Dopamine for Dollars: The Neuroscience of Pleasure & Profit

Episode Summary: In this episode, I dive into the neuroscience behind why prioritizing pleasure isn't just a self-care strategy—it's a proven approach to creating more success, money, and sustainable momentum in your business. Drawing from my background as a former exercise physiologist, I explain how dopamine drives motivation and how pleasure enhances cognitive function and performance. I share a real-world example of a client who had a five-figure launch with half the effort after focusing on what brought her pleasure. Plus, I'm offering my Free Pleasure in Business Audits to help you identify where you're forcing things and how to shift into a more pleasurable, profitable business model.

Timestamps:

• 00:00 - Welcome to the Pleasurepreneur Podcast
• 01:00 - Introduction to Today's Episode
• 02:00 - My Journey to Pleasure-Based Business
• 04:00 - The Misconception About Success Requiring Hard Work
• 05:00 - The Science of Dopamine and Motivation
• 08:00 - Real-Life Example: My Surfing Experience
• 14:00 - Free Pleasure in Business Audits Announcement
• 16:00 - How Stress Affects Cognitive Function
• 20:00 - Client Success Story: Five-Figure Launch with Half the Effort
• 23:00 - How to Bring Pleasure Into Your Business
• 28:00 - Details About Free Pleasure in Business Audits
• 30:00 - Final Thoughts and Call to Action

Resources & Links Mentioned:

• Free Pleasure in Business Audits: Click here to apply (4 spots remaining, valued at $555)
• One-on-One Coaching: Click here to learn more (2 spots available)
• The Pleasurepreneur Mailing List: Click here to join

Memorable Quotes:

• "When you feel good, your business works better, and so do you, period."
• "Science shows that when you enjoy your work, you're not just happier. You're more creative, more resilient, and better at solving problems."
• "When you are experiencing pleasure, you can't actually activate the sympathetic nervous system. So you can't be in a stress response when you're experiencing pleasure."
• "When you make pleasure your business strategy, everything flows, your marketing feels natural, your sales feel easy, and your bank account starts to catch up with your energy."

Call to Action (CTA):

• Apply for your Free Pleasure in Business Audit: Don't miss this opportunity to transform your business into one that feels good AND makes more money! Only 4 spots remaining. Click here to apply.
• Join the Mailing List: Get VIP treatment and first access to all offers. Click here to join.
• Explore One-on-One Coaching: Ready for deeper support? I have 2 spots open for one-on-one coaching to make sustainable, enjoyable, profitable business your new normal. Click here to learn more.

Transcript

The Science of pleasure and profit

[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to the Pleasurepreneur podcast. This podcast will help you create what you desire in your business with pleasure. Whether that be calling in your ideal clients, making more money or creating a balanced business life blend. I'm your host. Regan Figg, pleasure and business coach, published author of A Mother's Pleasure, Wife and Mammoth to Three Little Wildlings.

However you're choosing to listen to this podcast, ask yourself, how can I make this more pleasurable? And do just that. I acknowledge the custodians of the land on which this podcast is recorded and produced, the Wadi Wadi people of Darrawa land. Now, let's proceed with pleasure.

Hello, hello, welcome back to the Pleasurepreneur podcast. Now, my love, if you have ever thought that, success requires grinding and pushing [00:01:00] harder or sacrificing yourself on the altar of your business, this episode is for you. I'm Regan Figg, pleasure coach and business mentor, and today we are going to be diving into the science behind why prioritizing pleasure isn't just some cute self care strategy.

But it's literally how your brain is wired to create more success, more money and more momentum in your business and not to mention, keep it more sustainable. And by the end of this episode, you're going to understand exactly why leaning into pleasure Is the most profitable and sustainable move you can make and how you can start doing it right now when launching my business, I refuse to believe that success had to come at the cost of my well being.

And I mean that literally, like when I started my business, I decided from day one. That I was going to grow up from a place of pleasure, not from burnout or not from obligation, not from doing [00:02:00] the stuff that we are like told we need to do, or we believe we have to do, and not from grinding my way to success, like so many of us are conditioned to believe is necessary. I had just recovered from postnatal depression and anxiety and insomnia after I had my first babe, then I became pregnant with my second babe.

