#96 - Big Life Changes, Small Business Shifts

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SUMMARY

When big life changes come along—like, say, getting a new puppy—our business rhythm often needs to shift too. In this warm and reflective episode, I talk about how I’m preparing for a new season that will require more flexibility and care.

I share what went into the decision to welcome a Finnish Lapphund puppy into our home, and how I’ve been mentally and practically adjusting my business in advance. From revisiting my priorities to simplifying email strategies, I’m choosing sustainability over hustle, and presence over perfection. This episode is the beginning of a new podcast series that I’ll be recording in advance so I can step back this summer, while still showing up for my community and clients with intention.

It’s a gentle reminder that you can run a business in alignment with your life, not in competition with it.

FULL SHOW-NOTES WITH TAKEAWAYS + LINKS

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BEST QUOTE FROM THE EPISODE

“Not growing is not the same as shrinking. Keeping things status quo is fine—although very hard for me, I have to admit.”

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey there and welcome back to the Pattern Shift
podcast.
My name is Saskia and today'sepisode is a little different,
more personal, more behind thescenes and hopefully really
useful if you're also navigatingbig life shifts when running a
small business.
So big news from our family weare welcoming a baby into our

(00:24):
house.
Hey there and welcome toPattern Shift, the podcast where
creative business owners likeyou learn to build a business
that's inspiring, fun andsustainable.
I'm Saskia de Feijder, abusiness strategist, guide maker
and all-round creativeentrepreneur.
I help business owners in theneedle and fiber craft world,

(00:47):
just like you, navigate allthose icky words, branding,
marketing and strategy in a waythat actually works for your
creative brain.
Here we talk about everythingfrom running a values-driven
business to simplifying yourmarketing without burning out.
Whether you're just startingout or looking to refine your

(01:08):
business, you're in the rightplace.
So settle in, grab a cup of tea, coffee or, you know,
broekladig you do, you, andlet's get started.
A dog, baby we're getting apuppy.
Yes, a furry, floppy, sharptoothed little life bomb is
about to explode into ourhousehold and in this episode I

(01:32):
want to share not just the what,but also the how how I'm
adapting my business to meetthis new reality, what I've
changed, what I've let go of,the mindset shifts that helped
me make space, and how makingthis podcast series is actually
part of the solutions.
Let's get into it.

(01:53):
The puppy prep Okay, so thedecision wasn't made lightly.
We've talked about this foryears and over the past few
months we started doing somereal research, which is a nice
way of saying.
We borrowed a friend's puppyand tested our sanity levels.
We dog sat for a few hoursfirst, then a whole day, then a

(02:16):
week.
We watched training videos,read everything we could, and I
did a lot of soul searching,because, the truth is, I'll be
the one looking after the pupduring the day.
I work from home and I knewthat if I was going to do this,
I needed to be all in noresentment, no, what have I done

(02:39):
?
Moments.
And as my friend wasexperiencing the puppy blues in
that face where they just can'tseem to let go of your ankles,
she was in tears and at thatmoment, had such a sad for her
good for me opportunity to findout that this is part of it.

(03:02):
And am I ready for that?
The puppy blues, which is amoment where you're taking care
of your puppy and you'rethinking I am just going to give
it to the next person that says, oh, how cute.
Eventually it all clicked intoplace and I had a full body.
Yes, also, for those of you whoare wondering, we are getting a

(03:26):
Finnish laphund, a Lappi.
Google it and prepare to melt.
They shed like crazy a coupleof times a year but are
otherwise very low maintenancecoat-wise.
They are clever, gentle, fullof character.
They are clever, gentle, fullof character and, honestly, just
big, fluffy, tiny bears.

(03:47):
I'm so excited.
Okay, then there's the wholemindset shift.
This is where the businesscomes in, because getting a
puppy means my time, energy,focus.
All of that is about to shiftdramatically and instead of
panicking or trying to pushthrough and do it all, I decided

(04:08):
to do what I help otherbusiness owners do all the time
adapt with intention.
I reminded myself of mystrengths.
I've done a strength test inthe past couple of years and,
funnily enough, my biggestlearned strength is work ethic
and my top unrealized strength,adaptability, which means I can

(04:30):
pivot and reimagine how thingswork if I let myself.
This doesn't have to be asetback.
It can be a creative constraint.
It can even be a gift, becauseconstraint is the mother of
creativity.
As you have less to work with,you have to be more creative,

(04:53):
and that's where I feel my bestself, when I can be creative,
problem solving and just tryingto make things more efficient in
fun ways.
I needed to get clear on whatreally matters in this new
season.
What are my constraints?
What do I value?
What are my non-negotiables,any boundaries?

(05:16):
This is actually a key part ofwhat we do in the Business
Circle program too, so it waskind of easy for me to revisit.
So here's what rose to the top.
One I care for myself first, soI can be present for the puppy,
my family and my clients.
Two, I honor my commitments,especially the people who are

(05:37):
already working with me.
Three, I'm staying visible, notto grow, but to stay connected
with those that are already inmy smaller or wider community.
That meant letting go of thepressure to do more or to be
everywhere and focusing onwhat's most essential.

(06:00):
I talked about that before andif you're on my list, you
probably noticed something.
Hopefully, something hopefully.
I then restructured how I sendupdates.
Now it's a monthly newsletterplus new podcast episodes alerts
whenever a podcast episodecomes out.
I'm also batch recordingpodcast episodes in advance.

