How To Build a Top Tier LIFE (part 1)

Welcome to the Makeshift Happen podcast.

I'm your host, Samantha Daly, entrepreneur, life coach, and your no BS bestie, here to bring you all things mindset, manifestation, and personal development. This podcast is designed to help you expand your mind and uplevel your life.

So turn the volume up and roll the windows down if you're coming along for the ride.

Let's go make shit happen.

What's up guys, welcome back to the podcast.

We are about to dive into a brand new series that I am so excited about. So the series, I'm calling it Top Tier, and it's gonna be a 3-part series, each part focusing on a different area The first one being life. So in this part 1 of the series, we're going to talk about how to build a top-tier life. So first of all, what does it mean to be top-tier, right? Where does this name come from? What is it defined as? Well, if you look it up in the dictionary, top-tier literally means of the highest level or quality. And so we're going to talk about 3 different areas and how to become top tier in those areas. Again, this first part of this 3-part series is going to be all about building a top tier life. So when I think about what a top tier life means to me, and when we know that top tier means of the highest level or quality, I think of— I think of happiness. I think of relationships and I think of experiences. To me, those are really like the foundations or the cornerstones of what is going to make up a top-tier life. For me, it's happiness, relationships, experiences, things like that. And so I'm going to talk to you today about some of the pivotal moments and stories in my journey that have helped me build a top-tier life or feel like I'm living a top-tier life. But I wanna start with this sort of anecdote, some research to kind of show us what actually makes people happy and what do we think makes people happy and how those two things are quite different. So according to research, 80% of millennials will report that a major life goal of theirs is to get rich. And another 50% of the same set of millennials reported that it was another one of their big life goals to become famous. So we know that wealth and fame are highly valued by society. We don't actually even need to do any research to figure that out. We can kind of just look around and see it everywhere. Especially if you live in America. I think our society, especially because I've lived in Europe and other places, but America especially, there's this culture where we really value achievement and climbing the ladder and making a lot of money and having a lot of nice things. Like for a lot of us, we grew up with that image as this is how you'll be happy. You need to get a good education, need to go to a good school so you get a good degree so that you can get a good job, so that you can make a good salary, so that you can climb that ladder, make even more money, provide for your family, and have a good retirement plan and die happy, right? That was the formula. So we know that our society really values things like wealth, fame, and high achievement, but is that really what makes us happy? The short answer is no, but the long answer is the rest of this podcast episode. So for me, achievement when I think about like achievement, because I am someone who values achievement and it's interesting to think about where that value comes from and if it is something that society or my parents just ingrained into me and is that even an innate desire? But then it begs the question, is anything an innate desire? Because none of our thoughts are original and we get everything that we think, believe, feel, want, desire. All of that is informed by the world that we live in and the experiences that we have and the people that we surround ourselves with. So can anything be be truly ours, or is it all an adaptation of what we've seen, felt, heard, or experienced at some point? So anyway, without getting too philosophical about this, for me, when I think about achievement, because I know I'm someone who's, who values achievement, and I am a high-achieving woman, as many of you are that listen to this podcast, for me, achievement without a deeper purpose is what feels empty. And so I just want to caveat this point about how you know, we value so much fame and wealth and achievement, and that in some ways, of course, we know that those aren't the things that are going to bring us true happiness. But it's also not an invitation to demonize achievement or feel like there's no use in or there's no value in wanting to achieve great things or having a mission. Right. So for me, it's important to distinguish that achievement is a value of mine. And I enjoy being a high achieving woman. But the difference for me is that it has to have a purpose. There has to be a larger mission, like my heart really has to be in it because achievement without purpose to me feels empty, right? I could chase after the goal of wealth or recognition or achievement of some other kind in, let's say, like if I were to take my job offers that I got in corporate America. I could have chased achievement or what I felt was going to be happiness at the end of that road in that way, but it would have ended up feeling empty to me because I didn't really care. You know, I didn't really care about marketing for some company whose product I didn't give a shit about. I didn't really care about cleaning up, you know, working in PR and cleaning up messes for big corporate companies that were making mistakes that I didn't— I didn't care about, right? I think for me there has to be a purpose in it, and that's how I sort of create meaning in my desire for achievement in life. And that's why doing something that I love as part of my work, or as the whole of my work, I guess, is so important to me. And I know so many of you that listen to this podcast, you also are really driven by that idea of doing soul-led work and finding your purpose, or maybe you've already found it and you're building a business around it and creating something for yourself that is derived from the sense of purpose