643. How to Thrive as a Product Boss Without Burning Out

Hi, I'm Jacqueline Snyder and this is the Product Boss podcast. I've helped launch and grow thousands of product based businesses, even one of my own. And over the last 20 years, I've seen behind the scenes of businesses just like yours. Whether they are makers, manufacturers, artists or food and beverage businesses. I have spent so many hours studying it all. I've discovered what makes them successful, what mistakes they could have avoided, how did they turn their ideas into successful business and what are the strategies that they have used to make more sales and be discovered better, more customers. And this is what this show is all about. Whether you're just starting out or you're looking to become a million dollar product boss, I'm here to give you the permission to chase your dreams, no matter how big or small. All you need is the right mindset, a little courage, strategy and support, and you too can be the next million dollar product boss. Let's do this. Hey, hey, Product Boss. Welcome back to another episode of the Product Boss podcast. I'm your host, Jaclyn Snyder and today we're diving into a topic that I'm pretty passionate about and it's something that I recently spoke on stage for my friend Sunera Madani of CEO School and also an actual unicorn who sold her fintech company for over a billion dollars. I mean, she is an incredible human and she asked me to speak on a stage for her and her seven and eight figure community. And so this was something that was supposed to be, it was supposed to be a 30 minute talk and we went for two hours. Two hours. So it's obviously I'm very passionate about it. Tanira was very passionate about it and the audience was as well. And so today what we're going to dive into is how to build a business without burning out. And what we're going to dig into is I want to challenge the myth of that work life balance and introduce you to the game changing concept that I created, which is called the blended life. So in this conversation with Sunira, a lot of people were asking her questions like, you know, what's your morning schedule? What does your work schedule look like? When do you take meetings? What does it look like when you get your kids? What do your weekends look like? You know, they were asking her all of these questions because she was flying to speak on where was she going to? She was going to the UN to speak and then to some celebrity filled party in la. And meanwhile she's building another fintech company and she's got her podcast, CEO School. So shout out to Sara over there, as well as Millionaire Founders Club. So she's doing a lot of things, and she sold her business, and she's a mama of two. So people were just obsessed with asking her, how do you do it? Right? How do you do it? And so while she dug into the way that she did it, I really was offering some tangible steps because as we're on that climb, right? As we're getting to where we want to go, a lot of times I think people will hold themselves back and they will not grow because they're afraid of the. What if. There's a lot of us that are afraid of, well, what if this doesn't work, Right? Like, I'm not sure if this is going to work. This business is going to work, but other people are like, what if this does work? What will my life look like? What will my personal life look like? What will happen to my job or my kids? Or what's going to happen if this does grow? So if you've had those thoughts, you're not alone in that. But what I want to talk about is that you can be. You can be like me that grew a multimillion dollar company while I was raising little kids, or Sanira, who built and sold a billion dollar company raising little kids or kids are pretty close in age. And we also are married and happy and spend a lot of time with our family and our friends, and we travel and we do the things. And so the here is like, all right, maybe it's not always balanced. In fact, I have my own opinion about that that I'm gonna get into. But what if it was a blend? Some days you're gonna be a little bit heavier in business. Some days maybe your kids might need you more. Some days you might be sick or you just wanna go spend the day at the spa, right? Each day is gonna be different. So go grab yourself a cup of coffee or tea, find a comfy spot, and let's dive in. So first things first, let's address the elephant in the room, and it's that myth of work life, balance. I'm gonna say something a little controversial here, but I'm also gonna censor it. So this is what I wanna say. Balance is bs, all right? And imagine me yelling it full, full at the top of my lungs. I want you to go out into the woods in the darkness and yell this, right? Because I want us to let this myth go. Let it go. You heard me. The idea that we can perfectly balance our work and personal lives is not only unrealistic it's downright harmful, in my opinion, because it sets us up for failure and for constant guilt. And if you are like me, ladies, we know what it feels like to always feel like we're constantly failing. We can't possibly do enough. And then there's that guilt that is just always there sitting in the seat with us. So let's toss that idea out the window, shall we? Like, we're like, okay, you can leave now. Because I want us to step into the concept of the blended life. Now, this is the approach I've adopted over the last several years. It's through working with my life coach, Stacy at the W Collective. So thank you, Stacy. Right. In all the years of me going through the. The I'm a bad mom. I'm not enough. I can't give this, I can't do that, all this stuff. And we really got to this idea of tossing balance out the window and thinking about the blend. And I've adopted this. And it's been a game changer for me and thousands of other people that I have shared this with. Right. I've spoken on stage about this. I've talked about it in my programs. It's a huge section in the Product Boss Academy, our new membership that we just launched. There is an entire section called the Blended Life Headquarters. Right. But let's dig into what exactly is a blended life. So I believe the blended life is about integration