484 Sloane:

What message does the Coronavirus have for all of us? You know those nudges we get when we’re on the wrong path? If we ignore those nudges, they get louder and louder until we finally wake up and change course. Could the Coronavirus be a massive wakeup call showing us the possibility of new, evolved, equitable, innovative and collaborative path forward for business and society as a whole?

A very clear choice is being presented to all of us right now. We can choose fear, let the uncertainty and anxiety freeze us in place, or we can choose instead to be proactive and use the opportunity to boost our immune systems, get into alignment with our higher purpose, and innovate new ways of acting on divine inspiration to prosper in our new normal.

When we as women step into our authentic feminine power, fully leveraging our inherent empathy, intuition and collaborative natures, we can transform lives, businesses and the world.

Sloane is here today to share with us how we can get through this period with ease, gratitude and joy – and embrace the positive shifts this emergency is bringing to us. She shares her own transformation as a Santa Monica lawyer building her own mergers & acquisitions and corporate law firm to help thousands of businesses to accepting her new calling guiding women into and through the discomfort of change while upleveling their pleasure and business profitability.

Melinda Wittstock:         Sloane, welcome to Wings.

Sloane:                Thank you, Melinda. It’s so great to be here.

Melinda Wittstock:         I’m so excited to talk to you. As our world is turned upside down with coronavirus there’s a lot of business owners and entrepreneurs panicking right now because they have to pivot their business or whatever and kind of praying and hoping or just wondering when the return to the new normal is going to be. I get the feeling though that the shift is much more profound than that. What’s your take on it? Does the virus have a message for us?

Sloane:                I love this conversation. I want to really appreciate and acknowledge the way you’ve been furthering the conversation with all of your guests and what you’re talking about. I believe, yes, absolutely. On the biggest picture, here’s the question that I have for you and the women listening. Have you been experiencing almost a higher call to caring for other people, to noticing other people, to seeing what they need, to try to help in an even bigger way?

Melinda Wittstock:         Oh gosh. Yes. Absolutely. What a great question. Right? Because I see that in myself and I see that in so many other women. I was seeing it actually a little bit before coronavirus really struck as well but especially now.

Sloane:                Yes. Right now, we’ve gotten this opportunity where a lot has been cleared away and we’re kind of seeing what’s really important. We’re also seeing in a whole new level that there is the great equalizer for human beings that is there’s no person or race or class that isn’t subject to being hit by coronavirus and more importantly, the fear that’s happening.

Sloane:                We’re coming together in a whole new way. I really feel that this is kind of an up leveling for us as people that’s going to continue after this emergency situation shifts.

Melinda Wittstock:         Absolutely. I think that is so true. What do you think are the biggest things that are going to shift permanently I guess as a result of this?

Sloane:                Well, first I think this idea that we’re going to go back to how things were, I think we’re all on board that that can’t happen just even by virtue of having this experience. It’s almost like we got tattooed by what’s happening and well, this is now a part of who we are. Actually, my brother lives in China and I’ve been talking to him about what they’re experiencing there a couple of months ahead of kind of what we’re experiencing in the US. They’re more free than we are. They’re not under quarantine but activities are still restricted.

Sloane:                People are still not in large group gatherings, and if we think about that here, it’s like, okay, let’s say that that plays out for a while here and the effects that it may have on the economy and just the things that come with that, the permanent shifts, the places that we could be looking in let’s say business are really around, okay, where do I get my business dialed in in a way that no matter whether we’re in quarantine, whether we’re in post-quarantine or just flourishing economy, where can I get my business dialed in so that it really is as effective as possible as profitable as possible?

Sloane:                What I think a lot of people are seeing now is that there were certain things about business that weren’t working or serving them, and right now taking the opportunity to look at that, and then permanently shift business, it’s like we can step into this whole new era of being entrepreneurs.

Melinda Wittstock:         I think that’s true. I think that’s interesting that people have been calling it social distancing. I prefer physical distancing because in actual fact, we’re connecting more than we have before and connecting around the things that are the most important. When we extrapolate that out to business, you could look at your business in that way as well. What is your business doing and how is your business connecting with customers in a way that’s deeper and more meaningful? Right?

