Changing The Story With Lana Dingwall

I know there are so many ‘secret’ weapons out there when it comes to business, but here me out!  This is one that I believe also deeply serves us in all aspects of our lives - It is the ability to remain open.  We live in a world where it is extremely easy for us to close ourselves off - to getting help, to believing in ourselves, to taking risks, to learning, to believing that things can change, to hearing competing points of view, to respecting someone even when we don’t agree with them, to name a few.  A key in business is remembering that remaining open to things gives us an advantage because most people don’t. We need to remain open to learning new things, trying new things, believing in something that has yet to manifest itself, believing in ourselves even if we don’t know what we're doing yet.  This week on the podcast I dive deeper into this topic of remaining open and how it has helped me get to this point where I am now… happy, fulfilled, financially successful, operating multiple businesses, doing

I know how much it can suck having to learn a bunch of new things, especially technology, in a world where it feels that just as we’ve grasped one thing, something new comes along.  Please know, that you can ALWAYS opt to not adopt new technology, and that is totally okay. I also know that sometimes it's easier for us to grasp and learn, than we give ourselves credit for.  Maybe you have heard about NFTs and web3 and maybe you haven’t. Either is fine, it’s all so new, think the first minute, of the first period, of the game.  I have been dabbling in this space since last summer and what I can tell you is that I personally am very excited about it’s potential.  I will go into more detail on this week’s podcast episode, and will be continuing to talk about it in future, so if you want to learn more about it, follow along.  What I will say is that what I've read about the space via media outlets VS what I have experienced in the space is very different. NFTs, web3, crypto is a place that is very exciting for cre

We are never just one thing in life, and the same is true in the space of entrepreneurship.    We’ve come to understand being non-binary in relation to gender. I feel it can help us better support ourselves and flourish in ways that are far beyond gender identity.    When we view ourselves, our ideas, our lives, our hopes and dreams and these multidimensional, beautiful complex works of art, we realize we aren’t meant to fit into tiny neat little boxes.    We understand that language, information, and guidance isn't meant to put us into ridgid categories that then tell us how to be and what success looks like. Instead it helps us realize the nuance of carving out our own path based on our attributes.   That ultimately we are the captain of our ships and no one can truly tell us where we need to go.    We explore this deeper in this week's podcast.    I also touch on what can happen when people misunderstand what we mean when we say something - since very few things are universally agreed upon. As I had someon

First off I hope you had a lovely holiday season and were able to get whatever it is that you look for from that time of the year.  I wanted to start off the new year by tackling the concept of productivity. NOT because I think we need to focus on being ultra productive, but because focusing on the right kind of productivity can actually liberate us, fulfill us AND create more ease in accomplishing our big goals. How do we do this you ask?  By refraining how we view productivity, tuning into our own intuition more and giving ourselves permission to do more of what feels good and ditching the rest.  We need to detach from this idea that productivity is directly connected to economic output. We aren’t machines, so we can’t evaluate the value of something solely based on what $ number it produces over everything else in our lives.  We are all also very unique. Meaning that what ignites a flame in me, might put out your flame. We need to tap into what excites us, what makes us feel good, what things we feel energ

One of the main things drilled into us throughout our lives is that we need to ‘obtain’ safety + security, through a series of events.    A good stable paying job with benefits, saving for retirement, marriage, a house, kids, and other forms of social and material status. If you ‘achieve’ these you’ve done something right… but have you?    Safety and security truly cannot come from something outside of us (a job, a relationship, money), because by its very nature it's meant to actually prioritize something that isn’t just you.    Learning how to ride the various waves of life, the good, the bad, the inbetween with curiosity, openness and a knowing you’ll be alright no matter what - that is true safety and security.    As we close out 2021 and move into 2022, I wanted this year's last podcast episode to be something that helps us all build a tool for a better future, and that tool is ourselves.    Sometimes we give up the very things that could liberate us in the most beautiful of ways, because we’re afraid to

Want to know one of the main reasons we don’t accomplish the things we desire?  It isn’t because we don’t work hard enough, or have what it takes….. It’s because we feel that we are our mistakes, our shortcomings, what we lack, and because of that have a hard time tapping into our inherent goodness.  Believe it or not, we are SO MUCH MORE than what we feel holds us back. It doesn't matter how much ‘proof’(aka the bad stuff you constantly run through your head) you have, you are inherently good, capable, deserving and have what it takes to get to where you desire.  As we move into the end of this year and the beginning of a new one, one thing that can help us get to where we want to be is to believe in the goodness that we are, and give less airtime to the bad.  Look, we have all made mistakes. Remember that time I spent over 20k on something that was essentially useless even though I truly thought it was going to take me to the next level. It didn’t, but it did teach me some really important lessons.  The big