on your heart or a passion that you have or something that you've gone through in your life that you've transmuted into a product or a service or a way to help others suffer less. I think that's so incredible. And for me, that's like where achievement comes in. Is it's got to have purpose attached to it, or else, of course, it's not going to make me happy. Now, I know that achievement alone isn't what provides us with happiness. In fact, achievement is probably low on the totem pole of things that's actually going to end up making you happy or making you healthier or providing any sort of long-lasting effect other than that dopamine that you get when you hit a goal, or you get recognized for something, or you get a raise in your salary, or you make a bunch of money. But all of that fades really quickly, right? So when I think about building a top-tier life, we're talking about things that can be sustained, true happiness, true fulfillment. And I know that those things are going to come from relationships and experiences. So there's this Harvard study of adult development, and I watched a TED Talk about this study a while ago. And then I heard the— I heard the guy on a podcast recently who is now the— he's like the head of the study, but he's like the fourth person to do it because it's this super long-running study. It's like the longest-running study on adult development and human happiness, essentially. And so I heard this guy on a podcast recently, and it reminded me to go— or inspired me to like go back and rewatch watch that TED Talk. And so I'll explain to you a little bit about what this study is about and kind of what the, the findings are. So I'll summarize it here for you. Basically, for over 80 years at this point, I think they've been tracking 724 men— their lives, their health, their relationships, their happiness, all of that. And 60 of the original men that participated in this study are still alive, and they've since added some of the original men's wives and over 2,000 of the children that these men have had over the years. So some of them have passed on and their children are now participating in the study and 60 of the original men are actually still alive. So this study began at Harvard in the 1930s, I believe, and these men were sophomores in college at Harvard. And what they did was they basically studied two different groups of people. They studied these young men at Harvard, and then they also studied these young men in the city of Boston that were, you know, living in historically like the worst areas. A lot of them lived in like tenements and it was very low income and they had lots of struggles and challenges. And they kind of wanted to compare these two groups and see how they evolved over a long period of time and what ultimately dictated if they, you know, became happy and healthy and if they lived long or not. Right. And so the clearest conclusion that they developed from this study was that good relationships keep us happier and healthier, period. Like, that's it. That's the main conclusion of the study is good relationships keep us healthier and happier. But they go so deep into really unpacking where all this data comes from. And it's super fascinating and interesting because it's not just this hypothesis or something that a lot of us On some level, we know this, right? We can imagine this. If you had to guess what really influences your happiness, I'm sure a lot of us would think that, you know, relationships play a major part in that. But it's really interesting to see it from like a data-driven perspective and actually following over 700 people for over 80 years and all aspects of their life, and to really find out that when they boil down all of the data, it was deduced to this fact that good relationships keep us happier and healthier. And so it's this major, like, wake-up call and reminder for so many of us that a lot of what we're focusing on is misplaced. A lot of where we're directing our attention is misguided. We're wasting a lot of time focusing on things that don't really matter. And we're letting ourselves get upset about the things that we don't have or that are lacking from our life, or, oh my God, wouldn't it be so nice to just have this or have that thing or live this way or have enough money to do this, when really the greatest factor contributing to our overall health and happiness is our relationships. And that's something that we can foster and work on for free, right? All of us have relationships in our lives that are important. And this doesn't mean that you have to be in a romantic relationship, although it was really interesting listening to this guy talk about how much romantic relationships contributed to people's overall health and happiness. But you can get similar effects from other really important relationships that you have in your life. If you're really close to a sister or your mom or a family member, or you have best friends that you're really tight with. But there was this interesting thing that he said about how men that were married ended up living 12 years longer compared to single men. And women that were married ended up living 7 years longer as compared to single women. So men benefit way more from relationships— I don't want to say way more, we both benefit from relationships— but it's interesting that men actually live longer by being in relationships as opposed to being single than women do, because women already have a culture and a place within their female friendships to process emotions and have hard conversations and do all of emotional work that is so important for your emotional, mental, physical health. And men don't really have that in their circles of male friends. So when they get into committed romantic relationships and they have a safe space with their romantic partner to decompress, to maybe cry, share emotions, talk about challenging things, be vulnerable, share things that they're stressed about, admit that they don't have all the answers or talk about their shortcomings, they live 12 years longer longer. Because otherwise, if they would