Episode #010 — Replenish and Rise: Chelsea Abril’s Entrepreneurial Evolution

Melanie Branch: Hello and welcome to another episode of trailblazers rising strategies for scaling beyond limits today I'm very excited to have my guest Chelsea of replenish and rise on and before we even get to talk and I want everybody to know that I have fangirled over this human being on the tick tock and the Instagram.

For as long as I can remember because I don't understand how time works so Chelsea I want to thank you so much for being here and we will just dive right into some fun questions amazing

Chelsea Abril: also the fangirling mutual just to That's the scene mutual fan girling obsessed with you

Melanie Branch: oh thank you.

It's just the pink hair that's what everybody I'm a visual stim it's the perfect

Chelsea Abril: way it's colored hair yes the colored hair connection

Melanie Branch: we love our vivids all right so we're going to dive right in because of course we speak to Neuro Spicy Entrepreneurs we speak to the unconventional here and we speak to the insanely motivated and driven.

So we'll dive right in and I will ask you what I ask everyone can you spill the beans on your journey to becoming an entrepreneur oh my God what kicked it off for you what made you go all right I got to do this

Chelsea Abril: so I have been an entrepreneur like since I can remember I had I think two two and a half normal jobs.

My first normal job was at the Hostess I have a great Hostess voice I was also a terrible terrible barista for about three months I have never been worse at something than being a barista low point great learning opportunity but in high school like I picked up a camera the back back story is that I have an older sibling and I am obsessed with them.

Classic like little duckling little sibling they loved photos they loved cameras and I was like oh my god me too! And so that was my very first foray into taking photos I think I first job I got paid like 20 for gas money and I was like Oh my God this is gonna like be gas for the whole month and that was back in 2004 7 or something.

And then it just kind of continued I went to community college and I was like I didn't know what I wanted to do and then I realized that I was kind of doing it already oh wait I could just be a photographer I could just This is a thing that people do and then that just kind of kept going so it wasn't I didn't have the idea like this is something I wanted to always grow up and be.

It was something that I feel this devalues my lifelong you know passion of being a photographer a little bit but it was never something I dreamed of being it was absolutely like a an outlet for me and kind of like a therapy before I started charging for it and so I went from charging you know 25 an hour to 50 an hour to now 000 an hour.

And I've been doing wedding photography for the last 10 ish years it's not a little bit more really full time like the last 10 years and then in the last three and a half I started my coaching practice my coaching company and I love it that was born of being really really really burnt out with photography.

The other neuro spices might vibe with the burnout scenario I'd been doing it for so long and to be clear I still love it I my photography business is still open but I had gotten to a point where I was making great money like I made my first 200 This should feel good right I don't feel good.

Like I'm just tired my relationships were all crumbling like I had lost weight but like not in a great way and then I was just flip flopping back and forth and then I gained 20 pounds and I was like I am deeply unstable ungrounded like it's just looks nice on the outside like it's just cool that I did this but there's nothing else that feels very cool about where I'm at right now.

So I wasn't really feeling inspired anymore and that was right before the pandemic so I had just spoken on a stage right before the pandemic and weeks later I went to Bora Bora there was like crown achievement time in my life that I was like made my 200 000 we went on a trip to Bora Bora like I started my coaching and I like sold out my first eight spots and all in Bora Bora.

And it was like this is amazing and none of it felt good I was just like panicking and then the immediately COVID hit it was the very first time that I actually had to sit still which this was way before I even had any inkling that I might have you know ADHD or any sort of neurodivergence and the being forced to sit still for the very first time in my life the beginning of COVID was atrocious.

It was really rough however I will say on the other side especially going through it as an entrepreneur as a wife as a friend as someone who likes myself now the opportunity to have to sit down and look at all those things I'm like okay what do I actually want to be doing in my entrepreneurial journey

is this the and with photography like that just shut down so I was like okay well I'd like to do this but what do I do now how do we move from this how do I manage all of this stress how do I manage my relationships the driver for entrepreneurship for me was always just kind of safety and stability.

I hold

Melanie Branch: on everybody hold on let me hold my microphone close for this part because I want everybody to hear this part okay so when it comes and I work with a lot of different ranging people in in different businesses right I don't really care what your business is you just gotta be neuro spicy and driven to work with me.

And when I when people say well but it's not but my job I can't get rid of my my mug we call it a muggle job at the neuro spicy academy I can't get rid of a muggle job because you know it's stable and here's the thing you could work anywhere for any length of time and somebody could just come in and say you messed up your fire.

Bye that's enough we're closing the company I worked in restaurants for a very long time and I closed down the hops on Fowler Avenue in Tampa Florida in 2005 I don't know ah something like that time isn't real and you know it was a Sunday and I made my best money I had ever made on that Sunday and I always worked at Dublin's and they made the best money I'd ever made.

And the owners and the the corporate people walked in at 9 p m and said help us take everything off the walls we're not opening tomorrow and so for you to say to everyone that entrepreneurship was your guarantee is what I want everybody to listen to and write down right now I don't care where you are listening to this.

Write it down because it's so true it is so true so then how would you say going from photography to coaching that's got to put you through a little bit of a ringer a little bit of a absolutely well upside down time so did you start coaching because of cOVID and it shutting everything down

Chelsea Abril: no I felt kind of grateful that I hadn't because it felt like everybody did which that doesn't matter.

And that was my own judgment on it at that time I started in like that December I had been in photography for so many years I was part of like a business group and there was a lot of people like I was getting asked questions so I started my coaching business not as a coaching business it was just mentorship.

So I was offering photography mentorships because that made sense because obviously I knew what I was doing I had built a business enough and I built it a little bit differently which makes so much more sense now that knowing who I am now I've got some spicy in there I didn't build it in the traditional traditional ways.

