Why Your Business Will Never Hit 7 Figures (Without This) with Hannah Soto

Hannah: [00:00:00] The individual before me is the curriculum. And so yes, we will look at patterns and beliefs, habit natures with each individual. For one individual, they could say they really resent the company that they've built, and so that separation is important.
Hannah: For another one, it could be that they've, spent their entire life chasing outcomes, and they don't know what is it to sit with present, who they are right now, what their life is right now, and actually experience their life today. They're always looking for, what's next. and ultimately, n- no matter which end of that spectrum you sit as a founder, there will be circumstances that you can't control,
Intro - Outro: You're listening to the 7 Figure Leap podcast. We're here to leverage rich relationships and smart [00:01:00] strategies to take your business to the next level. Here's your host, Dustin Riechmann.
Dustin: Welcome back to the 7 Figure Leap podcast. Today, I'm excited to unpack a really important question, and that is what is the gap, and why, through my experience and through the experience of my guests, is it so important that we fall in love with this gap rather than resent it and let it, drag us down in some ways?
Dustin: So today, I'm joined by Hannah Soto, and besides having a really cool name, Hannah, is an amazing person with an amazing entrepreneurial story. I got to know Hannah recently at Craft and Commerce, and we share a lot of mutual friends, and as we got to know each other, I said, "Wow, with this amazing executive coaching work that you do and the work that you do with entrepreneurs, I think it would be such a blessing to our audience to hear your story, but also unpack this idea of the gap and what that means and how we can prepare for it," especially as a listener, if you are, ambitious and you are looking to, grow a seven-figure business and beyond, and, there's a lot that goes into that that I've, [00:02:00] I've experienced, and Hannah has such a good way of teaching through it and preparing us well for it.
Dustin: So Hannah, thank you so much for being here first and foremost. I'd love to just give the mic to you as we get started and let you talk a little bit about what the gap means to you, and in that, let's hear a little bit of your story so we can get some context on your background before we dive deep into a really important topic today.
Hannah: Awesome. Thank you, Dustin, so much for having me. I'm thrilled to get to share with your audience a little bit about my journey, and honestly, it started when I was 12 when I started my first business. I've, founded five companies in total, but the one I've spent the most time with is my production company.
Hannah: I started that one in 2014, and, we create ads for brands like Apple, Google, Marriott, the Olympics, Coca-Cola. small brands- ... maybe you've heard of them. I've
Dustin: heard a couple of those, yeah.
Hannah: So it's been, it's been a lot of fun. I like to say that I would now make a terrible employee, because I've just worked for myself for so long, I couldn't imagine it another way.
Dustin: Yeah. I love it. I know you've experienced in the production [00:03:00] company, but, in, I'm sure in the other four, companies that you founded starting at such a young age, this pursuit of achievement, right? Like, that's part of what the entrepreneurial gene, I think, draws us to is this idea that you want to achieve something.
Dustin: I... Way back in the day when I was doing, like, the StrengthsFinder, like, the number one strength that I had was achiever, and I always thought that was a cool thing until I sort of saw the dark side of it at different parts in this journey. So, when we say the gap, just since we're gonna focus a lot today on that, can you define what that means to you?
Hannah: Yeah. So the gap is the space between where you are right now and where it is you wanna be. So what- whether you wanna hit seven figures or 10 million or you wanna run an Ironman or whatever the thing you want to accomplish or achieve, the gap is the distance between where you are today and where that ambition wants to take you.
Dustin: Yeah. And so- My first exposure to this, I know you have a different application of it, was through Dan Sullivan's work and the book The Gap and the Gain, which, became more [00:04:00] popular when it became, a, a real book when he wrote, when he partnered with, Dr. Benjamin Hardy. And, th- then the way I'll define it real, in an elementary way, and the way I kind of learned it there, and, and we'll go deeper here specifically as it applies to this entrepreneurial journey, is this idea that we chase a horizon line.
Dustin: Like, so we chase a demarcation, like a seven-figure business or running an Ironman or, hitting, certain goals in our life. And the trap we can fall into is, as we achieve those horizon lines, the horizon line keeps moving, so we're in this, like, perpetual gap, and we never feel a sense of fulfillment, right?
