For the past few weeks, I’ve been sharing the journey of my entrepreneurial shift — the ups and downs, the joy of building a business, and what happens when you decide to slow down.
Building a business is an act of creation. You can change it, transform it, close it, reinvent it. It’s like a canvas. You can do whatever you want with it. And yet, sometimes we limit ourselves with what we think a business should be, instead of treating it as a creation.
So I’ve been walking myself through an experiment: taking a pause, slowing down, and giving things some space and silence.
And I’m still very much in the middle of it.
What happens when you stop achieving?
One of the main things I’ve identified, both in myself and in the high-achieving leaders I work with, is that we often don’t know what to do with ourselves when we are not achieving or doing something.
For me, spending the past weeks without signing new clients, creating, producing or building the things I’m so familiar with has been very uncomfortable.
Because when you stop doing, other things start to surface.
Some very old fears that I thought I was already free from have come back: the fear of not making it, the fear of not being useful, and the fear of being lost.
And the main fear underlying behind all of those: the fear of not being in control.
So I’m observing myself through this experiment.
What does it feel like to be lost? How long can I stay with feeling unsure and unclear? How long can I handle not being in control and allow something else to emerge?
I don’t necessarily need to solve these feelings. I’m trying to stay with them and see what they have to teach me.
And something very interesting has happened.
When I leave enough space, bigger ideas start to emerge.
Ideas that I don’t think I could have accessed if I had continued doing, doing, doing.
The strategic value of slowing down
This experience has reinforced something for me: retreating from your business is not necessarily a luxury. It can be a strategic need.
As a leader, founder or business owner, sometimes the best thing you can do is step away from the business and stop trying to make things happen.
Especially now, in an era of AI where we can execute more and more things, faster and faster.
But if the idea is weak, you simply execute on shaky foundation.
What is increasingly asked from us as humans is the quality of our thoughts, our ideas and the depth behind them.
I’ve found that the longer I wait and listen, the more those aha moments appear. I start to see the big picture beyond the bushes and the trees. I start to see the mountain.
And if I hadn’t given myself that time, I would probably still be doing, doing, doing.
That has been a big reminder for me.
Going back before moving forward
Every year, especially around the change of seasons, I like to stop and revisit what has happened.
This time, I decided to go much deeper.
I started by reviewing the numbers of my business over the past three years. What grew? What worked? What didn’t? I did a huge retrospective of the business.
Then I started cleaning up the administration of my business: my CRM, the work I had done, the people I hadn’t followed up with, all the things that had accumulated while I was busy building.
But one of the most interesting parts has been going back through the trainings and learnings I have absorbed over the past three years.
I realized that I had been so focused on acquiring knowledge that I hadn’t actually integrated much of it.
I was moving from one training to the next, from one learning to the next, without really stopping to absorb what I had already learned.
Now, when I go back and study the material again, I receive another layer of depth from it.
And I have had this thought several times:
“Wow. The gold is already in my hands. I just forgot about it.”
I also went back and read testimonials from people who have been through my containers and experienced transformation.
Sometimes we need to look back at what we have already created to remember what is actually working.
Letting ideas breathe
Another practice that has been helping me is simply not acting immediately on every idea.
I journal. I read. I study. I let ideas come.
And then I give them space.
If an idea is still there after a week, I look at it again. If it disappears, maybe it was simply an impulse from the mind — another attempt to create, control or move forward.
I’m planting multiple seeds right now and see which ones actually grow.
This is particularly interesting for me because I love creating new ideas. I love being in flow. But I can also very easily move from one thing to the next, chasing the next shiny object.
So slowing down has also been a way of asking:
Is this something I really want to build, or is this simply another idea that wants my attention?
What would I create if money wasn’t the driver?
The most profound question that started to emerge when I realized I could give myself more financial freedom and space.
What would I really create from my heart if money was out of the equation?
Of course, money is still part of reality. I have bills, a mortgage, a lifestyle and responsibilities.
But if money wasn’t the primary driver, what would I actually choose to create?
And one thing became very clear.
I want to continue building deep containers with women and holding spaces for transformation.
I just came back from our retreat in Portugal, and witnessing such profound change in such a short amount of time confirmed something for me.
This is where my heart goes.
This is the work I want to continue doing.
And I want to create it from a place of expansion and freedom rather than scarcity.
So what happens when you stop?
This is the experiment I want to invite you into.
What would happen if you slowed down?
Not forever. Maybe for a day. A few days. A week.
What happens when you’re not doing?
What starts to feel shaky or uncomfortable?
What fears come up?
Because that discomfort might actually be showing you something.
And once you stop filling every empty space with action, something else can emerge.
A bigger idea. The right path for you, from a place of truth, not fears.
Maybe you realize that what you were looking for isn’t actually something new.
That the gold is already in your hands.
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