How to embrace nuance and move beyond all-or-nothing thinking in business and life

Intro: [00:00:00] After generating over a million dollars in sales and selling one of her businesses with a single email, your host Catherine Thompson, takes an unconventional approach to marketing and sales. So if you are ready to tap into a more powerful way to be seen, heard, and a Sought after Entrepreneur in your industry without having to spend endless hours marketing your business and chasing clients, you are in the right place.

Be The Sought After Entrepreneur Podcast is here to help you ditch the cookie cutter one size fits all approach to marketing, and use your unique energy to effortlessly attract the most aligned client. When you do this, you can spend less time marketing your business and more time doing your soul work and enjoying the richness of your life.

Welcome to Be The Sought After Entrepreneur Podcast, and here's your host, Kathryn Thompson.

Kathryn Thompson: Hey. Hey, super stoked that you're tweeting this week's episode, and I cannot wait to dive in today's [00:01:00] topic because I wanna share with you some of the behind the scenes stuff that I've been navigating from a mindset perspective, business direction perspective. And if you've been following my emails for a while now, or you've been listening to the podcast, you've probably heard me say that I've been going through this.

Evolution or expansion within the direction that I want to take my company and the work that I do. And some things are expected and some things have been very unexpected. Um, specifically my sort of pull towards wanting to learn all things sort of ai and I've been sort of. Behind the scenes quietly learning about AI for the last three years or so, two and a half, three years.

And I've had many opinions about it. Um, particularly I felt like it was threatening creativity and creative expression. One of the very things that I stand for, authenticity, creative expression. Um, of course you all know that. And at first I [00:02:00] really, truly believed that. It was gonna threaten that, and I felt sort of threatened by it, right?

That we were gonna start to just produce content, like a content factory, and that we would lose the essence of that human sort of touch. And so in the last year, half a year, I've been called more and more to sort of dabble in ai, meaning starting to learn all facets of it and. It surprised me more than anything, and I think oftentimes when we're pulled in a direction that is counterintuitive to maybe how we see ourselves or how we see what we stand for, what our values are, and if the thing that we're being pulled towards starts to challenge that, it can be really difficult and or.

How others see us. So if, if we're being pulled in a direction that goes against maybe what we think others perceive of us, it can be [00:03:00] really hard to follow. Those pings or those poles and why this is important and why I wanna sort of share what I'm kind of unpacking in the background of this all is, is because to me this is an intersection where many of us don't pursue our creativity or authenticity because we're so scared about.

What others might perceive, right? If, if we pivot, if we change course, if we go in a direction that seems counterintuitive to like how others perceive us and or how we see and view ourselves if, if the direction that we're leading and going into goes against maybe some of the things that we stand for, that can be a really uncomfortable place.

And that's sort of where I have found myself in the last. Six months to a year, because I kept being pulled into these communities, into these experiences, into these workshops all around [00:04:00] ai. And I was like, why? You know, I, I felt like it was threatening creativity. I was, I don't wanna say anti ai, but I was just like, no, not my thing, not gonna do it, whatever.

And then more and more it just kept popping up into my world. And then I just became so. Interested in it, interested in what it does, interested in what we can build with it, um, and all of those sorts of things. And what I've realized about myself, and I've shared this before, is that my curiosity is my creativity.

And so I started to unravel what all of this sort of meant. And like I said, when we view ourselves a certain way or we think others view us in a certain way. And we're being pulled in a direction that no longer aligns with that. It, it is the intersection between where we keep doing what we're doing that's out of alignment or no longer in alignment with who we are, which ends up sacrificing our [00:05:00] authenticity, our creative expression, all the sorts of things, and or we find the courage to move in the direction that.

Is different than potentially how we've been doing things. Why this is important is because. When I started to unravel this and I started to really unpack why I was feeling uncertain about it, and it was causing a lot of uncomfortable things within me. What will people think? What people say? Catherine, you're going against your very values and what you stand for.

Like all of these sorts of things. What really came through for me at sort of the root of all of this was what I call this all or nothing thinking, this right or wrong, this black or white thinking. It's either this or it's that, and it's so creepy and subtly. There, meaning I am somebody who often juggles many perspectives.

