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Welcome to Make More Money Without Selling Your Soul. The podcast for bold entrepreneurs ready to simplify scale and reclaim their time. I’m Polly Lavarello, Evergreen scaling strategist and cushy business pioneer. Join me and my occasional guests as we explore the themes of wealth, selling and well-being, because building a business that works for you changes everything. Let’s dive in.

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Hello and welcome to the show I’m recording this late November. This will come out early December, around the time, by the way, that I’m running my planning workshop, but it’s coming out around December time, and this time of year. This episode is a very personal one, so if you’re not interested in me and how I make decisions as a CEO in my business, then you might want to skip to a previous episode, which is potentially more about you, but I’m hoping that through listening to this, it will cause some reflection that will also support you too, dear listener. So yeah, it’s that time of year where, you know the Hallmark movies come out, people romanticize about their relationships with life and love and family and business, and what is the real meaning, right? And so as I was kind of reflecting on that, because sometimes I like to imagine I’m in my own Hallmark movie. 

Is that just me, once I’ve got all my fluffy coats on and gloves on and hats on, I feel like a cute little country girl who’s come back to the city to marry her first love. But anyway, as I was having one of those moments, I was reflecting on how in the past, the version of me that romanticizes life would be like, You know what? Let’s have a yes year. I’m going to say yes to all the things, and one thing I will say up front is my yes years have been bloody expensive, because a lot of invitations come with a with an investment, and I’ve gone through my periods of just saying yes, yes to, you know, attending the conference, yes to being at the event, yes to being at the room, yes to just generally, getting myself outside of my comfort zone. I remember those first few lives I ever did was well outside my comfort zone. Like nowadays, I wouldn’t think twice to say yes to going on somebody’s live, but I remember, you know, really thinking about stuff like that at the time, yes to hitting record on this bloody podcast you’re listening to right now. Again, it’s a habit. Now I just, I just do it, I just show up, I just hit record. I just send it to my podcast producers, and boom, I’m in your ears. But I spent about six months umming and ahring, so it was part of one of my Yes, funny years where I did a lot of brave things, where I really tested my resiliency. But one of the analogies I’ve given about growing in business is I love the Greek myths, and I think about, oh, my goodness, Pegasus Odysseus was his name, the one who went too close to the sun. You know what? Just indulge my perimenopausal brain. I was going to hit pause and try and find out the name, but I ain’t doing that. All I am going to say is, that is how business growth has felt to me, that I have sometimes flown too close to the sun. However, if I were just on the ground, I also wouldn’t be getting anywhere either. And so I feel like there’s this kind of gentle balance in business where you are reaching for the sun, you very much have your feet on the ground, and I’ve struggled to do both at once. 

So instead, I feel like it’s been cycles of really getting outside of my comfort zone, really doing the kind of thing that makes me feel like, ooh, inside, balanced with times where the focus is much more on my own regulation and learning to be with and to hold and to have and to enjoy the success that I’m creating. And obviously, now that I’m, like, five years into this journey, yeah, like, every so often when I find I’ve been on the ground for too long without trying to touch the sun, I kind of almost challenge myself to go for the thing that feels a little bit scary, but I want to kind of like anchor this conversation into one little nugget that happened at atomicon Back in, I think, June this year, in 2025 where I heard one thing from Carrie Greene. And yes, at least, thank goodness I remember Carrie’s name. Pretend to be a love of the Greek myth, which I am, by the way, but forgot the name, but anyway, I listened to her, and she shared her kind of ups and downs with her Jenny, with success and, you know, the promise she’d made herself, the public declaration she’d made, and the ways that she would kind of honor them and fail them, and honor and fail and win and fail and and all of the things. But when. She finally got things working the way she needed to. She had a funnel. She was consistent. She ignored any outside noise and just focused on getting that funnel working for her. And it’s like a multi tiered funnel. It’s not as simple as like, download the guide, come work with me. It has more to it than that, but she had a funnel that she had working, that she ran ads to and then kept on running ads to, and that is how she got to the stage as to where she is now, which is incredibly successful. And it was interesting watching this presentation, because I was very aware that funnels are my jam. Funnels are, you know, something I’ve supported people to make millions of pounds with over the years, in some cases, individuals making millions of pounds with. So I know funnels, and I know ads. Yet, if I were to be entirely honest with myself, where had my attention been going? I’m a human so even though I’m a strategist, my ego can sometimes want to call the shots, and when someone goes Polly, you’ve been doing this stuff a while, you’ve got a strong brand. Why haven’t you written a book yet? And these people have normally written a book themselves, right? Or help people write books. I haven’t you written a book yet. Why are you not on this stage? Why are you at this event, in a seat? You should be on that stage. You’ve got stuff to share now. All of the above is true. I love writing at one point. If you were part of my substack dalliance, hello. I really, really enjoy writing a huge amount. When I was a kid, I had a diary I used to write in it every single day. In fact, I had different diaries, and they all had different names that I would write to, almost like a friend every day. Oh, my goodness, should not share that. That really reveals my weirdness. But yeah, so I had a diary, and love writing and and, yeah, the cushy CEO movement, it requires a book for sure, for sure, and similarly, standing on stages. I have done it before. Absolutely hated it. 

