How to Celebrate Business Success

You’re listening to the Mastering Money in Midlife podcast with Debbie Sassen, Episode 78.

Welcome to Mastering Money in Midlife, a podcast for midlife women in business to overcome financial anxiety and make more money without burning out or sacrificing their families. Join Certified Life and Money Coach Debbie Sassen, as she shares practical business strategies and mindset shifts that help you dissolve the money blocks that keep you stuck in a cycle of underearning and undersaving, sabotage the growth of your business, and prevent you from building the wealth that you desire.

Hello, my friends, and welcome back to the podcast. I have a fun episode for you today, it is all about celebrating success in business. I chose this topic because yesterday was the live kickoff event for my group coaching program Wired for Wealth. And something different happened inside of me after this event.

I woke up this morning, and without even thinking about it… My brain was not yet engaged; it was a full body experience. I said to myself, “I’m proud of you, Debbie. I’m proud of you.” It just sort of came out of me from nowhere. It was this deep inner knowing that I did something special. That I did something unusual. That I stretched myself and my nervous system and my capacity.

And the months of thinking and planning, running webinars, inviting people to consultations, and then inviting them into my group, that worked. And then there’s the planning the event stage, and making sure that everything went off smoothly. Of course, there are glitches, there always are. But nothing that was dramatic, that in any way detracted from the success of the event.

All of that came together in this big, beautiful way inside of me. And I had this sort of calm, really serene, knowing about me. Yes, I’m exhausted today. I spent time in my pajamas until 12 noon. And then, my daughter was over with my grandson, and I played with him a little bit. I actually went outside; I enjoy the sunshine. I walked them home, and babysat my grandson while my daughter went to get her daughter from nursery.

Then, when they were home, I went across the street to pick up my other two granddaughters at the bus stop and cross them, because they’re still too young to cross themselves. And so, usually my daughter has to go and cross her daughters, or the girls have to wait at the bus stop for an adult to come and cross them. But it was such a beautiful, calm day.

And for me, this is a big area of growth. I think for many women, celebrating ourselves and having pride, not an arrogant kind of pride, but just a deep, satisfying, nourishing, and nurturing kind of pride in the work that we do, is something unusual.

I want to give an example. Four months ago, when I completed the first round of Wired for Wealth; that group started in June and they finished in February. Maybe it was only three months ago. Anyway, I was in a coaching program at that time for advanced certification. It was a program that was more focused on body embodied work, nervous system work.

After I completed that first cohort of Wired for Wealth, I brought it to my group. I wanted to spend time just feeling deeply, in my body, pride in something that I had created. I created something from nothing, ideas in my head. Again, there was a launch, there was inviting people in, serving them, and really bringing something new and unique to the world.

My colleagues in my program held space for me, and I just sat there really feeling deeply into my body. I remember crying, and there was this nervous system reaction because I had been working myself so hard. It’s not a physical labor, kind of going out into the fields and plowing and sowing and reaping and doing like hard physical labor that we do.

But when you put your mind into something, and then again, there are all the details and getting the I’s dotted and the T’s crossed, that stretches you energetically. And so often, we do things in life. I think women in particular, we have a tendency to be very hard on ourselves. To not ever think that we’re enough or that we’re doing enough. And when we do big things, when you create big things, something new, really allowing yourself to feel that into your body is a new experience.

And so often, I for one, and I think so many women that I know, we spend time on this treadmill, hustling, going around and around, and doing things. I know that I’ve talked on the podcast about not hustling, and the penny, I think it finally dropped. Because of the work that I have been doing in my nervous system.

For the last year, I’ve been working with a coach on nervous system work. And then I did an advanced certification on embodied nervous system work. And you know what? It really makes a difference in how you feel. There was just some calmness and certainty and deeper knowing today than I have ever felt, ever in my life.

There was a thrill and an excitement and a pride when I wrote my book, The $1K Investor. Definitely the pride when I launched this podcast that you are listening to. And so many things that I’ve done in my life, whether it was getting accepted to college, getting married, having my first baby, and my second and my fourth and my eighth, like, each one of those experiences was tremendously satisfying. And I felt pride about them.

But the way I woke up this morning was just different. I invite you to slow down when you are feeling good about something that you have accomplished. You really want to celebrate business success. Give yourself time.

And I really recommend, whether it’s with a coach or with an accountability buddy or someone whom you trust, to have somebody witness you in your celebration, so that you can feel held, because it’s a vulnerable place. I don’t really know how to describe the vulnerability of feeling proud of yourself. But again, because it’s unfamiliar. It’s just something that we’re not used to doing.