And so, yeah, I had just recovered from perinatal mood disorders. I had just been pregnant and then gave birth to my second babe. They're only two years apart. When I got the desire to launch my business as a coaching business, and so I put it off for quite some time because I was really fearful that I would take on too much and experience those perinatal mood disorders again, especially then having the second babe.

And by that time we had moved interstate as well, so we weren't with any friends or family. so anyway, this desire kept tapping me on my shoulder to launch my business. eventually, like, I had [00:03:00] no idea how I was going to do it in a way that felt good for me, that didn't deplete me, but I knew that it was possible.

And so, thank goodness that I trusted that because, as I said, like, from day one in my business, I made sure I was driven by desire and I was. Led by my pleasure and I didn't do the shit that felt like obligation and the shoulds and all the rest of it. And I'm so glad that I stuck with it and just believed it was possible, as I said, even though I didn't know how, because now I get to help other women do the same, building businesses that feel as good as they look on paper.

And so today we're going to be talking about exactly why this works, like the science behind prioritizing pleasure. It's not just a feel good philosophy, but an actual proven strategy for making more money with ease. So let's start with the big misconception. We have all been told or shown or somehow modelled that success [00:04:00] requires hard work and sacrifice and grit.

And that if we're not stressed to the max, if we're not exhausted, if we're not completely burnt out, we must, we mustn't be doing it right. Or we mustn't be doing enough, right? That sounds familiar. But what if I told you that science says otherwise? I'm hoping like there's a little round of applause happening or you're like, yay!

Because I mean, especially as women, none of us want to have to. Sacrifice our wellbeing or feel burnt out or be so exhausted and stressed and like to not be able to be present with the people that we love and to not have that energy or that time or that spaciousness to connect with ourselves, connect with our loved ones, or even just do the things that we love, right?

So if you needed more evidence that the pleasure, the pleasurepreneur path was the way to go, this episode is going to do that for you. Yeah, there's actual neuroscience behind why pleasure makes [00:05:00] you more productive, more creative, and ultimately makes your business more profitable and sustainable. It all comes down to dopamine. Our brains reward chemical. So, as you can tell, I'm really excited about this. I'm really passionate about this.

I'm a former exercise physiologist. And like an absolute neuroscience, psychology, human behavior, nerd. so I will tap into a little bit of research here. As I said, like, I want to help you stack that evidence so that you can give yourself the permission to prioritize your pleasure in your business. So I've got some research here, the research was done in 1999. By Greg Ashby and a number of other researchers and it shows that when we experience pleasure or even just anticipate something pleasurable. Our brain releases dopamine, this chemical, like it's often thought of as the feel good hormone, right?

Like, but it's role goes so far beyond just making us feel good, just making us [00:06:00] happy, right? Dopamine acts like a messenger in the brain. It's lighting up pathways responsible for motivation, for focus and decision making. And when it's released, we naturally feel more energized, more engaged and more driven to take action to take that forward motion.

it is what makes us want to keep going. So whether that's in business or creativity or in the serve or any goal we're working towards. And I use the surfing reference here because I have really committed the last 18 months to learning to surf and I share so much of my, you know, surfing slash business analogies.

And in fact, I might even mention later on in the episode, my surf today and how it was such a struggle and how that, like, did not enhance my performance. It actually, like, harmed my performance. I was, like, getting wipe out after wipe out. But we'll get there. We'll get there. Sorry. What I want you to do is like, [00:07:00] think about this, like when you're genuinely excited about something, when it feels good, when it feels fun or rewarding, you don't need to force yourself to do it.

Your brain is already in go mode, you're dialed in, your ideals flow more freely and you take action in a way that feels easeful, yeah? You're like naturally, it's like a natural energy, a natural, natural fuel that draws you to take this action. Now, this is because dopamine taps us into our brain's reward system.

The part of us that is wired to seek out things that feel good and avoid things that feel like punishment. This is exactly why prioritizing pleasure in business is not just about feeling good for the sake of it. It's about working with your brain's natural chemistry instead of against it.

