239 My Business isn’t WORKING (& what to do about it) | Colin Matthews, Intuitive Counsel
Colin Matthews is a Intuitive Counsellor and Certified Medical Intuitive
This week I sit down with Colin Matthews, an Intuitive Counsellor.
As an Intuitive Counsellor and Certified Medical Intuitive, Colin will help you explore the many facets of your life in order to reveal the core essence of your being and strengthen its meaning in your life.
As an entrepreneur, there are a million decisions that need to be made on a daily basis.
Some of these are small and insignificant (what should I post on social today), but others can have a major impact on the future of your business (aka when should I throw in the towel and call it quits on a business that isn’t working)
When you're faced with a big decision, it can be difficult to know what the right course of action is. This is where inner clarity comes in.
Taking the time to connect with your inner wisdom will help you to see the situation more clearly and make decisions that are in alignment with your values and goals.
Inner clarity is not something that you can force or fake, but it is something that you can cultivate through practice. And this is the expertise of Intuitive Counselor, Colin Matthews.
Colin has studied with many of today’s great spiritual masters (Marshall Rosenberg, Caroline Myss, Dr. Mona Lisa Schulz), he founded and ran a successful community of Yoga Studios for over 16 years, and is certified as a medical intuitive.
Today he uses his intuitive gifts to support many along their path, including entrepreneurs and aspiring business owners. I’ve also had the great pleasure of working with Colin as his marketing coach, and I am immensely grateful for all that Colin has taught ME in our time working together.
In this episode, we explore how to make decisions with inner clarity and I think you’re going to love it!
In this episode, I am asking Colin ALL of the juicy questions including:
There are a lot of emotional hurdles that we face as entrepreneurs, and I know you’re no stranger to them. What have been some of the most challenging hurdles you’ve faced either personally or professionally.
Can you take us back to your journey of BECOMING an entrepreneur, and deciding to start your own yoga studio? There was NO yoga studio in the area and you really innovated. Must have been scary!
What were some of your proud moments as a yoga studio owner?
Did you feel like you lost a piece of you when you SOLD the studio
Was it hard to rebirth yourself?
We all have visions but the people who succeed in entrepreneurship bring those visions to life. What holds people back from being able to bring business visions to life? What’s blocking us?
The role that courage plays
Soft skills: willingness adaptability and faith
The success of a business is defined NOT by how they succeed but how they NAVIGATE Failure
What is an entrepreneur: difference between slave, servants and sovereigns
Why Security is a MYTH
Accepting responsibility - it’s easy to blame the algorithm, that there’s no clients, that you just don’t have good connections
You say “failure is what you need to manifest your vision”
Making decisions with inner clarity
Watch the show on YouTube
Access the transcript for this episode:
-
I, I think part of the, the journey, and it's the hero's journey, it's the journey of of, of connect deeper connection is if you're not on your knees at some point in the journey, you're not really on the right path. Like that, three o'clock in the morning bawling my eyes out. I was on my knees. And the reason we go on our knees, we have two reasons to go on our knees.
One of them is to get her head cut off, which is what I think we're all afraid of on some deep psychological level. Now. The other one is to say, I don't know what to do. Like, help me out. I open to something bigger than yourself.
As an entrepreneur, there are millions of decisions that you need to be making on a daily basis.
Some of these are really small and really insignificant, like what should I post on TikTok today? But other decisions can have a major impact on the future of your business, aka, when is it time to throw in the towel and call it quits on a business that just isn't working? When you're faced with a big decision, it can be difficult to know what the right course of action is.
Do you guys feel that this is where inner clarity comes in, taking the time to connect? Inner wisdom, it's gonna help you to see the situation more clearly and make decisions that are in alignment with your values and with your goals. Inner clarity is not something that you can force or that you can fake, but it's something that you can cultivate through practice, and this is the expertise of intuitive counselor call in Matthews.
Collin is today's guest on the. Colin has studied with many of today's spiritual masters, including Marshall Rosenberg, Carolyn Mice, Dr. Mona Lisa Schultz. He founded and he ran a successful yoga community and studio for over 16 years, and he is certified as a medical intuitive today. He uses his intuitive gifts to support many along their path, including supporting entrepreneurs and aspiring business owners who need to get better at making decisions with that inner clarity.
And I am so lucky because I've had the great pleasure of working with Colin as his marketing coach. He is a very valuable member of the Visionary Method community and has done some mind blowing trainings that people continue to watch and continue to rave about inside of the Visionary Method. And I'm super, super grateful for all that Colin has actually taught me in our time working together.
So it's a beautiful synergistic relat. In this episode, we really explore how to make decisions with clarity, and I know you're gonna love it, especially if you're the type of person that's not all that decisive. So enjoy this episode. You can find collin colin matthews.ca, and if you want to, Snap a screenshot of yourself listening to the episode and you could tag me at Kelsey Ryle tag Call in on Instagram as well.
We'd love to know who's listening. It means a lot, and it makes us feel connected with you and perhaps there's a synergistic relationship in our future. Maybe me and you and Colin could meet. Or have a Zoom chat, you just never know, right? Getting social in the online space is such an undervalued skill in growing a network and building relationships.
So I meet a lot of my friends online. This is why I'm so passionate about the topic. Anyways, you guys, let's get into this episode of Visionary Life. Thank you, Collin, and enjoy the show.
Call in. Welcome to the Visionary Life Podcast. You and I have known each other for probably about a year now, and we've had the great privilege of working together. And something else incredible about you is that you've actually. Come and train the Visionary Method community on some of your subject matter expertise.
