How Not To Die From Overwhelm And Get All Your Work Done

Okay. I'm in the middle of planning the upcoming Audacious Leaders Summit that's happening on June 11th to the 13th. This is huge. Between that, planning for this episode, and a myriad of other tasks, I just feel like I'm going from one thing to the other. Throw in emails, social media, and all the fly-by-night learning opportunities that are out there. My office chair seems like it's a ball and chain. As business managers and leaders, what the heck are we to do? And that's coming up next on Marc Haine Live. Welcome to this episode of Marc Haine Live. This is where small business owners and entrepreneurs pick up core skill sets to help them work on their business, not just in their business. I am your host, Service Expert and Master of Experiences Marc Haine. Thank you so much for being with us today. My guest is the kick your ass and hold your hand business coach. Her name is Tammy Johnson. And today, we are going to be talking about what it takes to be more effective with our time and with our energy. And we'll get to timing in just a moment. In the meantime, feel free to be part of this conversation. You can go ahead. You can subscribe to the program. I'd love to make absolutely sure that you don't miss an episode as it gets released. And while you're at it, why don't you go ahead and let me know what you think of this episode? Put the review in the comments. Let us know. Are we doing well? Is this fulfilling a need? Are we missing something? Let me know. And then lastly, So, this is 3s. Lastly is share this podcast if you know somebody who could benefit from this information. I don't know about you. But when I am a doer, when I make up my mind to do something like plan and host the upcoming Audacious Leaders Summit, I just do it. But then, every step of the way, I'm thinking, okay, what do I have to do next? Okay, that's done. Okay, what's next? Okay, that's done now. Okay, okay, what's next? Did I miss anything? So, this brings us to our— So, in the scope of your day, how much of your work is reacting versus proacting? And how's that working for you? I'd love for you to be part of today's conversation. As I mentioned, go ahead and put your comments in the comment box. I'd love to know where you stand. My guest today has been teaching and working with solopreneurs, entrepreneurs, managers, and small business owners for close to 2 decades. Tammy Johnson believes that business when done right has the power to make the world a much better place for everybody. Tammy believes in practical, no-nonsense practicals and tools that is tailored to taking your foot off the brake and putting it onto the throttle. Tammy, welcome to the show! It's so good to have you.

It's wonderful to be here, Marc.

Thank you for being here. Hey, before we get into today's topic, could you tell us a little bit more about what you do for your clients?

I do an awful lot for my clients. It depends a lot on what they need. But pretty much the biggest thing that I do for them is I'm very good at asking the questions to diagnose where they're actually having the issues because there's 2 main types of personalities I found for small business owners. We've got your people that are really good at marketing and have no problem talking to people and they can get out and do things, but they have a bit more of a challenge sitting down at the desk or in the shop and actually getting stuff done. And then we have the ones that, okay, they will— you give them a job and they will wow you. They will Perform above and beyond. But you ask them to actually go out and market and tell a real live person about what it is that they do, and you better have the defibrillators handy because they're going to go into cardiac arrest. And everybody has different needs and stuff, and you can go out and learn all sorts of stuff. But if it's going, I don't really know what it is that I need, you need somebody that can ask the questions to help you figure out. Okay, where do you need to be working on next? Because otherwise, you're just chasing your tail round and round in circles.

Sure, sure. So, it creates that clarity piece, right, of what needs to happen. So, I started off talking about the habits that I have. Like when I have some downtime, I'm always looking for ways to be productive and to do things. And so, this idea that I really do feel sometimes that it's like, okay, I'm on to the next thing, on to the next thing. Is my experience Is this the rule or the exception that you're seeing among your clients?

No, that's pretty normal. That's very, very normal. People are— we get busy. And especially when things start going better and we've got the stuff coming in, we've got so much going on. I describe a lot of entrepreneurs like if they make it into their second year, they're professional plate spinners. You remember seeing those on the variety shows? I haven't seen one since I was a kid. But I was always amazed because they get all these plates and they're spinning and then And then, they can only keep them going for so long. And that's how a lot of entrepreneurs are running. And then, they wonder why they're not getting anywhere and they're exhausted.