Melinda Wittstock:         It’s really a chance to look within I think personally but also look within as a business. There are so many different ways we can shift that foundation and maybe these changes would have come anyway, but this is waking people up to a much more rapid change and really that thinking outside the box that drives some of the bigger innovations that are possible.

Sloane:                Yes. I love that. The other piece of this is it’s like I think that we’re being called as entrepreneurs to really serve in a whole new way to really care about what we’re doing and move from inspiration rather than fear in a whole new way, but the other side of this that’s really important to look at and especially for women, which I’m totally generalizing, but for a lot of women is on the flip side or the opposite of that is how comfortable have I been in receiving and to really see, okay, if you’ve been just giving, giving, giving, and in some exhaustion or tiredness or maybe just lackluster passion is really to take a look right now at where have I been blocking receiving and how do I need to open up to that to truly be giving in a whole new way?

Sloane:                Because it’s not real giving if you are exhausted and depleted and wearing yourself out in any way at all.

Melinda Wittstock:         I agree. It’s funny you should say that. I have been part of this group Meditation that’s been going on in the mornings now. Every day we’re one led by a wonderful friend of mine who’s an energy healer. We did something recently that blew my mind. We were sending kind of love like all over the world to kind of heal the world and heal individuals and specific cities. We were giving, giving, giving, giving, and then suddenly she said, “Okay. I’m going to mention each one of your names and the whole group is going to give to you and send healing thoughts.”

Melinda Wittstock:         The feeling of receiving that was so beautiful and overwhelming but in a good way. For everybody in the group, we’re as empaths or as givers or as entrepreneurs, I think we’re problem solvers, right? We spot a problem in the world, we kind of come up with a business to solve it. But it’s hard for us to receive and just letting that settle into your bones and your cells and to your heart was so powerful.

Sloane:                Beautiful.

Melinda Wittstock:         It’s an amazing thing to be able to do. But women really struggle to be able to receive generally.

Sloane:                [crosstalk 00:07:25] and I have an activity that anybody could try to see more of the truth about how open you are to receiving, which is simply to sit down with a partner, a best friend, someone you trust and maybe it’s on video, now if you’re in quarantine, and just to say, “Hey, I want to try something with you. Could we just be here together for just a minute? I’d love for you to share something that you appreciate or love about me and I’ll explain to you in a minute what this is, but would you mind sharing that with me?”

Sloane:                Then, whatever they say, first of all, they might have like a laugh or a reaction, just noticing, and then whatever they say really taking it in and noticing what your first instinct is to respond. Do you just fully take it in and like, “Oh thank you,” gratitude for this genuine thing that the person said or is there some part of you that wants to jump in and give them a compliment back or say, “Oh, whatever this old thing,” or whatever we do to kind of deflect that receiving? Even though I just kind of spoiled what might happen this is still hugely valuable to do because whatever first arises, it’s like, “Oh look at that. Look, I’ve been wanting to receive more clients and more money in my business and notice what a hard time I have even receiving a compliment.”

Sloane:                Then, you can try it again the next day or in a week or with someone else and really just continue to practice receiving because here’s the most important thing. We don’t get to just say I want to receive more money, it’s really I want to receive more money as I want to receive more. I have to be available to receive more of the whole. That includes compliments. It may include money. It may include criticism. It may include feedback you don’t like.

Sloane:                I mean anything, and so how comfortable can we get with receiving whatever it is knowing that I am going to be okay?

Melinda Wittstock:         Right? What a beautiful exercise. I know that I’ve been through that in my life. I know that I used to deflect compliments and there was something in there that was sort of like almost like an embarrassment or feeling like I don’t know, I had too much or something or I don’t know, a guilt maybe. I don’t know, there’s lots of different reasons for a reaction like that.

Melinda Wittstock:         At the root of it though is feeling like you’re not enough. I think so many people. I mean, men, but especially women where we’re so focused on other people that we sometimes forget what we have really to give to the world. I think right now is a really interesting time though too because in that kind of looking within and the necessary stillness that comes with the physical distancing.

