lisa fabrega
Ever seen one of Queen Elizabeth’s “addressing the nation” speeches? She doesn’t usually give them (the last one she did was during World War II). But she did give one when the pandemic broke out, which was a really big deal. And watching it was watching a master in action.
I was reading an analysis of her speech later, written by a leadership expert and he said exactly what I was feeling. Great leaders know how to give you the truth and not sugarcoat it, so you’re aware of the seriousness of the situation. But they also strike a note of hope to empower you to get through it.
Getting that balance right both within yourself and with others is a matter of having CAPACITY.
A few days ago we talked about some crucial skills you’re going to need to handle the next wave of this pandemic as a leader. Because, make no mistake, this virus is going to have a second wave that’ll be worse in the fall. And as a leader, I’m looking ahead at the challenges you might face, I’m keeping it real AND I want you to be empowered and READY to beat whatever is coming.
Today I want to talk about investing in yourself and your business during times of crisis.
There’s no agenda here on my end. I’m not going to send you to a fancy sales page at the end of this (though if you do want to work with me, you’re always welcome to apply). I simply keep getting this question from many of you. And I want to help. No matter the investment you may be considering right now.
Truth is right now a lot of problems you were ignoring, or the weak spots in your ways of being in your business have been exposed. And as a result, you might find yourself needing some more help than usual.
You might need some help in learning how to be more like Queen Elizabeth with your community of people you serve. Maybe you want to learn how to maintain your inner calm while all your clients are freaking out so you can empower them too (and as a result they can keep paying you). You might be scrambling to pivot and feel so overwhelmed you don’t know where to start. You might feel like you’re on pause, waiting with baited breath to see what will happen and deep down inside you know it’s a losing strategy.
All of these are capacity issues.
Times like these are when we need the most help. Yet, when we feel uncertain about money and what’s ahead, we feel tempted to hoard our money and “wait til later” to invest in solving the problem. We focus only on putting out short term fires and then we LOSE the long term vision.
You might be so busy dealing with the small fires right now, you aren’t preparing your capacity for what’s still up ahead in terms of this virus. Cause it’s only just getting started.
So to put off working on the weaknesses that have been exposed in your leadership or business right now, is only going to cause those problems to come back with a vengeance once the next wave comes in the fall.
It’s the nature of the things we ignore. They rear their ugly heads in worser ways until we finally pay attention. Wouldn’t you rather deal with it now, than wait til it becomes such a problem it shuts down your entire business or career?
This was the conundrum one of my clients was facing recently. She was weighing some investments she needs to not only keep growing her business, but also to keep growing as a leader with expanded capacity during this time. But she was feeling a part of her wanting to grip onto her money.
So she asked me “how do I know if an investment is the smart/right one for me, during this time?”
It’s a great question. And I answered it the same way I’d answer it even if we weren’t in a pandemic. I’ve made lots of investments in my business during scary financial times. Some of those investments weren’t great. Some of them were wonderful.
Here’s what I’ve learned investing all these years: good and smart investments have THREE criteria to them.
THEY CHANGE YOUR IDENTITY AND EXPAND HOW YOU SEE YOURSELF
A really good, EXPANSIVE investment should literally change how you see yourself. And it will change who you are and how you show up for your life and work.
Every time I’ve made a really good investment, I’ve literally had to change who I was in order to make it. For example, if I invested $10,000 before and that was my limit for investing, then if I came across a $50,000 investment, I’d have to significantly change how I see my CAPACITY and ABILITY to make the investment happen.
I need to BECOME the person who invests $50,000 in themselves, because that’s NOT the same person as the one who invested $10,000. Get it?
This is why very often when you make a solid investment in yourself, you usually see immediate gains (and I don’t just mean financial–not all valuable gains are financial). Because it literally changes you and the way you behave. Your decisions and actions change.
Once a client CRIED on our discovery call when she invested. She’d never done something so kind for herself and it transformed her right then and there. The week after, she set some incredible boundaries with her overbearing boss and cut loose a bad client.
This made her romantic relationship instantly better because she had more time to devote to it AND she wasn’t bringing baggage from a bad day at work to her partner. Then a few weeks later, a new, higher-paying client filled the spot of the bad client she cut. ALL happened before we even had our first session! The investment changed her.
If an investment doesn’t change how you see yourself, if it doesn’t change what you think you’re capable of just through the investment itself, then it’s not a “big enough” investment for you.
IT FEELS LIKE YOU’RE PUSHING YOUR EDGE, BUT NOT SHUTTING DOWN
I always know an investment is good for me when I have nervousness after. It’s a good, capacity-expanding investment if I think “who am I? Did I really just do that? Holy shit!”
But if an investment is TOO at my edge, I might find myself freezing and freaking out every day about it to the point where I can’t concentrate on anything else. This will impact my business earning in the long run–because I’m so stressed out and shut down over it, I can’t focus on anything else.
This is NOT the same as the normal, daily discomfort from pushing our edge which eventually fades once we expand our capacity.
Learning to calibrate and tell the difference between pushing too hard and pushing just the right amount is a CAPACITY skill. It’s what I teach my clients as “discernment.” And you need capacity to have good discernment.
IT’S A SOUL YES
If your soul is a yes to something, it IS possible. The way IS there. Our egos will have us believe the opposite–it only sees what’s in your bank account and end of chapter. But your soul is connected to DIVINE WISDOM. It’s connected to the infinite possibilities of the Universe.
So your Soul can “see” things your ego, which is primarily focused on survival, can’t see. It’s why your soul is sometimes like “YES LET’S DO THIS” and your ego fights and says “NO! ARE YOU CRAZY?!”
I never, ever, ever make an investment without a soul yes. And I never accept a client to work with me if they don’t have a full soul yes on our discovery call. Because, if it’s a soul yes, I then know the way to make the investment DOES exist. And the invitation to expand their capacity lies in them being willing to do the work to make it happen.
Some people don’t want to do that work and pick their ego no. You’re not ready.
Some push forward and as a result grow in ways they can’t even imagine.
I’ll never forget my client Lynne, whose bank account did not have the money for my program. But she told me “I’m gonna come back to you with the money in 36 hours, because I refuse to be stoppable for this amount of money!” Twenty four hours later she had the money in hand and enrolled. She told me “just the act of honoring my soul yes and MAKING IT HAPPEN was already worth the entire value of the program I just paid for.”
Six months later she was booking $25,000 and $65,000 clients left and right. The investment changed how she saw herself, changed her capacity to push herself AND taught her when you follow your soul, the path to success is paved and laid out before you.
If you’re considering an investment in yourself and your business right now, run it through the three criteria.
Listen, I get there’s more to this– for example– how do you know if it’s a soul yes or an ego yes/no? But answering that question requires we do capacity work and build your discernment so you know what is your soul and what is your ego masquerading as soul. I wish I could solve it in a single blog post, but I’d be really full of it if I said I could.
If you find you need help here, you have a capacity issue. And I’m always here to help you.. We have a variety of programs starting at $375 all the way up to private VIP level 1:1 coaching.
I hope this has helped you approach your investments during this time in a more empowered and grounded way.