Build Your Business with Intuition + Magic

Emily Thompson 0:10
There have been many times in my business when I got an itch to do something totally unconventional. Maybe it's that I don't mind risk. Or maybe it's that I completely embody the test and change mindset that I've preached here over the years. Or maybe it's simply that I play by a different set of rules, my own set of rules. I don't think anyone who knows me would argue much about the idea that breaking the mold and removing myself from expectations outside of my own, has been a strong undercurrent of my life's work. Or maybe I have the ability to connect with some knowledge that's outside of myself. That's deeper than my own. Welcome to being boss, a podcast for creatives and business owners and entrepreneurs who want to take control of their work and live life on their own terms. I'm your host, Emily Thompson. And today's episode is quite special, as it was recorded to a live audience of bosses joining me from all over the world for the guided by intuition gathering that took place just this past weekend. Over these three days, I took the bosses at attendance on a journey through releasing conditioning, embracing the weird, and learning to listen to and trust themselves, above all else. Why? Because you're smarter than you think. And connecting with your intuition gives you an advantage over every business owner out there who's just following blueprints and checklists. Join me in this episode, where you might even recognize a surprise guest. As I lay out for you the impact that listening to my intuition above all else has had on my career as a creative entrepreneur. But before I dive in, here's a message from our sponsor. Okay, you're about to hear me go into a real whoo direction. But don't forget for a second who you're talking to the ever practical me. And though when it comes to the creative side of business, I'm all about embracing the receptivity of yin energies and giving myself over to my intuition. I do not do that with my numbers. And money is a part of that. As a boss, as I define it, yes, you have a responsibility to nurture your creativity in whatever weird way you need. You also have the very real responsibility to know your numbers, pay your bills and make sure your customers are paying you, which is where fresh books cloud accounting comes in. freshbooks is an all in one small business invoicing and accounting solution that has the beauty and use that creatives desire with the tools and security that your business needs. Create invoices, track expenses, and get insightful reporting so that you can know what you need to know, in order to let your intuition and creativity do its thing. Join freshbooks today and get 50% off your first three months, go to freshbooks comm slash being boss and enter being boss in the How did you hear about us section. We're here this week, slash weekend to help our bosses connect with their intuition so that they can operate from a more aligned place. I plan this event this this we virtual sort of weekend together, because I recognize that connection, that connection with your intuition as one of the most prominent reasons as to why I am where I am. Right in my business. I was talking to them in the last session, we just did like a little welcome intro session where I told them like I don't have an MBA, I've never taken a business course, I have done everything that I've done from my own inner wisdom. I also like I haven't bought blueprints, or methods. I didn't do B school, though. I think Marie Forleo. And B school has done amazing things. I didn't do it. Because even what I remember at one point thinking like maybe I should do B school, all the cool kids are doing it right. And I remember thinking like no, I want to do this on my terms. I've always had a very clear recognition that you've heard me say like fuck industry standards, right? I want to do things differently. I don't care how they've been done before. I don't. I don't connect with any of those things. I want to do things the way I want to do things. And I've always recognized that by looking at those blueprints, buying into those methods, taking those courses, all of those things, I'm just sort of soaking that stuff in and doing the same thing as everyone else. So I've always very purposefully gone at business very intuitively.

Emily Thompson 4:54
And I'm creating this event so that I can instill in the bosses who are attending but also For this moment, anyone who's listening to this podcast, not only why it's important, but give you some examples of how it's actually manifested in my business of how I've used my intuition to make really big, amazing decisions that have totally paid off. Because I do believe, I do believe that when you're using your intuition and business, you, you have the you have this extra sort of compass pointing you in the right direction. But when I say right direction, I don't always mean the direction that you think it's going to take you in. I think that sometimes your intuition requires you to learn some lessons first, right. And so when you listen to your intuition, you're not always going to get definitely to that, like that place you wanted to get. But you will become a stronger, better, more well rounded and experienced human being along the way. Same thing can be true for doing, you know, a method or a blueprint or whatever it may be in your business. But I don't know, I just think it's so much there's like, there's some street smarts are something that comes from just listening to your intuition and doing it the way that you want to do it. I don't think that's probably true for everyone. I think that there are some people who need the extra education if you identifies that person, absolutely go get that education, whatever that looks like. But I think for people who have strong intuitions, lean into it, dive into it if you want to. So I thought that the best way to kick off this event, and to share with our larger podcast audience was to share some real life examples of how when and why I have chosen to use my intuition as a guide and my business and occasionally downright do some magic to move my business forward in just the right direction, even if just the right direction is not the direction I thought it was going to be. So I have a couple of a couple of experiences I do want to share with you. I'm going to start with, oh, I could start with so many. And here's the thing, sort of thinking about what this episode would be. I had such a hard time deciding which ones to talk about, because there is a multitude of times in my professional life, especially where I've got that nudge to do the thing. And I was like, Okay, fine. Let's see, let's see what happens. And I can make the very first business that I started that made no damn sense. Another one that I started the one that I bought, I was 18. And I bought a business it made no sense like why in the world did anyone let me do that. And I just shared a little bit with the bosses at at the event my like own family little bit, my mom. Just, she's connected. She has a good intuition too. And she just let me do it because I think she knew that it was the right thing for me as well. Right. So even like that one. That's not what I want to talk about, though. The one I want to talk about. The first experience I want to share was probably my first like hugely powerful business intuition moment. And that was the creation of something several years ago, within my indie shop RV business, which is a business that I closed down a couple of years ago. That's where I worked with creatives to help them build online presences. So I was actually designing and building websites, we were creating content and doing photography and branding and all of these things. So in the shop agraphia I was doing these things. And one day, I had the idea to start something that I called indie boom. So let me paint a picture of what this looked like. So I joined my first coaching program a couple of years ago, it was a couple years into my business, maybe like three or four years into my business and I had done a couple of things like had a couple of coaches or done a couple of programs I think like blueprint a more like like these are like community groups. It was actually what would have been communities or like large scale masterminds. So I never really saw those as masterminds. Those were definitely communities. But I joined my first five figure coaching program. Oh, my ringer is on that is the worst core he's not able to take that out.