I have a natural tendency to that. I've always sort of been that way. I have this very open [00:06:00] mind, right? I have an open ajon human design. I'm a Libra, right? I'm the balance. I can see both sides of the fence often see people's perspectives know that two things can be true at the same time. You can have an experience one way and someone else can have a very different experience, and they're both true.

Um, I've always sort of been that that's the nature of who I am, and yet I think as a human we, there isn't this right or wrong, black or white, all or nothing. I can also, in very many circumstances, have a black or white thinking around things and have sort of a closed off perspective of it. That's where opinion is often formed.

That opinion of AI is so bad for creativity and AI is going to mess up our brains and all of the things, right? And you can see there's loud voices that want to fight that. And I was one of those voices, probably not loud voice, but I had my, my opinion about it and I shared it early [00:07:00] on, like, Ooh, I'm a bit scared that this is gonna like completely kill creativity and.

Why this is so important in this story is, is that at the intersection where we're being pulled, there's often I have found what I call black or white thinking, meaning I. The way we see ourselves, I see myself as someone who values authenticity and creative expression. Therefore, if there's something that's challenging that ai, um, getting someone to like ghost writing your book, right?

Lots of people have higher ghostwriter, right? I'm not saying that ghost writing kills your creativity. I'm just saying that could, somebody could have that perspective of, well, if you hire a ghost writer, then like, did you actually really write the book? All of those sorts of things, right? Is that really your creative expression?

That's not really your creative expression, right? We can argue these things when the very thing you're being pulled to challenges, the values and the things that matter to you. There's an intersection that becomes [00:08:00] really uncomfortable because you either stay doing the same thing or you find the courage to move ahead and follow that authenticity.

And that authenticity is gonna look different to you than it is to other people, and this is where that all or nothing black or white comes into play. Because for me, I was like, I can't be all about creative expression and authenticity and use ai. That was the all or nothing. In reality that isn't true, right?

I can be very creative and very authentic in what I create and put out there and also use AI as support. Right. It's how I use the tools that will decipher how creative I am with it. Right? And I've said this from the beginning, this is where nuance comes in, right? This is where we have to look at nuanced experiences and get really specific with like what do we value and what matters to us.

And the same is using those [00:09:00] tools, right? Is that the more s you know, sophisticated and nuanced and specific you are with the input. The better the output's gonna be. But the problem is for many people, they're still using AI like Google in a lot of ways, right? Like, write me how to write a, an email that performs, okay, now write me that email.

You know what I mean? Like it's very basic prompting that's going to get very basic outputs. And if you're just gonna take the output, then yeah, it's there. There's nothing really creative probably in that exchange. The reason this is important is because when we think about all or nothing, black or white thinking, we're, we are not actually looking at the nuance and we're not actually honoring people's experience, which then comes back to the authenticity piece, right?

So. [00:10:00] As somebody who values authenticity and, and, and I'm talking about myself here, that if I have this black or white thinking around what creativity is and what creativity isn't, and if you perform it in this way, then you're not creative, black or white, right or wrong. I know better. All of those sorts of things that I'm not really honoring authenticity because your experience.

How you experience it is unique to you. And if it looks different than mine, that doesn't mean that it's not authentic. It just is not my experience, right? Everybody has to go through their authentic experience and whether they're operating in alignment out of integrity, or they're actually just operating in full integrity to what they want.

It's, it's not my place to sort of judge, it's not my place to have a perspective about it. Right? And that is truly embodying authenticity. And why I wanna share this with you is because in the [00:11:00] last week I had a, um, person that I had been following for a very long time. I put out a post saying how tired he is of people using ai.

He's, he has a huge following, tired of people using ai. It's content factory farming. There's nothing creative about it. It's all real boring, all these sorts of things. He had very strong opinions about it. He has every right to have those opinions about it, but. What that did for me was it hit me in a deep core wound around the very thing that I was contemplating and the very internal battle that I was having, and that was, can I use AI and also still be creative?

