Esthetician Podcast; Business tips for Beauty professionals

079: “Too Busy” Is Killing Your Beauty Business: How Estheticians Can Reclaim Time & Profit

• Kari Jo

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Are you constantly saying "I'm too busy" but not seeing the results you want in your aesthetic business? This powerful mindset shift could be the game-changer you need.

The busy trap keeps many estheticians stuck in survival mode, wearing every hat from service provider to social media manager to bookkeeper while still balancing family responsibilities. This constant state of overwhelm creates an illusion of productivity while actually preventing strategic growth. As Keri Jo reveals through her coaching experience, claiming we're "too busy" often masks deeper issues: avoiding difficult decisions, focusing on low-value tasks that don't drive profitability, or struggling to trust others with any aspect of our business.

Drawing wisdom from "The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry," Kari Jo highlights the paradox of our modern world - despite countless time-saving inventions designed to give us more time, we feel busier than ever. The solution lies in a powerful technique used by virtually every successful CEO: time blocking. The Monday Hour One method transforms your relationship with time through a comprehensive mind sweep, strategic scheduling, and the discipline to follow through. When you write down every task, prioritize based on profitability, schedule each item with a specific timeframe, and commit to that schedule, you'll be amazed at how much you can accomplish.

The most significant challenge isn't creating your schedule but sticking to it when resistance inevitably strikes. Understanding that resistance is your signal to begin, not quit, is transformative. By honoring your commitments to yourself for just one week, you'll experience a confidence boost that ripples through every aspect of your business. Ready to break free from the busy cycle? Schedule a free 30-minute coaching call to identify what's truly holding you back and get strategic guidance to finally move forward.

To learn more about Kari Jo visit: https://www.karijopatterson.com

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Jana :

Hi Jana Nantell, owner and licensed esthetician of Unalom Aesthetics in Wisconsin. I have a solo practice that was really struggling when I first started out and I reached out to Kari Jo and did some coaching with her and I cannot begin to express how grateful I am for everything that she taught me. I have a 98% rebook right now and incredibly busy. I am so grateful for her coaching and her tips.

Kari Jo:

Let me guess you're too busy, guys. I get it. This is me, even still today. Sometimes.

Kari Jo:

I remember, when I was deep in my business, like one of the things that I used to say all the time was I'm too busy, I'm too busy. And really what that was was that me saying I'm too busy was just keeping me hostage in the I'm too busy mode and it wasn't helping me, it wasn't serving my agenda, but it made me feel like I was doing something and I was successful and I wasn't sitting around. So in today's episode, I want to break down the I'm too busy and how you can fix that. When I started coaching, the first thing I started doing was like giving systems right, because systems are what everybody needs in order to grow their business and if something's not working, it's because they were missing a certain system. And once I learned that, my business became really successful and I started focusing on building systems, well, when I started coaching, what I noticed is that every single one of my estheticians they all say the same thing I am so busy, I just have so much, and I get it Cause, like when you are starting a company, even when you own a company, like you are the chief. You wear every single hat that there is. You wear the social media hat, you wear the client communications hat, you wear the laundry hat, you wear the wife hat, you wear the mother hat. There's not a hat that you don't wear and you're wearing them all, and everything does rely on you to do absolutely everything, and so you are constantly in this. I'm too busy, I always have something to do mode. I don't think that that is necessarily very healthy.

Kari Jo:

There's a book that I read and I loved it. You guys should all read it. It changed my life so much. It's called the Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. You guys all need to read it. It will change your mindset. It's funny. It talks about how, like a long time ago one of my favorite things I was like hey, that is so true. A long time ago, they started inventing little things you know, like the toaster or the coffee machine, and all of these little tiny inventions were made to give humans more time back. But when you actually look at everything, it's like every kind of little, small, tiny invention that was made, it actually made you hurry more. So we have thousands of inventions that are supposed to give us our time back, but we feel the way we feel right now. Time back, but we feel the way we feel right now Isn't that insane. You guys need to read the book. I love it. There's so much value in that book. I'm going to go back and reread it. Let's read it together as a book club. Okay, you guys can join. If you want to join my book club. We'll read it again together and then we'll talk about it, start reading it and then we're going to follow back up and we're going to do another whole, entire like follow up on the book club on this podcast.

