Intuitive Marketing Podcast

#18: Procrastination vs. Pause: Decoding Your Business Hesitations

• Chelsea Fournier + Meg O'Neill • Season 2 • Episode 18

Share episode

We explore the crucial distinction between procrastination and necessary pauses in business, revealing how stagnation might actually signal your next breakthrough. The feeling of being "stuck" often contains valuable messages about your business direction and personal alignment.

• Differentiating between true procrastination (fear-based avoidance) and intuitive pauses (awaiting clarity)
• Recognizing when your brain is protecting you versus when something is genuinely misaligned
• Embracing the "messy middle" without constantly comparing to others' visible success
• Creating personalized success metrics beyond traditional KPIs
• Using modalities like Human Design to understand your natural work rhythms
• Identifying tasks that consistently resist completion as potential outsourcing opportunities
• Building self-awareness through spiritual practices and community support

This week, pay attention to actions that feel forced versus those flowing easily. Notice items that repeatedly roll over on your to-do list and ask: "What am I meant to learn, feel, or experience from this pause?"


Ready for Support from Meg & Chelsea?

👉🏼 Looking for the Intuitive Business Community? Visit www.joinibctoday.com for all the details. We're here to help you step into bigger visibility. Bolder opportunities and greater impact with three coaching calls a month, hands on feedback, and a powerful network of like minded women.

👉🏼 We can take a deep dive into your client journey or your visibility strategy and show you exactly what's working, what's not, and how to fix it. Ready for clarity and a plan that actually works book your audit today at www.intuitivebusinessbydesign.com/audit

👉🏼 Explore the services offered by our marketing agency Intuitive Marketing Collective and request a free Discovery Call to explore how we can support your business. Go to www.intuitivemarketingcollective.com

👉🏼 Follow the agency on Instagram to continue to conversation beyond the podcast @intuitivemarketingcollective

Want to connect more with the hosts?

Follow Meg on Instagram @megoneill10

Follow Chelsea on Instagram @intuitivebusinessmentor...

Speaker 1:

What if the moment you think you're stuck is actually the breakthrough your business really needs?

Speaker 2:

Today we're diving into a powerful concept how do you know when to push forward and when to pause? For clarity? It might just be the secret to your next big leap, so let's jump into it. Hey there, friends, Welcome to the Intuitive Marketing Podcast, where we ditch the bro marketing BS and bring you big sister vibes instead. I'm Meg and this is Chelsea.

Speaker 1:

Your new biz besties.

Speaker 2:

We met on TikTok in 2023. Fast forward to now and we have teamed up here to guide you through the wild world of marketing your business with heart and soul.

Speaker 1:

Are you feeling lost or overwhelmed, maybe unsure of your next steps, but you have a big vision of where your coaching, healing, speaking or writing career could be in the next five years, 10 years. Don't worry, we've got your back. We'll help you tap into your intuition, build a brand that lights you up and leverage proven marketing strategies to grow towards a six or even seven-figure business in a way that won't make you cringe.

Speaker 2:

We're actually here to help you bring the magic back into your marketing.

Speaker 1:

Because marketing should feel good, not gross.

Speaker 2:

Grab your favorite drink, get comfy and let's get started. I don't think we're alone in this, but Meg and I have both had some projects recently where we just felt stuck and you know things may be being on your to-do list one week and you kind of get it half-assed or 30% of the way done and then it rolls over to the next week and just like not getting to a point of completion. And something that we really create space for for each other to talk about when this is happening is really looking for the why. Why is this feeling this way? Why is it not moving forward? Why is it not creating momentum? Why can't I just get this darn thing done? And I think it's an important conversation because we all go through this.

Speaker 1:

And we have also learned on our own, having our own businesses, knowing when we're in like a procrastination versus pause, and now, as we come together, it's like learning each other. And so one of the things I'm working on is creating a service and pricing guide, and there are some times, like with our with the last thing that I worked on, I was able to sit down and like pump it out really quickly and like the service and prices guide has been like this slow burn that I I'm just it's just taking me longer. And I said to Chelsea the other day I'm like I just don't know why this is taking me long, like I know what I'm doing, I have it all laid out. And then we had another conversation and we're like, oh, like we're going to be adding two things to this guide that we needed to kind of be born and even just like the energy had to be born around it, right.

