Introduction
Welcome back to the Entrepreneur Mindset Podcast. I am thrilled that you’re here with me today, and I am going to shift things a little bit from what you probably expected when you signed in today. If you’ve been listening along with the Entrepreneur Mindset Podcast for the last few weeks, we have been talking all about course creation in the system that I use with my one-on-one clients to help them create their courses.
But today, after a week of illness in our family, mine, my own illness included, I wanted to kind of pause here because one of the things that often comes up when I’m working with clients is well-being. It is the concept of needing to take a break, needing to take breaks, not not singular, but plural throughout our business process as we’re building,
as we’re creating, because those breaks really can make or break our success, our profitability, and our willingness to keep going when times are tough in our business. So today is all about pausing when you need to.
Take a Break
I told you that our whole family has kind of been sick the last week or so, and it made us all stop. In fact, I spent a solid four days on the couch. I didn’t move a whole lot. We cooked minimally, we did what we had to do, but we didn’t do anything fancy. We didn’t run errands, we did not do much of anything other than sleep and rest and hydrate lots of water.
But it’s a reminder that when we’re in the middle of things, our body has a way of telling us when we need to slow down and when we get overtired, we are much more susceptible to illness. And if we kind of plow through it, we’re not going to get better as quickly.
So I’m telling you, after about four days on the couch sleeping, the majority of that time, I feel a whole lot better. My voice is still coming back to me, which you can probably tell, but on the whole, I have a lot more energy and it has been an easier recovery because I took time to rest.
Now, this means that I stepped away from my business and most of you know I work with clients one-on-one. So what did that mean? Well, it meant rescheduling podcast guests that had said they wanted to be on my podcast we had scheduled for this week. I said, you know what guys? I’m so sorry, but we’re going to have to reschedule. I want to be able to do justice to your wisdom, and I can’t do that while I’m sick, so please reschedule. Without question, every single one of them did it and said, I hope you feel better.
I reached out to my one-on-one clients and I said, guys, I’m sick. I’m going to get back to you, but it’s going to be a day or two. So I just appreciate your patience. And without fail, every single one of my one-on-one clients said, go get rest. That stinks. Just go rest. We’ll be okay. And they all said, you know, you’re more important. Go take the time you need.
A lot of times we build these stories in our heads that we can’t stop. We own a business, we’re entrepreneurs. If we don’t show up, we don’t get paid. No one’s going to understand. The fact of the matter is, everyone, 99% of everyone, understands when you say, I’m not feeling well, I need a day off. Or a couple of days in my case, I said, you know what, I’m kind of just laying on the couch here right now, guys, I’m sorry. And they said, don’t apologize.
I just want you to really think as we head into this holiday season, as into a busy season of life, probably to take time to rest and not to be so driven by your to-do list or by someone else’s to-do list that you neglect what you need, whether it’s getting a good night’s rest, whether it is taking time to actually go for a walk around your neighborhood so that you don’t feel like you’re stuck in your chair all day. I had a colleague one time who said, who called it chair but, and so you don’t want your bottom to feel like it’s molded to the chair. If it’s time that you need to just be creative and not respond to anyone, just put it out there.
You know, people take social media breaks all the time. Big names take social media breaks. They say, all right, so I’ll be back in a week. And you know what? We’re fine. We’re fine without those social media influencers for a week. And they go, they rejuvenate. They get their creative juices back flowing.
They are able to take care of their health and well-being. And what happens as a result is they actually catapult their businesses forward. So as an entrepreneur, especially if you’re getting started, especially if you’re building a course and you feel like all of this is so big and you’ve got to move faster, I want you to remember that you’re going to move faster by slowing down sometimes, and I say this all the time, slow down to speed up, slow down to get the details right in your course so that when you go to sell it, it’s got all of the stuff that you need. You have already created everything. It’s easy to share it with the world and for people to say yes, but you put in the time you slowed down on the front end.
Same goes with your health and well-being. Slow down, take a day off, take a week off, whether that is laying on the couch like I did and catching up on sleep because I was sick, or taking it to be with your family, going on a few family hikes, or maybe doing a ropes course or something fun, or Just even, you know, cleaning out some clutter in your house. If you just slow down a little bit and enjoy what you’ve got around you and who you have around you, you’re going to actually speed up.
What happens is you end up being so much more creative, you are able to come up with solutions to problems that have been racking you and racking your brain forever. You come up with those solutions quickly.
Let me give you an example of how I slowed down recently to speed up. So I am in a membership that is all about social media. And the owner of the membership, Jerry Potter, told us a couple months back, he goes, I see that several of you are having trouble with consistency so I’m going to open up the consistency cup challenge. And it was fantastic because for someone like me, being able to check off at the end of the week that I had done what I said I was going to do on social media is all the motivation I need to get it done.
And as we moved through the challenge, all 12 weeks of it being consistent, he gave us little prizes along the way, including this cup. If you’re watching this on YouTube, you can see the cup says, I am consistently awesome. The other side says, five minute social media, that’s Jerry Potter’s business, which I will link in the show notes.
But why am I telling you this? Because at the end of the 12 weeks when I didn’t have to click on the calendar link or the email that said, did you do what you said you were going to do? When that didn’t happen, I didn’t post that week and I was feeling a little bit guilty. I had been posting between five and seven times a week for 12 weeks. It was going beautifully. I could actually see changes in my data for social media. I was gaining clarity in my message. I had actually shifted my offer through that because I realized exactly where I wanted to be, what I wanted to be doing. And so I made some adjustments and we got to the end of the 12 weeks, I was hyped. I was like, great, I can keep going.
