fbpx

RCC 5: Success Is a Habit with Natalie MacNeil

Do you ever look at a successful woman and wonder what her day looks like and what she does that makes her so successful? I do. It fascinates me to imagine what she does consistently, over and over, to have reached that level. Because, although many people think success comes from one breakthrough moment, I know that what really makes us successful is the nitty-gritty, unglamorous, unsung actions that we do every day.

I have the marvelous Natalie MacNeil on the show today to talk about how she’s moving from productivity to the richness of her life and the ritual of her life.

Natalie is an Emmy Award-winning media entrepreneur, author of Conquer Your Year and The Conquer Kit, and the Creator of SheTakesOnTheWorld.com. She Takes On The World was featured by Forbes on its list of “Top 100 Websites for Entrepreneurs” and by ForbesWoman in “Top 10 Websites for Entrepreneurial Women.”

Pop in those earbuds, ladies (and maybe gents), and listen in as Natalie and I dish on how enjoying the richness of life fuels your daily habits and adds to your bottom line. I also share how those habits that you do in the dark, at your office, at your computer, in the recording studio, pouring over your notebook when no one’s watching, no one’s looking, are the habits that lead to success. Oh, yeah, and the velvet thong bikini, ya’ll. You don’t want to miss it!

Coaches: If you want to build your dream coaching practice, significantly increase your income, and finish 2018 on a high note… get yourself to this event. Learn marketing and communication strategies that you won’t find anywhere else. Meet fellow coaches. Spend time with your tribe. Get your next million-dollar idea. Leave feeling on fire! Learn more and book yourself IN here!

In this episode, we discuss:

  • Where success really comes from (nope, it ain't Oprah knocking on your door).
  • How to figure out which actions to put at the top of your list for your business every day.
  • How and why Natalie got lost so that she could find herself again.
  • Why the habit of self-care has become so important to Natalie.
  • Natalie's epic Burning Man experience.
  • Natalie's shift from productivity to ritual and how being in that space has made her even more money!
  • Why Natalie believes that we need more images of CEOs fully expressing themselves for future generations of entrepreneurs.
  • My morning ritual.
  • Why you should consider a morning ritual that fires you up for the day ahead.

Featured on the Show:

Enjoyed this show?

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:

Welcome to the Rich Coach Club, the podcast that teaches you how to build your dream coaching practice and how to significantly increase your income. If you're a coach and you're determined to start making more money, this show is for you. I'm master certified life coach Susan Hyatt, and I'm psyched for you to join me on this journey. You're listening to episode five, here we go.

Welcome back, coaches. If you’re a life coach, wellness coach, leadership coach, fitness coach, any kind of coaching professional, this show is for you. Thanks for being here. And our topic for today’s magnificent episode is success is a habit. This is a topic that actually really fascinates me because whenever I see someone who is super successful in their field, I always wonder, what are her daily habits? What are the specific things that she does consistently over and over and over again that make her so successful?

The thing is, many of us have this fantasy that success comes from one big breakthrough moment, like if I could just get an A-list celebrity to hire me or if I could just get a literary agent for my book or if I could just get featured in O: The Oprah Magazine, then finally I will be so successful and I will never ever have to market my services again and I’ll have bajillions of customers forever and ever and I’ll do laps in my swimming pool full of gold. But let me tell you, it just doesn’t work like that.

I can speak from experience here because, in fact, I have had A-list celebs as clients in the past. I’ve gotten the hotshot literary agent. I’ve been featured in O: The Oprah Magazine. And yes, all of those experiences were fun and exciting and, of course, amazing. However, none of those experiences instantly catapulted me into a new stratosphere of success and wealth.

I remember when the Oprah feature came out, I saw my face in the pages of O: The Oprah Magazine and I was like, “Holy shit, that’s me.” And I will confess, a little part of me felt like, “Alright, this is it. This is my big break. My phone is about to be ringing off the hook. I am about to be a billionaire. Someone find me a pilot for my private jet because, hello success.”

But none of that happened. Guess what actually happened – a few people congratulated me, maybe one or two new clients hired me, my husband was like, “Good job…” and took me out for a celebration dinner, and then my cat puked on the rug and my dog needed to be walked and my kids needed to borrow 20 bucks and life moved along as normal.

