“I just listened to your podcast on valuing yourself as a conscious entrepreneur. Thank you so much for making it. I really needed to hear those words today. And it’s a guidance I really wanted since the beginning when I started working on my own. So thank you!”

Hello! Welcome to The Feel Good factor. I’m Susmitha Veganosaurus and I’m so glad you’re here. If this is not your first time, welcome back!

That was Ekta telling us about her favourite episode on the show. You can leave me a voice note too, about your favourite episode or anything that you like about this podcast. I’d love to hear your message! Now onto today’s episode…

If you’d prefer to 🎧 listen to this episode, go here. Or continue reading...

There’s this story of a ship that’s broken down

For whatever reason, the engine isn’t working. It isn’t starting. So the owners of the ship call engineers to come and fix it. Several people come to check it out, open out different parts, have a look, try this, try that. Based on their education they try a bunch of things, but no matter what they do, the ship engine just does not start!

Several people try, give up, and go away. And finally, the owners hear about this really old mechanic. This person’s been fixing ship engines since they were a kid. So they have years and years and years of experience behind them.

They are just a mechanic, not an engineer or anything. They haven’t studied much, but well, as a last resort the ship owners invite that person to come and fix the ship engine.

So this very old person comes. They’re looking all around the ship carefully. Going to every corner, checking every bit of the ship’s engine room. They take quite some time carefully doing that. And then they reach this one spot.

They open their bag, pull out this small hammer, and knock on that part just a couple of times *tuk tuk*

That’s it! The engine bursts back into life and starts working. Everybody’s thrilled. The owners thank them profusely and this person goes back home.

The next day the owners get a bill from the mechanic for $10,000! And they’re like, “What?! All this person did was just knock twice with a hammer. That’s all they did. They didn’t do any of the work the other engineers did. So why are they charging us $10,000?”

So they sent a message to this person saying, “Hey, could you send us an itemised bill?” They’re trying to be clever, wanting to understand exactly what the charges are. “Could you break it down for us?”

So the next day they get an itemised bill

Banging with a hammer $2
Knowing where to bang with a hammer $9,998
Total = $10,000

The first time I heard this story, it blew my mind! It’s simple, you know, it’s a funny little story. But it makes so much sense. It teaches us about the value of experience in such a simple way.

Yes, you know, education’s important, studying is important, getting degrees, etc. All that’s important. But above everything else is experience.

Experience trumps everything!

The more you do something, the more you’re in a particular situation or work or a field, the more you see what could go wrong, firsthand. Not studying it on paper. You see what could go wrong, and you figured out how to fix it on your own. And that just stays there with you.

Then over time, if there’s an issue with something, you know. You just know what it is. In fact, you’ll see it coming a mile away.

This happens with me with my coaching clients sometimes. When they’re in a particular situation, they say something and I know it’s not right, they shouldn’t be doing this. I tell them “please don’t do it” because I can see the problems coming a mile away.

Often they follow it. They’re like, “You know what, yeah. We trust Susmitha so we’ll do what she’s saying.” But sometimes, of course, we all want to use our own minds, right? I want to do that too, even if somebody tells me how to do a certain thing, no matter their experience I want to try things out for myself.

Which is what I encourage in my coaching clients also

I don’t want them just being dependent on my sessions all the time. So I’m like, “Okay, fine. You know, if your gut says you really want to do it, even though I said don’t, go ahead and do it.”

And then, I usually am hoping, hoping that I’m wrong, and they got it right. That could happen. It does happen.

But more often than not when they do something I tell them not to do, the exact problem that I foresee tends to happen. Then they’re like, “oh, gosh!” They come back and share. And I say, “yeah, so I was hoping that wouldn’t happen, but yes, this is what I was expecting.”

I sharing this with you because I wanted to demonstrate that it’s only out of experience that I could see those problems coming. It’s only because I’ve dealt with those problems, those challenges, and gotten beyond them, learnt from my mistakes or learnt to solve them on my own.

This is why I can see it coming and forewarn my coaching clients

I’ve been in the vegan business field for a really, really long time. So quite often I know better than someone who’s studied and got multiple degrees or done a lot of courses in business.

And the main reason I’m sharing this is not to toot my own horn. Haha Like I said, I want the best for my clients. So I’m always hoping that they get it right over my advice. Even if I say no and they say yes, I hope it works for them.

The reason I’m sharing it is for you to consider how much experience do you have in a certain field?

We can all be overcome by self-doubt

Often it just happens. No matter how long you’ve been doing something, been teaching, been in a certain field, getting experience, we all sometimes get overcome by self-doubt. And we start to wonder, “Do I even really know much? Am I the right person to be doing what I’m doing, or whatever it is I’m teaching?”

