2. Root & Rewild - Why soulful scaling starts with recalibration, not reinvention.

Hello and welcome back to the Soulful Scaling Private Podcast. This is episode 2. Root and Rewild. Now you may be wondering what do I mean by Root and Rewild, but all will become clear. This is very, very important for you to understand if you are at that point of inflection in your coaching business, where you feel like you've kind of outgrown some of the work you're doing, because Root and Rewild is the very first philosophy in my Skyward framework. These philosophies I've been pulling together probably for the last 20+ years in my career as a leadership coach and as a business mentor, but much more in a focus way over the last 12-20 months. Root and Rewild is one of the very first philosophies and essentially it's all about designing your business around who you've become. So it might mean tweaking, it might mean recalibration, it might mean some mindset shifts, but the coach and lead you are today is very different probably from the coach and lead you were when you first started your coaching business. That might be two, three, four plus maybe even five plus years ago. If I think back to who I was when I started my coaching business in earnest in 2018, so International Women's Day 2018 is when I launched my return and career coaching business for the first time. My identity then, who I was then as a woman, as a mother, as a coach, as a leader, it is honestly, honestly worlds and lifetimes apart from where I find myself today. That's not only because the skills and the experience and the mastery I've built and the deepening of my understanding has changed and evolved, but because I am different too. What I want is different. The pace I can sustain is different. I'm going to be 48 this year, paramedicals is doing its thing. I have two wonderfully feisty young girls who need a lot more energy from me and a lot more insight and support than I've been previously needing to give. It's a different kind of emotional burden if you like, not kind of bum wiping necessarily, but emotional support is very different. Therefore, the white space I need to have in my working week, the energy I need to have to be able to sustain that is different. So, it's really important that when you grow, you keep your business growing with you. It keeps up, otherwise you're going to outgrow it. And that's what I'd love to talk to you today about because this identity shift is honestly so important to be mindful of. I honestly believe that identity is the foundation of successful soulful scaling. So, when it comes to growing your coaching business, it's important to know who you've become and where you've been. These things can also start to feel a little bit out of alignment if you don't keep up with who you've become. If you're business model, your business offers your offer ecosystem, your clients reflect the coach you were when you first started. Things might start to feel a little off even though they look good on paper. So, you're making decent money, you've got clients coming in, your offers worked, all intense and purposes. But honestly, identity is the core of understanding what you can do to ensure that your business model keeps up with who you've become. And that's exactly what we're going to be talking about in this episode. In the last episode, I explained a little bit more about my own evolution and how I felt this slightly uncomfortable stretch. The fact that yes, my business was successful. I've become a go-to in my niche. But actually, it just didn't feel quite right anymore. It felt like the calibration was off. So, I'm also going to introduce you in this episode to a really exciting psychometric tool. It's a leadership psychometric tool called Hogan and it's something that I've been using with my leadership coaching clients and a few founder clients, probably for nearly 20 years now. And it's my absolute favourite. I am a sucker for a psychometric tool. My background is in talent and organisational development. I have a lot of them in my toolkit. However, Hogan seems to be the most powerful one and delivers the most interesting insights for both me and for my clients. I realise now how pivotal this tool has been to so much of the work that I've done with clients over the years. It's leadership coaching clients in corporates but also founders really scoping out what a successful business model and offer ecosystem will look like for them based on who they are. It's very much an inside-out approach. It's starting with who you are, on the inside the identity and extrapolating that out and creating a business model of ecosystems, processes, marketing approaches that all fit around who you are and your personality. So, it's a very identity-led tool and I'm going to be showing you in a really interesting way how you can apply these sorts of insights to your own coaching business without necessarily even having to go through the tool, particularly when it comes to making plans for you taking your coaching business to the next level. But first, I would like to talk to you a bit more about the concept of identity, self-concept. Because yes, I know you're a coach, that's why you're listening to this podcast. We work with our clients on identity, probably