How to Prepare For and Embrace Different Seasons of Your Business

This week’s episode walks listeners through how to prepare for and embrace different seasons of your business. Em and Lex focus on coaching businesses, but the practical advice applies across industries. Gain wisdom on managing life's different seasons, both expected and unpredictable, and understand their impact on your business. The episode delves into the specific seasons of a coaching business, offering actionable tips for preparation and strategies to sustain momentum.

Here’s what you’ll learn: 

• Strategies for navigating both predictable and unpredictable life moments in business planning.
• Unique approaches to preparation based on the different seasons your business may encounter.
• Tips for embracing and effectively handling various business seasons.
• Real-life examples from Em and Lex, showcasing how they've prepared for different seasons in their business.
• Practical advice for managing unexpected life events, allowing space for grace during challenging times.
• Exploration of different business-affecting seasons beyond the conventional understanding.
• Tips and ideas for considering the financial impact of seasonal coaching on your business.
• And more!

Listener Links:

Learn More about the Ready Set Coach Launch Pack: 

https://www.readysetcoachprogram.com/launch 

Follow Em & Lex on Instagram at @readysetcoachcommunity

Join the Ready Set Coach Community: www.readysetcoachcommunity.com

Learn more about Six Degrees Society and THEPRBAR inc.

Transcript

Emily Merrell  

Oh guys I disclosed a nickname to her at a very vulnerable time in my life. When I was 12 I went to summer camp in Miami first

Lexie Smith  

this is a disclaimer if you have little ears we're gonna have some some words. Okay. I will really keep it

Emily Merrell  

up but I went to I went to summer camp in Wyoming. It was by the Tetons, the Grand Tetons, which are mountain mountain range in Wyoming. And Teton in French means boob. And so I was called the Grand Tetons or BBB, the big boobed.

Lexie Smith  

Big boob bitch.

Emily Merrell  

Yeah, there we go. I was 12 Oh,

Lexie Smith  

so you were I was jealous of the girls like you because you developed early and got all the attention, which, from a parent's standpoint, I feel like it was probably horrifying. No one wants to kid to develop early probably in that lens.

Emily Merrell  

Greg describes it beautifully. He thinks that I looked like a Mr. Potatohead well, you

Lexie Smith  

also the unibrow laughs Yeah, like all

Emily Merrell  

my parts didn't really fit together yet. They didn't really. They were like wrong shape and long, skinny arms long, skinny legs. These big boobs, the bushy skinny

Lexie Smith  

legs and big boobs way. Yeah.

Emily Merrell  

I'll send you a picture after this. Maybe I'll include it in the show notes.

Lexie Smith  

I have seen ample photos of you as a youth and I will say that your beautiful face took a minute to match up to your beautiful

Emily Merrell  

all the parts they just took some time to grow and I had braces. I got all the colors for every holiday. Did you have braces? I did not. Did not oh

Lexie Smith  

the middle of my teeth when I was 18 I had it filled in so I always had a small gap. Ah, you did?

Emily Merrell  

Did you have a thing hanging down and have it snipped? Nope. Okay, nevermind.

Lexie Smith  

It just thought it filled in. Um, and I had to have multiple teeth like surgically removed I still have baby teeth I'm going to an oral surgeon tomorrow to officially address it because they're getting you know apparently I'm getting older meaning the baby teeth are like on their last legs so it's a whole thing they have to like take it out then you have them out for like four months because they have to heal then they like surgically implant I don't know it's a whole thing can't wait to see what that's gonna cost.

Emily Merrell  

Oh, that sounds like a lot of fun. The next thing on my teeth to do list is I have receding gums.

Lexie Smith  

Well you do see doesn't look like it all

Emily Merrell  

thank you oh my oral surgeon friends say otherwise.

Lexie Smith  

And I would never think of that. Every time

Emily Merrell  

I go to the doctor they're like Well Are you done having kids because maybe it's time for you to do this surgery. I'm like I don't want to do the surgery and then let's see the

Lexie Smith  

ball because the way you smile and your your mouth hits you can see it

Emily Merrell  

yeah I'm not too gummy which is good and

Lexie Smith  

I think like one of these yeah

Emily Merrell  

and I'm not a gummy gummy smiler but it's my one of my friends did it they take the skin from the roof of your mouth and then they like they grafted I think as a

Lexie Smith  

doctor that sounds seen is like burn victims. Yes,

Emily Merrell  

yeah, they grafted right here. And then you have to do it twice. I'm like, No. unsubscribe. I don't want to do that.

