[00:00:00] Speaker A: SA.
[00:00:32] Speaker B: Welcome to another episode of Balancing Acts. I'm your host, Linda Hamilton, a CPA certified exit planning advisor and systemologist. Balancing Acts is dedicated to helping you build a resilient and profitable business and making sure that you also can balance both your business and your life. Today's episode, we're going to talk about the potential of your business as well as some of the things that might hold you back with that. And we have a very special guest, Becca Powers with us and author of A Return to Radiance and harness your inner CEO. She's a Fortune 500 high tech sales executive, keynote speaker, and the CEO of Power's Peak potential. So a fellow entrepreneur and she's worked with industry giants Cisco, Dell, Royal Caribbean. With an expressive record of leading large teams and hitting 500 million in annual revenue and sales. That's impressive. She's earned the coveted President's Club award seven times. And she's a certified Kundalini yoga teacher and Reiki master who lives in Florida. Becca, thank you so much. I'm so excited to talk about your book.
[00:01:41] Speaker A: I am so excited to be here too, Linda.
[00:01:44] Speaker B: So let's talk about the Return to Radiance and what inspired you to write it.
[00:01:49] Speaker A: Well, one of the things that really inspired me to write it, well, there was multiple things, but I think that after I came off the coattails of my first book, Harness yous Inner CEO, which was extremely empowering and helped people, you know, stand up in their power in their personal and professional life, that was awesome. But then there is this question that kept coming back to me from the readers is like, how do I prevent burnout? How do I stay in that state longer? And so being a bit of a researcher, I was like, I'm going to, like, I think I have an inkling, but I want to do some research, find out. And that's when you and I were talking beforehand about like the burnout statistics and all that stuff. But what I started really come drawing the conclusion of as I got further in my research and also I have the background as a Kundalini teacher and a Reiki master and stuff like that is that I do believe that we get stuck in the, what do I want to say, the societal molding. And not that it's a bad thing, but, you know, you should have a job or, you know, get, get a job, get married, have a kid, have a house, have a fence, that whole thing. And we leave our passions and our purpose sometimes to the side and, you know, for, for your audience, we focus, you know, you focus a lot with entrepreneurs, but sometimes they can work so much too that they come out of their potential because it's, there's such a drive to move the business forward. So what I came to the conclusion of is, you know, I'm a successful businesswoman too. But what I realized is that if we are tapped into our potential, which is in our radiance, right? If we're in our radiance, which includes our potential, our strengths, our gifts, our talents, we don't have to work as hard. We start being in the flow of our potential rather than trying to catch it. And so that's really what drove me to write the book was I think I was like, I think I can help people.
[00:03:48] Speaker B: Oh, I love, and I love that radiance. Just the thought of being radiant and you know, looking at the definition of our, you know, a sparkle or entrepreneurs truly do have a passion for what they do. But you can, you can burn out some on that passion because it's a bit of a hamster wheel, isn't it? Running business. You're on and you're off and you're constantly having new ideas you talk about, you know, it's a very personal, pivotal moment in your life that inspired you to write the book. Would you like to share that?
[00:04:20] Speaker A: Yes, I would. Because I think it's really relatable. So there's, there's two parts to, to the story I'm going to share, but the first one is just very real and in the middle of everyday life. So I was working as a senior leader in an organization. I was on the executive board. I had four kids in the, in middle school to mine, to my husband. So I was in the thick of it. And I remember coming home from work on my fourth bad day and just bracing myself to go inside. Not because I didn't love my kids or love my husband. I just was running on empty. And I was doing that deep breath like, I can do this, I can do it, I can be mom, it's going to be fine. And I walk in the house and the kids hit me with mom, mom, sign this, do this, all the things. And I freaked out on them. And I, and I, it needed to happen because God knows if I had done it before, I probably had. But I saw them viscerally change. I saw them react to me. And, and it still brings tears to my eyes. And this was almost a decade ago and I just remember thinking like, this is. This is not me. Who, who am I becoming? And fast forward to that night after the kids were in bed. I'm getting ready for bed myself. I look in the mirror and I couldn't recognize the woman staring back at me. And it was just such a emotionally depleting experience that it brought me to my knees. And I, I laugh. I only laugh because, like, when I hit the bathroom floor, I kind of, like, hugged it for a second, like, hello, cold tile. I kind of need you. But in a more serious note, I was devastated. I was crying. I was. And I had nowhere to go. I had nowhere to go but up is what I like to say. And so I call out to God, universe. I'm just like, I need help because I can't do tomorrow the same way I'm doing today. And I'm sure, listeners, you've been there too. Like, you've done, you've approached life and business the same way over and over again because that's what we know how to do. And I couldn't do it again. I, I needed a change. And so I heard like a whisper from within say, becca, you're the CEO of your life. And it was so empowering. I, I, it's so, I get so excited to share the story because I remember feeling this rush of empowerment through my veins. And I stood up off that bathroom floor a different woman than the one that went down. And I didn't know how I was going to do tomorrow different, but I knew that I was going to. And that's all I needed in that moment. So I like to pause just right there for the listeners, because if you've been in a ser, in a similar situation in life or in business, just know that you are the CEO of your life, not just your business, but the CEO of your life, too, and that you can, you can make changes.
