When I first begin to work with a client, one of the things we do is take a comprehensive look at all of their existing marketing plan, including their branding. Correcting weaknesses in branding can be a relatively quick and painless process with the right guidance, though left uncorrected, they can be damaging to your results.
Here are the most common mistakes I see in branding:
Being inconsistent in messaging across all marketing channels
Not implementing your branding in alignment with the ideal clients you say you want to work with
One of biggest mistakes people make in marketing and branding is failing to define a niche and failing to define their ideal client. This often happens because though financial advisors may want to work with their ideal clients, they leave the door open to work with anyone which can ultimately dilute their brand.
Providing clarity about what you offer is crucial because it differentiates you from other financial services providers. If your marketing isn’t clear about who you are and what you uniquely provide, potential clients have no idea that they should be calling you instead of other financial advisors in town. If you do have a niche, on the other hand, you can laser focus your marketing efforts to your ideal clients rather than wasting time and money marketing to the wrong people. For example, if your niche was tech executives, you might join special discussion groups on LinkedIn, become known in the groups over time, and ultimately attract business that way. Someone without a defined niche may instead join several groups, and have much more trouble explaining value in the services they offer.
Another common mistake is being inconsistent with messaging across marketing channels. It is important that you have one main message that is communicated across all platforms to attract your ideal client. Yes, your social media campaign will be worded slightly differently than your brochure, or a presentation you give in a professional setting, but the messaging should all be consistent. Having a personalized marketing plan is a great way to organize your thinking around your marketing efforts (for more on how to make one, click here).
A final common mistake I often see is not implementing your branding in alignment with the ideal clients you want to work with. Say you narrowed your niche from a general focus to working with women entrepreneurs, but you find yourself showing up to networking groups with women and men, and repeating the same marketing you used previously as a generalist. It is important to rethink your strategy in terms of desired branding, and then fully commit to that plan.
If you’d like to make sure none of these weaknesses are hiding in your marketing and branding implementation plan, email me today: susan@susandanzig.com. I would love to speak with you and help you do a comprehensive evaluation of your marketing efforts.
Are You Organized for Growth and Expansion?
When you think about growing and expanding your business, what comes to mind? I’d bet that what comes to mind first is something along the lines of marketing, narrowing your niche to attract more of your ideal clients, strategic planning, or something similar. If so, I invite you to back up a few steps — and I’ll explain why.
1: Start with self care
If you have a goal to grow and expand your business, I recommend starting by taking stock of your self care. To be in a better place to grow and expand, it helps significantly to be in a good place physically, mentally, and emotionally. Feeling grounded and well rested provides the foundation for energy, motivation, and drive. From there, the idea of growth and expansion is more likely to sound exciting or empowering. On the other hand, without that foundation of wellbeing in place, it might sound exhausting and difficult. (Check out this previous post for more on how self care supports your professional wellbeing.)
2: Set goals that actually inspire you
Once you have your self care foundation in place, the next step is to strike a healthy balance between setting “realistic” goals and setting bold goals that truly inspire you. I prefer a mix of both, realistic goals I can celebrate once achieved, and inspired goals for that motivating magic that comes from imagining what it would feel like to achieve the outrageous. (Read this previous post for more on goal setting.)
If you’d like to deepen your knowledge about setting inspiring goals outside of the more common SMART goal paradigm, I highly recommend this book: “The Desire Map: Guide to Creating Goals With Soul” by Danielle LaPorte. It’s a must-read for any motivated go-getter! In it, LaPorte explains that goals we set should be experiential (what we want to experience), rather than around measurable results (what the goal would provide for you).
3: Use your strategic plan to put it all into action
Once you have your self care foundation and inspired goals set, it’s time to use your strategic plan to put it all into action! I recommend setting time aside so that you can map out what you want to create and think through how you’ll actually make it all happen.