have stayed single, they wouldn't have had that space. And of course, you know, women live 7 years longer, so we know that relationships are beneficial to them as well. But I just thought that was so, so interesting. And yeah, that part like really blew my mind. But there was 3 kind of major takeaways from this study about, you know, happiness and health and how relationships contribute to that. And one of them was that loneliness actually can kill you. And that I think they say that loneliness now is as dangerous as like smoking a pack a day of cigarettes or something like that. And there's a lot of people experiencing loneliness. And I know for all of my entrepreneurs that are listening, especially when you go out on a different path, and you start to build an unconventional life of some kind, and you're doing things that are very different, you're deviating from the societal norms, or maybe the traditional path that the rest of your friends took out of high school or whatever it is. That journey can start to feel lonely. And so for me, I know it's been so important to build and foster community in my journey of entrepreneurship, because loneliness truly does kill. And I know that there's so many of us on this entrepreneurial path that do end up feeling lonely, because for a lot of us, our family and our friends are not doing this same gig. And if our parents were entrepreneurs, they probably owned like a physical brick-and-mortar business of some kind. Like, I highly doubt they were, you know, well, they definitely weren't on Instagram or, you know, doing content creation and filming their whole lives and sharing the deep, dark truths of themselves with an audience. And there's just so many— this way of life and connection and building a career online is still so new, and it's so different from anything that anyone's ever done. I was just talking to Jaime the other day about this. Like, when we were in college, because he was saying to me, I think that we like— meaning him and I were around the same age. He's about to turn 30. I'm 29. He was like, I feel like our, you know, our generation, our class of people that went to college is probably like the last group to go through college not knowing what was possible in terms of like the internet era. Of content creation and coaching and influencers and all of these other career paths that have since opened up for people. Because when we went to college— gosh, I went to college in 2012, I think. So Instagram was still really new and like, yeah, there weren't really any influencers at all yet. Like we were probably the last round of people to go to college and feel like that was the only answer. You know, at least nowadays if people go to school or pursue higher education, they probably have the understanding or the knowledge. It's hard not to just living in this world that there are other ways, there are other paths, there's other things that exist besides going to college and getting a degree and doing whatever. And not to say that that's wrong at all. Like, totally, the doctors need to go to college and they need to get a degree, 100%. But it's interesting to think about how we're probably like the last era of people that went to college not knowing that all of this was going to, you know, explode and become possible. The younger generations kind of could see this in the come up before they made their decisions about do they want to go to school or not. And so, yeah, most of us, if you are in this sort of age change or whatever, like you probably don't have a lot of best friends or family members that are doing the same thing as you. If you are an entrepreneur, if you're using social media to leverage an audience or you wanna become a content creator or an influencer or build a personal brand or do whatever it is that you're doing. And so it's been so important for me in my journey to foster communities, like actually building my own in terms of like my programs and masterminds and things that I run and building communities in that way, but also being part other communities. Like, I join masterminds and I go on retreats and I do things and I put myself in rooms so that I can be with people who are in the same or similar place as me, or hopefully are well beyond where I am, so that I can be the stupidest person in the room and that I can really learn from people, right? But building that sense of connection has been so important for entrepreneurship. So that's a little tangent about this, you know, going off on loneliness from this study. But what they found was that people who were well connected connected, whether it was with family or friends or partners or communities, they ended up being happier, physically healthier, and they lived longer. So actually being connected and being in community and having good relationships was really, really important for them in the long term. The other relevant thing that they pulled from the study was that it's not the number of friends that you have, but the quality of those close relationships that matter. So you don't need to be the most connected person. Like, you don't need to have the most amount of friends or have a huge family or have a big group of people that you hang out with all the time. It's really just about the quality of your close relationships and having those safe spaces where you actually get to go deeper and have important conversations and share true feelings and really be yourself in a sense and feel safe enough to do so. So those Those who reported being happy in their relationships at age 50 were also much healthier comparatively to the others at age 80. So they showed like direct correlations between the quality of your close relationships, whether it's friends or romantic partners or family, and that having a direct effect on your health later on down the line. The third thing was they found that good relationships don't just protect your body in terms of like your physical health, but they also actually protect your brain and your mental health. So people who are in loving, securely attached relationships— and the main key