Ep 2: Leading with Authenticity and Embracing Vulnerability in Business with Natasha Ritz

In this episode, Natasha Ritz and I delve deeply into redefining leadership in high-level business and scaling strategies. We explore the profound impact a clear vision can have on growth and discuss the importance of infusing our humanity into our business practices, highlighting why this integration is not only beneficial but necessary.

Imagine a world where expressing vulnerability is a leadership superpower. We delve into creating a team dynamic that thrives on psychological safety, where honesty prevails over ego.

This is an episode you won't want to miss!! Watch the full episode here

Thank you for being a part of The Konnection Hub Podcast. Please share your takeaways with us here on Instagram and rate on whatever platform you are listening on. I appreciate every one of you! 

Natasha Ritz is a self-proclaimed explorer of the internal world. Souling is the first book she’s written. It was born from personal experiences in conjunction with academic learnings from her Behaviour Sciences work. Natasha is a business leader, having led and run multiple business in the social enterprise space, helping founders and leaders to operationalise their vision. She brings unique storytelling and knowledge from varied experiences in her life to support the reader on their souling journey as they dive into their inner-most self.

Natasha has spent the last 14 years working in businesses who create positive impact on the world, whether that's in environmental impact or social justice. She has keynoted events globally and brings powerful communication and unique thinking to solve some of the world's most pressing issues.

Connect with Natasha:
https://souling.au
https://www.instagram.com/souling.au
https://www.tiktok.com/@souling.au
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6mwFt79TaQ

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hello everyone and welcome to the Connection Hub podcast. My name is Cassandra and I am your host. Today we have the beautiful Natasha joining us, all the way from Australia, and she is going to talk to us more about leadership and empowerment and growing your business, growing your team, growing your people, and how you can stay authentic in that process. Natasha is all about diving into her internal work. She has coined herself as the explorer of the inner world and she has her first book called Soling. That is all about that journey. She draws from her own life experiences and mixes her academic knowledge into that, and she is just such a wealth of knowledge. I'm so excited that she's here with us, so I'm gonna hand it over to her, because she can always introduce herself the best. Tell us more about you, what you're up to, how you've gotten to where you are.

Speaker 2: 0:56

Thanks so much, cassandra.

Speaker 2: 0:57

Yeah, so I guess you know I've been in business and in sort of the startup space and working with a lot of startup founders for the last 14 years or so and I've worked across lots of different sectors, from retail technology and, you know, anything in sort of the social enterprise space, so where founders have a really deep vision that has positive impact in the world, so some kind of environmental slant or some kind of social impact slant and that's been a really powerful journey for me and understanding the types of businesses that I think will have more positive impact on the world.

Speaker 2: 1:40

So focusing more on purpose and less on profit, but having the two things work together in a really powerful way. And in the end, you know, you do find that businesses that have a deeper purpose always do find the byproduct of profit anyway, but when they focus more on that important, impactful stuff in the world, that's when you get the real gold. And so, yeah, my experience has been really broad. I've built teams from you know working with one founder right up to you know quite big teams of you know 30 people or so, and then also worked in really large multinational businesses like Lush Cosmetics as well and built teams in that sort of brand and marketing kind of space as well. So, yeah, really broad, I suppose, kind of work over the years and, like you mentioned, I've just finished writing a book and it'll be out on March 26th, so that's really exciting part of the journey.

Speaker 1: 2:41

Yay, this is so exciting. Congratulations on all of your success and I just can't wait to dive into this conversation because I feel you have so much to share around. You know building a sustainable and an authentic brand, and I think a lot of us can sometimes get lost inside of, like you said, the profit piece, and it's we're surrounded by it, often right where the the conversation is around money rather than impact that you're making, and sometimes we can get lost inside of the numbers, and I think that it's important to bring ourselves back to that foundational piece of you know. Why am I starting this? What am I trying to grow? Where am I going with this? Who am I trying to help? And so I would love for you to chat a little bit more around you know, how do founders and leaders take action towards building their dream and not getting caught up in all of the kind of shiny object syndrome?

