Speaker 1 0:04
Happy New Year, yesterday marked the start of 2024. And it's the time of the year when highlight reels start popping up all over the place. This is the time of the year when people reflect. Sometimes that reflection leads us to feeling really good. And, or maybe feeling a little bit low about ourselves in our lives. And it can be a really heady mix. So today I want to call out the BS, the bullshit, and to help you remain positive and genuine way with what you are putting out into the world. This is the she's in business podcast, where every week I'll explore topics and have real conversations around what it's like to run a regional business, the advantages and the unique challenges. I'm Donna Han, a seasoned regional business owner, and certified high performance business coach. I'm here to make training and professional development easily accessible for regional business women everywhere. So join me and guest experts as we share tools and insights to elevate your business, boost your mindset, and ensure that you never feel alone on this journey. No matter where you live. I'm fired up and I'm here to educate you on what it truly takes to grow your business and your mindset beyond what you thought possible. Happy New Year, my friend I hope you welcomed in the new year by attending an extravagant party and you stayed at well past midnight drinking delicious champagne, danced all night until and laughed until your cheeks hurt. And you had that blissful, romantic and very special midnight kiss. Well, who are we kidding? All right, getting in reality. For me, it was mismatch PJs, a couple of drinks. I was in bed by 930. And I rolled over to say Happy New Year to my husband at 7am The next morning with messy hair and morning breath. I don't know about you. But the days of New Year's Eve parties are long gone for me. But nonetheless, Happy New Year, my friend I hope that you welcomed in the new year in the way that felt good to you. Today I want to talk about the 2023 highlight reels they are going to be featuring in your feed roundabout. Now, most probably they've already been appearing in your feed over the past week or so maybe even a little longer. And I'm sure you know the ones I'm talking about. It's a compilation of photos and video snippets that showcase someone's ear. It's the end of the year and the start of a new one, which is a great time to reflect on the last 12 months and to celebrate it. And I'm all for it. I've done it, because I'm a big advocate for celebrating. Because if you don't who will, right and I'm not going to be I'm not here to dog them out. That's not what this episode is about. However, I do want to acknowledge that they can also trigger comparing yourself to others. Because in a highlight reel, often people depict themselves as having it all together to be hitting their goals and living their best life. And that can potentially lead us down that path of starting to feel really low about ourselves law about our businesses and law about our lives. So knowing that you have been or are going to be consuming this kind of content over the coming weeks and potentially have already been consuming it. I would like to invite you not to get entangled in your thoughts in compare comparing yourself and adding ending up in a pit of self doubt and disappointment. Not to I wouldn't do to encourage you not to use someone else's highlight reel as your benchmark to then assess your achievements and your successes. Because if you do that, there is a chance that you may think that your year wasn't good enough that you didn't reach all of your goals that, you know, perhaps unexpected things happened for you that impacted the way that you did or didn't reach your goals. And you could end up feeling like 2023 sucked. So when we're looking and when we're seeing these highlights, what you are seeing quite literally is a highlight. It's someone's highlights, it's all the best parts of the year. It's all the shiny stuff that people have experiencing, have experienced, I should say, and you're not getting the full picture of the effort that they went to reach those outcomes. And that is if the highlight reel is a true reflection of that person's life and isn't all amped up and fluffed up to make it look better than it actually was. So if we were a fly on the wall of someone 2023 highlight reel, the reality would be that they would also have been a few bumps in the road, there would have also maybe have been goals that they didn't reach that they're not speaking about. And the reason I know this is because life is not peachy, life running a business can be unpredictable. Shit happens to all of us to everyone. And it is okay, let's normalize this. In fact, what I know to be true is that our biggest lessons come from the hard times from the shitty moments, they give us the context, from which we can then have the highlights and the moments of celebration. Like if it was peachy all the time, it wouldn't feel so peachy anymore. If we didn't also experience the lows that come with