“My cycles are my compass” with Morin Glimmer
Do your thing · Episode 7 · Hosted by Fliss Lee
Cyclical living, menstrual cycle planning and working with your energy in business
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When Morín Glimmer told me that she plans her work around her menstrual cycle, I was immediately interested to know more.
I'm already a big believer in understanding your own energy and working with it rather than expecting yourself to perform the same way every day. But I'd never really thought about what my cycle might be telling me.
Morín is a brand strategist, creative director, cyclical living advocate and founder of Rosy Futures.
We talk about what cyclical living actually looks like in practice, how Morín plans different types of work around different phases of her cycle, and why her cycle goes into her calendar before almost anything else.
We also get into creativity, capacity and burnout, why constant output doesn't work for us, and Morín's belief that our bodies are a missing piece in business strategy.
And if you don't menstruate, don't skip this one. There’s plenty in here about noticing your own patterns, energy and capacity – and questioning the expectation that we should work at the same pace all the time.
What you’ll learn in this episode
What cyclical living looks like and how Morín plans her work around her menstrual cycle
How noticing patterns in your energy and capacity can change the way you work
Why your body might be something worth considering when you plan your business
Listen to the episode
Find it on your chosen podcast player here.
About Morín Glimmer
Morín Glimmer is a brand strategist, creative director and cyclical living advocate, and founder of Rosy Futures – a brand consultancy for the radically hopeful.
She works at the intersection of business, brand and body, partnering with feminist founders and small business owners to build brands rooted in their values, vision and own ways of working.
Episode links
Follow Morin on Instagram: @rosy.futures
Connect with her on Linkedin
Visit the Rosy Futures website
Download Morin’s free cycle tracker here
Mentioned in this episode
The inner seasons
Morín uses the idea of ‘inner seasons’ to understand the different phases of her menstrual cycle and what she needs from each one.
Inner winter – her menstrual phase. A time for rest, reflection and big-picture thinking.
Inner spring – her follicular phase. Her energy starts to return and she feels more creative and experimental.
Inner summer – her ovulatory phase. Morín calls this her ‘big yes energy’, when she feels more sociable, communicative and comfortable being visible.
Inner autumn – her luteal phase. Her energy begins to decrease, but she finds her analytical thinking is stronger and likes to use this time for long-form writing and brand strategy.
Morín is clear that this is how her cycle tends to work, rather than a formula everyone should follow. The important bit is noticing your own patterns.
To begin this work, download Morin’s free cycle tracker.
You might also like
If Morín's thoughts on working with your capacity rather than constantly pushing through resonate, listen to my conversation with Jo Hooper about boundaries, burnout and putting yourself first in your business.
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Chapters
00:00 – Meet Morín Glimmer
03:01 – What working cyclically actually looks like
05:41 – You don't have the same capacity every day
08:02 – When Morín stopped seeing her cycle as a weakness
10:17 – Discovering her ‘inner seasons’
11:54 – The four phases of the menstrual cycle
17:37 – How to spot your own patterns
19:44 – Putting your cycle in the calendar first
21:48 – Planning client work around your cycle
23:38 – We're not machines
25:14 – Creativity, rest and constant output
27:21 – How cyclical living changed Morín's business
29:20 – “My cycles are my compass”
31:22 – Finding her voice
33:45 – Business, brand and body
35:15 – Your body is your capacity reservoir
37:40 – What if you don't menstruate?
42:29 – Spotting the cycles in your business
46:30 – Why do you work the way you do?
47:08 – Stop fighting your body
Transcript
Fliss (00:01)
Maren, thank you so much for joining me today. I'd really love to have a little intro for those people who don't know you, kind of an intro into your work and your world.
Morín (00:14)
Thank you so much for inviting me. really happy to be here. So I'm Morin. I'm a brand strategist, creative director and cyclical living advocate. I founded Rosie Futures, a brand consultancy for the Radically Hopeful. Actually, I'm actually toying with the title Identity Architect because it's a bit pretentious, I know, but it kind of sums up what it all comes down to.
how you shape your brand in the context of your business, your industry, and like the cultural context as well. So I work with...
I work with, hang on. I'm gonna start it all again, okay? Waving at you for the edit.
Fliss (01:02)
Hehehehehe
Morín (01:10)
Like, it's the hardest thing to start with. Okay.
Fliss (01:13)
Yeah, really.
And don't you think because what we do is help people say, like, talk about what they do. It's like the pressure gets to you and then you don't say it properly. Yeah. Yeah.
