The Pioneers Club

Authentic Growth & Change: Unlocking Your Full Potential without Losing Sight of Who You Are

• Monika Lerch & Patrick Öffl • Season 2 • Episode 1

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Welcome to a new season and another empowering episode of the Pioneers Club Podcast! We're back after our creative break and return with a lot of exciting plans for this new season of our podcast.

In this episode, we discuss not only our strategy for 2024 and what you can expect from the Pioneers Club, but dive right into one of the topics that was most requested by our audience.

How do you balance your need to grow & change with your need to stay authentic & own who you are? How do you grow and change in authentic ways? And why is it so difficult to balance the two sometimes?

Join us as we explore what it means to stay true to yourself while changing & growing, what we can learn from innovation theory for our personal development, and how to strike a balance between where you're at and where you want to go.

You'll learn:

4:43 - The overall theme & topic of 2024 for the Pioneers Club Podcast: authenticity & self-worth for driven minds

8:13 - What does it mean to be authentic?

10:19 - How to stay authentic while being growth-minded or pushed to change

15:20 - Incremental change vs. radical change

21:46 - Obstacles & challenges when it comes to authentic growth & change


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Your Host:
Monika Lerch
https://www.monikalerch.com/
Linkedin: /in/monikalerch/
Instagram: @themonikalerch

Your Co-Host:
Patrick Öffl
https://www.amikifilms.com/
Linkedin: /in/patrickoeffl/
Instagram: @patrickoeffl

Monika This is the Pioneers Club podcast. 

Patrick The community podcast for driven entrepreneurs and leaders. 

Monika Here you can connect with like minded people, create a sense of belonging and gain more agency in your daily life. 

Hi, my name is Monika and I'm your host. I help impact-driven freelancers, entrepreneurs and leaders live their full potential and go from feeling overwhelmed, stuck and confused to being confident, clear-headed and focused as they go after their goals. 

As a mindset and systemic coach, I focus primarily on topics such as confidence, high performance, self-coaching and self-leadership and use my mindfulness-based and systemic approach to help my clients thrive with more ease. 

Patrick And I'm your co-host, Patrick, an entrepreneur just like you. 

I'm an international media producer working on live sports, premium documentaries and digital content. I help people bring their stories to life and work with a global network of partners to create engaging content. I live through the topics of our podcast, just like you, and I will try to ask the questions you might have. 

Monika So welcome to this new season of the Pioneers Club podcast. We are so happy to be back after our creative break, and we've used this time to actually reflect a lot on what we have learned about our audience, what we have learned about the processes, and how to already make it a little bit better. We have taken you on this journey of creating a new venture, a new podcast here with us, and the first episodes were very intense.

Patrick It was a learning session for us. 

Monika It was a very intense learning session for us. But so exciting. And actually I really enjoyed this period of reflection now as well. Which means as well, that we have decided on how to continue in this new season. There are going to be quite a few changes, right? 

Patrick Yeah, definitely. We've decided to approach our podcast a little bit differently this year. And we've decided to publish two episodes a month, with the one episode that's coming out the beginning of a month to be our topic piece, basically, where we discuss issues and questions that we get from our audience. And the second episode will basically focus on a book that will help our audience to maybe work through that thing, or maybe just a nice anecdote or something that they can read through that will help them on their journey. 

And it definitely comes in handy that you read a lot, that you have a whole library at home with all of these books. So I think that's something quite interesting and quite fun to connect the topics and issues that we're discussing with something that's already out there. And I think already the book that we're discussing in the next episode that focuses a little bit on what we're discussing later in this episode, is quite interesting and will help people, I think. 

Monika Yes, it's a great way to actually share, for one, this passion of mine, I've always been a book lover. But also, I know that from my client side I often hear this remark like “I don't have the time as well to read that many books. I don't have the time to follow up on everything by reading a whole section in a book, or even read three different books,” because they all offer different perspective. So when you decided or when you made this suggestion to add a section of just talking about books which build upon the topic that we had addressed earlier, I really loved it, and I'm excited to go into the first book as well then.


Patrick It's going to be quite interesting. But there's also something else that we've decided for this year, and we're going to launch a community. 

Monika Well, yes, this is very exciting because this is something that the participants of our first Pioneers Club event already then voiced and requested from us. That they could actually connect and exchange their ideas, their opinions, their experiences further on as well, in a specific setting, in a group where they could just ask questions, share their experiences after we have maybe talked to it already about them as well. So we are going to do this as well. 

