Gigi: Makena, it’s that wonderful time of the year.

Makena: You guys, it’s not even Thanksgiving. I know some of you are out there going like, “These people who start decorating for Christmas early are crazy.”

Gigi: Whatever holiday you celebrate, right?

Makena: Whatever holiday you celebrate, but I happen to be a big fan of Christmas decorations, and I have been going for a while now. Let’s just say after Halloween, it’s fair game, and my house is a Christmas wonderland. It’s so fun.

Gigi: Nice, I can’t wait to see it. You have to send a video because I don’t think I’ll see it. So I’ll see you in California, not in your California.

Makena: Yeah, a different part of California for Christmas. What about you? Have you been traveling a lot?

Gigi: Yes, I have. I just came back from Tulum, which was beautiful, so beautiful. I had a really nice time there and did a sweat lodge that was amazing. 

I went to a retreat that I attended, which is rare. I haven’t done that in several years, so that was super fun. It’s actually a mastermind that I’m in, so yes.

Makena: Love it. I feel like you’re jet-setting around right now, on a plane every other week.

Gigi: I am. Like my son said, “I’m not going to travel much anymore.” He’s like, “Sure, sure.” And here I am, traveling every week. 

I’m going to Utah for the first time. I’ve never been there, so I’m super excited about that. I’ve always wanted to go there.

Makena: Fun. And you’ve been to galas. I’ve seen all kinds of fun things going on in your world.

Gigi: Yes, I was at two galas and took pictures. Friends are flying in, so it’s a nice time. 

This is such a busy time of year for all of us, I think, for business and also just socially. That’s what this time of year is about, so it’s fun. And then we all get to come together up in Berkeley for Christmas. Super exciting.

Makena: Yeah, I can’t wait.

Gigi: Everybody’s going to be together this year, which is awesome.

Makena: And we’ve been preparing. We talked on the podcast about The Unstoppable Woman Masterclass we have coming up next week, and we’re so excited for that. 

If you haven’t checked that out yet, go to wayofthemuse.com/unstoppable. 

This is the perfect way to, at this time of year, take stock of what you want to create before the end of the year. We still have time. And then also really see what you want for next year.

Gigi: Yes.

Makena: How do you become that unstoppable woman who’s going to create it? So we’d love to see you there.

Gigi: Yeah, and I think it’s so important this time of year to do that. We have this time for reflection, which we definitely do in December with our mastermind and for ourselves, because then you can really plan, right? You set that tone for the next year. 

If “unstoppable” is your thing, then we’re the ladies to listen to.

Makena: Yeah, we’ll actually have three women on – amazing, incredible and very much unstoppable women in their own ways – doing some shares and a Q&A. So that’ll be super fun as well. 

Alright, let’s get into our topic for today: Making A Quantum Leap. 

So first, let’s talk about what a quantum leap is and why we’re even bringing this up on the podcast.

A lot of times, when we talk to women who want to grow in their lives, businesses, or careers, they’re in this place of wanting to make a jump from where they are now. 

Maybe they’re feeling a bit of a plateau or a little stuck, OR things are good, and they’re growing, but they feel there’s a bigger game, a bigger dream.

So, that’s what we want to talk about today. How do you make that leap? 

And that leap might be a continuation of where you are – it might be growing your business revenue or getting a specific result. Or it might be a leap into something new, like calling in a great relationship. 

But whatever it is, it feels like a stretch from where you are now. That’s the main thing. 

So, how do you do that? And how do you do it in a sustainable way where you don’t just fade out? 

Tell me about that, Gigi, because you mentioned not being a one-hit wonder and doing this sustainably. 

What do you mean by that, and why is it important?

Gigi: Yeah, I see sometimes there are musicians or people who go out there as one-hit wonders, right? They have this amazing song that comes out, and it’s incredible. But there’s no plan after that, or they take a lot of time off and don’t focus on taking all that fame and doing something with it. What happens then is they lose their momentum. 

And I think that’s part of it – not losing the momentum.

A sustainable way is similar to going to the gym for two months. You’re really working, you’re looking good, but then you stop for five months and have to start all over again. 

