Suzanne Proksa:
Welcome to the Happy Healthy and Rich podcast, formerly the Suzanne show. I developed the happy, healthy, and rich brand in 2016 to help women just like you have some real discussions about personal development, navigating the ins and outs of being a woman, women's health, and how to find more joy. Come on in, friend. I'm Suzanne Proxza, multitalented founder, Suz Pro Innovations, and I'm proud to serve women online business, and to the people ops HR community. I'm also a former featured Etsy seller, plant addict, concert lover, gardener, and human straight up obsessed with helping others and cheering on women. Grab your coffee or your wine. Break out one of your hundreds of notebooks. Yes.
Suzanne Proksa:
I see you. Light that soy candle and let's dive in.
Suzanne Proksa:
Hello everyone. And welcome back to the show today. We are talking about a topic that I know is near and dear to my heart as a high achieving woman. And I know that a lot of you are as well. So we are going to be talking with Doctor. Claire Schleicher about slowing down when you're a high achieving woman. So let's dive into this. Doctor.
Suzanne Proksa:
Claire Schleicher, a pediatric audiologist that followed her intuition and went on to study the subconscious mind and become a certified mindset coach is an ambitious woman that blends spirituality with ambition in her coaching practice. A sobriety journey and death of her mother led her to her most spiritual awakening, which helped her to heal her need to constantly be busy. Now, Claire helps other high achieving women heal their inner wounds and design their dream life with ease. Welcome, Claire. Again, I am so excited to have you here today. This is a topic that I know I need. And I know that the listeners do as well. Is there anything else that you would like to add to that introduction?
Dr Claire Schleicher:
Hi, Suzanne. Thank you so much for having me on your podcast today. I'm really looking forward to our conversation together. Yeah. So as a mom and a career woman, I wear many hats and I choose to operate my life at a high level. I naturally just have a zest for life and I love sharing my passion for living a more intentional and intuitive life with other high achieving women who may be struggling with living on autopilot mode. Doctor. Claire, let's start out by talking a
Suzanne Proksa:
little bit more about you.
Suzanne Proksa:
First of all, we really want to know how did you get interested in becoming a mindset coach? What led you down this path?
Dr Claire Schleicher:
That's a great question. And it really goes back. I would say about a decade or so, and really the last 4 years is where I felt this inner knowing. And it was just like a nudge inside me that was guiding me to do something else with my life. And I did everything that I could to press or quiet this nudge and it just kept getting louder and louder. So after years, I'm talking years of doing the journaling around it, meditating, you know, all of the inner work to try to understand what my inner soul was telling me. It started to get more clear about 2 years ago, things started to take more shape. And that's also when I lost my mother and she was really like a soul sister to me.
Dr Claire Schleicher:
We were very closely connected spiritually and helping her through her death process was such an intense and beautiful spiritual awakening for me. So that really kind of like lifted this veil where I could just see things in my reality from a different perspective. That probably sounds a little crazy, but it's true. I sincerely started to see my reality from a different see my reality from a different perspective. Now that my mom was gone. The other part that really intensified or went into speed mode with this transformation was getting sober. And this happened not by accident, but I wasn't intentional saying I'm just going to quit drinking alcohol and this is going to be my life. I started out just doing a dry January and then felt so amazing.
Dr Claire Schleicher:
And so clear minded that I didn't want to stop. I just wanted to stay on this path of clarity. So once I quit drinking alcohol, I was able to better understand what this inner nudge was. And I've always been really fascinated with psychology and our mindset and the subconscious mind and manifestation. But I never really thought I could make a career out of it. You know, I went to college for 8 years to be an audiologist and I know that being a helper is part of my calling. And that really was fulfilled by being a pediatric audiologist. So I didn't really think I could make a career or a life style out of being a mindset coach.
Dr Claire Schleicher:
But I followed that inner knowing and intuition and pursued studying the subconscious mind through a program for mindset coaches. And immediately things just started clicking for me. And it just kind of felt like a big sigh of relief of like, oh, this, this is what I'm supposed to be doing. And I have been so lit up by doing this work ever since.
Suzanne Proksa:
Thank you for giving us that insight into, you know, how you got here. And I, I wanted to add onto that then, you know, I think it's helpful for people to really understand how guests got to where they are. And I think an additional question is what has helped you make positive changes in your life before we dive into some more detailed questions about the how and the why and things like that for other people?
