The Parts You Reject Are Blocking Your Potential

Why You Resist Feeling Bad (And How It Holds You Back as a Founder)

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00:00 – Intro + today's topic: “shadows” and the parts we deny
01:30 – Jesse’s shadow: the victim
03:00 – Why founders avoid “weak” emotions like sadness, shame, helplessness
05:00 – What’s the point of all this inner work? (Andrew challenges the premise)
06:30 – Peace vs. success: what are founders really after?
08:00 – Resistance is what drains you, not action
09:30 – Integration vs. high: wholeness as the goal
11:30 – “If you can’t be happy now, you won’t be happy then”
12:30 – The cost of repressing emotion: risk aversion, stuckness
15:00 – “Who would I be if I weren’t afraid to fail?”
17:00 – The loser shadow: Dave’s story
18:30 – How founders self-limit by avoiding identity threats
21:00 – What is a shadow? (The theory)
23:00 – Projection, judgment, and your hidden parts
25:00 – Accepting reality vs. resignation
27:00 – Reality distortion field vs. future vision
29:00 – Why fear of being a fraud stops growth
30:30 – How acceptance leads to effective action
33:00 – The power of admitting doubt
34:30 – Jesse’s pitch vs. Andrew’s pitch: truth builds trust
36:00 – Authenticity, vulnerability, and leadership
37:00 – Self-awareness is a prerequisite to shadow work
38:00 – Self-discovery vs. self-improvement
40:00 – How to find your shadow: what irritates you in others?
42:00 – Andrew’s trigger: negativity and complaining
44:00 – What to do with your shadow (practical exercises)
46:00 – Persona party, exaggeration, and expression
48:00 – Final thoughts and experiment: 5 daily complaints

What You’ll Learn:
In this episode, Jesse, Dave, and Andrew dive deep into the uncomfortable but transformative topic of shadow work—the parts of ourselves we deny, repress, or judge.
Through personal stories, coaching insights, and practical tools, they explore how repressed emotions and rejected traits can silently run the show—impacting leadership, risk tolerance, decision-making, and personal peace.

You’ll learn:

• What “shadow” means and how to recognize it in yourself
• How repressing certain traits (e.g. victimhood, negativity) limits success
• Why denying uncomfortable emotions causes energy drain
• How to use judgment and projection to identify your shadows
• Practical exercises to express, accept, and integrate the parts you resist
• Why self-awareness and radical acceptance unlock freedom and flow

This episode of Heart of Entrepreneurship breaks down the hidden patterns that affect how founders lead, relate, and create. Through the lens of shadow work, Jesse, Dave, and Andrew unpack how repressing emotions like fear, sadness, shame, or doubt keeps entrepreneurs stuck in reactive cycles and blocks real growth.
They cover concepts from Internal Family Systems (IFS), offer real-life founder coaching examples, and deliver a toolkit for building emotional resilience, behavioral flexibility, and founder authenticity.
Whether you’re exploring emotional intelligence, recovering from burnout, or trying to take your leadership to the next level, this episode is both raw and actionable.

Thanks for listening. If this resonated, leave a comment with your own shadow, hit like, and subscribe for more honest conversations about what it really takes to grow as a founder.
#shadowwork #founderjourney #emotionalintelligence