Dustin: is that align with, with, like, how you're applying it here?
Hannah: So it's a little bit different. though I do wanna say I think learning to celebrate ourselves is... That's kind of how I think about the gap and the gain, is that we're constantly raising the bar and we never stop to celebrate.
Hannah: I think that's so important, and especially with founders, which is who I coach. It's so easy to say, "Let me chase the next thing," or, "I [00:05:00] feel behind," and it's... I focus more on the way that we're relating to the gap. 'Cause most people, again, most of my work is with founders of service-based businesses, but also for, certainly other coaches, for consultants, we relate to the gap as a problem.
Hannah: We look and we say, "The fact that I've not closed this gap, the fact that I've not hit seven figures, the fact that it's taking me so long to X or Y is a problem. It's a reflection of me." and either people will chase that and they wanna get there as quick as possible, or they hide from it and they don't want to acknowledge the work that's required.
Hannah: Or, what I see probably most often is people shame themselves about it and saying, "Well, I should've hit that already." Or by the time they do hit seven figures, they've got a whole story about why it wasn't good enough or, they should've gotten there faster.
Dustin: Yeah. So- I think that's the common experience, right?
Dustin: Where we look at the gap and we just view it as the problem in front of us, right? It's the [00:06:00] thing to be overcome, it's the thing to push through, it's the thing to, just grind our way past it, because we see the thing on the other side, which is this, achievement that we want. And what was really powerful in our conversations was this concept of not doing that, but rather viewing the gap much differently.
Dustin: And,we sort of put it in air quotes with this idea of, like, falling in love with the gap. So let's just, like, get right into that a- and unpack what does it mean to fall in love with the gap? Are there, is there, like, a framework, or is there, like, a way to think about this methodically so that we can avoid sort of the, the pitfalls when we don't do it, the way that you're gonna describe that we should?
Hannah: Certainly. So I first came to know this topic through ontological co- coaching. Ontological was not a word in my vocabulary beforehand, so assuming that's also the same for our audience here, ontological at its core is about who you are becoming and who you are being, the way that you're being in relationship to your goals.
Hannah: So from my perspective, the real [00:07:00] flex isn't reaching the goal, it's becoming the person that's ready to hold it, and that often comes when we choose to fall in love with the gap. Instead of choosing to relate to the gap as a problem or something to fix or rush through, what if we instead fell in love with the process of becoming, and thus the gap itself?
Dustin: Oh, okay. I love that. And I,I chuckled when you said ontological because now I very much know what it means. when I first heard it, I'm like, "Is it, like, a, a, a coach for birds?" 'Cause I'm like, orn- ornithological or whatever. Like, I, I'd never heard of ontological. So, Yeah, so let, let's talk about how to do that.
Dustin: like, so I know you're a coach and like you said, you work with a lot of founders and service-based businesses, some coaches and consultants. So maybe the easiest way to unpack that and think in more like your process for how you help people with this very real problem in their journey of achievement.
Dustin: what are... Let's kind of start at the beginning of maybe one of these engagements. So what are some of the problems or symptoms or triggers [00:08:00] that someone's experiencing when they're like, "Oh my gosh, I need some help," and then they find you and you're able to walk them through? We'll, we'll go through kind of the process for how you do that, but it may be really helpful for the listeners to understand, ident- be able to identify if this is the thing they're currently dealing with, or when they do deal with it, that they'll understand the symptoms or triggers that they're experiencing and the underlying issue.
Dustin: So why do people come to work with you, Hannah, in your coaching practice?
Hannah: Yeah. So often, again, service-based founders are who I serve. They often are excellent at delivering for clients. In fact, they usually over-deliver. The gap they often experience is that they're not keeping promises to themselves. So I experienced this many years ago.
Hannah: In fact, I'd hit, I'd hit $2 million in annual revenue, our highest revenue to date, and it was wild that on one hand I was wildly successful, in air quotes, from the outside, but I was wildly unhappy. And I had reached that level of success trying to prove to other [00:09:00] people about my worth or my capability, and I was achieving for them versus out of alignment for myself.
