Episode 415: What does freedom look like for you?
In this episode, Fiona discusses what freedom means in the context of your business and personal life. This quick tip episode encourages you to reflect on how you align with the value of freedom now, rather than as a distant goal. Tune in!
You'll Learn How To:
Observing trends in business language and values
Shifting from the hustle mentality to prioritising freedom
Personal reflections on aligning with the value of freedom
The impact of the pandemic on business perspectives
Practical tips for integrating freedom
Encouraging realistic and present-focused definitions of freedom
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Welcome to episode 415 of the My Daily Business podcast. Today is a quick tip episode and this topic comes up a lot in one-on-one coaching and Group Coaching. It's something that I have had to work on myself as well over the last nine years I think that I've been in business and something that's just so important, especially as we get into this new chapter with AI and everything else that's coming at us. Before we get stuck into that quick tip episode, I want to acknowledge where I'm coming from and acknowledge that traditional owners and custodians of these beautiful lands, and that is the Wurrung and Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. And I pay my respects to their elders past and present and acknowledge that sovereignty has never been ceded. Let's get into today's quick tip episode.
I am somebody who likes to observe, and I have always been like this. I'm quite curious about how people operate and what is driving them. Often, I think I should have been a psychologist, although some of my clients are like, you're like my business psychologist. I'm doing part of it, but I also studied journalism and I also did a Bachelor of Arts, and I majored in sociology and looking at society and looking at what moves us and changes us. Back in the day, I used to write trend reports for a large global trend agency when I was living in London. And part of being a trend writer is to look at what is changing in society now. One of the things I've noticed is the syntax that is being used and the language that's being used by different business coaches and business mentors and strategists over the last probably two to three years now, when I started this business and started pulling together the ideas for this business, it was almost 10 years ago.
Back in that time, the word hustle was very common. I've always been anti-hussle. My whole group coaching project is called Sidestep the Hustle Group Coaching Program, sidestep the Hustle is the tagline for my first book, Passion Purpose Profit. I've always wanted to work in a way where I have freedom. I have a lot of freedom in my time in the choice of clients that I work with in the choice of revenue streams that we have in all sorts of ways. I've noticed that in the last probably four years, particularly I think influenced by the Global pandemic, the number of people who rode the hustle mentality, not just rode it, but inspired other people to ride it, have been backtracking, and some of them have changed their names, some of them have changed their bios and everything else.
I get that. We all change, we all adapt. We've changed our name last year as well. But what I'm now seeing is that a lot of them are tapping into this idea of freedom. And you see it everywhere. I think it's great. Honestly, I do. The more people that look at what matters to us in life, the better, and we can all get off this hustle, 24/7 rise and grind mentality. It's a good thing. But what I want to suggest to you in today's quick tip episode is to think about what does freedom means to you in your life, and in your business. Because it shouldn't be a just throwaway tagline or a trending hashtag. It should be a genuine value that you align to if it is a genuine value for you.
For me, freedom has always been the number one value for our business and for me in my life as well. The freedom to do what I'm interested in for the bulk of my working hours to work with people that I think have meaning and purpose and drive and passion behind what they do. And I'm so lucky that the majority of people I work with are like that. That seems to be who I attract, which is wonderful, but also the freedom of financial freedom to have the freedom that I'm not struggling hugely financially and that I can put in money towards financial goals as a family and mine as a person as well. I guess when it comes to freedom, which a lot of people are using about their business, and a lot of people say is a value, how is it showing up for you?
How aligned are you both internally, which often I find is where the misalignment happens, and externally in terms of that value of freedom? In terms of external, a lot of people can always, when it comes to their brand values list off ways that they are aligning externally to a brand value. They may be like, yes, we talk about this to our audience, or we help our clients do this, or we offer this and this and this to our people that stock with us. But when it comes to the internal alignment to freedom, for example, how does it show up? Because if you are putting it out there, but then you're working six or seven days a week, or you don't have the freedom to say no to clients or to opportunities, or to makers who want to stock in your shop, then is it genuinely aligned or is it something that you are working towards?
And no shame if that's where you're at, but as long as you acknowledge that, but also get clear on what does freedom looks like. What does it look like in your day-to-day life, not just down the track when you've got enough saved for retirement and you can have the freedom to travel or have multiple investment properties or a great share portfolio? But what does it look like now? What does freedom genuinely look like? I think a lot of people don't stop and think about that. For example, I had somebody very much who I love and adore recently say to me, so your son will start primary school next year, which means that he'll be going to primary school Monday to Friday. They said, so I guess you'll start working five days a week instead of three.
I was like, “Why would I do that?” And this person works in corporate. And they were like because you can now because you don't have to look after your son. And I'm like, firstly, I get to look after my son. It's a choice. I have made my business operate in a way that it can just operate three days a week. But also, even if I have those days, it doesn't mean that I'm going to start working five days a week. And we sometimes fall into this trap of thinking, all of our time should be spent working if it can be spent working. I'm like, absolutely not, because the freedom to me is about having the time to do other things that I want to do in life. Yes, I love my business, but it's not everything in my life.
I am a mom, but I'm also a friend, I'm a partner, and I've been married for a long time. I want to invest in that relationship day dates, like things like that. But also my health, having time to just read a book, to go for a walk. I talk about my walks a lot because I couldn't live without them. I'm incredibly lucky to have that time. But also I've worked hard in this business to create it in such a way that I have that freedom of time. But also for me, freedom looks like saying, no, we do turn away some people that come to us for coaching that I don't think are a good fit or there's a misalignment of values there. Likewise, we have people who apply for group coaching or people who apply for other things that we are running that just, are not a good fit.
There is that freedom, but there's only that freedom because I have set it up in a way that I feel that we have enough money coming in, I have time and I just think that a lot of people want to say that they're aligned with freedom, but if that's you and you're like, yep that's part of the reason I got into the business. Analyse what that means to you. For some people, it may be completely different to what I think of when I think about freedom internally for me and internally aligned, but also for your staff and the other people that are part of your business. How does freedom show up for them now? Again, it's now, it's today. Rather than always thinking about freedom in some far-off land, when you get to a certain age, then you'll have the freedom.
There's nothing to say that you shouldn't be preparing for the future. But now, like what does freedom look like for you now? If you were to stop listening to this and write a list, how does it show up? And maybe there'll be some things on there that you would like for it to show up, but you're not there yet. It's like, how do I create a bridge between where my life currently looks and is and my business to this freedom life that I have in terms of business and in being realistic to a point? You can't just be like, I'll win TLO and then I'll just never have to work a day again. But most of us enjoy what we do for a business and most of the people that I work with enjoy what they do, which is also part of the thing that you could do, I could just work five days a week.
I could work seven days a week on this business and I'd enjoy it. But that's not why I got into business. I got into business for the ability to have more time back and to make good money, but also have time and be able to live my life now and not be putting off the enjoyment of life until I'm 65 and retired. Just a big one to think about today is what does freedom looks like for you now. What does it look like for you now? How aligned are you fully with that? If that is part of the reason that you're in business. I'll leave it there. If you want to go through this in text format, you can find the show notes for this at mydailybusiness.com/podcast/415. And I'd love to hear from you. I'd love to know what resonates, what have you taken away from this? What is freedom? What does it look like for you in your life? And how does that show up for you? You can always send us a DM @mydailybusiness_ on Instagram or @mydailybusiness on TikTok. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next time. Bye.