Yeah, yeah. And of course, the business takes over and the business needs takes over. And this is why— this is one of the reasons why I created this podcast was because every entrepreneur I met, every business owner I met, couldn't do things because they were so busy working in their business. And so, it was a question of, okay, well, if we can open up and enlighten and bring some information to the forefront, maybe we can give them the tools to change that up a little bit.

Yes.

In past episodes, we talked about the importance of having systems and processes to alleviate these kinds of stress. Is that the solution here when we talk about how busy we are or are there other things that we need to be concerned about?

Well, I would say that systems are the number one thing. Like I'm a total and complete systems geek. If you do not have systems in your business, you don't have a business. You have a job that owns you. And that's not a very pleasant place to be. Systems make it so that you can deliver better service, more service, more consistently. And my favorite part, make more money.

Yes! Yes, yes. And do the stuff that pays you rather than the stuff that you could pay other people to do as well. So, do you see that there are certain— you mentioned earlier about different personality types. Do you think that there are different qualities that people have? The ones who have a hard time with this, are there sets of qualities that they might have that dictate whether or not they're going to be like me scrambling from one task to the next, to the next, to the next? Or somebody who's sitting back and being able to delegate all this stuff and find systems and all that. Have you noticed those different personalities?

Well, I've definitely noticed different personalities because I've been working with business owners for close to 2 decades. I've seen so many wonderful things. And the ones that are able to step more into the business owner mode and be able to delegate and focus on their gifts and not have to be controlling everything are more trusting, and they're definitely not perfectionists. And speaking as a constantly recovering perfectionist, that is something that I'm always working on, because it's— it can be very much a blessing and a curse to be really good at what you do, because then you don't want to hand it over, because I can do it better, and it's a little bit fun. But if you're trying to do everything, number one, you're not going to do a very good job because you can't.

Right.

You're gonna get burned out and you're gonna hold yourself back. So, it's learning to be able to let go and to trust. And another one of the things that I'm always telling people is you need to have your own virtual board of directors. People that you are meeting with that have various skill sets and experience and stuff that you can go, okay, here's what's going on. Where are my blind spots? Where are my opportunities? What am I not seeing because I am so deep in it? And that I found the people that actually do that, their business moves forward faster than they could possibly imagine.

Yeah, yeah. And so, I mean, there's a power to these kinds of groups. And Tech Canada comes to mind as one of these groups that bring peers together to talk about different things in their businesses. And it's amazing when you have somebody. A lot of times when I talk to entrepreneurs, I'll say, well, why don't you join this group? And why don't you have an open discussion? Why don't you start talking to people who aren't in your business? Well, then they don't understand what I'm going through. So, one of the things that people have to realize is the problems that you're suffering from, other people are suffering from as well.

And even if it's not exactly the same, you get to have different ideas. I read all the time. I'm always sucking up information. And there is a gentleman who ran a very sick— well, still runs a very successful martial arts studio down in the States. Like, he has— like, he's doing very, very well. And the other guys that are running martial arts studios were asking, what are you doing that is making your studio so successful? He says, well, I go to all sorts of different conventions. He says, one of the ones where I get the best ideas is I go to the dance studio conventions. And they started laughing at him, going, what in the world do dance studios know anything at all about martial arts? And he just laughed at them and going, you know what, I'm going to keep doing it because If you're going, okay, I need to be bringing in students, so I want to be getting kids. Well, kids have parents, and parents only have so much time, so much patience, and so much money. So if I'm deciding between this dance studio and martial arts or whatever, what are the things that I'm going to do to attract in not just the kid but the parents? And so he goes and gets the ideas, and then he brings them back to his martial arts studio, and it's helping him grow. You need to be exposing yourself to different businesses because otherwise you end up with blinders on and you're not seeing Right, right.