And then I just didn’t, that 13th week, I think I posted once, not five to seven like I had been doing for 12 weeks, and it kind of ate at me a little bit. I confessed it to Jerry. I told him that I hadn’t been consistent in the 13th week because I didn’t have to click an email that said I had done it. And we talked a little bit about it, but I realized what happened was I needed a break.
I needed to slow down. I was creating lots of quality content, I was doing lots of reels. So it wasn’t just a quick post with a picture, it was a video content with captions, with reels, you know, with the description, all of that stuff. So I took a break and I said, you know what? It’s okay.
The 13th week, so I didn’t post much, and I got into the 14th week and I still didn’t post a whole lot, but I posted a little bit more. And then I sat down at the breakfast table probably about halfway through week 14, and I brainstormed in the matter of five minutes, 14 reels complete with like fleshed out ideas.
I slowed down to speed up. So those 14 reels, if I post one a day, that’s two solid weeks of content, created in five minutes. Then, because I knew exactly what I wanted to talk about in each of those reels, I recorded every single one of those reels in one take. And we know a reel caps out at 90 seconds, so you can do the math. It didn’t take me all that long to create 14 days of content that I knew was going to be perfectly aligned with my audience, with my message, with my offer that I knew it was going to work. I just need to put it out there.
And so slow down to speed up, whether it’s giving yourself a break from social media, letting your clients know that you need to take a little bit of a breather. That’s okay. You know what, if they’re not okay with you stepping away for a day or two, then start to evaluate your offer and who you’re bringing into your offer. Because we want people that support us. We want clients who actually support us and care about us as a human being, as well as for all of our knowledge and wisdom that we share with them. And so I just want you, I want you to take time.
I want you to take time, slow down. Ultimately, it will help you to speed up, but I want you to slow down just for slow down’s sake, okay? Because the benefits of slowing down far outweigh the potential challenges that might pop up.
Yes, the algorithm may not boost my posts as much because I wasn’t consistent for that little week and a half there, but it will pick back up. And now I know I can be consistent for 12 weeks without needing a break. I can get better at at creating my content and putting it out there so that maybe the next time I don’t need a break for 14 weeks, because I’ve really honed in on how to do this effectively and efficiently and consistently, right?
Action Item
My action item for you this week is not to go write more course objectives. It’s not to go validate your course idea. It is not to dig into what course platform you should use or how to record your videos or how to script them, or what teleprompter exists out there.
My action item for you this week is to choose something that you can slow down on. Choose something to slow down one, maybe it is saying, you know what? Family, instead of cooking seven dinners this week, I’m going to cook four and we’re going to have leftovers for the other three. Maybe it is saying, I’m going to turn my computer off by 3:00 PM every day, and I’m going to use the rest of the time that day to connect with my family, to connect with my friends, to do some hobby, pick up some, some kind of hobby that you enjoy and and actually spend some time on it and get to bed on time. Maybe it is telling your clients, guys, I’m going to pop off the radar for a week. What do you need from me before I do that? And then as soon as I get back, I’ll jump right back in. Okay? So take care of your clients before you pop out for a week.
Let them know what you’re doing, why you’re doing it. You are rejuvenating yourself, you are setting a good example for them. And then just do it.
Find something you can slow down on this week, because you know I’m going to be back here next week with more information on building your course. The systems that I use with my one-on-one clients I’m going to go through. I’m going to keep going through all of that, but I think this is a really nice time to remind you to actually slow down, slow down, because you will be able to speed up.
Conclusions
Let’s quickly recap before we end today’s podcast. First of all, I have a mug and I’m super proud of it, that says, I am consistently awesome from Jerry Potter. Consistency is key in business. However, slowing down sometimes is also just as critical to the success of your business. Don’t wait for illness to take you down and put you on the couch for four days.
Do it now while you’re healthy. Get some rest, hydrate, lots. Let your clients know that you’re gonna take care of yourself. And they should appreciate that because when you take care of yourself, you can take better care of them and just be okay with the concept of slowing down every once in a while, knowing that it almost always results in a burst of activity, creativity, enthusiasm, energy, and just a re-invigoration of your passion for what it is you’re doing in your business. Okay?
So this week, slow down, find a way to slow down, and if you’re thinking, but next week is technically Thanksgiving, and I plan to slow down. Do you really? Because usually when we hit Thanksgiving, we have more family and friends things to do.
We have more cooking to do, we might be juggling schedules a little bit more hectically. So this is a great week, the week before Thanksgiving to find a way To slow down so that you’re ready for next week, so that you have the energy to do all of the things that you want to do when you are with your family and your friends.
I’ll see you back here next week for another episode of the Entrepreneur Mindset Podcast, where we focus on mentoring, community and implementation. It’s all about taking action so that we can remove the overwhelm of building a successful and profitable business and add in a little dose of momentum.
Until next time, have a healthy, safe, and happy week.
Show Resources:
- Connect with Jerry Potter: https://dailysocialmediatips.com
- Apply to Work with Dr. Moira: https://www.digitalcoursecreatorguide.com/apply/
- Check out all podcast episodes at: https://www.digitalcoursecreatorguide.com/digital-course-creator-podcast/
Follow me on Facebook and Instagram for daily tips and ideas:
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DigitalCourseCreatorGuide
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