Shine Podcast with Shanna Star

What Legacy Looks Like Without Losing Yourself With Brit Nicole

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Brit Nicole, Clarity Coach and founder of The Unstoppable She-EO, explores how hustle culture damages our health and relationships, and shares her journey through burnout to creating a sustainable, fulfilling life.

• Hustle culture creates false rewards and unsustainable gratification that damages our wellbeing
• Overwork equals worth is a toxic equation that many high-achieving women have internalized
• Living in perpetual hustle puts our bodies in fight-or-flight mode, manifesting as physical illness
• Setting boundaries is crucial but often results in being painted as "the bad guy" initially
• True success means building a legacy of emotional intelligence and helping others, not collecting accolades
• Nervous system regulation and therapy approaches like EMDR can help process trauma affecting business decisions
• Finding happiness without an agenda represents a fundamental shift from self-serving success
• Building community looks different now than it did 20 years ago, especially with changing work expectations
• God or a higher power can serve as the "main character" in our story rather than our ego

Visit britnicole.com to download the "Build it Scared" journal that helps you move past fear with guided prompts for nervous system regulation.


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Keep Shining- Shanna Star

Shanna Star:

Welcome back to another episode of the Shine Podcast. I'm your host, shana Starr. Have you ever had a conversation with one of those people that you meet and instantly just feel a connection? You feel like this is going to be a continued relationship and friendship and you're also kind of mad that they might not live by you. So this is how I feel about today's guest. She is an incredible woman and we have so many like touch points between us that are paralleled, and I just adore her and the conversation we had.

Shanna Star:

Britt Nicole is a Clarity Coach, speaker and the woman behind the Unstoppable CEO. If you're wondering if she's for you, she and the woman behind the Unstoppable She-EO. If you're wondering if she's for you, she is. She's for the high-capacity woman who never want to admit when they're on the edge of burnout until their body or God or the universe finally calls you out. This is exactly what we get to talk about today. We get to talk about being enough. What does it look like, what actual success looks like and how that could pivot when you have some of those wake up calls. Now I don't want to waste any more of your time. Let's get right to it. Hopefully, you feel like you're part of this conversation and just listening in on two friends chatting.

Shanna Star:

Welcome, britt, nicole, to the Shine Podcast. I am thrilled to have you here and to chat with you today. Well, girl, I'm so excited that you're like yeah, come on, I love it. As soon as we like. As soon as I started learning about you, I was really excited to chat with you, because so often we hear about hustle, especially right away when you're first starting a business. And I'm not saying I'm not anti-hustle, I think it has its merit and seasons but it just feels like once we get into that it's all the time, and the truth is that's not sustainable for long-term and it's actually not why we even start a business. Usually it's the opposite. We want that freedom and that's the first thing that I feel like we have the least amount of. So let's start right in. As to hustle culture and all the things, I would love to hear what your thoughts are on hustle.

Brit Nicole:

Oh my gosh. I truly honestly believe that hustle culture needs to be canceled. We're like in a whole generation of people wanting to cancel things, and I think hustle culture is definitely the first one that needs to be done. I'm not a fan of it. I think it is. I think it's super toxic and I think it leads to a lot of um, false what would be the right, the right term for that Like false rewards. The gratification could be instant, but it's not sustainable.

Shanna Star:

Yeah, I agree with that. I heard you mention in I think it was your podcast or it might've been another one that you were on that. What you said was we've been trained that overwork equals worth, and I sat with that for a little while and I wrote it down just so I could like kind of digest it a little bit. And, as someone who also owns a business and a podcast, as you know, I often would justify working all of those hours because I thought it equaled more success. It showed people that I had more to do. I was busy. You know all the things especially women, we want to have like the busyness and it wasn't until I got married last year and I saw that he would play hard and I was like I mean, there's no time for that, I need to stay up till 10 or 11 each night.

