Start living the life you intended, by finding more free time in your business!

You know you are exhausted from doing ALL THE THINGS in your business but you don’t have a budget to go hire a team.

You know you cant keep working like this though without burning out and you aren’t making the progress you want to in your business or your life.  

So what do you do? Can you create a better work life balance with out a budget for hiring help?

The answer, thankfully,  is a big YES!

Kim Hamblin is with us today to help us get more hours back in our week so we can create better balance for ourselves and our families.

She has actionable tips that you can start using today to make your work time more efficient, outsource for free, and create more hours in the day to start living the life you really want, whether you spend that time doing business building activities, enjoying family time, or just time for yourself.

You didn’t start a business because you love working endless hours, you probably started a business to give yourself more freedom and flexibility.  So let’s take a few minutes today and help you figure out how to make that vision a reality.

LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE:

Creating Balance FREE Download:  https://www.kimmarietraining.com/create-balance-pdf

The E-Myth Revisited Book:  Get it anywhere you get your books but here's the authors site for more info.

Ready to SMASH Your Goals?   We're here to help!

Make this the year that changes EVERYTHING.  

Now offering limited spots in our full day “Done with You” Success Blueprint Days  for personalized marketing and strategy to propel you to your biggest year ever!

CLICK TO:  BOOK MY DAY

Transcript

Kristy: I'm so glad you're here today because I need your help with this one.

So I can't wait to walk through this with you today. Thanks for being here. 

Kim: Thank you so much for having me. It's awesome. 

Kristy: Now, before we dig into the big business building and, and life balance ideas. Can you tell us a little bit more about your story and, and how you landed, where you are today, helping women build their business with balance?

Yeah, 

Kim: absolutely. So it kind of started about seven or eight years ago when I had my little baby and I was in the process of building a portrait studio. So I had a portrait business and it was still very low key, like, you know, um, a few weddings and a few portraits that was kind of where it was at. When my son was born, I went straight back to work.

I, , wanted to keep, keep the momentum going. And of course that was a fullest mistake, but a few months after that, we ended up separating. So when my son was 15 months old, [00:02:00] I became a single parent. and that's where the balance really went out the door. I had none. So I was trying to balance a little boy who was, you know, a toddler who needed his mom.

I was trying to work really hard to support us and provide an income for us pay his childcare fees, pay the mortgage. And so I was completely driven at work. And what was happening was of course, , he was doing 46 hours a weeks and weeks in preschool. , I was exhausted. I'd work right through every second weekend.

So I'd do 14 day weeks. I'd work at night. Once he was asleep, I was sleep deprived because any mom knows that children often don't like to sleep at night, especially if they're feeling stressed or their appearance are stressed. So he was picking up on that and basically it was, it was hell it was absolute hell.

 And there were certainly times where I found myself. On the floor of my kitchen with my head on my knees. Just wondering what, what the heck am I doing this? Isn't this is not how I thought motherhood would look like. This is not what I thought running a business would look like. This is not working and [00:03:00] over.

It took me a long time cuz there was a huge mindset shift that I had to work through it. What, you know, back then I had to kind of reprogram how I was thinking about things. So it did take me quite a few years before I was actually able to achieve balance. And once I did get that balance, , it was amazing.

I was able to, you know, run my business successfully. The business was going really well by the stage. I had a great team of people on, by the time I sold my business a year ago, a year ago. And, , I would be able to be at my son at school, pick up, you know, like that to me is such a big thing. If I can be at there at three o'clock to pick him up and bring him home, knowing that everything's still operating.

That was huge. I was able to take school holidays off and rather than put 'em all the time into a school holiday program, those things were huge. And once I realized that I could have a successful business and be a good mom and do it on my own, like I'm still a single parent, so I'm still juggling. Things just got easy and light and I enjoyed my business again.

And so that sort [00:04:00] of led me down the road. Once I sold my business and I, I knew I wanted to be a photography coach or a business coach for photographers. It's really only been in the last six months that I've realized that the, the people I'm helping the most are people who are mums, who are juggling business and babies, and trying to find that balance.

