The Adam Feuerstein Podcast
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The Adam Feuerstein Podcast
Purpose, Partnership, and the Power of Emotion in Business Decisions
What drives the best business decisions — logic or emotion?
In this episode, Adam and Michelle explore how purpose, partnership, and emotional awareness shape the way we lead. They open up about the challenges of building as a couple, what happens when ideas don’t land, and how emotional clarity unlocks trust and action.
For founders chasing both freedom and impact, this is a conversation worth hearing.
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There's always something relative in a partnership, meaning she has an idea. We have this whole plan, all these projects going on. It's all wonderful, it's all perfectly harmonious and moving at exactly the pace I predicted, figuring out that she's coming to the table with this idea from a different perspective. Different and wrong are not the same thing. Different perspective on how to get to where we want to go, yeah, and to go one step further.
Speaker 1:You have the opportunity to fulfill a purpose If you've been fortunate enough to even know and not everybody knows what their purpose is. But if you believe that you have a purpose, if you believe even further to take it all the way to conclusion, the Creator put you here specifically for that purpose. Not in every case, of course, but in so many cases. Becoming an entrepreneur helps you fulfill that. You sure as hell have the freedom to fulfill that. But there's something else.
Speaker 1:We talk about success. We've said it earlier, about money impact. But there's something more personal than that. Let's say you have a purpose. Let's say you agree with our personal philosophy that God is our creator, whichever God you choose to believe in, and that he creates you with a purpose. Imagine the personal reward. This justifies that reward I was talking about earlier, for when you stick it out through the struggles and figure out a way to get there, like the personal reward way beyond balance sheets and profit and loss reports that you found and have at least even begun to fulfill that purpose and how the world changes around you.
Speaker 1:When you're in pursuit of that purpose. You don't have to be a billionaire to be successful, you don't have to be a millionaire to be successful. You don't have to champion your purpose, your goal, whatever it is for it to matter, it's the pursuit, this first step that oftentimes is really the most rewarding the decision, the overcoming of fear to go and pursue it. And I know for me and I'm about to ask Michelle the same thing that when I do that, when I'm engaged in the pursuit of my purpose, we may argue, we may not agree on this or that, but in the end, just that feeling that this is what I'm here for. I'm doing what's right for me, not what somebody else said is right for everybody, but for me, because this is why I was put here You're going to find the courage. That's the source of energy that moves you through the hard times, and you and I have done that a million times.
Speaker 1:I think, and we'll probably do it a million more times.
Speaker 2:I remember thinking about that a lot when I was a kid what's my purpose? What am I supposed to do with my life? And I think a lot of people go through that, especially people that are a little bit younger, and thinking that it's just like they've got to dial in on this one thing and when they're waiting for it to pop up and it'd be like this voice that comes out of nowhere that says you're supposed to do this. But purpose isn't about finding the one thing. It's about the pursuit of it. It's about making a decision to try something and going down that road and then seeing where it leads.
Speaker 2:Eventually, you might find that one thing right, but probably more likely is that you'll find a lot of different things that fulfills what is your purpose, and a lot of times what you'll see is that your underlying purpose is, throughout those different things that we do, but it's just making a choice to follow your heart and for the places you're being called to go, instead of being afraid and staying stuck and not making a decision to go.
Speaker 2:Instead of being afraid and staying stuck and not making a decision. The worst thing you can do is just be stuck, and it's so hard sometimes because you weigh out all the pros and cons. Should you do this or should you do this? If I do this, there's X, y and Z, and if I do this, then there's these other things, and they all could go wrong. I just don't know what to do, and so you end up staying stuck and you don't get to pursue anything. You know exactly where your life is going to go if you continue staying in the same place that you are right now. So you just have to make a choice.
Speaker 1:And that's where I think emotion plays a part. Choices are half chance period. I just believe it. Somebody wants to prove your own power to you, but they are. And the reason why they are is because we don't know the future. Right, I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. What's going to happen five minutes from now. How do I make a choice? Some are obvious, right, like just don't jump in front of moving cars, you'll live longer Obvious. What we're talking about is something more strategic than that, something slightly more complicated. But that's where sometimes, I think emotional plays in.
Speaker 1:I'm not talking about radical emotions freaking out, making some knee-jerk decision. What I'm talking about is listening to our emotional state, listening to our heart. That's oftentimes where God's message is coming from. So when you're battling this decision and you're really battling fear you're almost never actually battling a decision You're battling your fear of it or of making the wrong decision or the outcome. But that's where we can tune in, get that gut feeling that deep down. That's an emotion too. It's not analytical data. That gut feeling inside of you, that voice in the back of your head that speaks to you emotionally and can have a huge part in how you make these decisions moving forward, and that's oftentimes what you and I have to do. Sometimes we have so much emotion around and we've got to work through that to get to the point not to isolate ourselves from the emotional part, but to isolate the static and the fear and get down to the emotional message that's most important.
Speaker 2:And sometimes that is hard to do. Sometimes it's hard to differentiate between what's fear and what's real.
Speaker 1:You have such a talent for doing that with people with me, of course, and our family, but also people within our company and outside of our company too. People love to tell you what those emotions are, and your response is always so helpful. It's like this okay, let's organize this and then we'll unpack it.