Shanna Star:

And it was just watching him. That that's when I learned what it actually looked like. And now that I have set boundaries and we can come back to this at another point in the conversation but I set some really hard boundaries and there's exceptions to every rule I actually find I can get more done in a six to eight hour workday than I used to all day long with the busyness tasks. So will you talk a little bit about that? Overwork equals worth.

Brit Nicole:

Oh man, I I feel like that is embedded into who we're. If you're wanting to have the American dream I'm air quoting for those of you who are listening to audio that you have to sell your soul in order to be able to do that, and and that that may have worked. You know what? No, I'm not going to say that that works, because if you look at our parents' generations my parents' generation specifically like the baby boomers, they, man, did they bring the economy right, Like there's so many business owners within the baby boom generation, and they were all taught.

Brit Nicole:

If you're not out working until it's time to come back to sleep, what are you doing with your life? You're pretty much worthless, and so that was instilled on us growing up of. When I say us, I do mean, like our entire generation. If you are not in constant flow of doing X, Y, Z and then moving on to this, then moving on to that, If you are not in constant flow and constant working, you're never going to be successful.

Brit Nicole:

But honestly, it's quite the opposite, because the more you find yourself hustling and just constantly, just dogging it 24, seven, something's going to shut you down and I guarantee you, the very first thing is going to be your body, and if your body's not healthy, if your mind is not healthy, nobody wants to be around you. No one's happy. Your body doesn't even want to be around you. It's telling you hey girl, I need to sleep, and you're like I ain't got time to sleep. Don't you know that I have these five tasks that I put off yesterday and I was just doom scrolled and called it a day like come on no, so I I think it's definitely a culture thing.

Brit Nicole:

Um, it wasn't until, like both of us you and I both do photography and it wasn't until I traveled to Europe, iceland to be specific and a lot of the places shut down like during the day, and I'm like, well, how stupid are you? Like this is prime time for you to make money. Like what are you doing? And no, they go home to their children, they go home to take naps, specifically, like that's what's on the agenda is to rest. And I was like so much money is being taken off of the table. And one of the people that I spoke to, they're like it's not about money, it's about being happy, like I have the freedom to be able to go home and do that. And that hit me like a freaking freight train. I, we all strive for happiness, but at what cost are we doing it? Just to say that we successfully, successfully air quoting again for audio, just to successfully say that we did it. Yeah, it's crazy to me.

Shanna Star:

I agree. The first thing that you said was that your body's going to let you know, and I want you to tell you know that part for you as well. But that happened to me in the last three and a half years. My body was like I've gone through some terrible health problems and finally, last November, I was like, okay've gone through some terrible health problems and finally last November I was like, okay, for all of 2025,. I have to step back from podcasting Now. I've gone back at it, just at a slower pace again, and I have to work on my health and I have to not be as intentional with friends for a while, because I can't give, and it's been really hard. But when your body is shutting down from being overworked or trauma or whatever that looks like, you have to focus on it for a little, just a little bit at least. So will you talk about that too, about how you knew and some signs that you were like, okay, this my body is telling me it's time to pivot or change.

Brit Nicole:

Absolutely. It's almost similar to your timeline. So about three years ago is whenever the federal lawsuit had stopped, and for those of you who don't know my story, I had built and scaled successfully a photography business and one of my employees ended up stealing from me. Back then was 16 years worth of intellectual property.

Brit Nicole:

And from what we physically see was 66 federal copyright infringements. And in order to get the bleeding to stop, I had to sue her. So I had to let go of all of my staff, everyone. So when you have scaled a company especially if you are booking, booking, booking you cannot sustain that as a single person. It is just, it is impossible for you to do. And everything, my whole life, came crashing down. All of it.

