Unlock Your Genius Zone

Feeling Stuck? Here’s How to Find Your True Calling & Master Excellence | Ep. 54

• Ine-Wilme Coetzee • Episode 54

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Are you feeling stuck, unsure of your next steps, or wondering if you’re truly operating in your zone of genius? In this episode, I sit down with Leanne Tuggle, a powerhouse of wisdom, faith, and intentional living, to uncover the secrets to finding your purpose, embracing excellence, and stepping into your true calling.

🚀 What You’ll Learn:

✅ The mindset shifts needed to unlock your zone of genius

✅ How to integrate excellence into everyday life—whether in business, motherhood, or personal growth

✅ The surprising way opportunity meets preparation (and why most people miss it)

✅ How to stop forcing success and start aligning with your unique gifts

✅ Why embracing faith, mission, and intentionality transforms everything

If you're a high-achieving female entrepreneur who knows you’re made for more but haven’t yet achieved the success you envision, this conversation is for you. 🎯

✨ Ready to unlock your next level? Hit play and start your journey toward clarity, confidence, and success!

🔗 Connect with Leanne:

🎧 Listen to her podcast (Whatever Is Excellent): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/whatever-is-excellent-with-leanne-tuggle/id1768816591

📩 Subscribe to her newsletter (Whatever Is Lovely) for weekly encouragement: https://leannetuggle.myflodesk.com/v3r2zwdaik?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaa16WT_vHToaQac3pVGYcTQPt7bPfz6MIB0Yknj-QBh8HeENpRTMLaxevc_aem_UsASqncxomUfigrm5RmeCw

📲 Connect with her on Instagram: @Mrs.LeanneTuggle https://www.instagram.com/mrs.leannetuggle

🔥 Don’t forget to subscribe & leave a review! What resonated most with you? Comment below! 👇

Podcast intro music: J.S. Bach Cello Suites, Suite No. 3 in C major, Prelude 
Musician: Mari Coetzee 

_______________________________________________________________

🎵 Have Questions?
Save time and book a free discovery call to see how we could work together!
https://www.innervoiceinstituteofmusic.com/discoverycall


🎵 Struggling with focus in entrepreneurship? Click on the link to get access to the Private Podcast Flow State Formula for creative entrepreneurship activations to start trusting yourself in your work again!
https://www.innervoiceinstituteofmusic.com/private-podcast-opt-in-page


🎵Curious about working together?
Join the next free workshop I'm hosting: https://www.innervoiceinstituteofmusic.com/workshop-registration


🎵Weekly episodes aren't enough for you?
You can connect with me over on Instagram at @ine.wilme

Speaker 1:

welcome to the show. I would like to introduce a dear friend of mine we have had many long phone calls in the car and just most most genuine person, a dear friend of mine, leanne tuggle. Thank you so much for having this conversation with me, thank.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, ina. I'm so excited to be here. It really feels like an honor just to be able to chat with you and talk about things that are on our hearts and minds, so I'm really excited about this conversation.

Speaker 1:

Thank you, I am as well and, with that being said, I would love to know what is your story. How did you get to where you are now? What's a bit of your background? What do you specialize in?

Speaker 2:

Such a great question, thank you.

Speaker 2:

So I am a military spouse and I have three children, and I share that because it's as I have grown through different avenues of life and been involved with various different things.

Speaker 2:

I find that who I am has kind of adjusted and morphed based on the people that I am around and the things that I find myself most passionate about and doing so.

Speaker 2:

I have a background in education, in elementary education, and for a season I was all in with being a teacher, and then I met my now husband, who is in military and honestly kind of resisted that identity of being a military spouse and quickly found after two international moves that it was in fact a part of who I am and a lot of the things that I am very passionate about and excited about, to shape a lot of the things that I am very passionate about and excited about.

Speaker 2:

And now I find myself also as a mother of three and very much enjoying all that comes with that. And I feel that all of those different roles have kind of come together to make me the woman that I am, which is a woman who really seeks excellence in everything that I do, from the very mundane ordinary things to something that maybe has more of a monetary value or can lend itself to success in the world's standards of success. So everything that I do, I do with excellence and I enjoy all of the different parts of who I am and what I get to do.

Speaker 1:

I love that so much and with every word you say, I can just tell your level of excellence. Every word is intentional and you have this way of making people feel so at ease, because you have an excellence in how you speak, in how you present yourself, and I love that so much. It is, it's such a gift and I'd love to know how does excellence show up in your life? What does it mean for you from a very practical perspective? I know you said like you try to add it in the mundane and in what the world considers to be success, but I've always wondered. So now I get to ask you how does it show up in your life? I love that, yeah.