Because when something feels like a struggle, like a chore, like an obligation, like a have to, your brain resists it. Procrastination kicks [00:08:00] in, creativity shuts down, and everything, it all just feels harder. But when you build your business in a way that activates your unique pleasure triggers, whether that's creating content in a way that excites you or selling in a way that feels natural or structuring your day around what actually works for you, you unlock more energy, more ideas, more willingness.

To show up and take action so this isn't just mindset fluff it's neuroscience and when you apply it to your business the results speak for themselves like let's let's let's dial this into real life because I know you've experienced this so. Think about the last time you were truly excited about something, maybe planning a trip, or redecorating a space in your home, or even getting ready for a date night, you know, I don't know about you, but hours are pretty rare.

I'm guessing that you weren't sitting there forcing yourself to do it. You didn't need to bribe [00:09:00] yourself with coffee to get started. You were naturally motivated, you had energy, you probably even went down a rabbit hole of ideas, inspiration, and Pinterest boards because it was fun! Yeah? Hubs and I are going away in five weeks time, and you better believe I've been able to find time to search for the place to stay, or like an authentic Mexican to sink some maggies together, and, you know, some outfits.

The time I have managed to find to search for some outfits, and I tell you. It's very well spent. I found a gold mesh like oversized t shirt dress type thing to wear poolside and none of that felt hard or like obligation. There was no procrastination there whatsoever. and as I said, I was able to find the time to do that.

We have the time for the things that we enjoy. So, now I want you to compare that, you know, like the thing that [00:10:00] you are having fun doing or that you're inspired by, you know, redecorating a space or planning a trip. And I want you to compare that to a time when you had to do something that felt like a total drag.

So maybe that's forcing yourself to go to a workout class that you hated or slogging through a task at work that drained you. Like you probably found every excuse to put it off. You probably felt sluggish, unmotivated. Maybe even resentful. That's the power of pleasure in action, or should I say lack of pleasure in action for that last example.

When you're doing something that lights you up, your brain is all in. You don't have to push yourself. It pulls you forward. It's like this natural, I call it like a natural feminine force, you know, feels super luscious and feminine. And that's the same energy. Let me start that part again. That same energy shift applies to business.

The more you design your work around what actually feels good, the easier it is to show up, [00:11:00] sell, and succeed. by the way, you are at such an advantage if you own your own business. Like, the obvious news here is that you get to structure your business. And structure your days how you like in all the ways that please you.

You can take advantage of this pleasure reward system like no one else. But yeah, I bet you're tolerating doing a whole bunch of shit that in your business that doesn't really bring you pleasure because you think you have to. Not only do you not have to, but it's not even helping you or your business.

I've seen this first hand with my clients, you know. The ones who stop forcing themselves to followed rigid strategies that feel super heavy and drain them, they make way more money, they sell with ease, they magnetize clients and they have fun doing it. And so then think about like on the other side of that as well, like not just in their business, but think about how that impacts them in their personal life, their relationships, the way they [00:12:00] show up to parent if their parents.

The way they show up for their community, like it's just good vibes all around, right? Because when you feel good, your business works better, and so do you, period. So, we've talked about the science behind what's actually happening in your brain when you lead with pleasure, aka the pleasure reward system, aka dopamine equals motivation and money.

let's talk about how pleasure actually enhances your performance. Let's talk. I think now I need to share the story about me in the surf today. Like I have been having the most fun in the surf probably the last six months. I think I reached that point in learning to surf that it's like now so fun. Um, but today in the surf was shit.

Like the, there was super quick periods, which means like the waves are coming really fast. Um, we weren't at my favorite break. It was like, it felt stressful. I couldn't really turn around and prepare myself in time to like, start paddling for waves that I wanted. [00:13:00] at one point I got like my ankle, like my leg rope twisted around my ankle.

And like when my board got pulled by the wave in a wipeout, oh, and there was like an exposed. Screw from the, um, leg rope and that dragged down my ankle bone. It was horrible. It felt so painful. Okay. And basically I was super frustrated and I was angry and I was stressed and it felt so chaotic and I just wanted to quit.

I wasn't having a good time. you know, as I said, I was stressed, I was frustrated, I hurt my ankle. And so of course, instead of catching fun waves, like every wave I was wiping out. My brain and my body weren't like communicating well together because of the stress and like the pressure of like, Oh my God, these quick waves.

