Episode 139: What Can You Do Today to Help Yourself Tomorrow as A Small Business Owner?
In this quick tip episode, Fiona shares a tea analogy she has for activities you can do or habits you can develop today to help your future self as a small business owner. What are the things in your life, that if you just did a small consistent step towards them, you would be better in the long run?
Topics discussed in this episode:
Introduction
Tea Analogy
What can you do today for your future self?
Conclusion
Get in touch with My Daily Business Coach
Episode transcript:
Hello, and welcome to Episode 139 of the My Daily Business Coach podcast. So if you're listening to this live, it is Tuesday, the fifth of October. And I just want to give a massive shout out to my husband, Jerome Rebeiro, who had his birthday yesterday, and just helps so much behind the scenes with me being able to run this business. He's an incredible father and such a good partner to have in life. So Happy Birthday JR and hope you are listening and not blushing. So yeah, just wanted to put that out there. And before we get stuck into today's quick tip episode, which actually kind of fits in nicely with mentioning Jerome because he is very much this type of person. I wanted to of course acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which I'm lucky enough to record this podcast and to live. I'm located in North Warrandyte, in Victoria in Australia. And this is Wurundjeri land - the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation are the traditional owners of this land. And I just want to pay my respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.
So today, like I said, it is a quick tip episode. And it's definitely one that is suitable no matter where you are in business. Or if you don't even have a business. What is it? Let's get into it.
So a while ago, on Instagram, that is one of my channels for my business and my marketing. But it's not the only channel. Let it be heard. Obviously, you're listening right now, and another one, podcasting. But I'm digressing A while ago, I posted an Instagram story, I'm just at @mydailybusinesscoach if you're not connected, and I talked about something that happens quite regularly in my household, which is I drink tea. So about, gosh, coming up to 4 years now ago, I gave up coffee, and I also gave up alcohol and I'll have a glass of wine here and there, you know, maybe for my birthday, or maybe like New Year's Eve actually haven't done that for a while. But you know, maybe maybe like two or three glasses of wine a year, which is a lot less than I used to anyway. But I have never had coffee, since I gave it up. I've never had real coffee. I do have a decaf every now and then. But I don't drink coffee ever. I drink tea. And it took me a long time to figure out a tea alternative because I was a big coffee drinker. And I drink Chai, that's what I said around I drink Chai, if anyone's out there listening has a chai business, feel free to send me a sample because I'm always looking for, you know, new places that I can support new small business owners that sells a good child. And I have this little jar that I put my tea bags in and I drink copious amounts of tea, I'd probably say Max, five or six cups a day, which I know is probably really bad for you. I don't know, maybe it's not. And I love my tea. I love it. I'm like a tea addict when I used to be a coffee addict.
And what I notice is that there is this jar that holds my tea bags. And we also have like property. But you know, I can't always be bothered to do that. Let's be real. And it holds my tea bags. And sometimes I'll go in there and there'll be like two or three tea bags that are left in the jar. And I'll think "Fiona, you have two choices, you can go and find the bigger box of tea bags and put them into the jar. So that next time you come in for tea, especially if you're like rushing between coaching sessions, or you just want a cup of tea quickly. It'll be there, it'll be all prepared and you'll you'll be able to make tea quickly. Or you can leave it and there's two or three bags and that might last you like half a day and then it will be completely empty. And then you might really want to tea quickly and you'll have to go and find the tea bag."
So I know you might be thinking What does teabags and you filling this jar or not filling this jar have to do with business. But it's the same in our business. It's the same where we see small cracks, small things in the systems that aren't working well, small things in our email that could be worded better. And we just sort of leave them and leave them and leave them until suddenly there'll be problem. Now, I'm not saying that, you know, not having teabags in a jar is a really big problem. But I am saying that so often in life, we have the choice of making a quick action that will actually help us down the road, or ignoring it. And so with my tea, it's a quick action. But it really, really helps me likewise, me going for a walk is a quick action, or not always takes about an hour. But you know, it's a quick response in the morning, I'm going to go out, I'm going to get out of the house, have some fresh air go for a walk, it's going to help my mental health in the long term. Likewise, if I get an email, and I think, especially if it's from like, say, my virtual assistant, I will think I can reply now, and just get it out of the way. Or I could not reply, to think about it thinking about again, in the next 24 hours, and sort of wasted that energy, instead of just getting back to it quickly.
Now, I'm not saying you should be getting back to, you know, emails all the time or fixing every little thing that you say that's wrong in your business. But I am saying that if there are things that come up for you regularly, like me in the tea jar situation, you know that you've got a choice, and you could do something small little actions that add up. So it might seem so trivial. But if I'm rushing, say a coaching call goes over, and I might have 15 minutes to the next one. And in that I need to, you know, prep a couple of things, check some stuff, go inside, go to the bathroom, get a cup of tea, those small actions of having that tea jar filled with the teabags is going to help me it's just going to help me and not be like, ah, God, where's the box, I tend to hide the box at the very top of our pantry, which means I need to get the stool out to stand on it.
So in your business, you want to be thinking, I guess today's tip is, are there small actions that I could be taking that will help me long term. So other small things that are just going to make life, business, both of them that much easier for me in the future that I can do now. So for instance, it could be that at the end of the day, I'm going to finish up writing those notes, as opposed to leaving them a day or two, where you know, my memory might not be as good. It could be that at the end of your day, you you know, shut down and have a proper ritual that will, you know, put you in good stead for the rest of the evening, or potentially the rest of the week, it could be like me that you get up and go for a morning walk, because that's going to help you with your mental health and physical health. Long term, it could be that you have been avoiding having a quick one to one with your staff. And maybe you are like, you know what, we could just do a 10 minute stand up twice a week, and everyone would feel really great about it. And that's going to help our team culture as we go forward.
So what is it for you? That's really my question today, what are the one or two, maybe three or four things in your life, that, you know, if you just did a small consistent step towards them, you would be better in the long run. And I said at the start of this episode that, you know, this is very much in line with who my husband is. But he is definitely somebody who makes consistent steps for so many things in his life. All the time. He always has been ever since I've met him he does weight he exercises he, he really sees certain things in life as almost mandatory, like they have to be done. And I'm doing them so that my future self is gonna thank me for it.
He also I've loved watching when he works from home, because he's just so neat and tidy with his desk at the end of the day, obviously his desk in our house. So it's, it's not like it can be that messy because it's actually in our bedroom. But he's just like that he's always been like that he puts everything away, he puts things on hangers. Sounds like he's a he's an adult. But really, he's always very like that he really sort of ends the day so that it's set up for the next day. And I've always loved that about him. And I think Yeah, today's episode really, really fits with that as well.
What small thing can you do that will help you in the future that your future self would like? You know, I'm glad that we did that. So it wasn't hanging over my head. I'd love to hear from you. So if you have things that need actioning and this is your sign from the universe to do it, please let me know what they are and how you're going to action them. You can get in touch with me hello@mydailybusinesscoach.com or you can send a DM at @mydailybusinesscoach on Instagram. If you wanted to look at the transcript today. You can do that over at mydailybusinesscoach.com/podcast/139 as this is Episode 139. Thank you so much for listening to this quick tip episode. I'll see you next time. Bye.
Thanks for listening to the My Daily Business Coach podcast. If you want to get in touch you can do that at my daily business coach comm or hit me up on Instagram at @mydailybusinesscoach
