Reviewing and Reflecting To Celebrate Your Accomplishments & Your Potential

Kristina Stubblefield  0:01  

Thank you for tuning in to WedPro Business Solutions. I'm your host, Kristina Stubblefield. I think now is the perfect time to talk about the importance of pausing and allowing yourself time to reflect on how far you've come in business. I know we all get hung up with how busy things are in business personal, it seems like the world is moving at maybe the fastest pace ever. I don't know about you, but sometimes I feel like I've blinked in three or four months have gone by. And as business gets busier, and time slips away, I think it becomes harder for me personally, to really take time to think how far I've come, how far my teams come, and how far our businesses have come over the past few months, even the past year. And that's one thing that I felt like since I'm coming upon that time to have these conversations with my husband, because we're in business together. But also my team, I wanted to share with you all, how important it really is to chisel out that time, whether it be a few hours a day, whatever works for you and your schedule, but just really looking at thinking about processing. How far has your business come in the past year. Now, one of the things that I feel is, gosh, I do good to remember yesterday or last week. Now I want to go back and think about the past 12 months. And to be honest with you, the last couple years, I have found one of the ways that I tend to do this is just taking time to go through my actual gallery on my phone. Because I A lot of times we'll take pictures at events, networking opportunities, different things in it includes both personal and business. And I'm very surprised at I'm like, Oh my gosh, that was just a couple months ago, or Wow, that's been a year ago. And we deserve to give ourselves more credit than we usually do. That's what it comes down to, you know, I A lot of times will think, oh, we should have already done this, we should have already done that. Why didn't we do this six months ago. And this is one of those times to really think about cutting yourself some slack, being thankful that you wake up every day. Number one that's important, but also to be thankful that you have the business that you do. And what I mean by that is, you know, I've heard so many people deciding not to stay open for personal reasons, or because of what we've all been through. I know of others that aren't fortunate to still do the business that they love to do for whatever reason. So sometimes the smallest thing of being thankful that you still get to do what you love. And if you have your own business, sometimes you lose sight. But you're the one that gets to determine how that business operates, how that business functions, how your schedule or timeline goes. Now, I'm willing to sit here and talk because, you know, there are times that I allow my schedule to get completely out of control. That actually happened to me recently. And I was trying to make more availability for people scheduling meetings, as we come to the end of the year. And what that did was it caused me to have to adjust other things my team to have to adjust. I got firsthand the ripple effect of trying so hard to accommodate and not allowing myself the time that I needed in my own schedule to work on projects or to just have some downtime. And honestly, if you know me, saying no, or that doesn't fit or I'd love to, but I can't do that right now. Oh, those are not easy words for Kristina to say. And it comes back around to bite me sometimes, I assure you. But that's where I lean on boundaries and setting expectations. 

But my point in sharing this with you is burnout, it can creep in a lot faster than you may realize. I feel like those in the wedding and event industry were slapped in the face with that, coming out of the main part of the pandemic, and having to juggle dates around and fit events in from the prior year. And then you're still marketing your business because you want next year, you know, to be as busy as it normally has, maybe not as it was trying to play catch up. But now, the conversations I have with people, some of them say what the hell have I gotten myself into? And it can be a very tricky situation. When basically, the event industry came to a halt. There was a period where really events weren't happening. And then as things started to take place again, yes, yes, yes, I can do that event. Yes, I can do this event. Yes, I can do this event. Now trying to find balance. What does that look like? Most people probably didn't take pause, to rethink through how do I want my business to look? What do I want? How many events do I want to book, what are my goals, all of those things that can swirl around in your head. And my point in sharing all this is burnout is real. I've had conversations with people who have done what they've done for many, many years, excellent at it, I never dreamed would not continue to do it. That his war on them mentally, physically, emotionally. And I think we need to talk more about that burnout is 100%. Real, it is not about being lazy. It is not about anything else people want to say you can get burnout quickly. And I have probably been on the edge of that a few times that I know of for sure. I love to help people, those in the wedding and event industry, you're doing the same thing. You're helping people, you're providing a solution for them. And in my situation, you know, a lot of times people have not had the best experiences, or they haven't really dove into working with a coach. And then if I don't help them, who will? You know, there's all these things with your mindset that can just really mess with you. So the way of the world can push you closer to burnout than maybe in years past. And I think the whole reason that I'm so passionate about what I do. I see the blood sweat and tears that pour in with event professionals doing what they do. A lot of stuff happens behind the scenes that engaged couples and clients know nothing about. I know how talented most of you all are. I have been very fortunate to be around very, very amazing wedding professionals, event professionals, industry professionals. And I don't want to see any of them. Not be there next year or tomorrow.

