You are a SOMEWHAT Highly sensitive Entrepreneur® (HSE)
Learn how to be purposeful, profitable and empowered...
Congratulations on taking the online Highly Sensitive Entrepreneur (HSE) Assessment! I’m so thrilled you’re here.
Based on your results, you scored between 1-9 true answers which means you are a Somewhat Highly Sensitive Entrepreneur.
Scroll down to access your HSE Success Guide and resources to begin your Highly Sensitive Leadership training journey today.
* The HSE® Success Guide was created through Highly Sensitive Leadership Mentor Heather Dominick’s years of extensive research and experience mentoring thousands of Highly Sensitive Entrepreneurs and leaders from around the globe.
It’s time to master your energy so you can generate more income in your business and lead with intention for a more impactful and fulfilling leadership journey.
In today's fast-paced world, being constantly overwhelmed is all too common.
As an HSP in business, you may be familiar with elevated anxiety levels, persistent overthinking, and emotional depletion. Managing your energy is not just a personal responsibility; it's a leadership skill that sets you apart.
Click to expand and read each one:
Blank and Open Toggle Test
This is a blank toggle used for closing the first toggle by default and for testing what an open toggle looks like.
Use this for setting the open toggle styles and then hide in CSS using (Module Elements, Main Element):
display: none;
Immediate Clarity and Focus
Discover self-awareness techniques that provide instant clarity and focus, enabling you to excel as a business owner and leader.
Stress Reduction
Identify energy-depleting triggers and minimize day-to-day stressors with ease.
Rapid Rejuvenation
Learn personalized energy management tools that can quickly recharge you, anytime and anywhere.
Time Management
Master effective time blocking techniques to create space for self-recharging and improved well-being.
Signature OFTU System
Unlock the secrets of our signature OFTU system for a profound positive mood shift.
What’s resonating so far?
How to Be Purposeful, Profitable, and Empowered as a Highly Sensitive Entrepreneur
such as Intuition, Empathy and Deep Thinking and have them working for you, rather than slipping into one of the most common HSE Shadows: Overwhelm.What’s resonating so far?
Highly Sensitive Entrepreneurs Are Poised to Intuitively and Positively Influence The World
Highly Sensitive Entrepreneurs are literally poised to have a huge ripple effect on our economy. According to the Guardian Life Small Business Research Institute, women entrepreneurs will create up to 7.5 million new jobs in the U.S. by 2020, literally transforming the workplace for millions of Americans1. So, even though experts repeatedly confirm that our economy is the weakest it has been in years, there is a huge economic shift occurring in the way entrepreneurs, women entrepreneurs specifically, are stepping up to impact the world.
This economic shift is connected to a larger paradigm shift (a time of change from one way of thinking to another, brought about by an agent of change2) that is transforming the way we think about, do, and are in business. Innovative entrepreneurs are now leading their businesses from their hearts. They’re activating and choosing to rely on their natural intuitive gifts, which allows them to be in their passion and be profitable. This way of being in business was simply not practiced as little as 10 years ago. This way of being in business is the way of the Highly Sensitive Entrepreneur!
1 Special Report: Women Small Business Owners Will Create 5+ Million New Jobs by 2018, Transforming the Workplace for Millions of Americans (December 2009). The Guardian Life Small Business Research Institute.
2 For example, agriculture changed early primitive society from hunting and gathering to settling and growing food. Thanks to personal computers and the internet, we are right now shifting from a manufacturing-based, industrial society to an organic, service-based, information-centered society, and advances in technology will only continue to have a dramatic global impact!
You Find Yourself Asking...
“Am I doing this the right way?"
"What steps are needed to actually get my business off the ground?"
"How do I reach the next level without feeling like a crazy person?”
“I desperately want to succeed, but I feel so stuck it's like I’ve already failed."
"I know I need help, but there are too many products, too many programs and too many ‘gurus’ out there. Why do none of them seem to ‘fit’ with who I am?"
"Whose advice can I really trust?"
"Am I just not meant to be in business?”
One
Understanding Yourself as an HSE
Blank Toggle and Open Toggle
This is a blank toggle used for closing the first toggle by default and for testing what an open toggle looks like.
Use this for setting the open toggle styles and then hide in CSS using (Module Elements, Main Element):
display: none;
You most likely have often felt like a misfit.
You actually enjoy your own company and are totally comfortable being alone. You wonder how on earth can you be successful in business if it requires networking, marketing and spending a lot of time with people, much less reaching the next level that requires you to manage a team.
You’re extremely conscientious and are very project-oriented.
You tend to compensate for your sensitivity.
