What's "Enough" In Your Business?

Hey, I'm Joe Fear and welcome to the Hustle and Flow Chart podcast. This is where we talk all about building businesses so they give you the freedom and fuel for your life. I'm not here to help you build a billion dollar business, but I am here to help you create a business with systems that work for you so you can make more money than you need just by working part time. You know, I was a chronic hustle mode kind of guy and I want to share my experiences and mentors I've met along the way to help you reframe things to be the most effective as an entrepreneur. I wish I had this guidance and insight when I was younger. So that's what I'm doing here for you. Please share and enjoy. Hey, it's your boy Joe. And I'm back with another solo. Haha. You like that? I do. Well, you know what I like about these solo episodes is that I can just hop onto my computer actually I'm sitting in front of it, not on top of it this day and I could just flip over this mic and, and turn on the record button and boom, got action. We're moving. So these solo episodes are gonna be really fun and I've been doing a lot of connecting with a lot of you listeners, you listening, actually there's just one of you at one time listening and I've been, you know, sending emails now. So if you're not in the email list, go find a way@hustleandflowchart.com and I wanna chat with you because I'm sending emails out consistently about these podcast episodes and that are going on in the Hustle and Flow Chart sphere. And since these times I've been chatting, you know, really over the last handful of months, I've been chatting with a lot of you. And there is a common thing that I've noticed that people want more of or I see patterns happening. I'm kind of back on Facebook for a while. I wasn't really on there and I was telling Matt Wolf the other day, you know, I have a bad habit of not being on Facebook or Instagram. Obviously that is a joke. And he was like, yeah, I don't think most people would call that a bad habit. So it's been nice because the last almost year I haven't really been consumed with much social media. Honestly, it was over on Twitter more so, which was as part of hard fork gaming that we were doing last year in 2022. And it actually removed me from a lot of the conversations that were happening. In the, in the spheres that I've been in, you know, marketing and entrepreneurship. You know, I was over there chatting with a lot of new people, people in the tech space, a lot of different people in crypto and whatnot. And no, we're not talking about that. In this episode. In this episode, I really want to dive into this thing I've been seeing is a lot of us entrepreneurs. And this is definitely, myself included. And I'm working on this right now. I'm not perfect, never will be. This idea of what is enough. And, you know, I've, I've. You might have heard me say this a little bit in some guest episodes, or maybe not yet actually, because some of them have not been actually released yet. And this concept or this notion of what is enough for you as a business owner has been something swirling in my mind. And I've had some chats with my wife, Heather, about this because she's also a great entrepreneur and has been in business in a variety of businesses for years and has seen. Seen me in times of crazy hustle mode and doing so many things. And a lot of the times it just feels like this energy's scattered. And even if it was on the same business and there's this, and there's a lot of folks that are doing that they might be chasing things that they feel like they should be doing because of maybe other people on social media or their networks are telling them, hey, you should do this in your business. You should do whatever it might be, hop on this podcast, go guest on this show, go write this email, go start this blog, go buy this product and learn this thing, to learn a new strategy to run more traffic or go on this social media network, get on TikTok, create more videos, whatever it might be. More and more and more of whatever it is. The list can go on and you can obviously name this, but the problem we run into is burnout, frustration. Maybe we just say, f it all, I'm done. Maybe your marriage suffers, your kids don't see you too often. So guess what? Your relationship with them suffer. The people that you love, your friends, you don't talk with your friends as much. Maybe you're not reaching out to your own network as much and feeling connected. That's not good. That ain't good for us as humans. And there's a whole other conversation there in terms of I just feel like there's not a lot of great connection these days. And that's a very blanket statement, of course. And I'm not going to go down that rabbit hole right now. But in this episode, I want to tee it up and tell you that I've been thinking about this concept of what is enough for us as entrepreneurs, us as business owners. I think that's a really big thing that we should all contemplate. Think about by yourself, maybe talk about it together, post about it on Social, and get others to ask, hey, what's enough for