the highs, it would just be, it would just be it would just the peatiness would lose its shine, right. So just check yourself when you're consuming highlight reels at this time of the year. If there is some jealousy that rises up in you, I want you to flip your thinking. Jealousy is your mind's way of reaffirming to you what it is that you want. Yet, instead of putting bitterness to that wanting, I want you to use it to inspire you to think that if they can do it, you can to then ask yourself, what are the steps that I need to take in order to start the process to get the same results that I'm seeing in this person's highlight reel? If you want it so bad, that a feeling of jealousy rises up inside of you, what are you going to do about it? What are you going to do about it to make that thing, whatever that is part of your story. If imposter syndrome comes up for you, when you when you're watching highlight reels, like who might be running this business, who might be saying I can do X Y Zed I'm not as good as them, you know who might be positioning myself and claiming myself to be the go to person for whatever it is that you do. Again, I want you to check yourself. I want you to think back over the path that you have been on that has led you to where you are right now. Every little step that we take builds that rich tapestry of skills from which we can then offer whatever it is that you do from right, it's the this can be training, this can be certification, but most importantly, it's experience. It's applied knowledge. And I bet if you were to retrace your steps, take a little journey down memory lane, they would all be there. So challenge the voice of imposter when it starts talking to you and saying things like you're not good enough? Or Who are you to do this? Who are you to say that bla bla bla bla bla, when that happens, go Hold on a second, I have every right to be here, I have earned my spot. I do know what I'm talking about. And by not positioning myself as the thing that people need, I'm doing a disservice to the world. Also, if you create a highlight reel, which by the way, is totally fine, because I mean, I've created a highlight reel, you may have already seen it. I think it's a great thing to celebrate the things that you've achieved and put it out there into the world. As I said at the beginning, I'm not dogging highlight reels. But as you're creating it, I just want you to take note on what the purpose is for you in creating the highlight reel. Is it strategic? Are you using your highlight reel to build credibility for you and your business? In that you are demonstrating that you walk the talk, in which case if it's genuine, if it's genuine, then I believe that that's great. But if you find yourself fluffing it up, if you find yourself making the year seem better than it was, then I want to invite you to hit pause and ask yourself why you feel the need to have to do that. Who does it benefit?
Speaker 1 9:08
Because it won't benefit your business if you fluffed up your achieve achievements. And people with the BS meter see through it. It would damage your credibility, it will damage your reputation of what you've worked for already. And for people who are maybe watching that reel who maybe haven't listened to this podcast, or don't have a strong sense of self or the tools to self manage the entanglement that these highlight reels can trigger. The question is what is that doing to them? And do you want to be a contributor to the social media culture of being better than or being one up on? Or creating this fantasy life where everything is peachy? Yeah, it's like those rules that I see all the time. And then when I see them i unfollow whoever it is of it's mainly influences and it's online business to educators, these are the ones that I see do it the most, who share that they've made like 50k in passive income, whilst they've, they've been by the pool all day sipping cocktails and saying like, this could be your life too when you join my program or buy my thing. And that may be the true outcome for them. But what you can bet is also true is that they have spent months and months and years and years, also probably spending a shit ton on building that business to operate in that way to be passive. What they don't tell you in those reels is that they probably have reinvested a huge chunk of that 50k into paid advertising into generating paid leads, that they also probably pay the salary of a team so that it affords them the freedom and flexibility to be pulls up. So whilst they're sharing how much passive income they receive, they what they don't tell you is the unproportional amount of expenses required to generate that kind of income. And the actual profit from that 50k is probably much, much, much less than what they're letting on. Again, it's a highlight reel, it's a highlight reel. And I'm not saying don't do them. I'm not saying they're a bad thing. But I think it's just a level of awareness that we need to have, as we're consuming. And as we're creating these 2023 