(06:21):
This one is the first.
I'm actually creating a newpodcast series that ties in with
my business framework.
It's designed to help peoplewalk through the key stages of
building a business that fitsyour life.
That's what you'll be hearingover the next few episodes and
it means I can step back thissummer and not worry about being

(06:44):
constantly on.
Client calls will continue asusual.
Those are my priority, and I'vescheduled weekly prompts and
questions in the Evol communityso that space stays active and
supportive, even while I'm inpuppy mode.
Of course I won't be able to notbe in the community because

(07:06):
it's my cozy little fibervillage and I just I'm there all
the time.
So I will not not be there Justbecause I have a plan.
It doesn't mean that I don'thave worries.
Of course I do.
What if people forget about me?
What if I fall behind?
What if everything just kind ofdisappears?

(07:28):
Business always needs to grow.
That's the life blood of abusiness growth.
But then I also realizedstaying visible in small,
consistent ways is enough.
It's enough for now.
Not growing is not the same asshrinking.
Keeping things status quo isfine, although very hard for me,

(07:50):
I have to admit.
I also know that this season isgoing to be temporary.
It's not going to be like thisforever.
The goal right now is not togrow, it's to maintain, to stay
grounded, to care for myself andmy people and doggos and
chickens and cats and to be okaywith enough.

(08:12):
And you know what?
I'm so excited because thispuppy feels like a sort of a
whole new chapter for our familyand for my business, and I full
well know that I do a lot ofchanges in my business, but this
is not going to be somethingthat people on the outside will

(08:34):
notice much.
It's more for me.
So in this plan I make surethat my part of everything is
different, but on your sidethings will stay the same, at
least for now.
I'm also right in the middle ofcoach training.
I am refining my offers.

(08:54):
I want to be the best supportprofessional that I can be, and
so I felt coaching needed to bepart of that.
And as coaching already getskind of a bad rap, I was not
going to do it without gettingactual accreditation.
So I have to put in a lot ofhours and I have to train a lot

(09:18):
in order to become a good coach.
I've never felt more confidentabout what I don't need to do.
As I grow as a person, mybusiness grows with me.
I learn what's important, andchanging your business is a very
normal thing, basically what'salways going on, and so working

(09:43):
with it instead of against it isone of the best things that you
can do, and this way I also getto keep showing up for my
community in ways that feeljoyful and sustainable, which is
the whole core of what I'mtrying to teach other business
owners, and I get to snuggle thepuppy.

(10:06):
Have you Googled already?
If not, just if you need topause, or you probably don't
need to, you can still listen tome.
Just Google Finnish Lapphuntit's, it's yummy, so lots of
cuteness, aggression.
Anyway, back to the episode.
So just wanted to say it'squite of a short episodes, and

(10:27):
the next episodes might also bequite short, because I do have
to fit in all of these newepisodes in a few days.
I'm bulk recording, so theywill be a little bit shorter,
but I'm also trying to not yaptoo much.
So I am writing scripts inorder to get to the point, which

(10:51):
might take away some of thechaos that you're used to.
I'm taking you with me to letyou know how I do this whole
process.
So I come up with an idea, thenI use the power of artificial
intelligence.
Sorry, gotta, I'm just oneperson, I can't do it all.

(11:13):
I try to use it with a lot ofintegrity.
I've tried different things outand sometimes I felt like it
wasn't me.
So now I found a balance.
And where I need support withnot talking, I can do the
talking Also.
Not writing I can write.
What I need support with is toget some of the yapping out and

(11:40):
some clarity in.
So I kind of designed a wholeprocess that, yeah, helps me to
organize my thoughts.
So what I do is I think of atopic, then I get the help of AI
to get some points out.

(12:01):
Then I write, just as I wouldwrite with my words, a whole
blog post on the topic.
It then ends up way too longand with extras and things
double, and so I ask AI to kindof clean it up a little, but

(12:22):
keep my voice, and so it's stillmy voice.
Then I get the blog post backand with that we are working on
a script for the podcast episode.
So I say listen, this is thepodcast, and I'm always polite
because I've learned.

(12:42):
The way you talk to the AI ishow you train it to talk back.
So I talk in a certain tone ofvoice because it's not somebody,
it's not a body, it's not athing that thinks, it's just
combining different things thatmatch what you want.

(13:02):
So I want a certain tone ofvoice and I have built on top of
that.
So then we make the script andI've got the script in front of
me and then I read the script.
But I also freestyle and thatkind of results in what you're

(13:23):
listening to right now.
But if I freestyle, everythingis really long and probably a
little bit more funny.
I have to work on the sense ofhumor of my AI thing.
I tend to become more seriouswhen I'm typing than when I'm
speaking.
So, yeah, that's kind of how itworks.
Everything that you hear allcomes from my brain.

(13:45):
The text has been organized.
So it's basically like my house.
I designed the interior withall the colors and the fabrics
and the furniture and theknickknacks and everything.
The mess sometimes getsreorganized, decluttered and
cleaned, and the cleaning part Iasked somebody else to do.

(14:07):
So it's kind of the same thing.
It's still my house, still mydesign, still my taste, still my
vibe.
Hopefully, the same thing ishappening here, so that you know
what's going on, and I justwanted to be honest about that
and clear about that, becausethat's just how I do things.
So this is all about the processof my life changing, getting a

(14:35):
puppy, and I just want to say,if you're also navigating a big
change whether it's a move, ababy in the house, some
diagnosis, a shift in energy, aloss or anything I see you, we
are all living life.
Changes are about to happen,but you don't have to do

(14:58):
everything everywhere all atonce.
You don't have to disappeareither.
You can move forward with careand intention.
Stick around for the nextepisodes in this series.
Attention, stick around for thenext episodes in this series.
I'll be diving into the threeparts of my business framework
way find, organize and launch,which is w-o-l ball and I'll

(15:23):
show you how they can help youto create a business that fits
your actual life.
Thank you so much for listeningand I'll catch you in the next
episode.
Bye, thank you, thank you.