292 MINISODE Baeth Davis: Defeat Fear to Delete Failure

Baeth Davis is an entrepreneur, coach and expert in scientific hand analysis known as the Palm Pilot for the Soul of Your Business™. Baeth draws on her intuition and extensive shamanic experience, as well as her 20 years as an entrepreneur, to help entrepreneurs and leaders align with their life purpose and get paid for their passions. Today Baeth shares her advice on how to delegate the “busy work”, find your true voice as a communicator, and let go of traumas that hold us back in business and life.

Melinda Wittstock:         Baeth, welcome to Wings.

Baeth Davis:                       It’s great to be here, Melinda.

Melinda Wittstock:         I am so excited to talk with you after all that wonderful time we had at the New Media Summit not so long ago talking podcasting. I want to start where we start all the Minisodes. What is inspiring you right now?

Baeth Davis:                       What’s inspiring me right now is the realization that so many of the people I work with and so many of the people I meet have speaking and even more broadly elegant communication as part of their gifts, as part of their talent, and they actually need to be doing that not just as a marketing tool, although speaking as a marketing tool, but they need to be doing it to fulfill their life purpose, to fulfill their own creative gifts. The more I hone in on that, the more I meet people who have a gift for communication and maybe aren’t using it to the degree that they could.

Melinda Wittstock:         There’s nothing lovelier I think than seeing somebody really step into that true purpose. It’s … And moreover, when you do it yourself, everything feels fun.

Baeth Davis:                       That’s right.

Melinda Wittstock:         More at flow and more in ease, and of course even in those fun and easeful times, there are still challenges in the entrepreneurial journey. What are some of yours?

Baeth Davis:                       Well, let’s see. Business is essentially fraught with challenges, isn’t it, to –

Melinda Wittstock:         Oh, gosh. All the time.

Baeth Davis:                       To help us grow, because first of all there are many moving parts to a business and I would say the challenges truly that I come up against now is that I have so many great ideas and yet I can only move at the speed of my physical body and delegate at the speed I’m able to delegate to. I am constantly challenged to focus, complete, and remove from my desk and my to-do list anything that isn’t in my area of brilliance, and I’m getting much, I’m getting much, much better at that. I have a about 15 people that support me at various different levels now, and seven people on my team that are pretty much available around the clock, except on weekends. Although I have learned to become more supportable, there are still things I hang onto because I like doing them or out of a need for control, or I think I’m the best at doing it, and I really don’t need to keep holding onto those things. That’s really what’s afoot now is finding the right people to delegate the various aspects of my projects to that aren’t my specialty.

Melinda Wittstock:         This is how we succeed and scale in business and find that leverage. Is really doubling down on our strengths and hiring our weaknesses.

Baeth Davis:                       That’s right.

Melinda Wittstock:         It’s so hard for women sometimes to do that, get out of the doing and I joke that we confuse having it all with doing it all.

Baeth Davis:                       I don’t even try to do it all, which is the thing. I’m not interested in being constantly busy, but I had my annual event and there were things I learned from that in terms of the ramping up to it and the preparation. I learn every year. I’ve been doing these events over a decade, to how to make it more streamlined. I finally have enough support in place that I’m already starting now for our next year’s event. There are a number of things I’m doing differently in terms of tasks I’m completely so that I am not working 15-hour days. I typically take two full days off every single week, my phone is in a drawer, I’m not on my computer, I am out doing things with my partner. We’re going to art shows; we play Ping-Pong every other weekend for hours on end. I’ve gotten really, really good at resting. I don’t work at night. I’m pretty disciplined about that. I don’t have a lot of interruptions. I’ve really managed my life to make it support what I’m here to do. I know a lot of entrepreneurs who are really super busy and I think it’s … Unless there’s some specific project, like I understand sometimes and all-nighter is necessary. I understand sometimes right before a deadline there’s a lot of details.

