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I’m an avid learner. Right now there are about 2 training, 5 books & a handful of experiences I’m just itching to dive into.
But I’ve hesitated pressing GO on all of them because – I want to calculate the return on investment & make sure I’m making wise use of my resources (time, money, energy) before I press GO!
So how do we calculate our return on investment?
When training, experiences, or next steps feel risky & we’re worried “will this work out”, how do we decide?
Over the years I’ve developed three questions I ask myself to clarify if I’m making the RIGHT decisions for the RIGHT reasons. I’m sharing them with you on the podcast today.
You are the expert in your body & life. No one else will make the same ‘RIGHT’ decision as you (which makes it even harder to navigate what is right).
These questions are not designed to lead you towards something that’s safe, or predictable. Rather they are designed to illuminate what’s true for you.
[Image] Jenna with ritual materials, candles & an outdoor bathtub. Here’s one of the experiences we examine on the podcast – The ROI on my solo birthday retreat….
In this episode, we’re exploring:
- The 3 questions I use to decide if I’ll see a return on investment
- We discuss conventional investment vs. investing in your values & desires
- When “shoulds” are driving your decisions & what to do about it
- Some of the investments I’ve made lately & how I came to those decisions.
Get The Full 9 Part Series
This is the 6th installment of our 9-part series. Here’s what else we have planned:
- Ep1 – Passion, Purpose & Career
- Ep2 – Tolerating The Job (while we make a career change)
- Ep3 – Accidental Entrepreneurship. When following your passions means having a business
- Ep4 – Am I making the right move? The Career Change Stories of 3 Women
- Ep5 – Safety, Money & Starting Up a new career
- Ep6 – What Coaching Is Not… Mentoring -vs- Facilitation -vs- Coaching
- Ep7 – Return on Investment (in yourself)
- Ep8 – Career Change Stories: 4 Coaches Share Their Experience
- Ep9 – Embodied Ways of Working & Feminine Leadership in our career
This series is perfect for the woman who’s quietly seeking a career change, actively navigating the chaos of change, or just wants to become a more interesting person in the way you relate to your work.
To catch all the episodes & have them delivered to your inbox week, pop your details in here:
Resources
- Pursuing Your Passions Limited Podcast Series – sign up for all 9 episodes here →
- Feminine Embodiment Coaching – an emotional embodiment & vulnerability-based professional training for coaches
- Primal Feminine Flow – Embodied At Home Movement Practice
- School of Embodied Arts
- Leave a podcast review on iTunes here
- Thought or reflection to share? Leave a comment on Instagram here
Transcript
(This transcript is generated by AI so might not be perfect)
Speaker 1: Are you interested in a training or an experience that’s relating to your passions, but not really sure if this is the right investment or if it’s going to work out? Whether your decision is around passion or business, a new venture, something around creativity or your curiosity. If it’s got anything to do with pursuing your passions, then what you’re really asking is, even though this is a risky and unknown potential investment to make, am [00:00:30] I going to get a good return on this investment? And that’s a very complicated question, which often requires us to excavate and reevaluate some of the internalized assumptions that we might have around what makes a good investment and how can we measure our return on investment for a particular training or a particular experience. In today’s podcast, as part of the Pursuing a Passions series, we are looking [00:01:00] at this question on how can I investigate my return on investment? And I’ll be sharing with you a few different tips, questions, and frames that I use to determine if something’s going to be a good investment or not. A warm welcome to the podcast,
Speaker 1: A warm welcome. I’m your host, Jenna Ward, and I’m living, creating and broadcasting to you from the Sunshine Coast in Australia, [00:01:30] the traditional and beautiful lands of the Gubby Gubby people. I am a feminine embodiment coach, a teacher. I’m also a mother and a lover of chocolate and chai, and I write, coach and teach in the art of embodiment for women, both personally and professionally, for those who want to deepen their skills in the somatic arts and come home to their feeling, sensing and magnetically alive body. [00:02:00] The School of Embodied Arts podcast is a place where we explore these themes. You can listen in to explore the art of embodied living as a woman, as a practitioner, or simply as a human who desires inspiration and resources for full spectrum living. So let’s dive in.