Speaker 2: 3:33

Yes, that's such a great way to frame that question and also really agree, you know, with what you said. We focus a lot of money and we also focus a lot on productivity, and those are two things that this kind of modern business world is somewhat built on. But I think the way that you know founders and leaders can stick to an authentic part of their vision and their growth of their business is to always go back to why they started this and always go back to. You know, simon Sinek is a great sort of leader who talks about the start, with why, and that's a really important piece of any kind of work you're doing, because in any business actually, you know, it's all been done before, like it's very rare that you have a business that's unique in every single way or a product that is unique in every single way, and so usually the difference is the person behind that brand or product that brings it to life in a in a new way, you know that finds a niche that's really powerful in a new way and can tell that story with a lot of passion and enthusiasm and sticks to that, and so I guess a way to stop what I call, you said, looking at it in shiny. You know shiny objects and stuff, but I called it squirreling. You know when you're like squirreling and lots of people do that and a lot of the different founders that I work with that's the word I'll use when I notice them actually doing that. And you know what we'll do. It's simple things like we'll put things on the wall that you know we can look back at. Big questions like how does this actually help someone? Or who am I serving? Or you know, just having your vision up on the wall, like what's the big picture here and whether that's. You know, ultimately we're here to help people reduce their climate impact, or we're here to help women become better leaders in the workplace, or you know, whatever it is, just having your vision clear and also making sure that it's really short and sharp.

Speaker 2: 5:47

I think a lot of founders get quite caught up in the complexity and wanting to share the complexity of their story. But you know, something I've learned from my dad actually, who's a really smart businessman is this principle of Occam's razor. So you know, the simpler the better. Keep it really simple. If you can't explain it to a 10 year old it's really not then you don't understand it and so we have to make sure that our vision is really clear and really simple. Don't use really big words, don't use crazy acronyms. People don't get it and people hate jargon. So staying authentic is really about what was your core vision? Why did you start? Who are you here to serve and how are you helping them?

Speaker 1: 6:30

Yes, this is so interesting and, like you shared, there's a lot of, there's a lot of information out there, there's a lot of directions you can go in and so, having something directly in front of you I have a sticky note attached to my second monitor here that's like literally focus. You know what I mean. This is the, this is the direction we're going in right now, and Having that there just constantly reminds me. When I have that squirrel moment, I'm like, oh, I want to create this new offer, I want to try this, or I want to do that. Like wait, how does this contribute to the bigger vision? And if it doesn't, that's okay, I'm gonna shelf it for now.

Speaker 1: 7:04

We never know, it could come back later on, but for right now, let's stay in our lane type thing, and I think that as creatives we can you know we get like that because that's part of our energy but being able to really Align with the direction you're going and take that action towards that is gonna get you a lot farther faster and, like you said, keeping it simple, it doesn't have to be complicated.

Speaker 1: 7:28

A lot of clients come to me and say, okay, I need a marketing strategy or I need a business strategy and I'm like great, let's, let's do this. And you know, when I present it to them, they're like oh, like, why is it so simple? Because that's really what business is. It doesn't have to be this complex process that's 50 pages long and now you've got to do all these things. It's. It's very simple in the way that we can get to our end goal, and I think we over complicate it because we feel we have to or because that's what we've been told, or we kind of get in Our own head around what it should or shouldn't be, and so that's such a good point is like, hey, keep it simple. It's okay to just have a little sticky note that reminds you every day of the direction you're going in.

Speaker 2: 8:09

Totally, totally, and I think you know it's like you said. Even you know, if you're talking about marketing, right, there are so many avenues for people to go down. Like you know, there's so many channels and we're taught so many things. There's so many different. You know mediums that you can put your content into and and Actually, probably, like you said, focusing down and honing in on One thing might be better. You know, like focusing on one channel, picking one channel, creating content for that one channel, might be a better Solution for some people than others. And so, yeah, finding that, that, just that one thing, and focusing on that thing is often a way better path to, you know, positive results, like.

