Do you ever feel like you are hitting your head against the wall when you are trying to learn and implement something new for your business... so you decide to push it to the next day? And before you know it, it's been pushed to the next day over... and over... and over again.
One of the biggest reasons why we struggle to learn challenging, new skills and continue to push it off is because our environment is already stressful - so any added stress on top of it (like the good stress of learning a new skill!) is too much for the mind to handle.
In today's episode, you'll hear real-life examples of how your workspace and work environment can impact the progress you are making with your business - and what you can do about it.
BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU’LL LEARN:
When you finish listening, I'd love to hear your biggest takeaway from today’s episode. Take a screenshot of the episode you're listening to, share it to your Instagram stories and tag me @monicalittlecoaching - or send me a DM!
While you're there, make sure you follow me so you can see behind the scenes of how I grew my handmade organic skincare small business to multiple six-figures... and how you can grow and scale your business, too.
LEARN MORE FROM MONICA LITTLE
Website: www.monicalittlecoaching.com
Instagram: @monicalittlecoaching
My small business: www.shopplantbasedbeauty.com
Do you ever feel like you are hitting your head against the wall when you are trying to learn and implement something new for your business... so you decide to push it to the next day? And before you know it, it's been pushed to the next day over... and over... and over again.
One of the biggest reasons why we struggle to learn challenging, new skills and continue to push it off is because our environment is already stressful - so any added stress on top of it (like the good stress of learning a new skill!) is too much for the mind to handle.
In today's episode, you'll hear real-life examples of how your workspace and work environment can impact the progress you are making with your business - and what you can do about it.
BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU’LL LEARN:
When you finish listening, I'd love to hear your biggest takeaway from today’s episode. Take a screenshot of the episode you're listening to, share it to your Instagram stories and tag me @monicalittlecoaching - or send me a DM!
While you're there, make sure you follow me so you can see behind the scenes of how I grew my handmade organic skincare small business to multiple six-figures... and how you can grow and scale your business, too.
LEARN MORE FROM MONICA LITTLE
Website: www.monicalittlecoaching.com
Instagram: @monicalittlecoaching
My small business: www.shopplantbasedbeauty.com
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Are you ready to go behind the scenes and learn what it really takes to create consistent sales each and every month with your handmade small business? Join me Monica little self taught multiple six figure, small business owner and your product business coach, as I give you the insight and inspiration on how to better run your business and increase your sales in ways that you may not have even been aware of, so that your business can truly become what you knew it could be fact, when you first start, learn how to let go of perfection, overcome the fear of failure that is holding you back. And finally, start taking action so that you walk away feeling like you've cracked the code on how to run a successful small business. You're listening to the product biz podcast. Hello, and welcome to episode 21 of the product biz Podcast. Today we are talking all about environment, and how your work environment is so important to the progress that you make in your business. So this episode really lands true for me, because I'm living and experiencing this right now with a huge move from Chicago to Scottsdale getting settled in. But I'm also retro actively seeing a lot of how my previous environment really impacted me. And using that to guide me to create an environment where I can actually learn new skills, grow my business or do challenging things. Because looking back, I can really see how my previous environment really hindered me in a lot of those aspects. And the more I thought about it, the more I got settled in it, the more I'm realizing how incredibly important your environment so your home your workspace, how you set up yourself for your day, how that really impacts your business and the progress that you can make in your business. So I want to level set with this really interesting story, there's going to be a couple different stories that that really paint this picture. So you're gonna have to bear with me as we get through this story to how it all comes together. But this whole environment concept first came to me about four weeks ago, I was still living in Chicago. And I've mentioned before on the podcast, maybe you've heard me say that I was going to physical therapy. So I had a little bit of pain in my left quad just from being really active, go into studio three, sprinting, whenever I do group classes, I have no chill. I'm not like a super competitive person in terms of competing with others. But I'm super competitive in terms of like competing with myself and doing my absolute best. So when I would go to studio three, and there would be a sprint class, of course, I would be sprinting to 12.5 miles per hour, fastest I've ever ran for no reason just because I'm there like competing with myself and seeing how fast I can go. So with really pushing my body to a lot of limits, I started to just get a little bit of pain in my left quad. And I've been meaning to go to physical therapy for a couple years now just to work on like my body alignment, my posture, and this was kind of like another cherry on top that was like okay, now I really have to go. So you've heard me mentioned if you've been listening to