Speaker 1: So I’m somebody that is a serial stu and I love learning [00:02:30] new things, even though life is super full. Right now, I’m pregnant with my second babe running a business, have a four year old. There’s not a lot of time for hobbies, and yet I have this insatiable hunger to learn and to develop and have rich experiences. So there’s constantly new things that are coming onto my plate that I’m wanting to learn. In the past few months, I’ve taken different courses around some aspects of trauma resolution, leadership, [00:03:00] fashion, gardening, and planting dahlias, which is a new passion of mine. I’m developing a cut flower garden, but my passions are diverse, and perhaps like you, I’m an avid learner. So when it comes to determining, well, how am I going to decide where to put my money? How am I going to know if this is a good investment and am I going to receive a return on this investment?
Speaker 1: There are three [00:03:30] pearls, three questions and considerations that I always internally run through before moving forward. I’m going to share these with you today in case you have multiple things on your plate or a big decision to make, and you’re trying to figure out what the right way forward for you is. And that’s one first important point. To know. How you decide and what’s right for you is not going to be right for your mother, your partner, your sister-in-law, or anybody else in your world [00:04:00] you know and your body best. So it is my hope that these three signposts, that pearls can support you to navigate your way to your own inner knowing and conviction in your decision with greater clarity. So the very first consideration, the first pearl for us is actually a very non-linear one and one that is surprisingly and deceptively simple.
Speaker 1: And it is this, [00:04:30] how will this enrich my quality of life? That’s the very first questions that I ask myself when I’m thinking about a particular training or study or investment. How is this going to enrich my quality of life? And that is really determined by what your values are as a person. So when we think of conventional investments and safe places to put your money, [00:05:00] people do things like buy houses or go and get a traditional education, put their money in savings or stocks or other types of property, or maybe they just put a little bit aside to save. Or maybe in your culture it’s normal to save and buy a new car, and that’s seen as a good investment. Maybe in your culture it’s more about gold or gems, maybe in your circles of friends, it’s more about having cryptocurrency. We all have different norms [00:05:30] around what’s seen as a conventional or good investment.
Speaker 1: For me, financial security is important and I’m all for savings. But at the same time, I’m also thinking about my quality of life and what my values are, and I really value one of the biggest things that I value is skills for living an emotionally rich and wide life. That’s at the top of my list of desires [00:06:00] since always. And so if it comes to an investment, whether that’s an experience or a retreat, a training, or something in between where I feel like there’s going to be a genuine benefit to my emotional wellbeing or where I’m going to receive more of an education or an experience that matches the values in my life, then ultimately that to me is going to be a good investment because [00:06:30] it’s me putting my money to towards where my values are. Now, your values will be very different to my values.
Speaker 1: I value freedom. I value emotionally rich and wide living. I value our planet. I value justice liberation for all of us. These are the things that sit really close to my heart. I’ll also add pleasure to that list. These are my values. And so this very much determines [00:07:00] where I spend my money, and I feel like it’s important for us to really get clear on what our values are so that when we are making these decisions and we’re wondering, well, why do I feel so called to do that? It is very, very affirming to say, well, I value, for example, emotionally rich and wide living, and this is going to increase my quality of life in that direction substantially. So that to me [00:07:30] is the very first and key pillar. What are my values? How do I want to live? And does this particular investment match those values?
Speaker 1: A few years ago, I took this my first ever kind of course in fashion and how to dress. My little one was about two years old then, so it was at least two years ago. And I was emerging from maternity bras and wearing clothes that suited [00:08:00] breastfeeding and a baby body. And I was really rediscovering my identity in terms of how do I want to dress? How do I want to look? How can I bring more pleasure to the way that I adorn my body? And one of my values is pleasure and just feeling really sensually alive in my body. So knowing that that’s one of my values means that this particular course, which just so randomly came across [00:08:30] my doorstep as I was thinking about, do I really need that? Do I really want to follow the rules of fashion? And the answer is no.
