Imagine enduring the unthinkable and emerging not just unbroken, but triumphant. This week, Megan Camille joins me to recount a tale of transformation that proves the tenacious nature of the human spirit. Once ensnared in the clutches of sex trafficking, Megan's narrative is a profound testament to her resilience, as she recounts her harrowing past and the pivotal moments that led to her liberation and eventual success as a business owner. Her journey is a striking illustration that despite our darkest days, there is hope and opportunity for renewal.
The road to recovery is a process riddled with complexity, and Megan bravely shares the intricate dance between the desire to return to what's familiar and the courageous choice to seek healing and self-empowerment. Her story unfolds with the aid of her mother's unwavering support, as she embarks on a path of self-discovery and mends the fragments of her past on her mother's couch. Megan's candidness about her internal battles and triumph over addiction and mental health issues is a beacon of light for anyone struggling to break free from their own chains.
Venturing into the realm of entrepreneurship, Megan illuminates how intuition can be an extraordinary guide in business and life. By trusting her gut, she navigates the challenges of starting a non-profit preschool and a family, while also mentoring others to harness their intuitive strength. Her experiences serve as a masterclass in listening to those inner 'yeses' and 'nos,' a strategy that flies in the face of convention yet proves crucial for carving out a unique and impactful path. Megan's story is not just an interview; it's a journey through darkness into a world of light, inspiration, and empowerment.
https://megancamille.com/
Go check out all of our episodes on our website: https://womeninthearena.net/
If you are ready to tell your story or want to refer someone, please email me at audra@womeninthearena.net
***Last thing- I'd love to interview the following women:
Maybe you can help me get there****
Thank you all for supporting this show and all of the Women in the Arena!!
Imagine enduring the unthinkable and emerging not just unbroken, but triumphant. This week, Megan Camille joins me to recount a tale of transformation that proves the tenacious nature of the human spirit. Once ensnared in the clutches of sex trafficking, Megan's narrative is a profound testament to her resilience, as she recounts her harrowing past and the pivotal moments that led to her liberation and eventual success as a business owner. Her journey is a striking illustration that despite our darkest days, there is hope and opportunity for renewal.
The road to recovery is a process riddled with complexity, and Megan bravely shares the intricate dance between the desire to return to what's familiar and the courageous choice to seek healing and self-empowerment. Her story unfolds with the aid of her mother's unwavering support, as she embarks on a path of self-discovery and mends the fragments of her past on her mother's couch. Megan's candidness about her internal battles and triumph over addiction and mental health issues is a beacon of light for anyone struggling to break free from their own chains.
Venturing into the realm of entrepreneurship, Megan illuminates how intuition can be an extraordinary guide in business and life. By trusting her gut, she navigates the challenges of starting a non-profit preschool and a family, while also mentoring others to harness their intuitive strength. Her experiences serve as a masterclass in listening to those inner 'yeses' and 'nos,' a strategy that flies in the face of convention yet proves crucial for carving out a unique and impactful path. Megan's story is not just an interview; it's a journey through darkness into a world of light, inspiration, and empowerment.
https://megancamille.com/
Go check out all of our episodes on our website: https://womeninthearena.net/
If you are ready to tell your story or want to refer someone, please email me at audra@womeninthearena.net
***Last thing- I'd love to interview the following women:
Maybe you can help me get there****
Thank you all for supporting this show and all of the Women in the Arena!!
Welcome in everyone and thank you once again for joining me this week. This week's guest is another strong example of you are so much more than your circumstances. This week I'm joined by Megan Camille and she has quite a story. She was a victim of sex trafficking at 19 but is now a business owner of several businesses that are six and seven figures. She has proven that you are more than your circumstances, more than what you come from, as long as you lean into your intuition, your freedom and never settle for a mediocracy. It is both my pleasure and honor to introduce to you Megan Camille. Megan, thank you so much for being here and welcome to the show.
Megan :Thank you so much for having me. I can hardly wait for this conversation.
Audra:I'm very excited to talk to you about this. It's such an intriguing background that you have. It's probably the most dramatic that I could possibly think of. So let's go ahead and talk about the elephant in the room, about your upbringing and what led you to being sex trafficking at 19, which is just the beginning of your story. It's not the end. We'll get to that because it's what you've used to be successful.