Can I use AI and still be authentic? Can I use ai? Right? The, the right or wrong, the black or white, the all or nothing thinking when in truth. Two things can be true at the same time. I can be super [00:12:00] creative and also use ai. But when that particular influencer came out and said that and was very strongly, um, stating that if you use AI and all of that, it's killing creativity.

It's a content factory. There's nothing real about it. That hit in that core wound or that internal battle? This is key because this is also a deep intersection that I had to work through because a natural tendency could be like, okay, I'm not gonna do this. I'm gonna stop doing this because it's wrong.

Right? Because my internal self already contemplated that because at one point. Evolution of who I am. I had that belief or that feeling, so I viewed that. Scenario or situation in the same way I've evolved past that is what I'm trying to say because this pull towards learning ai, how to use it, how to [00:13:00] leverage it, how to build tools with it.

Like I just got kind of nerdy with it and I just followed that like my sacral as a manager. So lit up and I started building all these really helpful tools. That could support small business and solopreneurs in a way that they could never be supported before without breaking every bank possible. Right?

So for example, you know, hiring a copywriter, somebody like me to write your copy. Well, a lot of my packages start at a minimum of 12 k. Most solopreneurs and small businesses don't have a budget for that one to, to pay a, an expert to do the work and then wait for those results to sort of come in, that's a huge investment.

Right. When I had my brick and mortar and the radio, people would come in and say to me, can you spend $15,000 a month? You know, on radio ads? It'd be like, no. We would go under, you know, and many solopreneurs and small businesses are [00:14:00] in that position. What AI, to me is done in, in a good thing, in a good way, has started to close that gap because you can now create tools that will support you.

In hiring the specialist or, or having tools that can act like a specialist, or at least the ones that I've built to write your sales page, to write your emails or whatever it might be. The the gap is, is that you would never hire those people anyways because you don't have the budget for it. So either you're doing it yourself, right?

Wearing all the hats, the marketing hats, the sales hats, the copywriting hats, and most of my solopreneurs that come to me say to me, I hate it. Right. Like I'm not a marketer. I didn't want to do this for a living. I want to do X, Y, Z for a living. And your zone of genius is not that, but you're having to do it yourself because you need to be visible and market and sell to have a successful business.

That's part of, that's part of [00:15:00] it, of being an Entrepreneur and. Or you hire a generalist and you're not getting the results that you want. It's kind of mediocre in a lot of ways. And so you get those mediocre results. You get work done right? Maybe the productivity's better. Maybe you get your time back in a lot of ways, but you're actually not seeing that return on investment.

So. I don't wanna go too deep into what I'm building and all of that. If you're on my email list, you'll, you'll start to see some things coming out that can really support you. But where I, what I wanted to share was how difficult change pivoting. Evolving, expanding can be, and it oftentimes falls back to how we view ourselves and how we think others view our, view us, and then that internal battle that we have with who we once were to who we are now.

And if, if that changes, that's a difficult thing, specifically if it is [00:16:00] counterintuitive to maybe what you've been saying in the past, but. The all or nothing thinking, the black or white, I can only be this, or I can only express in this way and not this way because this is right and that is wrong, is often the underlying root that sort of causing that uncomfortable feeling because we think we have to be a certain way, which then challenges our authenticity.

And when I saw that influencer post that my internal system went, oh, he's right. I'm doing everything wrong. How dare you kill creativity, right? That was the very battle that was happening within myself. I. But in separation from that, not reacting to it, I can see very clearly that even him who's an evolved influencer, um, promotes, you know, authenticity as well, and creativity and expression and all those sorts [00:17:00] of things is also equally very judgmental without really.

Understanding people's experience, which is also interesting to sort of witness because, and again, this isn't from a place of judgment, it's just, I think it's an unconscious thing and, and I have done this in my life as well and maybe still will in the future, I don't know. But it's this all or nothing sort of thinking that often kills.

Other people's creativity and authenticity without us even knowing that it does that. Right. Again, it's not his responsibility to, you know, his, what he says and how he says it doesn't. I mean, yes, it can impact what I do and all of that, but that's not his responsibility, is what I'm trying to say, right?

