Episode 495: The power of understanding energy
Some days are just harder than others, right?
Those days when it feels like nothing’s flowing, and everything is a struggle. Fiona Killackey gets it. In today’s episode, she talks about those tough moments when motivation is lacking, and productivity seems impossible.
Fiona shares why it’s okay to pause and a personal story about giving herself permission to walk away and return when her energy was right.
You’ve probably felt guilty when you're not in the right headspace for your best work. The truth is, aligning your energy makes all the difference. When you tune into your natural rhythms, you’ll be more productive and feel more authentic in your work.
In this episode, Fiona discusses:
Why stepping away can sometimes lead to breakthroughs.
How understanding your energy cycles can help you plan your work and life in a way that actually feels good.
Simple tips on how to make your energy work for you (instead of fighting against it).
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Fiona Killackey: Do you love your life as a small business owner?
Let's be real.
Sometimes we just don't. It's my hope that this, the My Daily Business Podcast, helps you regain a little of that lost love through practical, actionable tips, tools and tactics, interviews with creative and curious small business owners, and in depth coaching episodes with me, your host, Fiona Killackey With more than 20 years experience in marketing, brand content and systems and having now helped thousands of small business owners, I know what it takes to build.
A business that you can be proud of and that actually aligns with your values, your beliefs, and your hopes for the future. So much of our daily life is spent working on and in the businesses and the brands that we are creating, and so it makes sense to actually love what you do.
So, let's get into this podcast and help you figure out how to love your business and your life on the Daily.
Hello and welcome to episode 495 of the My Daily Business Podcast. Today, it’s a quick tip, and really, this is an important one – something that I know I haven’t always done in the past. So stick around.
Before I get into that, I want to let you know that if you're interested in coaching, whether it's one-on-one coaching or group coaching, we have all sorts of packages. From a laser hour where you can literally pick my brain for an hour, to six- and twelve-month packages, or three-month packages. Then, we have group coaching as well. If you're listening to this and thinking, "Actually, I'd really like her to look at my business and create some custom approaches to what I'm going through right now," then you can always book in for business coaching. You can find that, plus our courses, ebooks, and all the other things to help you at mydailybusiness.com/shop.
Alright, before we get stuck in, I want to of course acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians of the beautiful lands on which I run all of these courses and coaching programs. For me, that’s the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. 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. If this were an ad, I’d literally be saying this is brought to you by an emotional menstrual day that I had recently. I just was not feeling it. I really wasn’t. I don’t know what was happening – there were all sorts of hormones going on, and I was on the cusp of tears the whole day.
Now, I had a couple of calls, and no one would have guessed that, but I just felt like everything was hard. I often think of this sentence I once wrote years ago that I come back to and actually used in one of my books. It goes, “I felt like I was pushing peanut butter through a sieve.” Think about it – pushing peanut butter through a sieve is going to be really messy, hard, and ultimately, a pointless task. That’s how I felt.
I felt like I was just trying, and trying. I was trying to write my Sunday email, I was trying to do these podcasts, and just nothing was happening. I was actually trying to record the intro to an interview, and I kept stuffing up. I kept saying the wrong thing. I just wasn’t feeling it.
I thought, “You know what? My energy is just not here today. It’s just not.” Even though I was behind on podcasts, I thought, “No, just walk away, Killackey. Turn your computer off, go and do something else, and come back to it tomorrow.”
And I guess I want to talk about that. Because when I did come back to it the next day, I smashed out four podcasts in a really short amount of time. I gave myself a deadline: “These all need to get done before I go and pick up my kids.” And so they all got done.
That goes to the power of energy alignment. Now, I know that can sound a bit "woo," but I think you often have to really tap in and ask yourself, “Am I trying to push something so hard right now? And what would it mean if I just gave it a bit of time until I’m feeling it?”
Now, I don’t think you can do that all the time in business, but there are moments, like I had that day, where it’s just like, “No, I can keep pushing, but what I’m going to put out is going to be crap.” Maybe it’s not crap, but it’s not going to have the authentic feeling in it because I don’t feel that right now as I’m trying to do something.
So, it was about pausing and going, “That’s okay.” I recently did a whole episode on how pausing can help your profits, and I think that was episode 489. We’ll link to that in the show notes for this one.