Megan :Absolutely. Yeah Well gosh, thinking back, even I'm like what a fun story to remember. What a fun, interesting turn of events. I was sex trafficked at 19 and I spent four years as a prostitute in Vegas and in adult films. It was an extremely, extremely challenging part of my life and there's so many sides and perspectives to that time. Right, I mean being in it is one thing, looking back on it is a whole other thing that I can see the beauty. But while being there, it was very challenging, very challenging to be in those sorts of dynamics that I was in with him, which was I was working for him. He kept all of my money. He was very much the dictator of my life. It provided lots of opportunities for growth.
Megan :About three and a half years in was when I started trying to leave every few weeks or so and it got more and more challenging. It just kind of seemed like he really had his hooks in me. I had no idea how I would return to society At that point. I had a record. I had been arrested three times and had multiple misdemeanors, and every time they opened the doors of the jail they sent me back to him.
Megan :He was the one there to pick me up and it just seemed like how could I possibly return to my family, how could I possibly return to a regular world where I'm not going to be able to have a regular job, and so there's all these little interesting obstacles. That looked like I was somewhat trapped. I mean, not only did I have a record, but I was living somewhat of I don't want to say glamorous, but I was living beyond the means that someone my age at that time maybe 21, 22-ish could actually keep doing without that. So I had a luxury car. So I'm thinking how do I leave and return to society where I probably won't be able to get a job with this on my record, but then also be able to support myself? I don't have work history, I'm 22 and I haven't had a job and all I have is this as my background. So it was an interesting start to adulthood.
Audra:So what actually led you to being in a position where you would even be entertained being a sex worker at such a young age? Because that's not something that people wake up and go. You know what?
Megan :I want to do.
Audra:I've got a great idea. I think that I want to work in this underground industry and open myself up for abuse and worse. What led up to that?
Megan :Well, probably so many things, but from the outside it wouldn't be all that obvious. I remember years after leaving I had an aunt that said when that happened I was deathly afraid for my teenage daughter because if you could be talked into such a thing then anybody could. I was very much a good girl. I lived at home with my mother. I was home schooled until about 13, and then I went to school. So I was far more modest than most of the children. I had been really kept in the cocoon and that sort of thing and I did flourish in school.
Megan :I played sports, I was a part of what's it called Like the president, I was the secretary I can't even think of what it's called in school right now but very active in my social groups and extremely close to my mom. We had a happy life at home. So a lot of it didn't make sense. Now there's a lot of unconscious that was going on. My mom and my dad divorced when I was very young and he left, so I did not have a father figure. My mom remarried and the man who adopted me when they divorced he also divorced me, so he no longer took care of me. So there was lots of abandonment around the masculine that I had experienced. And so, even though I had this loving household, there had been divorces in there, but it was in my younger years, so some of it we couldn't make sense of it.
Megan :Like well, gosh, it was really sweet girl next door, and yet there was a big gaping hole in my heart, and that heart was gaping for the love of my father. I wanted to be seen, I wanted to be accepted. I wanted more than anything to be chosen and saved, and I think that made me quite susceptible. When I met him, saw him one night, my girlfriend and I went to a club, an 18 and up club, because we weren't able to drink. We were 18, maybe almost 19. And he was there with his brother and we were in separate lines and I saw him across and I immediately had a crush on him. It was very interesting that by the end of the night he found his way to me and that night changed the rest of my life. I had two sensations. One was absolute, uncontrollable lust, and the other was fear.
Audra:Interesting. So he was able to control you with these two very extreme emotions because lust is most definitely an extreme emotion, as is fear, and he was able to captivate you using these two avenues, if you will, to convince you that. I'm assuming that he said he loved you, that he would take care of you and, since you had these abandonment issues, you were just hoping and wishing for a male father figure or any male figure to claim you, and he was claiming you.
Megan :Exactly yes, and this is where the intricacy of the grooming process starts. Because he was like, because I had many moments and many family members and many friends that are like, what are you doing? Even I could go, wait, what am I doing? And it was as though I couldn't get out of the grip that he had. He was over 20 years older than me. He was 42 when I was almost 19. He did not look 42. He was.
Megan :Another great attribute of someone who's good at grooming is that they're charming, and he's very charming, very good looking, and so you know, this is, yeah, it's the intricate process of grooming. Of course, that night he didn't recommend or suggest where we ended up and I was like, yeah, sure, right, it was a slow process, not all that slow, it only took a few months three to four months of really winning me over and making these adjustments in my life, like a space between me and my mom, a space between me and my closest friend, growing out of state, giving particular ideas that I was initially very against right, like stripping, and now this was years ago. Now this is far more mainstream, like right there's like only fans and sex workers are far more free in this day and age than nearly 15 years ago when this was my story, and so this was very taboo, still right, there wasn't the internet for it or anything like that. And so every time he would come up with something that to me was outlandish, like stripping Even that at the time was outlandish, absolutely not. I would never do that. Why would you think I would do that?
