How Gratitude Can Help Grow Your Business with Lachelle Wieme (Motivated CEO w/Amy Traugh)

Amy Traugh: [00:00:00] Are you ready to take your business to the next level and make the money you want so that you can create the impact you desire? Then you are in the right place. It's possible to run a successful business built around your life. Get ready for a little bit of tough love and a whole lot of strategy to grow your business without sacrificing your sanity.

If you are ready to get out of your own way and step into the role of CEO. Then let's go. I am Amy Tro, and this is the Motivated CEO podcast.

Welcome back into the motivated CEO podcast. I am so excited for today's guest, Lashelle. We are talking all about. Adopting a mindset of gratitude. As entrepreneurs, it's so easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of everyday life. So today's conversation is going to be incredible. [00:01:00] But before we dive in, I would love to introduce you to today's guest, Michelle, welcome into the podcast.

LaChelle Wieme: Thank you, Amy. I'm so excited for our conversation. We have so much in common that I just am so honored and grateful that I get a chance to spend some time with you and with your audience today. Yes,

Amy Traugh: yes. But before we dive in, tell us all about yourself, who you are, what you do, and who you serve.

LaChelle Wieme: Oh, I love that.

So yes, I am a former nurse anesthetist turned entrepreneur. So I left my full-time 20 year anesthesia career a year and a half ago to pursue my, my dreams, my calling, and it's been a wild ride. Amy, you and I were just talking before we hit record, that, you know, when I left my, my 20 year career to step into this, this beautiful life that I have, I never.

Ever in a million years thought that it would've taken me where it has taken me. You know, and the, the fact that I've been on stages that I never thought I would be on. I've been, you know, wrote my book in in just a couple of days. It's been a [00:02:00] wild, wild ride, but I am so grateful that God has allowed me to help really.

Driven impact, you know, um, inspired women to, to find some strength in their strategies, to be able to make some decisions that have been hard, to be able to build the competence and belief themselves and to follow through on those bold moves that they know they need to do. And it sounds like you have an audience that, that can definitely relate to all of that.

So I'm really excited to serve everybody today.

Amy Traugh: Yes. Oh, I love it. It's hard as an entrepreneur to make those decisions, especially when you do come from a career like you did. I also come from a healthcare background and making that decision that I knew that career was no longer aligned with me. That was hard.

Yeah, totally. That was really hard. But something you said too is that. We keep ourselves safe, we try and stay safe. And I feel like looking back at the journey, I'm like, wow, there were signs a lot longer than I even like, was aware of that. Things were just out of line. So I really appreciate you [00:03:00] sharing that because I, I feel like it gives hope to those listening in like, oh my gosh, I'm going through that right now.

So we're here on the other side to share with like you that, hey, it's okay that messy middle is hard. But once you absolutely felt that permission to make a decision, ugh. It's so wild. Totally.

LaChelle Wieme: And you know, the thing is, is that, you know, kind of tying this back to gratitude, I think that sometimes people feel like they have to hate where they are in order to feel courageous enough to do something about it.

Yeah. And honestly, that's not where I came from. I loved my job. It found that I was being called for more. Like there was something inside of me that just knew that this wasn't it. Even though I loved my job, I loved what I did, I loved my colleagues, and so sometimes we can get. Stuck into this feeling like we have to be discontented or miserable or, or angry with our current situation in order to move us to the next step, to the new, move us to the next level.

And it doesn't [00:04:00] have to be that way. This is your journey. You get to decide, hey, I'm in gratitude for what I have right now and I'm excited for where I'm going. Right.

Amy Traugh: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Because so many of us, we wrestle with this guilt around that exact feeling. Yeah. Because it's like, well, I know I'm meant for more, but, but who am I?

I have my dream job. I have everything that I worked so hard for. Yeah. And I'm, I'm content.

LaChelle Wieme: Right. So

Amy Traugh: how did you work through that? Yeah.

