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're 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're ready to get out of your own way

and step into the role of CEO

then let's go

I'm Amy Trot and this is the Motivated CEO Podcast

welcome back into the Motivated CEO Podcast

I am so excited for today's guest Michelle

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

but before we dive in

I would love to introduce you to today's guest

the show welcome into the podcast

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 yes

but before we dive in tell us all about yourself

who you are what you do and who you serve

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 Colleen and it's been a wild ride

Amy you and I were just talking to

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 have 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 bet you know

wrote my book in in just a couple of days

it's been a 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 confidence

to believe 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

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 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 the things were just out of line

so I really appreciate you sharing that

because

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

once you absolutely

have that permission to make a decision

oh it's so wild

and you know what 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

and honestly that's not where I came from

I loved my job

it found that I was being called for more

like there were

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 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 yeah

yeah exactly

because so many of us

we wrestle with this guilt around that exact feeling

because it's like well

I know I meant for more but

but who am I I have my dream job

I have everything that I worked so hard for and I'm

I'm content right

so how did you work through that yeah

oh my gosh like I think that that's a 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 have

and my husband and I have a lifestyle that were 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 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

and to create the and life

and so was

what I was able to do is 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 bread crumbs

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 have 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 have 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 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'm just I am

I'm grateful for every single single step of the way

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 delusion all day long

no not at all

so I would love for you to unpack a little bit

ask you 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 totally

totally

and I wanted to say something really quickly that fine

F I N E is my least favorite four letter f word yes

I love that 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 in a fine

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 life

God really LED me down in this place

where I recognize that

I can feel challenged and fulfilled

and 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 you know

greatest lessons I Learned was from a book called

The Happiness Advantage by Sean Ackor

and in this book he talked about

um Victor Frankel

who is the author of The Unmanned Search for Meaning

amazing book if you haven't read it

please 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'd 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 could to choose to be in gratitude

and one of the things 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

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 premises that I want to keep my client in

massive or momentum momentum

it's it's success in motion right

and 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 four momentum

versus allowing yourself to get sucked out into that

spiral of being a victim to your circumstances

and so 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're not happy with your results

then you have to back it up into

what of 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

in the gratitude

it brings me to a feeling that is more positive

as more empowering and therefore

my actions in my results follow suit

yes right there

all of that because this is backed by science

this isn't just woo no

this is scientifically proven

because at the end of the day

our brains are hard wired for negativity

it's survival and when we realize that we can control

the thoughts going on in our minds

if we're aware of them

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

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

we get to choose and like you said

you know free will

that's giving us the ability to choose

but so many of us were 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

so I'd love to hear your perspective on that

yes all of the things right

like

we definitely get sucked into 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 and I found myself growing

and actually having some friendships kind of um

be pruned out of my life and it was like

oh gosh like here's my worst case scenario coming true

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 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 fearless

I wanna 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 under estimating truth

a beliefs underestimating truth

so if I fear that be being successful

mean 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 true

so then my belief is underestimating that truth

my belief

my own fear is my own worries about being rejected

my own fears about being alone

are underestimating what's actually true

and so the moment that I decided 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 and feel

feeling right versus

something that feels like

I'm subject to something else yes

yes and that right there is such a powerful exercise

because we all have those fears

that are running rampant in our brains

like you said we 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 the show

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 he said

question it question those butts 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 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 when we get through that

I'd like I can be choose to be so massively gratitude

grateful those you gave me a feedback right

it's a choice it all comes back to what you said

it's a choice

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 people get faster results right

and we do that with the quantum physics part of it

so if you don't mind I'm gonna bring that hint

whole gratitude that

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 freaking hard yeah

you guys what if I'm gonna I'm like

I use all 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 well

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'm feeling emotions of love joy

gratitude freedom

my my electrons are literally spinning like crazy

crazy fast and they measure that with frequency

so the 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

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 Case

remember that yeah

oh absolutely

he's amazing 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 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 like

oh my gosh like what is my one thing

like what is the thing that sets me apart than

than 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 for some clarity around this

but I was analyzing it so much

that I was just re

engaging 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 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 place on the planet

with the people I love the most in the world

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 in my head

and I thought to myself

why didn't I think about this before

and I've had people who have had multi

million 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

and 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 is on its way to you

and you take inspired action

as if you just are ready for like well

of course it's coming and you take inspired action

and when you take inspired action

with an understanding and knowing

with expectation Thanksgiving that is 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 outside world

that match your inside world guys

it doesn't have to be hard

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 to

point b 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

right 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 fastest way for you to shift yourself from

disempowered to empowered

is in with gratitude

and I wanna take it a step further Amy

and say that I want to

when I talk about gratitude to this is kind of um

something that I feel can help with

with just taking this out like a step further

like good better best right

so so

being in gratitude

and having gratitude are two different things

do you know what I'm talking about

hmm definitely

and so when I think about like I

I'm just a sucker for like

stupid movies that you don't have to think sometimes

and they just like have fun liners

and so one of my favorite movies is Anchorman

like totally like not at all

I love it non fiction but I love that stupid movie

and there's a scene in that movie where

you know

Will Ferrell 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 like

Sky Rockets in flight

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 Brooks like I I love lamp

I love lamp and they're like brick

are you to see me 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 excited for what's to come

and it's just almost like this emotional state of bean

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 and body it

because those feelings are what

you are going to activate

another quantum space in field

that is going to help you to get to where you wanna go

faster so nice yes

because so often

we hear about having a gratitude practice

it's a practice

you're 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

but then we have to really cultivate 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 kids are playing in the sand

like

that's what really conjures up those awesome feelings

that's what raises your vibration hundred percent

you know and I okay

so I'm gonna be I'm gonna be a real mom for a second

so there might be listeners that are like

oh my God I love spending every single weekend

at my daughter's 5th grade basketball tournament

it is the highlight of my life that is not me

I am not that mom I go because I love her

and I go because I want to 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 so 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

so like good mom would have been like

I hope they win and then there's me there's like

we hope we can get home

I feel seen

but I was like okay

what what in this moment can I take from this

it's like okay

No. 1

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

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

the situation yes

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

yeah Michelle

this was amazing I could talk to you all day long

how can listeners get into your world

and learn all about you 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 me at le shall we me. com on Facebook

Instagram LinkedIn

um YouTube

and um why shall we be dot com as my website

come on over watch um

the spiral 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 things

and your things are

the experiences that you get to live

and I want to just encourage you

guys all 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 yes

and until next time cheers to making the money you want

so you can make the impact you desire

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