June 24, 2024 • 44 mins
It's been a full year since I came back to my business after a 2-year sabbatical! I'm sharing 7 life-changing lessons I've learned over the past year that will help you too - whether you're coming back from a sabbatical or just looking to simplify your business!
Time stamps:
- 00:00:00 - Coming back from sabbatical
- 00:07:55 - Lesson 1
- 00:13:55 - Lesson 2
- 00:17:49 - Lesson 3
- 00:22:46 - Lesson 4
- 00:26:17 - Lesson 5
- 00:31:01 - Lesson 6
- 00:35:20 - Lesson 7
- 00:40:49 - What's next
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome back to the podcast.
I am really looking forward tothis episode because I'm going
to be sharing the lessons I'velearned since coming back from
my sabbatical.
For those who aren't familiarwith my journey, I started my
business in 2014.
I became a mom in 2021.
So a large chunk of my businessjourney was pre motherhood.
(00:23):
And I'll tell you what, when Ibecame a mom, rocked my world.
I think I've shared in a priorpodcast about.
the choice to, um, take a fulltime job.
I've shared bits and pieces ofthe sabbatical journey.
This episode, I'm not going tobe reflecting a ton on why I
went on sabbatical, things likethat.
Although I'm happy to do adedicated episode on that if we
(00:45):
feel like we need it.
I really want to focus insteadon just coming back from
sabbatical and what the pastyear has taught me.
Because when I did decide tocome back from a two year
sabbatical, My personal lifelooked extremely different than
the last time I had donebusiness.
My goals for business were verydifferent.
(01:05):
Who I am, my priorities, all ofit was very different.
And I think that's why I'velearned so much in the past year
because a lot of old habits andold patterns got deconstructed
during my sabbatical, but alsohad to get deconstructed coming
back to business.
And really consciously shiftinghow I do things and, you know,
(01:26):
it hasn't been a perfect year.
I've certainly made somechoices, made some steps that
I've learned a lot from, and I'mjust excited to kind of share,
share all of that with you.
So just to set the context, setthe scene, I came back from my
sabbatical May, 2023, just toset the scene when I left my
(02:00):
business and began what ended upbeing a sabbatical wasn't
necessarily.
Something I like decided to doand called it a sabbatical right
away, but what ended up becominga sabbatical I had just become a
mom for the very first time Um,when I came back to my business
after my sabbatical, I was now amom of two kids.
I had my two year old daughterand I had a son who was, I think
(02:25):
like four months old, four orfive months old when I came back
to my business from sabbaticaland at that point in between
there, I had been everythingfrom a part time employee, a
full time employee, a stay athome mom.
I had done a variety of things,but when I came back to business
in May of 2023, I knew I wasready to come back to business.
(02:49):
I was very excited to havesomething outside of motherhood.
I was excited to have thebenefits of it being your own
business versus working forsomeone else.
But I knew that how I wanted todo business had to look
different.
Prior to my sabbatical, I wasabsolutely a workaholic.
I love business.
(03:09):
I love work.
I love the challenge of it.
I love the game of it.
I find it very fun and veryrewarding and very fulfilling.
And so when I look back at mybusiness journey before
maternity leave, there were alot of cycles of burnout.
There were a lot of cycles of,you know, being a workaholic and
never feeling like there wasenough time to work.
(03:31):
Even though it's so funny as amom of almost three now to look
back and be like, you had somuch time.
Um, but you, you know, you liveand you learn, but.
I knew coming back to businessas a mom of two last summer,
that if I was going to do this,it had to look different.
That old way of doing businesswas no longer on the table for
(03:52):
me.
I knew that my business had tobe set up where my personal life
came first.
And not only from like a conceptor like how many hours do I
work, but more from a trueDecision making lens and values
and also making it feel goodenergetically.
I had noticed in my life thatthere would be times where I
(04:16):
resented my personal lifebecause it meant I couldn't do
something for business, which isnot good and certainly not how I
wanted things to look this timearound.
So when I say I wanted mybusiness to really focus on my
personal life first and put thatas a priority, I mean that it
also needed to feel good.
(04:37):
I didn't want to allow mybusiness to run my life to be
something that makes me resentthe other areas of my life.
I also knew I did want to havelegitimately like minimal hours
at my desk.
I wanted a lot of flexibility.
I am still like the primaryparent of Johnny and I.
(04:58):
And so like if a kid gets sick.
Like I'm doing that.
I'm the one who's reallyresponsible for making sure we
have what we need for school orbirthday parties or things like
that.
And I love that role and I'mtotally satisfied with it, but
again, I need it to be somethingthat there feels like there's
not only time for, but likespaciousness for, and it feels
(05:21):
good.
So I think the energetics of itwas a big piece of this as well.
It's not just like.
I wanted to work very little.
It's like I needed that to feelgood.
And there's some lessons aroundthat that we'll dig into.
But when I came back tobusiness, I also kind of came
back from my sabbatical withthis idea that I was going to
validate things first.
(05:42):
I, Knew I, I wanted to go all inon coaching, which I think
previously I never reallyallowed myself to go all in on.
I have been coaching since 2017,but it always kind of felt like
part of the business and I knewcoming back that I wanted it to
be like the thing.
Like I freaking love coaching.
It's where my zone of genius is.
And so I was going to useprivate coaching in particular
(06:05):
to Really verify that I did wantto come back.
So I have had conversations withsome of y'all on Instagram DMs
about like, how did you know youwere ready to come back?
And while that's not the maintopic for today, I wanted to
touch on it that I felt ready,but I really didn't know for
sure until I started comingback.
And so for me, I thought Iwanted to come back, but before
(06:28):
we invested in getting extrachildcare support or anything
else, I decided to take on myfirst round of coaching clients.
I did 12 weeks.
So that I felt comfortable Icould commit to three months and
reevaluate and I did that WhileI was a stay at home mom, and so
I'm you know had a very Selectnumber of clients I could work
(06:50):
with, but I did get booked out.
I tested it and very quickly waslike, yes, consider it
validated.
I want to be here.
I'm all in.
And really then like the pastyear began.
I feel like may and June was abit of a like validation window.
Let's see if we can get clients.
Okay.
We got clients.
Let's see if we enjoy this.
(07:11):
Okay.
We enjoy this.
Now let's, let's begin.
And so let's think about thepast year.
I'm not going to sit here andmake you listen to like a.
breakdown of month by month,what happened over the past
year.
I don't think that'd be the bestuse of your time or my time.
Instead, I really want to thinkabout the holistic lessons
(07:32):
learned that I think will alsobenefit you, whether you are
considering a sabbatical comingback from a sabbatical, or
you're just in a season whereyou need your business to
Prioritize your life and notprioritize the business.
Right?
So if any of my story resonateswith you or you're just curious,
I think you're really going toget a lot out of these lessons
(07:53):
learned.
Cause as I'm sitting hererecording this, I'm in bed, I am
very pregnant with my third kidand everything I've learned just
continues to be like, it's adouble down.
Like I, I'm sure that I'm goingto feel even stronger about
these things.
Postpartum this time around as amom of three, but let's dig in
(08:15):
first lesson is to lean intoyour zone of genius and what
makes you different.
I think it's really easy inbusiness to look around at what
everyone else is doing.
And the things that you dodifferently feel wrong
sometimes.
Right.
So a great example is, you know,short form video content is huge
(08:40):
reels, tick tock.
They've been, it's been huge fora while now.
Right.
And so if you're the type ofperson who Uh, it's a podcast.
40 minute podcast episode betterthan a four second reel, then it
can feel like that's wrong.
Right?
It can feel like you shouldn'tbe doing the long podcast.
You should be doing short.
(09:01):
And maybe you see a lot of talkabout how you shouldn't be doing
sales calls, but you really lovesales calls.
Or maybe you talk, you see talkabout how, you know, no one's
doing high ticket, they're alldoing low ticket.
You know, whatever the story is.
It's so easy to look around andbe told that like this is the
path to success or this iswhat's popular and this is
(09:22):
what's working.
And so you end up looking atwhat makes you different as a
bad thing.
And I want you to know that thisis the lesson I've learned.
Over and over and over again isthat what makes you different is
actually your biggestDifferentiator in a good way
because that's how you stand outThat's how you attract your
(09:45):
people and I truly think that byleaning into not only your zone
of genius and your strengths butalso by like doubling down on
what makes you different andwhat kind of goes against the
grain of What everyone else isdoing is how you find the most
success in business and how itfeels fun and simple and like it
It's enjoyable.
It's how you get out of thespace of like looking around and
(10:08):
comparing and seeking and alwaysfeeling like it's not enough or
you got to change everything.
It's like, how can you justdouble down on what makes you
different?
And so some ways that that'simpacted me over the past year
was absolutely coaching.
And in particular, Calls withclients.
(10:29):
There was a season over the pastyear.
Um, I think it was when I justgot pregnant at the end of 2023
with our third baby that it waslike, Oh, well, I shouldn't have
so many calls.
I shouldn't be on so many calls.
I shouldn't have this much on mycalendar right now.
