IEP040: When Following Your Path Means Making a Difficult Decision

Brigit: Welcome to the Intuitive Entrepreneur Podcast. I'm your host, Brigit Esselmont, Intuitive Business Strategist and Mentor. As the founder of Biddy Tarot, I turned my love for tarot into an abundant seven-figure business. The secret to my success, making intuition and strategy my entrepreneurial superpower. And now I'm inviting you to do the same. In this weekly podcast, I'll be sharing advice, tools and real life examples from some of the best intuitive entrepreneurs to show you how you can trust your intuition, align with your purpose, and create a positive impact through your work. Let's make it happen.

Brigit: Hello and welcome back to the Intuitive Entrepreneur Podcast. Now this episode marks the final episode for this season, and in this season we've really spent a good amount of time focused on money mindset, goals and aligned action and manifesting abundance, which are all very powerful topics that really support the intuitive entrepreneur to create huge success in her business. But what happens when following your path starts to get tricky, and starts to get difficult, and starts to get challenging? What happens when you are starting to feel cold in multiple directions and you realize that to stay in true alignment with your purpose and who you really are, that you need to make some tough and difficult decisions? Well, that's what we're talking about today. We are talking about how you can navigate these difficult decisions, particularly when you feel called in multiple directions and perhaps you feel like you're a multi-passionate entrepreneur and you're trying to decide which direction you should really take.

Brigit: So I want to share a personal story, of course, and this is really going to start to highlight what can come up for you as an intuitive entrepreneur, and perhaps with some ideas about how to navigate these challenging situations. So for me, you might already know this, but I started Biddy Tarot way back in 1999, and this is when I was studying at university and I was just really putting different things that I was learning about the cards onto a website. There was no business plan in place, in fact, not even an idea of making any kind of money through my website, Biddy Tarot. Now, of course that started to change and evolve over the years and I'm going to hit the fast forward button all the way through to 2012. And it was in 2012 that I decided to leave my corporate job and pursue Biddy Tarot full time.

Brigit: So we're in 2020 right now. This is eight years ago, but by about 2019, so seven years, [inaudible 00:03:11] really. I started to feel a little bit bored and not really super engaged in Biddy Tarot to be perfectly honest. We were doing a lot of the same things. The team were doing exactly what they needed to do and we're launching the products and just really going about business in a very keep-it-moving kind of way. And I realized I'd started to lose a bit of interest in Biddy Tarot. It just was not filling my cup in the way that it had done in the past. And I started to really ask myself, "What lights me up? What do I get really jazzed about?" And by 2019, I'd already been doing some business coaching with people who are mostly in the spiritual industry and I've got to tell you, that was what really lit me up, when I was supporting and helping other entrepreneurs to grow their businesses and to have a huge reach and impact with the work that they were doing, particularly this more spiritual and intuitive work.

Brigit: That's what just got me really excited. So I started to think about, "Well, what would it look like if I created a dedicated business around this?" And that's really how the Intuitive Entrepreneur began. Back in March of 2019 I just was filled with inspiration. I said, "Right, we're doing this, let's go." And we had a website up and running within four or five weeks. My team were incredibly supportive to get that up and going, and I started the intuitive entrepreneur. And then in May I also started the podcast and it was so exciting and engaging to be finally talking about things that lit me up because anytime I talk about entrepreneurship, particularly in the context of doing entrepreneurship in a more conscious way, that that was really lighting me up. But then other things started to happen. I started to re-engage with Biddy Tarot again, and I started to feel very compelled about taking Biddy Tarot to the next level of growth with an even bigger amount of reach and impact and a bigger business basically, where we would become a real household name for tarot and intuition.

Brigit: So I found myself in the middle of 2019 with this renewed energy now, not just for intuitive entrepreneur, but also Biddy Tarot, and I was really confronted with these two different callings, two things that were calling me in such a strong and powerful way. Now for a good six months, I thought, "Great, I'm going to do both. Of course, I can do both." I had a really great team in place with Biddy Tarot, and I felt like, "Yeah, maybe I can pull back a little bit." And then I could also dedicate some time into Intuitive Entrepreneur. I was really determined not to make it a real big full-time thing where I was getting really absorbed in it, but more about just going with the flow and being patient and all that good stuff. But what I started to realize was I was starting to feel frustrated in both and I wasn't necessarily being at my absolute best in both.

