I was accused of being a Cult Leader
On today's closing episode of Pleasurable Profits, host Leslie Lyons reflects on the year 2023 and shares insights from her upcoming soulful planning workshop. Leslie discusses the importance of reflecting on the past year to identify lessons and areas for growth in the future. She shares her unique approach to goal setting, emphasizing desire-led goals and the pursuit of emotional well-being over arbitrary achievements. Leslie also announces a new private podcast feed specifically for movement studio owners and shares her predictions for the industry in 2024. Join us as Leslie encourages listeners to plan a life that speaks to their souls and sets the stage for a pleasurable and profitable 2024.
00:00 Reflect on 2023 to prepare for 2024.
05:58 Addressing cult leader accusation, reflecting on community.
07:37 Embracing values attracts like-minded business followers.
11:39 Setting arbitrary goals without meaningful purpose is detrimental.
14:30 Make decisions based on desired feelings, not goals.
Find me on Instagram or LinkedIn or email me at hello@lesliedlyons.com.
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Transcript “I was accused of being a Cult Leader”
Leslie [00:00:00]:
Hey, boss. I am Leslie Lyons, your embodied leadership and sales coach, and this is pleasurable profits. This podcast is ideal for owners and leaders of tattoo shops, cannabis businesses, movement studios, sex toy shops, and other industries too often left out of the leadership conversation. If you're looking for no bs approach to defining your strengths and values, designing a business that supports you, and creating a soul driven and, of course, a pleasurable plan for profitability, then let's get started.
Leslie [00:00:42]:
Hey, party people, I hope you are doing well. We are closing out 2023 and, ooh, we chow. 2023 has been a year of some great wins for me and also some great losses. And I'm pretty sure it was been that way for you, too. Okay. As I was sitting here getting ready to close out 2023, I'm actually preparing for my last workshop of the year, which is my soulful planning workshop, where I get together with female leaders, female entrepreneurs to help them plan out their 2024. Now, this is not your everyday, stuffy, corporate, let's take your goals, break them into 90 day goals, and break them down into micro pieces. While I think all of that is great, what I found as a small business owner who is creative, who runs a nontraditional business, that that model didn't really keep me motivated to reach my goals during the year.
Leslie [00:01:42]:
So I came up with a process a few years ago that really brings in all the things that I do every day, which is somatic movement, which is desire led goals, like goals that feel good in your body. And so, in order for me to take someone else through the process, I go through the process myself. Right? Like, I am a customer of my own product. And so one of the things that we do is, before we rush into 2024, I am always going to encourage clients to sit with 2023. And so today is going to be some of my reflections as I sit with my own 2023, in hopes that it'll give you some tools to sit with yours if you're not coming to my workshop. Okay. So one of the things that I always do is ask clients a couple of questions about 2023 with the hopes that it'll get them to reflect on what they want to replicate in 2024 and things they need to leave behind. Okay.
Leslie [00:02:52]:
In 2023. And also letting them know, helping you to understand that there's lessons to be learned if you look for the lessons. So, one of the questions that I ask, and so I'm asking you to reflect on is, what did you learn about people in 2023? When I asked myself that question, I actually was taken back to something that happened earlier in the year when it was brought to my attention that, yet again, I was being called a cult leader. A cult leader. Like, some of y'all watch too much Netflix. You watching too much Netflix and not running your studio. You binge watching cult shows and not making sure that your employees are satisfied with their job. All right, I'm interjected.
Leslie [00:04:02]:
I'm breaking in with a commercial here, you all. Okay, so one of the things that I am doing in 2024 is I am creating a new private podcast feed specifically for movement studio owners. So if you own a pole studio, an aerial place, a burlesque studio, anything that involves movement, I'm going to have a special private podcast for you. Why am I doing this? Great question. You guys ask awesome questions. Because there are some things that I want to talk about that truly only relate to our industry. This podcast is designed to talk to any small business owner who's a woman. So we talk about leadership, we talk about sales.
Leslie [00:04:52]:
And I really want to kind of keep the specific information for our industry off this thread so that the people who aren't in our industry and they don't understand when I start talking about $5 classes and instructors who quit and start their own studios and all the drama that can happen in our industry, I don't want to bore them. And so I want to keep this clean. So in wanting to keep this clean and staying in integrity, you can go to bit Lee, movementstudioowner, and sign up for the podcast. I'm going to start dropping episodes in January. The first episode is going to be my predictions for our industry in 2024. Okay, so I would say if you are interested, if you own a movement studio, that's where you want to be for specific conversations in our industry. Again, it's bit lease obit. Lymovestudioowner.
Leslie [00:05:58]:
All right, my loves, back to our normally scheduled podcast. So after it was brought to my attention that I was being called a cult leader, I looked at like, what is it that is making people think this is it? The fact that I've had a core group of clients for six years now at this .56 years, many of them, is that what it is? Why is that considered a code as opposed to a community? I don't know. But you know what? A long time ago, my mother told me, you don't ever try to figure out the criminally insane. So I don't spend a whole lot of time trying to engage around why people say something, but I do want to say. I do engage with what people say. Now, I know some of you like, I don't care what people say about me. I don't care. People can say whatever they want to say about me.
Leslie [00:06:54]:
And here's what I can tell you. First of all, you're lying to yourself or you're a sociopath because you are wired to care about what people say. So what I say is that I just don't let what you say run my life. And I'm also not so prideful that I don't believe that I don't have areas to grow. We all can grow. And advice for growth can come from very unlikely places. I learned that a long time ago. So I've learned, and I'm resourced enough to sit with criticism.