Megan :And there would be this sort of breakdown of my character in when I said no, right.
Megan :So there would be this breakdown of my character, his refusal to love me, his refusal to acknowledge me, to look at me, to see me, and would go days of without hearing from him. And then he would come back in and it would be like this I was suddenly released from what was like gripping anxiety from being abandoned right From. I said no to something and he refused me, he exiled me, and I would think that would be the end of it. And I would be going through this breakup process for two or three days, which was probably a little more extreme for me from my experience of abandonment from fathers, right. So it was this deep guttural pain. And then he would come back in and would love me back up, and then I would be willing to consider what he was proposing, and so this type of cycle for quite some time. It didn't take long until I was like, ok, I will just. I want him to love me so much I was willing to sacrifice myself.
Audra:So there was a cycle of punishment and then reward. When you complied with, whatever the crazy outlandish suggestion was, whereas, if I'm understanding, what you're saying is that the pain and the anguish of being abandoned or separated from this man was more than the thought. If I just comply with what he wants, because then he'll love me.
Megan :Right.
Audra:Then he'll accept me, then I will be good enough, then I can fill this hole in my soul of emptiness.
Megan :Yes, yes, and with the additional layer that he had already helped create space between me and my closest relatives and friends. So when he disappeared, I was suddenly alone, as I had began deteriorating my other relationships in order to keep my relationship with him. So, in the abandonment with him, I also found myself quite ostracized and alone, even in my other relationships.
Audra:He worked the system perfectly. Basically, the separation, the isolation and the threat of abandonment made you comply with his wishes. And this story your story of this being sex traffic, like I said in the beginning, was only the start of your journey and you had mentioned something, as you were describing this to me, of this breakdown of character, and you had mentioned also in the beginning that at 3 and 1 half years in, you started to question and started to try and find ways out. What I want to know is, when he started to break you down so completely of your character, how did you start to grip it back at 3 and 1 half years in and rebuild yourself so you had the strength to leave? Because I think that that part of your story is what you have built your success on.
Audra:Yeah, yeah I want to focus on that because that, I think, speaks so loudly of the strength of who you are, above and beyond of the situation you were in.
Megan :Yeah, yeah, oh. I love this question. It's actually having me do some of my own soul searching here, because that turning point when I decided that I would try leaving and then of course I would come back and be like, ok, never mind, I can't, and then I would do it again and then I can't. What was different at that time was one I did realize that he had a family, he was married, he had children, and this was something that I was unaware of for most of our relationship, and that piece really nailed the coffin for me is this man is not your partner, he is not your boyfriend, he is using you, he is working you. That recognition.
Megan :It was really good for me to discover that he had a full-blown family, because that pain was again I was not chosen, and so that was very debilitating.
Megan :That kind of pain was actually worse than thinking about leaving. So some of it was pain, and then the other part of it was finally listening to the whisper, which was my intuition, and my intuition had been there all of these years and it came through many, many, many messages that this was not a safe place for me, that I could go home, that I ought to go home and I pushed that voice away for many years because I cared more about his love, approval and support than that whisper. But those two things coming together, the pain of knowing that I was not chosen by him and the whisper of my intuition and that whisper was that I was his magic and not the other way around was like this repeating sort of whisper that I was here bringing my magic to him. He was not providing me with any sort of life or magic, and so pairing those two is what eventually gave me the courage, was finally listening to my intuition, which had been there all along, but eventually I decided to follow it.
Audra:So you had the strength and suddenly the awareness to choose yourself, and what I'm getting this image of is that you chose yourself a little bit at a time. You didn't just wake up one morning and say oh, I'm better than this, I'm out of here, Because you had been broken down so completely. This rebuilding had to be, I imagine, a daily task, where you had to wake up every morning and go I choose me just a little bit more.
Megan :Such a beautiful way to put it, because it was a compound effect. I did not wake up one day and go, that's it. I had many days I woke up that was like that's it, followed by another day of never mind, I'm committed, followed by Dave Okay, that's it. Followed by never mind, I'm committed to him. So it was a weaving in until eventually the I choose me outweighed. I will stay with him, for hopefully one day he'll choose me. So it was a slow process and the process it's not overnight.