He's entitled to say what he wants and do what he wants and use his platform and however he wants to do that. What I am trying to highlight here is, is that I very quickly could see his all or nothing [00:18:00] thinking, and I could very quickly see his right or wrong way of, um, sort of projecting his opinion out there that in an instant, impacted me in an instant, had me doubting what I was doing and an instant started to rock my boat a bit going, Ooh, maybe he's right.

And then stepping away from that, going no. That sort of perspective and mentality is actually counterintuitive to authenticity in general, in my opinion, right? Authenticity is if I'm for authenticity, then I have to allow people to live their life in an authentic way, even if that is not. Authentic to me, even if that is not in alignment with my values and my beliefs, it's theirs.

And if I am all for embodying authenticity, then there's a deep acceptance of myself and what I do and what I choose to do, and honoring that my process and done in integrity is the best that I can do and [00:19:00] also is true for everybody else. And that if I am. Up in their business going, well, they're not being authentic and their messaging is out of integrity and all those sorts of things.

Then I'm, I'm pulled out of my own center, but I'm also not really embodying authenticity because what they're saying and how they're saying it is authentic to them, even if I don't agree with it. And this is a really key thing that I want you to sort of walk away with from this episode and take from this episode is.

Where do you have this all or nothing thinking in your life or your business? Where do you have this black or white right or wrong way of thinking that might be really subtle and it, and it can, it doesn't necessarily have to be against somebody else or a culture or an industry or whatever. It can very well be with yourself, like where do you feel like you have to show up and be a certain way?

Because if you show [00:20:00] these other facets of who you are, then. Somebody else might perceive you as different. We see this all the time. We see this in cancel culture, right? Um, where somebody shows up in, in a light and then they show this other side of themselves and people are like, who are you? I don't even know who you are.

Like, I thought you were this. I thought you stood for this. And this is where this, like I said, black or white, all or nothing thinking keeps us from really showing up authentically, I believe, because you can be. One thing and also something else, right? You can be a mom, a wife, and a best friend, right? Like it you.

You are different things to different people. And that is where I think a lot of us dilute who we are and what we stand for and what we want to put out into the world because we compartmentalize ourselves into this persona of what we think is gonna be acceptable. And that is what [00:21:00] I am here to sort of.

Really shift. I think for myself, first and foremost, right? I'm doing this work, I'm unpacking these things like why do I have this internal battle? Why am I feeling so resistant towards ai? But why am I also being deeply pulled there from a sacral pole? Like, you need to be in these rooms. Why? Like, none of it really sort of makes sense, but then it does, right?

Um, and it's, it's trusting that. That pull is pulling you in the direction that, um, that you're meant to sort of go on, go in, even if it is counterintuitive to how you think people will perceive you, is that we get to be all the parts of ourselves. We get to show up in a way that honors all, all of who we are.

And when we start to honor who we are, um, and all the facets of who we are, then it is easy for us to honor other people because he wasn't the first person that. Sort of had me questioning myself, a [00:22:00] mentor of mine who I absolutely adore. I adore what she does, I adore, um, what she stands for, you know, and she's very anti AI and very expressive about it.

And many times I was like, huh, can I, can I learn from you and be in your experience and quote unquote. Then be accepted by you, right? If I'm going out and doing this work, this, I'm getting a certification from her. If I'm getting this certification, and then I'm gonna practice what I'd be certified in from you, can I go and do it?

Or am I like BA breaking the rules or being bad or something like that? Because I use AI to help me in my business. Do you know what I mean? Because you are against it. And this is where that deep acceptance comes into play. Because I deeply honor her and I'm like, I can, I. Honor you for what you do, and I don't have to agree with all the parts of who you are and [00:23:00] vice versa.

You don't need to agree with all the parts of who I am either. And that's true acceptance and true acceptance of authenticity. Um, and we get to pick and sort of choose that. But I wanted to share this sort of story behind the scenes with you so that you can start to take inventory in your own life, your own business of where am I?