So that felt like I had an edge on being able to mentor that way I mentored for about like three or four months and then COVID hit and then a couple of my clients stayed on a couple of them came off and we were all just you know surviving but it shifted pretty quickly like I just got more and more burnt out with coaching or with photography over the course of the pandemic just because it was so deeply stressful like my stress my client's stress like it was just awful.

Everyone who survived it I was like in the wedding photographer specifically wedding worlds everybody gets a gold star everybody roses roses amazing so I got more and more burnt out and then I realized like I don't really want to just be in this industry and I also know that what I'm doing like I don't want to teach people how to start a photography business.

I have no interest in like the practical tech here's what here's how you start a blog or like here's the web I'm like I had no interest I was like gouge my eyes out no so if I knew like as a master of my own reality if I'm going to choose what I want I want it to be something that actually feels good for me like on a deeper level not just as a convenient addition.

So I shifted into mindset coaching I had hired a couple of coaches on my own which is where I kind of got the idea I was like Oh I don't really want to learn about sales or marketing I'd hired someone for that and I was like this isn't what I want and I hired my first transformational coach and I was like Oh my God this is the thing.

I had buffed therapy like my entire life I was like you know growing up in the 90s therapy is for broken people and sad things huh and so getting into coaching with her I was like Oh this is kind of like therapy but in a good way and it reached me from a business lens through so I could I could take things from that business perspective and then choose to like gently assimilate them in my personal life.

And then we realized obviously that they're not separate so over that course I ended up doing an apprenticeship and a ton of different training so I'm a certified practitioner of hypnotherapy a certified NLP practitioner certified online business coach I did all those things I did a 14 month apprenticeship with her.

And I was like I absolutely know that I want to be doing this transformational mindset coaching so mindset it's always you know I feel like you absolutely do transformational work

Melanie Branch: with people I'm a business mindset coach that focuses on not just mindset but also you know Oh you froze and through the lens of neurodivergence because we've spent the majority of our life.

Having to change everything that we're taught into a way that we can actually use and is actionable so I really just call myself the you know neuro spicy business mindset coach cause that's the only people I work with I won't work I won't work with the normies ever again

Chelsea Abril: I love that because I had the I thought that I was I was convinced.

I was convinced that I was a normie my entire life and so I never had the experience of having to try and fit things I was the opposite I spent my whole life just cramming myself like this is how it should work this is how everyone else is doing it and I just had no idea like I the only ADHD person I'd met was like my best friend's brother and it they were like a super religious family and so they're like it's awful like it's the worst thing ever.

So like no I am I am just fine I'm perfect look at me fitting in so I never had the experience of having to realize that I thought differently just I just thought that was I never realized that people thought differently either or that that wasn't hard for other people or things like that so I love that perspective.

Like you have shaped things for you and I have had the unfortunate shaping myself for my world around me without even realizing so now like and then in COVID so that was the shift switching into coaching realizing that there was so much more that I wanted to do that was the first time I had heard of like multi passionate.

I cannot say enough good things about TikTok but hearing about multi passionate and hearing about nerd divergence classic case of the late identifying ADHD bisexual multi passionate person I'm like Oh hi where's the support group for these people

Melanie Branch: yeah you know the good news is even if you are late diagnosed right.

Or even if you have known things about yourself for your entire life it doesn't always you don't always understand it and process it and like I knew since I was 15 years old that I was bisexual and because I was a 19 and we were hyper sexualized in the nineties you know luckily these kids nowadays are just worried about pronouns and how you want to be spoken to.

And in the nineties we were expected to know what DSLs were I knew what those were at a very young age because I have a big mouth but like I knew I was bisexual I fought for my ADHD diagnosis when I was 23 or 24 years old because my kids were very little my husband's in the Navy he was gone all the time and it it just wasn't working.

Everything I was doing wasn't working and so I did my research because I'm neuro spicy and all I do is research and I went into the doctor's office and I was like this is I know this is what it is and they don't like it when you do that because then you're undermining them and how can you possibly know

and I'm like how are you going to find the information are you going to Google it so how's there any why is it any different when I Google something than when you do it like anyway so I knew all these things for a very young age but you know they didn't necessarily resonate in a way that like impacted my life.

You know I was still living that life of this is how you behave this is what you are supposed to do so now I'm I make sure that I don't use the word should have to need and supposed to anymore I replaced those words or omit them omit them completely because there's if we've I mean how old are you Chelsea

Chelsea Abril: I am 32 next this month next month are we we're in April next month yes thank you may 32 in May so I'm a nineties baby no 91 tell you oh my God

Melanie Branch: week what I'm a 91

Chelsea Abril: 91 girl yeah so I'll be 32 yeah

Melanie Branch: when I tell you the one thing that keeps me going all the time is the thought that I spent the first 30 some odd years of my life.

Sacrificing myself or completely abandoning myself and my needs to make everybody else around me comfortable now the only thing that I am focused on is making myself comfortable

Chelsea Abril: for the listeners I am bowing down to that because that is exactly how it feels right now absolutely so the people pleaser hyper or high performer perfectionist pipeline to burnt out entrepreneur trying to like just maintain what they built.

And that's part of what I loved about shifting into coaching especially into this transformational business mindset confidence clarity space however we want to all the good ingredients we want to put in there that was my biggest like aha moment when I started breaking out with photography where they didn't matter like the gold never ever mattered.

Because I didn't like myself on the way and I didn't like myself when I got there I didn't like what I had built and I had built something that didn't support the life that I wanted I had built it without any real knowledge or any awareness of what I valued and I thought it was just metrics I thought it was just money and I deeply value money.

Listen I love money money loves me however I know how it connects now and so I can build my business and I can help people much more mindfully and I think that's the easiest pitfall it's like Oh yeah like I'm just here to make money and like I'm here to like do my job or whatever but that catches up eventually.

Cause if you if it's not built on a really good juicy like nourishing foundation that helps you replenish and rise then you will hit a wall it's just like the day is day is night night is day yeah but coming back I love that coming back to our original question about the transition period.