But, you know, I do I now appreciate five years in, after sweating into my pants, delivering my first ever group coaching call, and yes, my pants, and for us listeners, my underwear was sweaty. It was not that hot a day. I just sweated that much. All the sweat dripping down my neck and back meant for a really uncomfortable seat sitting experience, I will tell you that, God, there’s no alcohol in my tea. I promise I’m just gonna have a sit there. So, yeah, I love writing, and I don’t mind being on stages, and I feel like knowing that I’ve put myself through uncomfortable, wet pant situations, and now can sit on a zoom call, hosting 10s of people and not be intimidated. In fact, I love it. I thrive on it. Now I totally trust I get to, you know, like, rebuild my relationship with public talking, and get to enjoy it. But here’s the thing, as you can tell, as I’m even talking about it right now to you, you can hear how my brain is flirting with the concept, like, Yeah, but why not now? But I had to look at my calendar. I had to look at my priorities. I had to look at my mental health. I had to look at the friendships that I want to be proactive with and not just wait for them to reach out to me and then say, oh, sorry, I haven’t got time. I wanted to look at my relationship with my husband. I wanted to look at the holidays. I want to go on with my children. I had to look at the bigger picture. And I took a moment to look at my clients who have never set foot, that’s the phrase on a stage, who have never, you know, written a book, who are very comfortably making multi six figures, who sometimes don’t know what to do with all the time they have. Who, yeah, of course, if they went on a stage, they’d do great. And if they wrote a book, I’m sure it’d do wonderfully. But they don’t need to do all of those things. So I was reflecting on what Carrie said, and essentially her laser focus on the one thing and doing it well, and where that got her to I was reflecting on the energetic and, let’s say financial expense. I mean, I say that. I mean, every time I’ve said, yes, the money has always come back multifold. But you know, my profit margins could be better. Let’s put it that way, right, both energetically and financially,

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and then also just reflecting on, you know, ultimately, the things that I want to be saying yes to. And if you’ve been a longtime listener of my podcast, you’ll probably have heard me reference a few times I am going to write that. Book, I am going to stand on that stage like these are things that are coming. I’m building up to it. I’m building up to it. But my lovely listener, I wonder if you’re the same, I had to recognize that even contemplating getting on a stage or writing a book was taking up valuable real estate in my brain, even where I wasn’t proactively doing either of these things, I was getting distracted every time I saw an invitation to a writing workshop. I was getting distracted every time I read a book, thinking, how would I write my own book? I was getting distracted on train journeys thinking, No, that will be the title of my book, or this is a story I’m going to include, and I wasn’t actually focusing on the few things that needed focusing on to get my business to where it needs to be. 

And the moment I did and started saying no to those things, no to it even being a possibility, I just felt expansion and relief. I was walking back from the school drop off, and I turned to somebody walking next to me. I don’t really know very well, but I felt such a moment of elation where I said, You know what, my year? Next year, you’ve heard of a yes year, it’s going to be a no year. And I just felt fabulous. And that’s why I was like, I’m just going to record this podcast episode on it too, because, as a recovering people pleaser, and also as somebody who, very often throughout life has felt the need to prove myself, and also somebody who later in life is now recognizing that I have lived with neurodivergency all this time. I went to school and I had chronic migraines. I always felt other than and always felt I had to try that bit harder. And you know what? In this last year or two, since understanding how my brain works better, despite not having a diagnosis, but learning about it through my children’s diagnoses and learning about supporting them and recognizing what that can mean for how I support myself, I started recognizing that while yes, it’s good to get out your comfort zone, it’s recognizing that for me, having a comfort zone at all in life is a proactive thing, and that it’s really valuable to care and take care of what I have capacity for and what I don’t and to fully recognize I have seasons. Rules are made to be broken. I have decided no yet. Next year is a no year. And you know what it’s like? It’s a bit like when you say I’m no longer dating. I’m no look looking, no longer looking for that man. I just don’t think he exists. It suddenly lands in your lap. You know, who knows? Maybe that thing will land in my lap and it will change my mind. I’m fickle like that, let’s be honest. I mean, alongside, you know, this is me honoring the autistic side of me, but there is that ADHD part of my brain which can be distracted. 

