.png)
Soul-Led
A devotional space for raw reflection, soulful inquiry, and the sacred unfolding of self. Here, we explore the mystery of being human through the lenses of spirituality, intimacy, creativity and the courage to be seen. This podcast is not about having all the answers, it's about honouring the questions, the pauses, the breakthroughs and the becoming.
Expect unscripted conversations, intuitive musing, and transmissions from the heart all grounded in truth, reverence, and the beauty of the present moment.
Come as you are, leave a little more you!
Soul-Led
4.Quantum Leaps: The Power of Who You Surround Yourself With & How Your Environment Shapes Reality
That moment on the Stairmaster changed everything. As I settled into my usual 30-minute workout at level 10, I noticed the man next to me pumping away at level 17. Without hesitation, I increased my own intensity by two levels, pushing beyond my comfort zone simply because seeing someone else doing it made it seem possible. This ordinary gym experience revealed a profound truth about personal growth: our environments shape what we believe is achievable.
Throughout my entrepreneurial journey, I've discovered that meaningful change happens faster when four key components align. First, your environment—the people, places, and digital spaces you engage with—either reinforces your limitations or activates new possibilities. I've experienced this firsthand by auditing who I spend time with, changing my usual haunts to places aligned with who I'm becoming, and completely redesigning my social media consumption to nourish rather than deplete me. Once, a simple decision to work from a new coffee shop led to overhearing a business conversation that blossomed into a supportive weekly mastermind that continues today.
The second component is evidence. Witnessing others' success—especially those we relate to—shatters limiting beliefs about what's possible. The third element is action; consistently placing yourself in growth-oriented environments naturally shifts your behavior to align with your aspirations. Finally, reinforcement solidifies these changes through repetition and celebration, often alongside mentors and peers who are steps ahead on similar paths.
My participation in a NatWest business program exemplifies these principles in action. Surrounded by entrepreneurs at various stages, I've accelerated my learning, refined systems, updated my brand vision, and gained clarity on my business direction. What might have taken years through isolated trial-and-error is happening in months through this ecosystem of support.
Whether you're building a business, improving health habits, or developing new skills, these four components create the conditions for quantum leaps in your growth. Start by examining your current environment—who energizes you, what places inspire you, and which digital spaces serve your evolution? Then intentionally cultivate surroundings that reflect your desired future, knowing that with each small shift, you're rewriting the story of what's possible for you.
Thank you for being on this journey with me 🤍
Links!!
Hello and welcome back to A Soul Lib Podcast with me, your host, emma Jones. And today I had one of those spiritual lesson moments again, just through doing something very normal, very average and very everyday. And I find now where I'm at on my journey. I don't necessarily need to go to retreats or travel the other side of the world or speak to gurus or mentors to get the wisdom, the teachings and the learnings that I need to have. They just show up in everyday life. And I have listened a lot to Abraham Hicks and I do love the way that she just uses normal things, normal experiences with her and her husband or her and her daughter, to explain these spiritual lessons, these spiritual teachings, to the audience.
Speaker 1:And so I went to the gym today and I was going to do my usual thing, which is go to the Stairmaster. If it's free normally is for me, I always manifest it normally is free for me. So I did just that. I went in the gym, I got on the Stairmaster and this gym, the gym that I go to, is just so beautiful and so, bougie, it's one of my luxury treats of the month because it is just divine, everything in it is just beautiful. It's David Lloyd, and it does cost a bit extra, but for me, the feeling I get and the way the machines they've got and their spa, everything is just aligned with the person who I want to become. And that takes me into what I want this episode to be about, which is how our environments shape our reality.