Do you find that micromanagers have a tougher time when it comes down to looking at this idea of changing into more delegation and more opening?

They're the worst. They're the worst.

So, describe for me what your definition of a micromanager is just so that somebody might have a checklist somewhere. And they might be going, oh, I don't think I'm a micromanager. What is a micromanager? Can you define a micromanager?

Oh well, there are so many definitions. I'm just trying to think back to my job, my days when I was an employee and the people that drove me nuts. Micromanagers don't trust anybody. They have to nitpick everything. It has to be my way or the highway. So exactly like I have a couple of pet peeves. So, I work with that. But other than that, like I've got a few people working for me. I have a great virtual assistant and I'm going, As long as you get me the result, I don't care. But the micromanagers like to hover and they want to be, you need to show me every single draft and it has to be done 15 times until I give it the approval. I'm going, what a waste of time, talent, and energy. If this is how you're going to do it, why did you even delegate it in the first place? Why don't you just do it yourself and not irritate everybody?

I can so see that. And it's so funny. I worked with one operator in a hotel. And she, from the very beginning, would tell me that her biggest angst was the fact that nobody took initiative in her business. And then, it's like, well, that's interesting. And then, as I learned more, it's the reason why was because she was a micromanager. And so, people learned a long time ago, don't step out of the box. Don't try to do anything because you're just going to get shot down. You're going to constantly get the, that's not how we do it. Why would you do it this way? This is the way I want it. Right? So, anytime anybody tried anything, so people learned, don't bring up ideas. Don't show initiative. Don't do anything except for what you are told. And it frustrated her. The end result frustrated her no end, right? But she ended up working twice as hard as every other hotel operator because she had to get her fingers into everything.

Yeah.

Yeah. When we come down to looking at the time and our effectiveness and so on, What kind of a mindset do we need to be adopting?

I always tell people you need to be taking as long-term as possible. Like one of the things that I did on the weekend is I planned out not just the final details for my 2021. But I planned out all the big rocks for my 2022. And I'm thinking about, okay, what do I want my business to be looking like 5 years from now? Because I say people, okay, right now we're in Calgary. You can go to Vancouver. You can go to Yellowknife. You can go to Dallas. You can go to Toronto. They're all perfectly fine locations. But if you're going to pick a location, you're going to do things slightly differently. And if you don't pick a direction that you want to be going, you're just going to be bouncing all over the place and going, how come I can't get out of Calgary? Well, because you keep changing direction because you have no idea where you're going.

Right, right. Well, you mentioned something. So, I'd like to get your take on the big rock thinking. And we'll get to that right after this.

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Welcome back! I am speaking with the kick you in the bum business coach, Tammy Johnson. I love that. Kick you in the bum and hold your hand while she helps you get there. I think— how did you adopt that, by the way?

Well, it's kind of my personality. And that's what people would have been saying to me literally for decades. She says, if I need to get something done, I'm going to come and see you. You're going to kick my ass. But you also hold my hand and make sure that it gets done. And I'm going, yeah, I do. I kick your ass, hold your hand, and usually both at the same time.

And the fact that we're on a podcast and not on any major network, we could say the word ass. Isn't that great?

Yeah.

Hey, so we're talking about these stressors that business operators, entrepreneurs, managers have. Are there any kind of typical unrelenting forces that you think are holding people down?

The biggest one is they're spending most, if not all, of their time working in their business. They've got the nose to the grindstone. They're putting in the effort and then they don't know why they're not getting anywhere because like they can't see They're so focused on what's going on. And like I described them, they're like the balls in the pinball machine. They're just bouncing all over. Whatever they hit puts them in a different direction where we need to take time out and get the higher view of your business. And I've been finding a lot more that moms are better at this.