Maybe holding myself back. Where am I? Not pursuing what's coming up for me because of how I view myself or how I think others view me, and therefore it challenges that perspective. For example, you might be feeling this pulled to a, to pivot, to change course to go in a different direction, but you're not sure how to make that leap or you're not sure the bridge that you need to build to get there because it is.

Not what you are known for or how people perceive you, and therefore it can be really scary. But there's, [00:24:00] there's these intersection points, and I think this is another really important thing, is to see things as they are, um, and not put a bun, not try to attach all of this deep meaning to it. To me, I just see them as intersection points, right?

Like, ooh, okay, I'm being called in this direction. Oh, that feels uncomfortable. Why am I uncomfortable about this? Oh, interesting. Because I've always had resistance towards AI and it killing creativity. And I've even voiced it, you know, I've said things about it, and so will people perceive me as then changing my mind, and then what will people think that I'm not authentic?

Like, you know, all of that rhetoric that goes on. Okay. So now. That's an intersection point. I'm being called in this direction and I can either choose to stay comfortable, I can choose to not show all the facets of who I am. I can choose not to be fully transparent with my journey. Cool. And just stay in that comfort zone.

I. Until I can't. Because I [00:25:00] think that's the other thing about evolution, expansion. You can stay there eventually. It's gonna become quite painful, or at least from my experience, to a point where you're like, I can't sit here anymore. Right? I need to to make the shift, and I'm somebody that can naturally, I.

Fight that. Right. I can fight that. Shifting. I, I often pivot very quickly, but I also can equally fight the resistance. Like, really don't make me do this. Right. When I launched Spellbound, I had that resistance where I was like, no, don't. No. What? You want me to launch this? No. Well, same with ai, right? I resisted it.

I mean, I've been quietly behind the scenes learning from people for three years and then eventually I. Have just seen how creative. You can be with it. Um, and how it can also take off tasks off your plate that are really not your zone of genius. And I think that's where the all or nothing mentality oftentimes [00:26:00] strips away the nuance and strips away the understanding.

And I don't wanna be part of that because everything I do with my clients. Is around authenticity is around creative expression is around nuance is like your experience is your experience, and you get to have that experience. And I'm not here to tell you what that experience should look like and how it should be.

And when we have that all or nothing thinking and belief system running the show, whether consciously, unconsciously. We strip away the nuance because I'm looking at it from a different, totally different perspective now than when I was, when I thought it was threatening creativity. I'm looking at it going, well wait a minute.

This can actually help people be more in their zone of genius and take off the tasks off their list that they don't want to do anyways. But they also don't have the budget to hire people to do it for them. Like writing their emails or, um, I love writing my emails. I love writing [00:27:00] content. I love writing blogs, but I also understand that not everybody does, right?

That's the beauty of authenticity. Like, I'm gifted at writing, I'm gifted at communicating, I'm gifted at marketing and sales and, and all of that. I'm gifted at that. I, and I'm skilled at it from 25 years of experience. But that's my experience and that's not everybody else's experience. And so when we have the black or white thinking, black or white thinking in that scenario would look like, well just master it and love it like I do.

Just learn to love social media. We've heard all of that before, right? I'm sure you've heard it, where it's like someone's just tells you, well, you gotta learn to love it. Or This is all just part of the thing, or this is just what you have to do to be successful. To me, AI gets to remove the things that you actually don't wanna spend your zone of genius on.

And then you get to be in your zone of genius, which to me is pure creativity. Right? Creativity to that mentor looked very different than my creativity. Right. And the other [00:28:00] influencer I was talking about, his creativity is very different than my creativity. But when we blanket statement, what AI is.

Through the lens and perspective that we're viewing things. Sure. Yes. If you are a, an artist or a poet or something along those lines, and your expression quite literally is through your art and then now you're seeing well. People are just creating art through ai, but it's not really their art or whatever, however you wanna look at that.

Sure. I could see you having that perspective, but if you're a small business owner solopreneur who's like, I hate marketing and I hate sales and I hate writing emails, but I know I need to be visible in my business, and AI can help you with that, then. Why, like it would, it would be silly not to use it for that, right?