So I'm really kind of moving more into that line now, so that. I can help people do both, you know, there's no point hustling and having a great business, making a heap of money. If you are sacrificing so much of the important stuff, you don't get that back. Yeah. So that's kind of my mission and I'm moving more and more into it and I'm loving it.

Kristy: , you know, I'm, I'm so passionate about, , single moms and business as well, because I am one as well and, and have been, , from, from the beginning with my kids too. And it. It's not easy for sure. , especially when you're first figuring it out. It was the same for us, but. It gives you that freedom that you otherwise don't have.

And as a single mother, especially you wanna be able to go to recital and you want cuz there's no other, you know, [00:05:00] parent necessarily. And, and in my case I was an only parent. So there was no one else to step in to do those things. You have to be all the things in all the places and having your own business gives you the freedom to do that.

And I think it's, it's such a great solution, but you're right. It AB it's not an easy solution and you gotta have, you gotta have some framework in place to make that work so that you can. You can do all of the things and have that flexibility. So I just love this topic. I love talking about this. 

Kim: I don't think it's talked enough about to be honest. Well, certainly not. When I was growing my photography business, , I don't know. And I, and this is with the greatest of respect to all my amazing mentors and coaches that I, that I had at the time who helped me. But they were coming from a very different place of they weren't moms, they weren't single parents.

They had another parent at home whose you know, role was to help with that. And I, I don't mean that with any disrespect, but there was all about here's how to build business. There wasn't as much in there about here's how to build a business that fits your life. Here's how to build a business that supports you.

[00:06:00] And I think it needs to be talked about more. I, I do hear it more now. But back then it wasn't, it wasn't as big. 

Kristy: Yeah. Well, and, and, you know, the principles that we're gonna talk about today, whether you are, a, a single parent or not a single parent, or whether you're even a parent, these are all really, really critical, helpful ways to get that balance back in your life.

So, , I'm really excited because I think I'm gonna take some notes today because it's still a work in progress. I think it always is. So how do we identify where to even start with all of. 

Kim: Oh boy. And you know, it's a great question because when you are in the middle of all the chaos and you're wondering.

Where to even, you know what to do first, it can feel really overwhelming, you know, to actually go and take some time out. But my, my advice on this is to go and think about everything you're doing now. You know, if you have the, the dedication or the commitment, , you can actually use time tracking tools to actually work out what you are doing.

Where are you spending your time? And when I [00:07:00] did that, there was a huge insight. , it was like, boy, oh boy, you know, this, these are things. Once you start identifying, what's taking your time, then you can start thinking about how you can minimize the time spent on that or how you can get some help, but you really have to identify where you are right now.

What's taking your time. What's stressing you out. You know, sometimes that balance is actually a mental balance. You know, sometimes there might be things where it's just adjusting the way we think about something. , it's like I had these massive stories in my head that I had to get rid of, about what a mother should do, what my expectations of myself were that I had to change.

So, , you might even look at. Identifying what you are believing about your current situation, cuz it might not actually be that bad. It might just feel bad because of the beliefs that you're holding about it. And that's a huge one. , and like I say, and like you say, not just for parents, but for anyone it's like, okay, I should be where I, I should be further along by now or this should be easier.

Thus stories we tell ourself, but the actual practical steps are take some time out, just, you know, if you can. [00:08:00] Track that time. There are some amazing tools online. If you're working on a computer, then it's gonna be a lot easier, , and start identifying what needs to change. Because if you're not looking, if you're just looking at the situation going, this is really hard, but you're not really drilling into it, then nothing's gonna change because you don't know where to start.

You don't know what needs to change for me. I had some huge things, you know, it was like trying to find, getting stuff more done at home and less time. And simplifying at work. So it was like these two very different areas that I had to really drill into. And when I did everything changed, Sorry, it's my, in 

Kristy: that exercise of, of tracking your time.

I, I think a lot of people brush it off. They think, you know, oh no, I know what I'm doing. I know I'm spending too much time on this, or I'm prob when you actually do the exercise. So please, if you're listening, do the exercise when you actually do it. You will be surprised at things you thought you were spending a lot of time on and maybe weren't and, and vice versa.

one thing I had to change when I started doing that is, [00:09:00] I would go on my phone to legitimately do something. I needed to post something on Instagram, or I needed to check a text. A client had sent me or something. But as soon as I pick up that phone, I forget what I was going to do. And 20 minutes later, I'm scrolling through these phone.

