Episode 14. Running a Business is a Spiritual Awakening

The Inner Briefing Podcast

Listen on Spotify
Listen on Apple Podcasts

Transcript (RAW):

Marie Groover (00:03.705)

Hello and welcome to the Spiritual 9to5 podcast hosted by myself, Marie Groover of The Corporate Psychic. We are back to a solo cast this week and it's a good one. Today I'm discussing the awakening that inevitably comes when you run a business or step into any form of true leadership.

Running a business is a spiritual awakening. I've been saying this for a while now, and the more TCP grows and expands, the more I feel the truth in this. But what is a spiritual awakening? I wanna normalize this phrase and make this terminology more accessible for everyone because whether you are spiritual or not, I can promise you that you've gone through some sort of awakening in your life.

some sort of revelatory moments or phases, existential crisis moments, those are similar if not related, if not rooted in the same. And I wanna be able to use this phrase in a way that is not intimidating or a put off for the quote, non-spiritual, non-religious, non-woo-woo, or even like atheistic or agnostic human. And especially for the pessimist, or shall I say the realist.

A spiritual awakening, if we Google it, of course we have to Google it so as not to completely rewrite the foundation of the phrase, a spiritual awakening is according to your dictionary.com, a realization or inspiration about the connection with an entity or entities beyond the immediate and physical world of God or other intangible sacred spirit. Okay, yes. And it's a phrase that is thrown around quite a lot. And I don't think that

Everyone who uses it literally means that they have met or connected with God. I know that when I'm talking about a spiritual awakening, I'm probably not talking about that either. According to MindBodyGreen, spiritual awakening is also known as enlightenment, nirvana, bliss. But that a spiritual awakening begins the moment a person can step back and awake to their life with a new sense of being in this world. And that is what I want to capture and identify.

Marie Groover (02:26.655)

as what I refer to when I say spiritual awakening, because perhaps the end result is a meeting with spirit or enlightenment itself. I'm not here to convince you of one thing or another, though if you listen to this podcast, you do already know that I believe in awakening the soul of business, but that's neither here nor there. What I am here to talk about today are those beginning moments, the stepping back and awakening or seeing life with a sense of being in this world.

or with a new sense of being in this world because I very much believe that becoming an entrepreneur or running a business or building a business among so many other things is stepping back and awakening to a new sense of being in this world, particularly of being in leadership in this world and leading even more so than building a business requires awakening.

A little over a year ago, I was going through a personal and deep spiritual awakening myself in the literal sense. In truth, it was this awakening or the realizations and epiphany moments that came from it that ultimately became the roots for my business, the corporate psychic. And then as I started TCP, it felt in truth, like week after week, I was awakening all over again.

It was like awakening after awakening after awakening. And what do I mean by this? I mean, it was massive learning and realization and growth followed by massive learning and realization and growth. And I mean, everything felt like a mountain to climb. Everything felt like I was stepping back and seeing things brand new all over again. Everything felt like it was taking me back to myself or showing me something that I hadn't seen before.

and shifting my way of being into the world. My experience in running business has always been at scale because the majority of my experience is based in Microsoft land, where as a business program manager, I see and work in large budgets with hundreds or even thousands of people factored in and many, many moving parts. My role in much of this work has almost always been relatively high level.

Marie Groover (04:49.943)

directing or program managing or orchestrating other people to be in the nitty gritty. Not that I have not been directly in the nitty gritty myself. It's a beautiful thing because when you work in a company, you have a big support system for learning even the basics of your job, right? It's not like you get a job at a company and all of a sudden you're the CEO. Typically you start out with something that either you have experience in or can be trained on and have a lot of support in learning.

and being trained in that thing. You're usually not alone is my point. And even if your training isn't great, you still have it and you still have people you can call on when you have questions or things don't add up or when you need help or support. There are teams and experts and leaders who you can look to to know what to do, to know how to be, to know what's appropriate or not. And even if you don't agree with all of it.

Even if you don't want to fall in line with all of it, you have it. And this is something that non-entrepreneurs take for granted, by the way. When you start a business, on the other hand, every single thing that you do comes back down to you, to what you want, to what you think is appropriate, to what works best for you, to optimizing your own preferences and ways of being and working, to answer all of your questions.

or to pay people to answer them, to support you, to consult with you or to coach you. And even then, it's still all up to you. You are always the one driving and no one can climb your mountain for you. So there's no faking it or avoiding it in your own business. Let me tell you about a time that I literally climbed a mountain. I'm not a mountain climber, but I used to dabble.