[00:07:14] Speaker B: And that's so, I'm so glad you share that because it's, it's truly the power of self awareness, of telling yourself. So many entrepreneurs, you know, I, as a cpa, I work with many, many business owners for three decades. And you know, they get frustrated, they get tired. You can get closer to burnout. So the, the fact is that you recognized what you were feeling and this limitation of what it was doing to you. And you said, I have to, I have to control it. And that is play on your name. That is powerful recognition. So let's talk about unpotential. I mean, you use the words radiance and potential. Let's making sure we're clear about what that means. But unpotential, that's a kind of a fascinating Word.
[00:08:01] Speaker A: Yes. And thank you for bringing unpotential up, because I think it's really important to understand because, you know, we hear words like burnout and, you know, exhaustion, but they're really symptoms of being in your un Potential, is how I like to look at it. Because as I studied burnout for many years, I got certified in trauma awareness and some other things just to really understand. I'm like, these are symptoms of us becoming disconnected from the truth of who we are or from our potential. And so that's why I decided to call that unpotential, because I felt like it. It hugged that better than using a word like burnout. I think burnout's more of a symptom. So that's why I dived into that.
[00:08:45] Speaker B: Kind of running your business in a way that maybe is not the potential, you know, you can reach.
[00:08:51] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:08:52] Speaker B: Of other things maybe getting in your way.
That's very interesting. You also said that, and you start the book with saying that burnout is often the main culprit that prevents us from rocking our radiance. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?
[00:09:09] Speaker A: I would love to, because what happens in burnout is.
I want to talk a little bit about the pyramid of unpotential, because I think that'll help give listeners a practical tool. I always love to, when I'm on podcast, to give some of the practical wisdom so they can be like, oh, my gosh, I can catch it right now myself. So I developed five levels of unpotential, and burnout really starts in levels three, four, and five. And so when I'm helping people realize whether they're burnt out or not or how to get out of it, what I really like to talk about are levels one and level two, which are I call the unders and the overs, which I'm sure you remember from the book. But they're important to understand because the unders are when you feel undervalued, underappreciated, under recognized.
And if you think of being an entrepreneur, there's not always someone recognizing you, appreciating you, or saying that you're valuable. So it's really easy to feel undered. But what happens from it. And this is important to understand because from a psychology perspective, our subconscious, when we feel under it, even if we don't think we are, but it's happening, we overcompensate. So you'll see it in forms of overworking, overstressing, overanalyzing, overthinking. And I can say, too, as an entrepreneur or I do that. But the key is learning to discern whether it's intentional or whether you're trapped in a loop. And it's when you be, when you get looped is that's when you start progressing into burnout. Which level three would be, you start questioning your belonging. Should I? Like, if you're an entrepreneur and you're looking at it in your business, you're like, should I keep doing this or should I not? Like, this is hard. This. You know, those questions start happening. If you're an employee, you start asking, should I stay or should I go? Or if you're in a relationship, you might ask yourself that same question.
Most people have a hard time with agency, meaning, like, they can't make the decision, so they just wait it out. And when you wait it out, you can start going into level four, which is disharmony in the bodies. That's where you might start clenching your jaw, having anxiety, losing hope that the situation's going to change, things like that. And then in level five, you might start seeing disconnected relationships, divorce, large debt and even disease start to surface.