Speaker 1:So, as I was getting on the stepper, got on it and I put it on to my normal session, which is 30 minutes, and I do it at level 10, which is fairly tough for 30 minutes. And as I was on there, I put my headphones in, I put my music in, did my usual thing, and I was probably on there for about two minutes and I noticed the guy next to me. His feet were moving so much quicker than mine and I was kind of paying attention, thinking oh, wow, okay. And then I peered over and looked at his screen and noticed that he was on level 17 and I've never been next to anybody who has been much faster than me. They're normally slower than me. So then I looked at his time and I thought he's probably only going to do five minutes of that, surely, because he was pumping like he was going so quickly on that. And I looked and I think he was like 15 minutes in and I remember thinking I was like wow, like go him. You know that is intense, like the stairmaster is not easy, and you're going that speed and you've been already gone for 15 minutes and it does not look like you're stopping.
Speaker 1:And in that moment it inspired me what would happen if I were to step it up by two. And before I even had a chance to doubt it, I clicked the button twice and I stepped it up to two. So I was now gone from 10 to 12. And as I did my whole 30 minutes, I managed to get through it. I definitely felt it. At the end I was blood red and sweating profusely. But it made me think after of the power of our environments and how they can instantly, literally within seconds, sometimes change what we feel is possible for us. And so throughout my day then I was really thinking about the quantum leaps that you can take, and growth really is about just rewriting beliefs, whether that's in seconds or whether that is over time. And the fact that this man was on the stair master next to me made me consider or be inspired by his performance and stretch myself beyond my current familiar reality of what I would normally do just get on the stair master, do 30 minutes on level 10, finish stretch and then I would go Because I saw someone next to me doing something differently on the same machine as me, but almost was ahead in his performance. It gave me the belief to try it as well, and so in this episode I want to take us through the four key components for accelerated expansion in personal and business, and once you see these four things, you just cannot unsee them. My reality now is just producing more evidence of these four steps that are really important if you want to change or you want to grow in any area of your life.
Speaker 1:In the book club, a few months ago we did a book called Infinite Receiving by Susie Ashworth and is actually still one of my favorite books this day. It is such a great book. I highly recommend it If you want to join the book club. It's called A Woman's Inner Journey to Becoming Wealthy and it's on Patreon and we do a book every single month and I do a podcast episode per chapter just to help guide everyone through it and share my experiences based on the book and what I find. It's such a great community and it's a great way to consistently do the inner work, and almost like a spiritual gym is how I would describe it.
Speaker 1:But in this book, susie said how she has a similar story, where she quantum leaped from the person that she was to the person that she has become and she took herself on a retreat which promised that she would rub shoulders with some eight-figure entrepreneurs, which sounded really cool. You know, it's nice to be surrounded by people that are so much further ahead than you in business or in life. And day after day she realized that it wasn't just the fact that she was rubbing shoulders with the eight figure entrepreneurs she was getting. All of her limiting beliefs that she currently held that were blocking her from moving into the next version of herself, were dissolving one by one just being on this retreat and being around these eight figure entrepreneurs. And the first light bulb moment that she had was that she realized that all of the entrepreneurs made their wealth in totally different ways, which, for her, busted the myth that she somehow was missing the link, or like missing the silver bullet. And you know how many of us think that we're just missing that one strategy that wealthy people know and we just don't know. It's like surely money makes money, or maybe they got it from their family or we're just missing that key link. I've definitely felt that and that was the first myth busting belief, limiting belief, dissolving. That came crashing down where she was like, ah okay, so there isn't this one uniform, linear path you can make wealth in any way.
Speaker 1:Then the second big aha moment that she had was how similar they all were, so how similar to her they were. So she found like when she was talking to them on a human level, talking about the kids or their wins and their challenges and their mindset blocks, all of the things that we all have she just kept thinking like how similar she is to them and that she thinks similarly to them, or that she's experiencing the same things. And if they're almost like her, then why could she not have the eight-figure businesses that they have? And what's stopping her? So? Already, just by getting there, just by getting on this retreat, she's uprooting beliefs that she didn't even really know that she had and then she's planting new seeds.
