Not A Man’s Game: Women Rewriting Business.

Love and Life

BY MINA PEYRAK

You left the corporate world because it just didn’t fit. Not without crushing and twisting who you are.

Which is why you’re in Bali. Or Lisbon. Anywhere far from the mess they call the modern workplace.

Here, you learned how to steady yourself, and rescue all that corporate life had starved – creativity, meaning, delight. But as you start rebuilding your financial independence, you realize you slip into the same ways you escaped. Again, you start living a life of hustle. Most of your time seems to go to things that have nothing to do with what you love about your work. You say yes to projects and people you don’t like because they might “lead somewhere.” And the low-grade panic needles you constantly to take another soul-crushing job, or make another sale fast to keep the bills paid.

This is the real challenge: how to marry the masculine machinery of business with your own feminine rhythm.

We’ve all heard the age-old promise; you don’t have to do business like a man. It sounds delicious, liberating even. But when it comes down to the daily choices, what does it actually mean?

Bio-aligned business planing

Business runs on a logic inherited from hunting and war. Civilization, for the most part, took away the spears and battlefields, so men learned to swing quarterly reports instead. The logic carried over: only forward, always faster. Growth charts are drawn like arrows, sharp and upward. It’s all about strength, survival, and measuring yourself against someone else. At its core, business feels so masculine because its assumptions are linear, output demands are constant, and authority is proven through performance and control. For a woman, the absurdity is obvious: creation rather than competition is what truly sits at the heart of doing business.

And of course creation doesn’t work like a well-oiled battle machine – not in nature, not in bodies. Seasons turn. Energy is not constant. And even the most fruitful soil must rest.

To feel these rhythms is already in women’s nature; the invitation is to let it shape the way we do business. Planning can be about listening inward as much as outward. This is where bio-aligned business begins. Instead of forcing a single pace, it makes space for the intelligence of natural rhythms. The feminine way of planning is a different kind of structure. It recognises that creation has cycles: surges of vision, phases of deep focus, moments of integration, and the inevitable emptiness that opens space for clarity and renewal. Task maps that follow these phases often outlast rigid goal lists, because they bend with you instead of breaking you.

Studies now echo what women have practiced for generations: syncing work with natural cycles can lead to better outcomes – more creativity, less burnout, stronger results. The myth of one-size-fits-all productivity is just that: a myth.

What might this look like in practice? It can be as simple as working with what the body is already offering. Cycle syncing, for example, aligns projects with the four phases of the menstrual cycle – visioning during menstruation, building in the follicular phase, presenting and interacting in ovulation, and integrating in the luteal phase. Mood-based planning works similarly. It uses your emotional weather as a compass for the kind of work that needs to be done. And then there are natural energy waves – the daily rise and fall of focus, the longer arcs of seasons – which can shape when to push forward and when to step back. These ways offer a saner kind of productivity, one that lasts, respects and nurtures.

Got a male colleague who doesn’t get it? Explain it to him as risk management. Fewer scramble days mean fewer bad compromises. Protecting your peak hours means better results when it matters. It’s the same principle they use in finance or operations – only here, the asset is you.

Try this: A One-Month Rhythm Experiment

Track daily. For 4 weeks, log energy (scoring from 1 to 5), focus (from 1 to 5), and a quick mood note in a calendar or app.

Find your pattern. Match your highs and lows to four work modes: vision (creative surge), build (deep focus), connect (outward/social), and integrate (light admin). Place the big bets. Schedule launches, sales calls, or negotiations in your strongest, most social windows.

Protect low days. Block them like you block client meetings. Keep a short list of low-effort, high-value tasks (repurpose content, check in with warm clients, tidy systems) so you don’t scramble.
Plan for not being understood. Getting flooded with messages and demands? Drop a single line: “Deep focus this week, will reply coming Monday.”

Review and refine. Each month, update your map. Stress, sleep, and life shifts will alter rhythms; adjust accordingly.

Selling without selling your soul

Selling is another area where the masculine rules play out in full view. The sales playbook was written in the tempo of aggression: chase the lead, corner the prospect, close at any cost. Entire bestselling shelves reinforce it. The Art of the Deal, Sell or Be Sold, Always Be Closing – ridiculous manuals for domination passed off as universal laws. Yet many women who step into that arena feel an immediate dissonance. Extraction doesn’t feel good. Connection, on the other hand, does. And what often gets dismissed as undue softness is, in fact, a sharper kind of intelligence. Listening, really listening, rather than waiting for your turn to push your agenda. Building trust over time, allowing interest to unfold without force – all these gestures create a sense of safety, and safety is what sustains relationships that buy, stay, and return. Research bears this out: trust-based sales models consistently outperform pressure-based tactics in both conversion and retention.

So what could it look like to sell in a way that honors feminine wisdom? Here are five strategies to begin reshaping how you approach sales:

Reframe the ask. The moment of “closing” is often where women freeze. It feels like an abrupt and abrasive turn from connection into demand. But an ask can be an invitation rather than an imposition, a natural continuation of a conversation. Closing the deal? Nonsense! That’s what men say when they confuse the end of the chase with the start of a relationship. Women don’t close. We open.

Instead of one “big ask,” experiment with a spectrum of invitations. A softer way might be, “Would you like me to show you what this could look like for you?” – an invitation to imagine. Or a middle-ground invitation: “Here are three ways we could work together, which option feels most aligned for you right now?” – choice without pressure. Developing your own spectrum gives you language that matches both your energy and your client’s. In this way, the “ask” will no longer feel like a cliff edge; it’s just the next natural step you take together.

