Why Pleasure Impacts Profit - EP 002

In this episode, Rachel discusses the importance of pleasure in entrepreneurship and business. She highlights how pleasure is often overlooked in favor of focusing on impact and profitability. 

Rachel emphasizes that pleasure is a critical component for creating a sustainable business and shares a personal story to illustrate its role. Listen in as she reflects on a retreat where she struggled to enjoy herself and realized she had been carrying around negative messages about joy and excitement. 

Through a labyrinth exercise, she let go of these messages and embraced joy and pleasure. Rachel emphasizes the importance of cultivating joy and pleasure in order to experience abundance and greatness in life.

If you're ready to add more pleasure into your hustle and life,  this one’s for you!

Takeaways

• Pleasure is often overlooked in discussions about entrepreneurship and business.
• Focusing solely on impact or profitability is not sustainable in the long run.
• Pleasure is a critical component for creating a sustainable business.
• The desire for impact and profitability should be balanced with the enjoyment and satisfaction of the work itself.
• We need to retrain ourselves to prioritize pleasure and joy as equal parts of our lives and work.
• Nature doesn't work on the principle of working hard first and then enjoying; we have to cultivate pleasure and joy to have a fulfilling life.

If you’re ready to have a deeper conversation about how to maximize impact, profit and pleasure in your business and life, you can schedule a time to connect with me right here >>>

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Episode Transcript

Hi there. Welcome to another episode of Pleasure and Profits. I'm your host, Rachel Anzalone, and I'm so incredibly grateful that you're here with me today. On today's episode, I want to talk about what I think is the elephant in the room or the elephant in the podcast studio. And it's the thing that I, when I say it, when I introduce myself and I tell people what I do, it's the word that I see catches people's attention. 

It's the thing produces sort of a glimmer of confusion or surprise or intrigue on people's faces when I say it. And it's also one of the words that I've chosen as part of the title of this podcast. And that word is pleasure. Pleasure is not a word that we often think about when we are thinking about business, when we're thinking about entrepreneurship. 

Usually when we're thinking about our businesses, we're thinking about things like working hard and producing, measuring KPIs and metrics. We're thinking about what are the products and services that we're offering? How can we improve them? Do we need to add more? We spend a lot of time thinking about hiring team and training and development and how to cultivate an environment that's great for our team to prosper in. We think about our customers, like where to find them, how to keep them, how to better serve them. Operations, SOPs, marketing growth, influence, impact, all of those things we think about in regards to our business are all really important, more or less. And we'll dig into some of those more in future episodes. 

But what I hear missing so often when we're talking about business is this thing that I think is critically important, equally important, if not more important than things like profitability and impact. And I don't think we're talking about it enough.

And it's the thing that I think so many entrepreneurs and business owners are sort of working in anticipation that it's gonna come at some point down the road, at some future moment. And that is a feeling of satisfaction, a feeling of enjoyment of the work itself, of the experience of being an entrepreneur, and of creating and contributing to the world in a meaningful way. And that is, in fact, the definition of pleasure.

Pleasure is, by definition, a feeling of happy satisfaction and enjoyment. So what I often see when I'm coaching or mentoring and working behind the scenes in entrepreneurial ventures, behind the scenes in other people's businesses, is a primary focus on one of two things. 

Number one, some entrepreneurs are hyper-focused on impact. And if you are a visionary entrepreneur, if you are a purpose-driven entrepreneur, then impact is so critically important. It's the reason many of us started our businesses in the first place. And for those who are, you know, over-givers, self-sacrificers, we often can focus on impact at the expense of profitability and also sometimes use it as a justification. So the desire to create impact can turn into a type of martyrdom and without profit or pleasure, it simply isn't sustainable. 

So focusing on impact above everything else, while it may feel altruistic, it may feel virtuous, is not a long game strategy to get you to a place of having a sustainable business. It's just one component. 

The second thing that I often see clients, customers, entrepreneurs focusing on is profitability above all else. What I see often happens is that this belief arises that the top line revenue, which is usually what I see people focusing on more than profitability, that's a whole topic we'll discuss as we go, is that this focus on revenue growth, top line revenue growth, maybe on profitability, but really on just growing revenue, growing revenue, growing revenue as a primary focus often takes the place of the desire to create impact. 

And I'm being very careful in how I'm saying this because 100% of the time with the people that I have worked with over the years, because I'm working with people who are purpose-driven. visionary, people who really want to change the world, the desire for impact is always there. What I see happen is that there's a belief that the revenue has to grow first before the impact can happen. So the focus on impact starts to take a back seat, and everything becomes about driving revenue, driving revenue, driving revenue, to the effect of losing the ability to have the impact that was the whole purpose for the business to begin with. And so there are many, many aspects of both impact and profit that we're going to dig into in future episodes. 