This is because success is not derived from one tweet, one magazine spread, or one relationship or professional connection. It’s just never like that. Success comes from all of those quiet invisible behind the scenes moments. It comes from all the action steps that you take and keep taking; steps that most of your clients and customers will never ever see.

A few years back, during the summer Olympics, there was a powerful TV commercial featuring Michael Phelps, the swimmer. And it showed him training at 4am, at 5am, in total darkness, getting into the pool day after day after day, even when the sun wasn’t up yet, even when nobody was watching. Even when no one was cheering or draping a medal round his neck, he got in that pool. He showed up in the darkness and he trained and the commercial goes, “It’s what you do in the dark that puts you into the light.”

Damn, I get chills just thinking about it, even all these years later, because that’s what’s up, people. That’s what I want you to take away from this episode, that it’s the habits that you do in the dark, at your office, at your computer, in the recording studio, pouring over your notebook when no one’s watching, no one’s looking. Those are the habits that lead to success.

And so, without further ado, it’s time for your two-minute pep-talk. This is the part of the show where I share some motivation and encouragement and inspiration to get your week started off right in 120 seconds or less.

Alright, so on a recent episode of this podcast, I interviewed a brilliant woman named Adrienne Dorison. And she’s so smart when it comes to creating systems that lead to more clients and more money. And during our conversation, Adrienne shared a piece of advice that I want to repeat.

She said, “Hey, look closely at where your last several clients came from. What did you do to find those clients? Whatever you did, do more of that. Those are the money generating habits that you want to focus on.” So alright, dear listener, here we go.

Get a pen, get a notebook, get your laptop, get something to write with or get ready to take some mental notes because right now, I want you to ask yourself: Where did my last three clients come from? How did those people find you? Why did they hire you? Think it over. Pause this audio for a moment if you need to take a few minutes to think about it.

Maybe you get most of your clients from word of mouth referrals or maybe they come through social media, like your Instagram account or Facebook. Maybe you put up some posters in local gyms and yoga studios and, cha-ching, that led to some new clients. Maybe every time you lead a seminar at a local company, people come up to you afterwards and they want to hire you.

Maybe you sent an email to your friends and family – people who already know you – and you mentioned, “Hey, I have space for some new clients…” and boom, thanks to your personal network, two new clients showed up. What are the habits that seem to be working for you? And whatever they are, those are the new habits that need to be at the very top of your to-do list ever single week. Not the bottom of your list; at the top.

And look, the thing is, the habits that lead to the greatest success are usually the habits we avoid the most. Why? Because typically those are the habits that require courage. These are the habits that require bravery. They require a willingness to put yourself out there and to be seen and to be heard, and potentially, be judged, rejected, or criticized.

But here’s the good news; the more you make yourself do these things day after day, swimming in that pool in the darkness just like Michael Phelps, the more normal these habits begin to feel. For instance, the first time you send out a newsletter to announce a new coaching program, you might flip out. You might feel like, “Oh my god, everyone’s going to think I’m a lunatic and no one will hire me and I’m going to sink into a pool of hot lava and the world is coming to an end.”

But then the tenth time, even more so, and then after you’ve written hundreds of newsletters, oh my gosh, piece of cake, no big dealio. Over time, a habit that feels really emotionally challenging becomes more and more normalized until it’s just part of your routine. It might even become a really pleasurable part of your routine; fun and inspiring and uplifting. Yes, really.

So right now, I want you to say a little affirmation to yourself. It goes like this, “I have all kinds of daily habits that feel totally normal. I brush my teeth, no big deal. I have coffee, no big deal. I check my email, no big deal. And soon, marketing myself, promoting myself, reaching out to potential clients and selling my services will feel like no big deal too. It’s becoming a relaxed habit, a normal habit, even a pleasurable habit; part of my routine just like everything else that I consistently do.”

Alright, so you can play that affirmation back to yourself a couple of times this week if you want, or head to the transcript section of this episode and read the text back to yourself. Say it aloud and keep going. Keep doing the habits that generate clients and money and opportunities and beautiful results for you. Do it, do it, do it, and then do it again.

Success is a habit, so lock into those positive money generating habits and success will be yours. Pep-talk complete.

