How I Avoid Burnout as a Part-Time Business Owner & Working a Full-Time Job: 3 Mindset Beliefs I've Adopted (Solopreneur Pep Talk Ep. #003)

Welcome back to Solopreneur Pep Talk series!

Today I wanted to talk about something I think is SO common amongst the solopreneur/entrepreneur culture and it's the idea that we all start somewhere. And that somewhere is typically a place where we are working for someone else. I want to immediately follow this up with a disclaimer that I actually DO believe in working a job and even building a career if that is what you want, and I also don't believe that us as individuals should ONLY being doing one or the other- building a career, or building a business.

So, this is the topic we're going to be talking about today– a topic that I'm actually so excited to dive into because I'm going to leave you with 3 mindset beliefs I've adopted to balance my career/business/life so that I never feel overwhelmed, but better yet, feel like I'm constantly making progress on all of my goals.

Don't forget to like this video/blog if this subject matter excites you as it really helps me determine what to talk about next! Welcome back to the channel, and if you're new here– Hi! My name is Liz, I'm the head photographer and content strategist here at Essence Presents. We serve wellness businesses, craft artisans and creative solopreneurs through authentic brand photography and videography services, as well as content marketing resources to ultimately help you streamline content creation off of your plate so that you can live the authentic business owner life that you dream of. Your time, your energy, and your efforts as a leader are VALUABLE, and creating content should only add to your growth, not take away from it. So my goal on this channel (always) is to let you in on the tactics, strategies and tips that have helped me on my journey as a business owner of 2 completely different businesses for 4+ years. Let's dive in

Stop seeing your businesses success in relativity to time.

I'm sure you've heard it before, but I really want you to ask yourself something. Would you rather ensure your success, but not be able to see it in your current reality yet? Or would you rather risk the possibility of not having long-standing success, but be able to see success now?

Genuinely think thoroughly about this question. The reason I want you to really think about this is because the right answer may seem obvious, but what you actually want may contradict. If you want your business to have longevity– that doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to see success now, or even years from now the way you expect it to happen. You may still experience success, but it will be slower growing, and only noticeable over a longer amount of time. Versus the other part of this question– you could be someone that gets motivated from seeing success and so you think that seeing the success in your reality NOW is going to actually drive you. But here is what I've learned:

Success in business does not look the way we think it does.

I recently had a win in my business, and this is a perfect example of what I mean by this. I've been doing a certain thing consistently in my business for about 10 months, and only a week ago, I experienced the "success" that I thought I was going to experience every single month leading up to now. It did not come quick, or even over time in the way I envisioned it would, and a lesson I've learned in this journey of being in business is that providing value is not enough, you have to provide value consistently to eventually gain the authority you always knew you deserved.

So even if you were honest with yourself in answering that question and you think you'd rather see success now because it will drive you– this is sometimes not even possible unless you go viral or have an unexpected growth spurt of some kind. So wouldn't you rather treat your business like the sweet living entity that it is and allow it to blossom and bloom as it naturally will anyway? This to me is really speaking to the root of authenticity– and this follows beautifully into my next tip.

Get extremely clear about your personal mission in life, and align all areas of your life to this mission.

One of the things I've realized in placing my efforts in many different areas of life is that– it actually comes easy to me to extend myself in various ways simply because I live through one common denominator: my personal mission.

If I had to put my personal mission into words, it would go a little something like this:

Serve purpose-driven, passionate people who have a new, innovative, unique and creative perspective on humanity as I believe this is what makes the world a beautiful place.

Now this personal mission is something I am just now reflecting on– I've never developed this for any other purpose outside of this blog. But this mission came easy for me write out because it is so evidently clear to me that over the course of my life, this is exactly what I've leaned into in my interests whether it was masked through job titles, locations I've lived, friendships, hobbies, etc.

To give you a real life example of what this can look like, I'll use myself as an example. I've always had a hobby in the audio visual technology (sound design, video production, etc) which essentially led me to becoming a photographer/videographer. I've also always had this draw toward purpose. Anything purpose-driven or purpose-seeking has always lit up my soul, and I think because for a long time in my life I was always searching for it– when really it just had to be normalized in my experience. This purpose-driven attraction comes through my life in the people, businesses, companies I've worked with. It's a draw towards authentic and unique perspectives, so if you saw my Spotify podcast feed, you'd be correct to assume it's a lot of self development, spirituality, wellness kind of podcasts.