Emily Thompson 9:36
I like it. Um, so I joined my first coaching program and it cost me five figures. And for me at that point, it was huge. But what I want to show here is that I was investing in myself, right I was investing my business myself and my business in a way that I had never done before. Because of that investment I was showing up and I was doing the work like I had never done before. I was doing the exercise Is that I was given I was doing, I was doing the audits of my business that I was directed to do, I was like looking at my business in ways that I had never looked at before. I was thinking a lot about who it is that I wanted to work with and what I wanted to do for them, and how I in in what area, I wanted to be an expert. So because of that investment, I was really like, my brain was going in a different space in my business. And I was opening myself up to a shift. I didn't know what I was going to be actually didn't really go into it with any expectations. I mean, I guess if you make a five figure investment, a coach, you have some expectations, but it wasn't like, I want to get the next big idea, you know, whatever it may be. I was just open, I was open to the experience to see what came about. And then one day, I had an idea. I remember having a thought like, what if instead of working with my website clients, which I was doing for about six to eight weeks, and was always getting kind of iffy results. And anyone who is a web designer, you probably know what I'm talking about where a lot of projects weren't getting launched, all their projects were very different. It felt very freelancing. But I got the idea that I wanted to create a solid process for how it is that I worked with my clients. And I wanted to go from where he was my clients from six, eight weeks, to working, what at the time was insane, either six or 12 months. I felt intuitively called to throw away every industry standard, and do business in a way that I just made up. I just made it up just made it up one day. And this was several years ago. This is maybe this isn't 10 years ago, eight years ago, right. And in online years, that's like 100 years ago. I was so excited about this shift and it came to me fully formed, I understood how I would what I what would be included in these packages, I understood how billing would work. I understood who it was that I was going to be working with. Oh, he's letting us know in the chat there that 2014 is when we started doing indie boom projects, right. Cory has been with me since that time, since before that time. So this idea came to me totally, fully formed. And I was so excited about it that I did not sleep for days, like I actually very clearly remember one night in particular laying in bed and like I could just feel the energy running through me, I could not sleep, I was so excited. I wanted to get up and start implementing this thing. And I ended up using that coaching experience to help me then build and launch this thing within a couple of weeks, and it made me a lot of money. It got me to cross over and do that multiple six figure place before I was even 13. And I did it for a couple of years. And it changed the way I work with my clients. It made me love working my clients so much more I had such a better understanding of who I would be working with. And our launch rates for those websites. Man, I think there was one that didn't launch one out of like maybe like a 50% launch rate before. And that's even assign more of clients being ready for the website. And it was a so it really got me in there where I was working with clients who were really ready to work with me. It changed my business and it changed my life. It gave me the stability in my business to start a passion project called being boss, right to end up. David Knight took that with our daughter took a crazy road trip, we moved to Chattanooga, I bought this house that I'm sitting in at the moment. That intuitive call changed my life. And with that I actually have someone who's going to come join me for a couple of their pieces because I'm thinking like I can tell you about all of my experiences. But I think I'd rather bring on someone else to help me talk about some experience to give you some breadth of experience here. So let's see if we can make this happen.

Emily Thompson 14:19
Despite what a lot of bosses believe, and having a happy team is not magic. Yes, it takes intention. But it's also accomplished with helpful tools that make their involvement in your business clear. And that clarity is possible with gusto. gusto is an easy online payroll and benefits service that was you and your employees access their payroll benefits, onboarding and HR tools all in one place. Sign up now and you'll get three months free when you go to gusto comm slash being boss. That's gussto.com slash being boss.

Kathleen Shannon 14:56
Wait, where am I? What am I doing here?

Emily Thompson 15:00
Kathleen, what are you doing?

Kathleen Shannon 15:03
I thought I was on Marco Polo with you.

Emily Thompson 15:09
This is not Marco Polo. This is the guided by intuition gathering.

Kathleen Shannon 15:13
Well, hello, I guess I'm here. Hi, everybody, it's your girl, Kathleen here. I couldn't say goodbye for too long, I just had to pop back in for a little talk about intuition.

Emily Thompson 15:28
Right? Well, I think whenever it comes to talking about intuition, why not talk to the person that I've probably talked to most about doing or like using intuition in business? So I'm glad that you've come to chat with me about this.

