Strategies to Survive 4th Quarter Stress

Good morning, everybody. Happy Monday. Today we're going to talk about surviving the stress. We've got some strategies to help get you through not only this week but the next few weeks. So talk to me in the chat. Let me know that you're here. First, I want to just acknowledge that you're here because I know we got a lot going on this week. And so I appreciate you taking the time to be here. This morning. Here's what I wanted to talk about today. I had several Zoom calls last week, um, with members. It started with my Mastermind members on Thursday. I had a Zoom call with the Mastermind, and there was just this recurring theme of people being exhausted and stressed, um, right now and really needing to step back. Then on Friday, I met with Scale Your Box and that became clear that they were feeling the same thing. Then as I'm checking the chat over the weekend in Launch Your Box, I can see that even our newer members are feeling the stress right now. So what I wanted to talk about today is some strategies that we can use to kind of get through the next few weeks. I'm feeling the stress a little bit too. I'm going to be honest with you. My blood pressure would tell you the same thing. But here's what we're going to do. We're going to get through these next few weeks. We're going to get through them with everything intact and we're not going to feel like, you know, we've just got put through the wringer basically, because I don't want you to feel like this when this is all over. So let me know that you're here in the chat. I would love to come over and say hi to you. I can see our YouTube people are popping in here. Good morning, Andrea. Good morning, Jonica. Hey, Christina. Also see our Facebook family is here. I see Lexi is here. Good morning, Lexi. Good morning, Sarah. All right. So here's what I want you to do. First of all, I knew this morning I was, I was just feeling a little anxious this morning because yesterday I just slept most of the day. I think my body was telling me that it was just time to just rest. And so I slept most of the day. And because I did that, I felt very unproductive. Do you guys feel guilt about that? Because sometimes when I'm not working, I feel guilt because there's always something that needs to be done, right? So I was feeling this little guilt. And so then I— this morning I was getting ready and I was thinking, oh gosh, I don't even know, like, what I've got going on today. I don't know. The week is short. I've got to plan that out. So I already had this anxiety building inside of me this morning. And so what I needed to do is just acknowledge all the things that needed to happen this week. And so this is something I want you to put on your to-do list this morning is I want you to look at all the tasks that need to be done this week. Just look at them as a whole. Just write them down, pull them up, however you organize your projects or your tasks. I want you to go through them and say, okay, I've got to do this, this, and this. And then I want you to put it in the days that you're working. We're going to set boundaries today, okay? We're going to set boundaries on this week and we're going to set boundaries for ourselves. So it's Thanksgiving week and, you know, I've been a small business owner for almost 12 years now. And I can tell you that there have been Thanksgiving weeks that I worked my face off and I was so exhausted on Thanksgiving Day, I couldn't even enjoy my family. We're not doing that, okay? We're not doing that this year. We don't have to do that is what I'm telling you. So we're gonna make a plan so we don't do that. So I want you to set some clear boundaries. I wanna be off Wednesday by this time, I'm gonna be off on Thursday, I'm gonna work or not work on Friday, whatever your decision is. I need you to set your boundaries right now today because if we just wait and see, we're gonna be working. We're gonna be working the rest of the week. We're gonna be throwing crap in there when we don't need to be throwing crap in there and you're not gonna have any clear boundaries. But if we set them right now, we know what has to happen over the next 3 days so that I can take Thursday, Friday, Saturday off if I want to. I can take Thursday and Friday off if I want to and work Saturday, Sunday. Whatever that boundary is, we need to set it today, and then we need to organize our tasks and what we need to be doing into those time blocks so that we're not forced to work every single day this week and be so exhausted at Thanksgiving we can't enjoy our friends and family. Okay, so the first thing I want you to do is I want you to look at your calendar and I want you to set some boundaries for yourself. I'm gonna work this day, I'm not going to work this day, I'm going to work a half day here, I'm going to be done by 3 here. Whatever that is for you, I need you to set that boundary for yourself so that you don't get in the rat race of feeling like you have to work every minute this week. We have to take time for ourselves. Self-care is not selfish, okay? So if that means I need to work a half day on Friday so that I can wake up after Thanksgiving, enjoy my family before they start to go home, or whatever the case may be, or not be so stressed out on Thursday night because I got to go work Friday morning whatever that is, we've got to set that self-care boundary for ourselves. We know us. We know that I'm going to feel anxious on Thursday night knowing I have to go to work Friday morning early or whatever the case may be. So I need you to set that boundary now of what you will and you won't do this week. We've got to set that boundary with work. We've got to set that boundary with ourselves and we've got to set that boundary with our customer. You tell yourself you're going to take Thursday and Friday off this week. That means I'm not up Friday morning answering customer service emails. Okay, we're not doing it. If that means you have to put a little blurb on email, on your emails and say, hey, we're off for Thanksgiving, we'll be back on Monday, then you do that. We have to set that boundary. Okay, so set your boundaries today. I want you to go through all the things that need to happen this week, and I want you to lay them out in the time that you have, that your working hours. And I want you to put that white space on your calendar