Hey!   How do you feel about the concept of being self made?    We often think of it in terms of money and access to wealth and early mentorship, but the narrative around it can be harmful.   In reality no one is self made, not even the people we think are, because we’re all products of those around us. We need mentors, community, people who help us problem solve or do things we’re unable to do. Collaboration is a key ingredient in success.    So my question to you is, do you have enough collaborators, support, mentors and community, or are you trying to do too many things on your own?    As we move out of 2021 and into 2022, what kinds of support might help you make more progress on your goals?    How might your load be lightened with others helping you carry it? Are you holding yourself back in some ways because you’re trying to ‘figure it out’ all on your own?    We dive deeper into this topic on this weeks podcast episode, which you can listen to here.    When I reflect back on when my coaching dreams wer

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where your fear of failure has actually prevented you from doing something?  If there is one thing I’ve learnt over the years, it’s that our fear of failure harms our ability to live the life we desire more than anything else. Fear causes us to feel shame, and shame ultimately traps us.  The thing is though, failure doesn’t really exist, not in the ways we think it does at least. If anything it's simply a moment or state of being that we move through. It isn’t a fixed state of reality, even though we act as if it is.  We have all failed many times, at many different things, we just don’t really carry the weight of them because…. well we’ve moved on.  So why then, do we put so much pressure on ourselves ‘to get it right’, to ‘succeed’, to ‘avoid failure’?  It’s a mind trap that we set for ourselves over and over again.  This week on the podcast, I dive into a big ‘failure’ of mine from when I was younger, how it changed the trajectory of my life and more on how the i

It is human nature to want to belong, but when does our desire to fit in come at an expense that might be too high for us to pay?   Often fitting in is a lot more about membership - checking off certain criteria that creates exclusivity over genuine belonging.    However we want to take time to understand the difference between the two, because genuinely belonging is what we desire, and membership doesn’t give us that. Yet we often think that membership = belonging and therefore we’re willing to give up parts of ourselves in order to fit in.    Lately we’ve been talking a lot about goals, values, creating lives for ourselves that are actually what we desire and we can’t do those things unless we address what can sometimes get in the way.    Membership is the notion that in order to fit into a certain group dynamic, place or organization, you need to follow certain rules. If you have a family dynamic that loves drama, you’re expected to partake in the cycle of drama, otherwise ‘you don’t fit in’. Maybe you nee

If I were to ask you what a good life meant to you, how would you answer that question? And after answering it, would you be able to say yes, you are in fact living that life?    If you’re anything like me, these last fews years have really left me contemplating what it means to ‘live a good life’.    I have come to realize that certain ways I’d answer that question aren’t really me, but the conditioned response I’ve been taught to believe were things I wanted for my life. That, that was someone else's response to a good life, but not mine.    There is also this space of needing to acknowledge the things that get in the way of us living our best lives. The desire to belong, the need for financial security and a sense of safety, responsibilities we feel we are tethered to, to name a few.    This week we dive into how to discover what our version of a good life is, explore the things potentially that feel like hurdles in our way and ultimately how to cultivate that life in a way that feels sustainable and possi

Goal setting is such a prevalent concept in our society, yet a lot of us can get it wrong.   Now ‘getting it wrong’ isn’t to imply that you’re not meeting some arbitrary expectation, but to say that sometimes our goals don’t align with our values, intentions or how we actually want to live.    We can use ‘goals’ as our guiding force in life, but sometimes those goals are leading us away from what we actually want.    Taking the time to figure out what your guiding principles for a well lived life are, what your values are and how you actually want your life to feel in the future is the foundation we want to build our goals from.    Not from an insecurity we have to ‘achieve x in order to feel y’.    What are your truest values? What are the things that you feel make up the very fabric used in creating the tapestry of your best lived life? How can you make sure these things guide your goals?    What would your goals and vision for your future be if you didn’t have to worry about money or had all the validation

Have you ever stopped and asked yourself if your hopes, dreams and goals for the future are actually yours?    When we buy a picture frame, it often comes with a stock image holder that's meant to be replaced.   Sometimes I feel the same is true for our lives. We get handed this life and we’re told we can fill it however we want, but that we forget to take that placeholder image out and end up creating goals for ourselves based on the placeholder - not necessarily what we deeply desire.     As an example, as a coach I find when I talk to other coaches, all of our goals and dreams sound the same. We want to build out variations of the same ‘funnel’s and offers’ and do variations of the same things - even though we are vastly different people.    It got me thinking that sometimes what we think we want is just really heavily influenced by what others we admire are doing, and then assuming we need to do the same.    But we don’t.    We get to be our own people, who do our own wild and beautiful things, we just ne

Hey!    The term lazy is definitely something that haunts a lot of us, especially entrepreneurs. There can be alot of shame, self judgement and frustration that washes over us when we think we’re being ‘lazy’.    However, we need rest and I’ll be the first to admit - I love being ‘lazy. Maybe it’s because I’m a taurus and we are notorious for wanting to chill, or maybe it’s because I know we’re not machines and therefore are very deserving (without having to earn it) of rest.    But today’s email and this week's podcast episode (listen here) is actually about a different kind of laziness, or rather two different kinds.    One is the kind that is rooted in us forgetting our brilliance, and becoming disheartened and therefore disconnected.    The other is becoming busy, being busy and therefore don’t have time for matters most.  I feel these actually impact our ability to live our fullest lives and create the magic we want to see in them. Not because we don’t work hard enough, but rather because we work way too