Kathleen Shannon 15:44
I think it's so important to use intuition in business, but also in your whole life, right? And here at being boss, can I just come back for the hour? Yes, your boss, like we don't separate who we are with the work that we do, right, like, part of being a boss is that that is a part of our identity. And it is a part of how we move through the world, right. So I think that it's so important to use intuition in everything, it will help you make decisions faster, you will have less self doubt. And you will feel more aligned and whole and creatively fulfilled. One of the things that I was thinking about before coming into this call with you, Emily is even language right now I'm watching a lot of debates and listening to a lot of people talk about a lot of things. And I have noticed that they start their sentences with Look, look, bla bla bla bla bla, or listen, listen, bla bla bla bla bla, and it's gotten me thinking about looking, listening. I think intuition is about feeling. So whenever we use the word, I think, blah, blah, blah, that's us being in our heads, that's us trying to problem solve from our brain space. Whenever we say I feel like I just feel like this might be the good answer, or I feel like this is gonna take us where we want to go, that is us using our intuition. And then I know, I know is as using our intuition combined with our expertise and experience. So it's not that your intuition is always going to be 100% and get you where you need to go without any problems. That is, whenever you're combining intuition with expertise and knowledge and even confidence that you're going to feel like you know that something is the right choice. But feeling into your intuition is taking your head out of it a little bit and bringing your body into it and bringing, you know, just that, that place that you can't quite touch your name into your decision making process. And that isn't something that's very celebrated, you know, especially in like kind of a patriarchal way of working. It's not something that is we're taught to home, whenever it's unless you're listening to Oprah, who's telling you like if it feels wrong, it probably is don't go to the second location, you know, but like, in school, and especially in college, they're not saying like, Well, what do you feel? They're asking you to use your critical analytical mind, which is important. But it's also important to don't tune into the feeling side of things as well.

Emily Thompson 18:19
For sure. Well, I wanted to spend some of this time actually giving some examples of ways that ways in times that we've used intuition in our businesses. So I just shared that I created an indie boom, that big, actually worked with braid a lot. With over those couple of years that I was doing that, how that like, intuitive hit of like, here's how I should do this. And for me, it kind of came to me fully formed, like how it is that I needed to, to continue forward in my business and make the changes that I needed to make. I'd love to hear from you. In what, in what ways or in what moments stand out to you for times when you've used intuition in your business to great effect.

Kathleen Shannon 19:11
Well, I can't think of a time that I haven't really used intuition. Oh, I can I can think of a few times where I didn't listen to my intuition. And it bit me in the ass like that time that we spent $15,000 on Facebook ads. So real example right there didn't work for us might work for you. Great. But you know, this is actually a side tangent, and maybe we'll get into it. Maybe we won't. But it's funny how I think that us as business partners, Emily, our intuition started to speak to each other like you can start to see how you know psychics claim that they can be psychic from afar. Now I can see how that's true because I could tune into you from afar and like literally feel you but we'll go into that next. One of the things I just literally just got out of a client meeting. So Since leaving being boss, I've been going full storm into raid creative and designing brand platforms for creative entrepreneurs and organizations. And I was thinking about it. Even in that meeting, I was a little bit nervous going into it, the client is real badass and just a total boss, but I didn't know if I was going to be able to give her what she wanted with this brand platform. I wasn't sure if we were even on the same page. So I use a little bit of my magical toolbox to make this go the way that I wanted to go. So a couple of things. First, I use visualization. all morning, I was imagining us being on zoom, I was imagining presenting to her. And I was imagining her saying, Wow, this isn't quite what I expected. But it's incredible. I love what you've done here. I also used so that visualization pre paving. And then I also use intuition in the design process. And this is something I've been doing for a really long time. It's almost I don't even know how to describe it. But it's like cooking. Whenever you're adding spices, you know, and you're just kind of like working your way through the recipe without a recipe, right? You're just an Emily, you know this more than anyone, you never even measure your spices, you're just kind of throwing them in there, right? And then you know when to stop? Well, it's the same thing with art or design. But whenever I was a younger designer, I always felt like I needed to have creative rationale, I needed to have a reason for why I did everything. I didn't really even believe that me liking it, or thinking that it felt good or that it looks cool was enough of a reason for it to be good design. I thought that it had to be rooted in structure or some sort of creative rationale, like a reason, like a reason why I chose yellow or whatever, right. And I as I was designing this brand platform for the client, I was even making choices that were antithetical to some of the creative direction that she had said that she wanted because I intuited that what she really wanted was something like this based off of the pins that she pins to there was information gathering, right? There's information gathering. And the way that the braid method works is that we are very collaborative, and we're getting a lot of information along the way. But there's probably that 10% gap. That's a little bit of magic and a little bit of intuition where I need to rely on my intuition to like, move my fingers on my mouse a certain way to make the design what it is. And so that's something I've been doing a lot lately, and most importantly, not apologizing for it. So even in my meeting with this claim that I just had, I said, I know that you didn't ask for this, but I use my intuition. And it really guided me more toward these colors versus these colors. And she was like, Oh my gosh, I love it. You know, I used to live in this country. And these are the colors of that flag. And it's perfect. And I was like, Oh my gosh, you know, it's little magic moments like that. So I not only intuited the design process itself, I also was transparent and open about that, about that intuition and using it to guide the way and I found that most of my clients like it, whenever I say, you know, I was kind of just using my intuition to feel that this was the right answer. They usually like it. And then it's even more credible than me saying yellow is a powerful color because something intellectual. And then that pre paving it worked. So it actually went the way that I knew or pre paved it to go, which is that she said this isn't quite what I imagined. But it feels polish, it feels cohesive, and I really like it. So yeah, that's kind of how I've been using intuition on like a more kind of almost micro level in my daily work.

