Meredith Noble Of Learn Grant Writing On How to Go Beyond Your Comfort Zone to Grow Both Personally and Professionally
An Interview With Maria Angelova
If you feel like you don’t have a single place where you’re feeling psychologically safe, then we have to go build that safety first before we can get out of our comfort zone or else our nervous system can’t handle it.
It feels most comfortable to stick with what we are familiar with. But anyone who has achieved great success will tell you that true growth comes from pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. What are some ways that influential people have pushed themselves out of their comfort zone to grow both personally and professionally? As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Meredith Noble.
Meredith Noble is the Co-Founder and CEO of Learn Grant Writing, Meredith inspires other women to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams. She secured over $45 million in grants before teaching others how to build a flexible career in grant writing. Meredith is a fifth generation black angus cattle rancher from Wyoming now living in the mountains of Alaska.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we start, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory?
Absolutely! I grew up spoiled rotten, not materially by any means, but by getting to be raised fifth generation on a cattle ranch in Wyoming. Every morning I would march the 200 feet over to my grandparents’ house where my grandfather, whom I called Pama, would make buttermilk pancakes literally every single morning of his life — a tradition he started at age 16. We’d eat breakfast and take the extra pancakes down to the creek where we fed our trout. Those trout became certainly the largest trout in the creek.
He would go to work with my father and often I would get to tag along, whether that was being in the sleigh, pitching off hay, trying to stay warm, or on horseback helping sort cattle or locate them in the high country. In the afternoon when my Pama would have his whiskey and seven, he’d pour me a Seven Up in a shot glass. I felt like a big girl getting to pull up to the bar with him. It’s for that reason I have to say I was absolutely spoiled rotten. I grew up on a ranch with a lot of family love and I learned many of the important values that accompany a western lifestyle.
For instance, imagine we are back in the hay fields. I am 14 years old and running an old 1956 tractor to put hay into windrows. My job requires staying ahead of the stacking crew (the team that put the hay into the haystacks). They keep catching me, and I am growing frustrated. You can only bounce around so fast in a hayfield!
My father flags me down. He explains that there is a pattern in the hay if I look for it. His advice was to “make each move count.” Once I started looking for the patterns, I could see them. I became more efficient, and the gap grew between me and the stacking crew.
It’s those little one liners that I’ve carried into my business. Make each move count, take responsibility. If you break it, fix it. At the end of the day, all you have is your word.
I left the ranch eager to experience a bigger city and meet people that felt more like-minded. I always felt like I stood out and didn’t quite fit in with any of the groups that I tried so desperately to fit into. When I went to college that desire to fit in and to be something I wasn’t somehow managed to dissolve and go away. I really started to stand into my own identity and be proud of my hardworking ranching roots. I knew that I was capable of something else. That something else has been one heck of a life journey. I feel like in many ways it has only just begun.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
In my high school English literature class, we read a book. We read a short story about a woman that borrowed a beautiful diamond necklace from her neighbor for a ball that she was going to. At the ball she somehow managed to lose the necklace. It fell off. She was so afraid to tail her neighbor she had lost the necklace. She worked for the next several decades tirelessly to pay off the new diamond necklace that she bought to replace.
Years and years later she finally confessed this to the neighbor. Her neighbor said, “Oh, but it was just a fake diamond necklace. It wasn’t worth anything”. That short story sent such an important message to me because I could see the temptation of not coming clean on things that might include really uncomfortable conversations to have. Growing up, I certainly didn’t learn how to have direct communication and certainly not direct communication those two ways. It was often only going one way. I took that lesson to heart and have never shied away from having a direct conversation.
In business that is an especially important message to hold onto. In business and life we’re always better off communicating directly. It will always yield better results.
Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
I feel like I am a woman that is built on books. When I get going, I can read a book a day. It often feels like the only hobby I have outside of getting outside and being active. It’s hard to summarize the list because so many great books and podcasts have influenced me. I have to say I never watch any films. I watch two movies a year if I’m lucky.
