586 Lauren Renee:

What does it mean to be a conscious entrepreneur? The ups and downs along the entrepreneurial …journey can both spark – and necessitate – mindfulness, heart-centered awareness, and evolve into a conscious “beingness”. Today we talk about why that’s good for you … and good for business.

MELINDA

I’m Melinda Wittstock and today on Wings of Inspired Business we meet an inspiring entrepreneur who is a spiritual mentor for visionary entrepreneurs.

Lauren Renee inspires leaders to harness the power of their life force, break through scarcity-based conditioning and create change by becoming the embodiment of their visions, now.

We’re going to break all that down today so I can’t wait to introduce you to Lauren Renee. First…

Many people go through life wearing masks. We have different masks for different situations, different people, different circumstances. And when we go on a heart-centered journey as entrepreneurs and innovators, our journeys can lead us to look deep within at every single part of us we’ve been hiding away. Often the prompt is a block, crisis, plateau or challenge because the masks we’ve chosen, often unconsciously, no longer serve us. When we let go, drop the masks, and step into our true selves, that’s when the true miracles of abundance, flow and creativity abound. I know from my own journey that business growth and personal growth are deeply intertwined, and that’s why I’m so excited to talk today with Lauren Renee, who describes herself as a Spiritual Mentor for visionary entrepreneurs and Divine Orchestrator of New Earth empires.

Recognized for her vibrant energy and transformational presence, Lauren facilitates empowerment, healing and connection to help activate people into heightened states of aliveness, creativity, confidence, clarity of purpose and pleasure.

Through her personal brand, Lauren Renee Intimacy, Lauren inspires leaders to harness the power of their life force, break through scarcity-based conditioning and create change by becoming the embodiment of their visions, now.

Lauren is also the Creative Director of Unified Vitality, the Dean and Facilitator of the Institute of New Paradigm Intimacy, and Co-Host of the New Paradigm Intimacy Podcast.

Let’s put on our wings with the inspiring Lauren Renee.

Melinda Wittstock:         Lauren, welcome to Wings.

Lauren Renee:                  Hi, Melinda. It’s so nice to be here with you.

Melinda Wittstock:         Oh, well, great to hear your voice, and I’m excited to hear about this conversation because, like you, I also believe that entrepreneurship is a spiritual journey. I want you to explain for everyone what you mean by that. What does that mean in practice?

Lauren Renee:                  Yeah, I love that we’re starting off with this because really entrepreneurship when you’re really approaching it from that heart center, it is this pathway that becomes a reflection of you and your own essence. We go on this journey of really becoming an understanding who we are in leadership, and that requires us to really look at every single part of us that we have been hiding away and really faced what part of ourselves we want to show up in. What masks do we have that we want to drop? Or, what masks did we even attempted to put on? When we’re really wanting to come back to this heart-centered place in the way that we bring through our mission, then we’re constantly going to be challenged in how we show up and who we be and refine what it is we’re doing because, ultimately, entrepreneurship is a form of creativity.

If we’re kind of like thinking about spirituality, it’s how we really connect with life itself, and so working with creativity can be quite unpredictable. Approaching it in this way of, “Okay, entrepreneurship is a spiritual journey,” we’re actually letting go a lot of these ideas of controlling everything and working out the outcome, all of this conditioning that we have from our previous jobs or our past experiences, or even from the world of personal development itself. Actually going, “Okay, there’s something bigger that is working through me in what I’m creating in business.

If I can actually approach it in that way like, “This is a journey and this is a creative process and this is something that is helping me grow from this place of deeply listening and responding and knowing that every time there’s a lesson there’s always a blessing,” all of these principles that we put into our spiritual practice, we actually bring that into business. We come into this deeper place of surrender and of being able to expand in a totally different way because we realize ultimately we’re not always controlling everything. There’s a greater life force that we are of service to.

Melinda Wittstock:         I love that you mentioned control, Lauren, because there’s so much that we can’t control in entrepreneurship. We can really only control ourselves, how we act, whether we choose to react, all of the different things that are swirling around us as we innovate and as we create. Yet, all of the examples around us and all of the structures of business are like, “You’ve got to hit these quarterly goals. You’ve got to hit these metrics. You’ve got to do this stuff.” Right? It’s a real tension between those two and walking that line.