Oh my gosh. So I had to actually stop. If I have a legitimate thing, I need to go to my phone for, if it can wait, I'll actually write it down and then I'll do it all in a batch later with an actual intention to do it. And it saves me, honestly, it's probably 44 minutes a day that I would go down a rabbit hole and I'd get lost and forget even why I was there.

So it's, it's a big eye opener to do that exercise and see where that time is going. 

Kim: Absolutely. And Ashley, you just hit on something that was really key that, that distraction, you know, like, especially with our phones, I'll go to look at, um,, a post I saw in a group that was helpful. Like an answer to a question, but all of a sudden I'm scrolling or I'm.

I go, I have my notes on my phone. My to-do list is on my phone and all of a sudden I'm like, oh, I know what's happening in the news today. And it's, and like you say, that distraction is so key, but what you said was you [00:10:00] have to write it down and that is key. When you can have a really clear to-do list, that's not a million pages long, and there's ways to break it down.

And I'll go through that in a moment, , where you're just focusing on a few things, like one thing at a time and a few things a day, and just getting really crystal clear, because once you've identified your time being spent, then you can start to focus on what you need to be doing and how you can do that better and easier.

And that's simply by writing it down, keeping that like actually being focused on what you need to do. 

Kristy: So if so, so we track our time. We figure out, we figure out what, what our expectations are versus reality. And I think that's another strike against social media there because you know, you get everybody's highlights real and you think that's, that's what you need to be doing too.

And, and we need to unpack that. I think that's a whole whole podcast 

Kim: on 

Kristy: its own, uh, you know, stepping away from the highlights real. So after we've done that, what, what sort of actions can we take to. To get that balance back and to save some. 

Kim: [00:11:00] Cool. Once you've really identified the areas that are like of the most stress.

A lot of the time we are looking purely at our business, but we actually need to also look at outside of our business. then it's like, okay, how can I simplify this? So for example, in my business, I took some time and I worked out the different areas and the different tasks within each area. So you'd get really systemized and really drill into the details.

I am not naturally a detailed person, so this was really quite challenging for me. And it took me quite a while. I have a big picture overview of everything. So going into the nitty gritty was really tough, but once I did it made the difference. And so I would go into my business and say, okay, what are the areas.

The key areas of my business that need to be managed as if, as if I already had my team. What are the tasks in each of those areas that I'm doing? And can I do each one differently? So that was like basically systems, systems save so much time. And it's really overwhelming when you're starting a new business to.

Actually take that [00:12:00] time to do it, but trust me is so worth it. I'm in a new business now. So I'm actually in this place again right now. I'm starting fresh, you know, I'm only 12 months in and I'm having to do all this again, but this time I. How to do it. So it's much simpler. , but look at the things at home.

So for me, some of the things at home that really made a huge difference was I got a cleaner, I couldn't afford a cleaner, but I made it at work cuz the thought of coming home at the end of the day and cooking dinner for a tired little boy who didn't wanna eat, thought of doing lunches lunches for the next day and then cleaning my house.

I was, I, it just was too hard. Having someone come in once a week, just took so much of a mental load off me. Once a week I'd come home. And my, my house was clean and my laundry was done and it was a game changer. I put in a dishwasher, things like that actually meant that because my home life felt a lot easier.

Just those little things I wasn't having to worry about it. I could be more present for my son, which started to take off a little bit of that pressure. And then I [00:13:00] had more to give my business. So I feel like sometimes even though we're talking about business, we need to come back to. Outside the business first and then work back in.

If that makes sense. Maybe that's just my way of working, but it's certainly made a huge difference for me. And then I started to make progress, and then things in my business. So, , I've actually got a list that I've things in, most of things are at home that made all the difference at work, but then at work it's about looking at, okay.

Do I need to do this or can, for example, as a photographer, Do I need to be doing all the production and the packaging and the shipping and giving the orders to my clients. That's quite a big job. And it's a job that can feel quite hard because you've already photographed the people, you know, a week or two ago, you kind of you've moved on or can I give that to my supply?