Megan :There was a disillusion, there was an ego. Disillusion is, which is the same thing that got me there right, breaking me down who I thought I was and rebuild me into who I was. But discovering that I would never be with him, he would never choose me, he would never marry me, was an ego death in itself. That who I thought I was to him was not that, and so that sort of crumbling away of that identity helped me to hear my true self a little better, to hear that I could leave, to hear that there is something beyond this, to hear that he isn't my savior. A few months of that and eventually, eventually, I could leave.
Audra:Tell us about the day you left. This is probably your, your freedom day in so many different levels of freedom, but if you can remember that day clearly and describe it to us, yeah, yeah.
Megan :So it happened actually, on a night I called my mom and said I'm coming home. Thankfully I had a mother. That I did because I could always go home. She did not exile, she did not say that is a disgusting path you have taken. Never show your face. I shame you. Right? She was always wanting me to come home and so when I gave her the call I'm leaving, she drove a you haul down and in the night I packed up, or it could be early morning, but I was packing my apartment in the middle of the night and she arrived with her partner and we packed it up and left.
Megan :I could not let my the place that I was living, the condos. I couldn't let them know that I was leaving. I couldn't let all of the people who knew that I was there going. So I had to leave quite quickly without anyone knowing, because the other times that I had said that I would leave, he would come and take everything. So I had a safe of money. I couldn't put money in a bank because I didn't have a job and that sort of thing. So he would come in and take anything and everything I had and it would start me at zero, and so this had to be a very last minute, quick sort of thing.
Megan :And so, yep, they came and they drove me back to it was across states, and I spent the next probably three or four weeks on my mom's couch, ill, very, very sick, physically healing, emotionally distraught, absolutely recovering from trauma. I had to get a new phone number because if I heard from him, I was so close to going back. Every day I woke up wanting to go back, and that was even a whole nother level of my healing of how could I possibly want to go back to someone that has done this, that could do this, that still wants to do this, that will never choose me, so that, on top of what I was already healing from, it was a journey for sure.
Audra:How long do you think it took you to really heal from the inside out? Because your poor soul must have been just so hurt and feel pain all of the time, clearly, because if you still question, have I done the right thing? Should I go back? That is a soul crying out in pain. What does that process look like?
Megan :Well, had I known what was ahead, I probably wouldn't have left. That was just the first three weeks of the physical illness, of leaving that whole lifestyle and having no idea what I was going to do. I followed that up when I was in Vegas. For those four years I never drank and I never did a drug ever. He was adamantly against that and so I followed his rules.
Megan :When I came back, I ended up getting very heavy into drugs and alcohol. I ended up suicidal and spent 11 days in a mental hospital. It did a toll and leaving was easier than healing and leaving was hard. So if I knew what was in store for me. Sometimes it's just great that we don't. Sometimes it's just great that we were led to the very next step, because I don't know that I could have imagined making it through the next year and a half where it was just drowning my sorrows in drugs and alcohol and partying. It was great that I ended up in the hospital. That again was another saving grace and it was where I stopped hanging out with particular people and that's where I started my entrepreneurial journey, in the sense that I couldn't necessarily do anything within the system. So I started getting creative.
Megan :What could this look like? It was still years before I ever launched my first business, but I just got interested in my healing and my growth and what my purpose was. That was a process, absolutely a process. I still sit with plant medicine and every once in a while I have a journey that is going to reconcile and integrating those years of sexual abuse, of financial abuse. I do believe we come back to wholeness, because I truly love this experience and this story. It's very near and dear to my heart and it was a process to uncover. Why did I enjoy him, why did I choose him and then unravel how I buried that in drugs and alcohol.
Megan :I would say that the deep, deep uncovering to get back to functioning was probably a two-year process. Yeah, lots of therapy, lots of spiritual therapy, talk therapy, even, you know, physical. Like what sort of minerals was I depleted? In just a holistic view, I'd spent four years living at night and sleeping during the day, so there was so much that was off kilter for me and it was probably a two-year process. And then I met my first I say my first husband, my previous husband, and that was where a lot changed for me and I got married and we had babies, and so my commitment was to something even greater than myself. I now have these precious little babies to take care of, and so, about two years after I left that, then I met their father, and during our marriage I also did deep, intense healing, and that's when I launched my first business.
Audra:What business was it that you launched? As you and I spoke earlier, every single experience you have, that you have had, you've built upon to help launch you further, to help be a blueprint for success, whereas other people would have looked at it and said how can you come back from that? You actually thrived, after putting the pieces of your life back together and creating wholeness.
