead of leaning so heavily on the title and what I do and who I am and all the things. It's, what am I excited about in this season to share with this person? Because they're like, wait a second.

Not only that, you're, you're basically going back to now that I've done active listening and understand what they're looking for, I could share and educate the other person something you're passionate about that you're confident in. You can educate them on something without even saying what you do. And they're just like, wow, this person's an expert. And you didn't even say that, but you basically though knew they'd be interested in that topic because you learn more about them. So fundamentals, you know, of active listening and, you know, getting that first. So brilliant. Okay. And you, and I think the trigger probably happened inside you say, now you're making a conscious effort to do that a lot more because versus what you were doing and that changed everything. Yeah.

One of the things when, when I first came on with one of the fitness facilities I was working for, they had a very standardized gym And I broke it down for the owner and I said, okay, but if I'm coming in and I'm so intimidated by this section or this section, and that's the first section you're taking me to, I'm never going to sign up. Instead, we need to ask people, well, what brings you in? Like, what are you most looking for to even get out of a membership here? What's going to keep you motivated? And then highlight those things. So, because if somebody's super into group fitness, they may never touch the weights. But if you can at least accentuate and highlight different things in a different order and way, then they're like, oh my gosh, they actually get me.

It sounds so obvious when you say it and you're so right. And I even talk about it in my book, but it's so easy for us wanting to spew out stuff about how great we are. And we think we know what the client and the customer wants. Hey, come look at the amazing brand new weight set we just got. Like, I'm never ever going to pick up a weight. I'm not here for that.

Yeah.

Okay. So thank you. I wanted to go down that lane for a minute. Start talking about LinkedIn. So what'd you do there?

Oh, I got on LinkedIn with intention instead of feeling like it was just this professional resume. I was like, okay, I've been studying the platform. That's another thing is I'm just really great at studying patterns. But I got on there and I recognized, okay, this platform in particular is leaning more towards community in the next year. And this was a couple years back. So I need to get really good at creating community. So how do we do that? We get on calls. How do we create community between the calls? We follow up, we connect, we have conversation. But then I started highlighting other people's work so that I could share with my network, hey, I'm somebody that builds community. I genuinely shared from a place of honesty and care. And like, I tend to attract really amazing people anyway. So, it was natural for me to say, hey, you need to go meet Eric. He's got this amazing mastermind that has high-level people and here's what you can benefit and get out of it. And people were gravitating towards that. They're like, oh, this person is actually using this platform for connection and to highlight others. And so it takes the conversation a little further of saying, okay, yes, I'm a professional who has great conversation, but with intention. And so those were the things that I did differently on LinkedIn is that I started having deeper and better conversations. Still condensed. You don't have to have a 3-hour conversation for it to be impactful. But how can I then say, okay, I'm remembering Eric as this person who needs X, Y, and Z. Who can I introduce them to? And I would do it.

Hmm.

And so building that reciprocal energy of giving built and built my business because most of my clients come from LinkedIn. Most of them come from referrals and/or people that are like, hey, you need to meet Candace. And so I got really good at understanding not only was the LinkedIn platform desiring, but then our human behavior. We're coming out of COVID We want community. We don't want the surface level, hey, I'm trying to sell you something.

And who can I, who, who can I trust? Okay.

Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

Love that. So was there a third? Uh, so LinkedIn, the conversations, anything else?

And getting back in real life. That is the game changer for me is that I got really good at knowing what my positioning was. Where am I trying to take people?

Another important thing I don't wanna emphasize, your own personal brand and messaging, which so many of us have a hard time getting our own message out and getting it in a condensed way that other people could talk about it when they're making introductions. You need somebody to be able to say, hey, you gotta meet my friend Candace. She is the go-to person for, you know, X, Y, and Z.

Yeah. And I will say, um, even as somebody who's in a rebranding process right now, it's fascinating how much we think we talk about ourselves or our business. And then you're like, people don't know what you do. And so we're like, okay, gotta fix that. But, um, I'm really excellent at guiding guiding people to know where to go, meaning where am I taking them in my content? Who am I? And being authentic with it. But also an example, the first year on LinkedIn, it was all about client acquisition. I was trying to build my coaching practice back up and get things moving. And so my positioning faced that way. Now that I'm in this season of getting hired in by companies to do speaking, that's my positioning. And what does that look like? Showing that I can build community, that people trust me. And demonstrating that in everything that I post. So again, getting really clear on where I was trying to take people, what was the most important thing for me in that season? Right then it was clients. Now it's speaking, you know? And so when we get clear, which I got really clear, we can then help others have that easier line of sight for us.