If you want to ensure you are organized to grow, expand, and thrive – I would love to speak with you. Email me today: susan@susandanzig.com
Showing Appreciation to Those Who Support Our Success
This Valentine’s Day I invite you to think not just about your loved ones, but also about who you are grateful and appreciative for in a broader sense. It’s easy to think about a partner, family, or special friend when Valentine’s Day rolls around – but what about all of those people who support and contribute to your financial services practice? I imagine you are also grateful for your clients, your team, and your professional referral sources – how about showing your appreciation for them as well this Valentine’s Day?
A referred prospect is four times more likely to engage an advisor’s services. For strategic partners or clients who send you a referral, I highly recommend sending a handwritten thank you card. You can also consider including an additional token of your appreciation, such as a Peet’s coffee card or something similar. While your expression of gratitude doesn’t have to be expensive, it could support your center of influence in sending additional referrals your way because your gratitude in and of itself might feel good to them. (For more on how to support a vibrant referral attraction process, read this blog.)
On the other hand, letting their gesture go unnoticed might make the referral source feel like it either didn’t matter to you, or perhaps that you don’t need additional business. The next time the opportunity to refer someone to you comes up, they might send the referral in a different direction. Have you ever done a favor that went unrecognized, then another opportunity came along to do another favor for the person but you thought twice about it? The same thing can happen with referral sources.
If it’s a top referral (such as an ideal client was referred to you), you have the opportunity to take the gesture a step further and take the person out to lunch to thank them in person, and show a bigger expression of your appreciation which can often turn into additional referrals. Other ideas to go along with a thank you note for a top referral include a small gift or a special get-together such as a round of golf.
My favorite ways to show appreciation is a gift on their birthday, whether a box of chocolates or a bouquet of flowers, a plant, or bottle of wine. This does require a bit of customization, but I find that people respond very well to the extra thought put into it.
I encourage you to think beyond referrals to the other people who support your practice – your team. Who are those employees that support your business and help you achieve what you’re wanting to achieve in your financial services practice? When people feel appreciated and more connected on a team level, their loyalty to the organization grows. Employee appreciation also supports job satisfaction, enjoyment of their role, and feeling valued.
Now that I’ve shared some of my go-to ways to show appreciation, I invite you to spend some time thinking through how you will show gratitude to those who support or contribute to your practice in some way. Just like in your marketing plan where you track events you want to be consistent with, you can create an appreciation plan and calendar opportunities to show your appreciation to clients, professional referral sources, as well as your team.
If you’d like support in this area or any additional areas to help your financial services practice thrive, email me today: susan@susandanzig.com
Are you fully aware of the expanded value you provide your clients?
When I hear advisors talk about the results they provide their clients, their list is often complete after describing only the specific, measurable, financial results. I believe that is a mistake. What is oftentimes missing are the intangible emotional benefits, such as the peace of mind clients often experience once they actually have a financial plan in place. I invite you to carve out time in your calendar to think through the expanded value your clients receive from your services. Your clients benefit from the comfort of knowing they gain more out of their relationship with you than solely the financial piece of your relationship, and as the advisor you experience a greater level of confidence knowing how you add value to your clients lives in an expanded way.
And not only will your clients be happy knowing they gain even more from their relationship with you, but it’s quite possible the reason clients remain clients for the long run is for the expanded value they receive.
Here’s a story to illustrate what I mean: I was with a client last night who shared with me that one of her clients showed up in her office wanting her counsel, not on a business issue but on a family matter. While the advisor had all the paperwork ready to discuss her client’s financial situation, that was not at all what the client wanted to address with her. Over the years this client had realized that her relationship with this advisor provided valuable input that helped her with life decisions, some of which didn’t directly relate to her financial situation.
A large part of the expanded value clients receive in your relationship with them includes the connection and guidance that advisors are able to provide on a variety of topics based not only on their financial services experience, but their life experience as well. Have you ever had a similar experience with a client?
If you’re curious about the expanded value that you bring to your client relationships, I invite you to ask yourself these questions:
What are the primary results your clients receive from your services?
