255: What Got You Here Is Officially Holding You Back

The version of you that started your business isn’t the same one that’ll get it to the next level. That isn’t a hallmark of failure but of growth. And it’s a realization I’ve recently had about myself and my business.

In this unexpected sixth (and final) episode of our 5th anniversary series on She Thinks Big, I’ll reflect on my entrepreneurial evolution and the identity and business shift coming for 2026. I’ll also extend an invitation to evolve alongside me in preparing for these strategic changes by encouraging you to make space, re-examine your beliefs, and upgrade your systems, teams, and money mindset.

What’s Covered in This Episode on What Got You Here

3:51 – The contrast between my early business self vs. who I’m becoming 

6:27 – The one habit that got me where I am now and will get me to where I want to go

7:58 – Example of how my beliefs have shifted (and how I’ll put it into practice for the first time this month)

11:38 – How a November retreat led to a deeper insight for scale, intimacy, and space

16:03 – Gratitude for the completion of what got me here and the risks of not evolving

18:04 – What to expect from “Andrea 8.0” in 2026

20:10 – Final takeaway and my invitation to you for the journey from now on

Mentioned In What Got You Here Is Officially Holding You Back

Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May

Five Leaps in Five Minutes

Silent Saboteur Audit

She Thinks Big by Andrea Liebross

Book a Call With Andrea

Andrea’s Links

Andrea on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook

Don’t Just Listen—Implement It

Untangle your time, reset your role, and build systems that don’t depend on your every move. No more white-knuckling your way through success because you’re not just scaling your business, you’re scaling yourself.

Get the clarity and capacity to lead differently and ascend to your next level. Learn how and join us at andrealiebross.com/ascension

Quotes from the Episode

“The version of you who built your business on day one is not the version who is meant to lead its next evolution.” – Andrea Liebross

“What once was a discipline became a duty to me. What once was an expression of my thought became an expectation. What once was a creative outlet became an obligation to my past self.” – Andrea Liebross

“I am working towards feeling more grounded, more intentional, more bold, and more Andrea.” – Andrea Liebross

“What got you here 100% served you. Now you get to release it with gratitude. You get to step into something bigger, truer, and more aligned with who you are becoming.” – Andrea Liebross

Links to other episodes

235: Why Nervous System Regulation Isn’t Optional for Entrepreneurs with Lina Midla

250: How I Shifted My Priorities to Build a Business That Aligns With My Life

251: Belief Is the Blueprint for Everything You Build in Your Business

252: How I Stopped Managing Tasks and Started Leading a Team

253: Four Systems That Let You Step Away and Still Grow Your Business

254: Six Money Lessons That Help Your Business Keep More of What You Earn

Read the Transcript

Welcome to the She Thinks Big podcast. I'm your host, Andrea Liebross, coach, speaker, life balance architect, and strategic thought partner for high-achieving women who want to think differently, lead confidently, and create success on their own terms.

As an entrepreneur myself and the bestselling author of She Thinks Big, here's what I know: You've been at this for a while, but somehow you can still feel stuck in the day-to-day. And running your business like a to-do list does not fulfill the vision.

So around here, we're not about more hustle, we're about smarter strategy, bolder thinking, and leading a business that fits your life. Each week, you'll hear the mindset shifts, real-world tools, and CEO-level conversations that help you reclaim your time, grow with intention, and elevate your leadership. Now, let's dive in.

Hey, friends. Welcome back to the She Thinks Big podcast. So I decided to do a sixth and final episode in our 250-episode celebration series. I said I was doing five episodes, but it's six. Or you could say that this is the fifth and the 250th was zero. I don't know. But I want this one to land in your bones.

So I'm curious, as I always ask, where are you listening from? And I had someone recently say, "I know you're not, if I'm listening to this way after you recorded it, do you really even want to know where I'm listening from?" Yes. So if you're listening to this a year from the actual release date, I still want to know. DM me on Instagram because it's important for me to visualize where you are when I'm recording these. This one especially, because I want this one to land in your bones, as they say.