Can they just do everything for me and ship it directly to my client? You know, that was a game changer. It was like, oh, okay. I I'll just do that. So little things like that, just identify where you can get things off your [00:14:00] plate. That just helps so 

Kristy: much. And I think, especially when we're starting in our businesses and we're, we're doing all the things and we're watching the budget, right?

So many women are, are bootstrapping it, , with their own financing and or they have no financing at all. and I think we tend to, pinch the pennies and, and cost ourselves more in, in the long run. And, and I, I do it quite often, even now, when I'll look at something and I'm doing something and I'm like, hang on a second, how much do I need to pay somebody to do this?

And, and whether it's cleaning the house or whether it's something in the office, if I had that extra hour or two hours or three hours back today, how much money could I make? By making that extra call or, you know, putting together that marketing strategy. So where's the value. And sometimes it comes back and it's like, no, you know what?

You really need to do that thing because you cannot make that money back in an hour. And, and sometimes I go, this is ridiculous. I need to get somebody else to do this. And I think we have to look big picture. And again, when you're first starting out, you don't always have the budget. , but you really need to look at, you know, your, your time is money too.

And where can you [00:15:00] get that back so that you can be building your business and making that money back for. 

Kim: Yeah, a hundred percent. So the first way to look at getting more time in your business is to look at how you're scheduling and how you're working. so before you even outsource, before you even look at, do I invest in having someone help me look at how you're working?

So once you've done your time blocking and you've, , your you've time management, you've tracked your time. Now you can say, well, okay, I'm doing and I'll, and I'll use the example of photography again, because that was my example. Okay, well, I'm doing a shoot, like a photo photo session. You know, several times a week on different days, and then I'm doing other tasks throughout the day and I might be doing production.

I might be doing retouching. I might be doing a sales session. And each time you change between each of those tasks, it's actually called context switching. Every time you do that, you lose 25 minutes of productivity. And, and it's like, if you're context switching. Four or five times a day. There's a few hours easily lost just by the way you are working.

So before you start looking at help, [00:16:00] start looking at how you can structure your time better. , for example, photographing all your sessions in one, go on one day. If you do four sessions a week, put them in one day, rather than over four days, if you do for, , retouching or for jobs, you know, you wanna put all the same sorts of jobs.

in the same time. So you're doing them when you are in that mindset, you are in the zone, you'll get things done a lot quicker. You're not going back and forth blog, you know, turn off the phone, all those things, social media, no matter what business you're in, social media takes up a lot of time. You know, even if you are good at not scrolling, blocking that time out and doing your whole month's social media in one day.

Kristy: And, and if you've got all of your equipment set up, you've got your programs open, everything is all 

Kim: ready to go. It's there. And you'll find it just by scheduling and batching. You'll save, you know, hours and hours a week. For me, it saved me about 10 hours a week. So that was huge that I know it was huge.

And most people I work with, if I can get [00:17:00] them to schedule their time better, they can save a lot of time. So that's the first thing, but then the next thing is thinking, okay, well, I've scheduled everything. And I've got everything stacked as much as I can. And I'm being as productive as possible. The next thing is, okay, do I need to get something off my plate?

You know, do I need to outsource something? Or can I, now, if you have the funds start with the thing that gives you the most pain in your business, the thing that really stresses you out stresses you out the most. Get rid of it, cuz it's probably the thing that you are not the best at doing anyway. So there's a lot of, , education out there about how to get people in your team.

You don't need to hire locally. There are amazing people in, for example, the Philippines where you know, you are supporting them in, in their family. But it's actually not a huge expense for you. So there's a really, it's like a win-win, you know, you're doing something really powerfully good for someone else, but at the same time, it's not a huge cost to you financially.

So if you can do that, I highly recommend that.[00:18:00] , or you can get amongst business groups and find out if people wanna, you know, cuz as new businesses, we often, we all can't afford to do everything or hire outsource everything, but we've all got different skills. And so. If, you know, people who are really good at say creating a landing page, you know, but you are really good at maybe doing graphic design.