But, you know, it really can help to check in and ask, “What is the energy that I’m feeling right now?” Because if I’m feeling negative, annoyed, or frustrated, it’s probably going to show up somehow in what I’m doing.
I remember during COVID when there were all these incredible teachers all over the world (shout out to all the amazing teachers). They were going into these classrooms where everyone had masks on, and the kids were feeling all sorts of ways. I remember seeing a teacher, I think he was in China, and he just paused outside the classroom. He took a minute to get into the right energy.
Now, I often do that too – with a one-minute breathing energy moment before coaching and group coaching. I’ll be like, “Okay, let’s all just let go of whatever we’re dealing with to get to this point. Let’s get in the mindset so we can be present.”
I think that can also help. But, I feel like just having those moments to, one, give yourself permission to stop doing something if you’re not feeling it, and if you can stop, because that energy alignment is so important.
The other thing to consider – and I’ve mentioned it numerous times – is looking at your cycle, particularly if you’re a woman. Look at when you’re feeling your best during the month. I know I should batch create content in the first two weeks after my period because that’s when I feel my best. I don’t feel as good in the last two weeks, so I know there’s no point in putting all that pressure on myself during that time.
So wherever I can, I look at my calendar and think, “That’s the energy.”
But, if you’re having a burst of energy on the flip side – like today, you’re feeling it – then look at your content plan or other things you’ve got coming up. Maybe you’ve got a bunch of emails that you’ve been meaning to get back to. You could say, “Okay, I’m going to set myself a timer, and because I’m feeling the energy, I’m going to try and smash this all out.”
Just give yourself that permission as well, and think, “Do I need to get that checked? Or maybe I could just do it now, and then it’s done. Then we can talk about editing and all the other things.”
So often, we can get into the habit and routine of thinking, “This has to be done at this exact time.” And I’ve done that myself as well. But I think, sometimes, if you’re used to doing that, it can feel really hard to give yourself permission to just say, “No, stop.”
I just want to say that today, because energy alignment is key. Even right now, as you’re listening to this, think about it. Maybe you’re listening at the start of the day – what’s my energy feeling like today? What do I want to do? What are some things I’ve been putting off that I can do because I’m in the right headspace?
Or, maybe there are things I’m going to shift, or even some meetings. You know, in that week when I wasn’t feeling it – well, it was one major day, actually – I shifted two meetings. I thought, “You know what? I’m going to do that now.”
This is something, again, I’m pretty sure Tempe talked about in her interview, where she discussed how sometimes you make a bunch of meetings or catch-ups for two weeks from now, but actually, your energy will be depleted by then.
So, when you look at the next couple of meetings you have, really think about whether any of those could be changed or brought forward.
I know – surprise, surprise – but, if you’re feeling it, there’s nothing to stop you from reaching out to someone and saying, “Hey, could we have that meeting today? Or are you free tomorrow to do that interview?” You know you’ve got that momentum, and it can be so incredibly helpful for business owners.
So that’s it for today. Just a quick one about really checking in with your energy and alignment, and thinking about how you can use that energy as momentum in your business.
For me, that ability to give myself permission and say, “Stop. Turn off everything. Go get some fresh air. Go do something else,” was so instrumental. Probably nobody else would have noticed that for the intro of the podcast or anything else, to be honest. But I would notice, and I would feel that. Those feelings and energy would be connected to that particular episode.
When it comes to promoting it and everything else, maybe I’d have that attachment.
So that’s it for today. If you’re not feeling it, give yourself permission to stop. We have agency, guys. We own our businesses, so we can stop sometimes – not all the time. Maybe it’s just giving yourself permission to come into the shop an hour later.
No one’s going to die over a shop not being open for an hour in the morning. You’ve got to sometimes pull back and say, “How do I feel? I own this business, and I can make these decisions.”
That’s it for today. If you want to go through this in text format, you can find it at mydailybusiness.com/podcast495.
Thank you so much for listening, and I’ll see you next time. Bye.
Thanks for listening to the My Daily Business Podcast for a range of tools to help you grow and start your business, including coaching programmes, courses and templates. Check out our shop at mydailybusiness.com and if you want to get in touch, you can do that by email at hello@mydailybusiness.com or you can hit us up on Instagram at mydailybusiness_. You can find us on TikTok at mydailybusiness or find me Fiona Killackey on LinkedIn. I look forward to connecting.