Wherever we had that question ages ago that's how this last year has been and so since I started coaching I think the first year was kind of figuring it out I was like Oh I definitely want to be more in this space I would definitely want to be helping people with mindset I was riddled riddled with imposter syndrome.

And so I saw all of these other amazing mindset people and I was like well that can't be me so maybe I'll just stick to business because I do know that I do have that lived experience and in the last like year and a half I was like no absolutely like two every two years I'm like absolutely it's mindset is what I want to be doing because it reaches everywhere.

It matters you know this mindset is like one of the key things and then as I've shifted I've been saying since the beginning I I'm really excited to shift so like 80 percent of my income came from photography and like maybe 15 to 20 came from coaching and I got to do coaching like on 10% 10 percent effort like I got to build it.

Really easily very casually and I was like amazing and that's how I also had originally built my photography business like it happened very easily for me I like to this previously I would have said it was luck I do know now that I do have qualities that make that effortless for me occasionally.

So doing that and then getting to the point where this year like I'm last couple years just going through with photography and treading water coming to this I was like I really don't want to do that anymore I'd rather I've been saying that for years with with photography I'd rather just take like 10 and 15 weddings a year and not you know actually have a calendar actually have my weekends actually have my time.

So having done photography for the last 10 years and actively overbooked myself actively you know sacrifice those things and not really even realizing that they were values of mine I'm coming now here I'm like Oh getting to look at my calendar for 2023 and seeing more than three quarters of my weekends open is like a revelation and it kind of freaked me out.

I was like I don't actually know what to do with all of this extra time I do but not right now like My little animal brain is like what are you going to do in this new space how are you going to adjust how do you who do you even have to be to be this person so it was an identity shift as well so anyone I feel like nervous with all of our multi passions all the things we love and all the things you want to pursue if and when you switch.

There is often like absolutely an identity shift that comes with that that you just have to prepare for and navigate and sometimes it's a little bit tricky it was a little bit tricky for me for a couple months and I was like Oh my God I have to start from scratch so now not only was I just shifting my mindset and my identity around what I did.

And how I was going to approach business I was also changing and shifting my mindset and my identity around who I was so multi six figure high performer la la la I was like Oh well that was with photography well if I'm not making 300 000 with coaching can I even call myself that like does that negate everything I've done

like of course it does not shifting into something new is fine but that was an interesting transition for me that I wasn't prepared for when I decided to really close down or just you know I was taking like 50 weddings a year I was really getting after it so shutting it down to like

Melanie Branch: 50 I have dyscalculia.

So help me aren't there 52 weeks in a year

Chelsea Abril: 52 weeks in a year I was taking 50 weddings two to five weddings a month.

Melanie Branch: Carry the one so with coaching then the light and as a coach right so I run two businesses I run my mindset Melanie spiritual coaching business and I run I'm second in command over at the neuro spicy Academy which launched at the end of last year and we're going strong and having the best time I really used to pride myself when it was just my coaching business on only working 10 to 15 hours a week right

cause I had gotten everything in place for that and you know working with clients and and because I don't consider social media work I I love creating kind of I already told you I'm creating like 22 pieces of content when we're done here but now that I'm running these two businesses I have found that as long as the themes of my business is are.

Like my special interests I don't burn out but I also my third business I like to think of it is self care

Chelsea Abril: my God I love it you're qualifying it as that I literally just ran a workshop yesterday on values and my goal setting and building things throughout that and the the one thing that is so easy to like forget or just like what people don't realize is that they only value external or business.

Events and so if it's scheduled like self care is always the first thing to go which I think we are all a little bit aware of that but the goal setting workshop was specifically for personal goal setting all right who's irritated that we're doing personal goals today I like half the people were like annoyed to be setting personal goals.

And I'm like great why would we bother setting a personal goal I don't know like I'm writing these goals and I want to talk about the money I want to make or the clients I want to sign or whatever and I was like well and who also has felt like they're really burnt out this year more than half.

I'm like great so we're going to shift that by prioritizing and like making self care an actual business like this is it requires the same care and attention and dedication as do your income producing activities like energy and your time are like the income

Melanie Branch: and what people don't realize self care is an integral part of manifestation right

I literally just got done talking to my business partner before I came on this call with you and we were talking about it and I said cause we were talking about how you know in the past before we realized we were nervous spicy and we were running in the cycle of burnout where you know you worked worked worked.

Like I used to work 30 hours a week in a restaurant and build my business up and go to Target and Walmart I can't even go to Target and Walmart in the same day now so it's like what are we talking about and she goes how do you how do you stay motivated and I say I keep envisioning my future right

so I want I want somebody that on my team I want to build a team that I have a hair and makeup persons but I don't want to do it anymore I want a driver whether the driver's my husband when he retires or not I want a driver cause I never want to drive a car again I want a couple assistants right

I have one now but I want more than that like I want a team it doesn't have to be gigantic but what I figure is for the universe to know that that's what I want and if the universe if I want the universe to know that I want somebody to do my hair and makeup I better be religious about taking care of my hair and my makeup.

Right I better make a point to do this regularly so that I am because that's who I am right so and if we know that we have to manifest in steps I know I'm not going to go from you know burnt out in bed not doing anything and showering regularly they're steps so showering regularly taking your makeup off regularly dyeing your hair regularly.

If you're a vivid girl like us not letting it get to the point where it looks gross and dingy and whatnot those are the steps of manifesting and that is self care absolutely so they go hand in hand I love that yes it makes sense you mentioned you mentioned imposter syndrome and I'm going to grab my microphone again so that everybody hears this for sure because imposter syndrome is one of my special interests and I did the rabbit hole deep dive on it.

So first and foremost let's give it up to the two women at the Georgia university that discovered and named imposter syndrome in the seventies I believe it was 1978 and they were psychology professors for lack of a better term and they were studying the high achieving collegiate academia women compared to the men.

