How to harness your intuition to grow an aligned business you love

Welcome to the Empowered Edupreneur Podcast. My name is Michelle Smit and I am an ex-teacher turned online business coach for Edupreneurs, the owner of Digiteach and a six-figure entrepreneur. I am in love with empowering educators just like you to create freedom filled online businesses and lives they love.

If you are looking to up-level your skills, your finances, your mindset, and change the trajectory of your life as an educator and business, then you are in the right place. Think of this podcast as your weekly dose of business and mindset development to help unlock the infinite potential within. To play bigger with your life and go after your dreams.

We are going to have so much fun together. So thank you so much for pushing play today. Now let's dive in.

Hello, hello. Happy whatever day it is today for you when you're listening to this. I hope you're having a great day and a great week. I just came back from the gym. My body is going to be super stiff tomorrow, but cheers to committing to our health and the process and the difficulty of it. I often like to think the same thing around business and exercise and stuff.

You have to go through the challenge, right? To get to the other side. So anyways, today I am talking about a topic I love to talk about, and it's all about how to harness your intuition to grow and aligned business you love. I think this is such a great and important topic. and something that people maybe don't even think about.

And I think it's really, it's been so instrumental in my journey. So in this episode, I'm going to dive into what your intuition is, what it feels like or, well, for me at least, why it is integral in guiding you into building an aligned business that you actually love. How I use my intuition to make decisions all the time in business.

and yeah, just going to jam on this, on this topic. I think it's, it's such a powerful one. Now, I am very aware that in the early days of your business. And this is my experience. You aren't as in tune with your inner knowing, your inner mentor, your intuition as much as later down the line at the beginning of your business, you aren't sure what is going on.

You don't understand strategy. You haven't launched before, you haven't sold stuff before. It's all very new to you, and you're likely more reliant on coaches and external information to help you know what to do. So the how of how to run a business, that's, that's what you're doing in the first year or whatever.

But after a while in business, it is so important to develop your own muscle for decisions in your business, and that does happen with practice. So I just did want to mention that, like if you're like straight up new in your business. You're going to need more help from coaches and just strategy stuff, like straight up strategy stuff, telling you what you should do because you've never done it before.

So you need to learn how to do things before you can start, you know, really shifting into what feels good for you. That's what I believe at least. And in my first year of business, that was very real for me. And then after a while after I started just understanding business strategy and like I was just good in that area, I was just able to start tapping into my.

My inner guidance and deciding what was right for me. And I really think it's been so important because otherwise I would've built a business that burned me out completely and wasn't in alignment with the life that I wanted to live in the way that I wanted to work and the business that I wanted because I just would've made decisions that weren't in alignment and then I would've been like, I don't know, a couple of years into building a business that just wasn't right for me.

And wasn't like right in my gut. So, I just wanted to mention that. But in general, I think even in the early days, if you can start like getting comfortable with your intuition and start harnessing it to make decisions, going to be really instrumental. Because here's the thing, there are a million ways to build and grown online business.

I'm telling you, there are a million strategies, a million styles, a million types of funnels, a million ways of selling. Things are always changing. The landscape changes. Everything is always changing in this world rapidly, right? There's a lot of ways to do stuff, and on top of that, you have social media and all these people telling you that their way is the only way and it's the best way, and that is the solution.

And so you have all these people telling you that, and then you have all this conflicting information coming at you at all times from a million different people who are trying to get your attention. So if you're not grounded in your vision and grounded in your intuition and grounded in your North Star, the business and life that you want to live, you're going to have a very hard time knowing how to make the right decisions for you to get you to where you want to go.

You're going to be swayed from. And you're going to be like, yeah, swayed from external sources all the time basically. If your external world is swaying you all the time, and you have no anchor into your own vision and your intuition of what is right for you, it can get super messy. It can get really overwhelming and confusing, and suddenly you're, you're, you've built a business that you don't even like, meaning you're listening to everyone else instead of yourself.

This is very problematic. And I've actually seen this happen a lot. I just recently saw a seven figure business owner close down her business because she had built a machine that she didn't want to be a part of. Like it wasn't in alignment with her and it just didn't look like anything she actually wanted, even though it was making her good money.

