With Susanne Biro, a coach to C-suite and executive-level leaders. She is also a senior facilitator, executive development program designer, author, Forbes and CEO Magazine contributing writer, and a TEDx and keynote speaker. For over two decades, Susanne has worked internationally with senior-level leaders in some of the world’s best companies. Whether coaching one-on-one or authoring, designing, and delivering leadership programs, her passion is the same: to help leaders reach their next level. She is the Founder of Inner Life Leadership, an app for business professionals who want to reach an unprecedented level of personal understanding and corresponding leadership (and life) success. She is also the author of the “I Want You To Win!” Coaching Skills for Creative Leadership, co-author of “Together” Executive Team Development, and the book Unleashed! Leader as Coach, adopted by organizations like General Electric, American Express, St. Jude Medical, Celgene, Mayo Clinic, salesforce.com, and numerous others

Join us in our conversation as Susanne shares powerful insights on leadership, self-awareness, and the mindset shifts that drive success. She discusses why even top executives struggle with self-doubt, how character and integrity can be your greatest advantage in business, and the simple yet transformative habits that can elevate your performance. Tune in to learn how to lead with confidence, cultivate a mindset that serves you, and build a business—and life—you truly love.

>Subscribe to Guts, Grit & Great Business on Apple Podcasts

Takeaways & quotes you don’t want to miss from this episode:

• The power of self-awareness in leadership.
• What does the role of reputation play in an AI-Driven world?
• The impact of genuine care in business success.
• A simple 5-minute morning practice that can change your life.
• Why trust and human connection matter more than ever.

“The most important thing that you will ever do is to learn to think thoughts that make you feel good. Because when you feel good, you are good for other people, and when you are good for other people, all kinds of things line up.”

-Susanne Biro

Check out these highlights:

• 06:01 Susanne shares how she got into leadership development.
• 18:48 Why do many leaders feel like they’re failing?
• 25:49 The power of reputation in business…
• 27:24 What is the best business strategy for Susanne?
• 41:27 Hear Susanne’s final takeaway to the listeners…

How to get in touch with Susanne on Social Media:

Imperfect Show Notes

We are happy to offer these imperfect show notes to make this podcast more accessible to those who are hearing impaired or those who prefer reading over listening. While we would love to offer more polished show notes, we are currently offering an automated transcription (which likely includes errors, but hopefully will still deliver great value), below:

GGGB Intro  00:00

Here’s what you get on today’s episode of Guts, Grit and Great Business®…

Susanne Biro  00:05

You’re present, available, encouraging, trustworthy, inspiring, and things that are seemingly coming on your lap, and it really is as simple as that but it’s very, very hard work.

GGGB Intro  00:27

The adventure of entrepreneurship and building a life and business you love, preferably at the same time is not for the faint of heart. That’s why Heather Pearce Campbell is bringing you a dose of guts, grit and great business stories that will inspire and motivate you to create what you want in your business and life. Welcome to the Guts, Grit and Great Business® podcast where endurance is required. Now, here’s your host, The Legal Website Warrior®, Heather Pearce Campbell. 

Heather Pearce Campbell  00:55

Alrighty, welcome. I am Heather Pearce Campbell, The Legal Website Warrior®. I’m an attorney and legal coach serving online information entrepreneurs throughout the US and around the world. Welcome to another episode of Guts, Grit and Great Business®. I am so excited to have Susanne Biro with us today. Welcome Susanne.

Susanne Biro  01:20

Heather, thank you so much for having me.

Heather Pearce Campbell  01:22

Oh it’s so good to see you. We were just talking about how long it’s been since we last connected. And tell you what, between COVID and parenting, I feel like the past years just mushed together and sometimes I can’t tell like, oh has it been two months or two years?

Susanne Biro  01:39

Yeah, I think it’s been over two years, but we first met back in 2016.

Heather Pearce Campbell  01:44

Yes, I know, amazing. Well, it’s been so fun. I know that, you know, we’ve worked together, and then I’ve overlapped with a bunch of your content online. I see your stuff on LinkedIn. So it’s been just really fun to watch things evolve, and see your messaging and be in touch all this time. And I’m super excited that you are joining me on the podcast now. It’s been even a hot minute since I launched this podcast, the start of COVID, and we are now over, almost four and a half years old, and over, I think 226 published episodes, with a whole slew on the back end that are yet to be published. So it’s been quite a journey, and so much fun. We’ve steadily climbed the ranks to the top two and a half percent in the world. Yeah, and I…

Susanne Biro  02:35

Congratulations. That’s incredible. 