You either protect yourself through being alone too much, (the HSE Coping Mechanism of “Hiding”), or by trying to be ‘normal’ or sociable, which then over-stimulates you into stress (the HSE Coping Mechanism of “Pushing”). This creates a gas-brake effect, which can not only make you feel crazy, but actually work against creating a steady stream of self-employed income, leaving you full of fear feeling like a nervous wreck.
You’re extremely introspective, intuitive and creative.
It’s these skills that have positioned you to be a coach, healer or creative entrepreneur. However, the marketing and selling needed in order to be successfully self-employed can feel daunting and become overwhelming quite quickly, leaving you feeling muddled, confused and hopeless.
You’re naturally deeply spiritual
Maybe even more than you may admit to your very best friend. In truth, this is one of your greatest blessings and one of the greatest assets to your clients. The question is, how much of this should you share and is it safe to share? Most likely, you’ve received past criticism, in some way, for this incredibly valuable trait.
Two
Understanding The Difference Between an HSP and an HSE
A Highly Sensitive Entrepreneur is a person with highly sensitive abilities who has chosen to utilize these special traits within the world of self-employment. Being highly sensitive does not necessarily mean that you’re introverted or shy and it for sure doesn’t mean that you’re “less than”. However, most likely, if you are highly sensitive, you have been given the message over time that your traits are not assets but hindrances. Perhaps you heard things, growing up, like:
Stop being so sensitive. Cry baby! What’s wrong with you?
In truth, you’re coded to be extremely successful within the world of self-employment in what Dr. Elaine N. Aron, one of the primary researchers of the highly sensitivity personality trait and author of the book Highly Sensitive Persons, refers to as the “advisor role” within society. She states,
“For aggressive societies to survive they always need that priest – judge – advisor class. Highly sensitive persons tend to fill that advisor role. We are the writers, historians, philosophers, judges, artists, researchers, theologians, therapists, [coaches], teachers, parents, and plain conscientious citizens. What we bring to any of these roles is a tendency to think about all the possible effects of an idea.”
However, as Dr. Aron states,
“to perform our role well, we have to feel very good about ourselves. We have to ignore all the messages from the ‘Warriors’ that we are not as good as they are. The Warriors have their bold style, which has its value. But we, too, have our style and our own important contribution to make.”
The key is, how do we do that? How do you use your highly sensitive abilities as HSE Strengths to support you in being purposeful, profitable, and empowered, rather than HSE Shadows working against you so you are overwhelmed and undervalued? The answer to this question is exactly what this guide is designed to teach you.
About 8 years into being self-employed, I experienced a very dark period in my business. I was working with a marketing mentor who really was not a match for me. There was a lot of pushing to do more, more, more. Being pushed to do more triggered my HSE Coping Mechanism of Pushing (although I didn’t know that’s what it was at the time), and I brought my business across the million-dollar mark that year, but at a high cost to myself: I was exhausted and barely had anything to show for it. I was miserable.
It was an absolute dark night of the soul.
I was disillusioned with the coaching industry. I looked around and thought, what is happening here? I said to myself, I’ve got to figure this thing out, because if this is what it means to be successful, I don’t want it.
Through my in-depth study of Dr. Elaine Aron and her work, I began to understand that being highly sensitive did not mean that I was weak, incapable or even shy. What it did mean was that I was deeply intuitive, empathic, and creative; I began to piece together how all of this made an impact on my business.
According to Dr. Aron, 20% of the entire world population is uniquely genetically coded to be a “royal advisor.” For those of us attracted to being a service-based business owner, we are literally aligned for success. If this is the case then that means we are meant to be in our businesses, selling and marketing as highly sensitive people in a way that is also different than the other 80% of the world.
Also, For the past 30 years, I’ve been a student of the spiritual and psychological curriculum of A Course In Miracles, and this teaching defines a miracle as a “shift in perception.” I began to clearly understand that this is exactly what is required for a Highly Sensitive Entrepreneur to be successfully self-employed. We must begin to shift our perception of ourselves. Our difference does not mean we must hide in the shadows of our highly sensitive traits; it means we must claim the abilities we’ve been coded with as strengths, as gifts. We must use our Highly Sensitive Strengths to create our business success, to create Business Miracles.
Now I’ve taken everything I’ve discovered and learned to create the tools and teachings found in the 7 Tracks of Leadership Training curriculum as well as the uniquely-designed-for-HSE support elements of the Highly Sensitive Leadership Training Programs; providing training from how to market successfully to leverage team support to how to obtain the visionary level of your HSE success and everything in between.
