What if there was a way to prioritize self-care during the holidays but not jeopardize business? Would you be willing to make small (but important) changes that would allow you to ensure self-care is a priority but kept business booming?
Many business owners today sacrifice their own self-care for the name of their business. Saying “yes” to everyone else except the most important person, you. You are the glue of your life, holding together family and business aspects, balancing everything else thrown your way.
If you have heard the statement, “you can’t pour from an empty cup” it is completely valid. Today I am going over 4 things you can do to make sure you prioritize self-care (read: boundaries) and make the holidays a time for family and friends. Most importantly, I want you to remember why you got into this in the first place and how important YOU are to your business.
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Biggest Takeaways:
- 5:25 Big rocks first
- 8:10 Don’t overbook yourself. Consider supply and demand
- 13:20 Hire extra now. Including calling back college kids
- 15:50 Make time to celebrate for you and your loved ones
Recommendations:
When it comes to prioritizing self-care, being apart of a community that supports you is an important aspect. The Mastermind Group, is a group of like-minded business owners who lift up, support and network with one another. This is a place of growth and learning, getting all your HR questions answered and having full 24/7 support from experts and business owners alike. If self-care is a priority for you in your business, the Mastermind is worth checking out.
Links:
Episode 139: The Scientific Way You Can Increase Your Productivity 39% (Brain.FM)
A Valuable Lesson For A Happier Life
Better Marketing With Bella
Bella Vasta Instagram
Mastermind Group
Transcript
This is episode 316 of Bella in Your Business. Hi there, I’m Bella Vasta from Jump Consulting. You might know me from CBS, NBC, Fox, Huffington Post, Entrepreneur, or maybe you’ve seen me speak on stage or read my book, The Four Dogs That Every Business Owner Needs. In any case, get ready because you’re about to get your hashtag Bella Butt Kickin’ in this next episode of Bella in Your Business.
So what do you say? Let’s get ready and jump!
It is that time, you guys. I hope it is okay. And I guess I will find out if it’s okay that I use some copyrighted material really quickly on the beginning of the podcast. But what better way to get you into the mindset that I’m going to be talking about today than to just start off with my good old friend, Mariah Carey. No, she’s not really my friend, but you know, I’d like to think that sometimes around the holidays. Whose favorite song is that not? Even my almost 60 year old
wait, no, 70 year old father loves that song. You guys welcome back to another episode of Bella in your business. I am Bella Vasta and we’re going to be easing on into the end of the year here. I’ve got some interesting episodes coming for you and it’s literally from my heart. I was feeling the feels a couple of weeks ago and I got out my notebook as those of you who work closely with me know that I’m a big proponent of getting out pen and paper and actually writing things down.
because I feel like you get more creative. Today, our topic is different than most. We are going out on a limb in a way, and we’re gonna be talking a little bit about how to make it easy to practice self-care during the holiday rush. Now, don’t let that buzzword of self-care turn you off, okay? Because I’ve got some things that I really wanna talk to all my people pleasers, my people who are bad with boundaries, myself included.
side note, if you have any good book suggestions on boundaries, I would love your suggestions because I’m out there looking for my own books on boundaries because I believe in self-development as you know and always learning and actually, no, I’m not going to go off that tempted, but I’ve been reading a lot or rather should I say listening a lot because I am an audible girl. Fun fact.
side fact for you guys, if you ever do find your mind wandering, maybe you have ADHD or ADD, or you’re just completely distracted all the time, or maybe reading a book, your brain wanders or you fall asleep. Something I found that really works for me is I listen to Audible at 1.5 or 2.0 speed. And when I do that, I find that my brain has to stay really engaged because it’s talking so fast. And maybe you guys listen to the podcast.
on a faster speed too. Almost every single player you do allows you to talk on a faster speed. Now, I already talk fast, but you could up it a little bit. It saves you time, but you still get the content. But yeah, I’ve been listening to books on 2.0 and I’ve done a back. I used to do two books a month and I’m back to two books a month. And it feels great because it just gets me out of my own head and I learned a lot. But this episode, really, it says it’s about self care, but it’s really about boundaries.