Brit Nicole:

My identity was wrapped up in my photography business. I was placed in the Nod's Hall of Fame, which, for those of you who don't know like that recognizes the top 2% of photographers in the US. I had awards. I was striving to be an award recipient of Junebug and I got it. And it was like that, snowballed into my work, being like on the Ellen show, like I was doing all of the things right, right, like all of the pat on the back Good job, brittany. Like, oh man, you're just doing it.

Brit Nicole:

My identity was wrapped up in that, in my accolades and how much money I was making, how big my company was. And when that all came crashing down, I lost my whole entire identity. Who the heck am I If my name is in plastered places, if, if people don't know who I am or you know whatever made me fall off my high horse real fast. And, um, I, when you, when you kind of go through trauma like that, your brain is in a constant state of your body is in a constant state of fight or flight. And, just like you, mine was three whole years of living in state of constant fight or flight. My phone would go off of, just like an email notification, and normally, before all of this happened, I'd be like ding cha-ching, you know, like we got this. But now it literally felt like a bear was mauling my body, like ripping my face off type thing, and it it to me like, oh, it's my lawyer, he, he has another invoice or something else bad happened, or whatever.

Brit Nicole:

I was not a good mom, I was not a good wife. I just like you, I did not have this emotional capacity to hold anybody else within my space, like, even if somebody were to say, even my kids come up to me and be like, hey, mom, you want to play, and this sounds awful, but it's true Like I did not have the emotional space to even just get off of the couch, to be like, yes, I would love to spend time with you and I ended up hiring a few business coaches during this time because I was like, what is wrong with me? Like why can't I not just breathe a regular breath? I feel like, is you don't realize how needed it is until you can't? And some of these business coaches were like Brittany, you just need to change your mindset. Like just speak better words over yourself. And I'm like, okay, I'll, I'll try this. So I'm over here writing on these sticky notes and sticking them on my mirror and be like you're brave and you can do this and all of the things Right, but it still did not take care of my body shutting down.

Brit Nicole:

So what it looked like for me was constantly sick, and I mean constantly. I was probably on antibiotics for like a solid year. It feels like Just anything and everything. I'm getting it.

Brit Nicole:

I got sent to the ER thinking that I was having a heart attack. Like the pain that I felt right here within my chest and even just down my arm and in my face and my jaw, everything, and I I could not breathe felt pain so deep in my back. I'm going to the ER and like my resting heart rate was 280. And I could not get that thing down for the life of me. I couldn't get it down, and so they did all these tests, thinking like, okay, well, if it's a heart attack, blah, blah, blah. No, came back, it was nothing, like didn't register as a heart attack or nothing, and this doctor was like it's probably anxiety. And let me tell you, girl, like you know, your face is already saying it You're probably like, hmm, don't you dare tell me it's anxiety. No, there's something wrong with me. How dare you say it's anxiety? That's how I felt. I seriously wanted to just punch someone through a wall when I was told it's anxiety.

Shanna Star:

Especially because that can be part of it or an outcome, but that is not the root cause of everything that's been going on.

Brit Nicole:

Right, well, you think right. So they sent me to a cardiologist and I'm on this heart monitor thing for like I don't know so many weeks and I go back and they're like, yeah, you're fine. I was like, okay. So it turns out it was the anxiety from my nervous system. My nervous system was literally shutting down all of my body and it was past the warning stages.

Brit Nicole:

And, um, it wasn't until I had found a spiritual coach actually, and she was just like girl, your body is just in fight or flight, like it's literally your nervous system. You know, like your levels are beyond the ceiling. We just got to get that reset and I was over here thinking like that's a load of crap, like don't don't do that woo, woo stuff on me, whatever, and sure enough, sure as clear as day. Um, I started looking up nervous system resets and I did a few and it was just like this mental fog, just boom, oh, I can actually think clearly, like I can make full sentences that make sense to me, or like I can actually take a actual, real life breath without feeling an elephant on my chest. And once I did that, I have not had any health problems since then. It it's crazy cool.