Hannah: And I experienced this, just a small anecdote here, when I walked the Camino de Santiago. For anyone that's not familiar-
Dustin: Yeah, yeah, I'm, I'm, it's on my bucket list. It's, it's something I'm really excited about, so I'd love to spend some time here because I think people can really relate to this, and maybe it makes it feel a little less, I don't know, accusatory about, like, them as an entrepreneur, and it's more, like...
Dustin: it's just a good demonstration, I think, of this principle, so I'd love to hear your story.
Hannah: Yeah, so, for those that are not familiar, the Camino de Santiago is a pilgrimage that starts in France, and you walk across northern Spain to the coast of Santiago. It's 500 miles, or just shy of 500 miles.
Hannah: And so my husband and I set to walk o- walk it last year, and certainly we trained for it, but never had I walked 500 miles before. And the irony is that you can, from the place that you start in France to [00:10:00] Santiago, you could get there in three days by car. And so if my goal was just arriving to Santiago, I could have hopped in a car and been there in three days.
Hannah: But instead, we took 46 days to walk over 36,000 vertical feet, across northern Spain. And, along that we carried our packs, we got rained on, we ran out of water, I tore my quad muscle. There was a lot of, resistance or challenge. But the reason I didn't just get in a car to drive to Santiago is the goal wasn't arriving, it was becoming.
Hannah: I would not have become a pilgrim along that pilgrimage had I not taken those 46 days. And I wonder for everyone listening, where is it that you're trying to arrive and you're sacrificing the becoming? Because if I arrive to Santiago, would I have been the person who was ready to hold that pilgrimage?
Hannah: Would you be the person ready to [00:11:00] hold a multiple seven-figure company? The becoming and falling in love with the gap, that's where you get to become.
Dustin: Wow. Yeah, that's such a perfect, it's not even an analogy. It's a true lived experience that you had just last year. that's amazing. And- Yeah. So I think about this, I, I can relate to this too.
Dustin: So in starting this business, within about 18 months, it was just me, and I hit this seven-figure run rate in the Q1 of 2024, and of course, I was very proud of that, and it was, like, the thing I'd been... It happened faster than expected, but it was, like, the thing I wanted, right? It was like, "This is what I want," and then I had it.
Dustin: And then I was actually at this conference with some other entrepreneurs, and, it may be an exaggeration to say I wept, but I was definitely very emotional when I was, like, at lunch with some people, and I was explaining what I was feeling in that moment, and I was like, it's this weird tension. I'm like, I'm very grateful.
Dustin: I feel very,yeah, I guess grateful is the right word, right? Like I feel like I had earned it, like I, I achieved it, right? But at the same time, I didn't feel like I [00:12:00] had, as a person, as an identity, caught up to it, right? It was like this... I guess this is in a way the definition of the gap, right? I didn't know what to call it at the time, but the way that that manifested for me was Very really, starting for the first time in my entire professional career, thinking about burning it down, right?
Dustin: It was like this idea like, "Yeah, I did it. I don't really like it." So like, so you have choices when you're in that situation, and I'm sure this is where, some of your service-based businesses come and they're like, "Look, we hit this milestone. We're doing the thing that we... was on our five-year plan, and I don't really like it or I don't really like who I am in it," right?
Dustin: and for me, just I'll close the loop real quick on that. I didn't know what I was... I didn't know what to call it at the time, but I was doing what I think is ontological coaching. We'll talk about more the process that you follow, but what I was calling it was like iden- identity work. And what I started to reconcile was I have built this thing.
Dustin: I am this person. There is a gap between these two, and now what does it require of me? Who do I need to become in order to feel [00:13:00] aligned with this, entity that I now am in charge of that has sort of outgrown me? For me, that, that looked a lot like becoming a leader, right? So then the thing I started optimizing for was different.
Dustin: It was like, not growth. It was not leads. It was, I need to create a team, and I need to be a leader, in a different way to my clients, right? And so it was a very deeply emotional journey. It, it was talked about numerous times on this podcast, and so I lived it, unfortunately, before I knew you. Like, you would've been a, a great resource, in this time.