So buckle up because we’re going to be talking about it. This is the episode for all those people that want to say yes to everybody else, except for the one person that matters. And that’s you. That’s you. You are the glue. You are the nucleus, most likely, who holds together your entire life, your family, the pets, the kids, the loved ones. You have to be great so that you can keep
Being a people pleaser and please everybody else, you have to be good to yourself first. Think about that, you guys. And anyone who is listening to this, who is not the business owner and maybe you’re in the car right now, yeah, yeah, we’ll listen to Bella. Thank you. And I want you to listen to this because this is equally important for you, but also to encourage
that person who is this busy business owner trying to live out their dreams and explode their business and have all of their dreams come true. You guys, I have a couple of tips for you today and I really want you to consider these four things. So the first one, and if you’re on our email list every Friday, you might’ve seen this come out last week, I think it was. One of my very favorite time management, which also I believe goes into self-help is called the mayonnaise jar.
but I call putting it in the big rocks. And there’s this professor with all these students and he has this mayonnaise jar. And am I saying that right? Sounds funny. And he talks about, you know, putting in like golf balls into this jar first. And then he starts putting in smaller balls and smaller balls. And then at the end, like, you know, he’s putting in grains of sand. And then he’s like, okay, guys, do think we could fit anything else into this? And they’re like, no. And then he’s like, well.
watch this and he gets out liquid and he pours liquid into this jar. And so obviously, if you didn’t put in the big balls first, you wouldn’t have been able to get everything else in. It’s your priorities, your priorities, you guys. I remember quite a few times in my life where I would make things or people or events a priority and I would realize and I would sit back and watch to see if I also
was a priority for those people or things or events. And I just really want to encourage you to adopt that mentality, not just for the holidays when there’s extra stuff going on, but think about it in general in your life. I’ll have Jillian link the video in the show notes if you missed the email. But guys, this scenario changed my life. It was like maybe three years ago when I saw it, and it just completely changes your entire perspective. And it can be added and added.
to a lot of things. For example, right now it is 427 AM, November 1st, and I am recording this podcast. Why? Because every couple of weeks my body wakes me up at like 330 and I literally feel like I’m done sleeping. And I lay in bed a little bit and admittedly I scroll on social media and I have my neuro waves stuff going on.
Listen to Brain.fm. I’ve done a podcast episode on that too. Highly recommend you check that out. It’s not just for sleep, it’s for work, it’s for meditation, all kinds of things. And it’s scientifically proven to help. But I also have really started this year to listen to my body. And so this is me putting my big rocks in first. I’m like, okay, well, I love quote unquote working. I feel like that’s such a derogatory word because what I do with you guys is not work.
It is like my life’s purpose. Like I could not fake this if I tried. So at 4 28 now, a.m. on Tuesday, November 1st, I am recording this podcast for you that’s going to come out on November 10th. And this is a priority. I want to get it done. So I want to get this done. And I’m going to see how many more episodes I could just record. I’ve got my Starbucks iced coffee here with me. And I’m doing this because you guys are a priority.
AKA the podcast. And so I’m putting my big rocks in first. I’m not going to leave it to chance to later. I’m excited to sit here and talk with you. All right. So aside from that, the second thing is, and this might sound pretty simple, but stay with me. Don’t overbook yourself and consider supply and demand as a solution. What do I mean by that? Well, first of all, we want to be everything to everyone. I know there’s a lot of you guys out there.
And I know you hate saying no, especially if it’s like one of your top 10 clients that spend thousands of dollars with you a year. You don’t want to say no to them. And that’s another whole episode. Why? Because you’re fearful. Why? Because you don’t have boundaries. Why? Because you don’t want to lose out on the money. You know, there’s a lot of different reasons there, but I want you to consider supply and demand. I was just on a coaching call yesterday with one of my long-term clients.
And she goes, my God, there were so many companies in our area who closed this year and our monthly revenue went from 26,000 up to 51,000. Whoa. She goes, it almost broke our systems and things have started slipping through the cracks and I’m drowning. And I was like, okay, this is a perfect example of more money doesn’t equal a better life or better happiness. And would you believe she’s still doing dog walks at that volume? Whoa.
boundaries, right? But here’s the thing. I told her supply and demand and she’s only charging $26 a visit. I’m like, girl, if you’re getting flooded right now, first of all, I completely predicted this was going to happen. I predicted this the end of 2020. said, this is exactly what’s going to happen. People are going to start dropping out of the business. More people have sold this year than ever. But yet in 2020 more people have adopted pets. then
people have returned them and then other people have adopted pets, which just keeps bringing more and more clients. The whole, can’t get enough clients is a lie. And again, that’s another podcast episode. It’s so hard not to go off on a tangent, you guys. But listen, what I’m saying is don’t overbook yourself. Do this gift for yourself. Set a boundary. If your sitters can only do eight visits a day or eight walks in afternoon, then that is the cap.
