Episode 2: The Anti-Shoulds: Breaking the Rules You Never Agreed To
People say there are a lot of rules in business.
Post more. Charge less. Work harder. Be visible. Do everything yourself. Know what you’re doing. Be grateful. Be further ahead.
Some of them may be useful. Many of them help us get started.
But some of them become something else.
This episode of the Full of Ourselves podcast explores what happens when business advice stops being helpful and starts becoming pressure. Because alongside all the practical advice available to women building businesses, there are often quieter expectations underneath it all. Expectations around being accommodating, being productive, being available, being successful and making sure nobody feels uncomfortable in the process.
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In this conversation, Anna Campbell and Heidi Hinda Chadwick explore what they call the anti-shoulds: the business rules and expectations many women absorb without ever consciously choosing them.
The episode begins with a question that shaped the whole conversation.
How many of the things women think they should do in business are strategy…
And how many are socially conditioned obedience dressed up as strategy?
From there, the conversation moves through some of the most common and persistent shoulds women experience.
The idea that women should be accommodating and endlessly available.
The belief that because it is your business, you should be able to do everything yourself.
The pressure to constantly prove yourself, justify yourself and demonstrate that you deserve success.
The feeling that you should already be further along.
And the expectation that women should stay affordable, reasonable and not ask for too much.
Rather than offering another set of rules, this episode asks different questions.
What if being thoughtful is different from being accommodating?
What if capability is not the same thing as capacity?
What if proving yourself has no finish line?
What if growth is happening even when it doesn’t look visible?
And what if pricing isn’t simply about money but about permission, sustainability and valuing what you bring?
One of the themes running through the conversation is choice.
Because ‘shoulds often’ remove our agency. They tell us there is one right way to build a business, one pace of growth, one personality type that succeeds and one acceptable relationship with money.
But the reality is more nuanced than that.
Businesses happen in seasons.
People change.
Success looks different to different people.
And perhaps building something sustainable means becoming more intentional about which rules are consciously chosen and which have simply been inherited.
This is a conversation about ambition, boundaries, identity, money and questioning expectations.
But underneath all of that sits one simple question:
Do you actually want this…
Or do you just think you should?
Listen to the full episode wherever you get your podcasts.
useful links
More info - the podcast
Follow us on Instagram @fullofourselvespodcast
Connect with Anna Campbell
https://www.goodgirlrebellion.com/
Instagram @annaccampbell
Anna’s book Good Girl Rebellion: Build the Business, Break the Rules, Be Limitless.
https://www.goodgirlrebellion.com/ggr-book
Connect with Heidi Hinda Chadwick
https://www.heidihindachadwick.com/
Instagram @heidihinda
Book: https://www.lemonjellypress.com/shop/p/the-story-of-the-deer-woman
To stay up to date with Heidi's book launch events: https://heidihinda.substack.com/
Thank you for listening. We hope you have enjoyed it. If you have, please do like and subscribe on your favourite podcast platform. This really helps us get the word out. And do tell everyone you know!
Also, we would LOVE to guest on podcasts and speak on stages all about women entrepreneurs. Get in touch! hello.fullofourselves@gmail.com