August Wrap Up

In this August wrap-up, Hannah looks back on a month dedicated to Aligned Entrepreneurship, reflecting on insights shared by guests Chelsea Reynolds and Chelsea Davis, answering listener questions, and offering a powerful perspective shift: your business is just one hat on your rack—it doesn't get to become the entire rack.

If you’ve ever felt like your business looks good from the outside but doesn't feel good on the inside, or if you’ve tied your personal worth to a slow month or failed launch, this episode is your invitation to slow down, take stock, and realign.

Key Takeaways

1. Aligned Entrepreneurship Defined

• It’s not about finding the perfect strategy, working harder, or building an effortless, balanced business.
• It is about asking: “What happens when I stop building my business around what I think I should do, and start building around what actually matters to me?”

2. Lessons from the Guest Interviews

• Chelsea Reynolds (Evolution & Pivoting): Her path from makeup artist to photographer to fractional brand strategist proves that a pivot isn't a restart—it's refinement. You don't lose the skills, relationships, or insights from previous iterations of your business; you take them with you.
• Chelsea Davis (Your Business Needs a North Star): A brand isn't just colors and fonts. It’s an answer to who you are and where you're going. Building around what the algorithm rewards creates a business that looks like you, but doesn't feel like you.

3. Mindset Reframes for Entrepreneurs

• Data Over Identity: Revenue drops, slow launches, and rejections are metrics and feedback—not reflections of your self-worth.
• Redefining Success: Success doesn't just mean more revenue, clients, or team members. It can mean more capacity, flexibility, presence, financial stability, and a nervous system that isn't constantly in flight-or-fight mode.
• Growth Through Subtraction: Expanding your business doesn't always mean adding more offers or clients. Sometimes growth means removing what no longer fits.

The 5-Question Alignment Check-In

Grab a journal and a cup of tea, and sit with these five self-reflection questions:

1. Is this actually mine? Did I choose this goal, or did I inherit it from social media, family, or industry standards?
2. Does this fit my actual life? Not the life I had three years ago or hope to have someday—my life right now?
3. What is my body telling me? Where am I experiencing expansion vs. dread, exhaustion, or resistance?
4. What am I afraid will happen if I change? (This is where limiting beliefs, fear of judgment, and deeper trauma reside.)
5. What would success look like if nobody could see it? If there were no likes, follower counts, or external validation, what would I want?

Upcoming Masterclass Announcement!

Keep an eye out for Hatrack She Unlocked—an upcoming entrepreneurial mastermind designed for women ready to uncover the invisible hats keeping them stuck, move past limiting beliefs, and build from who they are becoming.

Resources & Community

• Have a Question for the Hat Rack? Drop your business dilemmas, invisible hats, or reflection questions to be featured and answered on an upcoming Q&A episode.
• Connect with Hannah: Follow along on Instagram [@HatrackWithHannah], send a DM with your takeaways from the August wrap-up, and let us know which hat you're ready to take off this month!
• Loved This Episode? Rate, review, and share Hat Rack with Hannah with a fellow entrepreneur who needs a gentle reminder that their business is just one hat on the rack!

Follow along!