(10:49):
In this season of life.
And that was just like a beliefthat was not my own, but that
like, was it came externally,not internally.
And I think it came from logictoo, right?
Like, oh, you're gonna haveanother baby.
You shouldn't have so manycalls.
And I tried like stripping a lotof the coaching calls and the
live stuff out of my business.
(11:10):
And I no longer enjoyed, enjoyedbusiness because.
I love coaching.
I love doing things live.
I love being on calls with myclients.
I love the back and forth.
I love, I love the liveinteraction.
It's like what gets me going.
It gives me energy.
It doesn't mean I'm not tired atthe end of the day.
(11:31):
It doesn't mean I want to be oncalls all day, every day, but it
means I don't need to look atthat as a thing I'm doing wrong.
I don't need to have less time.
just because someone said Ishouldn't have client calls.
Right?
Instead I should lean into thefact that that's what's going to
make me different.
Hey, if you're a client of mine,we're going to get on calls and
they're gonna be Amazing.
If you're in one of my programsand we're going to get on calls,
(11:52):
it's going to be so much fun.
You're going to tell the energyis there.
The momentum is there.
If you're on a webinar, I dolike we're there, right?
If I do anything live, like,yeah, the energy is there.
And that is not wrong.
It's actually something that'skind of special.
Right.
Because that's not the normanymore.
Same thing with how I like tocoach.
(12:12):
There's so much talk in thecoaching industry about how like
the best clients are so self ledthat you don't hear from them.
And like, that's fine.
I'm not sitting here saying thatthat's like a wrong opinion of
for someone else to have.
Instead, what I need to not dois make that mean anything about
(12:34):
how I view coaching because Iview coaching totally different.
My favorite way to coach is tobe like deeply involved.
If you are a, a one on oneclient of mine, if we've been
working together and we're goingto work together for three, six,
12 months, I want to be in yourshit.
I want to know what's going on.
I want to be replying to yourInstagram stories.
I want to be chatting throughoutthe week in between our calls.
(12:56):
Like I really want to be inpartnership with someone.
I don't need to view that as meover delivering.
For me, um, like creating adependent relationship with my
client when I have the personalresponsibility to know that
(13:16):
that's not what's happening.
Right.
But do you see how easy it is tojust like hear someone else's
story or belief or whatever andto make it mean that your way of
doing things is wrong when infact my dream clients like the
way that I coach, that's thekind of coaching they're looking
for.
So if they want the other style,that's great.
They can go work with a coachwho has that style.
If they want my style, I'm herefor them.
(13:38):
Same thing with podcasting.
Like it's just all about doingthings your own way.
And especially when doing ityour own way, it goes against
the grain.
Stop making that be a bad thing.
And instead make that be thething that makes you stand out.
It's like such a powerful shift.
(13:59):
And so integral to having abusiness that's enjoyable, that
is simple, that You really feelfulfilled by, but that also
you're like taking action andmoving through and, and finding
those dream clients.
The second lesson is imperfectlyconsistent.
Is better than nothing.
(14:21):
And I think the biggest lessonfor this for me has been through
content.
I have not been consistent in mycontent even just the past year.
And if I'm honest, if I lookback at my whole business, I've
never been perfectly consistentfor a year or longer.
And that's not something I'msaying is like good for me, but
(14:42):
I do think it's a reallyimportant lesson to remind
yourself that it doesn't have tobe all or nothing.
I talked to people so many timeswho were like, well, I can't
launch the podcast until I have12 episodes ready.
I disagree.
I, you know, is that cool andstrategic?
Sure.
But like also, is that going toslow you down and hold you back?
(15:02):
And then you're going to make 12episodes.
And by the time you publishepisode four, you're already
going to like hate the otherepisodes because you will learn
so much.
Yeah.
So I think what makes moresense, especially when we're
playing the long game ofbusiness is that you embrace
That there's going to be someebb and flow and life is going
to life, especially as a mom inbusiness, life is going to life.
(15:23):
And that means that the metricfor success is not perfect
consistency and you embrace andallow for imperfect.
Consistency.
I was talking to some of myclients the other week who are
moms who don't have child carefor the summer because their
kids are out of school, who arecoaching, who want to be
creating content.
(15:44):
It's like, how do we make thiswork in the summer?
And it's like, I think it'scompletely fair to just reset
your expectations.
You don't have to show up everyTuesday at 9 AM with a new
podcast episode during theseason of life.
If it hasn't, if you haven'tbeen able to get ahead on that,
that's fine.
Like you probably have otherpriorities.
If you have a handful of hoursat most a week, like I do think
(16:06):
the priorities can shift.
And so I've really seen that byjust, you know, yes, strive to
be consistent, but alsoreleasing the pressure for
perfection and perfectconsistency is huge.
Like this podcast episode, forexample, is probably not going
to go live.
(16:26):
At a consistent day and time,you know, but it's going to go
live.
And this is the cool thing too,is I can look back at the past
year and see that even though mypodcast, for example, or
Instagram, I haven't beenperfectly consistent.
I haven't posted on Instagramevery single day for the whole
year.
I haven't posted one podcastepisode a week for a whole year.
Even though I haven't done thosethings, they've done their job.
(16:47):
I have gotten clients from mycontent.
I have gotten people who saythey are binging my content
before they decide to invest inworking with me.
My content is still resonating.
I'm getting messages from peoplewho are like, I listened to that
podcast episode from months agoand it was life changing.
And I think it really helps youget back to the point of all of
(17:09):
this, right?
Like the point of creatingcontent and helping people and
serving people is to freakingserve people.
And if people still very muchappreciate being served
intermittently, if it's notperfectly every Tuesday morning,
right?
So I really have released thepressure for perfection and just
(17:31):
embrace the fact that like,yeah, we're gonna strive for
consistency.
We're gonna strive to buildsystems where we can be
Sustainably consistent, butwe're, we're also not going to
be all or nothing about it.
I'd rather you post one podcastepisode a month, like actually
valuable in creating connectionand know, like and trust with
(17:54):
your ideal clients and yourcommunity.
Then one podcast episode everyweek at the exact same hour
every week.
And it's like fluffynothingness.
You know what I mean?
So I think there's a qualitycomponent there too.
Lesson three is this idea ofchoosing and making a decision
with confidence and then movingon.
(18:17):
I will never forget when I had aconversation with my friend
Ashley from Systems Over Stressabout tech.
If you know me, I love tech.
I love systems.
I could procrastinate for weeksand weeks and weeks and months
just messing around with theback end of business with tech
and systems.
And she gets me, which I love ifyou're a systems person, you get
(18:39):
it too.
But that's also.
not how I want to be spending mytime right now.
But I was having a conversationwith her earlier on, um, maybe
last fall.
earlier on in this sabbaticaljourney, but it is what she
shared with me has come up manytimes since then.
(19:00):
I was like lamenting my decisionof what platform to use for
tech.
Okay.
Like y'all, I, I know I felt ittoo.
Okay.
It's easy to get stuck ondecisions sometimes.
I was totally stuck in this likefeedback loop of like, should I
do Kajabi or should I do this?
Should I do this?
Or should I do that?
Should I do school?
(19:21):
Or should I do a Facebook group?
Or should I do this?
Or should I do that?
Like just totally in an opencycle loop of like not being
able to make a choice or notbeing like fully satisfied with
an option.
And I was, um, voxering with herabout it all.
And it got to a point where shewas like, look, no platform.
(19:46):
You know, we're talking abouttech specifically, but the
supplies beyond tech, she waslike, no platform is perfect.
There's not a single softwareoption out there that is going
to be perfect.
Ultimately, you're just going tohave to make the best choice you
can and choose with confidence.
And when she told me that it waslike, and I think that phrase
(20:13):
choose with confidence issomething that I now say to my
clients all the time because ithas been so life changing for
me.
So thank you, Ashley.
Um, but this idea of, it's notjust like decided, decide, move
on.
It's this idea of like choosingwith confidence.
And then closing the door andthen like not opening the door
(20:37):
again, not allowing the feedbackloop to open up again.
And for me with tech, like Iended up choosing Kajabi and
that has been one of the mostpowerful decisions I ever made.
Not because Kajabi is like theperfect platform and it's magic
and it's going to solve all yourproblems, but because I did what
Ashley recommended where I chosewith confidence.
(21:00):
I am now what I jokingly say,I'm a kajabi slut.
Like I'm just, I'm just so allin with it that I have now just
been able to move on and dothings quicker and not second
guess myself.
And when another software has anew feature, I can like geek out
about it from like, Oh, that'sso cool.
But at no point does it make methen question everything.
(21:22):
And I get stuck in this feedbackloop again.
Instead, it's just like I'vechosen and I am moving on to the
things that matter.
And for sure, for somedecisions, there's like a window
of time where it's like, okay,this is the product suite I'm
going to move forward with.
I'm not even going to questionthis for six months.
We're just going to be, we'rejust going to choose with
(21:43):
confidence and we're going toexecute on this and reevaluate
farther down the line, threemonths, six months, 12 months.