Speaker 2: 8:59

There's this other cool concept that I love in business that actually can be used in any anywhere in life, but it's by this amazing Podcaster. Her name's Cara Lowenthal. She's got a podcast called unfuck your brain. It's very good, and she basically talks about this idea of massive action where if you do something small Every day, it has massive impact. So even if you spend Five minutes a day on that thing that you weren't previously going to do, or you know, and it could be anything, it could be even be exercise in life If you just do five minutes of that thing. That five minutes every single day for a year adds up to a lot over time. So this concept of massive action, just small things over a long period of time can really help.

Speaker 1: 9:47

That's huge. And I like that because it breaks it down Simply for people, right? Because when you think about, okay, I have to lose 30 pounds, or I want to gain 500 followers, or I want to make it to a hundred K year or a million dollar year, that's a big leap Oftentimes from where you're sitting and so it feels so impossible because it feels so distant from where you're currently at. And so, like you said, break it down. What does that actually mean every day, right? And then how can you implement that? Like when you say, okay, I want to make a hundred K a year, that's eight thousand eight hundred eighty eight dollars a month.

Speaker 1: 10:24

Okay, so what is that daily? And then break it down and see where you can implement those things every day or every week, so that as you take that action, it Grows over time and, like you said, look at the result that you can gain from just doing something very simply every day over the course of the Longer period. So I love that. Super tangible, yeah, absolutely Amazing. So now, when we talk about business ownership, when we talk about these pieces, there's obviously challenges that arise in all of this, whether it's in ourselves, around people pleasing imposter syndrome, those pieces, or the bigger collective around, what other people think of us and all of these things. And keeping up with the Joneses and trying to impress people how do you, or how do you think people should, or tips and tricks on leading ourselves through these challenges.

Speaker 2: 11:14

Yeah, such great questions, you know. I think in the end of the day, it's actually sort of the same kind of question is is why are you doing this, you know, and why is it important to you and what impact do you want to have in the world? And Understanding yourself and and learning things about yourself and having a level of self-awareness about you know, am I, you know, we all, I guess, as humans, we have the same needs we want to be seen, we want to be heard, we want to be understood. And when we know that we have these needs and we can unpack who we are and why we do things and why we behave in certain ways, then we can have an understanding of, okay, I'm having an emotion or I'm, I'm feeling this particular way about this thing. Why am I feeling that way? Or what am I making that mean about me? And when you can start to ask those kinds of questions like what am I making that mean about me? And even just journaling, writing it down Okay, I made it mean that I wasn't good enough or I'm not enough, and that's a common kind of phrase that we often hear people say, like am I good enough for this? And Of course you are, but only you can believe that you have the enoughness inside yourself In order to go ahead and do the thing.

Speaker 2: 12:35

And I think you know, as women, we talk a lot about imposter syndrome and and I think it's the society that we live in, right, you know, we're the media that we consume and and all of the different things that we grapple with as women in terms of the balance of family life and work life, and so you do often think you know, am I, am I good enough at this? Or you know, am I this? There's got to be better people out there. Or you know, as women as well, even if you're applying for a job like there's some stats that says that a woman will apply for a job If she's 90 percent sure that she could do the work. A man will apply if he's 25 percent sure. You know it's just the differences in in how we go for it anyway. So it's like you know you feel the fear, but you just do it anyway, because what's the worst thing that could happen?

Speaker 2: 13:29

You get rejected like okay, well, that's just a human experience and I think as well I talk about this in my book a lot is that. You know we, we frame a whole bunch of human emotions is negative, right, but they're not actually negative, they're just an emotion. So things like rejection, humiliation, shame, guilt these are all part of the rainbow of human emotion. And so when you can understand that you're going to have those experiences and, rather than trying to avoid them or block them, you just allow them, and one rejection is just one more Person, that's, you know, a tick on your way to acceptance in something Right.

