Taylor Morrison 0:04
I find that when I listen within not just to my body, but she my inner wisdom, to all of these different things, there’s this potent truth that’s there, that I often don’t want to acknowledge. Because a lot of times my inner wisdom is telling me to do something that’s outside of what society might say will make me successful. And so it takes work to be able to listen and then complete the cycle of responding in that most loving way possible, rather than listen and then be like, “Oop, I don’t want to do that.”

Blake Schofield 0:45
Hi, I’m Blake Schofield, founder and CEO of The Bridge to Fulfillment®. Mom to three, USA Today Top 10 Professional Coach and former corporate executive who got tired of sacrificing my life for a comfortable paycheck. My mission is to expand perspectives to achieve greater impact at home and work without sacrifice. This is The Bridge to Fulfillment®.

Blake Schofield 1:21
On this week’s episode of The Bridge to Fulfillment®, we have guest expert Taylor Elise Morrison. She turned being bad at self care and being firmly convinced of every human’s potential into a career. She’s the founder of Inner Workout and the author of a book by the same name, recently named one of Fortune’s 10 Innovators Shaping the Future of Health, Taylor is tired of aspirational wellness as usual. Instead, she builds businesses, content, and experiences that make wellbeing and personal development more accessible. You’re just as likely to see Taylor facilitating a workshop at a Fortune 100, as you are to see her talking about tick tock and body image with a high school class. Wherever she goes, Taylor’s sure to use her coaching mindfulness and movement training to meet people where they’re at and offer actionable steps towards creating a world without burnout. And without further ado, here’s Taylor.

Blake Schofield 2:20
All right, Miss Taylor, I’m so excited to have you on the bridge to fulfillment podcast. Welcome, welcome.

Taylor Morrison 2:25
Thank you for having me, Blake.

Blake Schofield 2:27
I am really looking forward to our conversation today, I think you’re going to add a lot of value to those that are listening. And we certainly share a lot of the same passions. But before we dive into that, can you share a little bit with our audience, tell us a little bit about who you are and what your journey has been, that ultimately led you to the work you do today?

Taylor Morrison 2:47
Yeah, it’s such a winding journey. So, my name is Taylor, I’m based in Chicago, I am the founder of a company called Inner Workout, I also wrote a book of the same name. And a lot of my professional life is helping people connect to their inner wisdom, I do that as a coach, as a facilitator, as a writer, and as a business owner. And I really came to this work as someone who had experienced burnout and still sometimes experiences burnout. And as someone who is very, I’m trying to even think of the word achievement oriented, honestly, I was gonna say type A, but I don’t even know if that said it’s less about getting things perfect, and more about trying to achieve more and more. I’m a three on the enneagram. And what happened to me, especially when I didn’t know myself as well is that I found myself doing all of these things to chase external metrics of success, and burning myself out in the process, because I was spreading myself so so thin. And so I had to start to figure out what self care looked and felt like for me, and what success meant to me. And the more I did that work myself and started talking about it. Other people told me they needed the same things. And that’s how Inner Workout came to be. That’s like the very, very abbreviated version, we can go into so much more depth, but that’s a snapshot.

Blake Schofield 4:23
Hmm, I love it. Thank you for sharing there, I often find the threads right that the human experience is far more consistent than we believe. And, you know, I spent 18 years in corporate America before transitioning into entrepreneurship in 2017. And I felt very alone, I think, and a lot of the challenges or struggles that I had, in some ways, I think, because I was so successful that people couldn’t understand why I wasn’t happy. And also because I think as a society we don’t talk about the difficult stuff, you know. And sometimes we get into this false positivity, or this internal negative dialogue. But nobody really is understanding that they’re not alone in this journey. And so to hear you say that you are a type A, you went through all these cycles, you’re very achievement oriented. I am a two on the enneagram, which is a helper, but very closely followed by number three, the achiever. So I totally relate and appreciate that because everything I do, I’m like, I just want to help you achieve. I just want to help you achieve. And that’s just the constant everywhere I go.