And so this lesson has been sofreeing for me.
And like I said, it originatedaround tech and systems, but
it's absolutely become anintegral part about how I coach
myself and coach my clients andrun my business is just when you
(22:06):
notice you're in these kind oflike loops.
Where you just can't seem tomove forward and make a choice
at some point.
It's just choosing withconfidence, closing the door on
the decision and just moving onbecause there's a million
different ways to do this.
You can choose between YouTubeYou can choose between having a
(22:29):
high ticket mastermind or lowticket members.
Like there's all these choicesto make.
And the fact of the matter isthat you can find success from
any of it, but you won't.
If you never choose and if younever move on with taking action
and like going and seeing thatthrough all the way.
(22:51):
So choosing with confidence,closing the door and moving on
huge lesson this past year.
It probably deserves its ownpodcast episode, but we're just
baking it in right here.
But it's been so significant forme.
The next lesson from the pastyear, being back from sabbatical
is that sometimes we need toinvest in education, strategy,
(23:16):
trainings, and other times youneed to actually just invest in
mentorship.
And I love investing in personaldevelopment and learning and
growing, especially as a coach,I think.
When you are a coach beingcoached by others is so
valuable.
(23:36):
Um, so incredibly transformativeto help you keep growing.
I also just am the type ofperson that I love to learn.
Like when people ask you, whatwould you be doing all day if
you didn't have this?
It's like, I'd, I'd still belike trying to learn.
I'm constantly like when I was astay at home mom, I was
constantly still trying to learnand optimize and systemize and
(23:57):
simplify and improve my day today life.
And so.
That's just who I am.
I know not everyone is that way,but I am.
But I've noticed over the pastyear that as I have sought to
learn and grow and improve, thatit's really easy to get stuck
investing in, you know, 50, 100,200, 500, 1, 000 courses and
(24:22):
like micro offers to try to getsomething.
And I'm not saying those aren'tvaluable.
Absolutely.
Every time I've invested in themand I've actually.
Consumed them and implementedthem.
Yes, they are extremelyvaluable, but there are
definitely times where I noticedthat I, I'm just like kind of
buying a bunch of differentthings.
I'm not quite like taking actionon all of it or going through it
(24:45):
all, but I'm like seekingsomething.
And it's like, you know, Mymoney would be better spent
actually just investing inprivate mentorship and that
doesn't always mean long termSometimes that's literally a 60
minute call or two weeks intelegram or you know, three
months or something But therehave absolutely been times where
(25:06):
it's like, you know, this iswhen I should just be investing
in actual mentorship Even thoughit's more expensive, ultimately
it's going to be, if I just keepbuying all these random courses,
seeking something, that's notactually what I need.
It's going to end up kind ofbeing the same amount of money.
Anyways, it's just going to be alonger journey, more DIY, more
frustrations, whereas they couldjust invest a little bit more in
(25:30):
personal mentorship and actuallyget the feedback and support.
And.
You know, shift that I'm lookingfor.
So this is definitely a usediscernment lesson.
Not every time, you know, I'mnot saying it's mentorship or
nothing.
There are definitely times wherelike a course, a strategy, a
(25:50):
micro offer is exactly what Ineed or what you need.
But I definitely have learned alesson over the past year to
just like use discernment.
Don't let the investment ofsomething higher ticket feel off
the table because if you end upbuying five, You're probably
looking at the same amount ofmoney if you had just hired a
(26:13):
mentor.
You know what I mean?
So something that I havedefinitely learned is just use
that discernment and questionyourself of like, am, do I need
the actual just educationstrategy to implement?
Is that what I need?
Or do I actually just like needa conversation with someone and
to just make that choice from aplace of like empowerment versus
(26:34):
like that not being an option.
The next lesson is to embracethe season you're in, which is
like, obviously, right?
I came back from my sabbaticalwith that whole intention.
But what I mean through this isnot just like embrace the season
you're in, you're a mom, it'sgoing to be busy.
(26:54):
What I mean is within this, thechoices you're making in your
business, the strategies you'redoing, how you're doing things,
um, is, is to also not just.
embrace it holistically, butembrace like that micro season.
So for example, it's summer.
If you have kids who are out ofschool and you usually have
childcare and now you don't,instead of that being this like
(27:15):
huge negative disruption, howcan you like lean into that and
work with it and like, acceptthat and.
And sometimes there'spreparation before then
sometimes it's just changing upwhat you expect from yourself
for me.
This was really powerful when Iwas prepping for, um, maternity
(27:36):
leave.
This was earlier on in thispregnancy, I was having a
conversation with one of mymentors where I was like, I'm
really, you know, I want to comeback to YouTube and I want to do
YouTube every week and I haveall these things and all these
ambitions and all this stuff.
And she reflected back to methat she was like, I don't think
you're in the season to pushyourself right now.
I don't think you're in theseason to like do all of this
(27:59):
like new, crazy, big, hard stuffwhen in reality.
You, you probably want to be inthe season to like lean into
the, like the simple,sustainable, what's working
stuff.
And as soon as she said it, itwas like, yeah, that's exactly
what I would have told my ownclient.
If I was my own client, that'swhat I would have told myself.
Um, but that's the power of, ofcoaching of course, is having
(28:21):
someone else tell you thatright.
But as soon as she said it, itreally clicked for me because I
had been saying while I was backfrom my sabbatical, like my
business embraces the season oflife I'm in.
And I definitely have beenhelping my clients do that.
I was absolutely looking at itin my own business for me, more
like high level holisticstandpoint, but it was really
(28:41):
helpful to also zero in on justlike the season, like Maternity,
like the prepping for a new babymaternity, like this is such a
season and it doesn't mean I'mnever doing YouTube.
It doesn't mean I'm never doingA, B, and C.
It just means right now, I'm notgoing to like add that to my
plate.
I'm just going to like lean intowhat works for the season,
(29:03):
knowing that this season willchange and it will shift into
another season.
And there are going to beseasons where you do want to
push yourself.
They're going to be seasonswhere you want to have like a
growth.
They're going to be seasonswhere you want to do more.
And then there are going to beother seasons where you want to
pull back, do less, do what'seasy.
Do it simple and just reallyacknowledging these kind of like
(29:27):
micro seasons within the yearand allowing it and, and letting
it be okay.
Not letting it be something thatis a bad thing or something to
resent or get frustrated by, butto just be like at peace with
you, like, yeah, okay.
Like this season, the next threemonths is a very special season
(29:48):
of life and business.
And it may mean I can't do thesethings that I'm really excited
about yet.
But.
I can do them after.
I can do them in the next seasonwhen it does work.
That has been incredibly freeingmentally, emotionally, and very,
very powerful to embrace notonly the season of life
(30:11):
holistically as like a mom withyoung kids running a business,
but also the, like, it's aboutto have a baby or it's summer or
it's, Christmas time when thingsget crazy.
Right.
So just really embracing thoseseasons and the seasonality of
life and like working, makingyour business work with that.
(30:32):
I'll never forget when I workedwith one of my past clients,
she's a dear friend of mine.
I was a part of her team for awhile.
And her personal life isseasonal.
Like she wanted to like take thesummer off and take the winter
off.
And, um, I've had many clientsbe in similar boats and it's
like, let's just bake that ininstead of that being something
(30:52):
that feels wrong.
in the summer or wrong as younear the end of the year.
Let's just like bake that intohow we do things.
So I think that's been reallyhelpful for me, even within
these smaller seasons of life tojust like allow it and truly
accept seasons, whether theseason is a month or like a
(31:15):
whole year, just like embraceit.
Okay.
Just a couple more lessons hereto dig into the next lesson is
that prioritizing self care isliterally only up to you.
This specifically as a mom whois pregnant, who has multiple
young kids.
(31:36):
I think when I came backinitially from my sabbatical, I
was like moving and grooving onthis.
I was like, absolutely.
I have such a limited window ofchildcare and I'm totally at
peace with, you know, a third ofit.
A third of my childcare beingspent on self care and not
(31:56):
business.
And I would like drop Kelly offfrom our nanny would come.
This is once we had childcare.
Um, so my daughter goes toschool and we have a nanny with
our son.
So the nanny will come.
I would then take Kelly toschool.
I would then go work out.
I'd come home and shower and getready.
And then I'd have just like twoish hours, two to three hours to
(32:18):
work.
And then I'd go pick up Kelly.
A chunk of my time.
Was spent doing self care and inthis case specifically like
working out and showering andgetting ready and I think I
started this so strong, but assoon as I got pregnant I really
really let this go and To behonest like this is a lesson.
(32:42):
I'm I'm really relearning againhere In the present over the
past month as I near the end ofthis pregnancy of just like, you
know, pregnancy, whatever.
I have not been as physicallyactive as I would like to be
during this pregnancy and I'mtrying to prioritize self care
in other ways right now.
(33:02):
I am actually recording this inbed, and I'm I'm going to finish
this episode in a couple ofminutes and I'm going to take a
nap.
Even though there are things onmy to do list, there are things
I would like to accomplish rightnow.
