202 | Why More Information Isn’t Helping You Grow: The Power of Implementation

In this episode, Erin explores why so many entrepreneurs, leaders, and high achievers stay stuck despite constantly learning, investing in themselves, and consuming endless content.

She shares why implementation, not information, is what creates confidence, self-trust, and lasting transformation. Through stories, client experiences, and practical reflection questions, Erin reveals how overconsumption can become a form of avoidance and how true wisdom comes from integrating what you already know.

We explore:

• Why learning doesn't automatically create results
• The connection between action and confidence
• Nervous system safety and implementation
• Understanding resistance and self-protection
• Why intuition requires action to build trust
• The hidden cost of constant consumption
• How to close the gap between knowing and doing

This episode is a powerful invitation to stop searching for more answers and start trusting yourself enough to implement what you've already learned.

Healing, growth, and transformation don't come from collecting more information.  They come from embodied action.

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Transcript

Learning Versus Implementing

Erin Gray 0:00

Welcome back to Your Money, Your Rules. Today I want to credit one of my clients with this idea for this episode because we were talking in one of our sessions about her implementing more and pausing the learning for a bit. I think as entrepreneurs, you know, we're so often encouraged to keep learning and we genuinely love to learn. I think that's just in our DNA. We read all of the books, we listen to the podcasts, we take the courses, we hire the coaches, we we do all of the things. And I believe that learning is a very important and valid part of our business. And I advocate, you know, for everything that I mentioned above. But I think a lot of us have reached this point where the answer actually isn't more information, it's actually implementation. So let's dive in. For a lot of us, information feels very productive. If you were a good little girl in school and you made straight A's, you were great at learning and taking tests and learning more information. And I think learning helps us feel productive. You know, we tell ourselves that we are working on our business, we're investing ourselves, and that's actually true. Like we are doing those things. And implementation, though, is where transformation actually happens. Like you don't change because you learned something, you change because you applied it and you embodied it. Like think about listening to podcasts on boundaries. How many podcasts have we heard on boundaries? Nothing is going to change, though, until you actually set one and you follow it. Like think about the first time you actually had to set a boundary, uphold the boundary, and then you know, have the consequence for the boundary. Like that's where we actually embody it and learn the lessons that we have been reading or taking courses on. Think about all the money. I mean, I have so many money books on my shelf, and I've taken so many different courses and all of this stuff around money. But what actually shifted for me

Why Action Creates Real Change

Erin Gray 2:00

is when I actually started taking action and implementing and like being and acting from the identity of a person that feels safe with her money. So I think the other thing is that implementation, it creates evidence. So, meaning that so often we want to feel more confident, but confidence isn't built from more information. It comes from our identity, right? So when you think about being a more confident person, you'd have to ask yourself, okay, what would obviously the feeling would be confident, but what would be the actions that I would be taking from a place of confidence? And one of the things that I'm always asking myself is what would a confident, trusting, bold person do? And if what I am, the action that I'm taking is not aligned with that, then that is where I correct the action and I take action from that place. So confidence and boldness and trust grows from evidence, right? Evidence comes from taking action. I think we need both parts. We need the part that like settles our brain so that we can actually build some evidence of like, look, I did this and it was okay, and I still felt safe and I worked through it and it was fine. And then also from the body's perspective as well. So every time you implement something, you create more proof in your brain. You gather that data, you um, you know, you learn something, you refine it, you are building more self-trust. And this is also about being willing to feel the unfamiliarity in your body, the discomfort in your body. This is about you creating the safety that you need in your nervous system so that you can then take the action. And the more that you take it, right, the less scary it begins to feel in your body. And then the quicker that you get results, and then you gather data, and then you refine and you keep moving on. And I'm not advocating here because I think for me, when I first started on this journey, I was actually taking action too quickly. Like my body did not feel safe enough. And I was kind of pushing myself when my body wasn't ready. And there's this fine line there that only you know because you're in your body. Because for some of my clients, it's actually like, okay, a little baby step is actually what is the most loving thing for her because she has been so used to putting herself in the deep end. And then for some of my clients, it's more so of like, okay, I'm ready to just like jump in the deep end because I've been kind of meddling over here in the shallow end. I don't know what that is for you. You're gonna have to play with this, but you will know when you ask yourself, you know, like, what is my next step? Where am I, you know, playing a little bit smaller? What is most loving to me? You know, if

Building Confidence Through Evidence

Erin Gray 4:55

if I truly believed and I acted, I moved from being a confident woman and a person who trusts herself, what moves would I be making? So I don't want to advocate here that like we need to be moving quickly because I probably move and I'm air quoting very slowly compared to what a lot of people move. But I've recognized for me, that's how I move and I gain such clarity in my stillness and I understand how my body wants to move and what I need to do to support myself. So it's not one or it's not like this all or none mentality. I'm always asking, like, where is the middle, right? So when you when I speak about moving quickly, what I mean is when you receive your intuition and you have sat with it, and maybe you are a wave rider and you have gotten to the place where you're like, yeah, this feels really good, and you still don't take the action, that is what I'm talking about, creating distrust or a lack of confidence. And I think also, too, that it's in the integration is where our wisdom actually lives. Like we live in a culture, and I talked about this on my previous podcast episode with travel and implementation and spaciousness, is we live in a culture of constant consumption. Like we value consumption as a society, and wisdom is gained through integration. And integration requires space. So this is why, after you know, a session or a retreat or a course or even a podcast episode. I mean, I used to do this. I would listen to one podcast after another podcast after another, right? It's like, that's great that you're learning all of this information, but where are you actually implementing the information you're receiving? Like it's great to know all of this stuff, but how are you taking it into your body, embodying it, and actually taking action from that place? And this has to be, I think this is the place where we get to love ourselves even more because have such love for ourselves to be able to play with this, to try things, or I should say do things, get information, get feedback, and then embody what we have learned and then tweak it for our own selves, right? Like anybody that's telling you this is the way, this is the thing, I have the strategy, they're full of crap. Like nobody has one specific strategy for everybody. Like they're not in your body, they don't, they don't know what your nervous system is like, they don't know what your intuition is. Like, I think it's a great marketing tactic, but but really only you know, which is like the best news and like not the best news because it really stops with us. Like we've got to be willing to play with this, to reconnect to ourselves, to return back home to ourselves and be willing that I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna love myself no matter what the outcome is. So, what is important to note here is that if you are experiencing resistance to integration or integrating things, the question that you might want to ask yourself is what is my body or my