I found through my own experience that the more I let go, and I like that you used the word “surrender” as well, the more that I just accept that that change is going to be happening all around me, there’s going to be all kinds of things I can’t control, then I have more of a peace with what I’m doing and more of an acceptance of the pace that I’m going to go at. This isn’t something that most entrepreneurs have when they go into it, but if they’re growing their business, they’re probably growing spiritually, at least to succeed. Do you find that entrepreneurship is actually in the end a good spiritual teacher?

Lauren Renee:                  Absolutely, and yeah, what you just shared there is such a big piece because this is what we’re kind of shifting at the moment in the world of business and entrepreneurship is before it was like, “Okay, push and do this and do that, and then you get to feel good.” You do all of these things and then you’ll achieve something and then you’ll finally have this way of being that you really desire, but we’re really coming into now is flipping that the other way around. It’s focusing on what state of being we’re in first and how we’re feeling in the process of being on this journey of entrepreneurship and how that really wants to come through.

Melinda Wittstock:         Does entrepreneurship kind of drive you to spirituality if you want to succeed?

Lauren Renee:                  Yeah, absolutely, and I feel that that is entrepreneurship. I’ve actually been reflecting on this just recently because we’re all entrepreneurs really, every single person in the world. The word “entrepreneur” is like a person who has ideas and creates them, so we all have this innate ability to receive ideas and then create them. Those of us who are more entrepreneurial have just kind of been more open to that I suppose, like it is more of our makeup. We do hear these things like, “Well, some people are entrepreneurs and some aren’t.” I feel that there is truth in that before, but we’re moving into a time where more and more people are going to start to awaken this inspiration in them.

With it being the ultimate spiritual path, yes, because you’re opening yourself up to receive these ideas and then you’re looking deep into yourself as to how you can execute them and bring them through and then face all of these different challenges into your path and learn how to respond to them, but also not sacrifice what your true joy is, which is such. That’s the biggest spiritual journey now is, how do I step into this world and create something for myself?

I feel previously like where we’re shifting in entrepreneurship before it was like, We just want to break free from the constructs for working for someone else and being in that kind of paradigm and just being able to be successful on our own terms.” Now, we’re coming into this new level of aligned soul purpose, finding that aligned soul purpose and then creating our business around that. It’s finding, okay, now… Actually, there’s another layer after that. It’s like, “Now, I get to create what is actually true on my heart and thriving that.”

That thriving is now the next piece. It’s like we’ve seen particularly throughout 2020 a lot of entrepreneurs that are leading from this heart-centered aligned place, which they’ve gone on the spiritual journey to really discover what it is they want to bring through and who they are and what they stand for and what their true message is and what kind of legacy they want to leave behind.

Perhaps what’s happened now is they have been doing that at the detriment of what actually brings them true joy, and so I feel we’re kind of stepping into this next layer of entrepreneurship of the spiritual journey, which is, how can we still have our really successful businesses? Be doing something that is truly aligned to our truth? How do we execute it in a way where life also is incredible every single step of the way? Not just when we get to success.

Melinda Wittstock:         Yeah [crosstalk 00:09:03] because often the assumption people make is that the happiness is going to come at the destination like, “When I hit this milestone, oh, then I’ll feel good.” Or, “When I do this, then I’ll,” right? When in actual fact, it’s got to be necessarily like the journey itself, enjoying the actual creation process, enjoying the journey, even the ups and downs that come along with that that are inevitable, the challenges, the mistakes, the learning from those mistakes. Really figuring out how to be present in those and accepting of those and actually embrace them and enjoy the journey and not the destination.

Lauren Renee:                  Yeah, and become comfortable in those moments of discomfort like you just said, Melinda. I’m sure in your own journey, at first when you have all of these like things happen and you’re like, “I’m a failure. It’s so hard.” You’ve got all of these emotions moving through your body, but the more you go through it, the more you come to this place of acceptance that it’s just making up part of this bigger picture, this bigger vision that you ultimately have.

