Episode 487: What are your triggers telling you?
Running a business can sometimes feel like you’re in a rut. But those moments of jealousy, frustration, or doubt? They might be exactly what you need to reignite your passion for your work.
In this episode, Fiona Killackey shares how recognising and understanding your emotional triggers can help you align your business with your true values and desires.
With over 20 years of experience in marketing and branding, Fiona offers practical steps to turn those negative feelings into powerful motivation. She draws on insights from renowned speaker Gabor Maté to help you embrace self-awareness and take small but impactful steps toward a business that excites you again.
Here’s what Fiona covers in this episode:
Recognising the emotional triggers that hold you back in business.
How jealousy and frustration can reveal what you truly desire.
Simple strategies to realign your business with your values.
Practical advice for transforming negative feelings into positive action.
Information about Fiona's group coaching program to further support your journey.
Connect and get in touch with My Daily Business
Your one-stop destination for premium business tools and resources
Do you love your life as a small business owner?
Let's be real.
Sometimes we just don't. It's my hope that this, the My Daily Business Podcast, helps you regain a little of that lost love through practical, actionable tips, tools and tactics, interviews with creative and curious small business owners, and in depth coaching episodes with me, your host, Fiona Killackey With more than 20 years experience in marketing, brand content and systems and having now helped thousands of small business owners, I know what it takes to build.
A business that you can be proud of and that actually aligns with your values, your beliefs, and your hopes for the future. So much of our daily life is spent working on and in the businesses and the brands that we are creating, and so it makes sense to actually love what you do.
So, let's get into this podcast and help you figure out how to love your business and your life on the Daily.
Hello and welcome to episode 487 of the My Daily Business Podcast today. It's a quick tip and honestly, this is one. Whether you have been in business for 2 days or 22 years, or if you've just got a business idea, anyone, anyone can totally benefit from today's quick tip.
Before I get stuck into that, I want to let you know group coaching is open. I'm shouting about it because we always get people after the fact who will say, “Oh, I didn’t realise you were running it again,” or “Oh, I didn’t realise it’s open.” It’s open, people! If you would like to be part of the next round of group coaching for 2025, we kick off in March. You can apply at mydailybusiness.com/groupcoaching.
Group coaching enables you to work with myself for 12 months and also with a small group of curated business owners who are eager and willing to champion you, challenge you, and all the things. In addition, you get access to all of our courses for free for the full 12 months, including any new courses we bring out. For example, last year we brought out a course on how to get your book published.
Anything else we come up with will also be included. You also get one-on-one coaching with me and a whole bunch of other things. So if you're interested, head on over to mydailybusiness.com/groupcoaching and apply. We also have a scholarship position available, so if you're interested, check that out. Just make sure that in your application, you mention that it's for the scholarship position.
Alright, before I get stuck in, I of course want to acknowledge where I’m coming from and acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians of these lands. For me, it’s the Woburong and Reunddri people of the Kulin nation. I pay my respects to their elders, past and present, and acknowledge that sovereignty has never been ceded.
Alright, let’s get into today’s quick tip episode.
So, months ago—maybe actually two years ago—I decided I was going to start taking up opportunities. If somebody was coming to Australia as a speaker that I really like, and maybe I listen to their podcast or read their books, I was going to put the money down and go and see them.
I had seen lots of different people come to Australia, and I was like, “Oh, yeah, okay, I should maybe,” but then I just didn’t do it. I’d tell myself all the different reasons why not.
Then in 2023—I think it was 2024—Stepen Barlett came out. Amazing. Amazing! I didn’t actually know what it would be like. I had seen some people in that sort of space and hadn’t been that impressed. But I thought, “Let’s see how this goes.”
Honestly, I have to say, he was incredible. If he ever comes back to Australia, I will be there straight away. If you have Stepen Bartlett doing a tour near you, definitely spend the money if you can.
It was amazing. It was three hours. I mean, it was very late, but I was like, this is incredible. I've seen Elizabeth Day, a whole bunch of other people.
Anyway, so today's podcast is in light of the fact that in about a week, I'm going to be going to see Gabor Maté speak in Melbourne. Now, I really like his books, I like his works, I like a lot of stuff about him. I listened to a lot of his stuff during COVID. Yeah, just a really inspiring guy, I think.
But today's tip episode comes from something that he talks about. Now, I want to just caveat this. I'm not a psychologist, I'm not a mental health expert. If I'm saying anything today that brings up stuff for you that is really intense and that you need to go and speak to somebody, do please go and seek out help.
I've definitely seen psychologists through various different parts of my life. My brother is a psychologist, my sister's a GP, specialises in mental health. You know, my mum was a psych nurse. I completely think there's absolutely zero shame in asking for help, 100%. But today is not about those sorts of things.
But today is really about in business: What are your triggers telling you?
Now, this is something that Gabor Maté speaks in depth about. So if you're very much interested in this, then go and check out his work.
But in terms of business, it's the new year. Well, can we still say that? Yeah, we can. It's February, but it's the new year, and people are doing things. They're still shouting about all their goals and what they’re going to achieve and all of that.
And you may well have seen people already kicking goals this year and you're like, oh my gosh, they're doing this or they're doing that. I want you to think about when you get triggered by somebody else, particularly somebody else in business.
Now, they could be a competitor. They could be in a completely different industry. They could just be somebody you listened to on a podcast. They could be somebody you saw on YouTube or you read their book or anything.
What is that trigger telling you? Like, what is it telling you?