But I will say for now, it has felt really powerful. Removing it as a possibility, removing it as a distraction, and instead really focusing on my trust ecosystem in my business, looking at ways that I can create additional touch points that doesn’t need to be a book, doesn’t need to be any of those things. 

Because, quite frankly, what I’ve come to recognize, particularly when I look at my most successful clients is that less really is more, and that those other things are nice, but I’ve also seen enough clients and people in my world launch books. And yes, it was a great way to create visibility for the launch. And yes, a bit like this podcast, it’s a great way to create trust and connection with your brand. But ultimately, I’ve also seen the amount of people who say, the second I stopped talking about my book, my book isn’t selling, and I can’t talk about my book all the time because my book doesn’t make enough money, even when I’m self published, for it to feel worthwhile. So I want you to know, by the way, this is not a vendetta against writing a book. This isn’t a vendetta against speaking on stages. I want you to think about what your own flavor of distraction and obligation is, and to recognize where it isn’t needed. You know, like there are 100% people writing books right now, where it’s, I mean, I you know, where it’s just literally life and business changing for them. So I’m not undermining either of those things. 

Similarly, standing on a stage, I know when my time comes, it will feel phenomenal. I will be very excited about it. And Lord forbid, you know, I probably won’t stop banging on about it. Similar, with a book, I won’t stop banging on about it. Will be a very exciting time, and I imagine it will create crazy levels of brand clarity for me and all sorts. So there is a time and space for things, but I think what I recognize for my own brain is that if it’s an unnecessary project clogging my brain, it’s clogging my productivity, it’s clogging my profitability. Reality, and it’s clogging my sense of peace, so I would like you to think about, where are you adding to your obligations that is just entirely unnecessary. And you know what’s really exciting about this exercise? It’s not dissimilar to the no November challenge I set my clients inside the accelerator November, where I encourage them to get as many no’s as possible, knowing fully well that, of course, among those no’s, there would be some yeses. It’s understanding that when we remove the mental clutter and we marry Kondo, our brains into reminding ourselves what actually serves a purpose and what brings us joy, things can move pretty goddamn quickly, to then be in a position to not just write that book, but to work with that amazing publishing house, to work with someone who’s going to help you create the best selling book in your industry, like you get to do it, but on a level that Feels amazing for you not crammed into the last 30 minutes of the day and you sweating thinking, oh god, I’ve got to find time for this. You get to do it in a way that feels good, because you’ve created the profitability, the cash flow in your business and the spaciousness for it to feel like some bougie little affair where you get to go down to your most beautiful local cafe and order the most indulgent tea and cake and really enjoy being that author. 

That’s what I want for myself, and that’s what I want for you, not the author piece, but just how it gets to feel business gets to feel good. It’s not about cramming in all the things. It’s not about aggravating our nervous systems. It’s about trusting in the season that you’re in, trusting in what’s going to support you the most. For some people that will be having a yes year, they’ve really served me well in the past. For others, it’s actually honoring your capacity, honoring those no’s and trusting that those no’s are equally as potent, if not more potent than the yeses when it comes to our business growth. So I hope this little, tiny, tiny, little nugget of a podcast episode just helped inspire some thoughts and reflection about where you get to, perhaps claim more say yes. Is there something big and bold that you want to say yes to this year? What do you need to say no to to allow that to happen? For me, one of the things I’m saying yes to is getting back to the stage where my funnel is closer to 30 to 40, maybe even 50k months. And I know the thing I need to say no to to get there is any distractions, like books or stages, and that the books and stages can come on the other side of my 50k months. There we go. Said it, I’ve claimed it. Who’s coming on the journey with me. If you’d like to take the time to message me on Instagram or reply to the email, if you’ve received this via email, and share with me what you are saying yes to in 2026 and what you are saying no to to help you get there, then I would welcome you to do that. It really is powerful to put your words down and share them somewhere for that accountability and that celebration. And of course, if you really want to get your rock solid 2026 plans together, I am running a planning workshop on the 12th of December. So if you are hearing this in time come along, there will also be a replay that you can get afterwards if you’re unable to attend in time. Anyhow, you know, just DM me if you want the details, or email me if you want the details. Otherwise, I’ll be in your ears next week, as always. If you enjoyed this episode, please do like please do share.