If you are anything like me, everytime a new social media platform or ‘must do to grow you business’ feature comes out, you might find yourself doing a familiar dance of ‘do I, don’t I’.    It’s easy to fall down the rabbit hole of keeping up with the Joneses when it comes to social media trends, platforms, and the do and don’ts that are always changing.    What we need to learn is how to master the art of letting go. Letting go of the feeling that we need to pivot and change every time a platform tells us too.    The reality is that social media is designed to keep us on its platform and they will do whatever necessary to keep us there.    That though, isn’t your goal is it?    Your objective is most likely to connect with your audience, provide them with something related to what you offer and at some point have some of your audience buy your product or service.    Social media is a tool that we use, but it isn’t the only tool we have available to us. We all need to remember this when interacting with it. 

We’ve all been there... that eternal battle of what you desire and your limiting beliefs going head to head.    One of the most frustrating things about being human is genuinely how we can struggle to get over what feels like our own self imposed hurdles and roadblocks.    Please know though, that we all have them - nothing is wrong with you.    One concept that has really helped me over the years is that whenever I find myself spiraling in a pool of my own insecurities, doubt, and fear I change up how I am approaching the situation with myself.   I believe our energy flows where our focus goes. If I am spending my time, energy and attention on questioning if something is possible, or if I have what it takes, I am going to be met with lots of hesitation, fear, doubt and stories that reinforce that idea. Instead I ask myself how, how am I going to do this, how does something like this get done.    It might seem small, but asking how instead of if, completely changes how you approach a situation. You spend more

Have you been feeling this pull (or maybe a push) to change things up?    Whether that be starting a new routine, creating a new offer, shifting how you do things in your business or even starting something new altogether, fall often brings a feeling of wanting something fresh.    What we need to learn is to listen to that pull, as it is our intuition guiding us in the direction we need to be moving in.   Even if some of this change might mean starting something new or starting over, we need to remember that we’re never really starting over. Every time we begin a new project, business, routine, offer or even way of living, we are building upon what we’ve already experienced, learned and who we’ve become in the process.    Change can be scary, but it’s necessary for growth and innovation.    On this week's podcast episode we dive more into this concept and talk about different ways to approach and look at where this desire for change is coming from, how you can go about it in a way that feels good and why we’r

Have you been feeling a little ‘meh’ lately?    If you have been, you’re not alone. Lots of people I have been chatting with have been feeling the same.    While there are many different factors that play into our energy and engagement levels, a few I wanted to highlight today are comparable to relationship advice we routinely hear.    You’re going to have a honeymoon stage in your business and at some point, like every relationship, the mundane will start to kick in. Now this doesn’t mean the fun is over, it simply means you have to intentionally infuse more spark into your work.    That’s often why people try out new projects or offers, they are looking to keep the excitement alive in their business.   And as with relationships, we all change. If you and your business are able to change and adapt together, it’ll work out. As you grow and learn and connect with yourself more, you’re bound to go through some growing pains transition wise with your work.    On this week's podcast episode we dive more into this

Throughout the course of our lives we change many times. As life ebbs and flows, so do we.    One thing I know to be true is that sometimes creating that change we desire can be hard. Not because we aren’t capable, but because integrating new ways of being and living can come with its handful of challenges.    The key to integrating lessons, insights, and desired ways of being in a sustainable way into our lives all comes down to creating the right containers, and routines to let them become a part of how we live. It isn’t about this big drastic change, which can be hard to sustain. It’s about finding a way to weave what we desire into what we already do and have.    How to weave these new things into our lives is what we explore in this week's episode…   How creating macro and micro routines helps us ground ourselves in what we want to change That we need to integrate from a place of knowing we’re good and whole as we are - we aren’t broken nor do we need to be fixed How small adjustments can make a huge im

Have you ever had that moment where you realize you need to let something or someone who's been a pillar of your life, go?    There will always come moments in life when we need to let some part of ourselves that is connected to something else go, in order to make space for what's next.    It is scary, but also full of so much opportunity.    Nothing, or no one makes up the sum total of who we are, the value we bring into this world and what makes us who we are. That is what we need to remember when we are faced with needing to let something or someone go.    What happens when you let go og the thing you’re the most afraid of losing?    We let go of the identity ascribed to it. We let go of all the ways we’ve tried to make ourselves ‘fit’ in order to maintain it.    We open ourselves up to finding a way to love and accept ourselves fully, instead of using this thing or person to make us feel whole and valuable.    There is so much strength in letting go and that is what we explore on this week's episode…   W