Speaker 2: 14:12

So even when you're you know a good example in a business context might be when you're looking to raise capital. Right, so you're a startup, you have a great product, you've maybe put a minimum viable product out into market and You've tested it and the users have said this is great, and you're going out to venture capitalists or angels or whatever to put money in, you are likely to get a 100 nose before you get yeses. So you've got to get real comfortable with the feeling of rejection. And it's the same for applying for jobs. You know it's a really tough market out there right now and you have got to be prepared to have a hundred nose before you get a yes. And just get used to that feeling and embrace that it's just a human experience and it's not necessarily Negative. It's just part of our plethora of beautiful emotions that we get to explore as a human.

Speaker 1: 15:07

Yes, oh, there's so many thoughts I had as you were talking. So, with this rejection piece, there's actually and I'm not 100% sure on what the website or the app is called, but it was around this rejection. It was like the rejection project, and what it does is it prompts you every day with different things that you have to do in order to get comfortable with rejection. And so you go to the corner store and you ask somebody to borrow $20, and they're going to say yes or no, and then you win or you lose, but you get comfortable with rejection, right. You go to a coffee shop and you ask if you can sit with somebody, and it progressively gets more and you use word ballsy it progressively gets more ballsy as you go along through this process, and what it's teaching you to do is exactly what you said is that there's going to be many people that say no to you in life, and that's okay. Here's what's coming up for you. Here's how you can deal with it, and the rejection sometimes can fuel you into a different direction, right, and so often people will say rejection is just redirection, and so that's something to consider too. You know, if you're getting rejection rejection after rejection okay, maybe let's look at it, let's take a look at the proposal, let's take a look at the offer, let's take a look at who you're talking to and maybe there's something we need to tweak in that. Maybe it's the marketing, maybe there's lots of different elements to this, and so rejection is a really big part of business ownership and leadership in general, and you know, human-ness in general, and so I think that getting comfortable with rejection and being able to have those conversations and just be brave around stuff like that can be difficult, but it's so important as you grow as a person and as a business owner and as a leader, and so that was a fun one that we had. I think it actually might be called dare you or dare me or something like that. That might be what it is, and it's literally just these dares Go ask somebody this, go do that, go try this. It's pretty fun when you do it.

Speaker 1: 17:02

And then the second part is that is, I have a friend, andrea Johnson, and she talks a lot about feeling the emotion. A lot of us hide it, right. If we get embarrassed, we're like, oh, just sweep it under the rug. Or if we're sad, we're like, don't worry, I'm fine, everything will be fine. She's like no, no, sit in that, just feel it, stop for a second, instead of trying to hide it or brush it away. Or you know, if you dropped a cup in a grocery or if you dropped a cup at a restaurant, you feel a little embarrassed, like, just feel it for a second, rather than running around and panicking and fixing it all. So it's a really interesting topic around.

Speaker 1: 17:38

You know, looking at where do we block our feelings and where do we block our human emotion, simply because we just don't want to feel it, don't want to face it. Have been used to doing that for many, many years, and now it comes out in all the things we do as adults, as owners, as leaders and all these things. And so, slow down, it's okay to feel emotion. It's okay, in that moment, to feel embarrassed or to feel hurt or to feel rejected. What is that going to build for you in the long term? Where is that? Where is that feeling coming from Right? That might be coming from something in your past.

Speaker 1: 18:12

It might be simply just an emotion that's happening right now, and so I challenge our listeners to think about these pieces instead of. You know, I'm just going to push it under the rug, or I'm not even going to try. Feel it. What's the worst thing that can happen? What direction are we going to go in? How can we take this rejection and redirect? How can we try again? And that was something my dad taught me as a kid. You know, when you get down or when you fall down, you get back up and you try again and you just keep doing that right. And so I think it's an important lesson to learn as business owners that there's always going to be challenges out there. I hope that there's always challenges out there. That's what makes us better at what we do.

Speaker 2: 18:52

Yes, absolutely, and I think you know on the emotional side of this is I think the best leaders are emotional people and they have access and awareness of their array of emotions and they understand that it's okay for them to feel like. Some of the best leaders I've ever worked with and for are people who cry like often, you know, and that's because they're human. Like it's not. You shouldn't have to be stoic and you know, with hold, all this stuff Like to me, it's just not authentic. It's not the truth of who we are.

