Candice (00:01.359)

You're here to grow a business, but not just any kind of business. You want to grow a profitable business with purpose. A business where you wake up every single day driven to serve your customers and make a difference in your own life. I'm Candace Coppola, published author, business coach, and your guide to building a profitable business with purpose. Join me here every single week

as we explore how to build and grow your business with purpose. Get ready to dig in and have meaningful conversations about the strategies and techniques that will help you build your dream business. This is the power in purpose.

Candice (00:47.64)

Hey there, friend. Shorty episode for you today. I'm feeling called to talk to you about trusting your gut in your business. It's a conversation that we've been having a lot behind the scenes in my mastermind, Wedding Pro Insiders. And I just feel like I want to come here and talk to you about making decisions in your business and why you should trust your gut reaction.

I know that you look to a lot of spaces and places to guide you on this journey of growing your business, starting your business, scaling your business. And I also know that sometimes it can be really overwhelming, the amount of opinions and strategies and hot takes that people have. sometimes you can really feel like your head is spinning. You're not sure which direction to go. Advice is conflicting.

and you're just not sure what to do in your business. A good example is if you were to go on threads right now, which by the way, I love threads, but it is the most self-righteous place on the internet. Really and truly. If you were to go there right now, I guarantee you would see 50 different ways of doing one thing. All of the different ways conflicting with each other and each person very steadfast.

in their beliefs about why their way of doing something is right. And when we're at a crossroads in our business or when we're making decisions in our business, we often look to experts, whether it's here on podcasts or on threads or Instagram, to guide us and to help us. It can be overwhelming sifting through the information. And to be honest, some of the information isn't very good.

It's not necessarily right for you. In these situations where you feel like you don't know what to do, I want you to trust your gut because your gut has gotten you where you are right now. Your gut really hasn't failed you. Maybe one or two times you can think, boy, my intuition was off. But more often than not, your gut has guided you to the business you have today and to the life that you have in a lot of the big decisions that you've made.

Candice (03:09.175)

And we can lose sight of our own intuition and our own structure for decision-making when we listen too much to outside influences or we think that outside influences are the be-all end-all of answers for our business. So this is just some encouragement for you today to trust your gut, to lean on your gut and your intuition when you need to make a decision in your business.

And one technique that my business coach shared with me that might work for you that taps into your intuition is called the sway test. And I've done the sway test many times. I want to shout out Amber Housley, who has been my business coach for jackass years forever and who will forever be my business coach. I always go back to Amber when I need help making decisions because she is the best at helping me make decisions. But there was one decision I was trying to make.

where she imparted on me that I needed to look within and to find the answer. So she gave me the sway test. You can also Google the sway test, but here's how it goes. Here's how you can tap into your gut and into intuition the next time you're not sure what decision to make. I want you to stand with your feet flat on the ground, preferably barefoot so you can feel the ground beneath your feet. And I want you to ask yourself some questions that you know the answer to, yes or no questions. Something like, my name is Candice.

And my favorite color is orange. Yes or no questions. And what you're going to see is that your body naturally sways. It either sways forward ever so slightly, or it sways backward. It sways forward ever so slightly as a yes, and it sways backward ever so slightly as a no. I'm not talking wild pendulum swings. I'm talking the gentlest move. You'll feel it kind of in your shoulders. It comes from your upper back, your shoulders.

feel a little bit of a sway. And it's said that that's your intuition giving you the answer. So you stand there, feet flat on the ground, ask yourself some calibration questions. We got to make sure our sway is on point. And then I want you to ask it a question that you need clarity on. Think of it like your magic eight ball, but it is your body. It is your gut and in your intuition. Give it a try.

Candice (05:34.103)

And when the noise, the outside side noise is just too great and you feel like I can't listen to another expert tell me what I'm doing wrong or tell me what I should be doing now, do yourself a favor and turn off the noise. Because I believe your inputs directly affect your outputs. What you input into your business, into your mind, directly affects

how you produce and what you output into your business in the world. I'm going to do a whole podcast episode on inputs versus outputs, but turn down the noise. Give yourself space. I find that I make some of my best decisions when my mind is clear and not influenced by outside stuff. I also find that I make my best decisions when I ask Amber what I should do on Boxer and when I do the sway test.

That's what I wanted to impart upon you today is to trust your gut and your intuition. It's likely never steered you wrong. We need to actually just really tap into our own intuition to guide us in our business and the decisions that we make, whether it's hiring new employees, saying yes to a client, firing a client, how you want to respond to a client, how you want to handle a situation, what you should be doing for your marketing, what you should be doing for your finances, what you should be doing for your pricing, all of that.

can be guided by your intuition. You don't need a coach. You don't always need a guru or guide to help you. A lot of the answers, they lie within. All right, friend, I told you it was a shorty episode. We don't even have any ads today. No intros, but definitely an outro. I want to remind you there's so much power in your purpose. Cheers to trusting your intuition, and I'll see you next time.

Thanks so much for tuning in to this week's episode of the Power and Purpose Podcast. If you enjoyed the show, be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode and consider leaving a review. Head over to powerinpurposepodcast.com to access all of the resources and links mentioned in today's episode. That's powerinpurposepodcast.com. I'll see you next time.