pretty much every day. And yeah, if you're anything like me, there's something weird that happens when you are asked to think about your own identity, you're asked to do the work for yourself. It's like a weird fog dissents when it comes to doing this work for ourselves, working on your own identity. And so many of my clients say to me, "Oh my goodness, you know, when I ask them to do this work, they go, 'Oh my goodness, this is really, really hard because this is the stuff that I ask my own clients to do.' And there's this newfound empathy for what we're asking our poor clients to do every day. So please don't take for granted how difficult this work is." But there's a very particular experience that comes without growing your old identity. Things don't feel as aligned or as congruent as they used to, that you don't light you up as much. And you might notice this in the way you're showing up online, in your tone of voice, you're messaging, you're marketing, it might just feel all a little bit mere. Maybe it's started to bore you. Maybe your message, the philosophies and the point of view that you have feels like it's being diluted, like you're almost sort of standing down your edges in some way, to be accessible, to be understandable, to be translatable. And what that is doing is making you very accessible, but to clients who are a bit earlier on than the clients you truly want to work with. Now this is not judgmental about those clients who are earlier on. It's just that earlier on than the level you are ready to work with now. Because the truth is, you can probably take your clients so much further than you are already taking them. You've evolved. Your mastery has deepened. Your understanding is deepened. You can take clients on a much greater transformation. And if you feel like you're playing below your level, you'll honestly feel it. You'll start to resent it. This might be seen as accessible, easy to understand, but what you actually want now is to be known for your nuance, your depth, your mastery. And when your content isn't quite reflecting that yet, it can feel really out of alignment, really boring. And honestly, really frustrating, because you know deep down you've got so much more you want to say. You've got more under the bonnet, but the things you don't share it because you're worried that people won't always understand what you're talking about. A marketing has a big part to play in this, right? The social media online world has a huge part to play in this. We're told to be really concise, squeeze yourself into 50 characters in your Instagram bio. Keep it really simple. But do you know what? Some of that work we do is just way more nuance than that. And yes, it's an art form to be able to communicate depth, but without over complicating things. But if you're anything like me, you probably want to go deeper with your clients than the ones you're currently bringing into your world. And if I'm honest, this is one of the reasons that I've put together this private podcast. I could probably explain what I want to do in this private podcast in a couple of carousels, but would it resonate? Would it go as deep? Would it land in your heart and soul in the same way? Probably not. So the chances are if you've got offers that sell well, but they don't really stretch you. You've got clients that adore you and you probably adore them. But if you're honest, they're not quite meeting you at the level you think at now. Maybe you've got content that lands, you get good engagement, but you're really aware that you're having to dial it down, you're having to dilute it in order to be understood. You probably end up thinking, oh God, this is so frustrating. I want to say so much more than I'm able to say in this 10 slide carousel. Your brand probably still resonates, remember, because you've been doing this a while, you've become known in the industry for what you do. But the issue here is that that brand is aligned with an older, a previous version of you. And this affects everything. It affects how you show up, how proud you feel, how you feel in your body, how you lead, how you deliver to your clients. Almost like you're capping your own potential, you're hitting your own ceiling. And if you're anything like me, you might really recognise yourself feeling suspended between, oh brilliant, this is working. Thank goodness I'm making some half decent money with this. And, oh crap, this really doesn't feel like me anymore. But oh my goodness, I can't dare to burn it down. I can't dare to change it now because it's working. And it's kind of sad, isn't it? It's like you're settling. Because there's absolutely an option to stay there. You can, it's the safe zone. It's known. It's fully regulating for your nervous system because it's proven, you can keep doing it pretty much in your sleep. But I promise with you over time, if you don't do something about it, your subconscious will start to leak into your office, into your messaging and eventually into your client delivery. So your clients are going to start to feel it too if you don't do something about it. Maybe you've kind of written it somewhere or possibly even admitted it secretly to your partner or a really dear coach friend, or maybe you felt it when you see other