Speaker 1: I don’t want to follow the rules of fashion, but I do want to have a deeper understanding of how to adorn my particular body and shape and size and color. And I felt like, oh, having that information is just going to really enrich the ability for me to enjoy dressing instead of feeling like it’s a drag. So this was another example of matching values [00:09:00] to investment, which is, again, it’s so different from conventional concepts of investment, which say your values must be gaining more wealth, like traditional investment strategies, which I’m not against. I have the great fortune of having some of the traditional investment strategies also happening, and I spend some of my money on those things, but at the same time, it’s not my number one value in life, gaining more wealth, getting [00:09:30] richer and richer every single year. So I aim for financial wellness and stability in balance with all the things that I really adore.
Speaker 1: Second question that I asked myself and our second pearl for today, my daughter is obsessed with pearls at the moment. She just said to me yesterday, mom, I really want to see a pearl. Where do they grow? And I just was like, oh, you’re the cutest thing. I’m not giving you a real pearl, but I am on the lookout [00:10:00] for a little pearl bracelet for her. And so this is why we have our three pearls because they remind me of my daughter, and she’s always talking about pearls. So the second tip, the second pearl is this question. This is the second question I ask myself, what is my deeper driver for doing this? So even though I can often convince myself that a particular training or experience matches my values, [00:10:30] sometimes when I dig under the hood and I really deeply interrogate why am I really doing this? I can come up with statements like, well, the other people in my industry do this or that one person I respect has it, or I feel like I should, or I feel like I need that piece of paper in order to validate that it will be okay, or I feel like I just have to have more training because [00:11:00] I don’t know enough and I’m not yet enough.
Speaker 1: These are very subtle, very sneaky little reason that we can feel like we should do something and it might be a match with our values, but the deeper driver is more of a should than a yearning. And this always raises an alarm bell for me, because if I’m doing or purchasing this thing because I feel like I should [00:11:30] do it, what’s going to happen? I’m going to purchase it. I’m not going to log in. I’m not going to open it. I’m not going to listen to it or read it. I’m not going to apply it and practice it. I’m not going to metabolize it, and I’m not going to get any value out of it because I don’t have a genuinely sincere desire for doing it, so I should do it. Everyone else is doing it. Maybe I’m missing out on something if I don’t do it.
Speaker 1: These are not good reasons, and I think [00:12:00] you and I already know that, but when we really allow ourselves to sit and feel into that, should the weight of it, the feeling of it, the acknowledgement of it becomes stronger and stronger and stronger, and that’s a really important piece of the puzzle. I think not only the acknowledgement that there’s a should there, but the somatic sitting with the should, if you will. When people are interested [00:12:30] in joining our coaching certification, we just gently, lovingly interrogate what their values are and why they feel they need this particular training because we want to excavate. Are there any hidden shoulds here that we just maybe need to sit with because shoulds I should do, this is not really the best reason for saying yes to a particular training or experience, and you’re not going to get a return on investment because you’re probably not going to do it.
Speaker 1: [00:13:00] I have some of those trainings and I have some of those things that I’ve purchased over the years and thought, well, it wasn’t a waste of money. I learned what I don’t need, and then I don’t need that. The third pearl that I wanted to share, and this is an interesting one, I’m going to give you a few examples of this one. The third question that I asked myself and our third pearl is, how long would it take [00:13:30] me to earn this back? So this is a very straightforward equation. If you are investing in a training or something that benefits your business, your venture, your career, or your skillset. For example, if I am taking a training which is about developing my skills as a leader, and I myself am in a leadership position within [00:14:00] our school, then although I may not be able to measure this statistically, I know without a doubt it’s going to have a ripple of impact.