Got it. So thank you for taking me down that path because I think it's important to see how you rebuilt. Now let's go to the present and what you're doing. And you talked a lot about— Yes.

Energy healing.

Energy healing. Okay. So for those of us that aren't as familiar with energy healing, and I know you do more than energy healing, that's part of it, right? Or is that the main— Everything you hear on this show comes back to one idea, proximity. I wrote the book on it, literally, Proximity Pays, my bestselling book available now at proximitypays.com.

That's part of it. It's, it's actually, I would even say it's not the primary, it's almost the secondary because the coaching is is really where we dive deep.

Okay.

The energy is the cleansing part of all of it. So for those that are unfamiliar, we are all energy and we are all tapped into whatever that looks like to us. Everybody practices a little differently, but for me, what I see is we are very conscious beings in a very physical form. So how do we bridge those 2 worlds so that we're living in this body and not way up here, right? But how do we combine that to live More— I don't— the word authentic is so overused right now, but how do we live that in combination? So I'm a conscious being, I still have to take action, but how can I do that with greater ease? My job as a practitioner is to come in and listen to the language that people are using to help them identify, okay, where in your lived experience did this pattern begin? And from there, we dive in and talk about it a little bit more. And then we reframe it and then we energetically clear it out of the body. Energy to me is a connection to source, whatever that looks like for you. And me as a practitioner, I am a conduit of that energy flow. So helping the body let go of— now a lot of science is finally coming out about this. There are practitioners that are actually in cancer treatment facilities. I was talking with an oncologist in Texas and he's like, how do I know when somebody's ready for energy work? And I was like, you just just have to ask them because that's something that's very, it's up to the person. Everybody practices and believes differently, but they know in science that it helps heal the body. I can tell you in sessions, Oura Rings and Apple Watches always either pick up a nap or I think Oura will say, are you meditating or are you sleeping? Because it lowers the heart rate. It actually puts you into rest and digest. So there's a lot of science that's proving all of the spiritual side of things. But again, I would say on top of everything, I'm really good at helping you see yourself in a different way so that you will start to honor and value the person you are, which then builds the business that you're here to create.

Okay, a lot to unpack there. Thank you for that. Can we dive into some examples? Because I think that might be easier for us to like to relate. I mean, obviously cancer is a whole different conversation on the health side, but like as a typical entrepreneur, I don't even know I'm What am I feeling? How am I all of a sudden attracted to you? And then what kind of conversations happen? And then I'm going to kind of end it by saying, and saying you had some sessions with you and then you were able to use energy healing to release that. What's an example of all this?

So a lot of clients come to me when they're in this pivotal moment within their life or their business. It could be a transition. So I've worked with so many entrepreneurs who come out of corporate and they're pretty successful, but they're still not like hitting the mark that they want to be at just yet, or they are really looking into that next season. So most of my clients are ranging from 50 to above. Most of my clients are in that second part of life where they're like really questioning purpose and intention and like, where am I going?

Something's off. They're not happy. They're maybe like—

Super successful, but they don't feel it.

I'm not enjoying life. I feel stressed. Right.

Yeah. It's kind of like the meh emoji, you know, like meh, you know, like I'm kind of happy, but I'm not really. And most of them are trying to think about what the next evolution of their life looks like. An example, I had a chiropractor who was an immigrant from Japan and he lived in Canada and he would go back and forth as a kid. One of his limitations in his current business was expansion and feeling worthy and wanting to see his business grow past and beyond being the practice partner. And so some of that looked like building technology to help people move differently, et cetera. Well, we were working through some limiting beliefs and some patterns that we were starting to recognize, such as self-sabotage. And he gets to this certain layer of success and then he pulls back, or, you know, and we all do it when we don't have the belief that we're worthy. And so we started diving in and I said, okay, but I'm hearing you and I'm listening. So you're telling me you don't feel quite worthy or good enough to receive this. Let's, let's dive into that. Well, back up to when he was a kid and traveling back and forth, he did swim lessons and language was a big barrier for him. So, he would stand at the back of the line to watch kids move in order to know what movement to take.

Yeah.

Now, he internalized that as a limitation, but what we unlocked is I said, and what you do for a career is watching the movement of others so you can help them feel better. And not only that, but now you're building technology to make it easier for them to do that. That energetic release for him was just mind-blowing. He's like, I've never thought of it that way. I always looked at myself as less than.