Blake Schofield 5:32
And there’s beauty and the gift of being someone who can make things happen when you understand how to take care of you first. Like that’s the journey that you went through was a journey where you chased everything externally with very little internal, which is the same journey I went on. Can I ask Taylor was there, what was the moment in your life that caused you, I often say there’s a breakdown, usually right before the break through, what was that breakdown for you when you just realized I can’t keep doing this anymore?

Taylor Morrison 6:11
Yeah. So the moment for me, it was in 2017, I was working full time, I was the first full time employee at a startup and I was running their operations. So, everything from managing their team of contractors, to building internal systems and processes, to doing client management to just like, marketing, HR, everything. Not everything, the founder was doing a lot. But she focused a lot on sales, and pieces of operations, like finances, that I might not touch as much. And so there was a lot that I was holding. On top of that, I was working with clients on the side, doing brand strategy. I also was volunteering for multiple nonprofits, and I had just gotten married. And I had this Sunday evening where I was trying to plan out my week, and I had my planner, I had my laptop. And I realized that I wasn’t really planning, I was just switching between tabs. And I talked about this in my book, I was actually like panicking and feeling like I’m not going to be able to get all this done. How is this all going to fit, and I did something really uncharacteristic for me, instead of trying to push through, I was just like, “You know what, I’m going to take a break, I’m going to close my laptop, I’m going to take a bath. And I will revisit this on Monday morning.”

Taylor Morrison 7:30
And that moment, was like my first really intentional self care practice, not because I was taking a bath. But because I was doing what I define as self care. Now I was listening within and responding in the most loving way possible. And what I heard when I listened within wasn’t “Okay, push through, try and organize this down to the minute.” It was, “No, you need to pause, you need to take a bath and get some rest.”

Blake Schofield 7:57
Awesome. You shared a very little bit about Inner Workout. And I’m really interested to understand, it sounds like you have a unique definition for self care and what that looks and feels like. Can you share a little bit with us about that? And how did you come to that understanding yourself?

Taylor Morrison 8:14
Yeah. So it really started with my own self exploration. But as you mentioned, there’s so many similarities between the humans experience. It’s this dichotomy between things, feeling really personal to us, and understanding that everyone has their own lived experience. And also realizing that there are these patterns that happen, these biases that happen and I don’t mean biases from the sense that sometimes we talk about it and like prejudice. But biases I’m thinking of the book, um, Daniel Kahneman, Thinking Fast and Slow. And it talks about all these little short cuts that our brain tries to make in order to help us be quote unquote, more efficient, or to help us be more accepted that actually end up doing us harm. So it started from my own experience. But as I’ve gained more certifications and done more work, it’s really interesting to see how it’s validated not just directly in the people that I work with, but also by research.

Taylor Morrison 9:17
So Inner Workout’s definition of self care, listening within and responding in the most loving way possible, came because that’s what I realized I was doing. And when I started exploring self care, it was kind of at the height of everyone talking about treating yourself and making self care sound like you just got to spend a bunch of money on something. And then you’ll feel better when, if you’re not getting to the root of the fact that your life is not sustainable for you. Treating yourself to a massage or a fancy dinner or whatever, is not going to fix things. So that’s how that definition of self care came. And then I went through a yoga teacher training and was introduced to this yoga concept of the coaches which inspired another core concept for inner workout, which we call the five dimensions of well being. And it’s a way to conceptualize the different aspects of ourselves that needs to be cared for, because there’s the one piece where people struggled to care for themselves. And then there’s the other piece, where once you realize, oh, I need to care for myself, we tend to have a part of ourselves that’s easier to care for, and the five dimensions of wellbeing makes sure that we’re approaching care holistically.

Blake Schofield 10:29
Awesome. So what are those five dimensions?

Taylor Morrison 10:33
So it’s the physical dimension, the energetic dimension, the mental and emotional dimension, that’s one, the wisdom dimension, and the bliss dimension. And each dimension has two or three sub dimensions underneath it.

Blake Schofield 10:46
Awesome. Sounds like you have come to some of the same conclusions or things I have, which, you know, my mentors have always taught me that if you study and you understand time proven principles, they are consistent across all industries, or all religions or all timeframes. In order to be able to tap into your own inner voice, you have to be able to tap in to your body. How did you? Have you always been connected to your body? Or did you have to go through a process in order to be able to do so?