I want this episode to be the moment you realize that the version of you who built your business on day one is not the version who is meant to lead it, to lead its next evolution. I know that is cliche. What got you here isn't going to get you there, but it's true. I will tell you right now, the moment you realize that it's not a failure, it's a hallmark of growth. And this is the episode where I am actually going to pull back the curtain on what's changing in my business, what's changing in me, and what I believe this next era is really about.

It happens to all coincide with end of year, winter. It's definitely feeling like winter here in Indianapolis. The leaves are all off the trees. There's a book called Wintering. It is apropos that I am recording this episode now, it is the end of the year and what I want to share with you feels right for this season. So consider this episode your permission slip to evolve because I'm stepping into a new identity in 2026 and I want to bring you with me.

So when I look back at year one of this business, which was in 2018, so year one or podcast one was recorded in 2020, but my business started in 2018. If I look at that woman from 2018, I see a woman who was determined and hungry, and I would say resourceful in all the best ways. I saw all my clients in person. I didn't have a podcast. I did summaries at the end of all coaching sessions and sent people summaries every single time, not just sometimes. I thought that was super important.

About seeing those clients in person, I believe that face-to-face was better in 2018. That real transformation required the literal closeness, the physical presence, the sit in a chair across from me energy. In 2018, I managed almost everything alone. That was not because I didn't trust people, but because the belief underneath was, this is what strong, capable coaches do. This is what savvy business owners do. I should know how to do this. I should know everything. The savvy business owner should know how to do everything and the savvy business owner should carry everything.

You know what? That all worked. Those habits worked. How I showed up for my clients worked. They built trust. They created intimacy. Those clients that I saw across the table, they helped me refine my craft. The way I ran my business, I did learn a lot there in the beginning.

All of that, all of those habits, all of the way things ran, those habits got me here. I've refined them over the years and even my business where it is now, it's not because I'm not seeing people sitting across from me. I have a team. But even now, with the way I'm doing things, it's not going to really take me where I want to go. So even now, December 2025, I'm recording this. I'm actually recording at the very end of November. But the way things are going right now today, it's not going to get me where I want to go.

But here is one thing that I think got me to where I am now and is going to get me where I want to go. Here's the one habit that I have kept. Before every call or every podcast or every client interaction or every stage I get on, I ask myself, "How do I want to show up?" That is a habit that I've gotten into. I always answer it as the best version of myself for that day. I want to show up always as open and grounded and curious and confident that I will contribute something meaningful. So that habit is going to stay. How do I want to show up? That question is one of the questions I ask myself all the time. It's really part of the identity of the woman I am becoming.

So if you go back, I feel like it's episode 96. I don't know. There's an episode on who I am becoming. Maybe we can link it in the show notes. I should go back and listen to my own episode there because I'm going to guess it's really relevant right now. So I'm going to keep that thought. How do I want to show up? I want it to align with who I'm becoming. But the execution of everything around it, that has to evolve. The way I'm executing on things has to evolve.

Let me tell you specifically about the podcast. I love this podcast. I have done a weekly episode. Once in a while in the early days, I did two episodes a week. Every week for five years. No breaks, no pauses, not even a hiccup. Sometimes people say, "How do you record an episode every week? How do you do it?" And I joke, "Oh, it's a little grit. It's a little bit of delusion. It's a little bit of forcing myself into these podcast recording times."

But here's the truth underneath. I believed that a consistent weekly podcast equaled legitimacy. I believe that consistency equals legitimacy and that missing a week or going to every other week, because I had considered that would mean losing credibility with my audience. It would mean losing momentum and it actually would mean losing you. If I wasn't here every week, you would disappear. I thought that weekly podcast episodes, this is what serious podcasters do. This is what leaders do. This is what people with real platforms do.

I will tell you that the spoiler here is not that I'm not going to stop. I'm going to stop doing a weekly podcast. That's not what's going to happen. But I have shifted my thinking around this. Somewhere in the middle of 2025, that I have to stay consistent and only this is what serious podcasters do, that energy shifted. What once really was a discipline kind of became a duty to me. What once was an expression of my thought became an expectation. What once was a creative outlet became an obligation to really my past self.