Hmm. Are better at dividing the duties or—

Well, dividing the duties and taking a more all-encompassing look because moms are used to having to juggle everything. And as moms, because I basically started my business and got pregnant, I took 30 hours of mat leave. So, I have always been working and I had to figure out how to To make it go. And one of the reasons I started my business is because my husband and I were looking at wanting to start our family, and I didn't want daycare and do all of that stuff. So I'm going, okay, if I want to have my, my life and, and be a mom and do all this stuff— because I cannot be a stay-at-home mom, that would not be good for anybody— I have to figure out how to make this work. So I was able to be pizza mom, and I used to be able to go and do field trips. And now my daughter's graduating high school, so I've had to go through all of this stuff. So being able to pull up and, okay, where are the big rocks? And when you've got like a little kid in school, like my daughter barely comes out of her room except to like eat, maybe to like roll her eyes at me occasionally. But when they're little, you have to know when the PD days are because you're going, okay, I don't have them in school. How do I have to work around this?

Right.

And different things. And if I want to be taking time off for like, let's do the family vacation, and I've been teaching for close to 20 years. Well, okay, where are my classes going to be? What do I have to be doing for marketing beforehand? What do I have to be doing for follow-up after? How much time is it going to take me in order to create this stuff? Where most people are going, okay, well, I want to do that. Oh crap! That's next weekend. I don't have time. And then nothing happens. So, they're on that lovely little hamster wheel round and round and round and getting nowhere.

Yeah, yeah. Well, and it's ironic that you said that. The fact that women kind of tend to be better at kind of all the big picture and the balancing act. Because one of the challenges that we're seeing, and we've mentioned this in past episodes, is the fact that I think it was Claire Kumar who called it a she-session. That we're expecting that people are going to be leaving post-pandemic. People are going to be leaving their businesses because there is now this challenge of how do I balance it all now. And the majority of women who are going to be leaving the workforce are going to be the single moms or the working moms who are now— they said, I think the latest Gallup poll said something that the average working mother is now dedicating an extra 2.5 hours a day to working for her business or working in her job. And so, this burnout is a very real thing now.

Well, not just the business. They're also still looking after all the regular mom stuff. And now, they're having to be teachers. Like my kids just went back to school today. And out of the last 7 weeks, my 2 girls have been in school for 2 weeks. And they're in high school. So, they're pretty self-sufficient. But people with younger kids that need a lot more help and supervision, they're also trying to work from home and do everything else. They're burning out.

Sure, yeah.

Everyone, moms and dads. Like, it's a lot of extra work.

Yes, yeah. You know, last week we talked to Steve Foran and we talked about this idea of surviving versus thriving. What's your take on that? What will move people from this idea of just getting things done in survival mode to, now, I feel I'm thriving?

Well, there's times where literally the best you can do is survive. So, we have to be aware of that so that when people are going through the very difficult parts, like you said, you've got kids, small kids at home. There's no school. You're trying to work. You're trying to do everything. You're looking after everybody's emotional needs. Trying to focus on thriving is not going to help you. It's just going to make you feel worse. Your job is literally just to survive those things. And then we have times where things are easier, we have more energy, we can see a light at the end of the tunnel. Then we can work on thriving. It's, it's not an either-or. Life ebbs and flows, and right now we are in a lot of ebb. So be okay with, with surviving, and when we survive, then we can thrive.

Yeah, yeah. This is all so interesting. Tammy, if this is resonating with people out there, how can they get in contact with you if they need to pick your brain or figure out that they need to work with you or whatever? How could they get hold of you?

Well, you can always check out my website. So, ksabusiness.ca. And my email address is tammy@ksabusiness.ca. And in case you didn't know, KSA is kick some ass.

Awesome! That's also in your logo that's been popping up on the screen. That's great.

Yes.

Great! So, as we move forward, how do people— once people realize that, yeah, okay, this is sounding exactly like me. What is their first step? What do they need to be doing in order to start shaking out the habits of running from one task to the other, to be reactionary instead of Proactionary. I don't know if that's a word. What's their first step?