We see this often. 

A lot of this is because people either don’t know how to keep going or think they don’t have time. They don’t know where to fit it in or exactly what to do.

And I think that’s why women, and also men in my leadership coaching, come to us. 

They need a place to think it through and reflect. 

You’ve seen this too, right, Makena? You’ve worked with a lot of women who’ve really made that quantum leap, often in their businesses or income.

Makena: Yeah, absolutely. I think a great place to start this conversation is by talking about alignment. Something we see a lot is people wanting to make a quantum leap, but maybe they haven’t really looked to see if the way they’re looking to grow is truly aligned for them.

What do you see with this, Gigi, when people come to you? 

Let’s use an example – it’s probably the most common one we come across with our clients. Say, “I’m a business owner, and I want to grow my income significantly in the next year. We’re approaching 2025 – this is the breakout year.” 

Or maybe they’re already doing really well, but they have a big vision and a big goal.

How would someone tune in to see if this is aligned? What do they need to do to figure out if this is really the right direction for them? What do you mean by that?

Gigi: Well, I mean, does it bring you alive? That’s our language. Is it something you really feel you want to put your time into? 

We can have a lot of good ideas, and I think that’s where clarity comes in. 

Good ideas are great, but what we see is that if people just go with their good ideas, and it’s not aligned with how they want to spend their time or how they see themselves in their business, then it loses steam. Or they dive fully into a project, and it just becomes a strain, a stress, and isn’t really successful. 

So, I think that’s part of alignment. It’s so much about seeing how you want to grow. 

What’s the right thing for you? How do you want to spend your time? 

And then, does whatever project or way you’re growing your business make the best use of you? Is it the right place for you?

And does it really bring out the best in you? The best part of what you do is really, really well. 

We always talk about it as your “sweet spot.”

Makena: Yeah, I said that to someone the other day. I mentioned my “zone of genius,” and they were like, “I love that!” It’s common language for some people, but others may have never heard it or really thought about it – like, “Am I in my zone of genius? Am I in my sweet spot? And is this goal, this vision, this quantum leap going to put me more in my sweet spot or move me away from it?”

And this piece you mentioned about good ideas – I think a lot of people probably hear that term and think, “Well, why wouldn’t I do a good idea?” 

So, what do you mean by that? We talk about this differently when we’re working with our clients. What are you describing as a “good idea” versus something that’s truly aligned for someone?

Gigi: Especially if you’re creative like me, I can have a hundred good ideas in one day. I see something and think, “Oh my gosh, that would make a great business,” or “This would be a fantastic product,” or “I’d love to do this.”

So, what happens is I can have all these ideas, but they’re just ideas. And again, I think it’s about stepping back and asking, “Do I really want to do that? Do I want to spend my time there? Is that also going to earn the kind of money I want for the time I’m going to put in?” 

I think that’s a big factor.

And with creative people, they often don’t think like that – they think about the creativity, right? 

So that’s one of the ways to assess it. What other ways have you seen, Makena?

Makena: The other thing I see is what we call a “good idea” – I’m putting air quotes here for those listening. We’re really talking about something that, again, doesn’t light you up.

So, when we’re coaching someone and they say, “This is the thing I want to do,” and we don’t see any lights, we explore that. Sometimes, we just need to dig deeper, take a different angle, and then we really come to the part that has a lot of light. 

But a lot of times, people have these things they tell themselves. They have thoughts like, “I’m going to do this,” or “I should grow in this way.” But when it comes down to it, it’s not actually what has energy.

That’s so much of what you were saying about aliveness – the good idea could be like you’re saying. You’re a visionary, with tons of different ideas, but maybe they’re not all actually the right idea. 

Or it can also be things you tell yourself, but it’s not until people are sitting in front of a coach trained to reflect this back that they go, “Wait a second, maybe that’s not actually where I have energy or what’s really aligned for me.” And this saves so much time.

I know for me, this was the piece that saved time, money, and energy. For so long, I struggled to see how to grow in my previous career or what I wanted to do. I was looking at the logical, linear progression, but I couldn’t see outside the box, outside of the “good ideas,” so to speak, to what I really, really wanted. And that was the huge distinction.