So I started to question those beliefs that I had about this weekly podcast episode. I found myself thinking a thought that surprised me. What if I took some weeks off? What would actually happen if I didn't release an episode one week? And that was a tiny little whisper, but it really was the beginning of a massive identity shift that I think I'm still going through.

So this year I am doing something I have never done. I am actually taking two full weeks off from podcasting the last two weeks of December. So this is going to be my last episode of 2025, even though it is being released in the middle of December. There will be no other episodes coming out in December of 2025. I will not be recording anything. There will be no backups, no emergencies, no replays of past episodes. There's just going to be space.

Let's see what happens if you don't hear from me for two whole weeks. Will you come back? I'm guessing you will. There are plenty of episodes to listen to in those two weeks if you don't have a new one. So that's an example, just a little mini microcosm of something I believed was so important in the beginning that I don't necessarily believe is so important right now. I'm actually putting that into play in this end of December.

So I want to tell you a little bit more about how I feel like my thinking is evolving and what got me here isn't going to get me there. In the beginning of November at my retreat, I bring in Lina Midla. There's an episode out there that I did do with Lina, and she comes to my retreat in the mornings, both mornings, and she does some breath work with the group. I do it too, part of this breath work that she provides us. Then the second day of the retreat, a big gratitude came to me during breathwork. It felt so big. It felt like my ribs were expanding.

I realized how fortunate I am to walk intimately with you, my clients out there who are listening, to walk intimately with my podcast listeners. Because I do feel like we're in an intimate conversation. I realized how fortunate I am to be invited into your life and my clients' lives. I realized how fortunate I am to hear your deepest truths and to be part of your stream of consciousness.

I realized also during that time, that breath work, it was just 30 minutes. I realized something equally powerful. I belong in bigger rooms too. I belong in bigger rooms speaking and teaching and sharing my message at scale. I need to be in bigger places. I want both the intimacy of small coaching containers and to reach larger audiences. I think I can create that.

So my brain started getting to work on how do I do that? And then just this week, I realized I need more space, not more input. I had a moment working with my own coach this past week that hit me like an undeniable but very clean truth. I put myself in a lot of places where there are ideas and direction and ways of doing things that are all offered to me: more knowledge, more possibilities, more nuances on how to run a business.

I love all of that. I love when people are offering me all of this knowledge, technique, ideas. But emotionally, I feel really full. I feel a little maxed out on all the ideas. I don't feel overwhelmed. I just feel saturated. I heard myself think during my coaching call, I don't need more information. I need more space. I need more space to explore what lights me up. I need more space to explore what I feel and what I visualize and what I can create when I stop reacting and start imagining.

So I want that space to do that, to create that intimacy of small containers and to reach larger audiences. But to do that, I need more spaciousness. I need more oxygen. I need an identity with room to breathe. So I am tearing down the house here, setting the house on fire, we'll call it, in my business. In 2026, I am going to do things a whole lot differently. I'm still going to show up as me, but things are going to look a little different because what got me here is complete.

The clearest truth that I can offer, that I got to this past couple months, is that what got me here is complete. It is not broken. It is not bad. It is not wrong. It's just complete. Some of the ways, not all the ways, but some of the ways I have coached over the past eight years have been beautiful, but they are complete. The way I built this business, it's impressive. But that way of these first seven, eight years is complete. The beliefs that actually fueled me to this point, totally useful, but complete.

If my priorities don't evolve, I will keep solving yesterday's problems. If my beliefs don't evolve, I will keep thinking too small. If my systems don't evolve, I will keep being the bottleneck in my business. If my team doesn't evolve, I'll keep doing what no longer really belongs to me. If my money beliefs don't evolve, I'll keep creating ceilings where there should be none.

So this is the moment, my friends. I'm sharing it with you. This is the edge where everything shifts for me. I want you to feel the possibility in that. Do you need to examine what your priorities are, what your beliefs are, what your systems are, who your team is, what your money beliefs are? Do they need to evolve? Because are you continuing to solve yesterday's problems? Are you continuing to think too small? Are you continuing to be the bottleneck? Are you continuing to do what no longer belongs to you? Are you creating ceilings where there should be none?