First step I always work when I'm working with my clients and stuff is, what exactly is it do you want? And not just for your business. Like everybody says, am I planning my life goals or my business goals? Well, last I checked, you only have one life and your business is part of it. So, they all need to mesh. And I'm going, what do you want if you could wave the magic wand and your life, your business, everything looks exactly the way you want it 5 years from now, what does that look like? Because then that gives us a direction. Like I said, you can go to Vancouver, you can go to Yellowknife, you can go to Toronto, you can go to Houston. They're all perfectly fine locations. But then that gives you, okay, this is how we're gonna start working.

Mm-hmm.

And then start doing the evaluation. What does your— like, what are you spending your time on? What are you spending your time on? And is it actually getting you anywhere? knowing what your strengths and your weaknesses are. Like, there's a few things that I'm really, really good at, and there's a lot of stuff that I am not. And that's the same with everybody. We all have our areas of genius and expertise.

Yes.

But we spend— maybe if we're lucky, most people are spending 10% of their time and efforts on their genius, and the rest of it is stuff that they shouldn't be doing, they're not doing well, that they're procrastinating on because they don't want to do it. It's causing more and more problems. I have a very, very good friend and a super successful businessman. And one of the best pieces of advice I ever heard him give was, do not waste your time doing minimum wage jobs.

Yes, yes. And isn't it so easy to fall into that because it becomes a question of, well, okay, this is easy. And you're right. I just recently sat down looking to figure out how I can take my business and move it further, realizing that as a solopreneur, I'm only one person. I can only take it so far. And so then, I started this idea where I created 4 quadrants. And I started putting, okay, this is what I like to do and I'm good at. This is what I hate to do and I'm good at.

Yep!

This is what I like to do. This is what I like to do but I'm not really good at. And this is what I hate doing and I'm not good at. And so, I just literally sat down and made all these different lists. In order to create some clarity for me. And it was amazing at what actually came out of that, of where my passions were. And a few weeks ago, I did an episode talking about the restaurant owner who is always in the kitchen because he's a chef and he opened a restaurant. Or the garage mechanic who opened up a mechanic shop because he loves working on cars. And both these people were working in their businesses But then they have to, oh, I have to do billing.

Okay.

And it's like, why don't you hire somebody? And they're like, well, because I tried that and I ended up just having to manage everybody. And I didn't get to do what I'm passionate about. And so, I said, so why don't you hire your boss? Why don't you hire somebody above you? Somebody who's going to be your business manager and tell you what needs to be done and help you delegate and that sort of stuff. And it's funny that people don't consider that.

No, they don't because so much of business Even I've had tons of clients that have taken business degrees and all sorts of stuff. And they're going, they don't really teach you anything that's practical that you can put to use. And I'm going, in some cases, yes, I'm all for it. Hire the manager. But a lot of people, I was listening to you talking with Mike Kerr and people get so busy that they want to hire somebody with a pulse. And I'm going, well, when you hire somebody because they have a pulse, you quickly wish that they didn't. Yes. Yeah. Are you hiring for the job? Do you even know what the job is that you're hiring for so that you're finding the person that's the right fit for the job and the right fit for your company, for your culture?

Right.

So when you're slowing down and like you said, thinking about it and going, what do you want your business to look like 5 years from now? And when I talk to people, I'm going, do you want to be working in your business or do you want to be able to expand and do other things? Because if you want to work in your business, that's perfectly fine. We're going to do things very, very differently than if you want to be expanding across North America. So it's like I said, it's that big, that big picture view, and then you need to be planning things out. And one of the things— so I run a year-long group coaching program where I literally kick your ass and hold your hand throughout the year to get things done. And one of the things that I push on them over and over and over again is they have to plan their week. They take a look at their calendar and going, what are your goals? What are your priorities? And all this stuff. And they have to send it to me. And it's not so much because like I'm going to beat them or anything, but it's that accountability. And I start, and I do pay attention to them. I'm going, okay, well, you've had this on your, on your list for 5 weeks. What's going on here? Either it's something that you want to do and you're procrastinating on, or you're biting off more than you can chew, or— but it's, it's being aware of what's going on.