The nap has to happen.
And so just really getting backto that place of like, I am in
(33:24):
charge of my time, the window oftime that I am in charge of, I'm
in charge of, and no one isgoing to hold me accountable to
taking care of myself exceptmyself.
As a mom, it's so easy to.
Not prioritize taking care ofyourself for a million reasons.
And especially when you have alimited window of time where you
can work and you are a pastworkaholic like myself, it's so
(33:46):
hard to stop working to takecare of yourself and to bake it
all in.
So all that to say, this is avery, very much a lesson I've
learned multiple times.
And I would say most recentlylearning again is just
prioritizing.
Taking care of myself is my, myresponsibility.
It's no one else's.
It's mine.
And I'm very proud of myself forreincorporating this over the
(34:11):
past month.
And I'm very motivated andencouraged to continue to
prioritize this postpartum as Icome back from maternity leave
and just getting back into therhythm for me.
You know, moving my body is hugeand making me feel really good.
I know every time I move mybody, whether it's a walk or
(34:32):
going to the gym or whatever,that I have so much more energy
after.
So I can logic myself into whyit's worth doing, but You know,
you know how habits are, right?
Like when you change yourhabits, it's sometimes really
hard to get out of that.
So definitely have relearnedthroughout the past year, just
how important it is to reallytake the personal responsibility
(34:55):
of taking care of me.
Is my job and it's an importantjob and it's worth doing.
And a part of having a businessthat fits into the season of
life, that makes my personallife take a priority is also
prioritizing myself.
Even if it means sometimesbusiness stuff is going to move
slower than someone else.
And again, just embracing that,allowing it and knowing that,
(35:18):
like taking care of this bodyphysically of my brain is It's
so much more important thangetting more done on a to do
list anyways, right?
Like yes.
So prioritizing self care is myjob.
Big lesson.
From the past year.
(35:39):
And then the final lesson that Iwant to share with you from the
past year is potentially a hottake.
Maybe not.
To me, it feels like a hot take.
Um, but having fun in yourbusiness is the fastest path to
momentum.
And that doesn't mean, you know,you should only do things in
business that feel fun.
(36:00):
I know sometimes there arethings we do we have to do that
don't always feel fun, blah,blah, blah.
But holistically, I absolutelybelieve.
And this kind of maybe playsinto the first lesson of like
(36:23):
playing into your zone of geniusand your strengths for me, I'm
having a blast recording thisepisode.
I don't think I would have ablast creating content and a lot
of other formats.
If I was sitting here trying towrite an email version of this
first, it wouldn't be havingfun.
But I was trying to do a livestream right now.
Instead of.
Laying in my bed recording thison my phone.
(36:46):
I wouldn't be having as much funAnd that's not saying you
shouldn't do it that way.
It's just me, right?
Same thing with how I dobusiness.
Like I have fun coaching.
And so if I can just lean intocoaching and having fun, there's
this organic momentum when I'musing my voice and creating
(37:09):
content regularly.
It's easier to do it.
It's more fun to do it.
I'm enjoying it.
The momentum is there anytime inmy business over the past year
and in business in general whereI've prioritized the strategy
over the enjoyment, all themomentum falls apart for me.
And I know that that's notnecessarily like, again, only do
(37:33):
things that are fun vibes, but Ithink There's a happy medium
here where we started ourbusinesses for a reason like you
shouldn't have a business thatyou're miserable doing I don't
think and I really think there'sa part of your business.
You're miserable doing I don'tthink you should settle for that
I really don't now.
(37:54):
I know there's definitely timeswhere it's like, I'm not
inspired I don't want to createcontent whatever like that's not
the conversation we're havingright now.
I'm talking on a like regularbasis I think you should have
fun doing the main parts of yourjob, the main things you show up
to do in your business to serveyour clients and to grow your
(38:14):
business.
I think you should enjoy them.
I think they should be enjoyablewhen you're executing on them
and when they're not, I thinkthat's very worth listening to
and trying to understand becausewhen you're having fun running
your business.
Everything feels so much moreenjoyable, but there's a natural
(38:37):
momentum that comes becauseyou're having fun doing it.
That means you're going to makeother people have more fun
enjoying, like they're going toenjoy receiving whatever it is
you're doing.
That means they're going to havea better experience.
They're going to give you bettertestimonials.
You're going to make more sales.
Growing your business is goingto be easier.
You're going to be gettingbetter feedback.
Like It's going to be easier toshow up.
(38:58):
There's just going to be thistrue, like momentum and flow and
like feeling like it'shappening.
Whereas if you're sitting thereand you're just like trying to
grind it out because this is howyou think it's supposed to be.
No wonder there's a stagnation.
Cause you're, you're stagnant.
(39:19):
You don't even enjoy what you'redoing.
No one's going to enjoy yourcontent more than you.
No one's going to enjoy yourwork more than you.
No one's going to be a biggerfan of you than you are.
Like I just truly believe andhave experienced firsthand,
particularly in the past year,that I Want to do things in
(39:43):
business that I enjoy.
And if I'm not enjoying it,that's worth looking into.
Maybe that means I need todelegate it.
Maybe that means you need tochange the way I do it.
Maybe that means you need tochange the strategy.
Maybe that just means I need tochange the way I'm thinking
about it.
Right?
Like again, you know, filingyour taxes isn't fun, but we
have to do it.
(40:03):
Right.
So I'm not trying to be naiveabout it, but I truly believe
that you should be running yourbusiness in a way that plays
into your strengths.
And therefore, Is enjoyable andis fun.
And that when you take action onthe big things that move your
business forward, you enjoy it.
Maybe leading up to it, you'renot enjoying it.
(40:24):
Right.
But like once you're in themidst of a podcast episode.
You're in it.
You're vibing.
It's fun.
You're in it with a client.
You're loving it.
It's fun.
You walk away feeling fulfilledand excited and lit up and, and
maybe talking about the thingsthat light you up is a better
way to describe this and havingfun.
(40:45):
But I really think the more youcan tap into what lights you up
and the more you can spend timedoing things that light you up
and choose to build yourbusiness strategy around the
things that light you up, Thebetter, the easier, the more
momentum.
So those are kind of the biglessons I've learned since
(41:07):
coming back from my sabbatical.
As far as where things are nowgoing forward, the end of June,
as I'm recording this, I'm aboutto go on maternity leave for
baby three.
I am just doubling down oneverything we talked about.
I'm doubling down on coaching.
And individual programs.
So my active energy is going tobe spent towards coaching my
(41:31):
high level clients, but I'malso.
I love to teach.
So also continuing to createindividual programs that, um,
maybe they're taught live, buteventually are like on demand
programs and trainings.
So that I have both, but that ona regular basis, my energy is
being spent actively coaching myclients.
I'm also working on my passivesales machine and need a better
(41:57):
name for that.
But basically, wow, I'm going tobe actively coaching and
running, you know, My coachingprograms with my coaching
clients.
I also still want to have kindof what I'm considering this
like passive sales machinerunning behind the scenes so
that the content I create leadsto sales of these on demand
(42:18):
individual programs.
And then the people who want tostep up into coaching with me
have the opportunity as well,but really.
Viewing it as, um, I don't haveto choose.
I think when the, when I firstgot pregnant this time around, I
felt like I needed to go all inon the passive course direction.
And now I'm just feeling sogrounded and solid and like
(42:39):
doing both.
Like I'm going to have on demandprograms that people can buy at
any time that my content canlead to and also put my active
energy towards my coachingclients.
And that's feeling so good.
So good.
And I want to go ahead and dropa little tease here.
But I am planning on launching amastermind.
(42:59):
I'm planning on doing that thisfall or winter.
We'll see.
I'm always going to be feelingit out as I get closer, but I
very much love, love, lovehaving a mastermind space.
We're talking like five, 10people, really intimate, really,
really high level coaching.
If that's something you'reinterested in, absolutely like,
let's start talking about itbecause this is going to be
(43:20):
something that I'm, um, probablygoing to be like, you know, it's
not gonna be like a big launch,probably it'll probably be
something that just like theright people come into.
We'll see.
But that is something I'm very,very excited to be bringing back
after this maternity leave laterthis year, kind of curating this
like really incredible truemastermind space.
(43:41):
But that's where things aregoing.
I mean, just continuing to justapply the lessons.
I know when I come back from mymaternity leave.
Being a mom of three, life'sgoing to look a little
different, but I'm very excitedfor that season of life.
I'm very excited to apply thelessons I just shared with you
in that season as well.
And, um, be sharing more and Iwill be doing a separate podcast
(44:04):
episode all about kind of anupdate on maternity leave prep,
uh, that will go out in a coupleof weeks most likely.
But.
I hope that it was helpful tohear kind of this reflection on
the past year and the biggestlessons I've learned since
coming back from my sabbatical.
If it was, I would love to hearfrom you.
Please send me a DM on Instagramat simplify with Megan.
I would love for you to sharethis and tag me on Instagram
(44:26):
stories or whatever platformyou're hanging out on.