rather than separation. It's about finding ways to weave your work, your passions, your family time and your self care into the tapestry that feels authentic and fulfilling to you. It's about being present and fully engaged wherever you are, whether that's in business. Right. Maybe you're at a meeting, maybe you're at production, you're doing something, or you're at your kid's soccer game. Now, I know what some of you might be thinking. Jacqueline, that sounds great in theory, but how does that actually work in practice? Well, my friend, I'm glad you asked. That's why you're here. So I wanna just share a personal story. So when I first started Cuffs Couture, which was my product business, I was literally queen of the hustle. Hi. I was working around the clock, trying to do it all. I was designing the product, manufacturing, making it. I was in charge of all the marketing. I was fulfilling orders. I was sewing things on that needed to be sewn. I was taking returns, customer service. You name it, I was doing it. And you know what? I was miserable. I was stressed. I was exhausted, and I felt Like I was failing at everything. Why? Because I tell my husband my office was not at home and I would. I was in downtown LA and I tell my husband, yeah, I'm on my way home, cut to, wait, wait, I'm just gonna do one more thing, one more thing in the office. One more thing, right? And then it's like an hour, hour and a half later, I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm leaving now. And he is so mad at me because I told him I was going to be home for dinner, right? And so of course I was miserable. Like, it was, it was pushing me to the brink in so many different places. But I just felt like I had to be hustling. If I wasn't doing, then nothing was going to get done. And then I had my aha moment, right? I realized that I could not do this anymore. I couldn't. I wanted to grow my business. Of course I want to grow successful businesses in my life. That is something I've wanted to do and I will continue to do. But I also am doing this and not for someone else, so that I can enjoy my life, right? You might be working for someone full time right now. You might be working your way out of there. You might have worked for people or maybe you've never worked for anyone at all. But the thing is, is if you're listening to this podcast, you are an entrepreneur at heart, right? Maybe you're just stepping into it, maybe you've been in it for years, but you're an entrepreneur. You don't want to really work for someone else. You have an amazing idea. You want to make it work because you know the freedom that's going to come with a successful, profitable, product based business. But you also want it so you can enjoy your life. You can choose when you want to work. You can go on vacations, you can have extra money to spend or invest or save, right? You can employ people around you. There's so many reasons you want to grow this business, but you also want to enjoy your life. So I realized I needed to work smarter, not harder. And I realized that I needed to figure out a way to have my days where I could blend my work and my life in a way that felt good to me. Not in these like massive swings, right? All of this and all of that and nothing here and nothing there and just feeling pulled and stretched like Gumby. Anyone remember Gumby, right? That's for my like 80s kids. Probably 70s to 80s kids. All right, all right, so here's the deal. I Started making changes. I stopped trying to compartmentalize my day and district, work time and family time and all the time a feeling that there's not enough time. Right. Instead, I kind of allowed myself to be more flexible. So if I had a burst of creativity at 9pm, then I'd work on my designs. I mean, honestly, I think I was trained in fashion school, like to work through the night. So a lot of my creativity comes when it's quiet, when my kids are asleep. There's been times where I've had to work on something for here at the product boss. Even right now, actually, when I'm recording this at 7 o' clock at night, my kids are taking showers. And I'm jumping into recording this because I chose to end work earlier today and be with my kids after school and have dinner with my mom and my niece and my kids. So I was able to be flexible and work when I want to work. And then if my kids need me somewhere else, let's say we just had Halloween, for example, and there were the Halloween parades. Well, I was able to work my schedule around it so that I could be there for the Halloween parade and then jump back in my car and get back to work. And I realized that I needed to allow my life to flow rather than feel like it had to be super, super, super organized. And let me, let me say this. I think a big part of the blended life is this idea of being honest with what our days are going to look like. So sometimes in our busy seasons or we have a launch or some big deadline or something's happening, then we might have to tell if you're lucky enough to have a partner. I need you to help. Take up helping me with X, Y, Z, whatever your responsibility is. Right. Could you walk the dogs instead of me? Could you do bedtime for the kids? You know, can I go away for a weekend? I don't know what it is, but we have to really ask for what we need so that if we have a big launch, it's a busy season, we might be like, I'm going to have to work till like 10, 11, 12 o' clock tonight. Would you mind just like covering for me or, or I've known that I've had to, you know, do work, get my kids to sleep, go back to work. I just know that in that season the blend looks like a lot more work. And then let's say it's my slower season at work. Right? It's not the busy season. We've passed the holidays. There's A kind of like a calm again. And that might be a time where we're like, okay, I'm going to make an effort to go on a trip right now or to really take some time to relax or sleep or really put in some quality time with my family, because I just came out of a super busy season. And right now I'm going to really give my time to the people that I want to give it to or my friends. Right. I haven't seen my friends in a month and a half, and now that I'm out