E178: Embodiment Practices for Building a Better Business & Life with Robyn Gooding

Based in Western Canada, Robyn brings a proven process and a solid business background to the world of coaching.

A business strategist who helps coaches, creatives and healers build a booked out online business and scale their impact. Her coaching style is optimistic, joyful and focused on play and ease with consistent action. She has been called a “gentle powerhouse” because she gets things done without the fluff while still being connected to our inner knowing using her signature framework "The Profitable Way"…

[01:05] Valerie LaVigne: Hi, Robyn, I'm so excited that you are on the Women's Empowerment Podcast. Today I'm gonna be honest, you were like one of my wish list people to have on the show so I'm very excited that you're here.

Robyn Gooding: Thank you so much for having me. It's such a joy to be here.

VL: It's really incredible. I'll share a little bit about how we met because I feel like we've crossed paths a few times. and then it wasn't really until you've moved across the country. So we started working together. And so at a networking event in Toronto, Ontario, a very long time ago, I don't know how many years ago, I want to say.

RG: It would have been 2018.

VL: Okay, so four years ago, and I think one of the speakers it was like a very casual event, and you seemed so exotic to me. Because I was like, How did someone who grew up in South Africa, create a magazine and then becomes this like Globetrotter and has this amazing coaching business and I was like, just in awe of you and I thought, wow, this person is so inspiring. I want to know this person. And that same night you came over to my friend and I were sitting there talking together, and you introduce yourself and I was like, Oh, wow, like even though you've accomplished so much, you don't have this like, you know, you know the energy that I'm talking about, right? it's like it's just like a not grounded energy.

And you truly do embody this wonderful, beautiful self that you are, and it's really cool to see in these different ways so fast forward and make my long story short, and you move to the town that I actually lived in, which is just outside of Toronto, invited me over to your home for this beautiful little woman circle that you hosted, which I thought was just like, so lovely, and I had a great time. And actually, the rapid fire round of the show was inspired by some of the questions that you asked at that women's circle so like I'm telling you, you are on my wish list for the podcast for a while.

And then… you moved away! We were connected and then you decided to move to BC. And I don't even know we just got to talk virtually. Then you we're opening up a kind of group coaching. and I'm sure you'll talk about this moment in the show, but you opened up the door to the hybrid coaching.

I signed up and I was just like, I'm ready. I'm ready for some scaling in my business. I need some up leveling. We're just finishing actually, everything.

So yeah, I think from from where I'm at, I feel like I'm so happy to be so happy to leave these connections and stay together even though, you know so much of the world has changed so much of our whole lives has changed in the last few four years which is crazy to think about.

That was my long winded introduction.

[04:44] RG: Oh my god. thank you. Firstly, oh my gosh, I've just like full body forms right now. I really appreciate you sharing all of that. and it's really funny to hear how other people perceive you because I feel like I can say the exact same things about you. And it's funny how I would never have known that drawn to you as well. But this is the the energy that I talk about all the time or we just find our people and our paths cross. and there's very few things that can interrupt that when it's time to be in that process and moving across the country from being in the scene didn't change that.

VL: Well, thank you. I appreciate that. And yeah, I think it's really cool how we've been able to connect over the past several months actually working with you is really business, which I've been sharing a little bit about on the podcast, but I want to take people a little bit more behind the scenes into some of the work that I don't think entrepreneurs really talk about and I don't think business owners really share is that mindset practice the self connection.

Really get into that connection with self and those feelings of like, how you move across the country and why we were attracted to each other to speak more and to connect that way to build that relationship. Like there's this. It's almost like this invisible energy or this quiet work that people have to do or that entrepreneurs have to do and I know that I've learned a little bit more about this through you but I really have to say it's not something that I've seen anywhere else, or like it's not something that's talked about anywhere else. so can you tell us a little bit more about what embodiment practices are?