Speaker 1:

And it's like that now shifts and it changes the project a little bit. So it's like, okay, that makes sense. And we're kind of like building that like social proof bank of like it's not just that like you're procrastinating on it, it's like there's something a little bit more energetically to this project that needs to be added in.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, well, and I think for me I've been on my to-do list has been to basically revamp the sales page for our membership, because we love, we love running the intuitive business community and the sales page is like, okay, right, but there's been some really big shifts in the past couple months on how we are running it on the inside, just as far as like the messaging and even some new features that, yeah, yeah, like new features and different types of calls that aren't even on the sales page are just happening for the people who are on the inside.

Speaker 2:

But what I realized is it's been on my list for a couple months and I've even like sat down with chat GPT and had it audit, like the current copy and stuff, but what needed to happen was for us to get clear on a messaging shift. That's really kind of like bleeding into everything around helping these business owners get ready for bigger stages and wanting to call in the coaches and healers and thought leaders that want that. That you know really want to get to a place where they can be on a podcast or be on stage as a speaker and know like their business is set up to be ready for more visibility, and so there's some nervous system work around that, there's some backend work around that, and so how do we? I had to be like in these long roundabout conversations with you to then be like, oh, how can we boil it down, how can we boil that essence down into something concise, right? And so in some ways there's been procrastination, but not from a negative standpoint, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's like reframing, procrastination Right, it's like we, it's not like we just don't want to do it. We want to. We're doing things yeah we're doing things that we like love serving the community. We want the sales page to be amazing, but we knew something else kind of had to land before.

Speaker 2:

And if I had like forced myself to do it in the version 2.1, you know like kind of a couple months ago what we were thinking, I would have had to just completely redo it again, yeah. And so it almost felt like a protected, like protecting my energy going into it. And so today we're going to talk about this difference between like straight up procrastination, or procrastination when your nervous system or your brain is actually like trying to protect you, versus this is a red flag and is not a good fit, versus a pause that's really like just trying to slow you down long enough to get the next level of clarity. It's kind of nuanced, I feel like.

Speaker 1:

It is, and I think it's something that you can learn and like what I have. So like I knew that I wasn't procrastinating on the services guide because I didn't want to do it Like I don't love doing big design projects like that, but I'm okay, we have to do things right Like there's certain things that we have to do, that's cool. So I knew that that wasn't it. But like another example that I have is I have to change the links in all of my everywhere. Like literally I just have to sit down, change links everywhere, and I have not done that and it is a procrastination, but I know the reason for it and the reason is I have an upper limit problem. Like my thing is is like if I, what happens if I go viral and then everyone books and I get too busy? Like that might sound weird to people Good problem to have man. People might say like, oh, that's like a great problem to have.

Speaker 1:

But I had a time in my business because my business wasn't super scalable. I was serving so many one-on-one that I felt so busy. And then it feels like to me what if my kids get sick and I can't serve those people? What if I don't have enough space and they ask for their money back. What if these are all things that are in my subconscious? They're not, like I don't sit there and really think too much about it. So I know when I look at it. Why haven't you changed the links, meg? Like I asked myself that is like oh OK, that's that old story coming up, like you're gonna get too busy, like that's not true, so I have to walk myself through.

Speaker 2:

You are safe in doing this like we have you know, and and do work around that. To get myself to the point of just going and changing the links right like something that can seem really small, like when you sit down to do it. It'll be like 20 minutes, you'll be done we don't have to think about it.

Speaker 2:

We don't do it before you fly down, we'll do it together, but and but. I think there's a difference there. You know, like your brain is trying to protect you from what feels scary right now, and then there's often, sometimes even, when your brain is trying to protect you because something really does not feel right, right Like, for example, like a red flag. Maybe we have talked often that you and I are not cold DM gals, like you know. Yes, it can work and yes, I see trainers who teach you know doing cold DMs and it's a numbers game and you just got to generate a bunch of leads, and that has never felt authentic to me.

