CONNECT with Sheila Botelho Podcast

Leading with Intuition for Sustainable Growth | Ep 444

• Sheila Botelho

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What if the key to sustainable growth in your business wasn’t just another strategy but tuning into your intuition? 

In this solo chat, I explore how reconnecting with your inner compass can help you make aligned decisions, stay true to your vision, and create a business that truly resonates with you and your audience.

I share a story of a founder who trusted her gut over a proven strategy and found greater success and joy in her work. Plus, I reveal two simple yet powerful ways to hone your intuition.

Whether you’re refining your 2025 plans or recalibrating your current direction, this episode reminds you that your intuition is a vital tool for creating a business and life you love.


PS: Thanks so much for listening. I would love your review! If you enjoy what I share in this episode, rate, Review & Subscribe on Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/connect-with-sheila-botelho/id1527363160 I would really appreciate it. Thanks!



Sheila:

We need these people in our life, so I invite you to do that as well. Lean on your circle for alignment, making sure because we cannot do everything alone I mean AI will have us think we can. I mean we can certainly do a lot, but like, even if we could, why would we want to? Hi, welcome to the Connect with Sheila Botelho podcast. I'm an entrepreneur, self-care strategist and creator of the Season's Self-Care podcast. I'm an entrepreneur, self-care strategist and creator of the season's self-care app. I'm committed to helping you reconnect to your purpose, elevate your well-being and build your version of a happy, successful life.

Sheila:

You're listening to a solo chat today where I am talking all about leading with intuition for sustainable growth. When you think about intuition, what comes up for you? Do you think it's kind of too woo, or is it something that you do? Naturally? Something my husband always talks about is he goes. You know my gut's telling me this, or my gut's telling me that. It's interesting. He's always really trusted his gut, as he calls it, which is really that's another word for our intuition right? It's that feeling when you walk into a room and you get a vibe and you're like just something is there to tell you things are either off or something's just happened or something is about to happen, and it could be excitement, right. That's our intuition also, and it's something that I think is just baked into our design. We are electrical beings, right With our nervous systems and everything, so we're really impacted by the environment, by energy, by the other people around us, by the weather, by everything, and so it only makes sense that our intuition is just part of that. The challenge comes when so many of us are deeply connected to social feeds and our strategies for our life and other people around us and just plain being busy, that often we disconnect from that intuition and sometimes the things that we're doing in our life will just be like on autopilot, and we sometimes find ourselves then wondering wait, why am I doing this thing right now? Is this something that I really want? We find ourselves asking those questions, and perhaps you might be at a place in your life, one part of your life, your business, something where you are asking that very question Is this thing that I'm doing right now something that I want to continue doing? Is it really for me? Why did I start in the first place? Was this really my plan, or was it someone else's idea. This is the power of stillness, really that it gives us the opportunity to retune into our intuition.

Sheila:

At a recent event I was at, I met so many wonderful women, but one of them was an incredible female founder who shared a profound moment in her business journey. You see, she was in amongst many other business owners and founders who were doing really interesting things really different parts of business, different types of businesses and she had an idea for how she really wanted to do it. But she had a coach who was telling her to follow a specific marketing strategy that, on paper, was flawless, like it made logical sense, it promised big results, it was proven to work. But every time she thought about implementing it, she felt a physical aversion, like literally in her body. She felt like, oh, I can't do this. And now, of course, being someone who is also wanting to grow her business, she realized this could have been just her trying to avoid uncomfortable situations, right, stepping out of her comfort zone, facing fears, things like that. So she dug deep to really ask herself what is this really about? But she realized the truth, and it wasn't about fear. Her intuition was telling her that this approach was just not aligned with her or her clients, and I love I was so celebrating with her that she trusted her inner knowing and that allowed her to pivot and craft a strategy that resonated deeply with her audience. Instead and you know what happened that led to growth that felt both authentic and sustainable for her. So hearing her story reminded me of countless times where I've faced similar crossroads, and I'm sure you have as well. I mean what came up for you as I was listening. Right, I'm sure you can just like check them off in your memory of those instances where you've experienced something similar.

