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Achievement Doesn’t Quiet the Inner Critic — It Makes It Louder
245 Plays2 months ago
We’re often told that achievement brings confidence and clarity. But what happens when success doesn’t quiet the voice in your head — it makes it louder? In this final episode of Season 1, I’m sharing the leadership decision that forced me to confront that reality, reflecting on what I learned during Season 1, and talking about what's coming up in Season 2!
At The Second Voice, we explore the inner conversations leaders rarely say out loud.
If this episode resonated, it is likely because the second voice is active in your leadership too.
Hosted by Luisa Hogan, leadership resilience strategist and founder of Vermelho Consulting.
Luisa works with founders, executives, and senior leaders who carry real responsibility and want to lead with steadiness, clarity, and self-trust under pressure.
Her work focuses on nervous system regulation, leadership identity, and the inner dialogue that shapes how leaders show up when things are hard.
Work With Luisa
If this episode sparked reflection, here are ways to go deeper:
• Leadership resilience workshops and advisory
• Keynotes and curated live experiences
• The Steady Leadership framework and private sessions
Learn more at: vermelho.com.au
Stay Connected
Follow along and join the conversation:
• Instagram: @thesecondvoicepodcast
• Instagram: @luisahoganhq
Subscribe, rate, and review The Second Voice to help more leaders find these conversations.
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Transcript
The Paradox of Success and Self-Doubt
00:00:01
Luisa Hogan
We're often told that achievement brings confidence and it brings clarity, but what happens when success doesn't actually quiet the voice inside your head about whether you should carry on or not. And in fact, it makes it even louder.
00:00:20
Luisa Hogan
Today, I'm sharing a recent business decision decision that I've made that has forced me to confront that reality And this one is very personal and I know that it's going to help many of you that face difficult leadership challenges every single day.
Unspoken Leadership Challenges
00:00:37
Luisa Hogan
Welcome to the Second Voice podcast where we uncover the conversations that leaders don't have out loud. And today I want to take you into a decision that many leaders and founders face every single day, but rarely talk about. It's a decision that people make and it quietly goes into the distance and people don't talk about it because they feel shame or embarrassment or even not sure how to broach it with people or how to talk about it.
00:01:07
Luisa Hogan
And it's the moment that pressure and expectations and inner dialogue collides and you have to decide on what comes next.
00:01:20
Luisa Hogan
But before I delve into that, I want you to think to something like when you are reading a book that you don't enjoy and have you ever carried on reading it and persisted on reading it because you think that if I just finish it, maybe I will get the point of the book or maybe it will get better as I go on and you keep reading it and reading it and you drag it out to the end and when you close the book, you think, well, I hated that book.
00:01:49
Luisa Hogan
And it's so funny how you can do that and never think to yourself, well, I'm about two chapters into this book. It's not grabbing me.
00:02:00
Luisa Hogan
I'm just going to not read it anymore. And some people do that quite easily, but others think that i' just got I've just got to get to the end And it's strange how, and when we assume that reaching the end of something will make everything clearer and people will do this in business and leadership too.
00:02:20
Luisa Hogan
If I just finished the project, then I will feel complete. If I just reached this next milestone in my business, then I'll know that I will have made it. If I just achieve this goal, i will feel confident.
00:02:34
Luisa Hogan
but it really actually happens in such a linear way. And in so such a neat way in business when you are founding businesses.
Non-linear Paths to Confidence
00:02:42
Luisa Hogan
And I have had two businesses of my own that have been so completely different.
00:02:48
Luisa Hogan
And the outcome has been so completely different for both of them that I never expected. And none of it has been linear. And funnily enough, The things that I thought would make me feel confident about that business didn't make me feel confident. And unexpected situations have made me feel confident in my other business.
00:03:10
Luisa Hogan
And I'm going to delve a little bit more into that because sometimes when something is working or is recognized or a successful, we question whether the intuition inside of us telling us that this isn't the right move for us is actually the right voice that we are listening to.
The Vermello and Whisper and Thread Journey
00:03:36
Luisa Hogan
So many of you who have known me for a long time know that I've had Vermello, my consulting practice around re resilient leadership, change management, and more recently, more focused in steady leadership for the last 10 years. And three years ago, i started a second business with my sister, Whisper and Thread. We've talked about it on this podcast a number of times about self-talk. it's all, it's all been about self-talk.