Hmm.

But I find when they take the time to do the planning, and it takes 10 to 15 minutes, we're not talking like hours and hours and hours, but they take a realistic look and going, okay, what do I want to be doing moving forward? What do I have for priorities and stuff? What are my blocks of time already taken for? Like, if you've got little kids that are home for an extra long weekend, you're not going to be as productive if they're off at summer sleepover summer camp, which always used to be my absolute favorite. Sleepover summer camp was the best.

It was a vacation for the parents.

Oh, it was heavenly.

But, you know, and it brings me to a point, you know, that we overestimate what we think we can do.

Oh, hugely!

And one of the tools I've used is I will take the 365-day calendar. And when I put it up for the year, I will automatically block off the holidays. I'll block off all the important things that need to happen throughout the course of each month. And then, it's amazing that when you look at it and you've got all these red X's of all the stuff that are non-negotiable, do not touch days, it's actually amazing at actually how many days you have left. that you can be productive in.

Yeah. And one of the things that I learned as a brand new mom and stuff because I was in a very, very good coaching program and they always talk about production days and relaxation days. And I'd be talking to a couple other people that were young moms. They're going, what is this day stuff they talk about? I have to work around freaking naps and breastfeeding. So, we have production windows. If we're lucky, Like, my daughter nursed every 2 to 2.5 hours. So I'm going, okay, I've got this chunk of time where I can go and see a client, and then I have to come home and feed my daughter because she would not take a bottle. And then I could go out. I'm going— and I've kept working that way, and I found it works way, way better because I'm going, I have to get this done and I have to focus. Where if you've got the whole day, a lot of people will waste that time. Where if you got, no, I've got to get this done. You get it done and you're a lot more productive.

It brings to mind or brings the question about the difference between efficiency and effectiveness. Can you allude at? Can you define those for us?

Efficiency is doing things well and quickly. Effective is doing the right Things. So, you could be the most efficient deck chair shuffler on the Titanic. A lot more effective getting people on the bloody lifeboats. Or better yet, not hitting the iceberg.

Right, right. Now, you mentioned at one point, you mentioned handling the big rocks. Can you talk a little bit about that philosophy?

Well, big rocks are different for every business. But Like for me, big rocks are, like you said, not so much now because my daughters are pretty much adults. But like, okay, if you've got young kids, your PD days and stuff. For me, big rocks are, okay, if I'm going to be teaching my classes or I'm going to be speaking at a convention or something like that, those are big rocks. Like you said, you go into your calendar and you X off the important things. Those are the big rocks. If you want to be launching a new product or a new service, well, put it on your calendar and then be taking a look. Okay. What do I need to do in order to get to there? Because it's not just, yes, that's my lovely launch date. There's the work before it.

Mm-hmm.

And I tell people all the time, there's also the work afterwards. Like, people go to trade shows, and I was reading statistics in a bunch of different places, and it's something like 85% of trade show leads are never followed up on. What was the point of going? What was the point of traveling? What was the point of spending all of that money and time if you're not even gonna follow up on it? Oh my God, okay, they did everything to lead up to it and they did a great job at the trade show. And then they get back to the office or whatever and they go back to spinning plates and bouncing around and they're going, what was the point?

Yes.

You have to put those— those are the big rocks that you put in. And we also have to have— and this is one that, not being sexist or anything, but this is just what I've seen. Men have more of an issue with this stuff is they will jam their calendars full, full, full, full, full. Because there's so much that they can do, and then there's no white space. So if anything happens, everything comes coming down. You have to have white space in your calendar to deal with those emergency phone calls, or you've got a kid that got sick, or you did like what I did and you were about as graceful as a water buffalo on roller skates, you fall down your stairs and you break things that slow you down. So, how are you going to be able to work with that stuff? And you also need time to process because if you're just going from one meeting to the next meeting to the next thing, you never have any time to do anything other than work in your business because you have no white space. No white space in your business, stagnant business.