Kari Jo:

Okay, so, going back to the art of being busy, and everybody's so busy, the one thing I started giving all my clients systems but they're all so busy and then I learned the thing that they every esthetician needs to learn before I start giving them systems is they need to learn how to balance their time a little bit better. When I was in business, I learned the most amazing thing. It's called Monday Hour One and it changed my life as a business owner. I was doing absolutely everything and it's funny. It's about time blocking and you guys have probably all heard so much about time blocking, but when you look at it. Every successful CEO, anyone that you look at who's successful, they all time block, all of them right. Because there's no way you could do everything unless you start time blocking. And you know that and you hear that, but so many of us still don't do it right. If that's what everybody does, that's successful, then why are we trying to re like we don't need to reinvent the wheel, we need to jump on the wheel and start time blocking too. And so if you are struggling right now and you are so busy and you can't get to anything, then I'm going to tell you it's because you're not time blocking. It will change your life if you start to time block. Okay, now I want to jump into.

Kari Jo:

Before we jump into like, how to time block and everything like that, I want to talk about like three signs, like warning signs that I constantly see, that is, signs of you're too busy, when you're saying I'm too busy but really you're just unclear about what you should be doing. First thing is, a lot of times people say I'm too busy, but what it is is they're avoiding the decisions that are hard right. I get with estheticians and I tell them okay, listen, let's back this up, and we've talked about this on many podcasts. When it comes to bookkeeping, I have like a golden standard from what I've talked to with other bookkeepers if you are basically making under $75,000, then you basically can do that yourself, right. But once you hit like $75,000 and above, like you immediately offload that right.

Kari Jo:

But and this is the thing is estheticians they've got to learn to bookkeep and do their numbers right, because their numbers tell them the story. They can't build their business and they won't know what they're doing until they start doing that. If you offhand your bookkeeping to, say, a bookkeeper and you're not doing it yourself, it's like turning to a chapter book on page 69 and knowing what the story is about. Yes, you can read, you see those, I can read every word on the page of 69, but I have no idea what the story is about. That's the same thing with numbers. Right, if you don't track your numbers yourself, I still think you need. Like, even when I was at the most successful with my company, I had a bookkeeper and a CPA that was doing all of my numbers. But guess what? I also did it on my own because I needed to follow along to know what's going on.

Kari Jo:

So when I see these estheticians many times like I tell them okay, we're going to start doing, we need to track your numbers right. And come on and I'm like did you track your numbers? No, why didn't they track their numbers Right? Sometimes I know that it's because that decision feels too hard. Sometimes going back and doing last month's finances is too hard, and so what happens is, because it's too hard, you push it off and you just don't want to do it right now, and so you just say, oh, I'm too busy, I can't get to my numbers. I couldn't get to my numbers. Well, the truth is is you just didn't want to be uncomfortable and that's why you aren't tracking your numbers. Delaying doing it is actually keeping you stuck and in the survival mode. Now the second reason is you're doing low value tasks that don't move the needle on your company at all. So I also see this like okay.

Kari Jo:

I teach a lot about building systems. I want to give you guys lots of like examples. But my poor clients? But okay. So one thing that I teach is I teach how important it is to have systems. So like, in order to build a company that is truly scalable, that's truly profitable, you need to have different systems. And it's funny and I see it in every single esthetician that once they get that they love building systems. And I know because that was me Like I didn't know what I was doing. But then once I got it, I was like, oh system for this, oh system for that. And it became so fun to create systems in my business. Right, I have this esthetician and that is what she ultimately was loving doing and she was like building system after system after system because she was loving it.