If you have like a big ahamoment or a favorite part, like
any feedback like that would beso meaningful.
Of course it would also be sovaluable and It's truly helpful
if you left a rating and areview on whatever platform
you're listening on just thatthe news can spread this podcast
and that more people can see andhear about it for the first
(44:48):
time.
So thank you so much forlistening and I'll see you in
the next episode.
Welcome back to the podcast.
I am really looking forward tothis episode because I'm going
to be sharing the lessons I'velearned since coming back from
my sabbatical.
For those who aren't familiarwith my journey, I started my
business in 2014.
I became a mom in 2021.
So a large chunk of my businessjourney was pre motherhood.
(00:23):
And I'll tell you what, when Ibecame a mom, rocked my world.
I think I've shared in a priorpodcast about.
the choice to, um, take a fulltime job.
I've shared bits and pieces ofthe sabbatical journey.
This episode, I'm not going tobe reflecting a ton on why I
went on sabbatical, things likethat.
Although I'm happy to do adedicated episode on that if we
(00:45):
feel like we need it.
I really want to focus insteadon just coming back from
sabbatical and what the pastyear has taught me.
Because when I did decide tocome back from a two year
sabbatical, My personal lifelooked extremely different than
the last time I had donebusiness.
My goals for business were verydifferent.
(01:05):
Who I am, my priorities, all ofit was very different.
And I think that's why I'velearned so much in the past year
because a lot of old habits andold patterns got deconstructed
during my sabbatical, but alsohad to get deconstructed coming
back to business.
And really consciously shiftinghow I do things and, you know,
(01:26):
it hasn't been a perfect year.
I've certainly made somechoices, made some steps that
I've learned a lot from, and I'mjust excited to kind of share,
share all of that with you.
So just to set the context, setthe scene, I came back from my
sabbatical May, 2023, just toset the scene when I left my
(02:00):
business and began what ended upbeing a sabbatical wasn't
necessarily.
Something I like decided to doand called it a sabbatical right
away, but what ended up becominga sabbatical I had just become a
mom for the very first time Um,when I came back to my business
after my sabbatical, I was now amom of two kids.
I had my two year old daughterand I had a son who was, I think
(02:25):
like four months old, four orfive months old when I came back
to my business from sabbaticaland at that point in between
there, I had been everythingfrom a part time employee, a
full time employee, a stay athome mom.
I had done a variety of things,but when I came back to business
in May of 2023, I knew I wasready to come back to business.
(02:49):
I was very excited to havesomething outside of motherhood.
I was excited to have thebenefits of it being your own
business versus working forsomeone else.
But I knew that how I wanted todo business had to look
different.
Prior to my sabbatical, I wasabsolutely a workaholic.
I love business.
(03:09):
I love work.
I love the challenge of it.
I love the game of it.
I find it very fun and veryrewarding and very fulfilling.
And so when I look back at mybusiness journey before
maternity leave, there were alot of cycles of burnout.
There were a lot of cycles of,you know, being a workaholic and
never feeling like there wasenough time to work.
(03:31):
Even though it's so funny as amom of almost three now to look
back and be like, you had somuch time.
Um, but you, you know, you liveand you learn, but.
I knew coming back to businessas a mom of two last summer,
that if I was going to do this,it had to look different.
That old way of doing businesswas no longer on the table for
(03:52):
me.
I knew that my business had tobe set up where my personal life
came first.
And not only from like a conceptor like how many hours do I
work, but more from a trueDecision making lens and values
and also making it feel goodenergetically.
I had noticed in my life thatthere would be times where I
(04:16):
resented my personal lifebecause it meant I couldn't do
something for business, which isnot good and certainly not how I
wanted things to look this timearound.
So when I say I wanted mybusiness to really focus on my
personal life first and put thatas a priority, I mean that it
also needed to feel good.
(04:37):
I didn't want to allow mybusiness to run my life to be
something that makes me resentthe other areas of my life.
I also knew I did want to havelegitimately like minimal hours
at my desk.
I wanted a lot of flexibility.
I am still like the primaryparent of Johnny and I.
(04:58):
And so like if a kid gets sick.
Like I'm doing that.
I'm the one who's reallyresponsible for making sure we
have what we need for school orbirthday parties or things like
that.
And I love that role and I'mtotally satisfied with it, but
again, I need it to be somethingthat there feels like there's
not only time for, but likespaciousness for, and it feels
(05:21):
good.
So I think the energetics of itwas a big piece of this as well.
It's not just like.
I wanted to work very little.
It's like I needed that to feelgood.
And there's some lessons aroundthat that we'll dig into.
But when I came back tobusiness, I also kind of came
back from my sabbatical withthis idea that I was going to
validate things first.
(05:42):
I, Knew I, I wanted to go all inon coaching, which I think
previously I never reallyallowed myself to go all in on.
I have been coaching since 2017,but it always kind of felt like
part of the business and I knewcoming back that I wanted it to
be like the thing.
Like I freaking love coaching.
It's where my zone of genius is.
And so I was going to useprivate coaching in particular
(06:05):
to Really verify that I did wantto come back.
So I have had conversations withsome of y'all on Instagram DMs
about like, how did you know youwere ready to come back?
And while that's not the maintopic for today, I wanted to
touch on it that I felt ready,but I really didn't know for
sure until I started comingback.
And so for me, I thought Iwanted to come back, but before
(06:28):
we invested in getting extrachildcare support or anything
else, I decided to take on myfirst round of coaching clients.
I did 12 weeks.
So that I felt comfortable Icould commit to three months and
reevaluate and I did that WhileI was a stay at home mom, and so
I'm you know had a very Selectnumber of clients I could work
(06:50):
with, but I did get booked out.
I tested it and very quickly waslike, yes, consider it
validated.
I want to be here.
I'm all in.
And really then like the pastyear began.
I feel like may and June was abit of a like validation window.
Let's see if we can get clients.
Okay.
We got clients.
Let's see if we enjoy this.
(07:11):
Okay.
We enjoy this.
Now let's, let's begin.
And so let's think about thepast year.
I'm not going to sit here andmake you listen to like a.
breakdown of month by month,what happened over the past
year.
I don't think that'd be the bestuse of your time or my time.
Instead, I really want to thinkabout the holistic lessons
(07:32):
learned that I think will alsobenefit you, whether you are
considering a sabbatical comingback from a sabbatical, or
you're just in a season whereyou need your business to
Prioritize your life and notprioritize the business.
Right?
So if any of my story resonateswith you or you're just curious,
I think you're really going toget a lot out of these lessons
(07:53):
learned.
Cause as I'm sitting hererecording this, I'm in bed, I am
very pregnant with my third kidand everything I've learned just
continues to be like, it's adouble down.
Like I, I'm sure that I'm goingto feel even stronger about
these things.
Postpartum this time around as amom of three, but let's dig in
(08:15):
first lesson is to lean intoyour zone of genius and what
makes you different.
I think it's really easy inbusiness to look around at what
everyone else is doing.
And the things that you dodifferently feel wrong
sometimes.
Right.
So a great example is, you know,short form video content is huge
(08:40):
reels, tick tock.
They've been, it's been huge fora while now.
Right.
And so if you're the type ofperson who Uh, it's a podcast.
40 minute podcast episode betterthan a four second reel, then it
can feel like that's wrong.
Right?
It can feel like you shouldn'tbe doing the long podcast.
You should be doing short.
(09:01):
And maybe you see a lot of talkabout how you shouldn't be doing
sales calls, but you really lovesales calls.
Or maybe you talk, you see talkabout how, you know, no one's
doing high ticket, they're alldoing low ticket.
You know, whatever the story is.
It's so easy to look around andbe told that like this is the
path to success or this iswhat's popular and this is
(09:22):
what's working.
And so you end up looking atwhat makes you different as a
bad thing.
And I want you to know that thisis the lesson I've learned.
Over and over and over again isthat what makes you different is
actually your biggestDifferentiator in a good way
because that's how you stand outThat's how you attract your
(09:45):
people and I truly think that byleaning into not only your zone
of genius and your strengths butalso by like doubling down on
what makes you different andwhat kind of goes against the
grain of What everyone else isdoing is how you find the most
success in business and how itfeels fun and simple and like it
It's enjoyable.
It's how you get out of thespace of like looking around and
(10:08):
comparing and seeking and alwaysfeeling like it's not enough or
you got to change everything.
It's like, how can you justdouble down on what makes you
different?
And so some ways that that'simpacted me over the past year
was absolutely coaching.
And in particular, Calls withclients.
(10:29):
There was a season over the pastyear.
Um, I think it was when I justgot pregnant at the end of 2023
with our third baby that it waslike, Oh, well, I shouldn't have
so many calls.
I shouldn't be on so many calls.
I shouldn't have this much on mycalendar right now.
(10:49):
In this season of life.
And that was just like a beliefthat was not my own, but that
like, was it came externally,not internally.
And I think it came from logictoo, right?
Like, oh, you're gonna haveanother baby.
You shouldn't have so manycalls.
And I tried like stripping a lotof the coaching calls and the
live stuff out of my business.