How might these results impact your ideal clients finances?
How might your ideal clients finances affect their health and wellbeing?
How might your ideal clients relationships be impacted as a result of their health and wellbeing?
How might your ideal clients relationships impact their future and potential?
This can also be a valuable team building and appreciation awareness exercise as everyone sees the extent of the value they support clients in realizing.
If you would like support in looking at the expanded value that you bring to the table for your clients, connect with me by sending me an email: susan@susandanzig.com
3 Things to Do Before You Start Your Strategic Plan for the Year
Though many people focus solely on business goals in their strategic plan for the year, there are 3 important topics I recommend keeping in mind before you get started.
1/ Is it time to revisit your vision?
Given that it’s January and goals are front and center in many people’s minds, it’s a great time to revisit your vision for your business as well as your personal life. Does the vision that you created previously still ring true?
I’d like to share a client story with you to illustrate what can happen when we don’t give ourselves the time and space to re-examine our vision to determine if it’s still in alignment with what we’re truly wanting. Oftentimes, as people get more experienced in their business there’s a certain point where they aren’t ready to think about succession planning or getting a junior advisor – and this is exactly what happened with this client.
I started working with this client when she was 67. At the time, she thought she would work 7 more years, and wanted to use our time together to enhance branding, marketing, and her overall business plan so that she could later sell her practice for the highest price. A few years later, she had her 70th birthday and went on a vacation to celebrate. When she came back from her trip, however, she told me she was ready to retire! So rather than focusing our energy on business development for her already very successful practice, we focused on clearly defining her practice (ideal clients, the culture, and the communities that she served), tier structure, and later discussing the process of determining who would be a good fit to buy her practice.
What she realized was that she had been working from an older version of her vision, assuming that what she had wanted in the past was still true. Succession planning had been nowhere near her mindset. When she had time away from her work, however, she realized that this older version of her vision no longer rang true. I’m happy to say that when I spoke to her a year later, the transition to the new owners was complete and she was ecstatic with her decision and the sense of freedom she was experiencing in retirement.
Now I invite you to ask yourself: could your vision be outdated? When was the last time you truly took time out to think through any changes that you would like to experience or see unfold for your business and your life overall?
2/ What challenges did you have in the previous year?
In addition to revisiting your vision, I also recommend revisiting any challenges that you experienced during the previous year. What went well, and what didn’t go as planned? What worked and what didn’t?
For example: Did you have a desire to generate a certain number of ideal clients from your existing clients, however weren’t able to find a way that was comfortable for you to actually have the conversation and ask? (For more on referral attraction, read this post.)
Furthermore, is there anything going on that you’ve been meaning to create a solution for and but haven’t gotten around to it yet? As you’re producing results and things are working, it’s easy to think – “I should do that!” and then forget to implement it, then remember again, and forget about it again… One solution could be to delegate that item to ensure it finally gets done.
3/ Look for weaknesses in your branding
Finally, look at your branding. Are there any weaknesses in your brand that you’d like to strengthen? One example might be improving your website and social media campaign (or lack thereof), or making sure that all of your marketing channels share a consistent tone and message. Outside of traditional marketing, does the look and feel of your office align with your brand? Your team can also add or detract from your brand, such as a receptionist that needs to be replaced with someone with a better attitude to be the voice of your company.
Maybe you know you’d like to work exclusively with women going through transition, however you might be afraid to “own” that niche for fear that you won’t attract enough business in that niche to narrow your focus. So instead, you speak generally about your practice and the fact that you want to work with women going through transition might be one of your best kept secrets!
If you’ve noticed a weakness in your branding, or would like help in any of the above areas, I would love to speak with you. Email me today: susan@susandanzig.com
Abundance Mindset
Whether in business or life overall, mindset is the foundation for much of what we attract and experience, and is an area I focus on with each and every one of my clients. I have previously discussed mindset and limiting beliefs, but another area that many people could benefit from is opening their mindset to abundance. I often find that the more open to abundance that we are, the more likely our mindset will come up with new and different ideas to support our goals, whatever they are.