Alright, party people, please get your favorite beverage, kick up your feet, get comfy, because now it’s time for our interview of the week. And today, we’re chatting with Natalie MacNeil. Natalie is the founder of She Takes on the World, a website that was listed by Forbes as one of the top 100 sites for entrepreneurs. She’s also an Emmy Award winning producer and she’s a bestselling author multiple times over.

She is a very exciting voice in the personal growth industry and I wanted to talk to Natalie about so many things, particularly her habits. I want to know what’s going on in her office every day, what’s on her to-do list, how does she begin her morning? And equally important, what are some things she’s not doing? And I think you might be really surprised: this interview includes a lot of talk about Burning Man and thong velvet bikinis. Buckle up and let’s discuss.

--

Susan: Alright, welcome, Natalie MacNeil, to the Rich Coach Club podcast. I’m so stoked to have you here fresh from the desert.

Natalie: Fresh out of the desert. I am so happy to be here with you.

Susan: So, I have to apologize because, listen, all of you listening to this podcast do not have the benefit of seeing Natalie’s beautiful desert hair right now. She came back from Burning Man with wild beautiful hair that, unfortunately – maybe we’ll put a picture in the show notes so that you can admire.

Natalie: Thank you, Susan. Yeah, you can take the girl out of the desert, but you can’t take the desert out of the girl and her hair. And I just wish I was looking at you right now, but I do have a picture pulled up of you; the picture of you looking so stunning in that red dress in front of the Eifel Tower. So I’m looking at that as we chat and so I feel deeply connected to you in the interview.

Susan: Thank you so much. And I’m looking at your beautiful desert face. So you are such a phenom. Like, you moved to the US now, right, from Canada, but you’ve had this amazing business for how long?

Natalie: A whole decade. I started She Takes on the World a decade ago this month.

Susan: Oh my god, what are you doing to celebrate? We have to celebrate this.

Natalie: We do have to celebrate this. And I, in the past, have been the worst at celebrating. And it’s one of the habits that I am working on changing because, I mean, there are so many big and small accomplishments, accolades, that I just have no stopped to celebrate. And this is one that I’m not going to let pass me by. So I’m going to celebrate it in some way. I don’t know, maybe we can pop some champagne on our safari, something like that.

Susan: That’s right, well I feel like this is the moment I’ve been waiting for. We’re connected, I’m not convinced, so that I can force you to celebrate yourself.

Natalie: Well, you have been such an inspiration to me in that space and us getting to drop in and get to know each other over the last year has been a really powerful experience for me, and I know that we don’t get to spend that much time together, but I admire the way that you do life. Like, I bow in reverence to the way that you do life. And your summer of yes and how you were going into that and I got to see you in the beginning of it when we were together in Hawaii, I was like, “Fuck yeah, I’m having a summer of yes too and it is going to be the most epic summer of my life.” And when we were there in Kona, I wrote down all these things I was going to do, feelings and essences I was going to embody, like how I was going to be and move through life over the summer and I just had the best summer of my life, Susan. So thank you for being part of that.

Susan: Oh my god, I know you did. You’ve been to Bali, you’ve been to Burning Man. You’ve done all these things. You were off the grid for like weeks, it was unbelievable to watch.

Natalie: Four weeks. I went out, I got lost so that I could find myself again. I just feel this fiery wildness and passion and love and connection and I haven’t felt that in a long time. So I’m feeling really, really good right now.

Susan: Well so you’re making this question I was going to ask you pretty easy, which was, what’s the best thing you’ve done recently to invest in yourself and in your business? And it sounds like having this epic summer…

Natalie: 100%. I think it’s been so long since I gave myself permission to just disconnect and step away and give myself permission to just take a real break. I had all these stories around, “You can’t take a month off.” Like, that is you abandoning responsibility. That is you abandoning your team. And I had all these crazy limiting beliefs around what would happen if I just took a lot of space over the summer and what that said about me, as if somehow taking a rest to recharge and to get into this space that I’m in now, which I mean, from this place, I feel like I can do anything. And yet, I held myself back for so long. And actually, the thing that I did that I am going to have the awareness now of and try to never do again is, I put a condition on my own self-care and taking a break. So I kept this story of, when my entire immigration process is done, because I’ve been in that for a few years now and it’s not 100% complete yet, but I kept saying, when it’s 100% complete, then I will give myself the permission to just take a break. And with that condition, I basically kept myself from taking a real break for years and I will never do that to myself again.

