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Welcome to Amplify Your Authority, the podcast where innovative marketing meets heart-centered entrepreneurship. Join Marissa Shadrick, an award-winning international speaker, Ray Edwards certified copywriter, and personal brand expert. You'll gain insights into the external strategies for business growth and how to navigate the internal journey of entrepreneurship. Get ready to amplify your authority in a competitive digital world. Now is your host, Marissa Shadrick.

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Hello, hello, and welcome to the Amplify Your Authority podcast. I am your host, Marissa Shadrick. I'm an online marketing strategist and certified copywriter. And I'm so glad you're listening today because we have an important topic. Many people, as they're initiating or scaling, or beginning their business, there are a lot of moving parts and they can find themselves overwhelmed. And they feel the pressure or the tension to do a lot of things at the same time. And they get in this situation where they're busy, but they're not really getting a lot of things done. And that could be very frustrating. They can feel overwhelmed, maybe they'll procrastinate, and they don't feel that fulfillment that they wanted to when they first started their business. So this topic is all about how to avoid burnout as you grow your online business. Now, these five tips are also going to include affirmations. Now, funny story about affirmations. I thought there were a lot of woo-woo stuff back in the day, but there's a lot of science behind affirmations. And I've come to realize how valuable they are. I knew about brain science and about pathways that we have and how we can create new pathways, but I never made the connection with affirmations. And I was reading this book, and you may have read it. This is my second time going through it. It's Mind Your Mindset by Michael Hyatt and Megan Hyatt Miller. And there was a portion of that that all of a sudden it clicked. So I'm going to read it to you so I get it correct. And I'm going to then share the five tips with the affirmations. Now, if you don't know anything about brain science or the plasticity of our brain, we have these default ruts, you might say, where our brain is always trying to find answers or solutions for us. And sometimes those ruts are based on false beliefs, limiting beliefs. It could be based on a negative experience in our past. And it will create these ruts. And so the outcome may not serve you as well as you would like. But here's the beautiful part about the brain: it can create new pathways, but it takes a long time to rewire your brain. So as you say affirmations over and over again, week after week, and you say it to yourself month after month, you begin to build new pathways. And these have to align with your beliefs and your values. They can't be something outrageous that you just pull out of the air. It has to be something that's true about you. And you can listen to these affirmations. You can record them for yourself or you can read them. And you can go through these affirmations. And what you're doing is you're building these new pathways. And so when you're busy going about your work, you're going to see things differently. You're not going to be as fearful. You're not going to be as hesitant. You're not going to question yourself. And so this is the paragraph that I read where things started clicking together. They were talking a lot a lot about the brain science. And here it says, if our stories, and these are the stories that we tell ourselves in our brain, right? If our stories determine our experience of reality, we can improve our reality by improving our stories. And that creates a positive feedback loop that rewires our brain, making us stronger, more resilient, and more capable of addressing the choices, changes, and chances of life. So once it clicked and I understood what I was doing, I was creating new pathways, then I started embracing the idea of affirmations. So I had to give you that little backstory before I give you the five tips with the affirmations so it makes a little bit of sense. Maybe you already do this. Maybe I was late to catch the train, right? But in any event, I'm going to share this with you. So this is all about avoiding burnout as you grow your business. And I've got five tips for you. So the first one is embrace reality. Take a look at where you are right now. What are your results? Are you growing revenue? Are you growing your email list? And look at the reality with your personal life as well and with your health. Just kind of take inventory and embrace reality. Recognize the current state of your personal and business life without judgment or denial. So this is not a way to condemn yourself or anything. This is just looking at facts and making observations and figuring out or understanding your starting point. And so it's always good to have that awareness of a starting point to be able to make informed decisions of what's next when you're planning for growth. So that's the first tip is embrace reality. And I do this a lot when I journal. I ask myself a series of questions and I embrace reality where I'm at right now without judgment and without denial. So here's the affirmation. These are some affirmations that I've just written. They'll probably change and evolve because I'm new at this affirmation thing. I've never done it before, and so I'm new with this. And if you have any tips with affirmations, I would love to hear it. Or if you're an expert in that, maybe I can have you on the podcast. So, in any event, here's what I wrote: affirmation. And this has to do with embracing reality. My affirmation is I have been given the gift of life, and I am responsible for how I steward it. With my unique gifts, talents, and experiences, I will navigate challenges and learn what I need to know. I will stay focused, flexible, and teachable. I control my choices and will celebrate successes while gaining wisdom from my outcomes. Now, you can gain wisdom from negative outcomes too. So that's the part that I didn't write, but I'm thinking about that when I'm reading this, because not everything is always a success. So we learn though from every experience. Number two, the next tip I have for you to