Taylor Morrison 11:24
That’s a great question. I think, yes, I did different things growing up, where whether it was during gymnastics when I was super literal, or during grade school I did, or not grade school, I guess it was more middle into high school, I did ballet, there’s a certain level of body awareness that you have through doing something athletic. And also, I grew up as a black person in a predominantly white space. And so there were ways that my body looks different than other people, or the way that my hair was different than people that I was around, that caused me to internalize some messages about my body that weren’t helpful that kind of disconnected me from my body for a while. But I think naturally, I’m very body aware, sometimes it’s interesting to me when I’m working with clients, where I’ll invite them to check in with their body, and they can’t, because I, it’s, I’m like, you can’t feel it. I just I can’t compute. So yes, I’m aware and connected to my body. I think I always have been, but it was like a coming back home to do that.

Blake Schofield 12:37
Yeah, I talk about that, in order to truly connect with your inner voice, it’s Mind, Body, Soul. And that’s if you don’t clear the windshield, it’s very difficult to be able to use your body as the shortcut. And what I mean by clean the windshield is my experience has been it’s like most of us, it’s driven across country for 20 years and never got a carwash, right. And so it’s all of this stuff that is standing in the way of us being able to see reality for what it is, it’s all the dirt that keeps us from being more attuned with who we are, our purpose, our body, which is the shortcut, etc. And so you hit on it earlier, which is exactly what I know to be true. When we have this is just one form of dirt, right. But when we have trauma, big T or little t, what happens is we actually usually physically separate from our body because it’s too painful. And you have to clear that in order to really be able to connect. And so when you talked about your experience growing up as a black woman in a mostly white environment, there was a lot of emotion behind that. That that probably was a piece of that for you of it was too painful. And so it was easier to kind of separate and as you did the work, to work through that experience and come to love yourself. It allows you to come back home.

Taylor Morrison 11:24
Yeah, I think that’s such a great way of summing up my experience and it’s, I’m just so grateful to have that reconnection with my body because my body is so wise, all of our bodies are so wise, but we can struggle to access that wisdom. And so to be back in a place where I’m constantly in conversation with my body is, yeah, I just don’t take it for granted.

Blake Schofield 14:27
May I ask you, I’ve had the pleasure of working with quite a few black women and I have been honored to help them remove a lot of the fear and cultural conditioning that impacted their ability to see who they were and their ability to see the potential for their life. Several years ago, I actually had a podcast called Dialogue for Change. And I had on camera, it was, I think it was three, three of my clients and all spoke about their experiences as black women, and the goal was really to open up the perspective that we might all be experiencing life, but we’re all experiencing it differently. And we each come into this life with different challenges, different skills, and different opportunities. And I think often as a society, we can be really unaware of that. Because if you’re not aware of your own self, your own strengths, often it can be hard to be aware of other people and what their challenges, or experiences, or perspectives have been. I’m interested knowing the work that you’ve done and what you’ve experienced, has that impacted how you coach and in me sharing what my experience has been and what I have seen? Is there anything that sort of comes up for you that you would like to share?

Taylor Morrison 15:47
I appreciate the question. One of the questions that we use a fair amount in our workout is like, is it the self or is it the system, and often times, it’s both. And when I look at kind of my own stuff around whether it was as like a woman feeling beautiful or not, or as a business owner, feeling worthy or not, there’s aspects that are systemic, where, especially when I grew up there, I, it’s not even funny isn’t the word, but it’s interesting to look back at old movies. And people are like, Oh, I don’t want my butt to be too big, or all these different things, which are different now. But for me, I was like, Oh, I’m pretty endowed in multiple places in my body, and getting that messaging or even in doing ballet, where my body type is not the ideal body type in ballet. So there were systems that I was in, that were telling me, You are not worthy. Or when we look at the business world, I’ve made a really intentional choice to run a lifestyle business to not seek institutional, or investment. But when we look at the numbers, even though black women and women of color are more competent as business owners in terms of getting return for investors, they get the least amount of investment. And so there was, again, the system of messaging saying like, Well, we actually don’t think you’re worthy or competent, even when the numbers say that you’re outperforming some of these other businesses. So there were those systems.