And now I want to share what I’ve learned with you, too. Let’s start with the top Core Characteristics of a Highly Sensitive Entrepreneur…
Three
The 7 Core Characteristics of an HSE
Having an understanding of the core characteristics of an HSE will help you begin to shift your perception of yourself. It will also help you to more clearly recognize where your HSE Strengths and HSE Shadows are at play for you in your business and life and will support you in actively working with them to begin using your sensitivity as a leadership strength. Click to expand and read each one:
Blank
Blank
1. You feel what others are feeling.
You’ve noticed how sensitive you are to the emotions of others. Even before they tell you how they are feeling, you already know. You can enter a room, a conversation, or a situation where you’re coming into contact with another person or group of people, and you have a sense of the general mood of the environment. Perhaps you can feel what type of mood or conversation was taking, place just before you arrived, even if the people who were there are no longer present.
In the past, this may have sent you into the HSE Shadows of overwhelm and over-protection; however, as you learn to utilize this highly sensitive trait as an HSE Strength, you’ll find that this supports you in being highly effective at networking (yes, it’s true! You can enjoy, and receive business from, networking!) and even more effective, when it comes to having a selling conversation.
The reason why is, you naturally listen consciously and know the right questions and comments to draw people out and make them feel heard. When you’re able to really own this HSE Strength you find that people around you seem to gravitate toward you and unload all of their pain and problems onto you. However, it’s when you slip into the HSE Shadow of feeling compelled to help - even to your own detriment, because others take so much from you - that you often feel drained of energy and extremely tired. This might push you so far as to even develop chronic fatigue syndrome or other health ailments.
This is why you must learn, as I teach in The Highly Sensitive Leadership Training Programs, to manage your energy. Having energy management as a Core Practice and engaging in it consistently allows you to utilize your ability to feel deeply both for the benefit of yourself and others, rather than feeling like you’re at the mercy of the energies around you and therefore constantly needing to stay in recuperation mode.
2. You are very intuitive.
When you don’t know how to powerfully utilize this highly sensitive trait, you’ll find yourself personally affected by negative and stressful situations and people. The “taking on” of these feelings most likely shows up as physical symptoms; this is especially true if the person you’re relating to is sick or depressed, as you could actually develop the same symptoms! This is often what would happen to me in my previous career as a high school drama teacher. I loved my students with all of my heart, but, because I didn’t understand that I was highly sensitive, I would spend most of the weekend recovering and so the rest of my life was a mess as a result (I couldn’t maintain a romantic relationship to save my life.)
According to A Course In Miracles, “You create what you defend against. The only way you can really be safe is in your defencelessness.” When things are dangerous or critical, we come back to our right mind. This is why your intuition is not only available to support you when working with clients, this is an HSE Strength you want to be utilizing as a Core Practice in all aspects of your business: marketing, selling, offerings and operations.
3. You are highly creative, imaginative, and loving.
As a Highly Sensitive Person, you need to focus on work and activities that stimulate your creativity and passion – which is probably one of the reasons why you’re attracted to being self-employed in the first place! I know when I worked in the public school system I would want to crawl out of my skin during faculty meetings, because I could see all of the more creative and effective ways we could be using our time. Meanwhile, my fellow teachers were happy to get paid to sit there listening to an administrator drone on about nothing useful at all!
When you get bored, you resort to daydreaming, doodling, etc. However, when you’re allowed to access your creativity and your imagination, the sky is the limit! Your business is the ideal outlet for this energy! Yet, I watch so many HSEs join coaching and business training programs that are not a match and slip right back into the trap of believing their own business needs to be built a certain way (a way that works for the other 80%) and then, once again, feeling like there is something wrong with them (I get it, because I made this mistake, too!)
Also, you’re very conscientious and try hard to avoid making mistakes. Partnering these traits with your creativity and passion creates a formula for off-the-charts financial success, but when you use this highly sensitive trait to match how the other 80% teaches marketing and selling, it’s a self-esteem and financial disaster waiting to happen. Yikes. This is an energy that can be easily shifted, and it’s a concept I teach about in The Highly Sensitive Leadership Training Programs.
4. You can easily get distracted.
Loud noises or sudden dramatic movements startle you. You feel overwhelmed by things like bright lights, rough fabrics, and strong smells. (You also happily notice very delicate smells, textures, and sounds :)). So, if you have to multi-task or have too much coming at you at once, you feel rattled and overwhelmed.