LaChelle Wieme: Oh my gosh. Like, I think that, that, that's the thing, right? Like I was a breadwinner of my family. I married to an amazing fifth grade teacher, so teachers do not get paid well enough.

So I was definitely the breadwinner. Um, you know, my kids, I. Have, and my husband and I have a lifestyle that we're used to. And then for me to take that, that big risk was, was scary. It was hard. And I definitely found myself into stages of imposter syndrome or wondering what the heck I'm thinking. Or maybe it's just I'm going through something, you know, that I just need [00:05:00] to get over, right?

But that little nudge never went away. And I think that it's, it's really just allowing ourselves to explore it, allowing ourselves to say this and. To create the the and life. And so was what I was able to do was start to incorporate different ways that made me feel challenged and fulfilled alongside of my current position.

And then it was kind of like, oh my gosh, like this is lighting me up. This is where I wanna be. And I allowed those breadcrumbs to lead me to where I was supposed to be. And. I mean, gosh, it's, it definitely was hard. Definitely was hard, but I am grateful for every single step of the way. I'm grateful for the experience that I had.

I mean, who would've ever thought that? My experience as a professor would have led me to a place where I create courses all the time because that's what I'm gifted in, right? Who would've ever thought that speaking in for anesthesia seminars for years would lead me to stages where I get to speak on things that I'm [00:06:00] super passionate about.

So all of these things that have been sprinkled into your life up to this point are all beautiful clues. How can you utilize the gifts that you've been given? How can you utilize your experiences? How can you utilize the things that you've overcome? Because that might be very well, the thing that is gonna help you propel yourself into who you are supposed to be in order to help other people on that journey.

And so, I, I'm just, I am, I'm grateful for every single, single step of the way.

Amy Traugh: Yeah, and you've done that through gratitude, and this is something that takes practice. I think there's a lot of misconceptions surrounding gratitude, right? Yeah. That people think, oh, I just have to be walking around delusional all day long.

No, not at all. So I would love for you to unpack a little bit as to like, okay, to really cultivate a mindset of gratitude. How do we go about doing that when you know we are facing these feelings like, okay, well it's good enough. I think I should just settle, right? Yeah,

LaChelle Wieme: totally. Totally. [00:07:00] And then I wanna just wanna say something really quickly that fine.

FINE is my least favorite four letterer F word.

Amy Traugh: Yes. I love that. And

LaChelle Wieme: so I think that so often we allow ourselves to, to be okay with fine when God has something even bigger and better in store for us, right? So don't get stuck into a V. Like that's what I wanna tell you first and foremost. But again, it doesn't have to feel like I have to be discontented and, um.

Like, how could I put this? Like you don't have to to be miserable in order to act, you can be in gratitude and to act. This is the, and the life God really led me down in this place where I recognize that I can feel challenged and fulfilled and I. Spend more time with my family, like it can be beyond the fine.

Right. And I think that, you know, speaking with my, speaking of my family, I think that one of the, the, you know, greatest lessons that I learned was from a book called The Happiness Advantage by Sean a Gore. And in this book he talked about. Um, Victor Frankl, who was [00:08:00] the author of the On Man's Search for Meaning amazing book.

If you haven't read it, please, I, I would recommend it. But in this book, Sean talked about Victor in the sense that he was a concentration camp survivor who had been stripped of. Everything. He had stripped of his health, his family, um, all of his possessions, and he was standing there naked in this Nazi concentration camp and one of the guards noticed that he had a wedding ring on and he forced him to hand it over.

And Victor said in this moment, he got to choose. His attitude, like he can take everything from me. He can take my family, my health, everything from me, but he can't take my attitude. And happiness and gratitude is a choice. I believe that we've all been given a beautiful superpower of free will and that free will allows us to choose.

So I can either choose. To allow my circumstances to, to be overpowering me or I get to choose to be in gratitude. And one of the things [00:09:00] that Sean said in this book was that you can't be anxious and grateful at the same time. So whenever my kids and I and my husband are at the dinner table, if they have been struggling with something, I'm like, all right, I'm gonna challenge you to think about three things that you're grateful for right now.