highlight reels, because that's essentially what they are, they are just highlights of the year. I do love it when people also share the reality of the year that goes alongside the highlights. So when you watch my highlight on Insta or Facebook, you'll also see that there is other parts that happened in 2023. I'll share them here with you now, some of my really big goals that I had for my business. And personally, I did not reach. So my big family goal was to take my family overseas, my kids haven't been overseas yet. They are eight and 10. We wanted to wait until they're at an age to really appreciate it. And also at an age where they could go to kids club, you know, and Troy and I could sit by at the side of the pool, drinking cocktails and living life large. So I really wanted to take them to Bali or Fiji. I wanted to pay for the family holiday from my business. And it didn't happen. And the reason that it didn't happen was because we renovated our house instead. Essentially, when it was funny actually, when I looked over my planning that I did for 2023. Renovating wasn't even on my plan, which is really funny, because at the time, we were talking about doing it, but I didn't put it on my plan, which is really bizarre. Anyway, I don't know why I didn't. But we spent a shit ton on our house renovation way more than we planned. It also took a lot of energy from us as a family unit and the overseas holiday didn't happen. The other goal that I had on a personal front was I wanted to lose 10 kilos by June, that didn't happen. I have reengaged with my morning ritual of daily walks. And losing 10 KS is still on my list of goals for 2024 Oh my god, like I remember someone saying to me, wait till you turn 40 It's so much harder to lose weight. And they were not kidding. But yeah, I didn't lose 10k As I wanted to. I did uphold my goal of self care for the most part. I've had moments of feeling really exhausted, I will admit, during and post renovations I was 100% Burnt burnt out after renovating our house. I've never renovated a home in my life, let alone like we renovated the entire house No room was unpatched, like everything. Got a lick of paint, new flooring like and then we had new kitchen, new bathrooms we removed walls. We got in new ceilings like it was the whole it was the whole house. And it took me by surprise, which maybe might sound really naive. But it took me by surprise as to how much energy that really stripped from me and how our whole family was affected. And then also how long it took us to kind of recover from that experience. And it wasn't a negative experience. It was actually a really great experience. Like nothing really went wrong. There was a couple of little hiccups here and there. We had an incredible team of builders and trainees. We had the help of an interior designer Galen drew shout out to you. She's also one of has been one of my clients. So I loved working With gaylene, in, you know, bringing the vision of the house together, so we definitely had an incredible level of support. And we definitely had a great experience, but still, like energetically, it was a lot, it was a lot to live in a house that was being renovated, then it was a lot to live in the caravan for a period of time on our property, whilst it was just too chaotic and unhealthy, with all the dust and fumes and everything that was flying around. So, you know, that was something that, you know, I was unprepared for, when it came to how much self care I probably should have done in that time that I didn't do because we were just putting one foot in front of the other. And also mid November, I was also feeling pretty tired, I wouldn't say I was burnt out. Because I think I recognize the signs and I reengaged the things that I knew I needed that perhaps I had been neglecting, and put boundaries back in place and started to hold myself accountable. But honoring and taking action on myself care again. So I feel like I'm back on track with that now, which is really great, because I hate going into a new year feeling burnt out. So I'm glad that I caught myself there. And that's part of building the self awareness and building up your toolkit of mindset skills, self care skills, business skills is that, you know, we are going to have ebbs and flows, things are gonna go up and down. And when you recognize and you have that self awareness to go, oh, hang on a minute, I'm slipping here, what do I need to get myself out of this, you've got the tools in your toolkit to pull from. So those were my personal goals that I didn't didn't quite hit business goals. I wanted to guest or be a guest on 50 podcasts this year. And I did not hit that goal. Most because I didn't really pitch myself, as I probably should have. I didn't really do much to be honest, to hit that goal. I didn't do much activity in order to reach that. So of course it didn't happen. And I actually took a hiatus from my own podcast, because we were deep in renovations and the environment just didn't allow for podcast recording, it was too noisy.