You're going to find the link and everything you need for that in the show notes, of course. But we can't wait to continue our conversations, which we start here on the podcast, there with you too. 

Patrick So now let's dive into this year's podcast. We've used our creative break to come up with something that we'll discuss the entire year. An overall topic that's so important for everyone that we've already heard from listeners and to people that we interact with on a daily basis, that this is one of the major things that everyone's talking about right now. And we decided that we're going to use all of our episodes this year, all of the books that we're discussing this year to dive into one specific topic and then see where that leads us and what else is connected to that, right?

Monika Well, it's an overarching theme. I would say, it’s like this music note that you hear all the time whatever piece of music you listen to. And this is the topic of owning yourself, owning your worth, and staying authentic in whatever you do. And this can mean you staying authentic and staying true to yourself in interaction with others. It can mean you staying true to yourself in setting your goals and deciding what you truly want, what you don't want. And, as we are going to discuss today, it can also mean you staying true to yourself while actually also growing and learning and committing to change. 

And we have come up with this topic or we have suggested talked about going deeper into this topic actually, because it was requested not only from our audience here, from the podcast and the people who joined us on the Pioneers Club event. They all said that this topic of self-doubt, self-confidence, alignment with who you truly are, your values, etc. that this was one of the things that actually triggered the most in them about how they view what they were doing. 

But it also came back from my client side that this is something in this period of time, where we are confronted with a lot of changes in our external environment, where we are confronted also with quite a few opportunities, but also threats, that this brings us back to this question always, “Wait a second, why do I really do this, what I'm doing? Why am I going in this direction and not the other one? Which side am I on concerning different topics?” So it all comes back to this topic again and again, and this is why we decided to focus explicitly on this authenticity and owning your worth, owning yourself, your identity, and owning your true values theme. And then go into different directions with it, which is going to be very exciting. 

We have a whole list which is going already into the next year as well, with the topics and a list of books as well. So it's going to be exciting. 

Patrick We have a lot to talk about, and I'm never worried that we're running out of any topics to talk about. So that's for sure. But what you said about authenticity is quite interesting because I can also see it in my industry, especially in social media, that authenticity is more and more on the rise again, and people are actually requesting actual behind-the-scenes look for shows for productions. Even influencers now are confronted with being more themselves now because people actually see that it's an unreal world that we're building out there. So I assume it's just natural that even in the business context, people are more driven, probably, to authentic people, who are these people? And I think that's a good starting point to actually dive into this first topic and to talk about authenticity and later on, growth and change. But what would you say does it actually mean to be authentic? Because it's not this single simple thing to say, “Okay, I'm authentic.”


Monika If we look at just the pure definition that most people use without actually kind of maybe trying to identify or define the thing, it's basically the quality of being real or true to yourself. This is also what the Cambridge Dictionary explains it as. It's the quality of being true to your own personality, to your own values, to align your actions the way that you talk and interact with other people with this core identity or core personality that you are. 

Which already then kind of questions, well, who am I? What are my core values? And these are the things that when we talk about change and growth as well, are things that are maybe not that clear. Or maybe in a new environment if you are kind of going out of your comfort zone, which we know that our audience is constantly doing, and they are constantly prompted to enter environments and where they have never been. So “Who am I?” in this setting becomes more difficult to answer, and which is why, for quite a lot of people, it's very difficult to find an authentic way of doing new things. 

And this is also where I, as a coach am then oftentimes, called in because people really, just like you said, people really feel this need to be true to themselves. They feel the need to do things in their own way without mimicking and copying others on a superficial level. Yet, they have to learn from someone else. They have to kind of resort to things or to processes and methods that maybe are not natural to themselves. 

So how do you do you balance this kind of growth-mindedness with this definition of being authentic in the terms of just doing, being the real you?

Patrick But basically what you're saying is that I can be authentic. I can be myself. I have my own principles and values. It doesn't necessarily mean that I have to be stuck on, okay, I'm this person now. 

Let's say, I found myself and I'm finally happy with who I am. And then suddenly someone comes along and tells me, “Okay, maybe you should change. You should be better. You can be better, why don't you?” And it's like, well, but I just found myself. So I'm happy with who I am. And now I'm supposed to change. Is authenticity and being authentic in contrast to change?

