This is something I didn’t fully realise until I was already deep in the journey. I had been taught that I was my business. That it wasn’t something I did, it was who I was. That I should embody it, live it, breathe it. And while there’s truth to bringing alignment into your work, this idea that you are your business caused real harm for me.
When your identity becomes entangled with your business, it creates confusion. Pressure. Exhaustion. It becomes hard to separate where you end and it begins. And over time, that lack of separation can start to erode your wellbeing, your decision-making, and your trust in yourself
EPISODE 104: Listen using the player below, or click the links to your fave platform to subscribe and listen over there:
Your Business Is Not Your Identity
Let’s be clear: you are not your business. You are a human being with a full life, a body, emotions, needs, and boundaries. You have a business. You work in business. But it’s not who you are.
I’ve come to understand this distinction deeply, and it changed everything for me. Because when I saw myself as one with my business, when there was no separation, I began to carry the weight of everything. Every decision. Every mistake. Every moment of growth or stagnation. It all felt personal.
And what came with that was burnout. Emotional suppression. Constant overwhelm. I was exhausted, even when my business was still a hobby. I felt like I had to do everything myself. There was a never-ending to-do list, and no space to breathe.
Now, that list is different. It’s a fun list. It’s something I get to choose from. I decide what brings me joy, what lights me up, and what I want to create. That shift didn’t happen by chance, it happened because I stopped seeing my business as my identity, and started relating to it as its own energetic being.
What Happens When There’s No Separation
When you identify as your business, you stop seeking support. You think you have to do it all alone. And even when things feel heavy, you don’t reach out. You don’t ask for help from a mindset coach, a business coach, or even your community.
Instead, you try to move forward at all costs. You make decisions from pressure, not presence. And you often make them too quickly, without alignment. Some work. But many don’t. And then the cycle begins again.
On the flip side, you can also swing into decision paralysis. You’ll know you need something, like email software, for example, but six months later, you still haven’t chosen. You get stuck. You overthink. You over analyse. And you can’t move forward.
Why It Can Lead to Misaligned Investments
When you’re not grounded in your own energy, and you’re overly identified with your business, you can also make investments that don’t serve you. I’ve done it. I’ve spent money on things that felt right in the moment but weren’t aligned for me at all.
In one case, I hired a business coach at a time when I wasn’t ready. Not emotionally. Not energetically. Looking back, I know I wasn’t in the right space to make that decision. But in that moment, I was pressured. NLP was used on me. I was asked to put down a deposit right there on the call. It wasn’t a collaborative decision. It wasn’t supportive.
And after that, I struggled to trust anyone. I worried that every conversation would turn into the same thing. I felt manipulated. And it shook my ability to discern what was truly aligned for me and my business.
The Overthinking Loop
When you start overidentifying with your business, overthinking and self-doubt creep in. You question everything. You analyse every option. You don’t trust your intuitive hits.
You begin to doubt that you know what’s best. That you can make good decisions. That you even know what you need. And that disconnection leads to either rash choices or no choices at all.
You lose the ability to hear your business as a separate energy. You stop checking in. You override your own wisdom.
Your Business Is Its Own Energy
The truth is, your business is a separate energetic being. You created it. You birthed it. You’ve nurtured it. But like a child or a pet or a plant, it has its own frequency. Its own rhythm. Its own voice.
When you remember that, you stop trying to control it. You start listening. You start co-creating. You start treating your business like a trusted partner rather than an extension of yourself.
And that’s when things shift:
- You become more confident in your decision-making
- You take aligned action, whether fast or slow, based on your own truth
- You recover from mistakes more quickly, because you don’t take them as a personal failure
- You listen for your business’s energy, and you trust your own as a businesswoman
This is the shift that changed everything for me. And it’s the shift I want for you too.
Final Reflections
You don’t have to carry your business. You don’t have to fuse your identity with it in order to be successful. In fact, the more you treat it as a separate, sacred entity, the more clarity and confidence you’ll gain.
You’ll begin to stand up for yourself. You’ll discern advice that’s helpful from advice that isn’t. You’ll stop being pulled off your path. And instead, you’ll walk it, with your business beside you.
Here for the links that may have been referenced in the show or is complementary to this episode.
- Podcast – Ep 159: When No One Shows Up
- Podcast – Ep 85: Digital Presence and Creative Tools
- Podcast – Ep 72: Passion, Energy, and Content Creation With Care
More in-depth content and resources:
- Blog Post – The Energetics of Visibility