Shanna Star:

Like I've never felt this healthy in my life, that's pretty incredible going back to you know even the tasks where you know you said you're, maybe your kid wanted to play or whatever it's, and we had, you know, very different stories and very different reasons of you know why that trauma was coming up. But I know for myself like if it was a big problem, like an ER problem or there was a large issue, I could handle it. But every small thing that came up felt heavy and I'm sure you had some similar symptoms where it was like I could sleep all day if I would have allowed myself to, and I had to be really like give myself grace to. Okay, I need a nap today. And it's not because I'm actually tired or lost sleep I mean, I wasn't sleeping as well, but it was just emotionally drained from trauma.

Shanna Star:

And I agree, I feel like especially not especially women, I think, men and women both we don't address the problem if it's like with our body until we're forced to. So I started seeing a functional doctor who actually sent me to like a Christian therapist and working on some of that too, she goes I think there's other things going on. It's not just, you know, physical problems. We got to fix it. So I totally I get that Mine took a lot longer because there was, like you know, health, other weird things going on. But I totally agree, it's been night and day and, of course, to those listening, yes, there's other things with it. You know, doing devotionals and making sure you're working out and getting sunshine and doing the healthy things that we should all be doing. But it's really the hard steps of taking care of yourself and going to see somebody and making sure that you're a priority.

Brit Nicole:

Have you ever heard of EMDR?

Shanna Star:

Yeah, we did that.

Brit Nicole:

Yes, is that what you're doing? That's what I do with my therapist too.

Shanna Star:

It's incredible, like you know, you look one way and all of a sudden I'm just bawling, you know, and it's an incredible tactic. And of course, too, it was like, okay, you know, I come from like a Christian background, but whatever, I'll do the woo, woo thing, and I was like, nope, I'm going to embrace this. This is not negative, it's all good stuff and I trust the person I'm talking to, mm. Hmm, yeah, so are you loving that then as well?

Brit Nicole:

I'm not doing EMDR anymore.

Brit Nicole:

I couldn't actually do the um the light thing with the eyes because I get ocular migraines like real fast so I did the, the pulsation ones, and I was very, very shocked, probably because, like, my ego wouldn't let me go there, but I was very shocked to remember a few like childhood things that set into my adulthood as to why I did certain things, especially within business, and it was. It was really cool to learn that about myself, I guess, relearn it andal those parts of my past that I never once would have. Gave it a second guess, yeah.

Shanna Star:

So then, how did, how do you feel relationships have changed now that you've been working and kind of in that recovery period, and how does it look to set new boundaries, whether it's with employees or friends or family, and how do you set that bar now? What does that look like?

Brit Nicole:

that's perfect. Um, as far as employees, right now I don't have any. I am doing, I'm doing it all myself. God has really made it a point to um to showcase to me that I am fully capable of relying on myself and relying on what he has given me, like the knowledge wise, and that that is pretty cool. But in terms of relationships, I will say for anybody that is listening, it is.

Brit Nicole:

It's rocky at first whenever you start setting boundaries to protect your own space.

Brit Nicole:

Very rocky, like, just to give a little bit specifically, like whenever you are going through like the trauma motions of, like EMDR or whatever it is going to bring up things of the past and you're going to notice what areas in your life is that being affected by and how do I heal from that?

Brit Nicole:

Well, how I heal from that is setting up boundaries of could be like not allowing anybody to speak to me a certain way, or not allowing someone to take up all of my energy by obligating saying yes to something even though I don't want to, whatever that looks like. And for me, I started setting hard, strict boundaries on, uh, family members, of words that came out of their mouth that could possibly affect my children, and I'm all about what you speak over people. You know, speaking life is a really, really big thing to me. Taking life is a really, really big thing to me, and even if it's just as something is all like well, I hope you don't get sick this week, well, why would you even say that? Like it's things like that. And so whenever I started to set the hard boundary, I got painted real fast as the bad guy.

Shanna Star:

Yeah, oh, absolutely.

