Trusting Your Gut: Is Your Gut Lying to You

We're always told to trust our gut, but sometimes our gut and disguise itself as our comfort zone. When this happens, it is critical to bring awareness to the internal dialogue and step into your heart. In this episode I share the dilemma on whether to start taking on wholesale accounts, the belief system that it would hinder that freedom, and the desire for a freedom lifestyle. The decision? You'll have to listen to find out. 

Watch the live cast by visiting www.donnyraus.com/blog.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Most people spend their entire lives stressed without ever giving a single thought as to what it is they really want and what's important. I used to live away the comfort job that I hated. But I wrote through the software too much. As a result, I have my own coffee company. I'm just trying to come up with it. And I get this problem. But it starts within clear comments. It starts within this. I'm your host coming around. What listen to the podcast? One life. Good morning, everybody. I come to you drinking my third espresso of the day, and I'm always overjoyed whenever the espresso shot comes good. I am feeling very, very good right now, and I wanted to come on here and I wanted to uh give you guys some uh some insight on following your gut, right? Because we we were always told, like, follow your gut, follow your gut. But when is it not okay to follow your gut? Like when do you have you ever felt like you say you want something out in the future, and yet you know that you're avoiding something else, or you know that there's something else linger in the background that you need to do first. If it is, you know, you might say, well, my gut is telling me that I want to go live outside the country and travel the world, right? That's what my gut tells me. My gut is like a free spirit. It wants to be out in the world, it wants to be have an experience, meeting people. That is definitely the truth of what I desire in life. But at the same, at the on the flip side, right? The other edge of that sword is that I also know when I spend so much time outside the country, I'm often left there feeling like I want to contribute and I want to do something productive and work that gives me fulfillment. And it's not to say that I couldn't find that there, but hear me out. This is the story. So I was out with my siblings, we went out for my birthday yesterday, and the conversation of cafes came up. There were some opportunities that were available. And my siblings were just pressing me. They're saying, well, you know, well, when? When? When you when's the right time? You don't want a cafe, you want to go travel the world. So when is the right time? And my default was saying that, well, yeah, I I'd want it, but just not right now, I would say. I just say not right now. So I was delaying the uh the going after a cafe, something I'd wanted for a very long time. And you know that it's something that's still a desire if you see someone else living that desire or having that thing that you want. And it just kind of like you feel it kind of tugging at you. And I would feel that all the time. So we were talking, I was talking to my siblings, and that came up, and again, they're they're saying, well, Donnie wants to travel. But on the car ride back home, it got me thinking. I was thinking about, you know, well, what, why do I feel like, or yeah, that's what I want, but I feel like I'm in this in the middle, this like unpleasant in the middle of not knowing what's the step to go forward. You know, yeah, I want to travel, I want to do that, but I'm not, I don't want to like that's not the right step. I don't feel that that is the right step for me to drop everything and just go travel and figure out a life abroad. I that doesn't feel right. So what feels right? And then you check in your gut, right? And you're like, well, a cafe? Yeah, I mean I don't know if that's the right, if that's the right path. And then I asked a different, I started asking different questions. And I said, well, all right, well, if that were to be the right path, what would have to happen? That question opened up a different door, and that different door was showing the fear that I had, some insecurity that I had about not knowing enough about how a roast develops. You may say, Donnie, but you've been doing coffee for 20 years. What do you mean you don't know? I know how to develop a roast, right? I know the laws or the rules about developing coffee, but then there's a whole technical side as to all right, well, why do I do these certain things? Like and I know it theoretically, but I want to get it into my bones. And I want to do have more experience and more time on the roasting and really just kind of create and develop. And when I realized that, I realized that, well, wow, something else was driving the show. It wasn't just saying that like I wanted to, uh I want to be out in the world, but something else is driving the show. And I knew that because when every time I would check in and I would think about that desire half, I knew there was something else that was lingering in the background. And then so I did, I asked, I didn't just stop there, right? I didn't stop and say, well, oh, that is, well, if I had this, then I would step forward without fear or without hesitation. I didn't stop there, right? Because there's well, all right, well, how do you close that gap? The next question was what actions can I take to move me in the direction of this thing I want. And it was a very um asking those two questions was very uh mind-opening because this is something that had come in the past, right? I know because I know if I put a coffee out there and I'm like, wow, this freaking rocks, I feel great. Like I'm pushing it out to the entire