Kari Jo:

But it was holding her back and she was focusing on creating all of these systems and I kept being like, okay, you need to invest in, like a new machine, it's time You've got to like grow this company. And she's like I'm just so busy, I just don't have time to market that. Here's the thing. And then we had to do this whole mindset with her. You know what I mean, where, like, yes, systems are important and you love that, but that's not what's moving your business right now. Like, your systems are fine, what you need to do is you need to start focusing on something to move the needle and you need to re-energize in your company and re-energize in your employees and growing on that. Well, obviously, once we called her out on that, she of course did that and she sent me this big long email which I'll have to post. That's like I'm so glad that you made me do that. But sometimes what we do is we say we're too busy, and really it's because you want to focus on other things that you're enjoying instead of focusing on the things that you need to focus on.

Kari Jo:

And the third reason that I found that people are too busy is they just don't trust anyone to help them at all. I have this other client. She probably could have a multi-million dollar company. I'm not even kidding you, she is solo and she is literally making like $750,000 a year by herself. I mean, she does have some like side team people, but she literally I kid you not, she could explode, be like a multimillion billion dollar brand, like she's just killing it, right. But what I have found is I'm like you need to hire someone Like she doesn't even have a receptionist. She doesn't even have a virtual receptionist and I'm like you need one, like you're carrying everything. So she agrees with me, and then we get her one, but then she does not give the virtual receptionist any of the tasks that she, like she won't let her see her schedule, she won't let her do anything and she's so busy. But the truth is is she's just so scared to trust somebody to help them.

Kari Jo:

Now, if you're honest and you think that you don't believe anyone else will do it as well as you, that lack of trust is going to cost you growth, right? Let me say it again If you're too busy all of the time and constantly busy and you don't have a team, right, you're not running a business. That business is just running you. So that is another reason why some people throw up the I'm too busy, right, it's all just a big coverup. So what can you do instead of being too busy?

Kari Jo:

What I want you to do and this is what I learned and it changed my life, and you have to stick to it, guys, don't give up, because if you do, I do it really well, and then every once in a while, I forget or I go on vacation and it's hard to get back in the task, and then I don't do it and then I feel overwhelmed and then I do it again. I get back on schedule. I'm like, oh, life is great again. So what you do is. I want you to do this every Monday. I do it on Sundays, sunday hour, one, right, you get out a piece of paper and I like to call this a mind sweep and you are basically going to get rid of every task that you have to do and you are going to write it on this piece of paper, every single thing. Like keep going, let this paper Sometimes my paper is two sided long like dump it.

Kari Jo:

The truth is is your brains aren't meant to store all this tiny information, and so if you keep all that stuff in your brain, your brain's like don't forget, don't forget, don't forget, and your brain is stressed out, trying to remember everything. And the moment that you get it out of your brain onto a piece of paper, it's amazing the weight that is taken off of you. That already will fix so much. So write it down on a piece of paper, every single thing that you're doing. Now, the next thing I would ask yourself on all of those tasks is this moving me closer to profit, or am I just doing this to be busy? Right, and look at it so that you know what one's actually going to move you and those the ones that move you to profit. Obviously you need to put a higher priority. The ones that aren't is lower priority.

Kari Jo:

So when you write them all down, I want you to look at it first so you know what ones are priority, what ones are not. And then I want you to give a time like how long are you going to allow yourself to work on that task? So maybe it's okay, I'm doing finances, but I am only going to do it for one hour. Maybe it's okay, I'm doing finances, but I am only going to do it for one hour. And you write one hour next to it, right? You come up with a time of how long you think it's going to be. Next, you are going to go into your calendar and you are going to schedule every single one of those tasks. You'll be surprised how much you can fit into a week on your calendar. All of it, right. And then what you are going to do is you are going to rip up that piece of paper and you're going to throw it away. So you have no choice because you have to just follow the calendar through and through to be able to complete everything.

Kari Jo:

Okay, now here's the thing. When you go to do it on your task, let's say, you're doing your finances and you only gave yourself one hour from nine until 10, and now it is 10 o'clock and you're supposed to now start a load of laundry at your house, right? Does that mean you're going to continue doing the finances because you haven't finished it? No, it means you stop. You gave yourself one hour and that is all that you are going to give yourself, and that means that maybe next week you learn that you need two hours instead of one and you can give yourself two hours next week, right, but like you have to hold your times, like no matter what, that's it, when you're done with that scheduled task, it's over, you move on and you move to the next thing.