Speaker 2:

I have done it in a season when I was in like the direct sales space and it felt so icky, and so when I think about that, I literally get like a visceral reaction to it, like if someone told me that's how I have to run my business, I would not do it.

Speaker 2:

I would be like I will just go get a job Right. So not doing that thing is actually listening to an intuition, and so if that strategy does not feel right or does not work and it's a red flag or a stopping point for you, then sometimes it's just about a redirect, or you know finding another way, or meeting a mentor who teaches something that's more aligned. Or you know finding another way, or meeting a mentor who teaches something that's more aligned, like I am guilty of, like joining into, let's say, a program or buying a course and immediately being like oops, just kidding, I don't want to be here, this does not feel ethical to me or it doesn't feel aligned for me, and then I just, like Tennessee, slink on out of that Facebook group. And you know, I think there's that if that was on my list like executing that plan was on my list I would avoid it or I would plow through because I would be like I spent the money on this course.

Speaker 2:

I should at least try it and see if it works Right. But I think it's a level of maturity in business to be like I'm just going to cut my losses. That was not exciting. I'm not going to go through with that, and so I do try to pay attention to if something is on my list and it's carrying over, is it because it's a red flag and it's actually trying to redirect me to a different way of achieving that same goal? On the other side of it, like, oh, I need more people in my business. Doing it this way does not feel right. Is it that I'm supposed to be exploring a different way of doing that same thing, right?

Speaker 1:

yeah, and being comfortable with, like, doing business different that other people do, and and then it's getting clear on like, is it procrastination or is it a pause? Um, because, like, we have a lot of people think, like, when you're going to start a business and then you should just have all of these people that are there, you should have your message totally clear and it's like that's, that's not, that doesn't make sense, like that's not possible. And there's going to be slower seasons when you are clarifying your message, when you are getting clear on your programming. And how can you just trust that this is the season of pause?

Speaker 1:

It's like I always go back to that image of like the arrow being pulled back right. So like, in order for the arrow to shoot forward, you have to pull back to be able to do that. So like, remember, like that's going to happen in your business and you have to get comfortable with being in that, what I call the messy middle, because when you're in the messy middle, oftentimes, like some, some key things that people will say is um, I, I'm not. You know, they'll put a lot of shoulds on themselves. I should be doing more, I should be. Um, I don't feel clear on my message. You'll see them, um and I laugh because I do this myself too you see them changing their Instagram bio 15 times.

Speaker 1:

Like that's not really going to make that big of a difference in our business, right. Like it's okay to just sit in that pause and sit and like, do your daily to-do tasks and get comfortable in that uncomfortableness of like you're getting bigger, for getting ready for a bigger level and up level if you will. And you know we are working with movement makers like we. This is a movement that we are creating and a movement is not born Right and just takes off like it's. It's a living like it ebbs and flows, and I've been an entrepreneur for five years now, so it's taken that time to trust and to see on the other side of a pause, what happens. So it's like if you're in your first year of business, don't beat yourself up because it's slowed down. Like trust that you're to see that up level and then you're going to be able to hold that space more easily in the future.

Speaker 2:

But here's the hard thing, especially for people coming out of corporate world, both of us in different corporate right. Yeah, it's so easy to get into comparisonitis when you're in a pause to be like well, okay, let me scroll through Instagram and and be like okay, but this person is having momentum by, you know, selling a low ticket offer off of tiktok. I should be doing that, but this person is having success with this method of you like.

Speaker 2:

There's no lack of trainings and gurus and methods out there, and so when you're in a pause, it can be so hard to protect that quiet yeah and like how to lean into that pause and trust that it's not always going to feel like this and that it doesn't have to be, it's not broken.