Speaker 2: 19:31

The truth is that we are highly emotional beings and the reason I think as well that rejection is so particularly hard for people is because what happens physiologically is that in the back of our brains the amygdala fires and that is firing cortisol and adrenaline, and when that happens, the body goes into fight, flight, fawn or freeze, and so you know then we're stuck or whatever you know as our response. And so people often think well, the body thinks I'm dying, but you know, the truth is you're not dying. Your brain just is telling you that or releasing hormones that suggests that you might be, but you're not. And so, if you can have an awareness of, ok, this is what's going on. These are the hormones that are being released in my body. This is physiologically what's happening. Oh, it's because I'm human. Oh, it's because I'm feeling rejection. What am I making that mean about me? How do I then redirect that? And also allowing myself the space and time for that feeling, like you said?

Speaker 1: 20:36

Yes, that's so, so good. There's, like you said, there's a physiological aspect to this right, and that's where that, that's where that psychology background comes in. For me is like there's always the behind the scenes that your body is going through. Yes, you're feeling it in your heart and you're feeling it in your emotions, but like there's actual things that are changing inside of your body, and so just being aware of that is a super important piece as well, to know that like, hey, this is a human experience, this is going to happen, and that's OK. Exactly, I love it. So you talked a little bit about authenticity and I would love to kind of dive into that more. As you grow your business, as you grow your team, as you grow as a leader, as you develop different avenues of income or just different things that you're doing, how do you stay authentic in your business, in your branding, in your marketing? How do you, or what are your tips around staying authentic to who you are?

Speaker 2: 21:30

Yeah. So I think a great place to start is probably with the leader, the person themselves, and sometimes what I've noticed or experienced is, over time, you know, if you find you're gaining a lot of success, ego can start to really come into the mix, and so sometimes what you need is to surround yourself with people. So, when you are hiring, you know, finding people that are smarter than you, finding people who can speak to you in a way that digs right into the heart of your ego and cuts through the crap and basically says to you look, your behaviour was XYZ, or you know, this was really inappropriate, or this. I would prefer you to do this or this way. And so having really smart people around you, who can call you out or who you know you don't want to be surrounded by, yes, people. That's always going to be a major problem, because if everyone around you is just nodding their heads and yes, yes, yes, or in fear or whatever, then you're not creating psychological safety, you're not creating spaces for people to be their most creative selves, and so it's really important that, as you're building teams, that you one find people smarter than you two, find people who are not afraid to speak the truth to you, even about you, even if it's really difficult, people who are really emotionally intelligent and look, these people can be really hard to find right. So it's making sure that as you do grow and as you're starting to interview, you are looking to hire through really specific processes, asking really specific questions, listening for really clear, specific answers as well from people, and not just what they say but how they say it, how they frame their sentences, and also not the same sort of me too answers to things. And you know that they've done the research on your business, that they care as much as you care, and I think as well as sort of like keeping to the authenticity as you grow and as you scale. So let's say, for example, you know you get a couple million dollars in funding and so the trajectory of your growth goes from quite slow and sustainable to quite big and fast right, and so what happens then?

Speaker 2: 23:52

You can get really caught up in the day to day. You can get really caught up in, you know, the productivity of it all, the making money, the making sure that we're going to give back to the VCs and all these things, and so when you're in that hamster wheel, it's really important to schedule time every single day for at least 20 minutes to step out, take a breath and think okay, what is it that I, what are the needs and what is really all the frills around it? You know, and then, cutting through all the 35 tasks, you think you had to three key tasks, because we can't. You know this. This whole thing of being able to multitask is actually not true. Like no human can actually multitask, the brain can only focus on one thing at a time, one conversation, one focus point, and so if you know that, then you can choose which focus points to put your energy into and and really stick to that. And I think you know. So that's sort of like part of the productivity and how you might work piece, and you've got to come up with really good structures and processes and frameworks and operational systems to help you do that as you scale your business, and you've got to have the right people in place to help you do that.