Dr Claire Schleicher:
Well, one thing for me that is a non negotiable when making positive changes in my life is understanding and having access to the right accountability. I tell you, I am great at setting goals, setting goals for myself, helping others set goals. And I know myself well enough to know that I will go full force into attacking a plan for a goal, and then I will lose momentum and it won't be sustainable without accountability. So accountability for me can look like checking in with my coach or checking in with a group program or something, but I definitely require some sort of external accountability in order to keep those positive changes sustainable. I'm going to dive right in here with a question that is probably going to perk up a lot
Suzanne Proksa:
of ears. They're gonna want the answer to this one. Many high achievers find the idea of rest to be unsafe or counterproductive is what I hear more than anything. Can you share why this mindset is so prevalent among high achievers and how it can impact their overall well-being
Dr Claire Schleicher:
when you don't allow the opportunity for rest and quiet and recovery time to be in your life, it was so easy for me to just jump from task to task that I was living on autopilot and I was so detached from my body. My body and mind were like 2 separate entities. And I was never, I never really felt like I was in the present because I was always thinking ahead about what's next and how can I prepare for that? And how can I do a good job at that? And then with that comes the inevitable burnout, right? I mean, we can only sustain being active and being on the go for so long before our body, our mind, our spirit, our emotions, whatever you wanna call it will just completely be depleted.
Suzanne Proksa:
Rest is so important. And I think when people start to actually bring that back into their life, they realize like, oh, what was I, who was I missing? And they realize the impact it can have on their well-being. So thank you so much. So less diving into slowing down because of course that's a big topic of this episode. What are some of the life changing benefits you've observed in high achievers who have embraced the practice of slowing down? And if you have any examples or stories you can give, that would be fantastic.
Dr Claire Schleicher:
Sure thing. I love this question because there are definitely some commonalities that are different benefits that, my clients who are high achieving women have received once they've started to incorporate The lifestyle of slowing down. And I wanna start off by saying, this is hard work, right? I think as high achieving women, we really desire someone to tell us what to do or have an understanding of what our expectations are, apply it, cross it off our list, and then move on to the next thing. And everything about living a more intuitive and mindful lifestyle requires you to do exactly opposite of that. So it's going to be uncomfortable because you are rewiring your brain and how you operate across your entire life. So it's going to be uncomfortable because you're going to receive, you're going to have these impulses to feel like you need and should be doing something. And when you force yourself to not do something, you just sit on your hands. You are working through like that wave of emotion of like a craving that you have, you know, which is intense, you know, like when you're craving maybe a certain food or something, and you know that you shouldn't eat it, but this craving is so intense.
Dr Claire Schleicher:
However, that craving starts to lessen in intensity and dissipate. And once you get on the other side of that wave of that craving, it feels so good because you feel strong that you were able to ride it out without giving him. So I think about one of my clients, Danielle, who's a high achieving mom of 3 kids, a career woman. And she was, she had so many prominent accomplishments in her career, but she just was not fulfilled at all. She would reach the next milestone and without even celebrating, she'd be setting goals to reach the next one. So when working with Danielle, we first identified what her values are in all aspects of her life. And this is a great exercise. And it's something that can evolve through seasons of life.
Dr Claire Schleicher:
And it just evolves with who we are as a person. So when we did this together, this was Danielle's first insight and to her self awareness of what she truly values in life. Because once you understand what resonates with you internally, then you can make decisions that are aligned with those values. So through doing that together, she immediately had a better understanding of what she really wanted. Because again, when we're constantly doing and not stopping to consider what we want, we can really get lost in things. And another really great benefit that my clients and myself have received through doing this work of slowing down is the amount of patience that you will gain. Because it, it, like I said, it's uncomfortable to start changing your lifestyle and making these habits about slowing down. And once you do that, you are able, your nervous system is able to handle That amount of change.
Dr Claire Schleicher:
So it really gives you this opportunity to strengthen your patients. And that is so rewarding, especially if you're a mom, because kids require a lot of patients or let's face it. Like any family members might require a lot of our patients. So I would say that that deep understanding of yourself of your intuition and your inner knowing and patience and the not burning out, you know, really having a more fulfilling life because you know that you're living one that's in alignment, in alignment with your values, in alignment with who you are at your authentic core.
Suzanne Proksa:
All right. We're going to keep talking about slowing down. What practical strategies or techniques can high achieving women implement in their daily lives to slow down and still feel productive? Are there any specific habits or routines that you recommend?
Dr Claire Schleicher:
Yes, absolutely. Whenever someone is starting off on this type of self growth journey, my go to starter habit is a gratitude practice. So I encourage your listeners if they're not already to start a daily practice in which they write down three things that they're grateful for that happened within the last 24 hours. And what I don't want you to do is to write 3 things. Like I am grateful for my. For my job and for my family, because you're gonna run out of things really quickly. Instead. I want you to focus on different experiences that happened to you in the last day or so that you would otherwise gloss over and not even recognize.
