At my first women's circle, my inner child came running through a meadow in a little blue dress, arms wide like a plane, with a dandelion puff in her hand. She wasn't asking me for anything. She was handing something back.

In this episode, I'm getting into why I think I've had inner child work backwards this whole time, how the little girl who learned to carry the weight of the world carried it right into my business, and what it looks like to finally let her lead.

Because stepping out of the way for her, and stepping out of the center of my business, are the exact same thing.

WHAT WE GET INTO

• Meeting my little me in the meadow, and the gift she came running into my arms with
• Why I think I've had inner child work backwards this whole time, and what changes when she's the one leading
• What over-responsibility, hyper-independence, and hyper-vigilance actually look like inside my business, and why I keep adding myself back into the things I built to run without me
• The voice I've trusted since I was eleven, and the one question it asked that turned the weight I carry into a gift
• What happened when the woman who learned she couldn't rely on anyone sat in the center of a circle and let three women hold something for her
• What I really want to be known for, and why stepping out of the center of your business is where feeling good in it starts

SHOUTOUTS
Jennifer, founder of The Healing Roe @thehealingroe, for holding such a beautiful circle and guiding me back to my little me.
Natalie Ellis, for her phenomenal new book, The Freedom-Based Business Method. @iamnatalie and @bossbabeinc

COME FIND ME
Instagram: @stephnemchik
Website: www.stephnemchik.com

DISCLAIMER: A NOTE ON THE HEAVIER STUFF
We talk about mental health, grief, addiction, SA, and suicide here, and I share tools and resources that have helped me over the years. None of it is professional advice or guidance.

If you or someone you know is struggling, please reach out for support. In the US, you can call or text 988 for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, call SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357 for mental health and substance use support, or find a therapist through the Psychology Today directory at psychologytoday.com. Outside the US, contact your local crisis services.

For most of my life, I ran straight toward the scary thing. Bring it on was my whole attitude. And somewhere along the way, I lost her.

This is the final episode of my 30-day Surprise Yourself Challenge, and I'm sitting right in the middle of what Lindsey Marie calls the gap. In this episode, I talk about the belief I picked up watching my dad work himself into the ground, how it followed me into every job and right into my own business, and the next evolution my business is going through right now.

WHAT WE GET INTO

• How this podcast started as my Surprise Yourself Challenge, and what four episodes of hitting record has done for me
• The gap, the friction, and why I'm trying to get excited about it instead of backing away
• What my dad taught me about sales, and the belief I picked up watching him work himself into the ground
• Why I'm being pulled back toward teaching, and my map approach
• Finding my way back to the go-get-it woman I used to be
• Why I want this to be a space for the raw, in-the-middle parts of building a business

SHOUTOUTS

• Lindsey Marie @lindseymarieofficial
• Powerhouse Women @powerhouse_women
• Jessa Lin Rose @theonlyjessalinrose

COME FIND ME
Instagram: @stephnemchik
Website: www.stephnemchik.com

DISCLAIMER: A NOTE ON THE HEAVIER STUFF
We talk about mental health, grief, addiction, SA, and suicide here, and I share tools and resources that have helped me over the years. None of it is professional advice or guidance.

If you or someone you know is struggling, please reach out for support. In the US, you can call or text 988 for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, call SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357 for mental health and substance use support, or find a therapist through the Psychology Today directory at psychologytoday.com. Outside the US, contact your local crisis services.

For most of my life, I didn't trust anybody but me. Relying on me, and only me, was how I stayed safe. And without realizing it, I built my first business the exact same way.

In this episode, I'm getting into how I baked myself into every part of a business that was built to run on its own, why I kept doing it even when I knew better, and what a study about IKEA boxes and Lego sets taught me about why we can't let go of what we build.

Because the systems in your business are your people. They're what hold you up when you can't. But only if you let them do their job.

WHAT WE GET INTO

• Why relying on me, and only me, became my version of safety
• The people who carried me through losing my dad, and what they taught me about letting people in
• How one VA mistake became my "proof" that I couldn't trust anyone
• Baking myself into a business that was built to run without me
• Why I believed the value was me, and why so many of us measure worth by how much of ourselves we pour in
• The IKEA effect, and what happens when we keep taking apart what we built
• Why this podcast is the system I'm learning to trust right now

COME FIND ME

Instagram: @stephnemchik
Website: www.stephnemchik.com

DISCLAIMER: A NOTE ON THE HEAVIER STUFF

We talk about mental health, grief, addiction, SA, and suicide here, and I share tools and resources that have helped me over the years. None of it is professional advice or guidance.

If you or someone you know is struggling, please reach out for support. In the US, you can call or text 988 for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, call SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357 for mental health and substance use support, or find a therapist through the Psychology Today directory at psychologytoday.com. Outside the US, contact your local crisis services.

Most of us build a business for the version of ourselves running with a full tank of gas. Then life happens, because it always does, and everything stops the second you do.

In December 2022, I learned this the hard way. I learned that I had built one operating system into my business, and that system was me. So when I was down, my business was down.

In this episode I'm getting into what building a business with C-PTSD actually looks like, the systems I now put in place ahead of time so I'm never making decisions from inside a moment where I have nothing left to give, and why you can only wear about three hats well at once when your business is asking you to wear twenty.

WHAT WE GET INTO

• The phone call that took my business down with me
• What building a business while living with complex PTSD actually looks like
• Why the support has to already be there, because life doesn't check your launch calendar before showing up
• What a system actually is
• The internal CEO systems every business needs: capacity, prioritization, capture, and decision support
• What those systems do, and the part they honestly don't do
• Which hats are actually yours, and which ones you're only wearing because nothing else was ever built to run them
• Why your tools might be adding to your plate instead of taking things off it

COME FIND ME

Instagram: @stephnemchik
Website: www.stephnemchik.com

DISCLAIMER: A NOTE ON THE HEAVIER STUFF

We talk about mental health, grief, addiction, SA, and suicide here, and I share tools and resources that have helped me over the years but none of it is professional advice or guidance.

If you or someone you know is struggling, please reach out for support. In the US, you can call or text 988 for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, call SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357 for mental health and substance use support, or find a therapist through the Psychology Today directory at psychologytoday.com. Outside the US, contact your local crisis services.

Episode 1: Showing Up While Hiding

I've been planning this podcast for years and not a single word of it had ever been said out loud. Until now.

This is episode one of The Business Underneath with Steph Nemchik, and it's me doing the thing I've quit on more times than I can count. My voice is shaking. My palms are sweating. I feel like I'm going to be sick. But I'm showing up and doing it anyway.

WHAT WE GET INTO

• Why the planning was never procrastination, it was control
• What hiding looks like when it looks exactly like hard work
• The closet full of journals I've been filling since I was eleven
• The Minnesota Christmas that changed the direction of my life
• Why knowing the right thing has almost nothing to do with doing it
• Building a business that only works when you're not seen in it
• The Surprise Yourself Challenge that got this episode recorded

COME FIND ME

Instagram: @stephnemchik
Website: www.stephnemchik.com

DISCLAIMER: A NOTE ON THE HEAVIER STUFF

We talk about mental health, grief, addiction, SA, and suicide here, and I share tools and resources that have helped me over the years. None of it is professional advice or guidance.

If you or someone you know is struggling, please reach out for support. In the US, you can call or text 988 for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, call SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357 for mental health and substance use support, or find a therapist through the Psychology Today directory at psychologytoday.com. Outside the US, contact your local crisis services.