And it's amazing how much that one little exercise can shift our, our focus. And one of the things that I teach a lot, my, my program is called Spiral Up. And the whole premise is that I want to keep my clients in massive forward momentum. Momentum. It's, it's success in motion, right? It's really easy for us to spiral down.

We don't get a sale. We aren't getting the following we wanted. We didn't meet a goal. Um, you know, we, we feel stuck in confusion and doubt, and we spiral down. You guys, you get to choose. Your thoughts, you get to choose how you are going to, to allow yourself to go into forward momentum versus allowing yourself to get sucked down into that spiral of being a victim to your circumstances.

And so [00:10:00] I love the fact that gratitude allows us to shift the way that we're thinking. Um, our thoughts create our feelings. Our feelings create our actions, and our action creates our results, right? And so if you are not happy with your results, then you have to back it up into what have my actions been, what have my feelings been, and how have I been thinking?

And I swear to God, like every single time that I shift my thoughts into gratitude, it brings me to a feeling that is more positive, that's more empowering, and therefore my actions and my results follow suit.

Amy Traugh: Ugh. Yes. Right there. All of that. Because this is backed by science.

LaChelle Wieme: Mm-hmm. This

Amy Traugh: isn't just Woo No.

This is scientifically pro proven because at the end of the day, our brains are hardwired for negativity. It's survival. And when we realize that we can control the thoughts going on [00:11:00] in our minds, if we're aware of them. It makes it easier. I love that you do that practice with your kids. We do something similar every night before bed.

Tell me three things you're grateful for. Because our brains we go to, we default to, okay, this is everything bad that happened to me. Oh, totally. Yeah. That we forget. It's that negativity bias, right. I love that book, Sean's book. It's literally like on my bookshelf behind me. It's amazing. One of my favorite books and I reread it all the time because it's powerful.

How we get to choose. Mm-hmm. And like you said, you know, free will, that's giving us the ability to choose. But so many of us we're afraid, we're afraid to make the choice that could make a change, because that's. That's scary, that's uncomfortable. That comes with a fear of failure, judgment, even fear of success holds so many entrepreneurs back.

Yes. So I'd love to hear your [00:12:00] perspective on that.

LaChelle Wieme: Yes. Uh, all of the things, right? Yes. Like we definitely could get sucked into to all of those fears and, and including success. I mean, I remember a mindset block that I had was, I was afraid that being successful meant being alone at the top, and I was afraid that I would have to choose my calling.

Against like all the people that meant the world to me. Right? Yeah. And I found myself growing and actually having some friendships kind of, um, be pruned outta my life. And it was like, oh gosh, like here's my worst case scenario coming true. I. But then I allowed for the gratitude of new relationships that have come in that were this or something better.

And so I think that all of the things that we, we face are, are absolutely normal. All of us, Amy and I both have had lots of setbacks, lots of fears. Don't ever let somebody tell you that they're not afraid. My goal is not to have, be fear free, but fear less. I wanna [00:13:00] be fearing less. I wanna be able to face it and, and reach forward.

And I think that. One of the things that I find with, with my clients is they, they bring a lot of buts to the table. All right, so let me tell you what this, this means. Buts in, in my acronym are beliefs, underestimating truth, okay? Beliefs, underestimating truth. So if I fear that be being successful means that I am going to lose all of my friends, my husband, everybody that I care about, then I am gonna have to ask myself, is that true?

Is there evidence in the world that is contradictory to that truth? And the answer is yes. There are plenty of people who are successful, who have a strong family life, who have lots of friends who, who feel like they're surrounded by really great people. So maybe that's not truth. So then my belief is underestimating that truth, my belief, my own fears, my own worries about being rejected, my own fears about being alone [00:14:00] are underestimating what's actually true.