I even had a couple of incidences of that this week where something went wrong. Not able to get on Zoom calls on time from tech issues and things like that and just like noticing how I’m able to just stay in my center during those times now and just trust and flow and everything is working out. It’s all fine and that’s actually the piece is like, how do we know that even in chaos there’s always order that’s coming together in what we’re creating when we’re really in deep trust? That this business, this vision, this creation has come to us for a reason and, again, all of the same principles that we really apply to our personal and our spiritual practices come through there.

Melinda Wittstock:         You know, this is particularly true for the type of entrepreneur who is really innovating say a product or a service that has never been done before, and in that instance, which is really the type of entrepreneur I am, you’re creating a whole new market for things that people didn’t even know that they wanted. You have this vision and this is the way to, say, solve someone’s problems. While you’re working on this, what’s often called product-market fit, there’s so much iteration and you’re going to get so much customer feedback, and not all of it good because you’re working with your customers to be able to perfect something or make something really, really great.

In those periods of creation where it’s really hypothesis until it’s not, it can be really easy for an entrepreneur to take those moments of maybe negative feedback personally, especially for women. What are some of the ways to get out of that? The last thing women want to do is disappoint anyone, but through that messy creative process, it’s not always going to be that way, so how to avoid taking it personally?

Lauren Renee:                  Aah, love that question and everything you just shared because it’s so natural for us as women to be in… I suppose it’s stepping away from being the martyr to more of the nurturer in that way. That’s kind of where we can come out of balance in that regard. One of the most beautiful quotes I always come back to when I’m having these thoughts, because just like other women and we all just want to be loved and we all want to be celebrated in the way that we’re of service and we want people to be able to receive what we’re giving, but if you’re not turning anyone off, you’re not turning anyone on.

It’s almost like the more visionary that we be and the more we step into our uniqueness in the way that our creativity and our projects move through us, there is going to be those moments where audiences are repelled and you’re like, “Oh, wow, these people loved what I was doing before and now there’s a shift.” That’s the piece that’s like, “Okay, trusting that a shift is taking a place and the greatest way to overcome that needing to please others or needing to be liked is to really come back to your center and ask yourself, ‘Am I being true to me in this moment? Is this my deepest truth?'”

That’s all you really need to know is that as long as you’re coming from that place and you’re even connecting to the essence of your business as something separate to you, which is an amazing thing to do to create this relationship with your business as a separate entity. Is this truly what that wants? Is this truly aligned with what is truth for me in this moment? Trust in that, and if people are falling away, it may just be that you’re going through a shift. One point I’d really love to cover on that is really having this awareness of our cyclical nature and the cyclical nature of life when we’re in the space of our business and entrepreneurship.

There are going to be times and there will be multiple times where you’re going through the process of death and rebirth. This will happen particularly if you’re really embracing being a woman in business in the way that we create in a different way, which is actually really powerful and possibly even more powerful than the more masculine way of doing business because we can create things very, very quickly and manifest them into our business very quickly when we’re able to surrender to this process of slow growth, of the sudden deaths that happen, and then allowing that spaciousness to something new and even better to come in. That would be my reflections there is when that’s happened to me, and I do know that feeling, you can feel like everything’s failing and everything’s disappearing and you want to [crosstalk 00:15:33]-

Melinda Wittstock:         Yes [crosstalk 00:15:33] just go like, “Oh my God.” There is almost a… Well, I suppose there’s so many different emotions tied-

Lauren Renee:                  Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Melinda Wittstock:         … up in it because I think when you launch a business, the business is so personal. When you hear a lot of women talk about their businesses like their babies, so it is like existential threat almost if someone doesn’t like your product or like doesn’t like your service or whatever. Your products and services necessarily always have to be evolving, your customers, your potential customers are evolving, being really close to your customers, so understanding what it is that they actually need. What’s motivating them? Are they aligned with you on your journey? There’s so many of these things that are in constant flux and change, right?

Lauren Renee:                  Yeah.