Instagram: @hatrack.with.hannah

Facebook: Hatrack with Hannah

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:02

Do you ever feel like you're juggling a million versions of yourself and still dropping the ball? Like you're switching hats all day. Professional partner, girl, friend. And no one really sees what it takes to just be you? Yeah, me too. Welcome to Hat Rack with Hannah. I'm Hannah, therapist, entrepreneur, author, podcast host, and also a mom, partner, daughter, friend. Basically, a professional hat wearer. I created this space where you don't have to minimize what you're carrying or rush past it. Because the truth is, you can have big dreams and feel overwhelmed by the roles it takes to hold them. Both get to exist. Here we slow it down, call it what it is, take some hats off, and figure out what actually belongs in your rack. So take a deep breath. You can set something down here, and let's get into it. Hello, Hat Rack with Hannah listeners. Welcome to our August wrap-up. We've done a lot this month, all on aligned entrepreneurship. And we had the two amazing Chelsea. We had Chelsea Reynolds, and then we had Chelsea Davis doing wonderful things and giving us completely different perspectives, which was really nice to hear. And so I just wanted to close out our month and introduce our new month. So we've spent this entire month talking about aligned entrepreneurship. And what we found is aligned entrepreneurship is not about finding the perfect business strategy, becoming more productive, doing entrepreneurship the right way, or creating a perfectly balanced business. Instead, it's really about slowing down enough to ask what happens when I stop building my business from what I think I should be doing and start paying attention to what actually matters to me. Oftentimes when we become entrepreneurs, we're fleeing from corporate or toxic jobs, or because we have a passion or something that fuels us. So how can we make our business actually fit within the life we want to live? What became really clear to me is that entrepreneurship is never just about business, because there is a human being beneath the business. There is a person with relationships, responsibility, a body, emotions, values, a history, changing capacities, different seasons of life. And we can look at another entrepreneur and think that's their strategy, that's why they're so successful. But what we really don't see is their support systems, their capacities, their financial situations, whether that be within their business or personally, their sacrifices, their seasons of life they're in, or what the business actually costs them. And there's no universal blueprint for a successful business because there is no universal human life. So we really need to step back and allow ourselves to figure out how this business fits into my life instead of the other way around. Our interviews this month were amazing. We had Chelsea Reynolds and Chelsea Davis, and they both gave very different opinions on aligned entrepreneurship. And I think it was really fun to hear. The takeaway I really had from Chelsea Reynolds' entrepreneurial evolution was that her journey from makeup artist to photographer to creative partner to fractional brand strategist is such a powerful example of what alignment can actually look like. Because from the outside, a pivot can look like I changed my mind. But sometimes it's actually I learned more about myself. So I'm going to grow. And you don't necessarily have to throw everything away that you've built. Sometimes your next vision is already inside the vision you've created, and your experience just comes with you. Your skills move with you, your relationships come with you, and your perspective comes with you to build something different, greater, bigger, more aligned in that stage in your life. A big thing that I took from that is a pivot isn't always a restart. Sometimes it's just refinement. And this connects directly to one of our hat rack questions, which was like, Can I outgrow the business I worked so hard to build? And the answer was yes. And outgrowing something doesn't mean it wasn't valuable. It means it served its purpose and we can grow with it. And it got you to where you are and it gave you the foundation to keep growing. And for some businesses, that's not always the case, right? But for Chelsea Reynolds' experience, that was really cool to see how she just developed. And you could see from her story every phase of her life, there was a shift that was organic and aligned. And now she's doing what feels really, really good to her. From our other interview with Chelsea Davis, your business needs a north star was one of my key takeaways from her. A brand isn't just colors or fonts or messaging or content. At its core, it asks who you are, what you're building, why does it matter? Where are you going? And I think entrepreneurship works the same way. Your business needs a North Star. But so do you. Because it's very easy to build a business around what sells, what everyone else is doing, like what algorithm rewards, X, Y, Z, what your industry says you should offer, and what looks like success from the outside. But eventually you can end up with a business that looks like you, but doesn't actually feel like you. And it may be reflective of a different stage that you were in in your life. But the question and reflection that I want everyone to think about is like, is your external business actually reflecting your internal values? Because that's also how you're pulling the clients who you actually want to be working with. So they do really, really need to be aligned. A few other questions that came to me from both of these interviews for entrepreneurs to step into this aligned entrepreneurship instead of just be an entrepreneur is what have you outgrown? What are you still doing because it's what you've always done? And what would you build differently if you started with what you knew now? And using that to your strength instead of your weakness, because we can often criticize ourselves that way and instead not learn from all the things that we've grown and developed, which is really important to stop and take stock in so you can build your business in a way that feels more aligned. Our hat rack listeners had really great questions this month. I'm gonna just name it. Our listeners have amazing questions all the time. I really love how thoughtful and intentional people are with their questions, and they are just fueling me always. So thank you so much, listeners and viewers. But these questions really had me thinking on a lot with my own businesses and just honestly were really great reflection points that we should be thinking a lot on and revisiting even quarterly, if that's when you evaluate your business. And alignment doesn't mean the absence of fear. That was a huge takeaway point from our questions. You can still make aligned decisions and be absolutely terrified. You can be excited and scared at the same time. So instead of asking, Am I afraid? Really pivoting that question to what is the fear trying to