Morín (01:21)
God, yes. Yeah, absolutely. Okay.
So I'm going to start again. Thank you so much for inviting me. Such a pleasure to be here. So I'm Morin. I'm a brand strategist, creative director and cyclical living advocate. I founded Rosie Futures. It's a brand consultancy for the radically hopeful. I'm toying with the title identity architect. Yes, I know it's little bit pretentious, but a lot, but
I like that it kind of boils down to what it all comes down to, how you shape your brand in a context of your business industry and obviously the cultural context as well. I work at the intersection of business brand and body, partnering with feminist founders and small business owners to root their brand in values, vision and cyclical livings so they can...
build visibility, power and cultural change on their own terms. Because at the core of my work is the belief that when more people and when more women and non-binary people, I'll start that one again. At the core of my work is the belief that ⁓ when more women and non-binary people build businesses on their terms,
Fliss (02:25)
Hmm.
Morín (02:47)
we move closer to the world that we want to live in, which is safer, fairer, a feminist world. Yeah, that's the gist of it.
Fliss (02:57)
Yeah, I think everyone sort of understands why you're here. It's so relevant. So you're someone who's really carved out your own way of working. So I'd really love to know what that looks like you right now.
Morín (03:01)
Hehehehe
So I, I mean, I assume you're talking about cyclical living, so that's what I'm going to answer. ⁓ I plan my work based on ⁓ the phases of my menstrual cycle. For example, right now, I'm in my inner summer. This is the ovulatory phase. So it's when I do more socializing and engaging and
Fliss (03:17)
Okay.
Morín (03:41)
I guess I'm bolder in my marketing. ⁓ It's when the inner critic voice is the quietest for me. I guess that's the result of it. ⁓ Next week, I'm going to transition into my inner autumn. for me, that's the optimal time for long form writing, for example. ⁓
What else? I don't do any client facing work during my bleed. And I also give myself quite a big flexible window around that time as well. So I can shift things around if I need to. ⁓
Let me think what else. ⁓ Yeah, with client work, it's a little bit more complicated because there are other people involved. ⁓
It can get intense as well. So it's more demanding, but really my rule is just not to do any client facing work, like calls, workshops, presentations, et cetera, when I'm on my bleed. ⁓ And yeah, since I started being very open also about my cycle and actively choosing to live cyclically, I've not had any negative response.
about needing flexibility. And the other side of it is also true. If somebody needs to reschedule, I honestly don't care. I totally get it. Like, you know, if that's what you need, that's what you need. And yeah, it's usually the opposite, actually. People want to learn how they can integrate their own rhythm into their work and, you know, just life in general. And I know that not everyone is in position to be very flexible.
Fliss (05:36)
Hmm.
Morín (05:41)
But I do believe that when you accept the fact that your nature is cyclical, that you don't have the same capacity and energy every single day or every week, you keep changing. It's not a fixed thing. Then you find more self-compassion. And it's that shift in your mindset that takes a big chunk of the, you know,
It takes a big chunk of the load off. Does that make sense? Yeah.
Fliss (06:16)
Yeah, yeah, so
like when you said about the self-compassion there, I think we spend so much time often almost berating ourselves, oh, I should be able to do, you should be able to do this, you know. And actually when we have a bit more self-compassion for ourselves, you stop doing that, don't you?
Morín (06:26)
Yeah.
Yes, you do. And the deeper layer is to ask yourself why on both ends? Like, why am I berating myself? Why do I believe that I need to do something a certain way? And also, why do I feel like I can't do it? What is what is actually happening right now? Yeah, just be curious. Exactly. Yeah. And it's something that
Fliss (07:01)
What do I need? Yeah.
Morín (07:07)
⁓ we don't ask ourselves like it's not just what do you what do I need it's also what do I want and I think particularly for women it's a question that we don't fully know how to answer or even ask
Fliss (07:25)
I we've not been necessarily taught to ask that question, have we? When you start asking that question, it brings up so much stuff. I notice my energy shift from season to season. So like in winter, I like it to be slower. Obviously the days are shorter. I don't have as much energy. I love the idea of working shorter days in winter.
Morín (07:30)
Exactly.
Fliss (07:51)
quite nailed that yet. But it's something I've noticed. But when did you first start noticing the link between your energy and how you work in different ways?
Morín (08:02)
So that's the thing, it's always been present, ⁓ but I always viewed it as a flaw. I would say, I would use language like, I'm having my weak week now. I'm not at my best. It's like there's a standard that you need to keep all the time. ⁓ And I've tried so many things to...
