10 Things You Should Do Every Month if You are a Lifestyle Entrepreneur or Blogger (or You Want to B
If you’re a lifestyle entrepreneur or blogger (or you want to become one), then I think we can both agree — creating a life and business you love isn't easy. Like the Aladdin song, it's a whole new world - especially if you didn't grow up with any entrepreneurial influence or all your friends or most people you know still work a 9-5 salaried or hourly job.
There’s a lot of soul searching that goes on into becoming a lifestyle entrepreneur, transformation coach or lifestyle blogger. Yes, there are a ton of resources (thank you Google, Pinterest, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter).
At the same time, what works for someone else may not be your "ideal life", business, or day. I know that was absolutely the case (and still is for me). The hustle and constant grind not for me. Been there - done that (and almost killed myself literally).
In Corporate America, from 2003 - 2011 (especially the time between 2007-2010 when I was >55 lbs. heavier, doing part of what I loved, massive people pleaser, losing myself, generating others >7-9 figures annually yet completely miserable with barely any time for my life, health, friends, travel, learning - anyone else relate?)
Now, with that being said - are there times when I put in a lot more time - absolutely! I am constantly in tune though with my spirit, soul, mind, body and how they feel all around. For me, self care is a non-negotiable.
It is so easy to get lost in passion and purpose - especially when you know that you are helping others transform + inspire their lives from the inside out (health, wealth, and business!) I also LOVE to serve. At the same time, acknowledging, how can I possibly serve at the highest level if I am burned out? Hello?! At the same time, recognizing there are times where I push (and I know you do), but I assess way faster than I used to with ALL areas of my life being in flow (spiritual, mental, emotional, relational, physical, financial, and playful!)
It is definitely an art and a science in creating a life and business you love. Like us, it constantly evolves.
You, my friend, want to create a life and business you love. I can tell. That's probably why you are here reading - hello?! You probably love the challenge because like me, you’re crazy (we are the ones that change the world though - yes?!)
So, since you really want to create a life and business you love, this post is for you.
In this blog post, I’m sharing 10 things that you should do every month if you are a lifestyle entrepreneur, blogger, transformation coach (or want to be one!) It may sound like a lot, but the more you do this you will find yourself doing these daily with time like I do!
Plus, if you truly want to create a life and business you love - don't you owe it to yourself and your tribe to invest the time to be sure you are in alignment with who you are all around?
1. Get Clear Each Week.
It is very easy to get caught up in reactive states versus in proactive or creative states. The more clarity we have on the direction we want to go, the easier we get there. It is no different than putting in an address in a GPS so you know where to go.
Questions to Ask Yourself / Your Team:
What did you do great with last week?
What worked absolutely great?
What do you want to shift this week?
What are the three - five things to get done?
Who do you want to connect with?
How are you creating your life?
How are you creating your business model?
How are you creating your tribe?
2. Ask How You Want to Feel.
Too often, we don't pause to think about what feeling we are after when we create or do something. Then we get to the goal, and it doesn't feel like what we wanted so we feel like we did something wrong. We simply didn't think about the vibe before, during, and after.
I am definitely guilty of this - being very goal driven. Now, these are non negotiable. This impacts how you treat yourself, your team, your communication, your feeling all throughout, and your outcome.
For example, my focus for this week is feeling like I am present, joyful, and proud of myself each step of the way.
I am very hard on myself - like many of us. I am definitely gentler than myself now than years ago. However, I am aware of my tendencies. There are tons of times in my history where I did a ton - but I did not stop to celebrate. I simply kept going, and all along the way did not feel "enough". As a result, when I received rewards I didn't "feel" like I deserved them because I never stopped to reflect on how much I had served or done.
I do this now regularly by checking in with myself several times during the day on who am I being, and all that I am doing to serve.
There are tons of times in my history where I did a ton - but I did not stop to celebrate. I simply kept going, and all along the way did not feel "enough". As a result, when I received rewards I didn't "feel" like I deserved them because I never stopped to reflect on how much I had served or done.
I do this now regularly by checking in with myself several times during the day on who am I being, and all that I am doing to serve.
3. Envision Your Perfect Day.
I started practicing a few months ago envisioning my perfect day the night before. This was something that Course in Miracles suggests, and I absolutely love this.
This includes asking yourself:
How do you want to feel?
How do you want to start the day?
How do you want your spiritual practices to be?
How do you want to be mentally and emotionally?
How do you want show and spread joy?
How do you want to create community?
How do you want to create boundaries?
How do you want to serve people?
How do you want to share your message?
How will you feel when you are serving?
How will you feel when you get things done?
What type of people do you want to connect with?
Photo Credit: Preston Olsen - Weekend Voyagers. Pictured: Jen with Social Girl Traveler and Carly with Light Travels and myself, Katrina Julia.
4. Celebrate Your Wins
Gratitude is king or queen. It truly is the glue and takes your energy to a whole new level. Gratitude before, gratitude during, and gratitude after (reliving the moment!) helps truly bring more things to your life to be grateful for!