Dustin: But is that a... just by no typical case, but does that, line up with your experience working with your clients and, and some of the things that they feel in the moment where they realize they've resented the gap for so long and it's kind of caught up with them in, in a moment?
Hannah: It is. So I often will use identity-level coaching as a descriptor, 'cause ontological again is not great marketing language.
Hannah: in this coaching, we're not talking about frameworks. We're not talking about funnels. It's not business coaching. This is a, a [00:14:00] founder identity level work. And so we're examining what are the beliefs, the habit natures, the patterns that when we look with empathy and self-compassion have served you, have gotten you to where you are.
Hannah: Oftentimes, a lot of very high-achieving coach-- excuse me, high-achieving founders are, they're very good at accomplishing, and that's served them well. It's, it's brought them to where they are. They're just at this point where they're realizing it's no longer serving them, but it's been such a habit that to take a look at that and at some level have some grief, experience and express some grief of-
Dustin: That's the word I was looking for.
Dustin: I was like, I didn't really want to cry, but I w- I, it was grieving sort of the reality of I got here and it's not really, it's not fulfilling me in the way I expected.
Hannah: Yes, exactly. And so when working together in a coaching engagement, it's making space for that grief, but it's also Digging into, well, what is it that you do want?
Hannah: What are [00:15:00] you committed to? Who do you want to become at the identity level? That will ripple into a business, that will ripple into a bottom line, but it has to start really in the internal operating system of an individual before we look at anything company-wide.
Dustin: Wow. That's so powerful. And so I think under, anticipated, right, in the journey, and I wonder, 'cause you're professionally trained in this, is this...
Dustin: We're talking, you and I are founders, we're talking to founders, and that's certainly the focus of the conversation here. But do you, does this exist outside of entrepreneurship? Is this a thing that's unique to entrepreneurship? Is it more, like, magnified in entrepreneurship because of the kind of personal nature of, the way that these businesses are created around a founder?
Dustin: So I guess the question behind the question is, is this a human condition or is this like an entrepreneurial condition?
Hannah: I'm gonna go with yes and. So yes, I think that this is a human experience, but I think that [00:16:00] it is also, Even more so in entrepreneurship. Es- not only because entrepreneurship you're putting yourself into this business, but when you go even further into a service-based business, you often are the identity or the brand or the name behind the company.
Hannah: Even if it's not your actual name, people know that you're the CEO, the founder. And so your identity can so easily get intertwined between where is Hannah and where is Hannah's company, where is Hannah's value and where is Hannah's accomplishments. And so I think it gets, that line gets blurred more so in entrepreneurship.
Dustin: So there's, part of this exercise, I guess, is i- is, is it true to say it's sort of separating in a intentional way the identity of the human and the identity of their company because those things are so tightly wound together as a founder?
Hannah: It can. So part of the, it can response is that all of my coaching is custom to [00:17:00] each person.
Hannah: I don't have a this is step one, step two, step three framework. The individual before me is the curriculum. And so yes, we will look at patterns and beliefs, habit natures with each individual. For one individual, they could say they really resent the company that they've built, and so that separation is important.
Hannah: For another one, it could be that they've, spent their entire life chasing outcomes, and they don't know what is it to sit with present, who they are right now, what their life is right now, and actually experience their life today. They're always looking for, what's next. and ultimately, n- no matter which end of that spectrum you sit as a founder, there will be circumstances that you can't control, right?
Hannah: You can't achieve your way out of it. You can't control your way through it, which is, a, a pattern that often comes up as one of control. But you do have the opportunity to choose how you experience it. [00:18:00] And to say, "Who is it that I want to be in this challenging moment? Who is it that I'm committed to becoming moment over moment, day over day?"
Hannah: And allowing that vision and that commitment to drive our choices, our experiences, and our behaviors.
Dustin: That's really good. So choosing, and this goes back to the, the opening, line of the title of, of our conversation of loving the gap. So we've really, I think, in multiple ways sort of given people some tactical ways to think about what is the gap and maybe how they've experienced it, how they're maybe currently experiencing it, or how they're likely to experience it if they don't prepare well for it.