Okay, so I have PMDD ⁓ and I didn't even know it was a thing in the world ⁓ up until about a year ago. And I tried many things to try and help me with really painful periods and very, very heavy bleeds. And the thing with...
I'll try and be very careful with what I say because ⁓ it's not a black and white situation. It's not either or, it's and. That's like the framing of what I'm going to say now. So I find that conventional medicine only treats symptoms. It doesn't treat the root cause.
Fliss (09:05)
Hmm.
Yeah, I agree.
Morín (09:23)
And there are many
reasons for that, we're not gonna get into it, but that's the reality that I've experienced. And there are things that are offered that just like, I didn't want an IUD for example, because I don't want a foreign object in my body. Or I don't think it's a responsible...
suggestion to send, you know, women in pain or menstruating people in pain to go have babies to alleviate the pain. that makes zero sense to me. Yes. And so about a year ago, I met Rosanna Jones. She's a menstrual cycle educator and coach and
Fliss (10:01)
Yes! ⁓
Mmm.
Morín (10:17)
I her course, it was a no-brainer for me. And that changed, really changed everything. ⁓
yeah she also okay it changed everything for me and introduced me also to other practitioners that ⁓ I worked with so the thing that made everything click for me was the concept of the inner seasons because it's it's the thing that finally made me understand on every level that my body is cyclical and so is nature and so is everything
It's like an epiphany moment. It's something that is so evident, but until you connect the dots for yourself in a very clear way, you just don't see it. So it became clear to me that the phases of the cycle mirror the seasons of nature. it's so easy to understand the shifts that way. It was the biggest permission slip.
Fliss (11:05)
Mmm.
Morín (11:25)
to stop fighting against my body and fully embrace the facts that I menstruate. Yeah. Hmm.
Fliss (11:32)
Wow. So
it sounds like that was kind of, you ⁓ suddenly allowed yourself to work in different ways. How did that really impact how you approach your work then?
Morín (11:40)
Yes.
Hmm. ⁓
Fliss (11:54)
I know you've touched on this, like you do different things every week, but did it help you understand that you had different ⁓ skills from week to week?
Morín (11:58)
Yes.
Yes, absolutely.
So I can give like a little overview of the inner seasons. Maybe that's going to be helpful. the menstrual phase when you bleed is your inner winter. So when we bleed, our bodies work really hard. It's not just a bit of blood. It's a full body workout. And it makes us tired.
Fliss (12:16)
Yeah, it'll really interesting.
Morín (12:35)
And our energy is naturally low. if you're fighting against it, of course you're going to have, you know, various symptoms and you're going to be even more exhausted. It's the time when we need deep rest and it's a brilliant time to reflect because this is when our wisdom and intuition are heightened. So I usually take two days off on my heavier bleed days. And, you know, if I...
If I need to work a weekend to make up for those two days, I don't mind because I'm letting my body rest. know? So it's like, it's a relationship, isn't it? It's So for me during my bleed or my inner winter, I have big picture ideas around this time. So I enjoy journaling the most around this phase as well. And
Fliss (13:33)
Okay.
Morín (13:34)
I note things down, but I don't take any action. That's for the next phase, which is your follicular phase, your inner spring. And usually this is when energy begins to return. And sometimes I get like the day after my bleed that can be a day like I can squeeze a whole week into one day because I have like this huge, yes, I can do this energy. And yeah, it's like, just give it to me, I'll do it.
Fliss (13:57)
Wow.
Wow.
Morín (14:03)
Yeah. ⁓ And it's when I'm most creative and I kind of can't wait to start plotting all of my ideas. And it's the experimental phase for me as well. Like I'm curious to see what happens. there's no, I'm not as attached to results. It's more like, hmm, let's see what we can do. And like, you know, like in spring, it's a great time to plant seeds and start projects.
And the next phase is the ovulatory phase. So that's your inner summer. And I call this phase big yes energy. It's usually when ⁓ I'm most sociable and my communication skills are at their best. Hence why we're recording this episode today, because I'm around my ovulation. ⁓ This is a perfect time for being visible. I find that, I think I mentioned before, I find that I'm much braver with my marketing around this time.
Fliss (15:00)
Hmm.
Morín (15:02)
And the last phase is the luteal phase, which is your inner autumn. And for me, this was when I used to get the worst PMDD symptoms. But now I recognize if there's any kind of out of character, in a critic voice as something that is basically a signal for me, oh, there's something you need to pay attention to. And then I slow myself down. This is the phase where energy decreases and
But ⁓ focus on analytical thinking peaks, meaning the inner critic gets louder, but also you get profound insights. And that's why I like to do most of my long form writing around this time. And it's a great time for writing brand strategies as well. ⁓ Yes, yes. ⁓ I do want to point out though, ⁓ what I just described is a typical cycle for me.
