0:45

Welcome back to the Mindful

0:45

Productivity Podcast.

0:47

You were listening to episode

0:47

207, and I'm your host, Sarah Steckler.

0:53

Hey, it's been a minute. I'm really excited to

0:54

be back on the podcast.

0:56

Shit's been hitting the fan. And so I thought I'd do an episode on

0:57

how to navigate a what the F week.

1:02

We are all collectively going to have

1:02

moments, weeks, days where things hit the

1:07

fan and it's like, what in

1:07

the actual F is happening?

1:10

How do we navigate this? What are some things to do?

1:13

How are you going to

1:13

handle all these things?

1:15

In today's podcast, I wanted to share a little bit about

1:17

some of the things that have been

1:20

happening in my life in business

1:20

and how I'm handling them.

1:22

How the hell are you supposed to navigate

1:22

all of this when you have your own stuff

1:26

going on in your life in business and

1:26

there's stuff going on in the world and

1:29

maybe you feel pressure to

1:29

behave or be a certain way online?

1:33

I'm going to talk about some of the things that maybe some people

1:35

aren't always saying online.

1:37

Hopefully, this is just a great episode

1:37

where you can feel validated and we can

1:41

just all cozy up and be like, Seriously,

1:41

what are we going to do about this?

1:44

Let's keep on listening and we'll

1:44

get into this week's episode.

1:48

Welcome to the Mindful

1:48

Productivity Podcast.

1:52

I'm your host, Sarah Steckler, and this is

1:54

the place to be to live a more

1:54

mindful and productive life.

1:58

If you're ready to turn daily chaos into calm and start your days with intention,

1:59

then get ready to join me as we dive deep

2:04

into mindful living and

2:04

personal productivity.

2:07

It's time to connect with your true self

2:07

so you can live the life you want to live.

2:11

And it all starts now. All right, here we are.

2:13

We're back on the podcast.

2:25

I'm so glad you're listening. Excited to jump into this topic today

2:26

and talk about everything real quick.

2:30

I try not to swear a ton on the podcast

2:30

because I know some people haveittles

2:33

around and stuff, but this might be an

2:33

episode where I happen to drop the F-bomb

2:37

here and there, so if that's a

2:37

problem, throw in your earbuds.

2:41

You have now been warned.

2:43

What do you do if you're having a

2:43

what the fuck moment or day or week?

2:48

How do you navigate these things? Especially when the world is heavy and

2:51

it's really hard to contemplate, how do we

2:51

navigate all that's going on in the world

2:54

while also realizing and understanding

2:54

that we're also still humans?

2:57

We have businesses to run, we have dogs to

2:59

feed, kids to feed, we have

2:59

things to enjoy.

3:03

All that doesn't change because

3:03

of things that are happening.

3:07

Every day life continues to go on. It's the duality of human existence.

3:10

It's weird and it makes us feel guilty

3:10

and uncomfortable and it's unsettling.

3:14

But that's literally what it is. That is our reality.

3:17

But what do you do when you're having a

3:19

time where shit is hitting

3:19

the fan everywhere?

3:22

These are some of the things that I've been navigating lately and some of

3:24

the tips that I thought I'd share.

3:27

Sometimes also talking this out on this

3:27

podcast format helps me process stuff too.

3:32

Cool. Anywho, if you're having a moment where

3:35

shit is hitting the fan, these are the

3:35

questions that you can ask yourself.

3:38

Lately, if I've been having a tough time

3:40

and I'm like, There's no way I

3:40

can do all of this stuff anymore.

3:43

My capacity is shot. But there's just too much going on.

3:47

Something's going to have to give. I ask myself the question,

3:50

if shit is hitting the fan, where

3:50

are you going to aim the fan?

3:54

What are the things that you're

3:54

literally going to let get...

3:57

Well, not literally, that you're

3:57

going to let get covered and shit.

4:01

Where are those exceptions?

4:05

For example, for me, this

4:05

is often the kitchen.

4:09

If stuff is happening in my business and I

4:12

got to work and do stuff and for context,

4:12

my husband's in the military and he's

4:18

deploying and leaving

4:18

all the time right now.

4:20

We're in one of those

4:20

phases of his career.

4:23

It's a pain in the ass and it throws

4:23

our entire routine constantly.

4:28

He's coming and going all

4:28

the time and it's chaos.