Speaker 2: 25:18

But ultimately, at the end of the day, it's for that founder and that leader to step out and constantly be asking Am I still serving the people that I set out to serve? Am I still serving my vision? What am I doing? That's not serving my vision. You know, right back to what we were saying in the beginning.

Speaker 2: 25:37

It's really, it's so important that people have time to do that, otherwise you do just get lost in the hamster wheel and it just feels like a grind, and sometimes it can be and that's okay. But it's really about, you know, taking space and coming together as a team and having quarterly meetings and connecting with each other. And the most important thing you can ever do, I think, as a leader and as you're building teams, is spend time with people. There is never a task that is more important than a person. If a person in your team comes to you and needs to talk to you, you drop everything to talk to that person Literally everything, because the human in front of you is the most important thing, not the task.

Speaker 2: 26:18

It's such a lie that I've got to get this done or you know whatever, even if you've just got five minutes before a meeting, you can say to that person look, I've got five minutes and just about to go into a meeting. I really want to speak to you. Let's start the conversation now and we can finish it later. Let's book some time together, because that person. Their engagement, their connection, their ability to feel heard and to feel seen and to feel important is literally in your hands as the leader, and so it's your responsibility to make sure that you do serve that person and also to understand, as a leader, that you are not at the top of the food chain, you're at the bottom, you're serving everybody else. Right, it's flipped upside down triangle. You are there to serve your people and your customers, and your engaged people are going to serve your engaged customers. So it's really you're in service if you're the leader.

Speaker 1: 27:12

Wow, just wow. I think that is such an important message around leadership and being, because, as we grow and as we develop our business, there's points where you need to hire other people, right, like you said, the to-do list is insane. You feel like you don't have any time. It's like there are people that can come into your world that are really good at that task or that are really good at that part of the business. Allow them to be in their zone of genius and then take your time to, like you said, think about what is actually priority each day and over the long term, because we can all get caught in the 800 million things we all have to do and what is actually going to move the needle forward, what is going to connect you to your audience, what is going to grow the business each and every day, and what tasks can really and truly be put off to the side or handed to somebody who can do that?

Speaker 1: 28:08

Or, you know, was that really going to move our business forward? Or was it a squirrel moment that I had Right, and so that's a really beautiful like. I don't even want to comment on it anymore, because that was a really beautiful way of showing how leaders need to show up for themselves and for their business and, like you said, it's upside down they're serving everybody above them and so I love that. I have a question around empowered teams. So, as we're building our business, as we're building teams, what do you feel is a really important part for the team members to bring to the table and also the leader to bring to the table, to ensure that everyone feels really good and feels empowered and excited to be there?

Speaker 2: 28:52

Yeah, I think you know people need to feel like they can be themselves at work, right, so the leader a fish rots from the head essentially. So the leader needs to ensure that they are managing their own behavior and how they communicate and creating a safe space and a really open and accessible space. If you're a really accessible leader and you're open and kind and you manage, you know, with empathy, and you don't go into management with like a micromanaging thing, you're hiring people because you trust them to do the thing that you hired them to do. So trust them and let go. Because one of the biggest things I always see is leaders trying to like hold on and keep control and it's not perfect and there was a spelling error and oh my god and losing their minds, but it doesn't matter. In the end of the day it actually doesn't matter. Like. These things can all be fixed and they can be changed and oftentimes deleted and started again or whatever it is right. So everything can be fixed and it's your job to hire the smartest people that you can find, who you can then trust to go and do that thing, and then trust them and let go and let them do their thing, let them make their magic and let them all make magic together. Right? Because if you've got a team of like five people or ten people or whatever, you need to model for them what trust and letting go looks like, what having creative space looks like, what it means to not just be producing, producing, producing, but rather like having space and time to think and to create something that's meaningful and powerful and connecting to the customers and, you know, that's authentic to the brand and the business, rather than, like you know, we need to deliver XYZ things by XYZ time, because blah, blah, blah and they're all self-imposed things that actually are not that meaningful. But if you give someone just a little bit of time, what they can come up with is so much more powerful and creative.