Melinda Wittstock:         I love this cyclical aspect of that. There’s sort of a piece of mind to that that, where on one hand, you’ve got your North Star and you’re in alignment. You know where you’re going, but you also have to be open to the feedback of your customers. Also, hopefully, your customers are also aligned with you.

Lauren Renee:                  Yeah, absolutely, and taking that feedback and listening to still what resonate with your truth for your vision and your leadership at the same time because if where… Like this is the piece that’s like, again, that mother first, the nurturer. The nurturer is not self-sacrificing in that process. They’re giving from overflow and from taking care of themselves and their needs rather than, “I just want to please everyone else.” There’s that way of finding this balance of, “Okay, I’m listening to what’s needed. I’m really listening.” Then, also, how do I respond to that and still hold the integrity of my vision and what wants to move through me at the same time?

I don’t feel we should be doing something and making changes just for the sake of not losing an audience as such. I feel that it’s the more that we honor ourselves, it just becomes that reflection in that way.

Melinda Wittstock:         Exactly [crosstalk 00:17:48] so the difference between acting and reacting?

Lauren Renee:                  Mm-hmm (affirmative). Absolutely, and not just we’re past this just creating a business to meet a market. We won’t receive that true fulfillment if we’re only doing it for that reason. It’s got to be for our own joy and our own fulfillment. As women creators, what we actually want to bring through to the world, what we actually want to birth at the same time.

Melinda Wittstock:         I think this is what makes woman entrepreneurs truly powerful and inspiring and amazing, that when we really tap into that natural ability that we bring to the table as entrepreneurs. I think for a long time, we were trying to fit ourselves into the way entrepreneurship or business has always been done because that seemed to be the only path. It could work to a point, but then there were real costs. I’ve seen so many women go through that process and end up either unhappy or in absolute burnout or some sort of physical fatigue because it’s not in alignment.

One of the things that’s been interesting about women coming into their actual archetypal feminine power in entrepreneurship is that we’re really in a position when we get into alignment in this way we really do have the power to change business and the world, I think, through this kind of conscious leadership. Do you think that’s the shift? Are women driving this?

Lauren Renee:                  Yeah, absolutely, absolutely, and what’s so powerful in that way. The thing is, this will… Men are really hungry for this as well, whether they’re aware of it or not. This way of actually thriving, it’s like I love how you shared the piece around your journey being in the tech startup space and everything like that because that was actually their arena that I was exposed to as my first view into the bigger world of entrepreneur ship, too, and the way that I understood what it really took and kind of had these different ideas. It took so long. It took me a year going and living in Barley and unraveling all of these programs as to how did we get to be [crosstalk 00:21:13]-

Melinda Wittstock:         Bali is [crosstalk 00:21:15] really good for that. Yes-

Lauren Renee:                  Yeah [crosstalk 00:21:17]-

Melinda Wittstock:         … everybody should spend [crosstalk 00:21:18] time in Bali [crosstalk 00:21:19]-

Lauren Renee:                  … completely to find the balance.

Melinda Wittstock:         It’s true because like all of the paradigms that we read about, “Oh, you know, the hustle and the grind are the way things are supposed to be done.”

I want to talk a little bit about what goes wrong for a woman entrepreneur when they try to be masculine or they’re too much in their masculine energy.

Lauren Renee:                  Yeah. Firstly, just honoring you for sharing that just then, like just how powerful it is that we’re able to have these conversations now and share this because, like you said, it really was only like a few years ago that we weren’t even aware of all of this stuff. It’s all happening so fast, so I’m just so [crosstalk 00:22:40]-

Melinda Wittstock:         Very fast, very fast-

Lauren Renee:                  … yeah.

Melinda Wittstock:         … isn’t it? I think just how this podcast… I think podcast started about two years ago and it was considered way woo like to even talk about these things. Now, more often than not, it’s the theme of the interview in two years. How quickly that’s been.

Lauren Renee:                  Woo! I’m so happy about that.