[00:11:42] Speaker B: So we're going to talk more about this when we come back from a commercial break. I think it's really important. I hope our listeners are hearing about. It's very easy as an entrepreneur to feel under something. You can come off a negotiation call with a potential client who's giving you a hard time and feel I'm so undervalued on this. So we'll be back in a moment.
[00:12:26] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:12:37] Speaker B: Welcome back to Balancing Acts. I'm your host, Linda Hamilton, a CPA certified exit planning advisor and systemologist. And we're talking with Becker Powers about her book Return to Radiance. And that has a lot to do with feeling your passion about your business and living in your potential and taking your business and making it. You're taking it to its fullest potential. So we were just talking about sometimes feeling undervalued, maybe by our customers, maybe by could be friends, family. Not everybody understands an entrepreneur. I will say that. So what else could we go with? We talked about how that could lead to burnout and overwhelm. What are some of the things you do? One of your chapters, I love the title, Break up with Burnout, which is a great title.
[00:13:28] Speaker A: So when, when we start getting into breaking up with Burnout, we can wrap up the teaching on the Pyramid of Unpotential, because one of the first things you're going to do is just notice when you're overing everyone. You might not know when you're undering, but you will know when you're overing because it'll look like the overworking, overstressing, overanalyzing, doing all the overs. Then you can peel back and just figure out what you're feeling under in and just do what you can to resolve that. And a lot of times we talk, we talked about this before too, Linda and I, during a break. But boundaries, guys, boundaries is one way that you can stay in your potential and, and keep your business in its potential too. So often, and I'm an entrepreneur too, so often I want to say yes to opportunities. And that's a good, it is a good practice to have, but you have to have self reflection and self awareness in there, otherwise you can end up burnt out. So for me, I like to say boundaries are your best friend. The other thing is that when I started really doing boundaries work that I'm like, was fascinated to learn that the biggest boundary is actually between you and yourself and not between you and someone else. So, Linda, I'll pause there to see if you have a question on that. But if not, then I can go further into that.
[00:14:48] Speaker B: I just. What I love about boundaries is, you know, sometimes I do an exercise with my clients on the power of no, of saying no. Because you can load yourself up saying yes to so many people that you're working day and night and maybe feeding the kids in between or just trying to have time with your spouse.
So I think that's so important that you're talking about that. And that is common for all entrepreneurs.
[00:15:15] Speaker A: Absolutely. And so if I was going to give you a tip from this, what I want you to know is that, you know, your, your choices either serve you or they sabotage you. And going off of what Linda was saying, if you are saying yes to everything, then that means that oftentimes you end up saying no to your time, no to your energy, and no to your space. You know, as entrepreneurs, we need space to create, to strategize, and to, to pull back. So we have, you know, we're able to observe what's going on in our business. We need more time to make sure that, well, one, we have balancing act between our family and our work, but also that time allows you, the more time that you have, you can put the right energy, because you receive your energy back into the things that are most important. So just remember when you're setting boundaries and you're playing this game of yes and no, make sure that your yeses serve you.
[00:16:12] Speaker B: Very good point. And you know that if you Say yes to everything. You say no to yourself once you have no time to exercise, no time to eat. Well, I'm eating on the go or running to a meeting and are this client wanted more than I could deliver. And I'm, you know, everything is overtime. So that, that's just a common role. But when you do let yourself have boundaries because you really. It has to be intentional or you won't do it. Right?
[00:16:40] Speaker A: Correct.
[00:16:41] Speaker B: And so what's next? Does that, does that lead to goals? You talk about super dreamy goals. I kind of think of, you know, the bhag with Jim Collins.
[00:16:50] Speaker A: Yes, that's, that's exactly what I thought when I created that. But like, I always had a, like a reaction to the big hairy goal. I didn't like the hairy part, so I was like, what if they're super big dreamy goals? Like that sounds better.
I just decided to play off that. But what I realized is that so many of us put our, put our dreams and goals first and then the boundaries second. And I was like, you know what? That boundaries need to come first and then set your goals. Because if you are chasing your super big dreamy goals from the space of your energy and your time and your mindfulness, you are going to achieve extraordinary success.
That's just what I've seen.
[00:17:35] Speaker B: Oh, that's so true. And so when you have boundaries, when you are setting goals, I think you did state percentage. There's a high percentage of people actually don't meet their goals. Right. They write them. Or maybe they don't even write them, but, you know, it's in your mind.