Speaker 2: 31:01

So I think you know, when you give people space, when you give people trust, when you are approachable, when you have empathy, when you use your own emotions, you have emotional intelligence and you have self-awareness, these are all really good layers to create psychological safety in a team. Because if you don't have psychological safety, or you run your team on fear, or you run your team using shame or guilt or whatever, or you're not direct with your feedback, it's a right to have feedback, it's a right to have conflict and challenges, but if you don't say, hey, I didn't like it when that happened, I'd really prefer this. Or hey, I can see that a mistake was made here, what could we do differently next time? And coaching your team to get the answers for themselves or they already know when they've made a mistake anyway. They're smart people usually. I think the most important thing we can do to create safe teams is to be safe ourselves.

Speaker 2: 31:58

So be understanding of who we are understanding. If you're allowed to have an emotion, like if you feel angry or something really big, like a big mistake has happened, that's okay. But you can't scream and shout. You have to say, hey, I'm feeling frustrated, I'm feeling angry in a tone that I'm speaking in now, not in a raised aggressive tone and say you know like it makes me feel frustrated. This is the second time I've seen this mistake. Why is this happening? Whatever, it's just about a communication. These are humans on the other side. We're all equal.

Speaker 2: 32:32

Just because you're in leadership doesn't mean that you're above right. That's what we're talking about before You're actually serving that person. So if you think you're serving that person, how then would you speak to them if they are your customer actually, and the exchange is very much. It's not a monetary exchange, it's a value exchange. They're coming to you to provide a service and you're serving them in order to give them the tools to provide that service. That's the role. So yeah, a little bit of a waffle, but essentially that creating of psychological safety is one of the most important things and it really comes down to the leader being safe within themselves.

Speaker 1: 33:12

Yes, yes, this is so good. And you know you had mentioned trust, and that's one thing that I really try to build with my clients very early on, and for that because I want them to be able to release right, release the control, release the things that they don't want to do. And so when I come in, I'm like, hey, let me handle all these things for you. And they're like, absolutely. But then there's this, like you know, because they're not sure yet, they're not ready, they and so we work on this trust relationship, we work on this friendship piece. Like I want my clients to be able to come to me and say, hey, you know what this was like. You said this was X, y and Z. I was expecting it to be more like this. Great, no problem, I know that now let's move forward and do that. And so when we build that trust, when we build that connection with our clients, with our team, with our customers, then you're able to really grow the business in a way that feels good for everybody involved, rather than, yes, it feels good for you, but everyone else is floundering underneath you. It's like, no, we're all in the same room, we're all at the same table, we're all eating the same meal. Let's work together to achieve this next level inside of the business as a team. And so I think that's really important.

Speaker 1: 34:27

And to get curious, you know, if something has gone wrong, it's okay to ask questions, it's okay to see where there was the mistake or where things got, you know, missed or messed up, and not out of a micro management mindset, but rather out of a let's fix this problem mindset right, a problem solving space where, okay, this, we've noticed this email has gone out a couple of times at the wrong time. What's going on here? Oh, the time zone was messed up, let's change it. No big deal, let's move forward.

Speaker 1: 34:57

But when you don't ask the questions, when you don't communicate, when you don't get curious, you're left with this like anger feeling, resentment feeling towards your teammate, who is a human, who is allowed to make mistakes, mess things up, but also there's no solution to those problems and so they continue to keep happening. And that's where these pieces build. And so I love how you shared, you know, being safe inside yourself, that psychological safety, building those pieces, building that trust, asking the questions, communicating with your people that is really what's going to move the needle forward more effectively than kind of just bottling it all up and hoping it gets better.