Speaker 1:And then there was this final pivotal moment for her on this retreat, where they all went out whitewater rafting and she'd been with these guys now for best part of like four days. So she got to know them really well and they were talking about going to this cliff, getting up to the top and jumping off, and she was terrified but started to feel that if she didn't jump, she would not fit in to the life that she's so desperately wanting to upgrade to and move towards. So she jumped, you know, she counted three, two, one and she just flung herself off of this cliff. In that moment it formed a whole new belief for her, not just that this ridiculously high level cliff that could potentially kill you if you fell wrongly, she survived it but the fact that she could actually trust herself to do scary things and be totally okay with the environment and with the people around her enabled her to believe in herself and believe that she was more than her fears were telling her that she was, in that moment, very similar to me on the stair master next to the this guy. It was in an instant that I was almost in a competitive way, but it was more in an inspired way, that I looked to the side and was like, wow, this guy, who is definitely at least 10, 15 years older than me, is really upping this game on the Stairmaster and doing levels I have never seen so right. Well, I'm gonna put mine up too. Then he was showing me that it was safe. It was safe, it was doable, it was achievable. He rubbed off on me and he inspired me. And so what happened here for Susie and what happened for me was it was a shift in consciousness and ultimately Susie's identity and mine.
Speaker 1:In that moment, being surrounded by other people doing what you are doing, but further along than you, and making it seem very normal, can shift your belief in what is achievable and what you can do in such a short amount of time. So as I was thinking about this, it made me really think about and reflect upon my journey so far and as a business owner and as I've grown and evolved and developed, what really is it that has enabled me to change? What are the key components here? What am I seeing as like a pattern that I can kind of recognize and put together? And I've noticed that there's these four key components that drive change for me and accelerate change for me. The first one of those components is your environment.
Speaker 1:So most of our day is habitual Wake up the same time you go to work, you feed your kids, you take them to school, you pick them up, you follow the same social media accounts. You know you build a life around that and it almost becomes a loop. So when you change anything or change your environment, you take in new information and new beliefs because you are surrounded by the new and unfamiliar and habitual. Thinking is created by seeing and thinking about the same things in the same ways over and over and over again. So your current reality, if it doesn't change and you have a nine to five and you do the same thing every day you brush your teeth, you get up, have the same breakfast, you see the same people, the same people trigger, you drive your car, you don't even think and you wonder how you get to work. It's all habitual.
Speaker 1:So when we interrupt the pattern, we can create space for something new. So if we think about environment as people as number one, so the people you surround yourself with are so important. They need to really reflect the expansion and not your limitations. So if there is something that you want to do, if there's something you want to change, you need to start connecting with people that do reflect that place. You want to be this guy next to me. It just so happened that he enabled me to push beyond my current reality, my current norm, my current habitual loop that I would have done the exact same thing. I wouldn't have changed the speed on the stepper, I wouldn't have even thought about it, I would have continued as is. But because he interrupted my pattern and interrupted my focus by me seeing how much faster he was going, it enabled me to take in the new idea that I could do that too. And the other thing of your environment is places, whether it is a retreat that you want to go on, or whether it's a workshop or even coffee shop for me, I often try and go to places that feel more aligned with the person that I'm trying to become, rather than stick to the same familiar places that I've always been. There's many reasons for that, but one you'll often meet people that you've not met before and have conversations that you would never have before.
Speaker 1:Probably about a year and a half ago now, I was reading and taking notes for the book club. I could hear these two women having a conversation. I thought to myself that conversation sounds so up my street. They were talking about business and marketing and budgets and I was like, wow, at this point in time I really didn't feel like I had anyone to really relate to business-wise. Most of my friends don't own their own businesses and I was really feeling disconnected with my current circle. I was feeling a bit lost. I didn't really know where I was fitting and I would find most of my information at the time through books or through YouTube or through podcasts.
