And created more space for my life in the process
It’s officially that time at the tail end of summer when, on cue, our family calendar is beginning to fill up and things get busy with all of the moving pieces that come with preparing for the kick off of the school year and me transitioning back into work.
With all of that said, I’m feeling prepared – not because things aren’t as “full” as they normally are, but because moments like these have become a powerful opportunity for me to reflect on just how much I’ve done to simplify and streamline my life and business over the last few years.
Around mid-2022, I set out to completely simplify my business.
Years past had felt overwhelming. Not because things were bad – I was actually having my biggest year in business hitting my first multiple six figure months – but because I just had this ongoing feeling of being spread thin and pulled in a million different places.
My capacity was maxed out and in the sea of things that required my time and attention, my needs often fell by the wayside, so I decided to do something about it.
I was no longer available for my business to be run on my energy anymore.
I didn’t want to reinvent the wheel, and I wanted to call back my attention and focus for myself and my life offline, while setting the business up to grow in a different way.
And I wanted to really prioritize me and what I need amidst the different hats I wear.
I’ve been reflecting a lot since coming back on the practical shifts and changes I’ve used to usher in more simplicity and a sense of groundedness since then, and these are just some of the practical steps that instantly spring to mind.
Let’s start with business:
HIRING
So this is fairly new but one of the biggest mistakes I made when hiring in the past is to delegate the things I’m really good at or delegate fundamental strategic parts of the business.
This was a mistake because it leads you to massively overspend in areas where you actually make the biggest contribution and can get the biggest ROI on your time.
Our salaries are often our company’s biggest expense so we want to make sure we are safeguarding the needle drivers for ourselves and making that salary investment make sense.
What doesn’t make sense is paying someone else a really high fee to do something you can do within the hours you’re working.
So one of the ways I’ve massively simplified our business, grown our profits and reduced the amount of management I have to do is by take a down-up approach to hiring
I delegate low cost and lower impact tasks that need to be done but don’t need to be done by me so I’m freed to only work on big revenue drivers like marketing and sales.
And delegation doesn’t just mean team. Like I shared in a recent issue, it’s also about tools and automation and that’s in life and business. Anywhere where I can claim time back at a low cost per hour, I start there. The goal is to buy my time back profitably rather than delegating the areas that I add immense value to the company. I focus a lot more now on how much more revenue is made per hour that’s delegated out and it’s been revolutionary.
MY BIG ONE
I know people swear by having a list of three top things to work on every day but I swear by having one top priority.
I think we all tend to lean towards setting ambitious projects to achieve in a day because it gives us a sense of traction, but that doesn’t mean much if we’re struggling to complete those things – or do them well – every day.
So I’ve really focused on thinking about one project that I can complete and create a tangible result for that day.
Because that’s the other thing, we want to focus on daily result-work rather than busy work and that’s why focusing on projects to complete is super important.
That becomes so much more likely when I have one core thing on my plate that I can then see all the way through.
Incremental daily traction compounds and creates self-trust whereas overloading yourself with unrealistic optimism actually erodes it.
And it also makes it easy to assess the success of the day and finish when the project is done – and you likely still have energy in the tank – versus pushing yourself and then constantly needing breaks to replenish.
STEPPING AWAY FROM SOCIAL MEDIA
I cannot tell you how much creativity and strategic thinking gets freed up when you’re not spending so much of your mental capacity thinking about creating content for social media.
For those of you new here, you may not know that I’ve shown up consistently on Instagram for the past decade but this year was the year that I gave myself permission to take an extended hiatus and focus on more long-term sustainable strategies that have a longer shelf-life and ROI.
I honestly believe that in the future, we’ll look back and truly struggle to understand why we all felt that it was normal to create free content for someone else’s business.
Because that’s what we’re doing when we’re spending the lion share of our time creating content on social media hoping to make sales.
We’re doing the free work of keeping people engaged on a platform, so they can make more money from advertisers.
I now have so much time to work on things that serve the business now and later; and use the rest of my time just living my life without feeling the urge to pick up my camera and share it.
FUNNELS, FUNNELS, FUNNELS
The lion share of my time has been dedicated to working on really thoughtful funnels that craft that intentional customer journey that lead people through our offers and towards my signature program, Life-First Business.
The magic is that I get to provide value and cultivate a pathway via email that I wouldn’t be able to do via social media, and create predictable results that are based on data and math, rather than vibes and my energy. I’m able to pour time and energy once and leverage it over and over again.
Okay, now let’s talk life…
DECLUTTERING
If past years were about decluttering my business, this year has been about decluttering my home.