4:33

It's chaos and I hate it. Can't wait for him to retire.

4:36

We will be living in a cabin in the

4:36

woods somewhere, I promise you.

4:39

That's one thing.

4:42

Then if I have stuff going on in my

4:42

business or other things that happen, I

4:46

have to choose, you have to choose

4:46

what is going to be the exception.

4:51

For me, sometimes this is the kitchen. I will be like, You know what?

4:54

This week, I don't have the capacity

4:54

to stay on top of the dishes.

4:59

Last week, the dishes literally

4:59

got piled up on the kitchen.

5:03

If you saw a photo of it, you'd probably

5:03

be like, Oh, my gosh, this is crazy.

5:07

But I don't live a Pinterest life.

5:10

I'm not a Pinterest business owner.

5:10

I do things.

5:12

Things get messy. I make mistakes. I do pivots, whatever.

5:17

My job showing up online is not to be the

5:17

perfect version of something that other

5:22

people adhere to like,

5:22

No, my life is messy.

5:24

I am a human being. But in this thought process, in this

5:26

mindset shift, consider what things you

5:31

can actually let go of

5:31

during a given week.

5:33

Is it a big pain in the ass to clean up a kitchen that has been just

5:35

dumped on for an entire week?

5:39

Yeah. But you know what? It only took me 30 minutes to clean

5:40

it up after a week of destruction.

5:45

Granted, I'm one person and my husband

5:45

is not always home every night.

5:49

It might be worse with a family.

5:51

But I was surprised that

5:51

taking that mental load off of my plate

5:56

out of my brain allowed me to get stuff

5:56

done in my business and manage the

6:02

emotional roller coaster of my husband

6:02

coming and going because that sucks.

6:06

And also give myself some time to unplug

6:06

at the end of the night and not be like,

6:10

Oh, I have to spend this

6:10

time cleaning the kitchen.

6:13

There's also things in my

6:13

business that also take that.

6:16

For instance, the podcast. The podcast has not been

6:17

consistent this year.

6:20

It has not happened every single week.

6:20

Am I proud of it?

6:23

No, it sucks. I love showing up here. I love having conversations with you guys

6:27

and getting feedback on what you think

6:27

about things I'm talking about, it's cool.

6:31

But it's also something that

6:31

doesn't have to happen.

6:35

My business is not going to come to a

6:35

screeching halt if I don't record a

6:38

podcast episode one week

6:38

and no one's yelling at me.

6:43

I love the messages from you guys

6:43

being like, Hey, are you okay?

6:46

Is everything all right? I haven't heard a podcast

6:47

episode in a while. I always love those.

6:49

But no one's coming after me if I

6:49

don't do a podcast episode one week.

6:54

So long story short,

6:54

think about where you're going to aim the

6:57

fan when you have a what the f

6:57

week or day and let some stuff go.

7:02

If you need to stop at Taco Bell on the

7:02

way home and get dinner and it's not the

7:05

healthiest choice, whatever, it's

7:05

one of those days, you'll be fine.

7:09

Things are going to be okay.

7:11

The other thing I wanted to talk about

7:11

is navigating tech issues as a business

7:16

owner, specifically if you

7:16

run an online business.

7:18

Then also wanted to tell you a little bit

7:18

about my no panic policy that I have in

7:24

place for my own business and that I

7:24

also have in place for my students.

7:28

Real quick, this past week, I had one of

7:31

the most horrific tech issues

7:31

ever happen in my business.

7:36

And luckily, it only took up two hours

7:36

of my time because there was a fix.

7:41

Basically, the course platform that I use,

7:45

there has been some issues with links

7:45

being taken down on Facebook from bots.

7:50

And so they made an option where you can

7:50

now have a new link for your website.

7:54

You just had to be like, Yes, let's do it.

7:57

Everything redirects, it's fine. But what ended up happening was that all

7:59

of my video permissions, I use Vimeo for

8:03

all my videos, all of those

8:03

stopped working because I had new links.

8:09

Students were now accessing the

8:09

course from a new link, technically.

8:12

A new sub-URL or whatever, URL slug.

8:16

I was like, Oh, my God, I have hundreds of videos throughout all the different

8:17

courses I've ever created since 2016.

8:23

I'm like, Are you kidding me right now?

