#66: When Letting Go of Success Is the Best Answer

DREAM STUDIO IS OPEN: JOIN HERE

What if the bravest thing you could do right now is let go of something that’s working?

There’s a moment when everything looks good on paper… but something inside you feels tired, heavy, or quietly out of alignment. In this episode, I’m sharing the story behind a pivot I didn’t plan — stepping back from what was working so I could listen to what my life was asking for next.

This episode is a conversation about friction, intuition, and what happens when success no longer fits the season you’re in. I’m walking you through the three biggest lessons that led me to create Dream Studio — and why letting go became the most honest decision I could make.

If you’ve been feeling that subtle tug that something needs to change, I hope this episode helps you feel less alone and more trusting of yourself as you take your next step.

3 Key Takeaways from This Episode:

✨ Realizing that friction isn’t a problem — it’s a sign something in you is shifting

✨ Feeling permission to change paths, even when what you’re leaving looks successful

✨ Letting go of the need to explain your pivot to anyone but yourself

DOWNLOAD THE FREE START DREAMING AGAIN GUIDE

Check out all my coaching and course offerings - Coachcarlene.com

MORE FROM ME

Follow me on Instagram:  @coach_carlene

SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW

If you loved this episode, please take a moment to subscribe and leave a review on Apple Podcasts! Your support helps me reach more dreamers who need these insights. 🎙️ Thanks for tuning in to the Distracted Dreamer Podcast! See you next week!

FOLLOW NOW
Also, if you haven't done so already, follow the podcast. I'm adding episodes every week, and if you're not folllowing, there's a good chance you'll miss out. Follow now!

Episode Website 

Transcript

Speaker 3 0:01

You're never too busy, too tired, too old, or too anything to pursue your dreams. Welcome to the Distracted Dreamer Podcast, where you'll learn how to move all those never ending distractions aside and chase your dreams with confidence.