Just to wrap it all up, my personal mission ends with "making the world a beautiful place", and because I'm a visually-inclined person– this to me speaks to the utility in which I myself contribute to the beauty in the world which is the technology piece- photography/videography. But when it comes to who I serve, that's where my purpose gets fulfilled in WHO I serve. My mission is really all about making the world a more beautiful place, and the people I believe make that happen are of course, the people, businesses, companies that I work with because it's all serving this mission. I hope this all makes sense!

The reason I believe getting clear on your personal mission can actually serve you in balancing the many areas you are putting effort into is because if it is all coming from a rooted place that aligns with your belief systems and your North Star– you are not going to feel scattered even if other people think your life is chaotic. Take it from me, because SO many people ask me how I balance it all. It all has to come back around to you, and what you believe. If all that you do fulfills your soul because there is a common denominator between everything, your work and life is going to be fulfilling to you.

Now that we've talked through 2 of the most important belief systems when it comes to balancing your business and a full-time career, I'd like to now shift the conversation into more of the logistical mindset of actually structuring your life around your commitments so that you are serving all aspects of life that you not only need to be present for, but want to be present for. Here's my last tip:

Adopt a self-motivated discipline within yourself.

Let's start out by defining discipline. On Google, discipline is defined as: "the practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behavior, using punishment to correct disobedience."

Okay so minus the punishment piece (because that's a bit toxic), let's consider what having discipline means. From this definition, we can say that discipline means obeying the rules or codes of behavior. Now when it comes to defining your own rules and codes, this is where things can get difficult– but it doesn't have to be.

If you're reading this and you're already running a business part time (or full time), I'm going to take a wild guess and say that you are at least attempting a self-motivated or self-determined lifestyle. This is exactly where you should be. If you know for a fact that you are primarily motivated by others, whether that's groups of people or having a boss, now is the time to consider alternatives to this. If you are motivated by groups of people working toward a similar goal, consider signing up to free Facebook Groups for entrepreneurs, or business groups that meet up every week to talk about projects your working on or challenges you may both share in your individual work. If you're motivated by a boss, what that really means is you are motivated by deadlines and responsibilities bound by expectations and time.

Now is the time to really change that relationship within yourself so that you can be motivated by the responsibilities and deadlines that you to apply to yourself. This can be hard to do, but staying organized and knowing the outcome and the why to all of the efforts you put into your business can really help.

When you're in a place of balancing various efforts that are all working toward your goals, we have to first consider your non-negotiable commitments. These are the aspects of life that you are bound by– whether contractually or because others depend on you. Consider how much time these non-negotiable aspects of life take up, and how you will operate at your best during those times (whether you want to shift these commitments to the morning, or afternoon because you work better during those times). It's understandable that these aspects of life can take up a solidified area of your life, so let them. Hopefully these non-negotiable areas of life are things that bring you joy, or bring you value in some way.

For example, my non-negotiable aspects of life are my part-time job, time spent with my significant other in the evenings, family time, and tending to my health. Of course I am contractually bound by my job, but the thing that all of these areas of life have in common for me is that I place a high amount of value on them. I know that my job as a Social Media Manager actually serves me in my business with more experience, so therefore, I place value on that. Everything else is a personal value to me that I find joy in putting effort into because it brings me happiness.

The non- negotiables and your source of motivation are all extremely important to consider when it comes to your ability to thrive while adopting a self-disciplined mindset. This is where I advise you to start! Don't beat yourself up if this doesn't come as easy to you as you'd like– it is truly all part of the process of becoming the business owner you want to be.

I'm going to leave you with my favorite tool that can actually help you with developing self-discipline, and I recommend it to EVERY business owner no matter your field, industry, or expertise. And the best part about this tool is I created it myself! It's called the Content Marketing Master Spreadsheet. There are 4 tabs within this spreadsheet:

• one to help you with content strategy and ideation

• one to outline your social media content for the month

• one to help you identify your monthly editorial plan

• one to help you see one singular birds-eye-view of your business tasks and processes (this one is my daily go-to tool– seriously). It's all about simplification baby!

If you're someone who could use help in the realm of discipline and keeping your efforts consistent and organized, I highly recommend you utilize specifically the Task Plan tab within this Content Marketing Master spreadsheet. It is seriously a game change for streamlining the processes you need to get done. I personally walk you through how I use this very tool so that you have some guidance on exactly how to utilize it! Here's that video walkthrough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wrQ8g5HM30

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Hi, I'm Liz! I'm so BEYOND grateful to be serving you - wellness business leaders, creative solopreneurs and artisan crafters- in streamlining the content creation process off of your plate so that you can get back to doing more of what you love. If you're interested in learning more about what we do at Essence Presents, or your really looking to get your content creation process under control in your business, take your pick below:

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