Speaker 2:

So I see excellence as an opportunity to do the next right thing for the glory of God.

Speaker 2:

I have a biblical worldview that I embrace a lot of my thinking around, and being a woman of excellence, or doing everything with excellence, very much means to me that I am showing up as the best possible version of myself, from getting ready in the morning, even if the tasks of my day is doing laundry and shuttling kids to and from their activities.

Speaker 2:

I want to step into those that role as my very best version of myself, because when I get myself all the way ready, I feel better, and then I end up doing more good.

Speaker 2:

And at the end of the day, at the end of every day, I want to lay my head on the pillow, having loved and served my people well and those people could be my family or it could be any of the women that have crossed my path throughout the day. I want to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I have loved and served them well, and so that is in my mind. What excellence is is doing your very best. It doesn't have to be perfect, but doing your very best with any of those tasks and a lot of the mundane or the ordinary things. How I see excellence in that is having, like, maybe, rhythms and routines that help those things flow in a way that I'm not focused on or feeling weighed down by the mental clutter, but that they have a place and a purpose and then I can move forward with again loving and serving the people in my path.

Speaker 1:

I love that so much. It comes through in the way you talk. Once again, I love your voice. You have this gentleness and strength in your voice. It has like you have this gentleness and strength in your voice, and I can see that those are qualities that are part of being excellent for you, showing up with both being gentle and strong and having an inner sense that what you do is number one worth it. But it's also in line with your gifting, and I'm curious what would you say to someone who's trying to discover what is their gifting? What is their zone of genius? How can they become excellent in the zone that they've been actually put on this earth to do?

Speaker 2:

I think that's a great question. I think one of the very first things is to really look at what do you find yourself continually interacting with, like, what are the things that maybe people around you keep asking you about? What conversations do you find yourself repeatedly in? There's something about you that attracts others to you in whatever that may be, and once you start to pay attention to what those things are, then you're able to start tapping into what is your zone of genius. What is that thing that you are good at?

Speaker 2:

Everyone has something that they are good at. They have something that they really enjoy or maybe really passionate about. Sometimes that is the same thing that they're good at, may be really passionate about, and sometimes that is the same thing that they're good at. And so when you are just kind of having that paying attention mentality, then you can start kind of absorbing those different things that people are saying like oh hey, I have a question about this, can you help me understand more about the type of books that I should read with my children, or whatever that may be. And so when you pay attention, when you really lock into what are those conversations that repeatedly happen, then you can start to find more clarity about the thing that you are good at and your zone of genius. Once you have that clarity, then you can begin to really move into that excellence and really doing all of those things with excellence.

Speaker 1:

I don't know if that answers the question, but oh, it did brilliantly.

Speaker 1:

I love that answer so much because it's exactly in line with, actually one of the things I teach, with going from your passions and your skills and marrying the two and making sure that the thing you're doing simply doesn't feel like work. It doesn't feel like work but at the same time, it is your life's work. So the way you answered that was so beautiful, and I can tell that you have experience doing this for yourself. You have joy when you talk about it, so I'd love to know how would you define your own zone of genius and is there a story there of how you discovered it?

Speaker 2:

Sure, it's actually interesting. I feel like this last year. So as a military family, we are moving. Every time we move, I like to kind of think about what is my purpose for this place that we are? Um, it's very helpful to, when you were like completely uprooting and moving to a new place, to kind of be able to reflect and think about. And we tend to move every two to three years, so it's very, it's just very perfect to kind of be like every three years I get to reinvent myself. That's actually so cool.

Speaker 2:

I know I don't mind it, but anyway. So every time we move to a new place, I really like to think about what is my purpose and taking into consideration the ages of my children, the support that my husband needs and the things that I'm really excited and passionate about. And so I've been doing that since we've moved here. I currently live in Monterey, california, and since we moved here about a year and a half ago, I've been really thinking about okay, what can I do in this place to make the world better, to make it more beautiful, to make it brighter, and honestly struggled in the beginning of our time here with trying to figure it out. And I think I was trying so hard to find that zone of genius that I was forcing things that were not in that zone of genius, because it's what I thought was supposed to be the thing that I was good at. But it was what I thought, not necessarily what the people around me wanted, and I think that that's why earlier, when I said paying attention to the things that people are always following you, so paying attention to why they're following you or why they're paying attention to you or wanting to talk to you and I what, what people were asking me about and what I thought I was supposed to do did not align in trying to figure out like, what am I supposed to do here? Why can't I figure it out? And the second I stopped trying so hard was the moment it kind of fell into place, which sounds very cliche. But the second I just stopped and was silent and quiet and just considered, okay, I'm going to stop trying to force things and just see what comes my way.

