Yvonne Heimann [00:00:00]:
Hey there and welcome back to another episode of She is a Leader, the podcast where we get real about what it actually takes to build a business that supports your life instead of consuming it. I'm Yvonne Heimann, and today we are diving into something that might ruffle some feathers. The myth of work life balance. Yes, I said it. I said the words work life balance. You've heard it everywhere, right? You need to find work life balance. It has become the golden standard we are all supposed to be chasing. But what if I told you that the concept might actually be setting you up for frustration and constant feelings of failure? Now, don't get me wrong, don't get me wrong.
Yvonne Heimann [00:00:58]:
I absolutely hate hustle culture. Hustle culture just sets us up for full on burnout, for burning our passion to the ground, for full on failure. That toxic mentality that you need to work 24 7, sacrifice your health, relationships and sanity to be successful. Total BS. Been there, done that, and I bought the T shirt to prove it. But here's the thing. The idea of perfect work life balance is just as problematic as hustle culture is. Think about it.
Yvonne Heimann [00:01:41]:
Balance implies equal distribution at all times. But that's not how life works, does it? By the end of this episode, you'll have a whole new perspective on how to to make peace with different seasons that happen in your business and your life and your entrepreneurial journey as a whole. So let's dive in, shall we? Now, let's talk about the problem of this idea of balance. When looking at a scale, balance implies that things are equal. Now, we, as females and women, we already know that life is never equal. Our life, our hormones, our moods, our bodies, literally goes through seasons every single month. Why? Why do we expect life and business to be equal when even our everyday life is never equal? Why? Because some marketer found that work life balance is an amazing. An amazing marketing stick to sell something I don't know, I don't know where it came from.
Yvonne Heimann [00:03:09]:
Because there honestly is no balance. You look at nature, you look at our bodies, you look at our days. It's never 50 50. So why have we been putting ourselves into a situation that we can never match? So not only that, now that we have determined that work life balance is not possible, let's take a look at hustle culture and just how bad that one is, too. Gary Vee was one of the ones that started this whole you got to do more. You got to do more. You got to do more. It is funny and interesting to watch him.
Yvonne Heimann [00:03:56]:
Now pedal back on this one. And be like, yeah, you're just gonna kill yourself. I'm like, yeah, saw that one coming years ago. Hustle culture is just as bad as trying to accomplish work life balance. It causes burnout, it causes guilt, it causes us to just beat ourself up because we are going for something that is not sustainable. You can't, you can't sustain hustle culture. You can't sustain this huge idea of work life balance because it's not possible. It's physically not possible.
Yvonne Heimann [00:04:35]:
It is natural. It. It doesn't work. It's non existent. So we really need to stop going after either one of those now. What is the reality? The reality is seasons. You look at it from the nature. If you are not.
Yvonne Heimann [00:05:00]:
Heck, we even have seasons in San Diego, right? Yes, they are not as predominant. So I'm not going to use San Diego as an example, but we still have seasons in San Diego. Let's look at something where you actually have four seasons as an example. Nature is going through this change of. We have winter where it's getting cold, everything is taking a break, everything is recharging, everything is hiding. To then go into spring where everything blooms and you have all the things and everything is popping up and everything is being created, created creative. You see where the correlation here is to then go into summer where it's like party and strong and outgoing and doing all the things, to go into autumn where it's reflective and things are changing to then go into winter and taking a break. That's exactly what happens in our female bodies throughout the month.
Yvonne Heimann [00:06:04]:
If you have looked into energy management throughout our cycle and what happens in our body throughout our cycle, you're going to see the same exact seasons. So now tell me why we are being told work life balance or hustle culture when actually naturally our business should be going through and is going through no matter if you want it or not, seasons, you have a spring where you are putting a lot of creativity and ideation and building into your business to get to the point of making money and working with clients and doing all of the things within your summer period to then going into fall to reflect on your numbers. What worked, what didn't work, what needs to be changing. To then go into winter to get all of the things done again and take a breather and take a break from all the things you just did. To then go into spring and implement everything you have learned and become better and become more blooming. To then have a new season of summer, of strong working with your clients, of getting all the things done to then come back around. That is what happens in your processes, in your business, in your systems. That is literally the same seasons and process we go through when creating systems and processes.