That is the nuance of what this is. That is where black or white thinking takes the nuance and brings it to the surface that says AI's [00:29:00] all bad. It's creating shitty content for everybody. It is, you know, killing creativity across the board when we don't take a moment to try to understand. The nuance, the perspective, and this goes, this goes for copywriting and marketing and sales, human relations, communication, right?

This kills communication in, in a lot of ways when we don't try to understand somebody's experience, when we don't actually look them in the eyes and say, well, tell me your experience. Right? Tell me what you think about it. You can have your opinions, you can have your stance. You can say that, that's absolutely okay, but also understanding that what you're viewing things through your perspective, your lens is not how everybody else views the world, and it's not how everybody else sees.

This opportunity, which is how I'm seeing it now, is it's a huge opportunity for people in many ways. But there also is. A downside, but there isn't everything. Pros and [00:30:00] cons, right? There's, there's always an upside and a downside, right? You know when the internet came online, I'm sure people were resistant to the internet.

Oh my gosh. Why would you know? Like, why don't we just talk to people in real life? Why are we using the internet to find things like who, whatever the complaints were back then, I don't remember them because I think I was all for the internet in a lot of ways back then. But when it came online, I'm sure there's people that fought it.

I'm not doing it. I'm not going on computers. I don't want people to track me. Whatever it might be, there's pros and cons to everything. There's pros and cons a hundred percent. And that's where we as humans, I think, need to be a little bit more accepting in that we all get to choose the path we want to go on.

And that, again, I don't think there's, I don't think it's an easy thing of saying AI is all bad and AI is gonna ruin society and, and whatever, right? Um, sure there's [00:31:00] misuses of it, but there's misuses of. Just being human, you know? Um, and so I think why I wanted to just share this story with you is because maybe you're at a point in your life or your business where you're at an intersection and you're being called in a direction that maybe feels uncomfortable because it's pulling you outside of it, stretching you beyond how maybe you viewed yourself or how you think others view you.

And the idea of. Being vocal or visible or sharing your truth and transparency feels very scary because of your own internal judgment or maybe the fear of external judgment or the fear that people won't accept you. I. Or will wonder who you are, or you've changed or you're not the same person as you were, yada, yada.

All the things. And then also taking inventory like where you might have your own black or white thinking, where you might have your own right [00:32:00] or wrong way of thinking, where you have this all or nothing. It's either AI is all bad, or AI is good, or. You know, email marketing is bad or it's good, or I hate social media.

It sucks completely. Or you know, I love it, right? You, you can love some parts of things and also not, you can be satisfied with some things and also equally frustrated. And I think that is where. Collectively. Um, I would love to see us move. I would love to see us move in that direction and I know that me embodying that is, is how we move in that direction.

It's not about me trying to get others to live in that direction. It's me honoring it and sort of doing that work and unpacking where I even carry that all or nothing because I did right. I was carrying that all or nothing thinking around ai, like I can't start using it because if I use it. Then I'm a sellout, or I'm [00:33:00] completely not creative, or I'm not authentic.

Right. Which is actually not true because for me, what AI has done for me in a lot of ways is I. There's a lot of like ideation, right? I'm still the strategist, I'm still the creative brains. I still have the vision. I still have the direction, but what it does for me is it organizes my thoughts a lot quicker than how I would organize them.

Right? So it's more of an organization tool or a resource finder, or. I don't wanna say research, but there is a research component, right? I'm still doing the research. I'm still asking to what, what I wanna research, and then I'm going in and researching and I'm cross-referencing and I'm checking, I'm doing the same things I would do if I was to Google it, I guess is kind of how I'm sharing that is like I would still, I'd still go to Google and do it.

So what's the, what's the difference? And then with AI, I can ideate very quickly. I have a very quick. Brain and I have [00:34:00] very quick thinking. I'm usually 50 steps ahead, and that's just how I'm wired. I've got a Mercury and Scorpio on the first house and Uranus, conjunct Mercury. I'm a quick, fast thinker, and AI for me is one of the.

Only tools that I have found that can keep up with my thinking and I can just, and I don't even type, I just audio it. Right. And Sure. It's collecting data. It's collecting information. Yes. It's creating context based off of us using it. But so did the internet, right? Like sure. You know, we weren't typing it into ai, but like Google Docs, that's, that's all online, right?