Speaker 1 17:23
In a nutshell, I also had a download target for the number of downloads of podcast episodes for my own podcast, this podcast, and I smashed it. So you know, it wasn't all bad, it was great, I did get some really great results on the podcasting front, just not necessarily appearing on other people's podcasts. And what else I set a really high really, really, really, really, really high goal for my revenue this year that I did not reach. However, I did set that goal to be very high intentionally, I always have like a good, better best method, when I'm setting my goals, particularly my revenue goals. And I hit the better goal. So kind of like the middle of the range, which, you know, I will say is better than like what it was the year before. Like, I always make sure that I set my goals much higher than the previous year. So I definitely had considerable growth in my revenue, like considerable growth. But I didn't hit my highest goal. And you know, there was lots of reasons for that. One of them was partly because there was a fair bit of downtime when we renovated I feel like so much is coming back to the renovation. But it was pretty massive. And, you know, during that time, I wasn't as productive as I would normally be during those months, it just just wasn't possible. I also this year have pivoted, from marketing my services to mums in business, I've marketed and change. I've changed away from that and leaning more into helping Regional Business Women, which also incorporates mums who run their businesses, but I just feel like it is a much better fit. And of course, that means that I needed to take time to reshape my business to reshape my marketing strategy to get really crystal clear on my messaging and all of that sort of stuff just in the same way that I direct my clients to do that when they are pivoting and reshaping their business or starting their business from scratch. So I had to go back to the drawing board and do that for my own business. And when you're in that creative reshaping rebuilding phase, it's not a revenue generating phase, right. So of course that's going to affect the bottom line. But I did speak at lots of events, which I'm really proud of. So lots of events in person. I host a monthly event locally. I was also engaged to emcee a bunch of events this year, and I ran some team workshop. I Um, Team workplace training. I also spoke at a lot of online events, facilitating masterclasses and I'm really proud of that, and I really enjoyed that. And so there's a lot of power in looking at what you achieved and what you didn't achieve and to go, okay, so yeah, I didn't achieve all of my goals. But what did I achieve? What did I learn from the experience? And, you know, what did I learn about myself? What do I learn about others? And how does that add to my tapestry of experiences and knowledge that now I can add to what I do you know, and so, when you create your highlight reel, I want to invite you to create it for your own sense of achievement, for your own ability to reflect on what went well. Don't do it because you feel like you need to show everyone that you've done good, that you're successful, and that you're amazing. Like be and you are all of those things. But also be real with yourself, and be real with others, because that's what makes you more relatable. It also means that you're living in integrity, with your reality, as well. So check yourself before you wreck yourself when you are watching other people's reels. Check yourself when you go to create your own highlight reel, and do it in a way that feels really aligned and intentional for how you want to consume and how you want to create content. And whilst we're talking about goals, I should mention that I am facilitating a 2024 planning workshop that's happening really soon. It's an online workshop, we'll go through step by step my detailed 2020 24 planning template that I use in my own business to get clarity, to get the focus that I need to hit the ground running. It's also what I share with my clients. So this is a great space, we're spending two hours together, where you can also pick my brains, ask any questions about any ideas that you have, troubleshoot any areas that you're feeling stuck on. And you'll finish the workshop with a plan for 2024 that will help you to elevate your business to the next level. And reach for those big goals so that in 20, at the end of this year, when we're going into 2025, you will have maybe a different feeling about creating your highlight reel. And you'll in this workshop, learn how to future vision for your business, get crystal clear on your goals. I'll talk about how important key metrics are to measure your progress. And look at your financial position and plan to increase your profit ways that you can explore new revenue streams to increase your cash flow. And also systemization automation. We talk about your customers and how you're serving them. And also making sure that you're infusing self care into everything that you do. And you'll finish up this workshop with a one page plan that will keep you anchored to the goals and your intention that you want to set for the year forward that's coming. So if you're interested and you want to get yourself into that, then it's a small investment, it's $47. For a very big game, you'll feel energized, you'll be managing your time effectively and you'll be seeing progress. So if you are interested to come along, I would love to see you there. You can get your ticket, go to Donna han.com forward slash planning workshop. It's a really great taster. taste tester for you. If maybe the soaring to success membership for regional business women has sparked your interest. And you want to sample what it's like to do some training with me. Or maybe just feeling a little bit lost with your business Mojo right now. And this is really going to help you to spark into action. And there's a reason why having a plan creates a 30% greater chance of business growth and that is because a plan gives you direction, it stops you swimming in circles. And that is what I want for you. So that's it from me today. I will be back with another episode next week. But again, happy new year my friend. I hope that you have enjoyed this podcast episode and taken something from it. Bye. Thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of the shoes in business podcast. Make sure you hit follow so that you are the first to know as soon as a new episode drops. And if you really want to deliver me smiles send me a DM find me on Instagram at Donna Han underscore coach and tell me what you loved most about this episode. Also, feel free to let me know what topics you need to learn more about if you are a regional businesswoman, ready to rise and soar towards success. I'll see you back here next week for another episode.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