point here that they made was that these relationships are a place where they felt like they could count on their partner. It doesn't mean that this relationship is without flaws, or that you never argue, or that you never have challenges. It just means that when push comes to shove, you are in a loving, securely attached relationship with someone that you truly feel like you can be honest with and you can count on and they're going to have your back. The people that had that, they stayed mentally sharper for longer, even into old age. So they were less likely to even get dementia or the onset of dementia would be like much later compared to people that didn't have those super connected, trusting relationships. So, I mean, it's crazy to think about how much much your relationships, and specifically the quality of your relationships, actually affects your life. And so if we're talking about building a top-tier life, building healthy, strong, securely attached relationships has to be like the foundation of that. It has to be a cornerstone. It has to be one of the main pillars. It has to be one of the most important parts if you really want to be happy, if you really really want to be healthy, if you really want to live a long, juicy, decadent, fulfilled life, then you need to focus on the quality of your relationships, not just your romantic partner, but also with your friends and with your family. They showed that people who didn't hold grudges and who didn't stay in high-conflict situations had healthier lives down the line. So there's also value in walking away from relationships that aren't serving you so that you can build your top-tier right? It doesn't mean that, you know, oh, in order to be healthier longer, you need to make amends with all of your family members and you need to be good with everyone in your life and you need to— you can never let a friend go because relationships are so important. There's also this relevant piece of like high-conflict situations actually are negative for your health and they deteriorate your health faster. So there's value in saying no and letting go of the relationships that don't serve you anymore. Being able to walk away from the people that you know are not supportive of you or don't allow you to be your full self, or they're not happy for you when you're winning, or they're not there for you when you're losing. Right. There's value in also the, the contrary of this, which is letting go of relationships that are not high quality. Right. So again, it's like focusing on the quality rather than the quantity so that you can build like a group group of people in your life. It's just a core group. It doesn't have to be big. It can be really small and tight-knit, but a core group of people who you're like, these are my ride-or-die people. If I, in the middle of the night— there was something recently that I saw or read somewhere about, um, they asked people like if they had someone to call and if there was an emergency like in the middle of the night and it was like super inconvenient, like would you have someone that you feel comfortable calling? And I don't remember what the exact numbers were, but like a lot of people said that they had nobody in their life that they would feel comfortable calling, right? Not even like parents or a partner or something like that. So thinking about like developing your core group of people where you're like, these are my ride or dies, these are my call-in-the-middle-of-the-night people, right? These are my people that I really trust, that I can be my full self with, that they're supporting me and cheering me on when I'm winning, and they are holding me and lifting me up when I'm losing. And I can tell them the real raw truths about how I'm feeling. I don't have to be perfect. I don't have to put on a performance. I don't have to act like I have it all together. I don't need to act like I know the answers. I can really be unraveled and be myself in front of these people. And if you can create that core group of people for you in your life, you can start to build a top-tier life, because relationships are the foundation of what is ultimately going to make you happy and healthy and keep you that way for a long, long time. So I mentioned at the beginning of this episode that for me, when I think about a top-tier life, I think about happiness, relationships, and experiences. So to piggyback off of these relationships, I also think about like, what are the kinds of things that I want to do with these people that I have in my life that I love so much? What kind of experiences do I want to have that are going to create this like top tier experience of life for me? Because if there's one thing that I love to harp on, it's the fact that we are all going to die and we only get one chance here. Like I say this all the time, but like there's no dress rehearsal. You are already on the main stage. We are in the second or third act. Like, this is it. There's no other chance. This is the one that you get. So you've got to think about like how you want to live it. And even in my personal life, like, I'll get opportunities to, you know, go see a friend in a certain city or go to a birthday party somewhere over here or travel to meet my assistant in another country or meet up with one of my friends who's been a digital nomad and is traveling around the world somewhere. And I get I get these opportunities. And sometimes I find myself in my logical brain thinking like, you know, does this really make sense for my work schedule? And how is this going to impact all of the, you know, the deliverables and the podcast and my clients and the things that I need to produce and do in order to do my job well? And is this a financially, you know, smart decision? And do I really want to spend money on this? And does it make sense? And all of that is valid, right? It's important that we use our logical brain to help us make good decisions. But at the end of the day, I also— there's, there's this voice in the back of my mind that I always come back to, which is like, and you're going to die one day.