So you know it wasn't as you know this many women and this many men because you know time and the patriarchy and what they had discovered was that every one of these women could not attribute anyone any parts of their success they couldn't attribute a promotion they couldn't attribute an award.

They couldn't attribute any of that to their own inherent worth and ability every single one of them was saying oh I must everybody else that was up for it must've sucked or oh I just got lucky ah like they could not attribute it to how much time they had spent perfecting their craft and learning and whatnot.

Whereas let me grab the microphone again the

Chelsea Abril: men these fucking

Melanie Branch: men literally would get an award and say thank you so when we talk about imposter syndrome what I have also found is very intriguing is that everybody's internal imposter I call mine Piper she's always piping up when I don't want to fucking hear from her.

They all say they all have a different running dialogue like mine always says who the fuck do you think you are why would you think you can do anything for anyone right so what I'm curious what yours says to you I

Chelsea Abril: love that yours is Piper I haven't really thought of what mine is like I know what she feels like emerging.

We're going to call her Regina we're going to bring in a mean girl inside here yeah this bitch she says Oh my God you're doing that how embarrassing how embarrassing for you that's what you're gonna you're gonna go do this you're gonna go offer this thing and start this business and you're gonna charge people

you're charging people that much oh my god how embarrassing who do you think you are yeah it's embarrassing for you that you're doing that ooh you didn't make as much money as you did last year ooh how embarrassing yikes that's what mine sounds like I'm like oh my god

Melanie Branch: regina enough

Chelsea Abril: so that's what I've had to work through and I just did a breakthrough.

I have a friend of mine who does like deep breakthrough days some mental emotional release love that and it was being able to put that into words it's like I know I hear her and I know that she's there and I can I can shove her down but there's only so much like shoving into a box before I have to like okay all right Regina let's come out.

Let's talk let me hear what you have to say and let me respond and great and then we can kind of hug it out and I can tell you that I can show you see it's not embarrassing because look at this remember and she's like Oh it's like that that full circle of mean girls where she's like Oh okay I'm not the main character anymore.

Yeah got it

Melanie Branch: I saw a tick tocker girl was talking about her self doubt and her you know inner hater and now when it was she starts criticizing herself she goes you love me you're concerned about me you're trying to keep me safe I mean something I am so important to you right and I mean there's definitely validity to that because you know our ego and our id and all the other different parts of our of our human existence here the brain is designed to keep you safe.

And the only thing that the brain considers safe is sameness so when you are operating on what I call you know the big dream spectrum right first and foremost you can't you can't be around people that don't have big dreams like I get it now I don't hang out with anybody that doesn't have their own business or want their own business.

I just can't if you are okay with having a boss and having somebody tell you what to do you're not you're simply not my flock that's fine that's okay you're allowed to go live your life I'm not going to tell you how to live your life but I will only be around people who have been where I want to go or who are aiming for big big adventures as well.

Chelsea Abril: I feel like that's one of the big things that people like it's one of the sneaky I want to say like expenses almost it's one of the sneaky costs of growing in your entrepreneurship and choosing choosing yourself over and over again in this and choosing to grow and expand I used to feel really bad about wanting more which You know if anyone knows anything about the subconscious mind it's program always for more prime directive of the subconscious mind.

So I used to feel bad about wanting more I'm like when is it going to be enough and I was like Oh my God is it never going to be enough like wait no this is fine that I want more and I know why I want it but the part of that and choosing myself over and over again choosing to expand choosing to raise my prices choosing elevation or expansion or growth in any sort of way the rise in my name choosing to rise means you leave people behind.

And that can feel really scary like that was one of my big things with Like my subconscious my Regina coming out like Oh my God you're gonna go out by yourself how embarrassing you're going to be out here all by yourself on this stage on whatever how embarrassing so I didn't even really know I'm like Oh I have to go cultivate a new space.

I have to also be okay like I don't have to cut these people out of my life but I do have to curate my conversations like those are just not the people I have those conversations with and how cool like but it's scary to do that no like my husband is not the person that I have these a lot of these conversations with I have different growth conversations with him but like even there like for people who have spouses partners of any kind that's not your person to be doing business masterminding unless you're in the business together.

They don't have

any

Melanie Branch: what she just said say it louder for the people in the back

Chelsea Abril: your business your your romantic life partners are not your business partners period get your own therapist get your own business people get your own business club get your own business coach come back to your relationships with here's what I learned.

You're like here's what's going on for me like glue them in bring them in updates but like masterminding my business with my husband and trying to have like his opinion on my business choices I value his opinion but they don't they're not the opinions that I need to be taking in yeah there's just a different like different states different universes of thoughts and the way we value things.

Like I was just going over my expenses with him because I'm like so that was my transition that was coaching so I had you know of the 240 I made last year like 185 of it all came from photography so now cutting that by like 80% I'm like great I'm back under 10 K for the first time in like the last 10 years.

I'm like this is a weird space for me to be in but I do know how to build from here so it was like okay the sheds where we talked about earlier I should have known better I should have done more I should have prepared for this I knew that I wanted this but I didn't do anything else how embarrassing.

So my Regina George how embarrassing that you're in this position you're making less than 10 000 a month how is anyone going to trust you I'm like Shut up like one transition is normal evan flow is normal and of course this is the math is math the math is mapping I'm cutting that business by 90.

Great so with my income obviously anyway so that's part of my transition just shipping there and I'm really excited because I do know how like my own worth I know exactly how to run a business I know exactly how to grow it I'm excited for what this next really expensive multiple six figure a year with just coaching can look like amazing.

I lost my train of thought of what I was talking about before that what were we talking about

Melanie Branch: I don't know I just love looking at you well if we think about too if we think about restructuring right so I have recently restructured my business as well I stopped taking clients for months as I was building up the neuro spicy academy.

