I often listen to Simone Seol’s podcasts when I go for walks, and today I tuned into one that sort of blew my mind with the idea of villain energy.
Here’s the link if you want to take a listen: https://www.simonegraceseol.com/podcast/conscious-villainhood-carlos-delaplaya
Simone had a guest today (Carlos Delaplaya) who talked about this idea of stepping into your villain energy, or your villain ERA as the Tiktokers say.
The idea is this: when you express an opinion or stand for something that others disagree with, you become a villain to those people.
This can be really sticky topics like politics or religion.
It can also be really mundane topics like changing jobs or setting boundaries.
When you set a boundary, there’s a very good chance that someone will think of you as a villain because they will disagree with your decision and possibly judge you as not being a good or nice person.
For those who struggle with people-pleasing tendencies (me included) the idea that someone won’t like me or think I’m a good person is almost paralyzing. But as Carlos points out in the podcast, you can either be liked by everyone for being a false version of yourself, or you can be true to yourself and be seen as a villain by some people.
Another way to look it? Every villain is a hero to someone.
I recently coached someone who is starting a business that’s a new concept in the area where she lives. She was very concerned about pricing for her offerings. She told me that there is a similar business nearby who is offering the same product for a really, really low price, and she didn’t want to be seen as scamming people by charging a lot more.
As we talked, I discovered that the other business is not offering anything near the level of quality that my client is offering, and they are also known for not being very professional.
My client, on the other hand, is offering a very high-quality, professional product in a beautiful, custom-built space.
I pointed out to her that the people who want to buy the low-priced product are probably not going to see the value in what she’s offering. However, there ARE people out there who refuse to buy the cheap product, and who will be thrilled to finally be able to buy a high-quality product in their own community.
My client is the villain to the customers who are ok with the low-priced offering. But she’s the hero to the people who have been waiting for the exact thing that she’s offering.
If you stepped into some villain energy, who exactly would think of you as a villain? How does that feel?
Who would think of you as a hero? (being a hero to yourself counts)
I’m contemplating how it would feel to bring some villain energy into 2023. I hope you’ll join me.