you? And share your feelings. And, you know, when I'm talking about enough, I'm talking about, all right, so we have business. It's a fuel for our lives. You know, my intro says it, and that's why I put it there. The whole thing is it should be fueling our lives so we feel whole. This. This feeling of wholeness and being fulfilled all around and not feeling like we need to keep pushing for more, more, more, more, more in our business because we feel like that's the thing we gotta do as business owners because we're freaking resilient as business owners and entrepreneurs. Not a lot of people on this planet understand how we're wired in our brain. We don't need to explain ourselves, but we do need to understand ourselves and how our crazy monkey brains can really take us off the deep end and lead us to a place that we think is what we should be doing for our business and for our family and for our lives. Make more money, you know, whatever we got to do. Do this thing so this thing works out and I can provide more. Cool. I mean, there's a lot of successful people, there's a lot of millionaires, billionaires, people who have chased business in so many directions. Not saying this is a bad thing, obviously, I love business, and if this is your thing. The thing is, a lot of people have suffered or had a whole series of other events happen because of that chasing of more business, more, more, more. Whatever it is, it doesn't always have to be money. It could be clout, notoriety, likes, views, subscriber count, ego stuff. And the big thing here is understand you. What are you? Enough. And business being the tool that allows us as entrepreneurs, we choose business as this tool that can create amazing things in our lives. So what are those amazing things that you value? Really getting clear of what those things are. I really love having my family close. I love being connected with them. I have an incredible wife, an incredible kid, and I love my family, my friend circle. When I feel connected, I do feel whole. That's what I value more than anything. It's not the money. The money's there to fuel what I need, or to go on epic trips and buy cool things that I can then share with these friends and family. But it's not to stack bills and racks on racks on racks. Yeah, it's cool to say, and it might look great, the bank account and who doesn't want it. But the point is, I'm not going to go burn myself out and work many, many, many, many hours and throughout the night every single day of the week just to do that. Unless that's what I valued. And that's okay. You value racks on racks on racks, and that's the thing. And you want to buy all the cool shit and go do it right on you, you know, like, no one's judging that, and I'm definitely not. But what I want to get out of this podcast, or at least create for you so you can hopefully start thinking about this and like I said, contemplate it, is you as an entrepreneur, you as a business owner, someone who leads not only yourself, but you lead a team of other people in your business. You lead your family, you lead your friends and family, because you sure as hell are a leader outside of just your business. What is your enough? So figure out what is it that is enough for you? It could be a money goal, it could be the thing that your business provides, some tangible thing or intangible thing. Figure out what that is. I'm not gonna go deep on all the little specifics of that in this specific episode. What I'm going to actually do is this is going to be the theme of this podcast, Hustle and Flowchart, at least for a while, because I've been chatting with a lot of people, a lot of listeners of this show and outside of this show, a lot of my mentors. And this is definitely something that's happening. And I feel like. And this is what people have been telling me is that people are starting to question this. People are starting to wake up and realize there's something missing, either in themselves or with their community, with their business, with their team, with their family, friends, society, whatever it is. There's something that is not quite right. The connection's not there. And I feel like this connection because we're entrepreneurs, because we have the power to create amazing things via our business and the actions we take by doing quote, unquote, business. It's just creation. We have the power to create, and we all do. And us as business folks, obviously, we get paid to create. That's what keeps the lights on and allows us to keep creating at the scale that we wish to. Now let's just make sure we're doing it for the right reasons and we know what our enough is. It's not the fact that yeah, you might be able to, you know, you have a million dollar business, let's say and you know, if you hired a few more people and you did a few more actions, you could scale it to 2 million, 3 million, 4 million a year type business. But have you weighed in the different things like hiring people and then having to manage those people. Have you thought about all these different factors? Maybe the tools and the. In the. It's not even expenses, it's the fact that