Lexie Smith  

This is really fun squirrel have a conversation.

Emily Merrell  

The sticks you guys are knowing us intimately now. Lex do you have doober glasses?

Lexie Smith  

I don't

Emily Merrell  

turn it Okay guys. I'm like really blind

Lexie Smith  

and need to know I don't wear glasses. And I know you do.

Emily Merrell  

You wear glasses. Sometimes though.

Lexie Smith  

I wear computer glasses to come to make myself look smarter sometimes to combat the blindness, although these ones are pink, so that's probably counterproductive.

Emily Merrell  

Really healthy. No, I think I want to get LASIK. Like I'm at that place where I want to get LASIK. I think it would be such a dream to wake up and be able to see. And every once in a while when I've had too much to drink. I fall asleep with my contacts in and I think miracles happened. And I wake up and I have perfect vision

Lexie Smith  

miracles happen you know this whole conversation has been setting us up for a perfect transition guys because today we're we're going to talk about we're not going to talk about the seasons of of life yet. What we're going to talk about is how to prepare for and embrace different seasons of your business especially as a coach because this is amplified. Yeah.

Emily Merrell  

Oh wow. lacks you are still crushing those transitions, I think. I don't know guys, I'm starting to think we should just do like a whole episode on transitions and put Lexie the spot to the test.

Lexie Smith  

Let's see. Okay, quick squirrel. And then I'll get us back on track. Two things I call my mom, often we're friends. Um, and she's never understood our chit chat at the beginning of the show. And I would think like you would like it, Mom, it's like you're getting to hear me with the French like, I don't get it. And then she also today said, Why is your PR feed look like more ugly? You're using those like, white and black things? And I'm like, oh, so I do the screenshot notes because they do so much better. I'm like, Oh, those perform well, and she's like, Can you do anything to make them prettier? I'm like, No, Mom, they perform well. She was a creative director for 30 years. So it was she is she never delivers it in an asshole way. It's always very polite. But anyways,

Emily Merrell  

so So Lexi's Mom, you're listening to this podcast right now and you're wondering what the heck we're talking about.

Lexie Smith  

It's probably like unsubscribe. Whereas my other podcasts, which doesn't have this component she's like all about. So it's very interesting, because if you meet her, you would think she'd more be the person who would just like to chit chat. Anyways, I digress. Let us know if you like this, or if you always go tap, tap, tap, tap, tap until we get to the meat of it. I do listen to a murder podcast where they have 1520 minutes of chit chat. I never listened to it. I always go past it straight to the core of the show.

Emily Merrell  

Listen, eating. Okay, good to know. We need to listen to a podcast called giggly squad. So that's our homework, Lexie. As a follow up, I think it's just straight chit chat the whole time. So, no,

Lexie Smith  

absolutely not. I unsubscribe. Okay, so how to prepare for an embrace different seasons of business. Now let's preface this. Again. We're going to be zoning in on coaches. But a lot of this is transferable cross industry. So if you're not a coach, and somehow you're listening to this coaching podcast, you know, there's still be there's still be tidbits here for you. So Emily, what lens do we want to start with?

Emily Merrell  

I think we should talk about the predictable seasons of life versus the unpredictable seasons of life. So Lexie, can you give us an example of what a predictable versus unpredictable season could be?

Lexie Smith  

Yep. So if you're a fellow female listening, this while maybe, maybe it happening was predictable or unpredictable, but when you get pregnant, now, you know in

Emily Merrell  

nine to get a baby or adopt a baby.

Lexie Smith  

Actually, I would say that's a little different. And let me tell you why. Because when you're pregnant, you know you have nine to 10 months to prepare, then, you know, in theory, right, unless something goes wrong baby's gonna come out and maybe you have X amount of maternity leave, when the adoption schedule from my friends who I know who adopted while they're, they know they're in the process, they don't know when it's going to happen. So actually, that's a good example maybe have a little bit more of an unpredictable it could also be like a big loss in life it could be you know, your spouse was laid off. So now all of a sudden your income got cut in half. So your question was what's the difference? That's the difference so there's a few different ways we can I approach both Emily why don't you start with talking us through more predictable seasons?