Susan: So it sounds like in addition to a new habit of celebrating yourself, also this habit of scheduling breaks for self-care for yourself?

Natalie: Yes, every quarter, I want to have some type of experience, like what I just had at Burning Man. I mean, Burning Man is a very unique kind of experience that I don’t think can be compared to anything else, but every quarter, I just want to give myself space to have an experience that allows me to get to know new parts of myself because I think that’s the point of all of this, of this whole life. It’s really coming into our wholeness and our fullness and just embracing it all and feeling it all and having as many magical connected experiences as we can, and that’s what my summer was. That’s what the past week was. And I really am fresh out of the desert and feeling so fiery and I still have dust on me and dust in my hair and it was such an incredible week of connection with people. People disconnected – like, imagine a city of 80,000 people who can’t really get cell reception, and so we are all deeply connected to each other and having the most wild and crazy experiences that you just wouldn’t have day to day, and it gives you a glimpse of how things can be when people show up for each other in that way and just celebrate life and art and celebrate it all.

Susan: I love it. And you know, I always am so intrigued by everyone’s stories and photos from Burning Man, but I’m always like, “Can we do it in Manhattan?”

Natalie: I always felt that way. I was like, there is no way you’re getting me to use a Porta Potty for a week. There is no way I can be expected to not shower for a week and be covered in dust and not get to sleep. Like, that just does not sound like the kind of experience I want to be in. But it’s part of it. Like, I got lost in a complete whiteout one night by myself deep out in the desert and I actually thought I was going to die. And looking back on it now, I’m like, wow, that was one of the most profound experiences of my life. And even right now, I have a beautiful shower that I could step into and a glorious saltwater pool and I just don’t want to take the dust off of me yet.

Susan: Oh my gosh, that makes me almost cry…

Natalie: I enjoy being dirty right now and I hope that you’ll come to Burning Man. I would love to do some Burning Man with you, Susan Hyatt.

Susan: Oh my god, I don’t know, Natalie, I think I would be the most extra Burning Man participant ever. Like, they’d throw me out.

Natalie: No, there are people who are totally extra there. I was with a group of Victoria’s Secret models one morning and a couple of them were a little extra, not going to lie. But, Susan, where is this summer of yes spirit? I need a yes here.

Susan: Well, you know what, I have said yes to so many things this summer that you never know. Can I just pop in for like 48 hours?

Natalie: You can, yes. You can totally pop in for just a couple of days. I know Nisha Moodley, I’m not sure if you know Nisha, some people listening might – I think she was just there for a couple of days; I ran into her. So people do go for just a few days, but you won’t want to leave. I always had that option. So I always had it in my head that if I was just not enjoying the experience that I was totally getting on the Burner Express Bus and getting out of there within 72 hours. And I stayed until the very, very, very end. We were supposed to leave two days earlier than we did and I was like, “I just don’t want to leave this place.” So I ended up staying for the full, full experience.

Susan: And so what do you think – was it the disconnect, the being unplugged from social media or from the world – what was it that was so compelling to you that you were like, “Oh my gosh, these are 80,000 of my newest and best friends?”

Natalie: There’s a few things about Burning Man that just make it so special and unique and one of those things is radical self-expression. I’ve never felt more fully expressed. And you’re expressing yourself and having every part of you met by the people around you. So there is nothing that is too much or too extra or there is no part of you that is not going to be fully accepted and embraced by other people. Like, you could go in – and there is everything there. I mean, in a morning – actually this is really funny. I’m just going to randomly open it to a page of the schedule book. Okay, this was a Wednesday morning. Right now, my options for Wednesday morning at Burning Man are, go to Sunrise Gospel Orchestra, also, BDSM Tying Knots Workshop, get served grilled cheese sandwiches at a pop-up desert diner by drag queens singing Disney songs…

Susan: Stop it… I’m in.