The book lately that has really rocked my world has been Bending Reality: How To Make The Improbable Probable by Victoria Song. I took my time through this book underlining and highlighting nearly every little section of the book. Essentially, the hypothesis is this: everything in our lives will come forward with so much more ease if we can recognize if we’re in a contractive state trying to force things or come from a place of expansion where our wildest dreams can come possible so much easier than we thought.
Most of my life has been accomplished by forcing my way there, pushing hard, and hard work. That was certainly something I picked up from the ranching upbringing. A handful of the things that have come into my life absolutely effortlessly like my husband, for instance, expose me to the magic of not gripping everything so tightly to get what we want. In turn, it comes much faster.
I’m now enrolled in Victoria’s Bending Reality online course program. It’s a live eight-week program. I am impressed at the downloads and the insights I’m gathering. I feel like my subconscious is floating more messaging to my conscious to help understand how my beliefs have been impacting every little aspect of my life. I can’t recommend that book enough as a great starting point.
Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. Let’s start with a basic definition so that all of us are on the same page. What does “getting outside of your comfort zone” mean?
The long and short of it is this: getting outside of your comfort zone means being scared but doing it anyway.
Everyone has fears about leaving their comfort zone, but the biggest personal and professional growth happens when we decide to do the thing we’re scared about. It’s important to acknowledge our fear because, again, it’s there and we all have it! When we do have certain safety needs met, it is easier to step outside our comfort zone.
Can you help articulate a few reasons why it is important to get out of your comfort zone?
Aside from the obvious answer here that growth exists on the other side of getting out of our comfort zone, I’m going to provide a more nuanced answer.
If you are consistently taking actions that get you out of your comfort zone, it means that you are in some way in your life feeling psychologically safe enough to take a risk. For those of us that will take risks, even if it’s just an inch more of a risk than you otherwise would do to stay in your comfort zone, the upside becomes exponential. It is not a linear relationship between how much risk you take and how much upside exists on the other side of it. It also means that you’re moving up Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. That’s not to say that all our needs have to be met before we reach outside of our comfort zone, but it means that how far we reach or how big we go is directly correlated to how safe we feel in some other part of our life.
Most fundamentally, it means getting to the deathbed. We might be lucky enough that reaching our deathbed occurs when we’re in our eighties or it might occur in a flash moment and our life is flashing before our eyes. We can say, “Without a doubt, I lived my life fully. I did not hold back. There might be little moments that I wish had gone differently, but overall, I don’t regret anything.” You can look at yourself in the mirror and say, “I am proud of myself. I am proud of the life I’ve built and I’m proud of the role modeling I’ve set for my family, my peers, my community, and beyond.”
If we were to really boil it down to something, getting out of your comfort zone is about living into your truest self. I don’t want to say your full potential because there is no such thing as full potential. That full potential will keep expanding and expanding. It’s like the universe–we don’t know the limits of it, but what we do know is that when we expand ourselves, invite ourselves to go beyond the comfort zone, only enjoying that comfort zone for a short while, that’s when we get to make the biggest difference during our short time here on earth.
Is it possible to grow without leaving your comfort zone? Can you explain what you mean?
Surely some level of growth occurs staying within one’s comfort zone. However, when I think about the examples of those in my life that haven’t seemed to really progress much, it doesn’t seem like there are a lot of moments in their lives where they’ve pushed themselves outside of their comfort zone. What becomes particularly trapping about it is that the longer you go in the comfort zone, the harder it gets to leave it. I think this is why people like me are addicted to living outside the comfort zone because that’s how we know we’re growing and expanding. Ironically, we feel most comfortable in the uncomfortable.