Brigit: So in Biddy Tarot we started going through some really pretty big transitions and changes that I believe in hindsight now really required me to be fully present as a leader and really required me to change and evolve and be digging down into the depths with my team, but also keeping that bigger picture. But I just didn't have the time because I was also doing Intuitive Entrepreneur, I was doing the podcast, I was coaching people, and I was starting to think about the expansion of the intuitive entrepreneur. And I had a couple of times where I was really keen to launch a mastermind group. So 10, 15 women who are intuitive entrepreneurs and masterminding over a period of six to nine months with retreats and all of this yummy stuff. And every time I could feel into it, I felt so excited. I was like, "This is it."

Brigit: And so then I go back to my team, I go, "Right, this is what we're launching. We're going to make this happen. I need your support to make it happen." And they'll be like, "Yeah, that's an awesome idea. Yeah, but we've got all these launches to do in Biddy Tarot. Oh yeah, it's all feeling very hard." And then I'd start to think, "Oh, it's feeling very hard." And then it would get pushed back and postponed. It's happened twice now where I've been ready to go like full ball with this mastermind, and then I've had to really stop and scale back. And so by the end of 2019, I was getting to this place of thinking, "Okay, I really want to grow Biddy Tarot, but I'm feeling a little bit stuck and challenged about how to make that happen and I really want to grow Intuitive Entrepreneur but likewise I'm feeling stuck and challenged about how to make that happen for different reasons."

Brigit: Anyway, so late December, January, I took five weeks out of the business and I do this every year. It's pretty normal for me to take five or six weeks off, and it allows me that time and that space to rewire and also realign with what is really important to me. I get to experience relaxation again and joy and happiness and spaciousness. And in that space, what it allows me to do is to very consciously reevaluate where I am with my work and my business. So I remember I was sitting on a beach in Cambodia, Karang. It's absolutely stunning there. And I had my journal out and I just had this kind of gripping feeling within me going, "Oh, I just don't think I can do both. I can't do Biddy Tarot at the same time of doing Intuitive Entrepreneur." And so I was really assessing, "Well, what's important to me? What is really important to me?"

Brigit: You know what? One thing that's really important to me is excellence and going all in and doing an awesome job. I'm not very good at doing mediocre or a half-ass job. I need to go all in and be awesome at it. I also realized that I don't want to work more than about 30, sometimes 35 hours a week. That's not the kind of life that I want to live where every hour is invested in work. I want to be able to spend time with my kids, I want to be able to have time for self care. I want to be able to feel like I'm in flow when I'm working. And as I was sitting there on this beach, I started thinking, "Okay, so if I only want to work 30 hours a week, that means I've got 15 hours for Biddy, and 15 hours for intuitive entrepreneur." And then I started thinking, "That's not enough. The kind of growth trajectory that I have in mind for Biddy Tarot is massive, and you cannot lead an organization that's going through radical change in just 15 hours or less."

Brigit: Well actually, look, I'm not going to say never. Never say never, but I just know that in this state where we're at and my aspirations for the company and how I want to lead it, 15 hours, it's not going to cut it. And then equally 15 hours a week to start up a new business and do it at the level that I wanted to do it. And when I looked at my money goals, easily I want him to make this a six figure business within a year. And it could easily be that, but I know that it's not going to happen when I only have 15 hours or less to commit to it.

Brigit: So it was at that point that I realized, "Yeah, I'm going to have to make a choice." And it was gut wrenching. Absolutely gut wrenching because intuitive entrepreneur feels so in alignment with how I want to live, how I want to show up as an entrepreneur, how I want to show up as a leader, how I want to show up as a person. This feels like my soul calling, and yet now I'm being faced with this challenge of, "Okay, we've laid out one soul calling here and another soul calling here, but you got to choose, which one do you go?" And I made that decision that I need to put Intuitive Entrepreneur on hold and instead fully focus my energy and my intention on Biddy Tarot. And it took me a couple of days to get used to that idea and really grappled with it, I fought against it. I was like, "Oh, I just can't do it."

Brigit: And I'll tell you what, this is my thing, right? When I've set my mind to something, I persist, I really push hard to get it. I mean, maybe that's my Torian nature, that sort of headstrong, stubbornness that can play out sometimes. And so getting frustrated thinking, "Well I had all these ideas and this vision for intuitive entrepreneur, and now I'm putting the brakes on it. What is that? I'm not really sure." But the more that I thought and the more that I felt into it and the more that I just gazed out across that beautiful ocean, I realized, "No, it's time. It's time for Biddy Tarot."