of my season, can I be with them? It's not always going to be perfect. Hey, friends, are you unsure of what to say on social media or what to even send in your weekly emails? Well, what if creating content, content could be easy? Would you be looking for a shortcut to creating consistent content? Yes, consistent content. Because, you know, consistency is key. Well, let me tell you, you are not alone when you feel like you're struggling on what to post or what to write in emails. And we know that you have that product part of your business down. But as you're listening to this podcast, you probably already know that to get more people to your products, to buy your products, you need to create great content. Oh, I know. I see. I keep saying content, and that's the dreaded C word. And we can't tell how many product bosses tell us that they want to create great content for their audience and their customers, but they don't know what to say, or they are so busy they can't find the time, or they really, really, really don't want to be the face of their brand. Well, no worries, because that's exactly why we created a year of content. It is your shortcut to creating consistent content that resonates with your audience and brings more loyal customers who can't wait to buy your products. If you want to see how easy this is and how easy it is to create content for your audience and your customers, head to www.ayearofcontent.com. and so I just want you to think through the time that you need and to be honest with yourself and the people around you that are there to support you about the idea that it might bleed and take longer and bleed out into what would normally feel like personal time. Or maybe you can get it all in within time. Right? So just thinking about the blend of time and knowing that each day is going to look different, and I think just being aware of that means that you're going to stop feeling so bad about it. Right. Stop guilting yourself and just be like, yes, yes. Because it's really hard to do both. There's nights that my kids fall asleep while I'm on the computer late, Right, Okay, I'm doing it. I'm doing both. But am I right? So it's not as awesome as a night. Right. But the blend is still there. I'm still doing it. So what I want you all to think about is it's not always going to be as easy to compartmentalize or put things in boxes. It's going to be trying to find the flow and being gentler with yourself. So I'm not saying it's easy. It took time to figure out what worked for me and what felt good. But what I will say is I became happier and more productive and my business started to thrive. As soon as I kind of started to figure out what this blended approach looked like, I was able to hit the hundred thousand dollars in revenue with, you know, thousands and thousands of products sold with really just me. And then eventually an assistant. Right. I was able to do that and be with my kiddos. Right. Or see my husband or hang out with my friends or have a hobby. Right. I know hobbies were like, huh? But I was able to do that because I started to figure out what my version was going to look like, and my version of the blended life is going to look different than your version. And that's okay. Right? The idea here is to figure out what works for you. So I want to talk about some practical strategies to kind of figure this out. And now for my students and my members inside of the Product Boss Academy, we are digging into the blended life in there. So if you all go into the module of Blended Life headquarters, you can take a look at what's in there and then what's to come. We're so excited about what's to come, and we're going to go deeper into this work in there. But here on the show, let's first talk about a couple strategies. One, one of the most important things to me is defining my values. So the first step in creating a blended life is to get really clear on your values. What's truly important to you, right? Is it time with your immediate family or immediate and extended family? Is it travel? And it's not all the same values. It's. It's a different way of going about this, right? But it's thinking about things that are really important in your life. Personal growth. Maybe you love to run, right? Maybe you love to ride your horses like what's really important in terms of things that are valued to you, like being out in nature. And you get really clear on those, there's no wrong answer. But it's important to be honest, because once you know your values, you can use that as a compass for your decisions. So when you're faced with a choice, you just ask yourself, does this choice align with my values? An example for me is during the pandemic. My sister had had a baby. She had had my niece, and, you know, people weren't seeing people. Then there was my grandma, who's older, my mom. So I paid $10,000 for an Airbnb for a month that my whole family could stay out, we could quarantine, and we could be together and we could actually be with the baby when she was a baby and be around my grandma and all the things. Okay. So I remember knowing that family and travel were two of my highest values. Not highest values, but really important to me. So when we decided, are we going to travel to see family and see my family and pay this $10,000, I had to ask myself, will I in the future ever regret spending this money? And I'll tell you the answer is no. So it was very easy for me to make a choice when I could align it with my values. Does that make sense? We'll dig deeper into that inside of the academy. All right, second thing. Second thing, I want you to think about actually going back to the academy. We are going to drop in the training of my of the woven training with my coach, Stacy, who's my life coach, and we're going to drop that in, and you too can do this. So we're going to put it in the blended life headquarters, and you'll be able to find it in there, and then you can jump in and kind of figure out your values. But if you're not inside yet, you're welcome to join. But if you're not, then just really start to think about your values and how does it align. All right. Second strategy is to embrace the flexibility. Flexibility is