So, the main point we want to make here is to ask: is it really aligned? Does it bring you alive? Does it have energy? Because that feeds into everything else, right?

Gigi: That’s what makes it sustainable. Whatever project or business we grow, there will be hard times, and there will be good times. There’ll be moments where it’s easier and times when it’s more challenging. 

In those more difficult times, if it’s something that truly brings you alive if it’s something that lights you up, then you can sustain it. You can keep going with it through all those ups and downs.

Makena: Yeah, I love that because, like you’re saying, there are so many ups and downs in entrepreneurship, and this is true across the board. We’re using entrepreneurship here because it’s the most common example – women come to us wanting to make a leap in their business. 

But this applies to any stretch. Anytime you’re stretching yourself out of your comfort zone into something that’s scary, new, or challenging, anytime you’re making a quantum leap, it’s going to be a stretch. It won’t exist within the boundaries of your comfort zone.

In that stretch, it’s going to bring things up. This isn’t just about making a leap in business. 

Whatever that leap is, you need to be truly aligned. Having that alignment, that sense of aliveness, really creates the fuel, the energy that helps you get through the ups and downs – especially on the down days – and keep going.

Gigi: You want to be excited, you know? You want to feel that energy. You also want to feel like it’s a stretch, but one you can actually do. 

Sometimes I see people with ideas that light them up, but then they think, “It’s so complicated.” And that complexity makes them hesitate – which, thank goodness, sometimes saves them from going down the wrong path. 

But sometimes they go for it, and it turns out it wasn’t the right thing.

So, it’s really about feeling that it’s a stretch but also feeling excited about that stretch, knowing you can get in there and go for it.

Makena: Just to recap, a lot of times we see that when people want to make a leap, they’ll say, “Oh, I’ve wanted to grow this business,” or “I’ve wanted to make this leap,” and months – or even years – have gone by, and it’s still not happening. 

Often, it’s one of these two or three things:

One, it wasn’t truly aligned. It didn’t light them up, or it wasn’t aligned for one reason or another.

Two, as you were saying, they may be setting a goal or vision that’s too much of a stretch. It’s so far from where they are now that they can’t get their energy behind it. They can’t fully believe that it’s going to happen, or they can’t completely commit to it because it feels so far out there. And that’s something I love that you’ve always taught me, Gigi, and shared with many of our clients: we always ask, when they set a vision or a goal for a leap, “Is this energetically a stretch, but also achievable?” That’s the language you usually use.

And the third one we were just talking about is support. If we’re spinning our wheels, thinking, “I’m going to do this, I’m going to do this,” and it’s still not happening, then what got you here probably isn’t going to get you where you want to go. So somewhere in there, you may need support, or you may need someone on the outside looking in. 

That’s often what we do for people, right? We’re the sounding board, outside looking in, and we can see the opportunities, and other options, or reflect back on what we see in terms of that aliveness.

Is there anything else around those, Gigi, that you’d like to share?

Gigi: I think with the support piece, too, what I’ve seen is that just having someone there to be by your side can make all the difference. Sometimes it’s a very subtle shift, which is such an interesting thing. 

All someone needs is a person to talk it through with – someone who isn’t just going to jump in with advice, but instead provides real feedback.

And then what happens is the person gains clarity. With that support beside them, they’re able to make the shift. We see that happen all the time. I see that experience happen regularly.

Makena: Yeah, so those are three things to maybe consider if you’re sitting in that position, or you may be new to wanting to make this leap, in which case it’s great that you’re listening to this and you can know what are sort of the ingredients that make up the ability to do this and the ability to do it and not just be that one-hit wonder, but actually sustain it over time, have that growth or that change continue to sustain.

What else do you see, Gigi, in terms of what else can really help someone to create this shift if they’re feeling a little stuck around it, or they just don’t know the path to take, or they go, “I’m so busy already. How am I going to find the time to really make the jump that I want to make?”