Emily Thompson 24:00
I love that. I love that you are coming back and saying things that you've been saying for years. But it's like in practice in your in how you're showing up to work every single day. Right? So it's not like you sitting down once a month. I mean, like, Okay, it's time for me to pull up my tarot cards, do the thing, like you're literally showing up every single day, pushing the pixels, doing like having the meetings, all the things, but from a truly intuitive place, as opposed to you know, doing what you were taught, or what's expected or whatever, you are just listening to it constantly and that is informing the work that you're doing.

Kathleen Shannon 24:39
So Emily, before we got disconnected, one of the things that you started talking about was intuition with indie boom and creating that offering and allowing you to make the kind of money that allowed you to do something like the podcast. So tell me about the intuition and magic that went into starting the podcast.

Emily Thompson 25:00
I mean, I feel like I've said this a couple of times. I feel like this always comes out on like, when I'm doing interviews on other people's podcasts, right? They're like, how did bean ball start, and I don't feel like I've ever maybe we have, we have a huge library. But um, how starting this podcast came about, and just like I was talking about a moment ago with indie boom, because I think what you'll start seeing here is like, Kathleen has her own way of working with intuition, I have my own way, everyone has their own way of doing it. Where for me, the podcast came up very similarly, to how indie boom came up, it came to me fully formed one day on announced, right, I don't remember, I don't remember quite the setting that I was in, whenever I had the idea to start the podcast. But one day, I just had this idea of let's or I want to start a podcast. And I want it to be with Kathleen, fully formed. And I want to be sharing the conversations that we have been sharing, that we've been sharing between ourselves privately to other creative business owners. And, you know, in the email that I wrote you, I think the title of it, the title of the email was like, you know, I have an idea is gonna change our lives. Like this is before we'd ever had a conversation about it, podcasts weren't even really a thing, like everyone was listening to either invisibility or cereal back in the day. And I just had this idea to dive into this brand new medium that no one was really diving into yet, with someone that I had never. I had never, I guess we've been working together with braid, and nd like we had been working together. But we'd never like partnered up really on a project like this. And it came to me fully formed. And I knew I knew, I knew that it was a big, crazy, awesome idea. And like, to this day, I, it was the decision that I think has had the biggest impact on my career. And it was 100% intuitive. I wasn't looking at the podcasting industry. You know, like, I wasn't thinking like, I need to create any marketing channel for myself. Not really, I mean, guess I'm always thinking about that. But it just it was my big magic moment. So big magic is a book written by Elizabeth Gilbert. And she talks about how inspiration are these like, sort of living beings almost, she says it way more poetically than me. And they just float around. Do they find someone interesting? And they latch on or whatever. And that one was one that latched on to me. And I said, Yep, I'll take you. And being boss was created. So that for me, like I operate in the big idea realm, right? Where I do lots of like daily practice things too. And I definitely am very intuitive and lots of my lots of business parts. But for me, it's those like, it's big idea moments. And I've learned to like, I've learned that whenever things are stalling, when things are getting a little slow, or like I need to freshen things up, but I'm not really sure or things are changing, and I'm not really sure where to go next. My job is to get really quiet to like, nurture a space for those big magic moments. Because I've just told you two times that has happened and it's happened a couple other times since. So that's another one of mine starting this podcast, totally intuitive came to me fully formed. And I was like What in the world? And it worked.

Kathleen Shannon 28:34
So this is a good question that Deb has in the comments is what if an idea comes to you fully formed, but your challenges in creating that end product or project? What do you do to reverse engineer into that fully formed idea?

Emily Thompson 28:53
That's just how my brain works. Which is not helpful. I don't think for anyone, um, I don't my brain always gets the big picture and the steps along the way. That's I there is no like method to it. It's just it's just how worse from even like the podcast, I remember telling you like, you literally have to handle no tech, I'll figure it out. Right. Like, I don't know how it is I'm going to do it. But I'm going to start taking the steps and I will figure it out along the way. So I guess there is just like this extra element of trust there that if I just start with where I can, where I noticed art and the fact that we have Google at our fingertips, right like you can learn whatever you need along the way, but you just get started. For me. That comes very naturally to me. But if it doesn't come naturally for you, I think it's starting with like the first step you think you should take and then do some googling and see what you can learn along the way. I want to hear another one from you. How and what other way Or at what other time has intuition played a big part in your career?