Brit Nicole:

Real fast and, um, I even had to have like a family meeting. Like I called my family to my house because shit hit the fan and it hit hard and it was nasty and I had to just be like like does nobody else see that this isn't normal? Right, what's going on here? Like this stuff is not normal, like I'm bringing this up to you so that we all can acknowledge it and work towards better relationships. It's not a pointing fingers at someone, it is a let's work on this together so that we all can remain like a good unit. And I mean you can't control other people of what they choose to do, of the healing or not, and so, um, I mean things have gotten better because we're all choosing to stay in relationships and holding each other accountable. But, dude, it's really really hard at first when you start setting those boundaries, because people are so used to I don't want to say taking advantage of you in the aspect, but they're so used to just getting away with things.

Shanna Star:

Right and maybe not even purposely selfish, but if their actions they're only looking at themselves, it tends to be some selfish actions. I even I'm thinking of a few girlfriends I have. Some are so incredibly good at boundaries that it's actually taught me like oh, they don't want to do that today and they don't have to come up with an excuse if they don't have the capacity or that's not what they planned on doing.

Shanna Star:

They're fine with being like no thanks and that's it. And so I have a few girlfriends like that that are very bold and better at it than me. So I've learned a lot. And then there's been a few girlfriends that they're lovely and they mean well, but I don't always have the capacity emotionally for their dumping, you know. And so some of those kinds of relationships it's always like they can still be your friends, but maybe you just know like I can't, I can't do it all the time. You know you can set aside time for them when you know you can give and not feel empty. But that is hard to do, especially if you don't have anyone around you doing it to model it first. But I'm proud that you're doing that. What does enough now look like? Now that maybe some of that have shifted, you're like enough now.

Brit Nicole:

What do you mean?

Shanna Star:

Like you know, when you're in that hustle culture, it's never enough. You want to do more, you do more, you do more. So what does your enough look like now?

Brit Nicole:

Oh man I'm, I still struggle a little bit from the past, Brittany, um, because she she did well and she served me well, but she can't serve me in this phase of life that I'm at. Um, she stunts me more than helps grow and, um, sometimes it's difficult for me to try to not embrace that Brittany, because I loved the feeling of the accolades and and all the you know pats on the back, because I was never good at stuff in growing up, like I wasn't the sports kid, I wasn't academic kid and I found something I was really good at. But now, learning through the process of doing things intentionally, I'm able to find happiness without the agenda.

Brit Nicole:

And that's for me. Everything had an agenda, Everything had a reason.

Shanna Star:

You brought up something and I had to write down. It was very similar to. I don't remember where this quote is from. It's not me, but it's set. They always say, what got you here won't get you there, and as a business person, you think, oh, these things got me here, Therefore I just have to do them more. And it will continue. And, just like you said, what brought you to that first place? She served you well, she was successful, she do what she needs to, but now you needed to pivot change. You know, whatever that looked like and who she was isn't going to get to who you need to be in the future as well, but it's good to be able to be like thank you past me, like you did serve me well when you needed it. So then, in that, how has your perspective then on success changed?

Brit Nicole:

It's not money driven, would I love it to be, because when I was money driven, well you know what? No, because even thinking back now, like I was doing a lot of things out of like anger or like I'll show you what I can type things, it had the wrong foundation, I guess. Is what what I should say? And now I'm, I'm more intentional and I love the people that I actually get to help, because back then I wasn't really helping anybody but myself. Um, like, yeah, I take cool photos, I give people experiences and things like that, but those are also experiences for me, like it's fun for me, you know. And now it's not about me, it is about the work that God gets to do through me for other people. Otherwise it wouldn't be happening. Yeah.

Shanna Star:

So that's really beautiful. I know you talk a lot about building legacies now without losing yourself in that process, and we've talked about like some self-doubt and overwhelm and how to set all those boundaries. So what does, what does building a legacy now mean to you without losing yourself?