Dr Claire Schleicher:
So these are going to be really small things. Like I'm grateful for the fact that we have air conditioning on those really hot, humid summer day, or I'm thankful that I got an amazing parking spot at Costco at 4 pm on a Friday, you know, just little tiny situations that happen to you throughout your life. Where could things are happening to you? This is going to allow your brain to start to notice what you're experiencing throughout the day and how the universe is really conspiring to make your day as beautiful as possible. And it does help you to slow down and notice all the small little things throughout your life. So the gratitude practice is my, one of my favorite tools and it doesn't take long to do. You can do it in the morning. You can do it in the afternoon or before bed. It really doesn't matter.
Dr Claire Schleicher:
I do recommend doing it paper to pen because that's going to stimulate different neural pathways for you to really solidify this, project. But if you don't have that, you can use your phone to type things in. And if you don't have that handy. Do a mental replay of your day, but just do something where you can really take the time to focus on your gratitude.
Suzanne Proksa:
Now we all just have to put those habits in place and keep it going. Right. So you emphasize the importance of healing inner wounds to increase productivity with ease. This is something that you've done. How do these unresolved issues affect one's ability to perform and achieve? And what steps can someone take to start going down the road of that healing process?
Dr Claire Schleicher:
Well, first I'll speak from my personal experience here. And I mentioned earlier this in my childhood, having a lot of praise for my accomplishments, which is a very typical thing to happen in childhood. And one might not see the connection of how praising their kid for their accomplishments could be turned into an inner wound, but it really depends on that person and their personality type and how they process that experience. So for me, with the inner wound being myself worth being attached to achievement and also being a former perfectionist and people pleaser. I really was living a life that was inauthentic to me. I was putting my energy into working on things that really didn't benefit me, but would, you know, make others happy or proud. So the further I got along in life, you know, the stakes get higher and the further you go along on that path, the more you really lose yourself because you're so out of alignment with who you are at your core, that you're just trying to make everyone else around you happy and doing things that will please them, that you don't even really have your self or your identity. And that is kind of what happened to me in that.
Dr Claire Schleicher:
I started to feel just almost like a shell of myself because I was accomplishing and I was doing and checking all the things off my list, but deep down that, that spirit was just kind of fading, you know? So if you have those inner wounds, those are going to affect you because your ability to perform or achieve is not going to be in alignment because there's no one's life path that is to constantly be achieving and doing. Being in alignment means to allow your mind and your body and your spirit to rest and recover. So if you are always doing, then you're not allowing for the natural recovery phase that you require. And also for myself, I have such a zest for life and I want to live life to the fullest that I require pretty high standards of myself to show up every day. I am not a sit on the couch and watch life happen to me, I wouldn't be an active participant, that main character energy, you know? So if you identify this in yourself of maybe that you've have yourself worth attached to your accomplishments, or you're living a life for someone else. You're making big decisions in your life to make others happy or proud of you. And this also reminds me of a woman that I've worked with whose family all really saw that she had a natural talent for the law profession. So she became an attorney yet.
Dr Claire Schleicher:
She had no passion to do that. She was great at it, but that was not what let her up. So she pursued that path and got the accolades on paper looked really successful, but she was so unfulfilled because it wasn't her true life's path. So when she reevaluated her life decisions, her values, and where she would want to steer her energy, her complete reality started to shift and for the better, because she's making those decisions, you know, from her inner knowing rather than outsourcing all of the information to other people and their opinions of her. So step steps to start the healing process would be to. I would start with on a basic level. I would just start with some basic journaling every day, just to start to document where you're at. Do a body scan.
Dr Claire Schleicher:
A body scan is just starting from your head and checking in with each level or part of your body all the way down to your toes. And that's going to keep your mind and your body synced because for many high achieving women, we really do become out of sync with our body, mind, and spirit easily because we're, we're overriding one over the other, you know, so we wanna make sure that those are all functioning wholly and completely. So doing body scans to connect with yourself And then on a deeper level, if you want to make some serious changes, I would definitely look into working with a professional, whether it be a coach like myself or with another mental health professional to start working towards what it is that you need to heal here, what inner wound needs to be targeted so that you're not blocked by it anymore? Because when you, if you wanna make the change, when you have this inner wound that isn't healed, it will continuously block you and you'll be repeating the same patterns until you've resolved or healed it. And that is work that really does require another person to hold this space with you while you process it. Because again, this is difficult and uncomfortable work that yes is so fulfilling and absolutely worth it, but it does require
Suzanne Proksa:
a lot of strength. Healing is a journey that is for sure and so important. So let's have a little fun. Let's talk some manifesting. So manifesting one's dream life often involves a balance of ambition and mindfulness. How can high achievers align their goals with a more mindful approach to avoid burnout and achieve lasting fulfillment.