Kathleen Shannon 30:08
I'm trying to decide where I want to go with this, you know, so, for me it is these more little magic moments. If you have your big magic moments, I always have my little magic moments. So you asking me to do the podcast didn't feel as big in my mind as it did? How did I know? You know, had I known? But it didn't feel as big in my world as probably it did. In your world, it felt like an easy Yes, at the time for sure. Um, so for me, one of the things that I really like to do in these little magic moments, or to really hone my intuition more than anything is visualization. This is so important. And I think it's probably speaking to my more visual mind, I like to be able to see things and I see things whenever I think about how my intuition this is actually something Emily, whenever you hit get that ping of in of intuition, and an idea comes to you fully formed, like whenever being boss, the podcast came to you fully formed. What did it look? Was it a look? Was it a feeling? Could you see it like on your iPhone? How could you How did you know it was there?

Emily Thompson 31:24
Hmm, that's a good question. I think there's a bigness to it. And a bigness, not unlike this is going to be the biggest podcast ever. But like a bigness in that not only is this an idea, but I am seeing several facets of it at once, right? Like I understand, like, even though I've never produced a podcast before, I know the tools that I need to use to make it happen. Or, or even like indie boom for me, I knew exactly like I knew who that dream customer was, I knew how I was going to like I knew the pricing, I knew how the billing was going to work. I knew who I was going to collaborate with. Like, it wasn't just I had this idea. But I had this idea that had 50 other ideas attached to it. That like, like your idea comes with a spreadsheet and

Kathleen Shannon 32:09
a brand platform,

Emily Thompson 32:11
for sure, for sure. So good on paper. So there is this bigness, there's just like fully fleshed out newness to those ideas that really differentiates them from just like a regular old idea that I might have. And because of that there is this like physical excitement. Like, before you jumped in, I mentioned how whenever I was doing indie booms. Whenever that idea came to me, I didn't sleep for days, right? Like it was in my body this like excitement and feeling an energy that comes from and like my regular ideas don't have that there is this like bigness and this feeling that comes whenever those intuitive hits hit.

Kathleen Shannon 32:53
So minor visual, and it's usually more like clues. It's these visual clues of what is to come. And then I have to work my way into those clues, you know, and I can sometimes reverse engineer it a little bit. So I mentioned earlier using visualization by pre paving Hi, one of my client meeting to go, I was imagining exactly what my client would say I was imagining her energy and what she was going to look like. So I also do this before any speaking gig. So let's say you are a boss and you're wanting to start. Be on more podcasts like you want to start being interviewed on podcasts. I want you to close your eyes and visualize what is your microphone look like? Where are you podcasting from? You know, what does it what is the person who's interviewing you? What do they look like? I've also had this in weird little hits before, like, for example, whenever right before we went on book tour, I had this visualization of us being on a stage and lights in our eyes. And I didn't know quite what it was. But I was like, Hmm, interesting. Then we were being interviewed in ABC Studios. And in New York City, it was so fabulous. And I looked up and these lights were kind of shining down on us in the studio. And it was the exact lights that were in my visualization like kind of what I saw. So it's almost like a little bit of a wink a little bit of a clue that makes me feel like okay, this was meant to be. It's almost like that. And so this is actually really helpful whenever it comes to making quick and big decisions. Because as a boss, as someone who's living a big life, sometimes you're going to have to make big scary decisions that either cost a lot of money or take up a lot of time or somehow use up your resources in a way that it's like a risk, right? So even this house that I'm in right now, I remember visualizing wood ceilings that was in my visual and then just a ton of Have plants in this like mid century modern house, but isn't that everyone's dream? Well, this house came up, I found it, I just downloaded this app that it happened to appear on. And my husband is right in between jobs, it was not a good time to be buying a house. But we walked in through the front door and I looked at the ceilings, which those of you who are here with us live, you can see that they are wood ceilings, with these wooden beams in them. And I was like, This is it, it's a good thing that I had packed my checkbook with me because I put down an earnest check right then and there. And it was really cool, because like, I just knew that it was the place because I had already seen it in my mind. And I can make that big decision. And the person I was making the big decision with trusted me, because I had said, This is what I'm seeing, this is what I'm seeing for our house, this is what it's got to have. Um, you know, even still, I can still visualize me and you Emily doing amazing race. I'm not saying that it's gonna happen, who we might just end up in Bangkok together, running from a taxi station to an airport. I don't know, I don't know, like how this is actually going to manifest. But I see us being on Amazing Race together, I just see it. And so I would say you know, really think about visualizing what you want. So I actually have a tip for this for the bosses listening. One of the ways that I like to hone my visualization skills is to find a plant, or even a flower and sit there and stare at it for like a solid, five minutes, just stare at this plant, take everything in, and then close your eyes and start recreating it in your mind. And at some point, you'll think that have five leaves or four was the inside of the yellow or more of like a white, you'll start the visualization will start to become a little bit fuzzy as you build it back up some details you'll remember super acutely, and you'll be able to see them without any problem. Once it starts getting a little fuzzy, open your eyes again, and look at the flower or look at the plant again, take in more information, close your eyes again and start rebuilding it. Again. I'm a visual artist. So maybe this is just how my brain works. For some of you visualization might look like writing down a detailed story of something and using your imagination. But I really do like honing it just by looking at a plant and or a flower and rebuilding it in your mind. It serves to help you be able to see things in your mind. So that you can start to create and visualize whatever future it is that you want, whether it's the kind of business that you're running, or that office space that you're in, or the house that you're living in, or even what your brand starts to look like. Start honing that visualization skill.