Maybe there's a way to actually just help each other. No, that's a bit of a longer process because you have to network and build those relationships, but I don't see any harm in that because then you're helping, but everybody's helping each other. So that's a great way to 

Kristy: do it as well, but, and you're building your network at the same time.

You're building that network 

Kim: too. So. Hundred percent. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, my business was very much a local business when I had my photography. So it was, you know, bricks and mortar. And so I belonged to some local networking groups and that. We all helped each other, which was fantastic. But if you're working internationally or you're working online, then there's so many more people you [00:19:00] can connect with and see if you can help each other in that way.

So I'm, I'm huge on collaborations like that. Yeah. Yeah. 

Kristy: And I think that's genius using it, not just to like, say not just to build your network, but to also save yourself some, some money in the long run and get some services because what, whatever they do. Yes. I can build a landing page, but if that's your specialty, you can probably do it in less time than I can too.

Right. So that's where that real savings of, even though I'm gonna trade a service for you, what's gonna take me much less time than it would take you than we're getting the value there and getting some time back that's. 

Kim: Absolutely. I think the biggest challenge though, for a lot of, especially newer businesses or younger businesses who haven't had hired people yet.

Is actually, yes, the, the financial cost is one, but it's actually the mental, it's the mental challenge of letting go. Mm oh, this is my baby. I have to do this. No one else can do it my way. No one else knows my branding. Like I do. No one else knows. like for example, in photography, no one else knows my retouching style like I [00:20:00] do.

And so sometimes it's a bit of a mental journey to actually let go of something and realize that if you can do this, you can train someone else to do this and give you your time back. and when you do let things go like, and I, I really recommend a lot of business owners really consider thinking about where they are best to invest their money when, when they start making enough money to bring in some help where that money is best invested for them.

Because when you get those tasks off your plate, one, they're gonna be done better. A lot of the time. or as well as you do, if you are teaching someone how to do it, but it's gonna give you that time where you could do another sales call, or you could take on another client, or, you know, you can actually start driving your business forward.

You can start focusing on your marketing to grow your business. So even though it's a cost, it's actually much more of an investment. You know, the biggest month I ever had in my business at my studio was, , a month where I had nothing to do with that business at all. I mean, I had, obviously I was there, we were preparing it for sales.

So I was working on that, but I wasn't [00:21:00] working the operations. I had an entire team and they blew that month out of the park. And I'm like, what are you guys doing? Like, I didn't even need me you don't need me. I was on holiday with my son and I'm getting these messages at the end of the month, telling me about the sales that had just happened.

The month's total. We had never, we weren't aiming to do that big a month. It was nearly double our normal month, their turnover. And I did nothing. And it's the old saying that the less you do, the more you make, and I really do. I mean, it takes a takes time to get to that point, but if you can start working towards it, It makes life so much more exciting, cuz you're like, wow, I can actually get people who can help me grow without me having to do all their things.

And that's 

Kristy: the point, right? That's why you're not building a business cuz you wanna work more. That's not why we're all building businesses, right? Eventually you want to be doing the high level stuff and not the day to day stuff. And, and if you're somebody out there, that's it just made me think of this book.

If, if you haven't read it yet, if you're struggling with stepping out of [00:22:00] your business and, and, and. And really working on it rather than in it. There's a book called the E myth and it's a classic. , and it's a little dated, some of the references in it and the, it is a little bit dated because it is an older book, but it is all about doing exactly that, right.

It's about taking you each position or each role in your company and systemizing things and, and really. Slowly backing yourself out of the business. So that you're, you are, it doesn't rely on you to do all the things, which is, is really great reading. It's called the E myth. We'll link something to it in the show notes for you, cuz it it's a must read.

I think when you're getting started, , a hundred percent agree 

Kim: with that. It's a brilliant book and certainly it was , it's on my bookshelf behind me right now. And it was. Part of where I got this understanding. 

Kristy: There's just some gold in there too. Yeah. So. Sure. All right. So back to the list of things. So we've figured out, , where our time is going. We have figured out what's kind of blocking us as far as what we think we should be doing. Right. And, , and we're looking at, , how we [00:23:00] can streamline things.

Where do we go from there? 