Taylor Morrison 17:27
And there are also things in myself where I wasn’t confident that I could provide value, or I wasn’t appreciating the things that I now like love about my body and about myself. And so I can work on the things within me and myself. And it sounds like that’s the work that you’ve done with clients to work on what’s in their locus of control. And I can also acknowledge here, the systems and the systemic reality around me that can be impacting how I view myself, and what can I do to mitigate their ability to impact me. And that depends for all of us, like, I started my book with kind of a list of like acknowledgement of some of the privileges that I have, because I do hold multiple marginalized identities. But I’m also married to a man, we also have savings accounts, we also have health insurance, we also live close to family and have a support system. So there are things that I can do to buffer the realities of this system that may be more or less accessible to other people who hold similar identities as me. And so I love going back to that question of like, what’s the self and what’s the system, because it shows me where I can do my work and have it be the most effective.

Blake Schofield 18:49
I love that so much. You’re so talking my language, as I have done this work pretty deeply the last six years. One of the biggest things I have seen is when we don’t understand our own value and we don’t have self awareness, it can become really easy to internalize what we’re experiencing externally and think that something’s wrong with us, or that we need to change. And so when you talk about, is it the system? Or is it the self? I think that there are so many dimensions to what you’re just saying, because sometimes we’re putting ourselves in systems that are not in alignment with who we are, what we value, how we naturally work, and we can begin to think in that box or in that system, that this is just as good as it’s going to get or this is the way it has to be. And when you can get outside of that box and you can begin to see reality for what it is. Is it me, is it the system, is it that it’s misaligned? The whole world opens up in so many beautiful ways. And often I think people don’t realize that they can be empowered to change the system.

Taylor Morrison 19:54
Or to create new systems or opt out like, I sometimes think of about this idea of like, there are certain things realities in the world that we live in where like the game is rigged. And also, I don’t have to play that game, I can create my own game. And there are just certain things I joke with friends sometimes where I will enter a business environment, for example, and I’ll be like, “Oh, man, I forgot that people talked about business this way,” like, “Oh, they’re still doing that?” because I’ve been over here for so long, like I have so opted out of certain things, that it’s almost jarring to remember that some people are still stuck in what they want to be in. And so yeah, to have things where you’re like, you know what, I’m not gonna play that game. And it’s not like a quitting. It’s not like, “Oh, I’m not going to win. So I’m not going to play.” It’s just like, like you said, it’s not aligned for me to play this game. I’m going to create something that is aligned for me. And I’m gonna play in my playground over here.

Blake Schofield 20:56
Yeah, one of my mentors says, “You’ll never win a race you don’t want to be in.” Right, isn’t it beautiful. And it’s so true. And I think I spent 18 years in corporate and I was winning, I was at the top of every company I worked at. But there were so many pieces of it, that I felt misaligned. And I didn’t understand what it was at the time. But that is what it was the psychosis fulfillment and unfulfillment. And what I think people often don’t understand, especially if you’re in a system, or you’re doing things that aren’t in alignment with you, is that when you get into the right environment, and when you play your own game, and when you can fully authentically be yourself, your trajectory and ability to create and grow and expand is so much greater than what it ever will be when you’re in misalignment. And you know, humans, we have human biases. So we have recency bias, which means we assume whatever’s going on today is what’s going to continue, that’s actually not true, especially if you’re misaligned, it will get drastically worse until you had a breakdown. But we also have loss of versions, we have a huge fear that I have to give up something. And we aren’t actually looking at what’s the cost of holding on to the thing that isn’t right for us. And so, so much of what you’re saying, Taylor, I know to be true. And I appreciate the work that you’re doing. Because those of us who have gotten out of the box, and those of us who really understood that you can create your own reality, we need to be the lighthouses for those who haven’t yet done it.