Dr Claire Schleicher:
Who is something that you just said there, Suzanne really resonated with me because it's something that I speak about often the harmony of being an ambitious woman while also being mindful or grateful for what you have. And I used to kind of think that it could be 1 or the other between those dualities. And now I know that you can absolutely blend them together to have a more harmonious life. So I just love that the balance of ambition and mindfulness or gratitude for what we have. So for high achievers who want to make sure that they have their goals that are aligned with being more mindfulness, really need to tap into their intuition and. You know, finding goals that are going to be more mindful for you is going to require you to sit with yourself in quiet and reflect on what it is that is calling you. You're not going to find your next big idea when you're scrolling through social media, or if you're outsourcing opinions to everyone else, it is only gonna come from within. And you're only going to hear your intuition when you allow it enough, rest and quiet so that you can hear it and hear what it is saying.
Dr Claire Schleicher:
So when I'm working with my clients, I blend spirit reality into action. So when we work on manifestation, I think surrendering is one of the most difficult things that high achieving women have to experience because we often just cling to this idea of what we're working towards. Right? Like we get this tunnel vision. We are so focused on the achievement. So focused on what we need to accomplish. And we put all of our energy into this must work out. So when we can actually loosen our grip a bit and surrender, let go of the attachment of it, working out and really. Rest in knowing that you're gonna actually be okay if it doesn't work out or go the way as planned, that's going to allow a lot more ease into your life.
Dr Claire Schleicher:
And when you shift your mindset to being okay, regardless of how things do unfold, that is really the ultimate surrendering that you can do and letting go learning to trust the universe, God source, whoever, whatever that they're, they have the best intention for you in mind. So when you have that trust in that faith, that things will work out for your best intentions for your highest self and believing that things unravel as they should for your process. That is really going to allow you to like dance with the universe, You know, let things come into your life with ease, let opportunities come to you when you loosen your grip a bit. And don't try to control and force your life and all the decisions with such a tight grip.
Suzanne Proksa:
We wanna hear a little bit more about how you've done with manifesting, share some of your favorite things that you've recently. We would love to hear.
Dr Claire Schleicher:
Sure thing. This is something that I just absolutely love talking about. And I love hearing other stories about things, people experiences that they've manifested in their life too. You know, most recently I've manifested my absolute ideal dream client. And she is a person that when I had a vision of what I wanted this relationship to look like, it was with a woman who was ambitious, open minded, spiritually curious, but really didn't delve too deep into anything spiritual and was, she identifies herself as a lifelong learner. So she really is the absolute dream client and that just happened earlier this week. So that was my most recent newest manifestation, getting a, a dream client to work 1 on 1 with my biggest manifestation is it's been a couple years now And my husband and I were doing the Dave Ramsey budgeting system. So we were in the program.
Dr Claire Schleicher:
We met with like financial coaches that taught us how to do the program, had the book, had the app. And if you're not familiar with the Dave Ramsey process, it's really to live below your means, save your money and pay off your debts, pay off your smallest debt first. And then you want to snowball that into your bigger debts till where all your debts are paid off, which seems like such a straightforward, simple matter of fact, way to work with finances. Unfortunately for me, I, and I was good at it too. Right? Like I'm gonna follow the app. I'm gonna do it. As it says, I was having every penny in my bank account accounted for. And it really taught me to live in this scarcity mindset of there isn't enough money.
Dr Claire Schleicher:
And then also the quality of my life suffered because I was denying opportunities to go out to dinner with friends or family, or get tickets to this event because it was expensive. And I was eating tuna for lunch every day because it's high protein. So I'm hitting my macros goals, but it's super cheap. So it was really like reflecting back. I was so out of alignment, but in it, when I was doing the process, it felt good. Like I was accomplishing something, right? Like I was seeing me paying off my student loan debt, which is really the biggest and only debt we had. And finally I said, this is not in alignment with who I am. It doesn't feel good.
Dr Claire Schleicher:
I feel so much resistance. So I talked to my husband and about a year after doing that, I said, I know this is totally contradicting to what we've been studying this last year, but I really want to use manifestation and help from the universe for support to work with our finances in a different way. So when I did that, Suzanne, the next month, my student loans were completely forgiven. The balance of my student loans went from over $120,000 to $0 literally overnight. And I that through the public service loan forgiveness. Yet there were many barriers for me in getting that. So I really wasn't sure if it was gonna happen. And there was a lot of hoops to jump through.