Gigi: One thing is to cut the busy work. A lot of times, the busy work – I can watch myself get frenzied with this. I’ll be in a very busy time in my life, and I almost get into that energy of busy work.

So, in the spaces where I do have some time, I’m not focused in the way that I could be. And I think that’s common for people. To make and allow time to start a quantum leap, you have to create some space. See where you’re taking up time just being busy on that hamster wheel.

And we’ve talked about this in probably several podcasts now – scrolling on social media, for example. Eliminate those activities, and start putting the time into doing some thinking work or reflecting work to really see what you want to do. Then take actions that really move the needle.

You know, I love that – I read that book years ago, and I always use this with our ladies in the mastermind: what’s the one thing you could do today to move the needle towards your project and get results? Because that’s all it takes. That one thing a day, over a period of even 30 days, starts to really move and shift things.

And we, as human beings – I don’t know why – I guess we get distracted. We just don’t realize that those little subtle shifts, when they’re consistent, become something very sustainable.

Makena: Yeah, two great books on that topic. One is The One Thing – I don’t remember the authors, but we can link these in the show notes. And the other one is The Slight Edge. 

Gigi: The Slight Edge is also a really good one. 

Makena: That’s another great one about how the small things we do over time really, really add up. So if you want some audiobook recommendations, those would be some great ones.

And I love what you said about taking the time and space to reflect, first of all, because sometimes I think that’s the part people really miss, right? It’s like we’re in the doing all the time, or we’re distracted, like you’re saying, and just kind of habitual in our actions. 

But carving out that space to really reflect – and sometimes that’s hard to do by yourself, sitting at home or something like that.

That’s where coming to something like our masterclass, that we have coming up, is helpful because it’s this environment where we’re creating and curating the space. There’s a certain energy, especially if you get on that call live, and I highly recommend moving your calendar around if you can to be there live. 

The energy of a live call like that, when there are people tuning in from all over the world and everybody’s there learning and doing reflection questions, and you have that space – there’s something about that. 

Don’t you find, Gigi, that it really brings those aha moments and breakthroughs in a way that’s very different from just sitting there at home with a pen and paper, trying to get clear?

Gigi: Absolutely. One thing is it’s the collective consciousness, right? We’re sitting there, and people are talking, and we get new ideas from hearing other people or hearing someone speak.

It’s a real moment – being in that moment, which is very powerful when it comes to new ideas, or like you said, it brings those moments of, “Oh my gosh, I never thought about that.” 

By hearing other people, seeing what they’re going through, and seeing how they’re approaching things, we learn so much as well.

I was just going to say, it’s so simple. We just overcomplicate things like that.

Makena: I’ll never forget when one of our clients, who lives in Switzerland, joined one of our masterclasses – it was a free masterclass, like this one, a couple of years ago. We led a visioning process during that class, and she… I’m trying to remember the exact details of the story, but she saw… 

Yeah, you tell it.

Gigi: Yeah, so she saw… she was wanting to move – I might not get all the details exactly right. And when she was doing the visioning process, she saw this house she had looked at several years before and had talked to the lady who owned it. 

The lady had really wanted her to move there, but she had decided not to do it. She hadn’t thought about it in a long time and hadn’t talked to the woman. Then, the very next day, the woman reached out to her and said, “I would love for you to live in my house.”

Makena: And she reached out within 24 hours after she did this visioning process, saw this house, and was like, “Oh my gosh that’s where I would love to live.”

Gigi: Yeah. And the woman reached out to her, and then she reached out to me and said, “Is this me just getting distracted, or is this something I should really go for?”

And I said, “Oh my gosh, you should go for it. That is a sign, a wink from God or a sign from the universe – that is absolutely something you should pursue.” And so she did. She ended up moving there and was extremely happy. It’s a beautiful place. I visited her there a couple of times, and it’s such a beautiful place.

And, it completely changed her life. She was where she wanted to be… yeah, it was amazing.

Makena: So speaking of that, I just wanted to share – it popped into my mind as the power of coming to something like this, where you’re in this live experience. There is this collective energy; we all have this intention. In this case, the masterclass is about being the unstoppable woman, really becoming that unstoppable woman. And what will you do when you are that version of yourself, and what kind of leaps will you create? 