Okay, so I have something I think you're really going to love and your business is going to love it even more. Do you want to steal the strategy I've been using to seduce to use premium buyers and sell out my offers on Instagram Stories. Chances are you're already posting, you're already making sales, but if your Instagram Stories aren't working as hard as you are, you're leaving money on the table. Sold Out Stories is going to teach you exactly how to change that so that you can sell out any offer at any price point. And even high-caliber coaches miss this because selling on stories isn't about how much you post or how frequently you show up face to camera. It's about psychological secrets influencing, and the way you're posting right now might be giving the premium buyers in your audience the ick. Documenting your day and hoping it builds trust, posting look-at-me content and calling it authority, sharing client wins as soon as they drop in instead of strategically weaving them into a story-selling sequence designed to drive demand and convert sales. We both know that you're not here to learn how to show up more. You're here because you know your content could be converting faster and more effectively. Sold Out Stories is going to give you 5 high-converting story selling frameworks built specifically for premium buyer psychology. Inside, you'll get over 6 hours of deep dive video trainings, real IG story breakdowns, and live walkthroughs that show you exactly how to elevate your slides from authority building all the way to offer flow in less than 10 slides. My clients have already been using these frameworks to pull 5-figure sales days while posting Yes. One client generated 14 premium leads from a single story sequence. Another sold out her event in under 6 hours with just 8 strategic story slides. No sales calls, no paid ads, just the right frameworks. You'll walk away knowing how to sequence for desire, transition into your offer seamlessly, and sell daily without ever feeling salesy. You already know your offer's incredible, so now it's just time for your stories to sell it like it is. Grab Sold Out Stories today and turn 10 slides or less into your highest converting content. Let's make your next story your most profitable one yet. Click the link in the show notes below and I'll see you inside.

And are you going to wish— is this going to be one of those things that is one of those memories that flashes before your eyes in the last 20 seconds of your life? Like, is this going to be something that truly matters? Because what matters more than me saving money or producing like the best podcast ever right now. What matters more than that right now and always is my life, because I only get one, right? And so I'm starting to look at these decisions and not completely write off all of the logical thoughts and, and excuses and, you know, arguments that come to mind of why I should or shouldn't do something or if something is smart, but also to really lean into the value of experiences, because I know that's what's most important to me. When I'm with my family and we are hanging out around the kitchen table and we're, you know, talking and telling stories and laughing and my mom's cooking a meal, we're not talking about our work. We're not talking about that time that we got a raise or that, you know, a video went viral or that, like, whatever. Like, we're not talking about our accomplishments. We're talking about our memories. We're talking about our experiences with each other, the, the, the fun times, and even honestly, sometimes the shitty times that turn out to be really funny memories. But what makes up our life is our experiences. And so I'm starting to really, really lean into that value and remember that I can always make more money and I can always make more videos and I can always move things around in my calendar and shift things with my clients if I need to. But what I won't have the opportunity to do is to be 29 again and be in this body with this level of health, with this level of mobility, with this financial ability, and being able to do these things. I, I, I won't have that when I'm in my old age. And that's what I'll wish that I had chosen, right? I think about that a lot. Like when I'm old and gray and tired and achy and I can't move around as well as much, or I can't communicate my thoughts or my feelings as much, or I'm starting to lose my memory, like what are the things that I'm going to wish I'm gonna wish that I had chosen people that I care about and experiences. I'm not gonna wish that I chose work. I'm not gonna wish that I chose to stay home so that I could produce more podcasts or whatever it is, right? I'm giving silly examples. But so building a top-tier life for me is really about the relationships and the experiences. It's things like