Melinda Wittstock:         It’s true, though. It just comes up. No matter who you talk to, whatever industry, if you’re talking to a woman who’s been successful as an entrepreneur, she’s had to come to terms with this exact thing, being in her feminine power, being in alignment, understanding that it’s the journey, not the destination, figuring out how to find self-acceptance and self-love even if someone tells you that your product sucks, all of these sorts of things. Overcoming these things are like critical to your success. If you could do one thing, get that right. That’s emerged just in terms of the pattern. All of the really successful women that I’ve talked to who’ve built seven, eight, nine-figure businesses, they all have some component of this.

Lauren Renee:                  Yeah, yeah, and you’re like, “Oh, it gets to be peaceful.” Coming back to your question that you asked, what happens when we ignore this? It’s like we lose our superpowers. That’s essentially it. When we’re not doing the self-care and the nourishment and ultimately listening to our bodies and connecting to our creative power. We have wombs, we create babies. This is the same.

What I’ve realized in this process of going on the pendulum swing of doing the deep feminine embodiment work and ancient women ceremonial work and things like that, I was like, “Oh, hang on, the more I connect with this, the more my business starts to thrive.” It’s like, “Oh, something’s happening here.” It’s about coming into the body, connecting with our process and our connection to creative life force as our body is this vessel that can bring life into the world.

The more that we’re in connection with that we just awaken this whole different way of bringing any kind of life into the world, and that life includes our businesses and our creations in that way. When we’re not connected to that, we’re not running on our actual power. It’s just coming from a different place and it’s not creating the same results. It is still creating results, but it’s not feeling good. It’s maybe not impacting people in the same way. It’s not lining us up. It’s just it’s completely just missing the magic is what I would say to that.

Melinda Wittstock:         I think when we’re truly in that zone, some people call it flow state or just we’re in the present moment, not in the past, not in the future. We’re enjoying the journey. We’re in alignment, all of these things that could be described as flow state. Other people, whether they’re conscious of this or not, they kind of are.

You end up attracting the right people into your business, whether you’re building a team or like you’re attracting clients or customers. What you’re infusing, the energies you’re infusing actually into your product, people kind of know. Intention and thought travels pretty fast through the air. It transmits. If you’re coming at something, a product in scarcity or fear or out of lack or thinking you’re not enough, that transmits, too.

Lauren Renee:                  Yes, yeah. I love that, and it’s the piece of your energy communicates in your business beyond even what you’re saying or putting out and what marketing materials are. I feel a lot of women that are on this path of really embracing their feminine power and business have had these experiences of like going on holiday or taking a weekend offline and you come back and you’ve had all of these amazing results coming in and you didn’t even put anything out. You’re like, “Oh, that’s just because I was in a really good energy during this time.” Isn’t that incredible?

Melinda Wittstock:         Oh-

Lauren Renee:                  And so-

Melinda Wittstock:         … that’s happened to me so many [crosstalk 00:27:38] times [crosstalk 00:27:39] like where your business advances without you just because you’re feeling good. You’re not even working.

Lauren Renee:                  Yeah, it’s amazing and when we really own that, like it isn’t just a one-stop thing that happens. This is actually like it’s the energy we hold that is magnetic on an unseen level. We talk about the feminine as the darkness and that’s what it is. A lot of our magnetism is in that unseen, which is just pretty amazing, really. It’s immeasurable and that’s what’s so funny about it. It’s like, “Yeah, I just looked after myself and here we are.” It’s balancing that with… Actually, one piece I really want to bring through is the way that we think about our masculine/feminine energies in business.

The way that we were operating before was like we can think about the masculine, the man. These energies were always working together, but the man was kind of like, “Come on, let’s do this. I need you to do that.” Pimping out the creativity of the feminine. She’s like, “Oh, I need to stop. I need rest. What are you doing to me?” He’s like, “No. Come on. We’re keeping on doing this.” Now, what we’re coming into is the feminine part of us is the Queen and she’s like, “I feel like I really desire this. You know, I feel like I really want to create this for myself and this is what I really want next. This is how I really like it to happen.”