And every time I listen to you talk, I have pages and pages and pages of notes, and I've watched back your trainings and I just find that the work that you are doing is so, so, so important. And so I wanna dive in, uh, and actually ask you to talk on the topic of emotional hurdles because I know that as entre.
We face a lot of emotional hurdles, uh, and I know that you are no stranger to them as well. So I'd be curious to hear from you what have been some of the more challenging or more, uh, memorable, we'll say emotional hurdles that you've navigated in your time, uh, here on earth.
Yeah, for sure. That's a a a really good point, and it speaks to the different types of hurdles that we face as entrepreneurs.
You know, you have your hard skill ones. Actually, I reached out to you because I didn't know how to market. I ran a, I ran a community of yoga studios for 16 years and. There was a brick and mortar. I put them up, people showed up. I never advertised. I didn't, I didn't work that, so I had hard skills. I was lacking, and so I reached out to learn that.
But the soft skills, which is the, the belief in yourself where you're investing your energy, whether you are truly working towards what you want or you're sabotaging yourself cuz you don't believe you're capable or worthy. Those to me are as important. If not more so than the hard skills, because if you don't have the emotional skills, either you're gonna succeed and then fall on your face because you didn't actually possess this, The emotional fortitude to start off with.
Or when you start to hit hurdles, they're gonna, they're gonna bring you to your knees. And so the work that I did for myself, I, I was a school teacher. I went and I opened a yoga studio. I had worked at a studio in Toronto that made money on the second month. And so I'm like, Man, this is how you do it. So I opened a business and, and, and no one showed up.
And I, and I was like, Well, I don't understand what's going on. And I believed in my vision. I. Than what I was doing. But, but people didn't come. And what that did is it exposed in me a deep disbelief that I was capable of succeeding. And, and, and you wanna talk about the, the challenges That was the hardest one for me is when.
People didn't show up. I, I, I used all of the skills that I had, like, um, affirmations and, and prayers and, and calling on ascendent masters or, you know, whatever. In the new age world, which is more familiar to me. I did all of those. But the biggest breakthrough I had was one day I woke up at three o'clock in the morning.
And I just started crying and I realized I was trying to succeed by my will alone. And I was trying to succeed as a measure of my self worth as opposed to trying to succeed by doing the best that I could. And if I wasn't needed in that way, like if I can't succeed doing the best I could, that means I'm needed somewhere else.
And so finding peace in that if, if you do the best you can, and it's not needed. It's not required, but I didn't have that clarity when I started. I thought if I fail, I'm a failure. Mm-hmm. as opposed to I'm not needed somewhere else. Mm-hmm. .
And so this is so interesting because I'm wondering, We've probably all had these moments where it's like, I'm pushing, I'm pushing, I'm pushing, and something's not working.
The people aren't showing up, or the money's not rolling in, and you say sometimes that's because you are needed elsewhere. How do you know when to listen to the call of, I should see what that elsewhere is, versus I should develop more of the soft skills. Or, you know, continue to at least try at this project that I've been pouring into.
When is that time when you need to explore other options and how do you know?
Yeah, for sure. So this goes back to the self-esteem part of the equation of the, of the soft skills. For me, if I had quit when I thought I couldn't succeed, I would've been wondering was I needed somewhere. or was I, did I not give it enough?
Mm-hmm. . And so I knew in that moment if I was to move on, I, I, I might be the reason that I failed. And so I, instead, I, I gave myself to it. I let go of expectations or the outcomes I wanted to have. And instead, am i, am I. Sharing the teachings of yoga with each person with an open heart. Am I excited and enthusiastic about the things it's transformed in my life?
Am I being a great steward or advocate to the practice? And if I, and, and am I, you know, keeping a beautiful space, am I connecting with people appropriately? If I'm doing all the things and it doesn't work, then there, I think there's a piece in, in, Oh, I'm needed somewhere. And interestingly, that's the foundation of the story of the Bugga a Gita, which is the sort of the seminal text in yoga, which is give yourself to the task you're doing.
And if you don't succeed, you're that you've given yourself to the task so you can find peace in that. And I think when people are struggling really on a subconscious level, the battle they're engaged in, am I the reason it's not working or is it because it's not needed by the collect? Mm, mm-hmm. . And, and if I can add to that, what's so interesting is it's, that brings you into where you have control.
Like whether or not people wanna do yoga. I don't have control over that. I, I always say at best you have influence, but you don't have control. So you could say, This is amazing. This has changed my life. This could change your life. You know, do you want to feel better in your body? And if people don't want.
You, you can't sell it to them, but if it resonates and you show up and you advocate, you can influence and then they may actually, um, it, it, it'll be meaningful. It's, it's needed. So that's what I'm trying to get at is that if they, if they, if, if it's needed, people will be drawn to it then. And so it's, in a way, it's about getting out of the.
So when you were the owner of this yoga studio, what would you say was the biggest shift that you had to make in order to allow your business to flourish and allow you to succeed as an entrepreneur?
Yeah, it's a great, great question. There was two things really. The first one was the negative self-talk.
You know, I would look at how many cars were in the parking lot in front of the studio, and if there. You know, seven cars, I was bummed and if there was 20 cars, I was jacked up. Yes. And I, I was putting my feeling of self worth on things that I didn't fully have control over, and it just rocked me. So, so that was such a big one to then go, wait a second, don't focus on that.
Focus on how well am I doing what I'm doing? And it may sound like a silly thing. I get three people in my yoga class and I needed 12 to pay the bills. And instead of being like, oh, three people, welcome, let me, let me help you improve your life. I was. Why, why are there only three people here? What's wrong with you?