When we were in the thick of our apartment move in June, one of my girlfriends said that the move was creating an opportunity for a massive life audit to create space for an uplevel and more of what I’ve been trying to call in, and she was so right.
My mental state is very much impacted by my environment, and as I’ve let things go, I’ve realized just how much of an impact it has on my stress levels, which I’m really cognizant of, since getting on an SSRI to manage my anxiety.
Now my kids are a little older and our routines and rhythms aren’t shifting as rapidly as they used to, I made a point to look around and see what was no longer serving us and organized everything into things to give to friends, things to donate or sell, and stuff to get rid of.
It just allowed us to move into this new space with a blank space to be really intentional from.
Instead of rushing to replace things, I’m taking my time and also rewiring the need to have tons of stuff filling our space.
Habits wise, I have a basket in the entry that I fill with things we don’t need, have outgrown or that we don’t use or wear often. If by the end of the month I haven’t thought about it, everything gets donated or sold.
Having less stuff just makes my life feel easier and more straight forward. And especially having littles, they’re more inclined to help out when there’s less stuff for them to put away, too.
WINDOW DOWN ROUTINE
I have my morning routine down pact, but I’ve always struggled with the evenings – both the transition from work mode to family mode, but also winding down after the kids go down (cue the revenue bedtime procrastination).
So you know how luxury hotels have turndown service in the evenings to help you wind down for bed? Well, I’ve started doing that at home to signal these different transitions.
On a normal work day, I wrap up at around 4pm ish but before I do, I’ll look at my calendar for the next day, pop into Slack to close any loops with team members, journal anything out that I need to make decisions on, and review my top priority for the next day.
It signals to my mind that everything is being handled and that I know what’s going on, so that I don’t need to keep problem solving or mulling over things once the workday is over.
From there, I will leave time to go for a walk, hang out in the park or just have solo chilled time before pickup. Once they’re home, we play, chill, have dinner, do the nighttime bath and reading routine and then I transition into my time. I turn the lights down low, put on a diffuser blend, draw the curtains and set the environment for a restful evening. Mike and I will then hang out for a bit and maybe watch a show, I’ll have a shower, do my skincare slowly, and then be in bed by 9ish with some fiction.
It’s been game changing in helping me relax and down-regulate from the work day and is just a small but powerful way of showing myself that I matter.
FAMILY-FOCUSED FAMILY
It’s easy to get overwhelmed when you’re shuffling your kids between a hundred and one playdates, extracurriculars and events. So the way I’ve simplified is by adopting what Brene Brown calls a family-focused family (catch this clip of her breaking it down here).
All that means is making decisions about what gets on the schedule based on the wellbeing of the entire family, rather than just one individual.
If going to gymnastics multiple times a week for one kid doesn’t work for the family as a whole, then you shift, scale back and readjust.
She also talks about getting into the practice of plugging in with your spouse daily about what percentage of capacity you have, over-communicating about what you need and when you simply haven’t got it so the other one can take over.
I’m someone who can easily fall into martyrdom so this has been a big area of growth for me.
SCHEDULING DOWNTIME, SELF-CARE AND CONNECTION
What doesn’t get scheduled, doesn’t happen. So first, I used the core motivators exercise that I teach my students in LFB to get really clear on what I need to feel like “me” and the various areas that I want to pour into.
Then I break those into daily and weekly habits to safeguard and schedule in.
Things like a solo morning walk and quiet tie before my kids get up.
Recurring monthly dates with friends.
Date nights with Michael, or at least designated us time after the kids go down.
My weekly artist dates (if you’re interested in learning more, read The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron).
Pockets on the weekend to roam around, attend a Pilates class, browse a few shops or visit my favorite bookstore.
And also things like therapy, my spiritual practice and marriage counseling.
I also try and layer connection time into things I’d ordinarily be doing.
Going grocery shopping turns into a date with a girlfriend where we do it – and all of our other errands – together.
Weeknight dinners become an opportunity to invite friends over and have a low-stress evening, hanging out over a meal, while our kids play.
There’s so many more things I can speak to, but these are some of the ones that, while simple, have made a lasting impact each day.
My hope is that at least one of them resonates and encourages you to take a step in simplifying and putting your needs first.
Remember, you don’t have to have a complete life 180 to make meaningful progress. Just a few habits, repeated over time can move the needle for your baseline level of happiness and flow each day, so don’t underestimate small, incremental shifts.
Those were some of mine, but I would love to hear yours.
What’s been helping you streamline, simplify and feel more grounded in life and business?