To illustrate the difference an abundance mindset can make, I would like to share a client story with you. I worked with a client who is part of an organization where the average advisor generates revenue at the $300k level. She, on the other hand, is on track to generate 10x that. Impressive, right? The next thing I’m sure you want to know is what she’s doing differently from the rest of her team.
The short answer is that from the beginning she was extremely proactive about stimulating her mindset. She actively looked for what she might need to do differently, and followed through on necessary actions. She was proactive about stretching herself to think bigger and did not use the results of others as a benchmark of success. She sought out coaches and education to help her enhance her mindset, which then gave her the tools and confidence to look beyond her current game. She started at the same level as everyone, but because she actively looked for ways to enhance her mindset, she quickly outpaced her peers.
Often people reach a certain level of success generating a book of business that supports their needs and lifestyle. They have sense that it’s “good enough” given the amount of time and energy they’re comfortable investing. This can be a limiting belief, which holds you back from achieving even greater levels of abundance. If that idea resonates with you, I invite you to check out this blog post to give you insights into how to eliminate limiting beliefs and instead attract abundance.
Others may have limiting beliefs that leave them afraid to strive for greater abundance because they have a misconception about how much more effort it would take to achieve that next level of abundance. I had a client who was already a partner in a successful investment advisory firm and though he was doing well for himself, was exhibiting signs of the “good enough” type limiting beliefs.
When we created his tier structure for his clients, he was able to clearly see the multiplier effect of how much more revenue he would generate if he brought on a certain number of additional clients. This clarity supported him with stepping into his abundance mindset because he saw exactly what he needed to do to generate those greater results without being held back by a belief that it would require much more time and effort. As a family man with 5 kids, that was a huge concern. I’m happy to say that by shifting his mindset to allow for greater abundance, he still has fantastic work/life balance with plenty of time to be active with his family, and a greater level of revenue in his practice.
No matter what your current situation or goals, an abundance mindset could give you the edge you need to achieve a greater level of success. If you would like support creating an abundance mindset for your practice and life in general, I would love to talk with you.
Is Your Current Time Management System Working For You?
Time management tends to be one of those areas where there’s room for improvement or mastery for pretty much all of us. Not only do we all have countless (and ever-changing) demands on our time, but when we also need time to work directly with clients, there is an added layer of complexity when we need to switch gears energetically for different business tasks.
I have found that many people don’t know how to evaluate how well their system is working for them. One way to know if your time management system is working is if you’re working the hours you’d like to work and producing your desired results within your desired time frame.
Another question to ask yourself, are you getting quality time outside the office to help you feel rejuvenated when you get back to work? If the answer is no, I would recommend looking at your current time management system and seeing what needs to shift to support healthy balance.
One strategy for time management that I highly recommend to support balance is time blocking. Time blocking is about clarifying which tasks need to be handled and how to most efficiently schedule time to complete those tasks. For example, you might want 3 of your 5 days to be used to solely focus on client meetings and client-related tasks. You may want to use 1 of the 5 days for business-related tasks such as networking with professional referral sources or having a small client event focused around a VIP client introducing you to their colleagues.
Time management and time blocking isn’t just about working more efficiently in your business, but also cultivating balance with your personal life. Everything is related, from taking care of yourself, your business, honoring commitments, being able to handle everything coming in, and delegating appropriately. When we’re blocking time effectively, we are able to get out of the office and enjoy friends, family, and hobbies.
My top tips for time management:
Time blocking certain days for specific activities.
Working with clients is often quite a departure from working on your other tasks or projects related to your business at large. It can be hard to switch gears for each task you need to handle, so organizing similar commitments together can be helpful. Rather than treating every day as the same and scheduling whatever comes up, it can be more efficient to have certain days that are just for clients, and block other entire days for other areas like business development, marketing, following up with professional referral sources, etc.
