Episode #12
Your Business Is Not Your Worth: Tanya Wannemacher on Entrepreneurship, Self-Worth & the Messy Middle
What happens when your business becomes part of your identity? For many entrepreneurs, a bad month doesn’t just feel like the business is struggling. It starts to feel like you are failing. In this episode of Business Owners Unfiltered, Elias Crum talks with Tanya Wannemacher, founder and CEO of Mesh Coaching, about the mental, emotional and spiritual side of entrepreneurship. Tanya helps people understand how their thoughts, emotions and sense of self influence the actions they take and ultimately the results they create. We discuss why the traditional entrepreneurial mantra of working harder, pushing through and doing more can eventually work against you. Tanya explains why action absolutely matters, but why sustainable action starts with understanding what is driving it. One of the central themes of the conversation is worthiness. Can you separate your self-worth from the performance of your company without losing your ambition? Tanya argues that your worth isn’t something you earn through revenue, success, recognition or achievements. Instead of the traditional Do → Be → Have approach, she proposes turning it around: Be → Do → Have. Who you are and how you see yourself influences what you do. What you do then influences what you create. We also explore what Tanya calls the “messy middle”: that long period in entrepreneurship when you are putting in the work but cannot yet see the results. Just like planting something and continuing to water it before anything appears above the ground, entrepreneurship often requires continuing without immediate confirmation that what you are doing is working. In this episode we discuss: When healthy entrepreneurial ambition turns into overdoing and overthinking Why entrepreneurs so easily connect business performance to personal self-worth How to stay driven without making success responsible for your happiness Tanya’s concept of the “messy middle” Why Be → Do → Have can be more powerful than Do → Be → Have The difference between circumstances and the meaning we attach to them Why thoughts influence emotions, actions and ultimately results How entrepreneurs can create space between what happens and how they respond Why younger generations could benefit from learning emotional awareness earlier How Tanya combines psychology, neuroscience and spiritual concepts Why even skeptical, results-driven entrepreneurs might benefit from looking beyond goals and execution alone This is a different kind of entrepreneurial conversation. Not about another growth hack, sales funnel or business strategy, but about the person behind the company. Because building a better business may sometimes start with changing the way you relate to yourself. About Tanya Wannemacher Tanya Wannemacher is the founder and CEO of Mesh Coaching, where MESH stands for Mental, Emotional and Spiritual Health. Her work focuses on helping people develop greater self-awareness, reconnect with their sense of worth and turn that awareness into intentional action. Mesh Coaching: https://www.meshcoaching.com/ Tanya Wannemacher on LinkedIn: Connect with Tanya on LinkedIn About Business Owners Unfiltered Business Owners Unfiltered is the podcast for entrepreneurs who want the conversations behind the business stories: the decisions, mistakes, doubts, lessons and experiences that rarely make it into the polished LinkedIn version. Hosted by Elias Crum and Sebastiaan Winter. Brought to you by BestBonobos Thinking about selling your business one day? BestBonobos helps business owners understand what their company is worth, how ready it is for a sale, and what they can do today to increase its attractiveness to potential buyers. From valuation and exit readiness to preparing your sales documentation and identifying potential buyers, BestBonobos gives entrepreneurs the tools to prepare for a business sale on their own terms.