Sheila:

As women, especially in business, we are constantly bombarded with strategies and advice, but here's the takeaway. I'm going to start with the takeaway and then have some other things to share. Just because something works, even if it works really, really well, it doesn't mean that it's yours to do. Let that land for a moment. It seems counterintuitive, right? Just because something works and works really well, it doesn't mean that it's yours to do. It's somebody's to do. It doesn't have to be you. You only are the one who's going to be able to answer that question. And so a few things that I have found to be so helpful to guide myself are ways to really hone my intuition.

Sheila:

And it's interesting because the only reason why I coach on this, the only reason why I talk about this on the podcast, the only reason why this whole self-care strategy and trying to build the business of your life and dreams without burning out like why is it so important to me? Why am I doing this, why am I teaching on it it's because I've been in those spaces where I have been on the verge of burnout and where I've witnessed others burn out and I've moved down different roads of you know things to do in business that seemed like they make so much sense but really in the end they weren't for me. And the beautiful thing is, because of the way I live my life and the way really I've steeped in different communities and learned so much, is that everything is a learning experience. I never look back with regret like okay, that I just wish none of it ever happened. I mean, certainly we all have. We can't say we get through our life without regrets. I certainly do have regrets. However, I guess maybe what I'm trying to say is I pull out the lessons from those challenging times, from those things that were meant for me, because maybe they were meant for me at that time. I wasn't just ready yet for the thing I really wanted, so I got a lesson instead.

Sheila:

This is something I like to teach my kids too. Everything is for you, and when we start looking at our life in that way, it is so relaxing. It opens us up to new possibilities because, truly, in business especially, we can feel like there's this way or there's this way. There's two ways. Right, it's like having two political parties. There's only two. There's only two schools of thought. But let's think about this for a second. Let's look around us, at our loved ones, at our community, at our clients, at our families. Are we all either one way or another, or are we like offshoots of each? Are we so many different expressions of humanity? We're all so different. There's not just two ways of doing anything, and I love to say there's like a third way. Often, when there's two ways, there's always a third way. Sometimes there's a fourth and a fifth and a sixth.

Sheila:

Let's not pigeonhole ourself into needing to be any one particular way, but the way we do that is by sitting with ourselves and with our intuition, one of the ways that I find the most impactful for me to be in tune with my intuition is feeling rested and being in nature, so getting outside, being with myself, being in quiet, and there's a few key things I'm going to share with you. I'm just going to share two. There's so many things you can do, but these have been the most impactful for me, and it does start with being rested and being well in my body, because our mind can move I don't know about yours, my mind can move a million miles an hour, but my body moves much more slowly, and so that means I need to get in a state where my mind and my body can be more in sync, and one of the ways that really works well for me is to be in nature walking, because it's like a steady state activity and it just syncs things up. It's kind of like dancing. You can feel that way when you're dancing as well, where you're moving to a beat. There's just something it's synchronistic that happens, and so I want to share with you a couple of ways that I feel would be really helpful for you to truly start leading with your intuition so you can grow, and it's, yes, done alongside of actual plans and actual strategy and conversations in your community, your team to make sure you're making smart decisions. However, I really think everything should. I personally think should I don't like the word should usually, but it should rest on really your intuition and the intuition of the team as well. So inviting other people to really let things land for themselves. Also, I think that allows for a more like a holistic, vibrant community approach to making decisions. So the first thing that I really recommend and this is something that will do regularly and I notice if I don't do it, it really doesn't leave me in a good state, if anything, I'm not a person that gets headaches, but if I ever get a headache, this is when it happens usually and the first thing is to tune out the noise to hear your inner compass.

Sheila:

In our In our FOMO driven social media saturated world, it's really easy to feel like we need to adopt the latest trend or strategy, but your unique vision and perspective are your greatest strengths, and so the question is are you listening to them right? For me, this key thing is regular time alone without tech. It's been so transformative. I first got onto Facebook in 2008, when my second son was born and played on there like everyone else, which is, oh, here's some baby pictures. But then it became like all of us in business especially in the online space, but even in brick and mortar businesses it's like we've all had to become content creators. And is that really what we were designed to do? Like, is this really what we signed up for? Maybe not. We knew we'd need to market ourselves. We just didn't really know how or why and what would it look like. But really it's like all of us have become influencers and content creators, and so the way I find that's so helpful to be able to really know well, what is the next step for me is that time alone.