Fliss (15:52)
Excellent.
Morín (16:01)
It might not look the same for you or any of your listeners. And it also might not look the same ⁓ from cycle to cycle. It really depends on what else is going on. Also what season it is. And the key really is to practice listening. If you take anything from our talk today, listen to your body. Listen to your body, yes.
Fliss (16:19)
Okay.
Listen to you, Roddy.
Yeah, so if it differs for different people, are there kind of some similarity? Obviously, are like certain weeks you're tireder and some we have more energy, but is it a case of kind of understanding that and then working out what your kind of, how it affects you differently?
Morín (16:47)
Exactly.
Yes. So this is a general guide. Like think about the seasons of nature, right? What you want to do in winter is hibernate. And that's your bleed as well. So you want to kind of cocoon, hibernate, nest. That's a really good guide to what happens in nature also happens in your body. Yeah. And then you just find out the specifics for yourself.
Fliss (17:06)
Okay.
Yeah, so like, you kind of listen to your body and journal and work out what you kind of, what you're best at in those times, what you need, you know. As I said, like, I want to work a certain way in winter. I guess it's the same thing, isn't it? But kind of on a shorter time frame.
Morín (17:14)
Yeah.
Yes.
Yes, absolutely.
Yes, exactly. Absolutely. And you just shift things around. mean, you have to first get to know yourself really well. It all comes down to that. So I track my cycle pen to paper. And it's only when I started doing that, after a few months, I noticed patterns emerge and I could see visually see it.
Fliss (17:37)
Yeah.
Morín (18:04)
there's a correlation between things I'm experiencing and where I am on my cycle. And if I didn't do that, I would never have connected the dots and...
This is probably the best way to understand where your strengths lie in each phase and then lean into them. Because that's, I feel like this is the summary of what really happens when you start tracking your cycle and be more attuned to it and live cyclically is that you move from a scarcity mindset to one that's more...
I think it's called growth mindset. instead of like, no, why can't I do this? Why is this happening to me? You become more curious and you say, ⁓ so this is kind of like my window to do this specific thing because my skills are best around this time. So you lean into your strengths instead of wallowing about what you can't do right now.
Fliss (19:15)
Yeah, and trying to make yourself do something that's just not your skill right now, which we all do. We all do. Yeah. my God, I'm so fascinated to understand how you go about like scheduling things then, because obviously if you're working on a, we'll say roughly four week schedule, how do you...
Morín (19:20)
Exactly, yes. Yeah, exactly, yes.
Fliss (19:44)
So many questions. How do you?
Morín (19:45)
Okay, no, that's
how to do it. It's an experiment. I don't have it nailed down. It's not about perfection. It's about flexibility and thinking what else, how can I do things differently to make it better for myself and my clients as well? So I'm...
Fliss (19:49)
Yeah.
Hmm.
Yeah, yeah.
Morín (20:11)
I'm someone who's like, really like stationery, like notebook stickers and everything. So I enjoy doing this pen to paper and stickers and you know, and anything that's ⁓ beautifully designed. So here on my wall, I have a yearly calendar. I use this for planning. The first thing I plan is I do it six months in advance when I'm supposed to get my bleed. That goes in first.
And then everything else builds around that. And I do it only six months in advance because cycles change. I'm also in perimenopause, so my cycle changes more often. ⁓ And I would put in, you you start with this and then put in important dates, and then you have sort of a framework to work with. So I work on a yearly level, then a monthly level, and then a weekly and a daily.
Fliss (20:48)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Morín (21:09)
It sounds complicated, but once you kind of play around with it for a few weeks, you know yourself what works best for you. I know, for example, on Mondays, I don't enjoy doing client work. I need to ease myself into the week. So I do enjoy working on my business that day. So that's what I do. And by Tuesday, I'm like,
Fliss (21:18)
Mmm. Mmm.
Morín (21:38)
Let's go energy usually so like Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday are my client work days and then Friday is everything else. Does that make sense? Okay.
Fliss (21:48)
Yes, that's how I
work and I'm really interested to see how it might fit to my cycle. So do you plan like client projects, like brand strategy projects? you, have you structured how you, the kind of the structure of how you do them around your cycle? ⁓ wow.
Morín (21:57)
Yes.
Yes. So.