Both me sharing my thoughts with you, my experiences with clients that I've worked with and observations from working in the entrepreneurial space for the last 14 years, I think, for myself. And previous to that working with other small business owners and entrepreneurs. And so we're going to dig into all of that stuff. But for now, what I really want to focus on is pleasure and why I believe that pleasure is a critical, critical component alongside impact and profit in the Venn diagram of a sustainable business. 

So I'd like to share a story about how my understanding of the role of pleasure came to be.

I'm standing at the entrance to a beautiful outdoor labyrinth at the Kripalu Institute in Western Massachusetts at six in the morning by myself, trying to figure out why I had spent the entire day of this retreat pissed off at the world and at everyone. I had come on this retreat, a Qoya retreat, which is all about embodiment, connecting with the divine feminine, connecting with self.

And I had enjoyed the first few days, but the previous day had been just a real struggle for me. And I had woken up early that morning still sitting with what was going on, why was I struggling, why was I having such a hard time, why was I not enjoying the retreat anymore. 

And so reflecting back on the days of the retreat, we arrived, it was a gathering of women. We sat in circle, we connected with each other, shared our stories, shared our intentions. It was a really beautiful experience on that evening of arrival. On the first full day, the facilitator, Rochelle, the creator of this movement practice, Qoya Inspired Movement, took us through the beginning of what would be a journey through the seasons, a journey around the calendar. And so the first day was autumn and autumn is about shedding. It's about letting things go that don't serve us anymore. It's about the breakdown and the decay of things that maybe thrived once, but now we're ready to be released back into the soil to be composted. The animal of the season is the snake. It's about shedding the skin that doesn't fit anymore.

And speaking of animals, it's just a matter of time before Trixie makes her way in here. So day one was this autumn experience and I loved it. I was comfortable with autumn. I was comfortable with the energy of letting things go, of identifying what didn't work for me. I had done this many times in my life and I had done it so much the year previously that led me to Qoya. 

I had made the decision to get divorced. I had walked away from my business. I had moved away from the city that I was in and I had started over. So I was really comfortable with this energy of fall, of autumn, of releasing what doesn't fit anymore. That was day one. 

On day two, after fall, comes winter and winter is about the darkness. It's about the energy of the Jaguar. It's about the mystery. It's about going internal and sitting with the unknown, really examining what's going on inside. And again, I was really comfortable with this. I had done this many times in my life and very much in that year following the divorce, following leaving my business and my home. I sat in this place a lot where I was really just not knowing what was coming next and trusting that things would evolve and trusting that the next season would come. 

So again, I was really comfortable with this beautiful winter season. And then came day three, and day three was the spring. And spring is the hummingbird. It's joyful, it's light, it's the blooming flowers, it's the planting of the seeds, it's the cultivating, it is the embracing, the warming, and the connection, and the light coming back into our lives. 

I had spent the entire day pissed off, like really unhappy. I didn't like the interactions I was having. I didn't like the movements we were doing. I just felt this incredible tension building in my body for the entire day. And I was really uncomfortable and pissed off. That was the energy that I felt. I was pissed off and I didn't know why. 

And so I had gone to sleep that night with this question of like, what is my problem? Why can't I just enjoy this day? What's going on that three days into this retreat, I'm not enjoying myself anymore?

Doing this practice that had been so meaningful to me and so transformative and that I had never had this experience of like discontent before. And so I went to sleep that night. I woke up really early the next morning before anyone else was around. I got out of bed. I got my journal, got a cup of tea. I sat down and I just started writing in my journal. It was really all about this question of like, what is my problem? What is wrong? That I cannot just relax and enjoy this. 

And, you know, wrote and wrote and wrote, finally decided I needed to get up and move. And so I left the building. I headed down the road to the pond or lake where, you know, it was just the very, very beginnings of dawn. And so there was just enough light to see the path.

There was, this was like late August, early September, there was steam rising up off the lake. The air was cool. There was dew in the grass and just kind of a fog like settling in the valley. It was very quiet and I was the only person out there. And I stood by the lake with these questions. Just listened and was present with the water. And on my way back to the lodge, I saw the labyrinth. Now I didn't make the decision I'm going to go do a labyrinth exercise. My body was just pulled in that direction. And if you've never done a labyrinth, the invitation or the ritual that some recommend is that you enter the labyrinth with an intention to release something.

Often you bring something with you to leave in the middle of the labyrinth as a token, as a symbol of what you're leaving behind. And you invite in, you say a prayer, you invite in what it is that you're calling into your life and you walk. It's a walking meditation in and then walking meditation back out, calling in what it is that you're calling into being. 