avoid burnout while you're growing your business or starting an online business is commit to change. You have to see change as a friend. You have to see that change has value. Yes, it is scary. I went through a lot of changes when I was overcoming fear. A lot of changes. And I think I've shared some of the things that I did because I had so many negative stories in my head when I was entering this international speech competition that I literally put bracelets that I had. I had these bracelets that were like, I must have been like 12 bracelets that all matched. They were just a number of bracelets, and they were really pretty, but they clanked a lot. And so I put these bracelets on, and every time I had a negative thought or limiting belief or something that was not serving me right, I'd stop, I'd take the bracelet, I'd reframe it in my mind, and then I'd put it on the other arm. Now, I didn't realize that that was a form of affirmation. That was in 2015, right? I just never connected the dots. And so I had to do that to be aware of the stories I was telling myself in my brain. But we have to commit to change because if you're in an online, have some kind of online business or you're a service provider, change is going to be your business partner. It's just the way it is. And so it takes courage to venture into new territory. And even if you've validated your offerings and you know that there's a market there for it, it still can be a little scary, right? You have to trust yourself and navigate the unknown because it won't be unknown forever. It may be unknown right now, but eventually it won't be in an unknown. It'll be familiar and you'll be able to tackle a new change. So stay flexible and be prepared to adapt. So here's my affirmation for commit to change. My affirmation is I am open to new possibilities and embrace creativity with confidence. I seek risk. That was hard when I wrote that. I seek risk as a chance to grow and learn valuable lessons. I will confront my hidden fears, expand my potential, and become a trusted leader who serves with empathy and love. So that is the outcome of embracing change for me. So when you're thinking of some of the things that you want to do, and we've covered two. The first one is embrace reality. The second is commit to change. Think about maybe creating some affirmations for yourself as well. Okay, tip number three is accept imperfection. This was a biggie for me because I am a perfectionist or recovering perfectionist. I am a type A. I'm an Enneagram one. And this was something that I've been working on for years. I've been working on it for years, and I realize that excellence is good, but seeking perfection is not good. No one is perfect. And doing your best without seeking perfectionism allows you to maintain momentum, it won't slow you down. And you won't be paralyzed by fear or judgment or even potential failure. So you will accept imperfection and continue moving forward, knowing that it's still good, it's still excellent. But we start thinking that it needs to be perfect because we start looking at what other people are doing and we start comparing. But with what you're doing, with the resources you have and the knowledge you have, do the best that you can, pursue excellence, but don't let perfectionism get in the way. Be kind to yourself. Acknowledge that everyone experiences some level of imposter syndrome. Everyone does. Because they're stretching themselves. They're doing things they've never done before. And so that will always bring a little bit of fear. But again, if you accept that imperfection is okay, and you accept change, you're going to be able to move forward. So here's my affirmation for accept imperfection. I care about what I create and will do my best with the knowledge I have today, free from self-criticism and unhealthy perfectionism. I embrace mistakes as valuable insights to help me grow, and they will remind me to stay humble and teachable. So again, this is aligned with these tips that I'm giving you to give you an example. So the three so far, I want to make sure that you're tracking with me. First one is embrace reality. I gave you an example of an affirmation. Number two is commit to change. And number three is accept imperfection. Number four is manage your energy. Now I have a lot of energy and I've always been like a little energizer bunny, but sometimes energy can get you doing multiple things, many things at the same time. You have to manage the energy that you have and stay focused on the goals that you've created for yourself. So you have to understand your energy peaks and lows to optimize productivity for the day. Whether you're a day person, a night person, or somewhere in between, you understand where those peak periods are where you could be more productive. By the end of the day, I don't usually will do a lot of creative writing or writing at the end of the day or try to finish some type of uh sales page at the end of the day because I'm spent. And it will actually take me longer if I try to muscle through and finish it. It might take me two, two and a half hours to finish something that if I was fresh in the morning, I could finish it in 45 minutes. So as I manage my energy, I recognize when my peak times are, and I'll reserve certain tasks or project during those peak hours. And that will help you, especially it's a demanding task. Do it when you have full energy, and that way you can knock it out a lot faster. And learn to say no to tasks that don't align with your goal or that drain your energy. Learn to say no to tasks that don't align with your goal or drain your energy. And oftentimes for myself, I can say no to other people, maybe other opportunities that aren't in alignment, but it's really hard for me to say no to me. And so sometimes we have to say no to ourselves. Do we need to actually jump on that webinar right now? Do we need to create this new product when we haven't finished completing maybe a course for another product? And typically we want to make sure that everything connects. So if you're gonna sell something, and it doesn't have to be a huge launch, if you're gonna sell something, you're become very clear about what that is. And then everything else that you do, the newsletters, the email sequences, the posting, everything should align with that theme