Brit Nicole:

Dang that way to hit me with that question, I think it's right in my feelers man. I think it's because, like, I hear my little girl in the back room right here.

Shanna Star:

Okay, we can't hear her, but I wish I could hear a little. Yes.

Brit Nicole:

For me, what that looks like is showing that you can live a life of true happiness without hustling yourself to death and like, even if that could be, you don't have to go to college if you don't want to, just because society is telling you that you have to go to college to be successful. That's a load of crap. I didn't go to college and look what I did. Or even just when you start to love yourself more, you get to see more of the beauty, not only in yourself, but your children, and a lot of that was shut off because my brain was shut off, and when. So the legacy for me is like building my children up on a solid foundation, emotionally and mentally, to where, if they were to come across some toxic behavior, they're going to know one. It's not my fault.

Brit Nicole:

This is this person's issue. Two, I don't have to carry that. And three, that's their thing. So I'm just going to stay true to me and keep doing me.

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Shanna Star:

We brought up the college thing and I think when we were in that high school or middle school, like age, it was very generational of you have to go to college in order to be successful, because the people before us it was. You go to college, you get a good job. You stay at that job forever, because that was the path that actually led to enough money to have sustained for a whole family and for success. And it's not that way anymore and so I am glad you brought that up as well. I did go to college. I really appreciated the experiences, but as a photography owner, I look back and I go. Didn't learn a thing in my field. I learned it all after college, which is fine. That's part of life, but it's good that some of that is turning a little bit to find not everyone is going to love their job all of the time, but to find what fits, and that's not necessarily college. So I love that you brought that up and the legacy part.

Shanna Star:

I don't have kids, I don't plan on having kids, but I think about my mom and what she did in building a legacy for me and as a woman it was so interesting. Like growing up it was all about me and my brother like her whole life, and I always respected and loved her. But then she started shifting when I was like in high school, to do things for herself, and I saw her be like a woman for the first time. I'd watch her and I'd catch her reading the Bible or a book and I'm like, okay, and I'd catch her working out. And that's when I started to respect her in a whole new way, because I saw her as a woman and not just the mom who provides for me.

Shanna Star:

And again, I'm not a mom, so I can't speak as a mom, but as a daughter, seeing her prioritize herself like that was a legacy that helped me become who I am, because she didn't speak ill of herself in front of me when I was a child. Of course, as an adult we say things now, but she did such a lovely job of making sure that she presented in a way that I would come up with confidence, and so hearing that you as a mom, like you, want to have your children be happy and it's just it was really cool. It brought that up for me as a daughter, so I love that you said that.

Brit Nicole:

I love that. That's how you grew up, because a lot of I haven't really met a lot of people to where that is what their childhood was like. You know, a lot of us, like our parents, had parents of their own that weren't really kind to them. Nobody believed in holding emotional space for anybody back then and it's hard now as adults to be able to learn that our feelings are valid and okay, and I think it's. I think it's a really, really important thing to teach our children that and I absolutely love that you were taught that like how incredible what a gift your mom gave you. Because here you are at the age that you're at, and I guarantee you that life threw some stuff at you and a lot of things that your mom probably instilled in you. I'm sure a lot of it got deflected back to where it didn't like penetrate your heart. I'm sure some stuff did, but not as heavy as as what it would have been had you not been in that type of environment.

Shanna Star:

Well, thank you, cause you brought tears to my eyes and if she's going to listen she'll be bawling as well. She definitely was. She could hold me emotionally really well. I think she had to double that because the other parent he was there for me, you know, with all the things, but he was not emotionally capable, so I think she felt like she had to overcompensate, for sure. But I didn't see that as a kid, I just saw. You know, I was rose-colored glasses as a kid and I'm very thankful for that. But yeah, that was so.