Brigit: And then when I started to really engage with this idea of being fully engaged with Biddy Tarot, that started to light me up and I started to see the possibility of what it would look like when I'm fully engaged, that I can be fully present with my team, I can be fully present with my community, that I can do all the things that I want to do and I can do them well instead of just kind of rushing from one thing to the next because I'm so time poor. Instead, I can put all of my love and energy into this business. And I also started to realize that even though I was not going to be actively pursuing intuitive entrepreneur in its current format, I could actually channel a lot of my energy, my Intuitive Entrepreneur energy through existing channels.

Brigit: So for example, I am creating content for the intuitive entrepreneur as I lead and grow Biddy Tarot. Everything that I am experiencing, everything that I am creating in this business is supporting me as an intuitive entrepreneur so that in the future I can continue to support other intuitive entrepreneurs. And I'll tell you what, I have this gut feeling that what I think intuitive entrepreneur is now is not actually what it is in its fullest expression. And I strongly believe I need to go through this experience of growing Biddy Tarot to a $3 million plus company, and doing it in a way that is very consciously aware, and then stepping into Intuitive Entrepreneur in its more evolved format.

Brigit: So I think that's... I don't know, I'm just so curious about how that will pan out. And look, the other things, I'm still continuing with business mentoring. So I made that conscious decision that I will continue to mentor a handful of select clients, people, entrepreneurs that I know that I can add a lot of value to, and that that's just my joy work. To be paid for it is like icing on the cake. It's my absolute joy work. And also I know that I'm expressing this Intuitive Entrepreneur through other means and I'm inspiring other entrepreneurs. So for example, I meet with a group from the entrepreneurs organizations every month. There's a group of seven of us and we sit around a table, we talk for half a day about what's going on in our business and we support each other to effectively manage that. And these are people that have an air compressor business, a laundry washing service with 400 employees, a kitchen fitting business, like all kinds of businesses.

Brigit: And in fact, just the other day, they invited me to run a workshop at our upcoming retreat for these entrepreneurs using tarot. And they said, "We would love for you to do a workshop where you show us how to use tarot in our business." I'm like, "Hell yeah, this is fantastic." So I know that that Intuitive Entrepreneur energy is actually now being infused through the work that I'm doing in Biddy Tarot and elsewhere. So what does it mean for you, my dear listener and for intuitive entrepreneur moving forward? Well, this will be the final Intuitive Entrepreneur Podcast episode for a while, indefinitely. I have so enjoyed producing this podcast for you. We've reached 40 episodes, plus I think there are another eight bonus episodes, so let's say 48. We've had over 40,000 downloads and I'm so touched by the feedback that we've had about this podcast and how much it has supported you in your intuitive entrepreneurship journey.

Brigit: So the podcast will be going on hold. The mastermind that I had dreamed about and had really felt into and felt so excited about, I know that now is not the time. And I will be encouraging those who've signed up for the mastermind to also consider business mentoring at this stage. I hope that in the future I will be running a mastermind of the kind of what I've envisioned because, oh, it's so good. It's so juicy. But for now, I know that it is not the right time right now. But as I said before, I will be continuing on with the business mentoring with just a small group of clients. So I wanted to bring this back to you. In a way, it's my way of announcing that this podcast is going into a hibernation type phase, but I also want to meet you with where you might be at right now.

Brigit: And so if you're feeling like you've been called in multiple directions and perhaps you're going through these similar challenges of like, "What do I do? Do I do all of them? Do I have to choose? Can I be split between a few of them? How do I navigate this?" So having been through this experience now myself, I have a few things to share with you. Firstly, I just want to say that I see where you're at. I just want to witness the inner turmoil that this can bring up. And it's the challenge of thinking, "Oh well, I'm following my calling. I'm following my passion. I'm doing everything by the book. I'm doing my zone of genius. Oh, why does it become so hard?" But I think that this is the true test of your alignment. And this is where you do have to get even more connected to what really lights you up and where you feel most aligned, and what is your true calling and your true purpose.

Brigit: I recommend that you ask yourself what is really important to you? At the end of the day, looking at the very big picture, what is important to you? So for me, what was important to me was that I was only investing around 30 hours a week. And what was also important to me was that I was doing an excellent job, not a mediocre one, not a half-assed half in, I need to be full in or nothing at all. And so think about what's important to you. What is it that you want to create in your overall life? What experience do you want to have as you create your business or businesses? And ultimately can you do it all? Because even though we like to think that we can do it all, sometimes we cannot.

