Work Life Balance for Online Business Owners... does it exist?

some clients don't have boundaries how do i deal tips on the mindset shift from one person show to agency any change in your daily routine have you found your entrepreneurship sweet spot how did you manage work-life balance when freelancing and working full-time hey everyone what's up and welcome back to the show i gotta get this out of the way first and foremost i don't normally make these little announcements but i know that my hair is doing some wild things today i don't know if i look like i'm 12 with this little braid and i can also guarantee you the braid is gonna fall out as i get talking so just please ignore that it is beautiful fall weather we're finally getting fall weather here but um it is so humid today i don't know what's going on so this is the best i can do okay okay with that said i wanted to record a little mindset productivity sort of q a today this is a topic i've been getting a lot of questions about recently and i actually based on the video that i just posted the my latest vlog a lot of you had feedback good bad ugly so i just kind of wanted to talk about some of these things about burnout all that and i thought what better way to do that than to see what you all were struggling with and how i might be able to help so let's hop in first question i thought was extremely appropriate for you know what's been going on in my life and it is how do you keep yourself from working 24 7. and i think the best answer to this question is really have things that you love to do have things that matter to you in your life that's not just work so maybe that's family maybe that's relationships maybe that's a hobby or an activity i just started taking this piano class a lot of you were asking like what is wait what are you doing in school it's just for fun it's just for fun i have no desire to be like a pianist or anything like that i just wanted to have an activity i really don't have a lot of hobbies like that don't involve making money somehow to be honest it's like every hobby i come up with ends up being a monetizable activity which i guess is a good thing to some extent but you need to have things that you just like to do for fun so have things like that also routines really really help i'm not the kind of person who wakes up every morning and like starts journaling and you know goes works out and stuff like that i wish i was that person i just i don't think that's ever gonna be me but i do have certain routines like i wake up and i always like to have you know 10 20 minutes maybe more like 20 30 minutes just to myself like drink my coffee by myself in silence with a candle or a book or maybe reading some news or a podcast or something like that just me time and then i like to spend you know 20 30 40 minutes with my husband before we leave go our separate ways for the day either really go our separate ways or go to separate areas of the apartment so having those routines kind of help your brain signal okay this is relaxing time this is family time and then this is work time and then same thing for the end of the day close your door to your office if you have a physical office if you're just working in your kitchen like i did for years close your laptop walk away go outside to signal the end of the day it's really important to have those sort of unplug at times and make them non-negotiable of course we're gonna have late nights sometimes that are really hard to avoid but as best as you can you know day to day try to have those routines some clients don't have boundaries how do i deal i don't know if this question is about like personal boundaries like they're asking inappropriate questions or if it's probably more related to time workload stuff like that i'm gonna guess it's the latter in which case i would definitely recommend having a good onboarding process looking at your onboarding process and making sure that it's really clear and what your expectations are with that i mean making sure that the scope of your project is outlined really nicely you know that they know exactly what they're getting for what they're paying that you detail your communication preferences and requirements frankly you know what's the email they reach out to if they're having an account issue if they get locked out of their account if they don't like something that goes up like what is the process for that because if you don't give them a process they will overstop i mean that's just how humans work and i try not to make it this like us against them thing because it's just how we all work right like until someone tells us not to do something you think of a kid they're going to touch that hot stove until you tell them not to do it so i don't want to talk about clients like their children but you kind of have to teach them what is appropriate you know for your working situation so if you don't give them any expectations they're just going to call you the second they have something going on so it's important for you to do that as far as boundaries with like workload i will leave a link to a youtube video i did it's a youtube short so it's like a one minute clip it really is my answer to scope creep i think that will help you hopefully tips on the mindset shift from one person show to agency any change in your daily routine huge changes this is something i don't want to say i'm struggling with because i love it i love working with the team i love my team they're all amazing and capable and you know always there for me but yeah it is kind of hard because you have to go from being the doer you know you're doing everything you're hustling super hard you're doing all the things being maybe a jack or jane of all trades to your being the delegator you are being the leader you are being the motivator that's really your job now my job is not to do all the things i really should not be even doing as