Monika Not at all. But just like you have said, it's very important to know where this change is coming from. So even if you get an idea to change, or if you get an impulse, just like I tell my clients all the time, everything that you receive from someone else, every remark, every interaction, it's like an invitation. It's an invitation from someone else for you to respond to that. And most of the time, people will want you to respond in the way that they expect you to respond, but it's still in your power and in your responsibility as well, to choose whether you are going to respond to this invitation or not, and how you are going to respond to this invitation. 

And if we're now talking about this setting of people telling you that you should change, people telling you that you are not using all of your potential, then the question is, if you truly decide to reflect on that, why are you going in this direction? Why are you responding in the way that you are? 

And if this is aligned then with your core values, the response that you choose, then I would say it is authentic. But if you don't take the time to check in with yourself, with your values, with your own vision and check in whether this is aligned, yes, then it's going to be pushed, and then it's going to be a change that most likely is going to be inauthentic. 

Which doesn't mean that you can't try it out. It's very authentic. For example, for me, it's very authentic to try out things where I then two days later decide, well, this is not for me. But the experimentation part is authentic to me.

Patrick But I think it's different for you because, I mean, the way that I know you. I know of you that there is a certain drive there to change constantly, to learn new things, to expand your knowledge. So that's something that's inherently yours. So it's in whatever you do. 

How do people deal with it that don't have that inner drive? Because they're basically pushed the same way from external factors, and where it's easy for you to maybe follow that push sometimes because it's like, okay, yeah, I maybe want to do this different. I want to be better in this particular thing. Others are like, I'm not sure. And that, I assume, could lead to a lot of stress.

Monika Definitely. And this is something that a lot of people struggle with. 

First, though, I want to say that this kind of inclination to experiment, to change, to try new things, we are talking about it in a very positive light, but we have to stay critical about it as well. It's not only positive. If you are inclined to always experiment and change, it can mean that I am, for example, very likely to pick up new ideas before aligning them with what I'm already doing. So I can get very excited very quickly. 

And I had to learn and I had to discipline myself to consider a timeline. Yes, I can follow on up on new things, but when exactly am I going to do this? Because my authentic like, my natural inclination would have been to be impulsive as well sometimes. So you always have… Even if it's authentic, it doesn't mean that it's just positive. So this is the first thing. 

But the second thing is, if you are not someone who is prone to change, to be curious, to always want to grow, yes, you will struggle a little bit more, I guess in today's time, because there is just this imperative and this what we call the dark side of personal development or in the self-help industry is that we have this imperative that you should constantly keep growing. There is this ambivalence between telling people that they should accept and love themselves for who they are, but we are also telling them all the time that they are not actually really using all of their potential, and that this is the goal that they should aspire to. So there is already this tension in our society as well. And if you are more on the acceptance and not so much changing side of the thing, of this spectrum, it might be difficult to deal with these impulses. 

However, you will still need to grow anyways. We all grow constantly. The question is though, how often do you make changes and why? Because if you just grow in incremental ways, in small ways, to better adapt to your vision, to your environment and with your actions actually follow the path that you want to. This is also change. This is also growth. It doesn't represent this radical change that maybe other people are enjoying.

Patrick I think that's the thing that most people out there see as change that what you just called radical change. And I think we talked about it back at university also, where it's like innovation management and people are saying, Okay, there's this, radical new technology that's changing the whole market and everything. So that's basically how we as a person can change as well. 

I think that's what people are seeing about us. It's not exactly how it's happening, though. Because it's basically like when you have a close friend and you see them every day, you don't really notice the small changes when we age. And then when you don't see someone for a year or for two years and then you see them again, it's like, oh, you're totally different. And it's like, no, I'm not. 

And I think that's also with the changes in that. Yeah. It's not visible that much. It's still, though, a very, very effective way to change yourself.

Monika Yes. I think this terminology is very useful. We have learned about it in innovation theory, where they are talking about disruptive changes, disruptive innovations, and incremental innovations. And if you're looking at disruptive innovations, this is kind of like this overnight success or this eat, pray, love moment. 


Patrick We wish we all had it. 


Monika Yes, we wish we all had this. But actually, if you look at the truth of what has happened in these cases as well, it's never an overnight success. Things don't happen like that. Things build up towards something. 