Brigit: And even if you make that decision now that, "Okay, I can't do it all." Know that you're not like completely killing that idea. That idea just goes now into a hibernation phase and will re-emerge at a later time. It's about choosing the time to really play with a particular idea and focus on it and give it your love and attention. And sometimes that means that we have to put other things in hibernation. I think too, like when you're looking at multiple paths, you've got to think about, well, if I'm trying to do it all, what's the cost of doing it all? Because I found that there was a lot of costs in trying to do both Biddy Tarot and Intuitive Entrepreneur. And like my personal cost was that feeling of frustration that I wasn't doing a great job in either. And there was a cost too to my team because they felt pulled in multiple directions, and they weren't able to fully dedicate to Biddy Tarot.

Brigit: And also what it meant even on a financial level, once I started running the numbers, I thought, "Oh my goodness, there's so much potential in Biddy Tarot for this financial growth, whereas in Intuitive Entrepreneur, there's so much work that needs to be done in order to realize the financial potential. And so from a purely financial basis, it makes more sense to focus on Biddy Tarot. So think about, yeah, what is that cost too of committing to multiple parts? Then find ways to express yourself through some existing channels. So if you do feel like you have to put one passion on in hibernate mode, think about how can you take that passion and filter it into what you're already doing. So for me with Intuitive Entrepreneur, I know that I can express myself as the intuitive entrepreneur as I'm doing my Biddy Tarot work, and that I can actually evolve at a rapid rate by being engaged with Biddy Tarot.

Brigit: That all of my knowledge as an intuitive entrepreneur will continue to evolve and elevate as a result of working in Biddy Tarot. So think about how you can bring those multi passions through your existing channels, so in that way you can stay more focused on one area. Allow the space to expand and contract. So this is something that I've experienced in business for many years. There are years where we're in full expansion mode, where we take on lots and lots of things, where we do lots of products, we do lots of different things. Maybe we start a whole new business, like Intuitive Entrepreneur. And then there are those years where we go into contract and we start to think, "Oh, Whoa, too much. Simplify, simplify, simplify." And then we refocus and realign. So if you're a multi-passionate person feeling called in multiple directions, think about are you in an expansion mode, which is fine, be in that moment of expansion. It is messy, it is chaotic, you're doing a lot of things, everything is really busy.

Brigit: Or do you feel that now you're starting to step into the contracting phase where you refocus, realign, and just get back to the core. Just acknowledge where you're at. And then finally just trust that everything is evolving. And that really means that even though we might be putting an idea on ice for now or a project, or even an initiative that you're 75% of the way through, you can put it on ice knowing that it will continue to grow and evolve. And these opportunities will continue to come up at the right time. And if we just trust that we'll be showing what the right time is, then we can kind of surrender to that and we can let go and then we can be more present with what we have chosen to focus on.

Brigit: So really just trust everything is evolving. And even if in this present moment you have to say no to an opportunity, it doesn't mean that that opportunity won't present itself again in the future, particularly if it is part of your soul path and it is meant to be part of your destiny. Again, you don't have to do everything at once. It doesn't have to all happen now, even though I like to believe that it does. So my friend, I hope that this has been helpful for you today. Maybe you are feeling called in multiple directions and you are feeling that sort of pinch of, "Oh, I'm not sure that I can do everything. I'm not sure I can give it my all when I'm trying to do all of these things." I just want you to know that you're not alone. We all go through this, and even for me, I'm normally a very focused strategic thinker and I've found myself now pulled in these multiple directions and having to make these difficult choices.

Brigit: I also want to say a big thank you to you for listening to this podcast and for engaging with it. And I hope that even if you've just taken one episode out of these 40, and it has changed something for you in your business, then that's my job done. And I hope that I can continue to support you whether it's more on an energetic level or when things get to ramp up again sometime in the future. I want to be there to support you and know that I've got your back. You deserve so much success and so much abundance in your business. So my friends, with that, oh, it's tricky to say it, but I'm going to say it. Well, bye for now and thank you so very much. All right ciao.

Brigit: Thank you for joining me for today's episode of the Intuitive Entrepreneur Podcast. If you loved this episode, please leave an honest rating and review on iTunes. It helps to get the word out, and of course, I read every single comment. And if you want to discover how to plan your next big launch using the cycles of the moon, make sure that you download my free guide, Lunar Launches. You'll find it over at brigit.me/lunar-launches. That's B-R-I-G-I-T.me/lunar-launches. And these are the exact strategies I've used in my business to create six-figure launches time after time. And now you can use them too. You'll find it all inside of my free guide, Luna Launches over at brigit.me/lunar-launches. All right, that is it for now. I cannot wait to see you next time. Bye for now.