8:25

Now, students are not able to view

8:28

any of my videos behind my paywall in my

8:28

course, bright and early on I think it was

8:34

a Sunday or Saturday, and I'm going, I was

8:34

going to go to the park with Bella and

8:38

finally stop working

8:38

today, and now I can't.

8:41

It's just me.

8:41

I don't have a team.

8:44

I was like, Crap, what am I going to do?

8:46

I'm thinking in my head you have the

8:48

moment of panic, but then you also have

8:48

the moment of awareness and acceptance.

8:52

Okay, this is the issue, and

8:52

it's not going to fix itself.

8:58

What am I going to do about it? I gave myself 10 minutes to panic

8:59

and be like, I don't like this.

9:04

But then after that, it's like,

9:04

cool, what are we going to do?

9:07

And here comes with where comes the no

9:10

panic policy mindset, which I'll literally

9:10

share that with you in a second.

9:15

So in doing that, in calming down, I was able

9:16

to say, well, there's the first solution I

9:22

know of is to literally go into every

9:22

single video in Vimeo and

9:27

change the permissions so that that

9:27

video shows up where it needs to show up.

9:32

And there's hundreds of videos. So I could literally go in.

9:36

I keep saying literally

9:36

today, I need it to stop.

9:38

I could go in and change all

9:38

those links by hand manually.

9:41

It would probably take

9:41

me a good long time.

9:45

But I could probably get it done today if I just caffeine it up and throw on

9:46

some EDM music and just go hard.

9:52

But I was like, But that's not ideal. I started doing some Googling.

9:55

I reached out to Vimeo Support.

9:58

I did all the things I could

9:58

think of to find a workaround.

10:02

Lo and behold, because I was in a calm,

10:02

relaxed state and I wasn't panicking and

10:07

freaking out about how frustrating it was,

10:07

I was able to find out that there is a

10:11

setting in the parent Vimeo settings of

10:11

this video hosting platform where you can

10:17

change that one specific thing I needed

10:17

to change for all of your videos.

10:22

It took about 10 minutes for it to take

10:22

effect, but boom, my problem was solved.

10:27

I was like, Yes, this is great.

10:29

I then had another issue come up with a code that I have to insert in

10:31

all of my lessons of my courses.

10:34

That's a whole other story that

10:34

you don't need to hear about.

10:37

I'm still dealing with that. But having a no panic policy is what

10:38

allowed me to find that solution.

10:43

Let's talk about what that looks like.

10:45

I've

10:45

been running my courses with my students

10:49

since 2016, I think, is when

10:49

I launched my first course.

10:55

What I try to do in my business is give

10:55

students lifetime access to courses.

10:59

Meaning, once you buy something from

10:59

me, you're always going to get access.

11:03

Things are going to get updated,

11:03

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

11:06

I love that. It's fun. It means that students get to return

11:07

when I host live rounds for things.

11:11

I have never found it to be a problem. I think it's awesome.

11:14

I wish more people would do it, quite

11:17

honestly, because it's a great

11:17

experience on the student end, too.

11:20

But over the years, as

11:20

things grow, you find that there's

11:25

specific issues that come up

11:25

within specific parts of a course.

11:30

For example, inside of my course published

11:30

with Purpose, where you learn how to

11:34

create a journal or planner and put it on

11:34

Amazon, the formatting and text stuff when

11:39

it comes to Canva and some of the parts

11:39

where you upload stuff to KDP, if you're

11:43

not a tech-savvy person, those

11:43

things can be really frustrating.

11:46

Even though my directions are really

11:48

simple and streamlined and step by step,

11:48

it doesn't mean that they're foolproof.

11:53

It doesn't mean that you may still have

11:53

a glitch or something that happens.

11:57

What do I do? In the beginning of certain modules of my

11:58

courses, I have a quick conversation with

12:01

students like, Hey, just so you know,

12:01

this course is really tech heavy.

12:05

If you're not a tech person, you

12:05

may find that you're frustrated.

12:07

Here's how we can navigate that. Here are some resources for you.

12:11

Likewise, I have a no panic policy, first

12:14

and foremost, in my own business with

12:14

myself, my soulpriner self,

12:19

that if something bad happens,

12:19

we really adhere to them.

12:23

We, me, I adhere to the motto, if there is

12:23

a problem, there is absolutely a solution.

12:29

And I carry over this no panic

12:29

policy to my students, too.