Right so and while I'm doing that working with my business partner Christina who's also my coach and also my friend and like you know a new life partner essentially is what she has for me Christina with the blue hair I love her and she she has taken such an effort in understanding how to communicate with me as a PDA Autists.

So persistent drive for autonomy like literally one of the first things my mom ever told my husband when we first started dating was you don't tell Mel what to do and he goes oh yeah I know that one I know that already I figured that one out early and so working with her and you know running things by her I realized that I had to reposition my coaching company and my target clients based on.

The fact that I had been doing everything intuitively up until that point right so figuring out how to grow my social media I knew how to do social media and whatnot and I knew how to have a content creation strategy and all that but literally everything I've done thus far has been intuitive as an energy healer psychic intuitive and mindset coach.

I have that I'm very fortunate to have that ability but what she was able to do with me was hone in with these multi level avatars so that cause you know when I was running my coaching business Yes I knew who I was going after but I wasn't specifically targeting the quote unquote right people so I wasn't always getting the best result and I wasn't getting the best testimonials from people because I was just Oh yeah I'll take you.

Oh yeah I'll take y'all yeah right and if you're as a coach if you're taking on people that aren't willing to do the work yeah you may be collecting money every month but it's not going to do your business any favors forward because there's no there's no proof in the pudding right so as I you know stop taking clients for a minute and totally restructured I created this new program called the mindset mastery launchpad where I literally teach you how to build your bubble so that you can take your business.

From those pivotal transition points right so a lot of people are going from their muggle job and building their business to just their business full time right so like it's real right and I can tell when our when our members of the academy have been in their muggle job for a long time and they haven't been focusing on their business I can tell because it's a different state of mind that they're in right

so it's more give people

Chelsea Abril: a wand when they come into your program yeah

Melanie Branch: I'm all about the magic you know that and then to help people in that other pivotal time where they're going from successful business owner to industry leader and getting paid to speak on big stages and writing the book and building the team and whatnot.

Those are pivotal moments in a business owner especially Neuro Spicy's life where that imposter syndrome comes in that rejection sensitivity comes in the intrinsic motivation starts to waver and and and dissipate a little bit where you're just like I was doing so good over here I was in eighth fucking grade and now i'm signing up for ninth grade and i'm going to go.

Small fish again where are my

Chelsea Abril: friends where's yeah where's the classroom yeah yeah

Melanie Branch: absolutely so how would you say then while you're going through this transition how have you combated that rejection sensitivity and whatnot because I I mean imposter syndrome and rejection sensitivity go hand in hand and feeling like okay well I had all this going for me.

What the fuck did

Chelsea Abril: I do now oh my God now that's kind of that I love that that's the phrase well now what do I do well now what I have a whole lived experience of being really successful of building this incredible thing and now I've decided to shift directions like really that's what's really hilarious to me too.

It's like we talk about manifestation a lot I have been saying for fucking years I'm like I can't wait to take like 10 weddings a year I'm so excited to pivot to being 90 percent coaching 10 percent photography and here I am I'm like oops no this is exactly what I asked for okay it's happening okay.

It's happening all right this is fine this is fine okay it's happening what was your question I forgot already so how do you

Melanie Branch: how do you combat the the rejection sensitivity and the imposter syndrome and all of it of like what like how do you keep moving forward I'm a serial

Chelsea Abril: serial

Melanie Branch: perfectionist.

Yeah

Chelsea Abril: I know how exhausting how embarrassing another thing from my little brain that says my Regina so I say I identify with being a perfectionist I I function that way I notice that behavior and that pattern in myself my Regina says and you're not even perfect so how embarrassing do you have any

Melanie Branch: verbal placements

Chelsea Abril: I don't think so I think I'm Taurus Gemini something I'm a Taurus a sun Gemini rising I think I love Gemini that's a great question now hold on now hold on now I have to look what is it co star is the app

Melanie Branch: no not co star god no no

Chelsea Abril: no I know I would like to be I'm a tiny baby witch I'm like I know what I am.

And I just I don't that's it

Melanie Branch: well it's just it's interesting because perfectionism you know with your mindset training is really just a form of self sabotage so we can control the outcome

Chelsea Abril: I cannot tell you how much I hated when I read that for the first time I was like You sneaky bitch so absolutely perfection being like you know self sabotage central.

So anyway with that my whole mindset since probably like I started doing this in like October of last year and I was like I just want to fuck around and find out that's what I'm here for I'm just going to fuck around and find out my poor VA bless her heart she's like okay we have to like plan out a launch and we've got to like let's forecast.

And so I work fine with that but I'm the person who buys a gift and I want to give it to you immediately like I cannot buy a gift for you months in advance I'm like here it is so for me Trying to fit into launch plans and launch windows I absolutely know that I'm going to do that and have that be a successful like a great pipeline that supports me energetically but helps me be a familiar dollar person who is supported by her team has a launch plan.

So I'm like okay for now I'm going to just fuck around and find out I'm going to put out offers that I like that energize me I'm going to see how they do and I'm going to probably offer them two or three more times and adjust them I fucking hate it I don't have to do it again but I get to keep trying.

So my whole thing this year has been fuck around and find out and just go try it everything is data what's my whole thing everything is data let's talk around and find out anything that comes back I have felt a lot of fear of rejection I'm like Oh my God what if it doesn't work out I'm like well I won't know until I put it out there.

Everything is just data so doing my workshop yesterday I was like you know what I don't really know what this is for I know I know where it fits into my ecosystem I can draw where it's going to go and how I'm going to funnel it and I know what it means from a marketing perspective but I don't really know what it looks in the space.

So I made a presentation I fucking hate making presentations but I made one I barely followed it so went through and I was like all right here's what I loved here's what I didn't like looking being able to shift the perspective and just like pull my emotional self out like physically I'll sit there and I'm like all right time to take emotions out.