She was brave enough to take a sabbatical, stop selling all of her offers. Completely turn off the top of her income. Obviously she had the resources to do so. She had obviously saved and was able to take that space. But very ballsy, very gutsy. And just an example of, I think what happens is when you, you, you listen to everyone else and you do things based on what people think you should do versus what you want to do yourself.

And that is dangerous territory, in my opinion. And yeah, this, this is just all about the fact that the external world, the coach, other people don't have all the answers. And really the answers are inside of you and inside of your body's innate, just innate wisdom in your body. And that, I feel, is your intuition.

So what, what is your intuition? What does it feel like? You know, that gut feeling, that that immediate yes or no feeling in the body that comes even before your mind registers. It's the first feeling you have in your body. I think it feels different for everyone, but this is what it feels like to me.

It's like in my gut. And your intuition. I also like to refer to it as my inner mentor because I just see it as my inner mentor. I just see it as a part of myself that is just this ever knowing. It knows what is right for me and in my highest good. Your intuition and your inner mentor in terms of what it feels like or what it sounds like in your body, however you feel it or you hear it, is unemotional, okay? 

It's not a very erratic voice or feeling. It's an unemotional grounded voice or feeling. Unlike your ego or inner critic. So there is your ego, everyone's got it. Inner critic, everyone's got it. That voice is a drama queen. That feeling is a drama queen kind of feeling. It's very irrational. It's very fear based.

It's very loud. It's just not grounded. It's all over the show. Okay, so that is your ego and inner critic, right? This is how I think you can differentiate. Your intuition and your inner mental is a silent whisper, okay? It's this grounded, ever knowing, ever present whisper that is not loud. 

Unlike your ego and inner critic, and sometimes your inner critic is so loud. That you can't hear your intuition at all. You cannot tap into your inner mentor at all because your inner critic is just going crazy. And that happens a lot in business, right? That's a very common thing. Now I see my intuition as a wise, older version of me.

This is how I like envision it. Like if I were to see my intuition, it's a wise. Much older version of me just quietly sitting in a chair, just quietly like knitting. Living her best life, knitting on a couch like, I don't know, like 80 years old. Much wiser, so grounded, so much lived experience. She's like the universe in this human being, right? And she just knows.

She just knows. She's like the wise old lady. Now, it doesn't have to make logical sense the how of, how she knows. It's just she just knows what's right for me and what is in my highest good. Now, if I'm in a room with lots of people, noise coming from all angles everyone's screaming, chatting, babies are crying, whatever it is, I'm not going to be able to hear that grounded whisper from her.

Like if she says something, it's going to be drowned out by all the noise. And that's kind of like how it is. We're living in this very noisy world and we're constantly being bombarded by information, it's very hard to actually tap into your, your inner mentor and your intuition when you're being constantly just bombarded from everywhere.

It's very noisy. So getting quiet is absolutely essential, right? Now in terms of the feeling for me. Like yes, in my intuition. The feeling of a full body yes from my intuition in my body is an expansive, fluttering feeling. It doesn't mean that there isn't some sense of fear in that feeling.

It's just a different type of fear. It's a very playing, big type of fear. You know, the fear you get, the jittery feeling you get before you do something that feels right, but it's scary to you, like going and talking. I don't know, presenting something going on stage, like it's scary. You've got that build-up of, it's like fear, excitement, fear that frequency is there, but it's expansive.

It is fluttering, it is spacious. It's a spacious feeling in my body. A no is a feeling of contraction in my body. It's like a dread. If I feel dread, then I need to take a moment and I need to re-look at things and I need to really think about that decision. I don't say yes typically to things that make me feel dread.

But this is nuanced, okay? Because in the beginning of a lot of the time, doing stuff in business is going to challenge you. It's going to scare you, right? So in the beginning of my business, I was terrified to go live, right? I was terrified to speak on camera with people, and I was so scared that I would feel dread around it, okay?

But it was in my highest good to, to build that skill. It was in my highest good in my business to build that skill. And a part of me, my inner mentor, knew that this was right for me. This was the thing I needed to do. I had to do this thing. I had to face this fear. I had to go live, I had to do the thing.