What it is? And so there was this negative self-talk, which I would in my tradition called disbelief. It's like I was engaged in a, in a disbelief, and I was investing in that, and disbeliefs create reality, and that's definitely the reality I was shifting. So getting clear on that self-talk was the first part.
Mm-hmm. . And then the second part was being proud of. And that like, that's the simplest way I can put it. Did I, you know, speak as clearly as possible? Yes. Did I show up presently with students and try not to be distracted? Yes. Did I, you know, clean the studio and have it be beautiful? Yes. Well, I'm proud of everything I did and so the negative self-talk and the being proud is really helpful because if I'm proud of.
And once again, it doesn't succeed. I'm needed somewhere else. I gave it the college try didn't land. Okay. Something else. And I, I don't know if there's such a thing as like a profoundly successful entrepreneur who hasn't thrown the pasta at the wild to see what sticks. And if they, you know, had threw something and it didn't work, and they said, Oh, I'm no good.
I shouldn't have done this or whatever, they're not gonna take up the next project.
and I love, uh, in one of the trainings that you hosted for the visionary crew, you said something around the like, of success of a business is defined not by how they succeed, but how they navigate failure. I'm not sure if that was your quote or someone else's, but I thought that was really impactful because it's like, We all have successes and micro wins and, and bigger wins through our work weeks and through building a business.
But we also all have failures. But I've noticed after working with hundreds of people, that everybody has a very different way of navigating failure. And, you know, whatever they deem as a failure, sometimes it completely knocks them down and it's like they almost forget about the business that they have built or.
The clients that they are serving and all they can fixate on is, I'm a failure because I didn't reach my income goal this month. Or because that Instagram post flopped. And I just think, I don't know if it's as human beings that we have tendency to just look at what's not working. Like you said, you would look at the parking lot and see that there weren't 20 cars and it's easier for your mind to loop.
Why isn't there 20? Why isn't there 20 rather than. Well, there's seven amazing people in front of me, and if I serve these people to the best of my ability, make an impact, it's likely that there will be 14 cars. In two months time, uh, why is it that we tend to fixate more on the negative or the disbelief versus believing in ourselves and reminding ourselves of what we do
have?
I, I think it's based on a deep psychological trait that we have as human beings, which is what I call a need for imed. and, and, and anyone who sabotages something, basically what they're doing is I'm gonna get a result quickly rather than do the work to get a result in time. And, and you know, if you, if you study the flywheel principle of like, it takes time to get things going or, or like in the post that you did, weeds grow quickly.
Trees take their time. Mm-hmm. , if you have that need for immediacy it rather than, than investing in such a way that people. Really love what you're doing and want to come back. You're, you instead invest in making it all come down cuz at least then you don't have to go through the discomfort. Cause that was a, it took a, it took me, A year and a half before I started covering costs.
And I didn't have money in the bank to not cover costs, like it was survival and the need to generate like those two things together. And so yeah, there was those things. It was really hard to, to stay connected to belief because part of me wanted to be out of the suffering and I always said I borrowed some money from my family.
Yeah. If I didn't borrow money from my family, I would've quit. And, and, and to me, what a gift, because I would've. Instead, I ran a, a wonderful community of yoga studios for 16 years. I, I, I bought a house, you know, I, I provided a good living for myself. I'm able to now pursue my career in intuitive counsel with, with more space and ease.
But I would've quit if I didn't owe money. So that's the other part too that's interesting, is sometimes things that feel like the worst part are actually the gift. Cuz the gift for me, the worst part is I don't wanna let my family down the gift, Oh, I'm gonna try. You know, this is, This is why I'm a big proponent of commitment.
I think commitment's fantastic because commitment forces you to go to places that you otherwise would just bail.
Okay. I wanna go deeper on that. So we have a lot of early stage business owners who started their business within the last 12 months. What is something they can do to show their commitment?
Because when you start an online business, it's actually easy to pull out, right? You just cancel the softwares and take yourself offline and never tell anyone what happened, right? So there's almost like this lack of commitment because unlike a yoga studio where you actually. Physical space, uh, and your rent, like you are probably signed into a lease.
Uh, starting an online business has way less startup cost and startup commitment. So for somebody listening who's like, I don't know, have I committed to my business? What is something that we can do or that you did to commit to the business?
Yeah, it's a, it's a great question and I think it depends a little bit on your situation.
If you don't have any money and you need to pay your rent, your commitment's gonna be different than otherwise. Like right now, my commitment in my intuitive counseling is I'm giving myself four years to, to have a business I love. And if it's not there in four years, Then it's gonna be something else. I have the ability to do that, you know, in my age and where I am in life, if I, you know, when I opened the yoga studio, I had to bring the money in or else there was no yoga studio.
And so the pressure was, was different. So to me, A, you need to figure out where you are. Like do you need. Is, is six months all you can afford, Can you do a year, Can you do four years? And the other reason I'm doing four years is I just want, I want to do a wonderful job. You know, I, I'm launching a new workshop, which is Yoga for Intuitive Development.
And I'm going through all your courses again before I launch it, cuz I'm not gonna do it without using all the knowledge I've gotten from you in marketing. And I've got the space and time to do that. So I'm doing it. But, okay, so if I'm a young entrepreneur, And I'm trying to figure out how long to commit for or how to commit, I would set yourself a timeline, like give yourself a year, but not just the timeline.