You know what? You are! Even if you have some amount of experience in a particular area, even if it’s like a year of experience over somebody else, then you can help that person by teaching them. You can totally do it.

So if you’ve been thinking, “hey, I want to create a course or a workshop”

Or, “I want to do some coaching, I want to teach someone something.” Even if it’s to someone in your family. If you’re thinking you want to teach, you want to coach, you want to help people with your guidance…If you have any amount of experience over them, then don’t even second guess yourself.

You teach if they’re open to learning from you. Are they asking for your guidance, for your advice? You give them that guidance. You’re the person to do it simply because you have experience.

Another thing that happens is wondering if some thing you want to share is very basic

I love teaching! Whether teaching in my coaching classes, workshops and courses, or just teaching through my podcasts (like this), or my blog or Instagram posts. I love that. It lights me up!

And sometimes, there’s something I want to share, and I second guess myself. I’m like, “Isn’t this too basic? I’m sure they know this already. I don’t have to tell them about this.”

But then I kind of push myself through that doubt, and put it out there anyway. And funnily, that is the post, that is the episode, whatever, which I get some of the most heartfelt responses to!

Whether it’s a DM or an email. People are like, “Oh my God, that made so much sense! I didn’t think of this before. Thank you for sharing.”

And I’ll be laughing at myself. I’m like, “oh damn, I almost didn’t share that! But I’m so glad I did.”

There’s nothing like “too basic”. Because your experience, even if it’s like a week of experience in something over somebody else, just the fact that you have that experience means you can still help them. So if you feel called to share something, post something, create something, don’t hesitate to do it.

Of course I’m not telling you to go and give unsolicited advice. Absolutely not. It’s something I really dislike taking or giving. If I tend to do it sometimes, I catch myself and apologise, or stop myself from doing it.

I’m not telling you to go and give people unsolicited advice when they aren’t asking for it. But if you feel called to share something in your own space, like your social media or blog or podcast wherever. Or say if you feel like you want to create a YouTube video or build a course or workshop. Do it.

If somebody comes and asks you particularly for guidance, then don’t hesitate to give them that guidance

Whether you charge for it or not. That’s next, you know, you can become a coach and actually charge for your guidance and you’re still worth it.

Like I said, if you have any amount of experience over somebody else, then it’s worth it. And the more years of experience you have, then you can totally charge for your coaching and stuff like that.

But I’m saying, even if you’re not charging someone for it, and you feel called to give guidance to someone’s asking you, don’t stop yourself from doing it because you doubt your capacity to deal with the matter, understand it, or give guidance.

Just do it with humility

Always say, “this is what I feel, this is how it’s worked for me.” Give examples from your life, work, business, creativity. You give examples and say, “this has what worked for me, and this is why I feel this could work for you. But yes, it’s up to you to finally decide.”

That’s a nice, humble way of doing it because yeah, obviously we don’t know everything and we don’t know how to help everybody the best. So you obviously shouldn’t be pushing someone.

If somebody’s pushing you, if they’re overconfident that, “you do this only, and nothing else will work,” you probably shouldn’t be going to them for guidance or advice

The more humble a person is, your coach or whoever you’re taking advice from, guidance from, learning from… Some amount of humility… The more they have that humility with confidence, when they have that balance, that’s a very good person to learn from!

Because we know that they won’t form one opinion, or have one experience, and then believe that is the solution to everything. They’ll question it. They’ll be very open to learning more and more.

When a person is open to learning more and more, their experience gets better and better

Their knowledge is better and better. And therefore they’re able to help you better.

So yeah, ask yourself, are you like that old the mechanic who knew exactly what the problem was after inspecting things? If you’re like that in your life in certain matters, which might seem blindingly obvious to you, but not at all obvious to others.

Or if you feel like you’re really good at this, but you’re, kind of worried like, “Who am I to teach somebody? Who am I to share something?” Get over all of it! And no matter how basic it is, put your knowledge out there. Share, teach, guide people.

All right. That’s it for today. Take care. Talk to you again next week.

And don’t forget to leave me a voice note about your favourite episode, or anything you’ve learnt from either this particular podcast episode, or any episode at all on the podcast so far.

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Listen to the episode on the audio player below 👇🏽 (or on any podcast app that you like).

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Susmitha Veganosaurus

“I’m a Spiritual Vegan Multi-Passionate Entrepreneur. I read voraciously, find humour in most things, and believe kindness and authenticity can make this world a happier, loving place.

If my content resonates with you, join my free newsletter where I share Life and Business Tips, Vegan Hacks, Holistic Guidance, and more.

Vegan cuisine and holistic business building are my two biggest passions. If you’re looking for guidance with vegan cooking, or want to grow your conscious business with joy and fulfilment explore ways we can work togetherhere.”

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