12:33

So when you enroll in published with

12:33

purpose, for example, this is outlined in

12:37

one of the first lessons, but I thought

12:37

I'd take time to read it to you today.

12:41

If you want to use something

12:41

similar in your business, go ahead.

12:44

You're free to mention me if you want.

12:47

But if this is something that you think would be helpful in your course

12:49

or in your business, please use it because

12:54

I feel like it really gives us permission

12:54

to acknowledge that something is

12:58

difficult, but also make sure that

12:58

we're moving towards a solution.

13:01

Let me just read you literally the section

13:05

I have of my no panic

13:05

policy inside of my course.

13:08

This is among other policies and

13:08

guidelines I have when you first enter

13:12

into the course, but it

13:12

says no panic policy.

13:15

I say, Tech issues are bound to happen

13:15

when you're working with technology.

13:19

Acknowledging this is half the battle.

13:21

In other words, if you don't set yourself up with the expectation that everything

13:23

should run perfectly smoothly, you'll

13:27

avoid feeling as frustrated when

13:27

and if something does happen.

13:31

My motto when it comes to just about anything in business is if there is a

13:33

problem, there absolutely is a solution.

13:39

I also have a no panic policy, which means

13:39

that when tech issues arise, the best

13:43

thing to do is to breathe and

13:43

calmly work out a solution.

13:47

There are many times in my business where

13:47

a solution can't be found right away.

13:50

And the best thing to do is to step

13:50

away from the computer and calm down.

13:55

Getting angry, expecting things

13:55

immediately from tech support teams or me,

14:01

etc, will only make it worse and will

14:01

block you from finding the solution.

14:05

While I do everything I can to ensure a smooth as possible process with all we do

14:07

in this course, you are bound to run into

14:12

glitches here and there

14:12

from software that we use.

14:16

Then I give them a breakdown of steps to

14:16

take when they do run into a tech issue.

14:20

This is also just nice because when you're

14:20

in that heightened response

14:24

phase of feeling urgency and

14:24

frustration with something you're trying

14:28

to do and you can't do it, it's nice to

14:28

have a quick little workflow, right?

14:32

This is a five-step process and it says

14:34

steps to take when you

14:34

run into a tech issue.

14:36

One, document the issue. Take a screenshot or record a loom video

14:41

to show exactly what is happening

14:41

and where you are getting stuck.

14:46

Step two, reach out to the

14:46

correct support resource.

14:49

If you were having a Canva

14:49

issue, reach out to Canva.

14:52

Don't reach out to me. I can't help you with that.

14:55

Reach out to the correct support resource.

14:58

Three, consult the FAQ database...

15:00

This, often time tech issues solutions

15:00

can be found with a quick search here.

15:05

Just as a side note, inside of publish with Purpose, I have a giant FAQ database

15:07

that's hosted on the course...

15:12

Not a course platform. It's an app I got off of AppSummo

15:13

years ago called Malcolm.

15:18

And if you want to check

15:18

it out, it's like Malcolm.

15:20

App.

15:20

Anyway, I got a lifetime license.

15:23

Thing is awesome. Basically, there are all these questions

15:26

that students ask

15:26

and I throw them in there.

15:30

You can do tags and stuff.

15:32

So anytime students have questions,

15:32

I'm like, go there first.

15:34

And most of the time

15:34

they find those answers.

15:38

I have things in there like, where's

15:38

the affiliate program sign up?

15:41

When are our live calls? I can't seem to format

15:43

this thing in Canva.

15:45

What can I do? Or how long does it take for KVP

15:46

to get back to me and support?

15:50

All those questions are in there. This basically creates an

15:52

assistant version of me.

15:55

It's like a duplicate person like myself

15:58

that's going to help them

15:58

answer those questions.

16:01

Alternatively, if you don't want to pay

16:01

for something like that, you could

16:04

absolutely set up an FAQ database

16:04

in something like Notion.

16:08

I thought about playing

16:08

around with that as well.

16:11

Step four, be respectful of timelines.

16:14

Tech issues suck and can often

16:14

feel like the end of the world.

16:19

While you may want immediate help, be mindful of support timelines, and that you

16:21

may not hear back from a given support

16:25

team or person, including

16:25

myself, immediately.

16:28

I think this is really important to hit home because when we're frustrated,

16:30

we want support right away.

16:34

But we have to understand that

16:34

that's not always possible.

