Ep 59: How new business owners can use silence to make better decisions
Mentioned in this episode:
✨ A platform which lets you host your courses, sell digital products and have unlimited memberships and communities (this will be ready by end 2026!) at ONE LIFETIME price :
https://www.teachery.co/limited-time?a=HdLRHL3A
I'll have to admit that I wasn't sure if I wanted to record this episode at first - because I wasn't sure whether this is going to be relevant to business owners.
But... I am reminded that as business owners, our personal life, our mindset and business are pretty much intertwined.
Running a business means making dozens of decisions a day and not all of them come with a clear ‘right’ answer.
In this episode, we talk about using our intuition and how sitting in silence can help you avoid analysis paralysis when you're stuck making decisions as a business owner.
If you've ever spent hours researching for the 'perfect' platform, most value-for-money subscriptions - only to end up more confused and anxious than when you started, this episode is for you. ;)
I will also share a real example from my own business : a $550 decision which I went back and forth for weeks.
There's fun homework for you too ;)
I'll give you a simple challenge to start making decisions from your own inner voice instead of everyone else's opinions.
Hope you will find this episode inspiring in some way.
-Shikah
Prefer reading this episode? You can read the transcript below.
Welcome to another episode of Feel Good Business, and this is where we are going to discuss how we can create a business which feels good to us, which nourishes our soul, and also leaves a beautiful impact to the world. So whether you are a new business owner, an aspiring one, or maybe you've been in this business world for a while, I hope that I can share something which helps you to run a business in a way which feels really good and also profitable for you.
And today we are going to talk about something which is which sounds really simple to do, but not exactly very easy to do. And we are going to talk about how we can use silence to listen to our intuition and make better decisions in business.
And I'll have to say that at first I wasn't sure if I wanted to record this episode because I wasn't sure whether this is going to be relevant to business owners because I'm going to be talking about intuition, our inner voice, six sense, and all that, and I wasn't sure if this is something relevant to business. But then I am reminded that as business owners, our personal life, our mindset, and business all these things are pretty much intertwined. So if your life or your mindset is going well, it helps you a lot in your business as well. So that's why I think it's okay to share how you can use your intuition and your six sense to make good decisions in your business. Because sometimes when we look outside for answers, when we look outside of ourselves for answers, it can leave us even more confused instead of giving us clarity.
So anyway, with all that aside, I am going to start this episode, and I hope it's going to be helpful for you.
So if you're an aspiring business owner, or maybe you are in the early uncertain stages of entrepreneurship, where you feel that you have to make many decisions, and nobody can tell you which one is right, which one is wrong, and you have been tempted to buy many courses and many workshops from other experts to give you the answers. Well, the thing about starting a business is that there is no uh no manual for it, no guidebooks for it, nobody can give you a guaranteed answer to success, and you do not necessarily have to buy an expensive course or expensive program for you to succeed in business. I have bought some pretty reasonably priced causes which were really helpful, you know, courses which cost less than a hundred dollars, which are which were really helpful when I was starting my business.
So anyway, at some point, right, no amount of research can replace you trusting your own self and trusting your own gut feelings. And that's what today's episode is going to be about, how you can start sitting in silence, reconnect with your intuition and your sixth sense that's within you, and you can how you can use that to make good decisions for yourself.
Alright, if you are new in business, or maybe if you've been in business for a while, chances are your days are going to be fully packed and packed with decisions to be made, packed with things to be done, admin work to be done, and you may even have to do a lot of research because you have to lay the grounds for your business. That means finding the most value for money tools available, and you will be doing a lot of Google research, asking other business owners what their opinions are, and you may even be checking your competitors' pages and websites, scrolling through Facebook groups for some advice, watching YouTube, tutorials nonstop, the right way to do things, and all this can add to a lot of confusion and lack of mental clarity. This is something I've experienced on my side as well.
So when I say quote unquote sit in silence, I'm not just referring to us turning off our phones or turning off the internet, you know, what I mean is to actually be with ourselves and be aware of what's going on within our body, within our mind, and being hyper aware of what's going on around us. So this requires us to be very present with ourselves at the moment. And being aware of our breathing patterns, being aware with our uh nervous systems, being aware of our moods, being aware of how our bodies are how we are feeling at this moment.