Melinda Wittstock:         Right now, though, don’t you think it’s such a great time to look within? A lot of us have a lot of extra time, a lot of us don’t. I’ve never been more busy in my life because I’m in the middle of a launch of my fifth business. Things are super, super busy. But still being disciplined and taking that time to look within at what your true assets actually are and how to be in alignment with those things and feeling that gratitude because around us, there’s obviously a lot of suffering but there’s so much too to be grateful for.

Melinda Wittstock:         So, trying to figure out how to balance that so we don’t go into that fear and scarcity that it’s so easy to slip into at a time like this. What are some of the practical things you do, Sloane, to stay in that vibration of gratitude or abundance rather than scarcity?

Sloane:                In the beginning of this situation, and when everything started happening especially when we went into quarantine, I was experiencing a lot of fear that was my own fears arising but also really feeling the fear of people, which I know like you and a lot of women listening I’m sure, feeling really sensitive to others and the energy.

Sloane:                I almost made it for kind of the first week of the quarantine, I had to make it. My full focus, besides taking care of my daughter, to really take care of my own energy. I ramped up my meditation to be in the morning, 45 minutes to an hour multiple times a day, exercise, and I’m still doing that. As sometimes the fear, the feelings of fear subside and sometimes they come back, and mostly, it’s that I’m feeling other people’s fear.

Sloane:                I’m not actually really experiencing a lot of fear myself, but whatever it is, I think that there’s almost no more important task than this because the way I see it this, what’s happening right now is about much more than the coronavirus. Right now we’re really shifting into a new era of human consciousness, and what I mean by it is we’re moving into a time where the businesses that are going to be successful and the entrepreneurs who are going to be feeling the most fulfilled and the most in the flow are the ones who are cultivating and learning how to run their businesses and take action from inspiration rather than fear, which is where a lot of our business and structures have been built on.

Melinda Wittstock:         I love that. I mean it’s something that really shifted in my life in recent years to be able to do that. I mean my morning meditation way pre-coronavirus was something like this. Looking up at the, imagine me looking up at the heavens or universe or whatever and just saying, “Well you know that I know that I can’t do this on my own. So, please, open me up to be a channel for inspiration,” or something like that.

Melinda Wittstock:         The words are different every day and that kind of intention in a meditation for me. But increasingly, and almost non-stop now, I just get these downloads and I’ve learned to trust them and act on them in the moment. The difference, I’ll tell you, this is business number five for me. The difference in how this business is running and the ease with which it’s running, even at a time like this, even when I’m launch in the middle of coronavirus, right? Is that there are, not the best timing, but not bad timing actually.

Melinda Wittstock:         There’s tremendous synchronicities and the right people showing up at the right time and just those actions. When those actions are taken in that kind of alignment that the universe sort of aligns. It’s a very interesting thing, which I understood intellectually for a while before I really got it like in my body. I actually started practicing it.

Sloane:                I have a question for you because that is such a beautiful example, Melinda. What inspired you to start living like that and to start having that practice?

Melinda Wittstock:         It’s funny. It’s a really gradual thing. I mean like a lot of people where you’re going on a certain direction in your life and living in a certain way and the signs start out subtle, and then they get louder and louder and louder until you pay attention to them. In my case, I’d to be knocked flat on my ass. I mean I was in a terrible marriage to a narcissistic alcoholic and I just lost my confidence over time, and on the outside, it look like everything was fine, entrepreneur, business successful, everything, yada-yada-yada, but that coincided with just we’d lost all our money in 2008 and that whole mess.

Melinda Wittstock:         He had taken money from me, and so I woke up one day and I had $4 in the bank. But the outside world didn’t know it. I had so much shame around it, right? It wasn’t even something I could talk about. Even my closest friends had no idea. It really, my transformation really began there. I’d always been really interested in all of these things, metaphysics even and meditation and yoga and stuff like that. I started doing yoga in 1990.