0:23

Hello my friend. Welcome back to the Distracted Dreamer podcast. I'm your host Carlene, and this is episode 66 of The Distracted Dreamer. And today's a special episode because. The Doors to Dream Studio, they are open. And this has been something that's been on my heart for a really long time, and I wanna tell you no, this episode, this is not a sales pitch. I'm here to share a story, one that's about the business pivot I made around Dream Studio. Um, but really it's a life pivot. Because this shift, it changed everything for me. And I wanna share the why behind this shift. What led me to step back from what was working my one-on-one coaching, and step into something that was new and felt a little risky. So today I'm sharing three big things that I learned along the way. And these are lessons that might speak to you too, especially if you're standing at the edge of your own pivot or you're sensing that quiet tug that something in your life or work might need to change. So let's get into it. Lesson number one is friction is a signal. Listen to it when you're feeling friction. It's a sign. Don't ignore it. Listen to it. You know that feeling when you're doing all the things that you're supposed to be doing. And on paper it looks really good, but inside you're tired. Like not just need a nap, tired, but you're emotionally tired. And that was me in 2024. My calendar was really full. I had incredible one-on-one clients, and I'm so grateful for them. And I still work with a handful because I love that connection. But by the end of the day, I was completely depleted, which was very unusual for me. I'm talking Zoom fatigue. Long stretches of calls back to back, and I wasn't leaving space for me or for what was really starting to call me forward. And then life got really real and I became a first time grandma and oh my goodness, what a gift. But it made me realize how much I didn't wanna be tied to my calendar all day, every day. I wanted flexibility. I wanted to be present for moments that mattered with my family. And on top of that, my body was sending me signals I just couldn't ignore anymore. Just health stuff I hadn't figured out yet. Days where I had just crashed, like huge crashes, no energy, nothing left in the tank. And still I would try to show up for clients and push through and you know what? Something about that felt out of integrity for me, that's not the kind of coach I wanna be. That's not the kind of person I wanted to be. So I hit pause and I scaled back and I gave myself space to heal and to reset and to get curious. And in that quiet, I started to hear something new. And slowly I could start to make sense of what that friction was telling me, like where I was supposed to be. It was pointing me right here to you, to this podcast, which was the first step towards building a community to Dream Studio. And I'm telling you, if something in your life feels off, even if it looks fine on the outside. That friction is trying to tell you something. It's feedback. You feel it for a reason. Now for me, the friction wasn't just showing up physically, it was emotional. Something I had built with love. It no longer fit the season that I was in now. And you know what? That's okay. And that led me to the second big thing that I learned, and that is that just because you're good at something and it's successful, it doesn't mean you have to keep doing it. Success doesn't mean you have to stay. And this one is really hard to admit because I had systems, I had clients, I could keep going, but my intuition, my gut, it was like, Hey. You're ready for something else. And I didn't wanna stop coaching. I still love coaching. I just knew that I wanted to do it differently, and at first I didn't know what that looked like until I really paid attention to conversations I was having with my friends and other women in midlife, women who have lived so much life. Some of it's beautiful and some of it is really, really hard things that we have all had to live through and we're all wondering, well, what now? And I can't tell you how many women have told me, even my friends, that they need to find more friends or new friends or different friends. But it's really hard to meet people and really hard to connect at this stage of life. And it's like we're all craving for a space to land together safely, to be in the season together and to feel supported. A place for you to do something for yourself after you've been caring for everybody else. And you know what? That's when it clicked and that's when Dream Studio was really born. Not just in my head, but it was born in my heart. And you know, I told myself, this is risky. It's not risky. What it was was new to me. And that feels scary, and scary, feels risky, but it also felt so right. So I became a student again of memberships, of community design, of building intentional online spaces, and now I'm 100% confident. This is the next right step for me. For the women I serve and for what I want my work and my life to feel like. You know, sometimes the bravest thing is to let go of what's working. I know that sounds so strange. The bravest thing is to let go of what's working so you can make room for what's really aligned. Okay. So I finally had clarity, but there was a third lesson waiting for me. And this one has been the most freeing of all, and it is this, you don't have to get the pivot. Perfect. You just have to start. So I scaled back my one-to-one coaching in September of 2024, and I told myself that I would launch Dream Studio sometime in 2025. Maybe that was the problem. I should have given it a date, but spoiler alert, that didn't happen. Instead, life did. We had a new grand baby. I was still figuring out my health. We took some amazing vacations in 2025, and honestly, life took the front seat. And that's okay. I regret none of it, but throughout it all, I kept checking in with myself, making sure I wasn't using life as an excuse to avoid the work, to procrastinate out fear. And the truth was, I wasn't. I was giving it space. I was checking in, and I was also letting myself live. And here's the shift I stopped waiting for. Perfect because perfect is procrastination. My life wasn't procrastination, but in my brain that need to get it perfect. That was procrastination. So I had a choice to make and I chose done over perfect. I chose to start. And now Dream Studio is here not because it's polished or fully finished, it's, it's just like us. It'll never be finished. It will evolve and it will grow, but because it's ready enough, I get to keep shaping it with the women who join. It's not just my space, it's ours. And that's what makes it so beautiful. That's what makes it real. Whatever your shift is, be it big or small, remember, perfect progress doesn't exist. You just have to start and when life happens, make a promise to yourself to come back to it when you can hand. Here we are. Dream Studio is open. If you're a woman in midlife who is looking for that soft, safe place to land, a place to meet people, your people, to connect with yourself with what matters. Now, if you're looking for that community of support and you wanna start chipping away at those dreams or experimenting with them, this is the space for you. The doors are open. You can click the link in the show notes to check out the details on the registration page. And whether Dream Studio is right for you or not. I hope this conversation gave you something to think about because maybe you've been feeling friction too. Maybe you're standing at the edge of a pivot. Maybe you've been waiting for the perfect moment and you're starting to wonder if it's okay to just begin. And I want to tell you it is you don't have to get it perfect. You just have to listen and you have to trust yourself. Yeah, and then you just have to take the next small step. I wanna share some very special gratitude with you for being here with me, not just today, but through this whole season of becoming from the beginning of this podcast to today. To Dream Studio, just being an idea in my head to it actually being something in my heart that I have actually created that I'm welcoming you into. Thank you for being here and I will see you inside Dream Studio or right here next week and bye for now.

Carlene 10:50

Oh, and one more thing. This is the legal language. You know, the stuff that the lawyers put together, and they say that I need to read this to you. So here we go. This podcast is presented solely for educational and entertainment purposes. I'm just your friend. I'm not a licensed therapist. This podcast is not intended as a substitute for the advice of a physician, professional coach, psychotherapist, or other qualified professionals. Got it? Good. I will see you in the next episode.