And so I stood at the entrance of the labyrinth with this question of like, what is my problem? Why can't I relax? Why can't I enjoy myself? Why is this day that was meant to be around joy and pleasure and fun and lightness and spring so hard for me to be in? And I stepped into the labyrinth. I started walking slowly and realized partway in, that I didn't have anything with me to leave in the center as an offering. And so I looked down, the path there is covered with wood chips. And I bent down and I picked up a wood chip and I thought, that's what I'll leave in the middle. Often people will write a message or a note. Sometimes there's a pen left in the middle you can use. So that was the thought that I had that I would write something on it and I would leave it in the middle. 

So I picked up this wood chip and I kept walking, reflecting on this question of what is going on that I can't enjoy myself, that I can't embrace this day that's meant to be about joy and pleasure. And as I walked, these memories started drifting in of moments in my life where I was excited about something and someone in my life poo-pooed it, or told me not to get… “Don't get too excited. You don't know it might not work out. Don't get your hopes up. Or you're being too loud. Like you need to dial it down. You need to, like I know you're excited, but you need to be quieter. You need to not take up so much space. Don't be so loud about it.” 

You know, all these moments where people, where I was excited and joyful and someone around me had told me to dial it down, to keep it to myself, to not get my hopes up, to not be too excited. So I'm remembering these and as I'm doing it, my body is just automatically, wasn't thinking about it. And I remember observing that I was doing it, that I just, I kept picking up more wood chips as I walked. And I remember thinking, what are you doing that for? You already have one, you don't need anymore. You just need to leave one in the center. 

As I walked, I kept, I would just see one and I would bend down and pick it up. I would see the next one and I would bend down and pick it up. And by the time I got into the middle of the labyrinth, I had remembered all of these experiences and realized that I was carrying this pile of wood chips in my arms.

And that's when I realized that the wood chips were representing all of this shit that I had been carrying around, all of these reasons to not be excited, to not be enthusiastic, to not get my hopes up, all these messages that I had heard throughout my life about not expecting for things to be great or not being overly enthusiastic. And I realized that I needed to leave the pile there.

And I bent down, got down on my knees. I dropped the pile of wood chips in the center of the labyrinth. I laid my forehead on the ground and I said a prayer for the intention to leave all of that behind and to invite joyfulness and happiness and spring and playfulness into my life. And as I stood up from that prayer, it was just at that moment where the sun came up over the edge of the mountains and touched me in the face. And I just stood there feeling the warmth of the sun on my face and appreciating the joy of that moment.

And as I went to walk out of the labyrinth, I felt lighter and I felt a quickness in my steps. I felt a joyfulness that I hadn't felt in a really, really long time. And so when I returned to the retreat for that day's activities, of course, what comes after spring is summer. And summer is about the harvest.

Summer is about… (giggles)

Summer is perfect because my joyful puppy just busted in the room on me. Summer is about the harvest. Summer is about the eagle soaring. Summer is abundance. Summer is about greatness, about stepping into everything that's possible.

And what I realized was that I had been doing this thing over and over and over again in my life, which was I would recognize something wasn't working. I would release it. I could let it go. I could walk away. I could fully embrace that energy of the autumn, of letting things go that weren't working anymore. I had become so comfortable stepping into the void of winter, of the darkness of not knowing what was coming next, of trusting the universe and trusting that opportunities and relationships and anything I needed would come on the other side.

But what I was doing when I came out of winter was I was expecting summer. I would come out of winter and expect the harvest. I would expect the abundance. I would expect the thriving and the greatness. And what I was doing over and over and over again was skipping the season of spring. I was, I was skipping the part where I had to invest in cultivating joy and lightness and joy in my own life.

And so I think so many of us do that. We wanna skip ahead to summer and we forget that we have to cultivate the joy and the pleasure first and that summer can't happen until spring happens. Spring, the cultivation of joy and pleasure is a necessary season to go through in order to be able to reap the harvest of summer, to be able to step into everything that is possible for us in order to move into a space of greatness, we have to first cultivate joy and pleasure. 

And it's so counter to what we are taught in our lives and our culture. We're taught that you have to work hard and then you get to enjoy it. We're taught that you have to sort of toil away, that you have to earn the right to have pleasure, that you have to earn the right to have time off, that you have to earn the right to have abundance. And that once that happens, once you've earned that, then you're allowed to be in joy and pleasure and happiness. And it just is backwards. Nature doesn't work that way and we are part of nature. We have to take the time to cultivate pleasure and joy in our lives in order to be able to have the impact that we wanna have in order to be able to experience the grandness that life has to offer to us in order to be everything that we're capable of being in the world, we have to first invest in cultivating joy and pleasure for ourselves.

And so we have to retrain ourselves in our approach to pleasure. We have to retrain ourselves in our expectations of everything that's possible for us that get there in order to be in that, in order to have that experience, we have to cultivate within ourselves the ability to experience joy and pleasure as an equal part to everything else that we're working on in our lives and in our business. And that is why pleasure.

Thank you so much for being here. I will see you in the next episode.