you know, hopefully you have a scheduling software that will cap you, that will cap your sitters and be like, Nope, sorry, this one’s booked and set that boundary. Learn how to either say no or control the demand that’s coming to you, that increase that’s coming to you and start raising your rates for new people coming in because the higher your rate is, the less guesses you will get. But what you will also find if you’re still charging $26 a visit, which
$25 with employees was like the norm nationally with people with employees before 2020 and all this inflation. Okay. I really think you should be a lot higher than that. And if you want to know how much higher and how that all goes into effect, you should definitely get in the mastermind and we can have a candid in-depth discussion. And you can also see all the other people that are, and I’m not saying this is the price, but charging upwards of $40 a visit and growing their companies. I’m talking like,
very healthy companies making five figures a month. Supply and demand guys, if you have too much business and you’re getting overwhelmed, then raise your rate. Nobody ever said that this stuff is in stone. This is a service industry. There’s only so many of you and your staff. So don’t forget about supply and demand and don’t overbook yourself because the only person that you’re going to hurt is yourself or burn out your staff. And now more than ever, this is a
opportunity to show your staff that you really care about them. And the best way to show that you really care about them is to be respectful of their own desires during the holidays. So here’s another side note. It’s November 10th right now when this comes out. If you have not yet already, which I think you should have done in October, I need you to email your staff right now. Email them this weekend and ask them, what do you need off?
You can do this a whole bunch of different ways. You can say, Hey guys, I need you to work all the holidays, but you can get one holiday off, which ones you want. And then it’s based on seniority or you can just say, Hey guys, what can’t you work? need to know right now, or I need to know by a certain date. And then you plan accordingly. I don’t know what your staff looks like. So those are like two pretty popular strategies, strategies that I used to use. So
consider supply and demand and don’t overbook yourself. Okay, so the first one was put the big rocks in first, get your priorities. Second one is don’t overbook yourself. The third one is hire extra people now. That is the solution for the last one I just told you about by emailing your staff and protecting them and encouraging their own boundaries. You don’t wanna pass on your bad boundaries and your bad self care to your staff, because all you’re gonna do is burn them out. And that is not good. They are your biggest asset and you need to treat them as such.
So hire now, over hire. I had another client I was talking to out on the East Coast and they actually had an employee that is bad-mouthing them to their clients. And I talked to them a couple of weeks ago and I thought they were going to fire them. And I talked to them again a couple of weeks later and they still hadn’t fired yet because they were afraid. They were like, we don’t have anyone to replace her. Do not put yourself in a hostage situation.
You did not get into business for this and one bad apple could ruin everything. Please. Now, what I want you to think about is hire extra now, obviously for the holidays, but you should always be hiring. And I know that feels weird and maybe you feel like an imposter or a fraud because you feel like you don’t have the work for them. But I promise you, you have to be an advocate for your business and that is the right thing to do because you never know when someone’s going to quit, get sick, can’t work.
or just turn into a bad apple. They could be the best worker ever and then something happens in their life and they become a sore sport, bad attitude, or they think that, know you need me. You’re not going to do anything. I can do whatever I want. No, no guys, no. You are the boss in charge. You need to be an advocate for your business. Another thing that you can do with hiring right now, if you like really don’t want to hire, but let’s say you’ve been hiring for a while, is you can call back all those college kids.
Now stay with me. I loved the holidays because I got all my college kids that would work for me in the summer and on spring break back during the holidays because they’re usually home for good three weeks. Guess what? That’s the most amazing relief work during the holidays, assuming that they’re home and their home bodies. Those were my favorite kind of people.
and I knew I could rely on them. They were energized and excited because they weren’t burnt out from doing it all the time. They got to come home, make some extra cash, have a flexible schedule, still go out with their friends and do things because it’s not like they’re locked down, you know, as a cashier eight hours a day. So think about calling back those college kids. Okay, so let’s review three and then we’re going to go to the fourth and we’re going to be done here. First one, put big rocks in first. Second one, don’t overbook yourself. Third one is hire extra now.