And I think that is why I wanted to share some about my own experience about being on the fringe of of burnout, and how how do you get a handle on it? How do you really real things back in? And that comes that sheds light on the fact of really looking at your business as a whole. What do you love to do what maybe don't you love to do? So, as I get into this, I want to share some things with you about this because I think over the last couple of years, one thing that's been really come into focus for For me, is realizing how not having a somewhat downtime with family friends, not to working, not in email, not in the calendar not to podcasting, not doing anything work related. If I don't allow that downtime, it really can affect my productivity as well as my teams. And let that sink in for a minute. If you don't take time to yourself, you could spend two to three times the amount of time to do something than it normally would take you. That's a recipe for disaster. And I found that although I thought, oh, no, just another hour, just another hour or two, just another this. In all honesty, I was setting myself up for failure because I was already maxed out, and you're on pushing for just a little bit longer. Whether you're willing to admit that or not, it probably happens to to more people than you think. And finding out what allows you to really step away, whether that's for a day, whether that's for six hours, the weekend. If you're in the event business, how do you have the weekends to yourself? How do you have that downtime, maybe that means it's Monday or Tuesday. And the whole point in sharing this, finding out what helps you relax, what helps you turn your brain off. And there's many things with meditation, going and getting a regular massage or reading a book. I'm not here to tell you what works, what doesn't work, because honestly, I believe it's different for everybody, I can tell you that. I've tried to read a book recently, and my mind goes 100 Different miles an hour. And I'm not comprehending what's in that book. But there are things that you can find to do to be able to step away, have downtime. And then be able to apply yourself 100% In what you love to do, I hope to goodness, that's why you're in business is because you're able to do execute your passion, and you love it. That's a whole nother topic, if not, but while you're thinking through some of this stuff I'm talking about, I want to pose some questions to you that really may help you to review and reflect. Because I know that I'm not the best at it. And to think about right now 12 months ago, where we were. Honestly, we've made such strides in directions that we intentionally wanted to go towards. That's probably one of my biggest takeaways was being intentional. staying the course although it might not have been the easiest. We did it. We're still a work in progress, but we did it. 

So here are some questions that I would like to pose to you for you to put some thought to reviewing your business. Where do you feel that you enjoyed most? What did you enjoy doing the most? What stands out to you? Is that that was fun. I would like to do those events again? Or where did you find enjoyment with your business? Do you feel like you succeeded? Write down some things that you feel like you succeeded at? Are there some places that you feel like you may have some regrets? Is there something with that same question that you feel like you could be better at the next 12 months with that same token, is there something that maybe you shouldn't do anymore?

Just question Instead, ask yourself where were where was I at in business 12 months ago? I'm not talking about revenue, or pricing necessarily. And then think about where you're at now, right now, where are you at? Now, while you're doing some of this pausing and reflecting, some things may start to come to mind about the next 12 months. And I feel like that happens to me, I feel like that's a very natural progression, when you start to reflect on where you were, where you are now, and where you want to go. And that's also probably a good time to jot down some notes, I find that having a piece of paper and jotting down, these are things that stand out to me from the past 12 months, as I mentioned, before, I scroll through some of my pictures. And then where do I feel like I had room for improvement? What maybe do I really love to do, but I could improve on. Maybe it's simple as returning phone calls or text messages. For me, it was putting in a place a complete system that not only benefited me, but also my team. It helped give me a 10,000 foot view of our business. In other words, it helped me have a pulse on our complete business because we have quite a few things going on, not just one revenue stream, so to speak, we have multiple, and I do help a lot of people with that. But guess who always got pushed to the backburner. And that's something that we really embraced. Because it was well past time. So I hope by talking about some of the these things in this episode allows you, even if it's just a few minutes to pause, maybe it's just been while you've listened to this episode, you owe it to yourself. Most of us, myself, as well as wedding professionals and event professionals spend a lot of our time helping others working towards helping others working to make these events, making wedding days, dreams into realities. A lot of times, I feel like my team helps people move the needle in their business. And we do not take that lightly. And I'm sure you do not take lightly what you do as an event professional. But you owe it to yourself to have the time, whatever amount that is to say, here's where I was. Here's where I am today. And then start the natural progression of where do you want to be in 12 months. 

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