Ep93 Transcript: Its Ok to Be Vulnerable – Top Takeaways from Heather Lutze

One of my top takeaways from Heather Lutze’s interview in episode 92 was that it’s okay to be vulnerable. We dive into how she got to that point and how she took her bipolar diagnosis into a Crazy Good Life Project.

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So as business owners, it can be such a scary thing to talk about our mental health. And Heather was extremely brave in revealing this diagnosis of bipolar and really leaning into it as a side project for her. She’s been a longtime SEO expert, keyword expert working in the B2B space. And I think it was just incredibly, incredibly brave of her to be able to get up and give a TEDx talk about her mental health, talk about it in a bigger, more public way.

As business owners and especially I think a little bit, especially as Americans, sometimes mental health issues are kind of swept under the rug not talked about openly. We’re scared that we might lose business, we might lose friendships, we might put people off or something. And we’re caretaking their response to who we are as people. And I think that’s the huge message is that when we’re vulnerable, we can really lean into who we are. And I think we then end up attracting people into our lives in a business way or in friendships that make everyone better.

And I know that that was something scary for me too when I was leaning into my goofy, weird side in my business. And I know that I was a little bit off-putting for some people and I was like, “That’s okay. That person isn’t for me.” If that person doesn’t like humor than they are not the right fit for my business.

And the same goes for I think, your mental health honesty and being able to share who you are as a person. So that is just a huge message. And I think that when we can all be a little bit more, more vulnerable, we give other people permission to be vulnerable, just like she was talking about how people would come up to her in a store, or people would then direct messenger and open up to the struggles that they have had with their mental health.

The other top takeaway that I loved is that you can’t brute force your way through some of these major changes, major issues, major health issues in your life. She had to really step back and take stock and figure out what was going to work for her. And that included her support animal Gracie. So that was a way that she found to cope.

And I think it’s great that she is paving the way for other people to have support animals and to educate people around the use of support animals and how much they can help someone who has some mental health challenges.

And as always, as a recurring theme throughout all the interviews that I have had is just really leaning into your community, your support system. She leaned into her partner, her husband, her friends, and was able to work through and continue on with her business. And I think it’s challenging as a business owner to really realize that your business is not going to crumble if you take a step back, reassess, get everything right with yourself first, and then go back into your business and maybe even approach it in a different manner.

So I think some of these challenges that we face can be a real blessing to us as we reconfigure and come up with different systems, maybe come up with different protocols, maybe decide that we can’t do the business the same way we lean into what’s really working and strip away the things that aren’t and that are not serving us.

So I love this episode. If you haven’t gone back to listen to it. Check it out, episode 92. And if you are struggling with anything mental health related, take a look at some of the links we have. Take a look at Heather’s Crazy Good Life Project and definitely don’t be afraid to be vulnerable.

Hope that was helpful, and make sure you grab the free guide, Top Tools for Late starters on the website at latestartersclub.com and let’s turn dreaming into doing.