Dustin: and so this idea, so we, we know what the gap is, and we know some of the pitfalls of maybe the traditional path of running, trying to run through it and,and realizing that's not the healthy way to address it. So yeah, let's talk a little more about this idea of what you just said, like choosing the experience you have in it.
Dustin: I think one of the beautiful things I've learned from you is [00:19:00] rather than viewing the gap as a problem to be solved, actually realizing that it can be and probably should be some of the best parts of the journey, right? Like it is going to be there. You can't avoid it. It is a part of the reality.
Dustin: And so your relationship to the gap is really, I think we're the focus of your coaching. So I'd love to just hear, I don't know if you wanna talk through that or if you have a story from yourself or a client, but sort of like- How does it look to be able to love the gap and change the relationship with it?
Dustin: 'Cause I think it's such an important question, it's kind of hard for me to put words to 'cause this is not my area of expertise.
Hannah: Yeah. So when I'm working with someone, it's really helpful to first name what the gap is. Okay, I know this is where I want to go, this is my current reality, what is the gap?
Hannah: So to name that, and then to, to come back to, we call them commitment statements. So one of my commitment statements for Hannah as an individual right now is I'm a commitment to the adventure of slowing down. [00:20:00] Because I often can over-index on adventure and go, go, go, and I found myself hiding in that a little bit.
Hannah: And so what's the adventure of slowing down, of finding more presence? And so if I have that commitment statement, then in a circumstance, maybe it's a circumstance I'm not happy or excited about, I can come back to that commitment and say, "Who does that version of me, or how does that version of me experience this circumstance that's outside of my control?"
Hannah: And there was, I'm gonna be intentionally a little bit vague because it- it's, some individuals in my family and it's not all my story to share, but there was a family situation. I think we all can relate to, touchy family situations. And I ha- I was experiencing the circumstance, metaphorically, that I was in a pool and I was drowning and, and I felt like some of my family members were around the pool watching me drown.
Hannah: And I felt frustrated 'cause why won't someone throw me a raft or help me, and I'm just drowning? [00:21:00] And then I had, and this was through working with a coach, I asked myself the question of, "Well, what if the pool's only three feet deep? And what if I can just stand up?" And there's that agency and self-resourcing of the circumstance didn't change, my family didn't respond differently, but I asked myself, as a daughter, a sister, who is it that I'm committed to being in this circumstance that's really challenging?
Hannah: And from that commitment, I could say, I think I can also just stand up." And it radically shifted the energy and experience of the situation, not because the situation changed, because how I chose to experience it changed.
Dustin: Wow, that's such a good, such a good, tool a- and analogy. and that really kind of zoomed me back into that period I was describing earlier.
Dustin: One of the realizations I had, again, I didn't have the, the s- the clear tool set that, that you're, providing us and this kind of practical approach, but one thing I realized is I was naming the pain and [00:22:00] the tension and this sort of grieving as burnout. Mm-hmm. I was like, "Oh, I must be burnt out." Like, I've never been burnt out before, but, like, I hit this milestone and it doesn't feel right, and I guess this is what burnout is, and that's why I'm starting to have these weird shadowy thoughts of, like, well, maybe I should just do something different.
Dustin: In the identity coaching that I got, one thing I realized in that is I renamed it as, like, oh wait, it's actually not burnout. For me, it was boredom, and it was like, it was a stifling of my creativity, right? Like, that was what I felt. I was I like, I did the thing I knew to do with my th- tools I had, and I got it, and then I'm like, "Now what?"
Dustin: And I think, it's like, a- and so the, my sort of predilection in that time is like, let's set the next goal so I can keep using those tools to do the next thing. Fortunately, I did that check, and I was like, wait a second, I think if I could l- kinda live here in the business, but I could step out and look at it and, and- learn some new skills and be creative.
Dustin: And for, as I said earlier, for me, that [00:23:00] creative, energy was around leadership. So I had to like go learn leadership and learn what it meant to hire in a new way and all that, and it like totally reinvigorated my relationship with the business, I think because I made a different commitment to the business, right?
