Rachel Hamlin (00:02.944)
It's Aki.
Tzakhi (00:04.869)
Um, thanks for coming. We're at meet that capital startup podcast with Rachel Hamlin, all the way from Costa Rica, um, Rachel, you're a mindset coach who work with startups executives and, um, and I think you deal with stuff that is very important for founders when they're raising capital or whenever they're, uh, taking their startup and their vision forward. Um, but would you like to tell us about yourself a bit?
Rachel Hamlin (00:34.47)
Yeah, I'd love to. Thank you. Yeah, I work with startups and founders on the power of belief, right? The world is going to tell you you're crazy.
And it's hard and it's not possible and you need to really believe that it is. And so that's what I'm here to help founders and all types of senior leadership to do, whether they're raising capital or otherwise. And I do have a startup background myself. I used to be a product leader in the blockchain space. I've had an international career. I've worked in three different countries officially and yes, now four I'm technically in Costa Rica, American by birth. And yeah, I've worked with dozens of leaders at this point in a one-on-one
and have definitely learned some things that I hope I can share with you today. That'll be useful to your audience.
Tzakhi (01:20.633)
Okay. Um, so, so how do we get started? What, what is it, what is the thing that, uh, founders often come to you with when, when they, when they reach out to you, what is like the thing that's pressing on their mind, if there is a common theme.
Rachel Hamlin (01:28.278)
Thank you.
Rachel Hamlin (01:34.154)
Yeah, it's changed recently because I have changed my messaging a bit. It used to be that I was attracting people who were really trying to fix their stress, who were burning out, who were not sure that they could sustain their companies or their careers and needed my help with that.
And lately it's been shifting more into people who are just really eager to be the best that they can be and who understand the importance of having a growth mindset and really want someone to support them in that, to support them in challenging their beliefs and helping them to reach for higher and higher goals and higher and higher states of being. So growth-oriented people.
Tzakhi (02:09.341)
Okay. And can you give us kind of like a framework that you work with or a framework that people can use to deal, to get to their kind of high performance and to deal with their stress?
Rachel Hamlin (02:17.742)
Mm.
Rachel Hamlin (02:25.962)
Yeah. One way that I like to look at it is all of your life is material, right? So anything that causes you to feel stressed, shut down, negative, judgmental, inhibited, fearful, any of those things, any external event that puts you into a, let's say, suboptimal state is something that you can use to create greater and greater states of peace, presence, and performance.
And I use specific tools, coaching, talk coaching being one of them, but also a lot of somatic healing modalities to help people metabolize and process the stress response. And in the space that's created by doing that, see the problem differently, generate some type of insight, as well as unlock and unleash energy to solve the problem.
And then obviously go out and change their behavior or act on some possible solution.
Teaching someone to do that at home requires a few more words. But the main orientation that I would teach you is to look at every problem, every place that you have a trigger or a stress response as an opportunity to become a higher performer and to develop greater and greater well-being. And I'm a huge fan of using somatic modalities to work through your stress. And then mindset training tools. Oh, yeah, for sure, I can give you a couple of examples. So somatic modality is something that
Tzakhi (03:50.803)
You need to explain what that is.
Rachel Hamlin (04:00.198)
regulates the nervous system effectively, moves the stress to the nervous system. Um, so breath work is a really great one. It's becoming really popular these days in my coaching sessions. I like to use something called the emotional freedom technique or tapping because I can dialogue with my clients while we're using it and regulate their nervous system at the same time, process the stress of whatever event. Yeah.
Tzakhi (04:22.717)
Wait, Rachel. So somatic modality, would it be fair to say that it's a way of managing our stress or maybe emotions in general through physical feelings or physical expressions? Okay. So breath work is obviously the central tool to use and to regulate our emotions.
Rachel Hamlin (04:35.638)
Yes, through using the body. Through using the body, yeah. And often.
Rachel Hamlin (04:46.974)
And increasingly popular one, definitely. People though often will say to me, I go to the gym, right? I work out, that's how I manage my mind. And that's an amazing way to create feelings of strength, right, to get good hormones flowing and to feel maybe more confident. But there's something about tapping and breath work in particular that creates catharsis.
around problems that people are facing that I personally haven't experienced the gym doing for me but that could just be me.