Speaker 2:

You know, like you are not broken because you're in that for me, being aware of procrastination and like upper limit I was I've done a couple book studies around gay hendrix book the big leap and like I really resonate was I've done a couple book studies around gay hendrick's book the big leap and like I really resonate with the self-awareness of procrastination and whether it's my brain protecting me and I own that I like will bounce off of you know, some things just bounce off of me and it's not meant for me.

Speaker 2:

But I will say this newer option of really listening and being quiet and allowing the clarity to come through in whatever way that's going to come through has only come as I've been much more committed to my spiritual practices and being open to asking for signs. Like that is something that has been really joy bringing recently that I'll often ask like okay, things sure aren't feeling like they're going in the right direction or this project is going slow. You know, can universe, can you show me a sign today that things are actually going in the right direction and I'll ask for specific signs. Show me a hawk, show me a butterfly, and that is actually a really trust building for me. I think to like ask for something specific.

Speaker 1:

You know the hawk is not helping my business, but it helps me to trust that I'm not broken and I don't need to go chase 15 other methods just because something is taking longer, I love that I think it also gives us the ability to, like, get curious about why it's happening. So, if you're trusting that this is a pause and you're getting the signs that you're in there on the right path, then you also can build your capacity around that self-awareness of knowing, like, well, why is this happening? And, like you know, currently us being in a pause makes sense. We are blending two people's business styles together, right, it's like not going to be a smooth, linear line, most likely. So if we can get trust each other's self-awareness and, like we just always keep coming back to, even if, like, the money isn't coming in the way that we want it to, it feels really safe in our body, like our bodies feel nervous.

Speaker 1:

So like we keep coming back to that barometer of like hey, you know we're, and the other thing is is like we're building a way of showing other people how to do a business, so it's like we have to learn what we're doing. That because it doesn't look very typical. It's like other people would say these are the markers, these are the kpis. Right, we don't use that.

Speaker 1:

I can talk about that, but, like, um, our key performance indicators are how our body feels and and that is like what we're gonna, because if I feel that there's got to be somebody else out there that feels it too right, so like, let's make.

Speaker 1:

Let's make that, like, create that permission for other people to exactly um, yeah, and learn, like, why these things are happening and it doesn't just and I think when we we lean so much on data too, it's like it doesn't it you can create a story.

Speaker 1:

Then why is this happening? Okay, that's happening because you're not visible enough and you haven't gone to enough networking meetings and blah, blah, blah, and then you get burnt out and then you start trying to put yourself in a box that, like, you don't fit in. So, yes, like, take what resonates. Take if that data resonates for you, that's great. But also, like you can create your own barometer of you know, being able to, to look at your business and feel whether or not it's moving in the right direction, whether or not it feels successful to you. So it does take that faith and learning, holding yourself through it a few times and like learning how to create this ecosystem for yourself of like I, even with Instagram and I will tell people this like the one of the first ways that I can judge whether or not my something is being successfully landing for people kind of is like how many people in real life say something to me oh, I saw you did this.

Speaker 1:

I saw you did that, um, because oftentimes people feel more safe having that conversation versus like dming you or or it just like proves to me okay, I am being visible, like somebody at school saw it and like that's um. So that's very different than looking at the analytics because right, it will show up right because, like I build communities, I don't build viral videos.

Speaker 1:

So, yeah, it's a different way of judging it. And the other thing is, too, is like I've seen the back end of a lot of businesses that have you know, quote unquote a lot of success, have a lot of followers and they're not always financially successful. So you can look at that and say, oh, I'm not having the same momentum as them, but, like, they might just be really good at marketing on Instagram Doesn't mean people are paying them. So always remember that too. Like there's a lot of smoke and mirrors out there and you have to get you know, you have to be, have good ability to discern what's real and what's not to just discern what's real and what's not.