Therefore, in order to be a profitable HSE you must learn how to first create a heart centered plan using your HSE Strength of intuition, and then arrange your priorities and your tasks to match what you need in order to best focus (bite sized and baby-step actions work best for you). Then from there, you need learn an important HSE Core Practice – boundaries. This can go against everything you’ve been taught culturally (if you haven’t noticed, the rest of the world seems to be thriving on doing as many things as possible all at once) yet this is an absolute must. This is why an imperative, foundational tool in The Highly Sensitive Leadership Training Programs is having a plan that is both energetical and practical, aligned with who you are, and something that you re-new and re-commit to every 4 months, and then break down into bite-size actions every week as a core practice.
5. You don’t like narcissists.
You’re particularly bothered by people who put themselves first all the time and aren’t sensitive to the feelings of others. You may have thought (until now) that there was something wrong with you. Why isn’t everyone aware of others to the degree that I am?
As a highly sensitive, you are so aware of the feelings of others that you’re able to move to the other side of the sidewalk so someone can pass. You’re more than willing to make room for a group of people coming onto the bus, or you find yourself making eye contact with a by-passer … all in the name of making it easier for everyone — yourself and others.
Where this can get you into trouble is when you tend to attract narcissists as your clients. Most of us learned somewhere along the way to be the person who listened to everyone else’s problems, at our own expense. And, yes, it’s nice to finally get paid for it, but you must get very clear for yourself: is this truly who your ideal client is? I am going to go out on a limb and say, NO. The reason I can say is that one of things I share in The Highly Sensitive Leadership Training Programs is that your ideal client is a version of you. This doesn’t mean that every highly sensitive is only here to work with highly sensitive people. Again, we are the Royal Advisors. The Warrior Kings/Queens need us, and not all Warrior Kings/Queens are narcissists.
Another place to keep an eye out for yourself is regarding whom you choose as a mentor. Many HSEs will tend to choose business and marketing mentors who are Warrior Kings/Queens or narcissists or both, because there is this little secret part of us that wants to believe “if I just hang around enough Warrior Kings/ Queens, maybe I’ll become one and no longer feel left out.” And, of course, this is not true. You will always be you.
6. You invest fully in your work (when you’re passionate about it).
Due to your ability to pick up on how people are feeling, you’re able to respond to the needs of others and help them work in the most optimal way. Also, because you tend to be a deep thinker and perhaps a little bit of a perfectionist, you tend to put everything - and even a little more than is needed - into tasks. This is such a benefit to your clients and makes you stand out from so many other coaches, healers, and creative entrepreneurs. The key becomes learning how to use your excellent story-telling skills to share this exceptional trait in your marketing, and doing so consistently.
Now, I want you to imagine what it would be like to be in a Community of HSEs, just like you, where every member brings the same level of passion and conscientiousness that you do to the community… Truly, as HSEs, we thrive in aligned communities because we feel rewarded when we can support others, and even more so when this support can be reciprocated. Unfortunately, for most of us, that hasn’t been our previous experience, because when we are in misaligned communities we tend to be the everyone’s “listener,” or “absorber.” This is why aligned community is such a key element in The Highly Sensitive Leadership Training Programs. The acceleration that occurs when HSEs are brought together in aligned community is extraordinary.
7. You experience the extraordinary.
You’re able to experience, feel, and see what is beyond the ordinary… a sound, a sense, a color not yet created, a tool that hasn’t been developed, but is needed by many … highly sensitives have the ability to sense when someone is going to call them, send them a text message, or stop over for a visit, and can even pick up on personal messages offered from others while engaging in other conversations.
This trait is your top HSE Strength when you learn how to harness it for the benefit of your business. Most likely, you’ve suppressed this ability in the past and, as a result, slipped into the HSE Shadow of perfectionism. However, when you bring this ability to the forefront it is your top moneymaker, because it’s a wealth of intuitive knowledge waiting to be tapped into so you can unleash all of the wisdom you’re meant to share through your business.
Four
Transformation Assignment - Move Out of Overwhelm and Confusion
As I mentioned in the guide, the key to using your sensitivity as a leadership strength is learning to manage your energy so you can take focused aligned action to create sustainable success in your business. You must learn to manage your energy as a core practice and engage in it consistently.
I’m going to share with you my most important and powerful energy management tool – The Order Form to The Universe (lovingly referred to as the OFTU in the Business Miracles Community).
I created this tool when I first started my business to help me cut through all the confusion that was taking over my brain and to keep me from what felt like drowning in overwhelm. It’s a simple practice that has a profound effect.
You can put together an OFTU for anything that you’re confused about, overwhelmed about, or when making any decisions (major or minor). Let's begin...
Order Form to the Universe (OFTU)
A) Grab a pen and a blank piece of paper or download and print the OFTU tool here.