Heather Pearce Campbell  02:37

Thank you. It’s been really fun. You know, when I launched it and created it, I wanted it to be something that remained doable and also like a joy for me to show up to, because I love connecting with people and bringing in experts and having conversations about business. And so for the most part, it’s been that and you know, here we are going strong now, over four years later. So I’m super happy that you’re here. I know that you have loads of experience that is super relevant to our audience, right? You’re speaking to a bunch of entrepreneurs, small business owners, people who are really service oriented, mission driven folks, and you know, they’re probably not building the next Google of the world. That’s not my clientele, but these are folks who need to build really thriving small businesses in order to fulfill their personal mission, right? Deliver their best work to the world. So that’s your audience. And I know, although those are definitely my people, that’s that excites me to no end, because I think it’s getting harder and harder to know who’s for real, what’s for real. And I love that your audience is purpose driven, aiming to serve in their pocket and their niche, just with great integrity. I think it’s what the world needs. Let’s go ahead and get Susanne introduced. For those of you that don’t know, Susanne Biro. Susanne is a a coach to C-suite and executive-level leaders. She is also a senior facilitator, executive development program designer, author, Forbes and CEO Magazine contributing writer, and a TEDx and keynote speaker. For over two decades, Susanne has worked internationally with senior-level leaders in some of the world’s best companies. Whether coaching one-on-one or authoring, designing, and delivering leadership programs, her passion is the same: to help leaders reach their next level. She is the Founder of Inner Life Leadership, an app for business professionals who want to reach an unprecedented level of personal understanding and corresponding leadership (and life) success. She is also the author of the “I Want You To Win!” Coaching Skills for Creative Leadership, co-author of “Together” Executive Team Development, and the book Unleashed! Leader as Coach, adopted by organizations like General Electric, American Express, St. Jude Medical, Celgene, Mayo Clinic, salesforce.com, and numerous others. You can learn more at susannebiro.com and we will share, obviously, all of your links in the show notes. So stay tuned, and we’ll reference those show notes a little later in the conversation. But Susanne, it’s so great to have you here. I know you said something right at the beginning that was like, you know, in a single line, you’re all about leadership development, which is really personal growth and personal development. What got you into this field? Like, where did this thread start in your life that landed you here? 

Susanne Biro  06:01

Oh, gosh, great question. Where should I how far should I go back? I’ll go back really far. When I was young in elementary school, I was always that kid in the corner watching the extroverted ones in the center, and what I would notice is the and I didn’t have the language for it at the time, but sort of team dynamics what was happening. And I would always see, you know, someone sort of jokingly say something to someone else, but it actually hurt that person. And so I’d want to go and sort of rescue and and make sure that person felt okay. So I was always going trying to mitigate and trying to bring people together. And really, my passion is I’d like to help people stop hurting so much. Everywhere I go, I feel like people are hurting. They want to be someone. They don’t feel that they are they want things to be different in their life. They want to be further ahead. I think all of us want to be further ahead. And we can fill that in with a lot of different details, but the essence of it is the same as very few of us are content with who we are and where we are right now, but we the problem is we spend our lives there. Never enough, never okay, never good enough. Never enough in some fashion and so the essence of what I do is, you know, work with senior level leaders, help them to understand and know themself. And as we understand and know our self, we understand and know everyone else. And if we understand people, we understand business.

Heather Pearce Campbell  07:34

So it’s, I mean, understanding yourself. Does all of this start with improved self awareness like when you’re working with your clients. Is it? How do you get started on helping somebody better know themselves? Yeah, self awareness is exactly and what does that actually mean? 