I'm experimenting now with.
Okay, one of the things I learned doing this is that I enjoy working in sprints. I don't like really prolonged projects unless it's a collaboration, which is a completely different story. ⁓ I am now experimenting. So I keep improving how I work and I'm now experimenting with doing brand strategy in a two week sprint. It's really intense, but it's doable and
the things that take longer, I try to simplify. hopefully, I don't know, in a year's time, I'll be able to tell you, yes, I've nailed it. ⁓ But yeah, I wouldn't take a project. I wouldn't start a project on my bleed because I just, I know I can't do it. I can't do it. This is me, I can't do it. Give me the three, four days to not start the project. I can think about it. I can't do it. It's a different, I need to be.
Fliss (23:10)
Yeah, you need to be energised,
don't you? Yeah.
Morín (23:13)
Yeah, but I need
to be that's that's the difference between the two kind of main energies, there's one of being there's one of doing
Fliss (23:23)
That's so interesting. And your clients, ⁓ you've mentioned that you work with a lot of ⁓ female-led businesses. How do they, you know, I bet they welcome this kind of way of working, don't they?
Morín (23:38)
Yes,
yes, yes, absolutely. I also have a new offer coming out now about helping you plan your brand visibility around your cycle. So this is, I think this is the thing that people want ⁓ the most for me to talk about. So I just created an offer for it. ⁓ Yes, the answer is yes. Of course, of course they're interested because it...
It frees you, even if just your way of thinking, it frees you from all of those inherited limiting beliefs and, you know, business as usual ⁓ that is not designed for us. you know, like the workforce in general is built on the notion ⁓
that we kind of have to put in all the hours of the day, every day, every week. And these ideas come from the industrial revolution. They're not relevant anymore. And I mean, I don't know if they ever were, yes, but the thing for me to take from that is we're not machines.
Fliss (24:47)
Mm-hmm.
Morín (25:02)
We can't, we can't. We're not built that way. Our bodies not built that way.
Fliss (25:07)
Hmm, human beings can't always be at the same level of performance day in day out, they?
Morín (25:14)
Yes, and also the concept of ⁓ linear productivity, but productivity in general, like the way we're taught to think about it. It's dangerous because, know, look, we're all burning out. And...
Fliss (25:35)
Yeah. Yeah.
Morín (25:39)
as creatives, I mean, you know this, we need to do nothing. We need to step away to let ideas come, to let the dots connect. So rest is also productivity.
Fliss (25:47)
Yes.
I find that really interesting about how you've got the kind of the reflection time during your kind of winter phase you bleed because I am always telling my clients you need to have a break because that's when your ideas will come because you know that's actually brain works in the background so it's almost like that moment of ⁓ pause and rest is when your brain is working there in the background and you're just being and I find that absolutely
Like, there's actual science behind this. Yeah, yeah. But we've been taught, we've been taught our whole lives, like society and the education system and everything. It's like, work, work, work, keep going, keep going, keep at it. And that's not, it's not productive in any way either, is it?
Morín (26:26)
Yes.
Yes.
No, it's no constant constant output Will burn you out. That's it.
It will burn you out fast Yeah
Fliss (26:53)
Yeah, you can't
do it. And also I think you end up, like in my very first job, had to constantly be on and I thought I couldn't, this is when I was back as a designer, I thought I couldn't do design. I was just burnt out, I couldn't be creative because I was not resting. Yeah. ⁓
Morín (27:13)
I totally relate. It took me eight months to burn out the first time round, yes.
Fliss (27:21)
my gosh, is such a theme. There's a lot of conversations I'm having. What changes did you notice when you suddenly started working on this, right?
Morín (27:26)
Yeah.
I think the shift was gradual at first. Like when I became self-employed nine years ago, I did it because I wanted to take back control after burning out twice in, in working in, you know, a branding agency environment and
It was very, very gradual learning the very, hard way how to set boundaries, how to figure out what I like doing, what I dislike doing. ⁓
It took years, absolutely took years. when I started ⁓ living cyclically, it really accelerated everything. And I moved from, I'll do whatever you need kind of thing. ⁓ I'll send you a proposal for whatever it is that you need instead of.
I'm gonna start this one again. ⁓ So when I started living cyclically, it all accelerated. I changed how my business is structured from a proposal-based kind of, I'll do whatever you need kind of thing ⁓ to owning it on my own method and productizing it and creating an offer ecosystem where people can work with me in different formats.
on different aspects of their business, but they come to work with me because they want to work with me, not because I can do the thing they want doing. Does that make sense?