[00:17:51] Speaker A: Oh my God, I am so happy you brought that up. Because when I was doing the research for this book and I started researching goal setting, it blew my mind. Mind that only 17%. So listeners like 17. Only 17% of people set goals in the first place. But here's the kicker.
Half of those people achieve them more like. And that blew my mind because I'm like, if half peop. If half of who set goals are achieving them, what happens if you were super intentional, that gap would close and we would see people like hitting their goals, building their dreams like crazy.
[00:18:33] Speaker B: And I work with businesses to create a one page business plan. One page, because it's kind of like a quick dashboard. You can have it on your screen every day. You can know where you're going. When you write things down, they remind you, oh, I didn't work on that this month. Or sometimes it might be the goal was too big or you don't have the capacity, and that's okay. You can change the goal. They don't have to be hardwired, but it is very important to write them. And businesses who do plan, who write goals, they tend to grow 30% faster. So that's really important, whether they're big, dreamy ones or whether you're too scared to make them that dreamy. I'm a cpa. I tend to like, well, let's not. Let's. Let's lower it down a little bit. Let's not overreach.
[00:19:17] Speaker A: But I love that 30% because, you know, that's just so reassuring. And I'll even share, you know, the. The book we're talking about at A Return to Radiance hit USA Today, and I share that only because I have on my super big, dreamy goals to be a New York Times bestseller. Well, guess what? I didn't hit New York Times, but I hit USA Today, and that was pretty freaking awesome, you know. And so by setting these goals, what Linda and I are talking about, you might not hit that thing, but stay open to the process because you could create something that's even, you know, even better or that's equivalent or something that'll just blow your mind. So anyway, stay open to the process and set your goals.
[00:20:01] Speaker B: Yeah, it is helpful. And it's like, you know, you wouldn't take a trip without a map to someplace you weren't going, so it's kind of helping you there. And sometimes we set a stretch goal, and if you're not comfortable, it can be smaller steps on a bite there. That leads me to a little bit about talking about opportunities, which I do love, you know, your last name, power, and your process goes with that. So number one, right, was protect your potential.
[00:20:28] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:20:29] Speaker B: Two is own your opportunities. So let's talk about how these goals and things, or breaking up with Vernon. How does that lead to opportunities, especially for a business owner?
[00:20:39] Speaker A: So the thing that's coming up to me for business owners to consider looking at is your values. You know, I have been very goal oriented, driven, ambitious, pretty much my entire life, and I have also burnt out five, six times. I mean, the story I shared with you is my, my, my big hurrah. You know, I hit the bathroom floor.
But what I learned is when I did my values assess, my first values assessment, and I have one in the book. But it just. You can even Google for values assessments if you want to take it after hearing this. But what I want to share is that what I learned when I took my first values Assessment is that meaningful work was my number one, which made sense because again, it's just going to go back to what Linda and I were talking about with boundaries, too. I had no boundaries when it came to work because work was meaningful. I wasn't doing work that I hated. I was doing work that I loved. And so because it was something that was meaningful and that I loved, I just went all in and that. And, and learning that about myself gave me this, you know, as it relates to owning my opportunities is that I knew this value was embedded in me. And so now I get to own the direction that I want to take this. And that was very, very powerful. So I, as we talk about owning opportunities, knowing yourself intimately is very important because now I can say, you know, I know meaningful work is going to take lead, but family was my second value. And I also need to put something into this bucket. So that was one thing that came up to me, as you said, like, own your opportunities and then going into the conversation. But I'll give it back to you, Linda, to see if you want to hit on something else.
[00:22:28] Speaker B: And, you know, the, the, the opportunities per se for business, we want to get these things done. We're very driven. Entrepreneurs are driven to succeed. Right. And they just keep going and they keep, they get off that answer wheel and they get back on. So. But you do have to balance, as you mentioned, family. Sometimes that can lead to exhaustion. So we have to be able, as we talked about in the first segment, back off, set some boundaries and rest, because if we don't rest, we're not going to be able to capitalize on those opportunities as they come our way.
And renal. Last thought on that before we go to our next segment. In a commercial, is there anything particular you want to share with someone about opportunities or even your website, too?
[00:23:19] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, as I talk about opportunities, what comes up for me when I think of entrepreneurs is also what I want to say. I want to say really look at the meaning that you're assigning to things, too. I think it's really important because, you know, as Linda was expressing, we have a desire to succeed and to take things to the next level, but you can also assign meaning to family or more powerful meaning to family or to working out, as you mentioned, and change your belief system that spending time with your family fuels you to run your business better.
