Building Community and Connection through Intuition (with Emily Walker)

In this episode, I interview entrepreneur and coach Emily Walker of Modern Leaders Collective. Together, we explore how fear and procrastination get in the way of living as our authentic selves. Then, we’ll discuss how intuition and inner wisdom can help us overcome our fears and lead to productive, vibrant businesses.

About Emily Walker and Modern Leaders Collective

When I started this podcast, I knew I wanted to interview change makers in the spiritual entrepreneur community. One of the first people who came to mind was Emily Walker. She’s so wise, kind, and generous with her guidance. She’s provided valuable support to me as I created my business programs and I am thrilled to get to share her wisdom with you!

Emily is a leader, learning designer, and workshop facilitator from Victoria, BC. She’s also the foundress of the Modern Leaders Collective, a movement and membership community where heart-centered entrepreneurs find the connections, accountability, and confidence to awaken their inner leader and ignite change in the people they serve. She’s also the host of the Course Wellness podcast, a bite-sized learning experience dedicated to helping you design transformative online programs. She’s worked with a diverse variety of clients. She balances practical and strategic frameworks with tools for necessary personal and spiritual inner work so you can break through blocks and step into your power as a change maker.

Emily’s Take on Spiritual Entrepreneurship

“Spiritual Entrepreneurship” means so many things to so many people. It’s different for everyone. Emily describes the realization that being a spiritual entrepreneur is really a sense of being whole; not compartmentalizing our professional selves and personal selves but showing up as our authentic selves. It’s about bringing fully-integrated parts of ourselves into our businesses and being wholly present for our clients.

When we embrace the wholeness of ourselves and our experiences, we allow ourselves to express our vulnerabilities, interests, and passions.

“Doing Versus Being”

Emily talks about getting started in her business. As entrepreneurs, we get so focused on the “doing” and the “working,” following to-do lists, listening to podcasts, and checking all the boxes we think we have to check. We get stuck in the “doing,” and often lose ourselves along the way.

When we allow our intuition and our spiritual self to guide us, we can start “being.” We can bring ourselves – our spiritual, emotional, and physical selves – into our businesses.

“Procrastination is a Form of Intuition”

Procrastination is trying to tell us something. When we listen to our intuition, we understand that it’s saying, “stop doing, start being.” Emily noticed that when she stopped “doing” and started to just “be,” that’s when growth began to occur in her business.

It’s a revolutionary way of looking at procrastination. I (Lee) often look at it as fear, but Emily’s approach offers a different lens. Sometimes, procrastination comes from a place of fear, but other times it’s our intuition telling us it’s just not the right way. As Emily points out, we need to examine the motivation behind our procrastination to determine if it’s fear-based or intuition-based.

In Episode 5 of the Work Your Inner Wisdom Podcast, we will dive deeper into this idea of fear versus intuition, and how to distinguish between the two. (So stay tuned!)

“Do Your Way into Being”

It’s such a trap: checking all the boxes and trying harder to make it happen. Emily talks about doing the inner work instead: focusing on ourselves instead of focusing outwardly. This shift allows us to make space for integration. Emily refers to this as “active passivity:” an intentional lack of action, allowing us to sit with our discomfort and let our inner wisdom guide our steps.

Our culture puts such a focus on doing more and on being busy. But that pace doesn’t allow our intuition to do its best work. Intentional inaction takes practice and training, but it’s a crucial part of the creative processes.

Passive Versus Active Acceptance

In my practice, I often examine the process of acceptance. Passive acceptance means letting the world steamroll you, then rolling over and saying, “well, I don’t have any control over this, so whatever happens, happens.”

Active acceptance, on the other hand, requires taking an active, objective look at your current situation. It might not be the situation you want, but you see it for what it is. You accept the situation and then take action moving forward.

There’s a clear parallel between active acceptance and the state of “being.” We have to actively “be” if we are to find balance in our lives. If we are constantly in a state of “doing,” we will never open ourselves up to receive messages from our intuition.

How Emily Balances “Doing” and “Being” in Her Business

When Emily first started focusing on spirituality, it was on a more personal level. She began to balance the energies surrounding her personal life first. When she started to see shifts in her personal life – noticing a more vibrant spiritual practice – she began to wonder what it would be like to have that feeling in all areas of her life, including her business.

Her previous business was good, but she felt it lacking something. When she began to lean in to intuition and spirituality, she decided to create Modern Leaders Collective. It started as a feeling, as an intuitive hit, and she wanted to stay true to that feeling moving forward.

Creating a business is about integration – there is a core emotion behind entrepreneurship that guides not only how you want to feel but how you want your clients to feel as well.

Community in Modern Leaders Collective

Emily embraces community as a key part of her business. The Loft is a membership community within her website. Her first business felt like it was lacking – she wanted to bring people together. That’s where The Loft originated: Emily wanted clients to know one another, learn from each other, and support one another.

Emily created Modern Leaders Collective based on her intuition, but along the way, she has managed to bring together people who are also guided by intuition. The Loft is a space for spiritual entrepreneurs who are going through a journey at the same time; people who want to make an impact through their businesses.

Core Concepts in The Loft and Modern Leaders Collective

Emily talks about the three pillars of her business:

Community. It’s vital that we make connections, find friends, and learn from a wide range of like-minded spirits. In community, we thrive.

Accountability. The Loft helps entrepreneurs identify and overcome the procrastination and fear that prevent us from taking steps forward. It’s essential to have people to check in on us and encourage us to move forward when we feel stuck.

Confidence. It’s wonderful to have a spiritual connection, but sometimes we can get too trapped inside our own heads. The Loft encourages us and builds up our confidence through confirmation.

Emily’s Inner Wisdom Experiences

When asked for specific examples of how intuition has impacted her business, Emily recounted two recent experiences:

When she knew it was time to expand her business and create Modern Leaders Collective and The Loft

Emily talked about physical sensations as a manifestation of her intuition. She felt physically constricted, even in her office space. She didn’t want to talk about her business or her podcast. She struggled with self-judgment and doubt.

Through Lee’s coaching and the “ACT on Your Business” book, Emily was able to identify those thoughts and feelings, work through them, and create space between them. When she leaned in to what felt right, “flowing and not forcing” Emily began to see significant positive shifts in her business.

When she fell into the trap of “doing” and checking the boxes.

Emily began feeling physical discomfort again, but she knew it was her intuition telling her to step back. When Emily gave herself space to let her inner wisdom guide her business, she was able to move forward more confidently. “ACT on Your Business” gave Emily a healthy relationship with thoughts and emotions. Learning the tools and techniques to overcome negative emotions have helped Emily grow her business tremendously.

Want to know more about Emily Walker and the Modern Leaders Collective? Check out her website or connect with her on Instagram @ModernLeadersCo. You can also check out The Course Wellness Podcast wherever you download podcasts.