And I actually had the dread and all the fear from trauma as a child that made it very difficult for me to speak in front of people. So that was coming from a place of trauma. I, my body didn't feel safe, my nervous system wasn't safe, and so, it wasn't like it was a no, it wasn't like a no, it was just coming from a different place.

So if you do feel dread, that doesn't mean it's a no, and your intuition saying, no, that's not what I mean. Sometimes your intuition's going to say: You should do something and that thing's going to scare you shitless. But your inner mentor knows that's the thing you need to do. Like that is in your highest good and that is in the highest good of your business.

And that's the thing you need to do to grow your business. And often the thing you need to do to grow your business is going to bring fear. It's going to push out your comfort zone. So it's very nuanced, okay? If you feel scared, don't think, oh, that's a no. It's not that way. This is why it's important to learn how it feels in your body.

it's like there's a feeling that you got to get comfortable with. Like for me, it's a contraction and I just know it's a no. I feel contracted. I feel like it's not an alignment and I feel dread. It's a no. And yeah, that's just something I wanted to mention, nuance. I don't want you to think if you feel dread or fear, that's immediately a no.

It's not necessarily like that. Your intuition often is telling you to do things. That are going to be scary for you, right? Most of the time, at least. Especially in the early days of business. But in general, if I am feeling that gut. No kind of feeling, then I just don't do it. And that goes for everything in life.

Like social events. If someone asks you to do something and you just feel in your gut that you don't want to do it, then I don't do it. Right. If a business coach or someone tells me to do something in my business and I feel that gut wrenching no, then I typically don't do it. For example, I've been told so many times to start a membership, it's never felt right to me.

And I've always said no, even though it might be the logical thing to do. And everyone's like, oh, memberships like this is the thing to do. If it doesn't feel right, it doesn't feel right. And maybe in the future it will feel right, but for now, that's not an alignment. And so this is why it's so integral in guiding you into building a business that is aligned that you love, that you don't want to escape from that you don't want to like shut down and burn down.

Really as a business owner, it's essential to ground yourself in yourself. I want you to imagine yourself as being a tree. Rooted to the ground. You are rooted in your vision. You are rooted in who you are. You are rooted in what you came here to do in your North star vision of your life and your business, your dream life, your wealthy life, whatever that looks like to you.

Because your dream life, your dream business, your wealthy life looks very different to you than it does to someone else. It's, it's completely subjective. For example, getting ragdoll cats is like the most lit up, aligned, dreamy life thing I could do. I feel like it's the most magical thing I could do for my life is to get my cats. 

That is what it looks like to me. So that's just how it is for everyone. It's all very different and what works for someone else and what's nice for someone else, and in business, what works for someone else. Doesn't mean it's going to work for you or that you actually want to do it, right? Some people feel their ideal business and dream life is a big business with lots of team members, a very corporate style business.

I don't know, like is, that's their vibe. And other people's vision for their ideal business is very lifestyle driven. They want to work with a laptop on a beach. They want to lie in a hammock and they don't want a big team, and they don't want flashy whatever. They just want to work a certain number of hours and.

You know, go live their best life. That's more, more my vibe. But you see, it just, everyone's dream is different. And there are a million different business models and people telling us what we should do and how we should do it because it works for them. But I just think that if it's not an alignment with you and the vision you have, it's just not worth even pursuing until it is in alignment.

Until it does feel like a full body yes. Also, you've got friends and family. Who are going to be giving you advice and telling you what you should do. That happens all the time. So you really want to just be grounded and you want to be that tree that you know, you, you can change your mind. You can decide to do something different.

As you evolve as a human, your business and what you want to do in your business, going to evolve. Don't get me wrong, it's not like you're fixed. You are constantly evolving, but you are, you're rooted in. Intuition, you're rooted in what is right for you. You're rooted in the vision you have for your life, and everyone else telling you what you should be doing is you take it on and you ask yourself, is this right for me?

Does this feel right for me? Is this aligned for me? And you, you get quiet and you ask yourself, and that's how you harness your intuition. Because the wisdom in our bodies is literally insane like we have, and I'm not sure the science behind it to be honest. I don't really care about the science and how it would make sense, but I just know that there is a part of me that is.