Yvonne Heimann [00:07:47]:
Here's a perfect example. When I'm working with clients, chances are they come to me and say, hey, I need help with ClickUp. I'm like, do you though? Do you though? 99.9% of my clients that I work with on the side of ClickUp means they're coming to me with a perception of ClickUp is the issue. We are not understanding it. And I'm like, been there, done that. Let me guess, you don't have your processes down. So what we do is they've done the thing, they've done the work, they've run their business. They're at a level where it's like, oh my God, we are delivering to clients, we are doing all the things.
Yvonne Heimann [00:08:27]:
Life is amazing. There's smacked up in their summer season of doing, but they also know they want to scale, they want to get bigger in their business and they can't con, they can't sustain that summer season. So with that, I'm like, okay, you've been in the doing phase. You have proven that you can do what you promise. However, now you are hitting the ceiling of you can't scale. You don't have the time to train team members, you don't have automations, you don't have the things to be able to scale because you're stuck in that summer season. Awesome. We need to slow down a little bit, just a little bit for me to pull out all of the systems and processes you're already running.
Yvonne Heimann [00:09:14]:
And I like, wait, wait. But we don't have standard operating procedures, we don't have automation. I'm like, yeah, you actually do. You are running your business. You are doing the thing. So what I need to do now is pull that thing out of your head. That's how I turn founders into CEOs. A founder has everything in their head and with their team, a CEO can step away from their business and they know it still runs.
Yvonne Heimann [00:09:40]:
Now, how do we do that transition? By pulling all of that information out of your head and recording it. Recording it in a way that allows new team members to learn how things are running in your business while doing the things. So you don't have to spend time on teaching them, on showing them how to do it, on being secure that your new team member has the boundaries. They need to proactively be able to do the thing and feel confident that they can do the thing. So with that, we are taking people out of that summer season of doing all the things, slowing down a little bit, bringing them into fall, of potentially slowing down with business just a little bit. To be able to have a time frame to. To be able to pull some time from the team members for me to have these conversations, to ask the right questions, to pull all of those processes out of them, to then be able to build that physical system and workflows, to then be able to overhaul the business and implement all of that. That's your spring season right there.
Yvonne Heimann [00:10:59]:
To then get into a new summer season where they can take on more clients and more work and do more than they have before. But again, all of that happens in these seasons. Look back. How long have you been running your business right now? I've been in business, oh my God, yeah, quite a while. I've been self employed for the longest time ever. AskYvi as it is right now has been running over 15 years, nearly 20 years at this point in different reiterations. So even my business as a whole has gone through seasons. And then once AskYvi became specifically what it is today, focusing on female leaders to help them turn their passion into profit and help them get through those seasons and help them be able to step away from their business and enjoy life.
Yvonne Heimann [00:11:59]:
Even that has gone through multiple seasons and reiterations. And right now we are in a fall season again where there is a lot of cleanup happening, a lot of self reflection, a lot of refraction on the business to be able to take it again to that next level. Looking back at your business, you're going to see yourself where you've gone through these seasons. And that's often where that entrepreneurial roller coaster comes in. The high of having so many clients and all things are working to then have a dip down simple. Because some of the processes might not have been working right. Your system isn't as automated as it could be. So you needed to step away from doing client work and actually doing admin work or bringing on a new team member.
Yvonne Heimann [00:12:47]:
You can balance this out? Yes. With specific automations and bringing systems and then bringing team members and you can balance that out more so that you don't have to do everything. But it's always going to be seasons. It's always going to be a implementation phase and doing phase, learning new things, then adjusting it and rolling it back out again. So what does that mean for creating a business model around seasons? That means building in time to be able to reflect and consciously choose to slow down to look back at what have we done? How have we done? Did it work as we expected it to work? What didn't work? What did work? What do we need to adjust? And doing so proactively before you burn yourself out, before you are not delivering the quality you know you can deliver and your clients deserve. Because if you are not planning for seasons, you are planning for burnout. As female leaders build in your monthly cycle. I know exactly that when I'm in my lutheral phase, I'm not creative.