Megan :Yeah, absolutely so. The first business was a nonprofit 501c3 private preschool and it was based on Waldorf and monastery teachings, and so it originally just started. Interesting little side note is my youngest was about six months or so, maybe a little older, maybe nine months, and so she was still nursing and I had a toddler and I wanted to be out of the house. I had been married and at home for a few years and just wanted to. I loved that. But now I was feeling myself like, oh here I am, here is I'm still here even underneath all of this, and what I mean by this is I was a stay at home mom. I had been pregnant and breastfeeding for two years and I was just realizing, oh yeah, I have like new thoughts and new drives and new desires. It was like coming out of the fog, kind of like that newborn fog which was elongated for me because I got pregnant with my daughter when my son was only six months and so I decided that I'd go get a part-time job, and I did that at a preschool and I noticed two things. One I absolutely despised what they were doing in these I don't dare say the name of them, but you know they're in like the shopping centers, and they're daycare centers, and so I could take my kids there, they could go there while I worked there and it was yucky, yucky, yucky. The way that they treated children, the way that it was just set up was so mechanical and robotic, and there I was so excited to be connecting with these precious toddlers and, you know, being a part of their upbringing, and so I was disturbed. There was that aspect and then the other aspect where I went to go get my fingerprint clearance card and I was denied, and so I actually quit before they knew that, because I didn't know that.
Megan :I thought that after enough years the misdemeanors that I had would fall away, but because it was in the sex industry, it was still there and it still showed, and so of course, my heart broke. I was like, wow, here I am, so many years later, a mother of children and I'm not even like I can't even get a job or I want to get a job. And so that process was something that I went and did legally and, of course, had to write like a dissertation on why. You know, I was a good citizen now, and it also sparked that there was a better way to take care of our young children when their parents needed to leave, and so that was my first business.
Megan :It was conscious cottage, it's what it was called conscious cottage and it started as just an in-home daycare and within probably eight to nine months, I had a full-blown school house that I moved out of. We turned it into a school house where the large rooms were classrooms. I had a six-month waiting list, multiple teachers, four to five teachers at any given time, and I was living the life. I loved it. And in between that time of getting the expunge from my record starting this, my then husband gave me an ultimatum, which was this wasn't the agreement we made. I wanted a stay-at-home mom and wife, and you can't make dinner when you're working. We're gonna have to figure something else out here, and I did. I chose my intuition this time around. I listened to the intuition and so, although you know there was obviously more to our relationship than that one ultimatum for us to get to that space of an either or, and we were just no longer in love, we were no longer great partners, and so I chose my business and my kids and my intuition.
Audra:Actually, you chose you is what you said. You chose you as I did the intro in the beginning. You chose you, your freedom and never settling for mediocrity, and maybe if you had stayed married to that gentleman, you would have been in mediocrity, which is something that you didn't want to do, you didn't want to go back to.
Megan :Exactly, yeah, great point.
Audra:Yeah, you were very brave in choosing because you could have. You could have reverted back and go. Oh, feelings of abandonment, another man's leaving me or whatever she didn't. Yeah, you were strong enough to choose you.
Megan :And it was a huge choice point because he was a great financial provider. Again, I was just starting out in business. It was a baby, baby at that time and I couldn't imagine being a single mom. And yet here I was at this choice point and I see this often with my clients today is this choice point between choosing themselves or thinking that they need to do something to make their husband happy, or wait until they're kids or are older? And so it was a pivotal choice point, absolutely.
Audra:So you had this very successful business that you later sold, if I understand correctly, and you involved into something else. Was that also based on intuition? It?
Megan :was yes, yes, yes. I was called to use my intuition and I was already using my intuition and building that preschool. Because I had no college education, I had no business education. All I was doing was, anytime I had an intuitive hit, I followed it without question. I also had that beginner's look, so you know that naivety and that's such a magic, but I did start getting.
Megan :I started noticing that I didn't necessarily love the teaching aspect. I loved having a team. I loved having the schoolhouse. I loved being the go between between parents who would come and check out our facility to see if it was their fit, and I didn't know what that meant. I thought that meant I liked sales Right, like, well, I love the enrollment process of these families. And so that took me to using my intuition in sales for online businesses, and so I built a sales agency and that went to multiple six figures in probably six months or so.
Megan :It was not enjoyable, though I didn't. I didn't enjoy that at all and that, you know, the transition from that first business to the second is is magical all in itself, because it was a completely different industry. It was a completely different format of business. I was leaving a six figure career to go do something that was I had no experience in, and so I did that for a year or so and I started noticing again, just like kind of picking up on the patterns. I followed the intuition to go, but I started noticing what I enjoyed about it, which was supporting people in transformation and in choosing themselves, and so that was. You know, I let that particular business go. That was a sales agency and that's when I started intuitive business, consulting and supporting clients and building their business based on their intuition. Now, obviously, a decade in, I've got some serious business savvy skills, but what really got me there was the intuition and so, based on that, was able to start supporting people in their own businesses.
