113 How to Use Rest to Grow Your Business

This week on Live Life Unapologetically, we are taking on productivity and reminding you that the most powerful thing you can do for your business today isn’t another task. It’s letting yourself feel.

In a world that rewards hustle and punishes emotion, women business owners are told to “check feelings at the door.” But Shannon’s here to remind you that your feminine energy in business is not only valid—it’s essential for long-term success, alignment, and overflow.

✨ Inside this episode:

• Why your nervous system is the foundation of your power
  
  
• How repressed emotions sabotage manifestation and business growth
  
  
• The toxic programming that ties productivity to worth—and how to break it
  
  
• What to do when you feel stuck, uninspired, or disconnected
  
  
• A simple but powerful shift to move from frustration to flow
  
  
  

If you've been caught in the push-pull of "doing more" and still not getting the results you want, this is your permission slip to pause and feel your way forward.

Ready to embody your vision without burnout?
Grab the Manifest Momentum Ritual to move from obligation to overflow—without the hustle.

You don’t build an empire by doing more; you build it by becoming more yourself.

Chapters

• 0:42 Permission to Feel Your Feelings
• 2:12 Your Nervous System Is Your Power
• 4:53 Creating Space for Creativity
• 8:27 Building Business in Feminine Energy
• 13:12 The Manifest Momentum Practice
• 17:05 Embracing Softness in Business

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:21

Welcome back to the Live Life Unapologetically podcast. I'm your host, shannon Kaye, and today I'm giving you full permission to put down the planner, step away from the inbox and to actually feel your damn feelings. And why is that? Because the most productive thing you can do today might not have anything to do with a traditional to-do list. We've talked a lot about shifting out of hustle mode and building a business in flow. This week we're going to go even deeper, because if you want to build a business from alignment, you have to let yourself feel, and not just when it's convenient. So I want you to grab your favorite drink, cozy up and let's get into it. Because here's the thing Our entire society is obsessed with output.

Speaker 1: 1:04

You get praised when you're productive. You get rewarded when you're productive. You get rewarded when you're busy. You get promoted when you're overextended.

Speaker 1: 1:11

We've been conditioned to see feeling as a weakness, as unproductive, as something to shove down so we can get back to work. I remember when I first entered the workforce, they were always telling us to check our feelings at the door, like that was part of orientation. When you work here, we check our feelings at the door, like that was part of orientation. When you work here, we check our feelings at the door, our emotions at the door, your personal life, you check it at the door, and so that's a conditioning. It's a conditioning to say don't feel and just get back to work. If you're working 10 hours a day from a place of fear, disconnection or confusion, that energy ripples out and that's what you're building within. So we really need to think about how we have been conditioned because once again and we've talked about this our programming as a worker right, we've talked about the worker versus the visionary Well, as a worker, you're told to check those feelings, to just be busy, to just get to work, to disconnect, and that's a programming that sometimes we bring with us.

Speaker 1: 2:07

But if you took 10 minutes to drop into your desire to feel the expansion, to tap into the version of you who already has it, you ship the frequency of everything you create. That is the work, that is the strategy, that is manifestation. What if everything that you have been chasing through effort actually starts with embodiment? Y'all know me, I love to flip the script, I love to pull a whole turnaround and do things completely opposite. Because if we're going to be honest again how we've been doing things up to certain points in our lives really didn't pan out the way we thought anyway. So why not just do a complete 180 and try something new? Because this really may be new for some of us.

Speaker 1: 2:58

I know when I first started business, this was new to me. I thought I had to be productive and kind of like you know, a robot getting it done, and that served me not at all. I thought I had to be productive and kind of like you know, a robot getting it done, and that served me not at all. It was when I fell into feeling that I began to expand, because when you allow yourself to feel you're not wasting time, you're calibrating your system, you're regulating your nervous system, which is the foundation of your power. Let me say that again your nervous system is the foundation of your power. Let me say that again your nervous system is the foundation of your power.

Speaker 1: 3:31

If you're constantly in fight, flight, freeze or fawn mode, you're not building a business, you're surviving it. You can have the best strategy in the world, the most beautiful brand, the fanciest funnel, but if your nervous system is dysregulated, none of it lands. You talk yourself out of posting, you panic after launching. You'll second guess your prices, your voice, your worth, because a lot of that is freeze or flight right. When we're talking about this in business, a lot of times these examples are like flight or freeze. But there's a fight example too in business when you're dysregulated, where you're grinding, grinding, grinding and you're doing, doing, doing. It's not regulated but you're putting out in force, always hustling, getting into that.