the podcasts that I have found this amazing physical therapist, physiotherapist. He also does Reiki he's a shaman. He's this amazing healer. And I noticed that whenever I would get to my physical therapy appointment, I would be going like a million miles a minute. Even if I meditated before, even if before I walked in, I took some deep belly breaths, even if I made sure I left with ample time so I wasn't rushing to get there. No matter what I did, I would arrive and be a million miles a minute just like flustered rushing, feeling like everything is going crazy, right? That's just how my body was. It was just this natural state of like stress essentially is what it is. And whenever I would leave my physical therapy appointment, I would be so incredibly calm, like breathing so much slower, so much more present, not super scatterbrained and a lot of it was because of what we were doing at physical therapy with Dr. James him. Also, Ito's Reiki, he's a shaman. He's a healer. A lot of what we did was like breathwork and visualization that helps with quad pain but also just helps you really calm your nervous system down to write. And I asked him, it was like my second to last session before I moved on. Like, you know what, Dr. James? Whenever I get here, I'm going a million miles a minute, but when I leave I'm so calm. I'm like, what, why is that like what can I do at home? How do I make sure that I'm facilitating this level of calmness when I'm at home because no matter What do I do I meditate, I take some deep breaths. I'm trying physically not to rush. But no matter what I do, I'm still in this like elevated state. And what he said it was a two part answer. His first answer was, well, everything that I have in this space is conducive to healing, from the music that's slightly playing in the background, from the candles, essential oils, aromatherapy, from all of the items, I mean, he has crystals and other things he has like paintings and all these beautiful things on the wall. And what he said is, every single thing that he has in that space is conducive to healing. And he's obviously a healer too. So of course, I'm leaving in this different state, because I've been healed from the space from his work from being there for an hour and a half, two hours with him. But then he's also started to say, and this is a second part of his answer is take a look at your environment at home. And is it also conducive to healing? Or and he mentioned, he's like, there's some people who are working in they have the TV on and they have music on and then they have text messages coming in. And no wonder they're like stress and in this elevated state, because there's so many distractions going on. So he asked me, he's like, how is your environment at home? Do you have a specific place where you work? Do you have specific rituals, when you start working, when you end work? Do you have a place and routine where you are dedicated to your work, and as soon as the day is over, there's a physical separation, something that you do to separate your work from your life. So you have that balance, so you don't carry it through to your day. And he basically was just questioning me, and how was my environment at home. And when I was living in Chicago, what I had was a big living room. And a small corner is where I had my desk. And that is where I would spend most of my day, in terms of working on my laptop, I would be on my desk in the small little corner of the living room. And it's so interesting, because it's not until I've actually moved to where I am now to see that difference in how my environment was truly impacting me. So when I think about my space and Chicago, it was extremely practical, right. And I mean this not only in terms of like my desk in my laptop and how I was working, but also with like the furniture that I had in the apartment that my husband and I have, it was extremely practical. So we had furniture, it wasn't like super cozy or something that I loved. But it worked. And I've always told myself, well, you know what, we don't have a house, this is all temporary. Every time we move stuff gets banged up and broken. So I'm not going to buy things that are like permanent that are really, really nice. So all we need right now is stuff that works, stuff that is functional stuff that is practical. All we need is a TV stand that will hold the TV, all we need are some kitchen chairs that are functional that you can sit on. And we've been in Chicago, we lived in Chicago for 10 years. And that's what my mentality was like for my environment that entire time. extremely practical, functional, but not necessarily like, homey, right. And it's super funny, because if you know Myers Briggs, I'm an INTJ. And that is just so typical for an INTJ practical functional. And let's leave it at that. Right. And it was about a year ago, that I actually was like, Okay, I'm sensing just a general problem in my environment. In terms of like, we still had black Ikea furniture from when we first moved to Chicago, which was 10 years ago. So a year ago, I actually went through and remodeled our living room a little bit with a new TV stand, new pillows for the couch, I got a new desk, I got a new desk chair, all of which previously was black Ikea furniture that was so just like beat up for moving over and over. And I remember a year ago, when I remodeled the living room, I felt so much better. It just felt lighter. I actually wanted to be in that space. It felt more cozy. It just had like a so much of a better energy to it. So it's super interesting to hear what Dr. James told me in terms of my environment, and then seeing how a year ago you know what I did some of that I remodeled a little bit I just made like small upgrades wasn't anything super expensive. I just threw out things that I really really didn't like to look at and replaced it with something that was a little bit more cozy to me cozy and warm and just felt good in