00:04:01
Luisa Hogan
And it's funny because whisper and thread has won multiple awards in the last couple of years, even though it was a brand new business, we had really great early traction at the beginning. People love the product, but then slowly over time, barriers started popping up for us. Things like, uh, us tariffs came into place and cut out about 60% of our market to enable us to sell into that market. Then um our ah courier provider, our delivery service went into administration, which effectively meant that we had to use larger courier services that doubled pretty much our postage and delivery costs.
00:04:48
Luisa Hogan
And even though those are things that in terms of strategy that you can work towards, they were roadblocks and they were pointing us, they were telling us this is not the direction that you wanna go in.
00:05:01
Luisa Hogan
And it's funny because, We could have told ourselves, but we've had so much success. We've had we've won awards, people love the product, people have been sharing our product, people have been buying. We had such early success. We could have told ourselves and kept pushing, but there was something inside of us that was saying, no, this is not the direction that we want to continue taking.
00:05:24
Luisa Hogan
Especially when it meant that for us to get our product out there, we had to start going to lifestyle markets, because a set a third thing came along, social media platforms started to block some of our content because it contained the work self word self-talk in it.
00:05:42
Luisa Hogan
And self-talk is often a word used in social media content for people who engage in self-harm. So we were effectively, our marketing was even being blocked. So we could become a lifestyle brand and slowly over a small amount of time,
00:06:00
Luisa Hogan
promote our product at markets and face-to-face pop-up stores and so forth. And we were actually on track to doing that. We had already attended markets and sold out our stock at markets, which was incredible and so rewarding.
00:06:15
Luisa Hogan
And again, making us doubt our intuition. But when we really looked into it, we knew that that wasn't the direction that we had ever intended for Whisper and Thread. we or My sister and I, who founded with me, she's been on a podcast episode with me and I i urge you to look into that one.
00:06:34
Luisa Hogan
But we have other businesses of our own. We do consulting work too. And my sister also has a construction and renovation company in ah in Portugal, which takes up a lot of her time and it's amazing.
00:06:48
Luisa Hogan
And for us to engage in building Whisper and Thread in that slow, non-e-commerce way and as a lifestyle brand was just not the direction we wanted to go in, even though we knew that strategically it might have been the way for us.
00:07:02
Luisa Hogan
to enable us to grow slowly over the next few years until we could see how tariffs panned out and what kind of courier services filled the gap for us and so forth.
00:07:13
Luisa Hogan
Just wasn't the way for us. So we made the decision to wind up that business. And it was a really difficult decision because we've poured our heart and soul into the brand. It's a beautiful brand, it's one of all, we've got lots of support for it. And people were surprised and saying, wow, like we we didn't expect you to wind that up so soon.
00:07:34
Luisa Hogan
And I know that a few people would be thinking, well, you just kind of, you know, gave up on that. But there's been so much thinking and intuition and strategic thinking behind that decision too.
00:07:47
Luisa Hogan
And that's the tension that leaders and founders sit with. This inner knowing, this inner guidance that we receive, and also assuming that success makes the path forward clearer.
00:08:04
Luisa Hogan
And it really doesn't. Success doesn't always make the path forward clearer. It muddies the water because you think, oh, well, now I'm in it, I have to keep going because people think this is a success and I have to keep doing it. Otherwise, what will people think? And there's that whole identity element wrapped up inside that too.
00:08:23
Luisa Hogan
So why does that inner critic get louder instead of quieter the more we succeed? Well, I think it's because of the reasons that I've sort of touched on. It's because it becomes our identity and we cannot let go of that identity of we look successful. This looks like an amazing brand. This looks, I look like an amazing leader and a really smart founder and so
Identity, Intuition, and Leadership
00:08:50
Luisa Hogan
forth. And now if I wind this up, if I close this and make this decision to wind this up, people are going to think that
00:08:57
Luisa Hogan
I haven't, I'm not that person. That's not my identity. And so our inner critic starts to overthink things and analyze things. And we just don't make that clean decision. So the, the decisions that leaders and founders face every day, it's really but visible.