the key to the blended life. So this might mean that you're working in non traditional hours and that's okay, or you're taking calls while your kids practice. Maybe not all the time, but it's just something you have to do that day, or bringing your kids to a business meeting or having them, you know, hang out with you in your studio while you're working late or asking them to help you pack. Right. The goal is to find ways to meet both your personal and Professional needs, even if it doesn't look traditional, right? Just be flexible. All right, then let's get into creating boundaries. So while I'm saying be flexible and flow and all the things you do still, especially landing back to your values, have to have a boundary when we're blending our lives, right? It's important. So maybe you decide, I'm not going to check emails after 8pm or you have a dedicated workspace in your home that when you walk out, you're done. Perhaps it's that you only ship on certain days because you only want to be available to ship on those days. You just have to have boundaries so that you can do the things you want to do, right? Create the boundaries that work for you and your family. Don't forget about you being first. All right? And the last one I'll talk about is self care, right? Because self care isn't selfish, it's necessary. And I know a lot of us here, probably, if we had extra time, wouldn't be spending it by ourselves, taking care of ourselves, right? So you got to make sure you're taking care of yourself physically, mentally and emotionally. I know this sometimes feels counterintuitive to us, especially as women, right? And as these caretakers. But it's funny, I was just, when I was at this session that I was speaking at a lot of people and some other of the other seminars were talking about their kids. Like, they started asking questions about, okay, but my kid has this problem, right? Even though the speaker was speaking to us. And so we kind of start to think, how can we fix this? Or how can I help other people? But what if you got as curious about that about yourself? So when you're thinking about the blended life, it's also figuring out how to move our bodies, right? Whether that's exercise or movement or meditation, you know, taking time to do things that we enjoy, things that we're like, oh, I remember when I used to do that. So another thing about blending, the thing that's going to in your heart, the thing that's going to make you feel a bit more even in the things you're blending, is when you're doing things that take care of yourself. Because when you keep putting yourself last to the bottom, to the bottom, to the bottom, what does your self worth feel like, right? If you can't even take care of yourself, how are you going to make, you know, how are you going to heal your mindset, right? How are you going to heal and take care of yourself and love yourself? So the idea here is yes. We were talking about how annoying this is when they're like put your mask on on an airplane and then put on the person next to him. Like if my kid's sitting next to me, I don't know that I'm not getting the oxygen mask on them first. I know it's not right, but in our heads it's like that doesn't. It feels weird, it feels counterintuitive. And I'll tell you, I'm very guilty of all this. I need to get the kids, I need to do this. I want to pick them up. Da da da da da. And like, I'll put off regular exercise. So right now my blended life looks like taking calls, listening to podcasts while walking. Even if it's walking to get a coffee, even if it's parking at the furthest parking spot in the parking lot. So I have to walk extra far right. It's making it's movement or putting on my headphones and dancing to music even though I'm not a dancer, but just moving. So this is one of the biggest game changers. And I would also say that self care also lies in mindset and taking care of our minds and our bodies. And this is where I've spent so much time and it's gotten me to the point where I am now able to reflect on all of this. So what I know is that implementing these strategies can feel overwhelming, especially when you're already juggling so much as a product based business owner. So that's why I think that bringing this blended life conversation into the product boss community a bit more is important. Right, because we don't talk about this and people are always talking about, oh, how you, how do you balance it all? I don't. It looks different every single day and I'm figuring it out every single day. So if you want to dig deeper into this. Right. If you want to know more about how to kind of dig into this, I invite you to join us inside of the Product Boss Academy. Now my students that are in there go to the blended Life headquarters and you will start to see that full of amazing things. In the show notes, I will drop the link to the academy. You can also head to the productbossacademy. Com if you wanna learn more. We have an amazing founders rate going right now where it's the lowest it will ever be for yearly membership. And so if you are part of our founders, you'll get that. So head to the productbossacademy.com and if you're listening in the future. Either way, this is amazing. All right, so, my friends, before we wrap up, I wanna leave you with this thought. Creating a blended life isn't about achieving perfection. Right? It's about progress. Done is better than perfect. It's about making small changes that add up to a life and business that you love because you're feeling more at ease. We're not feeling that guilt or feeling pulled like Gumby, remember? But it's never gonna feel like it's fully figured out. I just want you to give yourself permission that this is an experiment to test, try, see, see what works for you, make mistakes and keep refining until you start to really live into this blended life. And so I want to remember what I said. Balance might be BS but starting to give yourself grace and accept that it's blended and it's messy, but it's worth it. So keep pushing, keep dreaming, keep building your product boss empire as my friends, but do it in a way that feels good to you. Until next time, here's to your success and your blended life.