Return to Radiance with Danielle Venables

081. Knowledge vs Wisdom: Embodied Leadership and Authentic Mentorship

August 11, 2024 • Danielle Venables • Episode 81

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Discover the transformative journey from mere mental knowledge to true embodied wisdom in leadership and mentorship. Have you ever wondered why some leaders and mentors profoundly impact their followers while others fall short? I share personal stories and insights on the power of living your truths effortlessly, explaining how we are moving from an age of information to one where intuitive understanding reigns supreme. By reflecting on our personal and collective experiences, we can achieve deeper self-awareness and authenticity. 

In this episode, I explore the critical role embodiment plays in effective teaching and coaching. Drawing from personal anecdotes, including horse training and snowboarding, I illustrate how facing and overcoming challenges leads to greater mastery and authenticity. The best mentors are those who have struggled and learned, not just those who found success easily. This discussion underscores the importance of embracing your unique path and rejecting unhelpful advice from those who haven’t truly embodied their teachings.

Choosing the right mentor is a sacred act. I highlight the importance of discerning true embodiment in potential mentors and the dangers of being lured by flashy success stories that lack substance. The mentor-mentee relationship should be grounded in co-regulation, safety, and support for your personal growth. Aligning with mentors who honor your unique journey helps you cultivate your own embodiment, leading to lasting success and fulfillment. By sharing my experiences of overcoming disempowering influences, I emphasize the power of authenticity and the benefits of working with an Akashic guide for personal evolution. Tune in to explore opportunities for one-on-one mentorship that can support your quest for a harmonious and sustainable life.

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to Return to Radiance, the podcast with one core purpose to remind you of your innate power and essence. I'm your host, danielle Venables, an Akashic guide and soul coach, here to activate, heal and empower the new wave of soulful CEOs to become radically aligned and unapologetic. In these episodes, we will be diving into all things mystic, soul level transformation, the new paradigm of leadership, business, energetics, awakening, healing and more, as well as holding potent conversations around connecting deeply to your personal power and owning your truth. If you are here for it all, be sure to hit subscribe so you never miss an episode. While I'm confident the discussions in this podcast have the power to change your life, these episodes are for information only and are in no way a substitute for individual medical, legal or mental health advice.

Speaker 2:

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Return to Radiance podcast. Today I wanted to talk about something that gets talked about a lot and I feel like, for the most part, when we're having conversations about it, we are really missing the mark. And the reason for this is because it's one of those things that, when you know, you know, and until you've really experienced it, it can be one of those things that's like hard to put into words, hard to describe and kind of one of those things that you have to like feel to really understand. And it's also something that's very layered. It is something that is continuous on our evolutionary path and that is the concept of embodiment. Now, to actually define embodiment, I don't have like a textbook definition, but on the spiritual path, I would say, if I were to define the term embodiment, it really is being who you say, you are, what you say, you are being the expression of your soul, being the expression of your gifts, even being the expression of the divine within, in a way that is natural, in a way that you're not trying and thinking and stumbling and, you know, like seeking, trying to be a certain way. It's a way of being that is just very natural. It just is your natural essence. It just is who you are, and I've noticed that there are a lot of people in the world, across all industries whether you're looking at politics or business or, uh, dating and relationships or, um, obviously, the online coaching, mentorship, spiritual work, all of it Um, there are a lot of people who have a really good like mental understanding of a lot of these concepts, or so they think right, and there's a lot that can be learned in books. There's a lot of you know, wisdom and knowledge that can be sort of regurgitated or passed on, or like learned and repeated, or learned and interpreted and sort of repeated in your own way, which is how we learn. You know as a species, if you go to school, that's how you're taught. You know to get the right answers on the test and things like that. But all of that is a mental knowing. That's not an embodied knowing. That's not embodied wisdom. That is just coming from a place of you learned something, you developed a sense of understanding of it, and so then you're able to speak on it with a little more confidence, a little more clarity than when, maybe, you were first learning.

Speaker 2:

And up until I want to say 2020, 2021, maybe, um, we were very much in an age of information. We were in an age where we were seeking knowledge, we were seeking information, we wanted to know the things and, like in a very masculine, very like cerebral way. And what has been shifting over the last few years I feel like it's slowly been shifting for longer than that, but it's become very apparent over the last few years is that we have knowledge at our fingertips, right Like we don't need to go read a book, we don't need to go seek out a mentor, we don't need to even have a conversation to receive knowledge and facts and the sort of published ways of understanding. Again, whether that's spiritual concepts or quantum physics or really anything Like there are ways to receive mental information. In fact, we are so almost drowned in mental information, in academic knowledge, that it gets kind of confusing because different ideas can conflict, different studies can conflict.