Dustin: So you're giving me way better words for what I experienced, and I'm able to kind of reflect back and, and put those pieces together. Is that, common in, in, in the people that you serve? Do they present as like, "I'm burnt out" in air quotes, and then as you get into it, they realize that maybe it's not actually a physical burnout or a mental burnout, it's actually you need to re-examine your relationship with the gap that you've, that you're in?
Hannah: Yeah. So I would say almost always the pain point or frustration that people come in to coaching with is not where we are a couple of sessions later. They realize it's typically something deeper. There's... Obviously, I'm gonna, for the sake of, confidentiality, be vague, but one coaching client w- was having, like interpersonal relational f- tension and frustration [00:24:00] with a colleague, and then they realized, oh, they just actually weren't...
Hannah: It was more of a self-advocacy. It had nothing to do with that person, but that person was what was the mirror. And obviously, I think that coaching's a phenomenal tool, and oftentimes coaches in whatever discipline get to hold a mirror up for our clients. Because in the world, those mirrors are usually met with some fear, some resistance, because they bring up something in, in an unsafe environment or an environment that's not, where they can't like really reflect and ask questions and ask, sit with some of the, the harder things.
Hannah: A coaching relationship does allow you to ask those questions, to experience grief because you don't feel the need to be defensive like maybe you do in a professional or personal relationship outside of coaching.
Dustin: Yeah. That's really good. So when we think about this gap, I guess, another tension that I see with our clients a lot of times is- It's like, ambition.
Dustin: Like we're, like we... [00:25:00] One of the things that's allowed us to succeed in some way as a founder is we're ambitious people, right? And so if I say, "Well, I really wanna be here, and I'm here," part of what's driven me a- as like a core identity is like, well, I have the ambition to be able to push through it to get there, right?
Dustin: And so we have to reconcile, what, what the right relationship with our own ambition is, right? So it's like to me this feels like a tension, and may- maybe that's the wrong word, between like ambition and like appreciating where we're at or gratitude for where we're at while still not losing our edge of still wanting more.
Dustin: So how do we like love the gap when we're in it without sort of losing that spirit or the entrepreneurial drive to still want to achieve more? 'Cause I, I feel like wanting to achieve more is not bad, right? but also losing yourself in the process is really bad, and it feels like a, a fine edge To navigate.
Dustin: I- is that fair?
Hannah: It's totally fair, and I'm really glad you asked, because the heart of entrepreneurship is wanting to create something that doesn't yet exist, and that takes a tremendous amount of gumption and [00:26:00] drive and work ethic and ambition. And so to ask someone to dampen that down is counterintuitive to who they are at their core, most likely.
Hannah: And so oftentimes I will offer the frame of that is your goal line. The goal line is we wanna cross seven figures or we wanna hit 10 million, whatever the thing you want to achieve, and it's important to have an outcome in mind, especially in a coaching engagement. But that goal line must be balanced by a soul line, and the soul line asks, who is it do I- that I need to become to reach seven figures, to hit 10 million, to, h- enjoy the adventure of slowing down?
Hannah: And so when the goal line and the soul line are balanced, that's when you find more harmony between the drive and ambition of an entrepreneurship without losing the alignment, the peace, and the calm that we ultimately want in our businesses.
Dustin: Oh, man. That's so good. The goal line and the soul line. [00:27:00] So goal lines are not bad.
Dustin: They're necessary, and they're good, and they should be appreciated. And I, I, I think it really starts to speak to why you do one-on-one work and it, like you said, each person is the curriculum, right? Each person is the framework. Because if you think about that, like, you could have five different clients, they're all founders, they're all service-based founders, they all wanna have a $10 million business, and who they individually need to become to have a, not only to achieve a $10 million business, but to do it and like it and feel fulfilled by it, those are all individual journeys, right?
Dustin: Because they have different beliefs and habits and personal ambitions. And i- am I, am I barking up the right tree here and, like, that's why this is a unique journey for each listener or each one of your clients?
Hannah: Exactly, because who they want to become is a different answer. Even if the seven figure or 10 million answer is the same, usually the soul line is vastly different, and usually at different percentages that people wanna dial it up to find [00:28:00] that fulfillment and that aliveness.