Susanne Biro  07:52

It means if we can bring awareness to what we think and feel more often, like, what is like something happens? What do I say to myself about that something I usually say something about myself and or what it means for me. What do I then feel? What do those thoughts and feelings then have me do, and what’s the impact of how I behave in those decisions, and so just bringing awareness to that, like someone copies my boss on an email, what do I think I’m mad that person threw me under the bus? What do I feel resentful? What do I now want to do somehow lash that back out at the person who did that? What’s going to be the impact of that behavior? Hmm, probably not what I want. So just bringing awareness to what plays out inside of us, so that we can be a choice. So it’s self awareness, then self management, and hopefully some level of getting better at mastering ourselves, and then we really see it in other people too. You know, it’s like, if I want to understand broccoli, all I need to do is look at one floret, and I understand all of the broccoli. So if we want to understand people, all I need to do is understand myself. I’m a perfect human specimen, as mortal as they come and flawed. And then I understand what’s happening for other people.You know, when I’m a jerk to other people, why am I a jerk? Usually, my life isn’t going well. I’m not feeling well in some capacity, and I’m not usually very effective. So when other people are a jerk to me, that’s probably what’s playing out with them, too. Similarly, when am I highly effective? What am I thinking and believing about myself? And then, if I have a team knowing that, how do I make sure my team feels that way about themselves, not about me, but about themselves. So self awareness, what am I thinking? What am I feeling? And just bringing more awareness to that. Right? I have a tool called the self-inquiry tool, which sort of visually lays this out. I posted on social media. It’s on my blog, and so listeners can go to that. There’s a Forbes post called between stimulus and response. Where are you? And you’ll see the self inquiry tool. And just even if it’s once or twice a day when something happens, just take out a piece of paper. What am I thinking? What am I feeling? How do those thoughts and feelings are? How are they going to have me behave, and what will be the impact of that behavior? And just bringing awareness to it, what’s the usual way that I think, feel, interpret things and then behave. That’s the first step. Well, the thing that I love about that model and the way that you’ve just described it, it actually takes me back to my early training in law school around alternative dispute resolution. And there’s a book about difficult conversations. They have lots of concepts in there, but there’s like a ladder of inference and it’s getting into some of what you’re talking about here, which is, what? Because there’s an important step that a lot of people don’t think about, which is, what are you thinking about a situation that then determines your feelings? I think a lot of people just think like, well, I feel what I feel. You know, and they don’t think about actually being able to influence or take control of what they feel by slowing down to examine, what are they concluding about a scenario, right? Which is often what we’re doing when that leads to a feeling is we’ve drawn some conclusion of a scenario or an event that happened, and often we’re just looking at it through a limited lens of what information is important to us, and it’s not the whole picture. Well, in that book is the one that also goes down to the root of identity, right? That’s right. What does it mean about me? Yeah, yeah. Because what we want to do is bring awareness to, you know, things happen. What do I think and feel? But then start to see our own patterns of behavior. We can see them best in others, right? We sort of say that person has a chip on their shoulder. You know, they’re always thinking they get screwed in life, for example. And what we can watch them do, because it’s always easy to see in someone else’s wow, that person keeps shooting themselves in the foot because they bring the past into every present moment, thereby recreating it. We are also doing that. We just can’t see us. And so what we want to do is start to pay attention to what we think and feel and then start to go, what’s my own pattern of behavior, like when things occur, what’s the underlying narrative that I tell myself often and underneath that will be, who do I think I am? Because if we really want to change our behavior and get to the next level, we actually have to become someone different. We have to think differently. We have to feel differently. We make different decisions, different actions, and underneath all that is I think of myself differently. I become another person. So identity is the place of all change for ourselves or for others. So if I want to become more I actually need to identify as that kind of person now. And similarly, if I want to advance my team. How must my team think about themselves? And I will hand them an identity. We are this together. We’re not just, you know, brick layers. We’re building a cathedral together type thing. Yeah, yeah. It’s a great book. Oh, it’s so good. And I’m sure you know, you have a ton of insights in your work with people, with your clients, where folks get stuck in this equation. Where do you find that people often have the most difficult time in breaking down this kind of process or this ladder? It’s a good question. I think it seems the answer seems too simple for most of us to grab onto, because it really is as simple as when. What you can do is, when you’re feeling really great, take out a piece of paper and write down 10 thoughts you’ve been thinking, and then you will know why you’ve been feeling great. When you feel bad in some capacity, like you missed the mark, you failed. You let someone down. You’re disappointed in yourself, or you’re uninspired or unmotivated. Take out a piece of paper and write down what I have just been thinking? And you will see, if we hand those collections of thoughts to any human being, they would feel very similar, and they would likely take very similar kinds of actions. And so the answer to it is, in order to perform, I believe we have got to feel good. Yeah, we have got to feel excited, inspired, motivated, capable, like it’s possible for us. We don’t do things that we don’t think are possible. So if we make it, if we back it up and make it really, really simple. And I deliver a keynote on this, and it’s also a blog post listeners can go to. 

Heather Pearce Campbell  09:09

Right and just FYI listeners, we will share these specific resources that she’s referenced. I’ll make sure that I reach out and get these links from you know, Susanne.