Emily Merrell  

I think you gave a great example with the pregnancy and while I questioned the pregnancy because it could be unpredictable on when you become pregnant, correct? The You are absolutely right that you have you should have an ample amount of runway to plan and to prepare for things. So caveat, Lexi and I both are both went through pregnancy while running ReadySet coach which was an incredible experience to learn from one another but what was awesome about that is you can plan your content you can you can batch newsletters, you can prepare your clients you can you can let your clients know when you're going to be taking clients again postpartum you really you have a lot more control but you also you have this time off if you're choosing to take maternity leave that might have some gaps in income.

Lexie Smith  

Yeah, and I think this also comes down to the the structure and the type of coaching business you've put together. So for me for for coaching, I don't have I didn't have at that point in time any sort of passive model, meaning I was very much involved in the day to day and I was the coach. So I prepared for even though I wish this wasn't the case. There being a dip not only like at the top of my pregnancy, but as I got closer because people didn't want to hire me and then we go away from maternity leave. So this is a reality that kind of smacked me in the face and then on the back end, my husband and I were able to prepare for and maybe that meant being a little bit more fiscally responsible for a little bit, that became a choice. So if there's a predictable change, there are a lot more things in your control, you know, that you can do to set yourself up to feel more secure during the transition. And

Emily Merrell  

one thing that I did that I'm really grateful for I lived in California at the time is I had been payroll and myself as a coach. So I was able to take paid family leave. And so it wasn't, I wasn't taking money out of my business, I was taking money that I had already scrolled away to the government, and then was taking it back just a portion of my income. And that was really nice to have. And I had prepared a passive offering to go live when I was on maternity leave, mind you, it was not to this, you know, to the amount that I had hoped it to be. But it was something in terms of like combating me being that face to face coach that people relied on. Something

Lexie Smith  

I want to point out to on what Emily did, because this is something I didn't do. And I didn't have the foresight to so if you're, you have the ability to prepare for this. First and foremost is setting yourself up to be able to payroll yourself. One thing that I transitioned to it happened after my pregnancy was I went from an LLC to an S corp, I was still illegal LLC, but then I filed at least the PR bar as per taxes for S corp, which therefore then introduce me to the payroll system. I also didn't know that you have to enroll and fade paid maternity family leave by a certain point in your pregnancy, which I think is so early, isn't it, like 12 weeks or something? I think even before that, yeah, it's like I before some people even know they're pregnant. So that's a foresight. Now, when we choose to go to go for round two that I have, and then I will be on top of it to the best of my ability. And it's something

Emily Merrell  

that you don't know until you know, and the only reason I knew about it was because I had hired a actually I'd hired a coach to help me plan out my maternity leave for this exact reason, which was super, super helpful. She was like a financial planner for for my maternity leave. And that was great. I'd also prepared me. I don't know, did she prepare me? Right before that, too. Another thing I did, and this is in tandem with this is I got life insurance. And I got short term disability insurance as a business owner. Because those are two things that I was really anxious about while going into pregnancy, like heaven forbid something happened to me. I'd want my husband to be comfortable and be able to replace me. And then the second thing is, heaven forbid something happened in my pregnancy or in my business and I wasn't able to manage my day to day of my business. I had protected myself by setting up that policy. You're

Lexie Smith  

irreplaceable. Emily. I just want to just want to say

Emily Merrell  

thank you. Lexi's. Yes, it's

Lexie Smith  

a really a really great point. Now let's talk about the other side of the coin. Like that's all fine and dandy, right? If a live event happens that is more predictable. Or sure, as we all know, if we are if you are a human listening to this podcast, life isn't always so gracious. So this is where I'd say some amount of personality comes into play. This is some amount of how much you're a planner. There's a lot here, but I'm going to tell you my take on it. I have always been fiscally responsible, in the sense of having a rainy day fund non negotiable to prepare for moments. If you're someone who, you know, money comes in, money goes out, this might be a moment for you to think about if you don't have something set aside for when time gets unpredictable. If that's if you're willing to take that risk. Or if you want to do something about it. My husband and I we are we do shared finances. That's how our marriage works. We are very grateful that we have done that, for example, we we lost a pet earlier this year. And that whole journey was well over 1015 grand. And thank goodness we have money set aside so that we weren't burdened, whereas if we were money in money out would have been a very, very different scenario. So the way we prepare for preparedness from a financial standpoint, is by always at least putting something into the bank where we know this is kind of our emergency fund.