Tzakhi (05:23.117)
Okay. So, so when you, when you work with founders, you teach them rest work or it's part of the conversation, where does it come in?
Rachel Hamlin (05:34.286)
I offer group breathwork classes. So if you're in my world as a one-on-one client, you're going to be invited to three to four different hour-long meditative breathwork sessions per month where you have the opportunity to really like get in on a deeper level and do some release work.
Tzakhi (05:55.469)
So the breath work that you focus on is sessions of meditation where you take some time, 15, 20, half an hour, I don't know how long, to focus on breath work and calm yourself down as opposed to maybe a kind of breath work that you do during the day, within work.
Rachel Hamlin (06:04.118)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Rachel Hamlin (06:16.934)
Yeah, yeah, when I talk about breathwork, I mean, there's lots of different types of breathwork, right? There's pranayama from the yoga tradition, which I'm sure you're familiar with, which is also breathwork. There's, you know, box breathing. There's, yeah, simple things that you can insert in the middle of your day. But I am, yes, I am often talking about it in terms of an hour-long meditative breath session where you breathe continuously and consciously for about
Tzakhi (06:22.714)
Yeah.
Rachel Hamlin (06:45.642)
28 to 30 minutes.
Tzakhi (06:48.781)
Yeah. You know, I've done years of meditation. Um, and I, and I still meditate, uh, in the mornings. Um, and I've done also very, very long kind of type of meditation work. But what I think a lot of founders and people in general listening to this podcast are thinking, I don't have an hour. So give me the five minute version.
Rachel Hamlin (07:10.523)
Right. Ha ha ha.
Rachel Hamlin (07:14.93)
Yeah, I know I get that. And what I have to say to that is that belief is costing you. Like I am biased, but I would say prioritize your mindset and prioritize your state of being first. You've probably heard that quote, right? People who think that they don't have time to meditate need to meditate for twice as long or something like that.
Tzakhi (07:37.325)
No, but it sounds like a good one. Yeah.
Rachel Hamlin (07:39.634)
It tracks, right? Because if you're an experienced meditator, you understand what meditation unlocks for you. If I have a good meditation session in the morning, that changes the quality of my thinking all day long. And so a problem that I might otherwise spin my wheels on for two hours, I can solve in two minutes as it occurs to me later that day because I've meditated, because I've created a state of being where I'm
I have a much greater capacity to problem solve.
Tzakhi (08:13.637)
Yeah. So.
Rachel Hamlin (08:15.094)
Now that said, the tapping thing does work a lot quicker. So that's another alternative.
Tzakhi (08:20.947)
What do you mean by that?
Rachel Hamlin (08:22.37)
Tapping, as opposed to breathwork, which is like an hour long deep dive, feels like a lot to fit in. Tapping is something that you can do on the go anywhere, anytime, and really quickly shift your state and your thinking about something. Have you heard of tapping, EFT? Oh, wow. That's amazing. People have resistance to it because it looks weird, honestly, and they feel silly. So I think for that reason, it's not gotten as popular as breathwork. But it's actually.
Tzakhi (08:36.857)
Yeah. No, I haven't. Yeah.
Rachel Hamlin (08:50.962)
much better understood than breathwork, how it works. You basically tap on different points on the body and these are acupressure points. So they've been working with these in Chinese medicine for a long time, but what they found through different clinical studies is that these points are connected to nerve endings, which as you tap on them, they send electrochemical signals to the brain, shifts you from a sympathetic state to a parasympathetic state, which is the more relaxed state. And...
For some reason, when you combine the tapping and the shifting of state with language to talk about the problem or whatever it is that's causing you stress, it can totally rewire your thinking about that thing. So it's like something that you could use to prepare for a meeting, right? Or to deal with a certain person at work who routinely stresses you out. Um, that kind of thing.
Tzakhi (09:40.225)
Yeah. I haven't heard of tapping. I can think of other types of, let's say, breath work or exercises or spiritual exercises that help you focus before a meeting or whenever that's needed. I wonder what you think about...
Rachel Hamlin (09:58.83)
I'm going to go ahead and turn it off.