And around six years ago, I went to Chile and I climbed this mountain. I think it's called Saratoga. It's actually known as a hill there, being that it's a small guy at 18,500 feet above sea level. For reference, it's taller than any mountain in the lower 50, the lower 50 states of the U.S. And at 18,000 feet, the saturation of oxygen in the air drops down to 80%. And oh yeah.

Marie Groover (07:14.561)

I didn't really train for this. I just kind of went and the opportunity arose to climb. And so naturally I said yes, which is how I feel about starting my business by the way, very similar circumstances. When we started rising on this mountain, we were only walking for the majority of this climb, but my relationship with my body, with what I thought I knew, with how I was experiencing reality, all shifted and everything slowed.

things that would normally be easy became technical and complex. At some point, I had to literally convince my legs to take one step by one step because I felt like I was dreaming. And by that I mean, in my brain, I literally would say to myself, okay, Marie, right leg, just one step, you can do it for every single step. The smallest actions like walking took the most amount of effort.

and mindset and compassion and grace and grit. When we got to the top, I was relieved. I was proud. I was exhausted and energized, fulfilled. I was scared to go down and so much more. I'm sharing this because this is how I feel on a weekly basis in running my own business. I feel relieved and proud and exhausted and energized and fulfilled and scared, scared as fuck.

and excited and exhilarated and

Like I have all the skills and don't have all the skills at the same time. Like I'm moving at a thousand miles per hour without moving at all. Getting lost in the overwhelm and then bringing myself back to taking only the one step right in front of me. In my business, everything is a trigger. Everything is an opportunity to grow, force to learning or discomfort. And there is no one else who can do it for me. I mean,

Marie Groover (09:17.217)

Sure, there are lots of people who can do a lot of things for me. Donning Digital designed my branding and built my website, which I directed and am so grateful for them, by the way. My website would have never launched if I had done it by myself. Kate manages most all of my calendar now, client scheduling, process, policy billing, reporting, financials, project management, programmatic scheduling, probably more than that. And yet I'm still the director.

Jess manages all of my media, graphics, design, any extension on brand, video footage, podcast edits, teasers, media packets, newsletters and comms. Probably more than that as well. But I still write all of the copy. I still speak and record for every podcast. I'm still the decision maker and ultimately the bottleneck when we are in the work together. And Tegan.

Tegan manages energetic balances and client healing plus team healing plus my healing to ensure that we are all supported and growing and safe and at ease. And yet my healing is still my healing. My client work is still my client work. My team is still my responsibility to hold not necessarily in their healing per se, but also in their healing. I'm here to make sure that they feel supported, that they feel like they can grow, that they feel safe.

to be, to express, to do their work that they feel at ease. That's important to me. And no matter how much I outsource, I am not removed by choice. I am present. I am holding it all, even when there are others to support me. And actually, the more I outsource, the more I'm responsible to heal in myself and to hold because there are now more people who rely on me, not even just to get paid, but to do their jobs.

but to have the info they need, the support they need, probably most importantly, the clarity that they need. What's my point in all of this? It's not at all that running a business is a lot of work because you really can do it however you want to. And it can truly be as fun or as challenging or as freeing or as difficult or shallow or as deep or as intense or not as intense as you want it to be. My point is that when you run a business,

Marie Groover (11:42.367)

It's yours, even co-creating with the soul of it, even co-creating with other individuals and team members. You see things of yourself, especially when co-creating actually. You expose things of yourself. You become aware of so many things of and within yourself. And if you want to be successful, if you want your business to succeed, if you want your business to grow, if you want to grow and expand,

You have to do something with what you see and with what you find. There is no brushing yourself under the rug anymore. Now, everything you do impacts your business and its growth. When you rise in your relationships, your business will rise. When you rise in your physical health, your business will also rise. When you rise in your presence, in your wholeness, in your authenticity at home, at work, with clients, with family,

your business will rise. When you grow, your work will grow. And I don't care what kind of work you do, you'll do a better job at it. How we do one thing is how we do all things. And when you start a business, you're putting it all out there. And now the world, the whole world is able to see how you do your one thing. And no one else can climb the mountain for you. No one else can do your thing for you because

It's only yours to climb and do. Working at Microsoft, I've had access to so many personal development trainings and tools and resources and I utilized every single one of them. I've always been one who wants to understand how I operate so that I can operate better. And by better, I mean more productively, more gracefully, more kindly and compassionately and empathically and lovingly and more me.