Train your team to honor your time blocking method.
It’s critical that your team be trained to honor your time blocking method and can make or break the success of your time management system. For example, if you only work with clients on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, it is important that your team does not schedule appointments on, say, Monday or Friday. In doing so, that would initiate the breakdown in your system. Plus, your clients begin to have expectations that they can manage your schedule.
Always allow for extra time.
Have you ever had a day where you were booked back to back, and then one meeting went late, and your entire day headed toward chaos? Building cushion into your time blocking system is important because as I’m sure you have experienced, it isn’t unusual for things to come up or take longer than we expect.
No matter what state your current time management system is in, I can help you improve it. One client in particular went from working 7 days a week to taking weekends off, vacation time, and even found time to date! Time blocking can be a huge help for balance, not just for your business but also for your personal life. If you would like help improving your time management system and business overall, I would love to speak with you.
10 Steps to Achieving Your Goals (may not be what you think!)
With the New Year fast approaching, it’s a natural time to reflect on what you’ve accomplished in the past year as well as what you’d like to achieve in the coming year. I enjoy helping my clients in this area and would like to share some important thoughts to keep in mind as you begin thinking about goals you’d like to set for the New Year.
Clarify your vision for the coming year
Before setting goals, start with your vision. You may already have a vision in place that motivates and inspires you. If so, great! If you had a vision, but lost track of it after jumping into action to move your game forward, you’re in good company. This is actually very common. If you fall into that group, this is good timing to recreate or reconnect with your vision in a way that inspires you to set new goals and take action.
When this vision becomes a reality for you, what will that mean? What will it provide for you? How will it change your life, both professionally and personally to have it unfold? Some people call this your “big why,” since it connects what you’d like to achieve on the surface with your deep, true motivation for reaching the goal.
Milestones along the way
Once you’ve clarified your vision and “big why,” the next step is to consider the milestones that will get you there. What are the high-level milestones you will have reached once you achieve your vision?
Will you have brought on 10 (or more) new ideal clients over course of the year?
Will you have hired additional teammates to free up your time?
Will you have let go of clients who drain your energy?
Once you’ve identified milestones related to your vision, it’s time to create your goals. I love the framework of “SMART” goals, which stands for: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-bound.
Below are 10 essential steps to achieving your SMART goals. 1. Make sure your goal passes the S-M-A-R-T test. 2. Align your goals with your values. Without values alignment, you are likely to struggle—if not fail—to implement them. 3. Share your goals with at least one person to set yourself up to stay in action more consistently and to be accountable. Don’t sabotage yourself! Choose only those people who are supportive, positive, and can naturally align with you around your goals. 4. Identify the resources you need to make your goal a reality. For example, if your goal is to free up your time, you’ll need to first clarify exactly what you want to delegate to a new employee and what their qualifications should be. From there you’ll be able to interview effectively and ultimately hire the ideal candidate. 5. Identify ways to save time. Look for shortcuts that can accelerate your progress and support your goals. To do this, do an internal audit. What are your time sucks? What requires a lot of time but doesn’t produce much of a result? From there, ask yourself if those activities are necessary. The goal for delegating would be to free yourself up for high level tasks. An example from a friend of mine: she’s a top producer and “rain maker,” responsible for seven figures plus gross revenue at her business, and she’s stuffing and addressing holiday newsletter envelopes. Though this might seem an obvious waste of time, I’d bet that there are some time sucks hiding in your schedule that once eliminated, would free you up and give you more bandwidth to pursue one of your goals. 6. Detect potential obstacles. Examples might include: excessive distractions during work blocks, limiting beliefs, or simply having more on your plate than you could ever accomplish on your own and resistance to delegating. Take action to clear these hurdles. This can be nearly impossible on your own, which is a reason many of my clients engage me for coaching support. I can help you overcome obstacles you encounter in your practice and improve areas that need strengthening. 7. Pinpoint at least one daily action that supports your SMART goals. The actions we take every day create our future reality. Make sure you’re focused on your desired actions so you’re headed in the right direction toward your intended goals. 8. Establish an empowering support structure for your goals. Ask yourself who in your life can provide you with encouragement, advice, healthy feedback and a willing ear? The person who you want to select is someone who can see the “bigger version” of you, and who can envision you gaining momentum and moving ahead steadily.