Fliss (29:17)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's you they're working with, yeah.
Morín (29:20)
Yes, yes.
And I keep refining my office to fit how I love working, which like I say, it's in sprints. Who knew? Yeah, Yes. And you know, our cycles, they're our compasses. They guide us towards what we need and we need to learn how to listen.
Fliss (29:32)
Wow.
Morín (29:46)
Because when we do, we get to know ourselves better and then we start noticing and questioning things that don't serve us or even harm us. Like one of the things that I noticed quite soon was like my capacity for BS completely shrunk. It's non-existent. And I mean, it's a glorious thing in itself, but essentially it's not just blood we're shedding.
It's also limiting beliefs and all the false truths, you know, we've inherited or been conditioned to believe. Yeah.
Fliss (30:20)
⁓ wow. like you're, people obviously, you mentioned that people are obviously coming to work with you for you now. How's that affected, how's like living cyclically affected your brand and how you put yourself out there?
Morín (30:23)
You
⁓
okay, yeah. Scrolling my notes. Yes. ⁓
Fliss (30:42)
Huge, huge topic in a few minutes.
Morín (30:53)
Brand, brand, yes brand, okay. Can you repeat the question please? Sorry.
Fliss (30:58)
Yes,
so ⁓
Yeah, my veins just turned off. So you mentioned that people come to work with you for you. ⁓ How has that affected your brand and how you put yourself out there, living psychically?
Morín (31:22)
So the brand shift, I think is...
For me, living cyclically. Now I'm kind of questioning, do you say cyclically or cyclically?
Fliss (31:38)
Whatever. Do it your way.
Morín (31:40)
Okay. Okay.
So basically, helped me find my voice and I started using it. ⁓ And for me, that's the major shift. And of course, that affects my brand as well.
I think where there's a point in time that I can definitely tell you here's the shift is
when I launched under the name Rosie Futures, that's when everything clicked because that's where...
Fliss (32:13)
Hmm.
Morín (32:18)
kind of like my inner world was expressed outwardly. ⁓ And you know, my brand is still evolving. Brands are like people, we always evolve. ⁓ Yeah, and it did take me a little while to kind of understand how to articulate what it is that I stand for, but as I say, with Rosie Futures, yeah, it all just came together. And for me, it feels like an explosion of
of like the real me, you know? Yeah.
Fliss (32:51)
Yeah, yeah.
I find it fascinating that you said when you found your voice it kind of happened. I find that, that's a lot of what I end up working with on clients. It's like, who are you and what do you want and then the brand forms from there.
Morín (33:06)
Yeah.
Fliss (33:14)
How would you say your brand is like?
No, I'm gonna...I'm I could have gone down a rabbit hole there.
Morín (33:25)
Now go on.
Fliss (33:29)
How would you say a brand has evolved around you? Like you as a person, as a business brand.
Morín (33:34)
So I think,
yeah, I think at the moment it's mostly evident in the language I use.
Fliss (33:42)
Mm.
Morín (33:45)
my partnerships and I'm being a lot more strategic about what I bring in and what I put out. And I think brand wise, the rest at the moment is a bit more budget restricted. Like I don't have the budget to go on a crazy photo shoot yet, but I'll get there. ⁓
I think I found a way that makes sense for me to understand this and maybe it'll be helpful ⁓ for you and your listeners as well. The way I see the correlation between business brand and body is this. So your brand is your vehicle for making change in the world. It can be a personal change, can be societal, environmental, whatever matters to you the most.
And your brand is your business as a person. It's the story, it's the expression of your business in the world, how it makes people feel. And your body is your capacity reservoir. It's not limitless. And depending on your capacity to handle things, this is how your business performs and your brand expresses itself. So it all comes together.
Fliss (35:07)
Mm-hmm.
Morín (35:15)
and it's all interlinked. And yeah, I honestly think our bodies are the missing piece in the strategy work because we never take that into account. Yeah.
Fliss (35:26)
No, how often
do we plan around what we need at any one time? It's just like you're planning. saw the other week a post on Instagram about planning for your minimum, plan for your minimum capacity. We always plan for our maximum capacity and that's absolutely not possible. But if you plan for your minimum capacity, you can always do more. You can't, it's harder to, yeah, do less.
Morín (35:44)
Yes, exactly.
Exactly. Absolutely.
And the great thing about this is also, don't, you know, only that you learn your own capacity in different times of the cycle, the year, whatever, you also get really good at prioritizing. So for example, I know I can't do more than three medium sized things a month, be it
Fliss (36:17)
Hmm.