And then on top of that was the mind drama. So let's just remember that story, me getting totally wiped out in the surf, having a very uneventful time. [00:14:00] And I was just like, I'm done, I'm out. Like, I got out in less than an hour. I don't think I've had a surf that's been less than an hour for months. It's usually about an hour, an hour and a half.

So I quit. Like, I quit the surf. I was like, I'm getting out. And I was angry and I wiped out and it wasn't good. and just like Maya Angelou said, success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it. And science backs that up. So studies show that when you enjoy your work, just like when you enjoy your surf, you're not just happier.

You're more creative, more resilient, and better at solving problems, meaning you make better business decisions and make more money. 

Hey, pleasure for newest interrupting this episode to let you know, I have the most incredible freebie on offer. There is only five of them. Once those spots are taken, they are taken. Make sure you click the link in the show notes to apply. These are my free pleasure in [00:15:00] business audits, which are normally valued at 555.

This is typically what we do at the start of working together one on one so that you can start creating pleasure in your business immediately. And therefore start increasing your income, your profits, your sustainability, and of course your enjoyment in your business. So that looks like you and I getting together one on one for an hour and ensuring that we clear out any of the stuff that's draining you that's not required.

Anything where you are forcing things so that you can free up more time and more energy for who and what you love most and create more enjoyment and fun and pleasure. In your business. So that one hour with me is going to be me and you eyes on your business, where I'll show you how you can start to shift into a business model that actually feels really fucking good for you while making you more money.

[00:16:00] So, as I said, I have five spots by application only find the link in the show notes, click on the link. It's a quick application and good luck. That's it for now. Let's dive back in.

When you force it, you block it. So just like today when I was out in the surf and I was feeling stressed because the waves were coming really quickly and I had my ankle strangled by my leg rope and which is already starting to bruise. And, you know, yeah, I was just feeling really flustered and frustrated and stressed, and I kept wiping out and then I quit early and I went in.

So it's a very similar kind of thing. Like when, when you're in a bad mood, everything feels hard. Have you noticed that? Or like when you are like me out in the surf and you're having like a bad time and you get up all and I got up all in my head about it, it felt really hard. And that's because stress and pressure actually lowers [00:17:00] our cognitive function.

Your brain literally shuts down the higher level thinking abilities when it's in survival mode. Yeah. And so this sounds really extreme, but it's not. If we're in survival mode, we're in a stress response. And oftentimes we can be in a stress response for long periods of the day. And that might not even be about business either.

That's, I'm thinking back to the, the times when I had three kids, five and under, you know, it was quite stressful keeping it going alive. The thing is, when you are experiencing pleasure, you can't actually activate the sympathetic nervous system. So you can't be in a stress response when you're experiencing pleasure.

And when you are experiencing a stress response, you have lower cognitive function, which means your brain's not working as at the highest level. Yeah. So, therefore, if we can weave in pleasure, then we can [00:18:00] activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which is the opposite of our sympathetic. It's the opposite of the fight or flight.

And we can start to soothe our nervous system and therefore up level our cognitive function or up level our brain function. Yeah. So this is why like white knuckling your way to success doesn't work. You have to create an environment where your brain thrives, and that means pleasure first. So, I tried today, but if I wanted to have really nerded out today on pleasure out in the surf, I would have done a little bit more of tuning into my body.

So I was tuning into how like beautiful the warm and warm the water was. It was also like my favorite color, like this deep, bluey, greeny, like ocean, obviously, ocean color. So I was tuning in with my senses, I was then out looking at the horizon, I could see like a helicopter on the horizon, so I'm connecting with my body, I'm making it sensual, like I'm [00:19:00] connecting with my senses, and that was starting to help me to have a better experience.

And then I think I got pushed on to the next wave. Hubby was helping me cause he could tell I was having a shit time. I was like, I'm going back. I'm going in soon. Anyway, it was like the best wave. And I had another wipe out, of course, which makes sense from that lower cognitive cognitive function.

Right. And I was just like, nah, I'm going in. So I know my work. If I had been able to really enhance my pleasure out in the surf today, which would have probably looked like. Chilling out for a bit, not trying to be so reactive, which is what happens when we're stressed, but not being so reactive, trying to jump on the next wave and paddling.