going to a college party with my best friend in full-on wetsuits and water guns. We actually did that. Like, we fully showed up to like a fraternity party where, you know, people are trying to like look cute and sexy and like hook up and do whatever in full-on fucking wetsuits and water guns. It's things like— another funny memory that comes to mind is us showing up to the bar in December in college in Christmas onesies, like full-on footie pajamas, Christmas onesies, just going to the bar like that. Because why not? Because it's the Christmas spirit. And it's— if I would have worn a regular outfit that night, let's just put it this way, if I would have worn a regular outfit that night and something that I thought was like cuter or that, you know, guys would have liked better, I would have got more attention for, I wouldn't remember that night at all. There's no reason for me to. There's a million nights out in college that I have no recollection of anymore. But I remember that night because we made it an experience, because we put on fucking footie pajamas and went into the bar and put Mariah Carey All I Want for Christmas on the jukebox and got everyone to start jumping around and dancing and being in the Christmas spirit. A top-tier life is things like running through the streets of Madrid with an open wine bottle, flirting, falling in love with a guy that I just met. Like, high-quality experiences, things that you'll never forget. It's making out on a park bench in public in Europe and learning to really, like, test the edges of my comfort zone and just live in the moment instead of worrying about how others were going to be perceiving me or if I was being looked at or if I was being watched and really just being there in my body, in my heart, in that moment. And soaking it up. I'll never forget that moment. I'll literally never forget it. It's things like flying to New York City for a weekend and dancing on rooftops with my assistant, cheersing to life and talking about our big goals and dreams, running around the city and shooting fun content and just having an amazing time. It's singing at the top of our lungs, front row at a Kenny Chesney concert. With my parents, right? Making them run, run down the beach to get a front row spot at the concert and singing at the top of our lungs for hours. It's dancing as the confetti falls all around me at a Kygo show at Ushuaia Beach Club in Ibiza, smiling literally so hard that my face hurts because the vibes are just so fucking high. It's seeing It's something as simple as seeing the pure joy in my dog's face as he runs wild and free on the beach and throws sand everywhere and jumps in and out of the waves. It's raising my hands high at a church service as the tears fall and I can feel my faith grow in size. It's sitting in sacred circles on retreats and hugging women from all over the world as we realize that we are more alike than we are different. And we've never, ever been alone in our struggles, even when we thought that we were. For me, building a top-tier life is about creating the experiences that are unforgettable. It's about fostering relationships with people that you love so hard that you hope that your souls travel together in future lifetimes. And if I think about in my life, like when I really started, when I really started to live in this way or kind of like embody this energy of living a top-tier life, I think one of the most pivotal decisions that allowed me to really live a top-tier life was when I decided to decline my corporate job offers and move to Spain, because it was this moment where I definitively and specifically, concretely chose me. And it was so monumental, not because I was going to go and move to Europe, but it was really about the fact that I chose me. I chose my heart and I chose my relationship. Wow. I'm actually— I'm actually getting like tears in my eyes thinking about that. I didn't even like put two and two together when I sat down to record this episode. But that moment, like, yeah, I chose my relationship over work, over achievement, over career.

Hey, don't forget that every month we are picking a listener of the month to win $50 in cash just for showing love to the show. All you have to do is leave an epic review of the podcast on Apple Podcasts, screenshot the review before you hit submit, and DM that screenshot to us on Instagram @makeshifthappenpodcast. And that's it. I want to thank you for being such a loyal listener and show my appreciation by putting a little extra cash in your pocket. I know it's super easy not to do it, but every single rating and review seriously helps the show rank higher and reach new people, so we appreciate them more than you know. We'll announce the next winner at the end of the month and slide into your DMs if it's you. So keep an eye out and good luck.

