Why growing yourself might be the answer to growing your business.
The point of this article is to get you thinking. Which hopefully gets you acting. In order to do both those things I feel it’s necessary to give you a bit of a back story on who I am and why my words matter.
My name is Robyn Shaw and I am a female entrepreneur. I am driven, determined, passionate and focused just like you. I am also human. What that means is that I have days that are an absolute mess. I’ll miss breakfast and lunch, I’ll be slouching over my computer for hours. I’ll forget to take the dog out to the park and I’ll barely take a sip of water all day.
My hustle reigns priority over everything else some days. The success of my business might be the only thing I really care about sometimes. As I’m sure a lot of you can relate.
Now, the thing about this truth is that it cannot be my forever truth. It cannot be the truth that rules the majority of my days and it cannot be yours.
I know that because I know what happens if we let it.
Our productivity eventually decreases, our focus deteriorates, our efficiency and ability to make good judgement calls falls by the wayside. Everything that you were previously neglecting – sleep, water, good food – in hopes to increase all of those things – productivity, focus and efficiency – are the exact things you need in order to regain control of them.
I know this because I have experienced it in my own life, and so as a fellow female entrepreneur, I’d like to speak in a language that we all relate to. Through this language I’m going to, hopefully, convince you that you need to put the same priority on you and your own health as you would the health of your business.
Bulk or Batch Prepping
To all my content creators out there – this one is for you! Although if you’re a small business owner, I’m sure you’re practising some form of content creation whether it’s through your social media, website or blog.
If you type into Google Search “content creator template” or “how to speed up content creation” I’m sure you’ll come across loads of people who are selling a system that allows you to spend a few hours one day to create 3 months worth of content. I’ve done it myself. I’ve paid hundreds of dollars to learn about how I can be most efficient in being omnipresent on social media without it costing me hours and hours of my time.
What is the benefit of this? Well, other than the obvious time save, it’s about not having to worry about posting every single day and using that time for other things.
What if we took that same approach with our eating?
Ever heard of meal prep? It literally is the batch content creation of food. It can give you the exact same peace of mind that you’d get from saving hours on pre-creating. Except this time you’re food prepping.
Now, I’m not all about spending 5 hours every Sunday in the kitchen and making all your week’s meals. But I am about making sure that you take some time to ensure your fridge and kitchen is well stocked and you have staples ready to go so that you can make a quick and easy meal.
Don’t let the excuse of time be the reason why you’re not eating for 12+ hours during a busy work day. Get ahead of it and pre-plan!
Why is this important?
You wouldn’t miss a day of putting out content, would you? If you’ve learned one thing while growing your business, you know that consistency in putting out content wins. It’s a daily task. Consistency in your health is no different. That means that the only way you’ll see real results – energy, productivity, weight loss if that’s your goal – is if you get really good at being consistent. Eating good quality, clean and energizing food, consistently, will get you there.
Related: Download our FREE Fempreneur Self Love Journal.
Hiring To Grow
Sometimes you feel like you’re wearing all the hats, I get it. There are days where you wear hats that force you to deal with things that you just aren’t excited about. Or, you’re dealing with things that are so far out of your expertise and are totally not the reason why you got into business in the first place!
There are also hats that you wear that you know could look way better on someone else.
So you have options. You can either hire a stylist to help teach you how to make the hat look better on you. Or you can hire someone to just wear the hat themselves. I hope you’re following my hat analogy here.
The former takes shape in the form of a mentor or a coach. Which I truly believe any business owner needs. This person is there to coach you through your next steps, identify your gaps, areas of improvement and lead you in the right direction.
The later takes shape in the form of a new employee. Where they can take on the role for you.
Now, I cannot give you the option of having someone live a healthy lifestyle for you. I wish I could – I would be a billionaire. But I can tell you that you can hire someone to make sure you stay productive, active, focused, and healthy. Which, as we’ve already covered, leads to a more successful, entrepreneurial you.
So as someone who wears all the hats, don’t neglect your health hat. Instead, it should be the one you wear most proud.
Why is this important?
There are studies on studies that show a direct link to activity and clean eating to higher productivity. One study even noted a 72 percent improvement in time management and workload completed on days when business owners exercised and ate healthy.
A Harvard study showed evidence that activity boosts mental abilities like enhanced creativity, quicker learning, sharper memory and improved concentration.
If you’re looking to succeed in your business, you might need to start thinking about hiring a nutrition and/or a fitness coach!
Follow The Metrics
It’s your monthly metric meeting with the team and you’re reviewing the past month of numbers. You notice that last month’s revenue has decreased by 3% and your monthly cost has increased by 5%. What do you do? How do you feel?
You don’t shrug it off as nothing and move forward as if nothing happened. You create a plan. You look at what happened, where you can improve, and you make action items for the team.
There’s a reason why I’m a strong believer in using objective data in your health journey.
When we attach metrics to certain steps or actions, we make sure we are actually moving in the right direction. Think of it as a compass reading or a GPS. Your GPS reading is showing you real-time data on each step you’re taking, letting you know if you’re moving toward your destination or further away.
The most powerful and important word there is “real-time”. When it comes to creating a healthy lifestyle, there’s no obstacle greater than time. The reality is that if we don’t see results fast enough, we lose interest and/or motivation. It’s the number 1 reason why people give up.
Gathering information like our average number of steps, average hours of sleep or number of cups of water we drink can show us if we’re progressing forward…or not. Even if we don’t exactly see the results immediately.
It’s just the same as tracking engagement on Instagram – or any other platform analytics for that matter. Maybe your following isn’t increasing at the rate that you’d hope, but your average comments and shares have increased.
Setting out a system where we can visualize our progress gives us some instant gratification — again circling back to the power of time. Because if we cannot see progress when we look in the mirror, at least we can see it on paper.
Why is this important?
We need motivation. As a business owner, you probably have a level of grit and perseverance that not a lot of people have. This plays to your advantage when things get really hard. You keep pushing and that’s what will one day separate you from the pack.
Setback triggers growth. When you see a setback in your numbers, you pivot. You create a plan and you get the team fired up.
It’s important to take this same mindset and approach with your personal health journey. Use the numbers to push you, to trigger action and to motivate you to be better.
So, are you convinced? Are you convinced that you are the thing that your business might be missing? The healthy, focused, energized, and productive you. If there’s one single line that you take away from this article, it’s this – in order to grow your business, you need to grow yourself.
Robyn Shaw is a nutrition and lifestyle coach and CEO of BODZii based in Toronto. She helps girl bosses drive success in their business by focusing on themselves and their personal health. You can read about her at: www.bodzii.com.