Speaker 1:So to actually hear it in real life in this new coffee shop that I took myself to, I was like this is so refreshing and I was courageous enough to reach out and say you know, I'm really sorry, but I have been eavesdropping and your conversation sounds incredible. I would absolutely love to know more. Have you got an Instagram page? Could I follow you? And with that, as we were talking as like a trio, the lady behind said the exact same thing. I was like I'm so sorry, ladies, to interrupt, but I've just been eavesdropping on your conversation and it sounds so incredible. I would love to connect. And now we meet up every other Wednesday and we talk business, we talk life and it has been the most nourishing I can't even tell you the most nourishing relationship and connection that I have had or one-off. I've now made many more like that, but at that time it was exactly what I needed, because we were talking about the things I needed to know about. I was starting to build beliefs that I could create systems like theirs in their business, or I could do things slightly differently, or we would talk about challenges that we were having and they would bring to the table ways that they've overcome that challenge. And it almost really condensed my learning in those moments just by changing the coffee shop that I went to and then hearing different conversations, having the courage to reach out and speak to them and then creating this connection that we are now still friends and we meet up every other week. It's just incredible.
Speaker 1:So places are so important, changing up and choosing new places to go regularly to break the cycle of your current loop. Even your digital space is really important. So make space for inspiration, not comparison, and one of the things I did seven years ago I actually completely got rid of Instagram altogether. I was going to have a three month detox because I was feeling really anxious and really scatty. It was a really horrible feeling. Every time I post, I got this weird anxious feeling like did I post the right thing, and back in those days I was into the kind of influencer lifestyle and was choosing the outfit to then go to this influencer place to have the picture in front of the particular spot that you have it and then do all the hashtags and see how many people would like it and see how many new followers I get it. It was just so exhausting and did not fulfill me in the slightest. So I got to this place after my 30th birthday and I said to myself I'm gonna have three months off because I don't feel great with it at the moment. And that three months turned into five years. And what happened in those five years is that I created my business that I have now, which is EJ Hair Clinic.
Speaker 1:I created a brand new Instagram and I was really really thorough and intentional with who I would follow, so I'd only follow anything that was inspirational, that would expand my mindset, teach me something new or just overall, just had a general positive impact on me as well as clients, and that was a really important part of the changing of the way I saw the world, my perspective, my beliefs of what was achievable, what wasn't achievable, and the algorithms of my social media, started to learn that I wanted more of the same I I wanted to know about podcasts, about empowerment and business and women. I wanted to have reels that showed me how I can go from this type of life to this type of life. Everything was aspirational and inspirational and I built this feed that was now nourishing me, not depleting me, and then when I went to go and log back into my older gang, I realized it's like wow. What I had been following was so damaging to my mind that I was so grateful that I did take the time to completely cut myself off from it and I deleted every single follower on that personal account that was on there, because it was actually frightening. I noticed how much people had really significantly changed through cosmetic procedures from when I followed them five years prior to the day that I reopened my account. I couldn't believe how alien everyone started to look and I thought that's micro changes over those five years that they probably don't even see. But because I've not checked into their account for so long, I'm scared at what I'm seeing because they look so drastically different and it's so obviously fake.
Speaker 1:So I intuitively knew that it was time for a change. I knew that my environment and my digital space needed a change and the things I was absorbing and taking in needed to be more inspirational and help me grow into the person I wanted to be. So your environment will either reinforce the old version of you or it will activate the new, and it's really important to know where you're at. Do an audit on your whole environment. Who do you spend your time with that make you feel great? I've done that task a few times, where I've listed the people that I feel like I can totally be myself with and that inspire me and empower me, and I leave feeling uplifted and full, rather than depleted and overthinking like was I too much? Did I say this? Was I a bit too weird? Done that a few times just to be clear on where I should best spend my energy at the moment. So that's, that can be a really powerful task.
Speaker 1:And then the second component is evidence. When we are presented with evidence of other people's success, like I was on the Stairmaster I had pure evidence that this guy was doing the most and I was like wow, okay, well, if you're doing the most, I want to do the most too. You know it pierces through any unconscious, limiting belief that says it cannot be done or it doesn't exist. It's especially powerful when you relate to someone as well, I find. So maybe you find somebody who has set a business up and they also are a single parent with two daughters. That creates this commonality for your ego and it almost sees itself in that person, creates inspiration, which is a really powerful motivator.
