Passionate & Prosperous with Stacey Brass-Russell
Jun 24, 2026 · 55 min · 12 segments
Something I have been thinking about a lot lately — and talking about with my clients constantly — is this fascinating and costly phenomenon of making “hard” mean “bad”. You are working on something…
Stacey Brass RussellHostSo I have been working so hard the last couple of days, or at least, or actually weeks, that's what it feels like to me.
And one of the things that I find really interesting is when I talk to my clients and they are working really hard or they're doing something that feels hard to do, right? Like, um, birthing something or like writing something or figuring something out or getting clarity you know around something or taking an action there's so many things that we can do that feel hard to us and what I notice is that when when my clients are working hard or feeling like something is hard the way I've been feeling the last few weeks and I'll tell you what it was about um it immediately gets labeled as bad.
It immediately gets labeled as like something wrong or starts making one question themselves, right? Like, like when something feels hard, why do we question ourselves? Or why does it create self-doubt? Or why does it, why do we feel like like a lack of trust in ourselves, right? Like when things feel hard or when it feels like we're doing something hard or working hard or any of those things.
And this is a phenomenon that I've talked about so much on the show is this sort of like idea of like hard being bad, right? And where do we get that from? And I agree that like, That we like when things feel easy or we like when things feel natural, like that they flow natural or that it feels Like, you know, it's flowing out of us.
And I get why we would associate that with, like, that means it's good or right or aligned.
Or if I had the right belief system or if I was truly good at this or if this was meant for me, right? Like, all of those things.
then it would be easy or it would feel easy or it wouldn't feel this hard.
And we start questioning ourselves when things are hard or when we're working hard.
I think there's also this misinformation out there in – in business especially, that like it's possible for your business to just feel easy.
And there are so many business coaches out there that talk about business feeling easy.
And I often feel like, oh my God, would people rather work with the coach that's like making it seem like having a business is easy? Because I...
don't feel that that's great information to give people because it creates a false expectation of what it really is like to have your own business and to make money and get clients, especially in the current world that we live in, which is that now everybody can peddle their wares and make themselves visible and talk online.
And if people are, you know, if people have like a great style of doing that, they can put themselves out there.
And I think that it's not really accurate to equate easy with like, with that meaning that it's like the right business or that you're doing things the right way or the right business model or whatever.
So I have been working so hard the last couple of days, or at least, or actually weeks, that's what it feels like to me.
And one of the things that I find really interesting is when I talk to my clients and they are working really hard or they're doing something that feels hard to do, right? Like, um, birthing something or like writing something or figuring something out or getting clarity you know around something or taking an action there's so many things that we can do that feel hard to us and what I notice is that when when my clients are working hard or feeling like something is hard the way I've been feeling the last few weeks and I'll tell you what it was about um it immediately gets labeled as bad.
It immediately gets labeled as like something wrong or starts making one question themselves, right? Like, like when something feels hard, why do we question ourselves? Or why does it create self-doubt? Or why does it, why do we feel like like a lack of trust in ourselves, right? Like when things feel hard or when it feels like we're doing something hard or working hard or any of those things.
And this is a phenomenon that I've talked about so much on the show is this sort of like idea of like hard being bad, right? And where do we get that from? And I agree that like, That we like when things feel easy or we like when things feel natural, like that they flow natural or that it feels Like, you know, it's flowing out of us.
And I get why we would associate that with, like, that means it's good or right or aligned.
Or if I had the right belief system or if I was truly good at this or if this was meant for me, right? Like, all of those things.
then it would be easy or it would feel easy or it wouldn't feel this hard.
And we start questioning ourselves when things are hard or when we're working hard.
I think there's also this misinformation out there in – in business especially, that like it's possible for your business to just feel easy.
And there are so many business coaches out there that talk about business feeling easy.
And I often feel like, oh my God, would people rather work with the coach that's like making it seem like having a business is easy? Because I...
don't feel that that's great information to give people because it creates a false expectation of what it really is like to have your own business and to make money and get clients, especially in the current world that we live in, which is that now everybody can peddle their wares and make themselves visible and talk online.
And if people are, you know, if people have like a great style of doing that, they can put themselves out there.
And I think that it's not really accurate to equate easy with like, with that meaning that it's like the right business or that you're doing things the right way or the right business model or whatever.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.