Speaker 2:

If you're looking at science, you know one person who teaches on polarity might teach something one way, but then somebody else will say the complete opposite, or you'll just get little like tidbits and snippets of the bigger picture, right, especially in the age of, like TikTok and Instagram reels and YouTube shorts, um, with sort of what I call like the fast food teaching, the fast food knowledge, the fast food nuggets Um it. It's become a bit of a information overload when it comes to what's true and what's real. And that's really where knowledge differs from embodiment, that's where intuitive wisdom differs from what's available. Right, because at the end of the day, especially if you're looking at mentorship or healers or coaches, business coaches, anything like that anybody can possess the knowledge. Right, it's easy. You can take one business coaching program. You can learn the things that they're teaching and you can go ahead and teach them and repeat that. Right, you can apply them in your life and you can teach them and repeat that.

Speaker 2:

But embodied wisdom comes from a place of maybe you have learned things, maybe you've tried them on, maybe you've failed, maybe that failure prompted a dark night of the soul or some serious questioning about like who am I, what am I really doing, what do I really want? Blah, blah, blah. And you kind of have to go into the void of yourself. You have to go into your own journey, your own soul, and find your own answers. And when you emerge from that place, from that place you have an embodied understanding of whatever it is that you learned in the void in that process, right? And so there is, and I'm going to talk about, like, the mentorship space, specifically coaching, mentorship, healing, that kind of stuff.

Speaker 2:

Because I'm seeing and feeling such a lack of embodiment when it comes to what people are saying and teaching and preaching. And I have a big issue with it. Right, because in theory, the stuff that you learn with your mental knowledge in theory could work, should work, but when a leader is lacking the embodiment piece, when they are, you know, showing up knowing that something should work or that something has worked, but they're not fully embodied in what they're teaching, it falls very flat and there's a lack of depth in terms of how they can hold you. And to give you an example of this, how many of you and I know this isn't live, so you're going to just have to check in with yourself as you're listening but how many of you have joined a business coaching program and, you know, gone through it, followed the steps, tried to be the good student, even if some things were kind of like eh, I don't like that. But you're like, oh, I'll push through the resistance. I paid this coach, blah, blah, blah. Better give it like the old college try, um, and you, you've applied things and you've, you've tried.

Speaker 2:

And then when something does come up, um, when you, you bump up against something that's like, oh, this really doesn't work for me, or this really doesn't feel good, or I tried it and it's just not for me. Um, you know how many of you have turned around and been either gaslit by the coach saying, well, you're not being teachable, you're not being a good student, blah, blah, blah. Or, um, basically been told okay, well, you don't have to do it this way. You know like, oh, you don't have to do it this way. You know like, oh, you don't have to do it this way. Well, this is what you're teaching. So you know, can you help me adapt it? Can you give other suggestions for how I could do this?

Speaker 2:

But the stuff that's being taught is so one dimensional, and that's because the person running the program, the person running the container, isn't embodied in business. And also, I think if you're, if you're going to be coaching and mentoring people, you not only have to be embodied in business, but you have to be embodied in leadership and creativity and you know finding solutions, you know co-creating with people, even just asking good questions right, that's coaching 101, asking powerful questions but because they're not embodied in these other modalities. So maybe they've made the six or seven figures that they claim, maybe that's a conversation for another day. But, you know, maybe they've made the six or seven figures that they they claim they've made, but they're not embodied in the other skill sets that are required to then teach and coach and mentor other people who are not all alike, who do not all fit into the same box, who will not all have success using the exact strategy and energy, and, you know, whatever it is that got them there. That lack of embodiment, then, is a disservice to their clients, and some people don't care, and that's a whole shadow side of the industry that I'm not even going to get into because that doesn't exist in my world anymore. I've purged that out. But then there's the people who maybe do care, but they just don't know how to do it differently. And that's where embodiment is, like, really the key.

Speaker 2:

And so I had my in-laws were up visiting and I was having a conversation with my father-in-law, and my mother-in-law is like super, super good with horses, like insanely intuitive, very gifted, has a ton of experience, and so she was working on one of the horses and, you know, working through some of the little quirks and issues that that a freshly broke horse will have, and my father-in-law and I were standing there and he's like, yeah, like she really has to like pay attention, like if she wants to teach someone how to correct something, she has to like go do it and make it hard to teach so she can have great success with horses.

Speaker 2:

But in terms of actually teaching other people how to have great success with horses, like it's challenging for her because it comes so naturally to her. And that prompted a conversation between the two of us of you know, that's why it's not the best athletes that become the best coaches, right? Like he said that when him and his son, my husband, took snowboarding lessons together, they had this instructor who was in like the X Games and was really successful, had a great professional career.