Susanne Biro  12:30

Yeah. And so what the keynote that I have delivered over the last God, maybe four or five years to literally 1000s of people worldwide. The main idea is simply this, the most important thing that you will ever do is to learn to think thoughts that make you feel good. Because when you feel good, you are good for other people, and when you are good for other people, all kinds of things line up. You’re present, available, encouraging, trustworthy, inspiring, and things will then seemingly come in your lap. So if there’s one, and it really is as simple as that, but it’s very, very hard work. Human mind will go towards the negative. And then there are very disciplines that we are trained in, engineering, law, business accounting, for example, we’re trained to look for what’s missing, what’s wrong, inconsistencies, and so to develop a mind, a quality of mind that focus on, what am I doing well? Who am I? What’s my value that I bring? How can I feel great today? How can I make others feel great? It’s just a different muscle, one that most of us haven’t flexed, and then it sounds kind of phony and Pollyanna, but it really isn’t. Oh, interesting, one of the most important things that we can do, and if all we do is rehearse that quality of mind that finally says, Look, I like who I am. I know I’m really great at one or two key things I do well, and I’m really bad at just about everything else. But I love my intention. I love how hard I work. I love that I keep trying to serve other people. Who can I help today? How can I connect with other people today? How can I advance something important for the world?

Heather Pearce Campbell  16:56

I love the examples you’re sharing because they feel so concrete and real. I think sometimes the challenge that people have with, we’ll just call it positive thinking, is they think of it as, like, oh, like affirmations or something that doesn’t feel true yet that they have to say to themselves. And I think that can be a challenge for folks if they don’t feel like that’s an authentic, real thought, right? 

Susanne Biro  17:22

Yes, yes. And it’s part of what’s really useful is, if a thought like that I just described feels sort of not true or phony for you, isn’t that interesting that such a simple kind thought about yourself doesn’t feel natural? That makes me a bit sad, because most human beings are out there trying to do something good, and most of us feel bad, and most leaders that I’ve worked with feel like failures. They feel like they you know, they just can’t get ahead. They can’t they’re not performing in the way that they want. They want to be so much better for the world, and what a beautiful aspect of our collective humanity. We all want to serve so well that we’re kind of beating ourself up internally and beating the mule, so to speak, like you’re not good enough. But, you know, but we will never beat ourself up well enough to serve other people well. We have got to turn the inner critic to an inner champion. 

Heather Pearce Campbell  18:26

That’s the work that has to occur. And when we do that, everything will change. Can you dig into this? The statement you made about most leaders feel like failures? Is this go beyond imposter syndrome? Is this like I am broken, feeling where there’s something wrong with me, or what is it that’s at the root of that? 

Susanne Biro  18:48

Yeah, no, not at all. I mean, I work with very, very successful men and women, I think maybe not feel like failures, but feel like they’re failing and or they can’t get to all the things they want to get to, just not enough, just not quite, just a little bit more, a little, you know, I should have handled that conversation better. Why didn’t handle that conversation? Should I be doing more? Did I handle that well? Should I have used that language? You know, I shouldn’t be taking this time off right now. A better person or parent or something. Oh, I’m really letting myself go. You know, the human mind can think. I don’t know. I think it’s been said Doctor Joe dispense like 60 to 70,000 thoughts a day. I have no idea how they measure that, or if that’s true. But the human mind can think every conceivable thought. I think we need to decide which thoughts are useful to serve me so that I can serve other people, whether that’s me as a parent in this chapter of my life, because if I look after me and I feel good about who I am and what I’m doing, I’ll be really great for my children. Similarly, if I’m a CEO running a multi billion dollar organization. I need to do the exact same thing. I need to feel right, because there’s just 1,000,001 things that you can and should do, especially now, things are changing faster than ever before, the disruption that’s coming with AI and technology mean it’s unprecedented, and all of us are drowning and I’m hearing with clients that, you know, how do we keep up? What does this mean? Almost every person I work with now is feeling more vulnerable than they ever have before. That never used to be the case, you know, I’ve been doing this work for 23 years. Executives used to feel, you know, pretty confident in what their future looked like. I think that now it’s kind of all bets are off. Things are changing so fast, and jobs are just disappearing, and industry is starting to collapse, because AI can replace those in a heartbeat. So what does that mean? 