The world is evolving, turning, and stirring. As tempting as it is to lock in on something that works, let me assure you, I know this, I built a seven figure online course and community and I’ve been very staunch that we’re keeping things simple. We have one price, one product, and one way to sell. I have since had to realize that to continue growing, I can’t stay in my comfort zone and expect everyone else to stay in it too. If I do, I’m not creating a dream that is big enough for everyone else’s dreams to fit inside of.
I think it is safe to say that a life well lived simply cannot exist if we’re not leaving our comfort zone on a regular basis.
Can you share some anecdotes from your personal experience? Can you share a story about a time when you stepped out of your comfort zone and how it helped you grow? How does it feel to take those first difficult steps?
The moment that was truly one of the peak scary moments in my life was when I had published the first edition of my book. I had relaunched with a beta group and built an online course and now I was ready to sell it. The problem was I didn’t have an email list that was worth a darn. I knew people would take an in-person grant writing workshop. This was right before COVID hit. They weren’t yet comfortable with the concept of learning online. They would prefer to go to something in person.
I decided to go ahead and go big. I booked the largest movie theater and dining venue in the city of Anchorage in Alaska and anticipated 250 attendees. I ended up extending that offer to a community nearby and those seats sold out so quickly they asked me to extend it to another day. Before I knew it, I was committed to hosting a workshop in Valdez, two in Soldotna, and another one in Anchorage over one week.
The smaller venues didn’t scare me as much because I knew I could fill those. It was the Anchorage venue that was giving me major heart palpitations, especially when I discovered that I had booked it on the exact same day as the largest annual nonprofit luncheon. I also knew that since I’d already pre-sold tickets, I would really struggle to change the date.
I had called several mentors seeking advice. One of them said, “Can I be honest with you Meredith? I’ve seen your type before. You’re never going to amount to much because you’ll insist on doing everything yourself”.
You can imagine how much that stung. I was so scared. I didn’t even know I’d be able to fill out the venue and I knew that an empty venue of that size would send a poor message. Beyond that, I’d never stood on a stage like that. I’d never taught a four-hour workshop live. I’d never sold online or sold from the stage. Everything about it was horribly scary.
But of course, it went exceedingly well. It was so fun. I weaved in my fun identity. I provided glow sticks. I had a sequin best dressed costume contest. I gave away glowing unicorn rings. (Our mascot is a grant writing unicorn!) It was spectacularly fun and a huge success. Nothing else like that has ever existed in this community.
However, my body did not manage it very well. I ended up getting the largest cystic acne on my chin that looked like a full-on marble had been tucked under there. I still had one more workshop to teach. I was mortified and felt so ugly. I could not look at myself in the mirror. I went to two dermatologists and there was little that they could do for me because they said it had completely hardened.
After teaching those workshops, I remember thinking, “You know, that’s just not for me. I’m proud of myself for doing it, but I’m just not going to get on stage like that again.”
Then, COVID hit. The upside of it was that suddenly everyone was comfortable with online learning. I was able to go into my safe zone which was building a business online. Energetically, that doesn’t take as much out of me as being on a stage even though I also found it energizing in the moment. Still, my pledge was to never get on a stage.
Fast forward two years, we’re now a seven figure company and my business coach has basically told me that I have one KPI (key performance indicator) I’m responsible for. That is the number of times that I show up publicly to represent, speak, and spread the good word about Learn Grant Writing.
I’ve had some major internal resistance to this because it feels like a direct threat to my lifestyle I have so painstakingly built. This lifestyle has loads of flexibility. Being visible, attending webinars, going to conferences, and traveling to events all feels like a direct threat to my freedom. I have needed to work through expanding into a comfort zone, retracting, and then expanding out of my comfort zone yet again.
I think that’s a very normal part of the process that needs to be shared. Your experience might boomerang. You’re going to do something scary. Your nervous system is going to tell you, “No, no, get back to safety.” That is fine, but we can’t stay there as long as I certainly stayed there. I remained in the safety zone for two years.
