Today we are going to talk about finding the time and space to do it all. Finding the time and space to take classes, be there for your partner and your family, get everything done that you to get done in your business, and feel well-rounded as a person. There is a system I’ve put into place in my business that has been a game changer and I only started running this system fairly recently and it has been a weight off my shoulders. I want to share my system with you in hopes that you can put it into practice in your business and life as well just to take a little bit of that pressure off and allow you to retain just a little bit more focus.
I don’t know about you, but I know for myself there are times in my life where I lay in bed staring at the ceiling with a list of a thousand to do’s running through my mind. Sometimes it’s a list of a mix of personal to do’s, professional to do’s and things I should have done a month ago, and the mix of it all actually becomes overwhelming. I call this the analysis paralysis, because you are thinking I could do so many things now that I don’t want to do anything because I feel like an epic failure because nothing is getting done. This is not a true at all and a false reality we give ourselves. I think as stylists, and salon owners, there are four phases that our business runs through at any given time, they range from feeling inspired, excited, amped up like you can take over the world, to overwhelmed, disheartened and discouraged- I don’t even know how I got here. All of those thoughts and riding that roller-coaster is normal, we all go through it. I’ve dissected it, and if you haven’t already listened to Podcast Episode 4 of this podcast, do it. It is one of the most downloaded episodes I have done, it’s a huge eye opener, and if you feel like you’re riding that roller-coaster of some days I love my job, and some days I don’t even know how I got here, listen to this episode and it is a total game changer. One of the things I talk about in that episode is a phase called The Inspiration Phase, and I talk about how inspiration is so important to us and all stages of our business. As soon as your inspiration tank is drained it is incredibly difficult to drag yourself out of bed every day, it’s incredibly difficult to put on that big huge smile and greet our clients, and a lot of times we just don’t feel like we can do it. We have a hard time mustering that energy to make it happen. That happens when your inspiration tank is low, when it’s drained you feel worthless and you feel like you can’t show up for your clients. You’re not there for your family, you’re not showing up for your spouse, and you certainly aren’t showing up on social media, and your marketing efforts are lacking. I feel like this at times too and it’s overwhelming and all consuming. A lot of inspiration comes from reading a book, listening to podcasts, or education, and a lot of people get in the mindset of yes, I would do it if I had the time to. You have to make the time. The 28-hour day that we’re all praying for isn’t someday going to land on our laps. It’s not coming. The universe is not going to give us a 28-hour day, and if it did, you’d fill up those extra four hours with minutia. We have 24 hours in a day and you get to choose how you spend those hours, and those who are successful spend them very wisely. I want to teach you how I have broken my business down into seasons so that there are times in my life where I can squeeze in that inspiration and how it transforms the rest of my year.
I have four seasons that I have created in my business. Seasons don’t mean that quarterly I am doing something new in my business. Sometimes a season will last a week. Sometimes a season will be a couple of days, once I explain the seasons it will make more sense to you. The four seasons I will share with you are known as the inspire, create, execute, and reflect seasons.
INSPIRE SEASON
When I am in an inspire season, I can spend several weeks inspiring. When I feel like I am drained, tapped out, and like I have nothing left to give it’s difficult for me to come up with new content, because it’s not that I don’t have great ideas, it’s just I am tapped out. I feel like I don’t have anything more to share. If you feel like you want to post on social media, but you don’t even know what to say right now, or you want to do a YouTube video, but you don’t even know what you would share, or you want to do exciting marketing for the salon, but you don’t even know what that would be like, if your mind draws a blank at stuff like that–You need to get inspired because once you get back to the inspiration season your mind will be overflowing with ideas. I try to get back to inspiration as long as I can and I can spend several weeks just focusing on inspiration.
Let me share with you what the inspiration season means for me. When I am in the inspiration season, I read a lot, I do a lot of research. Research can be online research or it could be in the form of coaching calls with my peers or mentors. I spend time listening to podcasts and I fill notebooks with ideas, strategies and aha moments. I take long walks with my dog, or go on runs with him while listening to music because it helps me to get a clear head and come up with brilliant ideas. Sometimes when I try to sit and just think of an idea it’s too much pressure, but when I am out enjoying life that’s when the best ideas come. When my mind is open like this, I am soaking up the knowledge and not creating anything new. When I am in the inspire season, I am not creating new podcasts, or writing blog posts or anything like that. I am not creating any new content, but that doesn’t mean that I have stopped working. I am still taking coaching calls, I’m still in my Facebook groups every day, I am still updating course content as I need to, I’m answering emails and supporting my team while doing all my regular work stuff. So, for you, you would still do all your clients, you would still order your color, your business still goes on, but in the other hours of life you’re just soaking up inspiration and knowledge.
CREATE SEASON
The create season happens when you have closed down the inspiration season for a minute. This is the season where I review everything that has come up. I look back through the notebooks, and I sort through which ideas I should start with and I make more detailed notes on how I can turn these inspired ideas into a killer plan. What can I do to make this happen? Then I start creating a plan for how I can transform my business. One of the best areas I can show for where I have done this is my Instagram page. If you scroll all the way to the beginning of my Instagram posts and see where I started to where I have come to. I got inspired over how I wanted to transform my account and put that into action. Your create season can be anything you want it to be. Look at it as a space for creativity of what could possibly be in your business. If you did the Inspire stage properly you should have an arsenal of ideas for what you can do. Remember all of this takes place while you are still doing the normal day-to-day of your business.
EXECUTE SEASON
In this season I start executing my plan. I encourage you not to skip steps. Take a breather, think about what you have learned, create a plan around it and then execute. You will be amazed at how less overwhelmed you are and how much easier things flow when you actually have a plan in place. Create a plan, have a vision for what you are doing and then you execute. It is in this third season when you start cranking out the work
REFLECT SEASON
In this season I will go back and look at the work I put out whether it be my Instagram posts, my Facebook, my blog, or my podcasts episodes. I will take a look at everything and analyze it. You are going to ask yourself how you feel about it and what you think can be improved. You have to make note of everything you want to change, because when you go back to your inspire season you can start fixing some of those things and making them right. Look back at your clientele the last few months and what your retention percentages look like. How many people did you send thank you notes to? How many times did you talk about referrals? What monthly promotions did you put into place in your business? You really need to do an assessment of your business and what you’ve done and the areas you’re proud of and think about what you want to do more of and improve on.
I know a lot of you are thinking if you had the time to do all of this my business would be booming. That you wish you had the free time to make it happen. Like I mentioned earlier, that 28-hour day is never happening, and those who choose to be successful carve out the time to do this. You will never grow your business until you stop working in it and start working on it. Doing the things beyond the cuts and color, doing the things beyond the inventory, doing the things that actually grow your business. Gone are the days when you could just show up, do good hair, and grow a clientele. Those days died and they’re not coming back. It has become all the other things that we do that maintain and grow our business.
So, depending on the time you are reading this content, I may have just had my Hair Stylist Boot Camp, it may be opening in a few months, or it may be around the corner in just a few weeks. I challenge you that the next time it comes around you carve out the time to join me and thousands of other stylists and together we will light your fire, and get the ideas needed to recharge your business.