Heather Pearce Campbell  20:53

Yeah, it’s a big, I mean, it’s a massive conversation, right? There’s the piece that we’re talking about, about what can I do right now to be more effective in this moment or the next moment, right? But what you’ve just said is like such a bigger, more existential type of question around, how do people improve their performance and obtain some of their goals and also settle this massive anxiety around, like, where are we all headed? You know, what is the long term picture look like? Yeah, yeah. I don’t know that anybody has the answer to that.

Susanne Biro  21:33

Well, anyone that tells you what they know, you know, the future looks like in two to five years, I think that they’re they can’t. None of us know what this looks like, but having said that, if we can’t control it, there’s no use in spending too much time over there. I think we have so much more power than we give ourselves credit for. So I like to not worry so much about the endless fear that can come at us. And let’s look at what you can control is who you’re being while you’re busy doing the things that you do. 

Heather Pearce Campbell  22:05

All right, let’s pause for a moment and hear from today’s sponsor. Are you an entrepreneur who is on track to make a million or more in revenue this year in your business? If so, your business is likely facing a host of legal issues that are right for support. And if you are like so many of my clients at this level, you are likely tired of taking unnecessary risks and a DIY approach to legal support in your business. You’re ready to tackle the mess of legal documents, six legal gaps that you have. You want to take care of your IP, your clients, your business, and avoid unnecessary conflict and risk in the process. If this is you, and beyond just being an entrepreneur, you are a catalyst and are committed to your mission and your impact in the world. I invite you to get in touch. You could be a fit for my catalyst club, a small business legal support program that I designed for my high level clients. Just like you, you can find out more at legalwebsitewarrior.com. Just click on the Work with Me tab to learn more about the catalyst club and other ways that I support my clients, a fabulous group of world changing entrepreneurs, I might add, you’ve done the initial legwork in your business. And now you want to soar. And you know that you can only go as high and as far as your legal foundation lets you go. So get in touch today, hop over to legalwebsitewarrior.com, click on the Work with Me tab. And if you have any questions, get in touch through the Contact link on my site, I look forward to connecting. It would be a joy to support you on your path.

Heather Pearce Campbell  23:47

I bet you see some real consistencies and trends in your clients who are able to make this change and change their performance. What is it that you notice that they are able to do really well, right when they’re doing the right work and looking at the right things, and they have the right information. I’d love to see like, what do you see for those that are really able to make consistent change?

Susanne Biro  24:16

That’s a great question. I think I don’t know whether this will stay, because we don’t know what the future holds, but I think, I think it still exists, that with all our technological advancement, few things matter more than the impact we have upon others. So much still gets done through human relationships. And with advances in AI and deep fakes and all kinds of content, it is harder and harder to know who’s for real, what’s for real and who to trust. So we might revert back. One sort of hypothesis prediction I have is we might revert back to earlier times, where you know what mattered most was your reputation. Who are you? You know you and I come together. We’ve known each other for many years. We also have many sort of colleagues and friends in common. So there’s so much trust in who you are and how you do things and how you will deliver things, and hopefully vice versa, that really can’t occur if this is just all machine technology. So I think that the really great news is maybe, maybe not sure, but character, honesty and integrity will be our greatest competitive advantage, and really acting such that we serve other people and seek to find a win, win, win for everyone we work with. How do we help everyone around us become more successful and actually care about the human beings that we work with and through? I don’t think that ever gets old.

Heather Pearce Campbell  25:49

No. And I, you know, it makes me so happy to hear you say this, because I’ve wondered myself, like, do we end up seeing some kind of backlash away from technology in some regard, you know to mean in the recognition that there really is nothing that replaces that human connection, that contact, that and also, like you say, that that trust, that knowing another person, and what that does in a business relationship, even, and the number of times that I’ve recently had conversations with people across all kinds of industries and areas of expertise where the conversation that has come up is ethics in business, right? It makes my heart so happy.

Susanne Biro  26:39

Yes, yes, yes, mine too, really. Because, I mean, part of why I became a solopreneur was simply that I I want to do business how I want to do it. I want to care deeply about the men and women that I work with, and care about their success. And that’s all I want to do. And I want to see if you can, if love wins. I want to prove to myself, because when I started, people said, You’re so naive. What makes you think you can run a business? And I remember thinking, Well, I think this can work. I think caring about people matters. And so far, what I’ve seen is, yes, it does. When you care greatly about the success of others, it pays off, but only always.

