Are you leading your business or is it leading YOU?

This is an AI-transcript of episode 275 of the Purpose and Pixie Dust Podcast. You can listen anywhere you listen to podcasts or on the player below.

Speaker 0 (00:00:00) - Hey girl. Welcome to the Purpose and Pixie Dust podcast, the podcast where we dive deep into our passions, our purpose, and really unlock our potential with the pixie dust thrown in, what is pixie dust? You might ask. It's the fun and joy that gets unlocked when you're creating and owning your magic. I'm Lindsay Dollinger, dog mama, Disney lover and high school Spanish teacher who has used my magic to grow my businesses while also working full-time. I'm on a mission to help other women create and own your magic by building not only the business of your dreams, but also the life of your dreams while still juggling life, your full-time job and all the things. So if you want more than this provincial life, let's use our glass slippers to break those glass ceilings and sprinkle lots of pixie dust into our lives and businesses. Let's do this.

Speaker 0 (00:00:50) - Hey, hey, friend. I am popping in here to make sure that you know about the best kept secret membership that exists for women entrepreneurs and shocking. The name is The Magical Membership for Women Entrepreneurs. So what is this magical membership you might ask? Well, it is a super fun place that I have curated. Uh, there's a Facebook group component to it as well as a website portal. So if you're not on Facebook, no worries, you can still be a part of the membership, but there is amazing community accountability, challenges, trainings, templates done for you, uh, social media, calendar content, all all the things, literally all the things, and I don't talk about it nearly as much as I should. So here is your open invitation to join the magical membership for women entrepreneurs. The information is in the links, or you can definitely send me a DM and I can get you all of the dets. I hope I just realized that rhyme. I'm, oh my gosh. Well, I hope you go out there creating on your magic and I will see you inside the magical membership for women entrepreneurs.

Speaker 1 (00:01:54) - Hello. Hello. Welcome back to a Biz Tip Thursday episode of the podcast. I heard something recently and I thought it warranted jumping on here in sharing. So I wanna ask you a question about you and your business, and I want you to answer it just like from your gut. First thing that comes to your mind, yes or no. So here's the question. Are you leading your business or is your business leading you? All right, ask again, are you leading your business or is your business leading you? And when I heard that question, and I wish I could remember what podcast I was listening to, I think it was a podcast when the host asked that, I was like, Ooh, that is a good one. Because I think that's such an important question to ask yourself, especially for us as busy women who are doing all the things, we're juggling everything, whether it's a full-time job, your kids, another business, maybe you have multiple side hustles, or maybe you just want to have a life with freedom of time, location whenever it is.

Speaker 1 (00:02:57) - And so we're trying to create that quote unquote balance and really achieve what it is for us to, that we deem success, right? So as we were asking that question, let's first talk about some signs your business might be leading you. So when I think about times when my business is leading me, it happens when I have said yes to things that maybe I didn't really feel aligned with, or things that weren't necessarily going to bring me some sort of an ROI on my investment, things that I didn't necessarily need to do yet at the level I was outta my business. Um, or maybe they were just time sucks. We have all done that. We've all said yes out of obligation, right? So that is one of my first, like I talk a lot about my self-awareness and how that has become such a huge part of my business decisions, but I think that is so, so important, okay?

Speaker 1 (00:03:49) - So that is the first sign for me is when I find myself saying yes to things that are not necessarily aligned for me and my business. Along with that same thing is when I know my business is leading me is I have this to-do list that seems like it's never ending and I always feel like I'm playing catch up and or I'm doing all of these quote unquote things that are moving my business forward, but I'm not actually seeing results. So in that case, my business is leading me sometimes, you know, we are just like keeping things afloat and we're in that season and it's okay to be in that season, but it's not okay to stay in that season forever because that's when the overwhelm comes, that's when the burnout comes. Um, so I would love to hear from you, send me a dm, let me know, but when have you felt like your business is leading you?

Speaker 1 (00:04:39) - Like, what, what does, what comes up for you when you start thinking about what that looks like for you and your business? So I'm gonna give you some tips on how we can make sure we are leading our business instead of the other way around. So very first thing, we have to get very clear on what your vision is, what our purpose is, you know, what is the impact that we are trying to make. If we don't have that, if we don't have, and then turn that into some set goals that we can actually measure, keep track of, adjust, make sure we are aligned with, we're never gonna know if we're moving in the right direction, and then we're going to be having our business leading us instead of the other way around. So take some time to reflect on that. Um, in my membership, I make a post and I encourage my membership ladies to do this every Sunday.

Speaker 1 (00:05:25) - So, you know, you know, I'm a big planner, , I love planning all the things. And so for me, a lot of that planning comes from I feel as though I can't properly plan for the upcoming week, months, quarters, et cetera, if I'm not, again, being really self-aware, if I'm not reflecting on where my business currently is at what's working and what's not. Along with that tip number two is set boundaries. So, you know, that's one of the things I said that I felt like when my business is leading me, I find that I have let my boundaries get a little wishy-washy. So it's so easy to get caught up in our day-to-day tasks of running a business, but it's so important to set boundaries for yourself, you know, decide when you're gonna work, when you're gonna take time for yourself, your family, and your friends, and stick to it as much as you can.