[06:41] RG: Yeah, so I'll talk about what I want to give a little context to why this work matters. And why because you're writing it's not something that is prevalent, especially in the business coaching world. And I knew it was essential because I have always been entrepreneurial and always been creative, but for so long in my flight would be really left from like, literally my not even my voice but like my ears, you know, like this, like listen and see and and I would censor myself when I would not necessarily express my true feelings. I'm not sure I was even fully connected with what's mine. Being like a highly sensitive, empathetic person. I was always observing things and then processing them and sitting in but not necessarily connecting them with my own wisdom and my body.

When I started to realize it required me to follow my path, and it looked very different from other people's paths. A lot of people call me crazy people I really love I had this amazing job was the fastest growing franchise in the world. I was working from their head office and I walked away to overseas. Walked away from my place I truly never wanted to be there.

what you see is what you get. For myself. I'm very creative, most passionate and destroyed a lot of projects. I'm finished a lot of projects. That was my past that was my story. And that's to live in a place where everybody is like a master detail and more about the mechanics of themselves. And like not wanting to make a splash not wanting to make anything about that. This really beautiful experience and that process really connecting with my with my body especially because of the Japanese artist.

And that was my first real introduction to it. From the Japanese perspective. I was taken to these Japanese women and I was mortified because you have to be totally naked. and I found that I wasn't expecting it. but through these rituals and through these experiences, I started to really pay attention to the sensual experience of being and loving and like physically connected with my body and I don't even know what to say, disconnected, but I don't, I can't remember the time.

When you're leading a business and you have to really you have to make hard decisions, you have to take risks and it takes a lot of courage and wisdom and you have to learn how to drown out voice and tune into your truth and listen to your own intuition and trust yourself even when other people don't get it even when the world isn't making sense to see things the way you see. And so that is what initiated my my return to my body. my internal wisdom, my intuition.

The first thing for me was forest bathing, which is basically when you’ve gone into nature and you’re really, really mindful of it so you’re like immersing yourself in the experience; sensual experience with being in nature and you’re really not.

And then you're really it's almost like just being really in and that the thing was I started getting into spontaneous dance not just just really moving to music and being connected with yourself at first alone and that in groups which was really scary at first. You know when you're surrounded by the right community when you're surrounded by people who are speaking naturally. It's really a great space for you.

[11:58] VL: Thank you so much for sharing that. That's amazing. I definitely clenched up when you did forest bathing. I was like I don't know my writing. But I have done the embodiment dancing and yes at first you're like there's no way I'm doing this in a group of people I went to a couple years ago.

This was part of the festival like the dancing and you would look around at people who were doing these dances and I just kept thinking, oh my god to have that encouraged to have that connection to have that like I don't care about what anyone thinks to me like that's such a powerful vibration to have to share. And so I ended up doing it but like it did take me a little time and it took like little voice in my head and I just had to say stop talking get out of there and just go for it. But it's it's just like it is really a practice because it's almost like you have to continue to do it. And you have to continue to build that connection with yourself. So breath work when you said that I feel like that's maybe where I want to take this next because for forest bathing and for ecstatic dance or embodiment dancing in groups like it just seems a little bit like out there. And I mean like if you're a jump right in person, this would be a great a great practice for you. But breathwork I feel is such a wonderful, intimate practice that can that you can do and it's almost like that stepping stone to get into those deeper practices. So can you share a little bit about the breathwork practices that you do?

[13:43] RG: Yeah, totally agree.

I would say the first one I was doing before I really knew what I was doing, which made it easier because I didn't go in with the intention. to be doing breath work is you know, I'm someone that really needs to Okay, like I don't like the feeling of being even like intoxicated. like, I'd like to be sober. I like to be really mindful to take control. And so the first time, I was kind of caught up guard.

Which was like very much like the right word that they use, but you do feel that lightness and you do feel that sensation, and my hands were like clamping and I was having was like a whole body experience. And so I didn't do it for a little bit and then I came back to it.

I realized once like it was guiding me teaching you how to create better safety events you I have like a training session and then I started doing different breathwork practices that were more gentle at first Now I do Holotropic and I'm more comfortable calling myself But there are so many chancel breathwork practices that are just such a beautiful stepping stone to just really be present in your body and live in.

I’ve been in classes where people feel emotions that they just didn’t expect were there. But it’s so therapeutic after you just feel it and it doesn't have to be a daily practice.