Heather Pearce Campbell  27:24

Hmm somebody said it well in a conversation one time, and it came up as the word like enthusiasm, right? And I think also that caring shows up as enthusiasm for our clients, for our work, etc, but there’s no replacement for it, right? If you’re sitting down and you’re interviewing, you know, multiple people, let’s say for even a professional service or, you know, whatever, I remember helping my sister years ago, actually get a divorce lawyer involved in her life because she was going through some traumatic things and I had to walk with her through the process of setting up the interviews and helping her get to know a bit about each of the attorneys. And when you find that person that you’re like, oh my gosh, they see my issue in the way that I believe somebody needs to see it, they care about it. I can tell through the way they communicate that they care about it, and that they take really good care of people, it shows. And I just don’t think there’s a replacement for that.

Susanne Biro  28:28

Yeah, and that’s what didn’t Malcolm Gladwell capture this, and was it tipping point or blank where people don’t sue doctors they like, right? You know, the doctors that said, I’m sorry we did everything we could and we made a mistake. You know, what was the real difference is to the extent that that person actually cared? So maybe we’ll be. I personally believe that our collective humanity, and what you started this conversation with, is giving grace to each other and knowing that we can trust other people, not only their competence, their reliability, but also especially their intention. Yeah, is their intention pure? Do they want my success? And when they do, I think we allow for all kinds of things, and it creates relationships that can move mountains and such a wonderful place to spend your life, because then you got friends all over the world that would, you know, what do you need? How can I help you? Because we really, I think every single person wants to get to the place where they can help other people. Totally it’s, I mean, it’s so rewarding. And like those days, I know that, you know, when I get done with these where I’ve especially had client facing time. And I get off calls where I’m like, I get to spend time with the most wonderful people doing interesting things. Like, it’s just, it’s, you know, I can’t imagine working any other way, honestly. Well, you know, what’s so cool about you is, you know, I wanted to be a lawyer. 

Heather Pearce Campbell  29:58

Oh, yeah. I never knew that.

Susanne Biro  30:01

Yeah, yeah. And I was going to go down the whole path, and I spoke to a bunch of women lawyers at the time, and they they weren’t fond of the profession, and so I just went, well, I can’t do that, but I look at your career, what you’ve done, I thought, you know, maybe if I had gone that route, I might have circled back around to deliver it in the way that you do, because you come with edit with such love care and then making sure everyone’s got everything underneath their business, so, you know, so that I can go and do my work, you make sure that I’m not naive in doing that, but I have actual, like, legal protections. And you know, you, you’ve helped me become immensely sophisticated, but keep my heart in business, so I really commend you. Yeah. 

Heather Pearce Campbell  30:43

Oh, I love that. Well, I appreciate that feedback. You know, I tell people that even though I live in the world of legal, what I feel like I really deliver is especially for my small business clients, right is helping them better lead their business. It really, for me, is still about leadership, right? And just like what you said about being more strategic, because every experience you have involving legal in some scenario, whether it’s negotiating a contract putting, you know, some new arrangement in place with an independent contractor, whatever, like, you learn these gems along the way that inform you in your next decision making experience as a business owner, right? And that’s really my goal, is to help people achieve not only the level of confidence to make good decisions, but also the peace of mind that comes with knowing like I’m walking the path in the right way, and I’m building in the right supports, and I’m taking care of not only my business, but my clients in the way that I want to right. That’s what I want for every small business. 

Susanne Biro  30:43

Yes, yeah, yeah. And it’s what you do. 

Heather Pearce Campbell  31:54

Oh, I love that well. And you know, reflecting on your path, because you said it’s the reason why you went into business for yourself, I’d love to hear more about some of the gems that you have picked up in your own business, building journey that really stand out to you as you know, either cornerstone moments or life lessons that you could share with folks that are listening today, that are also on their own, and we have many, by the way, consultants, coaches, people in the online space who are very service oriented, right, that are walking similar paths. 