Hmm.

And then on the energetic side of things, we just go in and we help that clear throughout the entire timeline so that you're no longer holding it. Because we hold on to every single experience in our physical body. It's what manifests into disease. Until we acknowledge and move through it. And that's just one example. I, I worked with a client who is a physician working in a trauma center, and it was very chaotic energy all the time. Quick movement. You have to be on your toes. It's very go, go, go energy. Well, when she came out of it and started doing private coaching for physicians, she was like, man, I don't know why I can't focus, but I feel like I'm just sabotaging in these different ways. And I asked her, I said, can you describe for me what your office feels like? And she goes, it just, it feels so chaotic. And I'm like, exactly. You recreated the energy of what you best know in your own environment. And that's why it's hard for you to maintain focus. So from there, what she did to clear some of that energy was moving the clutter out of the office, having a schedule, looking at things differently. So sometimes it's quite literally your environment that is reflecting it. Sometimes it's your thoughts and it's about feeling into it and acknowledging, okay, what am I recreating that's creating I love it.

Okay. So it seems like a lot of us have something that we're stuck in and just getting somebody on the outside to be able to read us, go through the conversations, see, ask the tough questions to what is our habits? What are we doing?

Aha.

The light bulb would go off. It's for you to see the light bulb because, you know, we're so in it, we can't necessarily find it. And then you're saying energy release could be a lot of things. It's not just energy release could be physically, what are you doing in your world? To enable yourself to get past whatever level you're at, as you say, evolve to the next level.

Yes, exactly. And like you just said, it looks different for each person. And it's usually hard to even describe it sometimes because people are just so blown away. They're like, I have never felt this good. And they don't understand why. And I'm like, well, because you finally, you finally value who you are. And I say value because we're real big on self-love. But what do we do when we value something?

Right.

We take care of it. We put it first, we prioritize it. And so being in that energy and frequency of valuing who you are is so different. And I work with a lot of people in that identity framework where a lot of times we have and hold shame and guilt and lower energy of previous experience, maybe even trauma. And what, what shame and guilt tell us is, I hope nobody finds me out. Well, on the other side of it, success can also create a block in that we're sitting here, we're at the height of our game, and we're like, I hope nobody forgets.

So walk me through that, meaning nobody forgets that I'm—

That I'm successful. If I want to step into something new, who am I to do it? What if they forget me? What if I fail? That's what they remember me for.

My identity was a success. I can't do this now because I can't be a failure. So you're stuck in that.

And both tell energetically, like, I want this, but I don't feel I can do it. I don't feel worthy to receive it. And so you're blocking what's trying to come in. As a, as a whole, this life can be really easy and things can flow effortlessly. And I'm not saying that we just sit in meditation and just things pop into thin air. We still have to effort. We still have to put the energy forward, but it literally starts to line up because you're, you're believing in yourself to receive it. And your, your next level requires you to receive at a level you've never understood. And that's hard for so many people, especially entrepreneurs, because what are we as entrepreneurs? Hyper-independent. We get things done, we figure it out, and we don't need anybody, right?

Ego. We got, we got this.

But your next level requires you to receive because you can't do it on your own. It's not that you can't, you can, take you a lot longer.

It reminds me of blind spots that we have as entrepreneurs. Like, we don't even know what we don't know. So therefore we can't go solve it, attack it, Because we don't even know it's in our own way.

Right, exactly.

Okay, so for those of us listening right now, is there like any kind of exercises or takeaways that we could be doing right now, listening or watching you, that we can do on our own to say, okay, this is something I can improve because what Candace taught me today, or at least see as a symbol that I should lean into this more?

Yes, I'm so glad you asked this. One of the practices that you can do to not only reset yourself but to connect in, I often call it Connecting back in with the language of our souls. So how we're here on a purpose and a mission to do life. I mean, we kind of disconnect from that intuitive knowledge. And so how can we tune into our own energy, not being a practitioner, just yourself, and really connect into what your business needs? So I quite literally did a training this morning about the energy of your business. What does it feel like? Does it feel chaotic? Does it feel connected? Do you feel purpose? Do you feel desire? What is it that your energy frequency is? So a practice that you can do to tune into yourself and even into a project or your business is quite literally— I want you to do this with me. So just close your eyes for just a minute.

Okay.