more authentically in a way that causes the least amount of harm, but provides the most amount of impact. I used to think that personal development was how Microsoft kept people like me happy, but I've come to realize that personal development is a requirement in business. And when you work for someone else, you can bypass it to an extent. You can avoid it to an extent. You can say, I don't need that. I need to be in my job and in my work. But when you're in charge,

Marie Groover (14:09.121)

You really can't anymore. Running a business is a spiritual awakening because it has to be. And how fucking beautiful is that? How amazing is it that by building a business, whether you do it for yourself or someone else, by the way, you get to grow and expand and relate and connect with the world and with other people in a whole new way. Which by the way, many of you now know

that I am leaving my role at Microsoft and stepping fully into my business, the corporate psychic. I will come back to this as an episode in its own, on its own, of its own. But in the meantime, I do want to invite you into my latest offering. My last day at Microsoft will be July 6th. It's also my seven year anniversary and it's the day before my birthday. None of this matters by the way, I just really love this date, how everything fell into place.

But my last four weeks at Microsoft will be my last four weeks with the corporate psychic as my side hustle. And because of this, it feels like such a special time, magical time for me. I want you to join me on a four week series called the Quantum Leap. It's inspired by my own quantum leap with TCP, of course, but it's so much more than that. The tagline is side hustle to profitable, soul aligned, sustainable.

in life giving business and I so mean that. In this four weeks we'll cover topics like, well like this one in the podcast today and how to navigate the spiritual awakening of yourself within your business but also things like picking the thing and starting your business. We'll talk about working for yourself and juggling your nine to five as well as the rest of your life. We'll talk about talking to,

and co-creating with your idea, your business, your team, your projects, your offerings, your products. We'll talk about holding integrity in all aspects of your work, in all forms of your life, which when you're doing and holding so much can be really hard and it can be so easy to cut corners. We'll talk about an ethical, soul-aligned business from start to scale and how to get out of the hustle. We'll talk about business best practices, so,

Marie Groover (16:33.274)

Actual tangible things like bank accounts, backends, taxes, process, policy, etc, etc, etc. All things that I am not an expert in by the way, but that I would love to share my own experience in because no one shared that with me and I think it would have helped a lot. We'll talk about money, like lots of money. We'll talk about a lot of money things, money related things.

Yeah, money is like one of my favorite things to talk about, especially in business, especially in spiritual business, because it feels so taboo. But it's so important to talk about, again, how we do one thing is how we do all things. And our relationship with money is the same. We'll talk about outsourcing and scaling through hiring, through distributing resources, and also creative focus. With that, we'll talk about staying in your zone of genius and letting go of perfection.

If you so choose, we'll dive deep as well into planning and executing your exit from the nine to five. And so much more, by the way, I will be sharing everything that has developed me from my own experience and also from the experience and wisdom that so many leaders, teachers, coaches, mentors, colleagues, and friends have so graciously shared with me. So from now until the end of March, the early bird investment

is a no-brainer investment of $444. I mean, everything you need to know to start, run, optimize, and scale your side hustle into a full-time business. I would have paid that and so much more, by the way. On April 1, the investment goes up to $555 for the four-week series, and in May, it will be the full rate of $775. The series runs from June 7th to July 7th.

And if you email hello at thecorppsychic.com to register and put quantum leap in the subject line, we will knock 25 % off your registration, regardless of when you register to say thank you for listening to this podcast. And thank you so much for supporting the growth and expansion of TCP. Register, do it. You will not regret it. And if you can't make it to any of the live sessions, everything will be recorded.

Marie Groover (18:52.058)

and accessible to you from session recordings to actual materials and slides and things like that in a course-like container for one full year. So seriously, if you feel even an inkling of desire or excitement, just sign up. I promise you won't regret it. The moment you step back and realize a new way of being in the world, it's not only a moment of awakening, awakening to yourself, to your power, to your possibilities.

but it's an opportunity to grow and step into your leadership and step into your highest level vision, your highest self, that leadership. How are you doing that today? And how can I support you in doing that today?

Thank you for listening to the Spiritual 9to5 podcast with myself, Marie from The Corporate Psychic. Save and follow for more wisdom, rate the show, reach out with questions or topic requests. You can find me at hello at thecorppsychic.com. I also invite you to follow me on Instagram at thecorppsychic and I would love for you to join our community for courses, containers, discounts, and live events. It's called TCP Community and Courses.

and can find it at community.thecorppsychic.com. And if you want to go big on you, reach out. I would love to work with you. Wherever you are, whatever is on your mind, I hope to meet again, maybe in the next episode right here. I'm honoring you and with gratitude, good day.