Susanne Biro  32:31

Yeah. Well, to the audience, I’m sure you are all well aware that nothing will have you come up against yourself, all your worst fears and insecurities as building your own business will, and there’s no way out but through. And so I think we’re all if you know, if you’re here and you’re listening, you may be further ahead than than me, maybe farther behind, but we’re all on our own journey through this vehicle called entrepreneurship, I think, to become the person and leader we most intend to be, and so but there’s no way out but true. And I wish there I’ve gone into most of my learning, kicking and screaming, and then I finally resigned myself to the fact that I would need to become more each time, and I would need to bet the farm on me more than I have. So probably my greatest learning was really to what extent I’m going to believe in myself and trust my own instincts, my own way of wanting to serve and do business, and to know that I have value. And so every time over the last, you know, sort of 10 years or so, it’s really been, every time someone asks something in me, I would say yes, and then I’d be like, how the hell am I going to pull that off? And then I’d say, Why the hell do I sign up for things like this? And then I figure it out. And then when they call me on stage or I fly to deliver the work, I’m usually deathly afraid, like they will call my name. And my first thought is, can you really do this? And my next thought is, I don’t know you’re about to find out what you’re made of, and all I know to do is to outwork anyone and to do everything I need to do so that I can be sure that I can deliver what I said I would. It’s a very painful process to me personally, but it’s the only way I know how. And every single time, what I’ve come to know about myself is that I over deliver. And I love that about myself. I blood, sweat and tear it to serve my clients. And now I kind of feel like a cat, you know, you can throw me off any wall, and I have enough faith, like if you pulled me up on stage and said, can you go on stage right now? That would have scared me to death years ago now I’d be like, You know what? Sure I’ve got something. I’ll pull out something that will be useful. And so all these saying yes to all these very scary things may hit so my day to day job five years ago are things that would have scared me to death, and now they’re just commonplace. And that sounds like and feels like freedom. So it’s the payoff of going up against my fear and my insecurity time and time again. Every single step, it’s like, wow, look at how much I’ve grown and how much capacity I have to meet with that person or to be in that really big room, and to know that I I deserve to be in that room, and I can handle my own in that room, and I can add value to that room. That’s priceless. So I think, you know, the only way to the other side is through a whole bunch of tears. I mean, I heard this great. It was a Richard Branson was doing this panel, and it was a woman, I can’t remember her name, but they said, Can you define entrepreneurship? And she said, entrepreneurship is sitting at your computer on a Friday night at 11pm crying. And I thought, yeah, that’s about, right? Yeah. So that’s, I think we’re all on our own journey, but if we go through and come up against our self, it’s so worth it.

Heather Pearce Campbell  36:21

Yeah, the process you just described, it’s like that, continually bumping up against your own limits, right? And saying, yes. Anyways, how do you balance that with this? Also need to be present to yourself to balance self care, you know, especially if you’re a mom or a parent, like, because it’s a big thing, right, to sometimes take on more than we even feel we’re capable of. And maybe that’s just a conceptual thing versus, like, a time commitment, right? Because as parents, you know, we all have so many demands on our time. Were there ever moments where you’re like, oh my gosh, I made the wrong decision, or I can’t do this, or things that really questioned your pursuing that path?

Susanne Biro  37:11

There was, yeah, probably had every thought and that you just described. I think there are times when I think balance looks different in different chapters. There are times where I knew I needed to, like, burn the midnight oil, and that’s what I was doing to advance myself. I’m in a different chapter now, and so I’m really careful what I say yes to and what I say no to. But I think in all of that, whether we’re sort of burning the midnight oil chapter, we’re more like, you know, this is more of a sort of sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labor chapter for me. Regardless of where we are, I think if we start to really learn who we are and how we work best, and start to again, from self understanding and self awareness, what is needed for me to perform exceptionally well, like for me, I don’t want to do something if it’s not going to be fun. So then, if I have to do something, it’s like, how can this be fun? How could I enjoy doing this? How can I make it fun? So that is, it’s somehow motivating. But I’m really clear as to, how do I design my weeks so that I enjoy my life as I go? Because I don’t think too many of us want to sacrifice, you know, endlessly for some future, like, let’s enjoy our lives now. And so I just have a way that I manage my weeks and I prepare for them. On my blog, if you go to behind the eight ball five strategies for greater success blog, you’ll see how I recommend clients manage and lead their own schedules. And it’s certainly how I do mine. 

Heather Pearce Campbell  38:52

I love that. I think that’s a great resource. And I I find that even in my own life, I have to continually evaluate, like, how is that going? Right? Because maybe what it looked like for me last year doesn’t work for me any longer this year. Yeah. So I think that’s a constant dialog and something that’s important for all of us to look at from time to time, because it’s really easy to fall into patterns and just doing things, especially like, if you’re a block scheduler, or you’ve always done something a certain way, you know? Yeah, 

Susanne Biro  39:21

Yeah. I’m curious, do you know what you are on the Enneagram?