Melinda Wittstock:         This had always been part of my life but the difference was it had to for me, get so bad, my worst fears had to play out like being dirt broke, failed marriage, all of that kind of stuff, for me, to really embrace these practices. For me, it started with gratitude, with a really dedicated gratitude practice, being really disciplined about my yoga, which really led me into meditation. A whole series of things around learning how to let go of things, learning how to clear energy, whenever I was triggered by anything, seeing that as an opportunity. That’s an opportunity is showing me something about myself that I don’t need anymore.

Melinda Wittstock:         It might be an old memory from childhood or it might be, I don’t know, something deep in my epigenetics, whatever, right? But just learning how to let go of stuff like that and the journey has just continued and with each step along that path, more unveils itself. But it’s become a real discipline and a practice and. Now, I just operate in such a different way, even in terms of setting intentions. I don’t even… I’m mindful now that I don’t want my ego to set the intention because it’s necessarily going to be too limited. So, I want more divine inspiration to show me what my intention is. Right?

Sloane:                I love that. I call this conscious surrender because-

Melinda Wittstock:         it is surrender.

Sloane:                … for powerful women like us, we’re like, “Surrender, what?”

Melinda Wittstock:         Oh surrender-

Sloane:                So, I don’t really think of surrender but it is. It’s a conscious way of saying, “Yeah. I’m going to have my plans. Yes. I’m going to move forward with my life the way it is.” What I see and powerfully, and also this openness to co-creating with life.

Melinda Wittstock:         Oh gosh. Well, I love that you said that. The word surrender was a big one for me. It was hard for me to surrender. I’m like the most willful, impatient person on one level, right? That drive got me far in business and in life. It worked really, really well until it didn’t. For me, learning surrender was like… Yeah. Like dragged, kicking, and screaming there.

Melinda Wittstock:         What’s funny though about the whole surrender thing is the coronavirus… I mean I think it’s almost its message because like I was saying that with a person if you ignore the signals, and you ignore the messages and all that stuff, it just gets louder and louder and worse and worse and worse. I think in our society, we’ve been ignoring all these messages. Right? Ignoring them, ignoring them, ignoring them. It has to get louder and louder and louder.

Melinda Wittstock:         This, in this country is knocking us on our knees. It’s showing how institutions are broken, how the news isn’t trusted, how all these different things aren’t working, and we are going to be in this lesson and learning… A great mentor of mine says, “When the lesson is learned the experience is no longer necessary.” Because the minute we learned this lesson, it will disappear. But I think there’s a lot of people still in that willful ego kind of thing that are fighting it, as opposed to surrendering to it, if that makes sense.

Sloane:                I think of it as how willing can I be to live right now like I have a blindfold on? That is letting go of all the plotting and the planning and the future projecting. It doesn’t mean letting go of vision or how I see things could be and what I want my life but it’s more like letting go of the pieces of the pushing and the moving forward that weren’t serving me, that aren’t serving us as individuals, and also have not been serving us collectively to really move into this conscious surrender or creating with what is in the present moment and being present in us and willing and not to be vulnerable because it’s so vulnerable to be moving through the world and living like that to being present enough to see what’s happening. Right now, we’re having to do that, which is I think a huge part of the discomfort.

Melinda Wittstock:         Well, change is very uncomfortable for a lot of people. I have a question for you in this because you work with women and you lead them to amazing transformations. Sometimes transformations can happen really quickly, but sometimes people, often people are pretty resistant, not consciously necessarily. They want the transformation but deep down within them, subconsciously, there’s a real resistance because change is unfamiliar, change is scary to a lot of people. How do you help women walk through that process?

Sloane:                I agree with you completely. I think on the outside, if you ask anybody, “Hey, do you want to be a billionaire and have lots of money and be wealthy?” They’re like, “Yeah. Of course.” But the companion question that you really have to ask yourself is for the amount of the jump that I want to go, in any transformation whether it’s in wealth or your quality of intimacy or anything in life, for the amount of the jump that I’m wanting to take, am I willing to go through the proportionate amount of discomfort? The answer to that question will tell you how really willing you are for a transformation and a change.