terms of energy. So I noticed how I did that a year ago when it helped that I hear Dr. James mentioned this to me about my space and what type of environment do I have? And then a few weeks later, we moved Have to Scottsdale and the move to Scottsdale has been so crazy across multiple levels. So side tangent first like our move here was so incredibly easy. It was insane from like getting the U haul packing the U haul driving three days, everything was so easy. When you think about like packing up and moving. I hate moving more than anything like moving apartments from one to another in Chicago is just on my bottom of my list, right are things that I just hate doing, going or move to Scottsdale was so incredibly easy. And it goes to another thing that Dr. James told me and he's just been such a big mentor to me. But what he mentioned, because I was telling him you know, everything in Chicago has been getting so easy lately. Everything's been going like so perfectly from synchronicities and signs. And then if you factor on top of it, how easy this move was, in terms of like we had the nicest U haul representative who helped us who guided us who told us like, Hey, I know you have the auto transport. But let's not put it on the U haul right now Go pack your u haul come back, we'll put the auto transport on he helped us actually put my car onto the transport. And you know, tied it and just did everything to put my car on there. guided us told us the best way to do it was just so kind, which never happened at U haul. Like you read reviews about U haul. And it's like I showed up no one was there, I waited three hours. And we just had like the most beautiful experience with this amazing U haul representative which was just out of this world. And loading the U haul it was just my husband and I we did it in two hours, it was so easy. And normally we work really good as a team when we're moving. But this was like the easiest move of all, it was insane. Driving three days we didn't have any traffic. We were right on time. Our hotels were perfect. We arrived on perfect timing that we expected, which usually with a big move. It's like shit goes wrong, right? Something's bound to go wrong. But our entire move was so early. So getting back to what I was saying on this little bit of a tangent. When I was explaining to Dr. James how like everything in Chicago was just lining up so perfectly. And what he said to me is, the reason everything is going so perfectly here is because you are moving, because you are on the right path. Because I started to question like,
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should I be leaving Chicago when everything is going so perfect. And that's the wisdom that he shared with me. And it was so interesting, because then during the actual move how easy things were. That's all I kept thinking about. It's like, well, we are meant to be moving. And that's why the universe is making this move so easy for us. And of course, it was so funny. Once we arrived in Scottsdale, we're used to living in high rises in Chicago, where unloading and loading a U haul is so easy because there's a freight elevator, you go up to your floor, you unpack your stuff. And in Scottsdale, I mean they didn't really have high rises. Our apartment here is four storeys high in Chicago, we lived on the 34th floor. So huge difference. We're on the second floor here now. But they don't have that easy of loading and unloading. Like we had to walk down the garage with all of our boxes with all of our furniture and it was like a far walk, we had to go up a flight of stairs. So it's funny how I kind of jinx it, everything was so easy. And then of course, we have a little bit of trouble actually unloading. But in the grand scheme of things, it was so simple, and we had a good workout, going up a flight of stairs to unload and unpack all of our stuff when we arrived in Scottsdale. So side tangent of how synchronicities and signs when you're on the right path, really, really do show up. But back to you environment. So I mentioned in Chicago, I had my desk in the living room. I had gone through a little bit of a remodel about a year ago. But it wasn't until this last week where I truly got settled into Scottsdale that I realized how difficult my environment in Chicago actually was. So it was difficult for a couple reasons. And I'm now seeing it from this different perspective, right. So in Chicago, number one, having my desk in the living room, not having my own dedicated space actually was really challenging for my environment. Because my work was in my home. And I didn't have any separation. I didn't have any separate space. I didn't have any way to cut off work from home. And it was just all so interlinked. And I think for me personally, I did okay with that. That wasn't the biggest thing in terms of environment. When I think back to Chicago with what was hard for me, right. So having my business in my home in terms of my desk in the living room. wasn't that big of a detriment to me, but it definitely wasn't like the most conducive environment for me to progress and grow my business. Thankfully, in terms of plant based Judy, I did move plant based beauty out of my Chicago apartment about two years ago, and had that in a separate space. And that was huge. That's something that I really recommend to my clients. So people that I work with one on one, to help them get to a space where your business is in a dedicated spot, have it be your basement, have it be your garage, have it be a separate studio space where you have your products, because that work home separation is so helpful for you to have like a start time and an end time when you go to work to get your business out of your cupboards, your closet, your entryway, I mean, when you have your small business in your home, it's literally in every single covered closet cracked that you can find. And that can be really hard mentally and physically, to