Tzakhi (10:03.013)
the difference between various techniques or, you know, what might be called like hacks, which is what you just described, a kind of way of hacking your nervous system into quickly getting relaxed or getting into or getting back to your balance and between the kind of work that gives you maybe the confidence to go through the ups and downs that you never
Rachel Hamlin (10:11.075)
Yeah.
Tzakhi (10:33.167)
with more focus and with more ability to kind of navigate yourself without needing to tap on your cheek.
Rachel Hamlin (10:42.144)
Are you saying that there's a way to do it without using techniques?
Tzakhi (10:45.373)
Uh, I, I'm for sure. Yeah. But, but, but that's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is what I'm asking is about in your work. Or is those kind of two levels of work that you, that you focus, that you, that you think about, which is one is kind of like techniques or hacks and the other is a kind of maybe, um,
Inner positioning maybe is the word or just inner work that at a certain point makes all those things redundant.
Rachel Hamlin (11:18.938)
Mm. I have not found them to be redundant ever for me personally, right? And maybe this is just my load to carry because I have started to build myself as a mindset coach. So I'll just forever be facing mindset challenges, right? Just keep myself sharp. Yeah, right? Right. And I have just never found, there have definitely been phases. And I love this question because for example,
Tzakhi (11:36.89)
No, everybody does. Yeah, for sure.
Rachel Hamlin (11:45.862)
I am just now coming out of a phase of many long months where I didn't meditate. I took some time off of my stillness practice because it was no longer really speaking to me and I had a lot of other hobbies that I was juggling and I felt I just I trust myself. I trust I trust kind of how I'm guided to use my time and energy and I knew I was willing to part with that for some time. But in the last couple weeks, it's occurred to me that I'm now missing that practice.
And then that practice would really be serving me again and that there's a certain quality again of thinking that I'm not accessing as regularly as I used to because I'm too far from my meditation practice. And so I'm again returning to that. And so while I think that you can absolutely, like things, different practices can be more or less useful to you at different times, I don't think that they'll ever not be useful. I personally have not, you know.
send it to such a level where I don't need tools. I would love to, but I haven't.
Tzakhi (12:47.085)
Yeah, no, I don't think, I don't really believe anyone completely does. Um, but, but I do think those are kind of two levels of, of working on, on yourself in a way and not that they have to contradict you can, you can do both. But, uh,
Rachel Hamlin (12:52.107)
Yeah.
Rachel Hamlin (12:58.123)
Mm-hmm, yeah. Yeah.
Rachel Hamlin (13:03.122)
Right. Yeah. And sometimes in my work, like we don't always use tools or techniques, right? Sometimes it's just me talking to the client and believing in the client and holding that point of view that shifts them into that, you know, level of belief themselves, right? Sometimes it's that easy. Um, it doesn't always have to feel like there's some sort of like mechanical process that you have to go through. And I think they're always useful.
Tzakhi (13:31.597)
Interesting that you, I think a lot of coaches and mindset coaches talk a lot about schedules and routines and is that part of your work too or what is your take on that? Okay.
Rachel Hamlin (13:46.714)
I'm so not interested in that stuff. Look, I will acknowledge that it's important and I have found that myself this past year having developed a routine for the first time in many years. But the reason that I personally against that, or not against, just disinterested in that is because I personally spent so many years living from a place of just consistent tension.
and rigidity. And it wasn't necessarily around my routine, but it was just around, you know, how hard I was working and how good I was at my job and, you know, my diet and things like I said, as routine, things like that. There was just this sense of like, I am either getting it right or I'm getting it wrong on all levels of my life. And that is a, a frequently exhausting and painful place to be.
And so a lot of the talk about routines and the 5 a.m. club and things like that could just exacerbate the pain of feeling like I was doing it wrong if I woke up at, you know, 7 a.m. one day. You know what I mean? That inner critic that wants to beat you up when you're not perfect or you're not virtuous or good or right, however you define that. And I think a lot of people struggle with that. And a lot of people could be a lot more successful with a lot more ease if they would actually relax a little.
And so I think routine and structure actually gives us safety and gives us space to relax. I have found the value in it. But for most people, they actually need to experiment with having a little bit less of it or being a little bit less attached to it and trusting themselves a little more. If that makes sense.