And for many entrepreneurs, especially if you're doing this for the first time, it can feel uncomfortable because when we sit in silence, when we are with ourselves, that's when our thoughts and emotions will start to surface. All those emotions and thoughts that we've been trying to avoid, or those not so pleasant ones, will start to surface, and we have to face them. So that's why it can feel very comfortable if you are if you're new to this, or if you're someone who is just uh not used to doing this. But that discomfort is not a sign that you are doing something wrong, actually. It's actually a sign that you are probably probably not used to hearing yourself think, not used to hearing your own intuition, your own six sense.
Because many of us, have been trained to look outside, outside of ourselves for answers instead of looking inwards. And when we look inwards or consult our intuition to make decisions, some people can actually mock us for that. They can mock us and tell us you're not being logical, you are following your emotions too much, or or what have you. So some of us have been shamed when we use our intuition to make decisions.
However, when we look at other people, other experts or what have you for decisions, that does not always give us the right answers either. And you it can give you so much information, it can also lead you to analysis paralysis, and you'll be constantly consuming other people's like opinions, strategies, content, and it gets a lot harder to actually make decisions when you're consuming so much content from other people. And it gets really really hard to listen to your own intuition as well, if you keep consuming other people's content.
So in short, our intuition or our inner voice or six sense, quote unquote six sense refers to something which our subconscious mind already knows. And to get access to that, we need to be in silence and we need to be aware of the state of our minds and our bodies, and we have to have our nervous systems regulated.
This is where I'm going to differentiate between anxiety or fear driven decisions and your true intuitive decisions. So for many of us, business owners, whether you're new or you've been in this business world for a while. We may have this fear of missing out on missing out on a sale, missing out on a trend, or you know, FOMO, in other words, fear of missing out. For example, if you want to buy a particular software, and they tell you that oh, you only have a I don't know, 13 hours left to buy the software at this lifetime price, or lifetime price increases next month, or something along those lines, when we have that, sometimes we can feel this urgency to buy that software or that thing right here, right now. So the fear of missing out, the fear of spending money on the wrong tools, the fear of making the wrong decisions, so all these things are what we call fear-driven decisions. When we make decisions based on fear, this is usually I would say usually not exactly the best way to make business decisions.
And you may be wondering how does a fear-driven decision feel like? Fear to me it feels really loud. It there's an urgency to it. Fear wants answers right now. Fear is impatient. Whereas your intuition or your inner voice is different.
For me personally, I think intuition speaks to different people in different ways, but for me personally, intuition feels like a very neutral knowing feeling. It's a knowing feeling with no emotions attached, no charged emotions, no excitement, no fear, no anxiety, nothing. It's a very stable feeling with no emotions attached.
So that's how I feel that my intuition feels like - intuition may speak to different people differently, and there are people who can literally hear the inner voice speaking to them. So those are what we call clairaudient people. Anyway, so that's one way, another way is that some people can actually see images, and they can see signs or they can see images or some kind of visual representation of what the answer is supposed to be.
Some people actually feel it in their bodies. They may feel a tightening in their chest, if the decision is a wrong one, they feel the expensiveness in their heart area, if it's if the decision is the right one.
So intuition speaks to us in many different ways. However, in general, intuition does not have any emotions attached to it. There's no excitement, no urgency, like I mentioned, no anxiety, no fear, no anger, no impatience. It's just a knowing feeling. It's like that stable friend that you have. I'm sure most of us have at least one or two of those people who's always there for us, always supporting us, quietly supporting us, always there, always reliable. That's what intuition feels like for me.
And when you are making a decision and you have these answers in your mind, for example, you know:
"What if I if I don't buy this software and I miss my chance of getting it at this good price?"
"What if my competitor does this thing first, launches this item first?"
"What if this is the only opportunity I get to get this software at a very good deal?"
for example. So if you have this these questions and these urgent voices in your mind, it may not be your intuition speaking to you, it may be your fear speaking to you, and your fear pushing you to make a decision.