be engulfed in your work all day every day, even when you're not working to still see it and be reminded of it and think of it and then have that stress comeback of whatever you may be experiencing with your work. So moving plant based beauty to a separate studio space in Chicago was so important for me, obviously, that is a bit of a luxury, right? Like you have to be making a certain amount to pay for a separate rent. But finding a way to separate that in your home somehow, if it still is in your home is going to be really important. So having that separate structure, that separate place, that dedicated place in your home in your apartment for your business is going to be critical. So my business coach who's also His name is James James Wedmore always says that structure leads to freedom, right. So if you think about having structure around, where you have your product based business, that will lead to freedom in terms of you not been tied to thinking about your business all day, every day running into your business all day every day in your home. And structure leads to freedom. So the first concept that I want to mention here is how do you make sure that your product based business is in a physical space either in your apartment in your home in a separate studio space that is somehow separated from your personal home life.
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So if it's a separate room, a separate corner, all in one spot, just just keep it all in one spot. So it's not creeping into your home life, because that inadvertently is causing stress on the body to be thinking about business when you're trying to relax, to be reminded about your business when you're trying to relax, to be reminded of the stresses of your business, when you're trying to relax, you can start to see how this affects you maybe not consciously, but subconsciously, it's going to be going on in your brain in the background every time you see something and your business. So trying to find a way to structure your physical products. So it's not growing on top of your home, right, a separate space for it. So for me in Chicago, that was just my desk at that point in time, since I had a separate studio space for plant based beauty. It was just my desk was in my living room. And something as small as that can be really hard on you in terms of your environment. But how you can take that one step further. And how this really gets interesting is not just the environment in terms of where is the placement of your product business? Where is the placement of your desk, but what is also the environment in terms of your senses, your five senses, so what you see what you hear what you smell, what you touch, how does that environment affect you where you're working? So let's bring this really practical in terms of Chicago. Looking back, Chicago, where I lived downtown was such a stimulated place. In terms of if I had my patio door open, I would hear sirens. I would hear the architecture boat tour going down the river, I could literally hear what the tour guide was saying because they're talking on a mic and it just echoes on the building up to where I'm at. I could hear music from people in boats who were cruising down blasting their music. I could hear cars if they were revving their engine I could hear so much from my apartment. And you don't realize it but that causes a lot of stress in the body expecially if you're an INTJ if you're an introvert, because introverts, it's super interesting. They can't handle all the stimulation. So if you're an introvert, maybe you can relate but you probably like to work in silence. If you are in a place where you're working and there's a TV, there's music, there's people on their phones, there's people chatting, that's probably harder for you to work in. Because as an introvert I don't know the rationale behind why, but we can we can handle it some Just stimulation, we have to be in a very like regulated environment. And that rains true for me so much. I remember being in places where others are talking, listening to a podcast, and they have music on and I'm like, Oh my God, how are you guys working on getting stuff done where I'm like, I can't focus. And I'm not even in this conversation. I'm not even being active, listening or conversing or being part of all the stimulation that's going on. I'm just trying to work over here on my own, and I physically my brain can't handle it. And this goes back to what Dr. James says to about what is like your sound environment that's going on around you. And when I was in Chicago, the last few weeks before I left, my body was just under a lot of stress because of the move. But I found myself listening to music while I was working, which I almost never do. And it was so weird that all of a sudden, I had this urge to listen to music. But when I wouldn't be listening to music, when I was working, I would get more distracted, I'd be singing a lot, I realized I wasn't getting as much done. It was a distraction. But I think my body was already in this elevated stress state because I was moving soon and just had a lot to do with the move that I was just putting another stressor on top of another stressor, listening to music trying to work, sirens and cars going on in the background. And it was an extremely stressful environment. But I only notice it now when I'm looking back. But when this becomes super important is when you think about creativity, and stress. And when you think about learning a challenging new skill and stress, if your body is already stressed. And stressed doesn't mean like pressure, stress doesn't mean deadlines. Stress doesn't mean you know breaking down stress can mean too much stimulation. Stress can mean not having your own dedicated space, and you kind of feel like you're working wherever you're working. And when your body is stressed from stimulation, not having a dedicated space, stress zaps your creativity.