It just knows what is right for me, even if it's completely illogical to the mind. For example, I do a lot of completely illogical things to the mind, but if it feels right and in alignment and a full body, yes, I just do it. For example, I met Mike in Vietnam. We had this incredible week together and then he left to the Netherlands and we know that was it.

And we didn't think it was going to continue. We continued speaking and we couldn't get enough of each other. We were completely obsessed with each other. So we continued speaking and I ended up taking all the savings that I made in Vietnam to go fly to this place in the Netherlands that I didn't know existed to meet this man that I knew for one week in Vietnam, and go live with him for three months.

Like that's an illogical, crazy thing to do. But it was a full body. Yes. It was like this part of me just said, this is what I need to do. And then I did it and I married this man, right? So it doesn't have to always make sense to the brain. It's just the body's innate wisdom. And I use this all the time in my business.

When I make decisions, I pretty much tap into myself, my vision, what I want, and I am, I get quiet, especially if I'm a state in a state of overwhelm, which happens. You know, often as a business owner, you can get overwhelmed. I create space, I get quiet, I turn off the noise. So if you're following like a hundred coaches online, don't follow a hundred coaches online.

Find a mentor, and let that person be your mentor. And then just turn off all the rest of the noise and tap into your inner mentor. Give yourself space. So how do you harness your intuition? Firstly, space, rest, quiet, okay? We are constantly busy, and when you're always busy, you're actually never bringing your nervous system to a place of neutrality.

You're just constantly overdriving yourself. If you're in that space, it's very hard to tap into your intuition. It's a hard to listen to that inner mentor because you're, you're being bombarded by information in the outside world. And that's just the reality we live in this information world and it's going to get more, right?

It's going to get more like literally with AI and all the crazy shit that's happening. It's going to be like content on crack. Like it's just going to be a lot. Content on crack, I love that. So we're going to have all these voices telling us things all the time, and so we're going to be so out of touch with ourselves.

So really creating space to tap into yourself and get quiet, meditate, breath work journal, switch off from all the tech. Garden to nature. Listen to the whisper. It's a whisper. It's not a loud voice. If it's a loud voice. It's the ego and it's the inner critic. It's talking nonsense most of the time because it's trying to keep you safe, but it's just keeping you small at the end of the day. 

That inner whisper is there. It's just, you got to feel into it. I often ask myself my inner mentor questions. And I have a pendulum. I don't know if you guys know what it is, but it's this thing that you hold over your hand and it connects to your energy and your body.

And when I ask questions, it either goes full circle to the right for a yes. Or it goes full circle to the left, for no. And I can ask myself straight up yes/no questions, and it'll help me guide me. And I often use that in my business as well if I'm not sure with big decisions which ones right.

If I can't feel into what's right for me. So that's something that I've used as well. And yeah, it's really, it's really such a superpower because it starts to build resiliency in yourself, right? Using your intuition starts to build a level of confidence in yourself that you have the answer, and that is a really powerful thing in business to not rely.

External people to have the answer for you, but that you have the answer. That is a really massive level of empowerment in my opinion. It's very empowering to know that. And the more that you practice listening to your intuition, your inner mentor. The more that muscle gets strengthened.

It's literally like a muscle. It gets strengthened and the more in tune you get with yourself and your business. And it becomes this beautiful connection point, right? And it becomes a superpower for you because you're building that resiliency in yourself, that confidence in yourself. And not only that, you know what you desire.

You know what feels right for you. You know what feels right for you will feel different to someone else. If you just blindly listen to others, you're going to end up building a business that is not aligned. Don't fall down that trap. Obviously, strategies and stuff. If you're new to the business thing and you've never, ever done anything. Listen to a coach or mentor.

Let them guide you in strategic stuff. Let them give you the masculine, which is the strategy. Listen to it, apply it. I mean I apply strategy like crazy. I don't wing strategy. I always have a coach who has a strategy and I execute that strategy based on the recipe they've given me.

And I recommend that for you. And if you're early in business, you've never done anything. Get a coach that you feel aligned with or mentor. Let them give you the strategy. Don't change the strategy. Like ideally you wouldn't change the strategy, in the beginning. In the very beginning because it's like a recipe.