Emily Merrell  

Lex Do you have a certain amount that you put in monthly? Do you do it weekly? Do you do it annually? Yeah,

Lexie Smith  

we we definitely like look at our finances as like profit and loss. So usually we'll like quarterly look at like, how much should we bring in? How much went out? Did we net? Did we break even? Or did we make money. And based on that, then we go, oh, we made some money this year, like, let's now's the time to invest in the new front yard landscape, right? Or, Oh, we just broke even, you know, we're not necessarily going to make any drastic changes, but we're probably not going to make a big investment or we netted some wide, or we lost some, okay, maybe there's some changes we can make. One thing I want to highlight here that I appreciate my husband for childcare is insanely expensive. And so that added expense is basically like another mortgage, and we went into it knowing, you know, that's going to be kind of a temporary expense for the next X amount of years. So we are okay, with not necessarily making a huge, we're preparing for that difference. And we are saving a little bit more than we normally would, and being okay with letting you know the metrics of it all being a little, a little less favorable. So but that's just us, this is not me saying you need to be like us, but that's how we choose to prepare. There's other things you can do. You can you know, rely heavily on credit card, if you have a supportive family. There's there's other options. What is your take on it? Um, no, I

Emily Merrell  

think that's amazing. And I think it's it I hate the story about the loss of the parent, the pet, but it's also like, it's nice to hear that it didn't bankrupt you. And now you have to move out of your house and you have to take out a loan and you know, pay these ridiculous interest price down. I will say I will share in terms of unpredictable. And I don't know if I've shared this on this podcast, I probably have. I feel like you guys have heard everything from me at this point. But in 2019, which I call my dumpster fire year, we had an apartment fire. And one thing that happened was we lost like most of our possessions which was, which was really traumatizing. But the learning we had renter's insurance at the time we were renting. And so many people like this is this is a two part to the story. One, I feel like we were a wake up call for so many people that like this stuff can happen. And a lot of people ended up getting renter's insurance. But to because of the renter's insurance, we were able to replace a lot of the things, you know, while they had sentimental values that didn't we were able to replace things and because we had that money and that insurance to help us out that year though, or like that, that that shift in the year, that unexpected obstacle that came up really, really, really took and took a hit on my business. All my attention that was focused on running events, and this was 2019. So we hadn't gone virtual yet I was still hosting most of the events. I was coaching basically my income dipped tremendously. And because my focus and energy was in a different place, and it was in rebuilding our lives. And so while it's socked it really, really it hit my I don't know, it just it hit my morale basically like it. But it was also incredible to see my community rally around for me so well. 2019 was a dumpster fire year 2020 was the exact opposite. Well, it was still a dumpster fire. I was gonna say no, no, but again, it was like a different type of dumpster fire. So those life pivots. It's funny, it's funny when you remember I feel like people say like, things happen in three. I've heard that. Yeah, good is is it was the fire happened. Then our wedding then then my stepdad was in a coma and passed away. And then and then my the fire happened at our wedding. And I was like Jesus effing Christ. Like what?

Lexie Smith  

Sorry, okay, from a business standpoint, um, was there anything you did? Or something you wish you would did? Or you would do? quote unquote, in theory, if this were coming up to better prepare your business for a season like this? Or no,

Emily Merrell  

I would say, I don't know. I don't know how I could have prepared for it. I think what I would have done for myself was given myself more grace and more pause. And like taking taking the hit, which I did to the best of my ability, but I think I really, I really subscribe to the like when in motion stay in motion and pushed through it. And I feel like in that moment I in hindsight, I think I wish I'd given myself a little bit more grace that like I didn't have to be everywhere and show up for everything. And to know that the outcome would probably not the same if I showed up for it all or if I didn't show up for at all.

Lexie Smith  

And I think that's a beautiful thing to highlight. I also want to for anyone listening, totally give a call out that Emily and Are we have a lot of privilege on our side and a lot of ways. So we don't want to be insensitive to if you're not in a situation where you have a partner or a large community or funds to fall back on we we don't. We're not preaching that we want to be aware of what we have, at the same time. Maybe this episode can be just a little bit of a wake up call, in the sense of what have you done to think about it? Is there something you can do even if it's $50 from a paycheck, even if it's just looking at is there some sort of insurance that I can I can look into, and just put it, put it, you know, on your adulting, to do list, so that you have a little bit more space, to have grace, if things flip upside down. And

Emily Merrell  

I'll be honest, lacks, I went into a lot of debt that year, I went into a ton of debt that year. And I had to untangle that that in the following year, but it was what my option was, I wasn't in a place to your point, like I didn't have a huge safety net. At that point, I had just moved from New York City to San Francisco. We were planning a wedding, it was very expensive, all around expensive year. Also the insurance. This is another PSA in terms of insurance, the insurance we got wasn't like the most premium insurance. And so it only provided like a certain amount of coverage and a certain amount amount of money back and our neighbors who are also impacted by the fire they had, I think another insurance that they paid like $15 more a month for it, and they had their housing covered for two years.