And that's what most people think, though, when they talk about changing themselves, growing, changing how they do things. And because then, of course, there's this huge gap between what you think you are striving towards and where you are right now, it might seem as well inauthentic because this there is just this huge distance. And this is something that I do with my clients as well. Like on a scaling exercise, like,1 is the part or the the state of yourself being the furthest away from this ideal that you have right now, as far as you can possibly imagine from your state, from your habits, from what you're doing, and then 10 being the optimal, the perfect personification of this ideal. Where are you right now? And then oftentimes they will say, “Well, I'm at a four or I'm at a three”. Well, yes. If you then think about comparing your four to a ten, this is just so much of a of a shift and this radical change. But the path towards that is never that radical. The path towards that builds in incremental changes. 

And this is also something that then talks about habits, talks about self-awareness. A lot about this is self-awareness, where you truly identify why you are doing the things that you are doing in a certain way, what is prompting you, what benefits you see in doing it this way, and how you can actually gradually shift? 


Patrick I think it's especially interesting, when we then talk about James Clear's Atomic Habits, the book that we're discussing in the next episode, because it is about this incremental change. Because when I read the book in the beginning, when I started it, I was like, okay, it's about radical change. You need to change all your habits. And that's how you become this better version of yourself. And then he starts talking about, well, that's not exactly what I mean. It's about stacking little things on top of each other, what you already do, and that's how you become better. So it's going to be interesting to talk about this. 

But I also think even incremental change is not always that easy. You already mentioned self-awareness, and especially when I read the book, that's when I had that thought for the first time. There's a lot of analysis work going on there, because I have to actually look at myself. And we all know sometimes we don't want to do that because we don't want to face what's there. But also it's hard sometimes to distinguish where are you as that person with all the emotions and feelings, and where is that you as an object that you're looking at. So that's not that easy, I think. 


Monika Yes, that's that's very true. It's part of a lot of my coaching work as well. 

At the beginning, I teach my clients how to observe themselves in  non-judgmental - because that's what you truly need - You need curiosity and a non-judgmental state in order to truly look at yourself and how to slow down in proactive ways so you can truly then recognize what is happening in each situation, what is happening as a pattern sometimes as well. Because oftentimes people will just look at this one situation where they are engaging in a certain way or in a certain habit, and they say, well, I want to change this moment. But most often the change doesn't happen in this specific moment, but it's way more important to look at everything that happened before this moment, but then also recognize the sequence of events, thoughts, emotions, whatever it is that prompted you to arrive at this specific moment that you want to change. And then start tweaking and shifting already in everything that led up to this. 

And these are these small changes, these small shifts that seem so insignificant, that seem so ridiculous that sometimes as well, my clients are already maybe even unnerved because they have a lot of energy. They truly want to change something now. They are ready for it, and then you start talking to them about incremental, smallest, tiniest shift, which are so powerful though if you stick to it like just for two weeks, you are going to recognize a huge shift. But we don't think about it this way. We are very oftentimes in this disruptive state of mind where we want to have this wow moment. 


Patrick I think it's because we are super motivated in the beginning that we're seeing a goal somewhere. We want to go there. But I think we're not completely clear on what that goal should actually be. So we're like, oh yeah, I want to be there. I want to do this. But then on the way there, it's like, I haven't really thought about it all. And then motivation falls away a bit. 

So I think it's a bit about also thinking about where exactly you want to be. 


Monika Yes and it's not just about motivation. What a lot of people forget is that everything that they have already learned and implemented, the process that that they engage in, the way that they think, that way that they behave, nothing of this is meaningless. They started adopting this behaviors and emotions and thoughts because they have a certain purpose. And if you just simply try to disrupt everything and turn it around by setting a fixed image of what it should be, and then just focusing on this and being stubbornly exclusive towards everything else, you will experience a lot of internal resistance. 

Because probably you will violate quite a lot of values and quite a lot of needs. And this takes a little bit of time to recognize which other needs, which other values are connected to this image, to this ideal that I have, that I want to fulfill, which ideals and values and needs are connected also to this new habit, new state that I want to introduce and try to harmonize all of that. Because otherwise you will be constantly at war with yourself. 

And this is what people then oftentimes do when they introduce a radical change, like beginning of the year, I will start going to the gym every day, and then they, and then they introduce it. Three weeks afterwards it's already more difficult. Why? Well, because there are so many parts within yourself that didn't get the time and the attention to be heard and to be recognized as important needs as well. And this is something that a lot of people recognize only when they practice self-awareness and when they non-judgmental, curiously, as we already said, engage with themselves and with their status quo. 

