Power Tip: "How to know it's time to step back", Rachel Downey
"The quiet voice always knows, so you just have to sit still enough to hear it."
Transcript
Ryan Castle: You're listening to Level 10 Leaders Power Tips, and I'm your host, Ryan Castle. Today we're revisiting a standout moment from our full episode with Rachel Downey. Her tip is on listening to the quiet voice. Let's dive in.
Rachel Downey: I will say that most of us have a quiet voice on the inside and we're not listening to it. And that quiet voice is often telling us that something's not working. What the hell are you doing? You started this business because it sounded like freedom, and instead you're trapped inside this organization of your own making. Your business is now running you.
Sometimes the quiet voice is whispering that there's more out of life, but we can't hear it because the noise around us is just too loud. So we're not getting quiet and settling in and listening.
So I will tell my story about my own still, small, quiet internal voice that I squashed for a whole 18 months. That's a long time.
For about a year and a half, I was driving to work every morning to my company in Cleveland. And this is a company I love, and I'm crying on my way to work every day. Throughout the seasons, you know, it's summer, it's fall, it's winter, spring. I'm thinking, why is this happening? I couldn't understand, and nothing about what I thought that voice was saying made sense to me. I loved my people. I loved our work and our clients. The business was profitable. I was being called to something new, and it didn't make sense on paper.
It was more of a spiritual call. And here I am living in Cleveland. My friends and family are there. This amazing business. But have you ever heard the phrase, the mountains are calling and I must go? I see these bumper stickers and magnets everywhere with this phrase on them, and I think, that's what happened to me. Literally. These mountains were calling.
My husband and son and I, we take ski trips out here out west, and Ohio's not really known for its mountains. So we'd come out here, and on one of these trips we were wandering downtown Denver neighborhoods, just thinking, what if we made the big decision to move here? We're looking at neighborhoods and we're in little downtown Littleton, which is where I am right now. And downtown Littleton is like a quintessential Old West Main Street.
We're sitting at this rooftop bar and the sun is setting over the Rockies. You see I'm getting teary. I just start crying. I'm crying over my French fries. My husband and my son are looking at me like, what the heck is wrong with you? And I'm sobbing over French fries, and they're saying, what's going on? And I'm saying, this is it. This is my home. I need to be here.
And that's when I stopped arguing with the voice and ended up settling in Littleton.
We finally made the decision to make the move, but I couldn't leave, right? Because I had built this amazing business with my bare hands, and I wasn't going to abandon it. And I couldn't really run it from afar, because part of the calling wasn't just the location. I was being called to a higher level of service. So I needed to figure out a lot, especially with Guide Studio, and I had to build that next generation of leaders that could carry the vision, make decisions, run that business without me.
Just listening to that quiet voice. And the quiet voice always knows. So you just have to sit still enough to hear it.
Ryan Castle: Thanks, Rachel. To connect with Rachel, go to level10.us/48. While you're there, be sure to check out more Power Tips. And thanks for listening.
Small, deliberate actions drive lasting progress. Let's get to work.
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