Lexie Smith  

Hmm, yeah, lots of adult adult decisions. Okay, so we're gonna move on from the personal life one, because we want to talk about some other things. And we could probably stay on this note for an hour. So let's quickly talk about some things that are pretty typical of a coaching business model. So if you registered to or decide to have more seasonal business, meaning maybe you launch groups, once every X amount of time, then it's going to be very common for you to see, let's say, a 20k month than zero the next month, and then maybe zero the next month, but then maybe another 30k month, and that can be really, really jarring to have such big highs and lows. And so what we want you to think about is if you are choosing that type of business model, how can we prepare? How can we know that this is going to be the case, so that we aren't so jarred? When it happens? What do you think, um, any tips here?

Emily Merrell  

Yeah, I think that's a great one, I think I think one of the first things to consider is to like think of the income that you're gonna take in for the year, and divide it by 12. So it's not just like a month by month thing, and you're, you're feeling that high and low of every single month. So if you're making the 30k, month, 0k, month, 10k a month, add that all together, divide by 12. So you know, like what the revenue is supporting you over a 12 month spread. With that in mind, or, at least with your projections play Lexie, like be Alexei on this and be really conservative. And so be conservative in what you're paying yourself, be conservative in your spending. And at the end of the year, you might have this opportunity to pay yourself a few bonuses, you might be able to invest in that coaching that you wanted, you might be able to invest in like the brand design. But be conservative to the best of your abilities. And know that again, don't be hard on yourself, when you see a 0k month come in. And then you see a 50k month come in, like know that this is a seasonality. And that it's part of the journey of the business model that you enrolled

Lexie Smith  

in 100%. And I think something that's harmful is we see so much messaging, were advertised so much messaging in the coaching space about the pine sky being consistent insert number months, that can be the case, but it also could not be the case, it really comes down to your business model. And if you're doing this thing organically or if you've integrated ads and passive offers, right? So so be wary when you see that and know that often unless you have an ongoing rolling evergreen offer, it can be challenging to hit consistent months. So that's one thing we want to talk about too. And actually a quick because we've talked a little bit more on the business side. Molly had a really good point regarding being conservative. Oh, this is what I wanted to say. So at the end of every year, I'll say this past year, this past year was an all talk about because we'll talk about ReadySet coach in a second but my PR business did really well. And I took a I took a phone call with my accountant and I'm like should be changed my salary. And he advised me and I agree with this to not increase my salary. I'm an S corp. Because to that point, it gives me more safety net And then I can take if you're an S corp draws, if I need to, if I have a really great month, instead of adding to my payroll, which is more permanent, I can take a draw, or at the end of the year bonus out, so that I'm not getting really excited because you know, the first I'd had three really good months, so I took a huge withdrawal, and then all of a sudden, I don't know something happens. And then I don't, I'm preparing for a sustainable business model, knowing, you know, once I see how things go, I can always take draws at that time.

Emily Merrell  

And I think that's a really good point also about these people who are multi millionaire earners or whatnot. Like, they might be making millions of dollars in their business, mind you, but are they paying themselves millions of dollars? Yes.

Lexie Smith  

Or no? Is the answer, most likely not

Emily Merrell  

talk to their accountants? We can we can get the scoop? Oh, we should have our accountant on this could be a

Lexie Smith  

day bad.

Emily Merrell  

Okay, on that same vein, so talking about? Did you do seasons of life for varying seasons? Shoot, I was gonna say something. And then

Lexie Smith  

we talked about fluctuating monthly revenue. Should we talk about fluctuating moods?