You know, the meaning that I don't have time to work out. Maybe working out gives me time to, like, accelerate. And so in that part of the book, I start talking about how you can pick your meaning to, you know, own your opportunities. So I just wanted to double click.
[00:24:21] Speaker B: And I think we'll talk about that again after our commercial break. You can find
[email protected] we'll be back in a moment.
[00:24:53] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:25:03] Speaker B: Welcome back to Balancing Acts. I'm Linda Hamilton, your host, a CPA certified exit planning advisor and systemologist, and we're talking with Becca Powers about Return to Radiance, her book and specifically this segment. We're talking about owning your opportunities, opportunities for your business and in your life and feeling worthy. Becca, we were just talking about owning your opportunities and I love this section of your book. I loved all of your book.
We mentioned aligning with values. But let's go on to shining brighter than your doubts. What does that mean?
[00:25:40] Speaker A: My expression made me laugh as you say that because as entrepreneurs I think we're constantly facing self doubt and having to overcome it. But what I'd like the listeners to understand is that doubt is part of our experience of being human. And so what I learned and what I write about in the book is instead of fighting it per se and just being like, I'm just going to push forward, which can lead back to burnout. What we were talking about earlier on, it can you can myth bust. That's what I talk about in the book is the myth busting questions. But you can start asking yourself like, you know, if, if I were to do this anyway, what would the outcome be? Or if I decided to listen to the self doubt and I didn't do anything, what would that look like? How would I feel? You know? And so I like getting into the myth busting questions because as you allow yourself the space to ask maybe two or three self reflecting questions, you realize, oh yeah, I can do this.
[00:26:51] Speaker B: I love that sometimes you don't want your CPA in the room because one of my things is I will constantly ask what if? And my what ifs are often okay, well this could go wrong and that could go wrong and can you live with the consequences? So I recently got that's hilarious. I got a coaching tip that said, oh, Linda, that's one of your strengths. But you should talk to someone who gives you the more positive spin.
You're trying to protect them. So it's okay to go both ways. But you need to, as you said, do both. What if those are normal doubts, right?
[00:27:25] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:27:25] Speaker B: But can you live? What is the worst that can happen and can you live with that?
[00:27:29] Speaker A: I love that you said, I love everything you said there and especially to Consider both sides. And that's really what you know that this chapter is about, because we're going to. We have doubt and we also have the ability. I mean, the concept is return to radiance. And we have this inner shine. We have our strengths, we have our gifts, our talents. And oftentimes, if we allow doubt just to lead us, we don't get to express those and we don't get to show our full potential. We don't get to make the impact that we're supposed to make. So what Linda said right there was, ask yourself the what ifs both ways, and the answer often will be there. Can I live with this consequence? Can I live with this consequence? And then you can move forward.
[00:28:14] Speaker B: And you just reminded me what I Another thing you mentioned in the book about fear and how fear of failure was greater than. What did you say? Fear of public speaking and fear of spiders.
[00:28:27] Speaker A: Spiders and ghosts.
[00:28:30] Speaker B: So, you know, that's where doubt. Okay, so you wouldn't want me to talk you into the what ifs making you fearful of taking action. That would not be a good thing. Right. So in being radiant and living to our potential, you have to grapple with fear. So what did you want to comment about that?
[00:28:50] Speaker A: Well, I think that, you know what, what comes up for me is I always like to use the analogy of driving a car. Like, fear is always going to be in the car with you. You can either let it drive, you can have it be a passenger. I to have fear in the backseat. Like, it can be my backseat navigation. Like, hey, you don't want to make that turn. I'm like, you know what? I got my GPS on. I'm, I'm good. I'm going to make that turn. But once I started embracing things like fear and anxiety as part of me and, and, and stopping and trying to stop bypassing them as if they didn't exist.
They become healthy navigators in your business.
Fear is a very natural response to anything new that we're doing. Which is also why I talk about Bear Hug uncomfortable. Because this thing that happens is that when you break through the fear, that's when possibility enters.