The recipe has this number of eggs for a reason. It has this much flour for a reason. You don't want to change the recipe because then the cake's going to be all whack, right? So the strategy is a recipe. It's done. It's been tested for a reason. So apply the strategy and then do it a couple of times, like for example, launching.

And then after a while you start to feel into things and you start to feel what is feeling right for you. So maybe you're like, My body is contracting to doing the strategy, now I need to shift into something else that is more aligned or I'm, I'm no longer in alignment with selling like a group program.

I am more in alignment with selling a membership. And yeah, you can make those decisions based on what feels right to you. And when in doubt, If you're in an overwhelmed place, if you're confused, if you're uncertain, get silent. Don't go and search for more information on things. Ask yourself, what do I want to do?

What is an alignment for me right now? With regards to where I want to go. Remember your North Star. You need to be anchored in where you want to go. That needs to inform you on your stepping stones. So if I'm coaching someone and they want to know what are the steps?

What are the steps to what, what is the end goal? Or what is the North star vision? What is the holy grail of where you want to be. Your dream life, your dream business? Based on that information, that knowledge specifically, we can reverse engineer the strategy, the steps, and the masculine stuff, and then you can tap into the feminine, which is also your intuition. 

And that's where you use both the masculine and the feminine, and actually you need the masculine strategy stuff in order to tap more into your feminine. Because it's a very grounded container. If you've got a strategy in place, you know that you're meant to do X, Y, Z.

Then you go do X, Y, Z, and then in between that space. You just lean back into rest, insight, receiving intuition, mentor staff, tapping into your energy and all that jazz. So I really just think that if you can practice this. Like just practice it. Start getting comfortable with the feeling of what that inner mentor feels like to you.

Maybe give her a name. Maybe it's you in the future. Like start tapping into that. Start meditating, tapping into that part of you. Especially if you're in a state of confusion or overwhelm, always come back to you and your body and get silent. And there's just so many, so much wisdom inside of you that I just don't want us to forget as humans, we just know there's just a part of us that just knows.

And take the space. Go into nature, ground yourself on the earth. Switch off from the media and the information. Do breath work. Get into a state of bliss. Like honestly, two minutes of breath work, and you're like in such a state of bliss. In that space you can feel into what is the answer for you?

You can ask yourself the question. Your inner mentor can guide you and tap into yourself. What are the silent nudges inside of you telling you? What is your gut instinct? Normally, the gut instinct is the very, very first feeling instinct you get. Very first, not the second, not the third. It's the very first.

That's typically the gut intuition in a mental kind of feeling. And let that guide you in your next business steps. And this is how you very intentionally, you're not just like chopping and changing, like changing underwear every day, like on your strategy or on your offers and on things.

You're very intentional. You're like this is where I want to go. And you're rooted in that, like the tree. You got a million people telling you how you should get there. What is going to feel good to you? What is the business model that is in alignment with where you want to go?

Because, maybe a membership with thousands of people in it isn't the business model you actually like, because imagine as soon as you have a membership and a lot of people in it, you need to hire lots of team members to manage it. Otherwise you're going to lose your mind. And maybe that's not the vision that you find very attractive. 

And so don't go down that road. And that's why it's just so important that the more that you can practice this, the more that you can develop your capacity to lead yourself. Lead yourself first. Get in a container with someone who is going to support you in that process. So find a business mentor who's going to be able to customize strategy based on where you want to go.

Not just say, this is the only way to do it and you must do it this way. It's like, what is the way that's going to feel good to you? What is the path of least resistance? Sometimes you also need to look at that. Especially if you're going to like 5k 10k months. In the early days of business, it's a little bit like, follow the recipe.

You just apply, apply, apply. You start making cash money like that, and then eventually you're like, cool. I am a business owner, now let me adjust based on what's feeling good to me. And that changed to happen when you started making more money. And you just start identifying more as a business owner. And you start really stepping into your power and you start realizing that you need to lead yourself and your business.

And if you don't lead yourself in your business and you are not rooted in yourself, someone else is going to lead it for you and you're going to build something that's not right and you're going to want to escape it. And this is really just such a very important thing. So your body has innate wisdom that you don't even realize. Don't underestimate it. 

And start exercising the muscle of harnessing your intuition. When you make business decisions, always check in with yourself. Is this feeling right to me? What is my body telling me? Is this a full body yes? Is this a no? Am I expanding? Am I contracting? Do I feel dread? Where is this dread coming from?