So the moment that I decide that I'm not gonna submit to my butt and I'm going to allow for myself to accept truth, I'm able to start to shift the way that I'm thinking in order to feel a more empowered thought. Feel feeling right. Versus something that feels like I'm subject to something else. So Yes.

Amy Traugh: Yes. And that right there is such a powerful exercise because we all have those fears that are running rampant in our brains. You said, we've both had them. I mean, I'm, when we're recording this, I am literally two weeks away from my first book being launched into the world. It's terrifying. And I know you've been there before, Elle, it's like terrifying because it's like, oh my gosh, is everybody gonna hate it?

Is anybody gonna buy it? Like, okay, I'm really proud of myself. But you know, there's still that piece of you that it's new, it's unknown. But like you [00:15:00] said, question it. Question those buts because yes, fear is there. Let's acknowledge it, question it, and move through it. Like, okay, this is purely like this is not a real threat.

Yeah. Worst case is not that bad. You know, I can wall over for a day, I can wall over an hour. But you know what, if I can make an impact for one person, is it worth being understood by another person that the book wasn't even meant for? Okay, no problem. Like, right when we get through that, like I can be, choose to be so massively gratitude, uh, grateful.

Mm-hmm. For those who gave me positive feedback, right? It's a choice. It all comes back to what you said. It's a choice.

LaChelle Wieme: It's a choice. That's where our superpower lies. And you know, one of the things that I love to geek out on Amy, is I incorporate this really cool combination of scripture, quantum physics, and brain science into everything that I do, because I help people get faster results, right?[00:16:00]

And we do that with the quantum physics part of it. So if you don't mind, I'm gonna bring that into this whole gratitude dot because I think that it's going to give people some hope. And honestly, like, here's the deal. If you hear anything from me, it doesn't have to be brick and hard. Yes, you guys, what if I'm gonna, I'm like, I use this all the time with my clients.

Like here's an easy button. Like what if it was easy? And I think that we overcomplicate the crap out of things all the time and it's like, let's just take a moment and. Just think what if it doesn't have to be so dang hard? All right. So one of the things that I love to talk about is something called the emotional vibrational scale.

Have you heard of that, Amy? I have, yes. Okay, cool. And so what that does, um, scientists, including scientists from MIT, have been able to measure the. Frequency or the speed in which the electrons inside of our body vibrate when we're feeling certain emotions. Okay, so when I am feeling emotions of love, joy, gratitude, freedom, my, my [00:17:00] electrons are literally spinning like crazy.

I. Crazy fast, and they measure that with frequency. So it's a higher frequency. When I am thinking feelings of sadness to spare, hopelessness, my vibration is much, much lower. The frequency is much, much lower. And what is so fascinating is that I. Gratitude is the one thing that can shoot us from the bottom of that scale to the top of that scale.

Now, why does that matter? Your dream life, your dream clients, your dream experiences, all is aligned with the frequency of that higher vibration. So if you can, um. Take yourself into to, you know, back in the day when, when Amy and I, when we used to listen to, um, the top 40 with Casey Casso. Remember that?

Yeah.

Amy Traugh: Oh, absolutely.

LaChelle Wieme: Casey Casso is, you know, in the studio, in LA or wherever, you know, and I'm listening to his radio station from my tiny little town in Minnesota. Right? Why? Because I was tuned into the frequency of his station. So [00:18:00] the life that I want, the ideas, the clients, the, the freedom that I want.

Is in alignment with the frequency of those things. And if I can raise my frequency the way that my body is vibrating to be in alignment with that broadcast, I am more likely to think those thoughts, to meet those people that have those experiences. And so I'm gonna give you an idea, um, an example of that.

Um. When I was, um, really contemplating like, what is my next step, right? I left my job and I really wanted to like go gangbusters, and then I kind of stalled a little bit. It's like, oh my gosh, like what is my one thing? Like what is the thing that sets me apart then, then everybody else? And I was so, so frustrated and, and, and overwhelmed with the thought of it and, and couldn't.