So being able to so being able to recognize or differentiate between our inner voice, intuition and fear, it can be a very very useful tool, very helpful skill to have as a business owner. And you can do this by practicing silence. That's the first step, being silent and just being hyper aware of yourself and your surroundings. That's the first step, because you can't really hear your inner self speaking to you if your mind is cluttered, or if your mind is full of thoughts and full of information.
So you may be wondering how can we practice silence if you've never done that before. So if you want to do this, you want to access or be in touch and reconnect with your intuition, but you have not done it before, or you have forgotten how to do it, you might be wondering "How can I restart this?" "How can I restart this process?"
What you can do is to start with about ten to fifteen minutes of silence. And it doesn't and it doesn't sound like much, I know. But if you are new to this, or if you have not done this for a long time, this can be quite challenging to do. In fact, I would challenge you and say that if possible, practice having 15 minutes of silence. That means you are on your own, preferably in a room on your own for 15 minutes with no phone, no screens, no distractions, no notifications. It's just you. It's just you and yourself. Literally that.
So start by doing this for 10 to 15 minutes, and what you're going to do is:
You are going to focus on the cycle of your breath, your breathing in, your breathing out
You're going to be hyper aware of what's going on in your body
You're going to be hyper aware of what's going on around you
You're going to be aware of the thoughts that are in your mind
So you are going to actually take an observer's point of view when you when it comes to your thoughts and observing your thoughts as clouds in the sky. So basically you're going to be imagining each thought as a cloud, and it's going to bob gently from right to left. That's how I view my thoughts when I'm in silence. So you may see many thoughts gently bobbing from right to left, especially if you are new to this. And this is how you're going to take an observer's position to your thoughts. And also be present and be aware of what's going on around you. Be aware of your breath, be aware of the cycles of your breath, be aware of how deep you are breathing in and how long your exhales are.
So this is what we are going to do for 10 or 15 minutes. And then what you can do next is you can ask your question to your inner voice. I would say stick to one question first. For example, if you are thinking whether you should buy a particular software. So you can ask yourself, "Should I buy the $600 software?" "Is it a good investment?" and you're going to see what answers come up.
You may not get an answer, especially if you are very emotionally attached to the answer. So the best thing you can do, and this is going to be another episode for another time, is to have a practice detachment to the outcome, practice detachment towards the answer.
And this is where the law of attraction related concept of detachment comes into play. It is best if we can be emotionally detached from the answer that our intuition is going to give us. This is going to be a little bit challenging because when we have questions for our intuition, we usually are emotionally invested in the answer. So practicing detachment is going to be another practice in itself.
So if we know that we are in a state where our where our nervous systems are regulated, where we are present, where we are calm. And once we know that we are in that good state, that's when we can engage our intuition in this little dialogue, asking it a question, you know, "Should I buy the software or not?" for example. If there is a part of you that desperately wants the answer to be a yes, then you are probably not going to get the quote unquote correct answer from your intuition. Or if there is a part of you which is very strongly opposed to the answer, very opposed to the idea, then it's going to temper or taint the answer that you think you are going to get. So it's best to be as neutral as possible.
And for some people like I mentioned earlier, they get a clear knowing feeling with no emotions attached. When the intuition speaks to them, some people can hear their intuition, some people can see their intuitive messages, some people can feel it. Usually for many people, if they ask a question and they feel a tightness in the heart space or the heart chakra area, or on the shoulders especially, most likely the message is a no. Or if you feel an expensiveness in the heart chakra area, most likely the answer is a yes from your intuition.
So you need to know your body really closely when it comes to this. If you're going to rely on your body's sensations to give you or indicate the answer to you, you have to have a very close relationship with your body and how it works. And one way to do it is to think of a time when your intuition gave you an answer and it works out well. If you can you try to recall the essence of the intuitive message that you got. Where do you feel an expansiveness in your body? What state were you in when you received a message? Was there any emotions felt at that time? So these are the questions that these are the things you bear in mind.
And one practice which works very well for me as a small business owner is to be in silence for 15 minutes before I do any business related things. So before writing an email to my subscribers.