Audra:So you created an entire business, which is the business that you do now, based on your intuition, which is the intuition that saved you all those years ago in an extreme situation. Now the clients that you are dealing with are not necessarily in those extreme situations, but some of them may say that they're wanting to be saved From whatever it is. Maybe it's the chains of corporate America, maybe it's not having enough money, maybe it's all these different things, but you are teaching them to trust their intuition, because their intuition is nine times out of 10, correct. What does that look like? What's that interaction with you and your clients? When you have that meeting and you say to them trust your intuition, they look at you and go Megan, are you crazy? I don't know what I'm doing. What are you talking about? I'm coming to you because I don't know what I'm doing. How do you have that type of turnabout for your clients to start trusting themselves?
Megan :Yeah well, first, intuition is 10 out of 10, always correct. It does not fail. Now, sometimes there may be a gap in our human expectation versus intuition, but it is 100% accurate. All the time it is not. There is no crying wolf with it, because intuition is the language of source or divinity or whatever name you give. Where we came from, it is the language that is used and it's ever present.
Megan :Now, I think part of why my clients enjoy working with me so much is because I have such an unwavering confidence when it comes to intuition. It is all I have ever known where many of the people that I'm working with. They have come from corporate, and so they have their own special type of grooming as well, which I too had to de-program and relearn how to listen to intuition only instead of an outside voice. And so, although there are similarities or there's differences, there's great, great similarities and my knowing and faith and intuition is so strong. I think that really supports my clients and learning to trust it themselves. And so initially I'm sort of that conduit that is one, an example, two, showing how to access the intuition as it's flowing through, and so I'm sort of handing over the guidance that's pouring through me for them, and then during our time together, we're really working their own intuitive muscle and the only way your intuition gets stronger is by using it time and time again, by using it and following it. It is only a muscle and if we never used our bicep, it would be floppy. And when? If we use it a lot like my husband, he has a very toned bicep and it's because he uses it every single day and so my intuition is very toned because I use it every single day.
Megan :And when I start teaching my clients how to use it, usually exactly what you said comes up as like wait, what do you mean? I don't know what I'm talking about. No, I'm not asking you what are you talking about. I'm asking you what is the nudge? And then when we have that nudge, we take away the other stories, which are thoughts and programmings and emotions, and we follow that intuition right. So it really becomes a practice in following the whisper instead of the thought and instead of the emotion and other people's opinion. Most people are ran by thoughts and emotions and this is intuitive business, is a practice in knowing the difference between thought and emotion and knowing that I am not that thought and I am not that emotion and then taking action on the intuition, which usually seems illogical and irresponsible, and that's why most people don't do it.
Audra:Interesting that how you use the term grooming to explain that of this corporate grooming, and that really struck me as, oh my goodness, she's right, because in this structure you are taught not necessarily to be independent but to comply.
Megan :Yes.
Audra:And there is a give and take kind of relationship of that. And it's interesting that, as I'm thinking through this, how using your intuition is not encouraged in that situation. So no wonder you have to teach your clients how to lean into it, because they haven't used it or they haven't felt like they could trust it, right it hasn't been a reputable source.
Megan :Right, they have been told that. Okay, you need to ask for permission. You need to look at data. You need to look at the past to tell you what to do next. You need to follow the rules.
Megan :Now, intuition is the language, as I said, of source, and source resides in all things, everywhere past, present and future. And so when we're getting information from our intuition, it's taking into account our highest good, our future, our present, our past, whereas in corporate, it is play by the rules and then I will pay you, and so you don't get to go. Well, let me make this really rambunctious, illogical choice because, intuitively, I think it'll be good and keep your job right. So you go oh, I will behave. And so now that muscle is very limp and you may not even hear the whisper initially anymore. Right, it just is. I know what I need to do to survive. Corporate is one of the more insidious programings that I've seen, because it keeps people so comfortable they are miserable there, but they're too comfortable to leave and so it rinses and repeats for years and years and years and generations, and generations and generations. And so, while I had a very challenging four years in my early adult, the greatest thing that ever happened was that I was unemployable. I was unemployable.