Taylor Morrison 22:41
Yes, absolutely. I think there’s something really powerful to modeling what’s possible. And I don’t want this to be viewed as like a mandate where if you do something differently, you have to tell everyone in the world that you’re doing something differently. But I do think there’s a lot of value in saying, Yeah, I chose to do it this way. And I try and do this relatively transparently to say, Yeah, I knew corporate wasn’t for me. And I laughed. And here’s what it looks like I have what I consider a portfolio career. And here’s what that looks like. Here’s what that means for me, there are some things that I have to worry about that I didn’t have to worry about when I was working a full time job. And there are these things that going back to values and alignment that I have access to, that are more important to me than the things that I kind of missed some times of working in corporate. And so when you share and you make people aware of those trade offs, because they will say, especially recently, entrepreneurship has been really glamorized. And I think people think like, I quit my job, and I become an entrepreneur, and I’m so cool, and bla bla bla bla. And then that gets exacerbated by people who are often trying to sell to other business owners. And so they share all of the highs of business ownership and none of the lows. And I think it’s really important to say, here’s what’s possible for you and give like a robust picture of what that means. And that could be in a one on one conversation with someone who’s a potential mentee or wants to have like a career chat with you. Or that could be in a newsletter or a podcast or on a TED Talk stage. It can be as big or as small as you want it to be. But there’s just so much power in sharing your reality because it’s happened to me, the doors that it’s open once I saw someone do something differently and realize I could do something like that for myself.

Blake Schofield 24:36
So agree with that. When I came into entrepreneurship, having built, grown, and turned around 7, 8, 9 figure businesses, I was like, Oh, I got this. And then I was like, oh wait, it’s definitely not at all like corporate in many cases is actually the polar opposite thought, process, actions, etc. And I do agree with you a lot of times it’s glamorized. And the reality is most people aren’t built to be entrepreneurs. It takes a very particular type of person. And as I was actually saying to friends this morning, entrepreneurship is a personal development journey. People don’t tell you that. But the reality is, in entrepreneurship, your business literally comes down to you, period. And so any fears, doubts, anxieties, lack of belief, etc., that you have in yourself will be your limiting factor. And so it all comes down to doing that own personal inner work in order to truly break those ceilings and keep moving. That said, those of us that it is the right fit for, and there’s nothing better. And often, we find far more opportunity than we thought possible, I could have never envisioned when I left my corporate job in 2017, that my life would look like what it looks like today. And I bet you feel the same way.

Taylor Morrison 25:56
Oh, absolutely. Just in the biggest ways, and in the tiniest of ways. It’s like, oh, I can just do this every day, or every week, or I can do something like, yesterday, I was facilitating a workshop. And it felt so easy and so fun. And one of the things I’ve had to work through is so much conditioning around hard work, and efforting. And so it feels like this miracle, every time I get paid to do something that feels easy and fun for me, and makes a big impact for the people on the other side of it.

Blake Schofield 26:29
Yeah, I love it, I had to work through much of that. And I think most of us were raised with that belief system. And I think it served as a culture for a really long time. But when you look at how the world is changing, AI, digital businesses, you can begin to see very quickly, that ,and I saw this even in corporate I saw people work a lot of hours but achieved very little. It really isn’t effort. It’s the value that you’re bringing. And to your point, when you do, you have the awareness of what you’re gifted at, and how you can create value. You don’t have to hustle and grind and push. And it doesn’t have to be hard. In fact, it can be really easy. So with that said, let me ask you, when you left your corporate job and started your business, what was your dream, and what has been the biggest surprise or blessing you’ve received in this journey?

Taylor Morrison 27:28
Yeah, I love talking about this. So when I left my corporate job, I was very pragmatic about it. So I left my corporate job. And I went to working part time at, I say, like a multimillion dollar small business. Because small business, the way we define it in the United States is like small business could mean you make $1,000 a year, small business could mean you make $50 million a year, so people can kind of police what type of small business it was. And then I was working part time building actually my brand strategy firm. And I had a moment where probably about six to eight months into that, where I was sick, I was speaking at a conference. And then I was like, I want to go home and rest. But if I don’t do some hours from my part time job and build some hours for this client, I’m not gonna have money coming in. And so I was in this place where I felt like if I didn’t work, then I couldn’t generate revenue.