Shanna Star:

Now, moving on to you don't have employees. That looks different. I don't either, and that's a huge change in like culture for community. And how will you talk a little bit about community now in your business? And especially like I don't have any employees? I'm sure a lot of people listening with small businesses. That's not how they start either. So how do we start creating community when we have the capacity? And what can that look like when so many of us spend time in the home and it's scary and we're not meeting the people, and how can we cultivate community?

Brit Nicole:

It looks a lot different now than it did back when I started 20 years ago Night and day difference. So I kind of I have two, two thoughts on this. Like one we're coming. We're we're seeing a generation of people who aren't going to college, to just to go to college, and that's new right. But the ones that are going to college or even just like getting jobs, they're looking for high paying money but for less time.

Brit Nicole:

It's a whole weird transition because, you know, with our parents it was opposite, like you're going to work your 80 hours for you know your $500 or what have you, but now it's just flipped and everybody is expecting to work their 10 hours and make $1,200 a day type thing.

Brit Nicole:

And that puts a strain on business owners who are looking for hire, because we're not in the best economy right now. We cannot afford to bring on someone who is not a revenue generating person like that, anybody who applies for a job that doesn't mean that they're going to generate the revenue. What's supposed to happen whenever you bring an employee on is they're supposed to literally pay for themselves. And what is happening now is we're seeing a lot of people who are applying for jobs that aren't even qualified. And if they look, if you go over their resume and you're doing the interview and they're like, oh yeah, for sure you're qualified. And then you bring them on and within the 90 days they're like, oh my gosh, you are not at all what you seemed. Well, you lost a lot of money during that time and a lot of time of building the business, and so I think a lot of us have experienced just being burnt out by certain people of they just expect to be paid buku's money when they don't have anything to show for it. Right.

Shanna Star:

Yeah, I think it's especially hard when there are so many young people going to college or not doesn't matter, but social media has made that incredibly difficult because so many can make it so quickly. I know they're taking time during the day if they're creators, but the skill set's a lot different, and so when they find a different job or maybe that part of their life is no longer applicable, it looks very different, for when they're in the workforce, for sure it does. Yeah, so what is maybe something? I feel like we've touched on a lot of good emotional things, but is there anything that's been maybe on your heart lately it can be business or personal that you just feel like you want to share?

Brit Nicole:

So I kind of mentioned earlier that my ego is what built up the past businesses that I had and coming into the unstoppable CEO of being more intentional and healing about things. Last week I had a pretty bad like mental week, going through like the the phases of oh my gosh, like mourning what I had to the transition to where I am now and where I'm going with my life. Um, and it it's new, it looks different and everything in me just kind of wants to shift back to photography. But God is calling me straight exactly where I'm at and what I'm doing. And I listened to this podcast yesterday and it was my first time ever coming across her and the title of it was jesus. Is the reason I'm like okay, what does this got to be about?

Brit Nicole:

it reminds me of like this is the reason for the season yes yeah and so um.

Brit Nicole:

So I was listening to it and my gosh, it hit me like a freaking punch in the face it was. She was talking about how everything that we do within business, or like the stuff that we feel called to do called to do like, of course, we want to be the main character, we want to be the one that everyone sees, we want to be the one that has the top rated podcast, we want to be the ones that have the best photos, that are getting awards and stuff like that, and what we forget is Jesus is the main character. He has the main character, energy like. If it character energy Like.

Brit Nicole:

If it weren't for him, if it weren't for God putting those desires into us or instilling us as the person that we are, we wouldn't actually be where we're at. And everything that we me coaching a certain person should not be because Brittany can coach them. Brittany has the knowledge and stuff it should be showing them. Hey, I understand where you're at in here. I'm going to speak life into here as if you know, jesus were speaking directly to you and then help you process in these like 90-day increments of scaling your business on a foundation that is based upon your calling. You know, like, what you're meant to do and it's all going back to where are the hands and feet, like he is literally the reason we get to do this. So it was those really cool awareness that was brought back into me.