[00:29:50] Speaker B: Yeah, very, very true. And I do think of another book, your Genius Zone by Gay Living. Yes. With Gay Hendrix. And he does talk about what can you control? Right. And we can't stress over or have anxiety continuously over things we can't control. And so it's important to actually look at that when you're thinking about. And just to put this in realistic terms, that comes up with you're going to hire someone new in your business because you're trying to grow, there's going to be a lot of doubts around that. Or you're trying to say maybe you want to leave your day job and start your business.
There are a lot of practical applications of what we're talking about in life and in business. So I'm glad you did that. What about turn your strengths into superpowers?
[00:30:42] Speaker A: This is one of my most favorite things to talk about because within us, especially as entrepreneurs, what I find is a lot of entrepreneurs are in some form of their talent, gifts and strengths. And I also know that as an entrepreneur, there are so many things for us to learn. Like, I mean, you're learning how to run a business, you become a marketing person, a salesperson, and sometimes you start distancing away from your zone of genius. How you just use that. And so what I like to say and turn your strengths to superpowers is, you know, while we have to do all these things over, developing weaknesses can sometimes put a hindrance into things. So what I like to say is maximize and invest in your strengths and turn them into superpowers. And I'll just give an example. Like I was working with an entrepreneur woman who was very good at negotiating skills and things like, like her business was, was coaching and she was a very good coach, but she was very good at negotiation questions, things like that. So I recommended, I was like, why don't you go take some classes that teach you how to do this, like with more, I don't want to say more tech because she was very good, but at like an expert level. Right. And when she came back, she came in so dialed in that she was not only converting clients into more and more programs, which is awesome, met more revenue for her, but she was making greater impact because the questions she was asking and the ways that she was helping her clients uncover things within their business and within themselves became better that she, she was feeling more fulfilled, she was making greater impact. She almost quadrupled her year over year revenue. So that's just like, that's just a small example of turning up a strength and getting it to be a superpower.
[00:32:47] Speaker B: Yeah, focus focusing on that strength so that you can improve it because weaknesses can definitely weigh us down. But you mentioned a bunch of hats, sales, marketing. And it is true that entrepreneurs wear a lot of hats. And so sometimes we might want to try to work towards a goal of delegating one of those hats to someone else or maybe outsourcing it so we can take that off our plates and focus on our superpowers.
What about the next part? Was waken your worthiness the name of chapter? And so the word worthiness is another part of am I worthy?
Am I doing a good job? And how can we talk about that for our business owner audience?
[00:33:32] Speaker A: Well, I always like to start it with the self. And the most important lesson that I learned in business as it relates to me and making money is that I'm freaking worthy of it. And so I just want to give it to the listeners too, just raw like that is. You were worthy of it. You know, you, we were all born the same way, born naked little babies who were inherent of their worth, their health, their happiness like we, we get to. And that's part of like owning the opportunities too. We get to have more conscious choices and how we bring about, bring about our success. And as it comes to worthiness, if you believe you deserve it, it does start to manifest, it does start to show. And so what I like to say to business owners who are seeing a stagnation in their income is, is there any worthiness things? How many free consultations are you doing? Are they converting? If they're not converting, why, you know, in this case like that I shared of this other woman client, she had an opportunity to improve her, her natural gift of skills. But you know, sometimes it's not skills, sometimes it's self worth that's preventing your business from growing. And so I always just like to say it starts with you and believing you're worthy of it.
[00:34:50] Speaker B: And I can see your sales background there of being able to, you know, that's very much about numbers. It's a numbers game. And yes, so about your messaging, but sometimes the worthiness, it manifests itself in pricing and you're not charging enough. You're not even thinking about what your own time is worth. So how can you hire anybody else or make a profit or exceed if you're not charging enough? And that gets with, you know, boundaries get into that. Yes, unders overs. I think everything affects that. So I don't know if you have any thoughts about how business owners can get comfortable being worthy enough to charge what they should be charging.
[00:35:30] Speaker A: You know, I think that it's, it's one of those muscles that needs to get flexed and tested. But I love everything that you said because worthiness does impact your pricing. And you know, if we're going back to the beginning of the conversation when I was talking about the pyramid of unpotential, one of the primary unders that triggers overs is underpaid. And if you're a business owner, guess what, you're in charge of that. And you start building resentment. And, and every when you're undering again from a, like a psychological perspective, you're going to over. And so you might find yourself overworking, over committing, maybe overextending yourself, so putting more hours in for free. And so that leads to more feelings of the, of underpaid. So worthiness plays a very important. And that's why I kind of save it for the middle chapter or the middle part of the book because I wanted to start like, okay, here's how you protect your potential. Here's how you start shifting your mindset like we talked about, owning your opportunities. It's very much a mindset game right there. But then you need to have that worth. You need to be like, all right, my mind is strong. You know, I'm protecting my potential and now I'm claiming what's mine.