people doing what you know deep down your capable of, that real twinge, that kind of green-eyed monster, tinge of jealousy. And I want to tell you that this is not anything to be ashamed of. I want to say that you're not being petty because what I'm saying is that actually that is information, it's data. It's a clue. What that is is your intuition telling you that usually you're probably doing less than your capable of. If that question underneath is something like, "Why is she doing so much better than me?" I know I can do that. Why am I not allowing myself to step into that next level that she's stepping into? So much of this work comes back to self-concept and safety. Your nervous system wants to keep you where you've been successful because it's safe. If you've been successful here, your nervous system will want to keep you here because it's guaranteed it's predictable, it's sustainable, it's safe. In fact, this is exactly how I felt before I started to evolve my own niche about 12 months ago. It was like, you know, Sarah, don't rock the boat, it's working. But the chances are, if you want more meaning, you want more depth, you want more truth, and you want more white space, more congruence, and you want more income whilst working fewer hours. This is absolutely not a wobble and it's probably not something you can afford to ignore for too much longer. It's a sign that the season you're in is asking to be taken seriously. Like, I'm here to stay. Nothing's going to change. You cannot go back from this. So essentially what you're experiencing is probably a gap. A gap between who you know yourself to be now and how your business is holding and positioning you. And what I mean by that is your business model, your offer ecosystem, your marketing, your messaging, your ideal clients, it's just a little bit out of alignment. And that's probably why you've been feeling frustrated. That's why it feels like you've got way more to give, way more to lead on. And this is where root and rewild comes in. Root and rewild is the exact phase where you start listening again to your intuition, that inner knowing is where we allow finally your intuition to come back online and you rebuild trust in your inner knowing in that inner wisdom that you've perhaps been dumbing down. If you're anything like me, maybe you want to work in the corporate world. Maybe you've worked online for a while and you've been exposed to lots of other noise and other perspectives. Your inner GPS, in other words, your intuition has been tuned out for a while. It's probably been dulled down. We're basically taught that intuition doesn't really have a role in business. But I'm here to tell you it's probably going to be your superpower from now on. Listening to your inner knowing honestly matters. Now I'm not saying rely solely on intuition. I don't believe that is a very safe strategy. I think strategy and evidence matter too. I'm a bit of a science boffin. I have a science degree degree in biology. So I will always always love a bit of science strategy and evidence back to support. But I promise you your intuition deserves a much bigger seat at the table because it's often the first thing to tell you that something needs to change. And when I reflect back on my early stages of business, I can see really how much I outsource this inner knowing. My strategy, my decision-making, all of these sorts of things to other people, experts in a reticom is business gurus, business mentors, other people that I followed online, podcasts I listened to, books I read. Because I didn't yet have the evidence and the experience that I knew what I was doing and that I could make it work without it. So my default was to ignore or at least dumb down my intuition and go outside of myself for answers. And actually the reframe I would love to offer you now is this. First of all, look outside of yourself for ideas. And then always come back to yourself inside for the answers. So outside for ideas, inside for answers. This is a much better way of operating compared to how I used to operate, which was like go outside of yourself for all the answers and then implement. In the early days, I didn't know that and I just didn't trust myself enough to do it. And then there's accessible positioning, right? This is what the marketing world expects of us, which obviously all marketers will teach you. And they say make it clear, make it straightforward, don't overcomplicate it, squeeze yourself into 50 tiny characters in your Instagram bio. And it's so easy to go with what's simplistic straightforward and ignore that kind of in and knowing that nuance that says, oh my goodness, I just want to put across way more depth and nuance than this. And honestly, I believe that is why so many women stop listening to themselves in order to be legible, likable, marketable, understandable, all these things. But intuition, that thing in your very core is always been there. Well, it's the signal. It's the signal that's trying to tell you something. And that resistance, that off feeling, that misalignment, it's telling you the structure you're currently operating within no longer fits the coach and leader you've become. That's what it's telling you. This is why Reut and Rewild is all about understanding why do