00:09:17
Luisa Hogan
Really it's, you see such a small part of that in what we put out there and There's so much more that goes into the thinking behind growing and building businesses that you just don't know. When you start the business, you don't know if it's going to be a success, but you give it a good darn crack.
00:09:37
Luisa Hogan
And it's funny because I've got a consulting business, Vermello, that's scaling and growing and it's been operating for 10 years and it's going in a wonderful direction at the moment. And I'm so looking forward to building on that success. But even now, 10 years in, I can't tell you if in 10 years time, that business is going to be as successful as I can see it being.
00:10:00
Luisa Hogan
You just don't know. You just keep putting one foot in front of the other and you can't allow the fear to come and get you. You can't allow the fear to come and get you.
00:10:11
Luisa Hogan
So if you want to know how do leaders and founders distinguish between the voice that says, keep pushing forward on this and the quieter voice that says, okay, this chapter is complete.
00:10:24
Luisa Hogan
How do you know what the right voice is? And essentially for me, I've learned that you're dealing with three different signals in your head. The first one is intuition.
00:10:36
Luisa Hogan
The second one is you might have an emotional pattern or conditioning that you follow every time. And the third is fear. And if you wanna know the difference between, like okay, which voice am I hearing now? Is it fear, pattern, conditioning, or or ah intuition or fear?
00:10:54
Luisa Hogan
then this is what it feels like, all right? So intuition, it's often quiet, very direct, and is not emotionally charged.
00:11:04
Luisa Hogan
It doesn't have an emotion or charge to it. It's often very loving. It's not, you know, um it doesn't criticize you, it's just a fact.
00:11:15
Luisa Hogan
And it comes very quickly then it leaves. It doesn't analyze itself. It just, it comes and then it goes, all right? And an example of that might be, this is not the right way forward. And that was my intuition with Whisper and Threat. This is not the right way forward. It kept just coming in and saying that. It didn't have any emotion to it like, oh my God, this is not the right forward. What am I going to do? was just, this is not the right way forward. Another example, it could be weight. I've been having that one lately. Weight, weight. And that's with what I'm intending to do with Vermello.
00:11:49
Luisa Hogan
I'm keen to get lots of stuff going, but I'm waiting, I'm holding because there are some things that need to happen first, even though i've got excitement for things that are coming. Intuition doesn't argue with you and it doesn't try to convince you and it doesn't try to criticize you. You feel it in your body in a very neutral or steady way.
00:12:10
Luisa Hogan
It's, and sometimes it can also can be very exciting, but then you might be attaching some emotion or two. And you can listen more about this over the season with June Mack on the last episode. And she talks about intuition and she's amazing. And I urge you to follow her.
00:12:29
Luisa Hogan
But then there's an emotional pattern that you might have and it feels, that voice feels very familiar. It's a voice that you've had millions of times before in different projects, different situations, and it's very personal and it's often tied to a story that you tell yourself.
00:12:43
Luisa Hogan
And that sounds like this, this always happens to me. I'm not enough here. I'm not smart enough to do this. I'm always going to be a failure.
00:12:54
Luisa Hogan
i fail anyway. And you might have that same pattern every time that you go through a project or start a business or try and do something new, and then you give up and that's the pattern that you tell yourself. You're telling yourself to give up because of those patterns. I definitely didn't feel that with Whisper and Thread because I've had lots of successes in business over my career. and some failures, but I don't have this fear in me or this pattern in me that says, oh I'm just never going to be a successful business owner.
00:13:29
Luisa Hogan
And then the third one is fear. And that feels like, and that feels very urgent and it feels very loud and it's very future focused. And it sounds very much like What if this is the wrong decision?
00:13:49
Luisa Hogan
What if I am just not working hard enough? There's usually a what if attached to it. What will people think? Or there's urgency. If I don't figure this out now, it's not gonna ever work out for me. I need to hurry up and make a decision on this. Those are all fear-based and they usually tie to something you're afraid of what you'll look like. You're afraid of making the wrong decision. You know what fear feels like.