I want you to close your eyes and even slow down the breath as slow as you can make it as it enters the body, feel it moving and bringing revitalization And as it comes in, envision as it grabs and holds anything that needs to leave the body. So any stagnant energy, anything that just needs to exit. So on the breath in, feel it revitalizing. On the breath out, feel yourself release. And on the next breath, I want you to visualize the energy of the sun. The sun is this radiant, vibrant frequency. That creates new life, new energy flow. And I want you to visualize as it enters through the heart space, almost right along step with your breath, holding your energy, supporting you, and feel that connection. And visualize as this energy begins to move through your entire body, really just holding you, grounding you into this moment, helping you remember the support that is available, and just connect in with that flow. You might even visualize as the energy of the sun moves from the top of the head, moving through to the heart center, through the upper abdomen, the lower abdomen, moving all the way into the earth through the feet. Again, grounding your energy, helping you bridge everything that you need to support you. And as you breathe in again, feeling that energy and that flow, exhaling out anything else that needs to leave the body for this moment, begin to hold that energy of gratitude for the work that you're here to be a part of, for the divine wisdom that lives within you and for honoring yourself today. And as you breathe in one more time, exhale out and allow yourself to come back into this moment, back into this space and simply be here once more.

All right.

How was your experience? I'm very curious.

Ooh. It was good. I think my ADHD brain was firing off and it slowed down for a minute to, you know, get rid of some negative things. Emails or conversations in my head and I just got rid of them all and I'm feeling positive about the focus I'm on.

Yeah, there you go. Well, and that's the thing. We were kind of taught that stillness was not a safe place for such a long time. If you think about it, meaning as kids, every single time we were by ourselves, we were in trouble. You know, so we weren't really taught, unless you were taught stillness, you were not taught about it in a safe way. And So kind of helping our brain slow down even for, you know, 2 minutes, it does so much for us. And that connection, that's the biggest thing is, as a practitioner, it literally feels like the sun is flowing through my body when I'm in sessions. And it's such an energy of support that I hope that more and more people start to tune into because every single thing that we're here to build was given to us to see it through. And sometimes it makes zero sense. This men's event that I'm building, zero sense for me to build it whatsoever. I'm a female. Like all the other reasons, right, in the world. But I just knew I was meant to do it. And it's being built very intentionally and purpose-filled and it's coming together through that divine connection of others, again, receiving support in a season that I'm upleveling. So.

Yeah. Well, thank you. And you said something else that I can resonate with. I feel like, you know, we could both relate in the sense that you're feeling, and I'm going to imagine you're feeling like you're finally kind of met your purpose and you're leaning into that. And that energy is kind of getting out there. And I think it makes it easier when you feel like you're jumping around different careers and paths and you finally met that. And now you're thriving because of doing what you're meant to do and you're obviously really good at it. So, you know, I can relate to that obviously on the mastermind side of things, you know, having not being, you know, all in on community building, even though I was meant to be doing this, I think it finally took me 50-some-odd years to figure that out. But, you know, here I am. So I get that.

Yeah. Well, and I do want to ask you that question. What was it that clicked for That made you know you needed to build the community?

I think maybe should have been a client of yours a while ago, but, you know, at that point of running my marketing agency and, you know, the ebbs and flows of that, and I feel like I was never really in the right spot. I was never that passionate about it. Right. I was just always a successful entrepreneur making, you know, making a decent living, doing things and building whatever I was building my entire life, being an entrepreneur, doing different random stuff. But it was never like, yeah, we could build a profitable business and do stuff. But somebody gave this to me fairly recently. I used the the onstage analogy, meaning did I feel like I could go on stage and write a book and talk about the things I was doing in that work? And it was kind of like, meh, as you said earlier, like, not really. Like, I don't have a big talk about that. I'm not, I was never like the, hey, I'm an agency where I'm the paid media guru and I just want to talk about paid media all day long. Right. And then meanwhile, this entire time I was running this dinner group and, and of entrepreneurs. And to me it was just easy. It was natural. Like it was a bunch of entrepreneurs for dinner and I became the de facto leader because in all the learnings I've had, understanding my personal personality types and my human designs and all the things that are out there and realizing that I'm actually really good at facilitating and leading entrepreneurs. And I got the high follow-through and the emotional intelligence to watch the room and navigate all the different personalities. I thought it was easy, but when enough people came to me and said, Eric, what you've done is actually really special. We don't get that anywhere. And then we'd have outside guests would show up and say, that was the best 3-hour dinner mastermind. Why is this not out of there? I don't have anything like this in Have you thought about doing that? And I'm just like ignoring it until at some point you're like, wait a second, what are you doing here? This is what you should be doing. And then when I kind of went in and started leaning in all in on that, you know, I was just like, woo, you know, like the energy started flowing through, you know, to use a lot of what you teach. And it was like, okay, this feels right. I could go write a book on it, write a book on it. I could go on stage and talk about it. And then you actually do some deep searching. I'm like, wow, actually everything I've done in my life is a form of community building. And leading groups of people. And I never really understood that, but like, if I watch all my habits, it was there. So that's kind of the quick answer to your story. And it's probably a lot of what you, I'm sure, see in talking to clients. I imagine you're probably talking to people too that are misaligned in the work they're doing.