16:37

I do my best to show up when students

16:37

tag me in the Facebook group.

16:42

But if it's happening on a Saturday and I'm out the picking apples with my

16:44

husband, you're going to have to wait.

16:48

Step five, tag me in the Facebook group.

16:51

So as an entrepreneur, as things grow,

16:51

it's so important to establish boundaries

16:56

about how and when and where

16:56

people communicate with you.

16:59

I'm not always 100 % firm on this.

17:01

But as I get more students, it's

17:01

something I need to be more aware of.

17:04

So I say, if you need support with your

17:07

journal or planner, please

17:07

use our Facebook community.

17:09

I will not respond to requests via other messaging platforms and will always

17:11

direct you back to our group.

17:14

Chances are if you have a specific

17:14

question, someone else does, too.

17:18

It's absolutely okay to set boundaries

17:18

within your business about how people can

17:23

communicate with you and how

17:23

people can get the best support.

17:28

I wanted to share that no panic policy

17:28

with you and how I navigate tech issues.

17:33

Sometimes things are going to happen and you don't have as much

17:35

control as you want.

17:37

The other thing I wanted to talk about

17:40

today was navigating

17:40

conflict in your business.

17:43

As a business owner, I've talked with so

17:46

many other business owners, there's always

17:46

going to be times where no matter how much

17:50

you put in place or how organized you

17:50

think you are, there's going to be times

17:53

when you let a student down or something

17:53

isn't available or there's a tech issue,

17:58

or no matter how much you've communicated,

17:58

something doesn't get across to a student

18:02

or they miss something and

18:02

they're frustrated, this happens.

18:06

What I always like to

18:08

remind myself of is the first time if I

18:08

ever hear students mad or frustrated, I

18:13

want to know exactly what their experience was. Listen to your students and your clients.

18:19

I see this trend happening. I don't know if it's a trend, but over the

18:20

years, I've seen this thing happening

18:24

where business owners will make posts or

18:24

have these conversations online about how

18:29

sometimes you have nightmare students

18:29

or nightmare clients or whatever.

18:32

I would say more so that

18:34

you're having a nightmare experience with

18:34

a student or client, but it doesn't mean

18:38

that that person as an

18:38

individual is a nightmare.

18:42

It's just they're having a bad day. We have to understand that that happens.

18:46

It's frustrating when people act out

18:46

like that or take something out on you.

18:52

But at the same time, I know that

18:52

I'm not always a perfect person.

18:56

So unless it's something critical, like

18:56

it's hate speech or it's something like

19:00

that where I have no tolerance for, I will

19:00

kick you right out of my entire life.

19:05

No refunds.

19:05

Get out of here.

19:07

Unless it's something like that, I try

19:07

to give people the benefit of the doubt.

19:11

Are they having the

19:11

worst day of their life?

19:15

And one thing I've noticed is this, you

19:15

want to be firm in your boundaries as a

19:20

business owner, but I'm not afraid to make

19:20

exceptions if it means that it's going to

19:25

make my student have a really good experience. So typically in my programs, for

19:31

example, it's very specific, the

19:31

scope of the support I'm offering.

19:36

We have live calls. We do this. We do that.

19:37

Does that mean that because I have that in

19:41

place that I'm never going to go

19:41

above and beyond and help a student?

19:45

No. So, for example, I'll

19:46

give you two, three...

19:49

Well, we'll see how much

19:49

time I end up having here.

19:51

I'll give you a couple of examples of

19:51

things that have happened in my business.

19:54

So a couple of years ago, I ran a promo

19:58

and I offered published with purpose as a

19:58

self-paced option within my course.

20:03

The way I had it on the website, on my

20:03

sales page, I thought it was really clear.

20:08

We overlook things as business owners.

20:10

It was like basically you could get

20:10

published with purpose for half the price.

20:14

You would get access to the course,

20:14

everything, but you wouldn't get access to

20:18

our live calls, the VA license, the

20:18

Facebook group, any of the support stuff.

20:23

But you would get access to the course.

20:25

I had a student enroll in the self-paced

20:27

version and there's questions I ask

20:27

throughout the course

20:31

in the shell just to get feedback

20:31

and to help them process stuff.

20:37

I don't respond to those things. Those aren't things that

20:39

you get feedback from. It's just more of a like,

20:41

Hey, how's it going?