Emily Merrell  

Yes. Okay. Yes, yes, that's exactly what I was gonna say. So I was gonna say in terms of, you have to spend money to make money kind of scenario too. So I think in having a business and you guys have probably heard this, I've had people come to me and complain, they're like, oh, starting a business is expensive. Yes, it is not, it is not for for the faint of heart, that is for sure. There are definitely expenses and their front end expenses that go in before you even see money back. And there might be seasons of life where you are spending more money than you were making more money. So that means that you are potentially hiring, the next level of business coach for your business, or you're reinvesting in your branding, or you have a like Systems Operations implemented. And knowing that, while it can be really frickin scary guys, like Lexie, and I have both done it, we have held hands doing it, we have done it separately. And it is it is, it is definitely like it gives you pause, in both what you're doing, and you're hoping that this investment is going to help you like triple your investment, or your income in your business. Like by learning more skills, you are learning more, and there will be a season of life in terms of investment that you might not be actively selling in your business. So it's kind of like a double threat, you're spending a ton of money, and you don't have a ton of money coming in, in preparation for like a next iteration of what's to come. And next, what do you what do you have to add to that?

Lexie Smith  

to that? Well, I also just want to relate that back to it's kind of like the childcare scenario was talking about like this is season two. So just to give you a non business example, but okay, I want to talk a little bit about ReadySet. Coach. So because this is a season that Emily and I are in, it's a season we prepared for. And let's talk about it. So Ready Set coach was a group, high ticket group program for years. And we knew at one point, we wanted to change the business model, so that we could impact more and be a little bit less involved in the day to day. And that meant turning to community going after volume and turning her off for passive, we believe and had the foresight that that wasn't something that was going to happen overnight. So we made a decision halfway into 2023, to flip that switch and give ourselves the grace, really of a year to see it through. And we're about halfway, probably halfway through it now. And guys, we have consistently taken a hit on revenue intentionally, it would be so easy. In fact, we talk about all the time, like let's just do a group because it'd be nice to see an influx in in capital. But what did we do? We launched a free community zero revenue there. Yep. For into passive offer. We did a very soft launch. And we have we're in an ADS course right now because we are preparing to turn it up. However, we're also preparing that when we start this new tactic being advertising, it's probably not going to hit gold right away. So we're taking this very thoughtfully, intentionally and slowly right now.

Emily Merrell  

And, you know, before we got on the call today, or on the podcast, we were talking about the movie dumb money. And having a business is a lot like the stock market. There's a lot of research, there's a lot of faith. There's a lot of holding on and kind of gripping the ride. There's so many moments that you want to hit like cash out, I want to just get the payout. And if that's it, I'm done. I don't want to continue seeing it go up and down and up and down. And that's what we're doing in our business right now is this aspect of we're investing in ourselves, we're going to be in Investing in ads, we are going to be probably spending more money than we're making initially. And testing something that we don't have 100% guarantee will work.

Lexie Smith  

Yep. And that's kind of the the risk part of life, right? Something Emily and I have done though, to combat that, when we knew we weren't going to have the income from Ready Set coach, we were able to make sure the other business entities and revenue streams we had in our life could sustain us while this happened. Yeah. So again, going back to being us being very methodical and preparing a safety net, to support this. Um, that being said, who loves to spend more money than make more money? I'm not saying it's fun. I'm not saying we're chillin here. The art of you know, business ownership and entrepreneurship, there's definitely a risk involved, which is why being rooted to your why and being passionate about the damn thing is so important. Yeah,

Emily Merrell  

and I think that's a great example of just one of the different seasons of business. And one thing I also want to, I want to dive into is like you guys might be feeling I feel this during the holidays, Lex, this season of like a version of my business, where you're like, all I want to do is do a puzzle and drink hot cocoa and be around the fire and read a book or whatnot. Like I the last thing I want to do is my business. And you might feel you might feel that in February, you might feel that in January, you might feel that in all different times of the year. And know that those seasons are normal and healthy and happen to the best of us. But lacks I think before we end the podcast, are there any best practices you have when you feel like a personal task version? Or you're just a machine? And?

Lexie Smith  

Well, yes, no, yes or no? Do I have tasks you'd version all the freaking time for me that looks like oh, I didn't do content creation. Again, I just just did it or I have to do accounting. There are a few things depending on the the point of business you're at, and all all speak to this, tap this side, and then I'll let you speak to the other side. You can if you really assess it, decide if there's an opportunity to now outsource it. For me for accounting and bookkeeping. That was the case for one, you know, after I'd done it myself for a year and a half, which I'm really glad I did. Because now I understand what I'm paying someone for. But when I month after month was like, oh my god, is this really any more the best use of my time, that was an indicator for me to outsource and bring on bookkeeper, which I have for both of my businesses shout out to be a bookkeeping BIA. Bookkeeping carry is amazing. So that's one way to handle it. However, that's not always the right answer. Emily, can you talk about the case where outsourcing isn't necessarily either an option or the right answer?