Often, we see in other people things that we either want for ourselves or things that we dislike about ourselves that we see in somebody else. And so we put them down in our heads. Or maybe, maybe not in our heads, maybe elsewhere as well.
But I want you to think about, let’s say, the last time you got triggered. Not triggered with some deep mental ill health, but just—you’re scrolling social media maybe, and something comes up, and you're like, "Oh. Oh, okay."
What goes on for you? What is it telling you?
I know, and I'm going to be very vulnerable here. Years ago, I remember seeing this one person that I didn’t really know very well, but I remember just—it felt like they were everywhere. It felt like they were at every speaking gig, that they were on every podcast, that they were doing all this media.
And I remember just being really triggered, like, "O-oh my God, why are they—" And really, what it was telling me is that I wanted some of that. I wanted to be doing more speaking gigs, and I knew I wasn’t putting myself out at all.
I still am not the greatest at putting myself out there. I don’t pitch very often, and I help people pitch all the time. I’ve been very, very fortunate that, particularly with Passion, Purpose, Profit, I had a lot of people coming to me for speaking gigs and other such things.
But I knew, in that space, when I saw that—and it still happens sometimes—you know, it’s not the same person, but other people that I’ll see, and I’ll be like, "Ooh." But I’m also like, "Did you put yourself forward, Fiona?" No. "Did you try and do this?" No.
So what is it telling you?
It’s telling you: either change and put yourself forward and pitch people, or don’t get annoyed about it. And it’s easy to say that. It’s harder to do in the moment.
But I really want you to think about the last time that you were triggered. And it could be anything. It doesn’t have to be to do with work.
It could be some part of your life. Maybe somebody was doing something with their kids, and you’re like, "Oh God, I don’t do that with my kids." Or maybe something happened in somebody’s romantic life, and you’re like, "God, I wish I had a partner."
All sorts of things.
What is it telling you? And then, what’s the first step you can do? What’s the first tiny step that you can take?
I’m all about small steps. My entire career has been one small step after another. I have never had, "Oh, overnight this blew up," or, "Wow, that happened so quickly."
Even this podcast—it’s very close. It’s very close to a million. It just seems to be ticking along to get there. But that’s four years of podcasting. That’s not—I didn’t get a million views overnight.
It’s things like that. I feel like I have taken a million small steps, and sometimes people just see the outcome of a lot of those steps.
Lovely Hayley recently, on social media, sent me a copy of Rush magazine—or sent me pictures. She was going through her magazines at her parents’ house, and she’s like, "Oh my gosh, look what I found."
And it was a copy of Rush magazine from when I used to contribute to Rush at night. So I was in the contributors section with this interview, and she sent me the article and everything.
And I was like, "Oh my goodness."
That must be 10 years ago. And people can go, "Oh, you’ve got this," or, "You got that."
It’s like—yeah, I’ve had 20 years of small steps. Of writing for so many publications and so many things. And pitching constantly, in that regard, for journalism.
But what is the first small step you can take from that trigger?
So, let’s say I’m looking at somebody and thinking, "Oh, well, let’s say it was 2023, and—oh, they’ve got this speaking gig..."
The first small step I can do is think about what places I'd like to be a speaker at, and then what topics do I want to speak on. And then let's pull together some sort of document with those things in it and send it off.
Because nothing happens if—what do I say? Nothing changes if nothing changes.
I literally have that on a piece of canvas on my wall, in my office, right next to me as I'm speaking. Because it doesn't. Nothing changes if nothing changes.
So if you're getting triggered constantly, but then you're not doing anything to fix things or change things—and again, I'm talking about things you actually have control over, not some really hardcore big things with maybe family members or other stuff—but if you're looking at something like I was and thinking, "Well, why? Why are they getting all these speaking gigs?" then what is the first small step I can take to get more speaking gigs myself?
Or if you're looking at somebody and being like, "Wow, their sale is doing so well, and, you know, ours aren't," it's like, well, are you really getting out there? Are you telling people about it? Are you training people for it? Are you getting people prepped?
Are you getting more people on the email list? Are you doing XYZ before that happens? Are you looking at your conversion rate? Are you optimizing your pages?
So really looking at that concept from Gabor Maté—what are your triggers telling you? What are they telling you?
So that is it for today's Quick Tip episode.
Really thinking about: what is going on for you? Why is it going on? And then, what is the first small step you can take to help yourself?
And as I said at the start, if you want a community around you, if you want a group of people that you can go to, that you can send messages on WhatsApp when you are getting triggered, when things are happening, or when you've decided to take that first small step and you want a little bit of encouragement—then check out group coaching.
It is a beautiful place. It's a small, curated group of incredible individuals who come together for a whole year.
And I've had people move out of that group and become lifelong friends. I've had people go into actual product development together. It's amazing. It's an incredible thing to be part of.
I know—I've been part of group coaching programmes myself. I've got a very good friend in Amsterdam as a result of that.
So if you would like to have that in your business, if you'd like to have a group as well as help from me for a whole year, then cheque out mydailybusiness.com/groupcoaching.
I'll leave it there.
Thanks for listening. See you next time. Bye.
Thanks for listening to the My Daily Business Podcast for a range of tools to help you grow and start your business, including coaching programmes, courses and templates. Cheque out our shop at mydailybusiness.com and if you want to get in touch, you can do that by email at hello@mydailybusiness.com or you can hit us up on Instagram at mydailybusiness_. You can find us on TikTok at mydailybusiness or find me Fiona Killackey on LinkedIn. I look forward to connecting.