Melinda Wittstock:         Yeah. That’s really true. So, do you think it always has to be difficult? Does there have to be a struggle involved in the transformation?

Sloane:                There doesn’t have to be. No. I mean one of my mentors, David Nagel will say, “Making a decision about making a change can be like just unzipping a suit on your body and just walking out of it into the next phase.” I kind of think of it as how willing are you? How quickly can you turn your focus from what was into what you want it to be?

Sloane:                It’s almost like literally moving your head from one side to another to look at something else, and sometimes… I’ll give you a personal example. Relationships for me and the times that I’ve had transformation, that’s the hardest thing to let go of. Relationships where I feel like, “I really love the person but it’s not serving me and we’re not connecting in the same way and it’s really they’re not in the place to where I see myself going.”

Melinda Wittstock:         Oh gosh.

Sloane:                Letting go of it can be so hard.

Melinda Wittstock:         It can be. That’s true too in business. I know I had a business, one before this one, which was a good kind of solid business but it wasn’t really going where I wanted it to be. For every couple of steps forward there was kind of a kick in the head back. There were lots of signs that it wasn’t really the right business or I wasn’t entirely in alignment with it, but it was incredibly difficult to let go or just move on.

Melinda Wittstock:         I actually needed, I needed to hear permission from my investors just to say, “Hey, you know what? Take a break from this for a little while and focus over here.” I was-

Sloane:                What did you think was the big challenge of the moving on? What piece [crosstalk 00:23:57]

Melinda Wittstock:         The big challenge was that I had an obligation to the investors. I wanted to succeed. Here’s where I was out of alignment. It was a pivot from another business, and it was a pivot made in fear. That was one of the reasons I think that just energetically, no matter what, it wasn’t really going to fly.

Melinda Wittstock:         It did well. It was a nice seven figure business but it was meant to be like a billion dollar unicorn. Right? It was good. It kind of works but it didn’t really make me happy. There were so many challenges in it. It just didn’t flow. Couldn’t get into flow with it.

Sloane:                [crosstalk 00:24:54] interesting how we become defined by the things in our lives and also how the people in our lives see us, and then I think letting go of that or just being willing to say, “I’m not going to be defined by that anymore.” That’s where it can be easy. How willing you would be to just say, “You know what? This isn’t serving me and I’m going to talk to the investors and move it forward but I’m moving on.”

Melinda Wittstock:         Yeah. I mean, in this case, yeah. In this case, I was able to make them whole. Several have come with me into the new business, which is in alignment, is in total flow, and very much created from this conscious perspective with investors that really support that. It’s a whole different thing. But it’s curious because I just thought of something. I said the pivot was born of fear.

Melinda Wittstock:         I think it’s really important that entrepreneurs right now don’t make decisions in panic. When you’re in fear, have you noticed, Sloane, we make bad decisions when we’re in fear? When we’re in uncertainty, we don’t make any decisions at all, right? It’s kind of like making sure that you don’t make knee-jerk kind of I’m just going to pivot over here right now if that pivot is not actually in alignment with you.

Melinda Wittstock:         It’s making sure that your business as you try and say if your revenue stream has dried up or you have a brick and mortar right now or something or you have an events business right now, and you have to change it up, making sure that you’re still going in a direction that is in alignment with who you are. There’s a lot of work to be done right now. That kind of-

Sloane:                There is a lot. Yes.

Melinda Wittstock:         It can be kind of an icky work. If people are in a place where they weren’t really kind of ‘woke’ I guess, and this kind of hit them like a ton of bricks. That’s pretty hard because it’s requiring of people very fast change. So, of your clients, of the people who, are there people who are just really struggling with this and there are other people who are dealing with it better? I mean I’m kind of curious what the different responses you’re seeing in the women that you work with.

Sloane:                The women that I work with are I’m sure a lot like the women who are listening, which are women who have been doing their personal work for a while, and especially in our private work really diving deeply into it. They have a lot of tools and awareness of how to move through this situation, but I would say, there are some that the fear is hitting them more deeply.