Speaker 1:Find people that you really resonate with, to go on the journey with, because it will have a much more powerful effect on you. It's the see it to believe it term, you know. It gives you a clear path of how to achieve what they've achieved and allows you to believe that you can, too, and help you achieve what you want to do a lot, lot quicker. So, with the evidence, keep these lists and these moments to confirm that it is possible that there are people out there that have got businesses like you you know. Find autobiographies by people that you are really inspired by. Keep a proof list. Follow these accounts on your Instagram. Delete anything that makes you believe that it is not possible, or anyone that just continues to complain about their life, or anyone who is in your life that tends to drag you down and drains you rather than uplifts you. This is the auditing, really, that you need to do, first of all about your environment, so that then you can provide yourself evidence of what can work and what is achievable, because what you look for you find, and what you expect you attract.
Speaker 1:And then the next one. So the third component is action to consistently put yourself in those environments and seek out the evidence, then pull that reality closer and closer to you, which makes you act in alignment with what you want, what you truly want, and so you prioritize the actions that start to stretch you into visibility and trust, and you know you want that upgrade. You start to really draw it in and you start to want to move into different circles and do become braver to speak in coffee shops to random people, because you're so inspired by what you're hearing, because it matches with who you're becoming, that there's a no-brainer to just open up the conversation and say, hey, I'm really sorry, I have been listening to your conversation, but can we talk a little bit more. You build up this confidence. Now I will talk to anybody, anyone that I find interesting, or ask them what do you do, or how's your week been, or how are you finding that, or I'm so intrigued now because I know that sim perspective can come from anywhere.
Speaker 1:And then number four is reinforce this leap. So rinse and repeat the last three steps and celebrate, often with people that are ahead of you. Seek people that are ahead of you. Seek people that are ahead of you. Check your environments, check the evidence. Is it expanding you or contracting you? And this will naturally update your beliefs. This will naturally update your self-image and as you grow, the system your subconscious mind uses to attain what it believes at the moment is achievable or safe or true gets interrupted and you start to override that belief. The more you reinforce it, the more you override the loop with new environments, new habits, new support and evidence and experiences that align with your next level of identity. Until it becomes normal, it will just start to become you. You start to meet these people and you start to put yourself in these environments, and the more you do that, the more you will see more of these people and you start to put yourself in these environments, and the more you do that, the more you will see more of the same and you normalize that new level of you and that new identity. And so at the moment.
Speaker 1:I am a part of an incredible business program currently which is offered by NatWest. Every week I am surrounding myself with other entrepreneurs, all at different stages of their business, and when I first joined I had the typical imposter syndrome, like I'm not smart enough to be here, I don't know if my business is at the stage for me to be here, I don't know if I'm knowledgeable, etc. Etc. And then when I actually got into the hub and started rubbing shoulders with other people in these environments, I noticed just what Susie Ashwood noticed that they are very, very similar. They think the same, they're on the same journey. Even the mentors and the coaches within NatWest have all been on the same journey. You know they all share similar needs and wants, desires, and they want to succeed. You know they want to grow and understand business and understand systems and make their life easier. Also, another thing I realized that we all share in common is that we all love to share our learnings. So every one of the entrepreneurs, we all have these talks, we have breakfast mornings and we just all conversate about little challenges or things that we're doing in our business.
Speaker 1:It will always spark a conversation with somebody else who is going through the exact same thing or has been through or is ahead of, and it's so reassuring in itself to know. Especially when you're a solo entrepreneur and you've been that way for so long. It can feel like a really lonely journey, and the only way I find information before was books, podcasts, youtube. You know when it was like a really lonely journey and the only way I find information before was books, podcasts, youtube. You know when it was like a need to know basis, when I would get to a point in my business where I'd be like, ah, I don't know what I'm doing. Now I would Google it and I would figure the thing out and I would find a solution. But it is a lot easier when you have a group and an ecosystem of support with people that just get it. You know, this blanket of guidance is really accelerating my knowledge and my confidence as a business owner, and so now I am starting to really systemize my business and I'm finding the path to do that, the quickest path, the easiest path, what platforms and programs I should put in place, rather than trialing error it's like no, no, this one would work great for your business because this and this and this person has done it a similar way to you and has got a similar business to you, so it works. I'm updating my vision of my brand. Where do I want my business to go? I'm having mentoring for that, which is just sensational to be able to back ideas back and forth with someone who has been there his way, like 20 years ahead of me with their experience and can share it with me. I'm becoming more clear on the direction of the business, and this is all in such short amount of time. I've not been on this program for very long and I'm already seeing such tremendous growth.