much as i do in my business i still do a lot of hands-on stuff in my business and it's a lot of things it's me being kind of stubborn which i really need to work on with myself of like you need to give this to other people i have a thing where i feel like i don't want my team to think like i'm being lazy and i'm pushing all this stuff off to them because i don't want to work so i'll do things like oh that's quick i can just do it i can just do it i can just do it my video editor actually yeah love you girl brought this up to me in our last call she was like i noticed that you like pre-edit the video i'm like caught um guilty it's not that i don't think they're capable it's just like i'm like oh i can just help i can just be a little more helpful but really you need to think of it you are the ceo of the company you need to be saving and focusing your energy on the things that no one else can do no one else can sign the checks for me right i have to pay my people i have to make time to pay those invoices or no one else is going to get paid i have to come up with the ideas i come up with all these topic ideas i come up with all my course ideas on my lecture content i need to do that stuff no one else can do that for me and if i don't do those things nobody else can get paid to do the things that i'm trying to help them do you know so that's one way that i kind of think of it it's also about relinquishing creative control i mean i don't really have a big issue with that nowadays we'll talk a little bit about that another question asked about action and messy action but if you are somebody who's very meticulous with certain things that you do and processes that you have yeah you got to get used to like realizing 90 of what you did is still better than zero percent right if i can do two videos a week rather than one video a week on my own and even if the quality i mean i again i think my editor is amazing so i'm not talking about you specifically but if even if i were to say the quality is like 90 as good as when i do it myself i can still do two videos at 90 or one video at 100 right like you have to weigh that out the answer is usually going to be that it's better to still do two videos at a little bit under your standard which again my videos are amazing so i'm not talking about my editor have you found your entrepreneurship sweet spot this is a tough one because and i'm guessing they're meaning like work life balance wise i think no but i don't okay yes and no is my answer yes and no i think when we think about the term work-life balance we think of an antiquated view of it we think of work-life balance like a lot of maybe our parents worked they went to work nine to five and then they clocked out and then they were at family time five to nine ten whatever and then weekends were always about family and kids i don't know that that is the future of work at least for me and i also want to say when i talk about being burnt out like i did in my last vlog sometimes people you know i get all these like coaches and stuff like that in my dm's like oh my gosh latasha you need to do this don't tell me what to do number one with love i know that i could put out more self-paced courses and make a lot of money doing that and not have to live teach i know that i could put up zoom calls as videos or whatever you know i could i could do things halfway but that's not my style i like to be busy i like to have interaction with live students i like to be in the comments of youtube i'd like to check my dms well not really but i know whatever okay i digress so at the level of work that i enjoy doing i don't know that that monday through friday nine to five weekends off balance is realistic for me or even what i want what i want is to be able to prioritize things in my life and i think yes i have reached that level i'm at the level where if a friend calls me and they're having some type of crisis they broke up with their boyfriend or they you know are having a bad mental health day i can go meet him for coffee pretty much any time any day i don't really have any meetings that i am not in control of that i cannot move i teach two hours a week for the most part so as long as it's not those hours i can do it if my family wants to come visit for a weekend i can go hang out with them no questions asked i can take time off whenever i want if i want to go travel whenever i kind of start traveling again i can work from anywhere so that to me is balance that to me feels good somebody in the freelance friday club recently was talking about this and they said you know they're non-negotiable is their kids soccer games i think it was soccer or some type of sports game they will not miss one of those yeah i'm in the same place i think if i become a parent i'm going to have things like that where i don't want to miss my kids piano recitals dance recitals soccer games whatever but maybe i'm working then afterwards after dinner after we come home and celebrate their soccer game i'm going to work on the computer until 9 pm you know so i think it's about finding what balance is like for you is the moral of the story and yes i do think i'm at that place where i have enough flexibility and control over my schedule but it doesn't look like every evening i log off exactly at 5 00 pm and although most days i do i will say power of saying no oh good one i always say opportunity comes from saying yes power comes from saying no the first part you know yeah i said yes a lot when i was first starting out i'm like amazed that my hair is still in this braid i definitely thought it was going to fall out i probably jinxed it now but anyway yeah when i first started out i said yes to everything right i said yes to every speaking gig i was speaking for free i was doing work for like way affordable rates let's just put it nicely and then once you've kind of proven yourself once you've built your