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And when you're trying to learn a new skill, something that's challenging something that takes brain power, something that's outside of your comfort zone, and you're stressed. It zaps your creativity to actually learn that new skill, master that new skill and, and be able to apply that new skill. I think we can all relate to times where we've been stressed. And we're trying to do something new. And we're just like, I can't do this. I'm hitting a roadblock. This is too hard. And you have like a breakdown, right? You're trying and trying but you're just like hitting your head against the wall. And if you really step back and think through why am I hitting this wall, one of the reasons could be other stress that's going on. Because your body can only handle so much stress. And to be honest, like learning a new skill. Learning something challenging is stressful, right? Like it's hard. It's meant to be hard. It's a new skill. It's something you're not good at, you're learning you're growing. But if your body is already stressed, and now you're adding this new stress on top of it, can you see how you reach this potential like Max, that you just can't hold on to any more stress and you just give up on the scale that you're trying to learn? So how do we reduce your everyday stress as low as possible. So then when you're trying to be creative, when you're trying to learn a new skill, you're coming at it from a place of like flow and peace. And you're able to take on this new stress of growth, instead of trying to add it on top of the stress of a stressful environment. So this also goes back to another thing that Dr. James said to me, which was super interesting. This was like my second week that I was seeing him and the air and water show was going on in Chicago. And he's like, Oh, are you going to it this weekend? And I'm like, Yeah, you know, we've went to it a few times when we first moved to Chicago, but it's kind of like you see it once you've already seen it and you know, big crowds, hot day, not really my thing. And then I was telling him because at the air and water show in Chicago, if you're not from Chicago, it's basically this huge air show where they have jets in the Blue Angels and all these you know, airplanes and things doing tricks in the air. It's along the beach. So everyone goes to the beach, and you watch these fighter jets and planes. And it's it's fun if you've never seen it before. But for me like I said, I've seen it a couple of times. So once you see it once you kind of see it. And I was telling Dr. James, that I you know when they practice the air and water show a couple of days before the fighter jets are going around Chicago a few days before just to practice their routes and everything. When they were practicing. It was like a Thursday and I was telling him I'm like you know what they were practicing yesterday and it just really irritated me like every time the slough jet just zoomed by my apartment. I would get so frustrated. And I asked him like, why is it happening like usually stuff like that doesn't get to me. And what he said was, well, if you think about it, you are here at physical therapy because your body is under stress, your quad is hurting you, your body is under a lot of physical stress. And when you add on another stress on top of it like loud noises, you pretty much your cup is overflowing, not in a good way, right, you have a maximum amount of stress that your body can literally tolerate, in terms of pain in terms of stimulation. And if I'm feeling physical pain in my quad, that's a form of stress, I physically can't handle a lot more stress on top of that. So then when a fighter jet goes by, and they're practicing, I just get irritated because it's my body telling me too much stress, too much going on. So if you take that into this discussion that we're having right now about your environment, how do we make sure where you are working? Where you are doing your best creative work? Where are you actually learning challenging new skills, you are Zen, right your environment is that you are Zen, so you're able to actually learn and grow from a place of being open to it. Instead of sitting on your laptop, trying to learn a new skill from a place of you're stressed out from your environment, from your crazy morning, from your phone notifications, from distractions, from music, from TV, from sirens, from all these things going on. When you try to learn a new skill on top of it, you can see why maybe you're not progressing in that way. So a couple things that I want to mention in terms of this is stress zaps, creativity. And creativity can be writing, marketing, selling, learning a new skill. And we have to make sure that our body is controlled under stress in order to do these new challenging creative skills that we have to learn as small business owners.