Things that if you did in that year that you felt proud of. You could look back and say, Yeah, I gave it to myself. So if you're like, I'm going to post five times a week on social media, I'm going to connect with 20 other businesses to try to piggyback and work together, or I'm going to, you know, send two mailers, uh, a week for this period.
And if I do all those things, And it, and it doesn't work, then I would say, Okay, that's a little different. Yep. But the part to me that's so important, this, and I think this is I the course that I'm working on right now, which is what I love about this, is this spiritual practice of entrepreneurship. I, I think part of the, the journey and it's the hero's journey, it's the journey of, of, of connect deeper connection is if you're not on your knees, at some point in the journey.
You're not really on the right path like that. Three o'clock in the morning, bawling my eyes out. I was on my knees. And the reason we go on our knees, we have two reasons to go on our knees. One of them is to get our head cut off, which is what I think we're all afraid of on some deep psychological level.
Oh, the other one is to say, I don't know what to do. Like, help me out. I open to something bigger than yourself. And that was my on your knees moment. If I didn't have that commitment of my family's money on your knees would've been out of the frying pan. Mm-hmm. , you know, I would've, I would've bailed. And so ask yourself, if you're a young entrepreneur, am I on my knees and it's time for me to now surrender to something greater than I'm willing to get to?
Or is this over? Like, no, it, this is, this is the limit and now it's time to move. And what I thought was the limit was not even close to the limit. I had way more that I was capable of doing, and I'm so glad I did that. That's why I've got a self-esteem in my new venture. If I hadn't done the other one, I would've quit.
No question. As a
business owner, your first priority needs to be your health. After all, your body is your vessel to bring your dreams into reality, and without your health, nothing else matters. So in addition to eating lots of fruits and veggies and whole foods, I'm also a big fan of topping up my diet with Super foods.
Brazil Nets and cashews. I take high quality supplements like fish oil and Lions mane, and I use natural self care products that aren't harmful to my health, and that's where Healthy Planet comes in and is a huge support. Healthy Planet is my go-to spot for all things health and fitness and wellness. I love that they have everything I need in one place from natural beauty to supplements to.
Organic Whole Foods plus their prices are unbeatable. I know I'm getting the best possible deals on everything that I need. So Healthy Planet is more than just a health food store. It's really a one stop shop for everything you need. And I wanna pass on a discount code from Healthy Planet Canada. So use the Code Visionary 2022 at checkout.
On any online order and have everything shipped straight to your doorstep. So again, head to healthy planet canada.com and use the code Visionary 2022 at checkout to save 10% on any online order over $50. Yeah. And I wanna talk about your new venture, but first I wanna know kind of back, you said you ran your yoga studio for 16.
Yeah, and then decided to ultimately sell it. What was the catalyst, or what was the driving force to decide to make a change? Was there something in particular that made you say, Okay, my time here is up.
There was a few things. The, the first one was it started to become a little bit stagnant, you know, like making sure there are people to clean the studio, making sure the schedules are done every month, making sure that everyone's paycheck is, is done.
There was the mechanics of it that for a business that had over 50 teachers and employees, Was significant. I became a manager as opposed to a teacher. And I'm a teacher. I'm a teacher who learned to manage, not a manager who learned to teach. Yeah. and, and, and so there was the awareness that my greatest gifts weren't being utilized in the role that I was in.
So that's the first one. The second one. Is my wife who is really astute with survival or with like what's going on in a global level said, I feel like we need to get out of this business, which interestingly, we sold right before Covid. So I don't know that she was onto that. I don't know that she wasn't.
And thankfully the people who bought the studios are thriving and it's still doing great. But you know, that would've been a really hard pivot for us because we were tired at that time. Mm-hmm. . And then the biggest one for me was I went and taught a workshop on, on, uh, energy anatomy and connecting to your intuition.
And while I did it, I just had the knowing this is, you can do this. And it was when I got that, Oh, I can do this. I, I came home from that workshop and said to Annemarie, Let's sell. I'm done. I'm ready to go. Annemarie's my. .
That is so, so cool. And so it sounds like you kind of had a vision for what you wanted next.
And I think in the training, you said something along the lines of, we all have visions, but the people who succeed in entrepreneurship are the ones who have the willingness to bring that vision to life. Yeah. What do you think holds people back from bringing their visions to life?
Yeah, for sure. I, The number one is self-esteem.
I, I deserve this. I'm worthy of this, I'm capable of this. Like, I remember when I first opened the studio, I kept thinking, Oh man, that teacher's better than I am. And oh, this person is a better business person than I am. And I did lots of comparisons. And I would say like, Who am I to run this yoga studio?
And then I was like, Oh, I'm the one that. I'm the one that took out the bank loans that that negotiated with the landlords that that came up with the interior design. That hired the teachers that did. Yeah. I may not have been the best teacher, although I think I was a good teacher and I may not have been the best business owner, though.
I'm pleased with the level of success I had, but I was the one that was willing, and to me it's almost like what's an entrepreneur? They're those who have the. To follow their visions and, and most importantly with that and to see it through, Cause the seeing a true part, I'm sure you see it with all the people you work with.
I'm gonna give it like, what's the success rate for entrepreneurial ventures? Didn't it used to be like 10% or something like that? Yeah. Within
five years, something like 90% of businesses shut down.
To And there. And there you go. And that's, it's cuz it's hard. I didn't have the skills when I started. I didn't know what I was doing.
I had no clue. But I was willing to go deep and I went deep in terms of learning skills, like we working with you, I'm going deep and learning about marketing, it's, my brain doesn't think that way. And so it's like this. I'm learning Italian right now or something. and, and no, it is wonderful. I've been watching one of your videos all morning for my launch and it's so helpful, Kelsey.