Like, you know, Googling things, right? Writing our course content and posting it in a curriculum. Sure. There's data privacy and all those sorts of things that we've gotta think about with ai. A hundred percent, right? I'm not saying there's right or wrong, but what I'm saying is, is that like we've been online sharing our stuff.

For a very long time. Our perspectives, our [00:35:00] opinions, you don't think that has been collected over time, right? Sure, there is the copyright and all of those sorts of things, like who writes what, but again, I, I'm gonna just challenge some perspective because there's people at there that are like, well, if you get a AI to write it, then is it your really yours?

Well, if you hire a ghost writer to write your story, is it your story? There's been ghost writers forever. You don't even know the books they've written 'cause they're ghost writers. Right. But I can guarantee you that most celebrities didn't write their book. They hired a ghost writer. I've been approached by ghost writers to write, for me to write books for me.

I. So this is where I would love us to get nuanced and to start going and to investigate and get discerning again. I'm not pleading a case or making a case. I'm not looking for approval. I'm not looking for anybody to side with me or not. That's not what I'm looking for. But what I'm saying is, is that when we sit at the surface and we have this all or [00:36:00] nothing thinking.

It just keeps us at that surface. It's very shallow, right? There's a, it's very shallow, but when we start to discern for ourselves and get curious about, huh? Wait a minute, is that actually true? Or, wait a minute, right? Like this statement, this opinion that somebody's saying that's calling discomfort in me, I.

Wait a minute, what is that? Oh, that's all or nothing thinking or that's black or white or that's judgment projected in a lot of ways. Or that's fear cloaked as something else. Right. And we start to be able to see through what's really sort of going on. I. We as humans can start to come back to our own inner core, and we're less reactive.

We're less reactive because instantly I can get that doubt or I can start to question my stuff based on all the other noise that's out there. But when I'm rock solid at the core of who I am and I'm like, no, I'm grounded in my values and, and it doesn't matter. If they don't agree with me, then. I'm okay with that.

It doesn't mean that I won't get rocked. It doesn't mean that I won't have [00:37:00] doubt. It doesn't mean I don't have fear. It just mean I'm not reactive to it. I'm not going, okay, well I'm, I'm gonna stop using AI because everybody says it's bad. Well, that's all or nothing thinking, right? Because there's a lot of people that are, that don't say it's bad.

There's lots of people that say it's bad, and then there's lots of people in the middle that are impartial and don't have an opinion about it. And then there's lots of people that aren't using it and, and all of that. And that's totally cool. And I think. That's where I want to sort of leave you because I think if we can broaden our perspective, broaden our worldview about what's going on, I'll just give you one final like nugget or story that um, my husband always reminds me of.

'cause I'll say things like, oh man, I hate it. In the online space we do this X, Y, and z. I just hate that everybody does that. And he'll remind me, Catherine. You do realize that there's like populations around the world, like billions of people that are not in the online space. So to say that like everybody does this right, that's all or nothing thinking, that's blanket stadium, that's [00:38:00] generalization, right?

That's painting a, like making broad strokes or that brush, and that is a very limiting perspective in my opinion. That keeps us very limited in our thinking. And I think we all do it. And I think it's just catching when we do it and then opening our worldview. Right. Um, 'cause you'll often remind me, do you think the people in the Philippines where you were doing your master's research, do they, do you think they care about this?

I'm like, I. No thanks for bringing me back to Earth and, and grounding me in that. And that's just having people in your corner to sort of paint, like to, to reflect back to you and paint a different sort of perspective for you and to challenge like when you are in that sort of, um, state, right? Which is, which is what I'm sort of doing with this podcast is just to have you take an inventory of where you're at and what.

Um, where you might be judging, I think is the best word. This all or nothing thinking right or wrong, black or white, and, and how that might even be translating in your [00:39:00] content. Um, I. So with that, I hope you have a Fab Day, and I'll chat with you soon. Cheers. 

Intro: Thanks for listening. We'll see you right back here next time.

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