Speaker 2:

That is when I noticed that the things that I'm really good at is encouraging and inspiring women and speaking truth and life into their hearts and minds, and so I just started to embrace that. It started with just a handful of women asking questions and being able to offer them some mentoring, some coaching, and the hard part about it was is that I always felt like I needed to have some sort of a course or some sort of a formal business or something like that. Yeah, every time I tried to develop something like that, it just would fall flat. So again, I stopped forcing it and just let things kind of happen organically.

Speaker 2:

That's when things started to come into play, and kind of laying down any sort of monetary goals, which I know goes against um, like success by the world standards, but laying aside monetary goals and just looking at how I could add value to others. That is when I started to notice like, okay, this, this is what I'm meant to do, this is what I can do, this is how I can contribute, and, honestly, I'm still in the formulation phase of like what that looks like in a business standpoint. But it's like right now is logging the hours, the experience, the training to get better at doing the thing that I'm naturally gifted in. So I now have the clarity of what that zone of genius is, and so now it's just moving into it and really becoming more confident with those things, which is mentoring women, really coaching them and helping them on an individual basis more than like a course type of thing, which is what I was trying to do before.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that is so interesting to hear and it's almost like we're coming full circle.

Speaker 1:

From the conversation we had on the phone, like a year and a half ago, I remember you telling me I feel like it should be the six week thing, going through these six different pillars and maybe excellence and like home rhythms and all these different things which are obviously still a part of what you do and what you're so phenomenal at, based on our previous conversations before this episode.

Speaker 1:

But what I love about the journey of getting to where you are now, with discovering your zone of genius, is you experimented and you got into conversations and you took action. Those are three of the pillars of being an innovator. Whether monetary success and the money comes right away, or if it comes years afterwards, you are taking action and that is the only way to develop your brain in this area. It is an area that you've found people telling you you're good at. It's an area that you gravitate towards and you've leaned in, and that is what I think people will find so inspiring listening to you tell that story, as I am, I'm so inspired by that because you're leaning in with the goal of adding value to people. That is the number one mission and that is beautiful.

Speaker 2:

I love it so much, yeah.

Speaker 1:

And on that note of being a woman on mission, I noticed that sentence come up when we were having previous conversations preparing for this episode. What does it mean to you to be a woman on a mission?

Speaker 2:

I think it's just doing everything with purpose and intentionality to be all in with whatever it is that is on your path for the day, and so I see that as, like, when I wake up in the morning, there is a and I, the way I structure my days, like every day has a specific purpose or a plan, but waking up and just being like, okay, today is super intentional, um, whether, like today that we're recording, this is a Tuesday and there are certain things on this day that will require a certain aspect of me, and so I will be very intentional with that.

Speaker 2:

I'm going to have some time with my daughter one-on-one today, because my boys will be at baseball practice and so, being thinking intentionally about how can I disciple her in a way that will bless her and add value to her today, in a way that will bless her and add value to her today, and by doing that, I am on a mission.

Speaker 2:

I am on a mission to speak life into her, and I'm looking for an opportunity again, not trying to force it, but I am ready and prepared for the opportunity should it present itself today, and often what I find from being on a mission in that regard even just to speak truth and life into her. Often what comes out of our conversation, or whatever may develop from what we talk about, is provides content and also further stories and feedback for other women who I mentor. There's so many instances of something that I'm talking about with my daughter that then translates to another woman that I am talking to. So being on a mission is just that state of readiness and intentionality to take advantage of any opportunity. It's the this idea of preparation meets opportunity. I'm ready and I'm prepared for whatever comes my way ready and I'm prepared for whatever comes my way.

Speaker 1:

That is the mindset we need to be fulfilled, in my opinion, this mindset of being ready and then seizing opportunities when they come. If you're not ready for the opportunity, then you won't even notice when they arise. And if your mission is to speak life into the women you serve, into your children, to your family, then you will have programmed your brain to see the opportunities. Like. Imagine like you go to your son's baseball practice and your daughter is right there and you could not interact, like you could maybe both, I don't know watch a movie or something to make the time just pass. But you're being so intentional with this. You are fulfilling your God-given mission in the little things. In the little things that a lot of people might think doesn't really matter that much, like sure, let's watch a movie during this time, make it pass.