Thank you so much. You're very welcome. Um, but the, you know, I had to grow and I had to grow emotionally, you know, I had a deep seated disbelief in myself that was showing up and why did I succeed? Cuz, cuz I put one foot in front of the other, you know, and, and did that, and, and, and realized that my quitting point wasn't where I thought it.
I'm curious, how much do you think that our professional success or our entrepreneurial success is closely correlated to our prof, our to our personal growth? I e. As you grow yourself, your business is able to grow. Do you think there's a correlation?
I think they're intricately linked. Now, having said that, I think it's interesting.
When I had yoga teachers, my least favorite yoga teachers were the most. Personable, but the least knowledgeable. Like there's no doubt the, the attractive, flexible, charismatic teachers attracted more students, whether they taught a good class or not. Yeah. And the teachers that had buckets of knowledge and, and, and were so caring and compassionate and present, but lacked that charisma did not have as big classes.
And so, I think to a certain extent you can succeed in your business without the personal growth component. But I think the best entrepreneurs, the people that bring the most, let's put it this way, I think the people that bring the most value into the world do the personal work. Hmm. Cause ultimately that's what's touching them.
You know, That's what's, that's what's coming through. Yeah. You may have a product, but that, that, that integrity that you've developed, that that ability to show. That you've developed is what I think really touches people. Hmm.
Yeah, that, that's really interesting. And I think we often forget about that.
It's like we wanna just like teach me how to build my email list and figure out all the, you know, the hard skills of running the business. But there is something about the human being that is. Delivering the services or the person behind the business that if they're not bettering themselves or, or being honest, um, and transparent about who they are and you know, their path, I think something just feels disconnected.
Um, yeah. So, yeah, I like that you say they're very much intermeshed.
And, and it's, it's interesting too because in my, the tradition of medical intuition is that your self-esteem is something you develop through life and you lose power where you don't have self-esteem. Like I lost power when people didn't show up to my studio because instead of going, Oh, people aren't at my studio, what can I do to make this succeed?
I was, Oh, people aren't at my studio. What's wrong with me? And I attacked myself. And instead of being able to, you know, be like the captain on a ship in a storm saying, Oh, we gotta take the sales in, I was like, All is lost. I'm a terrible captain. And, and, and I couldn't succeed in that way. And so the ability to run the energy and.
You know, this is, to me what being a visionary is. It's about taking a vision, which is a collective consciousness awareness and making it into reality. You've gotta be able to do that, to run the energy, to have it go through you. And if you stand in the way of doing that, you can't do it. Mm-hmm. , you know, like, I understand why narcissists are good business people because they're not questioning themselves and can they succeed?
No. Will they bring the most value to this world? I don't think so, and I actually think the people. Have the potential to bring value in the world are probably the ones that need the self-esteem work the most. Mm-hmm. , because it's hard, like I'm sure you know from your business, it's hard. It, I, any entrepreneur who's like, Yeah, I built it and everybody came and it's great.
I'd be like, What? You know, that's, that's. That's challenging and it's hard, or that's rare I should say.
It's hard to not to like tie yourself to your product, like we've all built a product that we're selling, but when people don't buy it or when they say something negative or they don't show up, we take it personally, right?
Because a lot of us do feel very close to the product or the service that we've built, when in reality we could probably benefit by having that separation that I am an individual with an identity and my product. Though I have built this thing and though I pour my heart and soul when somebody maybe comments on it or doesn't show up for the workshop, that's not tied to my self-esteem perhaps.
Or we need to separate that, but I think that's easier said than done.
Right. It is. I mean, the, using my language there, like the vision and the ability to, To run the vision or to create the vision, those are two separate things. Yeah. You know, like my wife had the vision for a book. And then two months later, a famous author came out with that book and I'm like, Oh look, you were tuned in.
You tapped in on, on that product and you didn't have the ability to run it to make the book come into reality in that time, but you got the vision. That's amazing. And so, But not all visions are needed. You know, there certainly for what I'm doing, like I think in 20 years from now, everyone's gonna be using medical intuitives cuz it's this, It's amazing.
Yeah. But right now it's pretty early on in the expression of the discipline. And so I may have the vision, but my vision might be not necessarily a robust one for people to receive. And so then I need to focus. I'm doing a profoundly brilliant job of representing it, of holding that, of knowing my worth and value so that over time this will come into creation.
Mm-hmm. .
So I wanna learn more about how you support people with all of these things that we've been talking about. So you practice intuitive counsel, and I think for a lot of our listeners, that's actually a new term for them. So before we dive into kind of how you support people and how entre entrepreneurs can actually benefit from working with someone like you, I'd love to hear like who do you help and what types of work are you doing these days?
For sure. I would say the people that I help the most are those who are saying, Why isn't this working in my life? Or what's going on? Like, why am I struggling? So if it was an entrepreneur, call 'em in. I've done all the work, I've done whatever, and it's not succeeding what's going on? Yep. And, and what I have is, is, and what I do is I tune into their investments of their energy and discern are the investments being made?
In, in faith, are they being made? Uh, are they positive investments or are they negative investments? Are they disbeliefs? And, you know, intuitive counsel is about. Someone who has gotten really good at tuning into things and discerning kind of like a, some laier can smell wine and be like, Oh yeah, this is an acidic soil and this is a, a late picked grape.