What has helped me finally emerge from that blockage was recognizing I can be on a stage in my terms. I don’t have to go to conferences. I can start building my LinkedIn presence. I don’t want to be on Instagram, but I do like being a guest podcaster. There are a lot of different ways to be authentic to ourselves that pull us forward with ease versus trying to force ourselves into doing something we don’t want to do.
Here is the central question of our discussion. What are your “five ways to push past your comfort zone, to grow both personally and professionally”?
I must call out this question because I don’t love the way it’s been worded. I am against pushing your way to anything anymore. It is a product of whiteness. It is a system that no longer and does not serve us. It is designed to wear us out so that we don’t have the time or energy to push back on other things that radically need to be changed in our society. That hustle culture is very deeply embedded and very hard to break, but it simply doesn’t serve us. We all know it. We just haven’t figured out how to stop that cycle.
What I just want to start with is rewording the question, which would be “What are your five ways to expand beyond your comfort zone to grow both personally and professionally?”
I think about the five ways in terms of five questions. Let’s start with them here.
- Where am I safe?
You’re not likely going to feel super safe in all aspects of your life unless you are a truly fully self-actualized, financially independent individual, right? That said, you probably have somewhere in your life where you are psychologically safe whether that is in your intimate relationship, your friendships, your money, your career, or your creativity somewhere. When you can pinpoint where you are psychologically safe, that is where you can start taking bigger risks in some other place of your life.
If you feel like you don’t have a single place where you’re feeling psychologically safe, then we have to go build that safety first before we can get out of our comfort zone or else our nervous system can’t handle it.
The best example I can give of this is when my co-founder and I took our very first leadership retreat. We went to this little fishing village in Alaska called Seldovia. You need to take a ferry to get there as there are no roads to that community. We were at $40K in monthly recurring revenue. We were covering our expenses and had money left over. We’d been growing for six months in a row since launching our new business model. I had full confidence that we would continue to do that. I felt psychologically safe in the business for the first time in three years, and as I told Alex that, I could feel my shoulders come down.
I felt myself being able to relax because I knew I could be creative and have more ease and joy because I was not concerned about where next month’s revenue is going to come from.
2. Where are my blockages?
This isn’t always the easiest to identify. It is easier for others to see our blockages than it is for us to see them. There are very few people that can give us feedback on our blockages who we don’t get defensive with, dismiss, or even create enough space for them to know that they can give us that feedback. I know I’m very quick to be defensive, so this is a challenge. Here is an example of a mental blockage that’s holding us back from expanding beyond our comfort zone.
I had a customer that has been succeeding on all fronts, but she said, “I want to make six figures in revenue, but I don’t want to work any harder than I already am. I’m maxed out. I’m just going to stay at $70,000 a year in revenue. What’s wrong with that?”
The problem is there is something significantly wrong with that because the belief there is that if I want more money, I must work harder and that’s going to break me because I simply cannot work any harder. The problem is, at $70K a year, she doesn’t have the resources to start paying for help with those extra things that I know she wants in her life. She’s dedicating herself wholeheartedly.
That $70K is not take-home pay. That is total revenue. There are still taxes and business expenses to cover. At the end of the day, you’re working your tush off, but you’re not unlocking that broader lifestyle goal that you set out to accomplish.
It’s important to recognize where I am having repeating mental block patterns that are holding me back. I must admit, I’m working on this myself. Am I sabotaging my growth?
3. Where do I want to go?
This piece is vital. The trouble is as soon as you’ve got a vision and you hit it, then you find yourself without a vision again. It’s not really something you set once and forget. It’s an ongoing process that needs to be updated. Essentially, it’s thinking very boldly about what you want from my life. It’s not just making a list of the material things you want; it’s how do you want to feel? What are different benchmarks and different levels you want to reach at different stages in time?
When I was first out of college my definition of success was being able to eat out at a restaurant whenever I wanted. In college, I had limited myself to eating out no more than twice a month because I was on a tight budget.