This person:
Is empowering, a great listener, and is excited by your vision for yourself
Is aligned with you having exactly what you want (and more!)
Believes your vision is possible
Leaves you feeling positive and that you can and will achieve what you’re setting out to accomplish
(After sharing something that excites you, this person does not doubt you, or leave you feeling less empowered or capable.)
This is another area that leads many of my clients to work with me. Having an expert coach support you means that you have someone dedicated to your success, as well as someone in your corner who provides the accountability and higher level input that friends, romantic partners, or family members oftentimes lack. If you’d like to know how working with me could help you finally achieve your goals, reach out to me today. 9. Identify rewards for your efforts along the way. A reward could be a vacation, a soak at the hot springs, a new outfit, or simply a nice dinner out. Celebrating and recognizing your achievements is an important way to acknowledge yourself and all that you’ve accomplished along the path to realizing your goals. Plus, rewards make the path to reaching your goals a more fun and nurturing experience! 10. Carve out time in the calendar, right now, to clarify your vision, milestones, and goals for the coming year to set yourself up to win.
If you would like the support of an inspired environment with other motivated advisors, check out my upcoming 2-Day Business Success Intensive. You will have the time and space to clarify your vision, your milestones, and your goals. We will also cover attracting ideal clients, marketing plans, lead generation and sales, as well as mindset for the results you want.
Case Study: Starting a Business From the Ground Up
Having knowledge about the financial services industry does not necessarily guarantee success running your own financial services practice. When we started our work together, my client “Christina” was seasoned in the financial services industry, though brand new to operating her own business. Through our work together, she gained vital business skills and made rapid progress, including generating income on a consistent basis. I’d like to share her story with you.
Where we started:
Christina had a vague idea of who she wanted to serve and the service model she wanted to deliver, but there were some gaping holes in her overall ability to attract clients, and she also lacked a plan to generate recurring income. Like many who decide to simply start their own practice, she dove into the process without first establishing crucial elements for a successful business. To her credit, she quickly became aware she was lacking some key elements and our work together focused on improving her existing skills and gaining the new ones she needed.
We started by doing an audit of her existing business model and the way she was providing services to her clients. It became clear that she did not have her brand in place, nor her service offering, nor the skills needed to execute a strong sales conversation. These became the initial areas we focused our energies on.
Her brand:
Through our work together she gained clarity around the qualities her ideal clients would share. We discovered that her ideal clients were typically women, 40 years old and over, who lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, and who wanted to be informed and educated about their financial decisions. Choosing a niche has meant she is able to execute her branded system and marketing efforts with a laser focus.
Her offer:
When Christina had first started her practice, the work she did for clients was on an hourly, somewhat “piecemeal” basis. This meant that she was not generating consistent income, and that generating new business took up a lot of her time and energy. As a result of creating her tier structure and clarifying what was possible for her to provide overall, she decided to expand her offer and focus her practice on working with clients who were interested in seeing the bigger picture and in having all of their financial needs addressed by one advisor. The transition from hourly services to packaged services was a huge positive for Christina as well as her clients.
Her sales skills:
Our work together uncovered a fair amount of sales resistance that had been negatively affecting her business. Christina had been very uncomfortable asking for business and promoting her services. When we first began our work together, she had been offering just a fraction of what was possible. As result of just a few sessions together she began offering her clients all of what she was capable of providing – an expanded offering of the wisdom and expertise that she was bringing to the table. She also gained the confidence and the clarity to have more in-depth conversations with prospects about their needs, how she would help them address those needs and asking for their business.
