Happy New Year Happy Hour listeners! Yes, yes, we know.. it’s mid-February, for crying out loud! But since we’ve been out for quite some time, we didn’t get the chance to greet you. On behalf of the Happy Hour Team, we would like to wish you and your business all the best this 2016!
In this episode, you’ll hear us talk about so many things — what’s been going on, what both of us have been up to business-wise, where we are going with Happy Hour and with our individual businesses, and also what’s happening in the world of Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Digital Marketing, Online marketing, and the like. And since this is the first episode of the year, we’ve also laid out some of the things you can expect to hear from us in the coming episodes.
WHAT’S BEEN GOING ON?
You might be wondering what happened? Why did it take so long for us to produce the next episode? We apologize for letting you wait. We’ve really missed being in the studio and sharing what we’ve learned with all of you. We just had to take some time off over the holidays because I, Traci, was suffering from a lot of health issues, including a chronic medical condition that had aggravated because of all the stress and pressure. And I, Dawn, was also affected by everything that had happened to Traci. What happened was very unfortunate, but it opened our eyes to the harsh realities of owning your own business and exhausting all your energy in it. This is something we want to talk about with all of you, especially those who forget that their body – their overall health and well-being – is a priority too!
Realizing There’s No Balance
We read this article entitled The Mental Cost of Owning a Business by Ally Lewis. We recommend you read this to get more insight about what can happen if you allow yourself to be submerged fully in your work, without leaving time for relaxation and enjoyment. There should always be a balance.
A lot of entrepreneurs don’t know how to maintain a state of balance that enable us to stay physically and mentally healthy. Like us, you like to burn the candle at both ends, and you forget to take care of yourself in the process.
If you are under a tremendous amount of stress and you only get to sleep 2-3 hours a day, you’re likely to experience adrenal fatigue. Adrenal fatigue is a highly undiagnosed problem! Because of adrenal fatigue, entrepreneurs can’t handle stress anymore – their body mentally and emotionally can’t handle stress. This is when anxiety comes into play and, eventually, when left like this, leads to depression.
Too much work-related stress can take a huge toll on your body, mind and spirit. We know a number of entrepreneurs who are dealing with depression, illnesses, and other challenges. In fact, the rate of depression in Americans in general is 7%, and in entrepreneurs it is 1 in 3! That’s alarming, don’t you think? If we continue to ignore taking care of ourselves, our marketing is going to fall apart.
This quote has got so much truth to it, “Entrepreneurs are willing to work 80 hour weeks to avoid working a 40 hour week!” Now isn’t that crazy?
Some people profess that they are living the dream — the entrepreneurial lifestyle — but in reality, being an entrepreneur is often far more stressful than having a normal job and nobody wants to admit it. Nobody wants to talk about the downside of having and managing your own business.
Finding Balance
So how do you manage a successful business and your clients without burning out? How do you say NO to working late nights and say YES to sleeping in? First of all, you have to find balance. This doesn’t mean you should drop everything and leave your business behind. It simply means you have to find a way or a system of doing things that still allow you to have fun, relax, and sleep in! You’ll be surprised how much sleeping in can do wonders for you when you’re stressed out!
A word of advice from us, “It’s okay to step back and breathe”. You have to take measures to reduce your stress. You need to lower the levels of stress through meditation or relaxation techniques like floatation therapy otherwise known as isolation therapy, Yoga and similar stuff. Or you can spend time at the beach or in the park doing leisurely activities. Even reading a book will do. Whatever works for you, do it!
Finding People Who Get It
Running a business can be really stressful and even lonely. Both of us are lucky enough to have each other in our business to share our concerns and problems with. Most don’t. Some entrepreneurs don’t have people to talk to. They don’t even have the support of family and friends. They feel like nobody gets it. Well, we’re here to tell you that you are not alone. Many of us, us included, have been there. We feel you. It’s very important to have a community who understands what you’re doing and what you’re going through. To be surrounded with people who get it. So get yourself involved in a group or find a community of entrepreneurs who can support and encourage you. You can also get a therapist, if things are really looking bad, or if you really don’t have anyone else.
So before this happens to you, or if it already has, please remember that YOU are a priority – your health, your state of mind, everything! You can still be wicked awesome and run a successful business while you make YOU a priority! You just have to find that balance.
WHAT’S COMING UP
With all this in mind, the last couple of months have been about redesigning how both of us work together as a team on Happy Hour and how we redesign our own businesses. Basically, we’ll try to pull everything together in order to serve the Happy Hour audiences and also our own audiences. And we’re happy to say that we kinda have a good rhythm now.
Traci’s Direction
You can expect me to talk more about how to improve your life by paying attention to self-care and setting boundaries for yourself. I want to impart as much knowledge as I can on this subject because I personally see how much it affects and changes everything.
Also, I will be sharing more marketing strategies, paid advertising and paid traffic tips. I participated in the traffic and conversion summit, and they talked about how important attention is. Marketing is all about gaining attention and social media, and digital marketing in general, are vital for that.
Dawn’s Direction
I will be talking mostly about automation and how you can use it to double your income and double your time off! Awesome, right? Essentially, it is working hard one time and then letting the hard work be done by systems and technology until you reach a point where you’ve made a beautiful system.
I’ll also show you how to find ways to systematize your work so you are not grinding 60 or more hours a week. With a clear and organized workflow, you’ll have time to actually enjoy the fruits of your labor, and enjoy life in general!
What to Expect from Happy Hour
We’ll continue to tackle these subjects…
- automating your business
- using social media
- using paid traffic
- using digital marketing tools
- and lots more!!!
All of these things are for the purpose of gaining attention for your business, hence increasing traffic. And then converting that attention into leads and sales that will push you further down the road to success!
Be sure to catch all our upcoming podcasts and listen to all the cool stuff coming up. We will strive hard to share with you only the best that we have to offer! Things that are really good and really helpful for our Happy Hour listeners! We can’t wait! Stay tuned!