Tzakhi (15:34.045)
Yeah, well, I definitely agree that when you have a routine, there's a risk of becoming dependent on the routine. And then when you miss the routine, either because you just don't wake up on time, which happens, or something comes to disrupt your routine from the outside, then yeah, if you're too dependent on it, it becomes a source of
Rachel Hamlin (15:48.995)
Mm-hmm.
Tzakhi (15:59.409)
uh, fragility instead of a source of strength. And, and that's, yeah. And I know that for myself, it happens also that, but, and I think, you know, for me, it's, for me, it's always something that's, I always, uh, mindful of that. I do not, uh, have my feeling, my focus.
Rachel Hamlin (16:02.541)
Yes.
Rachel Hamlin (16:07.412)
and
Tzakhi (16:24.517)
pending on something like I could have started my day awful. And now it's, I don't know, 9 45 AM had a terrible morning, but I'm still going to have a good day. It's not, I'm not, I haven't given up on the day because morning didn't work out for whatever reason. So yeah.
Rachel Hamlin (16:26.435)
Thank you.
Rachel Hamlin (16:32.387)
Thank you.
Rachel Hamlin (16:36.224)
Mm-hmm.
Rachel Hamlin (16:42.282)
Yeah, I bet your meditation practice helps with that.
Tzakhi (16:47.305)
No, well, not necessarily because the point is, what if I miss my meditation practice? What if, you know, it's still not an excuse not to be at your best. I think the bigger challenges to remember that because you can come back to yourself in an instant and that's what you need to remember basically and that's what's easy to forget too if you understand what I'm saying.
Rachel Hamlin (16:53.099)
Yeah.
Rachel Hamlin (17:00.718)
Sure.
Rachel Hamlin (17:14.733)
That's part of, I think I do. And it's part of why I talk about presence so much. I make a big deal about being present as a leader because presence has obviously a dual sense. Like there's the present moment presence and then there's leadership presence and I think they're linked. But that present moment presence is what just allows you to show up also most resourced and most capable and most powerful as a leader, right? Because you're not
Wasting energy worrying about how much your morning was off or What's gonna happen next? Right? So yeah, I actually I really love that and I resonate with that
Tzakhi (17:55.649)
Yeah. And that's, that's something that you, you train your, your clients or
Rachel Hamlin (18:01.45)
Yeah. Yeah, I think that the somatic healing work that we do is a huge, huge piece of that. Because the more you work with the body through things like breathwork, tapping, even fitness, I would wager, although I'm actually sure the connection there, the more you expand the capacity of your nervous system to withstand stress. So the less stress you're feeling,
and the less easy it is for your mind to get carried away with you and the more present you become.
Tzakhi (18:43.033)
Okay, there's one thing I do want to ask you, which I think a lot of founders deal with. So yeah.
I'll speak louder, thanks. A lot of things that I think founders deal with is not just dealing with stress and difficult emotions, difficult emotions, but also the ability to admit that you're going through stress, that you need help, that you need to do something about it, that you need to take your foot off the gas. And that is, I think, a very tricky moment for a lot of founders, and how do you address that?
Rachel Hamlin (18:55.95)
That was my head.
Rachel Hamlin (19:22.246)
Yeah. Oh man. Thank you for bringing that one up.
Tzakhi (19:23.365)
I mean, I guess a lot of people come to you after they've already acknowledged that they need help because that's why they're talking to you, but what can you say about making that step?
Rachel Hamlin (19:32.118)
Yeah, oh man, that's a tough one because you're right. So many people will wait until they've had an absolute breaking point to open up and to seek help. And I want to sit with that for a second because I don't want to just say some platitude.
Rachel Hamlin (19:52.915)
I think one thing that I've recognized through the particular work that I do, which is not just about metabolizing stress, it's also about metabolizing and working with all types of emotion. So kind of big, scary, ugly emotions like anger and grief. And I mean, those are the main ones, like anger, grief, fear.
Rachel Hamlin (20:18.75)
It actually takes a lot of courage to look at those things, to look under the hood of what you're really experiencing because it's so not normalized in our culture and because people do have this association with feeling those things with being weak, but in reality, they can become a competitive advantage. And so I would like to speak into the part of the founders out there that are performance driven that...
could maybe get their minds around how, oh, like if I learn to acknowledge, feel and process emotions, I'm not weak, I'm savvy. I'm savvy because I'm clearing out some of the gunk that's in my system and I'm becoming a more clear and present leader. And that is actually boosting my executive decision making, my level of insight, my capacity to navigate conflict with my team.