Okay, I'm giving a shout out to my 7700 subscribers, email subscribers right now. So before writing an email to you, I will actually take about 15 minutes to be in silence, and it's going to be just me and maybe a cup of tea, a cup of coffee, or whatever it is, and it will just me and a cup of tea or coffee for 15 minutes in silence, sitting in silence. So that's what I do before I write any emails to my audience. That's what I do before I recorded this podcast episode. That's what I I usually do before I do something business related or answering emails or answering questions or whatever it is.
The reason why I do this is because I want to be in the right state of mind, in a right frame of mind. And I want to make sure my nervous system is regulated before I write something or before I create something or answer a customer's question. So that's the reason why I do this. And it helps a lot to keep my mind clear, and it helps a lot to ensure that I am listening to my intuition as a guide instead of just following my to-do list.
Because running a business in a way which feels good to me is quite important because following a rigid structure of I don't know what is it, funnels, sales cycles, customer avatars and all those things. Of course I'm aware of those in my business, but to follow those things really rigidly and you know tracking down every single thing gives me more stress and it makes running my business feel very stressful and unpleasant. So for me, I love to run my business in a way which feels good for me in my body and feels good for me as a person, as someone who is a creative person. I want to run my business in a way which is high vibe.
I don't want to run my business in a way that makes it feel like it's a very stressful job, you know. So that's why I do pause for about 15 minutes, just me and myself with no distractions and no screens around me, no internet around me, before I do any business related task.
Homework for you
Alright, so I have a homework for you right now, and it's something I've done myself. So I'm going to see and invite you to try this if you want to. Maybe you can think of a decision that you have to make in your business, which you've been procrastinating upon. Maybe:
"Should I buy that subscription or not?"
"Should I, invest in Squarespace or WordPress?"
"Should I pay for this platform or that platform?"
"Should I buy Buffer or Publer for my social media management?"
These kinds of decisions, or maybe even smaller decisions than that, such as "Should I launch a workbook for my clients, or should I launch a masterclass?"
So whatever it is, whatever decision you've been putting off for too long, maybe you can think of that, and what you're going to do is for 48 hours, I would say 48 hours, I want you to make a decision without any outside input. So that means:
You're not going to ask anybody for opinions
You're not going to search Reddit forums or any forums for answers
You're not going to Google for your answer
You're not going to look at Facebook groups for answers
You're not going to do research on it
You are just going to depend on yourself, your inner voice, and whatever your intuition tells you to do. And take action on it and see what happens.
For me, I had to make a decision recently. I wanted to buy this particular software. It's about $550. And I wasn't sure whether I needed it. I wasn't sure whether it was worth the investment. My mind was asking me all these questions. "Is it worth it?" "Do I need it?" And I went through Facebook groups, looking at other business owners' opinions about this software. I looked at Reddit forms, I did some Google research and all that to get answers for this question.
However, the more information I consumed the more confused I got because every person has a pros and cons list for the software. Some people say it's good, some people say it's not good enough. Some people say you need to invest in something more robust, some people say simplicity is good. So many opinions, so much information.
So what I did was I closed my laptop and all that, and I just allowed myself about 24 hours to make a decision without any outside input. And I and I felt an expansiveness in my heart space at the thought of buying that software, the 550 dollar software. I will link it in the description box in case you're curious. So I felt an expansiveness at the idea of buying that software, and somehow somewhere in myself, it's I have a feeling that it's going to be a good investment. Although they may be cheaper options out there, maybe I have a similar software which I'm paying for, you know. So if you're curious, this platform can host online courses and also sell digital products and all that. So I think it's a good value for money. I will link it in the description box if you want to check it out.
And in the end, I did buy it at some point. And it felt so good to buy it. I felt an expansiveness when I bought it. I guess it's a good decision. Sometimes your intuition will give you answers which may not make logical sense at that point of time. So it may not make sense at that point of time. But it may make sense maybe one year down the road, maybe one month down the road. We need to have trust that our intuition does have good answers for us. And it does take practice for us to be able to know and discern between fear-based decisions and intuition.
So if you are a new coach and an aspiring coach or content creator, or someone in the personal development niche, maybe you want to download my free Overcome Perfectionism lead magnet in the description box. It's free for use as a lead magnet and grow your email list.
So I will see you in my next episode. Goodbye.
