You need more self care. Not for you, for your business.
Do you know what self care is?
Do you practice self-care regularly?
Is it something you talk about with clients?
My guess is the answers to the above questions are of course, yes, and yes.
Today I want to talk to you about self-care - but not for you, for your business.
This is a concept I was discussing recently with a client and I realized it’s such an important topic for us to discuss as a community, which is why I’m sharing it now.
Your business needs self-care as much as you do. Self-care is what keeps your business healthy and growing.
There are four key themes of self-care that I think translate easily from self-care in our personal lives to self-care in our businesses.
- Consistency matters. We ALL know this is true. You can’t just eat kale once and declare yourself healthy. If your body reacts to gluten or dairy, you can’t cheat and expect no consequences. You can’t run two blocks and be ready for a marathon. The same is true for your business. Posting about an offer once, doing one facebook live, or sending one newsletter is not going to build you the businesses of your dreams. My guess is deep down you probably know that, and I’m here to tell you that consistency makes a huge difference in what’s happening in your business. Take stock of where you aren’t being consistent. Be honest with yourself. Step back a little and pretend you are your own client - where can you be more consistent?
- Know your numbers. You would never let a client get away with telling you that they don’t really know what they eat, or how much they sleep, or that having high inflammation markers is no big deal, right? What about if they said they were scared of the potential results to their blood or allergy tests - what would you say then? Knowledge is power, right? So why are you doing the same thing to yourself? I know you KNOW that you need to be paying attention to these things, but let’s be honest - are you actually doing it? When you know where you are financially, with your followers, with your newsletter opens, then you have the base understanding of where you are. When you know where you are, you can decide where you want to go. But if you don’t know where you are, and you refuse to look at it, it’s going to be really hard for you to create the business you really want.
- Intentional planning sets you free. Are you someone who meal plans? I know I do, and when I do it’s because it helps me stop thinking about what I’m making for dinner every night. I can do it once, and I’m done. Meal planning also forces me to take stock of what I already have on hand, reminds me to check the freezer, and helps me see what I still need to get at the store. So how can we meal plan for our businesses? By figuring out what you already have in place, what you need to create, and where you need more help. Once you know that, you know what's missing and where to focus your time and energy. And just like meal planning, you wouldn’t cook and eat all the meals you’ve planned for a month in one night, right? Same for business planning - it’s going to take some time to work through all this, but if you commit to working through it for a month, you’ll find that you have so much more time and clarity at the end of those 30 days.
- It’s not all bubble baths and girls night out. We know that real self-care goes beyond a piece of dark chocolate, glasses of wine, and nights out with our friends. Real, true self-care includes meal-planning, and paying attention when our bodies don’t like something we’re doing, and paying attention to our personal finances. Real self-care sometimes involves hard conversations and hard self-reflection. The same is true with our businesses. You will have to do things you don’t really like doing to get to the fun stuff.
I want you to stop telling yourself that you don’t know how to run a business. You have the skills you need, you’ve already learned them just by taking care of yourself, your family, and your clients. Now you just need to translate them into building community, practicing your sales conversations, and working with more clients.
Does this resonate with you?
Which one of the four hits closest to home? And which one will you work on first? Hit reply and let me know.