Sloane:                One of the most beautiful things about this, what’s happening right now is it acting like a magnifying glass for what was already going on beneath the surface for each of us?

Melinda Wittstock:         Right.

Sloane:                For the client who’s experiencing kind of like paralyzing fear in her business and what to do and that is a gift for us to see because that was going on underneath that even she wasn’t fully aware of. It’s like the opportunity to use this time to grow through whatever is being shown. Then, really come out on the other side as a shifted human, and then a shifted business.

Melinda Wittstock:         Also, being open to surprises I guess in a way, right? When we’re very much in our left brain or our ego like we’re limited because… Right? So, opening up that channel where you can think outside the box and really be open to radically different things, dis-attaching. I guess that’s part of the surrender as well.

Sloane:                Yes. That actually is one of the most exciting things about this time. I would love, if it’s okay on a business podcast to give a kind of sexy example?

Melinda Wittstock:         Sure.

Sloane:                Okay. So, right now while we’re in this all bets are off kind of scenario, nobody knows really what’s going to happen, we’re waiting. People’s expectations are fluid, and so let’s say in relationship, you’ve always wanted to or been at least a little interested kind of in the background of talking dirty. So, right now’s a good time to like try it out, say something kind of crazy that you wouldn’t normally do when you’re being intimate and just see how it goes, and if it’s terrible and weird and awkward, you don’t like it, this is just something you laugh about one day of like, “Oh remember, during that quarantine time what I said?”

Sloane:                If it ended something you do like and it’s great, then it becomes now a part of you and who you are. If you work with that example with business, you can do the exact same thing.

Melinda Wittstock:         It’s a good time to be contrarian I think in a way, right? But also just to something, yes, again, it’s this opportunity now where everybody’s habits have changed, have had to have changed. People are at home, they can’t do the things they normally do. So, all habits are different. You go to the supermarket, you got to stand six feet apart wearing a mask, you’re doing all those things.

Melinda Wittstock:         So, that rapid habit change does bring in a fluidity because it means that everything is kind of up for grabs in a way. We can really truly reinvent. We can completely change the rules is actually what it means and I think that’s what this period is about, is to rethink-

Sloane:                It’s exciting.

Melinda Wittstock:         … rethink everything. Yeah. When we get like that, now that vibration now just like how we’re talking now is exciting. So, being in that frame of mind as an entrepreneur is where entrepreneurs are at their best, and now there’s nothing really, well, perhaps financial, there are things you got to deal and navigate but there’s nothing really to hold you back in reality.

Sloane:                There is not. If you think about it before this situation, we were putting ourselves in situations where we paid to kind of get this sensation. I just went on a 10-day silent meditation retreat. I go on entrepreneur adventures where I jumped off of a 400-foot bridge over the Zambezi River. I’ve looked for experiences to put me in the present moment by virtue of the fact that they were uncomfortable to get new inspiration, to see new things about myself.

Sloane:                I’m sure, I know you do that Melinda and I’m sure the women listening do that, so [crosstalk 00:31:57]-

Melinda Wittstock:         Oh my goodness. I can think of all the things because you and I, both in maverick, right?

Sloane:                Yes.

Melinda Wittstock:         Some of the things I did in that like swimming with sharks and like petting a shark or like, yeah. You did the Zambezi, I didn’t do that trip, right? But I saw the video of you guys, right? But, yeah, doing a whole bunch of things to get you out of your comfort zone or, yes, paying lots of money to go and sit in isolation-

Sloane:                And be quiet.

Melinda Wittstock:         It’s so funny. Now that’s like you know? So, it’s not like we can say, “Oh, this is terrible.” It’s actually what we used to pay for. It’s hilarious.

Sloane:                It’s not to discount that there’s a darkness and a challenge and people are sick and people are dying, all of that and the truth is for most of us, 99% of people who are not actually physically in person affected by what’s going on, there is this other side.