world. But then if I get a roast that is not doesn't meet my standard, then all of a sudden I'm inward and like I and I I kind of like shrink and I don't want to put it out there. So knowing knowing that this was a theme, I dug I and I went a little deeper into it. So I I wrote three things here uh that will help you. I want to get you guys, if you're experiencing this, I want to get you through that. And I'm gonna tell you uh another few small stories to say how do you start to move forward? Like if you feel like you're stuck, how do you move forward? The first one is necessity. You have to make it a necessity to move forward. I had stopped out at a friend's uh a friend's cafe, and we were we were just I just stopped in to see how they were doing, congratulated them, and opened a cafe because they were doing really, really well. And we started talking about espresso, and he's like, Well, do you want to try one of my espresso? So I was like, all right, sure. He's like, All right, sure, yeah, come, you know, try. So I pulled some of the shots because he trusted my my uh my skills at pulling the shots more than his own. So I pulled the shot, and I'm like, uh something's something's a little a little sharp. And then so I dialed it in to the uh to a few settings. I didn't just stop at one setting. I I tested out the shot at different different points to see, well, maybe it was just that one setting, because not every setting is correct for all shots. So I I tried dragging it out and it just wasn't it wasn't good. So he said, he said, well, bring by some of yours and you know, we'll try it. And if if it's good, we'll we'll take it on. So that stuck in my mind because I knew that if I were to bring it there, that it would not only raise my standard and how I showed up, but it would force me to move forward and to and and to and to press on and start taking on wholesale accounts because something I had been avoiding. A week or two go by, and I just roasted my espresso, and I was like, all right, I gotta bring it by, I gotta bring it by. So I brought them a sample of it, being super, super fresh. I mean, the the thing was just like the cup was like pure crema, but the flavor was there. The flavor was much better than, especially then better than what he was serving there. He's like, All right, awesome. We we're out of coffee right now. Bring us 10 pounds, and then once we finish the next order, we'll switch over to you. So I was like, awesome. As we were doing the uh, they were pulling the shots, they were asking me, like, well, do you want us to, you know, show your bag? Uh, is it okay if we put uh like our sticker over your label so this way it has our brand? I was like, no, if you're gonna use it, it's gonna be Rouse. And then my friend said something. She goes, Wow, that's that's a lot of pressure because now I feel like I gotta do good by your brand. I have to, you know, make sure that I'm making good coffee because I don't want to do you wrong. As she was saying that, the same thing was going on in my mind. In my mind, I was like, you know what? I have to make sure that I am showing up as my best self. So this way I am giving them the best uh to move forward with their business, right? I want people to say, wow, you know what, this place, they have the best coffee in all of Stanford. You got to go there. And I I want that that for them. So it was there was a mutual necessity. So that brings me, so whenever you're going towards anything, you want to raise your necessity by making it giving yourself leverage. And sometimes that that leverage can be having someone that counts on you, knowing that if you don't show up, it's gonna harm somebody else. Number two, motion. You've got to get in motion. Motion is the only way that you're ever gonna move forward. So I'd been doing this espresso blend that I brought to them. This was after doing literally, I think it was like my 12th roast of this one coffee that I've been doing. And the entire time as I was doing those 12 roasts, I was ideating all different variables. Like, what if I change this? What if I change this? What if I change this? Until I realized what worked. And it's probably one of the things I don't give myself enough credit for is just constantly taking the action and moving forward and taking the steps, right? Because I could have stopped, I could have done the first three and be like, well, you know what? This didn't come out right. Actually, the first three roasts I did came out phenomenal. But I I could have, but some of the roasts after that did not come out good, right? I'm testing things, and sometimes I would jump on the espresso machine, uh, the coffee roaster, and someone else would have just gotten done doing uh a roast that literally charged the heat in the machine, and it's it was holding on so much heat that when I dump my coffee in, that roasting curve is like skyrocketing. I'm like, all right, friggin' eh, man. Like this roast sucks. And you know, so it wasn't always working out the way I expected it to work out. And I and I could have chosen a stop, but I didn't. I just kept moving forward because I know there were there's something pulling me in like like I know I can get it, like I know I can get it. It was a belief that I that I can that I can do it, that was pulling me forward. Also, this future vision of how my I want people to experience my experience my espresso and how I want to experience my espresso myself, be honest with you, because I'm probably my biggest consumer of my espresso. I drink it a lot, like multiple times a day, probably a lot more than I should. Um, so you have to get in motion. That's the only way you're ever gonna uh to perfect or get excellence at something, is you have to be in motion because that's the only way you're gonna get new distinctions. That's the