Giving yourself that time, carving out that time to really reflect.

Because from there, it becomes a lot easier to simplify. Like you were talking about, we overcomplicate things, we get caught up in the busy work. 

If you know the vision, you know where you’re going, then it’s easier to ask, “What’s going to really move the needle to get me there?” versus just being in our day-to-day, thinking, “Well, I kind of want to do this,” or “I want to make this leap; hopefully, it’s alive and aligned for me.”

Then we just start checking things off a list, like, “Okay, make a social media post, reach out to this person.” We just have this list, but often there’s not the energy or clarity behind it. It’s not, “This is what I want. This is the thing.” And then, how do I create the space and the time to make that happen?

Gigi: And why don’t you share, too – once we do that, what is it that we… how does somebody start with this? What do they do?

Makena: Well, we always talk about, instead of words like “discipline” and, you know, phrases like “you’ve got to be disciplined in taking your actions,” a word you came up with, Gigi, that I think is so beautiful is “rhythm.” 

Rhythm and follow-through. 

Rhythm is about the rhythm of your days, your weeks. We all have a rhythm of some kind – it might be a beautiful rhythm, or it might be more disjointed. But it’s about starting to be intentional about how you create your rhythm to ensure that you’re moving consistently in the direction of whatever that quantum leap is.

And then there has to be the follow-through. So often, people have these great ideas, they get excited, and then they just… don’t take the actions. Or more often than not, they take actions for a short time, then get distracted or fall off, and think, “Oh well, I fell off anyway, so whatever.”

And this is where, again, the support piece really comes in – looking at what that rhythm is going to be for your quantum leap. 

I think there’s a misconception about quantum leaps. People think “quantum leap” and imagine overnight success, or that it’s all going to happen in one grand moment. But the truth is, quantum leaps happen in baby steps. They happen in baby steps. And so it’s about creating your rhythm for those baby steps and then following through on it.

Gigi: Yeah, in your baby steps, a quantum leap can happen – that something, an opportunity, comes in that is a quantum leap. 

But normally it comes in if you’ve been taking those baby steps. 

That’s the part. You have to be doing the action.

Makena: Absolutely. And I know we’re going to tell the story in the masterclass coming up about when you made your first million, when you did your first million-dollar year in the early 1990s. So we’ll save that for the masterclass, but it’s a great story about how you really did this and what were the pieces that really led to you being able to make that quantum leap and to really, really grow… yeah, grow your business. 

I know you had a lot of systems in place and a lot of different pieces in place to make that happen.

All right. That is, I think, our steps for today. 

So, anything else you want to share on this? Or… I think that’s pretty clear.

Gigi: I think it’s clear. This is kind of like our secret sauce. So this is what we do with everyone. 

And like I said, when you’re sitting in it yourself, a lot of times it feels complex or confusing. And I think that’s true for anyone, really – even for us.

But then you get this clarity when you do these simple little steps. 

Again, it’s like we talk about – you know, there are instructions, and they’re written on the outside, and you can’t see them.

But you can begin. With what we shared with you today, you can absolutely begin those baby steps with the things we shared.

Makena: Just one more plug for the masterclass because it’s going to be so great. We’d love to see you all there. Here, you get to listen to us, and of course, it’s on your own time, and that’s wonderful. 

The masterclass is an opportunity for you to come on and actually get, you know, in that energy we talked about, but also maybe have some questions answered, hear from our panelists, and really support you to set the tone to make that quantum leap.

There will be a replay, but as mentioned, we highly, highly recommend making it live if you can. 

So you can go to wayofthemuse.com/unstoppable and sign up there for free. 

Please share it with your friends who might enjoy it as well. And we’re coming up on the holidays here – I think we have one more episode before Thanksgiving here in the U.S., so we’ll have some fun things coming up that are holiday-related for you all. And maybe some Black Friday sales, too.

So we’ll be in touch, and we’ll see you on the podcast next week. All right, thank you, thank you, thank you, everyone. Bye-bye.