A lot of it, it's like we're really caught up in the business itself that we have a hard time seeing it for what it is, you know, whether that's a transition out of something or into something new or evolving it. And sometimes Sometimes it's big changes that people undergo and sometimes it's small things like taking off one day off of your calendar to fill your cup. That can be one change that brings back so much vibrancy that you didn't realize you were missing. Things like that. And yeah, most of them are actually in a season where they're not in a rush to get to where they think they need to be. That's been the really interesting shift in this season of who I've been working with, they're not in a rush to build it without a solid foundation, which is really helpful for me as far as the work that I'm here to do, because things take time. It takes time to see the return on investment of waiting, but everything that's built with intention builds and expands. I'll tell you this much. So, you know, I've been here in Charlotte for a year as of July, and I started meeting all these great women and they were all like, hey, let's go do lunch and coffee. And I was like, great. My schedule won't allow me to do that every single time, but you're an amazing person. You're an amazing person. Let's get you in the same room. So, I built a brunch and it was super low-key. It's like, hey, come. I put a calendar invite. And the first one, we had like 33 women show up out of 55. And they were like, how'd you do this? And I was like, I just put it on the calendar. That's all I did. And now we're up to like almost 180 women who are constantly like, people are asking, can I come? And I'm like, Absolutely. And we have about 50 women that come and it rotates. We do it every other month. And, but the thing is, is like, I knew I could build it and it's really easy for me to do. And I too minimize that impact at times until this last one where people are like, I don't know what it is about coming to these, but I always feel re-energized. They're like, it's 90 minutes on a Monday out of all the days that I could have planned it. I picked a Monday and they're like, I didn't even know if I was going to want to come, but I came and I feel so And it's things like that. Like when you're meant and designed to do something, it becomes more effortless and people gravitate towards that. I mean, that's one of the reasons why the mastermind is so successful because when you're in the energy of aligned people, that's where growth happens. You know, like the intention for the brunch might be, yeah, we're just coming together to get to know one another. That was the other thing is I was like, we don't need another networking day. I was like, let's just get to know the woman behind the business. And there's still business going on. Like things are happening.

Exactly. Yeah.

Yeah. That byproduct. So kudos to you for like figuring out that you're really good at doing that. Cuz not everybody is, some people don't like to do that, but it's people like you and I that enjoy that. They get to just create and curate the space, right?

Yep. Well, we're going to have to do a round 2 as we wind up to talk about all things community. So I look forward to having a different conversation. Is there anything I didn't get a chance to ask you today as we wind up that I—

I don't think so. I feel like the biggest thing that I want to leave the listeners is don't be too afraid to start something new or re-envision what you're doing because it's never— my favorite quote, it's never too late to be who you might've been. And the reason is because if it's there, it's meant to be there for a purpose and it's just up to you to figure it out.

I love that. And obviously there's a lot of takeaways from the great things you went into today. So thank you for that. And I think just even the reminder that I'm going to go back to the blind spots. You know, I think we have all this crazy energy, a lot of us entrepreneurs doing things. And I think just even getting somebody who can really relate to us and see us in a different way and maybe point out some things to help us. Just one little thing that can get us a breakthrough is worth so much value to us. And so certainly take a look at Candace's info as we drop it in any of the links from this episode. Well, thank you so much for coming in today, Candace. Really appreciate it. And I'm so honored to get to know you and I can't wait to our continued journey together.

Thank you.

And that's a wrap from the Speakeasy Podcast. If something If something sparked for you, don't keep it to yourself. Share it, review it, and pass it to the one person who needs to hear this right now. Want in on the real mastermind? Tap the link in the show notes to apply. Until next time, keep scaling, stay sharp, and don't be the smartest one in the room. Hello. I've been noticing you've been following along to Inside the Speakeasy podcast. And if the conversations I'm having out there resonates with you, then I'd like to invite you to apply to learn more about becoming a member of Speakeasy.