Or they've got that, they've developed the palette to discern. That's what I've got. Like ev you know, you get around somebody who's grmp or a bear, you feel it. You don't, they don't have to tell you. Oh yeah, they don't even have to. You know that, and then, you know, some people might be get, go to a party and say, I gotta leave.
This is too stressful for me. And you're like, What do you mean? The, the music's great, but they're tapping into something deeper. For me, I've developed the skill enough, or the ability enough that, you know, if someone gives me their name and their age, that's, that's enough for me to get that awareness. So, , you're gonna feel it no matter who you are, but the degree to which it's possible depends where you land on the EM empath spectrum, I guess you'd call it.
Mm-hmm. . Yeah. It's so interesting because there are so many people I know and have met over the years who they have bought every single online course and they follow all the templates from the best business gurus in the world, and then they realize, Well, something's still not working or I've invested thousands and thousands of dollars in all of these different courses and masterminds copying other people's success blueprints, but they still feel like things aren't taking off.
And I think that that is where your work actually can be so beneficial is like tapping into what is blocking me and, and getting to the bottom of why isn't this working and what is holding you back?
I, my, my approach is that all of life is an opportunity for healing. And healing. You could define as the places we're not able to show up in the fullness of who we are.
And so you're, you've put all this money in and, and, and rather than feeling like, Hey, that's awesome. I learned so much. I loved it. You, you're going, what's what up with me? What am I doing wrong there? There isn't a fullness in that, there's a self doubt, there's a questioning. It's painful and, and, and it's painful and it's, and it's upsetting.
And yet if you take the healing approach to life, you say, This is telling me something about me. Mm-hmm. , you know, this is inviting something in me. You can, it's easy to make it all about you or them or whatever. People don't appreciate yoga. That's not a very helpful thought. Yeah. The, the, the people that came to my class seemed new to yoga.
Okay. I'm all right with that one. I really love sharing yoga with people. Yoga's made such a difference in my life. Like those are closer to what's true to me and where I also have control. But it's really, um, yeah, it's easy to, to keep your energy outside of yourself rather than connected to your within yourself, which is where you have.
How
much of a role does, I think you've kind of alluded to this, but how much of a role does accepting responsibility for things like the outcomes that we are faced with as entrepreneurs? If we're not happy with them? Is it best to just, even if you feel like you had no part in it, or you don't have control over what's going on in the world, the recession, is it better to always take responsibility and ask like, what is this teaching me or how can I improve from this situation?
I, I think it's, Powerful to take control because, or take responsibility. Because you can take res, like let's say Covid happens and your business gets shut down and nobody shows up and you have to close your doors, which I have a friend that happened to is tragic. Yeah. And for him to not take that personally is such a huge challenge.
And instead, like you can take responsibility, say. I lived in a country where the government closed businesses and I had no choice, and I ran my business in such a way that I didn't have enough savings to ride it through, or I was so new that I needed income. And then to me, the point is this, as soon as you go and because they did this, there's nothing I could do.
You've given your power away. Oh, it's outta my control. And then you. What was I supposed to do? It did this instead. It's like, this happened. What do I do? Taking responsibility is a call to action and saying, Okay, this is what happened. Got bus businesses closed. Mine did too. What do I do? I. I need to do some, some, take some space to like, heal some of that pain that I'm feeling in this one, which is real.
It's, it's reasonable to feel that pain and then go And so what of me now, like, what next? Like, you, you, you see people who succeeded and then don't succeed again and give up. Like that's, that's probably even harder than not succeeding in a first place cuz you tasted it, but, and then you can't repeat it, but it chances are.
Not repeating this, there's something in you that doesn't believe you're capable of it or, or is, is giving your power away. It's out of your control. Mm-hmm. , another way that I would say take responsibility is keep yourself in your power. Don't give your power away. As soon as you go into blame, you're giving your power away.
Yeah. Responsibility is keeping your power where it belongs, which is within yourself. Victim consciousness, which we all share for archetypes as human beings. Where we lose power and the victim is, is probably one of the most prominent ones. Whereas say I would've succeeded, but something outside of myself made it impossible.
Mm-hmm. and. Of course that's gonna feel terrible if you believe that because you can't succeed. It's something outside of yourself, you're, you're destined to fail, cuz something outside of yourself.
This episode is sponsored by the Visionary Method. The Visionary Method is a seven step system that's going to help you create and launch your business.
Successfully. We've had 200 people go through it, and it's gonna help you to generate your first 50,000 in revenue, even if you're starting at zero. You can learn more at www.kelseyri.com/tvm when you work with someone who is very much in that victim mentality. Where do you begin with someone like that?
What are some of the next steps that you would guide them towards or the questions you would ask them or the tools you'd deliver? Because I do feel like, you know, oftentimes we, we all fall into that trap and some people more than others, but for someone who's maybe listening to this going shoot, I have been a victim, especially when it comes to how my business has been progressing over the months.
What would you offer
to them? First thing I would do is tune into your body, because if you feel a victim, it will have a physical kinesthetic expression in your body. Yeah. And that's part of what I do in my intuitive work is, is I, I have a kinesthetic intuition, so I feel things in people. And so it's, I have other ones too, but that's a really prominent one.
And so if someone feels like they're a victim, there may be like a, a, a collapse or like a feeling punched in your stomach or whatnot. And when you tune into that, oh, you're right. I feel really uncomfortable in my, in my. Okay, well breathe into that area. Start to get to know that part of yourself because it's a subconscious belief.