Audra:Wow, what a mind-blowing statement you just made that you were unemployable so you couldn't go into this structure, so you had to make one your own. And you've mentioned relying on data. Well, honestly, if you had relied on data based on your very traumatic four years, you would have been a statistic.
Megan :Yes, oh, my gosh, Exactly.
Audra:If you'd relied on data, but you didn't. You relied on intuition, which, if that is not a testament to leaning into your intuition, nothing is. So if you're game, what I'd like to do is maybe do a little exercise with the audience of trying to exercise, if you will, as I say, that again, their intuition muscle. They may not have used it in a while.
Megan :Yeah.
Audra:So we're all here, we're all friends. How do we start to use this muscle again?
Megan :Okay, I'm gonna give you the most basic exercise, with a little twist at the end. That makes it for anyone who's like well, yeah, I actually I feel comfortable using my intuition. I'm gonna give a little additional step. But for me, I always start with my clients with yes or no's, right, and we're starting with yes or no's in business and we grow to like how do I price something, how do I choose a market, how do I scale to seven figures? And we start with yes or no's and then we move into those big questions, cause if we can actually master yes or no's, then we know what to offer, we know where to market, we know our ideal client avatar. All of those things are already available, as long as we can feel into our yeses and our no's.
Megan :Depending upon who I'm working with, we receive intuition in our own ways. I just have an instantaneous, knowing feeling. It's all of the above, and that is not where most people start. So you may have a physical sensation, or you may be more visual, or you may be more auditory, or it may be like a sense which I call frequency, which is kind of like a feeling. But it's not an emotion, right, it's a feeling. So I'm gonna name all of them.
Megan :But for a yes, oftentimes it feels expansive in the heart space, like, oh, I wanna take a big breath of fresh air, and it feels expansive in the heart space. Along the chest the color is oftentimes like a white light or it's yellow. You feel like you know, when someone says, hey, do you want to go get lunch, and you're really excited to go with them, you're like, yeah, it's like that sensation. That is a sensation. It could feel like butterflies in the stomach and it feels lighter. Now some people even have a smell. So I hear most often that it's more like flowers or a spring or summer day. We're talking light here. Right, it's light. It's airy, it's yellow, no, tends to be contracting. So it's tight in the chest. It feels heavy. This is a darker, cloudier look, kind of like a boulder. It's like when someone says, hey, do you want to go to this? And you feel a little bit of dread. You're like, oh Right, that would be a no and, of course, if you're auditory, you're gonna hear yes or no. Mine is more of just a sensation all around now. So, starting practicing with yeses and no's, it could even be when someone invites you to something or what do I want to have to dinner?
Megan :Here is the piece that takes it from very esoteric to grounded, which is you got to take the damn action based on the intuition. So if you feel the yes, you say yes and you follow through with it. Even when the time comes and you're like, oh gosh, actually no, I don't feel like going, you get to trace this back to oh, intuitively, I was guided that this was a yes and so I'm gonna follow through with it. Right, it's following through. That grounds it in. That's the actual work out. Otherwise, it's like looking at the gym right, okay, we can receive the intuition, but are we gonna do anything with it? It's doing something with it that strengthens it. So you start practicing with that and then you follow through, start with small things so that you can commit to it right, and actually follow through.
Megan :The harder part is that when we start using this Amazing tool in business, it oftentimes does not match numbers, it does not match analytics, it doesn't go well with data. Sometimes it does, sometimes they they cross and you're like, whoa awesome, I love that, but oftentimes it looks illogical and irresponsible Because, again, intuition is looking at all parts data and logic is based on the history. It only knows what has happened, so it can only guess that what's gonna happen is what has already Happened, and that's how people keep repeating patterns. That's why people from corporate build a business that Treats their life like they're still in a corporate job. So when we get the intuition, even when it's illogical and it's irresponsible, we still get to take it right. And now this sort of Expert level piece is when it feels Irresponsible and illogical.
Megan :What do we do with that? I spent years just plowing through it Like I will bulldoze it. I've all I've got is my intuition. I don't have a plan B, so that's all I've got, and that was a great motivating factor. However, it wasn't great for my nervous system, and so our Expert level is to know how to regulate your nervous system during Opposition, when people do not approve of your choice, when it doesn't seem like anyone agrees, can I go in and be the one that agrees with me? Can I show up for me? And this is where lots of identity dissolution Starts to happen. And this is where we learn. I am not my thoughts, I am not my emotions and I am not my programming. So that would be expert level is. You follow through with the action and then start recognizing Am I in fight, flight or freeze when I take this action that no one agrees with? And then, based on where you are in there, we start Unraveling what you have been told. And why is it so important that you stay fitting in?