Speaker 1:

But we know, as moms especially, how fast childhood goes, how quickly our children grow up, and your intentionality is so beautiful, like I think you're going to come to the end of like when she moves out of the house and you're going to have a beautiful relationship with her because of being intentional in the daily mission. Right, and that's what I love so much about what you're saying. It inspires me as a mom too, yeah, to be more intentional. I love that. And on the note of like routines and being so intentional with how you map out your day, like having the daily mission, what does a day in the life of Leanne look like? I'm so curious.

Speaker 2:

Well, it depends on the day, but my day begins early. At 5 AM my alarm goes off. I have found over the last 10 years of being a parent that starting before my children is the best way for me to be on mission for them and with them. So at 5 am I get up. It also helps that my husband gets up at that time too. So we just start our day early, and from 5 to 7, I have this opportunity to really start my day in the way that I would like, which involves making a cup of tea and, first thing, diving into the word of God. That helps to ground me and really help me set the tone for what is most important and reiterate that idea of being on mission, being considering everything that I have about some of the tasks that fall on my shoulders as the primary caregiver or the stay at home mom or whatever that may be, by having this appropriate mentality helps start the day. So I have that time in the morning and then I also like to get my workout in before my kids wake up and then, after having fed my mind and worked my body and drank all the water, then I am ready for them. They come downstairs and I get to have that very present moment with them. My kids are I have twin boys who just turned seven and they are the sweetest when they first wake up and they just want to snuggle and all that kind of stuff. So I feel like I am present and ready for that moment with them and able to speak those, um, those true good things, those affirmations over them, and then we get ready for school and I send them off to school and then that's when I can get into some more of that deep work or really thinking about how I can serve.

Speaker 2:

I have a podcast that I can write for. I've been doing a lot of writing lately as I think that that is something that I am preparing for. I am preparing for writing a book at some point and so getting my 10,000 hours in of just writing and writing as much as I can. So a lot of my day looks like writing and then getting all of that work done. Any work that is outside of my home, anything that is like caring for others or administering to other women. I have several coaching calls throughout the day.

Speaker 2:

All of that I do during the time period while my kids are at school so that when they come home I actually go and pick them up, walk to the school and pick them up when they come back. Then it's mom mode, and I love that being able to have my brain and settled into that zone of genius while they were at school and then getting to be fully on mission with them when they're home and doing all the afterschool things dinner my husband would come home for dinner and then being able to wind down into the evening as a family, and then also that time with my husband at the end of the day, which is so great for us to be able to connect, because, at the end of the day, we are on mission together as well, and so being able to support each other in that is really important for us to be able to connect, because, at the end of the day, we are on mission together as well, and so being able to support each other in that is really important for us too.

Speaker 1:

And then we're in bed by like nine because, yeah, I get that as being part of the 5am club. Yeah, nine is like the limit.

Speaker 2:

I know.

Speaker 1:

It's not worth worth staying awake. Yeah, yeah, Thank you for letting us see a glimpse into your day and the rhythms that you have put in place so that you can be creative, you can be intentional, and I'm curious how the rhythms you have put in place has made you more creative. The reason I ask is I think that a lot of women listening to this podcast are moms and they feel like their brain is being pulled in a million directions. Like when they actually have a moment to do deep work, like whether it's when their kids are at school or it's nap time, they hardly know where to begin. Like how do you know what to write on? Where do you get your best ideas? Like what does that process look like of being creative for you?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's a really great question. It's actually something I've been thinking about a little bit more, like where several people lately have been asking me where do you get ideas from? And a lot of it comes from just the day-to-day life. Um, I do. After I dropped my kids off from school, I walk them to and from school, and we live right here along the central coast of California, so right by the ocean, and it's just a quick little walk for me to walk down to the ocean and I usually every Monday we'll do an hour long walk along the ocean and it's a silent walk, so I don't have I'm not listening to anything, I don't have my phone or anything like that, and I just walk and there's something about the action of movement, and I feel like it just ignites creativity in your brain, and so a lot of ideas will come from just walking and being open to create creativity. And then also, as I go about my day and am involved with my children, there are a lot of times where they will ask questions or have something that they want to talk about. That will then lead to more ideas. For example, one of my sons the other day asked me out of the blue, does God poop, and I was like, well, it took me off guard just a little bit, but it was a. It reminded me of how important it is to let children ask questions and how I want to be the person that they ask questions to, no matter how off the wall they might be. I am glad that they feel comfortable coming to me to ask me these crazy questions, and I don't want to ever discourage that. And so it forced me to kind of sit there and think about how can I encourage questioning and inquisitive minds and critical thinking amongst my children and I mean it was an entire newsletter came out from that just from that one silly question by a seven-year-old boy that would help inspire the creativity. So there's so much that happens.

