Ep. 70: From Hustle Culture to Heart-Led Entrepreneurship

What happens when everything you've built suddenly feels like it was created for someone else's definition of success? Sara found herself asking a question that felt completely foreign: what does my heart actually want? Not what the industry says or what the next level of growth is supposed to look like. Just what does her heart want. And the answer was terrifying because it involved rest, trust, creativity, and play instead of more hustle, more systems, more metrics. This is the conversation about what happens when you stop chasing someone else's version of success and start asking what growth means when it comes from the inside out.

🔥 In This Episode:

• Why growth doesn't always mean more volume, more revenue, more team, and what it looks like to redefine it from the inside
• The Italian concept of "dolce far niente" (the sweetness of nothing) and why American hustle culture keeps us disconnected from our hearts
• How Sara's best business quarter in three years came from stillness and alignment, not from forcing and strangle-holding productivity
• The gap between leading with frameworks versus leading with creativity, and why both matter at different stages of entrepreneurship
• Why sometimes the most growth-oriented thing you can do is make no decision at all and let the path unfold

Growth can be an internal thing. The metrics, the revenue, the expansion are just the fruit of the work you're doing inside, not something you have to control or rush after or grab. This episode is permission to not always have the answer, to let yourself feel lopsided while building a new muscle, and to trust that 2026 might be one of your best years not because you hustled harder, but because you finally let your heart lead.

Mark Your Calendar: We're hosting another in-person HeartWork Leadership event March 13th and 14th in Knoxville, TN. If you're ready to lead from a place that honors both the doing and the dreaming, this weekend is for you. Bring your whole team and experience what happens when you stop forcing growth and start allowing it. Sign up here.

Connect with us:

• Instagram: @drsaranelsongray, @dr.marisa.nicole10, @theheartworkpodcast

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