[00:36:44] Speaker B: We're going to take a commercial break and come back and talk about a few other things related to the book. BeccaPowers.com and we'll be right back.
[00:37:17] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:37:27] Speaker B: Welcome back to Balancing Acts. I'm your host, Linda Hamilton, a CPA certified exit planning advisor and systemologist. And we're talking with Becca Powers about her book Return to Radiance, which is a wonderful book about harnessing your potential, being radiant in your business and making sure that you're living to your full potential. Becca, let's talk about one of my favorite chapters in your book was about gratitude and how questions related to that could you talk about.
Let's go into that. The three types of gratitude.
[00:38:03] Speaker A: Yeah, the three types of gratitude. I say gratitude's quite like chocolate. There's, you know, like chocolate has dark milk and white. I say that gratitude has three different flavors. One is general gratitude, then thankfulness and appreciation. And as we circle on this topic that Linda brought up, primary questions. All of us on a subconscious level have a primary question that's running the show as a business owner, salesperson. Mom, it this is the question that ran my entire life. And it's am I doing enough? And I'm sure as a business owner you can relate because it's sometimes hard to close the laptop at 5:00 because that question, it's like, am I doing enough? Maybe I just do one more hour, you know, and but what I realized is that we tend as business owners not to appreciate ourselves and our efforts very much. And so I love that Linda brought this up because if you're relating to this primary question of mine. It's different for everybody, but it's very common. This, the one that I have is actually very common. I found out afterwards, after I discovered mine and started sharing it with, with my group that I was working on it with is am I doing enough? Is very common. So if you're relating to that, chances are you're not stopping to reflect on your small celebrations. You're missing appreciation. You're missing thankfulness for being dedicated to what you're doing. So, Linda, I know that this chapter meant a lot to you. I'd love to pause and just give it back to you and, and see what, where you want to take it.
[00:39:41] Speaker B: You know, some of the ones were, you know, that question. My question would often be, I'm a perfectionist. It's never good enough to me, oh, I thought I could have done one more thing. I thought about one more thing. So I'll punish myself. Instead of stopping and being thankful for the, for the work and the relationship, my clients stay with me. I have clients that are with me for decades. So. But I'm always beating myself up that it wasn't enough. So what I got the most out of was, like, you suggested some questions to ask yourself. When do I feel most defensive? Or, you know, in what situation do I feel least confident? I felt when I wrote those questions down. They could be very helpful to me in analyzing how I feel. Feel and how I'm making myself feel, because it's only about me. No one else is saying this.
[00:40:30] Speaker A: Yes. And, and I'm so glad that you said that because I'm just going to take a peek at, at the questions real fast so I can share another one with, with the listeners.
There's. So I'm like, looking at one right now too. In what situations do I feel least confident? You mentioned that. What criticize? What criticism do I most fear receiving that question.
What criticism? So Linda just mentioned she's a perfectionist. She's going to do everything it takes so she does not have to hear somebody tell her she made a mistake. I'm going to keep going the extra mile because I don't want to tell. I don't want someone to tell me that I didn't do enough or that I didn't work hard enough or I didn't do something enough. Right. And so sometimes when, when the inner critic is playing so strong in our head, we're missing what we're really working for, what we're really building and how awesome we really are, you know, and all the effort we've put in, it.
[00:41:32] Speaker B: Shows, you know, by and large we all want to do a good job. Your employees want to do a good job. I mean, for the most part, I often say when there's a problem in business, it's generally a process problem, not a people problem. People don't come in and want to do a crappy, they want to do a good job. Maybe they don't have the right capacity. Maybe you're not paying them enough. As an owner, you know, there's all kinds of reasons. So asking these questions can help us. Not to me, these questions helped me, but they helped me think about how my employees feel, how my team feels. Because my team then works with my clients. So I think that can be a circle. So that practicing gratitude, thankfulness and appreciation, appreciating the people who work with us, the clients who stay with us, is so, so important. You can go do so much with these questions.