Yvonne Heimann [00:14:16]:
I am going to be more grumpy, more aggressive, more tired, more exhausted, more emotional. I don't want to be on camera on that because that's not the energy I want to give you. That is when I'm just going to be pondering about things when I just take a whole weekend off and not leave the house. I'm recording this podcast right now, actually right in my phase, right after my period. Because that's when everything just has been cleaned out and the energy is high and I'm excited and I'm creative. Build in your seasons into your business and you stop going to be burned out and exhausted and suddenly things become excited again. It also allows us to be conscious of our business where we are not just doing and doing and doing. It allows us to consciously build in time to build automated processes that take off the nitty gritty BS stuff that still has to happen in our business but that you might not want to do.
Yvonne Heimann [00:15:27]:
I know I've thrown, I've thrown a lot at you. There is a lot going on when starting to build our business around our own cycle and around the seasons that are going to happen. So let's plan for those seasons consciously. So I invite you to take a look at your business. Take a look at the seasons you already have been going through. No matter if it was consciously or unconsciously, what do you see happening in the seasons of summer, fall, winter, spring, coming back into summer? What is that time frame you've been consciously or unconsciously running those seasons at? That can give you a proactive idea of what these seasons are. Now, I also invite you to look at how you are promoting, launching and running your business right now based on those seasons that are already happening in your business. Consciously or unconsciously, when are you launching? Your launch should be coming off right off a spring.
Yvonne Heimann [00:16:49]:
That is when you are active. That is when you are most creative in your business. Also match it with your cycle. You don't want to do a life launch when you are in the middle of your Period or Lutheal phase. Collect the data. Data doesn't lie. I'm like I am literally for the last three years running my Oura ring to get physical data from my body of when am I tired, when am I emotional, when am I angry? Without even knowing why I'm angry because my hormones are just going crazy. Look at this data and start building your seasons.
Yvonne Heimann [00:17:29]:
The first time I looked at my business and planned for a year out was overwhelming. It was really overwhelming. Initially I started planning in in monthly sections, then in three month sections, then in six months sections and then in in yearly sections. The nice thing is once you are feeling comfortable or comfortable enough to plan annually, you can see the season that's happening and you know exactly where in there launches would match better than on other times. When do you have the energy? When does it make sense in your business? When does it make sense with the market really creating your schedule and your season consciously rather than being smacked over the head with them? Because again, those seasons are going to happen no matter what. So let's bring them into our conscious recognition and build around them so that we are not burning ourselves out or suddenly end up in a situation where oh my God, where did this just come from? Why aren't there any clients? Because you didn't plan for reiterating what you learned and implementing it in your business. As a wrap up for today's conversation, I wanted to take a deep breath and really release this guilt that we have been carrying around about not achieving this perfect work life balance. So let's do that with me.
Yvonne Heimann [00:19:08]:
Deep inhale and release that guilt and that thought and that bullshit belief system of work life balance. It doesn't exist. You get to play in your business and be excited and spend more time in your business without feeling guilty. And you get to step away from your business and spend more time with your family or traveling or in your personal life. Because you build these seasons into your business. Life moves in seasons just like in nature. There will be periods in your business where it needs more of your time, energy and focus. There will be other times where your personal life just takes priority.
Yvonne Heimann [00:20:12]:
The key is to making these choices consciously rather than constantly feeling pulled into both directions. Remember, the goal isn't to achieve some mythical perfection every single day. The goal is to build a business that supports the life you want to live. And sometimes that means putting the work up front to create systems and processes that eventually give you back your freedom. This doesn't mean you should put yourself into that work and just fight it to the exhaustion and neglect your well being. It simply means acknowledging that different phases and different seasons require different energy allocations. When you are in a work focused season, be fully present there. When you are in a life focused season, truly embrace it without the guilt of what's not getting done in your business.
Yvonne Heimann [00:21:32]:
I built my business specifically to give me back my personal time and my health while never dropping the ball on clients. I've done it and so can you. This didn't happen by chasing balance and disbelief of work life balance. It happened by embracing seasons and building systems that support both intense work periods and beautiful periods in my life where I get to travel and enjoy and rest. What season are you in right now and is it one you've consciously chosen or just have you fallen into it by default? I'd love to hear your thoughts. Connect with me on social comment in the comment section. Let me know what resonated with you from today's episode. And until next time, remember that you are the designer of your business and life.
Yvonne Heimann [00:22:40]:
You get to decide what each season looks like. I'm Yvonne Heimann and this is She Is A Leader podcast. See you next time.