Speaker 2:

Yeah Well, and I think this is a big part of why we created the intuitive business community, just like a little bit of a plug, it was the community that I wish I had, where there would be other business owners who are talking about this, because I would invest. You know, they always say like you want to. You know, put yourself in rooms and invest to be in the rooms. But I would invest to be in rooms where people would think I had three eyes if I was talking about any of this, because they were there for the KPIs and they were there for the insights and they were there for the expertise from the person running the group. And so if I was going to say something like, you know, this doesn't feel aligned to me. Or I want to launch. You know I don't want to launch during Mercury, in retrograde, and that's the cadence that you've given us, or whatever, and they would just like look at me like I was crazy. And so, being in a space where you can find accountability partners you know, running buddies, being in a space where you can have patterns, really health, healthfully is that a word Like mirrored back to you, of being, you know, like, oh, you've been on this group coaching call for three months. I said this with a woman on the call the other day like for the past three months you've shown up to group coaching saying that you want to do this. Are you open to exploring, before our next group coaching call, what's holding you back from doing it? And she was like thank you for pointing that out. I didn't realize I for three months.

Speaker 2:

And so being in that safe space where not only me or you leading the call, but others who have amazing training and modalities of being able to give feedback, is what I wanted to create and it's what we see happening, which is really amazing and what I often find what I witness in the journeys of those who are really plugged in and showing up to the calls is that the shoulds start to slip away because they start to realize everybody's journey is very unique and you know I should be more consistent on social media.

Speaker 2:

But if they hear someone else say I've never made a dollar from social media, all of my money comes from referrals oh, that's what I wanted to do Interesting, and so it gives this permission. I think when you're in a community where people are willing to be honest, and also in a community where people are willing to explore how their neurodivergence, their self-awareness, their human design, their astrology like, plays into it. And so for you, when you have a pause, come up, how, how do you lean into your awareness around who you are in whatever chart or you know, like um, just kind of background of who you are? How does that impact how you approach a pause?

Speaker 1:

I think once I learned I had a human design reading five years ago now, and once I learned I was a manifester and what that meant, it changed the game Like.

Speaker 1:

It made me so much more compassionate towards myself for the ebbs and flows of my energy because I was like, oh my God, this resonates so much into a way of working that just didn't you know just like always going up right, it was always kind of like moving towards traditional levels of success and it didn't feel good to me, it felt like burnout. And learning about being a manifestor has just like given me so much more compassion, I think. I think, with myself and um, we recently were gifted a beta um chat, gbt, bot well, gpt, it's called um that is programmed with each of our own individual astrology and it is like just like changing the game for us because everything that the direction that our business is moving, we put into the GBT and it's like so on point with our astrology. So I think that is helping us like kind of put a tangible like oh yes, you're in exactly where you're supposed to be, so the pause is okay.

Speaker 2:

It's like evidence or validation.

Speaker 1:

Exactly it like validates for us, like that is, it's really helpful.

Speaker 2:

And I am a generator, and so what I have really learned about the pause is that I am most magnetic when I'm working on what excites me, and so if there's something on my to-do list that's rolling over over or not moving how I thought, why am I not excited? Was I excited at one point? Has that shifted? It will typically pull up first, kind of like, pull out of me something that I need to explore. And if I, you know, like we don't always get to do what excites us, I think that's right.

Speaker 2:

That's the hard thing about human design is, like you know, projectors can't only guide and generators can't do what excites us. It would do none of the important stuff or pay our team ever. It doesn't excite me, but it's allowed me to look at the barometer. So my not self theme in human design is frustration. So that's also the barometer for me of like, am I really frustrated with this project? I need to step away? Oh, that's yeah.

Speaker 2:

Like I get fiery I can see that for you like I want to throw my laptop into the ocean, like when I get there, I'm like, okay, this is not the energy I want to approach anything with. Why is this happening? And if I can't logic my way into an answer, like I'm not meant to have the answer right now, but I'm not going to keep approaching something from this energy. So for me, really learning my human design has been so helpful. And I don't have a lot of knowledge around astrology, but whenever I stumble into a beautiful resource like this oracle or see someone posting something that I trust in astrology and I'll be like, oh, that makes so much sense, you know, like oh, that's why I've been feeling a certain way and so I do like to bring whatever tool is kind of in my field that kind of pops in. But for me the human design is kind of the. It's the one I'm the most trained in and most deeply, I think, and it has resonated the most.