Unexpected wins:
Though this hadn’t been an outright goal of our work together, Christina was also thrilled to notice she had been transformed into a confident business woman who was clear about her offer, and as a result she was able to attract clients with ease and generate new streams of prospects with less effort.
Addressing mindset is something I do with many of my clients, and building confidence often comes as a result. Going from a place of feeling unsure about who you are serving or what you’re providing to having a clear grasp and being able to share that with others confidently means you’ll be much more self-assured – and it shows in every client interaction. As a Certified Master Level NLP practitioner (get more details here), I can help my clients facilitate wonderful progress on a short timeline.
If you are feeling inspired by Christina’s transformation and are interested in improving your own ability to generate more income and new business, I recommend registering for my upcoming 2-Day Intensive. This workshop will address many of the common areas I see people challenged with consistently. You will learn how to:
Attract ideal clients by targeting the appropriate market and clarifying your area of expertise.
Create a 12-month personalized marketing plan to support your goals.
Integrate a lead generation and sales process.
Confidently communicate your value and your fees.
Master your mindset to produce greater results.
Improve conversion from prospects to new clients to increase revenues.
Learn more or register here. There are just 3 spots left so if it is right timing for you to participate, I invite you to register today!
How Self Care Supports Your Professional Well-being
Focusing on building my business for many years has taught me the important role that self care plays in my life. I have also seen the impact of either prioritizing or denying the need for self care in the lives of my clients, and want to share some ways you can incorporate self care practices into your life to support your personal and professional wellbeing.
Self care is anything we do to support our mental, emotional, or physical health. It helps us maintain balance and is increasingly important the bigger the game you play and the more that others rely on you. Just like the advice on an airplane to put your own oxygen mask, if you don’t take care of yourself first, you will be less able to take care of and support others. One way to tell if a practice or behavior is self care is whether it’s nurtures or depletes you.
Some of the rituals and habits I have worked on practicing to support balance in my life include prioritizing my nutrition, time for exercise, and time for myself. I have found that taking time for myself is critical. If you don’t regularly take time for yourself, I’d recommend trying it out! Whether it’s a night to yourself, or even a lunch (eating in front of your computer does not count!), give it a shot and see how it feels to regularly take time to give yourself the time and space to recharge.
And speaking of lunch, I have also learned the importance of keeping meal breaks on the calendar. I learned this the hard way when I had an assistant who, if I didn’t block time to eat lunch, would book my entire day without time to eat. This was a major learning experience! Not only do I make meal breaks a priority during my workday, but I also prioritize what I am actually eating and strive to eat as nutritiously as possible. I notice a huge impact on my mood, energy, and focus as a result.
Another small but impactful habit I practice is going for short walks throughout the day. They allow me the time and space to rest my brain and move my body. It’s surprisingly refreshing! (Like a meal break, I also recommend blocking time for these short breaks on the calendar.) Leaving work at the office is another habit I practice regularly. This allows me to unwind on my way home from work and over dinner. I don’t use my evening at home to “catch up” on email or overdue tasks. My work stays at the office.
This is not to say I think working from home is a bad thing! The upside to our modern ability to “work anywhere” via smartphones and laptops can provide flexibility and freedom, however the downside is that it can be easy for work to creep into areas of our lives it shouldn’t, like on vacation or on the couch with our families. Blurred boundaries between work and personal lives means you’re always “on” and you never have the chance to recharge. It is important to respect the dedicated spaces that allow you to separate different areas of your life and give yourself the rest and recovery time that you need to be at your best. Working at home can provide a relaxing environment for a change outside the office, though attention should be paid to maintain your boundary about when you will wrap up your day and shift gears to be present for your personal life.
I invite you to ask yourself: what regular self care practices or habits would help you feel your best?
For more on the importance of boundaries, check out this blog. If you’d like support implementing changes to support your energy management, I would like to speak with you. Email me today: susan@susandanzig.com.
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The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy
11 months
The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