Speaker 2: 35:35

Yeah, for sure, and I think as well. You know, like if you can trust someone and then let go, they're not going to do the thing the way you would do the thing. So it's trusting that the way that they approach that thing is going to be okay and it's going to work, even if it's not the way you would do it, and I think as well. So whenever I'm sort of working with a founder who might be a really controlling person like, who's really holding on tight and clutching at all the strings and not wanting to let go, it's really important to kind of focus on okay, well, what is the worst thing that could possibly happen if you did let go, you know, and okay, so we go through the list. Well, the thing won't get done or it won't be good enough to go out to market or on phones just by Google is like Hello, I've arrived.

Speaker 2: 36:32

That's funny, yeah, and you know, just asking the questions and digging into the catastrophe a little bit in the person's mind, so it's like it's the worst thing that can happen. Okay, so the thing won't get done on time, or it won't be good enough to go out to market, or there'll be errors, or you know won't be how I've done it, or whatever, and then we can go through. Okay, well, is that really that bad? Like you know it's, it's not really so. If there's mistakes, okay, cool, well, let's get a proofer in place to look at that, or we can find solutions to all the fear that you're having. But your fear is the biggest problem here, not the person's ability to execute.

Speaker 1: 37:11

Yes, such a good reminder. And just having people in the right spots, right. I've had clients come to me and say, okay, I need a virtual assistant. I'm like, great, what's going on, what's coming up for you? And they're like, okay, well, I need x, y and z, and my last virtual assistant didn't work. And I'm like, well, you actually don't need a virtual assistant, you need a strategist first. Then the virtual assistant can execute on the strategy.

Speaker 1: 37:34

And so, like you said, when you have people, if there are things that are, you know, getting messed up or there are things that are getting missed or there's something missing in the system or the flow, there's someone missing in that process too, right. And so, okay, how can we fill in the gaps? Hey, you're, you know, overloaded. You have too much on your plate, no problem, let's split the roll up.

Speaker 1: 37:56

How do you see this looking like inside of the business? What would you like to offload to somebody else so that you can stay in your zone and we can get somebody to help you with x, y and z? And then, all of a sudden, like you said, the mistakes start to diminish and the and the process starts to become easier and the emotions relax a little more and there's not this tension behind things, because you've actually allowed people to step into their zone and what they're really good at and then hired accordingly To what is needed rather than what you feel might be best. And so with that client I was like, actually you need a strategist first and then a VA. And they were like okay, and so they hired me as a strategist. And they were like, let's figure it out. And so we're building the strategy now for everybody else to execute on.

Speaker 2: 38:42

Love it yes. There is always a person, often missing in that wheel. It's so right.

Speaker 1: 38:51

Beautiful. Ah, it was such a good conversation. I have a few fast-action questions, if you're open for it. Yes, okay, so what is your favorite podcast or book?

Speaker 2: 39:03

Book would be Atlas of the Heart by Brunet Brown.

Speaker 1: 39:10

Good choice. That's such a good book. I'm such a good author.

Speaker 2: 39:14

Yes, Um she's awesome.

Speaker 1: 39:17

Yes, what is your comfort food?

Speaker 2: 39:20

chocolate.

Speaker 1: 39:25

Snaps right there. And then, lastly, are you a travel bug or a homebody?

Speaker 2: 39:32

travel bug.

Speaker 1: 39:34

Yes, what's your favorite place that you've been to?

Speaker 2: 39:37

India amazing, beautiful.

Speaker 1: 39:42

Oh, thank you so much, natasha, for this beautiful conversation. I appreciate it. Lots of insight for our audience. You guys will have to give her a follow. Tell us more about what you're up to, how people can work with you, how they can find you, and obviously I'll drop all the links inside of the show notes as well.

Speaker 2: 39:59

Awesome. Thank you so much. That was such a great chat. So you can find me or follow me at soullingau on any channel. So it's S-O-U-L-I-N-G dot a you so Instagram, tiktok, and then on LinkedIn. If you want to connect as well, it's just Natasha Ritz and you'll find me there. And then yet my website is also soullingau, so easy to find.

Speaker 1: 40:23

Perfect. All the same, I love it. I'll have that all linked for you guys in the bottom. Thank you so much again for showing up and we will connect further. Thanks, cassandra.