there might be things that you just don't want to do and you don't want to have on your brain. So that might not line up with and what you want to get out of life and what you want to provide to others in life. I'm just going to rattle some of the, I guess bigger topics I've listed down here and things for you to consider when thinking about what is enough and how, how can you avoid the downsides of going too deep in business and pursuing them more and more and more. Because at the end of the day, burnout's a real thing. We've talked about it on this show. I've felt it. Last year, 2022, that was the big reason why I quit hard for gaming and why I broke things off from working with Matt. Nothing against Matt, but is there is a change that needed to be happened and I feel like it was a big energetic change as well because right when I decided that I wasn't going in the right direction, that the path that was going down was taking me way further away from what I felt I needed for myself and what was enough for me, I was going way past enough. And honestly the path I was going wasn't even giving me my enough. So it was diverting me a whole different direction. Like for me, my goal is to be. To take 200 days off this year. To not be working for 200 days. That's the majority. That's over half of the year. That's working about three days per week. That's my goal for 2023. I know I can achieve that. I need to keep myself accountable. I need to keep myself constrained on what I work, on how long I'm working, who I'm working with, what I'm doing. I mean there's a lot of factors like that. So I don't want to feel that burnout. I don't want to Take myself in a direction that isn't where I want to go. And because I know the consequences of that and how that can be a snowball effect to then it affects my family, it affects my. It affects money, of course. It affects my family, my relationships with friends, and the things I'm doing with my life. I'm making sure that I'm going to stick with what my enough is. And I know I can achieve that through the time of three days a week. I can go deeper on that. I'm not going to right now. But what I want to tell you now are just at least list a few of these things that you should keep in mind to avoid going too far from your enough. So I would say initially figure out what your enough is or have a general idea of what you think your enough is. What is it that you value, and then kind of work backwards to figure out what do I need to do in my business to get to that point where you're feeling fulfilled. You're like, okay, that checks the boxes for me personally. It checks the boxes for you in the terms of the health category to keep you waking up every day. So you're not going to just not wake up one day because of stress or a heart attack or, you know, just not treating your body well because you can't work out or eat right or sleep enough. Think of the health side of things. Think of your family and your friends. What are the relationships that matter the most in your life? And how can you make sure you can foster them and keep them connected in a way that fulfills you and them? Because we're social creatures. We can't do this shit alone. Think of all these things. That's how you can find your enough. Or at least have a general idea. It doesn't need to be a scientific math formula. Just get to a point where you feel great and fulfilled and whole with your quote, unquote, enough with your business. And again, with the idea of not burning out so you could do this by setting some clear and realistic goals, have some simple goals for yourself. I just planned my whole year, 2023, with my wife, Heather. Her and I went on an awesome date night right by the bay in San Diego. And we mapped out over, you know, a few whiskey drinks. She had some. She had some tequila cocktails, and we planned out our whole year. It wasn't just business. We talked about the trips we want to go on, the. The different projects we want to do at our house, the things we want to do with my kid. And Our family, these are the very realistic goals and we backtracked and how much that's going to cost. So obviously earning that and then the time commitment and all these things and really being clear with it doesn't have to be super specific, but just that's what we're talking about. So setting clear goals and realistic goals. Another one is prioritizing your self care. That's something that over the last three, four months I have prioritized more than anything, taking the time to rest and sleep. Sleep is a fricking game changer. If you're not sleeping enough and figure out whatever that sleep amount is for you. I'm not going to, I'm not a scientist, but I know if I'm getting at least seven hours of sleep, I'm doing pretty good. If I'm at 8, I'm doing great. I don't really sleep more than 8 hours. I mean I have a 3 year old so it's pretty damn hard. A lot of y' all know that, so. But prioritize your self care and recharge yourself physically and then mentally. I do that through. I go into my spa, my hot tub almost nightly and that's my chance to really recharge my mind, my body as