Melinda Wittstock:         Yeah. It’s really true. I think a lot of the fear though too is coming from our epigenetics as well as. For people who don’t know epigenetics, I mean we have actual fears and emotions and things in our DNA from our ancestors, all of whom have lived through other pandemics and other moment of scarcity like the depression or other things, wars, all of it. I think we can be triggered with those fears that are from the past. So, just to be able to when those things come up being in a good discipline, to just say, “Huh, that’s interesting.”

Melinda Wittstock:         Approach it is just a curious person like, “What’s that showing me about me? What of this do I need to keep and what can I just let go?” Then, let it go.

Sloane:                Yes. I love that. You’re bringing up what’s happened in the past because another place that is really inspiring on this topic is if we move through the fear consciously, so really become aware of the fear, feeling the feelings, acknowledging it, and then taking action to shift the fear before we move forward, so consciously moving through fear really is actually a gift to future generations and to future people who don’t have to go through what we are now in the same way.

Sloane:                It’s almost like you’re referring to noticing that this is much bigger than us and objectively seeing it, it’s also to be able to say, “Okay. What I’m going through right now and the work that I’m doing to shift myself out of it and move through this with as much grace and joy and purpose as I can, is also in service to me in the future and to future people and generations.”

Melinda Wittstock:         I think that’s so, so true. So, Sloane, how has this affected your business? What are you going to be doing differently in your business now as a result of what’s going on or were you on this trajectory anyway? Is there anything really different for you?

Sloane:                There is actually. My business has been holding high-level women’s retreats that are this beautiful experience I really created with my heart and when I first became aware of how I am considering that I need to actually delay my May retreat for women, at first, I was really disappointed. I mean that’s the beginning level of what my business is based on.

Sloane:                Then, I got angry of why is this happening and kind of work through that, and when I got myself to full acceptance of what is, I really started asking myself, “Okay, how can I help the most right now?” I kept asking that over and over and just really being open to listening and what we were talking about earlier, being present because that’s all I had. My business model is just for the time being completely shifted.

Sloane:                The answer that came to me is to help women through this transition into this new era of doing business. I’m a former business attorney. I’ve worked with hundreds of service provider entrepreneurs in all aspects of business, strategy, mindset, and growth, and while I’ve been doing that work continuously with my private clients, I’ve been talking publicly more about living a life of fulfillment, and what that looks like.

Sloane:                I realized that I need to bring this business element to the forefront, and it’s balanced out my work in a whole new way. So, what I’ve created now that really is, again, from my heart of what I have to give to help people right now is I’m holding a five hour workshop, the week of April 20th, for service provider women, professionals, and owners, to really take a look at four important things.

Sloane:                These are women like I know you are and the women listening, you’re already doing this work on your business, and what I’m talking about is offering what I have to give to deepen the work. So, that is getting a whole new level of clarity on your bold offer in this new era, not just having a pivot, like you were talking about of just kind of knee-jerk reaction and fear but it’s like, “What are you really meant to be doing now and there’s something in this circumstance that is going to illuminate something greater for you?”

Sloane:                The second one is making decisions about what needs to be pruned in your business and where you’ve been limiting what you can receive. These were things that were existing before and are now being magnified.

Melinda Wittstock:         What beautiful work. Sloane, how can people find out about it? What’s the way that people can sign up?

Sloane:                The best way is I have a website you can go to and it’s warriorsoftheheart.co/businessre-imagined.

Melinda Wittstock:         Wonderful. We’ll have that in the show notes as well, and so everybody can sign up at Wings of Inspired Business here, we all believe in lifting as we climb, and I think one of the other interesting things that’s happening right now is that women are getting out of scarcity and getting more into collaborating and really helping one another.

Melinda Wittstock:         I think that’s where we are naturally at our best, but for many, many years the way business was set up was not set up in that kind of collaborative way. There were so few positions for women. The women went into it in this fighting kind of mode, right? Succeeding despite and as that really changes, it’s accelerating even more, I find that women are increasingly developing that muscle to actually really support one another.

Melinda Wittstock:         When we do, it’s transformational. I know the retreats that I had last year that was a specific mission to get women really in that mode of abundance where we are really helping each other and lifting as we climb. What was amazing is after the two retreats last year, we actually did about $400,000 worth of business with each other-

Sloane:                Oh, wow.

