Remember Who You Are: Lessons from Business Alchemy

Last week, we got to be the ones in the chairs.

We spent two days with our incredible coach, Kami Guildner, at her Business Alchemy Retreat, surrounded by a room full of amazing women doing the work—not just on their businesses, but on themselves.

There were strategies, conversations, ideas, laughter, breakthroughs, and plenty of moments that made us stop and think.

But interestingly, some of the biggest things we brought home weren't brand-new ideas.

They were reminders.

Things we already knew but needed someone to reflect back to us.

And maybe that's one of the most valuable things a great coach does.

They don't always give you more information.

Sometimes they help you see what you've stopped seeing.

Remember Who You Are

This might have been the biggest one.

Remember who you are.

It sounds simple.

But how often do we forget?

We get so busy being the business owner, leader, coach, partner, mother, friend, problem-solver, decision-maker and person-who-has-her-shit-together that we start identifying with all the roles we've accumulated.

Then add in everything we've learned we should be.

More strategic.More productive.More polished.More consistent.More whatever-the-hell-the-algorithm-wants-this-week.

Underneath all of that is the person you were before you started adapting to what everyone else needed or expected from you.

Sometimes growth isn't about becoming someone new.

Sometimes it's about stripping away enough of the noise to remember the woman who was there all along.

That's something we talk about constantly in our work with women.

And apparently, we needed the reminder too.

Funny how that works.

What We Do Is Fucking Magical

At one point during the retreat, we had one of those moments where Michelle and I looked at each other and essentially went:

Wait a minute. What we do is fucking magical.

We KNOW that.

We see women have breakthroughs all the time.

We watch them release beliefs and emotional patterns they've carried for decades.

We watch them make decisions they couldn't make before.

Set boundaries they never thought they'd set.

Trust themselves.

Change relationships.

Start businesses.

Grow businesses.

Leave things that no longer fit.

Choose themselves.

See possibilities where they couldn't see any before.

And yet, when you're standing inside your own work every day, something extraordinary can start to feel ordinary.

You forget to step back and look at what you've created.

You move the finish line.

You focus on what's next instead of acknowledging what's here.

You compare your work to someone else's instead of recognizing what is uniquely yours.

We see our clients do this.

And we do it too.

So here's the reminder we're keeping:

Don't get so accustomed to your own gifts that you stop recognizing them as gifts.

What comes naturally to you may be the very thing someone else has been searching for.

Own that shit.

Every Decision Creates Momentum or Fragmentation

This one has stayed with us.

Every decision creates either momentum or fragmentation.

Think about that for a minute.

We make hundreds of decisions about our lives and businesses.

Should we launch this?

Join that?

Say yes to this opportunity?

Create another offer?

Take another client?

Add another platform?

Start another project?

Sometimes we're making choices because they're genuinely aligned with where we're going.

And sometimes we're saying yes because we can.

Or because someone else thinks we should.

Or because we're afraid we'll miss an opportunity.

Or because we're uncomfortable letting something be simple.

And suddenly our energy is everywhere.

That's fragmentation.

You can be incredibly busy and still not be creating momentum.

In fact, sometimes busyness is the thing keeping you from momentum.

So we've started asking a different question:

Does this decision create momentum or fragmentation?

Does it move us toward what we say we want?

Does it support the life and business we're creating?

Does it focus our energy?

Or does it scatter it?

That's a question we're planning to keep asking.

You Always Have a Choice

Another reminder:

We always have a choice.

Not necessarily about everything that happens.

But about what we do next.

We can keep doing something because we've always done it that way.

Or we can choose again.

We can continue saying yes because we've already invested time, money or energy.

Or we can change our minds.

We can keep proving.

Keep pushing.

Keep overcomplicating.

Keep carrying things that aren't ours anymore.

Or…

We can choose differently.

Sometimes the most powerful question isn't:

"What should I do?"

It's:

"What am I choosing?"

Because that puts the power back where it belongs.

With you.

It Doesn't Have to Be Hard

Oof.

This one.

It doesn't have to be hard.

How many of us have unconsciously decided that struggle makes something more valuable?

If we work harder, we're more deserving.

If we sacrifice more, we're more committed.

If we're exhausted, we must be doing enough.

If it comes easily, somehow it doesn't count.

We call bullshit.

What if the next level doesn't require more force?

What if it requires more trust?

What if you don't need another complicated strategy?

What if you don't need to prove how badly you want it?

What if the aligned decision is also the easier one?

Easy doesn't mean lazy.

Easy doesn't mean you're avoiding growth.

And easy certainly doesn't mean there won't be uncomfortable moments.

Sometimes ease simply means we've stopped fighting ourselves.

That's a very different thing.

Every Good Coach Needs a Great Coach

We believe deeply in coaching.

Obviously. 😉

But we don't believe coaches somehow graduate from needing support because we've learned how to help other people.

Quite the opposite.

The deeper we go into this work, the more we recognize the value of having someone who can see us from the outside.

Because you can't always see your own patterns while you're standing inside them.

You can't always recognize when you're making something harder than it needs to be.

And sometimes you need someone to look at you and say:

Do you remember who the hell you are?

Kami does that for us.

She challenges us. She sees us. She asks questions that make us think differently. She creates spaces where powerful women can put down the answers for a minute and become students again.

And she reminds us to recognize what's already here instead of constantly racing toward what's next.

Kami, thank you.

For Business Alchemy.

For the room you created.

For the incredible women you brought together.

For the conversations, wisdom, laughter and challenges.

And for reminding us of a few things we apparently needed to hear again.

We came home with ideas.

But more importantly, we came home clearer.

Clearer about who we are.

Clearer about what matters.

Clearer about what we're choosing.

And clearer about what we're no longer willing to complicate.

So maybe you need these reminders too:

Remember who you are.

What you do might be more magical than you've allowed yourself to recognize.

Every decision creates momentum or fragmentation.

You always have a choice.

And…

It doesn't have to be hard.

Maybe your next level isn't asking you to become more.

Maybe it's asking you to remember who you already are—and choose from there.

That's where the magic begins.

— Jessica & MichelleThe Presario Group