B) Review the 7 Core Characteristics of HSEs above and see if you recognize for yourself a specific area of struggle, overwhelm or confusion. For example, maybe you notice that you really struggle with prospect calls.
C) Follow the steps below to put together your OFTU. Click to expand each section to see an example based on the "prospect calls" suggestion above:
Blank
Blank
Start with writing down the OFTU focus (what the OFTU is about).
If we use the example of prospect calls, you might write, "Prospect Calls"
Next write down the answers to each of the following questions. The sequence of these questions is extremely important: the first two questions help you clear your mind and energy. The third and fourth create focus, and the fifth question is the power question that brings it all together. I highly recommended that you write both the questions and your answers to the question out on paper (or at least type them) not just “think them”. Really go stream of consciousness; let it all out.
Blank
Blank
1. Write out everything that you don’t want.
Example:
• the person to call in late
• any technical difficulties
• a person who is angry and doesn’t take personal responsibility
• a person who gives short, surface answers to my questions
• etc.
2. Write out everything that you don't want to feel.
Example:
• over-responsible
• disconnected
• uncertain
• frustrated
• overwhelmed
• etc.
3. Write out everything you do want.
Example:
• call to happen on time
• easy connection
• an open, appreciative person
• a deep connection and conversation
• etc.
4. Write out everything you do want to feel.
Example:
• excited
• connected
• divinely guided
• confident
• supported
• etc.
5. Write out everything you want the other person to feel.
Example:
• appreciative
• open
• possibility
• willingness
• a divine answer to a prayer
Next, identify a next inspired action.
Example:
• Test my phone line, get a glass of water, breathe deep, pray
Final step, give gratitude.
Example:
• Thank you, God, Angels and Great Ones (or insert words/names that work best for you such as Universe, Spirit, etc.) for bringing me this prospect connection. Thank you for giving me the thoughts to think, the words to speak and the actions to take. I am so very grateful. Thank you.
Use the OFTU Constantly and Consistently
To create true transformation, you must be willing to do "the real work" and engage in core practices like energy management again and again.
There is no right time or place to use the OFTU. You can use it immediately for a one-time need, and you can also use it ongoing. I have put together OFTU’s in pretty journals, I have put together OFTU’s on restaurant napkins, I have put together OFTU’s on toilet paper and I have put together OFTU’s on the notepad of my iPhone. I have even used the OFTU as a consistent tool every morning to support me with pro-actively staying out of the HSE Shadows of confusion and overwhelm BEFORE they even have a chance to try to come in and take me out.
And the result is always the same – MIRACLES. An opening is created by clearing and calming my energy and then miraculous opportunities come to me from out of the blue, stressful situations are more ease-filled, new ideas and insights come to me. I viscerally experience the Universe delivering my order.
And it’s the same for all of my clients and community members. Again, they all give me the same feedback: “THIS STUFF WORKS.”
I recommend you begin with the OFTU template provided for you here and then use as needed wherever and whenever.
Here’s to staying out of your HSE Shadows, stepping into your HSE Strengths and experiencing Business Miracles® on a daily basis.
If you have questions or would like feedback on your transformation assignment, fill out this form and let's set up a time to talk.
Five
Integrating and Implementing
1. You’ll be receiving FREE periodic emails from me filled with ideas, insights and inspirations about how to best thrive in your HSE Strengths and experience Business Miracles® on a daily basis. Read these. 🙂
2. As a Highly Sensitive Entrepreneur, when you experience anxiety, stress, and overwhelm you will tend to cope in 1 of 3 ways - you will either push, hide, or go back and forth between pushing and hiding (what I call, combo pattering). To support yourself in taking consistent action to create true transformation, get our HSE Training Kit - Survive to Thrive here so you can determine your default coping mechanism - Pusher, Hider or Combo Platter.
3. The assessment includes two audio trainings with transcripts, a transformation assignment, and additional valuable tools to teach you exactly how to get unstuck and shift out of coping into creating. Set time aside to use these extremely valuable tools.
Feeling ready to go to your next level of learning how to create solid, sustainable financial success as a highly sensitive entrepreneur?
My high mentor recommendation is to schedule a clarity call. Allow yourself to receive tailored-to-you support. Talk with either myself or a very capable and uniquely trained-by-me member of the coach team. You'll get the opportunity to have one of the most eye-opening conversations you’ve ever had - without any attachment to the outcome - just a chance for us to connect and get to know each other. You'll get clear on what your next steps are, with an opportunity to see if those next steps include the Highly Sensitive Leadership Training Program or something different. This is a complimentary call.