protect me from? And if I wasn't afraid of disappointing anyone or failing or being judged, what would I choose instead? With the question that asks, how do I stop tying my self-worth to my business's success? This one was really huge. This is something that business owners think of all the time. Oh, I'm not successful if my business isn't successful. Entrepreneurship can make numbers feel so personal. And a slow month can become I'm failing. And a rejection becomes I'm not good enough. A launch that doesn't launch can sometimes mean maybe I don't know what I'm doing. But your business results are all information and data and help through your growth points and allow you to pivot. They're not a measurement of your worth. Your revenue is information, your productivity is information, your growth is information. None of those things are your identity. So it's taking the data and revisiting the chalkboard instead of taking it personally, where when we get into that personal guilt and ick, we're not able to move from it. It gives us a little bit more freedom and grace to move forward and through the hard parts of our business instead of letting it take down our self-worth or honestly not achieving what we want to achieve. The other question that was asked was what does alignment or what does aligned success actually look like? And maybe this is the question I want us to all sit with the most. Because what if success isn't only more revenue, clients, followers, visibility, offers, team members? But what if success can also be more time, uh, creativity, better relationships, financial stability, flexibility, meaningful work, more capacity, presence, sustainability, and specifically, and most importantly to me, a nervous system that isn't constantly overwhelmed. Success gets to feel good on the inside, not just look good from the outside. And that starts with how you define it, not the rest of the world, not the numbers. So getting really clear on what success is to you is one of the most important things to do when you are an entrepreneur. Another key takeaway and conversation starter that came to me throughout this month was more is not the only direction. Entrepreneurial culture could make growth feel like the only acceptable direction, but not every level needs to get bigger. Sometimes it's simplifying or deepening or being more selective, more profitable, sustainable, spacious, more intentional. Maybe you don't need another offer or fewer offers. Maybe you don't need more clients or better boundaries or don't need more visibility. Maybe you just need more capacity to actually enjoy the visibility you already have. So asking yourself, what if growth doesn't mean adding something? What if growth means removing what no longer fits? So getting really intentional with your offerings. I'm currently doing a website audit for my business, and on there I was like, wow, we offer a lot, which is amazing. And I want to offer a lot. And there were things on there that just simply don't serve me and things that I just don't want to do anymore. So why are they even on there? It clouds the services I actually want to be providing. So it's a great reminder to kind of sift through your offerings and figure out what you actually want to be in, and knowing that that can change all the time. My favorite feature on website edits is that you can hide things because hey, I might be into that next month, but I'm not now, and that's okay. Another huge component to this month was bringing up the invisible hats of entrepreneurship because entrepreneurs aren't just entrepreneurs. We also have so many other hats that we wear: parents, partners, friends, caregivers, leaders, creatives. We are human, we do have bodies, we do have emotions, and we go through things that no one else sees. And sometimes the biggest hats are the ones nobody knows we're wearing. And so the polished Instagram post doesn't show the parenting crises or the difficult conversations, grief, financial fears, the health appointments, the identity shifts, the exhaustion, decisions that you've been quietly wrestling with. So this is why I keep coming back to this hat rack, right? Because your business is one hat, one. It can be an important hat, a meaningful hat, a huge hat, even, but it's still just one. And it doesn't get to become the entire rack. And you don't have to wear every hat at the same damn time. So it's knowing and creating boundaries and structures that support you when we take it off. And there are seasons in your life where you can be wearing it more than others, but it's not your identity. Your business is not who you are. And separating those things is very important while also on the flip side, allowing your passion to fuel your business. We can hold two things, and that's one where we hold both. I want to revisit what aligned entrepreneurship is and is not. Aligned entrepreneurship is not never being uncomfortable or following every intuitive feeling. It's not avoiding hard work or having perfect boundaries, and it's certainly never experiencing burnout, always knowing the answers, or having a business that looks effortless. It's also not about making your business easier, it's about making it more honest. Honest about what you want, what you don't want, what your life can hold, what your values are, what success means to you, what you're willing to sacrifice, and what you're not. Aligned entrepreneurship is the ongoing practice of making sure the way you're building is still connected to who you are and what matters to you. Alignment's not a destination, it's a conversation. And just as we saw with our interviews this month, it's a growth process. And that's okay. And it comes with a lot of grace. I want to give us a little five-question alignment check-in. I want you to sit with these questions, grab some coffee, grab some tea, take a seat in your office, your home, whatever. And I want you to ask yourself these questions and really give yourself time to think them through. Because I think this will help you to define if you are aligned in your entrepreneurship journey, or if we're misaligned and we have some places we need to tap into and some growth points we need to explore. The first question is Is this actually mine? Did I choose this? Or did I inherit it from social media, my industry, another entrepreneur, family, fear, someone else's definition of success? Second question, does this fit my actual life? Not the life when I started this company three years ago, not the life I hope to have someday, but my actual life right this second. Third question What is my body telling me? What is my nervous system business strategy? Where am I feeling expansion, resistance, excitement, dread, exhaustion? Your nervous system shouldn't be the only decision maker, but it should not be ignored. Listen to it. Allow your body to talk. Question four What am I afraid will happen if I change? This is often where the deeper story lives. And this is the space where I love to work specifically with entrepreneurs. Because oftentimes when we're asking this question, it is much, much