Because you can still have dread and fear in a full body yes situation. You can still feel dread and fear. Even when your intuition is saying yes, this is right for you. You start really learning and understanding and exercising that muscle. It's going to help you build, be intentional around the decisions you make and the things you do in your business, which is going to mean.

That you're going to build something you love and that you don't want to escape from, and you're not going to burn out because most of the time people burn out from business practices that are completely misaligned and don't make sense to them. And we don't want that to happen to you, now do we? You did not do this, and build a business or start building a business so that you could just find yourself burnt out like you were in your job. 

That is not the point. We didn't start our businesses to burn out and we didn't start our businesses to trap ourselves in stuff that we don't like. So always remember that the powers in your hands, the powers in your body.

And yeah, this is stuff I'm just so passionate about it. And this is the stuff that I really want to instil in my Growth Accelerator program. Which is my 12 week group coaching program helping educators in business scale to 5K 10 K months. Helping them create multiple five figure launches. Helping them with customized strategy that feels good to them, that is right for their goals and dreams, and their ideal life. 

And working on their identity, working on tapping into their intuition. Money mindset stuff. Any conversation around that is just going to be so expansive in this container. Doesn't matter how much you've made, as long as you are ready to expand, grow, and you want to be in a container for that growth. And you want a mentor who is going to support you in the business that you want to create for yourself. 

I'm not going to just tell you this is what you should do. We're going to learn to harness our own power as business owners and lead ourselves first. And that is really something I want to instil in my Growth Accelerator clients. And I've got three amazing ones at the moment and I'm still looking to have a couple of more. 

So if this is feeling good to you and this is the kind of support that you desire. And obviously you're going to get strategy stuff as well. I'm doing training on all sorts of stuff. If Instagram growth is something you want. We've got an expert coming in for Instagram, helping you grow your audience with reels.

I'm going to be doing a list building mini course. I'm going to be doing a scale your launches and profitability training. So ways you can actually expand on your launch results. Evergreen sales, so making consistent sales between launches. Identity stuff. Like, there's just a lot of freaking awesome stuff coming. And it's going to be very intimate, customized.

And it's not a situation where you're going to be like doing a million action steps and lots of work. it's not a program to make more work for you. It's going to help you harness your energy, your power. And step into like that feminine as well. That's so magnetic for making more money so you're not hustling and grinding and burning out.

You're actually attracting. You're magnetizing. And that's what the stuff I want to talk about is as well. And intuition is a big part of that. So we're going to be learning all about that and chatting on it and just diving in and I'm so excited. So I hope this has been an awesome episode for you. If you are feeling the pull, the zing, the full body yes!

The excited fluttering feeling in your body. That's your intuition telling you for the growth accelerator. If you're feeling the full body Yes for that. It's your intuition and inner mentor saying, go for. If you're a little bit fearful, don't worry. That's kind of what happens. Normally, the things we're meant to do scare the shit out of us.

I was pretty scared when I decided to spend all my money to travel across the world to a place I didn't know to meet this man that I knew for one week in Vietnam. In real life, I was pretty scared. Like there was fear involved in that, but it felt like a full body yes. And all the decisions in my business that have been, yeses. Have tend to make me feel scared, especially investment ones.

So remember don't run away from fear, essentially. it's often built in what's in our highest good essentially. And our intuition's going to be like, go over it, do it, do the thing. So listen to it. And yeah, if you have any questions, send me a message.

We can chat about it if you want to hear more. Otherwise, just have a freaking awesome day. Have an awesome week. And I will chat to you next week. Bye! 

Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. I am so excited to announce the wait list is open for the Growth Accelerator. This is my 12 week advanced business coaching container, helping entrepreneurs scale to 5K months and multiple five figure launches. Using the power of intentional strategy with potent energy. 

The doors open soon, and if you're on the wait list, you will receive the first invite with access to the pre-sale price and the amazing early bird bonus. Head to my website at digiteach.biz and get on the wait list or click the link underneath this episode and get signed up.

I appreciate you so much, and I can't wait to connect with you in the next episode. In the meantime, go create a business and life you love.