Let's look at this data what did we learn what did we love what did the participants love what am I what was the transformation that has been the most helpful for me and it's it sounds a lot easier than it can be if you haven't done before but I will physically sit there and take a deep breath and I will grab with my hands from the top of my head or wherever you feel your emotions and pull that out and just kind of set it down for a second.

Can I look at this objectively any of this rejection any of this success even means nothing about me why because I am I have my own intrinsic worth this is just a fun exploration and how fun that I get to fuck around and find out that has been my big purpose perspective shift not that I don't ever like oh is this going to be good or not

but I can always come back to okay if I took the emotion out of this What could I do and then and when I say emotion it's not excitement it's not any of that it's the fear the rejection the anything that means anything but that's been really helpful for me so going and just offering if I want to offer something I'm going to go offer it.

And I'm going to use it as data and I'm going to play with it the main thing I'd written my values out and I am a fun person if it's not fun I don't want it I know I don't want that thank you bye if it's not like sparkly fun and whatever my little background here I don't want it and I I forget that whenever I go to make something in the past I'd make something that sounded right or sounded good or what what I should be making what made sense.

And they did make sense and kind of like you said like I could take the clients and I could you know solve some problems and make some money and kind of plot along but being able to tune into this like if it's fun I want to do it how can I make this more fun how can I make this even easier yeah.

It's like how can I replenish myself replenish my people and how can we facilitate the right strategies the right bumper lanes the right vision to then rise to whatever next level we want to be rising to and that's been so helpful for me so helpful for my clients like who fucking cares first of all.

Everything matters and nothing matters so why not just duck around and find out use the data make decisions and keep going yeah all you have to worry about is today

Melanie Branch: yeah you know when it comes to really living in the moment being mindful and present and aware you know we know as neuro spices That we can dissociate at the drop of a hat thank God it's gotten us this far and we needed it for this long amount of time right always appreciate everything that was serving us and then recognize there's no longer serving us.

But you really if we can operate from okay so I saw a tick tock the other day that said so imagine oh yeah I've I have baked into my daily routine and schedules and systems for my business and for my personal life scrolling time because it's so important to my business to stay on top of all this.

But this TikTok said so imagine you won the lottery right a million dollars in the lottery whatever number feels good and you go to your bank and you say okay I'm going to deposit this check and it makes us okay it's just going to take seven to 10 days for this check to clear and hit your account because we got to move some money around right

how would you operate in those next seven to 10 days knowing that you were fully taken care of when the check clears that is how you want to operate moving forward to successfully manifest all of your goals and your hopes and your dreams because anything other than that worrying about what's my next client going to be in when's this money going to come and dah is is is second guessing the universe.

It's worrying about responsibility

Chelsea Abril: yeah I have like my first like 6k month and I which is again like in the universe a 6k month is still a great month but I was like Failure loser embarrassing oh my god freak out I was like alright well I need to go get my shit together because no one can know that this happened.

I'm like oh my god and so for me even with that to step out like first of all this is kind of like on a tangent but like the things we say to ourselves and I'll speak for me the things I say to myself I would never ever ever ever say to anyone else so mean so rude so awful some of the things I say to myself and in the same way like I the way I judge anything in my business I would never ever ever judge my clients for the same things ever.

No like and so again when I get into those little like tizzy like a minute tizzy something's happening sit down come back okay what's happening right now like the five things it's almost it feels like a mini panic attack sometimes so I come back into my body and physically pull it out okay okay if I were looking at myself and if I were going to treat myself as a coach I can be over here.

I can coach this Chelsea future Chelsea can come in and coach me how would I treat myself kindly with grace what what advice would I offer what knowledge and wisdom would I have to share okay these are true this is the truest version here this higher version of myself who's coming in to talk to me.

I'm just having a tizzy and that's fine it'll be over in a second and I'll have all this new knowledge all this new grace all this new kindness that I can give to myself instead of just previously I would just live there I would move in I'd move into Panningtown to sit there not talk to anybody not ask for support.

And even that like you were saying like if we want to be these million dollar whatever metric versions of ourselves our best selves who are supportive like I want a team too I want like multiple assistants I want a personal assistant I want to massage every other day like I know what I want for my self care and for my life.

Living in panic town those services do not exist there for that version of myself so moving out coming back into reality what do I need to do to actually every day little by little be aligning myself with the person who has that life yeah building your business like the workshop I did yesterday was a lot of deeper work on values and really honing honing down.

And a lot of people I would say because I work a lot of entrepreneurs and me being an entrepreneur like forever my values have always been business based values so of course I want time and of course they want freedom and you know who doesn't want those things but being able to hone in a little bit more on the values of what really drives me and what really really matters.

Makes all the decisions so much easier I've noticed for me and people who listening might also feel this as having a lack having previously had a lack of confidence in making decisions so I'm stewing over decisions that was my biggest like low confidence like activity was how can I do over this conversation

oh my God hold on.

Everyone's okay everyone my husband making noises in the kitchen values so for me being able to hone down and on these values like that was the most frustrating thing for me was being unable to make any make decisions really confidently and clear like have a fuck yes and a fuck no I was always like wait maybe like pros and cons list until I you know passed out.

So having values and being able to make really confident decisions so that every day that you know like you know every goal you set every strategy you put in place everything you say to yourself everything you do or don't do is absolutely going to be within those bumper lanes of yes this is what I've said.

This is what I've agreed to this is how I take care of myself my self care this is how I honor what I want my future self to be if I'm out of bounds I'll know and I can decide is it worth it to be out of bounds for this sometimes you know there's things that we maybe move around but having those like solid values even with all of this like fucking around and finding out I know that play is a value of mine.

I know that having fun is a value of mine I know that having grace and kindness are values so fucking around and finding out are ways that I get to practice that for myself and absolutely the top tier version of myself is fucking around and finding out in really fun ways I know that for me it's true.