Speaker 2:

But when they would ask a question and be like, oh, so you do do it like this or what about that, and they would, you know, try to be like understanding sort of how he was doing something, he would be like, well, I don't know, I've never really thought of it and then he would go do it and try to identify, like you know, what the question was about, or or what he was doing as he was doing it, right, um, and so it just goes to to show that, not, you don't have to be the best athlete to be the best coach, right, right, the best coaches are the ones that overcome the challenges. They're the ones that have to really learn and apply themselves and find things that work, and troubleshoot and fail and then have their success. You know, they're not going to be the top 1% of the world necessarily, but they're going to be the ones that really develop an embodied understanding of what is going on, whether that's related to spirituality, or human behavior, or self-sabotage, or, um, you know just how, learning how to develop your intuition right, someone who's naturally super intuitive and has been since the day that they were born and never struggled to connect to their intuition, isn't going to be as good of a teacher as somebody who had to cultivate that within themselves, right, right. So, bringing this back to the topic of embodiment, what I'm really saying is A, if you've had imposter syndrome because things don't come as easy to you as maybe other people online you know, like maybe you've been in a group program of some sort and some people it just comes so easy, it comes so naturally, blah, blah, blah, and you're having like these doubts about yourself of like what is wrong with me or why can't I do it or why can't I have that success. Just know that it's part of a deeper initiation and it's a part of, like, those initiations, those struggles, those challenges are what lead you into greater mastery. They're what lead you into the embodiment.

Speaker 2:

When you finally do find what does work for you and when you give yourself permission to let go of the things that don't work, let go of the unhelpful advice, let go of the advice that's coming from the people who, you know, just naturally somehow made it work and made it happen for themselves, and really find your way instead. That's where embodiment comes in. Um, and yeah, it's just, it's another thing to sort of be aware of when you are looking for mentorship, right, it is so easy to get drawn into these stories of you know, I started my business and within three months I was making six figures and blah, blah, blah, and sometimes that's just not true, um. So that is something to be aware of too, and use your discernment with Um, but even when it is true, because those success stories do happen, it is possible, um, but it's important to not get sucked into the sexy story of oh, they did that and I want that, um, and really focus on do they feel really anchored? Do they feel really anchored? Do they feel really embodied? Do they feel like they've gone through it and gone through the struggles and can hold space for anything that comes up for me on this journey as I try to create those results or the results that I want in my life? Or did it just come so easily to them that they've never struggled? And so when I struggle, am I going to be made to feel like a bad student? Or are they not going to know how to support me through that Because they've never had struggles of their own? Or you know, like there's, there's layers to that and it's natural to want to be attracted to the shiny object. It's natural to want to be attracted to the one that's. Like you know, I work five hours a week and I make seven figures and blah, blah, blah, um, but at the same time, there is something so sacred and I say this all the time like mentorship is one of the most sacred relationships that we can enter into as humans.

Speaker 2:

It is vulnerable. It is where you will bump up against your edges. It is where you will discover things about yourself. You'll uncover hidden blocks. You'll, you know, bump up against old conditioning and be like why the heck can't I do this? Why am I struggling with my visibility? Or, you know, why am I procrastinating so much? Or whatever, like you'll hit those upper limits.

Speaker 2:

You'll find the edges of your comfort zone and it's really important to be able to be held as you push through them and not gaslight yourself into thinking, oh, something's wrong with me because I can't get the results that my mentor got, um, but instead really be able to show up vulnerably with what is going on or what is coming up and have a mentor who can hold space for that, and be like maybe I didn't go through the exact same thing, but I know how to hold you through that struggle because I understand personal transformation. I understand upper limits. I understand, um, you know past life, karmic stuff that comes with such a weird, inexplicable charge, um, that you know is triggering and you don't know why, because there's no memory that you can think of of why that would even be triggering you in this lifetime, um, and so let's work through it together and let's, you know, work on it. So that is where embodiment makes all of the difference. And the other thing is when you have a really embodied group of friends or mentor or somebody in your corner who is, like, really anchored in their essence, really anchored in reality, they're able to, you're able to co-regulate, right, like Mastin Kipp talks about this, this concept of co-regulation where just having one person present and regulated allows another person to kind of sync up with that. And so when you're anchored and you're not just playing into the hype of huge money months and be big and be bold and show up, and and you have someone who can just actually hold the calm, hold the regulated nervous system, um, that allows you to co-regulate with them when you talk to them.

Speaker 2:

And that's another huge factor. Because when you're in these heightened states of um, you know excitement seeking the big money, win that. You're in these heightened states of um, you know excitement seeking the big money when that you're not quite ready to hold. Or you know just telling yourself go big, go big, go big. And you're like frying your nervous system in the process, um, it's you're not in your body, like that's the opposite of embodiment. So if you find that you're riding these highs, you're riding these excitement, whatever, maybe that's even how you launch, maybe that's even how you buy right now, but it's not how it feels good to buy, like you want to feel safe when you invest with somebody and instead you know you're, you're high and you're you know I want to make 20K months.

