Transcription

• Speaker #0

  Hello, happy new year and welcome back to the From Corporate Into Calling podcast. I am really excited to be here with you and kicking off the new year together. A new year that I hope will include some really meaningful change and progress for you towards creating your own meaningful business, towards a regenerative work life that brings you joy and satisfaction and makes a real contribution as well. That is what we are here for. And today I thought I'd start off the year by talking about my kind of focus for 2026. I've never actually done the whole setting a word for the year thing before, or at least I've never really kind of formalised it. But I do actually have a word for this year and it's a... is sort of on the surface level, really not a very exciting word. So I'm going to explain why I actually do feel really, really excited and empowered by having this word with me in 2026. And the word is consistency. See, I told you it was not very exciting. But there's a really good reason for that. And I'm going to explain that in quite a bit of detail in the podcast, because I think it's really connected. for me with commitment. To me, consistency is how I practice my commitment to the things that are important to me. And for this year, I have focused on just three things. Those three things are strengthening my body, strengthening my mind, and strengthening my business. And what I like about these, I guess I'm going to go ahead and call them goals. What I like about these goals is they feel to me so different to how I used to set goals in the past. And actually, I'm quite big on sort of New Year rituals for probably the best part of 15 years, less so in more recent years when things have been a bit more chaotic with young children. But I've always done a sort of big annual review and I've blocked out one, if not two days in my calendar. Usually I would do that sort of before my team came back online. to really think about what had worked well in the previous year, you know, what I was proud of, what I wanted to change looking forward, how I could improve, and then doing some like really, really detailed goal setting. And to a certain extent, that served me well when I was running my previous business, when we were very much in a kind of growth mindset. But I'm also kind of aware that most of the goals that I set and I think most of the goal setting that happens is quite, I don't know if extractive is actually too strong a word, but it's all about acquiring something. It's all about sort of achieving something. And there's sort of acquisitive nature to it that I think doesn't sit well with me now. And I know makes a lot of people feel a little bit uncomfortable. It's kind of about what can I get, even if that means me putting in a lot of work, you know, how much profit margin can I achieve? I mean, that was the kind of goal that I used to set. How can I be more active or my company be more active in these markets? And even things that weren't work related, like, you know, I'm going to run a half marathon. There's nothing wrong with those kind of goals, but there is a sort of element of going after something, achieving it and kind of acquiring it and kind of adding it to your collection. I don't know if this makes sense to you. Maybe, you know, maybe you'll resonate with this, but I definitely feel that a lot of people are quite turned off by the kind of conventional new year goal setting. And potentially, if you experience this in a professional environment, it can actually just feel really overwhelming when you've, you know, you've worked really hard for a year, you've probably met a lot of challenges, you've had quite a lot asked of you, you've probably you know stepped up on a number of occasions, solved a lot of problems. And then it's like your reward for that is you get maybe a short break, hopefully over Christmas, and then you're kind of, bam, you're hit with a whole new set of targets. And the bar has just been raised even higher. So there's more to do. There's more to go after. And I think that's completely exhausting and I think can very often lead to burnout personally and professionally. I mean, they're essentially the same thing. So that is why when I came to my goals, what I really wanted to think about was kind of a focus and a forward moving energy that didn't have a kind of definitive outcome. So my goal to strengthen my body, you know, it's going to be very clear to me, am I strengthening my body, but I'm not saying I need to be able to lift this kind of weight by the end of the year. And I'm also not even restricting that to, I must go to the gym this many times per week. I feel like it's enough for me to say I am getting stronger and I am doing my best and I also kind of relinquish control over the fact that I don't know what's coming around the corner. I could get sick, I could get an injury, I could you know need to focus on things elsewhere and not have that sort of arrogance I guess to think that I know exactly what the year is going to hold. So for me that goal yeah in strengthening happening in each of those areas is. it's about a kind of an intention and a commitment and showing up for that each day. It's also about reducing the noise around other things. So by kind of having those really three, those three clear categories, I, you know, I know that's, that's where I have chosen to really pour in my energy. I'm going to say that with a slight caveat, which is like, of course, my children and my family and my home take the vast majority. of my energy but I'm just kind of taking that for granted because that is you know that is what I do every single day so this is kind of above and beyond that and also I guess the foundation for how I managed to show