well. But really that's a meditation time. It's very conscious with my breathing, I'm meditating, I'm, I'm reflecting, I'm being mindful and present. If I can get myself to a present state, I'm feeling good and I know that that's when clarity happens and some of my best ideas or business and outside of business. Now another thing. So that's self care. Prioritize your self care. Mainly rest and recharge. That's huge. Physically, mentally delegating tasks. If you have a business with a team or you're doing a lot, just figure out who can support you in that. And if it's not who, then what? Maybe it's a system or a tool. You know, it could just be. Organize your thinking thoughts around, around what you're doing and prioritize. Use something like asana, keep it simple, don't even have to pay anything. And if it's someone that you need help with organizing your schedule and organizing your inbox or whatever, get in, you know, an ea, an assistant type person that could just kind of take a load off you. Do it part time, can find a ton of people to do that inexpensively or expensively if that's your gym. And then another thing is set some boundaries for yourself. I Mentioned it before. Set some constraints. Our brains love constraint. I didn't think this was the case back in the day because I thought it would take me out of being spontaneous, which is more of my nature and being like, oh yeah, take just like leave for a little bit of the day and you know, know that things are going to be all right. Well, I know if I set boundaries and constraints on myself, you know, tracking time, tracking the tasks I'm working on, prioritizing my, my tasks throughout the day and the things that really got to get done, I know I'm going to feel better. So I'm always going to prioritize essential things over non essential things. And I know I'm going to feel fricking great when I know those essential things have been done. Even if they're monotonous things like rescheduling my daughter's dentist appointment, which I did earlier. These are the things that I used to neglect because I thought doing something in the business like answering all these emails or responding all these messages or comments on social media that was way more important than taking care of something on the home front that really would eliminate a lot of stress for whatever reason in the future. I did that today. Go me. So I'm celebrating that, that little success right there of doing something boring. But again, it's a boundary, it's a constraint. So figure out those for yourself and say no to all those non essential tasks and things that you that feel like pressure, maybe something someone said you should be doing. Check yourself. Remember boundaries and constraints. Another one is take breaks like free your brain a little bit, however you like to do it, step away from the monitor every now and then, put down the phone, leave it in the house or in your office and go outside, get some sunlight, go take a walk, take some breaths, go hang on a bar, you know, like a dead hang. Go lift some weights, go run, go walk, hang out with a dog, go wrestle with them, go hang out with your wife or your husband, go hang whatever it is, play with your kids, just take a break. It could be five minutes, you know, if you do a pomodoro method, it's what, 20 minutes on, I think it is, and five minute break, or maybe it's 25 minute work and then a five minute break. Whatever it is, do that break. You need to do that break. Don't just plow through. I've done that for years. A lot of us still do that. I still occasionally do it. Just don't make it a habit. So take regular breaks and Break yourself from this work mode, this grind mode, and let's be honest, we don't get our best ideas staring at a screen. Ask yourself, honestly, do you? I doubt it. I bet you get some of your best ideas when you're away from technology and you, you're disconnecting from that mode of grind or task, you know, just banging out the task that you got to do in your business. So take breaks. You're going to thank yourself. Figure out how to. Next thing is, it's figure out how to do something outside of business. So find value outside of putting all of your effort and your energy into business. I know some of us feel like our businesses are demanding so much from us. Well, that is probably very true. But I would challenge you that you're probably not doing all the things that are. You're probably doing too much. Maybe you're not prioritized enough. Obviously this list I'm talking about here is, is going to outline a lot of that stuff that could lead you to feeling like you can't do stuff out of business or you don't have the time to do it. BS BS. We all have the time. We all have 24 hours in the day and we have the ability to find value or something like a hobby. Playing guitar, working out, hanging out with family and friends, all this kind of stuff, whatever it is, just find something outside of work that feels like it's play or feels like it's fulfilling a hobby. Something that fulfills you that way. Another, another thing is connect with people. It could be a group of