My arms are sore. I went for a surf yesterday. I'm like, Oh, God, my brain is telling my arms are hurting, you know, so if I'd been able to really dial in to the pleasure of that and let myself have some chill time out in the surf, I would have soothed my nervous system. I would have been able to reconnect more with the pleasure of it all and then enhanced [00:20:00] my cognitive function.

And my brain and body coordination, I wouldn't have been getting so many wipeouts. I would have had a much more fun time and then probably would have stayed out longer, right? And that's, that kind of like summarizes my whole point. We can quit early. We can have a bunch of wipeouts or make poor choices or not have that higher level cognitive function, simply because.

We are not enjoying ourselves. Yeah. So if we put this into like a business perspective, I'll share, a bit of a client story, who I have also shared with openly. so she'll be okay that I share this. I had, this beautiful client who, as she started working with me. She was really forcing her launches, so she was overcomplicating everything she, like, haven't we all, she was doing things she thought she had to do.

She was getting really angry and frustrated about the number of stories [00:21:00] views. And the level of engagement she was getting in her social media, she was feeling really quite drained, um, and taking on any and every client who wanted to work with her, no matter what. And so, we audited her business together, so this is just like my free business audits that I'm actually offering at the moment, I'll, there's four of them left at the moment, but I'll tell you a bit more about that at the end.

so yeah, we audited her business together and. We stripped it down to what actually felt good and you know what happened, she had a five figure launch with half the effort so some of the things that we, you know, focused on and shifted was like we focused on marketing to and calling in the kind of client she couldn't wait to work with so she actually turned down a bunch of people who applied to work with her.

Because she really wanted to honor what it was that brought her pleasure, she went all in, you know, so she only chose to work with the kind of clients who really lit [00:22:00] her up and didn't feel like she had to, um, like be that tugboat energy. Yeah, she really, let herself, determined who she would most like to work with and the kind of work she would be then doing, she also shifted her offering.

To one that she could offer and run with her kids at home. So there was so much less stress with the way that we rejigged that. and by the way, there's like many different ways that we can structure, structure your offerings so that you're not on like hour long, long calls for numerous hours a day where you can still be earning a high income, still selling offerings that are high ticket, but that are more aligned with whatever season you're at right now and whatever works for you right now.

And there's a couple of other prominent things that we did, Obviously we did the mindset work, that's always a big part, but like, part of it was doing the mindset work for her to see that story views and level of engagement [00:23:00] wasn't actually a problem and didn't need to be something that she stressed over.

Like, as I said, she was not having a hard time calling in clients, and so there was a number of things I was like, is this a problem? I don't think this is a problem. And so, yeah, she let herself stop stressing over, stop wasting her energy and her time and her attention over things that weren't problems.

And the last thing I want to speak to of what we helped her change through her audit was she changed the way she spoke to her audience and her potential clients. So she was so over trying to maintain this, like. Inauthentic image of like sweetness and joy for her motherhood clients. She wanted to say what she really thought and she wanted to stop censoring parts of herself, in order to, you know, thrive and make that sale.

Yeah. So there's some of the things that we did together to make it so much more aligned to what pleased her, what brought her pleasure, what she [00:24:00] desired, what fell out of alignment for her. this is why I do these audits with my clients when we first start working together, because when you make pleasure your business strategy, everything flows, your marketing feels natural, your sales feel easy, you work with clients that light you up and have you feel energized rather than drained, and of course your bank account starts to catch up with your energy, that's like the byproduct, yeah?

Now, now that you understand the science behind how pleasure directly impacts your success, and there's a bit more to it as well, but this is what we're just going to talk about on this episode. You might be wondering, okay, Reagan, how do I actually bring this into my business? Because this is exactly what I do with my clients.

I help you go from, feeling like you have to force it, feeling like you have to push Do a million different things to building a business that naturally flows with [00:25:00] pleasure and ease and is way more profitable and sustainable. You stop feeling pushy selling your offers so that you end up selling so much more because you don't feel pushy and therefore you make more sales.