Speaker 1:

Well, it helps, like both of us, to work together because you understand it, I understand it and we know like it's. I think it gives us self-awareness in a partnership and it's like it's a good thing for you, like maybe you don't have a business partner, but like knowing it about your romantic partner or your children or it helps you kind of just give like compassion of, like it's just another layer of their personality that you understand in a deeper, deeper way.

Speaker 2:

And that you're not broken. Like I can, you know, look at you and sometimes be like you just had this create like amazing creative burst. You might have a little bit of a rest period and it's OK, You're not broken and I know you know that.

Speaker 2:

But sometimes it's helpful to have someone else be like almost give you permission to just be you, and I find that that's really helpful, because so much of this around the pause is like it's uncomfortable, and I think that's why we felt called to have this conversation, because a lot of people don't talk about the pause, because why, if you're trying to like market someone to hire you, why would you want to talk about the uncomfortable things?

Speaker 1:

but we all have them right.

Speaker 2:

They might be pretending that they don't, but yeah, yeah, but we really all do, and it's all fears and it's all just peeling back the layers and curiosity, like, ok, this is happening, it has rolled over on my to do list, or I feel resistance every time I log into Canva to do this thing and, instead of beating yourself up or thinking that you're broken or you're never going to get past it, just asking that question of like, why, why is this happening?

Speaker 1:

And it's a great place to be able to say then, like, you can outsource, like I think if we didn't have our partnership, the likelihood of me ever having an email funnel would be slim to none. Or I would have just hired you to build that for me, because I know they would come to a certain point in my business where, like, I would want that um, but I had enough experience and self-awareness to be like I was never going to finish it. It just wasn't going to happen. So it's like um, it gives you the place to be able to look at, like when you're doing your overall planning too, you could say you can keep having something come up. Like it makes good logical sense to have an email funnel. Right, but I knew I was never, I would never do it. If you're like me and you're never going to do it, then that's where you work towards, like saving your money to hire somebody to do it because the the pause is telling you.

Speaker 1:

If you're having the pause 15 times around, this one thing like and you know you still need it, then find, find a way to outsource it. That's the same for social media. Not everybody wants to do it. It's a great opportunity to outsource.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's so funny when you were saying that. I remember the very first proposal I sent out when I launched the agency was to a former legal client of mine, so we already had good trust. A former legal client of mine, so we already had like good trust and he's a wonderful human being and he was like create a website has been on my Friday, Like he had it popping up every Friday for I think he said 72 weeks. But he was like it's not just one task and I don't know how to break it down and I don't even know what the first steps are. And I just chuckled that whenever I think of that, like my husband always has little reminders popping up, I'm like just go buy the damn.

Speaker 1:

T-shirt you've had the Paul, you're never going to. Just that's what that is saying.

Speaker 2:

So we'll get. We try to give a little bit of tangible homework. Often is about bringing intention or focus to an area from what we've talked about today. So what we encourage you to do is to pay attention this coming week to action that you are taking that feels forced, if that is happening anywhere. Paying attention to things that roll over on your to do list or things that are moving forward really easily and joyfully, and just like being aware that those categories might exist, and asking yourself is there something I am meant to learn, feel or experience in any pause or procrastination that you have popping up or procrastination that you have popping up? So it's really about bringing intention and then asking yourself why is this happening? What am I meant to learn, feel or experience?

Speaker 1:

Let us know. I would love to hear what comes up for you. So we really hope that you found this episode of the Intuitive Marketing Podcast as inspiration to help you bring the magic back into your own marketing. Our goal is for this podcast to be a compass in the chaos. We know that you can get bombarded with information options and conflicting ideas out there on the internet streets. We hope you tune in next week where we are gonna be talking about the false belief that you have to look, act or be a certain way, to be an intuitive or be, to bring spiritual practices into your life and to your business. We will see you next time.