Kim: All right. So then it's a case of actually making things work for you. , I was never any good with like the boundaries and the kinda the higher level stuff. It's like, no, I need actionable steps that I can take right now. You know, I don't need it. It became that helped me create the mental processes behind it.

So little things like, , the first thing I'm gonna say is no matter where you are in your business, no matter how busy you are, , how you choose to work. Making sure you have about 10 minutes a day. I find midday is really good for that, where you get away from your computer and you actually go and sit outside.

If it's a nice day or you go for a walk and you just ha, or you have a cup of tea outside, or a cup of coffee, in my case, I'm a coffee addict. And you're just like, Fully present. You don't ha take your phone. You, you're not thinking about work. You just have 10 minutes. It's not long, but that can make all the difference just to be present, just to have that break, that mental break.

So that's one thing regardless. And that will, even though you have to think, oh, I'm [00:24:00] so busy. I can't possibly take my lunch away from my desk or anything like that. It's like that will actually fuel you to come back and have a bit more energy and focus to carry. So that's really important. , some things that you can do both at home and in business is plan ahead.

I am a massive planner and then reverse engineer the results that you want. So, you know, I would start with a month, you know, what, what are all the things that have to happen this month? What are the appointments I need to be at? What does my son need to be ready for? , what, what do do I need to do in my business?

What needs to happen at home? You know, do I need to call a plumber to get that tap fixed? You just write down this massive, big brain jumping list or two, if you wanna separate them to home in business, and then you're gonna separate them out. And two weekly amounts there and, and even look at it and go, does this actually need to happen?

Is this actually urgent? Can that go into the next month? So pre-planning I'm I just think, you know, and it comes down to what you said earlier about writing things down, but it's taking it to that next level, writing it all down, but not in one big, long list, which is [00:25:00] overwhelming and is not helpful, but it's about breaking it down to what are the three things that need to happen today.

And if I get those three things done, Today's been a success. You're not trying to do 30 things. It's just three. And that's really, really important because that's gonna take away the overwhelm. But you know that as you sort of cross off each day, you are making more progress because you're being methodical.

You're being consistent. Same thing at home. You know, I go and put everything in my Google calendar. As soon as the email comes in from school, that there's a sports day or a MTY day or whatever, it's in my calendar, it's in my Google call with all my client appointments. So I can see where I need to be or what my son needs to do in advance, because the biggest problem I had at the beginning, and I think a lot of, a lot of business owners can relate to this is that we're so busy and we are so there's so much to do, and there's not enough time.

And we are constantly in reactive mode. We're like working really hard and then things come up and it throws us backwards cuz we weren't prepared for it. And that's really [00:26:00] stressful. So the more that you can plan ahead and actually itemize each item and, you know, break it down to three things a day, even having another little, like a separate list on a day of like things I can do in half an hour, like two minute tasks that we done in half an hour and actually going okay, well, I've got half an hour.

I'm gonna do all those little tasks. I'm gonna quickly, you know, ring that plumber and I'm gonna quickly go and grab my son's library book because it has to go back to school tomorrow, all those little wee things, and you can block them, which leads them to the next thing, which is time blocking where you are actually gonna put it on your calendar and go, okay.

Between these hours, I'm gonna do this, this and this and this. And then I'm gonna look up, I'm gonna turn off my notifications, turn off my phone. ,make sure I've got a glass of water, so I don't have to get out to, you know, actually focus fully on that because that's how you're gonna get things done.

You can get more done in less time just by being focused. And that's huge. So, , I get really passionate about that. So I've only really just kind of nailed this in the last couple of years. it took me a while, [00:27:00] but, , since I've been working more from home, it's been a lot easier. It's like, okay, great. I can get this done.

I'm not having people interrupt me all the time going, Hey, Kim, , how 

Kristy: do I do this? I, you know, I love love, and I go on about it too all the time, the time blocking, , just for, for everything, whether it's just for getting your tasks done for exactly. As you said, you turn everything off. I have two hours, here's the thing that needs to get done and nothing else happens unless that gets done.

And, and. Also putting things on your calendar that are important and tend to get pushed aside, like business development. I, I tell everybody, you need to have at least a couple hours a week that are blocked for business development, right? That's your time. And, and if you don't do that, there's fires to put out and there's emergencies and it keeps getting put off and put off and put off, and it really it's so critical to your business.