Love you guys and thanks for supporting Makeshift Happen. Right? I had this choice to make, like, take this job offer, move to Chicago, climb the ladder, build your life, you know, your dream life, what I felt at that time of like being this businesswoman, or abandon it all, throw it all away, say goodbye to all of your friends, all of your family, all of your culture, everything that you know. Put everything into two suitcases and follow the man that you love and the experiences that your heart desires. Because I still— I wanted to travel more. I wanted to get fluent in Spanish because I was getting good, but I wasn't fluent yet. And I really, really, really loved this guy, and I wasn't willing to let that go. And so, yeah, like, that was the most pivotal decision in allowing me to live a top-tier life because I chose me, I chose experience, and I chose my heart's desires. And I think being able to do what you want to do regardless of what others are going to say is a main pillar of living a top-tier life. Life. Like, it's a requirement, it's a prerequisite. You've got to be able to do what you want to do regardless of what other people are going to say, right? Lots of people didn't understand why I wanted to move to Spain, or maybe they did understand and they thought it was dumb. Like, my family understood that I wanted to go there for this guy, and they thought it was dumb, you know? They thought it wasn't very smart because it wasn't very logical, and there were a lot of risks involved. But I had to be so firm in myself of knowing what I wanted and the kind of life that I wanted to live and the kind of regrets that I didn't want to have at the end of my life. I had to be so firm in that to be able to stand up to the people that I love the most and respect the most and cherish the most and need the most, quite frankly. I needed their support. I required their support. I had to still be able to stand in my truth and say, this is what I'm going to do. Will you support me? Will you get on board with this? And that value and the ability to do what I want to do, regardless of what other people are going to say, has served me so much in my life. My life in the past decade since doing that. Like, I think you really just need to do it one time in a big way. Not saying that it gets super easy from then on out, but if you can do it one time in a big way, you will always have this piece of proof that you can come back to that says, I can follow my heart and still be okay. I can follow my heart and trust myself to figure it I can follow my heart and know that usually when I do that, things turn out better than I could have ever imagined. Right? Being able to feel that sense of fear and do it anyway. Being brave is not about, you know, defeating the fear or not feeling the fear or not getting scared or just, you know, I think we think of bravery as like, oh, like like, um, this like brave face, and I'm this brave person and I just do whatever I want and it doesn't affect me. No, bravery is you are affected, you feel the fear, you are scared, but you go anyway. You pursue anyway, you move forward anyway. You don't shrink back into a smaller version of yourself. You don't choose the easy, quick wins or the things that are gratifying for your life right now. You choose the gratification a situation that is, you know, is more long-term. You choose longevity over what is a, you know, an instant hit of dopamine right now in the moment. I think about sometimes like how different my life would have been if I had made a different decision, if I had decided like, you know what, I, I don't really know this guy that much. I should just call it quits now before it gets too hard. And we live in different countries. Like, is this ever— like, even if I did go there for a year, like, wouldn't it just be more painful then to try and figure out what to do after that? And gosh, I'm not going to make any money over there in Spain, and I don't even want to be a teacher, and I have to go there to be— I have to be an, you know, an English teaching assistant in order to get my visa to go there. And that doesn't really make sense for my career path, you know? Like, I got this degree in communication and marketing and PR, and I want to be this boss girl, and I want to, like, you know, be powerful and whatever. Like, oh, it just— it's not making a lot of sense. You know, it's going to cost me a lot of money to get this visa and travel to Washington to file all the paperwork and buy these flights all on my own with my money that I've saved from babysitting. Like, there were a million reasons why it would have made a lot of sense. Oh, oh, by the way, Yeah, your parents will be really happy and really proud of you, and they'll be really affirming to you if you do decide to take this job and move to Chicago and, you know, make a good starting salary and get your foot in the door and start building a career. You know, it's going to make them happy. And you have, you have college loans, like you have debt. Um, you probably should start making money. Like, you can't afford to earn this poverty-level wage in Spain. Like, What is the plan here? There's a million reasons why I could have, and in some people's minds should have, maybe not made the decision that I made. But I think about how different my life would be if I had leaned into that, if I had really leaned in and given in to the logic of what made the most sense. Because let's be honest, moving to Spain and But following a guy that I met on Tinder and that I was long distance with for a year here and there with a couple of trips, like to make no money at all and do a job that made zero sense for my career path, like it wasn't the smartest thing. It wasn't the thing that made the most sense, right? And that is the thing also about intuition and being able to follow your heart and doing the things that you want is you've got to know what's an intuitive yes. Yes, for you. Intuition is another pillar of building your top-tier life, because if you don't have a connection to your intuition and the ability to understand what is a full-body yes for me and what is a full-body no for me, and being able to not only know