Hey guys, welcome back to the podcast. I've had a great day. Today I got to teach universal laws meets business inside the Matrix. And it was just like one of my favorite topics. If you haven't read the Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra, I really recommend that book. It's just on my mind, so I wanted to mention it.
I actually have a podcast episode. If you scroll way back called the Seven Spiritual Laws where I go through it. So if you don't want to read the book, you can just listen to me talk about the book because it really changed my life. And it was just so fun to revisit those principles and teach it inside the Matrix.
And shameless plug, if you want to join the matrix in 2024, you should consider joining the waitlist. And you can do that at www.it'sambersmith.com/matrix. And you can get to the front of the line, so you could actually access that call and come hang out with us in there. Shameless plug.
Okay, let's jump into the podcast. Today I'm calling this episode, Finding Your Sweet Spot. And this was actually really influenced by one of my private calls this week with my client, Jillian. If you're listening, thank you for this idea because it really resonated for me because I feel like I'm in my business sweet spot.
And so I wanted to create an episode about how to find your sweet spot. And to me, it's just like that happy medium, right? It's like everything's working. Like you’re creating the business success that you want. You feel good. You like what you do. You're creating the money that you want. All these things are working together and it just resonates with your soul.
And so I wanted to talk about how to find your sweet spot and what it kind of looks like and to me what the qualifications are, I guess, or how I would articulate your sweet spot. And so obviously the first one is you like what you do and who you do it with. So I think this includes your clients.
I think one of the best things I ever learned how to do is to only be available emotionally for clients that I love working with. In the beginning of my business, I don't think that that was available to me and I honestly don't think it was useful. I think there's a season in business where you have to just work with whoever is willing to work with you and you take on the work almost like an apprenticeship or an internship where you're just focused on getting experience.
There is definitely a season of business where that is required. I know for me it was. As I evolved, as my experience grew, and the value I brought to my clients grew, and the level of coaching I can offer grew and expanded, the level of clients that were attracted to my work also expanded and elevated.
And so, I don't think it's something that I would have done early on in my coaching career. But now that I've been, you know, I'm five years plus in, I just feel like I found my sweet spot with the kinds of clients that I work with and the work I get to do. And that's constantly expanding and growing as well.
But you know, you're in your sweet spot when you actually like showing up for your calls. You don't dread them. You don't resent your clients. This is something that I work on with my private clients is being really honest about clients that feel like they're emotionally draining. And not like you have to fire a client, that's what I'm talking about, but making yourself available for higher quality clients where you are energized when you coach them.
And this can look like raising your prices. This can look like changing who you speak to in your messaging. This can look like just doing the inner work yourself, which I think is always the answer. Doing the inner work yourself, so you are no longer available for clients who suck your soul. That you're only available for clients who let you up.
And that's an energetic thing that you can do just through getting coached yourself, right? Where you choose powerfully who you want to be available for. I think that's part of finding your sweet spot is knowing who you work with best, who likes working with you, who you like working with, who feels like an energy, impact in a good way, right?
Like where you are energized by your work together, you enjoy your conversations, you feel better after you coach them, instead of leaving sessions drained and frustrated. That does not feel like a sweet spot to me. The next thing that I think is important to talk about is you like how much money you're making.
I think that that's maybe a little bit tricky to talk about because I know in the beginning of my business, I was grateful, but I also wanted more. And I think that desire for more never really goes away. I think expansion is just in our soul. We want to expand. And so that includes our finances.
If I had to ask people, you know point blank, do you want to make more money in the future or less money in the future? Most people would say more, but that doesn't mean that what you're making now isn't enough. So your sweet spot is not an end destination. It's like a, oh, this is what it feels like to have a business that I love.
This is what it feels like to have business that's making the money that I want it to. This is what it feels like when I hit my stride. And so even if you are making great money right now, it's okay that you want to make more. That doesn't necessarily mean you haven't found your sweet spot yet. I think it's where you've created a level of comfort, a level of freedom, and a level of choice that feels abundant to you, and that you want to make more.