Emily Merrell  

Yeah, I think a lot of times people are really quick to outsource things. I've noticed that I noticed it in websites, I know it in a newsletters. I notice it. Oh my gosh, so many things, content creation, all of the things where then people feel reliant on another individual. So Carrie Jane, which I hope you never go away. We know how to do it. And I think it's really important to learn how to do the thing. So then you can forever if for whatever reason, like your virtual assistant goes away tomorrow, or if your bookkeeper goes away tomorrow, you can step in and you can still drive the plane. And oftentimes, there's a lot of passengers and very few pilots. It's weird to

Lexie Smith  

know you're so good at metaphors.

Emily Merrell  

Thank you. Oh,

Lexie Smith  

it's a skill of yours. I will say this this week.

Emily Merrell  

But I do think that's the case that a lot of people are really quick at the beginning of their business before they've even tried Squarespace. They're like Oh, I can't do it. I don't I need to I need to see that. This actually this is a whole different tangent. But this is so many people before they start something that like oh, I need to save up to hire someone to do my website. And I'm like, Just do the frickin website now and they're like No, no, I don't know how like, Have you tried it though? And there's so many I had the version when I first started my business to like Oh no, I'm not capable of that. That's not my skill set. But I never gave myself the shot the shot or the chance to actually give it a go until I did.

Lexie Smith  

And it says you selectively so I think you can one thing you're saying too is you can't avert everything if there's one or two things like you just can't like you don't have an artistic bone in your body fine.

Emily Merrell  

I and I frickin hate content creation I'm gonna here guys this is like Confessions of a teenage business owner I hate content creation

Lexie Smith  

confessions of BBB. Yeah, exactly. The BBB we

Emily Merrell  

come full circle, but I hate it like drives me insane and takes me 10 hours longer than the normal human being. And there will be weeks that I will not post and then there will be the next week. I'm like, wait a second. Why By now posted, I have so much incredible content. And so know that those seasons of business will happen where you're going to feel so turned off by your business, you're not going to be want to be in your business. But then that I was telling Lexie, this before our podcast today, while you are, I believe that you should trust your intuition and lean into self and all of that. I also think sometimes you need to push yourself through the discomfort, because at the end of the day, I would be sleeping until 10. And not going to work out classes and drinking mimosas instead of coffee like it is just, if I didn't have that control, or that push through to do the thing that I didn't want to do.

Lexie Smith  

I think a hack here for you guys too, if you're finding that exceedingly hard to do, do it by yourself is lean into accountability. That could be the form of one person that could be the form of a community. So surround yourself with people who understand what you're going through and can help help lift you up and and push through. You could even find that in a team. So yeah, to Emily's point, you can be your best friend and your own own worst enemy here. And my favorite Pinterest, quote, growth never comes from our comfort zone. You know, I

Emily Merrell  

was thinking about this today in the same same kind of quote. I did one of my favorite workouts today bodied, which I it's a whole different conversation that I should bring up with you after this podcast Lexie. But she they have all these plants at the top of their, at the top of their ledge and I was like I grow where I'm planted. And that was just a quote that came to my head. And I think that's a real quote. But in terms of love

Lexie Smith  

it one more quote, to end us today before we go into homework because speaking of team, my team member and I were talking about our favorite life quotes and this has been one of my favorite life quotes forever. It's by Henry Ford. Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right. That let that deepen. Okay, Emily, what's the homework?

Emily Merrell  

Your homework is? Your homework is going to be to set a coworking deep miss someone that you knows that's going to push you. So if there's something that you've been avoiding, whether it's a task, whether it's looking at your revenue, whether it's planning your maternity leave, whether it's figuring out like how you're going to get the save your savings up, but carving out an hour of your time with someone that you know is a pusher and giving yourself an hour maybe they're just on Zoom. They are not even looking at what you're doing and you are committing to doing the thing that you have been avoiding. Push

Lexie Smith  

your KTM a pusher. Yeah, for sure. And on that No. Later on the coach podcast. Oh, that was creepy.