Speaker 1:Having started my business from scratch. I had no previous experience. I've gone through so many mistakes and I've had to understand my relationship with money and tax and how to build relationships and how to build clients and how to keep clients and how to run a profitable business not just a business and what softwares are easier to use, what works for me and what doesn't, and with my fascination of all of that and also how the brain works and personal development, I understand firsthand now what it takes to create a business, and so my way of giving back is creating a course, almost more like a program Every single artist, everything they need to change not only the way they think, but the way they feel and then the way that they act. So there's so many unseen bonuses that now come with all of this juicy, knowledge and all of this support and experience that I've had and I'm getting now. My students reprogram their brain and I know firsthand how easy it can be to just have the inspiration.
Speaker 1:You know, you see something, you want it, you want this business. You see the course. You pluck up the courage, you get the money together and you think do you know what? I'm going to do it? I'm going to take the leap, I'm going to. I'm going to get to the top of the cliff. I'm going to get to the top of the cliff. That's brave enough, I'm going to do it. You get all pumped up, you're in new perspectives, new way of thinking, and it's all incredible. And then you go back to your normal environments. You go back to the normal way of living that you normally do. You get up at the same time, take the kids to school, you have your breakfast at the same desk, you eat lunch at the same place. You know you go to work, you're surrounded by the same employees, the same people, and it's so easy to go back to your default mode. I know this and so I understand now.
Speaker 1:These four components are key to my students' success. They're key to my success. They're key to anyone's success, anyone that wants to change and grow. It's key to have these embedded in any program thing, any new way of changing, a new way of learning. It's just the same for me, like I'm surrounded by these other people in these business program, and it reminds me like I, too, can be as systemized as this business. I, too, can have a business that is turns over a million pounds. It's just a process that I need to learn to get to that place. And this is why it's so powerful, because it's so important to see other people doing what you want to do, but at different stages of their journey, so that it anchors in the belief that you can do it too. And and it's helpful to have people around you a mentor, a coach, someone who gets where you four components. It enables you to keep moving incrementally forward to that version of yourself that you really want to be. So when we put ourselves in unusual environments, it can be easier to take on new ideas and new concepts and possibilities and on board as a full immersion in something new that disrupts our usual way of thinking and being on a stairmaster and being inspired by the person next to you. Or it could be borrowing someone else's reality to show you that you can increase your capacity for more someone who you really relate to, someone that you inspire to.
Speaker 1:I recently printed off and created this little muse board of eight women that whenever I look at on Instagram, I look and I think I'm so inspired by the work that they're doing. So I put a little collage and I went to the printers, I printed it out and now it's right by my front door. So every time I leave I look at that and I think to myself I can do what they're doing. Whatever I'm inspired by that they are doing, they are very similar to me. They are women doing the most, very empowered, changing the way things are done. It acts as a reminder to me by changing what we surround ourselves with, what we see, what we absorb, what we take in, it can really shift what we see as available to us.
Speaker 1:So I hope this episode has landed really well and I absolutely love when I get these little spiritual nuggets of learning and teachings that come from the most random, mundane, normal, day-to-day things, and I thought I would share that with you because it's been a really powerful learning for me through business, personal growth, life that I will forever take with me and always check in with my environments, and if I want to do something, I just instantly find the evidence that it can be done. So empower yourself, find the people that are going to support you on your journey that you want to embark on, and know that everything is achievable. It's just a change in perspective that shifts beliefs. So thank you for listening to this inspired episode today and I will see you all for the next episode of the Soled podcast. Bye.