And if you don't block it, it often doesn't happen. So I love that. I also really, like how you look at the whole, quite often people talk about. Life and business balance, they try and separate the. You know, and that this is the business here, and this is the life [00:28:00] here, and we're gonna, we're gonna get this in balance, but you're looking at really holistically as, and you know what it makes sense you are.

You're not two people, you're one person. And one of the beautiful things about having your own business is that you can. Mix the things you can do something in the middle of the day, you know, for, for your son's school, you can, you, that that does cross over. And it does in my life as well. I couldn't possibly separate the two things and I really, I, it's interesting how you look at that.

And I, I really like how you do that because I think that's more realistic don't 

Kim: you? Well, I think it's life. I mean, we. We do have all these different parts of life and they do blend. It's all very fluid. Mm-hmm , you know, I think if we wanted to be structured and com compartmentalize every day, we're probably gonna find where we're trying to, I don't know.

It's too rigid. Well, for me, it is. So I learned to accept and I think acceptance is a huge thing. Especially in the last few years, we've had a lot of disruption. So even if we were able to have a separate office and a separate home, , with, you know, the pandemic, many of us have found [00:29:00] suddenly we are working from home.

Even if we're not. Not used to it. I mean, I love working from home, so it's not a problem, but a lot of parents have had to find that balance and it's just fluid. So by blocking out that time and going, okay, this is my work time and I'm going to get things done, and this is my family time. So a little thing that I do that really helps me come back into balance is every Monday after school, I pick up my son on a Monday at three o'clock. , cuz sometimes he has after school activities and things like that, where we don't really get to. Be together is that's our time. We might go to a playground. We might go for a walk. We might just go to a cafe and have a coffee, or he has his hot chocolate, little things like that. A lot of people might take for granted.

I just find so precious because for so long I couldn't do it and that's my time. And that helps me come back into balance to go, okay, I know I'm working hard. I know that I've got a lot on my plate, but this is what really matters. And so long as I get those couple of hours, a couple of times a week with my wee boy where we are actually doing [00:30:00] something together.

I'm okay. I'm good. And it is a holistic thing. You must look at the whole thing together. As I said before, there's no point having a great business. If everything outside of it is suffering, no amount of money is worth not watching your children grow up. 

Kristy: And I absolutely agreed. And, and taking that time and again, time blocking it really and focusing it and focusing specifically, I think is, is really at the end of the day, if take the emotion out of it is actually more efficient anyway, because.

With my kids, if they're coming in and asking me things and I'm feeling guilty, cuz I'm not where I said I would be. And it's just, I need five more minutes. I need five more minutes. It takes me 10 times longer to get through the thing I was trying to get through. Anyway. Then if I just stopped and did what I needed to do for half an hour, spent the quality time with him, then he's, you know, his cup is filled.

He's satisfied. He's gonna do his own thing for a little while and I can focus on the thing I need to do. And I think we, we so often, and it's with again, with the [00:31:00] multitasking, we're trying to be in all the places we're trying to do all the things and we're drawing it all out far longer than it needs to take.

And we're not doing it as well as we could. 

Kim: Oh, I think multitasking is a lie. I don't think it exists. I think it's just as fallacy, we tell ourselves to make us feel better about trying to do too much at once. One thing at a time. Yeah, just one thing, just focus on that one thing. Okay. My child is here now.

I'm gonna focus on him. Okay. I need to do, you know, this work project and maybe I need to block out that extra time to do that. And, and, you know, and in the case of a family, maybe that means that my son, you know, might go and stay an extra night at his dad so that I can get it done. But then when he comes back, I'm like, okay, now I'm back with my son.

Again, it's fluid. Some days are gonna be easier than others. , some days are gonna feel like, yeah, I'm on top of it. And other days they're like, oh my goodness, this is crazy, but tomorrow's a new day and we can plan it again. But again, With, with time blocking with anything like that, the, the more that you can [00:32:00] plan it in advance and then just simply reverse engineer it.