Integration Requires Space And Safety

Erin Gray 8:05

nervous system protecting me from? Like, why am I not taking action? Sometimes, you know, I think here we go back to like in the coaching world, resistance is like, oh, well, you need to like mindset your way through it. No, you don't. I don't believe you do. I think sometimes resistance is like, I actually don't want to do that. Like, I don't want to be coached into doing that specific thing. I just don't want to do it. And that's the resistance is is showing you that there. If the resistance is there and you're like, okay, I feel scared, okay, maybe some of that's some inner child work that we need to work on. If it's, you know, the resistance is like, oh, because I've been people pleasing, okay, that's telling us it's like there's always messages there. And I think for so many of us, we just bulldoze past it because that's how we've gotten to where we are, versus allowing ourselves to slow down, to lean back, to really connect with ourselves and be like, why are you resisting this? Body, what do you need in this moment? And start asking yourself questions. However, you hear your intuition, like reconnect, get even more in depth with that, right? Why aren't we taking action? What am I afraid of? You know, more often than not, the body, it doesn't feel safe because of some learned behavior. And it's our job to figure it out. It's not our job to like push ourselves. I think a lot of us in childhood were just pushed and pushed and pushed versus, honey, what do you need in this moment? Maybe you do need to rest before you sit down and, you know, have the conversation with your CPA. Maybe you do need to reschedule it. Like, I don't know what it is. And this is where you get to love yourself enough and play with it so that you get to figure out like, what do I need? What does the body need? How can I slow down even more? How can I implement everything that I've already learned before I go hire somebody else, before I go take another course? I mean, even this podcast, if you're just listening to this podcast every single week, but you're not taking the action and implementing what I'm teaching you, what are we doing? So, my podcast, anybody else's podcast, like take what I am teaching you and then go implement it and see how it feels.

Resistance Signals And Reflection Questions

Erin Gray 10:14

Okay, I want to leave you just with a couple of reflection questions. What advice have I already paid for that I'm not implementing? Like I have gone back to several courses that I have watched. It's so fascinating. And he was talking about how he has a bunch of courses that he's offered, and maybe like only 5% of people actually complete his courses. That's so fascinating. I think there's so many, there's so many insights that I think about that. Like, what are you selling on the front end? And then also what are you not encouraging to complete on the back end? And then what are the people that are attracting? Like, there were so many rabbit holes I went down. But the fact that he said that, I was like, wow, that's really interesting because I go back and I re-watch some of my courses that I have taken. Um, now some of them I'm like, you know what, served its purpose. We're not on the same energetic wavelength. Like, I'm not gonna listen from that, you know, mentor. And there are some that I am listening to over again, maybe the second or the third time. So, what advice have you paid for already that you're not implementing? Like if you've worked with coaches, go pull out your journals and go look through your journals of a year ago, three years ago, and see what is some of the wisdom and the knowledge that you received and have you implemented it? Where are you not going first? Like that is a question that I always ask myself because that is one of my values. I always go first. And when I recognize when I'm not going first, I know that's where I need to take the action. So, where am I not going first for myself, my own self, my team, my clients, et cetera, whatever it might be in parenting, in being a spouse, friendships, whatever. Where am I seeking more information when I actually need to take maybe more action? And what would happen if I spent the next 90 days implementing instead of consuming? There are moments or times of my life where, and I've noticed it as I've gotten even more in tune with myself. I don't really listen to a lot of podcasts anymore. David Guillaume, I really like him. And he actually said on one of his podcasts, he said, I ideally don't want you to ever listen to my podcast ever again. I want you to get to the point where you only listen to yourself and God and you just honor that. And like that is what I think about is like, how many of us are listening to everyone else give us advice versus like spending that time with ourselves to get the advice that we need from God and source? Okay. And then the last question that I would ask myself is where can I close the gap between my intuition, the downloads that I'm receiving, and then also taking action? So I don't think any of us need strategy or frameworks or I mean, and those things have a place, but their place, but I think that's such a small percentage of actually of the whole pie. I think what we need to do more is we need to trust ourselves. We already know what our intuition is telling us. We need to use it and to act on it and to close that gap. And I think I just think that there's so much goodness there when we start acting from that place versus outsourcing and seeking, you know, information from other people. Okay, that's

Share And Work With Erin

Erin Gray 13:15

all I have for you today. I love you. I am so grateful for you. If this episode resonated with you, I would love for you to share it with a friend. And if you are someone who is looking for a thinking partner, for someone who is going to reflect your brilliant wisdom back to you, who you want to have fun with and to really move from more of that lack of self-trust and overwhelm into someone that feels more clarity, more love for themselves, more self-trust for them themselves. I would love to support you. You can click the link in the show notes to apply to work with me. Okay, I'll see you in the next episode.