up for my kids and my family every day because these other areas are really important to me and they all need to work together so why consistency I particularly in a business context. I have, I've talked before about how when I left my previous company, so this is a company that I founded and I scaled and then eventually sold to my team a few years ago. I'm, as an entrepreneur, I'm someone who, I'm a natural problem solver. I enjoy kind of meeting challenges, thinking how things can be improved, you know, kind of innovating. I guess. And when I left that company, I also was in a very necessary stage of exploration. I didn't know exactly what the next chapter was going to hold. And I want to underline that, that you don't need to know, you don't need to necessarily have a concrete plan of where you're going to go next. If you are setting yourself up financially, you're giving yourself some some runway. I think it's a really positive time to have a period of exploration. I know I needed it. There was a lot of kind of detoxing, by which I mean kind of decorporatizing in and, you know, discovering who I was outside of my identity as CEO and founder. And I really enjoyed that period of play and exploration. It was absolutely necessary. But since I founded my current business regenerative work life and since I settled on a niche that I knew I wanted to commit to for a long time, being helping people out of corporate and into meaningful work, I'm really aware that it's really necessary for me to prioritise consistency and actually to be a bit more self-aware around my desire and my kind of instinct to keep inventing new things. I have new ideas. all the time, constantly. I could put out new content, new offerings every single day, but actually that doesn't help me and it doesn't help the people who want to work with me. Consistency is really, really important in any business, in any new business. But I think particularly when that business, consultancy, offering is outside of the mainstream. And that is why I thought this topic was actually helpful to share with you, my listeners, because it's, you know, I mean, I like to share a little bit of what's going on for me personally and what my work life looks like. But this is why I think it's relevant, because you are also or you are considering creating a new kind of business, whether that is. a completely new offering or new in the sense of how you do that how you structure it the values that underline it and It's so important that you get to a place where you can be really consistent in how you show up for that business, how you communicate that business and how other people engage in it, because it's consistency over time that compounds and leads to real results. And a lot of that result comes from people's compounding awareness and understanding. of what you're doing and if you are chopping and changing as i have a definitely have an inclination to do if you're coming up with new things all the time if you're kind of constantly tweaking your message or coming up with new offerings or going round in circles and exactly what it is you want to do and who you want to do it for that is really really confusing for the people that you are here to serve and the people who are going to pay you for what you do. It also doesn't actually allow you to really get better over time because consistency also allows you to show up, do the same thing, do it over and over again and get better and better and that's where mastery comes from. And yeah, so this is why for me personally consistency feels important and also why I say I think that consistency and commitment go hand in hand because really to me what consistency is is not how you might interpret it is to say you will you will always be there you will always you know whatever it is let's take the gym example again actually that's quite a helpful one um so yesterday I had a bit of a migraine and uh these kind of come and go for me they're you know a massive pain they can be really debilitating and I have to be quite careful to be on top of it and manage it And, you know, I did all the things I needed to do yesterday. I woke up, I felt a bit better, but it was definitely still there. And I wanted to go to the gym. And I usually I'm in the gym on Monday mornings. And I really wanted to be consistent with that. I knew I was going to come here and talk to you today about being consistency. And it really bothered me to think that, you know, it's kind of the first, you know, working day, kids back to school of the new year should be back to normal. Why? You know, and I'm not going to be able to go to the gym. But I knew it wasn't the right thing to do for my body. I knew there was a real chance I would do that. My migraine would just flare out of control and my whole week would be a write off. The best choice for me today was to just do a gentle walk to and from school, you know, take it a little bit easier this morning and have a little bit more time to kind of get ready and come here and record the podcast. And I realized that, you know, consistency isn't about I must go every Monday morning, come what may, no matter what. Like that is just not human. It's certainly not regenerative. There is no relationship with life in that kind of attitude. Consistency is not letting the fact that I couldn't or shouldn't go to the gym today affect what I do tomorrow. So tomorrow is a walking day for me. So I will show up, I'll do my walk Wednesday. I'll be back at the gym. I will keep making that commitment to strengthening my body one of my key goals. And the same thing applies with your work and your business, if that is how you think about it. You have to show up every single day and make that same commitment. You have to keep, you have to