Heather Pearce Campbell  39:26

Oh, I don’t, don’t. Okay. I know I did it some time ago, but I don’t remember. Yeah, yeah. Well, it’s, I just think about your roots as a kid, watching people and understanding the pain that was happening in that moment, if, like, You’re a really heavy realtor, you know to mean like a helper, you might totally be like a helper personality. I’m pretty sure I am. Yeah, yeah. So I think that’s two. Anyways, it’s just fun, because you also get to see through people’s work those motivations really get expressed, right? So it’s probably no real surprise to yourself looking backwards, like, oh, here I am in this capacity of coaching and guiding leaders on how to do this all better. 

Susanne Biro  40:15

Yeah.

Heather Pearce Campbell  40:16

Well, it’s so fun. You. I mean, we’ve covered a lot, and I’m super excited to share some of these resources that you’ve mentioned. I know you write prolifically, and I’ve seen some of the content that you have posted online, and so I highly recommend that if you’re listening to it, pop over and we will share links to your website, Susanne. Also, where do you show up online in socials? I know I see you on LinkedIn. Is that the primary place for you? 

Susanne Biro  40:40

LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, you can find me. You can go to either Google Play or Apple store and go to either my name, Susanne Biro, or Inner Life Leadership. Download the app. It’s free to download. There’s several free sections if there, if that, check that out. Even the first lesson that’s free for you, will just be a place that is about you and for you,  to really think about what it is you want, and hopefully some tools there that will serve you. 

Heather Pearce Campbell  41:10

I love that. We’ll make sure to share those links as well. What would you like to leave our listeners with today? Like it could be an action step. It can be a quote, what comes to mind as something that you would like to leave with people who’ve been here with us. 

Susanne Biro  41:27

I would like to invite everyone to, if you don’t already have a morning practice to consider this one and to do it for like, at least a month or two before you evaluate it. And the practice is simply this, set aside five minutes, set a timer on your phone, if that’s useful for you. And in those five minutes, I want you to write down intention for the day. First off, who do you want to be today as you get busy doing the million and when things are required of you, both personally and professionally? So it might be, I want to be encouraging and inspiring, or I want to be present to the people in my life. Then for the remainder of the five minutes, I want you to write down as many good, exciting, inspiring thoughts as the day could hold for you, if you would only let it So, write, write, write, write. Then at least once during the day, I recommend just before lunch, so you have a trigger. Reread what you wrote to ground yourself in it. Do a practice like that takes five minutes and maybe five minutes at lunch to reread it. Do it for at least a month before you judge the impact it will have. It sounds simple, but it can have a profound impact on your life and your work. 

Heather Pearce Campbell  42:40

Oh my gosh. I love that so much. I love the fact that it is so simple. Because I think so many people can talk themselves out of a morning practice, if it’s significant, if it takes too much time, or, you know, like me, as a mom, sometime you’ve been up all night with a kid who’s sick, and suddenly any morning routine of any size goes right out. 

Susanne Biro  43:00

Yes, yeah. So we all can do five minutes.

Heather Pearce Campbell  43:05

What the hell are there, for our lives with your coffee and do five minutes? Oh, I love that so much. Susanne, such a joy to have you on here. I can’t wait for folks to hear this, and I know it will bring a lot of insights to people who join us. So I really appreciate you. I look forward to being touched. Maybe at some point there’s a part two to this. 

Susanne Biro  43:26

Love it. Listen. Thank you so much for inviting me. I’m delighted to be on. Thank you. 

Heather Pearce Campbell  43:30

Absolutely. All right, folks, one final reminder, if you’ve been with us today, pop over to the show notes. They can be found at legalwebsitewarrior.com/podcast, find Susanne Biro’s episode, and we will make sure that you’ve got all the links to the resources that she mentioned, and probably others as well. But so glad that you could join us today, and really excited for you to get to know Susanne. Please do go follow her. Join her world. You’re going to enjoy her writing and some of the stuff that she puts out because we all can improve our capacity as leaders of not only our personal lives, but our businesses as well. Thank you so much, Susanne! 

GGGB Outro  44:10

Thank you for joining us today on the Guts, Grit and Great Business® podcast. We hope that we’ve added a little fuel to your tank, some coffee to your cup and pep in your step to keep you moving forward in your own great adventures. For key takeaways, links to any resources mentioned in today’s show and more, see the show notes which can be found at www.legalwebsitewarrior.com/podcast. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast and if you enjoyed today’s conversation, please give us some stars and a review on Apple podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcast so others will find us too. Keep up the great work you are doing in the world and we’ll see you next week.