Just the access it's giving me It's really all in this online world and brainstorming things from each other, was inspired by what's really influenced my work more than I wanted it to, to really I wanted it to be mine I wanted that distinction. Between what was mine and allied me to foster that trust.

[16:56] VL: I love that music and it's something where it can really just start as outlined breathing at this time because you've said so many things today that really highlight. A lot of people are feeling I have definitely caught myself in that upper body like head ears, eyes, thinking, see listening, and it's all external. Watching what's outside, thinking about what I'm seeing and hearing what's outside. And these embodiment practices, they really get you to turn inward. And you know the ones that you've touched on today they have to do with something innate that we already have our breath. You have to do with nature they have to do with movement, and those are all things that don't mean anything else outside of us to connect to those things. I mean, I mean nature like technically that is outside but but it's part of, you know, the grassroots, so to speak, and really getting to that deepest layer. And it's funny that we're talking about this because they've been feeling like I have so many ideas and I have so much excitement for these ideas and yet I can't seem to articulate any of that. That's how I'm feeling like it should this be a podcast episode or should this be an Instagram post? Well, what can I put this in? And it's becoming this mental loop of I don't know what to do because I'm in like an analysis paralysis, I guess you could say and I know that one, I need to know what I should be doing.

What I need to be myself and to start grounding and to start tapping into those embodiment practices. So I feel like we've shared quite a quite a thorough introduction into what this is, but maybe we can speak to the people who are listening or like I'm slightly into the Whoo, but it feels a little bit too much. For me. What can we say to that?

RG: I was that person. So I was you. And I would say that I've always had a really strong intuition, like from a child. I've just always known intuitively and I've learned to listen to that. I was lucky to grow up in a family that didn't make that wrong. But I think what we have to understand is that we live in a society and a system that has conditioned us to dial down our feminine wisdom. It's it's taught us to be more observant. Off the system because then we're absorbing the system versus operating from our own truth and our own essence, and we're harder to control. We're harder to brainwash, we're harder to squeeze into the mocks that the powers that be and honestly it isn't always easier.

It really does require methods to your trip it does. And the more that you do it harder it is to literally sounds like yours And that is a courageous path. So I understand I'm comfortable.

But I will say you know it didn't happen overnight. You don't have to zero to hero in the blink of an eye. But if you're sure as expressed curiosity, take your next best step Follow the breadcrumbs. Everyone's ready to gain access for wisdom like what I do not need you.

You’re here. You are literally a miracle. And it is a disservice to yourself. So many people literally don't even know what they think or how they feel about things because they learn to just trust people outside of themselves. More than I think it's a dangerous place for all of us.

[21:39] VL: Yeah, I agree. That's and it's sometimes happy to hear too but there's definitely been some instances I'm sure. listening even found myself thinking like, when did I trust my gut in the past? And where did that bring me? And it's like, it brought me to magic. It brought me to where I am today which is part of my dream, which connected me with you which connected me with other people in my life. I've had on the show or become mentors for me and coaches.

When I don't trust those things, and I follow someone else's path or someone else's idea, I'm living someone else's life. And that's not the life that I want to live and even sometimes we think like, oh, this is a big goal for me, because I heard some students.

And sometimes we get to that point, and we're like, oh, wait a second. That actually isn't something that I ever wanted. Or this wasn't what I thought But if we don't have that connection to who we are, and to connect to that embodied self, then how will we ever know what it is? and how we want to feel and how we want to live and how we want to show up. So this is definitely something that I think a lot of business owners or people in general could really take from today.

So, for the people wanting to do this, and to get an alignment with themselves, and to create that connection.

What would you say would be like the best way to start today if they turn off the podcast right now, I think just wanted to connect to themselves what's the one thing that that can do?

[23:28] RG: The easiest thing in the world. It’s just literally observe what’s happening for you, observe, where you’re wanting to distract.

Just observe and don't make it right or wrong. It just sit in that silence structured in yourself to be an observer and observe. And then if that's really uncomfortable to find. So I think it can be really helpful to have a guide to have somebody who can teach you. If people are searching, and there are sliding-scale and opportunities.