This is a practice I have been focusing on so much since last April - where Lisa Arnold - a leader with Herbalife Nutrition talked about massive mindset impacts during a training.
I started writing down things I was grateful for in the past, present, and future and creating mental mastery. This includes anything I had previously viewed as "negative" by reframing to what I had learned or what good came out of the situation.
I then started challenging myself on a daily basis to reflect constantly on gratitude in each and every moment.
Being an entrepreneur is not easy - there are many many moments that will test you - from creating what you love to trusting yourself to creating a community to having faith in our creator, yourself, and others to fear of being seen to judgment to financials and everything in between.
I am in year seven of being a full-time entrepreneur. As a former side hustle "queen" from 2003 - 2011 (even when I held full-time corporate executive roles traveling >70%), I can tell you being and doing full-time entrepreneurship is a whole different ball game especially when you go from having a "safety net" for years.
Then, the mental mindset of wondering if you did things "wrong" before to shifting to the mindset that everything is perfect to your journey was the best you could do to where you are is perfect and to freely create something new every day and create a life and business you love. Not to mention, the inner growth will equate your community growth and your financial growth. This all depends on what you are creating, how many you want to serve, in what avenues, and how you want to impact.
The more people + models + impact =
the more growth.
It's simple, not easy.
This includes gratitude for:
Your health.
Your passion.
Your purpose.
Your loved ones.
Your moments.
Your food.
Your technology.
Your freedom.
Your community.
Your service.
Your opportunities.
Your future....
to name a few.
Today, is barely Monday 6:30 pm EST, I've already reflect >15 times on gratitude. From my morning routine to gym time to priceless moments to finishing up my own weekly review to completing my taxes to several opportunities from future events co-hosting, influencer opportunities to create our community with, serving through this post, and more clarity for the week!
Energy is everything!
5. Take the Next Best Step
I've struggled with three major roadblocks in the past, and see many do the same. The key is to focus on the next best step - and to TAKE it. Faith is taking the next step!
Some potential roadblocks:
a. We get caught up in all the things to do and what to do it all today, and then beat ourselves up when we don't. Hello - Rome wasn't built in a day... or Oprah... or Beyonce... or Apple... or Disney.
b. We see the whole vision and want it all here now, and get impatient.
c. We take the a step or two or three, but then doubt or get frustrated because of impatience or fear of the future.
I often also see people get paralyzed and do nothing because the tape that is playing is - why bother or no one cares or I don't matter.
Let me tell you something - you - your story - your voice absolutely matters. You may be the EXACT person someone needs to hear something from.
The key is to focus on the next best step in this moment today. At the same time, being open to feedback internally or otherwise (from a wise source that has walked a path of what you are doing and/or has created new things). It also means often being flexible with new insights and information and shifting continuously.
For example, I used to think it was better for me to do a video first when I created content. Then, from the video create a blog post, a podcast episode, and course information. I've recently shifted to where I first like to write my thoughts down (clue in long blog post LOL), then I like to record the episode from the material, then think about a video for YouTube / Instagram, and /or an integration into our monthly mastermind or academy!
This is all about sharing your story and message smart across multiple platforms where people are.
If you want to get serious about creating a life and business you love, you may create with us to start in our FREE 14 Day Challenge in the Creation Club (our monthly mastermind) and/or take a peak at our retreats or academies!
Here is what a student recently said about our Transformation Academy!
6. Don't be Afraid to Shift
Speaking of how I shared how I recently shifted my content creation flow, don't be afraid to shift. As you get clearer with yourself, and as you grow - things will shift.
Something else, I recently shifted massively is my travel. I realized how last year and the year before, I was creating a lot of content and speaking engagements for an organization that was controlling the marketing, the speaking fee, and the content delivery and style. This was pulling me from creating in alignment with the life and business I loved. Simply, I had shifted.
Back in 2011, I had aligned to them and things flowed easier. However, as I grew in a direction (and had gratitude and invited them to grow or for us to grow together), they decided not to in various ways (note: their income and bookings and clients massively lowered).
I realized I had held on to them out of my own fears that "I couldn't do it on my own with our creations" (side hustle syndrome afraid to take full next leap of faith).
I realized it was time to leap and I did massively in December and January.
I also realized leap because the net is already there.
This will includes things like:
Your communication.
Your day.
Your team.
Your content creation.
Your platforms.
Your tools.
Your visuals.
Your colors.
Your value.
Your travel.
Your service.
Your opportunities.
Your future....
to name a few.
7. Take Note of What to Learn
As you shift, and as your clarity grows in what type of life and business you want to create, you will realize many things you are great at (as you should - you are a priceless human with lots of value and tons of insights and experiences!).
You will also note what is something you get to learn.
A big thing I had to reframe (recovering perfectionist and fear of failure) is that we always win or learn (so ALWAYS win). When we learn, we simply get to shift (see point six hello). In every single thing I do, I take note of "lessons learned". The basics of this is what worked, what didn't (for myself, for the team, for the tool, for the approach, for the technology).