Audra:So it's that, that confinement again, because I, as you were speaking, I was thinking about things that I automatically say yes to, and it's it's not even a, it's not even a conscious thought, it just yes, because it's a feeling. And then, when the time comes, I get this feeling of I don't want to do this. What, what is that? I don't want to do this. When you, when you respond with an affirmative that doesn't come out of your brain, it comes out of your soul, but then, when it comes time to doing it, you're like I don't want to do that. What is that? Is that self-doubt? Is that feeling? Is that the structure once again trying to keep you confined in in your lane? And what, what is that?
Megan :It could be any and all of those. I would say it depends on the person. It, yeah, and it depends on even what the what the yes was to, because I said yes to a few of these promotional things that I had going on that created huge visibility and I knew like, yes, this is what I want to do. It was a full body yes, and then the time came and I was sick and I didn't want to go and it was an upper limit. So sometimes it can be an upper limit, another time could be okay. This is gonna be a breakthrough for me and I feel it and actually I want to feel safe. Right, I want to go back and feel safe.
Megan :Survival mechanism keeps us surviving, not thriving, and so it's really learning how to show up again. Nervous system Regulation. When you feel the dread, there's something much deeper than just I don't feel like going. Humans aren't lazy. They also aren't anti-social, right? So if any of that is coming up like dread, that sort of thing, there's something Deeper in that goes. What is this intuitive yes leading me to? And whatever it is leading me to feels maybe bigger than me, maybe I don't have that, I don't believe I have the capacity, and so oftentimes it boils down to self-trust and Working a new habit right, like if you have Always not followed through with things and now you've got an intuitive yes and it takes a follow-through. Well, of course, it's just human nature to want to do what we're familiar with.
Audra:Because we're, we're programmed to keep ourselves safe. That that we are, it's innate. Fight or flight, it's just part of us, because that's how we've survived for for centuries is protecting ourselves.
Megan :And doesn't. Surviving and feeling comfortable just feels so good. It does feel so good and when people haven't had anything other than just the comfort and survive, they don't know what they're going toward. But I can promise that success. Sovereignty, freedom, generating your own money, knowing that you can deeply trust yourself in all situations, that is a that is a feeling far beyond comfort and survival.
Audra:But coming out of the comfort and survival is it's very challenging for people, megan this has been so eye-opening and so educational, and I also promised you that I would make sure that we ended on time, because you are back to back. So first I want to say thank you for being here with me today and being willing to share some beginning stages of reteaching ourselves how to First of all hear that quiet little voice and then start to trust it. So thank you so much for spending your time with us.
Megan :Audra, thank you so much and I love, love, love how you have led this podcast, such such great questions. I'm doing my own soul searching again. I'm like, wow, those work great, deep, just condoring questions.
Audra:Thank you, I all you. You made all of these crazy ideas jump into my head and I started. I Started leaning into a tuition and started asking crazy questions because you never know what they might lead to. Because you never know, you never want to know what might happen. I want to give you a moment for do two things. One I want to step back from the mic so you can have an intimate moment direct with the audience.
Megan :Okay, well, what do I say I?
Audra:I.
Megan :Just get to riff. Well, yeah, I mean, I'm always a stand for Trusting yourself, that you are the most trustworthy person that you can depend on, that nobody can do it for you. Of course, we have guides that can hold the lamp for us on a dark path, but ultimately no one can do it for you. Every guide is simply calling you to go in, in, in. I call it in sentient, not a sentient. You just go deeper within and you discover that you are the one that was holding all of your tools, that was holding all of your greatness that no one can call it out in you. Only you can do that, and Intuition has been my dearest, closest friend, and I know that intuition is there for every single one of you, just waiting for you to say okay, I'm here, okay, I'm listening, and it is. It is always accurate. It is always accurate. It will not lead you astray.
Audra:And if the audience is listening and they want to get in contact with you, have a conversation with you, find out more about intuitive business. How would they contact you?
Megan :Yeah, you can find me at wwwmagancamillecom. I'm on Instagram at the Megan Camille, and you can find me on Facebook too, megan Camille.
Audra:I'll make sure all the contact information is in the show notes. And, megan, thank you once again for demonstrating, one, to trust your intuition and two, that you are never, ever Just your circumstances, that you always can ascend higher Than what the hand you've been dealt. So thank you for being an amazing example of that and, once again, thank you for being here today.
Megan :Thank you.
Audra:Thank you so much, and Thank you to all of you for being here, and we'll see you again next time.