Morín (36:19)
client work or working on my own business. If it's a huge thing, I can only do one. If I have smaller things, I can do four, maybe five. But when you kind of have this sort of understanding in your head, ⁓ that's how I like to plan my year as well, quarterly. Like what three big things are my focus point, two are a must have, one is a bonus. Same for the month, same for the week. Yeah, same for the...
Fliss (36:46)
I like that.
Yeah, yeah. So did you just, did you want us to just journal and track what worked well and what was becoming too much for you to understand that?
Morín (36:58)
Yes and no. think my brain kind of... My brain is happy with big picture overviews. So yeah, I mean, I'm a strategist. That's what I do, you know? So I... Big picture overview, insights and then, OK, I learned my lesson. Let's change things and do it differently. Yeah.
Fliss (37:14)
No.
Yeah. Yeah.
But I guess that journaling and tracking would be a really good for someone who's not a big picture person would be a great way to learn the patterns.
Morín (37:25)
Yes, absolutely. Yes,
absolutely. It's such a great anchor. And when you do it pen to paper, and you know, you use colors and you make it fun and creative, then I don't know, I see it as a gift to yourself to like spend time to get to know yourself better.
Fliss (37:40)
Yeah. Yeah.
So, I started by saying about working to the seasons, but how, if somebody doesn't menstruate, how might they be able to take the kind of learnings ⁓ from like working to your own menstrual cycle into their kind of world.
Morín (37:46)
Yeah.
So.
I'll say a few things. One is that we all have an energetic cycle one way or another at every stage of our lives and regardless if you menstruate or not you can track your moods and your symptoms and your energy. You will see patterns and you will learn from them. ⁓ And you know for men or people who
don't menstruate, you might not experience the menstrual cycle, but it happens around you. It's like we don't live in a vacuum. Half the population has a womb ⁓ and will menstruate at some point. So I think the starting point is to be curious about yourself.
Fliss (38:57)
Yes.
Mm.
Morín (39:07)
And the main thing is to listen inwards, like listen to your body and like, what are you feeling? Like check in with yourself and see if you spot any patterns and try to change things to support yourself when your energy shifts. And also notice patterns in your business and do the same thing. And like you say, it's always a good idea to also notice seasonal changes.
Fliss (39:37)
Yeah.
Morín (39:37)
For example,
like you ⁓ said, work shorter days during the winter time, because you want to be cozier and, know, nest. But if you feel that you need ⁓ an external anchor, because, you know, our blades are very, very obvious visual, physical signal. So if you don't have that and you do want something to help you,
Fliss (39:58)
Yeah.
Morín (40:06)
Anchor yourself. If you have someone at the door you need to go.
Fliss (40:09)
No, no, it's fine. It's just annoying.
Morín (40:11)
Okay, yeah.
So if you do need like an external anchor, something visible to kind of gouge a rhythm from, you can use a lunar cycle tracker. I use both. I track my cycle as well as the moon phases on the same dial.
Fliss (40:35)
lot of people say there's a link, there? Have you seen any kind of link?
Morín (40:40)
I have one on my website. I'll give it to you. can add it to the notes. Yes.
Fliss (40:46)
Brilliant, thank you.
That's so interesting. I was around the full moon. I really noticed this when I had insomnia. My partner, my husband, he pointed it out actually, which is, he's not that kind of person. And he was like, you do realize you don't sleep around the full moon? I was like, and because he said it, I took note. And around the full moon, my sleep goes a bit, Squiffy. Yeah.
Morín (40:52)
Mm.
Yes.
Yes, yes, so
that's a really good point. You just reminded me to say that I noticed that I bleed on the full moon because my dad noticed that first. Like a few years ago, he said, are you on your period? And I was like, well, how do you know? And he said, the is the full moon. And he said it as if it was like the most obvious thing, but I hadn't noticed that, yeah.
Fliss (41:34)
That's really interesting, isn't it? I think the men in our lives, if we have men in our lives, often do, even though they don't have ⁓ a cycle in the same way we do, they still notice how it affects us and them. Yeah. Yeah.
Morín (41:41)
Yeah.
Yes, they're a part of the experience, aren't they? mean, they live
with us. We share our lives in one way or another.
Fliss (42:02)
Yeah,
yeah. I am really interested about how you can work to your capacity. you said about, what you said about like plotting, even just plotting trends in your business. I know there's certain points of the year when I get busier. Annoyingly, it tends to be around October when it's autumn and I want to be a little snower.