today of when you will not be working this week. And I'm gonna hold you accountable to that. I want you to stick to that. Tell me in the chat, what's your number one stressor right now in this moment? What is stressing you out right now? It could be, I'm not making sales and that's stressing me out. It could be, I've made so many sales, I don't know how I'm going to get them out the door on time. It could be, I'm not prepared for my upcoming Black Friday promotion. Whatever it is, I want you to put that in the chat and let me know, like, what is the number one stressor happening right now for you and your business? Because I want to talk about it. We've got to recognize the stress. If we don't acknowledge the stress, then we just it's just out there and it's like this, it's like on your shoulder, it's like weighing you down, but you don't ever acknowledge it, you're not going to push through it. So we have to acknowledge that right now there's a lot of stress going on. There's stress of whether my promotions are going to be drowned out by all the big businesses. There's stress of whether I'm prepared enough. I have stress over whether my staff at the warehouse can employ, can, can handle all of the influx of sales that I'm generating with my marketing. There's stress that we have gift subscribe— we have gift subscriptions, we have holiday boxes, we have December subscriptions all going out next week, and I don't know if we're prepared for all of that workload. Like, there's all this stress, and I just need to acknowledge it so that I can work through it. Okay, so, um, right here we said getting all my orders out the door and my vendor events. That's a big stressor. You're prepping for big vendor events and you've got orders that have to go out the store, out the door. So Mimi, what I want you to do is sit down today and decide what is the main priority today and what is the main priority this week. Does this mean that I'm gonna work 2 hours on getting orders out the door and then I'm gonna shift to setting up for my vendor event or prepping product for my vendor event? Like you have to time block your schedule with the highest priority, okay? So, and it's okay if all the orders don't go out the door, and it's okay if you don't have all the product made for your vendor event, but you need to prioritize what's more important right now and make time for both or either, okay? So that's what you've got, I need you to just acknowledge. And here's the thing about vendor events, 'cause I've done a lot of them in my days, you're never gonna get it all ready. It's never gonna happen. Like, I think I, I always go into it months before, like, I'm gonna have all this product ready, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do this. And then there's days before my event and I'm like, I'm running out of hours in the day, I can't handle all this, so this is what I'm going to be done. So I think you have to acknowledge the workload of both of those things and time block both of those things. So that might mean you get 80% of the orders out the door today, um, and not all of them. And it might mean that you get 80% prepped for your vendor event. But whatever you do, you've got to time block out in your schedule. And I'll say, okay, I'm going to do as many orders as I can in these next 2 hours, and then I got to shift over to making product for my event because I'm putting a lot of time, money, and effort into this event, and I got to be stocked for it, right? So I think you've got to just time block that. Crystal says, I'm not having sales and that's stressing me right now. Not having sales would stress me too, Crystal. And so I think, let's dial it back. What can I do this week to generate sales? Can I go live? Can I start an ad set? Can I send an email out every single day? Like, why am I not getting sales? Is it because I'm not getting traffic? What can I do every day this week to drive traffic to my website? That's what I want you to think about. Monica says, I need to move to my new location before year's end and holiday sales. Monica, I got— I did this too. I did this in December of 2020. I moved into this warehouse. I knew that our shipping cutoff date was December 15th of whatever it is this year. So if I know my shipping cutoff is December 15th, I'm going to work hard, I'm going to generate sales, and I'm going to get everything out the door by the 16th. And then I'm basically going to shut down my shop so I can move. And that's what we did the year that I had to move locations in December. So just set your date, go hard with your sales, get all your orders out, and then you know what, we're shut down and I'm going to move my location. I got to be out by the end of the year because I don't want you moving during Christmas holiday when you should be spending time with your friends and family. So you know what? When shipping cutoff is it for you, we got to just switch gears and make the move. And that's what I want you to figure out today that'll help take that stress of thinking about it every day off of your plate. Sarah says, balancing the big scary personal thing I'm dealing with in the midst of the busy business season. I'm trying. Listen, Sarah, give yourself some grace. Give yourself some grace, because when we have big personal things weighing us down every day, that causes a lot of stress. And when that— when we have a lot that kind of stress, it, it affects our health, our mental health and our physical health. So I'm going to challenge you to figure out the personal stuff And then how can you make time for the business stuff? But personal comes first. We come first in this scenario because without you there's no business, right? So I'm going to challenge you to just take the time you need to handle the personal stuff as we go through this season. Okay. Christina says getting posts up for upcoming classes, getting people to sign up. Christina, let's generate some buzz. Let's generate some excitement. And I think the best thing for you would be how can you create events for this? This is a great thing to take, you know, bring a friend, bring the daughter, like make it like event style. Um, that's something to go do during Christmas. It's something to go do when it's too cold outside to do anything else. Think about it that way and just keep marketing. Okay. All right, now we've talked a little bit about