This recently has included things like:
Increase in traffic
Community growth
Social Platform growth
Manifesting next level
This has translated into expanding massively on Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram. Last week, I took two free courses on Pinterest and Instagram with Jenna Kutcher and Melyssa Griffin and applied (already have seen >700% increased traffic in last 3 weeks on Pinterest alone).
I've also become a now three time contributor to Bplans - an entrepreneur platform with business and marketing plans (my ideal tribe) to provide value on growing and scaling a business, and have increased campaigns and researching new tools for influencers and creating community.
I also recently invested in attending a Leadership Development Weekend coming up with Herbalife Nutrition (this is part of all of our experiences too when you create with us - we believe in equipping you with tools!), and Experts Academy in May with Brendon Burchard to increase my communication and effectiveness in multiple ways in marketing. I also leveraged both of these events by pitching for a guest blog post on "How to Attend Entrepreneur Events and Get Maximum Results to Your Brand" - so this will be coming up!
A great post you may want to read that goes into way more detail in this is my 90 Day Plan (and I have a FREE Guide too to help you!).
8. Create the Lifestyle Entrepreneurship You Love
Its so important to connect with yourself. To go within during quiet time, and ask yourself what do you want in your life. For myself, this has involved creating >75% time at home (if not more). When people meet me they think I am highly extroverted because I love to create, connect, and be with community. I am actually an ambivert (I learned this term a few years ago when I read the Power of Quiet. I LOVE my alone time. I LOVE to create (requires alone time). I love to check in with myself to be sure I am aligned. Years ago, I didn't and I don't ever want to get near being misaligned again.
At the same time, I love to be with like minded, high vibe, creators too. I love to create with community too! I love to serve. I love to create and share experiences. I love to give back. This also though takes a lot of energy out of me (and I then need down time - that's an ambivert or introvert).
As a result, this has massively impacted our business model.
I don't ever want to feel like a slave to the business (or want anyone else to). I also want to show true freedom and scaling smart. As a result, over 80% of our business is fully scaled with automation (this includes our Freebies, 7 Day Challenge, Creation Club, Academies, and upcoming programs).
This means that we film, add supporting materials, set up automated step by step emails one and done, and a 1,000, 10,000, 100,000, a million students can be in the lifestyle platform all at once.
Now, granted it takes scaling a community to respond to the online portal, questions, feedback, transformation packs, and more. At the same time, we don't email each time the materials. Everything is all. set up. I've also helped scale entrepreneurs, medium size companies, and multi million and billion dollar brands so this is a big part of my influence.
I am also heavily influenced by Tim Ferris - Four Hour Work Week - and being sure I practice what I preach by having a scaled and automated platform.
This includes components like:
Freebies
Challenges
Masterminds
Academies
Influencers
I also love community though remember?
I also love travel (I was in four countries by the time I was two and now >25!)
I also love to give back! I also want to help end homelessness and end cancer and help battered women and military vets (often all part of the same groups).
So, I got to figure out how I wanted to integrate all of that into lifestyle entrepreneurship and creating a. life and business I love and helping others do the same!
9. Create and Cultivate Community
The clearer you get on the community you want to create and cultivate, the easier it will be. I started asking myself this back in 2015 more and more. I realized I wanted to create with the dreamers, bloggers, entrepreneurs, coaches, and those that wanted to be. I also got clear that I wanted to create and cultivate with the high vibers.
So, I had to learn how to effectively set boundaries, community with high vibes and much more!
I also dug deep on how I wanted to engage with others, what levels, and boundaries.
This included outlining how many annual sessions I would have in person with those that wanted to create and cultivate community with us.
This includes components like:
I got clear on the impacts to my energy when I traveled like I did last year or the year before at 30%+ (time spent packing, traveling, post event recovery, and time away from sharing my story, message, and service more that translated to real dollars impacts).
As a result, about 20% of our platform involves live components.
I also set up our influencers, retreats, and academies with scaleable components to grow the team with support, endless collabs, retreat leaders, transformation coaches and more as the community grows. Simply put, I may not want to travel a ton however I see how we may create opportunities for others to leverage all the components.
10. Travel on Your Terms
Speaking of travel! I LOVE to travel. However, I have been a Road Warrior and have zero desire to become one again.
I like to say I have roots and wings.
I have dreams and desires to travel to 100 countries solo, with my future family, family, and team.
Some people love being a digital nomad, or never ending traveler - and that's great if that is you. However, if it isn't you will know very quickly either what boundaries to put in place, or how you want to shift.
There have absolutely been seasons in my life where there may be more (or less) depending on what goals or things I have going on. For example, right now I am training for a fitness show in July in Atlanta so I am aware of potential impacts.
I also know travel may impact my consistency. So, for now I am focused on being consistent, and/or I've handed things off and scaled smart with a team member.
Travel on Your Terms is Finding Your Happy Place.
Phew! Thanks for creating with me! . More ways for you to create in our community would be in our FREE 14 Day Challenge - in our Creation Club - our monthly mastermind!
Create. Transform. Inspire. You Were Born to.
Comment on what you are creating or what insight you had!
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