Replace the pipeline with an ecosystem. Traditional sales maps people through a pipeline, being forced along until they “convert.” A more feminine model sees the process as a garden: some relationships grow quickly, others take a season, many bloom and return later. Instead of rigid stages, try mapping clients by trust: curious, exploring, ready, returning. This lens acknowledges different tempos and helps you nurture without force.
Use safety as a sales strategy.  People buy when they feel safe that their needs are heard, that they won’t be pressured, and that they can trust you. The masculine model uses urgency to override hesitation. The feminine model does the opposite: it removes pressure, which paradoxically increases commitment. Before you ask for decisions, pause and reflect on what you’ve heard, and mirror back the concerns they’ve voiced. This allows space for them to feel into their own desires. The sale becomes theirs, not yours.
Redefine follow-up.  In masculine sales culture, follow-up means persistence until exhaustion – a string of “just checking in” emails that feel more like pressure than presence. In a feminine frame, follow-ups shift from pursuit to nourishment. Think of it less as a chase and more as a continuation of the relationship. Instead of dropping reminders, offer touchpoints that matter: a short note linking to an article you know will resonate, a quick message of encouragement, a resource that shows you were really listening. This way, the follow-up becomes a gesture of care. You remain in their field because you’re genuinely attuned. Over time, that kind of attention builds a trust far stronger than any script of persistence and grasping.
Align sales with your own energy.  Just as planning shifts with cycles and rhythms, so too can the way you sell. If you know you are most social and persuasive during particular days or phases, cluster your outward-facing activities there. Let your calendar serve your energy; under no circumstance override yourself, no matter what your anxiety says. This small adjustment changes sales from a constant drain into something that rides on your natural waves.

Trusting the gut.

“Trust your gut” (or your heart, if you are in Ubud) is the kind of advice that sounds soothing on Instagram but collapses the moment rent is due. We tend to override our no when we feel cornered. Say yes to the wrong project because we don’t see another option. We call it “being practical” when it’s really “I don’t trust there’s another way.”

But there usually is. It might mean asking for help (hard). It might mean leaning on community (harder). Or working on your sense of stability, building anchors outside your business so you’re not desperate inside it. Because working for yourself puts your feminine need for safety on the line every day. And this sense of safety is what you need to address as a priority. If you don’t give yourself buffers – money, routines, people who’ve got your back – every shaky moment will push you into decisions where fear runs the show. Here’s how you can root with embodiment, community, and real-world anchors.

Feeling safe is a lived, somatic experience, meaning that it will never be enough just to read about it and understand it intellectually. It needs physical application. Practices like somatic journaling (noting how options register in your body), creative grounding (a walk, a dance, a daily ritual with your breath), and support anchors (a stone you hold, your breath, a view that reminds you you’re okay) build that felt sense of safety. Neuroscience shows that interoception – our brain’s sense of the body’s inner life – is the engine behind skilful action and calm clarity (PMC, 2019). Try it out. Places like Bali overflow with somatic spaces, built for those burned out by the ruthless machinery of corporate life.
Isolation amplifies panic. Seek supportive accountability circles, collaborative skill-swaps, or intentional peer collectives. If you don’t know where to start, look for spaces that feel low-drama, curiosity-led, and grounded in real life. If you are searching for more anchors, stay away from groups where optics or hustle rule.
And then there are the practical anchors that give you the ground beneath the leap. A Fuck-Off Fund, even if it’s just $500, buys you freedom to walk away from the project that corrodes your heart. $500 won’t buy you Bali, but it will buy you the right to walk away. It’s small money with loud consequences.

Alongside your savings, you’ll probably need a bridge income – a side gig that pays the rent without hollowing you out. Something steady, light, and non-destructive: teaching a class, editing a newsletter, anything that you forget as soon as the job is finished. Think of it as ballast, the helpful weight that keeps your boat upright while you’re still building something more seaworthy. And here’s the truth that many women don’t hear: you might need that ballast for years. Three to five, on average, before your freelance business earns what your corporate job did. Too many expect to be buoyant faster, and when they’re not, they read it as failure, overextending, or giving up. If you expect slow, you will be able to move in flow. That way, you won’t mistake patience and self-respect for failure. What does working slowly mean? Limit the number of clients or meetings you allow yourself to take. Adjust downwards your growth projections. Build in a pause, even if it’s just 48 hours before you ever say yes to anything. This gives fear time to quiet so clarity can speak.

Building a business this way won’t make you the star of the highlight reel. This isn’t the “six figures in six months” hustle-porn. You’ll be slower. Quieter. Less impressive to anyone who’s boredom-scrolling. But isn’t that the point? We didn’t leave corporate just to chase a new set of vanity metrics. You’re not here to impress random strangers on the internet. You’re here to build something that can actually hold you.

If you’re a mother building a business, this will be even harder. You will skip meetings, push back deadlines, and cancel calls. Your male colleagues might tell you you’re falling behind,, but remember, you’re doing something bigger than their spreadsheets and timelines. You are creating a business that fits your life, not the other way around. And that’s powerful.

And yes, you’ll feel like the odd one out. Some days, jealousy will creep in. You’ll wonder if you’re behind. But what you’re really doing is opting out of an economy of frenzy and writing your own terms instead. This is the gentle revolution: women working with their rhythms, not against them. Women making safety part of the strategy. Women choosing creation over combat.

Are you a female entrepreneur looking to apply these principles to your business, and find YOUR real community of supportive sharp businesswomen? Join our WOMEN IN BIZ community, with monthly meet ups.

And if you have some wisdom to share with our readers – your story, your strategy, your service for female entrepreneurs – give us a shout on hello@modernwomenbali.com