Leslie [00:07:37]:
So even when it's something as ludicrous or delusional as me being a cult leader, I sat with, why are people saying that? And here's the thing people don't like. When you use your voice unapologetically, people don't like, and I don't know if the second one is they don't like it, or if they just don't see it enough, they don't see it modeled. So it seems weird. It seems cult like. People, especially in small businesses, aren't used to seeing people who run their business by their values, when they don't compromise, when they stand ten toes on things that are really important to them. And when you're that clear about why these things are so important to you, you attract people who vibe with that, who resonate with that. And so if you all have similar values and you're working towards similar goals, I guess that's what they call a cult these days in the streets. I guess that's what the kids is calling it.
Leslie [00:08:51]:
I call that a principled community of women, a collective, which is why I call it that. And what's so funny about it is, though, while I was sitting with that information yet again, I literally get a DM a couple of days later from a client who's been working with me for a few years now. And she says to me, she sends me a screenshot. Okay? And the screenshot is of her financial statement, not her PNL. Okay. Because I know some of us don't know the difference with this sort of stuff, but your girlfriend's here to help you. Her financial statement of her personal assets, and she was sending it to me to celebrate the fact that she is now officially a millionaire. WHOOP, WHOOP.
Leslie [00:09:50]:
I'm not talking about her business being a seven figure business. I'm talking about her net worth being $1 million. So if I'm a cult leader, baby, this is the type of cult you want to join today, the kind that turns you into a millionaire. Not a kind where we're talking about top line metrics and vanity metrics. No, we're talking about, what do you do today in your lifestyle? How do you live? What investments have you made? Those are big girl conversations, and those are the type of big girl conversations we have in our collective. So if that makes me a cult leader, God dogg it. I'm the best one that ever is. Because the last time I checked, cult leaders try to make people do what they say do for their benefit.
Leslie [00:10:44]:
I'm out here liberating folks. I'm out here breaking generational curses. I'm out here changing people's entire fucking lives for the better. And people are saying, oh, she's running a cult chow. Sit with what people have to say. What did you learn about people this year? I learned that people are delusional. But when you ask yourself that question, going back to you, when you ask yourself that question, then once you sit with the answer, then you ask yourself, and what can I learn from that that'll make me better in 2024? You have to get away from setting goals for setting goals sake. So I'm transitioning here, cutting across the field.
Leslie [00:11:39]:
Some people set goals, and there are these arbitrary goals. Like, I want to be a seven figure business, right? Or, I want to take home $500,000 in take home pay this year, or I want to expand my business and open another location. All these things that if you don't sit with why you want those goals, those might be vanity goals that you're actually putting into place so that you can feel better about yourself. Meaning I shouldn't say feel better about yourself. That's not true. I take that back. You're putting those goals in place because you think that's what you're supposed to do. And you're low key out here trying to impress people who don't give a fuck about you.
Leslie [00:12:27]:
You're setting goals based off of what you think and what you've seen other people set goals, as opposed to sitting with goals that light your soul on fire. I call these desire let goals. And anytime you set goals, arbitrary goals. For arbitrary goals sake, there's a high propensity that you're not going to meet all those goals. And if you do meet all those goals, you'll still feel empty when you do it. Why? Because they weren't goals that lit you up in the first place. They weren't goals that were aligned with who you are and where you're going. So enter in my proprietary process of soulful planning.
Leslie [00:13:16]:
I encourage clients to get clear on what feeling they desire. So let's use the example of, you want to take home $500,000 and take home pay. What feeling is that bringing about for you? So if you just sat for a moment, close your eyes, and said, if I woke up on January 1, 2025, and I had made $500,000, taken home $500,000, how would I feel? For some of you, you might feel secure. For others of you, you might feel rooted, safe, abundant, spacious. But whatever the word is, that's actually what you're chasing. You're chasing more space. You're chasing more security. You're chasing more freedom.
Leslie [00:14:30]:
That's what you want to call into your life. So how about we start making decisions from the place of desire? So if one of my feelings, my desires, is to feel more spacious in 2024, now, when I start looking at business opportunities, where am I going to speak? What am I going to work on? What clients am I going to take on the coach? What other business might I get into this year? The litmus test is, does this make me feel more spacious? And here's the cheat code, y'all. Because the truth is, you won't meet all of your goals. You won't. Especially if you're super ambitious and set a ton of goals. You won't meet all your goals. But when you pursue feeling, those concrete goals don't seem to be as important. You'll be happy if you make $300,000, but you felt more spacious when you chase desired feelings.
Leslie [00:15:43]:
The actual, tangible goal doesn't matter as much because it's really about your emotional well being. How do you feel inside? And when you're showing up from desire, it makes the journey just as juicy as attaining the goal. So I want to close this episode out with reminding you that you don't have anything to prove to anyone but yourself. The only person whose mind you need to blow in 2024 is your own. Set goals that you actually love. Plan a life that speaks to your soul. And I can't wait, can't wait to hear how your 2024 goes. All right, my loves, until next time.
Leslie [00:16:46]:
If you heard the commercial break in the middle. If you're a studio owner, a movement studio owner, get your behind over to bit Lee, movementstudioowner. Because I'm going to do a separate close out with my predictions for 2024 for our industry. Specifically, in 2024, this podcast is going to stay general and talk about leadership and sales for the female entrepreneur. Anything that is specific to the movement industry is moving over to that private podcast. So if that's you and you want to be a part of that community, not a cult. Ah, it's free. Jump on over there and sign up and you can look forward to an episode in a couple of weeks.
Leslie [00:17:36]:
All right, my loves. Happy New Year. Merry Christmas. First of all, merry Christmas. Jesus is the reason for the season. And happy New Year. I'll see you next year. Bye.