Speaker 1 (00:06:11) - Obviously, that's not always gonna be the case. I do believe there are seasons for everything as well, but doing this is going to help you avoid burnout and stay focused on what really matters. Tip number three, when we are leading our business, when we are the CEO of our business, we're gonna delegate, we're gonna automate tasks, we're gonna create systems. So I have some other podcast episodes. I had, um, an amazing training as well that I shared in my free group all about how to get the, the topic was getting five hours back in your business each week. But , it does so much more than that. You know, when you're able to delegate, automate, and have systems for your business, things are just going to flow , they're gonna flow. You're not even gonna realize all the time that you are saving because we can't do everything on our own.

Speaker 1 (00:06:55) - And that's okay. You know what, multi gosh, I mean, and I know money is not always the biggest thing, but what business do you know of that is making a substantial amount, whatever that is for you, and has a substantial amount of clients and they don't have any help and they don't have delegation, they don't have systems. Like, I can't think of a single one. I would love to know if you know of one, but you know, doing these things are going to help free up your focus so that you can really spend time on tasks that actually require your unique skillset, you, what makes you you. And that is the differentiator between you and the other people in your business. Tip number four, prioritize tasks. So not all tasks are created equal. We know that. So what actually needs to get done to move our business forward and focus on those first.

Speaker 1 (00:07:42) - You might have read the book, eat That Frog. Um, I can't think of other ones right now that go off this, but I like to prioritize top three things each day. And everything else is just the fluff. It's the sprinkles on top of the cake if you get it done. Um, but you know what? You can eat a cake without the sprinkles, right? So we need to get the cake. We can't have a cake without the actual cake, the the literal cake. So do the important parts first and then everything else is just extra. And you know, there are gonna be days where you're not gonna wanna get to the extra, you don't wanna get bogged down just doing the busy work. And tip five goes back to kind of tip two with, um, setting those. Well, no, it was tip two, no tip one, creating, um, your vision.

Speaker 1 (00:08:25) - But tip five is actually measuring your success. So when we go back and we are reflecting on our business what things have looked like, don't give up on things too soon. But if you're looking at these metrics and you're like, man, I have been doing this particular thing for 90 days, six months a year, and I don't know that it's actually paying off, especially if it's something that's not like a long-term thing. For example, Pinterest, um, YouTube, your blog may not be something that you're going to see huge results from in that amount of time. But if it's something like you've been doing a live video every day for that amount of time and you haven't gotten one single client, then we need to start looking at what you are doing and the strategy side of things so that we can tweak something so that you can start seeing the success that you desire if there's always things that you can tweak.

Speaker 1 (00:09:16) - That's one of my favorite things that I do as a coach when I'm working, especially with, um, my clients in one-on-one sessions with our VIP strategy calls, and even in our small group coaching in the membership. My Magical Membership for Women Entrepreneurs, we have a small group coaching call each month and you get to hop on and ask your questions for your business. And I love seeing the aha moments from when I'm able to say like, Hey, well what if you tweak this? Have you ever thought of doing this? Maybe you combine these two things. Maybe we can sit, you know, simply this so that you're able to do X, Y, Z and have more time. Like literally, that's one of my favorite things. So ask for help in any of these. Ask for help. That is what I am here for.

Speaker 1 (00:09:59) - That is what your other mentors and coaches are here for. That is what exactly what we do in the membership community. So, you know, if you're listening to this and you're like, I totally have been having my business lead me and not the other way around, reach out. Don't, you know, don't struggle with this alone. It's so, so silly to do that. Um, but I would really encourage you, you know, journal on this. Really start thinking about this. Are you leading your business or is your business leading you? And what can you do to adjust so that you can have that massive success that you so, so much deserve? So remember, create a vision. Set boundaries, delegate, automate, systemize, prioritize your task and measure your success. And you are going to become the leader of your business and create the life you've always dreamed of before you ever or before you know it, not before you ever know it. , that sounded kind of weird. Anyway, go out there, my dear friend. Create on your magic if you loved this episode. Short, sweet, to the point. That's how I roll. , please take a screenshot, share it in your stories. Tag me. I would love to hear your biggest takeaway. And if you have yet to leave a five star rating and review for this show, go ahead and scroll down right now. Do that. I appreciate you, love you, talk soon.

Speaker 0 (00:11:06) - Hey girl. Welcome to the Purpose and Pixie Dust podcast. The podcast where we dive deep into our passions, our purpose, and really unlock our potential with some pixie dust thrown in. What is pixie dust? You might ask. It's the fun joy that gets unlocked when you're creating and owning your magic. I'm Lindsay Dollinger, dog mama, Disney lover and high school Spanish teacher who has used my magic to grow my businesses while also working full-time. I'm on a mission to help other women create and own your magic by building not only the business of your dreams, but also the life of your dreams while still juggling life, your full-time job and all the things. So if you want more than this provincial life, let's use our glass slippers to break those glass ceilings and sprinkle lots of pixie dust into our lives and businesses. Let's do this.