However, that should not be the norm. I meet a lot of people who are making a lot of money, but they don’t have a good lifestyle. They’re working all the time and they’re tired. They’re putting on weight. They’re not making time for their family. I gave that up about ten years ago. I thought, “This is not sustainable. I agree with you. There’s a big difference between being effective, efficient, and being busy. When I say to people, “I’m busy,” what that means for me is I’m either talking with clients or I’m talking to prospective clients or I’m working on content, some form of writing or speaking, and that’s pretty much all I do. I also do some accounting in terms of paying bills, but even that, I don’t really manage it. It all goes right to the bookkeeper and right to my accounting team, and I meet with them quarterly. I’ve made it a mission that if it’s not my brilliance, then I’m not doing it. I’ve told my team that. “Make it all go away. If it’s not my skill set, I’m simply not doing it.”

Now, I’m at a point in my business where a lot of money is going out for all these people, but I’m not willing to give them up, because the business is now really growing, because I’ve been very disciplined about extracting myself from anything that isn’t what I need to be doing. Also, as an aside, I think a lot of people run on fear. They haven’t resolved their childhood trauma. I’d say this is most people who are running all the time, trying to achieve some goal or make more money, or whatever it is and they’re not sleeping and they’re going, going, going. They’re running from something. This is pretty epidemic in the world, that people are not resolved internally from childhood. They’re not resolved. Everything they’re doing as a business owner is often driven, not everything, but a lot is driven by unconscious needs not being met. I saw that in myself. It’s like those patterns, Melinda, that keep showing up despite all your positive thinking and journaling and meditating.

Melinda Wittstock:         Oh, god, yeah, exactly. All that. Yeah.

Baeth Davis:                       My other big focus, personal research project is trauma. The more I live, the more I see that the majority of peoples illnesses, their addictions, their bad habits, their need for control, their running, running, running, it all stems back to some kind of trauma in childhood. Most people are traumatized to one degree or another and then they make decisions based on incidents that happen. That stuff is not accessible from the frontal cortex. It’s deep, deep, in the back brain, the amygdala and it’s also locked in the cells of the body. One of the things I’ve been doing with my clients is teaching them embodiment. I’ve brought on a coach that focuses on teaching people how to live from the rhythm of their physical body in terms of when they eat, when they exercise, what kind of exercise they do, when they focus on writing tasks, when they focus on research tasks, that they’re actually lining up with their bodies own natural biorhythm, and the majority of people are so disconnected from that, because they literally have their phones dinging all the time. I see people at the gym and they’re on the treadmill on their phone. I’m like, “People are psycho.” They don’t ever take a break.

I see people in the gym stretching. They’re looking at their phone. People have gone completely insane and all this interruption from technology actually damages the brain. This has been scientifically proven. It makes you stupider; it makes you more ineffective. Mostly what I’m encouraging my clients to do is get a grip on their life and become the boss or authority of their life, once again, instead of jumping around, “Oh, I’ve got to do this. I’ve got to do this.” “No, no, you really, you do not.” My whole thing, Melinda, is that if it’s not something I initiated and I don’t know the person approaching me, I really feel no obligation. I might reply. Usually someone else on my team will reply, unless it’s a really great opportunity or Oprah’s calling. There are things that come through that maybe I didn’t initiate or expect, but I’m not on anyone else’s agenda, because I’m going from my own rhythm. That’s where I’m at with my business. As a result, I’m really relaxed, even when I’m busy, I’m really happy. I’m not stressed about money. I really only attract great clients now. I have to say, it’s all because I made decisions to go five-star. If you’re not my ideal client, I don’t want your money.

If I’m not doing my brilliance, I’m not doing. I’m not going to work seven days a week. I’m not doing it. I’m not doing it. As a result, life will conform. It magically shapes around the dictates that you put in place.

Melinda Wittstock:         I was going to ask you what your go-to, three pieces of advice are for women in business. I think you’ve covered a lot of them. If you were to sum it up into three bullet points, what would be the most important game changing things that you would tell women who are entrepreneurs or business owners to go do right now?