Natalie: Seriously, Susan, me and you at that diner, come on. Ecstatic Dance, like five different types of ecstatic dance. I actually ended up going to this one. It was the African rhythm dance and it was like pure magic. I was just high on my own life force after that. So there is something there for everyone and so many things that push you to edges. And speaking about habits, since that’s sort of the topic that we’re supposed to be on, but I’ve taken us on so many tangents because I’m so excited about life right now – one of the things I’ve realized is that I don’t want habits where I’m just moving through the motions. I don’t want to have habits where every day I’m waking up and moving through a morning routine that feels monotonous or feels like I’m no longer connected to it. And one of the things that I’ve really stepped into as I’ve been writing my next book, The Rituals, are having these practices, these deeply rooted practices that connect me to my aliveness. And I am not interested anymore, and I have been in the past, but I am no longer interested in habits that will help me to get an ounce more productivity out of my day if I am not feeling connected to me and to the people in my life and to the world around me.

So I want to be engaged in rituals that tap me into my aliveness and make me feel spirit running through me. I don’t care to just get more checked off of a to-do list anymore. It’s not what this is about. It’s not what our businesses are about, it’s not what life is about, and yet I got stuck in that for a little while as I was growing my company. And so, something like Burning Man, it’s taking that principle that I’ve carried throughout my year and it was just so amplified there in that vortex. Like, people are doing things because they want to experience more of themselves. They’re pushing themselves to their edges and pushing past their edges because they want to know themselves more fully and connect to parts of themselves that they have not been able to access before. And that’s what made it so special. And it’s the ritual of it too. It’s a coming together, and one of the most beautiful things I have ever witnessed in my life is the temple there. And inside this temple, it was filled with memorials and little shrines to people who have passed over the past year and this temple is just a gorgeous space.

Google that Galaxia Burning Man Temple 2018. It’s a stunning work of art. And I was in there one day meditating and there was a woman there and she was leading a ritual for her 27-year-old daughter that died this past year and it was so beautiful to watch that. And then the temple is the last thing to burn. And the temple burn on the last night, which is the day after The Man burns, which is like a big celebration, and the temple burn is more of the closing ritual, this huge temple had burned to the ground and the last thing standing was this big beautiful poster and this memorial that this mom had created for her daughter at the temple. And just being with people in that kind of space where it’s an honoring of life and all that is and celebrating the ephemerality of things too, because nothing is permanent. Like, everything here is temporary. It was such a connection to my fellow humans and also to this life. So I’m just – anyway, I’m so fired up about all of it and I just had high highs and low lows and…

Susan: It’s beautiful…

Natalie: What I wouldn’t give to live like that all the time.

Susan: Well I love listening to you talk about – I mean, it sounds like the perfect place to be because you’re writing a book on rituals. I mean, the whole week sounds like an exclamation point of ritual.

Natalie: The whole thing is a ritual; the most incredible ritual I’ve ever partaken in.

Susan: And so let me ask you this; what caused the shift in you to go from productivity to ritual?

Natalie: For me, it was experiencing so much success at a pretty young age and being so productive. Like, you can give me so many things to do and I will get them done, and I thrived on productivity and being superhuman. And I also – reflecting on it over these last couple of months – I’ve realized that productivity and being able to get so much done and being highly confident was such a big part of my identity as well and how I looked at my worth and my value too. Like, my worth was something for me that was directly tied to how much I could get done and how much my business was growing and what it was all looking like from the outside. And it gets to the point where that is very empty and I don’t want to be living a life where I’m checking things off of a to-do list if I’m not feeling that sense of aliveness. And so that’s what it was for me. And moving too – that forced me to create a new identity.

I mean, I left behind a very long relationship of 11 years, I left behind my home and my family and my friends and I moved to the furthest place in the US when I got my green card, like pretty much the furthest place other than San Diego, a couple of hours south, that I could have moved to. So I found myself in this new place and having to start over. And on that blank canvas, I asked myself what I wanted it to look like and how I wanted to move through the world and how I wanted my life to be, how I wanted it to feel, and that’s when the shift really started happening over these last couple of years. But it’s been just amplified these last few months especially, and I’m so committed to knowing every part of myself. I’m so committed to feeling it all, like to having all of these experiences that are available to us as humans and not numbing the painful parts either, or the uncomfortable parts, which I have done in the past too. And part of this human experience, part of what we sign up for, is experiencing it all and we have to let the pain in with the joy and be ecstatic bliss and, yeah…