My definition of success later became being able to buy anything anonymously to help someone through a hard time and not be limited by my own finances. One time there was a local kid that had his bike stolen. He loved that bike to pieces. I didn’t have the resources to completely go buy him a new bike, but I did form a group online to help source our spare bike parts and cash to build this kid a new bike. Not only that, we ended up building him two bikes, a commuter bike and a mountain bike because of the generosity in the entire community. I was able to be the organizer that gathered all of that amazing energy and giving mentality from everyone else to get this kid a new bike.
I challenge you to drop a timeline associated with getting where you want to go because there are so many different levels. Maybe getting where you want to go looks like hiring housekeeping help so that you have a couple extra hours freed up to take care of yourself. Maybe it’s having that dream house built.
I challenge you to think about writing down a journal entry as if it were 10 years from now, describing your day. Just an average old day today. This is what things feel like. This is what I had for breakfast. This is exactly what my life is looking like in the great detail that you would write in a journal entry. Without clarity on where we want to go, the next two steps really don’t matter.
4. What one question can filter my decisions?
I’m big on this and I teach this often. We need to have a single question that helps guide our decision making towards our lifestyle objective.
One time I was training for a 110-mile mountain bike race. It was a lot of work for me to prepare for that. It was outside the realm of what I thought might be physically possible for me. I had only biked 15 miles at a time prior to that. I made my guiding mantra throughout that whole year, “Does this help me move towards my goal of winning the Soggy Bottom or not?” That meant not drinking anymore and choosing my activities with friends wisely, so I had the time to train. I filtered all my decisions that way.
Later the question became, “How can I build a million dollar a year business?” Less than 2% of women founders hit that threshold, which I find terribly troubling. That became the question I filtered my decisions through in my business and my life. It was 100% attributable to why we hit that success mark.
It’s very important you think about what your goal is, what you’re trying to accomplish, and then design a yes or no question around it. This makes it easy, so you don’t have decision fatigue in terms of how to spend your time and resources to move you toward that big objective.
5. Where are my people?
This takes time. I set an intention of finding my people two years ago. I was looking for people who want to grow businesses that are interesting, who are fun, and who love the outdoors.
I’ve participated in several programs. In some programs I just didn’t quite connect with others on a deeper level. I’ve continuously honed in on the people I want to be around who are motivating, who have great energy, and who have ambition. Then, I put myself in the same room as them.
Not only that, but I’ve also started to create the room. This summer I’ll be hosting an entrepreneur founder summer camp in Alaska. This is my way of realizing that to achieve higher and higher levels I need to be around other people who are also dreaming and acting in a big way.
To summarize, the five questions to ask yourself to help expand beyond your comfort zone are:
- Where am I safe?
- Where are my blockages?
- Where do I want to go?
- What one question can filter my decisions?
- Where are my people?
From your experience or perspective, what are some of the common barriers that keep someone from pushing out of their comfort zone?
Fear. Fear, fear, fear. That’s all.
If we peel back the layers of what holds us back, it must be fear. We’re self-preserving critters. We want to endure to fit in and to be part of the collective in the community. Doing things that are scary simply puts us outside of that and puts us at risk of being rejected by our wolf pack communities. It’s all very primal if you think about it.
The good news is it’s normal since we all have it. You’re not unique in having it. We all do. The question is, what do you do with that fear? The reality is very few things we’re concerned about are actually a direct danger to our safety physically, psychologically, etc. Most of it is fear that is completely overly dramatized in our heads. When we can separate what is a real danger versus a made up danger it helps dissolve much of the power that fear can hold over us.
There is a well-known quote attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt that says, “Do something that scares you every day”. What exactly does this mean to you? Is there inherent value in doing something that pushes you out of your comfort zone, even if it does not relate to personal or professional growth? For example, if one is uncomfortable about walking alone at night should they purposely push themselves to do it often for the sake of going beyond their comfort zone? Can you please explain what you mean?