Come up with it, and I kept analyzing the problem. And if you're watching this on video, you can see that my hand is down at the bottom of the screen and I was literally just analyzing the crap out of it from every single angle I could. And I was praying [00:19:00] for some clarity around this, but I was analyzing it so much that I was just reengaging in the frequency of that problem.

Meanwhile, just like Amy's book, just like my book, the the front and the back of this book both coexist at the same time. So just because I'm looking at the front doesn't mean that the back doesn't exist, right? And so the meanwhile, while I'm down here, you know, praying about this and analyzing the heck out of this problem, the solution exists.

I just wasn't in alignment with the solution. And I go on this dream vacation with my family last summer. We traveled through all these different states, drove out to Utah, went to all these national parks. It was literally the trip of a lifetime. I saw the most beautiful places on the planet with the people I love the most in the world.

I. And guess what happened? I was in the frequency of the solution and out of nowhere popped into my head. My signature program spiral up out of nowhere. It is the exact same thing that I've been praying for, the clarity around it, and it just popped into my head. I. I thought [00:20:00] to myself, why didn't I think about this before?

And I've had people who have had multimillion dollar businesses say to me, how did you come up with that? Like, that's genius. And it's like, I literally was just in the frequency of that. And so if you can allow yourself to stay in the frequency of love and joy, and peace, and gratitude and freedom, the things, the people, the ideas are going to naturally find you.

It doesn't have to be the struggle. And when I think about that, it's like you have to just trust this. You have to know it, that it's on its way to you, and you take inspired action as if you just are ready for it. Like, well, of course it's coming. And you take inspired action. And when you take inspired action with an understanding and a knowing with expectation Thanksgiving that it's on its way to you, it will appear.

In your life and your brain. The way our brain works is your brain will start to think in that way and start to find things in your [00:21:00] outside world that match your inside world. Guys. It doesn't have to be hard.

Amy Traugh: Exactly. It doesn't have to be hard because think about those people that you're just naturally attracted to.

We say that they're high vibe, right? We hear all this. Oh, she's got such a great vibe. It's because they're at that higher frequency. It's that simple. And gratitude is a shortcut to get us from point A to point B hundred

LaChelle Wieme: percent. And when I look at the, when I look at the emotional vibrational scale, you can really cut it in half from neutral up are all very empowered feelings.

If you look at the neutral and below, those are disempowered feelings. Those are where we feel like something outside of ourselves has the control. We're subject to something else. The moment that you can get yourself to neutral and above and you feel more empowered, you will literally start shifting the way that your body is vibrating.

And the most, um, efficient, [00:22:00] fastest way for you to shift yourself from disempowered to empowered is in with gratitude. Yes. And I wanna take it a step further, Amy, and say that I want to, I, when I talk about gratitude too, this is kind of, um, something that I feel can help. With, with just taking this like a step further, like good, better, best, right?

Mm-hmm. So, so being in gratitude and having gratitude are two different things. Do you know what I'm talking about?

Amy Traugh: Mm-hmm. Yeah, definitely.

LaChelle Wieme: And so when I think about, like, I, I. I am just a sucker for like stupid movies that you don't have to think sometimes and they just like have fun. Same liners. And so one of my favorite movies is Anchorman Like totally like not at all.

I love it nonfiction, but I love that stupid movie. And there's this scene in that movie where, you know, will Farrow and his buddies are sitting around talking about what it's like to be in love and. When they ask like, Hey Ron, what's it like to be in love? And he starts going into a song [00:23:00] like Skyrockets in Flight.

All starts singing Capella, right? And then there's one guy in the scene, his name is Brick, and he is just like, kind of, kind of slow to the punch a little bit. And Brick's like, I, I love Lamp, I love Lamp. And they're like, Brooke, are you just saying you love Lamp because you see a lamp? I love lamp, and it's kind of like that, like I can say like, I'm grateful for Amy, I'm grateful for my water.