(11:10):
And I no longer enjoyed, enjoyedbusiness because.
I love coaching.
I love doing things live.
I love being on calls with myclients.
I love the back and forth.
I love, I love the liveinteraction.
It's like what gets me going.
It gives me energy.
It doesn't mean I'm not tired atthe end of the day.
(11:31):
It doesn't mean I want to be oncalls all day, every day, but it
means I don't need to look atthat as a thing I'm doing wrong.
I don't need to have less time.
just because someone said Ishouldn't have client calls.
Right?
Instead I should lean into thefact that that's what's going to
make me different.
Hey, if you're a client of mine,we're going to get on calls and
they're gonna be Amazing.
If you're in one of my programsand we're going to get on calls,
(11:52):
it's going to be so much fun.
You're going to tell the energyis there.
The momentum is there.
If you're on a webinar, I dolike we're there, right?
If I do anything live, like,yeah, the energy is there.
And that is not wrong.
It's actually something that'skind of special.
Right.
Because that's not the normanymore.
Same thing with how I like tocoach.
(12:12):
There's so much talk in thecoaching industry about how like
the best clients are so self ledthat you don't hear from them.
And like, that's fine.
I'm not sitting here saying thatthat's like a wrong opinion of
for someone else to have.
Instead, what I need to not dois make that mean anything about
(12:34):
how I view coaching because Iview coaching totally different.
My favorite way to coach is tobe like deeply involved.
If you are a, a one on oneclient of mine, if we've been
working together and we're goingto work together for three, six,
12 months, I want to be in yourshit.
I want to know what's going on.
I want to be replying to yourInstagram stories.
I want to be chatting throughoutthe week in between our calls.
(12:56):
Like I really want to be inpartnership with someone.
I don't need to view that as meover delivering.
For me, um, like creating adependent relationship with my
client when I have the personalresponsibility to know that
(13:16):
that's not what's happening.
Right.
But do you see how easy it is tojust like hear someone else's
story or belief or whatever andto make it mean that your way of
doing things is wrong when infact my dream clients like the
way that I coach, that's thekind of coaching they're looking
for.
So if they want the other style,that's great.
They can go work with a coachwho has that style.
If they want my style, I'm herefor them.
(13:38):
Same thing with podcasting.
Like it's just all about doingthings your own way.
And especially when doing ityour own way, it goes against
the grain.
Stop making that be a bad thing.
And instead make that be thething that makes you stand out.
It's like such a powerful shift.
(13:59):
And so integral to having abusiness that's enjoyable, that
is simple, that You really feelfulfilled by, but that also
you're like taking action andmoving through and, and finding
those dream clients.
The second lesson is imperfectlyconsistent.
Is better than nothing.
(14:21):
And I think the biggest lessonfor this for me has been through
content.
I have not been consistent in mycontent even just the past year.
And if I'm honest, if I lookback at my whole business, I've
never been perfectly consistentfor a year or longer.
And that's not something I'msaying is like good for me, but
(14:42):
I do think it's a reallyimportant lesson to remind
yourself that it doesn't have tobe all or nothing.
I talked to people so many timeswho were like, well, I can't
launch the podcast until I have12 episodes ready.
I disagree.
I, you know, is that cool andstrategic?
Sure.
But like also, is that going toslow you down and hold you back?
(15:02):
And then you're going to make 12episodes.
And by the time you publishepisode four, you're already
going to like hate the otherepisodes because you will learn
so much.
Yeah.
So I think what makes moresense, especially when we're
playing the long game ofbusiness is that you embrace
That there's going to be someebb and flow and life is going
to life, especially as a mom inbusiness, life is going to life.
(15:23):
And that means that the metricfor success is not perfect
consistency and you embrace andallow for imperfect.
Consistency.
I was talking to some of myclients the other week who are
moms who don't have child carefor the summer because their
kids are out of school, who arecoaching, who want to be
creating content.
(15:44):
It's like, how do we make thiswork in the summer?
And it's like, I think it'scompletely fair to just reset
your expectations.
You don't have to show up everyTuesday at 9 AM with a new
podcast episode during theseason of life.
If it hasn't, if you haven'tbeen able to get ahead on that,
that's fine.
Like you probably have otherpriorities.
If you have a handful of hoursat most a week, like I do think
(16:06):
the priorities can shift.
And so I've really seen that byjust, you know, yes, strive to
be consistent, but alsoreleasing the pressure for
perfection and perfectconsistency is huge.
Like this podcast episode, forexample, is probably not going
to go live.
(16:26):
At a consistent day and time,you know, but it's going to go
live.
And this is the cool thing too,is I can look back at the past
year and see that even though mypodcast, for example, or
Instagram, I haven't beenperfectly consistent.
I haven't posted on Instagramevery single day for the whole
year.
I haven't posted one podcastepisode a week for a whole year.
Even though I haven't done thosethings, they've done their job.
(16:47):
I have gotten clients from mycontent.
I have gotten people who saythey are binging my content
before they decide to invest inworking with me.
My content is still resonating.
I'm getting messages from peoplewho are like, I listened to that
podcast episode from months agoand it was life changing.
And I think it really helps youget back to the point of all of
(17:09):
this, right?
Like the point of creatingcontent and helping people and
serving people is to freakingserve people.
And if people still very muchappreciate being served
intermittently, if it's notperfectly every Tuesday morning,
right?
So I really have released thepressure for perfection and just
(17:31):
embrace the fact that like,yeah, we're gonna strive for
consistency.
We're gonna strive to buildsystems where we can be
Sustainably consistent, butwe're, we're also not going to
be all or nothing about it.
I'd rather you post one podcastepisode a month, like actually
valuable in creating connectionand know, like and trust with
(17:54):
your ideal clients and yourcommunity.
Then one podcast episode everyweek at the exact same hour
every week.
And it's like fluffynothingness.
You know what I mean?
So I think there's a qualitycomponent there too.
Lesson three is this idea ofchoosing and making a decision
with confidence and then movingon.
(18:17):
I will never forget when I had aconversation with my friend
Ashley from Systems Over Stressabout tech.
If you know me, I love tech.
I love systems.
I could procrastinate for weeksand weeks and weeks and months
just messing around with theback end of business with tech
and systems.
And she gets me, which I love ifyou're a systems person, you get
(18:39):
it too.
But that's also.
not how I want to be spending mytime right now.
But I was having a conversationwith her earlier on, um, maybe
last fall.
earlier on in this sabbaticaljourney, but it is what she
shared with me has come up manytimes since then.
(19:00):
I was like lamenting my decisionof what platform to use for
tech.
Okay.
Like y'all, I, I know I felt ittoo.
Okay.
It's easy to get stuck ondecisions sometimes.
I was totally stuck in this likefeedback loop of like, should I
do Kajabi or should I do this?
Should I do this?
Or should I do that?
Should I do school?
(19:21):
Or should I do a Facebook group?
Or should I do this?
Or should I do that?
Like just totally in an opencycle loop of like not being
able to make a choice or notbeing like fully satisfied with
an option.
And I was, um, voxering with herabout it all.
And it got to a point where shewas like, look, no platform.
(19:46):
You know, we're talking abouttech specifically, but the
supplies beyond tech, she waslike, no platform is perfect.
There's not a single softwareoption out there that is going
to be perfect.
Ultimately, you're just going tohave to make the best choice you
can and choose with confidence.
And when she told me that it waslike, and I think that phrase
(20:13):
choose with confidence issomething that I now say to my
clients all the time because ithas been so life changing for
me.
So thank you, Ashley.
Um, but this idea of, it's notjust like decided, decide, move
on.
It's this idea of like choosingwith confidence.
And then closing the door andthen like not opening the door
(20:37):
again, not allowing the feedbackloop to open up again.
And for me with tech, like Iended up choosing Kajabi and
that has been one of the mostpowerful decisions I ever made.
Not because Kajabi is like theperfect platform and it's magic
and it's going to solve all yourproblems, but because I did what
Ashley recommended where I chosewith confidence.
(21:00):
I am now what I jokingly say,I'm a kajabi slut.
Like I'm just, I'm just so allin with it that I have now just
been able to move on and dothings quicker and not second
guess myself.
And when another software has anew feature, I can like geek out
about it from like, Oh, that'sso cool.
But at no point does it make methen question everything.
(21:22):
And I get stuck in this feedbackloop again.
Instead, it's just like I'vechosen and I am moving on to the
things that matter.
And for sure, for somedecisions, there's like a window
of time where it's like, okay,this is the product suite I'm
going to move forward with.
I'm not even going to questionthis for six months.
We're just going to be, we'rejust going to choose with
(21:43):
confidence and we're going toexecute on this and reevaluate
farther down the line, threemonths, six months, 12 months.
And so this lesson has been sofreeing for me.
And like I said, it originatedaround tech and systems, but
it's absolutely become anintegral part about how I coach
myself and coach my clients andrun my business is just when you
(22:06):
notice you're in these kind oflike loops.
Where you just can't seem tomove forward and make a choice
at some point.