Kari Jo:

Now, one thing that comes up and this comes up with my clients, and this is what happens is what do you think you're going to do when you write everything and then you put it on a piece of paper, or you put it all on a piece of paper. You schedule the time you go, put it in your calendar, you throw the paper away and now you have to follow the calendar. And now it's Monday, you get up and at nine o'clock you're supposed to go on a walk and that's what you scheduled yourself that you wanted to do. Do you think that you're going to do it? Or maybe it's nine o'clock, you're doing your finances, whatever it is. Do you think that you're going to do it? Or maybe it's nine o'clock, you're doing your finances, whatever it is.

Kari Jo:

Do you think that you're going to want to follow the schedule? No, absolutely not. You're definitely not going to want to follow that schedule at all. You'll be like oh wait, I need to do this Instagram. That looks fun. Or I got to do this. You're going to think of a hundred other things you got to do than following your schedule, right? Why is that? You need to literally expect you're going to resist your schedule first and foremost.

Kari Jo:

So what that means is when you look at it and you think I don't want to do this, I want you to remind yourself this is what I was talking about. You're going to feel resistance, and that is not your sign to stop. That's your sign to begin. So the moment you feel like, oh, I don't want to do that, that's when you begin. That's your sign. This is what Carrie's telling. When I feel resistance, that's when I begin. That's my signal. That's when I begin. That's my signal right Now.

Kari Jo:

Literally, one of the things I also do is I also use like the minimum baseline trick, which is like how long I'm going to give myself to do that task. So let's say it was finances and you really didn't want to do the finances, but you told yourself you were going to do it for an hour. Here's the thing as I tell myself, I'm just doing it for an hour and then I'm done, no matter what, normally nine times out of 10, the moment that you get started and you get into it, you'll actually end up loving it. It's just that first moment of resistance, right? So it's just you have to overcome that first moment and then you actually will enjoy whatever it is that you're actually doing, and you've got to train your brain that this is how it's going to work, right?

Kari Jo:

I want you to know, like one of the ways that you will feel the most confident and most powerful is when you're like I'm so strong, I completed so much, I got to social media, I got to this, I got to that, I went to my child's game, I did, like all of these things. When you feel like you're completing a bunch of things and you look at everything that you can complete in a week. That is where you get, like, this massive boost of confidence. And do you want to know why it is? It's because you kept your word to yourself right. You planned what you were going to do. It was hard, but you didn't cancel on yourself. You showed up for yourself and it instantly is going to give you self-confidence. It is a boost.

Kari Jo:

So here's my challenge for all of you guys who are in the I'm too busy mode. What I want you to do is I want you to plan. I want you to do this At the end of this week. I want you to brain dump everything. I want you to plan how long you're going to give yourself for it and I want you to schedule it. And I want you to commit to doing it for one week and then just try it In one week. I promise you're going to feel confidence that you didn't even know that you had, because you'll be like I can't believe I completed all 50 of those things. You will feel so successful in your life. If you can master this now, I promise it will move the needle on your business faster because you can get to everything that you need to get done Now, guys.

Kari Jo:

If you catch yourself saying I'm too busy, guys, if you catch yourself saying I'm too busy, I want you to pause and I want you to ask yourself what am I avoiding and what am I unclear about? If you want more help getting clear, I want you to know. I offer a free 30-minute coaching call where I can help you identify what exactly is holding you back in your business and help give you a strategic move to get unstuck. All you need to do is click in the show notes and send us a text with your name, number, email and we will get you scheduled for a call. And that's it for this week, guys. I can't wait to see you next week on the Esthetician Podcast and I hope you continue building and thriving every day. Bye.

Kari Jo:

Thank you for listening to the Esthetician Podcast with Kari Jo Patterson. Each week, Kari brings you real-world lessons on how to grow your empire. To learn more about Kari Jo's Fearless Prosperity Mastermind Group, one-on-one VIP coaching opportunities and more Visit wwwkari. jo. patterson. com. That's www. kari. jo. patterson. com. See you next week for more insights and strategies on the Esthetician Podcast.

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