that, receive that answer, but also to stand in the truth of it even when it doesn't make sense. Then you won't be able to cultivate the types of relationships and experiences that your top-tier life demands of you. Right? We've got like the best things in my life have come from following my intuition and knowing like, this doesn't make total sense, but I really want to do this thing, or I really want to travel to this place, or I really want to say yes to this opportunity, or I really want to say no to this job because I don't want to sit in a cubicle. Right? It's being able to follow the intuition and have the self-belief and the self-trust that you're going to be okay because you've got you and you can take care of you and you've got your back. It's about realizing that life is— life is really about these experiences and relationships and not much else. We're focusing on a lot of things that are a distraction. We're focusing on a lot of things that are a waste of time. We're focusing on a lot of things that are empty promises for happiness, when in your heart you know where the true fulfillment lies. And your intuition is trying to guide you. It's been banging on that door. It's been telling you, please stop doing this, or please go do this. Say yes to this. This is what you're calling. Lean into that. Invest in this thing. Go do this experience. Your intuition knows, and she's been banging on the door. And the way that you're going to build your top-tier life is by being able to tune in, listen to it, find the answer, and trust. You owe it to yourself to find out what you're made of. That's it. You owe it to yourself in this one life that you get to find out what you're truly made of, to find out what's really available in the world. I want to feel the most amount of feelings. I want to try the most amount of foods. I want to have the most amount of experiences. I want to see the most of the world that I can while doing important work and living in my purpose. And yes, I value achievement, and yes, I value money. But more than that, deeper than that, is the relationships and the experiences. Because at the end of the day, I really, really think I think the only reason that any of us have such high values of like achievement and money or things like that is because it's a means to an end. And the end is where we're trying to get to, which is living happily ever after, having enough money to be able to do amazing experiences or go visit incredible places, or, you know, do awesome things with the people that we love. The reason that we value the money and the achievement and the success or the fame or whatever it is, is because we believe that that's going to be the vehicle, that's going to be the material that helps us actually get to the experiences with the people that we love, right? And so if we can start embodying that value of, you know, experiences and relationships and fostering deeper connection with the people that we love and doing things that our intuition is guiding us towards, even when they don't make sense. If we can do that, we're actually manifesting a life that is more full of healthy relationships and experiences because we are living in it now. We are practicing it now, right? You are who you practice to be. And so if you're practicing to be a workaholic or you're practicing to be obsessed with the grind, or if you're practicing to be in hustle culture you're practicing to be upset or holding grudges or talking about drama all the time or consistently fighting with this one person in your life because you can't find the strength to let them go, then that is who you're going to become. You are who you practice to be. So if you can start to embody these values of, of happiness, true happiness, not fake happiness, not short-term happiness, but true happiness, and relationships and experiences, then you're actually becoming a vibrational match for the real thing that you want to manifest. The thing beneath the achievements, the thing beneath the money that you've wanted all along, which is to do amazing, fun, beautiful things with the people that you love. I think most of us who listen to this show will be able to relate to that and feel on a soul level. So hopefully this is your sign to take the leap, do that thing that you've been wanting to do, listen to your intuition, stop postponing your joy, stop making decisions simply because they make the most sense, and start making decisions by thinking about what you'll be glad that you chose when you look back back on your life when it comes to an end. I hope you guys really enjoyed this episode. Stay tuned for part 2 of this series where we're going to dive into building a top-tier mindset. So today we talked about building a top-tier life. In part 2 of this series, we're going to talk about building a top-tier mindset. If you did enjoy this episode or any episode of the show, please make sure you're subscribed to the podcast. That helps us so, so much. I know you might listen to this show every single week, but you actually might not be subscribed. So just hit the plus button on Apple or follow on Spotify, I believe. And maybe you want to copy the link to this episode and send it to someone who you think would enjoy it. Your support means the world to me. Thank you so much for coming back every single week and tuning in. I also have a quick announcement. There is a brand new free masterclass that's coming up on Sunday, June 18th, for coaches who are wanting to scale their online businesses. So we're gonna be talking all about sold-out 6-figure launches in this new masterclass, and it's totally free. I'm gonna share with you the behind the scenes of my $120,000 month. And if that interests you, keep an eye on my Instagram or make sure that you're subscribed to my newsletter. We will link it in the show notes below for you so that you don't miss the chance to sign up. More information is gonna be coming soon on the podcast, in your emails, and on my Instagram. So stay tapped in, and I would love to see you on that new free masterclass coming up on June 18th. All right, thank you guys so much for tuning in. I love you so much, and I'll see you next week. Bye!