So yes, for the first time in 250 episodes-ish, I am ending the year early. I'm taking two weeks of rest, two weeks of recalibration, two weeks of stepping into Andrea Liebross Coaching, version 8.0, which is also going to have a lot more of the She Thinks Big in it. I'm going to step into my iOS 8.0. It's my new operating system.

So what's coming in 2026? Well, I can't go into detail yet, but 2026 is an identity shift year. You're going to see a new website for me. You're going to see a new social presence. You're going to see a new rhythm for how I lead clients. You're going to see a new way of being visible as a thought leader and speaker and CEO. Also, you're going to see more small, intimate coaching rooms that go deeper. You're going to see more large stages, physical and digital, where I can serve wider.

What I am working towards is feeling more grounded, more intentional, more bold, and more Andrea. I have heard from numerous people that there needs to be more Andrea out there. I save a lot of my humor and candidness and honesty when I'm in those small intimate rooms, when I'm coaching. I think more Andrea, the bold, intentional Andrea, needs to come out more on those larger stages and in this podcast. This podcast, I need to be more of me. I need to be more of the hell yes, Andrea inside this podcast container even.

So what I want you to walk away with from today's episode as we close out this year together, here's what I want you to feel. I want you to feel possibility, just like I'm feeling it because growth really requires space. Space can be created. It doesn't require more knowledge. I love it when I'm on a consult call and someone says, "Well, I just need to figure out this and then I'll come coach with you." Like they just need to learn one more thing or they just need to put one more thing in place, "And then I'll come do the work, Andrea."

I recognize that in myself. I don't need to learn anything more really per se. I mean, I need to learn a lot of things, let's get real. But I don't need more input. I actually want more output, and I want the input to come from within. This is also what I mean when I say, you need to do the inner work before you can do the outer work. I need to do some more of my own inner work so that the outer work comes out different.

So I want you to feel this possibility, again, because growth requires space and space can be created. I want you to feel, as you're listening to this episode, some honesty. I want you to be honest with yourself because you already know what is complete, what beliefs are complete, what processes are complete, what ways you're doing things are complete. I want you to feel permission to pause, to pivot or to upgrade before you implode. I want you to feel courage because evolving isn't indulgent, it's leadership.

What got you here 100% served you, it shaped you, it carried you. Now you get to release it with gratitude. You get to step into something bigger and truer and more aligned with who you are becoming. I have pictured my role. I have pictured myself walking down, not the yellow brick road, but the purple brick road. I looked up, I Googled, what does purple really mean? Purple means wisdom. It means creativity. It means loyalty. It means luxury. It means clarity.

In my road, I want it to feel luxurious. I want it to feel velvety. I want it to feel freeing. I want it to feel powerful. I invite you to come on that purple brick road with me. So I'm going to see you in January as Andrea 8.0. The reason I'm picking 8.0 is because this will be like we're in the eighth year of my business. I really can't wait to meet the version of you that emerges when you finally stop dragging your old habits into your new business or dragging your one-year habits into whatever year you are in business.

So I invite you to come with me. I'm going to see you in January. But if you're listening to this episode in December, reach out to me if you want to come with me inside a coaching container in January, because I think January is a month of new beginnings. I would love to be part of your new beginning, your next operating system. So book a call with me. Let's do this together in January. I want to see you get to your next version of you right alongside mine.

Happy holidays, my friends. Here is to a year of big belief, big space, and big thinking. I cannot wait to show you what is next. Big hugs. Keep thinking big. I'll see you in 2026.

Thanks for listening to She Thinks Big. I know you’re committed to yourself and your businesses because you listened all the way to the end of this episode. But this isn’t really the end. It could be the beginning of your next power move.

If today’s episode gave you clarity, courage, or just a much-needed breath of fresh air, take that as your sign to take the next steps. So do it. Visit andreaslinks.com to take my Silent Saboteur Quiz and to discover our next steps in getting you to take action and achieve the success and freedom you crave.

You can also keep your momentum going by hitting subscribe right there on your screen so you don’t miss the next episode. Don’t forget to grab a copy of my book. She Thinks Big can be found on Amazon or at your favorite bookstore. Until next time, keep thinking big.