Susan: Yeah, I mean, it sounds – because a lot of the people listening – I know you guys listening are very caught up in how productive you can be and how much money you can earn and how quickly you can do it, but it’s really important to listen to the points being made about how none of that matters if you’ve lost yourself along the way and none of it matters if you’re not deeply connected to who you are as a human being. And I think some of what I’m noticing in the life coaching space is I’m constantly reminding my clients why they got into this business to begin with, because in my opinion, there’s nothing sadder than a burnt-out workaholic life coach. So you are a great role model, I think, on like She Takes on the World, but she also takes the summer of yes.

Natalie: Yes, and don’t you want your life coach to be living such a beautiful multi-dimensional full life with all these rich experiences? I know I do. And I think one of the things too that I did not expect is I have actually made more money and I feel more successful than I have ever felt in this space. And the more I let warrior Natalie rest and be more in this archetype of my wild woman spirit – because I do find it challenging to have both of these archetypes so strongly present in my life. And so there’s this constant negotiation of, like, warrior CEO Natalie would like wild free Natalie to maybe not take as much time off because we have a business to run, and they kind of negotiate how things are going to roll. And I have actually made more money and have felt more productive in this space. I’m getting more done and I know that it’s because I am rested, and when I am working, the hours that I am working are very focused. And I’m focused more on the essentials. I think there are a lot of things in our businesses that we put a lot of energy into that are actually not producing amazing results.

Like, I’ve had so many things that I’ve done and continued to put energy toward that were not making the amount of money that they really needed to be making for me to justify putting that much time into them. And so getting more focused and getting focused on the essentials and letting everything else fall away, I’m making more money, I have more time, I’m way happier, and I think you are such a great example of that. I’m so happy that everyone listening has Susan in their lives because I think you’re a really good example of that. And when you and I have had discussions, you’ve been like, “I would cut that.”

Susan: Yeah, I mean, I think that it’s really important, and I love that you’re sharing this, that there have been things that you’re just like, “You know what, for the amount of time and energy that I’m putting into that, it’s just not worth it.” And I certainly have had things like that in my business as well. I’m constantly evaluating and using the old writer’s term, you know, kill your darlings. Like, there are projects that I have loved, but at the end of the day, do I love it more than being able to go to the lake with my family? No, you know, so therefore it’s got to go. But I think that it’s also good to hear, like, “Hey guys, guess what, I’m more productive and actually making more money in this space where there’s negotiation between warrior Natalie and wild woman Natalie.” And I love that, that you’ve named the different parts of you and recognize that there’s a negotiation that needs to happen. So it’s not like warrior CEO Natalie is bad, bad, bad and we can only be wild woman Natalie now, or vice versa. It’s that there’s a coming together, a wholeness that happens when you step into that space of, like, really honoring yourself and honoring your business, but not at the expense of having an actual life.

Natalie: Yes, and I think that we all have part of ourselves that we judge and that we cast away; parts of ourselves that we feel are not welcome here, parts of ourselves that we feel are unlovable or unworthy. And I’ve definitely had those parts that I’ve shut the door on or tried to lock away in a closet somewhere. And my wild spirit, that part of me, is something I definitely shut out of my life and cast aside as I was building a company because I felt like that part of me was a distraction from my career and the things that I wanted to be doing in the world. But along the way, I realized how much I missed her in my life. And it’s been in the integration and just full acceptance and meeting all of those parts with love, the parts of myself that I have judged so much in the past. Returning to that, I just feel like a more whole, more integrated, more multi-faceted person. And bringing all of me now to my business and what I’m about to create, because in my rebranding of the personal brand, I want every part of me to be expressed in that brand.

Susan: Wait, wait, wait, so tell us, with this rebranding, what do you think will be most surprising to your audience that’s revealed in your new branding?