Melinda Wittstock:         … as a result of the deep connections and the work we did in those retreats. Like you, I too, I’m like mine is in November. I’m thinking, “Well, I don’t know. It might go ahead. I don’t really know.” It’s just kind of like working with our venue because a lot of people have paid and people are really hoping to be there. Gosh. We’ll all need it by then. But we maybe, depending on how he react, we maybe in another wave of this, right? It’s just so difficult to know.

Melinda Wittstock:         But finding ways to really deepen that connection between women, how are you finding that? Are you finding that your, the clients you work with are getting more into that spirit of women really helping each other?

Sloane:                Yes. Definitely. I think a big way of women really helping each other that’s been arising is people sharing more honestly. I’ve been holding a group call with some of my private clients since this started and just extra support and value for them and noticing people opening in a way that I think beforehand they wouldn’t because it’s a way of giving. I wanted to add on what you were saying before of really us standing up and contributing more to each other’s lives and giving the piece that has to go with it hand in hand is only giving what I actually have to give.

Sloane:                Meaning [inaudible 00:41:03] boundaries and not giving from a place of where it’s depleting me, and so even this course that I’m doing is a great example. I’m giving a 100% of what I have to give for these five hours live that week, and at the very end, I’m going to offer a group coaching program to some people. I don’t have a year of services to give. I’m not going to but during this time where I am doing the free portion, it’s just about that. It’s not sales. It’s not anything.

Sloane:                I’m giving fully and I think I’m seeing what you’re doing, Melinda, of your ramped up activities and conversations. I know you’re doing the same thing. It’s like, “Let’s give to each other what we have to give, and then take care of ourselves also.”

Melinda Wittstock:         Yeah. I think that’s true. There’s also a really interesting time right now to where there’s this desire to just give away everything for free. Now, a lot of people are having a financial issue but for women, women tend to always underprice. Pre-coronavirus, right? On this podcast, we talk all about the fact that we would give things away for free or underprice or not really ask for our value.

Melinda Wittstock:         I want to make sure that our value doesn’t get lost as we’re giving and money somehow continues to circulate. What’s your feeling about that?

Sloane:                Yes. Oh, it’s so good. It’s like the more attention that I personally can pay to giving only from when I have the energy to fully give, not expecting anything in return, then the higher my value to myself increases because then I’m thinking of myself as valuable. Where when we just give it away for free and do too much and over-deliver, not only can people sense that, there’s kind of like an energetic like, “Well, I’m going to give you this but I need something in return from you.” Also, it’s depleting. That’s actually based in fear.

Melinda Wittstock:         I just see in all my women’s groups right now this rush to like give, give, give, give, give, and then lots of conversations where women are like, “Good god, I’m so tired. I’m like…” Right? It’s that, and not falling into that trap. That’s what I love what you’re doing is for people who are doing this work and they’re conscious about it, taking it deeper into a higher level.

Sloane:                Yes. Let’s be conscious about where the giving is coming from, and then kind of what you’re talking about this race to give, really checking in for we all have to ask, “Am I giving because I feel like I should and this is the thing to do right now or because I really am called to be giving something?” Imagine a world if all of us women were really giving from that place and when we didn’t have any more to give, we stopped, and said, “I need to charge you now or I’m not giving anymore or I’m not doing this thing.” I mean the power in that is almost brilliant and very exciting to think about.

Melinda Wittstock:         Oh, it’s so true. So, Sloane, we’ll have all the details for how women can sign up for this amazing thing that you’re doing, and how else can people find you and work with you? Presumably, you’re all over social media and all of that as well, what’s the best way?

Sloane:                I love to connect. I really love to know growth minded women who are excited about their lives and their businesses. I would love to connect on social. I really would love to be in conversation with anyone listening who feels called to connect with me. Let’s get to know each other and see how we can support each other in life and business.

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

Sloane:                Thank you so much, Melinda. I really appreciate it.