[00:42:25] Speaker A: Oh my gosh, so much. And I love that you, you finished on Appreciation because as I was researching it for this book and doing client interviews and just, you know, trying to make sure that I presented the best information forward, what I found is that people, a lot of, especially business owners, they have a gratitude list. Like there's a lot of positive habits, not for everyone, but for a lot. But self appreciation was almost non existent across the board and I found that really fascinating and why I wanted to spend so much time bringing that forward in the book. Because now when I just say, instead of saying my primary question being I'm not doing enough, I say I'm thankful for everything I have, everything I do and everything that I am from this place of appreciation, how can I show up more? And it shifts my actions. It really does.
[00:43:20] Speaker B: Yeah. Great. So, so great. It was, I really highly recommend that. It was very helpful to me and I've been in business more than three decades, so that's awesome. You know, you never, you never stop learning. What is one technique or exercise from your book that maybe listeners could use, maybe they could start today in their journey towards radiance.
[00:43:42] Speaker A: I really think, especially as business owners, I'm going to come back to part one of the book and say your choices, like really understanding that your choices serve you or sabotage you or help you or hurt you. Another way of saying it, empower you or disempower you. I like to say that those three variations because they resonate different with each person.
But your choices serve you or sabotage you. That's so powerful because you're making Hiring decisions. You're, you're making business decisions, client decisions, payroll decisions. There's, we are making as business owners decisions all the time. But how often are we stopping to feel like is this, is this the right decision or are we just making them because we have to? Are we making them from fear? So are we making them from faith that it's going to go through? There's so many nuances that choice. I always come back to choice. If you can master choices, you really get to stay more in your radiance.
[00:44:42] Speaker B: Oh, that's, that's very good. And there's choices. Even if you know you have to make a quick choice in business. And we often do.
[00:44:49] Speaker A: Right.
[00:44:49] Speaker B: We don't have time. But you can go back and look at them. If you had that business I was talking about, you can go back, why did I make that choice? You know, were there any of these questions or self limiting beliefs that made me make it? And maybe I'm going to modify something going forward. That's okay. It's part of your goal setting and you know, being resilient. We, we, we, we always adapt. We're constantly adapting.
[00:45:14] Speaker A: Yes. And it's part of our evolution. One of the things that we had talked about during break was that change is inevitable. Our business changes, our lives change. Change is going to happen and that's why resilience is so important. So you know, sometimes we're going to make the wrong choice. I don't make perfect choices, but I am big on self reflection. So Linda, I'm so happy you brought that up because that's a big game changer. Make that decision because you're in the moment and you gotta go, but you want to stop and take the time to stop and reflect. Awesome. It'll help to help you set up for the future.
[00:45:47] Speaker B: What's the takeaway from the book? You would like our readers maybe to think about a takeaway or is there something about the exercises they can go do on your website?
[00:45:58] Speaker A: I believe you are so much more than you're currently expressing. I truly do. And I, I believe that if you get your hands on this book or other material like this that are focusing on your potential and on your radiance, you're going to unlock a new level in you that's not just about revenue, but it's about you becoming a better version of yourself and making a bigger impact in the world.
[00:46:24] Speaker B: Oh, I love ending on that note. How can people find you online?
[00:46:29] Speaker A: Yes. So I'm on LinkedIn and Instagram the most, but you can also find me at Facebook. All of the handles are the same. It's at Becca Powers 1313. My website is beccapowers.com and you'll find everything there.
[00:46:45] Speaker B: And don't you also have peak powers? Peak potential?
[00:46:49] Speaker A: Peak potential is the business. Yes. I'm a keynote speaker and corporate trainer. So if you like the topics you heard today, I am definitely available to discuss discuss those options with you as well.
[00:47:01] Speaker B: Thank you so much for sharing your time. What my takeaway was both from my conversation with Becca and from reading her book and doing some of the exercises is I believe in constantly reading self improvement books. Sure I read finance books, I read sales books, marketing books. But mostly I don't always take the time in my business because I like to work, to actually self reflect and to be kind to myself and to reevaluate the choices I'm making. So I hope that's what you got out of this. Don't be a perfectionist like I can be.
Don't have too many unders or overs which I will continue to work on. Let's not be overworked. And thank you so much for being with us today. Come back next week for another episode of Balancing Acts.
[00:47:52] Speaker A: This has been a NOW Media Networks feature presentation. All rights reserved.