portfolio once you've proven to yourself that you can do it once you've proven to other people that you can do it and you start to build that demand and build that reputation then it's time to start saying no and driving up the value of your work that's what i think the power of saying no does for you and i know it sounds super cheesy and super cliche but whenever i've said no to something and had to walk away from something something better has like always come up seriously it might not be in that day in that month even but over time i'll be like okay there was a reason that didn't work out there was a reason maybe the company did something i don't agree with maybe they went out of business maybe i got a contract that was worth double what they were trying to offer me you know whatever the case may be seriously it always works out that way and at the very least you're able to prioritize some of your own things and i think it's really important for everybody to have some type of product that they own some type of ip or intellectual property whether that's a course whether that's a program whether that's a ebook whether that's something because you can always sell that even if the clients aren't there so you can always work on that while you're saying no to other things best tips to get going and take action you have to do stuff you have to take action for anything to change i have gotten really comfortable over the years with taking a messy action creating a first draft that's really important it's important to know that said i say this with love your first anything is probably going to suck my first video sucked my first podcast not that good my first blog post terrible my first client project honestly looking back kind of bad my first course not great updated it three times now i think to make it the quality that my students deserve you have to just start though if you don't start you can't improve how can you improve on something that hasn't been started and watch it back like watch your course watch your client call record your client calls watch them back to yourself record your discovery calls and keep them internally and watch them back and say i can do better at this next time i notice i am not making eye contact i noticed you know what i shouldn't have worn a hoodie on that discovery call i should have dressed up for the cajun you know whatever it is like your first one is going to give you material to improve upon that's how i take action is knowing that not every thing i create or do is going to be a masterpiece but it's going to give me an opportunity to improve how do you make sure you achieve your goals that seem impossible at times so you have to break your goals up into little baby chunks okay let's say that you know you're starting out you're making you know a full-time income at a corporate job you want to start a business and you want to have a business that earns you know a hundred thousand dollars right that coveted six figure year you need to break that up by first saying i need to replace my full-time job income i have this note on my phone somewhere that i wrote out my little goals and it was like on month one i want to do 75 percent of what i made up in corporate maybe it was like 50 month 2 i want to do 75 month 3 i want to be making what i make in corporate so you're giving yourself leniency i'm probably not going to replace my full-time income in one month that's just not realistic so that's the other part of it you have to have time goals associated to that too then from there you know okay now you've made your corporate income how do you get to that six-figure mark okay i just need to double the amount of contracts or raise my rates once or you know whatever that is break it up into little micro goals because yeah saying a big number like that when you're starting out from scratch is like so overwhelming and it does feel impossible but you can you can take on three clients you can get one client even further back you can get one discovery call it all starts from there i mean i know again it probably sounds cliche but you just gotta start like you know one is better than nothing one attempt is better than nothing and that's how you grow and that's how you um reach your goals truly how did you manage work-life balance in freelancing and working full-time so i've talked before on other podcasts and youtube videos about you know how i would actually manage my time i would take a lot of calls in the morning before i went to work with my european clients i would take calls with my clients on the west coast after work because of the time differences and things like that i would take calls on my lunch break sometimes um i've talked about that before but about the actual balance and like the mindset of it first it really comes down to choosing clients that you get excited about i'm not gonna say that that's not work because work is work like this i love doing this i mean this is so fun to me but it's still work like i'm hungry like i'm ready for a lunch break like i said i had to record this twice because my hair was doing like wild things it was wow so it's still work even though i love it but it makes it a whole lot easier if you're working with a client that you're super excited about it makes a lot easier and the thing is when you're working full-time your bills are covered right your full-time job is covering your bills covering your lifestyle your freelancing is really more about building your reputation building your portfolio building those relationships setting the foundations of your business so do that with intention i would say is number one number two i think having a no touch an untouchable day is so important i still have one i don't work most weekends but sometimes i do sometimes i film a video or you know whatever work on something but i always have one weekend day it's either saturday or sunday it depends