I think that's totally normal to want to continue making more money. But I think from abundance feels different than making more money because what I have right now doesn't feel good enough, right? That's in lack. We want to make more money from abundance, and that's how you know you're in your sweet spot. So you like how much money you're making. That means you're in a financial sweet spot.
The next thing I want to talk about, which I think is a higher level of understanding. In the beginning of my business, all I could think about was making money. And if you're there, totally normal; don't need to have judgment of that. But I wonder if there's another way that you could think about this. I wish I locked into this sooner, where I experience creative flow. There's a great book called flow and I don't know how to pronounce his last name. Mihaichi Sekmihai, something like that.
You can Amazon it, Flow. And it's a great book about basically people who reach extraordinary levels of success in their given field and are happy, right? That they actually have a great enjoyment in life. And so, he uses this as flow, where it's just like the optimal experience in life. And to me, it's like the right amount of challenge and creativity and creative output, right?
Like I'm actually creating something with my business. And so there is an element of challenge. We don't want to be bored in our businesses. And so it's finding the right amount of challenge where you're not stressed and shut down. Too much stress, too much challenge, does not create flow.
And so your sweet spot has this right amount of like, I feel engaged. I feel excited about my work, but it's not stressful. It's not shutting me down. And when you hit it, it feels so good, right? Even creating content, even creating a podcast like this feels like flow to me. That's part of my sweet spot.
And I would make the case that if you're a digital entrepreneur, we are creating content, right? Creating content, publishing, coaching, whatever you're doing, if it doesn't feel good, you know, you like the money, but it doesn't feel good to actually do it. That's not your sweet spot.
Your sweet spot is you like building as much as the results. And that to me is the ultimate, right? Is when you actually enjoy what you do and you enjoy the fruits of your labor. It's like life doesn't get much better than that. When you love showing up for work and you love the money it's making you, you love who you're doing it with, that's your sweet spot.
And there's ways you can build it. It requires decisions. It requires honesty. It requires seeing your blind spots and how you can improve because this doesn’t just like happen. You create it consciously over time. And I think when you've learned how to do that, then you can kind of micro tweak things until you get it just right, which I think is the whole point of business is like figuring out. If that's like the game that we're playing and the puzzle that we're trying to solve for, is creating the sweet spot for finances, creating, results, impact in the world, all of it. So the next thing I want to talk about is like you have time to do other things that matter to you.
Unless you love working all the time and you don't have relationships that are important and you don't have kids to take care of, right? Like if you don't have any hobbies, most people want other fulfilling things in their life. They want fulfilling relationships. If you're a parent, you want to spend time with your kids.
If you have hobbies, you want the time to be able to do them. You don't just want business 100 percent of the time. And I think your business sweet spot allows for that. Your business sweet spot gives you room to enjoy the other things in life that matter to you. And that takes some finagling too because there was a time in my life where my business required more of me to create what I wanted.
And I've called this term the threshold before, where it's like there's this threshold where I have to put more in than I get out. And then once you create digital leverage, there’ll come at a time in your business where you put in less and get out more. That is not in the beginning of your business.
That comes later. And that's arguably what I help my private clients do is create the digital leverage in their business with conscious thoughts. Also conscious decisions in their offers and who they work with and things like that. If you're a beginner, which I think, it's a lot of people who listen to this podcast are on the beginning side.
I think there's this time in your business where you have to be okay with giving more than you get out. Where you spend more time creating content, making relationships, studying, taking courses, learning skills, getting coached yourself, things like that. Then you get out. I know the beginning of my business was definitely that way.
I was investing way more time, energy and money than I was getting back, but I did it as an investment for my future. I did it with an ROI in mind. I knew that that season wasn't going to be forever. And now that I'm on the other side of it, I'm so grateful I spent the time, I spent the money, I spent the energy to learn the skills and to become the person who could create what I'm creating now.