Taylor Morrison 28:30
And so when I started working on Inner Workout, that was one of the big things that I held in my mind is like, I wanted something that could run without me. And I did that for a while. I will also say I launched in our workout, the first iteration six months before the pandemic. And originally, we were planning on doing a lot of in person things, in person trainings, and certifications. And that was impossible anymore. And so I had to pivot a lot, a lot, a lot. And for a while, I would say probably for a year or two, I got to a place where I wasn’t building something that could run without me. And really within the past maybe six months or so, I’ve come back to that initial vision of “Oh yeah, I want this to be able to run without me”, and have different ideas about what that means. I think initially, it was like, Okay, I have to build the most, that’s really scalable, and kind of like a tech software as a service type of scalable. And now I’m realizing so many different ways that a business can run without me or need less of me, that still allow me to bring the value that I bring. So that’s the vision that I’ve held, that I’m still holding for myself and have been returning to.

Taylor Morrison 29:45
And what’s been the most surprising? Oh, that’s hard. I’m gonna have to probably cheat and say a couple of things. One thing that’s been surprising is I think I’ve just surprised myself in what my skills are. I feel so confident as a facilitator, and as a coach, and as a writer, and I continue to develop my skills in those areas, I have the blessing or curse of being like a, someone who is in a lot of gifted and talented things as a kid. And so I generally tend to be like, average or slightly above average at things, which means there’s a lot of things that I can do myself. But I do them decently well, when I’m like, well, I should just do it myself, because I can do it. And I really turned into like, what are my zones of genius, and let me lean in there and get support in the places that are just zones of competence. The other thing that’s been surprising is like, and as I see it, I’m like, it’s not really that surprising, I guess, I’ve been really obsessed with this concept lately of like luck surface area, and how you can set yourself up to be more lucky. And I’ve just been doing certain things consistently for a long time. We’ve written a newsletter, every Sunday, for four years, almost. There’s just these things that we’ve been doing. And even as the business and the business model has changed, we’ve kept showing up. And then these opportunities show up, where like, I had to sign an NDA later for something wild. And like, this just happened, but it didn’t just happen. I kept showing up. And then all of these amazing opportunities again, where I’m like, “Is this allowed? Did they meet? Like, did they add an extra zero? Or do they not know?” Like, when I got my book deal, I didn’t, they just came to me and said, like, “Hey, do you want to write a book?” And it’s because they had seen me do something else before. So it feels really magical. And it’s that next? I don’t know, if you listen to how I built this where he asks, Is it like locker? Is it hard work? I feel like there’s a lot of luck, a lot of serendipity. But it’s because I’ve done these intentional actions to build my luck surface area. And I just am delighted by the things that come my way.

Blake Schofield 32:03
That’s so fun, like surface area, I love it. I’m envisioning this like wide table. You know, the reality is there’s proven principles for success. And consistency is one of them. Right, luck is preparation meeting opportunity. And I would also say that I have consistently seen, lived, and know to be true that when you are operating in your highest value and your highest purpose, it’s magnetic, and the right things show up and life becomes infinitely easier. And I want more people to know and understand that because what I see, and I started my career out in HR, and the first six months I was like, Is this really what work is like is terrible. Of course, at the time I had no idea was a sign I was an entrepreneur, but everyone around me was miserable. And you look at the statistics, and they’ve remained pretty true that the vast majority of people are unhappy in their careers. And it doesn’t have to be that way at all. And I think often people look and go, “Well, you got lucky,” or “It’s possible for you, but it’s not possible for me.” And my hardest for people to understand that that’s not, it is possible for you, those of us that get up every day and love what we do, we did the work, to understand who we are, to take care of and listen to ourselves, to take ourselves out of the race that we don’t really want to be in, to show up consistently. And as a result of that. It gets exponentially easier. And so I love hearing that from you, because that’s what I know to be true as well.