I love the quote from Eleanor Roosevelt. It can be a little bit hard to do something scary every single day, but I certainly appreciate the essence. There is tremendous value in seeking expansion in an area that’s outside the area we want to grow in.
For example, I want to grow in business. What I have found is that if I expand myself outside, that correlates well to the business. Specifically, I love to backcountry ski. There is a lot of inherent risk in that activity. I certainly don’t want to die in an avalanche, but that is a real threat in that sport. Of course, I also like to remind people that the biggest threat is simply in the car ride there because driving is one of the most dangerous things we do.
Aside from that point, when I’m on a knife thin peak top looking down sheer drop offs on both sides knowing that any slip up is of significant consequence, it is scary. It pulls me fully into the present. And you know what? It makes me feel alive. When I get to the bottom of the thing that scares me, I have an expanded sense of self and an expanded sense of what is possible. I know that I was doing mental training, not just physical training, to get on top of that peak — and the bottom! I had to overcome the mental chatter in my head that said, “go back to safety, go back to safety” when I was fine. As a result, I was able to experience absolute euphoria being in a beautiful place, not letting fear get the best of me, and keeping me indoors on the couch.
The major takeaway here is that I want exponential growth in my business, but I don’t want to try to force it. If I can seek areas outside of that domain to grow in, it will grow me and thereby grow everything else in my life.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
My personal mission is to inspire women to try their hand at entrepreneurship. I don’t care if you want to land a new job with that entrepreneurship experience, but I want you to at least know how to make money if you need to make it. That is financial freedom. That is the freedom we need to have choices to be comfortable to go beyond our comfort zone.
I’m deeply passionate about women collectively agreeing that we will work through the hardwired messaging that we’ve received on being less worthy, not valuing our time and contributions in a household, and thinking of that as free time when it’s not. It’s a huge job that is of monetary value. It’s important to me for women to recognize we have nothing to lose to step into at least trying out a side hustle so we understand the fundamentals of our value, the skills that come from it, and simply making some coins so that you have options.
Is there a person in the world whom you would love to have lunch with, and why? Maybe we can tag them and see what happens!
I would love to meet Stu McLaren, founder of searchie.io. What he’s doing with this new product is super fascinating. If I wasn’t so intimidated by the concept of moving over our entire course to his platform, I would already have done it. I’d love to meet with him to understand the direction of where he’s taking that product. I think it will be game changing for the course community world getting results.
How can our readers follow you online?
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/22meredith/
The Unicorn Living Podcast: https://the-unicorn-living-podcast.simplecast.com/
Learn Grant Writing Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/learngrantwriting/
Learn Grant Writing YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LearnGrantWriting
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!
About The Interviewer: Maria Angelova, MBA is a disruptor, author, motivational speaker, body-mind expert, Pilates teacher and founder and CEO of Rebellious Intl. As a disruptor, Maria is on a mission to change the face of the wellness industry by shifting the self-care mindset for consumers and providers alike. As a mind-body coach, Maria’s superpower is alignment which helps clients create a strong body and a calm mind so they can live a life of freedom, happiness and fulfillment. Prior to founding Rebellious Intl, Maria was a Finance Director and a professional with 17+ years of progressive corporate experience in the Telecommunications, Finance, and Insurance industries. Born in Bulgaria, Maria moved to the United States in 1992. She graduated summa cum laude from both Georgia State University (MBA, Finance) and the University of Georgia (BBA, Finance). Maria’s favorite job is being a mom. Maria enjoys learning, coaching, creating authentic connections, working out, Latin dancing, traveling, and spending time with her tribe. To contact Maria, email her at angelova@rebellious-intl.com. To schedule a free consultation, click here.
Meredith Noble Of Learn Grant Writing On How to Go Beyond Your Comfort Zone to Grow Both Personally… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.