Natalie: I have been very polished in the past. My image has been very polished. I mean, for years, my website and my book cover, the She Takes on the World book cover, is like me sitting on a throne on top of the world. I mean, come on. And it was just a very polished, like, in-studio look and it was me performing in a way. Like, here’s the brand that I’ve built and here’s how we do that brand. Here’s how I show up as Natalie on-camera. And actually, I will give myself a little bit of credit here because one of the things over the years that people have told me is that when they meet me, I feel the same in person, even better though, than I am online and that it’s really refreshing to see that. And yet, there are still parts of myself that I have hid or things have been very rehearsed in the past. And moving forward, I want to be more raw. I want to be more real. I want to be more open about the challenges, about the things that are painful for me, the things that I am working through. I want to be expressed in my – I mean, even just in my clothing. I don’t want a stylist to be, like, “Okay, here’s the outfit you’re going to wear today.” I want to feel like how I felt at Burning Man, when, you know, I woke up in the morning and I put on a crushed velvet fuchsia thong bodysuit and gold chains…

Susan: Stop it. I need this photo in my life immediately.

Natalie: And then I went out into the world with these fierce sunglasses feeling all sexy and ready to take on the world. Like, I want to feel that way as much as possible in my everyday life, even though I’m not in the vortex of Burning Man right now. And I don’t want to be afraid of people judging me. Why do we spend so much time caring and thinking about what other people are going to think of us? And maybe, it’s like as I get older, I give fewer fucks. And you have been such a huge inspiration for me in that domain. So thank you. I bow to you. Like, I just bow at your feet, Susan.

Susan: Oh my gosh, you’re so funny. But you know, I agree with you. Like, I actually think that it’s so important. Like yes, there is warrior CEO Natalie who sits on her throne on top of the world, but then there’s also this crushed velvet thong bodysuit, like this has to be in my life. Like, I…

Natalie: It has to stay in my life. It’s so stunning. It’s gorgeous. I love how I feel in it and I just – like, why can’t I walk down the street wearing that? I felt like I had to be fully dressed to go to Whole Foods this morning. Like, I had what I wanted to walk out into the world wearing, and then I had what I ended up walking out into the world wearing because I was like, “I can’t go to Whole Foods wearing that. And I mean, I live in LA. If you’re going to express yourself anywhere, especially with what you wear, this is the place, you know. It’s not like I live in…

Susan: Where I live…

Natalie: Some conservative place somewhere where walking outside in a bodysuit would really be frowned upon. Here I feel like I could do it and this is my own edge, you know. I’m leaning into my own edges of, like, what is acceptable and just doing me. And I mean, I’m not going to do a photo shoot in a thong bodysuit anytime soon, I don’t think. Although now that I say those words, I’m just like, you’re naked on the cover of your book and I think that’s amazing, and I’m looking at this picture of you right now in Paris with these amazing legs and cleavage and you’re just looking all fierce in front of the Eifel Tower wearing this stunning gown like you just walked off the Oscars red carpet; why wouldn’t I wear whatever I want to wear?

Susan: Exactly, I really think that – like, I love that that was your answer, that your audience may be surprised because your branding has been so polished and beautiful and there’s a rawness and a wildness to you that your audience may be surprised, but they’re going to so fall in love with. I think that the combination of warrior CEO Natalie and wild woman Natalie, like honest to god, the avalanche of cash that’s going to be thrown at you is amazing. And for all of you listening and you’re thinking about your branding or redoing your branding or are hiding behind your branding, I really believe that we all change and evolve and expand, right? So it’s not like Natalie started out her career going, “I’m only going to be polished…” but as we age and expand and grow in our businesses, we start to realize that it’s more painful to hide these parts of ourselves. And I think that our audiences deserve to see.

Natalie: Yes, and I think that we all have those parts that we feel cannot be shown to the world. And I hope that in my fuller self-expression that people will see that and be, like, okay, it’s okay for me to share these parts of myself that I’ve been hiding or that I’ve been casting aside.

Susan: Absolutely.

Natalie: I want more leaders. Like, I want to be around people, I want to be around more leaders and entrepreneurs and artists and visionaries that are in their aliveness, who are fully expressing themselves. Like, how much can we do in the world from that place? And how much change can we create, especially for the next generation, when they see that it’s okay to be fully themselves. I think we need that more than ever.

Susan: Oh my god, that’s such a beautiful final point. But before we say goodbye to you, I want to know where people can track this aliveness in the future. Like, where can people hang out with you?

