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.

Hey coaches. Have you ever had an experience where you felt pretty confident about something but then you talked to a colleague, a mentor, a professor, a friend, and then suddenly you’re doubting yourself? Your confidence is rattled. You feel like, “Never mind, maybe I was wrong, maybe this is a dumb idea.”

This happens all the time to my clients. It happens to me sometimes for sure. It happens to everyone and we need to talk about this? I have a powerful story for you today and spoiler alert, this might make you cry. On this episode, we’re going to talk about your inner guidance and trusting yourself and not allowing outside influences to derail you in life or in business. Here we go.

A friend of mine has become obsessed - that is an understatement - obsessed with whale watching. Every day while she has her coffee, she sits on her deck and looks at the ocean with her binoculars. She even started a whale journal where she records their daily movements and she sends me photos of her whale journal and it’s like, dorsal fin sighted at 6am. She’s just completely obsessed.

And don’t you love it when someone discovers an intense passion and they go all in and completely commit to their obsession? I just love that. So my friend has been reading about whales too and she was telling me about a book called The Breath of a Whale, and there’s a story in this book that I need to share with you because it’s so relevant for women, especially women entrepreneurs.

So in this book, the author Leigh Calvez is writing about her experiences as a scientist and naturalist studying the mating and migration habits of humpback whales. And in the book, she describes one moment in her career when she noticed that there was something terribly wrong.

What happened was the US Navy had just begun testing low frequency active sonar, LFA, underwater, off the coast of Hawaii. So sending powerful sound waves into the exact place where the whales came to nurse their babies every year. Calvez and her research team worried that the sound waves might disturb the mother whales and their calves and sadly, they were right.

Shortly after LFA testing began, she noticed one baby whale all alone, separated from its mama, thrashing and swimming in bizarre circles, clearly distressed. And she knew that unless it could somehow be reunited with its family, that this baby would starve and die.

So she observed lone babies not just once but several times with whales and dolphins too and she reported her findings to the military. But instead of taking her seriously, they questioned her and tried to poke holes in her findings. Well, how do you know the calf was distressed? Are you sure? Really? How can you be really sure?

They asked her a slew of questions, undermining her authority as a researcher and subtly insinuating that perhaps she was allowing her own emotions to cloud her judgment. You know, just another hysterical overly emotional woman.

After that phone call ended, Calvez was so stunned that her head was spinning and she even began to wonder, well, could they be right? Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe they know more than I do. After all, this is the military we’re talking about. Surely they know what they’re doing.

And she began doubting her own research and instincts. It took years before Calvez came to grips with the fact that she had not been wrong. She had been gaslighted. She had allowed persuasive authority figures to rattle her confidence and she vowed never to let this happen again.

This story is powerful for so many reasons and it’s such an important message for women and girls. Trust your instincts, trust your research and trust the evidence, trust your inner guidance, even when others don’t believe. Trust that you know what the hell you are talking about and you are not an idiot.

Don’t allow an authority figure, whether it’s a military official, your mentor, a colleague in your mastermind group, or even a coach that you’re hired to cause you to second-guess what you know. This has happened to me plenty of times.

Like, back in college when I was dreaming about writing and studying journalism and my professor told me that I just didn’t have the talent and take what it takes. Can you believe? She told me that my writing skills were not good enough and she didn’t think this was a good path for me to pursue because she didn’t want me to embarrass myself. And I believed her.

I was only 18 years old so I thought she knows better than I do, she must be right. So I abandoned my dream and I didn’t write another line for probably 21 years. So tragic. And the ridiculous thing is today, y’all know I’ve written several books, hundreds of articles, I host my own podcast and YouTube show, I’m constantly writing for a living.

That professor who urged me to stay away from writing and journalism and media was just complete wrong about me. So let this me a cautionary tale. Do not blindly put your trust into an authority figure and their opinion because they might be dead wrong. Just like Calvez, the whale researcher standing at the edge of the ocean seeing the truth with her own two eyes, you got to trust yourself. Trust that you know.

Alright, it’s time for some wins. Some victories. I love this part of this show because I love bragging about client wins and Rich Coach Club member wins, and today, I want to give a shout-out for a former podcast guest, Crystal Ruth Thompson.

So last week, I did a five-day challenge inside my Rich Coach Club group and during that week, I did some hot seat coaching. And some of you applied, I pulled some of you from the audience and randomly coached you for 10, 15 minutes. And one of the things that I coached Crystal on was overworking and being able to have boundaries around her work hours.

And she posted in the group, she said, “I just put my hands on my desk and I said I have done enough today. Look at what 15 minutes of hot seat coaching with Susan Hyatt can do.” And then she posted a YouTube video of that amazing song Girl Put Your Records On. You need to crank that up right now.

Congratulations Crystal. I love helping entrepreneurs create money but also wealth and time. So you too have probably done enough today, so I want to make sure you’re giving yourself a break. So congratulations to you Crystal, that’s amazing. And hey, if you’re not yet a member of the Rich Coach Club Facebook group, get yourself in there.

It’s easy to join. We’re always doing fun things in there. And if you just go to Facebook and search Rich Coach Club, you can find the link to also join in the show notes. We’d love to have you in the club.

Okay, something new. Y’all, I just signed up for this amazing service where you can text me and I can text you back. So there’s no spam involved in this. I’m only texting people pep talks, pictures of Mork the Beagle. Maybe an occasional video.

Here’s the number. You’re going to want to write this down. Area code 812-408-1823. That’s 812-408-1823. If you text me at that number, it’s really me texting you back and I promise, I won’t abuse it. There’s a Monday morning one-minute pep talk I’ve been sending out. People seem to be loving it. So hey, text me. You never know what you’re going to get.

One more thing before the end of today’s show. I have a question for you. What’s one area of your life or career where you tend to second-guess yourself? Or where you tend to defer to other people’s decisions instead of making your own?

Maybe you always second-guess your writing, you feel like nothing you write is ever good enough, or maybe you second-guess your pricing instincts. You decide to charge $250 an hour for coaching, but then you backpedal. Oh, I don’t know, maybe $150, maybe $99. Maybe $2, maybe free. I don’t know. Stop that.

Claim what you know and hold true. Be unwavering and unstoppable. Look, it’s totally okay to ask for help and hire specialists and get support to accomplish your goals. Absolutely. If you need a website, hire a web designed. Hire someone to do your taxes. Hire a car mechanic. Whatever.

It’s great to get help. But there’s a difference between seeking help versus handing over your power to somebody else. Do not allow someone to derail your confidence and gaslight you into believing something that isn’t true. Or doing something that doesn’t fit.

So definitely hire help, seek advice, find a mentor or coach, hire me, hell, for sure. But ultimately, you got to follow your own guidance. That’s what I teach my clients to do. And that’s the bottom line and the final word always.

Thank you for listening to this episode of the Rich Coach Club podcast. I hope this episode reminded you to trust your inner guidance, your inner Google. You are the search engine and you have the final word. And if you suspect that someone’s gaslighting you and trying to make you believe something that is false, trust your instincts because you’re probably right.

Hey, thank you for listening all the way to the end. So have you checked out my website lately? Maybe, maybe not, maybe you haven’t peeked at the site since 2012. I want you to go to susanhyatt.co. That’s susanhyatt.co and go scope it out.

There are so many gems there for you to check out. We’ve got free classes, TV show episodes, and of course, all the info about my programs to help you build your dream coaching practice and make significantly more money. Get yourself a cup of coffee, bop over to the site, settle in for a few minutes and go see what we’ve got for you. Thanks for listening to the show and I’ll see you next time.