on what's going on in my life that is not to be touched uh that is just for relaxing laying on the couch hanging out with my friends my family my husband whatever like you have to have that and it's especially important when you're working full time because working seven days a week with two jobs i've done it it's a it's a road to burnout i would say those are probably the big things the last thing about that is being really honest too being transparent with your clients for some reason i think we have this thing where we're like ashamed to admit that we still have a full-time job which i i've been there i felt the same way i don't know why but it's better for everybody involved if you're you're just honest and you say hey work during the day so i can either take calls you know at noon on my lunch break or we can meet up on my way home from work or you know whatever it prevents a lot of disappointment and it also prevents a lot of stress from you from your clients calling you in the middle of the day and you feeling like you have to hide things from your boss and like all these different things like just be honest and if they don't like that then you'll find somebody else you know abundance mindset right last question i want to answer what do you believe is the best strategy try to be as viral as possible or try to be as consistent honest and active as possible when i first read this question i thought the answer was really obvious i would say it's the latter but after thinking about it i think it my answer is it depends it depends on what stage in business you're at if you are building an audience you should actually be trying for virality if you will i don't really like that word but discoverable content creating content that is going to get a lot of eyes on it that is going to get you in front of a lot of people that can look different for everybody that could be a search friendly youtube video that could be speaking at a conference that could be doing a tick tock a trending tick talk right but once you start to develop that audience and build the audience then it's time to nurture them and create content on a consistent schedule that really provides them value and works them through that sales funnel i will say about this question you should always be honest i think that there is a way to do viral and to do attention grabbing while still being honest i mean i experiment with my youtube titles right of course if i'm talking about something sad i'm gonna put that in the youtube title because i know people are gonna click on it because they're curious but it doesn't mean that i'm not gonna actually talk about that or that i'm gonna like dramatize it no i'm just gonna bring up whatever happened in the video in a more entertaining way you know so there's ways to do it that are honest and seeking that virality if you will let's say attention grabbing but yeah you have to know where you're at in your funnel and what your goal is what you're trying to accomplish with those eyeballs on your content okay i think that's it for all the questions today but before we go i want to thank lance for partnering with me on today's audio podcast episode lance is the first smart business bank account for the self-employed over 60 million freelancers struggle to navigate their business banking and accounting because today's options still lack a clear financial structure and relevance to most one-person freelance businesses freelancers deductible expenses are often unclear payroll accounting differs depending on a lot of different factors you know business structure revenue all of that and freelancers often struggle to know how client payments should be allocated across salaries business expenses taxes and business profit lance is like a robo cfo or chief financial officer it puts all of your freelance business income on self-drive it helps you pay your taxes transfers a personal salary over to you tracks your expenses and even auto saves a portion of your revenue and hey i know there are a lot of neobanks out there but here's what makes lance different lance is the business account that puts your money on autopilot you set your stacks and watch your income get auto-allocated towards salary savings taxes and expenses just how you want it and if you get lance pro lance pays your taxes to the irs your salary to you and with lance checkout your clients can pay you directly using a credit card so i will leave a link down below for lance if you want to check them out having your business finances in order is quite important to keeping that healthy business mindset as well might i add because there really is no stress like financial stress in your business i'm telling you i mean maybe it's just me i don't think it is though but i know i never want to feel like i'm trying to scam the system i never want to feel like the irs is after me actually i just talked about this in last week's video about how you know i'm having some issues with my own salary and paying myself and it really does do a number on your mindset and your mental health when you're running a business so having the stuff in order is super super important so again i'll leave that link down below and in the show notes if you're listening on the audio platforms if you're watching on youtube just so you know you can subscribe on the audio platforms we're on spotify apple podcast and pretty much anywhere else and if you're listening subscribe to me on youtube i'm trying to get to 100k that's the goal i don't think it's gonna happen by the end of the year but maybe by uh march or so let's aim for that so you can find me on youtube latasha james just search that in the search bar and thank you all for tuning in i hope you have a great rest of your day hope you enjoyed the episode and i will talk to you next time bye [Music] [Music] you

2021-10-12 12:21

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