She’s really tuning into those desires and our masculine now is just of service. He’s like waiting for her to declare her desires and then just respond in that way. “Okay, and then how can I create this in a way that’s going to feel really good for you?” If I do it this way, are you sure that’s going to give you enough space and it’s going to give you all of the things you need and you’re going to get enough rest?” We think of the masculine’s of service rather than the pimp that’s, you know [crosstalk 00:29:34]. I love expressing that to women I work with at the moment and it’s really kind of landed because it’s like, “Yeah, that’s the way we get to roll now.”

Melinda Wittstock:         I had a woman on the podcast not so long ago. We were talking about female sexuality and sensuality in the context of business and being in our authentic feminine power. We were joking that, and it was funny, but we were joking that if we had like an orgasm every day, we were going to be much more productive in our businesses-

Lauren Renee:                  Absolutely.

Melinda Wittstock:         … with sales, with everything because we feel good, we’re integrated. It’s all aspects, it’s the whole woman. It comes back to, who are we being? Not, what are we doing?

Lauren Renee:                  Yes, and the sexuality piece is something like that for me that’s gone so hand in hand in my journey when I actually went through the sacred sexuality work myself. It’s like, again, these feminine super powers just started to like just really fast forward in business. I was like, “Okay, cool.” Now, it’s like every morning in my morning practice, I’m embracing that form of sensuality. What I love about that is this is actually so simple for all women, even if they’re very new to exploring their sexuality in that way. It can just be putting on a song that makes you feel really sexy or just having a bit of self-massage and doing things that are sensual actually activates those powers in our business, so it’s [crosstalk 00:31:10] incredible.

Melinda Wittstock:         Yeah. Is it ultimately really about self-love and self-acceptance? If we’re sort of disembodied from ourselves, there’s an aspect of that that sort of suggests that we’re not fully accepting of ourselves or we don’t think we’re enough or we don’t actually like ourselves much, right? Whereas [crosstalk 00:31:27] to really be embodied in that sensuality, sexuality, whatever, and really, truly be whole, we’re healing, I guess. Is there a connection there?

Lauren Renee:                  Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. It’s the most beautiful way to just like have this deep unconditional love for yourself because, ultimately, you’re connecting with the innocence of yourself. What I’ve really found in this journey and in my relationship with it to business, too, is it’s like, “Okay, I’m connecting with creative life force. What am I wanting to utilize in my day?” It’s not stress, it’s not push, it’s not trying to work everything out from the mind.

It’s like, “I want to be in the flow state,” like you said, “Of creativity moving through.” The most beautiful way to connect to that is through your sexual energy, through your sensuality through your own body. That’s a big piece as well and, at the same time, you showed away in that the programs you have around what your body and your sensuality is really about. You’re like, “Wow, this is just like a really powerful, beautiful portal of creative energy that is unlimitedly… Unlimitedly, is that a word?

Melinda Wittstock:         Limitless, limitless.

Lauren Renee:                  It is now. Yeah, so like it creates this new relationship with yourself in that way, which ultimately is deeper self-love and self-acceptance because you’re like, “Gosh, I’m just so incredibly powerful and this is just what I was born with.” It’s such a beautiful journey, and for any of the women listening, if you haven’t already explored a self-pleasure practice, which isn’t necessarily masturbation. It doesn’t even have to involve genital touch because our whole body’s really erotic. I definitely recommend exploring that.

For me, when I started it, I kind of committed to doing with anything, changing a new behavior. Just 30 days where I would just spend 30 minutes for 30 days just exploring sensual touch with myself beyond the way that I was conditioned to before. That was the beginning of that journey for me and it’s still something I incorporate every single day. It’s one of the most beautiful self-healing journeys and empowerment journeys that women can go on that not only impacts their self-worth and their image and their acceptance and their love, but extra points, it also translates into how you show up with ease and flow and alignment in your business.

Melinda Wittstock:         It’s so, so true. I think that often with women, and this goes back to our conditioning, that we put everybody else ahead of ourselves. This translates often in our family lives. We do everything for spouses, kids, dogs, friends, team members, clients, like everything. Then, at the end of the day, there’s like, “Oh gosh, what’s left of me?” I see so many women so easily falling into that, not as a conscious choice, but just as a conditioned behavior. Often not even being aware that they’re doing it.