Which people then struggle with oftentimes because they feel that this is a contradiction. They can't accept the status quo and accept that this is where they are authentically at right now, and combine this, integrate this with their wish to change and grow. It's a little bit of an ambivalence. 

And then, of course, there comes a lot of things into that as well. Because just like you already said, if you want to change, if you want to grow, but you are not very clear on where you are headed. You're not clear on why you are headed there. Of course, you might lose yourself in this acceptance of the status quo again. 

If there is a lot of pressure, external internal pressure, time pressure, you don't know how to deal with this kind of pressure as well, it will influence your ability to stay curious, non-judgmental and then recognize the right small shifts to make in order to change and grow authentically. 

You are more likely then to adopt any kind of suggestion and advice from others, because you're so quick in wanting to draw conclusions and move forward. So there is a lot of things that come as obstacles that you need to deal with in order to grow and stay authentic at the same time. And you need a lot of internal safety for yourself to be able to experiment in this free way. 

So it's not that easy. Like, even if we as a society tell people you should grow, you should be authentic. Yes, but that's quite a challenge sometimes. 


Patrick It definitely is a challenge. And I mean, coming back to authenticity as being our overall story for the whole year, basically, that's where we, when we researched all the topics, I actually found out how often authenticity comes up in all these issues. When it comes to being an entrepreneur, being in business, changing economics, in these times that we're out right now. 

So there's a lot of everything that we've discussed right now. There's so much more coming. And I think it's going to be quite interesting to see where we might not have thought authenticity might be important. 


Monika How it influences how we see a topic and how we deal with a certain topic. Yes, it's going to be very interesting as well to hear back from our audience and to hear what people are saying about their experiences, whether they are surprised or whether they have already known, but not termed it authenticity or not termed it self-awareness. 

Because, yes, it is very pervasive. If you look at how people decide to do things, why they decide to engage in something, it always comes back to their worldview, their self-perception, and their perception of themselves in interaction with their environment, which all comes back to your self-awareness and authenticity again. 


Patrick Full circle, indeed. But I want to close the episode actually with something that I've heard people talk about at our very first event, and it's something people connected with immediately, but I'm not sure that they were thinking about the authenticity part when we talked about it. 

And that's basically pricing versus authenticity, because it's something that comes up with entrepreneurs all the time. It's like, okay, how much am I worth? But you're basically also a brand, a company, whatever. And how much of that is me? How much is the brand also a topic for something else? Where does the brand, where this me as a person stop? So there's so many topics that I could just dive into right now and talk about it, but for me, that's basically one of the most interesting and probably biggest topics. 


Monika Yes, and it's also one of the topics that usually with my clients instantly comes up as well. With any new process that we do, self worth in combination with pricing and authenticity is a real hassle for entrepreneurs and freelancers. And even leaders, people who are trying to navigate a corporate field and have to price themselves as well. It's a challenge because sometimes there comes this topic of being enough or not being enough. It's a challenge because sometimes there comes this topic of having to sell yourself while knowing that there is so much more to learn. Staying authentic in who you are as an entrepreneur, as someone who is there to fulfill a role in order to help someone achieve something. And staying authentic as you as a person and not mixing this, your personal identity with your corporate or entrepreneurial identity. There comes a lot of this into this topic, into this question. So I'm very excited to have this conversation with you. I didn't know that this was the topic which you are specifically excited about right now. 


Patrick Oh, honestly, I could talk about every topic for hours. I mean, that's why we chose all these topics. And I can't wait to dive into the books that you've chosen for this topic. So all in all, I think it's going to be an amazing ride this year. We have so much to talk about and I think we should dive into it. 


Patrick If you enjoyed this episode, share it with your fellow entrepreneurs so they can listen too. Grab the link in our show notes and send it to them. 


Monika If you're looking to join our tribe of movers and shakers to get a sense of belonging and fresh insights, join our Pioneers Club community. The link to our community is waiting for you in our show notes as well. 


Patrick And don't forget to connect with us on LinkedIn or Instagram and let us know, What was a helpful thought or insight that you gained from this episode?


Monika Have any questions or ideas for us? Head over to our LinkedIn or Instagram pages and tell us we read every submission and would love to answer your question in a later episode too. 

So thanks for joining us. 


Patrick See you in the next one.