20:43

What have you been doing? Accountability. I got an email from this student saying,

20:48

Hey, I thought I was going

20:48

to get support for this.

20:50

She was really mad. I was like, Ma'am, what did I

20:52

do wrong on the sales page?

20:56

What didn't I communicate? That was my first question.

20:59

That's always my first question to myself. It's not, Damn, the student sucks.

21:03

What the hell? Like, blah, blah, blah.

21:05

Yeah, you're allowed to get frustrated,

21:05

but it's more so, What can I do?

21:10

Where did I miss the mark? I decided to have a conversation with her.

21:12

You know what?

21:15

She was totally right. It made it sound like it was self paced,

21:20

but it wasn't self

21:20

paced to her, meant something different.

21:25

So what did I do? I changed the wording on the

21:26

website, so on the sales page.

21:29

So it said solo learning. And then I created a blurb underneath it,

21:31

really explicitly stating what that meant

21:36

down to this is exactly what

21:36

you get and what you don't get.

21:39

And even though I had that outlined originally, I could see

21:41

how someone could miss it.

21:43

And so, again, itIt's not taking this

21:46

defensive stance and being

21:46

like, Well, it was on there.

21:49

Why didn't you see it? Just understanding that people are human

21:49

and people are going to miss things.

21:52

It sucks to enroll in something and think

21:52

you're getting something and then not.

21:56

What did I do?

21:56

I offered her,

21:58

I think at the time it was like I did a

21:58

week or a day or something of boxer

22:02

support because I didn't have

22:02

the capacity to get on Zoom.

22:05

That's what we did. She got additional help and support with

22:08

her planner, and she was really

22:08

happy about that additional support.

22:13

She left feeling better

22:13

about that experience.

22:16

That's what it's all about.

22:18

When I have students that it doesn't

22:18

happen all the time, honestly, it's rare.

22:24

It's rare that you're going to get someone

22:26

that is frustrated or someone that

22:26

is difficult, but it can happen.

22:31

Sometimes there might be instances where

22:34

navigating that with them

22:34

is maybe it is impossible.

22:38

Maybe you have someone that's not willing

22:38

to go halfway or hold themselves

22:42

accountable for their

22:42

part of that experience.

22:45

That sucks. But most of the time, I think there really

22:46

is an opportunity for

22:50

connection and collaboration

22:50

in that, and it's worth doing.

22:53

What I always tell myself is

22:56

if I ever feel like that emotion of

22:56

like, Oh, my God, fuck this person.

23:01

What the hell is happening? I take that and I switch it to

23:03

saying basically like, Fuck you.

23:09

You are going to have

23:09

an awesome experience.

23:11

You paid for this program or this course.

23:13

You don't get to be upset. We are going to find a way to

23:15

find a solution for this.

23:19

Whether that means me getting on a Zoom call with you, me having a conversation

23:21

with you on Boxer, or me providing some

23:26

additional support for where I

23:26

might have missed the mark, cool.

23:30

Let's do it. I'm not about putting that back on

23:31

students and just not having any leeway.

23:37

I just think that there are times for

23:39

boundaries and then there's times to

23:39

understand the nuance of a situation.

23:44

I see a lot of posts and stuff online

23:47

where people are like, I joined a program,

23:47

and then I got really effing sick and I

23:51

wasn't able to join this program that

23:51

had six months access or a month access.

23:57

I asked them, Can I get

23:57

an extended access?

23:59

They were basically like, No, hard no.

24:01

This is exactly what it is.

24:04

Is that business owner allowed

24:04

to have that boundary?

24:06

Yeah.

24:06

But think about the impact of that.

24:09

Now that student is leaving with a sour

24:11

taste in their mouth and they have nothing

24:11

good to say about your program.

24:17

They feel crappy and they didn't get the

24:19

results or the experience that they

24:19

originally paid for all around.

24:24

It's like if you had the experience of a

24:27

kid of getting an ice cream cone and then

24:27

dropping it right away, is

24:31

that person that just made you that

24:31

ice cream responsible to replace it?

24:35

No, you dropped it. You're a kid.

24:36

Tough love, right?

24:38

But most of the time they're going

24:38

to be like, oh, man, that sucks.

24:41

Here's another one on the house. Not because they have to, but because

24:42

it's just the right thing to do.