It's not conscious and it, in order to shift that, you need to bring it to the conscious level. And so physical is such a powerful tool. Yeah. And, and you can't bypass that, I don't think, like af that's what I tried in my business. I used affirmations. I'm, I'm a success. I'm capable of, of achieving the things I dream of, or whatever my affirmations were.
My subconscious, like, people don't want. That was, that one was winning, you know? And so it's a, it is like, Oh, oh, I don't think people want me. Oh, that hurts. Oh, that's a, that feels terrible. Is that true? No, that's like a survival thought to help me get through something difficult. Okay. So what else is possible?
I, I give myself to, if I give myself to what I do, I'll find out if what I'm bringing forward is needed, you know, and, and then it changes what you're doing. And, but the tuning in, I find so helpful. .
Yeah. It's funny, I was actually hanging out with a business owner and they are very much stuck in victim and blame and, you know, going through some clinically diagnosed stuff, but I noticed mm-hmm.
uh, they were constantly like scratching, Not scratching, but like clearing their throat. I was wondering if there was like potentially something to that, like they. Speak their, their truth. Like they, they were having trouble communicating, but every time they did it was blaming others for their lack of whatever.
And it just seemed like it was a physical manifestation. I don't know if I'm on to something there or not, but Yeah, it was like something's trying to be spoken here and you're not, you're not speaking honestly.
You're absolutely onto something. And what's so interesting is the throat is where our fifth chakra is, and chakras are kind of like, Energy centers, or put another way, they're the fundamental life lessons that we need to learn to be able to show up fully in life.
Hmm. So for example, if you think you're a failure, it's gonna be all in your third chakra. Your, your, your solar plexus, um, like center, like just below your chest. If you don't feel safe in the world, it's going to, you're. Your tailbone, your bone structures. The, the fifth chakra is about will, and, and this is why I, I'm offering a course called Spiritual Practice of Entrepreneurship is the will, is there's.
Serving someone else's will, which is what we all do as little kids. Yeah, we please mommy and daddy, we show up in a way that gets approval and, and we need that cuz we don't know what's wanted or needed in the world. So first stage, the first stage of will development is show up in a way that you please the people around you, which you'll notice is your focus of value is outside of your.
The second stage, which I think Americans are brilliant at is self will. I pulled up my bootstraps and I made it happen, and, and that's where, where I am the one responsible for my success and whatnot. It's a, it's only a stage though, because the third stage, and I think, I think that's where most people stop, is that the second stage of will development, which is that I succeeded cuz I did a good job and I made something of myself.
Yeah. But there's, there's the, the shadow side of second stage is the narcissist. Me, me, me, me, me. You know. And what did you do with everything you did? Well, I bought myself a nice car and I put up a fence around my house and I, as opposed to, I brought more value into the world. Which is the third stage, which is a being in service.
And the third stage is you have to have the first stage because being in service to the greater good is pleasing something outside of yourself or meeting a need. But it's also because you have that autonomy within yourself and you, you can't do the third stage if you're not an autonomous being and you can't do the third stage if you can't really be in service to something greater than yourself.
So it's a, it's almost like a paradox cuz you gotta go from one to the next to the next. So your friend in the victim, That sounds like a first will energy loss, which is I'm doing everything that I think people want and it's not working. Mm-hmm. , what's wrong with them? They're not, whatever, and, and you're, you're seeking approval outside of yourself.
So
in this concept that you teach, in order to get to that third stage of being in service, you have to go through stage one and stage two. Is it kind of like a chronological journey?
Yeah, and in fact I would call it you, you need to master them. Mm-hmm. , it's, it's, we, you don't have to master them, but the, the more you master them, the more you can get into that third stage.
And like I look at it my life, for example. As I said with the studios, I, it got to be mechanical at the end. I wasn't moved by it. I loved it. They're beautiful people there. I mean, I can't think of a better j o b to be involved in, but it had become that. It wasn't this expression of my brilliance and, and my brilliance.
Your brilliance. Every human being's brilliance is, is their their highest good or their divine right? Or that the, like, what I think we all longing to bring forward into the world. And because I did my yoga studio is the second stage for me. Hmm, can I make this work? How do I show up every day and be proud of?
Because I did that, I feel like I've earned the right to now go, How do I serve something greater than myself? How do I support people? The I, I love moving into the supportive role in this stage because it's easy for me to be available as opposed to need something from the people that I'm working with.
And that's, I'm actually, I imagine if you look at the people you've worked with, those are not succeeding. It's probably cuz they need something rather than they just have something to give or they need something from their clients. other than to be healed or, or inspired or whatnot. I need approval or I need acknowledgement, or I need, you know, I mean finance you need, but there's different places for it.
Mm-hmm. .
Yeah. So, kind of as, uh, we wrap up, I wanna go back to this concept of soft skills that you were talking about. Is there a soft skill that you feel like a lot of entrepreneurs could benefit from incorporating more of into their journeys?
It's, it's at the foundation of a spiritual practice or spiritual entrepreneurship, which is to be able to ask the question what of.
And to allow space for an arising, so, oh man, people aren't showing up. You know, What's going on with my business? Why am I not succeeding? If you're in the victim, you go, Why me? Why is this happening to me? Why aren't people coming? Why, Why do I always struggle? Why is this such a, a difficult thing to do?
Why? And what of me is actually, it's an investigation. And it's an invitation to, to gain perspective or to be guided. So I teach it to be guided. So when I say what of me, what of me, Oh, you don't believe you're capable of succeeding. Oh, that's so true. Okay. So I need to develop that. And then the thing that I like about what of me is it does if you, if you ask the question and then are spacious and listen.