only way you're getting new inputs from other people that you're sharing it with. And the last thing is upskilling. You gotta learn. As would as I mentioned with that story when I that I started off with, I could spit around in my head for for years, and I have in many regards, until there's like this this this moment where I'm like, you know what? This is stupid. Why am I taking this long? Why don't I just hire someone to help me? That was the decision that inspired me to call a consultant, the top consultant in the world, to create my espresso blend. It wasn't done there though, right? I learned what I had to learn in Italy. I came back to apply it, but then there was a lot of gaps. And as you can imagine, if you're working with someone who is the best in the world, trying to get on the schedule is extremely hard. The only reason why I was able to get on the schedule is because he didn't have a passport for a week and he had to go back to his hometown, in which case I said, all right, I'm there. Let me meet you. Otherwise, I put out it wouldn't even happen, to be honest. But now I'm faced with a decision, like, I want to create other blends, I want to get more clarity on certain aspects of that roast. What do I do? My first instinct was like, you know what, I could call him and I'll pay him to come over to me and teach me on my equipment. So this way I can learn and replicate, right? That that was one option. The second option is like, you know, or you know, I could go to the SEA course because they cover a lot of those technical details that he would not cover in in working with him. Okay. What's the third? Then I was on his webpage and I was started looking, and I started looking at his learning path. And I was like, well, why don't I just do that? Why, why don't I just learn everything he learned? So this way I'm not just hiring someone for a result at that one moment. I could learn and I could get that result over and over and over, depending on regardless of whatever roasting environment I'm on, where I am in the world, what coffee I am using. That sounds like a great idea to me. And so I reached out to not just to him, I reached out, I mean, I did I reached out to everybody that I just mentioned. And I will likely end up doing it all because one, it it drives me. I like I love coffee and I love espresso, I love learning about coffee. And then two, is the one of the things that had stopped me in the past was this timetable, this feeling like it needed to happen now, right? It's when is this supposed to happen? Yesterday. It's late. But once I lengthen out the time horizon, I'm like, you know what? When I learn it, I learn it. I could go at my own pace. I could try doing this all this year. Like I'm I'm going to Europe this coming, uh, this coming May. Um my intention was to go to the Nordics. I was going to go from Denmark all the way across the top of the Nordics, from Norway, Sweden, Finland, and then down to Estonia before flying home. Now that might change. Now, if the stars align, I am likely, or I may go to Italy, do a certification course, work with this blending and roasting consultant, work with another blending and roasting consultant, work with a taster, you know, and and get a certified in in a in a by a company to to in gestation, like another one, right? I'm already, I already did that for Espresso Sommelier, but get it get uh certified by another uh gestation body. And why? Because I love it, right? And because I am I'm feeling compelled to do it rather than putting that goal off, right now that I know what actions I need to take that are gonna move me forward, and I was able to kind of visualize it. Now the action becomes clear, and now I just got to take the action. So let me circle this around to you. Where are you putting off something that you desire because you know it's not the right time, right? You know, for example, as I'll repeat my example, like me saying I want to live in Europe, I want to travel the world and just move, I want to move around the world, live abroad. And then the question would be like, well, why not do that right now? And I'm like, oh, well, why not do now? Oh well, you know, there there is I feel there was a feeling of like a pullback here, right? Is it the right time? Yeah, I would love to do, but is the right time for me right now? No, if I'm honest, right? And then so what is your heart calling you to do? Like, check in with yourself because sometimes you think that it is your gut that is guiding you, and it really is just fear, but you have to be very, very self-aware to know the difference between the two. And it comes by asking some questions, like, so what did you say you wanted the past? Like with me, it was the cafe, right? Well, what would make me uh what would have to happen in order for me to move forward in that cafe? Well, I'm like, well, I'd have to have this certain skill set. Great, you have that skill set. The third question is who can you contact who's done that, or who can you contact that can help you close the gap in that skill set? Oh, different question. Now you have clarity as to the action steps you need to take. And then the last step is just to reach out, take some kind of action, right? Because now you know exactly what to do. So now if you don't do it, you're gonna, you're gonna like you're gonna be hard on yourself. Don't be hard on yourself. Go after, do the thing, take the step. I promise it's not scary. You don't have to take this ginormous step. It could be a simple email, a conversation, but just keep moving forward. I hope you enjoyed this episode here, guys. If you did, please share this podcast, hit that subscribe button, and as always, you only get one life. Live fully, live passionally, and most of all, live now. God bless you guys, and I will see you again soon.