Taylor Morrison 33:55
Yeah, and that that word ease has, really over the past couple of months, I’ve just been leaning into that word so much and embracing ease, and noticing what things in my business in my life feel easier to celebrate them, but also see like, How can I create more of that? Why does that feel so easy? Is there a way to amplify that to systematize that so that ease can be there? Like again, I’ve just had so much conditioning around. I have to work so hard and even the things that I do that are consistent. I’ve honed in on what are the skill sets that I can do consistently, that I can still do it join ease. I like writing the newsletter. I like doing podcasting. I like facilitating and coaching. I can do those things consistently. I think it’s what you’re saying when you’re like operating in your value. And that also means I tried to go to stuff that did not work, where I was like, Oh, this is not it. And something else that I’ll offer is I try to view things as experiments, because you can’t fail an experiment. So when I try something in my life or my business, I tend to say, I’m going to experiment with this product or service or this way of marketing. And I’m going to try this for a quarter or for a month or for a week and see how it feels. And the goal is to get more information that does so much for me versus the times I’ve been very binary about it, where like, I need to do this, or I’m a bad person, or I’m a bad entrepreneur, or I’m failing. And then I hold on to it’s the loss aversion that you talked about, and the sunk cost fallacy as well, I hold on to these things. Because I told myself if I let go, I’m bad. Versus I’m going to try this. And if I decide to let go of it, cool.

Blake Schofield 35:46
One of my favorite books is a really thin book, mentor of mine, Jeff Moore, several years ago, told me to buy. It’s called The Dip by Seth Godin, have you read this book?

Taylor Morrison 35:57
No, but I love Seth Godin, I got to add this to my list.

Blake Schofield 36:00
You have to add this book to your list, it’s an old book, so you probably will have to order it. But I read it in less than two hours. And it talks about that you have to know when to go all in, and you have to know when to quit, and that there is actually a time to quit. And I think often those that are fast that are success driven, achievement driven, we’ve been told it’s not okay to quit. But the reality is, there is a dip anytime you start something new, and you have to be able to have the fortitude to make it past that dip. Otherwise, you might as well just not even go that path. Often too, we end up in dead ends. And we’re just sitting in the dead ends, well, you need to quit the dead end so you can get somewhere. But he talks about the benefits of being number one in something, are so exponential compared to everything else, that you should spend your time and energy on the thing that you want to become best in the world at and let go of everything else. It’s a brilliant book. And so yeah, highly recommend it.

Blake Schofield 37:03
But I love so much of what you said because again, I know it to be true proven principles, they are known to be true. This idea of not attaching to an outcome, allowing yourself to test an experiment and not make it about you. That’s so important. The other thing that you talked about really is right loss of manifesting. Oh, this is awesome. How might I have more of it? Often we focus on what we don’t want without understanding that the way our brain works, is it’s a goal striving mechanism. So if you focus on what you don’t want, you’re going to get more of what you don’t want. If you focus on what you do, you’ll get more of that. And the way that you’ve approached it is this approach of I’m open to what comes my way. But I just want more of this. And I have consistently known again, that to be a proven principle that enables you to have opportunities and expansion in the things that you want. So thank you for sharing your experience.

Taylor Morrison 37:59
Yeah, thank you for reflecting that back to me. And I’m like, immediately after this, I’m going to buy The Dip. Yeah, because and I’m, I’m struggling to remember what it’s called. There’s some framework that encourages you to think about, like, if you were going to start from zero today, and you wouldn’t do the same thing that you have going on now. That’s a sign and I wonder if The Dip talks about it, that’s a sign that you might need to let it go. Because it’s that combination of sunk cost fallacy of loss aversion of all of these things where we’re just like, it is this way, so I’m going to keep going. But if I was going to start my business over, and I wouldn’t do this thing, why do I have to hold on to this thing now?

Blake Schofield 37:03
100%, my mentor, Dan Nicholson, talks about that he calls it the investor frame. So knowing what I know today, when I opt into this situation, relationship, business, etc. And if the answer is no, then the question is what would have to change in order for me to be willing to opt in? And is that then something I can change? And if the answer to those is no, you know, that it’s an opportunity to walk away and quit. So again, proven principle I love to see. And again, it’s success leaves clues. This is I think, not where I expected the conversation to go. But I love it because it always goes where it’s meant to go. That’s what I’ve consistently seen in our conversation today. And what I want people to understand is, the doors of possibility and opportunity exist for you. There’s proven principles for success. The people who have achieved these things that you will look at that you want, aren’t special. They’re no different than you. They just learned and had the tenacity, and the willingness, and the courage to seek out the proven principles and the people that can help them bring it to fruition.