friends, it could be connecting with whoever. I mean, it could be a coach, could be a mastermind, could be a therapist. Connect with someone and actually genuinely talk to them where you feel like you can be open and free and honest. And if it's a friend, obviously don't just assume that they're going to be your therapist because that might not be fair to your friend. But you know, if there's an understanding that and you know, an ability to handle, maybe you need to kind of mind dump on someone all your stress or the things that are going on. If you feel like you are overwhelmed, well, consider maybe a therapist is best or a coach there. But some friends are really cool. Just don't feel like you're just putting all your stuff on them, you know, without warning them, at least in their consent. But the point is connect with someone about things if you're feeling overwhelmed or stressed. A lot of us as entrepreneurs, we just feel like we're solo in this game. A lot of us feel like we can't connect with our spouses or with whoever, our family because they just don't get it. They're not in it, they're not an entrepreneur. Even if they are, they're not in your business. Well, yeah, that might be true, but there's so many other people on this planet that have the ability to be that person you can go to. And obviously there's a lot of virtual outlets now and these therapists and things online or even social media. But I would probably not lean on social media for this because I'm talking a one to one connection, I'm talking about human connection. So again, I would try to get away from the monitors, the digital aspects of that. I'm saying talk to a human, call someone up or meet someone face to face. That's going to be a game changer. Last thing here, celebrate the little wins, the small thing that you're doing in your day to day. Like I said earlier, I celebrated the fact that I rescheduled my daughter's dentist appointment. It ain't sexy, but you know, I did it and I felt good about it because it took something off of my plate. Took something off of my wife's plate, honestly. She would do that typically, but I said I will do that. And I did put it on my calendar, put it on my to do list and guess what? I did it. I didn't just put it off. So celebrate little things that allow us to progress towards feeling more whole, fulfilled with what we're doing every single day. To wrap it up here, the big thing is avoiding the ceasing of movement forward. We always want to keep progress going as entrepreneurs, as business owners because so many people are relying on us. We are providing so much to not only ourselves and our family and friends, but to the world through our businesses. We're creators and we cannot keep creating if we burn out and crumble. I've seen some bad shit and people crumble. People kill themselves, people do horrendous things to others and then sometimes just procrastinate enough where they can't move on any further. So momentum is something that matters and that's, that's what keeps us in the game. And as long as we're in the game and moving forward, we win, you win. So remember these things and question. I seriously want you to contemplate journal on this. Talk it through however you want. I would say do this solo to start but figure out what your enough is in business. It's a tough question. It's not something that is easy and maybe it is for you and good on you. But to get to this answer, you might have to struggle a while and you might be struggling now. It's okay to struggle. That's the whole point. And it ain't gonna stop. But if you have enough, then at least you know why you're doing what you're doing. You're not flying blind and I guarantee you'll feel better. This was a I'm happy I put this episode out. I hope it resonated with you. It felt good. Recording just flowed out of my brain right to you to eardrums. So I would love it, love it to hear from you. Make sure you're joining the email list at hustle and fluidchart.com and I want to hear from you. So however that looks like, respond to one of my emails. I swear I will respond to everyone. Sometimes it's really fast, sometimes it takes a little bit. I appreciate you, I love you and I'm in your corner. You ain't alone. Figure out you're enough and take care of yourself. Take care of everyone around you because they're depending on all right, till next time. Thank you. Goodbye. All right, all right. That's what I got for you today. And remember, it's not all about living to work. It's all about working to live if you need to do the work. But you know, work can be fun and it should be fueling for your life. So if you enjoyed what you just heard, if you got some nuggets of wisdom that you want to share or you're just noodling on right now, please go tell others. The way that people find this show and how you can help others get their aha moments is through word of mouth. So if it is telling your friend, telling your family, send an email to your list, writing a review or whatever it might be. Everything helps. So thank you so much for listening to the Hustle and Flowchart podcast and I will see you next time.