Yeah, like when you feel pleasure from selling. You don't have that resistance to sell, so you show up and sell more, and therefore because you're showing up and selling more, you sell more, you make more sales. Yeah, you stop stressing over things like story views and engagement numbers, and instead you focus on connecting authentically with your audience and with your ideal clients and fostering those relationships.

you stop overcomplicating your launches and you have the most successful low stress launch yet. This is what happened to me recently. I had a 20K launch and it was the most pleasurable, enjoyable. Launch I've ever had, floating on flamingos during a mid launch midweek, like impromptu [00:26:00] getaway by myself and having three weeks of holidays break completely in the middle of my launch, so possible to have these things woven into your launch.

Not just to help you create the most successful launches, but because of those kind of things, you are creating the most kind, the most successful launches. What else can we do for the, from these audits? Well, you'll find pleasure in the process of creating content. So you'll make it easier to stay consistent and actually grow your audience because you enjoy making content.

Yeah, do you see how like, when we enjoy something, we're going to want to do more of it. You'll also move from, you know, any kind of rigid strategies that perhaps you think you need to have. To a much more like intuitive business model that feels natural. And then of course leads to more sales because it feels natural to you and it feels more intuitive and it feels like it [00:27:00] flows easier for you.

So you want it to work. and what else? Maybe I can think of one more. You shift from a, like, I'm going to do it all mentality, like, I'll do all of the things, right, like, taking all of the action, you shift from doing that, like, thinking you have to take all these actions and work more and do more in order to make more, to actually focusing on what truly drives you.

And therefore what truly drives results so that you can actually, uh, work less and earn more and you're going to have them more time and energy for yourself and your family and doing the things that you love and spending time with the people you love, you know, so this is the power of integrating pleasure into your business.

It's not just about feeling good for the sake of it, as I said earlier, but It's about using that pleasure to actually unlock your full potential, to enhance your performance, to have that better, that cognitive function, to [00:28:00] create that natural motivation and momentum that pulls you forward. You know how I talked about that, like that feminine force that pulls you forward.

So when we. Make our business feel good, you get better results without any of the burnout because pleasure itself is a cup filler, you know, okay, so here's what I want you to do next, because if you're ready to start making more money with more pleasure, let's make it happen. I have a few spots open for my free pleasure in business audits.

Now, these are normally valued at 555 and as I said. They're typically what we do at the start of working together one on one, and I'm offering five of those. There's four left currently. I'm offering five of those where we'll look at exactly where you're forcing things. What's draining your energy and how to shift into a business model that actually feels good [00:29:00] for you, therefore making you more money and then making it more sustainable for you because you can keep going.

as I said, I opened up five spots. One has already gone from inside my mailing list. By the way, if you're not already on the mailing list, Get on there. What are you doing? That's where you'll get first dibs on all of my offers and be treated like the VIP that you are this year, especially that's my focus for this year, giving love to my mailing list.

so yeah, I'll pop a link in the show notes so you can join my mailing list. And if you are ready to sign up or apply, should I say, for the pleasure in business audits, because you will need to apply for that, I, I'm going to get you to click the link in the show notes. And I will also put a link in the show notes if you're ready for deeper support.

My one on one coaching is where we make this your new normal. sustainable, enjoyable, profitable business. So, that's all from me for [00:30:00] today. Thank you for tuning in and I hope I've given you a whole stack of reasons why you get to give yourself permission to weave pleasure and prioritize pleasure and pursue pleasure.

In your business and in your life, it is going to make you so much more money. It's going to make your business so much more profitable. It's going to help you do your work for a lifetime and not just a season. You're going to be, that business is then going to be so much more sustainable. Yeah. And think of on the other side as well, like your personal life, you are going to be so much more happier and lit up and fulfilled and satisfied within your, within yourself.

Which ripples out to those that you love, your family, your community. As you can tell, I'm very passionate about that. So yeah, talk to me, let's work together. I've got two spots open for one on one. I've got those four spots open for pleasure in business audits and jump on my mailing list if you are not already on [00:31:00] there.

All right, that's it from me to you. I hope you enjoy the rest of your day, whatever it is. I hope you consider asking yourself, how can I make this more pleasurable and do just that? All right, my loves, bye for now.