Emily Thompson 37:54
So on that topic, Megan here has a question for you. Are you crafting your visualizations based on what you want? Or are you seeing them and feeling and formed from that? Like, what comes first, the desire or the visualization?

Kathleen Shannon 38:11
is both and it happens in different ways. So for me the visualization of the lights from the stage, that wasn't necessarily something that I wanted, but then I did want it as soon as I saw it. I was like, Yes, that please. I thought it was a Netflix show that we were gonna have but whatever, you know, studios were pretty close, you know? And I don't want us to be stranded in Bangkok. I don't want it you know, what's that movie with Claire Danes where she gets arrested abroad with her best friend.

Emily Thompson 38:42
Yeah, I don't remember. But...

Kathleen Shannon 38:44
know I'm talking about though. Okay, so I don't want our life to be that no be even though that's kind of in the visualization. I hope that is under the protection of usually just a reality show. That is amazing race. Um, so you know, it could even be warnings like, be careful, careful. So yeah. And then if it isn't the I want that I haven't visualized. I do start practicing. What does this look like? What does this feel like? This actually takes us back to the ideal day exercise, which is really using all of your senses. So what does it smell like? What does it look like? What are you seeing with your eyeballs? What does it feel like? And then you can start to build that life. So let's say in my dream world, it always smells like a truly and mint and Eucalyptus. Well, I'm also surrounded like in a beautiful home that could be an Architectural Digest. I don't have the Architectural Digest home yet, but I can buy a couple of essential oils and defuse them and start to create the feeling that I had in my mind's eye.

Emily Thompson 39:51
For sure. We were talking down palaces,

Kathleen Shannon 39:53
the name of the movie.

Emily Thompson 39:56
We were talking the Monday meetup this week about singing chronicity and how like that really is sort of like one of the most basic parts of like practical magic. And those visualizations really are this act of you, you know, creating what it is that you want, see, feel hear all of these things, so that you can initiate the synchronicity that actually brings it into being. And that's something that I mean, if you are making a mood board or a vision board, like that's literally what you're doing is you are infusing that vision and calling upon like forming synchronicities around the thing that you want. So you're calling it to you.

Kathleen Shannon 40:35
Okay, one thing about vision boards, I've been thinking about this lately, and sometimes I think that they're almost a little limiting, because you're limited to only what's available, or what's in the mainstream, you know, because if I'm creating a vision board based off of what's in Architectural Digest, it's almost like someone else's creating that vision. And so I've actually been practicing this a lot in my house is like, what is my actual vision, so I have these super 1980s cabinets that everyone would rip out. But I was like, You know what, in my truth, I actually really liked these. And I'm going to mix it with these kinds of tiles. And so I started to kind of collage things together, but also looking at what is it that I actually like, what hasn't been imagined what isn't on Pinterest, or on Instagram or in the magazines that I can take an own and, and make a part of my world, you know, and make it a really cool part of my world. I don't know if I'm articulating that quite like I want to. But I do think that mood boards can be somewhat limiting, which is why it's good to not only try and have a mood board, but to write down, or to even just tune into speaking from an intuitive space like that that bigness feeling that you were talking about, that you can't really describe. You want to kind of tune into that feeling, and then work your way toward it.

Emily Thompson 41:59
And I love it. Okay, I want to dive into, I have a really practical thing that I want to share, and it came up in the last session. So I have to squeeze this in here, because this is where it fits most over the next couple of days. And this is a piece of sort of, I guess, energetic work that I do quite often. And that is cord cutting. I mean something that I've been doing for years. And it's something that I've been directing sort of clients and bosses who are in groups that I run and things to do as well, because I especially think right now everyone is feeling the need to sever themselves from so many energies. Right? So I want to talk about this and how it is that I've used it. And why it is that I do it and how it is that it's helped me. Because I think it's super important and has been very much. So a practice of how I've been able to show up and do the work for many years. And it all started very intuitively as it should. Whenever I owned my first business back whenever I was a teenager, I remember being a full time student, and owning this tanning salon, and living through a period of stress, unlike maybe anything I've experienced since like I at that time hadn't Well, you're right, thank you for looking at me like that, maybe second to most stressful, and mostly because I didn't have the tools to deal, right. So maybe the stress really wasn't that big, but I didn't know how to deal with it. Right. So the only or the most effective way I learned to deal was by what I now know, is cord cutting. So I would literally lay down at night. And I would start like severing myself from all of these things that were claiming my attention so that I could go to sleep. Because I was having a hard time sleeping. I now know that I was laying there and cord cutting, I was severing myself from all other things out there that needed my attention or claiming my attention. And at that point, started a practice that I have brought with me through the many years and the many businesses and so many stressful times. And I've used it a couple of times to like huge effect. I do it often. And to show you how it is or to tell you how it is that I do it. I will literally just lay in bed and take myself into a meditative state. And even when I'm not meditating, often I can do that relatively quickly. So you may need to like practice and really get there but you get into a really quiet space. And I literally imagined myself with a cutting apparatus and it's always different something that's like a massive broadsword. Right, so now there's like a clown, kingly, large pair of scissors, right. Sometimes it's like a nice little knife, whatever it may be, and like nothing really dictates what it is just sometimes it shows up different. So I imagine a cutting tool, and I literally just visualize taking it around my entire body. So I'll start in the front of me and just like cut any sort of imaginary or not chords that are attaching themselves to me. And so that whenever I'm done, I've gone all the way around my body, I've done my feet, I've done the top of my head, and I have severed myself from anything that has attached itself to me, or that I attached myself to. And every time I do that, whenever I am done, I feel so much relief, and so much more centered, and so much more myself. And the last session do, we were talking about being empaths, I definitely find this very helpful for myself, whenever we're doing boss vacations, for example. Every night, I'm cord cutting every single night, anytime I've ever had a really difficult client, cord cutting, there's even been times where I've done that, and it has not only equated to a sort of energetic release around whatever is happening, but I've literally done it and had those clients either leave or quit or something come up where I have to fight like sometimes it actually creates momentum in my outward life, those energetic cuts. And it's happened weirdly, amazingly, very effectively a couple of times. And I will say and I haven't even told you this yet, Kathleen, I did it quite a while while we were going through negotiations for for transferring being boss, were you cord cutting from me? Oh, right. No, don't give me that phase, let me finish my story.