Melanie Branch: Yeah when we really you know when we go after goals but we release our attachment to how it has to happen right like I always tell people when it comes to manifesting you're in charge of the what not the how you are in charge of that the what not the how the universe has to do their portion of the work you have to do your portion of the work.

That's all it is right so if you know that you want to impact your community you have to know what that community is you have to know in what way you want to do it right so like I know that I'm going to be on TikTok and Instagram and YouTube right so I know those are my preferred choices and preferred methods.

Now the universe is going to help me get it to the right people as long as I show up regularly and authentically right so when it comes to balancing I have decided to move forward with the goal of harmony in my life and business cause you know balancing shows two things right two things being in equilibrium.

Whereas harmony if we think about it in terms of like vocal harmony and all that sort of stuff it's it's different tones it's different levels ebb and flow right so how would you say between all of the responsibilities and things that are pulling us for our time because as an entrepreneur personal life and business intertwine interweave all day every day right

so it's like all right I know if I have date night on Saturday night or going out with the girls or whatever it is I'm gonna work up until this point and I'm going to go do the thing right so how would you say you find the harmony and the balance and all of it

Chelsea Abril: I love that you say harmony one of the very first group programs I ever put on one of the tenants like the main pillar is with harmony over hustle.

Yeah and so a lot of like everyone's prioritizing hustle and I love a little bit of hustle like I think like that's action that's just inspired action of this hustle like the toxic hustle when we get into trouble but yeah harmony over hustle or harmony in harmony with hustling so I love that you mentioned that I'm a singer like I love to sing I love music.

So having harmony is like that's such a beautiful way to look at it is the coming together of different things of different people of different just different everything I like the balance does feel like Oh we have two things like you know the scale right harmony is all these different things we can't have an ebb and flow.

There can be higher lower and different timbers flavors spices whatever so for me to be in harmony like my biggest thing this year and in teaching this to my clients is like the value kind of It feels like this little harmony hammock of like all right I can swing either way but I'm held I'm comfortable.

I'm comforted and I'm safe and I trust that I am within the bounds of you know my best self of making sure that I am acting behaving attracting engaging with my role in the way that feels most harmonious and my biggest thing and I'm like coaching this to my clients but I don't think we have a lot of this awareness or we learned to shut it down.

It's being aware Of when we're not in harmony when it feels disharmonious like what can you feel the ick and can you notice it and can you pay attention to it first like it's like that sour note like in a harmony when someone is off you're like who is it

Melanie Branch: who is it who is it

Chelsea Abril: no you're off like that's not it.

So being able to tune into that and just having a notice of like what is off why is it off yeah am I judging it is that why it feels off or is it actually something that I can let go of or release or adjust like coming from that whole toxic hustle culture era it was a lot of like stuff it down.

Doesn't matter stuff it down doesn't matter you follow these five steps you don't like it you must not care about your business you must not want to succeed you must not give a shit like unless you follow these five steps exactly don't reinvent the wheel like this is how it's done and I was like okay I hate this but I mean I guess I'm getting results you know fast forward a year later.

I'm like I fucking hate this business that I built oh my God ew ew all of these strategies are giving me the ick everything is icky there is no harmony here because it was just all off and I'd be like no it's you guys sound great everyone's doing great just keep going this is fine yeah so I think having the confidence to honor that in yourself and just even learning what harmony feels like cause it's different for me.

It's different for you it's different for everybody and

Melanie Branch: it can change that's what Oh my God sometimes right like it's about to be June do you know what happens in June my kids are out of school we go camping down at Jenny Springs where we're swimming in 72 Green water everybody's falling asleep at 8 30 PM when the sun goes down.

Everybody's waking up when the sun comes up and we're outside and we're stinky and we're having a good ass time right my goals and my life is different in June than it is in

Chelsea Abril: January I love that so much yes because people are like Oh I did one thing and I feel great now and that'll like this one coaching session or this one breakthrough is going to last me.

I'm good I'm great I'm like no babe that shit's like a bath like every day you renew it every month you renew it so there's like Giving enough of a shit to check in on regular intervals I know consistency can be hard but like what a gift to give yourself about that consistency checking in does is anything out of place right now

yeah what's out of place why is it out of place and just noticing you don't have to go fix it but just noticing that it's there I have a lot of clients who and I've had that too so of course I have clients who've had this where we will touch on the same topic several times throughout the year of working together.

And they're like I thought we did this already

Melanie Branch: if I had a nickel for every time somebody says that Oh my God why are we

Chelsea Abril: talking about this again I'm like

Melanie Branch: I already did my inner child work why are we still talking to her it's like Oh okay did she I thought I dealt with

Chelsea Abril: this oh my God yeah like for me like I have CP CPTSD.

And so like even then I'm like I thought I was done with this how embarrassing that you're going through this again you're having another episode how embarrassing like get yourself together but all of that like the seasons change ebb and flow is normal like your values might change depending on where you are throughout the year where you are in your life.

Maybe you if you have kids or if you don't have kids if you like just in general I think this is one thing that I had to confront too was being in photography even before I started coaching I waited for a really long time because I was like Oh well you're not a real whatever unless that's all you are.

It's like people give photographers a ton of shit for being like a mom tographer or like a hobby photographer like they're not real like if they still have another job or whatever like there's this whole super judgmental very clicky gross thing in the photography world it's gross I know it's super gross.

And so I was like Oh my God am I not going to be a real person if I'm just doing this thing if I start another business does it mean I'm not real in either of them and I was like Oh my God okay we're going to we're going to put that in the trash because that's not true but this idea and I'll speak for my experience the identity that comes with being one thing I have to be the master of this one thing.

And that was so stifling so I never wanted to start anything new even though I had so many ideas and so many things I wanted to pursue I was like well I have to just be this or I'm not valid so oh it's worth like do I value as myself whatever oh my god but that gets to change like I loved being a photographer and only a photographer forever.