Speaker 2:

You know, like, whatever it is right. It's really important to just like pay attention to that and tune into that and ask yourself, like, does this really feel and I'm not talking safe like, oh it's, it's only 100 bucks, it's fine. Or it's only 20 bucks, it's fine, like I'm not saying, like, play small necessarily. Play small necessarily. There are stretchy investments that can still feel safe and that's where I'm really inviting you to kind of drop into that space of I know that this is right for me. I have a calm knowing that this is right for me. I know that this person has the depth to hold me, has been in the mess of life, has overcome you know some of some of the challenges, or some challenges of their own, that you know. I trust that they can walk me through my own shit too, um, and we can walk together side by side and I'm not going to feel alienated for having struggles. And you know, when you can drop into a level of intimacy like that with a mentor, with a healer, with a coach, that is where, all of a sudden, your own embodiment comes in, because you do feel safe, you do feel regulated and you can start to trust yourself more. You can start to bring some of that authority home to yourself, as opposed to, you know, seeking the person who's promising you the world and needing to implement their framework or it's not going to work, needing to abandon your own intuition and what actually feels good for you and how you actually want to run your business, because you, that's what worked for them. It's like finding someone who can hold you in what you want and how your energy works and how you want to flow through life and can kind of keep you tethered to that north star, to that sense of home, to that sense of who you are and what you're creating, as opposed to what they created or what they think you should do or how they think you should approach life. That really makes a huge difference in not only the level of success that you can reach, but also the level of fulfillment and also, um, just the level of like, sustainability, right, like you can actually hold it long term. You can go years and years and years holding that success, holding the income that you're building, because you're building on a solid foundation, you're building from an embodied place where you're listening to yourself, you're hearing yourself, you're doing it your way, and when that's your foundation, it may be a bit of a slower build in the beginning, but it always ends up in the long run it always ends up paying off.

Speaker 2:

So I'm not sure if that went exactly where I thought it would go when I first started this episode, but I hope that you have something from today that you can take away, that you can kind of sit with within yourself, um, that inspires you to maybe look at things differently, see through a bit of the smoke and mirrors and disembodied or cerebral knowledge that everybody seems to be sharing, and really start to align where you spend your money, your time, your energy with what feels right for you, um, what feels like at a soul level. This is where I'm meant to be going and this is what I want to do with my life. Um, because there's so much beauty, like that's been, my journey over the last four years has really been coming home to myself time and time and time again, and I can't even tell you how many programs and masterminds and different things that had been taking me out of my power, even when I developed the courage to say, no, that's not quite for me or that doesn't quite work for me, even when I would kind of tune out of programs because the coach didn't seem capable of of holding me, of holding what felt true for me and what I wanted to do. You know, thousands upon thousands of hours and dollars and everything, just to learn the ultimate lesson of coming home to myself. And that's really where I have found the success that I have. That's where I've found the fulfillment. That's where I've found the fulfillment.

Speaker 2:

That's where I've found the balance and harmony that I've created in my life, where it's not just business, business, business.

Speaker 2:

It's not just hustle to the top and then be so burnt out and so you know, whatever, that I don't have time for my family and I don't have time for my hobbies and what like you know, all of that went away when I started to really tune into embodiment, when I started to work in the Akashic records and clear some of that stuff that had me feeling like someone else had the answer and really just working like one on one with an Akashic guide who was able to hold space for my own personal evolution, and everything that's unfolded since then has been aligned, has been embodied and has allowed me to be really present in my life, first and foremost, while building my business and making the impact that my soul came here to make.

Speaker 2:

So I will leave you with that. I hope that it just gives you that little bit of self-assurance to go through your day. Um, and I do have spaces for one-on-one mentorship. If you would like to journey through the Akashic records with me, um, we can do three months, six months, whatever you prefer, and we can start kind of right away or beginning of September if that works better for you. And so just reach out if you are interested in possibly working together in that capacity. It is so beautiful and we're entering the perfect time of the year to be really diving deep into who you are, what you want, and just moving forward and finishing off the year so strong and so embodied. But, with that said, I am going to leave you with that and I will catch you in the next episode. Bye for now.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for tuning in. If you enjoyed this podcast, it would mean the world if you'd take a moment to download a couple episodes and rate the show to help it reach more like-minded leaders. If you loved today's discussion and decide to share it, be sure to tag me on Instagram at Radiant Soul Coach to help expand the ripple effect of this podcast.