24:47

Then you're going to leave that experience

24:49

being like, hey, I remember one time

24:49

I lost my cone and bro, hooked me up.

24:54

That's just something I wanted to bring to

24:56

the table in terms of how

24:56

I do stuff in business.

24:59

I always come into that mindset like,

24:59

no, you don't get out of this this easy.

25:05

It's not going to be that

25:05

easy for you to be mad.

25:08

I'm going to do everything I

25:08

can to try to find a solution.

25:11

I do have my limits. I'm not going to drop my whole life for

25:14

somebody, but I always want to provide as

25:14

much support as I can to take someone and

25:20

make sure that they have a better experience. I think that's part of accessibility, too,

25:22

is that whether you run group programs or

25:28

courses or you're a coach or something,

25:28

you're going to have people that have

25:31

different needs and different

25:31

experiences and different...

25:35

Everyone's brain works so differently.

25:38

It's important to acknowledge that the way

25:40

you run your course is not necessarily

25:40

going to work for everyone.

25:43

Be flexible. That might mean that you have to provide

25:46

additional support for some people

25:46

or navigate some tough situations.

25:50

It doesn't mean that you're a bad business owner or that you're weak or your

25:52

boundaries are super weak or anything.

25:56

It just means that you're

25:56

trying to adapt and do what you can.

26:00

Lastly, as we wrap up today's podcast

26:04

episode, I want to talk about

26:04

navigating emotional overwhelm.

26:08

Today, just to recap, we've talked

26:08

about when shit hits the fan.

26:11

We talked about tech issues and what I do,

26:14

navigating conflict, boundaries, and

26:14

then there's emotional overwhelm.

26:18

I feel like these are the main pivotal

26:20

things that can create those like, what

26:20

the F, moments in our life, in our week.

26:26

But navigating emotional overwhelmed,

26:26

the world is heavy.

26:29

I don't need to repeat anything

26:29

that's going on, you know.

26:32

There's not only that, but then there's

26:32

where we all fall into the experience of

26:39

it, how we're all

26:39

affected or not affected.

26:41

There's societal pressure now in this new

26:41

realm of online social media to have to

26:47

respond or be on or do certain things

26:47

or have an opinion on everything.

26:53

What I will tell you right now is that in

26:56

any given circumstance of anything that

26:56

happens in the world, there are going to

27:01

be people that are privileged to not have

27:01

to experience something and that have the

27:05

ability to not be impacted in it, and then

27:05

there's going to be the people that are.

27:10

That does not mean that any one person

27:10

needs to do any one particular thing.

27:14

I'm not talking about you see a car crash

27:16

and you walk away and you don't help somebody. I'm talking about you're literally working

27:18

your life day to day and you hear stuff on

27:24

the news that's heartening, disparaging,

27:24

and there's not much you can do about it.

27:31

There's this pressure now for so many people, especially business owners, to

27:33

make a statement or to have an opinion on

27:36

every political thing that

27:36

happens in the world.

27:38

I'm just going to tell you right now,

27:38

I'm no longer participating in it.

27:42

One, because most of the time, I don't

27:44

have enough fucking information to make an

27:44

opinion or to have an opinion or to make a

27:50

statement that I should try to impose

27:50

on everyone else in my community.

27:54

Have I been guilty of that in the past?

27:54

Yes.

27:56

Do I still have a page where I make it clear where I stand on social justice

27:58

and different human rights issues?

28:02

Yeah, I think that's great.

28:04

However, that doesn't mean that every time

28:04

something happens in the world, I'm going

28:08

to make a post with a black,

28:08

square, and white text about what I think

28:13

and what everyone else's

28:13

thoughts should be in my opinion.

28:16

I'm just no longer participating in it. We also have to protect our

28:18

own emotional capacity.

28:21

You have to understand that

28:21

if we were to take a break, and I think

28:27

this is just lived experience, and

28:27

it's different now.

28:30

We have so much more access to everything

28:32

that's going on in the

28:32

world at a given time.

28:34

But I think it's also just lived experience. For example, and no example I provide

28:36

here is going to be the perfect parallel.

28:42

There's little holes in my

28:42

argument you could totally make.

28:45

That's fine. I'm not trying to make a

28:46

perfect argument here. I'm just trying to speak from

28:48

what I have experienced.

28:52

When I lost my dad, for example, it

28:52

changed my life.