And I know that in the future, I'll look back on this season of my life and I'll be so grateful that I spent the time, energy and money to become the future version of myself. It never really stops. It just changes form. So, when you have time for other priorities, maybe that season of business is over where you're like, yeah, that was intense. Now I can have other hobbies. Now I can go on the trip. Now I can take time off and things like that.
When you start to have time for those things, you know you've hit your sweet spot. It also means that you've put in the time and energy to be able to enjoy the fruits of your labor and kind of have a withdrawal, almost like a bank, right? So you put in the time, energy, money, and now you're taking it out. That's the sweet spot. The last thing I'm going to talk about before I kind of talk about putting it all together is this idea of making a difference. I think most people want to make a difference.
That's part of our Dharma. It's part of our purpose in life is to make a difference to humans, to other humans on the path, right? We want to make a difference to the people that we share this world with, including our family, including our clients, including our community, and just the world at large.
We want to make a difference. And I think when you are getting feedback from people, when you have undeniable evidence, that you are changing people's lives, maybe in small ways, but maybe in really meaningful ways. That feels good and that contributes to the sweet spot. So to kind of summarize what we've talked about that goes into creating your business sweet spot is you like what you do and who you do it with.
You like how much money you're making. You feel like you're in flow in the building phase of business, not just the results that you get. You like actually what it takes to build your business, what it takes to make your business work. For us, that usually means content creation, client work, studying books and podcasts and from other mentors to make your brain more valuable for your clients. I think there's an element of challenge and creativity that feels good. Like I said, you enjoy building as much as the results of the building. That's how you know you're in your sweet spot.
You have time for other priorities, like your family, hobbies, spirituality, just time alone. You just enjoy life outside of your business, which is a whole nother podcast episode I could do because right now, this is the entrepreneurial sweet spot. I might create an episode, like part two, of your life because it's not just about business.
I want, of course, you to have the successful business, but it's also like if your life is falling apart for the sake of your business, that's not success. I want holistic success for you guys. So that means that you have time to prioritize other things outside of your business too. That's how you know you're in your business sweet spot is if your life is working too.
Because it's hard to feel great about your business if other things aren't working. It’s just how our mind works. We're naturally going to think about the things that aren't working. And so prioritizing getting those things in alignment and in order too. And then the last thing that I mentioned is just knowing that you're making a difference.
When you have all these things lined up, you become what I like to call unrelatable. Most people don't achieve this in their lifetime. There's always a problem to be solved. There's always something to complain about. But if you want a life that most people don't have, you have to think things that other people don't think you have to experience things that most people don't experience.
And so when I think of the business sweet spot, does it seem unrealistic? Yes. But I know people personally that are having a business sweet spot. I'm in a business sweet spot right now. Do I have problems and things that I want to solve for? Of course! That doesn't end, but it's this feeling of peace. I feel joy. I feel excited about the future, but also like just really grateful for what's happening now. I love who I work with. I love the money that I'm making. I love how my business is flowing. Do I want more?
Yes. Like I said, that never stops, but I feel like I found my groove. And I feel this paradox where it's like, I love what is and I want more. And that's why we do business in the first place, right? We like the building and we like the results. And we like the growth, and so we're naturally going to gravitate towards more abundance, more money, more impact, more skills.
Whatever we want now, we want this expanded. And so to me, the sweet spot is a place where we try to find it as we grow. The phrase that I've used even in this episode and before this episode and other episodes, I've said, building from abundance, not building from lack. You're not trying to build your business bigger because your life sucks right now or your business feels hard right now.
You're building because your business and life are great and you want more. So I actually think no matter what phase of business you're in, finding your sweet spot is an essential part of building from abundance. Instead of looking at what's missing or feeling frustrated by your life, you're feeling grateful and you love what you do on a day to day basis.
I found myself saying this on the Matrix call. It's like you can't really beat someone who just loves the process. I actually was thinking about this with Taylor Swift. It's like, she doesn't just love being famous or rich. She loves writing songs. She loves being in her studio, changing out the lyrics, finding the right word, getting the right tune.