We can do a guided breathwork class that can be a really great introduction. And then on our phones on access to guided meditation, sitting in silence, Okay, and just a little bit to do a five minute gratitude guided meditation.

Gratitude is all of this not feeling happy because when we can tap into gratitude, I mean, I can talk about science to support this conversation. But there's a lot of science to support. And so if you can just bring your awareness of gratitude and just send feelings of gratitude and you're gonna start seeing patterns that's going to sort of incentivize you a little bit more, especially going down this path. And I think you said something really powerful about helping.

This is why I mean, as a coach, you see, everyone's all the things and we have so many people marrying the wrong people having children when they didn't want to and like really big things that people probably want to like for social circle, development to culture. And there was and in our circle, we're seeing more and more people just feeling like they're acting in their own lives. Living a life that feels deeply meaningful and fulfilling. and it's leading to depression and anxiety, and addiction and all of these things. And so if we can just come back to gratitude and presence and mindfulness with ourselves, we can discern ourselves, what is our true rhythm we need one surfaces.

[26:23] VL: I never know what's going to happen. And if I take that leap, I have no idea. Or I can stay still and know that this is where I'm going to be in a year or two years or three years, whatever that is. And the thought of staying stagnant and doing what I was doing was so much more frightening.

Terrifying than taking the leap. Into the vast unknown. But again, that was just the time. It was one of the times where I followed my gut instinct to change, trust myself, and it shifted everything for me. It changed my whole life and I'm so glad that I, that I did that and so but I was also meditating frequently I had a very physical practice that I was committed to. I was doing gratitude journaling every single day like I was bodying the embodiment practices I was doing the work daily and I feel like the more consistent we can be with these practices, the deeper that connection are, and the quicker that connection builds as well.

And it becomes easier to trust yourself when you're are connected and when you're not numbing yourself, but I know that there are a lot of us that are caught up in the outside the external, the sheds.

So I really wanted to make a point of just being compassionate to yourself when you're going into this journey because like you mentioned, it's not always easy and it's always fun.

But at the end of the day, it's always worth it

RG: It is.

VL: Okay, I want to jump into our rapid fire round, but before we get into that, is there anything that hasn't been said? That you want to share on this topic?

RG: Well, I think the fact that I've met so many entrepreneurs and visionaries and rebels, and people who just don't relate, they feel a little bit like a mess. And I just want to speak to anybody who's listening now.

But as scary as it is, you will find your opinion will always belong in the gift of this work is that when you look to yourself, That becomes a little bit less important. but you will find your people no matter what path you take you. you know as they say, when the student is ready, the teacher appears. It's like when you're ready, your community, and you will always be open supported on your journey

[29:29] VL: Oh my gosh I’m going to burst out laughing… So go ahead These are meant to oh my gosh, I couldn't laugh I get a burst out laughing so I don't know if I shared this with you but around the time when you reached before you reach out to me about club rise in your hybrid coaching program. I was thinking like, ready to take the lead, wants to hire a coach but I don't know who I should hire so I had three people in for one of them. And the first person was a friend who I'd seen have a lot of success but she was going through something really troubling and because I knew that from her on an intimate level. I felt like it wasn't the right time for us to work like that together. We're still friends and everything. The second person I also heard really good things about but I just wasn't getting that like that poll. And then I didn't even know if you're offering anything at the time but I knew you were doing coaching. And so that week, you reached out to me and you like randomly I don't think we were talking to each other for a little while then and he randomly reached out to me. And that was that sign and that poll and that nudge that I needed to confirm my feeling about these three different people. So even though I kind of already knew because I was doing the inner work because I'm pretty connected to myself because I have a pretty strong intuition. I knew that it was going to be you but because of that confirmation. And I think that's really cool is that when you start to connect more to yourself, you start to see the people who you said you're going to magnetize and attract into your life. You also start to see the signs, and the synchronicities and all those things lining up. And the act is also really amazing because it's just confirmation that you are being supported. It's confirmation that you're on the right track. And the same goes for when you're not on the right track. And all of a sudden things are going wrong and you're like Why isn't this working? why does everything feel so forceful? Why do I have to push so hard? like why is it so hard if if you find yourself repeating those words, Then, you know, in my in my experience I'm not listening to my my intuition I'm not. I'm not doing my embodiment practices at all.