00:14:14
Luisa Hogan
And so when you're making a big decision, like whether I need to wrap up this business or start a new business, you need to ask yourself, are you listening to your intuition, your second voice? Are you listening to a pattern, the voice that you inherited, a story that you've inherited over many years, or are you listening to fear?
00:14:34
Luisa Hogan
And it's so funny over this whole season, today is the season for my life or season one over this whole season. I've heard founders and leaders talk about their intuition, their fears, their patterns that they've grown up with, that they've brought with them from other businesses. And it's always those three themes. And I've loved hearing those insights because truly i did not start this podcast at season one thinking I was going to wrap up one of my businesses. I felt like it was succeeding.
00:15:03
Luisa Hogan
And now comes to the end of season one, listening to all of those insights from all of those leaders and I've made the decision to wrap up Whisper and Thread with my sister. And it's it's so it's so rewarding to know that these are the challenges that leaders face every day and we are absolutely normal and we can inspire others to grow, to lead, to start new businesses, to also understand when the time is up for the business that they're in.
Intuition vs. Perseverance in Leadership
00:15:33
Luisa Hogan
So ending something that we've built is often the hardest leadership decision we will ever make because we're committed to seeing things through.
00:15:44
Luisa Hogan
We never start something thinking, I'm not going to see this to the end. And the narrative on social media says things like, if you didn't succeed with your business because you didn't work hard enough, you didn't have enough grit, you weren't strategic enough, you didn't wake up early enough, you didn't work hard enough, You didn't try hard enough.
00:16:04
Luisa Hogan
You weren't smart enough. You need to be more like Elon Musk or that's the narrative on social media. But so many solutions and frameworks out there that you see all over social media, there are so many of them, but none of them tell you how to listen to your intuition. None of them tell you how to listen to yourself during times of steadiness, how to not allow the pressure to get to you. how to not allow your stories and your identity to get in the way and for you to make a steady intuitive decision that you know in your heart is right, even though the risk is high.
00:16:47
Luisa Hogan
So that's the journey that I have been on over this whole season. It's been wonderful starting this podcast and Sometimes a leader or a founder makes a decision that comes to a shock to everyone else observing from the outside and we celebrate perseverance and grit in leadership, but we don't talk about steady leadership required to recognize when momentum alone is not good enough reason to continue something.
00:17:18
Luisa Hogan
And I'm here for it. I'm here to talk through that. It's, it's, It's the truth of running business and people don't talk about it enough because the real work in those moments isn't the decision itself, but the conversation that you have with yourself before anyone else sees that decision.
00:17:36
Luisa Hogan
That is the important work, the steady, calm decision that you can make.
Future Directions and Themes
00:17:44
Luisa Hogan
So as I said, this is the end of season one of this podcast. It's been wonderful. And season two of this podcast, I have so many amazing guests lined up. I can't believe I keep getting these incredible guests coming to join me.
00:17:56
Luisa Hogan
But we are going to explore a little bit more about the hidden inner dialogues that shape steady leadership. And I can't wait to delve into that more. My work is all about steady leadership and self-talk, and I'm committed to helping leaders find their steadiness and their resilience through times of pressure and change.
00:18:17
Luisa Hogan
And while season one has been an eye-opener, season two is going to delve into the way our inner voice shapes our steadiness. And I can't wait to share that with you. So if leadership is decided defined by the decisions that we make under pressure, then the real story is really what the world sees.
00:18:42
Luisa Hogan
It's that second voice that we listen to along the way. And I know that this whole season has shown you that with all of our guests. And thank you for joining me through season one. If you've been here for every single episode, I am so So grateful for you.
00:18:56
Luisa Hogan
Please make sure that you like and subscribe and share this content because it definitely helps with our reach. And I will see you in season two. And the final note is if you want to hear from a guest or you think you would be a great guest on this podcast, head over to www.thesecondvoicepodcast.com and you can apply there or ask the person that you want to hear on this podcast to apply there.
00:19:23
Luisa Hogan
I'd love to hear from more guests. I love talking to leaders and founders out there and listening to their journeys and what their inner voice and their steadiness, how it brought them to where they are today.
00:19:36
Luisa Hogan
Enjoy the break and I will see you in April for season two. Take care.