Your nervous system might feel a little bit dysregulated. Because you’re used to being a human who does things, rather than being a human being who is being. It’s something that we’re not usually taught how to do.

In fact, I googled how to celebrate business success, and I almost started to cry in disappointment. Here are six things that I read on Google: A handwritten note or card, a meeting arranged solely to express gratitude, a companywide email congratulating the person, a small gift such as chocolates or baked treats, a shout-out on social media, an extra day of paid holiday. And of course, there are different ways that Google and different articles recommend celebrating business success.

I have to actually say, that after the event yesterday, I had an Airbnb that I took next to the hotel where the event was held. And then, I went to my room and I just calmly called my husband and told him what I was feeling. Then, I went into the Mamilla shopping mall. If you know Jerusalem, you’ll be familiar with the Mamilla shopping mall. It’s a very high-end shopping mall.

I was looking in the windows of the stores that were there, and nothing appealed to me. I didn’t want to buy myself any gift. Probably writing in my journal, I did some of that a little bit today. But writing in my journal that I was feeling proud of myself and congratulating myself on a job well done, would have been helpful.

But getting flowers or a bottle of champagne or buying a trinket or a trophy to put on my desk is so different from feeling success in my body. And that is the message that I have for you today. Give yourself time, drop into your body and find that place inside of you where you are feeling that glow, that warmth. That really satisfying feeling of having created something new, something that yesterday wasn’t here.

And today, there’s something new in the universe that you created with your genius and your ingenuity and your mind and your body and all of the actions and effort that you put into it. Just allow yourself to really hold that space for you; it could be one minute, two minutes, five minutes. I really invite you to get to that place. And I’m looking forward to this for myself, as well. Where you can spontaneously wake up in the morning, and tell yourself that you are proud of yourself.

In fact, during the day, I took a shower after I did a walk. As I said, I went to my daughter and I played with my grandkids, and then I took a shower. And when I came out of the shower, I also looked into the mirror. I said to myself, “Debbie, I’m proud of you.” And again, it was spontaneous. It was this like burst of pride, but not in an excited kind of way with frenetic or frazzled energy of excitement, and that bubbliness of champagne.

It was just grounded, it was calm, and it was something so new and different for me. I really see it as a growth edge for me. And I really hope, if you have never experienced that, or maybe you are very accustomed to it because you are just much more in tune with your nervous system than I am with mine, that you keep doing this. You keep feeling into the practice of allowing yourself to celebrate yourself.

Not with a trinket, not with a box of chocolates, in fact, I haven’t had any chocolate. That’s not true. Yesterday, I came home at about 10:30 at night, and I had two pieces of chocolate. But that’s something that’s also interesting, is that we are conditioned by society that we should have treats, whether it’s ice cream or cake or chocolates, when we do something.

So many times in my life, I have rewarded myself with food, with the chocolates and the sweets, and I have had no desire for any of that today. I wanted my coffee with milk; that I frothed in the milk frother. And I wanted what I call comfort food, which was yogurt with Craisins in it, and a huge handful of cherry tomatoes.

It wasn’t a sugary desire or carb desire that I needed in order to calm my nervous system. And that’s another sign for me that something has switched inside of me. If this isn’t something that you are familiar with inside of you, I get you. It’s a growing edge. I invite you to explore it.

I invite you, if you need a coach or you’re looking for a coach who can help you with your nervous system work, so that you can really change from the inside out and bring a different version of you into the world that’s more calm and grounded and centered.

And certainly, reach out for one-on-one coaching. I do have a couple of one-on-one coaching spots available. And one of them has your name on it. For any other work that you want to do in your business, my number one recommendation is that you explore your relationship with money. Because everything that we do in business involves money; the way we set our prices, how we ask for money, how we receive money, how we plan for money, and building wealth for sustainability and longevity.

I have on my website, DebbieSassen.com/mindset, a “Money Mindset Workbook” that enables you to start exploring your relationship. To look deeply at your limiting beliefs about money, and what you think is available to you and what is not available to you in this world.

You can reach out to me for one-on-one coaching by going to my website, DebbieSassen.com and scheduling a discovery call. Or you can go and download my workbook, DebbieSassen.com/mindset and start examining your relationship with money today.

That’s what I have for you, my friends. Thank you for tuning into this short episode. I look forward to seeing you on the podcast next week. Bye.

Thanks for listening to Mastering Money in Midlife. If you want more information on Debbie Sassen or the resources from the podcast, visit MasteringMoneyInMidlife.com.