It's just choosing withconfidence, closing the door on
the decision and just moving onbecause there's a million
different ways to do this.
You can choose between YouTubeYou can choose between having a
(22:29):
high ticket mastermind or lowticket members.
Like there's all these choicesto make.
And the fact of the matter isthat you can find success from
any of it, but you won't.
If you never choose and if younever move on with taking action
and like going and seeing thatthrough all the way.
(22:51):
So choosing with confidence,closing the door and moving on
huge lesson this past year.
It probably deserves its ownpodcast episode, but we're just
baking it in right here.
But it's been so significant forme.
The next lesson from the pastyear, being back from sabbatical
is that sometimes we need toinvest in education, strategy,
(23:16):
trainings, and other times youneed to actually just invest in
mentorship.
And I love investing in personaldevelopment and learning and
growing, especially as a coach,I think.
When you are a coach beingcoached by others is so
valuable.
(23:36):
Um, so incredibly transformativeto help you keep growing.
I also just am the type ofperson that I love to learn.
Like when people ask you, whatwould you be doing all day if
you didn't have this?
It's like, I'd, I'd still belike trying to learn.
I'm constantly like when I was astay at home mom, I was
constantly still trying to learnand optimize and systemize and
(23:57):
simplify and improve my day today life.
And so.
That's just who I am.
I know not everyone is that way,but I am.
But I've noticed over the pastyear that as I have sought to
learn and grow and improve, thatit's really easy to get stuck
investing in, you know, 50, 100,200, 500, 1, 000 courses and
(24:22):
like micro offers to try to getsomething.
And I'm not saying those aren'tvaluable.
Absolutely.
Every time I've invested in themand I've actually.
Consumed them and implementedthem.
Yes, they are extremelyvaluable, but there are
definitely times where I noticedthat I, I'm just like kind of
buying a bunch of differentthings.
I'm not quite like taking actionon all of it or going through it
(24:45):
all, but I'm like seekingsomething.
And it's like, you know, Mymoney would be better spent
actually just investing inprivate mentorship and that
doesn't always mean long termSometimes that's literally a 60
minute call or two weeks intelegram or you know, three
months or something But therehave absolutely been times where
(25:06):
it's like, you know, this iswhen I should just be investing
in actual mentorship Even thoughit's more expensive, ultimately
it's going to be, if I just keepbuying all these random courses,
seeking something, that's notactually what I need.
It's going to end up kind ofbeing the same amount of money.
Anyways, it's just going to be alonger journey, more DIY, more
frustrations, whereas they couldjust invest a little bit more in
(25:30):
personal mentorship and actuallyget the feedback and support.
And.
You know, shift that I'm lookingfor.
So this is definitely a usediscernment lesson.
Not every time, you know, I'mnot saying it's mentorship or
nothing.
There are definitely times wherelike a course, a strategy, a
(25:50):
micro offer is exactly what Ineed or what you need.
But I definitely have learned alesson over the past year to
just like use discernment.
Don't let the investment ofsomething higher ticket feel off
the table because if you end upbuying five, You're probably
looking at the same amount ofmoney if you had just hired a
(26:13):
mentor.
You know what I mean?
So something that I havedefinitely learned is just use
that discernment and questionyourself of like, am, do I need
the actual just educationstrategy to implement?
Is that what I need?
Or do I actually just like needa conversation with someone and
to just make that choice from aplace of like empowerment versus
(26:34):
like that not being an option.
The next lesson is to embracethe season you're in, which is
like, obviously, right?
I came back from my sabbaticalwith that whole intention.
But what I mean through this isnot just like embrace the season
you're in, you're a mom, it'sgoing to be busy.
(26:54):
What I mean is within this, thechoices you're making in your
business, the strategies you'redoing, how you're doing things,
um, is, is to also not just.
embrace it holistically, butembrace like that micro season.
So for example, it's summer.
If you have kids who are out ofschool and you usually have
childcare and now you don't,instead of that being this like
(27:15):
huge negative disruption, howcan you like lean into that and
work with it and like, acceptthat and.
And sometimes there'spreparation before then
sometimes it's just changing upwhat you expect from yourself
for me.
This was really powerful when Iwas prepping for, um, maternity
(27:36):
leave.
This was earlier on in thispregnancy, I was having a
conversation with one of mymentors where I was like, I'm
really, you know, I want to comeback to YouTube and I want to do
YouTube every week and I haveall these things and all these
ambitions and all this stuff.
And she reflected back to methat she was like, I don't think
you're in the season to pushyourself right now.
I don't think you're in theseason to like do all of this
(27:59):
like new, crazy, big, hard stuffwhen in reality.
You, you probably want to be inthe season to like lean into
the, like the simple,sustainable, what's working
stuff.
And as soon as she said it, itwas like, yeah, that's exactly
what I would have told my ownclient.
If I was my own client, that'swhat I would have told myself.
Um, but that's the power of, ofcoaching of course, is having
(28:21):
someone else tell you thatright.
But as soon as she said it, itreally clicked for me because I
had been saying while I was backfrom my sabbatical, like my
business embraces the season oflife I'm in.
And I definitely have beenhelping my clients do that.
I was absolutely looking at itin my own business for me, more
like high level holisticstandpoint, but it was really
(28:41):
helpful to also zero in on justlike the season, like Maternity,
like the prepping for a new babymaternity, like this is such a
season and it doesn't mean I'mnever doing YouTube.
It doesn't mean I'm never doingA, B, and C.
It just means right now, I'm notgoing to like add that to my
plate.
I'm just going to like lean intowhat works for the season,
(29:03):
knowing that this season willchange and it will shift into
another season.
And there are going to beseasons where you do want to
push yourself.
They're going to be seasonswhere you want to have like a
growth.
They're going to be seasonswhere you want to do more.
And then there are going to beother seasons where you want to
pull back, do less, do what'seasy.
Do it simple and just reallyacknowledging these kind of like
(29:27):
micro seasons within the yearand allowing it and, and letting
it be okay.
Not letting it be something thatis a bad thing or something to
resent or get frustrated by, butto just be like at peace with
you, like, yeah, okay.
Like this season, the next threemonths is a very special season
(29:48):
of life and business.
And it may mean I can't do thesethings that I'm really excited
about yet.
But.
I can do them after.
I can do them in the next seasonwhen it does work.
That has been incredibly freeingmentally, emotionally, and very,
very powerful to embrace notonly the season of life
(30:11):
holistically as like a mom withyoung kids running a business,
but also the, like, it's aboutto have a baby or it's summer or
it's, Christmas time when thingsget crazy.
Right.
So just really embracing thoseseasons and the seasonality of
life and like working, makingyour business work with that.
(30:32):
I'll never forget when I workedwith one of my past clients,
she's a dear friend of mine.
I was a part of her team for awhile.
And her personal life isseasonal.
Like she wanted to like take thesummer off and take the winter
off.
And, um, I've had many clientsbe in similar boats and it's
like, let's just bake that ininstead of that being something
(30:52):
that feels wrong.
in the summer or wrong as younear the end of the year.
Let's just like bake that intohow we do things.
So I think that's been reallyhelpful for me, even within
these smaller seasons of life tojust like allow it and truly
accept seasons, whether theseason is a month or like a
(31:15):
whole year, just like embraceit.
Okay.
Just a couple more lessons hereto dig into the next lesson is
that prioritizing self care isliterally only up to you.
This specifically as a mom whois pregnant, who has multiple
young kids.
(31:36):
I think when I came backinitially from my sabbatical, I
was like moving and grooving onthis.
I was like, absolutely.
I have such a limited window ofchildcare and I'm totally at
peace with, you know, a third ofit.
A third of my childcare beingspent on self care and not
(31:56):
business.
And I would like drop Kelly offfrom our nanny would come.
This is once we had childcare.
Um, so my daughter goes toschool and we have a nanny with
our son.
So the nanny will come.
I would then take Kelly toschool.
I would then go work out.
I'd come home and shower and getready.
And then I'd have just like twoish hours, two to three hours to
(32:18):
work.
And then I'd go pick up Kelly.
A chunk of my time.
Was spent doing self care and inthis case specifically like
working out and showering andgetting ready and I think I
started this so strong, but assoon as I got pregnant I really
really let this go and To behonest like this is a lesson.
(32:42):
I'm I'm really relearning againhere In the present over the
past month as I near the end ofthis pregnancy of just like, you
know, pregnancy, whatever.
I have not been as physicallyactive as I would like to be
during this pregnancy and I'mtrying to prioritize self care
in other ways right now.
(33:02):
I am actually recording this inbed, and I'm I'm going to finish
this episode in a couple ofminutes and I'm going to take a
nap.
Even though there are things onmy to do list, there are things
I would like to accomplish rightnow.
The nap has to happen.
And so just really getting backto that place of like, I am in
(33:24):
charge of my time, the window oftime that I am in charge of, I'm
in charge of, and no one isgoing to hold me accountable to
taking care of myself exceptmyself.
As a mom, it's so easy to.
Not prioritize taking care ofyourself for a million reasons.
