Signal 🦩 LEAVE ME ALONE to work On your Business!

Today, we are learning from 🦩 FLAMINGOS 🦩

In the most polite way, we often need to be asked for space or just some downtime, because our soul is craving to be fulfilled by rest. 

In honor of one of my favorite topics is sharing tips about sustainability in our businesses, let's discuss how these brilliant birds often lose their vibrancy. 

Flamingos get their “pink” vibrancy from their food. And, while feeding others with their resources, such as when they become new parents and provide for their chicks, they can lose this pigment due to their nutrients depleting. 

 Parent flamingos often lose their pink because of the amount of intensity & and care that go into raising their chicks. The loss of vibrancy of their pink color signal to others, “I’m a bit exhausted- please leave me alone for a while,” and it’s a lesson we can take away to share with others. 

Sometimes, we need to tell others to leave us alone- we are tending to other things at the moment. 

Setting boundaries is a fantastic means of self-care. It doesn’t mean you don’t love everyone- it simply means that your energy is currently spent taking care of something that is a priority to you, oftentimes, for survival. 

Could you imagine if just for 30 days, or some period of time, you could let your business “not be bothered” by anything new or taxing in order to do these three things: 

1. Rest. Simply recoup the energy from constantly being in producing / production and DOING

2. Re-Organize. Getting a bit more focused on the big picture as you venture into a brand new year often means de-cluttering, moving things around, and taking time to simply be alone to sort out things.

3. Re-Inspire yourself & and your business. Getting new perspectives by taking this time to renew your energy & and resources helps you to think clearer, and create more uniquely.

Self-care and being able to sustain your business oftentimes means telling others, “Phew, I need a little bit of a break, please give me some space to figure this out.”  

After becoming a parent of 2 this summer, MORE for me meant more flexibility, not necessarily more hours or more dollars. I needed to be smarter with the time I spent doing things for my business, but this still takes a LOT out of a person to try to navigate anything MORE. 

 So, my resources often get spent in other places and my “chicks” need me a lot for their own survival.

 What does this look like for you? What areas of your life have full hue, and what other areas are desaturated? 

 Nature never lets us down by providing countless lessons that we can relate to our businesses. After all, for millions of years, species have found a way to survive and thrive through all of the changing conditions.

 From signals and songs, to quite literally changing one's appearance, we, as humans, can definitely take these examples as ways to survive and thrive into new seasons of life.

This is what November's CEO Days is all about!

I can help you through this each month with a way to reflect, grow, and be intentional about the actions you want to take to become more aligned and do this every 30 days at a time at CEO Days.

This upcoming month’s theme, “Sustainable Self-Care,” you will be creating the space for dormancy and taking care of the things you need to for the best version of you!

Hope to see you there!

As we enter into October, the month for women in business ownership, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the role of a woman in both her entrepreneurship journey, and in her household, specifically how the need to constantly be “on”!

And I specifically want to talk about women because of the gender differences in typical roles and expectations. Sure, there are situations where the dad stays home and mom is the financial producer, but that doesn’t take away from our role as nurtures and often times our child’s first pick when they are sick or in need- not to mention, our elderly relatives as well.

If you have felt the need to take a long nap, take an extra week off, ‘just Cuz!’ or needing to plan a vacation that doesn’t necessarily have the return trip details figured out, you may be ready to be dormant for a bit. This is not unusual completely part of nature!

Just like the 9 oak trees on my yard, the need to stop growth and take a long sleep is essential in entrepreneurship and caretaking. 

As a mom of two small children, when business coaches or other peers are constantly talking about growth, I find myself rolling my eyes and feeling like I have zero effort or energy to even think about growing!

All I wanna do is hang out, do what I do best, and keep my business alive, not necessarily needing to maximize any part of it at this given moment. I believe that the season I’m going through is temporary, and also essential, and my biggest fear right now is getting burnt out and not being able to show up for both my household and my clients.

Embracing the dormancy of winter is essential for survival- but how can the season of dying be good for growth and up thrive?