Morín (42:29)
Yeah.
Fliss (42:29)
But I know those trends, know, summer's quieter. So I think it's really interesting. I always say to people, when's your quiet time? Because don't panic about the lack of work then, because it happens every year. But people, you know, we're not taught to spot these trends. We're taught to, it should be the same all the time. And it's not.
Morín (42:41)
Mm. Yes.
Yes,
yeah. So if you know, for example, summer is your quiet time, you will put more effort into making, to bringing in more money in your business in other seasons, so that the summertime doesn't feel scary or you know, you're lacking anything. And it's a great opportunity to work on your business, come up with new ideas or you know, just like
Fliss (43:04)
Mm. Mm.
Morín (43:19)
do the thing you always wanted to do and never had time because you do client work. yeah, that's how I look at it. Like think about cycles bring opportunities. That's like the whole, I mean, we can talk about birth and death from the same perspective as well. Something starts, something ends all the time, everywhere. And you just need to...
Fliss (43:23)
Hehehe, yeah.
Yeah.
Morín (43:48)
Well, play along basically and not look at it as losing something but as gaining an opportunity to start something new. Yeah. I went a bit hippie there, but you know what I mean.
Fliss (43:58)
Yeah, what I...
No, it makes complete sense. What I've heard from you early on when we were chatting was that as soon as you started spotting things and ⁓ kind of starting to just work psychically, you went from a point of scarcity to suddenly like, yeah, know, growth and...
almost excitement, feel like I got that from you. Like things changed completely because you're working with yourself. And I noticed over the last year of like really looking at myself and trying to recover from burning out ⁓ semi-regularly, that was a period of like really understanding myself and what I wanted and how I needed to work and really kind of changing things. And I've noticed a huge difference. And like even now when I'm feeling a little bit before I would be feeling
Morín (44:27)
Yes!
Fliss (44:55)
It's like I was getting ill and I just pushed through. Why would I do that? Now I'm like, oh no, okay, what do I need? I need to have a bit of rest. I need to, you know, not go to that networking event or whatever. And it makes such a difference. And I'm not getting as ill as much either, which is really, you know, I'm giving myself what I need.
Morín (44:58)
Yes?
Exactly.
Exactly, what you need, also what brings you joy, right? And that's a huge part of it. That's a huge part of it. Yes.
Fliss (45:19)
so much joy. Yes,
yeah, that's, I absolutely love that. I, ⁓ my god, yeah, I think I'm gonna, I totally see the benefit. This is why I wanted to chat to you because when you started chatting about it like a year ago I was like this is really interesting but what I think I've, for the next stage for me is definitely kind of tracking to my cycle and...
kind of looking at what I do or don't need in those times and thinking what I can tweak to kind of make things even better for me because I do know what I need but I think not from a cycle point of view so I think that for me is going to be my next stage and that's something I've really pulled out of from our chat today. There's so much more we could chat about. ⁓
Morín (46:04)
Mm.
Amazing.
Fliss (46:16)
I've got a couple of questions for you before we depart today. So in your experience, what do you think the biggest barrier is to somebody doing their thing?
Morín (46:30)
Definitely sticking with limiting beliefs and protocols of business as usual.
Fliss (46:35)
Mmm, yeah.
Morín (46:37)
Yeah, yeah, ask yourself why do you do the things the way you do them? Is it because you want to? Is it because you know it works for you? Or is it because you think that's how you should do them?
I know, yes.
Fliss (46:55)
Yeah,
yeah, yeah, that's a really big one. yeah, that's a huge one. And what is one thing that's really helped you to do your thing?
Morín (47:08)
I you know what I'm gonna say, right? I stopped fighting my body and I started tracking my cycle and live accordingly. Yeah, it's a game changer for sure.
Fliss (47:09)
I do.
Yeah, yeah.
I've definitely seen a huge difference in you, you know, since you've gone, like your brand and how you put yourself out there and everything. So yeah, I can see that it definitely is a game changer. Maren, thank you so much for chatting to me today. How can people, if they're really interested in finding out more, how can people connect with you or follow you and where can they find you?
Morín (47:33)
Yes.
So my website is rosyfutures.com. My Instagram is at rosy.futures. also have a podcast called Womly Being that I co-host with Rosanna Jones, who's my friend, but was also my menstrual cycle coach. And that's also available on my website. And we have our own Instagram, which is at womly.being.
Fliss (48:13)
Amazing. Thank you so much for chatting today.
Morín (48:16)
Thank you for having me.
Fliss (48:18)
See you soon.
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