The tedious work that it is. She loves it. And so it's very hard to beat someone like that. I feel that way about business. Like I just love coaching. I love content creation. I love this. So not that I'm in a competition with anyone, but that's what makes the great people great. They're doing it for the sake of doing it, not for the sake of what they get from doing it.
And if you can understand that you understand the business sweet spot because the business sweet spot is that you love the doing. You love the work. You don't just love the results. I feel like that's powerful to understand and even better to live. I feel super blessed and grateful to be in this phase of my business and I want you guys to achieve it.
And so this requires radical honesty with yourself. It requires, kind of, checking in. What's working? What's not? It requires you to think bigger, usually, than you are thinking right now. It requires seeing your blind spots, which is why I get coached. I want to see my blind spots, and I've gotten coached since I became a coach in different formats, group coaching, private coaching, mentorship, courses, books, podcasts, single calls, coaching packages. I've done it all. I've paid for it all, and I can’t even tell you the ROI of my life.
Because I've expanded my mind. I've made different decisions so that I could land in this sweet spot and I know that I will continue, which is why I continue to invest in myself. I don't think I could have gotten here on my own accord just by myself. So I think being mindful of who you get in your corner is important.
I think who you learn from is important. So one of the questions that I think is relevant to finding your business sweet spot is are you learning from people who have the results that you want? Life and business, right? Not just business, also life. Do they have results in their life that you want? Which is why my own coaches have been life and business coaches. They don't just tell me what to do in my business. They help me think clearer. They help me be the kind of person that I want to be, which is what I also do it in my private coaching too, and in my programs. I don't just want to help with business.
I want to help with holistic success, consciously building a rich life and business. To me, that's the sweet spot. It's not just about making infinite amounts of money at the cost of everything else. And I don't preach that. I don't teach that. I don't want that for you. I want you to have everything that you want, including a working business and clients that you love, but also the relationships and the joy and the meaning and the spiritual connection and the time and the actually liking your life.
That's the sweet spot. And so one of the things that it's going to require is innovation. You have to try things. It requires failure. It sounds ironic, but I wouldn't have found this sweet spot if I hadn't failed in other ways. And so experimenting, being okay not getting what you want right away. Being okay with getting it wrong, and then you innovate and tweak until you get it right.
That's how you find it. So some of the principles that I'm taking away from this episode that I hope you are taking away too, is get people in your corner who see your blind spots, and who help you make empowered choices, who shine the light of consciousness on your decisions, so that you can choose again, bringing that awareness. I think that in terms of coaching or mentorship. And that can look so many different ways, reading books, one-on-one, programs, that never stops. One of the things that I've really learned early on are the people who are doing what I wanted to do were always investing themselves.
So I took that on early. I was like, I invest in myself. That's what I do. I invest in my business growth. I invest in my personal growth, non-negotiably. And I recommend you do the same. The second thing is really being mindful and honest with yourself about what's working and what's not working.
And then a lot of experimentation and those three things will go a long way. Getting people in your corner who can show you your blind spots, being mindful of yourself, experimenting, and then being honest with yourself about the results, and making powerful decisions along the way until you've created your sweet spot. And then, you get to innovate and expand what's working so that you can welcome more in. Of course there's going to be problems along the way. Of course it's not going to go perfectly. But you can learn so much and your wisdom will grow along the way and you'll find yourself in this sweet spot where you're like, things are working.
It feels good. And you might be unrelatable, comma, that's okay. Find people who are also experiencing a sweet spot. Get people in your corner who can expand your thinking and challenge you not in a bad way, but in an expansive way who can help you think bigger. Because if you're in a sweet spot, that's the best time to build something…
And not that you have to build this enterprise level business, but you can think even bigger. You can have new dreams that you're striving for. You can have new visions that you're taking baby steps towards. And that's when you can start to create, quote, impossible things. And that's fun.
All right. I hope this episode was helpful. I'll talk to you soon. Bye.