You know, I'm grateful for the sunshine. But there's a difference between like calling things out and being in gratitude, being in love where you just like wanna burst into song, right? It's the space of like, just feeling the essence of gratitude, just feeling this satisfied. Peace and joy and love and, and knowing that everything is exactly the way it's supposed to be right now, and you're [00:24:00] excited for what's to come.

And it's just almost like this emotional state of being. Don't you think, oh yeah, that will take you to this next level. So start out by saying like, I love, you know, water, but take it a step further and being in gratitude for it. Feel it, taste it, smell it, touch it, embody it. Because those feelings are what are going to activate another quantum space and field that is going to help you to get to where you wanna go faster.

So

Amy Traugh: Yes. Yes. Because so often we hear about having a gratitude practice. Mm-hmm. It's a practice. You are conjuring up those feelings. Like you said, I think a lot of people do. Oh, I'm thankful for water. I'm thankful for sunshine. You know, all of these things, which is great. That's great to start with. Yeah, but then we have to really cultivate, well why?

How does that sunshine feel on your skin? Like for me, like I'll take myself back to an awesome family vacation where I was sitting on the beach, my [00:25:00] kids are playing in the sand. Like that's what really conjures up those. Awesome feelings. That's what raises your vibration. Yes,

LaChelle Wieme: a hundred percent. You know, and I, okay, so I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be a real mom for a second.

Mm-hmm. So there might be listeners that are like, oh my God, I love spending every single weekend at my daughter's fifth grade basketball tournament. It is the highlight of my life that is not me. I am not that mom. Same. I go because I love her. Yeah. And I go because I wanna support her, but I can think of a million other things I'd rather do.

Let's just be real. Okay. So good for you if you're the other mom. Yep. Not me, but so I'm, I'm at this, I'm at this tournament like a couple weeks ago, right. And I'm like, okay, so she, she wins and they were having to stay for another game versus getting to go home and like. I'm peace out. Right? Yeah. So like a good mom would've been like, I hope they win.

And then there's me that's like, I hope we can get home. I feel seen, but, but I was like, okay, what, what [00:26:00] in this moment can I take from this? It's like, okay, number one, I love the fact that I get to spend time with my family. I love the fact that I am in a space where I get to go to her tournaments. I'm not at work, right?

So it's like even if you're in a situation that you don't wanna be, where can you find the gratitude in that? So like I want to cultivate more freedom to be able to say yes to what I wanna do. I wanna cultivate more time with my family. I want to cultivate more ways that I get to cheer my daughter on.

You know what I'm saying? And so it's in that gratitude, it's finding the things that you're grateful for in the midst of where you're at. Yes. That will help you to attract more of those things that you're grateful for. So I know that more experiences with me, spending time with my family, more experiences of me having the freedom to go, more experiences of me getting to cheer her on are on its way to me because I take the time to find that gratitude in.

Situation. [00:27:00] Yes.

Amy Traugh: You're taking the time to cultivate those feelings. It's all about cultivating. It's just like when we plant something in the ground, we have to cultivate. We have to cultivate in order to grow us. Yes. Yes, Michelle, this was amazing. I could talk to you all day long. How can listeners get into your world and learn all about you?

LaChelle Wieme: Oh my gosh. I would absolutely love to get to know any one of you guys. I keep myself very simple. Um, I brand myself with my name, with everything. So you can find [email protected], on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, um, YouTube, and um, lashelle wee.com is my website. Come on over. Watch, um, the Spar Up podcast, if you want a little bit more about this geeky brain science, quantum physics, and scripture angle to things.

And I just want to encourage all of you guys to remember that you have all been given this beautiful superpower of choice. Every single moment of every single day, you get to choose and your thoughts create [00:28:00] things and your things are the experiences that you get to live. And I want to just encourage you guys all to, to take that superpower and run with it 'cause you've got it and you've got a great mentor here with Amy.

So thanks to everybody.

Amy Traugh: Yes, and until next time, cheers to making the money you want so you can make the impact you desire. Are you loving what you're hearing? Do us a favor and hit that subscribe button so you don't miss an episode.