And I really really loved it and it made so much sense for so much of my life to do that now entering a new stage I think I'm on like my Saturn to turn or whatever too like coming through there Oh this is not all I want to be this is not all of who I am and what a gift again if I can give myself the permission and the space to find like add in a new part of the heart of me make it a little more complex find a new thing that feels really good.

And maybe it gets even better and maybe we do drop some things here and there so being able to routinely just give yourself the gift of like a self audit find a friend like find the right friends find the right people that you can do self audits with and have an awareness with each other you can share these revelations or just have that safe space but you get to change your mind.

I think that's my favorite thing like you can always change your mind bucking around and finding out I if I offer a program or a service and I love it for three months but I hate it in the fourth I can stop offering it I can change my mind I can refund clients if I really wanted to like the only boundary like the only imposed jail time that we have is really just the ones we put on ourselves.

And like why change your mind if you don't like it change your mind I think there's a lot of rejection and fear for me at least and I've seen this in my clients it's like well what if I do this new thing and it doesn't work out and then what if what if I don't recover and then what if this what if this like what if all of this the spiral the spiral.

Oh my God there's like whoop and they're just gone I'm like oh my God let me just last come back ooh we're not going over there come back baby we're living here let's discuss so yeah I think it feels strange for people to change their mind it feels strange to feel like Oh does this mean I'm not committed

does this mean I don't I'm not serious if I change my mind like am I the words I've heard am I wishy washy am I unreliable

Melanie Branch: I think as an entrepreneur you're the one in charge you're the one running the show nobody's coming to you saying what's your next step like you're coming to yourself saying well what's the next step.

Yeah that's so funny all right so before we get to the lightning round of neuro spicy questions which are just going to make the every all of the listeners understand that ADHD everybody has it no it is these are just the fun questions that we can all identify with before we get to them I will have you.

Go ham and plug your spot tell us all about replenish and rise how everybody can find you of course your links and everything are going to be available for all of our listeners but tell us tell us all about it how can we work with you what do you have going on

Chelsea Abril: amazing yeah so I'm on Tik TOK and Instagram mostly.

I I want I keep edging towards YouTube I'm edging myself with YouTube do I anyway so with replenish and rise right I know I'm like it feels almost good to be there yeah anyway so replenish and rise I am on Instagram Tiktok mostly you can find me there I have a membership that's open to everyone who wants.

Who vies with replenish and rise who wants to feed themselves rise to whatever their next level is I have a lot of muggles in those spaces so it's open to muggles if if by any crazy chance a muggle has made it this far into this podcast there's space for you there probably not but there is space for you there.

I do group coaching and one to one coaching and I also offer private client retreats so it's like a two day retreat it's really fun I incorporate now my other passion of photography so we make it this beautiful weekend a lot of my clients instead of business headshots they end up doing boudoir.

So it's this really fun like boudoir and business sesh it's great it's amazing so come and find me it's under my name you can Google replenish and rise and I'll come up but if you are looking for me it's just my name Chelsea Brill also I'm sure that's going to be in the show notes but yeah I work with entrepreneurs helping them with mindset transformation confidence and clarity.

And it's so fucking fun yay

Melanie Branch: all right so we're the lightning round what is your favorite social media

Chelsea Abril: I hate that my first answer was Instagram it's absolutely TikTok okay good

Melanie Branch: good we can continue okay good second one call's over yeah right we're still friends don't worry alright what is your most recent rabbit hole you have gone down

Chelsea Abril: my euro trip my cousin is here and she's going to Europe and she called me on Wednesday she's like don't go to Europe on Friday I was like I sure do so I'm planning a Europe trip in four days

Melanie Branch: I'm so excited where are you going first

Chelsea Abril: she I'm going to try and line up my trip with her she's going to like her trip is like Paris Amsterdam Switzerland Paris right now Florence.

I know she's just passing through she's like I have friends there and they said it's not crazy but we're just you know that's how we're all our travels are passing

Melanie Branch: I mean they know how to protest over in Paris we could take a note well that's so exciting that is so exciting okay third question what is your emotional support show

Chelsea Abril: ooh we go between a new girl and the office most frequently excellent

Melanie Branch: my is Parks and Rec schmidt is my

Chelsea Abril: comfort character parks and Rec also are other one I I

Melanie Branch: try and get into New Girl and I just I can't I don't know what it is about probably 'cause I'm surrounded by dudes I love Schmidt you know I'm surrounded by dudes in my life with my husband and my kids and my dogs.

I don't need to be the o only other girl surrounded by dudes when I go to an emotional sports show but I really like Parks and Rec 'cause I believe that each one of those characters represents one aspect of a positive mindset and I believe all of them are neuros spicy oh for sure all right.

The fourth one have you consumed any water today

Chelsea Abril: no but I have consumed approximately 180 milligrams of caffeine on an empty stomach

Melanie Branch: aDHD everybody can identify all right and then the last one what is your current dopamine snack ooh

Chelsea Abril: grapes I have those cotton candy grapes I have them in like three different flavors a row in my fridge is just all grapes.

Melanie Branch: Cotton candy I think I've

Chelsea Abril: seen those in the store don't tell my kids they're so good good

Melanie Branch: grapes are full of antioxidants very good for you you know

Chelsea Abril: I've been griefing away for the past like two weeks that's how

Melanie Branch: you age in reverse hell yeah all right my lovely sweet angel friend Chelsea thank you so much for being on.

And thank you so much to the listeners that we have out there in the interweb world and anything else you want to leave us with

Chelsea Abril: I'm so happy to be here and if you are feeling lonely there's so much room for community if you give yourself just a little bit of a space to go and look for it if you are in your expansion and your growth phase like it can get lonely it does get better.

There are people out there for you 100

percent agree with you all right bye guys.