Mindy Duff

Transcript

foreign growing up I was a weird kid not super weird but different enough from everybody else that I stood out a little bit like the time in kindergarten when I wanted to be Willie Nelson not be like Willie Nelson I wanted to be Willie Nelson I had a close group of friends all Willie Nelson fans of course and they loved and accepted me in all my quirkiness but going outside my friend group was a little tough because my peers didn't really get me and as kids often do they would highlight my differences for example when I was 10 my nickname was China woman because my

glasses were so thick that surely I could see all the way to China but by the time I reached college and young adulthood I'd had over 18 years of people telling me that I was different I didn't fit in I didn't belong and I did the worst possible yet most common thing I believed them and so I worked hard to compromise myself so that I would fit in laughing at jokes I didn't think were funny or appropriate joining in at poking fun at other people because hey at least they're not making fun of me even smoking cigarettes in bars because everybody else was doing it

but this pattern of becoming a chameleon in an attempts to fit in followed me all the way into adulthood where I became an entrepreneur who was so used to abandoning herself for the sake of what everybody else wanted I was convinced that I needed outside help in running the very business that I had created so I hired coaches who instructed me to do things that I hated doing like getting super niched down and using sales scripts on sales calls and it wasn't long before I began to resent the very business that I had created didn't even feel like mine anymore I was so disconnected from

my sense of self after a lifetime of trying to blend in and fit in or at least kind of mesh in with the status quo our love was left empty and unsure but we've all been there even into adulthood even right now look at Pinterest social media influencers that's a job people are paid to tell you what color to paint your walls how you should part your hair what jeans you should wear even what career path you should take but how often do we stop and ask ourselves if we even like the things that are trending and more importantly how do we get from that

place of needing to belong to a place of living authentically for some of us it's not easy raise your hand if you identify as a people pleaser no one wants to admit it but I know some of you will I knew you would because you're a people pleaser and I asked you to do it so you did it right and I know that because that was me too always just making sure I was good enough for everybody else but never stopping to ask myself if I thought I was good enough and it wasn't until one day when I found myself unable to drag myself to

sit down at my desk and sit through yet another scripted sales call as I had been instructed to do I asked myself why am I doing this I hate these calls I hate this script this isn't me and it was in that moment that I realized that not only do I have the power to make a change here but I have the knowledge to know what's best for me now it didn't happen overnight but after lots of personal reflection and the help of numerous coaches and therapists and books and Friends I have begun to peek out from behind the shadow of self-abandonment and step into

the light of who I am and all my Willie Nelson love and Glory and now I can proudly say that I don't want to be Willie Nelson I want to be Mindy Duff today my business looks totally different no more scripted sales calls no more getting super niched down and certainly no more relying on Expert opinions for every business move instead I rely on my own inner knowing and my own intuition and I may not always make the right business decisions but I make the right for me decisions and that feels really good and as a result I have had more aligned opportunities come my

way like this one right here since I've made this change then the entire time that I was trying to do my business the way everyone else said that I should so if you hear nothing else hear this get to know and understand yourself again and start to live authentically because once you do you'll start to feel an internal sense of belonging and that my friends is where the magic lies and once you start to do this it's like shining the Batman Beacon you won't have to look for your tribe they will effortlessly find you but it starts in here first it starts with belonging to

yourself thank you

Transcript generated from the recording and lightly cleaned. Some names and wording may differ from the spoken speech.