I feel restless? Why am I bored with my own voice in my content? Why do my offers and my clients feel so misaligned, even though on paper my business technically works quite well? Makes me money. People know me people respect me and yet still feel like this. Reuting and rewilding is about grounding into who you truly are in the season of life. Remember, you're evolving just as your businesses are evolving. Root is before the shoots. The court will hang over the social media noise. The rewilding is the reclamation. Reclaiming of your identity, your potential, your power as an authentic female coach and leader because you've got it in there, you've always had it in you really, but every single part of your business needs to feel it too. So this is about coming home to you. No more borrowed strategies. You know enough. This is about tuning into why you do what you do, your values, your strengths, your personality, your opinions, your perspective, your unique world view, your voice, and the real clarity on the movement that you're genuinely here to lead through your work. Now intuition in this phase often shows up as discomfort before the clarity. Discomfort always comes first. Resistance always comes first. And it might sound like, hang on a minute, oh no, she's doing better than me and I know that I'm better qualified for her. That's really annoying. Or it might also sound like, I'm so bored of these conversations with my clients. Or, oh my goodness, I cannot be bothered to post on Instagram today. Just feel so pointless. And that's not just because of the algorithm. It's because of what you're saying. These are all clues. They're all signs, messages from your intuition. And I want you to listen because that is genuinely golden there. And then once you root into that whisper, the next job for you is simply recalibration. Recalibrating your identity and power as a coach with your business. And that means translating it into your messaging, into your offers. Maybe you want to speak to a different level of ideal client. Maybe you want to create a deeper offer with a bigger transformation with a higher price tag. Maybe it's about conserving your energy differently. This is the rewilding part. Letting go of the shirts. Letting go of the corporate hangover. All those borrowed business models from all those gurus online. All the things that no longer serve you. Maybe it's even a point of view that you've kept buried for years. This is all about freeing it and not being afraid of what people might say. Because let's be honest, marketing needs to be polarising. That's the definition of marketing. Otherwise you speak to no one if you sharpen a very vanilla safe way. And you'll also be limiting your potential. You'll never unlock your tourist voice, your tourist potential, or attract the clients who are genuinely meant for you. When you see and their name, the coach and woman you've become, your business will, I promise, naturally rise to meet her. And this is what I'm so passionate about when it comes to soulful scaling. What it is is scaling from the heart. It's not about quick fixes or hacks. Not just kind of like hitting 10k months. This elusive 10k month that we're all meant to be aiming for just for the sake of it. But it's actually about growing your business in a way that's authentic and profitable. Now one of the problems this philosophy solves is if I'm honest, I don't really trust my intuition enough. And if that's you, I get it, I'm with you, 100%. But what I'm really excited to share with you is this. There is a way to get more comfort and confidence in your in-enowing. Yes, you can use tools like tarot or metaphors from nature. I love all of those things. In fact, I'm a huge believer in metaphors suggestion and the impact on your intuition. But I also love data. I'm a scientist through and through hard, cold, black and white data. I study marine biology at university for four years. I just can't help it. I love to blend soul with science. And one of my favourite tools for doing that is this Hogan tool that I mentioned at the top of this episode. What Hogan actually does is it makes the invisible visible. So if you've got kind of a hunch, you've got a feeling about what's not quite working, what's not quite aligned. What Hogan does is it helps you map it. It shows you the gap between identity and reputation. So how you see yourself and how you're showing up in the world. Identity is who you are on the inside, the bits that make you you. Reputation is how you're perceived on the outside, your business model, your strategies, your marketing, your offers. And this really matters in business because your reputation is your brand. It shapes what people ultimately come to you for and whether or not they trust you. And there needs to be alignment between identity and reputation for people to feel that authenticity and trust. Hogan also shows you two really important things. Hogan always refers to it as your bright side, which effectively is you on a good day, your strengths, what you're known for positively. But it also, in every kind of Jedi way shows you your dark side, which in other words is your reputation, but you on a not a bad day, but you under pressure, you under stress, and it's quite hard to see how we show