some of my strategies and some of these things that I've answered already. But first, here's number 1. We've got to acknowledge that this season has challenges and that it creates unnecessary stress and chaos in our life. Let's acknowledge that because I don't need anybody thinking that I'm the only one stressed out. Okay, we've got to acknowledge that first. And when you can say, yep, this is stressful time of year, yep, it is chaotic, yep, that helps ease your mind that you're not going through this alone. Okay. It's normal to feel overwhelmed right now. It's normal to feel like you can't get it all done right now. I've been through 12 Christmases, and I'm going to tell you that it's normal every year. Okay. Number 2, we got a mindset reset. Okay. I'm stressed. I got all these things to do. I don't know when they're going to happen, blah, blah, blah. These are blessings. I want you to think about the positive thing. I got all these orders that I've got to get out. That means I've got sales. That means I've got growth. I also want you to think of what things you can control. When we're talking about our mindset, I want you to think about the positive in this. We're so crazy busy right now at the warehouse, and I'm stressed thinking about how stressed they are out there trying to get it all done. but I'm also like, we're having positive growth. I'm up almost 200% November over last year. That's amazing. And I need to feel positive about that. We'll figure it out. We'll figure it out. We'll work some extra hours. We'll get some extra hands in here. We'll figure it out. But I need to remember the positive part of why I'm stressed right here. Okay. And then I want you to just repeat this to yourself. And if you need to write this on a Post-it note and put it on your computer or whatever, This is happening for me, not to me. I am capable, I am worthy, and I have all the resources I need to get this done. And when you think about it in a positive way instead of a negative way— the negative way is, I'm never going to get this done, I got too much to do, I don't know how I'm going to make this happen. But you know, that's what we tell ourselves, right? That's that negative talk. The positive talk is, Wow, people are buying my stuff. I am growing. I am, I am going to figure this out. I have all the resources I need to get this done. Mindset reset. Remember the positive part of this. Okay, then let's go into the practical stress management. Time blocking, like I was telling Mimi. Okay, I got all these things going on. Let's time block this into my day so that I don't skip some of the priorities. We gotta list the priorities of the week, then we gotta time block it into our day. We've got to delegate where we can. So if you've got employees, let's delegate some more stuff, get it off your plate. If you've got kids that are able to help, get them up here, let's get them going. Hey kids, I know you're on Thanksgiving break, but our mom really needs your help right now. Okay, friends, you got those friends that are worried about you. Hey, I really need some extra help this week. Is there anything— do you have some time to come help me? Ask for help. Ask for help before it's too late. Okay, time blocking, delegation, and help. All right, and then here's the other thing. When I'm in the weeds like this and I get overwhelmed all the time, Sometimes I gotta just take a break. That could be an hour, that could be 20 minutes. I need to go take a walk, I need to go do some laundry and, and focus on something else. I need to reset my brain because I'm in the weeds. I need to reset. I need to go meet a friend for lunch. I need to do something for myself so that I can manage this stress, okay? And then I want you to celebrate the small wins. Right now it's like, what do I got to do? What do I got to do? What do I got to do? But I want you to celebrate every day. We're going to do some posts in Launch Your Box this week. We're going to celebrate every day what we're winning at, because what I want to remind you of is that you're, you're handling a lot right now, and that's a huge, huge win. And You could even do like a daily Post-it note, put it on your wall. Monday's win, Tuesday's win, Thursday's win. I didn't have to work on Thursday and I got to spend it with my family. That's a win. We need to celebrate the wins in business and in personal life, okay? And if we can do that, the hard stuff doesn't feel so hard all the time, okay? We got this. We got this. All right, so keep selling. Make time for that in your schedule even if you're drowning in orders. Keep selling. I did a reel this weekend. What's working for me right now? Live selling, daily emails, Advantage Plus ads, and getting personal with my social media posts while selling. Like this sweater right now, I can go do a post. We got it in the shop. We got it all sizes. Pop a color for winter. Winter doesn't have to be boring. Grab this pink sweater because it's nice and warm and cozy. Do something personal tied to selling that's helping right now. Let's go, let's continue, but take a few minutes today, take the next 30 minutes, and let's plan out the week so that we don't get in the weeds when we have set boundaries for ourselves to be off. What do I normally do on Thursdays that I need to do on Tuesday this week? What do I normally do on Fridays that I need to bump up to Wednesday so that I can take Thursday and Friday off and spend it with my family and get refreshed? Okay, that's what I want you to do. Set your boundaries, set up your task list, time block your time this week. Because I want you to go, go, go, but I also want you to step back and spend time with your families this week. We all need it, and we, we all need it to get through December, okay? So I want to make sure that you create that white space in your schedule this week for you, okay? Not for anybody else. Not so I can go bake pies for everybody in the neighborhood. Not so I can go do this. So that you can relax and enjoy your life that you've been building. That's what I want for you. All right, so let's go get it planned out. Let's kill it the next few days, and then let's step back and relax. All right, I'll see you guys real soon. Hey, have a great Thanksgiving if I don't see you before then. All right, we've got this. It's totally normal to feel this way right now. We've got this. Have a great day.