Speaker 1: 4:19

Oh, to survive, I've got to constantly be out there and doing stuff, hustle mode, fighting for your business, but not in a way that pays off in the end, because even if you hustle and make money, you end up burnt out. At some point it breaks and we want to build a business that flows. I want that for you. I don't want you to be successful for six months and then break down because you're burnt out and all that progress you made is for not anyway, because you just can't anymore. You don't want to anymore, you just want to lay in bed because your body's like I need to recover, I'm tired. The thing is deep down. If your body does not feel safe being seen, if it doesn't feel safe receiving, if it doesn't feel safe resting, it will sabotage anything that would require expansion.

Speaker 1: 5:08

Feeling is the doorway to safety and when you start giving yourself permission to feel without needing to fix, you regulate, you build capacity, you create space. And speaking of creating space in a feeling of that is where creativity lives, not in spreadsheets, not in strategy docs, but in the silence that happens after the tears, after the exhale, after a laugh that comes from nowhere. I've had those experiences where I've been meditating and I just bust out laughing in joy, like a good joy, and that's where creativity lives in those moments. It's in the clarity that comes when you stop performing and you just allow, when you stop managing every emotion and you finally say this is what I feel, and that's okay, because feelings make you honest and honesty that's magnetic, it makes your content better, it makes your offers stronger, it makes your business more sustainable because it's built from truth and not performance. And let's not forget about guidance, because your intuition cannot speak louder than your fear if you never slow down to listen. It's not that fear is more powerful than your intuition, it's just that you haven't slowed down so your intuition can become the louder voice.

Speaker 1: 6:40

Feelings create the channel for your next level clarity. So many times people say I know I need clarity for manifestation. I know that is the first step. But how do I even get clarity? You listen to your feelings, you channel them. They help you find your clarity, they help you find the vision, they help you to pivot, they help with the product idea, the program that downloads in the middle of a walk or while journaling instead of the middle of grinding.

Speaker 1: 7:12

Have your best ideas really come to you when you're grinding out stuff? Have they when you're sitting there editing content or creating content? Is that when your best ideas come, or do they come in the quiet moments where you're not near your computer, you're not near your phone and you're like, oh my God, I need to write this down before I forget it, because they come in the midst of slowing down and feeling. If you want to build new systems of wealth and ease, you have to start building a system that allows you to feel, because the old systems that we have been programmed in when it comes to work and you've left the nine-to-five work right You've left being the worker bee and now you're the visionary of a business this programming of work was designed around productivity at the expense of humanity, and you're not building your business in that image anymore. Us women, we're building our businesses for humanity, to leave the world a better place than when we found it. To uplift our community, uplifting other women, helping others. We are not doing it at the expense of productivity.

Speaker 1: 8:22

Sometimes people ask me why does it seem like men are more successful in business, or why does it seem like it's easier for men in business? And there's a lot of reasons why that is. But I think one of the reasons is because we approach business like men instead of women. And I'm not going to debate on do men feel or women feel more or the other, but I know me as a woman and my feelings and I know how I've been told to disregard those, to be more masculine. But that time is done. We do build from feelings. We build our businesses so that if something happens in our lives, we don't have to check it in the door and still be a part of the cog, that we have a business that flows. So when things happen in life, we can stop and deal with those things. We don't have to compartmentalize that. We can be whole humans and you're a shining light building your business as a woman in feminine. That is showing you can do it in a way that does not exclude humanity, that you can be a whole human and be a successful business owner, that you can be a whole human and feel and do all the things and you don't constantly have to be on and hustling.

Speaker 1: 9:36

One of the things I did to get to this place, to be honest, is I shut out all of the voices of men when it came to running businesses and being successful in life. I quit reading books from men or following men on social media and I exclusively looked for women books, encouragement and accounts. And some of the women accounts mirrored the men's stuff because they were like. I learned this from insert man's name and I was like, okay, that's not for me, because I didn't want to do it that way anymore and I'm talking about very popular books and stuff that I have on my shelf that I don't read or implement. And that is when my business started to grow and my creativity started to come out and the true clarity of what I wanted happened and the overthinking stopped and the self-doubt stopped when I quit reading things like atomic habits and said you know what? No, that's not it for me. I want to tap into something different. That's just me. You can do what you like. You can listen to whoever you like. I'm not here to tell you who to listen to or not, but if you're here, if you're on this podcast, if you follow me, we do things different. What is that difference for you?