RG: Yeah I agree.

And sometimes you know, when you were saying how it was scarier to be stagnant than to take that chance, that's one of my favorite quotes is sometimes the risk to stay in the mud is greater than the risk of loss. And one thing I tell people is you always know you know, sometimes we can get in our heads a little bit about oh, like, you know, for example, in a relationship should I stay or should I go and have friends say to me, I don't know if I should stay or should I go and I think you will, You will always And so not to risk a decision or not to force but to allow yourself to the two sides to the things that you're deciding between and to trust you know you'll know. And if you're ready to go down that path.

VL: I love all of it. and I know that people listening are going to do also love everything that you're saying so. Where can we find you. Where can we follow you and how can we support your business?

Website | www.robyngooding.com

Instagram | @robyn.gooding

Podcast | The Profitable Way

Group Program | Club Rise

RG: To work with me, I have my program that you were so honored that we got to work together club rise which is really tiny, tiny coaching, tiny group coaching for entrepreneurs writing And it's specifically focused towards soulful and service based entrepreneurs, coaches, creatives, consultants, wellness practitioners, anybody in that role? And it's for you if you're looking to make more money. Clean up your back end systems structure your business in a way that sustainable.

VL: It’s wonderful and amazing. I’ll speak to it myself

RAPID FIRE ROUND

1. What are you currently reading or what is your favourite book?

It Ends With Us - Colleen Hoover

2. What does “empowerment” mean to you?

It's very internally oriented. Basically, feeling grounded in my truth and activated and liberated to receive that.

3. What is your longest standing habit?

Probably, I have two, so one is bathing before bed and waking up and walking.

4. What are you currently working toward?

So my words for this year are joy and appreciation. And so what I'm working toward is expanding my capacity to feel more joy and to receive risky or goodness in my life without self sabotaging or making I have a long history with waiting for the other shoe to drop and not allowing myself to be deeply present in the moments of good because I'm scared of being blindsided by the bad, and I think that the pandemic has. It did accelerate that because so many of us blindsided by the length of the intensity and the loss and the grief and all of that.

So my my intention, the thing I'm really working towards this year is to sort of shed that experience and lean into more joy which is for me different to happiness because it's not based on external circumstances. And it's really about living a joyful life.

Like being in that feeling of joy. Brene Brown calls it the most courageous emotion and I cannot agree more it feels honorable and he doesn't want to be joyful.

VL: Amazing thank you so much for sharing your a little bit of your story and your wisdom and these practices with us. It's such a unique topic. So I'm not sure if anyone listening is like, Oh, I'm going to try this or maybe you just need to be reminded like I did that these are the tools that we have available to us that we just need to take action on. So I appreciate you taking the time and sharing all of this goodness with us.

RG: Yeah, you are so incredible. And I'm so grateful to have met you and to be able to work with you. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you and thank you so much for like gifting me the opportunity to speak to this because it's a business coach. most people want you to talk about money and strategy and online marketing and all of this stuff but in my experience is the energy and the embodiment mindset soul stuff. that always is the make or break get business to life. to all of it so I appreciate you going there.

VL: I'm so glad you said that because a friend of mine, she says that entrepreneurship is personal development with a paycheck. And if you're not if you're not doing the soul work, then you're just not you're not doing it and I feel like every time I hear someone's story about how they made this huge shift or they up leveled in their life, it was when they blocked out the noise. They took the leap they trusted themselves or they or I keep hitting my microphone or the universe forced them into a space where they had no choice but to connect themselves. So again, amazing and everyone needs this Everyone needs this.

RG: Yeah, I I agree. I always say your business cannot outgrow you. So if you want your business to grow, you've got to be willing to go there.

Podcast Host

Valerie LaVigne

Valerie is the creator and founder of Valerie LaVigne Life and the Women's Empowerment Show. She helps busy and empowered women create healthy habits so that they can become the best version of themselves and transform their lives. Learn more about Valerie here!