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So what I challenge you to do is to create an environment that's conducive for learning, for growing and for challenging yourself. So if you've been watching my Instagram stories over the last week or so, I've been showing little sneak peeks of my new office space in Scottsdale. So this kind of brings us all full circle to this new environment that I'm creating. And like I mentioned, at the very beginning of office, I've always been a very practical and functional person in terms of like decorating a space. But when we moved to Scottsdale, my big thing is this is so far away from home, home being Chicago, where we've been for the last 10 years. And it's a big change, like moving that far to huge change. It's so much slower pace here. All of these are good changes, changes that I love and I'm so grateful for but it's still a change nonetheless, nonetheless. And change is also a stressor right. So knowing that we are going through this big change of now living in Scottsdale, I want to make our apartment here feel super cozy feel like home, because we are so far away from what we've traditionally called home, as in Chicago. So when we moved here, I said, Okay, normally I'm super rational, I'm super practical, super functional, that I don't buy a lot of decor, like I'm very minimalistic in general. So like I love the decor that we have, because it's cute, it's minimalistic, but I've been doing so much here to actually make it feel cozy and comfortable. From the living room, I got a couple of new pillows in the bathroom, we got a couple new pieces of decor, we got like a rug, we have just been getting like super small things to just make it feel super cozy. And when I first got here with my office space that I have, I was like, You know what, I'm not gonna do too much maybe like a table, and a desk, and then my shelving for my products. But the more we started to unpack and move in, I just had this nudge of like, I need to make this space super cozy, I need to create a space where I'm excited to work, I need to create a space where it's so separate from home, even though it's literally in the same apartment, right? It's the den that we have in our apartment. So I just started to think through like what would my dream office look like and I found this beautiful pink Peel and Stick wallpaper on Etsy that has leopards on it and blue birds on it but then pink trees and it's like so bright and so bold and have that on one wall and I bought a new meditation mat in a meditation pillow and I bought this really fun small rug that's blue and pink and then on the other side of my den office I got a shelf for have like a little altar with all my spiritual things. And then I got these Moon shelves where I put all my crystals and I've just been putting so much attention and energy to make this space feel really really good. And that is something like that I've never done before which is super, super weird for me. But doing this and elevating the space and making it a warm cozy environment where I actually want to work work, where I step into it. And it's just so calm itself Zen, I just feel like I have so much more capacity to actually get work done. I have so much more capacity to do challenging things, I have so much more capacity to be focused, that's a huge thing. How can you be focused when you have distractions, when you're working in your living room, or when you don't have a separate space when they're sirens and cars, and you're gonna hear me say that over and over, because unless you've lived in downtown Chicago, and then moved away from it, you actually don't know how much that really impacts you. So it's all about creating a calm energy. So then you actually have the capacity to learn new things and grow and do things that are stressful and challenging. But it's coming from a space of you're very neutral, you're very zen, you can handle these new challenges. And you can see by feeling open to new challenges and new skills, how
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much more you're going to grow, right? That's just going to be monumental for your business. And I've never had this train of thought of how much your environment impacts your business growth. But it's so true. And it's so interesting to see it come from multiple different levels. I saw it from what Dr. James told me, I saw it from this massive move to Scottsdale and having this new perspective. I remembered how the energy shifted when I did a small redecoration about a year ago. And these three different pieces came together. And now I'm like, Oh, I really get why this is so important. And I have to do a podcast episode about it. Because I want to share this with you too. So that's really what I wanted to share today's understanding your environment. But it's super interesting. And I'll do another episode about this. But your environment, we talked a lot about external environment, your physical environment, your space, but there's also your internal environment, which is your mind, your body, your soul. And having a very calm internal environment can really play a massive role in how you show up for your business to. And couple small things. It's like the food that you eat, right? To have a calm internal environment with your body, you have to eat really healthy, you have to feel your best, and you'll have energy to work your best. And you'll have more