Hannah: And so being able to meet someone, especially if you think about a founder of, of a service-based business, they or any founder really, they are- typically a really big personality. They're responsible for so many things, and when you look at the power dynamic, usually they are supporting clients and supporting team.
Hannah: And so it's rare that they have someone that is supporting them, that they can come and be completely raw and say, "I resent my business," or, "I want to burn it all down," or, "I feel X, Y, Z about employee or client." It's really important for them to have that space. But in addition to that, it's important to have someone that is willing to give them candid feedback, to be able to say, "I hear you say this is what you want, and yet I'm seeing a pattern of A, B, and C.
Hannah: Are you aware of that? What meaning do you make of that, and what [00:29:00] might that be looking to protect? And is that something that's in alignment with who you want to become?"
Dustin: Oh, man. So good. So I'm sort of seeing the overall s- arc here is helping them get clear on, like naming the gap, and then y- you mentioned the commitment statements, and that sounds like a really key part of this and very individual.
Dustin: Because I have this, I'm gonna go right back to it and demonstrate, why this is a, recurring problem for many people like me and in, in our audience. A question starts coming to mind as we're sort of getting towards the end of, of our t- kind, time is like, does this end? Like, do you hit the, do you hit the goal line and then you're like, "Okay, we did it."
Dustin: Like, and I became a b- I became the person I wanted to be when I did it, and shake hands and be like, "Well, that was great." Or I'm saying that kind of tongue in cheek 'cause I think I know the answer is, the goal line does continue to move, right? There will always be another gap, and we have to continue to reorient our relationship with that gap.
Dustin: is that really... I'd, I'd love to hear, like, [00:30:00] what's the long game here,when, when someone is a lifelong founder, let's say, and this is not a one-time problem, but a recurring, journey, to be loved and appreciated on an ongoing basis.
Hannah: Yeah. So to bring it into the coaching framework, like I've had a client stay with me as long as 18 months.
Hannah: That's the longest I've had somebody stay coaching with me. but then some people have only done just a few months and then that, they got the support that they needed. And so I think it depends on the person's appetite for growth, the person's willingness and self-awareness coming into it. But I, I personally don't think that it's healthy to have a coach for forever.
Hannah: Speaking as a coach, I think that it's important that the client is being equipped to be self-generative, to be able to support themselves, and that's what we work towards when I work with clients, to be self-generative. And within that, I think that there are times that someone could need support on a [00:31:00] different gap or they could, there could be another circumstance that's a brand-new swimming pool metaphorically to them, and they need support in that.
Hannah: Even in my personal journey, I'd worked with a coach professionally for things in relationship to my business before, and now for the first time I'm working with a coach on something that's deeply personal and not at all attached to my entrepreneurial journey. And so I think you can find support in different seasons and different gaps, but I really strongly believe that coaching should support the growth of the individual to be self-generative.
Hannah: I
Dustin: love that. That's such a refreshing answer because, what I expected is to be like, "Well, no, you're, you always need a coach because this is never going away." And, for one that feels a little, disappointing, right? But, because it's like, well, man, like am I, I always am gonna need this help. But I love that you're like, no, like there is a end game here and it's that you become self-generative, you are able to, have the tools to do this yourself, right?
Dustin: and so I guess related to that, we're gonna of course talk about how [00:32:00] you work and how people can c- you know, get ahold of you or consume your content and get in your sphere so they can, get your help. But for those that either won't or, or feel like they can't yet, like, get a coach, with this expertise in their corner, are there any sort of practical first steps or tools or exercises or something that someone who's like, "I think this is an issue for me, and I would like to explore it more, I'd like to understand it better," is there any sort of practical, takeaways we could give people who wanna sort of DIY at least the first phases of this?
Hannah: Certainly. So I would, encourage journaling as a practice. but in addition to just generally- jour- journaling in general, I would offer these prompts. So asking yourself what is your vision? What is it, what is your goal line? Let's start with the goal line. Don't worry about soul line yet. So what's your goal line?
Hannah: What is your current reality? Then name the gap. And I would [00:33:00] take these all one at a time. Once you've named the gap, at that point you can name your soul line. Who do you need to become to close that gap? And when you think about who do you need to become, really ask yourself, what would it look like to fall in love with the process of doing A, B, and C, of relating to this with love instead of fear?