Right, right. This is brilliant. I'd like to get into some specific don'ts. When it comes to trying to overcome this demon that we call productivity. And we'll do that right after this.

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I saw an interesting post on Facebook actually yesterday asking if anyone has ever had such a kick in the head kind of day that they did their entire commute with the radio turned off. And I thought, what a great question! Because of course, when you've had that stressful day and you need time for your brain to relax and turning off the radio so that you could just be. And it's like, oh my goodness! It's like, it's been so long first of all that I commuted because obviously, we're in the middle of a pandemic and we haven't been going anywhere. But it was like that right away brought that feeling of what those overwhelmed days kind of felt like.

Yeah.

And for those that know that they need to make a change, What cautionaries would you have for them when it comes to, okay, then I'm going to try to be more productive?

The first one that I would go, don't try to do everything at once. Do not try to do everything at once. You can't. It takes— it's been shown over and over and over again that it takes anywhere from 10 to 75 days to set a new habit. And the most common Consensus is it takes 28 to 30 days. So, a full month. And if you're trying to do too many changes at once, it's not going to happen. So, pick one.

Hmm.

And the one that I, like I said, that I work on people the most is, like I said, pick a time. And I find that the 2 best times are either Friday afternoon before you shut down the office for the week, or Sunday night, plan your coming week.

Mm-hmm.

Open up your Google Calendar, or if you're still one of the old-fashioned paper people, your Daytimer, and go, okay, what's going on? What do I actually want to get done? What do I have the time and the energy to get done? Because we ebb and flow. So, pick one, at most 2 things at a time to work on. Because if you do it that way, if you're going, if you only pick one thing at a time, So we're coming up at the end of May. So, okay, you know what, for June I'm gonna pick one habit that I'm going to be working on for a month. You get that set for, for June, then you move on to July. By the end of this year, you will have embedded 7 good new habits into your life.

Mm-hmm.

And if planning, like I said, taking a good honest look at your calendar and planning out more of your time, including That very, very important white space, that would be absolutely huge. Don't bite off more than you can chew. Another one that I work with people on all the time are, when is your energy high and when is your energy low? I tell people, I'm not a morning person. Do not talk to me in the morning. Not even before coffee because I don't do coffee. I work a lot of nights seeing clients and things like that. So, I do not see people in the morning. I keep my mornings for— okay, I go to the gym. I cannot wait for them to open up again. I will do my paperwork. I will do my project work and stuff like that. And then I will start seeing clients at 1 o'clock in the afternoon. I also do not people on Mondays. I don't book appointments. I don't do client calls. I don't do any of that stuff. I'm still working, but I don't people on Mondays. And then if I do need to see people on weekends or whatever, we'll work with. You set your own schedule. So why are— if you've got a morning person that's going, can I see you at 7:30 in the morning? No, we can't. That's not going to work. So figure out, like I said, when your energy flows. My husband also teaches a lot of night classes, so it works very well for us. So I find that on the evenings where I don't have a client appointment, I get so much stuff done at my desk in the evening because that's been our routine. And if you are a morning person, well then schedule around that. So you're not trying to please everybody. So know what your energy flows are because everybody is different.

Hmm.

And the other one is when you are mentally and physically exhausted, or even just starting to get there, step away from your damn desk. Go for a walk. Have a nap if you need to. Because you can sit at your desk being miserable trying to push through something for hours and accomplish nothing, or accomplish nothing that's worth keeping. Or you could go for a walk. You could take a break. Go play with your kids. Phone a friend and just gossip or do whatever. And then, come back and it gets done. Trying to push through things unnecessarily does nothing whatsoever to help you.