Speaker 2:So I think it's just giving people the space to say what their truth is, without judgment. I don't think we give each other the opportunity to do that. Very often, most people that you talk to and ask for advice or wisdom, they'll tell you what they think you should do, and that's likely not what you need to hear. You need someone that will listen without judgment so that you can speak what's true for you. That's the only way you can ask for other people's advice, but likely their life isn't the same as yours and their purpose isn't the same as yours. So they may give you the wisdom that they have, but ultimately it comes down to you discovering what that truth is. Learning from other people, of course, but making this decision on your own, because it's going to be your responsibility in the end, not someone else's. That's empowering too.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and we do those things differently between men and women. Typically, too, men look at things very differently than women do, even in business, even in something that seems so rigid or so process oriented. And just another one of the things that I watch you, that I've seen you master over the years, is like you're liberated female perspective like on things and how you bring that to the table with so much energy and power, but it's never intimidating to the people you're talking to. It's incredible to watch you do that, not just in business and family, but outside of that. Like you, in this game there are not as many women as men and you bring this element of not being a female, trying to emulate the masculine right. But no, I'm a woman, I'm liberated, I have a deep understanding of myself, and you bring that to the table with some of the other things that you're doing.
Speaker 2:I think what women need to understand is that you don't have to be a man or act like a man in business.
Speaker 2:It's about really understanding and valuing the gifts that women bring and that feminine perspective brings, because a lot of times when you work with men, make a choice and move forward and process very goal-driven, women are a lot more emotional and we think about all the different pros and cons and we're able to process everything that's going on, which sometimes that makes it difficult to make a choice.
Speaker 2:But what's incredible about being in a partnership with a man, whether it's your partner or just working with other men is that you have two sides of the perspective One that's ready to make a decision with all of the information. That's what's so incredible about husband and wife working together is that the feminine can bring in all the different sides of every single decision, which is sometimes overwhelming, but it's something that maybe you wouldn't have thought of, and so then you're able to say let's take all this information and make a decision. It's very empowering to be a woman in business, because we do think of things differently and we need men in our life and in our business to work with and to do life with. It just makes everything go much smoother.
Speaker 1:That's how it's designed too. We each bring different attributes to the table right, different ways to execute, to move things down the road. Where it gets messy is trying to decide which one you use in any given moment, but eventually you find rhythm through that. I think part of that is just practice. You have to try it.
Speaker 1:You said stuff to me and I'm like I don't know what the fuck she's thinking Like. If I wrote down on a piece of paper and read it to myself, I'd be like what drugs have I been doing? But the reason it's so confusing to me is because I haven't figured out how she's connected it to the situation that we're in and the outcome that we both want. There's always something relative in a partnership, meaning she has an idea, hits me with it. We have this whole plan, we have all these projects going on. It's all wonderful, it's all perfectly harmonious and moving at exactly the pace I predicted. And now you're saying something that I can't make sense of, because I don't understand how it connects to the endgame. We always have the same endgame in mind, and so some people say that's tolerance. It's not tolerance, it's putting your ego aside, paying attention and I don't have this mastered and figuring out that she's coming to the table with this idea from a different perspective Different and wrong are not the same thing A different perspective on how to get to where we want to go. So, then, the gears need to shift from frustration or resistance which, trust me, every man listening to this knows exactly what I'm talking about when they're presented with an idea from a woman that they resist. The truth is, it should be explored. So, when those things come up, it's about trusting her instinct, trusting that she has the same end game in mind, and so, therefore, it's my job to try to explore what happens more time, often than not, when we do this peacefully, without arguing, it's that approach.
Speaker 1:She comes to me with something she doesn't find radical. I find it radical, so there's grounds for conflict. You move past that and explore why is this happening? What is your thinking behind this? Again, with a masculine, build the stage for her to dance on, build the opportunity for her to explain and accept the fact that you may not have a clue what she's talking about until you explore it, and then you find out. There's a different way to get there, and in many cases, it's a way you didn't think of and a way that is better than perhaps, no matter how well we planned, that we had thought of originally. The other thing to remember too Depending on your business you likely serve men and women. It's incredibly valuable to have both perspectives. When you're designing a company that's giving or selling a product to both men and women, they're going to see it differently, they're going to feel it differently. They're going to make it two different, a lot of times diametrically opposite conclusions because of an emotion tied to that decision decisions because of an emotion tied to that decision.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I think the feminine in relationship, especially when you're in business, has to be patient and understand that a lot of times your idea. I know things. When I explain to you sometimes things I'm thinking of, you don't get it and you completely tune me out, which then usually makes me angry. But I'm also learning that sometimes I have to give it more time and maybe really try to explain it in a few different types of ways so that I can bring you into what I'm trying to communicate.
Speaker 2:It is probably abstract. It doesn't make sense on how it all connects. Learning to be patient with the information that I'm sharing has helped, and learning to make sure that you're in a good space to receive that. Sometimes I think what women do and I know that I'm guilty of this is just bring something when it's not really a good space and time to bring something up. And so for us I know that it works a lot better if we're in a space where I say I need to talk about this, if I have this idea, I'd like to run by you and then your mind is clear, you're not focusing on a bunch of different things, and then we can talk through something through all of the details, and that's received a whole lot better. That's just one little thing that helps us work better together.
Speaker 1:Because I love to make decisions and I'm never afraid to make decisions. To me, a decision made is a step forward, Even if we later find out for whatever reason, or label that as the wrong decision. At least you made the choice. Make the decision, move the thing along. Let's go.