stay very strong in your resolve that this is the path. that you want to take. And it is not easy. I really, I say that actually like from the, I was gonna say the bottom of my heart, maybe right from my stomach. I know how not easy this is. And I'm speaking as someone who came to this path as a successful entrepreneur. On paper, it should be easy for me to think, right, this is my next business. This is what I'm going to do. put it out there. I'm a marketing expert. It should all just, in my head anyway, it should all just flow smoothly, quickly scale and be a kind of relatively short-term success story. That is just not reality for many, many people. And it's certainly not reality when you are trying to do things a bit differently, when you are trying to do things based on regenerative principles. you know when you're leading with values over profit it It takes time. And I mentioned before about this concept of kind of compounding results. I think that is one of the biggest lessons that I have learned personally, is that the most impactful results come from showing up again and again, all the unglamorous work behind the scenes of just recommitting to what you're doing, recommitting to your chosen. audience, client, however you think of them, recommitting to the values that you hold dear, recommitting to the kind of future that you want to be part of. And there will be so many things that will try to pull you away from that. There will be, you know, there will be friends, family and loved ones who want the best for you and are scared for you because you're taking this new path. There will be the voice. in your head that constantly questions whether it's actually ever going to come together, whether you've made sensible choices, whether you should just go back to the perceived security of a corporate job. You will constantly be putting yourselves out there and challenging your nervous system. And the key, I believe, is being consistent and recommitting every single day. and I've spoken about this before, but I don't even feel that mistake is the right word. The unfortunate direction that I see happening with people who choose this path is that they are impatient and they expect much shorter term results and they are understandably fragile and nervous. in the direction they're taking and ready to sort of be pushed off course by the winds of change or you know voices and others opinions and this is not about saying you know that you don't learn and that you don't change and you don't evolve but you have to give things enough time and when you've done the initial foundational work You know, that initial exploration of really understanding, like, what is it that I am exceptional at? What unique value do I have to offer? How do I want my work life to feel? You know, what is the relationship between work and life? How do they make space for each other? what exactly is it that I am going to deliver for people that there is a clear need for who is that audience or that you know that customer that wants what I have to offer and is ready to pay for it. When you know that, that is what I call the meaningful business framework. When you have that framework in place and you've tested it and you've had a number of conversations around it, you've had some early projects or contracts or clients that have validated that for you, then it is time to be consistent and keep showing up and getting better at it and better at it and only doing that sort of iterative work where it is really, really necessary. And that is what this year, 2026, looks like for me. It looks like doubling down on my commitment to the Meaningful Business Incubator as the primary offering that I have. So that's my six month coaching program with Community Aspect, where we design, test and launch your meaningful business. And it's about being really disciplined about the channels that I show up in. So the podcast is priority for me and LinkedIn. And, you know, beyond that, I'm not going to allow myself to be distracted by all the many, many other channels that I could be part of. It means being really consistent in my messaging. I know the things that I want to talk about. I have kind of six key points. And to me, it feels like I am repeating them and repeating them. them and repeating them, but it's actually really necessary that I do so. And again, this is something that I think people really struggle with. They feel like, well, I've kind of, I've talked about it. I've put it out there, you know, I'll wait for people to come. No, you know, this is such a crowded, busy, noisy marketplace, whatever it is that you're doing, you know, you're going to be competing for attention all the time. You have to consistently show up saying the same things. telling the same stories, making the same offers. And it isn't, you know, there's part of me that kind of shrinks from that and thinks, oh, how boring. But no, that's not really how I feel as I look forward to 2026. I'm excited about... really committing and being consistent in each of these three areas that I talked about, because I know that is where the results will come from. And I know what it feels like as well when you are consistent. You know, it means you're not being distracted, you're not being pulled in a number of directions, you're not constantly doing mental background work or, you know, emotional gymnastics. You're showing up, you're making the commitment and you're showing up. And I know from my own experience what it feels like as results start to compound. I've mentioned that phrase a number of times and I don't feel like I have explained it. So when I say about compounding results, again, let's go back to the gym. It's a really clear example. You know, I, anyone doesn't go to the gym and expect