Speaker 1: 10:50

To where we get out of this idea that productivity must come at the expense of humanity, that we have to check it all at the door. We can't feel, and I'm sorry, but as women, we have been told our whole lives that women are too emotional to lead. Of course we can't have a woman president. She would be way too emotional to handle the hard stuff. And that also is programming. Whether you believe it or not, it's programming.

Speaker 1: 11:18

It's somewhere rooted in your subconscious and I think because that has definitely been a theme, especially with women running for office We've had two women who've run for president and we hear that. We hear it from people on the street with news people. You know I'd like to, but women are really emotional. We hear it from the opposition oh, women are so emotional that we internalize that, even though we get angry, probably. I know I do and I'm like what the hell? Women are too emotional. Men start wars for crying out loud, but women are too emotional. Okay, like logically, consciously, we think that's some bullshit.

Speaker 1: 12:01

But when you hear something over and over again, your subconscious latches on whether you believe it to be true or not, and I think a lot of women discount themselves or they feel doubt. Maybe you do, maybe your brain that little 5% that operates in consciousness is like women can lead and we can do it. But your subconscious has been hearing these type of messages, things like this and similar, about how men really should be leaders, not women, and that holds you back in some capacity from saying, oh, I don't know if my business can be that successful. Maybe if we just do it in a way that aligns with our feminine nature, all is well. That's what I've really learned. All is well when we do it in our feminine nature, because feeling safe really is the key to growth, and you feel safe when you're able to be authentic, when you're not having to be performative. You can't grow what you don't feel safe holding. That's why your nervous system has to be on board with your goals. Otherwise your body will keep you small, even when your strategy is trying to go big. Small even when your strategy is trying to go big. Safety is what lets you receive more. Safety is what lets you delegate without micromanaging. No-transcript Feeling is how you start to teach your body that it is safe to have what you want.

Speaker 1: 13:21

There are moments throughout the week because we build habits right. We build habits of productivity, we build habits of hustle. We build all these habits through our upbringing. They're just habits and habits can sneak back in right, and I had one of those moments recently where I was just like I got to get stuff done. I got to get stuff done, but I recognized it because awareness is key. So I recognized it. I recognized I was trying to force myself into action because if anybody knows me, they know I'm a very scheduled and routine person and I need my routine. My routine is important to me. But I realized that my schedule said I should be doing things and so.

Speaker 1: 14:00

So I started doing more for some reason and I just paused and I was like no, because I don't want to do it like this. I sat down, I breathed into my body. I was on the porch on a nice day, I just let the sun hit me. I have this beautiful big tree in my front yard. It's expansive. I love to look at it. It's like the most calming thing to me.

Speaker 1: 14:21

I was feeling frustrated, I was feeling impatient, but the desire for more ease was there. So I just went to that place that felt good to me and I just fell into it and 10 minutes later, clarity dropped because it wasn't forced and it was channeled and it started with feeling. It started with feeling the frustration and the impatience and then shifting into more ease. So here's what I want you to try today, so that we build with flow and not force. Just don't push yourself, don't force it, don't force it. Just pause and ask what am I feeling right now? What do I desire to feel? And then I want you to act from the second answer and not the first. What am I feeling right now? That was me. I was feeling impatient and frustrated. That was the now feeling. And what do I desire to feel? And I acted from the second. Ease and flow was how I wanted to feel.

Speaker 1: 15:28

This isn't a break from your business. This is your business, and I think that's where a lot of us get it confused. Oh, shannon, I can't take those kind of breaks from my business. This is not a break from your business. This is your business Because a regulated, safe and embodied you. That's the woman who builds empires, and if you want a daily practice to help you embody this, this is one that I use every single day. I've been using this practice for almost three years now To stay aligned, to stay grounded.

Speaker 1: 15:58

This keeps you really in your power, no matter what the calendar says, and it's called Manifest Momentum. It is a five-minute ritual that helps you to track your energy, your desires and your alignment, because momentum doesn't come from hustle. It comes from belief, from embodiment, from repeating what works and feeling what's working. You can grab it in the link on this podcast. I promise you it's not just a tracker. It is a whole new way to build your business.

Speaker 1: 16:29

Like, if I don't do anything else in my business in a day, I do that. If it is a day where I'm like I'm nothing, I trust the universe that my business is going to do what it needs to do without me interfering, but I do the ritual. That's it. I do it for all things. As we wrap up today, I really want you to understand that you don't need to be more worthy. You don't have to prove your value through exhaustion. You're allowed to build your business from a place of softness, of stillness, of feeling. So give yourself space today, feel everything and watch what flows through, when you stop trying to control the outcome. I'll chat with you next week.