Speaker 1: That means I’m going to earn my investment back multiple times over the course of my career. If I think about our coaching certification, that’s also a little bit more of a linear way to answer this. Our coaching certification is in the order of $5,900 for [00:14:30] the 12 month experience, and you could very easily make that investment back within two to four clients enrolled in a signature coaching system. So that could take you anywhere from a month or more to enroll those clients. So that’s a very reasonable timeframe in terms of, oh, how am I going to make that money back? This becomes a little bit less linear when we’re thinking about investing in an experience. So [00:15:00] for my birthday each year, which falls in August, for the past few years, I’ve been taking myself on a retreat. One year, I went on a beautiful sensual embodied dance retreat this year, 2023, I took myself on a solo women’s retreat to this beautiful cabin in the bush with a copper bathtub outside.
Speaker 1: And I did all kind, had a little bit of creative work to do and [00:15:30] creative writing, but I also did some rituals and some intentions and some sleeping in and some pleasure practices. And oh my gosh, I just love being by myself doing all the rich, lush things, and I can apply this same question to that annual birthday. How long is it going to take me to earn this investment back? Is this a good investment? Am I going to see a return [00:16:00] on my investment? And I think this is an interesting way to look at taking yourself on retreat because a lot of people are thinking about, well, certainly a lot of women in my circle who have young families, they’re thinking about, oh, can I afford to take that much time away from my family, who will take care of all my domestic responsibilities if I’m not there?
Speaker 1: Could I really justify spending that much money on something so self-indulgent? Is it selfish for me to do things by myself [00:16:30] on my birthday and not do things with my family? My husband lays this one on me sometimes, like, shouldn’t you spend time with your family on your birthday? I said, dude, it’s my birthday. I’m going to spend it how I want. So I feel like this question, question number three, how long would it take me to earn this back? I still apply it to these same kinds of very personal, indulgent experiences because I can look at my values and say, well, it’s going to be emotionally rich. It’s going to be full [00:17:00] of pleasure. I’m going to be feeling a lot more freedom, and I’m just actually going to be recharging and filling up my creative self, the self of me that is passionate about more than just my domestic life.
Speaker 1: And I get a chance to really plug in and zoom out on the big picture of where am I going in this next turn around the sun? So [00:17:30] will I earn that back? Absolutely, yes. In a feeling of nourishment over the coming 12 months, I have no doubt that that time and that space, that’s money that’s been invested, I have no doubt that that will return itself on its investment. I’m not going to, let’s say, make an extra $10,000 as a result of doing this, but I know that I’m going to see my investment return in my emotional wellbeing, which is one of my [00:18:00] core, perhaps number one, value in life. So again, everybody’s circumstances are different, and I hold a lot of privilege in the way that I get to spend my money that may be different to the level of support that you have financially from your family or your circumstances.
Speaker 1: I just really want to acknowledge that just because I’m saying I’m going on retreat for my birthday, Woohoo. For me, I’m not necessarily saying everyone should want [00:18:30] that. I think that what you value is going to be really unique to you, but I hope that these three questions can guide you to make the best decision and really excavate the deeper drivers that are playing out in your body so that you’re not getting yourself trapped by a should, but might instead be making a more unconventional decision that truly does deeply align with your values [00:19:00] and with what you’re going to reap as a result of the investment. So many blessings for your passions, your business, your venture, your creativity, and thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today.
Speaker 1: If you’ve enjoyed this episode, the most sincere way you can share your thanks and celebrate the conversations that we’ve been having is to leave us a review [00:19:30] wherever it is that you listen to your podcast, drop us some stars on Spotify, a comment on iTunes. I would be so grateful if you would share the love as it really helps others to find these important conversations. And also, I get a little bit of a sweet sparkle in my heart when I read those reviews. For more information around feminine embodiment coaching and the School of Embodied Arts, you can always find us@jennaward.co. And as [00:20:00] we wrap our podcast for today, I’m going to leave you with some words from some of our past graduates from the coaching certification who can share in their own words what the experience, the training, and the outcomes were like. So I hope you enjoy hearing from some of their past graduates.