And especially when you have alimited window of time where you
can work and you are a pastworkaholic like myself, it's so
(33:46):
hard to stop working to takecare of yourself and to bake it
all in.
So all that to say, this is avery, very much a lesson I've
learned multiple times.
And I would say most recentlylearning again is just
prioritizing.
Taking care of myself is my, myresponsibility.
It's no one else's.
It's mine.
And I'm very proud of myself forreincorporating this over the
(34:11):
past month.
And I'm very motivated andencouraged to continue to
prioritize this postpartum as Icome back from maternity leave
and just getting back into therhythm for me.
You know, moving my body is hugeand making me feel really good.
I know every time I move mybody, whether it's a walk or
(34:32):
going to the gym or whatever,that I have so much more energy
after.
So I can logic myself into whyit's worth doing, but You know,
you know how habits are, right?
Like when you change yourhabits, it's sometimes really
hard to get out of that.
So definitely have relearnedthroughout the past year, just
how important it is to reallytake the personal responsibility
(34:55):
of taking care of me.
Is my job and it's an importantjob and it's worth doing.
And a part of having a businessthat fits into the season of
life, that makes my personallife take a priority is also
prioritizing myself.
Even if it means sometimesbusiness stuff is going to move
slower than someone else.
And again, just embracing that,allowing it and knowing that,
(35:18):
like taking care of this bodyphysically of my brain is It's
so much more important thangetting more done on a to do
list anyways, right?
Like yes.
So prioritizing self care is myjob.
Big lesson.
From the past year.
(35:39):
And then the final lesson that Iwant to share with you from the
past year is potentially a hottake.
Maybe not.
To me, it feels like a hot take.
Um, but having fun in yourbusiness is the fastest path to
momentum.
And that doesn't mean, you know,you should only do things in
business that feel fun.
(36:00):
I know sometimes there arethings we do we have to do that
don't always feel fun, blah,blah, blah.
But holistically, I absolutelybelieve.
And this kind of maybe playsinto the first lesson of like
(36:23):
playing into your zone of geniusand your strengths for me, I'm
having a blast recording thisepisode.
I don't think I would have ablast creating content and a lot
of other formats.
If I was sitting here trying towrite an email version of this
first, it wouldn't be havingfun.
But I was trying to do a livestream right now.
Instead of.
Laying in my bed recording thison my phone.
(36:46):
I wouldn't be having as much funAnd that's not saying you
shouldn't do it that way.
It's just me, right?
Same thing with how I dobusiness.
Like I have fun coaching.
And so if I can just lean intocoaching and having fun, there's
this organic momentum when I'musing my voice and creating
(37:09):
content regularly.
It's easier to do it.
It's more fun to do it.
I'm enjoying it.
The momentum is there anytime inmy business over the past year
and in business in general whereI've prioritized the strategy
over the enjoyment, all themomentum falls apart for me.
And I know that that's notnecessarily like, again, only do
(37:33):
things that are fun vibes, but Ithink There's a happy medium
here where we started ourbusinesses for a reason like you
shouldn't have a business thatyou're miserable doing I don't
think and I really think there'sa part of your business.
You're miserable doing I don'tthink you should settle for that
I really don't now.
(37:54):
I know there's definitely timeswhere it's like, I'm not
inspired I don't want to createcontent whatever like that's not
the conversation we're havingright now.
I'm talking on a like regularbasis I think you should have
fun doing the main parts of yourjob, the main things you show up
to do in your business to serveyour clients and to grow your
(38:14):
business.
I think you should enjoy them.
I think they should be enjoyablewhen you're executing on them
and when they're not, I thinkthat's very worth listening to
and trying to understand becausewhen you're having fun running
your business.
Everything feels so much moreenjoyable, but there's a natural
(38:37):
momentum that comes becauseyou're having fun doing it.
That means you're going to makeother people have more fun
enjoying, like they're going toenjoy receiving whatever it is
you're doing.
That means they're going to havea better experience.
They're going to give you bettertestimonials.
You're going to make more sales.
Growing your business is goingto be easier.
You're going to be gettingbetter feedback.
Like It's going to be easier toshow up.
(38:58):
There's just going to be thistrue, like momentum and flow and
like feeling like it'shappening.
Whereas if you're sitting thereand you're just like trying to
grind it out because this is howyou think it's supposed to be.
No wonder there's a stagnation.
Cause you're, you're stagnant.
(39:19):
You don't even enjoy what you'redoing.
No one's going to enjoy yourcontent more than you.
No one's going to enjoy yourwork more than you.
No one's going to be a biggerfan of you than you are.
Like I just truly believe andhave experienced firsthand,
particularly in the past year,that I Want to do things in
(39:43):
business that I enjoy.
And if I'm not enjoying it,that's worth looking into.
Maybe that means I need todelegate it.
Maybe that means you need tochange the way I do it.
Maybe that means you need tochange the strategy.
Maybe that just means I need tochange the way I'm thinking
about it.
Right?
Like again, you know, filingyour taxes isn't fun, but we
have to do it.
(40:03):
Right.
So I'm not trying to be naiveabout it, but I truly believe
that you should be running yourbusiness in a way that plays
into your strengths.
And therefore, Is enjoyable andis fun.
And that when you take action onthe big things that move your
business forward, you enjoy it.
Maybe leading up to it, you'renot enjoying it.
(40:24):
Right.
But like once you're in themidst of a podcast episode.
You're in it.
You're vibing.
It's fun.
You're in it with a client.
You're loving it.
It's fun.
You walk away feeling fulfilledand excited and lit up and, and
maybe talking about the thingsthat light you up is a better
way to describe this and havingfun.
(40:45):
But I really think the more youcan tap into what lights you up
and the more you can spend timedoing things that light you up
and choose to build yourbusiness strategy around the
things that light you up, Thebetter, the easier, the more
momentum.
So those are kind of the biglessons I've learned since
(41:07):
coming back from my sabbatical.
As far as where things are nowgoing forward, the end of June,
as I'm recording this, I'm aboutto go on maternity leave for
baby three.
I am just doubling down oneverything we talked about.
I'm doubling down on coaching.
And individual programs.
So my active energy is going tobe spent towards coaching my
(41:31):
high level clients, but I'malso.
I love to teach.
So also continuing to createindividual programs that, um,
maybe they're taught live, buteventually are like on demand
programs and trainings.
So that I have both, but that ona regular basis, my energy is
being spent actively coaching myclients.
I'm also working on my passivesales machine and need a better
(41:57):
name for that.
But basically, wow, I'm going tobe actively coaching and
running, you know, My coachingprograms with my coaching
clients.
I also still want to have kindof what I'm considering this
like passive sales machinerunning behind the scenes so
that the content I create leadsto sales of these on demand
(42:18):
individual programs.
And then the people who want tostep up into coaching with me
have the opportunity as well,but really.
Viewing it as, um, I don't haveto choose.
I think when the, when I firstgot pregnant this time around, I
felt like I needed to go all inon the passive course direction.
And now I'm just feeling sogrounded and solid and like
(42:39):
doing both.
Like I'm going to have on demandprograms that people can buy at
any time that my content canlead to and also put my active
energy towards my coachingclients.
And that's feeling so good.
So good.
And I want to go ahead and dropa little tease here.
But I am planning on launching amastermind.
(42:59):
I'm planning on doing that thisfall or winter.
We'll see.
I'm always going to be feelingit out as I get closer, but I
very much love, love, lovehaving a mastermind space.
We're talking like five, 10people, really intimate, really,
really high level coaching.
If that's something you'reinterested in, absolutely like,
let's start talking about itbecause this is going to be
(43:20):
something that I'm, um, probablygoing to be like, you know, it's
not gonna be like a big launch,probably it'll probably be
something that just like theright people come into.
We'll see.
But that is something I'm very,very excited to be bringing back
after this maternity leave laterthis year, kind of curating this
like really incredible truemastermind space.
(43:41):
But that's where things aregoing.
I mean, just continuing to justapply the lessons.
I know when I come back from mymaternity leave.
Being a mom of three, life'sgoing to look a little
different, but I'm very excitedfor that season of life.
I'm very excited to apply thelessons I just shared with you
in that season as well.
And, um, be sharing more and Iwill be doing a separate podcast
(44:04):
episode all about kind of anupdate on maternity leave prep,
uh, that will go out in a coupleof weeks most likely.
But.
I hope that it was helpful tohear kind of this reflection on
the past year and the biggestlessons I've learned since
coming back from my sabbatical.
If it was, I would love to hearfrom you.
Please send me a DM on Instagramat simplify with Megan.
I would love for you to sharethis and tag me on Instagram
(44:26):
stories or whatever platformyou're hanging out on.
If you have like a big ahamoment or a favorite part, like
any feedback like that would beso meaningful.
Of course it would also be sovaluable and It's truly helpful
if you left a rating and areview on whatever platform
you're listening on just thatthe news can spread this podcast
and that more people can see andhear about it for the first
(44:48):
time.
So thank you so much forlistening and I'll see you in
the next episode.
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