It's actually the function of a high performing and dedicated leader to take care of themselves in that way, not a weakness. That's my take.
Tzakhi (21:27.485)
Okay, good, excellent. Okay, we're close to our end here. So as you know, we take the last few minutes to, I asked my guests to give a few tips, five tips for startup founders. So could you please?
Rachel Hamlin (21:45.494)
take it away. Yeah, I actually wrote these down so I'd remember. The first is gonna be the most obvious for me and I am biased but it's make your mindset a priority. Make your level of belief in what you're doing a priority. Make your whole state of being a priority because you are going to be inundated with those messages about you know startup statistics and you're crazy and this, that and the other thing and your level of belief in what you are doing needs to be
Tzakhi (21:48.701)
Great.
Rachel Hamlin (22:15.582)
scroll past a headline that says something like, VC funding is down by 54% this year, you need to be completely unaffected by that. You need to think, oh, doesn't apply to me. That is how strong your belief in what you're doing and your potential should be. So prioritize that. And then the second thing I would say is, manage both your mind and your body. That's how you create a really strong, resilient growth mindset is by...
both yes, being in the gym and creating strength and a sense of wellbeing, and also training yourself on the level of belief, right? Because to speak to those people I mentioned earlier who are like, yeah, I go to the gym, I work out, that's how I keep my mind in check, that doesn't usually impact us on the level of belief. And when I say the level of belief, that's things like, you know, fundraising is hard, right? The more you believe fundraising is hard, the harder it's going to be.
the crunchier your conversations are going to be. I'm not good at sales. That's a belief that somebody might be holding and that is going to color their experience in fundraising. So going to the gym won't help you with that. You need to be turning your mind as well. And I guess I can show resources for that on my LinkedIn if people want to go deeper. The third I would say is be wildly discerning with your time and energy. You know, your energy is the most precious resource that you have. And so that means you need to be discerning even in instances where it doesn't feel important.
And an example I would give is say some former colleague comes in from out of town and they want to get dinner and you don't have other plans, but you don't feel like you have a real reason to say no. And so you go along with it, even though it doesn't really feel life-giving or exciting for you to do so. Practice saying no to things like that, because the more you are discerning in places where it doesn't seem important, the easier it is for you to be discerning at places where it's really important and much harder to do.
You have to teach yourself who you are through those decisions. The fourth thing I'd like to share is that you understand what ultimately is going to sell an investor on, let's say, your product versus an equivalent competitor's product is going to be their connection to you. A lot of people talk about founder confidence, but I think that sales is ultimately about connection. It's about connecting two people in a business relationship. It's about connecting.
Rachel Hamlin (24:35.458)
the customer or the investor and the problem that they wanna solve, the goal that they have, right? And your capacity to create connection with another human is predicated on your own level of openness in that moment, which is usually a function of your presence, your relaxation. So that takes us back to the importance of tips one and two. And then finally, I would say, you're going to encounter hard decisions in your fundraising journey.
There's going to be places where you have to make trade-offs or you don't know what the best move is. Like maybe you have an offer from a partner that you're not completely sold on and you're not sure if you should take it or keep pushing and try to find a more ideal partner. And in those situations, I would say it's really wise and beneficial for you to first zoom out and figure out what you value first. So do you value being the type of leader who's absolutely relentless?
about having relationships with the right people in business, or are you someone who's willing to compromise in order to keep going, in order to keep making progress? Right, it can be really clarifying and save you a lot of mental anguish if you first decide on what you value in sort of a meta sense before you have to make a hard decision. That's it, I think I got everything that I wanted to share.
Tzakhi (25:55.789)
Awesome, awesome. Love those very much. Rachel, thanks so much. How should people connect with you?
Rachel Hamlin (26:04.014)
Find me on LinkedIn. I'm sure you'll be sharing this on LinkedIn. I'm Rachel Hamlin and I would love to connect with you and DM with you there.
Tzakhi (26:11.397)
Awesome, we'll share the link in the notes. Rachel, thanks so much. Yes, bye.
Rachel Hamlin (26:16.246)
Thank you. It's such a pleasure. Talk to you soon.