Dr Claire Schleicher:
And then out of the blue, I received an email that said, yep, this has been approved. So you don't owe us that $120,000 And then a couple months after that, I received an unexpected inheritance for $50,000 So shortly after I was able to shift my mindset out of scarcity and into abundance, the universe provided for me in ways that were completely unexpected. So that's how I continue to live. My life is I am welcome with love and gratitude, unexpected abundances. And it's just helped me to live in more of a flow and ease with my life. And I'm just so grateful for those experiences. It's so much fun.
Suzanne Proksa:
Last question on the topic. What has been your inspiration for staying devoted to your calling and, you know, what things have you done to really just keep going and stay on the path?
Dr Claire Schleicher:
I absolutely love that you use the word devoted there, Suzanne, because that's my word of the year devotion. And I chose that word because it felt a little bit more feminine and just flowy compared to like dedicated, committed, you know, devoted. So I tend to have the personality type to be attracted to like the next shiny thing. So I'm great at starting things. And then if it's not working and a different opportunity comes along, I tend to want to jump ship and move over to that thing. And for myself, I selected the word devotion for this year because I knew with every cell in my body that I am on the right path, yet I will receive in pursuing this new career and dream life of mine. And I wanted to stay devoted to the process to this comes from doing my. To this comes from doing my regular spiritual practice.
Dr Claire Schleicher:
And for me, that is meditation and meditation looks so different for me in different seasons in my life or weeks. So I'm home with my kids for the summer. So I don't have as much alone time as when they're in school. So my meditation might be a walking meditation, but finding the opportunities to remove myself from all the noise so that I can connect with my intuition. And my spirit team is essential in staying devoted to this. And it helps support me to perform at the level that I require for myself to show up every day because I am the type of person that wants to always bring my best self forward.
Suzanne Proksa:
This is one of my favorite parts of the show. And I know I say this all the time, but it's true. Do you have 2 to 3 things? You know, we've talked about a lot. Do you have 2 to 3 things that you would love for the audience to take away from this episode, right in their notebooks. And then do you have anything that you would like to tell them about that you have going on and how can they reach out to you after the show?
Dr Claire Schleicher:
What I would like to share with anyone listening out there is that you are inherently worthy as you are, as you are just being, even if that means that you're not doing anything at the moment or the day or the week, you are not more valuable by doing, by accomplishing or achieving. And also start a gratitude practice if you are not already doing so. Just pick 2 to 3 things from the last 24 hours that you're thankful for, and this will start to shift your entire life. And lastly, I want to say that I have the belief that your life should be full of ease and flow. Once you loosen your grip on your ego's expectations of achieving things and you allow things to flow to you, this will happen. And when you do this, you create white space or quiet time in your day. And even 10 minutes of having quiet to yourself is really gonna start to transform your mindset. As far as things to share.
Dr Claire Schleicher:
I do have a free mindset makeover masterclass, which teaches you how to get out of toxic negative thinking patterns and how to really take ownership of your mindset. And once you're able to take ownership of your mindset and your thought process, your reality really does start to transform because your perception and And as far as connecting with me, And as far as connecting with me, I do provide services for 1 on 1 coaching with women. So this is going to be a high touch coaching container, where we work together specifically on what your needs are, what areas you wanna work on. And then I also have a fabulous group coaching program called radiate and elevate, where I bring together like minded women of high achievers who want to create and manifest a life with more ease and flow. And you can find me over on Instagram at Claire Schleicher or at my website, Claire Schleicherdot com. And I'm sure those will be included in the show notes.
Suzanne Proksa:
Okay. Awesome. Thank you for providing that information. Everybody reach out to doctor Claire. And I just wanna say thank you so much for blessing us on the show and helping us with this really important topic, because it is a big deal. It is hard and your gift of time to talk about it, is so appreciated. So thank you so much and we will talk to you soon.
Dr Claire Schleicher:
Oh, thank you so much, Suzanne. I received that. And also my thanks goes right back to you. Thanks for having me on the show and having this really interesting conversation and thanks to you for doing the impact full and important work that you're doing. You're such a bright light in this world and you are making great changes happen. So thanks to you. Have a great one.
Suzanne Proksa:
I am so glad you joined me for another episode of happy, healthy, and rich. If you loved the episode, do me a favor and help with a rating and a tip. Looking for more info on the podcast, My women's membership or how to work together? Head to my website at suzanneprocsa.com or my easier URL at suespro.cobackslashpodcasts. See you on the next episode.