Okay. Even if you go down to the weekly, you know, I like to look at a 90 day and then a 30 day and then weekly. So I'm a bit, , a bit of a geek like that, but if that feels too hard, just start with a week on a Sunday night, just write down. All the things that you're gonna focus on and you're gonna prioritize and focus on also.

And this is something I haven't talked about, focus on the things you're not gonna do. What are you going to let go? Like, is it actually that bad if your floor goes UN vacuumed for a day? Although, since you've told me about the, , automatic vacuum cleaner, nothing life changing life changing. Oh gosh, I love this idea any way that you can make your life simpler and easier to do that, but there are some things.

Maybe it's okay. If the house is messy for a couple of days. Yeah. Don't be just up. Just go. Okay. It's not important. This is important. Spending time for my son is important or getting this project done so we can actually make some income is important. And it's sort of like just letting go of those expectations a little bit that you have on yourself.

Yeah. 

Kristy: Look at tasks that are just going to [00:33:00] repeat, right? You're gonna do the laundry and the laundry's gonna be dirty again. You're gonna clean the house. It's not like it's gonna stay clean. It's gonna be dirty again. So instead of doing it every week, You know, doing a full house clean.

What if I did it every two weeks? Well, now I've got 50% of my time back, so that's a great, that's a great tip. Now you've got a, a, a special cheat sheet for us to download, which has got all sorts of tips on it. So I'm gonna put the link to that in the show notes, but have you got one more from the list that you can share with us, maybe one of your favorites that we can put on our list.

Kim: Well, I have, but it's one that, , it's kind of not really a task. Okay. It's something that will make the most difference and that is a prioritized sleep. Make sure you're actually putting sleep on that, that, that calendar for you, set yourself a time to go to bed and actually set in that routine because sleep, once I started sleeping, I mentioned earlier.

I never did in those early years, my son would literally be out five or 10 times a night. It was horrific. , but now it's like, oh wow. Because I started to prioritize it. And he started [00:34:00] to, he grew up a bit more, , When you've had a good night's sleep, everything is possible. The next day you wake up and you're like, okay, I'm superhero.

I can do this. Everything can be worked out from this point because I've had sleep. And I can think clearly. So even though that's not really a to-do list or a hack. I don't think we all prioritize that enough, but it makes a huge difference. So that's my, my one extra thing, but I've got a whole list. I've got some stuff at home and some stuff at work I'll pop, you know, we'll pop that in for you and yeah.

Hopefully it's sort of help. 

Kristy: Oh, that's amazing. Hey, you know what sleep at time that makes it on my to-do list. I'm in, I'll never apologize for adding that to my list. I love it. All right. So, , Before we go. One thing I always love to ask is because you're obviously been an entrepreneur for years, so you've got some great advice.

You've got a lot of newer women founders that listen to the podcast. What's your best bit of advice for women that are just starting out on their journey, besides the, the stuff that we've talked about already today? 

Kim: Awesome. Just make sure that you're planning your [00:35:00] life as well as your business. You know, it's all very well.

I think we get into that hustle mode or that, , entrepreneur mode, we get excited about what's possible in our business and we go for it, but plan your life first plan your life. What does that look like? Why keep reminding yourself, why are you doing this really? It's not just for the money or the success or the sense of achievement.

There's something much bigger in there. And so making sure that you're, you are really planning your ideal dream life. Cause I didn't do that in the beginning. So I know from experience what a huge cost that is. But, , I think if you do that, you'll always stay focused on why you're doing what you're doing and it'll make the business on those tough days.

A lot easier. Your fuel. 

Kristy: Well, thank you for that. So we are going to put the, , link for that cheat sheet for, for our listeners in the show notes. And if you're watching on a platform where you haven't got the show notes, sometimes you don't, , you can grab it at the podcast website, which is one step empire.com.

, one step empire.com. That's where you'll find all of the [00:36:00] episodes. You'll find, , all the links. Show as well as all the other show notes as well. So we will see you there. And I just wanna say, thank you, Kim. Thanks so much for coming on and sharing this with us with us today. I think you have just made a huge difference to a ton of women.

So I appreciate you being here. 

Kim: Oh, thank you so much for having me. It's been great to, to just