Let’s dive in with an example of biomimicry- mimicking nature as a way to seek patterns and parallels for our perspective as a caretaker – entrepreneur and the concepts of dormancy in trees 

1. Balancing Multiple Roles:

  - Just as caretaker-entrepreneurs juggle our responsibilities as parents or caregivers with their business endeavors, trees go into dormancy to balance their energy allocation between growth and survival during harsh winter conditions.

2. Resource Management:

  - Trees in dormancy conserve resources, redirecting them to essential functions. Similarly, entrepreneur-caretakers can learn from nature by prioritizing our time and resources between family and business needs.

3. Sustainability and Resilience:

  - Dormancy helps trees survive environmental challenges and emerge stronger in the next growing season. Entrepreneur-caretakers can adopt this resilience by recognizing the importance of self-care and balance to sustain our ventures and well-being over the long term.

4. Adaptation:

  - Trees' ability to enter dormancy is a form of adaptation to changing seasons. Entrepreneur-caretakers can adapt to shifting demands by temporarily stepping back or adjusting our business strategies to accommodate all of our unendless caregiving responsibilities.

5. Support Systems:

  - Trees in forests often benefit from mutual support and cooperation among neighboring trees. Likewise, caretaker-entrepreneurs can seek support from family, friends, or support networks to help us navigate the challenges of balancing entrepreneurship and caregiving.

inspiration from nature's wisdom has guarded me in many ways, and is always challenging me to think about the systems we are conditioned to follow and how they just simply don’t work all the time. 

This includes recognizing the importance of resource management, self-care, and adaptability to thrive in both our roles as business leaders and caregivers while fostering resilience for future growth.

If I can encourage you to seek moments of dormancy around this time of year, take full advantage. 

Watch how you emerge into your own “SPRINGTIME," to follow with an elevated production and BLOOMING of your creativity, productivity, and preparedness for what's next for you in your business.

I’ve been asking myself this lately-

✨ when feeding my son and worrying about business and getting behind, “What is the happiest I could feel in this moment?” And go back to only being present with him.

✨ having all the stress to make my income goals for the month while playing with my daughter “What does money really buy?” And go back to being in full toddler imagination time with her

✨ when I’m feeling panicked at night that I haven’t completed my list of to-do’s and ask, “What is the most relaxed I can feel in this moment?” And suddenly let go and start sawing logs 😴

The problem with growing our business is that we oftentimes get in our own head, and make our goals difficult to achieve because we aren’t fully present. We are always looking for something else to fill a void, especially as parents.

The truth I am finding is that my business supports me in living the life I once dreamed of living, and the business has a purpose!

It doesn’t need to be as grandiose or trendy as anyone else’s business, it’s mine made for my life.

Do you often get misaligned with your goals and what you could be focused on because of always think it should be a different way? I’d love to support you!

What can you do in just 10 minutes or less to maximize your productivity and profitability this week?!

Getting the motivation or focus to initiate your “flow” can take a warm-up activity or two. But, once you are going on your way, you will access the higher version of your work, your focus, and produce even more per minute, so you can do more in less time! 

Follow these tips just before you get started, as you begin your work day: 

1. Simply review what your focus areas are: look at your numbers, your vision for the year, your power word or phrase or your power partners. Looking at those things that help motivate you and fuel your energy will help you get back on track and it just takes 10 minutes to look at everything that you need to make the most impact you can this week 

2. My favorite is the brain dump. Just spend 10 minutes jotting down everything that's on your mind, both for your business and your personal, And then go through and circle the priorities that you have on that list. How do you know which are “priorities”?! 

   
   Start by asking yourself what is the most game changing thing I could do to get me closer to my goal this week. And that breakdown is a great exercise to just lay out everything and clear your brain for all distractions before you start work.
   

3. The least amount of fun, but most rewarding is to just eat the frog, an expression that means getting things done! JUST go for it. Take your most daunting, difficult time consuming tasks that you have that you know is going to pay you dividends in the long run and just start get it done and spend 10 minutes getting into the zone by starting the task and that momentum will keep you moving forward to bring it to the end and finish it.

I hope you enjoy these three tips and how to spend 10 minutes or less on getting even more close to your profitability zone and your focus for this week ahead. Have a great week.