And the last one is make time to celebrate for you and your loved ones. Hold that space. Now, I also want to offer you a little secret. Just because, let’s say you celebrate Christmas, it’s celebrated on December 25th, does not mean that you have to celebrate it on December 25th. If you think about it, I want to challenge your thinking here. A lot of people have more than one family. A lot of people are divorced and remarried or
their family is divorced and remarried, their parents are, or their kids are. And we have multiple celebrations with multiple different people. It’s not the old days where everything shuts down on, let’s say, December 25th. Nobody works. Nobody’s expected to work. And everyone stays home with these big families and cousins by the dozens. It’s just, it’s not the way the world works really right now. So I want you to think that, first of all, make the plans in advance.
So they could be your big rocks. So you can say, I’m absolutely not working. Here’s my contingency plan. But the other thing, I mean, obviously, if have little small kids, it’s a little bit harder to, know, stand up comes on that day. But in terms of the dinner and the feast and the fun, who’s to say you can’t have it on December 27th or on January 2nd? First of all, everything’s gonna be a lot cheaper. But, you know, I want you to think about you have the opportunity to design the life that you want.
And if it’s absolutely 100 % not a possibility for you to enjoy Hanukkah or Christmas or Kwanzaa or New Year’s or whatever it is that you like to celebrate, it’s okay to do it on a different day. In fact, it probably would be a lot less stressful if you’re in the beginning stages of starting your company. There’s no shame in that game. A lot of people are already doing it because they have multiple family parties to go to. Some people have like four family parties to go to.
And it’s insane. So I want you to think about, it possible to shift the actual celebration of the holiday around? Time-wise, I know a lot of you who are trying to do all of it are trying to eat between the hours of two and five. So you get up really early, you do your visits, you come home, you open presents with the kids, you go back out really quickly to go do a couple more visits. And maybe before that, stick the ham in the oven or whatever. You come home, you eat.
And then you’re back out like around dinnertime when everyone’s snuggled and overstuffed and over sugared, sitting on the couch watching movies maybe. And then you come sliding in right before you tuck the kids to bed, hopefully. That’s pretty stressful guys. You did not get into this business that you had to chop up your holidays. So I wanna encourage you, the realm of self care, think about how do you wanna construct it and what does that look like for you and make it happen. Because you…
can figure out anything you want. Marie Forleo has a book, it’s figure-outable, which I really love that phrase and I really wish she didn’t have a book because I wanted to make t-shirts with that. But you truly can figure it out. And we have time right now. It’s only November 10th when you’re listening to this. I want you to have a great holiday season. And it starts now with planning. Hey guys, we have some really cool episodes coming up for you. The next one is something I’ve never talked about.
It is, the toxic cycles ruining your business? Are the toxic cycles in your life ruining your business? I’m really excited to bring that to you because we’re going to examine toxic cycles in both maybe your business with people that work with you, with yourself, with your interpersonal relationships, and how it’s truly affecting things. So stay tuned for next week because you’re not going to want to miss it. Or you can hashtag Binge on Bella.
In any case, don’t forget to reach out to me. Let me know what resonated with you, what didn’t, and what you’d like to see on this podcast because it’s all for you. If you’re in the Jump Consulting group, the Jump Start your group, and pretty much all the groups by now, you should see a form to sign up. Coming in January, we’re going to be doing some group coaching calls. So we’re going to actually, or not group coaching calls, but like live ones. So I’m going to do like 10 minute calls with you guys, solving whatever problem you might have.
and we’re going to dive into it. And I think it’s going to be pretty fun. We wanted to change it up a little bit and see what you thought of it. So if that sounds like interest to you, go ahead and shoot me an email, bella at jumpconsulting.net. I’ll get you on the lineup and we can do this together. We’ll just record on zoom audio only. We’re going to record ahead of time. It won’t be live. It’ll be recorded and it’ll be pretty fun. So we’ve got a lot of fun stuff coming up for you. After we talk about the toxic cycles, we’re actually going to be talking about how do you know if your staff actually trusts you?
Yeah, we’re going to tickle some feathers there, but it’s going to be fun. So stay tuned. And we are going to be also having a Cyber Monday Black Friday sale coming up. Things are going to be 50 % off and 30 % off. You’re not going to want to miss it. So stay close and I’ll see you guys on the next episode. Remember when life gets you down, always keep jumping. Bye now. So what did you think? Did you love this episode? I sure hope you did because I put a lot of love into this for you.
And the best way you can show me that is by going to iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, or wherever you listen to your podcast and go ahead and leave a review. I just might read it on the next episode. I also want to remind you that when life gets you down, remember to always keep jumping. Thanks for listening.