And yet when we learn to kind of put ourselves first, our own health, our own self-acceptance, what makes us happy, it actually helps all of the other people be happy around us.

Lauren Renee:                  Yeah, absolutely, and there’s so many… Like talking about this, even, these ideas of the conditioning we have around relationships and then how that impacts in business, I feel that we could probably have a whole separate-

Melinda Wittstock:         Absolutely [crosstalk 00:35:38] I mean, these are all-

Lauren Renee:                  Yeah.

Melinda Wittstock:         … deep topics. Each question that I’m asking you is almost like a podcast episode on its own and I think it will become more and more and more the language of entrepreneurship, particularly for women. I can see this as it feels like a lot of energy is kind of shifting in this way that, obviously, we’re able to have these conversations and more people are approaching entrepreneurship in this way.

I wanted to ask you a little bit about, though, the role of, say, scarcity versus people talk about having an abundance mindset. A lot of entrepreneurs are in scarcity. A lot of people generally are in scarcity. This global pandemic, the economic implications of that. A lot of people really having a very hard time. A lot of fear, a lot of stuff swirling around. Even if you’ve got this figured out, we’re still all connected. It’s all around us and it can be really easy to push someone into scarcity, so I want to talk a little bit about that. How does scarcity manifest in the entrepreneur’s life? What are the sort of things that are going on that alert you to the fact that you’re in scarcity? What’s the impact of it?

Lauren Renee:                  Yeah, such a huge question because it’s definitely something I constantly come up against in my journey is having these old, and it is, it’s the global programming around that that we’ve got to survive. This is very much wired in DNA, and in previous generations that we need to work in order to survive. If we don’t work and we’re not achieving what it is we’re setting out to do or something’s coming up like clients are dropping off or things are happening, we have this somatic feeling in our body that it’s almost like a feeling like we’re going to die or we’re going to be abandoned or we’re going to be hurt or harmed. It’s kind of hardwired in our bodies and that creates this idea of scarcity, this need to survive.

There’s so many different layers as to how that’s kind of put into our system. I think the first piece is really understanding that and where it comes from, and then also coming into the thriving mindset. This is actually one of the biggest pieces that can support us to get out of this scarcity and the way that that shows up because this [inaudible 00:38:20] deep in this that… What we look at and see is, “I don’t have enough there and this isn’t enough and I’m in survival.” It’s really all illusion because what we’re really coming into, especially now we’re in this end of 2020 coming into 2021, there’s so many big shifts and we’ve learned so much this year as entrepreneurs.

We’re realizing that we can’t control nature, so we are realizing that there is a natural order that comes in place, especially as women are more connecting into our bodies and things like that and we’re seeing the process of death and rebirth. It constantly happens. We can learn a lot about survival and thriving from nature. When we look at nature, we realize there’s a natural order for everything. It’s the same for us as human beings, and this again kind of comes back to everyone is an entrepreneur. We all have unique ideas and gifts and expressions that we are here to share.

The piece for the listeners to know is that if you are yourself as an individual, as a leader, as an entrepreneur, aligning yourself to your own natural order and know that that looks different for every single person, but it’s ultimately being in connection to your body, your highest joy, doing what lights you up, bringing through the creative ideas that are flowing through you and looking after yourself, nurturing. Again, nurturing rather than being the martyr.

The seed doesn’t grow if it’s not nurtured, so nurturing ourselves, looking after ourselves, always coming back to these values. What brings me joy is a very big one, these alignment like… All of these kind of things, that’s how we stay in that state of thriving. It’s just learning to trust that, and if there’s something that doesn’t feel right, it’s like you go through this process of, “Okay, how can I align even more?” When we are in that natural order of who we are, then as probably you’ve experienced, Melinda, when you feel like you’re really just on purpose and on point, you’re doing all of the things that light you up, things just happen. They flow. You’ll receive things, just this manifestation process becomes so easy, and that’s just showing us that what is possible when we’re in that state of thriving.