28:55

My whole life stopped.

28:55

I was 23, lost my dad.

28:57

My dad is dead.

28:57

What in the hell is happening?

28:59

This is insane.

28:59

I will never forget

29:02

the feeling of my whole life is in

29:02

shambles right now and I can't function.

29:08

I could not understand how

29:08

I could still see people

29:13

going to McDonald's, getting a milk

29:13

shake and having a great afternoon.

29:16

I could not understand how people in my

29:19

life were still having good days knowing

29:19

that I was having the worst days.

29:23

I could not understand how some people couldn't handle my grief

29:25

and didn't show up for me.

29:31

Those things sucked. But I'll tell you one thing.

29:34

I also don't blame those people, and I

29:37

also don't and didn't expect people having

29:37

a good day to have a bad day because I was

29:41

having a bad day and having a struggling,

29:41

grief-filled experience.

29:46

There were people in my life that were able to show up for me, and then

29:47

there were people that weren't.

29:50

While that's not the same thing,

29:53

anything that happens in the world, there

29:53

are people that are going to be able to

29:56

make a difference, and then there

29:56

are millions of people that aren't.

30:01

So many times we feel pressure to do

30:01

something or we're made to feel like we

30:06

have a ton of control in

30:06

something when we actually don't.

30:10

It's more of a systemic issue. It's a bigger issue,

30:12

and it's something that do we to vote on?

30:15

Yeah. Do we need to talk to people about? Yes.

30:17

But don't feel that pressure of

30:23

you, individual, soul person being

30:23

responsible for everything.

30:26

Great example is when Oprah came on

30:26

relatively recently with The Rock and they

30:30

were like talking about Maui and they

30:30

were like, Hey, guys, we need to donate.

30:34

You guys all need to donate. It's like, Are you fucking serious?

30:38

You guys have more money than the majority

30:41

of all the people you're

30:41

speaking to, right?

30:44

Yet there was that pressure. Here's what you need to do.

30:46

Every time there's a terrorist attack or

30:46

some horrible event that happens, it's

30:52

here's how what you need to do and

30:52

here's how you need to donate.

30:56

I personally just think that that is

30:56

relatively insane considering there are

31:02

billionaires out there that could

31:02

solve so many of our problems.

31:05

I'm not trying to make this

31:05

a big political episode.

31:07

I keep telling myself, don't say so much shit on your podcast that people

31:09

are going to get mad about.

31:12

But I just wanted to share that in case

31:12

that resonates with you, in case that

31:15

gives you a permission slip,

31:15

just because you don't post something on

31:20

every event doesn't mean

31:20

you're part of the problem.

31:22

I just don't buy that narrative anymore. I really don't, because there's

31:24

things that happen behind the scenes.

31:27

When you're not, quote-unquote, virtue signaling online, you could be doing

31:29

so many other things in your life.

31:33

Let's reach out to the

31:33

things that we can impact.

31:36

Community matters. Our scope of control is a big deal.

31:39

What you do in your neighborhood and in your local community can

31:41

have far-reaching impacts.

31:45

It's like trying to reach

31:45

across the world to make an impact.

31:49

You're going to have less ability to do

31:49

something compared to how you treat your

31:53

family, compared to how you treat people

31:53

in community when you go to the grocery

31:57

store, how you interact with people, how

31:57

inclusive you are, all those things.

32:02

There's always going to be people that

32:02

have privilege within a situation.

32:06

The world is still going to

32:06

turn no matter what we do.

32:08

That's the end of my little

32:08

rant and my thoughts today.

32:12

If you enjoyed this podcast episode, cool, you can always reach

32:13

out to me on Instagram. I'm @SarahSteckler if you want to

32:15

continue to have a conversation about it.

32:19

But that's where I'm going to wrap things up. Hopefully, I didn't make

32:21

too many people mad. But also, if you're going to exist in this

32:22

world, you're going to make people upset.

32:26

We have to continue having

32:26

nuanced conversations.

32:30

I just really think that we just need to

32:32

open the door to have more of

32:32

those conversations in general.

32:35

That's it. Thank you for listening.

32:38

Hoping to come back soon with some more

32:38

podcast episodes, getting back into

32:43

productivity and organization,

32:43

really feeling that this season.

32:46

I hope you have a wonderful week

32:46

ahead and thanks for being here.

32:49

Peace out.