PP 283: The Fine Art of NOT Doing It All

Kim Sutton In a previous episode of the Positive Productivity Podcast, I shared about how I was constantly asked how I get it all done, especially considering I’m a mom of five and I have two businesses. I have the podcast, I’m trying to write a book, and so much more. I will put a link in the show notes to that episode. But what I want to talk about in this episode is the magic art of not doing it all. I cannot deny that I definitely do not do it all, from cooking, to cleaning, to laundry, to grocery shopping. All of the above, even things in my business, there are so many things that I do not do that I have no plans on doing, and I’m not going to say that I don’t plan on cooking or cleaning, it’s just I don’t handle it all. And especially it really in my business, I do not handle it all. It took me the first two years in my business to realize it was totally acceptable and totally okay for me to hire contractors to support me in my business. But it wasn’t really until the last couple of years that I learned how to do it the right way. After my twins were born in 2015, I put out way too many proposals on Upwork and I got way too many new clients and new projects entirely too fast. To help me cover all the work, I hired probably 15 to 20 contractors in my business, which I was not prepared to do. So when pay on time, I started having financial issues because I could not pay my contractors on time. Also, I was way too low in the rate that I was asking for in my work and I was barely charging more than I was paying my contractors. So in the end, I was actually winding up upside down. Now to make matters worse, I had no system set up in my business. And not only did I not have the systems, but I didn’t have managers to help me support the big team that I had just built. In effect, I ended up having to manage all the clients and all the contractors myself. So when projects didn’t get finished on time, it always came back to me whether that meant that I had to finish the work, or that I had to be the one that told the client why the work wasn’t done. Trust me, this is not an experience that you want to go through. 2015 was by far the hardest year in my business ever. And by the end of it, I would have to say I was just as close to crashing and burning as you could possibly be without having to close doors. In the years that have passed since then, my team has remained very, very small. And only just at the end of 2017 and beginning of 2018 have I really felt that I now have a full team capable of supporting me, my clients and my business. We work like clockwork. And I am completely of the mindset that my team is my extended family. I love them dearly. And we work together harmoniously. And we can communicate so well. If it weren’t for the other members of my team, then there would be so many tasks that wouldn’t be getting done. And some of those tasks are crucially important to the success of my business or to the success of my podcast. Even if you are just starting out your business, it’s important to know that you can’t do everything. From one day to the next there are going to be things that you have to set aside in either wait to do one another day, or perhaps just not do at all.

But if you are starting to bring in a little bit of revenue, I want to encourage you to look for a team member who may be able to support you with some of the administrative or repetitive tasks that you don’t necessarily need to be doing. This is the first time that I’ve ever shared it on the positive productivity podcast. However, I am the owner of a group on Facebook called Virtual Assistant jobs which is now home to over 13,000 members. So if you are looking for a virtual assistant to help you in your business, I want you to come on over and post your job description. I have had clients find amazing team members for their own businesses within this group and I want you to find the same as well. When we’re trying to do too much for ourselves and for our business, it’s so easy to become anxious and depressed, overwhelmed, and well, to just burn ourselves out. Don’t let this happen to you. To find the link for this Facebook group, head on over to the show notes, which you can find at thekimsutton.com/pp283. And just remember, there is a magic art of not doing it all. You just need to say no or not now. Now with all this said, go forth and make it a positive and productive day.