Mm-hmm. answers. , you know, and, and, and if answers don't come, I would say it's because there's a disbelief that you're being guided right now. And that's, and that's part of the awakening your intuitive capability is to, to receive the guidance that's always there. And, and it may not make sense. Like the other day I woke up and I'm like, What's the best thing I could do for my business?
And, and I listen and I heard clearly. , go clear out the stuff you just moved into your yoga room and get it set up. And I'm like, Yeah, but that's not a post, that's not a way. And and sure enough, it has been such a, a foundational piece in what I'm doing, and I'm so glad that I didn't try to decide. I let myself be guided.
If somebody's asking that question now, they're like, What of me? What of me? And they're getting no answers. Does working with someone like yourself tend to allow them to access those inner answers? What if nothing is coming to surface?
Yeah, for sure. Absolutely. You know that that's, that's interestingly one of the ways I know I've succeeded in my intuitive counsel work is if someone.
Oh yeah, . Like if I, if I share something and they go, Really? Oh, oh, I had no idea. Oh, that's interesting. Wow. I'm, I'm, I'm surprised by that. I'm off. It has to resonate. Yeah. And so a lot of times when I work with somebody, I'll say the hard thing that they're struggling to admit, and then, and, and I'm, and I care about them.
I don't, I'm not, I'm not like, Whoa, you're doing this thing like this. I. Oh, you're doing this? Yeah. Oh, it's not working, is it? And then that, that care, that, that love, that unconditional acceptance. But also the saying the hard thing sometimes is what people need to acknowledge it. Yeah. And I actually think that's what intuitive counsels for when someone who doesn't know you, doesn't know anything about, who tells you the thing that you know on some level you don't wanna admit.
Yeah. It makes it really. Mm-hmm. , that's how I got into the practice. I had a bump in my head and I didn't know what was going on, and I saw a medical intuitive and she said, You're banging your head against the wall. And I said, Oh, that's why I have a bump in my head. She's like, Exactly, you know, And I didn't wanna admit it to myself.
I was banging my head on the wall, but I was.
Oh man. And I feel like we could go into a whole podcast about that journey too. But, uh, we will definitely need to record a part two, so, uh, for sure. Thank you so much, Colin. I feel like there is so much more we could have explored, but I love this whole idea of the spiritual side of entrepreneurship and it's something that I, myself, have not thought about a.
Felt a lot of these concepts, and when you put words to them, that's when it really like rings true. And I'm like, Yes, that's it. So, uh, I appreciate all that you've shared today and I'd love to, uh, just shine a spotlight on the work that you have coming up and ways that people can connect with you. So if somebody is resonating with your messages, what is the best way for them to learn more or to get in touch?
Yeah, for sure. Thanks Kelsey. Um, you can go to collin mathews.ca, one l two Ts, and an S at the end, Colin mathews.ca. And there I've got, you can book a one-on-one session with me. You can book an intensive, which is a great way to do several sessions in a, in a shorter period of time to go deeper. Um, but I've also got some workshops coming up.
I, over the years I've. Uh, an approach to yoga that helps you to develop your intuitive awareness. And so it's like people are like, How do I improve my intuition? Do yoga like this. It's a, it's a practice that really supports intuitive listening. And so I'm, I've got one, a workshop coming up in November in tro bla.
Um, Which will be on my website. It's not up yet. I'm cool. I'm working. That's, that's why I'm listening to your, to your material right now is to get that out there. And then the other one is a program that is a little further off, which is the spiritual practice of entrepreneurship. Mm-hmm. , because it, to me, everything is a possible spiritual practice and those who choose the journey of the entrepreneur are gonna.
Certain roadblocks, they're gonna go through certain challenges. There's like an archetypal journey of, for an entrepreneur and to support entrepreneurs, to work through those things that come up is, is something that I had to do in my life and I'm so excited to share with people now too. Mm-hmm. .
Yeah. And you say it best like it's a journey, right?
So to have. Port and to reach out to people like yourself along this journey when we're gonna come up against roadblocks and challenges and the unknown around every corner, I think is so, so valuable. So thank you for all that you do. Thank you for taking the time to share, and we wish you all of the best.
Thanks so much, Kelsey, and thanks for having me and for all that
you do. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Visionary Life. I love bringing you these conversations on a weekly basis, so it would mean so much to me if you could help me out by rating and reviewing the show in your iTunes app. You can also support the show by taking a quick screenshot of the episode and sharing it on your Instagram stories.
Tagging me at Kelsey Ryle. I'll catch you in the next episode. PS whenever you're ready. There's a couple of ways that I can support you. So first thing, if you're ready to make your first or next $50,000 in business, explore how the Visionary Method business coaching experience can accelerate your growth.
There'll be a link in the show notes. Also, if you're feeling lost, confused, or overwhelmed when it comes to starting an online business, reach out and book a free revision call with me. I'll offer you customized recommendations on how to get unstuck so you can live a life filled with joy, happiness, and fulfillment.
Tune into the episode.
Tune into this episode with Colin Matthews, Intuitive Counsellor and Certified Medical Intuitive
If you’re searching for an Online Business & Marketing Coach for your Business, rest assured that you’re in the right place.
I've helped over 200+ people to launch their business, go full-time, get fully booked, and become #1 with The Visionary Method
Episode Sponsors:
Healthy Planet: Save 10% on any online order over $50.00 when you use the code VISIONARY2022 at checkout
The Visionary Method: The Fastest Way to Launch Your Services, Go Full-Time, and Become Fully Booked with your Business! Learn more >>