capacity to work better for your business too. So you can see how internal environment is a whole other section, which we'll have an episode on, later down the line. But I just wanted to really highlight the external environment and how important and impactful this really is for you. So for me, this perspective really came from our massive move from Chicago to Scottsdale, so I'm not sharing this in terms of oh my god, if you live in Chicago, you need to leave Chicago. That's not what I'm saying at all. What I'm saying is just take a step back and really assess your environment. And what can you do to reduce the stress in your environment? Can you maybe work without the TV on or work without music on? Can you maybe have some sort of noise cancelling headphones, find what works for you, but try something different. And I know there's a lot of people who do work with music and TV on but and maybe that does work for you, right? Maybe if you're not an introvert, it's totally fine. But try the opposite. And see if that actually makes you more productive. And see where you have room to adjust your external environment to be in a place where you can get more work done. It also can mean just like making your work area more cozy, organizing your workspace, oh my god, organization is a huge thing for me. And when I'm in an unorganized environment that zaps my creativity that zaps so much because I get stressed. So if you know that, how do you create an environment that's organized or if you've never been in an organized environment, I encourage you to try that because it's going to clear up so much clutter in your mind when you clear up that clutter in your physical space. And the last thing that I want to mention is creating some sort of ritual. So take a step back, assess your environment, see where you can make some changes, can you be more organized, can you reduce the music, the TV, whatever it may be, but create some sort of ritual. And this goes back to what Dr. James told me at the beginning of this episode that I mentioned as well. How do you create a ritual of your starting workday and when you end your workday, so for me that means I meditate in the morning I have some palo santo that I actually do through the entire house. I have some incense depending on which chakra I'm focusing on that I will light in my den specifically. And I journal I just have some meantime. But that's me separating my waking moments to my working day. I want to make sure I'm in this super calm internal environment. But also at the end of your workday. What can you do to close out your work day to market done? So I have this amazing Selenite wand that Daisy from little Buddha by Daisy gifted me which is a great way to just cut the cords with work and anyone that you've been in con tasked with. And then I palo santo and I say again, just to mark the end of my day. So assess your environment, create some sort of like ritual or routine for the start of your workday, in the end of your workday, and start to build in that separation. Especially if your work is inside your home. Doesn't mean you have to like buy a separate studio space doesn't mean you have to move out of Chicago. But just understand and acknowledge where you are and take a step back and see where you have room for improvements and what is something new that you can try. And I hope that you find some really awesome ways to enhance your productivity, enhance your energy, reduce your stress, and just show up ready to learn new things for
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your business. So that is all that I want to mention. Today. This was supposed to be another really quick episode and I'm looking over it's been 36 minutes, so a little bit longer, which is just because I'm super passionate about this topic being in the midst of all these changes. I will be recording another episode later this week. And we will chat more than but I am off to an Etsy algorithm secrets, Etsy audit hours call with my Etsy members. And then I have the kickoff for product biz Academy. I have some amazing small business owners that I'm working with for the next six months. So we have our official kickoff call. If you missed this product biz Academy session, reach out to me I'll add you to the waitlist for the next one. It's going to be a while before I open doors again. But it's a super special space. And if you're interested in the future, let me know on Instagram at Monica little coaching otherwise, please leave a five star review if you found this episode or this podcast impactful I would appreciate it so much. And I will talk to you next week. Thank you so much for hanging out with me here inside the product biz podcast. If you love this episode, don't forget to subscribe and to leave a five star review. And if you're interested in learning more about product biz Academy my signature group coaching program for handmade small business owners like you who are looking to create consistent online sales with their business, then go to the product biz podcast.com to join the waitlist. Doors are currently closed but you'll be first notified when they reopen. Thank you so much and I'll see you on the next episode of the product biz podcast.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
work, Chicago, environment, stress, super, Scottsdale, move, business, space, terms, home, u haul, apartment, James, hear, cozy, day, separate, product, create