up ourselves on a stressful day, to be objective, because we're so stressed we can't see it. Not because you're bad, but effectively what we do under times of fight and flight when we're stressed or under pressure is that we overextend our strengths. And when these strengths overextend, and we overextend, overeindex on them, they can actually derail you and erode your positive reputation. That brand that you work so hard to build. And this is where things can get really GC for soulful scaling, because your business model and offer ecosystem can either really amplify your bright side, so your strengths, where you show up in flow state, loads of dopamine, or what they can do if you've built it in a kind of less productive way they can quietly reward your dark side. So your business model and offers can be actually fueling your dark side, exaggerating that negative reputation, which ultimately will sabotage your business success. Let's discuss an example just to give you some clarity on this. For example, if one of your dark side patterns under pressure is kind of overcommodating, people pleasing, that sort of thing, definitely something I can relate to myself, your business model might actually be designed in a way that it rewards your clients with high touch over delivery, quite loose boundaries, saying yes a lot, maybe creating things on people's request as opposed to creating your own thing and repeating it. If your dark side pattern is overextending, your business might be dependent on you being the engine, always on, always visible, always available, is not sustainable without you, and it's very hard to scale when you are the bottleneck. Then you kind of wonder why scaling feels draining and terrifying. So this is exactly what we do with Hogan, we use it as a compass, not as the only truth, but as a way to validate your intuition, your inner knowing that hunch you already have, but you can't articulate. And what it does is it gives you confidence in what you already know. And then we translate it into practical parts of your business, like your offers, your off ecosystem, how it all hangs together, your clients, how we speak to them using your language, your messaging, your positioning, and the ecosystem that holds the whole marketing and business together. Not as a funnel, but as a place where people want to come and stay for longer. Even the boundaries and the white space in your diary can be extrapolated based on your Hogan insights. Because when your business is designed around your identity, your strengths, your values, your patterns under pressure, the whole thing starts to feel lighter. Way more congrym, way more sustainable, and it attracts higher level clients who respond to your depth, without you needing to dilute it. So as promised, here are a few prompts to sit with, and I'd love you to do this gently, not from your head, but from your body, from your inner knowing, feel into it, guess gauge how it feels in your body. I'd love you to start with a reflection around your ideal client. I call this person Goldilocks because she's just right, and this could be your B2B client or your B2C. Think about the problems that you're solving for her. Your purpose and profit niche, this is the language I use inside Fruitful Founder. Because when you feel into the work you're doing, you really feel into it and align it with your purpose, the problems you're solving, the people you're solving with and with, and for. The outcomes and the transformations you create. How does it really feel in your body? And has it changed over the years since you started doing this work? Because if you really reflect on how your business looks now compared to the early days, you'll probably notice an evolution, a gap. A gap you need to close in order to align your authenticity and identity with your business model, and to up level your brand and income. So is there potentially a truth that you've been sitting with? A niggle in the back of your mind, a whisper? Maybe something you haven't even admitted out loud. Maybe you've admitted it to a coach supervisor, a dear friend, or a patched potentially even your partner. But you can't stop thinking about it. That's what I want you to tune into. That's what I want you to listen to. Because it might be giving you clues about what's out of alignment and where this misalignment might be coming from. And honestly, that whisper could be the biggest source of income and impact for you in 2026. So think about how aligned and authentic you currently fill in your business in every single aspect of it. Ask yourself, what tiny tweaks could I make to close the gap between who I've become and how my business is currently supporting me? And in the next episode, I'm going to take you through a really practical process that makes all of this so much more easy. It's called prune to bloom because I genuinely believe that scaling is not about adding more. A lot of growth comes from refinement, subtraction, simplification. All the words you probably don't really expect to hear when you think about the words scaling. You was here, loud, a bigger, stronger, more. But what if your next level comes from doing less, more intentionally? That's what we'll explore in episode three. I can't wait to walk you through it.