Emily Thompson 46:53
Not to like cut you away. But to clear myself of any sort of outward influence that would make our agreement any less what I needed it to be. Does that make sense? So like I did it with a purpose of like, I just want whatever outcome whatever sort of input I'm doing into these negotiations and disagreement to just be what I need, not what anyone would expect from me, not what like, you know, I read something some sort of scenario or even like, or even our, our like, what if scenarios, like even releasing myself of like, even some of those so that as we were negotiating, I could really just show up just as like, a detached to me, so that it could be as true of an outcome as it could possibly be. And I did that multiple times throughout the throughout our negotiations. And I think again, to great effect.

Kathleen Shannon 47:55
So I've got one that's kind of like cord cutting that I wasn't even planning on sharing. But one of the things that I like to do, while we're talking about intuition, and I guess I'm bringing this up, because whenever I'm doing cord cutting, I always imagine the cords connecting through my abdomen, and like these like rays of light coming from my abdomen, abdomen, and that's what I'm cutting. And then I watched like the strings like fly away like it's real, it's real tension rope, and then I'm cutting it and the rope is like kind of flying away, right? Well, one thing that I've been doing lately, as I'm trying to build resilience in the middle of a pandemic, and social uprising, and being a business owner, that's now also homeschooling, and all the things but also still wanting to be a creative and wanting to be a boss and all of those things. One of one of the things that I'm doing is really identifying where in my body certain strengths or intuitive information lives. And so I do believe and you can believe whatever you want. This is for me, this is how I cope with being a human in on Earth right now, especially as I do believe that I do have this spirit or soul that chose to be in this body to have the experiences that I'm having on purpose. You know, like I'm learning things I could only learn in a human body. And there is something to that though of having this, let's say spirituality or soul or some sort of like energetic force in my body. I think about like, Okay, if I cut off my foot, would I still be me? If I cut off my leg, would I still be me? If I cut off both my legs? Would I still be me? I kind of think about like almost cutting off parts of my body.

Emily Thompson 49:40
Or is like, this is so unbranded, I love it.

Kathleen Shannon 49:45
But on that note, I also like to think of like where does certain information live? And today, it was in my spine, like my spine is what where if that was gone right now, I wouldn't be me. Right. And so it's Thinking about that I've also done it before, where if I really need to build up courage or strength, I will pour energy into kind of like my solar plexus area and all imagine lighting it up and like building strength there. If I'm about to have a hard conversation, I will imagine lighting up my throat. Emily, do you probably you had throat issues probably was it a couple years ago, your throat. So my throat has been real tight ever since leaving being boss, my throat gets tired. If I'm talking for more than an hour at a time, like if I'm even reading a chapter of a kid's book to my child, my throat starts to get like a little squeezed up and tight. And so I asked myself, okay, what what is there that I need to learn, you know, or what is there that I need to release or what is there that I can start to strengthen. And so think about where different stores of knowledge or strengths or weaknesses that you can either boost or identify and leverage live in your body and start to tune into those a little bit. And

Emily Thompson 51:04
this is great from like a really like, where in your body because people feel things in different places. But also, the study of chakras has been huge for me in this too. And even crystals, like I'm holding one at the moment, as I usually am doing whenever I'm looking at the computer screen, especially just talking at the computer screen. And this is one that I've been keeping on me quite a lot lately. And it's for those like first second third chakras. And so I do, I am always very mindful of like, what chakra is I need to be working with the throat things like I started wearing all kinds of like Chi and I know I get really crystal and chakras whenever I feel myself needing to needing to sort of nurture or assist to parts of my body and then the things that I need. So if it's like throat issue, throw issues at that time, if you'll remember it was because we were like starting to podcast less or like my throat chakra is so overworked. Like I've spoken so much that I just did I need to like, allow my throat chakra to like calm down a little bit. So I do that a lot with chakras and stones. Working with some of those things, I do want to come back to cord cutting really quick because Gabby over there in the comments, made a really great comment about she says, from what I've learned, it's not always a bad thing to cord cut, you can do it with someone or something you want a healthier connection with too. So for sure, I do. Like I literally cut everything. Literally everything every single time. And I actually mentioned this to David recently, he was like even me.