Hannah: And then I would also ask if they,you maybe at that point go back and read and see some of the patterns. Is it, are you afraid that it's gonna be heavy or it's gonna be tense? Like, what are the, the emotions and the somatic sensations that you're naming? And then ask, what if the opposite were true?
Hannah: So if you're afraid it's gonna feel heavy, what would it feel like to be light, to still walk through that same gap? So the circumstance doesn't change, but your experience goes from heavy to light, from challenging to flow. Find the opposite. What does that bring up? And there's [00:34:00] probably something there to practice.
Dustin: That's beautiful. I took so many notes, especially in that last part. Now I have to make sense of them 'cause they're all over my little margins, but, I just love, I love, I love your energy around this. I love your just transparency and that you've walked this journey and you've felt called, to go so much deeper and with others, and you shared here that this isn't just, doesn't just apply to your business, but, like, you on a personal basis, you're doing this outside of business too because it's just that foundational and important, and this is one of the more important relationships we can have on a deeper level is the relationship to the gap.
Dustin: And, like, what you just said there was really helpful as sort of a capstone thought is like the circumstances aren't changing. Well, we're not, w- we may redefine the goal line, but, like, the goal line is not the enemy here. It's our relationship to it is the opportunity and the ability to love the process of becoming someone- new and better and, and more in alignment with what we really want.
Dustin: and the goal line didn't change, right? With a lot of business coaching, it's like, let's change the goal line, let's move the goal line. It's like, no, let's set the [00:35:00] goal line, define it, and then name the difference between what we're, where we're at and where we are. And I love these really introspective prompts around naming your vision, your current reality, and the emotions that you feel when you look at that gap, and then what would need to be true or what does it make possible when you think about the opposite?
Dustin: Like that's, man,so good. well, thank you Hannah so much for just being so open and this is not an easy topic, right? Like I, I didn't have the words for this. I feel like I have much better words now to understand not only my own, relationship to the gap, but I know our audience is, our audience does as well.
Dustin: and thanks for also sort of Giving us the tools if people just wanna start exploring this on their own. But there will definitely be people, listening, who do want either your direct help or want to be more in your ecosystem so that they can s- take that next step in this journey. So what would be the next best place for people to go after this, Hannah, if they wanna explore this topic deeper in the way that you teach it and coach people through it?
Hannah: Certainly. So if you're looking for, just more awareness [00:36:00] of the tools or some additional free resources, my Instagram is the best place for that, which is hellohannasoto. But if you are interested in, and let's even say curious about what coaching could look like, I would love to offer your audience a free vision call.
Hannah: A vision call is where we, we walk through that framework together. So it's, an opportunity to say what is your current reality? What is your vision? What has been holding you back? And there's a, a key part of that framework we didn't have time to talk about today about are we relating to the gap from fear or from love, which is where the concept of loving the gap comes from.
Hannah: And so anyone that's interested in that, you can go to lovingthegap.com/vision. There's a calendar right there. You can sign up for a time, and I would love to make that my gift to your audience.
Dustin: Oh, that's so good. Well, thank you so much, and what a great domain also as a business guy. So lovingthegap.com/vision, generously that will allow you to actually have a [00:37:00] conversation with Hannah and talk about this, relationship between, fear and love of the gap and practical ways that you can move forward, through that.
Dustin: And if you're not quite ready to go to lovingthegap.com/vision and, and go to that depth, then your Instagram is awesome. I don't do much on Instagram, but I do follow Hannah and get a lot of great insights, from her. So hellohannasoto on Instagram is another, sort of the, the free route, to get started or the more passive route.
Dustin: But if you really wanna go deeper, lovingthegap.com/vision. I really appreciate you, sharing that as a resource for our listeners and for me. And, yeah, just thank you for being here. You're such a gift to me. I'm so grateful. we've become friends in the past few months, and I really appreciate you taking the time to be here and share so openly with our audience.
Hannah: It's truly my pleasure. Thank you for creating this space. [00:38:00] [00:39:00]