of what you're trying to accomplish for that quarter or that month, whatever it may be. So the problem is we get too busy with too many things and we dilute the productivity and we start working on this and working on that, or wanting this, or someone had this great idea, or somebody accomplished this, and now we want to do it too, and we get distracted. So here's my affirmation for managing energy. I will prioritize rest to nurture my mind, body, and spirit. I will structure my days to leverage my energy peaks and minimize unnecessary interruptions. I will extend grace to myself and remain flexible when I miss the mark or when unexpected events arise, knowing that these moments are temporary. So if for some reason you get off track, it's only temporary. Your regular rhythm is going to continue. You didn't damage the rhythm. You just had one oops, one day or one afternoon. That's okay. The next day you can continue. It is not the status quo, it is the exception. The fifth and final is focus, focus, focus, and flourish. So, what do I mean by this? Choose one achievement goal at a time and track your progress. And again, figure out what this is going to provide for me or do for me. I've picked this goal, I've broken up my day, I've figured out when I'm going to be able to do this particular project. I like to take my calendar at the beginning of the month and block out days where I have half days or full days that I don't have client calls, and I highlight them because those are the days I can do deep work. And so figure out your plan on how are you going to get this done and by when and how much time you're going to be able to devote to it so you can get it done. So choose one goal because if you have too many, it's too hard again. So, for example, if you want to update your website, how many tabs do you have? How many pages does that include? Figure it out, count them. How many pages are we talking about? The home page, the about page, do you have a product page? Do you have a contact page? How many pages? So that you can figure out how much time it's going to take you. And you can have a realistic goal as far as when you're going to do it. And then the focus work will allow you to execute efficiently without feeling overwhelmed. Now that you've prioritized and these other things are tabled for later, you won't feel overwhelmed. Every week you can identify the task and projects that do or do not contribute to that main goal that you're trying to accomplish. Because things will come at you through email and other things. You have to assess and figure out does this align with my goal right now or not? Or does if this aligns with my goal, then I need to somehow work this in. If it doesn't, I need to table it and write it down somewhere. So I'll remember. So here's my affirmation for focus and flourish. I will be intentional about setting weekly goals and managing my energy efficiently. Without judgment, I will track my progress and make adjustments as needed. I will celebrate small wins and review my progress each week to stay motivated. With God's help, I will reach my goals and thrive. Now, the reason why I wrote in there, review my progress without judgment, is sometimes our progress isn't what we want to see, but that's okay with no judgment. If you say I want to write 30 minutes a day and you only wrote 10 minutes, that's okay. If you say I want to reach out to people and make create more one-on-one calls, and I want to reach out to five people a day, and you find that five is too many, maybe you need to scale it back and reach out to one person. One person a day is 30 people a month. That could be a good starting point for you if you're that busy. It's much easier to reach out and have an authentic connection with one person than try to systematize it and connect to three to five if you don't have a lot of time. So let me go over the five in review. So again, this is how to avoid burnout and grow your online business. It's number one, embrace reality, figure out where you're at right now. Two, commit or recommit to change. Number three, accept imperfection. No comparison traps here. Number four is manage your energy. And number five is focus and flourish. I hope that has helped you today. I know when I started writing these affirmations, I really enjoyed it once I understood how it worked. I'm a late bloomer, what can I say? But you might want to do that for whatever goals you're setting, or maybe maybe it's self-criticism. Maybe you need affirmations just to build up your confidence because you're an amazing person. And so if you haven't heard it lately, hopefully you're in a community. I know in our community, our mastermind, we do um spotlights, but we also do reverse spotlights where we speak into the life of a person and they will turn off their camera, and we just share all the value, the insights. We share all about them, what we see in them and the potential that we see in them and the gifts that they have, how they've blessed us. We share all this because sometimes we're so blind to the gifts and the abilities and the experiences and the things that God has given us. And sometimes we need an outside voice to remind us of those things that are already within us. So even if you're not in a mastermind group, you can get with some friends and do this, or get with your spouse, or maybe a girlfriend or a colleague and say, you know, I really need to kind of see what I can't see for myself and do that. And maybe from that create affirmations to build your confidence so that you can take that next step and have that energy and momentum to be able to grow or scale your business. Alrighty. Well, I hope that was helpful. Remember, I would love to see a five-star review so I can continue to produce this podcast and influence and have impact. That would be wonderful. I would love that. And if you're someone that really understands this topic, I'm kind of interested to connect with you. Let me know because I'm kind of fascinated by all of this. I've always followed Caroline Leaf and I've been really diving into some Michael Hyatt content, and it's all making sense and connecting the dots. But it would be lovely to be able to talk to someone who's an expert in this area. So until next time, thank you so much for tuning in, and I'll talk to you soon. Bye bye.