right at the end of the first week, I'm, you know, I'm going to notice a real difference. Like I'm going to have lost weight. I'm going to have built muscle. uh whatever it might be um except that we probably do like we probably know rationally that that isn't going to happen but emotionally there's probably a big part of us that's like okay come on i need to i need to see the results now certainly i do i'm when i say people are impatient i'm number one on that list i'm very impatient person i like to see immediate kind of response and results to things that i put effort into or things that i put out into the world and I, you know, have to be very self-aware about that. But I noticed, so I started going to the gym and doing strength training about three times a week in September. And I, it was really interesting to me that I, about mid-December actually, around my birthday, well, I guess I was thinking about, you know, age and all of these kinds of things. I really noticed, actually, I really, I feel so much stronger in my body. My body just feels more solid. I, you know, I'm able to move more easily. I feel like I've got more energy in the day. Really noticeably for me, symptoms around perimenopause have eased dramatically. And, you know, this was sort of two and a half months later when I was suddenly going, oh, look, actually, I can see all of these benefits because I've been showing up and making that commitment, you know, pretty much three times a week. while still being a human, you know, while still missing sessions when I needed to, not forcing it. And I see the same thing in business I did, you know, in my previous company, when I think about the early years of that, you know, there was never a sense of like, oh, look, we're on this beautiful, steady, uphill climb, everything's going exactly to plan. I can remember the early business plans that I wrote when I was in my mid 20s. They were hilarious. Yes. So. wildly ambitious and unrealistic and, you know, didn't make kind of didn't have any awareness of kind of fluctuations in the marketplace or anything like that. I mean, I love I love, you know, 25 year old Alyssa for that audacity. But, you know, it was really kind of in my mid 30s, about 10 years into the business of full, full commitment to that business through all of the ups and downs, you know, my commitment to that business. never wavered. I loved what we did. I 100% believed in it. You know, we were fully focused on the climate tech sector, on founders in that space, on providing communication services that never, that central core never changed. And it was about 10 years in when I started to sort of realise, oh, look, like things have changed. And it, you know, and I realised like, you know, suddenly I'm doing the end of your accounts and it's looking really positive. And suddenly I'm realizing actually we're quite resilient financially. And we've got this reputation that starts to precede us. And actually, I'm in a position to start thinking about, you know, could I go on parental leave and still pay myself during that period? Yes, I could. And then, you know, a few years later, thinking, right, it's time for a new chapter. And actually, we're in a position where I can think about selling this company. You know, financially, we're there. We have an incredible team. in place. We have, you know, the client base, we have the reputation, but it was almost, there's almost this sense of you kind of look back and then realize, oh, it's, it's all come together. And I promise you, if you can find your version of what for me is 2026, the year of consistency and find your way of bringing together consistency and commitment and show up, this is the thing that is most important. Show up for the work life that you believe in. Show up for the kind of work that you... truly want to do. Even if it's not available to you, you know, right now, move in that direction, take steps every single day, keep showing up for it, keep recommitting, you know, know in your bones why this matters. And with time, the results will compound, I promise you. And if time is a luxury you can't afford, then... I've got plenty of episodes on, you know, how you can take care of the financial piece so that you really can make that commitment. This is, you know, this is based in reality. If you've got bills to pay, find a way to pay those bills and then show up for the work that you truly want to do. If you need to make compromises early on and it's not the sort of full and fully fledged vision of what you want, that's fine. Keep iterating towards it. Keep moving in that direction. Commitment and consistency are such key components of meaningful regenerative work. I hope that you have found this episode helpful and I would love to hear what your focus is for 2026. Do you have a word that you've chosen? Do you have some specific goals? Is there a feeling that you want to hold on to? Particularly if you have found a way of doing this that doesn't feel kind of extractive, that doesn't feel like some kind of life-led shopping list, I would really, really love to hear it, genuinely. Please send me an email, it's alissa, A-L-I-S-A at regenerativeworklife.com and tell me what your intention is for 2026. Thank you so much for listening, I'm really excited to be on this journey with you for the year ahead and I'll see you back here next week. If this episode of From Corporate to Calling was helpful or inspiring, follow the show so you don't miss an episode. And if you know someone who's questioning their career, send them this podcast. Lifelines are meant to be shared. Remember, you don't have to tolerate burnout or misalignment. You can redirect your skills into meaningful work that brings back life to you and to the world around you. Hey