Yeah. And I think this is one of the things that remote workers are saying is We don't have the water cooler talk anymore. We don't have the bumping into somebody at the coffee machine at the office helping us kind of break those cycles. Now, we have kind of our little bubbles, which I think is hurting us. How important is it for people to look outside for help?

Oh, you have to have outside help. I'm a huge fan of working with coaches. I'm a huge fan of being part of a good networking group so that you can have those. And another one of the Yeah. One of the things when I teach my people, you need to have— I call them your emergency positive reinforcer number. So, when you're having the day, and it typically needs to be another business owner, somebody who is on a similar journey, is going through the slog and all this stuff, understands what you're trying to do, and they will listen to you vent and go, okay, remember, this is why you're doing what you're doing. This is what you're aiming for. These are your goals. Now, smack them on the tushy and put them back to work. You need to have those, those safety valves where you can safely vent to, because a lot of us, we can't do that to our family. And we— there's so many— you can't do it, you can't do it down to your employees because that could freak them out. You have to have somebody that's safe that you can go, ah!

Yeah.

And then they calmly listen. I have a couple of those numbers. I am that number for quite a few people, and they just go like, Okay, yeah, right. This is why I'm doing it. I'm so glad I talked to you. Everybody needs a couple of those because we all have our bad days. We have our bad moments with customers that are going, why don't I just go back and get a job? It'd be so much easier. Just tell me what to do and then I'm done with the day and I don't have to worry about any of this.

Yes.

Yes, that's a nice thought for about 3.5 seconds and then remember back to your past bosses that you wanted to throw through a plate glass window.

Tammy, this has been so amazing. Do you have any last thoughts about what we've been talking about today?

My last thought is business when done right is one of the most beautiful things ever. It helps the people doing it. It helps the employees. It helps the customers and it helps the community. So, in order for you to help people, you have to be healthy and surviving. So, Surround yourself with good people. Get the help you need. Find a business coach or different ones because there's— I'm very much like a generalist, a very good family doctor who brings in the specialists. And then, we have the great specialists. Find what you need and that's going to be all part of the journey. Asking for help is strength, not weakness.

Amazing! Could you remind everybody one more time how they can get a hold of you?

So, my website ksabusiness.ca or email me at tammy@ksabusiness.ca.

And I believe that you also have an assessment that people can take.

Yes.

And I've put the link in the show notes. So, can you just remind them what that link is?

So, my free gift to everybody who is listening is I have a free solopreneur self-assessment. So, you can look at all the different aspects of running your own business. And assess where are you strong and where are you weak. And normally, if somebody wants, they can have a 15-minute free Zoom call with me where you can pick my brain or whatever. If you let me know that you heard me on Marc Haine Live, I will give you 30 minutes. And that is at ksabusiness.ca/gift, G-I-F-T.

Nice! And for those people who might be listening to the audio version of this podcast, Tell her you heard this on Experience Leadership as well. Tammy, thank you so much. This has been absolutely wonderful. Thank you. I'd like to acknowledge you for being so generous with your time today and sharing your information with us. I think it's just been absolutely wonderful. And I'm so glad that we were able to not only get down and dirty but that we were able to laugh at the same time.

Yes, laughter is what makes the world go around much easier.

Thanks again, Tammy.

Thank you very much for having me. This was a lot of fun.

Why don't you let me know if this was of value? As always, my offer stands. If you would like 30 minutes of my time to brainstorm your business with you and your team, why don't you book yourself on my online calendar? The link is down below. It's the one that's marked meetme.so/haine. As always, I am at your service. I am here for you. And if you haven't done so yet, why don't you go ahead subscribe to this feed? That'll give you first dibs whenever I bring you fresh content that will help you work on your business, not just in your business. My name is Marc Haine. I hope you stay safe, stay healthy, and I hope you dare to be the exception.

Thank you, Marc.