I feel that’s how we really are to become that survival is knowing that we have a choice now and we’re going to feel this more and more to choose. Do I believe that I’m following my purpose as an entrepreneur and I’m doing what I’m here to do to be of service to others? I’m constantly listening and responding and having teams of people that do the things that aren’t my genius. All of these pieces as well are things that come into it and I trust that when I do that I’m always going to thrive.

If something comes up as a lesson, then I respond to that and I keep staying in that alignment. Or, do I listen to the fears that are the old programming that I need to survive and that things are going to run out and I’m going to somehow lose? That’s not real anymore. Look at the world we’re in today and look at what we have as businesswomen. Our resources are unlimited. The potential we have is unlimited and the more that we realize that and just embrace that… This piece around sisterhood as well I think is important to mention, too, is like we ultimately do have each other’s back as women entrepreneurs. I know [crosstalk 00:42:02]-

Melinda Wittstock:         Oh yes [crosstalk 00:42:03]-

Lauren Renee:                  … I… yeah.

Melinda Wittstock:         … absolutely. The whole reason for this podcast and the reason it’s Wings is that we literally lift as we climb, and so when we approach other women entrepreneurs from an abundance mindset rather than a scarcity one, we’re not competing with each other. There are abundant resources to go around. I help you succeed, it helps me succeed, it helps everyone succeed.

How do we really create and foster this ecosystem where women promote each other, buy from each other, and invest in each other?

Lauren Renee:                  Absolutely, and the more that we show up, again, in our uniqueness and in our expression, it’s like no one can ever be us in our business if we’re following that true part of ourselves. There is no competition. There’s a natural order which will support each and every one of us and a big piece is actually just being able to express where we’re at and ask for help. I’ve seen women that have the courage to actually say, “I’m really struggling in business right now and I need support,” and then they open themselves up.

We have this ability to receive what we need always, whether that comes in the form of someone who just believed in your mission so much they offered you free mentoring to get you out of wherever you’re at. Or, someone just says, “You know what? I’m going to donate you X amount of funds right now so you can get through this.” It’s like what we have available to us is unlimited. There actually is no scarcity. It’s just an illusion, so remember that in those moments and that there’s always a way through and that way through is going to support you to expand and grow to an even greater level of abundance and thriving.

Melinda Wittstock:         Aah, yeah. That’s so, so true.

Melinda Wittstock:         I want to make sure that people know how to find you and work with you and learn more about all of the amazing things you are doing in the world.

Lauren Renee:                  Thank you so much, and yeah, the best place to find me on socials is Instagram. Actually, I have the most on there, @laurenreneeintimacy. You can check out my work, laurenreneeintimacy.com. If any of your listeners are in Australia, I’m going to be really shifting into bringing a lot of the work that I’ve been facilitating online to in-person events. Really bringing out an exciting offering next year that’s going to ignite more creativity for women in business. It hasn’t been launched yet, but definitely stay tuned for that because I have a feeling that that might be something that really resonates to your beautiful listeners.

Melinda Wittstock:         Yes, and it would be wonderful, of course, to have you at our retreat when we finally get doing those again in Costa Rica this October. We do a beautiful, beautiful kind of a holistic retreat for really amazing female entrepreneurs, all with high six-figure, seven-figure, eight-figure, nine-figure businesses where everybody there has much to give and much to receive.

We really focus on our own self-care as well as business as well as learning and deep connection. You’ll hear more about this retreat on the podcast as we get closer to it, but I’d love to extend that invitation to you, Lauren.

Lauren Renee:                  Oh, thank you so much. That sounds divine, so definitely keep me posted about that because it’s so important to take that time out to rest and connect and that’s where all of the best ideas come through, right?

Melinda Wittstock:         Absolutely, absolutely. Well, thank you so much for putting on your Wings and flying with us today.

Lauren Renee:                  Thank you, Melinda. It was so beautiful to connect.

Lauren Renee
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Listen to learn the secrets, strategies, practical tips and epiphanies of women entrepreneurs who’ve “been there, built that” so you too can manifest the confidence, capital and connections to soar to success!
Instantly get Melinda’s Wings Success Formula
Review on iTunes and win the chance for a VIP Day with Melinda