Taylor Morrison 37:59
Yeah. And I think to tie it into self care, like going back to that definition I use of listening within and responding in the most loving way possible, when I am able to, this just happened yesterday, I was looking at options, I can feel the response in my body. And I’m like, Ooh, okay, what’s going on here? Do I need to change something? And later today, I’m actually going to have a meeting where I need to walk away from something that I’ve done for two years. But I know that I can’t renew it, partly because of the things I want to say yes to in my life, that require me to say no to this. And partly because my body was underlining that, like, I already had a mental inkling that I might need to step back, or something might need to change. But then yesterday, I got this big like, whoosh. And my body said, Yep, we’re not doing that. I was trying to think, How can I force this in? And how can I make this work? And how can I change all of these things? My thought he was just like, Taylor, the most loving thing you can do for yourself right now and for this collaborator, is to step back and say, you know what, we’ve done great for two years. And let’s end it with where we’ve been. And that’s not exactly how I’m going to communicate it, obviously. But yeah, I find that when I listen within, not just to my body, but to my inner wisdom, to all of these different things, there’s this potent truth that’s there, that I often don’t want to acknowledge. Because a lot of times my inner wisdom is telling me to do something that’s outside of what society might say will make me successful, but is very much in line with these proven principles that you’re talking about. And so it takes work to be able to listen, and then complete the cycle of responding in that most loving way possible, rather than listen, and then be like, Ooh, I don’t want to do that. That’s too difficult. People are gonna say something about me, people are gonna think I’m whatever, and then end it there, which is what a lot of people do, which is what I do sometimes.

Blake Schofield 41:51
I love it. Well, our time is almost up. And it’s been such a great conversation. Let me ask you, Taylor, is there anything I didn’t ask you I should have, or anything that’s just on your heart that you want to share? As we wrap it up?

Taylor Morrison 42:06
No, I think this conversation just really unfolded beautifully. And I guess the only thing that I would want to share, which often I feel like called to share at the ends of these conversations is just encouraging whoever’s listening, before you immediately go to your next podcast, or do whatever you’re doing. Maybe you’re listening to this while you’re like cleaning your kitchen. Once the credits roll down, and it’s done, just pause, take even a minute to listen to yourself with the intention of hey, inner wisdom, I really want to hear from you. And I bet you’ll be surprised by what comes up, like your inner wisdom wants to speak to you, wants to guide you, wants to be heard, and you just gotta make a little space and build that practice of listening.

Blake Schofield 42:58
I couldn’t agree more, as I often say the body is the shortcut. 100%. Well, I know you have a little special gift for the audience members. And I’m sure there may be some people listening that are like, Oh, my gosh, I’d love to connect or follow Taylor. So how might they be able to do that?

Taylor Morrison 43:16
Yes, a starting point recommendation I always make is our Take Care Assessment. It’s a free 75 Question assessment that measures your well being across those five dimensions. And then it gives you a few personalized practices based on your results. So I think Blake will share that link. Also, if you go to our website, it’s right there. One of the somewhat countercultural things that my inner wisdom has told me is I don’t prioritize social media for Inner Workout. The best way to connect with Inner Workout is actually to get on our Self Care Sunday newsletter. So if you go, again, to our website, there’s a link right there to sign up for the newsletter. We send a newsletter every Sunday morning. And when the podcast is in season, it’ll link you straight to the podcast. If not, there’s always an affirmation or reflection and some type of invitation for you.

Blake Schofield 44:08
Awesome, wonderful. We will have all of that in the show notes. For those of you listening who would love to take the assessment or get on the newsletter. Again, thank you so much for joining me today, Taylor. It was an honor and a pleasure.

Taylor Morrison 44:22
Thank you for having me.

Blake Schofield 44:23
Yeah. And for those of you guys listening, thanks again for joining and I hope you have a wonderful week ahead.