Shanna Star:

I think it's just because we have those parallels of being a photographer and I know you have the unstoppable CEO, which is a huge brand, and you've done wonderful with that, and I know you have the unstoppable CEO, which is a huge brand and you've done wonderful with that. But I know you also have that podcast that goes along with it, and so we have those parallels. And it's interesting that you say the ego thing, because you know we start because we feel good about it or we're good at it and hopefully eventually it turns into you get to make your client feel good, especially like I shoot a lot of boudoir and bachelorette and all the like girly fun things. So hopefully I'm speaking life into them and making them feel good.

Shanna Star:

But very often I walk away feeling selfish because even though I really think that they got something out of it and I mean they're the ones paying, they should get something out of it it makes me feel like, oh, that was also good for my heart. And even in podcasting you know I started it because I was talking one-on-one with clients and I want other clients to be able to hear these conversations and I still leave episodes like this one where I go, oh, I needed that and I'm like oh, it still became about how I felt and that's okay, of course. Course we should feel good and things we do. But I I totally get that on that part. Um, it's hard to separate and be like okay, it's great that I feel good and I got something out of it and I was filled as well.

Brit Nicole:

But to make sure that it's reflected on the right things too, I think it just depends on the intention behind it right, you were only going after like podcast guests, that that you thought were going to get you like 6 million views, but you know the alignment wasn't quite there of your target audience or something. Then I could, I could see that, but I think I think you're supposed to feel gratitude and happiness over the things that you do, especially when it's done and over and the clients are happy.

Shanna Star:

You know you're absolutely right. It's just interesting to go. Oh, that felt great. I'm like okay, I hope they felt just as good, you know. So I would love to know, tell us how we can find you, follow you and you have a freebie or two for us as well. Will you talk about that? And of course it'll. It'll be in the notes, in case they're busy right now.

Brit Nicole:

Yeah, so the website is britnicolecom, just B-R-I-T-N-I-C-O-L-Ecom, and you can find the first freebie there. It is literally going to be the very first thing that pops up right in your face, but it's called Build it Scared and it's just a journal that walks you through prompts of getting past your nervous system because, know, we get terrified and we shut down, we get in the freeze mode, and it helps you walk past that and helps you just kind of like get little nuggets on. Okay, now we recognize what has got us scared, let's just go ahead and do it, put implement some actions behind that without with feeling safe within your environment and stuff. And then, um, instagram, it's dot brit, dot nicole, just like that spelled the exact same. And then, um, the unstoppable she you podcast.

Shanna Star:

I love it yeah, you do a wonderful job. I listened to a couple episodes just to dig into a little bit more of who you are. So, um, you do a wonderful job. So thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate you and just all of your wisdom and all the things you're doing. I know you're working hard. I did lots of stalking, so I know that you're just doing wonderful and I love your backdrop. I have one very similar. It's so cute.

Brit Nicole:

I have to always tone it down because, like, like, watch what happens if I turn it up. I don't know if it's the same way, but it's like oh she bright, yeah, she gets.

Shanna Star:

Yeah, see what it does. It looks awful. I love that we both have the pink neon signs to say no, it's wonderful. Well, thank you again, britt, and I just appreciate you, and I think everyone else will too. So, thank you, thank you. Are you a photography business owner looking to elevate your business?

Shanna Star:

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Shanna Star:

I also love the AI integration which means if you have more than six people in the gallery, they can just simply click on their face and look for them and download those photos. I love it. It has a built-in e-commerce capabilities, making it simple to sell those digital downloads, prints and merchandise all in one place. Now you can join the thousands of photographers who trust PickTime and me not to just store your work but grow your business. You can try it for free with my code and get also an extra free month when you upgrade to a paid plan. Link is going to be in the notes or you can head to davistaphotographypick-timecom referral. You can head right to the notes and click on the link so you can start your beautiful galleries today.