Sheila:

So, whether it is a silent stroll again, without being plugged into any tech, not listening to anything but the birds, or getting ready for the day without distractions, I find that these moments check me in with myself, and then I notice how I feel, what my intuition is telling me, and this practice helps me make decisions that align with my vision and not someone else's. Like it's so interesting what happens, I find, when we allow our minds time to just decompress all the things that we've been taking in kind of land and we kind of filter through and they're like, just like emotions, they're like clouds right. They just float through and you're just witnessing thoughts. You're having a thought, you're witnessing another thought, and sometimes that's where the real truths land. It's like, oh, that thing I heard two days ago. I really finally understand what that means for me. Wow, Okay, great.

Sheila:

So it's not about never getting any inputs, it's just about giving yourself enough space so that you can process them. So that's the first thing, the first thing tuning out the noise to hear your inner compass. The second piece is leaning on your circle for alignment. So having your business besties around you, right, having them on speed dial, that's been a game changer for me. It's usually Voxer, and these are the people who hold you accountable to your vision. So when you're deep in your soul work, you're leading your team or you're navigating shareholder expectations, it is so easy to veer off track and get caught up in the hoopla of, oh, they want to do this and this.

Sheila:

I never thought about that. And hey, it's great to get new ideas and it's great to be flexible. However, always give yourself time when new ideas are presented to you. Like, great, I'm going to have a think on that, let's revisit this. Okay, let me just let this land for myself, and so one of the ways I do that is, yes, I get quiet with myself, but then I also reach out to trusted friends, colleagues, mentors, to help me evaluate whether I'm really staying true to my mission or if it really is time to recalibrate, like, is this new idea really in alignment? And they're also so great at calling me out.

Sheila:

For you know, I think you're really just afraid to do this thing. Like, why are you stopping yourself? You're ready. We need these people in our life, right? So I invite you to do that as well. Lean on your circle for alignment, making sure because we cannot do everything alone I mean AI will have us think we can. I mean we can certainly do a lot, but, like, even if we could, why would we want to? I personally believe I mean hello, my podcast. Two, I personally believe I mean hello, my podcast Connect. I love people. We want to enjoy this time together, right, and everybody to different degrees, of course.

Sheila:

So take that with you for the rest of this week, for this season, where you are likely coming into a time of slowing down a little bit, at least in the midst of the rush, like getting ready to slow down perhaps little bit, at least in the in, amidst the rush, like getting ready to slow down, perhaps to identify what's coming for 2025. Like maybe you are a keener and you already have everything set out for 2025. And I think fantastic, that's awesome and know this. Even if it's all out there on paper, it's still a great idea to continually be checking in with yourself and your intuition to see is this still the right direction for us to be going? Because we change, trends change people change, buying habits change. So being flexible in that way, when you're in tune with yourself, it really allows you to pivot and shift with greater understanding. So I hope that is helpful for you.

Sheila:

It has been so helpful for me and also for the clients that I serve, who actually realize they need to be marking time on their calendar for these times with themselves. Right, I call them my CEO soul walks, as I love to say. But I also love to have little kind of little retreat times with myself for, like a morning on the weekend or something, to just get out of the house, be in a space where I can just be with myself and just really see how are things going, how am I feeling about things and, you know, maybe even make some some new connections with how to move forward with it in that time, but mostly it's just about sitting there with myself. So if this resonates with you, I really think there are so many ways for you to be able to implement it into your daily, weekly, monthly practice, and one of the ways is I invite you to join the Seasons Growth Accelerator. This is a space where we integrate intuition, alignment and strategic growth to build a business that you absolutely love, and you do it in a way that feels good, not disconnected from your body like the old way. So click the link in the show notes to learn more and to see if it's the next aligned step for your journey. Let's grow on your terms. There's a video in there. It kind of explains the outline of what we do in there, and I'm just so excited because growth in a container of aligned community is even more exciting.

Sheila:

Thanks for listening. I appreciate you so much. Go to the link in the show notes, check it out and other things that are there, and there's also at the very top of it. There is a link where you can text me. Let me know what you loved about this episode, let me know what you'd love to hear more of. Who would you love me to have on as a guest? I'm always looking to make sure that these episodes have topics that are really helpful to you, so I appreciate you Shout me out on the socials. I'd love to see you in there. Have a beautiful rest of your day. Big blessings.