Natalie: Yes, first of all, I feel like – did we dive into our topic at all? Did we stay on-topic? I feel like I’ve just gone all over the place and talked so much…

Susan: This was like the best ever. We are going to have so much fun with this segment. This was perfect.

Natalie: It’s one of the only interviews I’ve done in the past year. I haven’t been doing any interviews while I’ve been deep in this process and cocoon, if you will, of just reflecting and just looking at all of these areas and, sort of, shifting my life in really big ways. It’s the first interview I’ve done in a very long time and it feels so good that it was with you.

Susan: I know, it was absolutely beautiful.

Natalie: Someone give me a microphone. I’ve got to not go that long without talking again. And people can find me, all of you listening – thank you for listening – you can find me on social @nataliemacneil – come check out my Instagram stories and find me on Facebook, and then shetakesontheworld.com. And I’m going to rebuild nataliemacneil.com too. That’s going to be the full Natalie, everything I’ve done over the last ten years and all the things. That’s not ready yet though.

Susan: That’s going to be ready and I am not going to rest until a photo of you in that thong bodysuit makes an appearance.

Natalie: How do you feel about that being the header image of my personal brand?

Susan: You’ve got to do it. You’ve got to do it, end of story.

Natalie: I’ll seriously think about that, do like a stunning photo shoot here at Venice Beach. It might happen. This hair…

--

What an awesome interview. Okay, so Natalie shared some surprising things, which is about how she’s moving from productivity to the richness of her life and the ritual of her life. And ritual is such an amazing part of my morning time. My day starts off a little differently.

I wake up and I go for a five-mile run almost every single morning. It wakes me up and it gets my day started right. So what about you? What’s one new habit, one new ritual that you can incorporate into your morning routine? Something that would really get your day started off right, because look, it doesn’t have to be a five-mile run, it could be something much smaller.

It could be 40 seconds of meditation, focusing on what you want to achieve that day, it could be four minutes of stretching, it could be playing your favorite song while you make your morning coffee and humming along; all rituals, right? So come up with one new habit that you can realistically bake into your morning routine starting tomorrow. Try to come up with a habit that sounds pleasurable to you, fun and inspiring, something that you actually want to do.

Write it down, put it somewhere that you’re going to see it, like right by your bedside table. And then wake up and do it and then wake up and do it again and again and again and again, on repeat. Over time, these little micro-habits add up. It’s your habits that lead to your success.

So that’s a wrap for today’s episode. I hope you enjoyed it. Your main action step for this week is to think about where your last few clients came from; how did those people find and hire you? And whatever you did to get those awesome clients, that’s what you need to double down, keep doing it; those are the habits to focus on.

Stay focused on those money generating habits. Those are your top priorities. The more you do these habits, the more normal they feel. And eventually, you reach a point where these habits are basically automatic. Remember, it’s not one breakthrough epiphany moment or one victory that makes you an Olympic champion like Michael Phelps; it’s all about your daily habits. It’s what you do in the dark when nobody is watching, when nobody is congratulating you, when nobody is holding you accountable except for you, that’s what makes you a success.

Alright, thank you so much listening to Susan Hyatt's Rich Coach Club. If you enjoyed today's show, please head over to susanhyatt.co/rich where you'll find a free worksheet with audio called 3 Things You Can Do Right Now To Get More Clients. You can download the worksheet and the audio, print it out, there's a fun checklist for you to check off. Just three things to do. Check, check, checkidy-check.

This worksheet makes finding clients feel so much simpler and not so scary. So head to susanhyatt.co/rich to get that worksheet. Over there, you're also going to find a free Facebook you can join especially for coaches. Bring your coaching practice and your income to the next level at susanhyatt.co. See you next week.

HOT ANNOUNCEMENTS

A Never-Before-Seen, 6-Month Mastermind with Susan Hyatt 

Go BEYOND what you thought was possible in your life & business. Reach BEYOND what you believe your goals “should be” by thinking bigger & bolder. Stretch BEYOND what you’re here to do, let pleasure lead the way, and live your life in complete fucking delight!

Our mission is to help you feel confident, powerful, and mentally and physically strong so you can help others do the same.

If you want to shatter glass ceilings and make history, the BARE Coach Certification was custom-made for you.

Share This Episode