deeper than the to-dos for the day of your business. This can dive deep into trauma. This can dive deep into limiting beliefs. This can dive into so many darker areas that we don't even realize we're holding and then are impacting our business. It's my favorite area to work. So, what am I afraid will happen if I make that change? Final question, question five. What would success look like if nobody could see it? No Instagram, no likes, no comparison, no external validation. What would you actually want? I've been referring to the switches I made in June that are finally now happening in August with my schedule. So I have more capacity, space, and time to do all of my entrepreneurial passions, which has been so amazing for me and very, very hard to wait so damn long for it to happen, to be honest. But in June, I really realized that how I'm operating not only didn't feel good, but was definitely not aligned with me. And I'm now starting to feel some freedom in how I'm aligned. And this was only a few months ago, right? But I'm already now questioning and going through these questions again. What more can I do? What more do I want? And it's feeling really good to constantly realign and constantly ask these questions, but it is very challenging. So, you know, give yourself some grace when we're doing this. I would say though that these questions have helped me really clarify what the hell I want and how I want to operate my businesses, and it's helping me to take out some of the burnout I was feeling and allow for more time with my family, which was a huge goal for me and has been feeling really, really good. So I'm excited to see how these check-in questions hit for you. And please let me know and pop in my DMs. I love when y'all do that. So please do. So what we're carrying forward from August are a few things. Alignment requires honesty. You have to be willing to admit when something no longer fits. You don't have to admit it to the world, but at least admit it to yourself so you can make some shifts. Alignment also requires flexibility. Changing your mind isn't automatically failure. It's actually a way that we can grow. And sitting in that discomfort is a really hard piece of this, but manageable and something that we can do. Alignment also requires defining success for yourself. Otherwise, someone else will define it for you. So sitting down with that question from our listener and writing out how you define your success is so important. And then work your way back to figure out how to get there. Alignment also requires remembering you're a person, not just a business owner. And I know that one sounds silly. It's like, hey, not why the hell are you even saying this? But oftentimes we just can feel like machines and we're just pumping new offers, we're seeing the clients are moving, we're shaking, right? But we got to stop and take a minute to be in tune with our body, in tune with our needs, in tune with the things that we're offering. And if they feel good, great. But if they're not, then why the hell are we offering them? So remembering that you're a person first is essential to aligned entrepreneurship. You don't have to quit and you don't have to burn everything down to the ground. You don't have to start over. Maybe you just need to take one hat off. And maybe it's the perfectionist hat, the people-pleasing hat, the I have to do everything myself hat. Delegation is key, especially as an entrepreneur. More is always better hat. I should be further along hat. The my business determines my worth hat. And instead, I want you to ask, well, hat are you ready to stop wearing? And then what do you want to make more room for? I really love this conversation and this continuation of alignment and how it applies in different spaces, specifically within the entrepreneurial space. And it's honestly given my soul just like fire. And as I've been thinking about all of these conversations this month, I've also been thinking about how often we know what we want to change and still can't seem to get ourselves there. Because sometimes you already know. You know the business you want, you know the decision you need to make, the boundary you need to set, the version of yourself you're trying to step into, and something still can get in the way. And that is where I'm very excited to announce my masterclass. It's called Hat Rack, She Unlocked, and it's an entrepreneurial mastermind for women ready to clear what's holding them back and build from who they're becoming. The mastermind will be built around the idea that women don't necessarily need more strategy. They need to identify the invisible hats they're wearing that keep them stuck. But this isn't another business strategy to add to your already overflowing list. It's about looking beneath the strategy because you can have the business plan. You can know exactly what we're supposed to be doing and still feel stuck. So sometimes the next step isn't another strategy. Sometimes it's understanding what's happening inside of you that's making the strategy difficult to implement. At the retreat, I just helped facilitate, this was a lot of the work that I was doing. And it lit my soul on fire to help these entrepreneurs figure out their limiting beliefs and their experiences that were keeping them from reaching their highest potential. And that is why we are flying into this. More information will be coming soon. But if you've listened in August and you found yourself thinking, I know what I want. So why am I still holding back? This is the perfect space for you. And I invite you to join my masterclass. It will launch soon, and I'm excited to share it with y'all. And thank you for inspiring the conversations that we're having that have led me to feel called to do this. I'm really excited. So final closing thoughts from the month of August. Maybe aligned entrepreneurship isn't about finding the perfect way to build a business. Maybe it's about building enough self-awareness to recognize when the way you're building no longer fits. You're allowed to evolve and grow and you're allowed to redefine your success. You're allowed to want something different than what you wanted when you started everything. And maybe the goal isn't to build a business that takes up every space on your hat rack. Maybe the goal is to build a business that has a place on the rack and still leaves room for you. Thank you, listeners, for spending August with us. I really appreciate y'all sending in your hat rack questions, sharing your stories and listening and even engaging with our conversations and our interviews. They've been so great lately. And the last question I want to leave you with is what do you want your business to make more room for in your life? Please share your answers with me. Send me a DM. I'll put it on our Instagram as well. And if you're ready to go deeper into aligned entrepreneurship, keep an eye out for my masterclass coming up. Until next month, take a breath. Take a look at your hat rack. And remember, you don't have to wear every hat at once. And I look forward to next month with y'all.