Kathleen Shannon 52:49
Yeah, see Emily, that hurts people's feelings. What's funny is that I have not cord cutted being boss. And here I am.

Emily Thompson 52:56
Oh, we always do that. So

Kathleen Shannon 52:59
I could stop being on the podcast for a minute. I love I love being on the podcast. I'm not about to cord cut, because right now,

Emily Thompson 53:08
but let me let me tell you why I cut everything. Because the things that are supposed to come back do. It's not like I'm saying I'm cutting everything and I'm done. I'm saying I'm cutting everything, I'm gonna go to every thing forward fresh. Like I'm not bringing any of the baggage of our previous connections,

Kathleen Shannon 53:25
right? Like, I just want to go to sleep, I'm

Emily Thompson 53:27
boring, just want to go to sleep. Right? So for me, it really is a like a full cutting so that I can go clean and clear into whatever I'm doing next. And that doesn't mean that like I'm leaving you, David doesn't mean that at all. It means that you've got your like, welcome back. But it's like a fresh little connection. And we can continue forward. It's it allows me to be so much more mindful and purposeful about the connections I remake, if I really just like slice it all off. Whenever it works out for me. Okay, perfect. It's time to start wrapping up and he sort of, and he's sort of last words or like last example. Yeah, anything. The main

Kathleen Shannon 54:10
thing that I want to say is that it's not always easy to pinpoint your intuition and then to follow that guidance, you know, so I think that we both felt some intuitive stirrings with being boss whenever a transition needed to happen there.

Emily Thompson 54:23
And it took it was a big magic moment. It was one of my big magic moves. Another one. It was another one of my big magic moments. Whenever I had the idea for us to change ownership. It came to me fully formed. I knew exactly how it would work out.

Kathleen Shannon 54:36
Yeah. And so you know, but I probably we're probably both having intuitive stirrings like what is the answer? We don't know but something was there. And, and you know, I think that at some points maybe my intuition was even butting up against yours, Emily and because we are kind of connected intuitively now that there is some friction there like what's right for me and what's right for you. But I think that what I've learned about intuition is that whenever you're making hard decisions from an intuitive place, you're always making decisions from a good place. And I think that's what allowed us to consciously uncouple via being boss so easily is that we were both trusting our own intuition. And we were trusting each other's intuition. We were trusting each other's decisions, because we knew that it came from that place, for sure.

Emily Thompson 55:32
And I always I will say, one of my, I guess, my last, my last lesson, or whatever my last thought, is that for me, to connect with my intuition to get those big magic moments to get like the I think we get into like the niggly thing. So I have big magic moments, and I have things that niggle right there just like I can try to put them away or like I can try them not work and like have to come back and sort of re do things. I have a couple of things in business, especially that just keep coming up for me to the point where I'm like, okay, fine, I'll do it. But for me to get any of that I have to give it time and space. And so even whenever it came to the big magic moment for me of like a solution for being bosses, not that we both quit, but that you go and I stay. I had to I nurtured myself into a big magic moment. Like I remember for months and like, so long that I almost got discouraged of creating so much space, giving myself so much time and nurturing myself to such a space. And again, going back to that like making investments in myself. Showing up and doing the work literally it was for me after I committed to getting a therapist for working through my burnout. Having my intuition those big magic moments and working through the niggles requires a stage of time and space. I can't be to huskily or Nothing will happen. Um, thank you, Kathleen, for coming to hang out with me to talk about this.

Kathleen Shannon 57:14
Thanks for having me. Are you gonna ask me what makes me feel most badass?

Emily Thompson 57:17
Of course I am. Kathleen, you're now a guest. So what makes you feel most boss?

Kathleen Shannon 57:24
paying my taxes

Emily Thompson 57:30
And cut

Kathleen Shannon 57:34
Boom.

Emily Thompson 57:39
Oh, they hit real good. Thank you, Kathleen. Perfect. And if you'd like to add the end. And where can people find more of you now?

Kathleen Shannon 57:52
Oh, yeah. So I'm at braid creative. And I'm still on Instagram a little bit personally. So if you'll want to connect with me there. I am at and Kathleen.

Emily Thompson 58:04
Perfect. Well, thanks for coming to hang out with us.

Kathleen Shannon 58:08
It was so good to see you. I always I always love hanging out the boss. It

Emily Thompson 58:12
was fun. It was fun. Sorry, I left you hanging in there for a sec.

Kathleen Shannon 58:16
You know what? I've got it.

Emily Thompson 58:18
You know what to do. Right? You did great.

Emily Thompson 58:23
Did you make it through this episode and find yourself wanting more. It's not uncommon for my kind of boss to really want to dive deeper into how to use intuition in business to feel more aligned in their work. And this recording from the guided by intuition gathering was just the first session in three days that included panels and workshops that built onto this content in a truly beautiful and practical way. And soon a replay of the entire gathering will be available in the clubhouse tear of the beam boss community. So if you find yourself wanting to hear more, learn more about how to nurture a beneficial relationship with yourself and your intuition or use tools like crystals and Tarot in your business. Then it's time to join the clubhouse. Go to being boss club slash community and join the clubhouse tier where you'll get access to this content when it's released and so much more. That's being boss club slash community. Until next time, do the work. Be boss