Baeth Davis:                       Okay, I’m going to tell them, and most of the people listening won’t do them. I’m going to say that right from the start. Most of you are too chicken, you know what, to do … It’s true. Most people are cowards. They are. It’s because of the trauma. They don’t know how to deal with their fear. I’m going to say these three things and probably 95% of you won’t do them. That’s a challenge to all of you if you want to be in the 5% club to actually change your lives. Number one is you’ve got to know your life’s purpose. Now, of course, I help people do that from a genetic standpoint, so I use their hands and I use their human design. Both those things are biometric tools. They are more specific than any other profile out there and I study all of the Myers-Briggs, Colby, you name it. They all have their value. I know corporations use those. There’s nothing better than the tools I use, because they don’t require you to answer any questions. I can look and see. You can deny it to me and it doesn’t matter. The report’s the report and I have authority in that.

First, it’s knowing somebody’s purpose. You need to know your specific purpose that you were born to do.

Number Two is understanding from the perspective of your purpose the problem you actually solve. There are only really three categories. It’s health, love, or money. It needs to be tangible and specific, because people don’t wake up in the middle of the night asking, “How can I remove my internal blocks?” They wake up in the middle of the middle of the night saying, “I [inaudible 00:13:24] how do I pay my bills?” Or, “Oh, holy crap, I can’t deal with that project tomorrow. I’ve got to hire a copy writer.” There’s these little person and they’re very detailed or, “Oh, man, my Facebook ads really suck,” or, “Oh, my stage presentation isn’t converting.” These are very specific things people worry about. As a business owner, you better know why you were put on the planet and then secondarily, “What is that problem that you solve that you’re an expert in?” If you’re not an expert, go figure out how to be one. That’s number two.

Then, Number Three is you have to charge according to the value of the transformation you provide, not what you think you’re worth, not what other people in your industry charge, but really, truly the value of the transformation that you provide. My typical entry point now is $10,000. I will still occasionally do a reading for someone, occasionally, and I charge $1500 for that, because I know what I can do in an hour. People say, “Oh my god, that’s so expensive.” I’m like, “No, because once you have the reading, you will see who you are and you’ll then be able to build a business around who you are.” I’ve learned, I learned this very early on in my business to not undersell what I do. There’s a little part B to tip number three for charging for the transformation you deliver is: So many people I meet, not all, so many have so much fear around money, that again, I could talk about these three tips until the cows come home and –

Melinda Wittstock:         I know, right?

Baeth Davis:                       They’re not going to invest in a coach. You, if you’d have a business and you’re not achieving the results you want, it’s because you don’t have a mentor, period, full stop.

Melinda Wittstock:         Oh my goodness, so Baeth, so many important points.

Baeth Davis:                       So there, there you [crosstalk 00:15:20].

Melinda Wittstock:         How can people … No, you’re absolutely right. How can people find you and work with you?

Baeth Davis:                       They can go to baeth.com, B-A-E-T-H dot com. You can schedule a breakthrough session with me if you’d like to talk with me personally and we’ll dive into what’s ailing you and figure out if we can solve your problem. I don’t know if we can, but most of the time I can, and if I can’t personally solve it, I typically know the person who can. Today a client was talking to me about what she wants to do and another person wrote to me. I thought, “I’m not their person to help either of these people, but I know who is and I’m going to hook them up with that person and they’ll probably hire that person to work with them.” My goal always is to help the individual solve their problem. If you go to baeth.com I’d be happy to talk with you or my podcast interviews are there if you want to get a sense of the kind of entrepreneurs that I’m interested in working with and who I think are up to amazing things in the world. There’s some great articles, of course, and all the information is there if people want to dive into having a business that is built and structured around their specific, genetic life purpose.

Melinda Wittstock:         Fantastic. Well, thank you so much for putting on your wings and flying with us.

Baeth Davis:                       Oh, my pleasure. I love flying with you.