Speaker 2:

I keep in the notes app of my phone. I just keep little notes of just ideas as they pop into my mind, and then when I sit down to do the work which I have at least two days a week that are for creative writing I sit down, and there are times where I will sit at my computer and I have no idea what I'm going to write. But the thing is is I do not get up until I have done something, and so it is a matter of just doing the work. At some point you can have all these creative ideas. You can wait around for ideas to storm your mind, but just sitting down and being like I am going to write something by the end of this hour and then you start writing to look, look back at some of the ideas, jog your memory and then just start writing, and usually at the end of that hour I have something, whether it's a podcast episode or a newsletter written or content for social media. You just sit down and do it and it will come. It will come.

Speaker 1:

You just sit down and do it, yeah, and it will come, it will come, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, giving yourself the number one the identity of being a writer, like you ask yourself, obviously, the question I'm a writer, what does a writer do?

Speaker 1:

Does she write? And then you go and write and then, knowing that really, the first five to 10 minutes is the most difficult part, right, starting to type out maybe even just a topic that's been on your mind, and then you will automatically go into the creative process. If you have the identity of being someone who creates, Right, and I can see that you have that. You have the identity of being a mother, and that's why you're so intentional of being a mother that serves, and you see being a mother as one of the greatest callings, which I so agree with, and that is what makes your mission so beautiful is because you have the identity. But then also, as a writer, you have the identity of being someone who writes, and I'm curious what your thoughts are about that, just simply about having the identity of someone who has excellence, or like what role does identity play in achieving excellence?

Speaker 2:

That's a really great question too. First and foremost, and again coming from a biblical worldview, my identity is founded in Christ, first and so.

Speaker 2:

I think once I firmly plant there, then a verse that always comes to mind is from John 15, that apart from Christ, I can do nothing, that I need to abide in him in order to be able to really do any of these things or flourish. And again it's like that idea of like he is the vine and we are the branches. And I once did this object lesson with my kids, where we had a plant and we broke off a leaf and I asked them what's going to happen to that leaf? And they're like well, it's going to shrivel up and die because it's no longer attached to the source of life. There's no more water like there it's, it's, it's not going to survive.

Speaker 2:

And that's the same thing I think about with everything that I get to do. If I try to do it on my own, if I try to base my identity on my own, I'm probably going to fail. It's not going to work out. But when I first and foremost root myself in who I am in Christ, then I can start to see how he has equipped me to be a writer, or how he has equipped me in this ministry of being a mother, or how he has uniquely created me to be organized and handle frequent moves. I can see how, with him, I can do all of these different things, and so I think that it's easier to embrace those different identities when you first and foremost knew who you are at your core.

Speaker 1:

Yes, that is profound, and I think the reminder that we all need is to go back and remember who made you. What creator made you a creator? Like someone who can create beautiful things the person listening. I want you to take this away someone who can create beautiful things, Like the person listening. I want you to take this away from what Leanne is saying you are made for a purpose, but if you don't know who made you, that makes it more difficult to find out your zone of genius. And stepping into that identity, I think, is one of the most difficult things we can do, but also the most valuable. Like it is the number one biggest impact that it can have in our lives. So thank you for that reminder.

Speaker 1:

I personally needed that again today and I'm sure many people listening will too. Thank you, yeah, Thank you so much for your wisdom, Leanne. You have so much depth to everything you say. Your mind is brilliant, but you also know why it's brilliant. You give all the glory to God with everything you say, and that is so beautiful. How can people find you if they want to learn more from you, If they would like you to be one of their mentors?

Speaker 2:

find you if they want to learn more from you, if, you, if they would like you to be one of their mentors. How can people find you? Yes, um, I can be found on Instagram. I spend most time there, and, um, my Instagram handle is mrsleannetuggle and I'm sure you know. We'll post that for you. I will, and also I have a weekly newsletter that I send out that has a lot of encouragement and more ways to connect with me, and I will send a subscription link for that as well, so that you can connect with me there and just hear more encouragement, weekly encouragement to inspire you to be in your zone of genius and be a woman on mission.

Speaker 1:

Thank you, I will absolutely post those in the description box, and then you also have a podcast right. Whatever is excellent.

Speaker 2:

I do Whatever is excellent.

Speaker 1:

Yes, I will put that link in there too. So three links I will make sure I remember Awesome. Thank you again so much, leanne, for enriching my life and everyone listening. And yeah, thank you, you're welcome.