I LOST it with a client

Do you ever wonder why you attract the experiences you do into your life? I do. All the time. I believe we learn from all kinds of experiences including hard ones and the easy ones. Sometimes I say I could do without the hard experiences, but the truth is I tend to learn from those the most.

The amount of suffering is proportional to how long it takes for you to learn. 2015 has been crazy amazing – working with hundreds of clients has been a privilege and a blessing. Leaving the corporate world behind is one of the best decisions I have ever made.

I AM my walk. As amazing as it’s been, it hasn’t been easy. I’m dog tired. Whenever I commit to something, I’m like a dog with a bone. I go full blast until there’s nothing left or until I work myself into exhaustion. Usually the latter. Once it’s done, I go on vacation and recoup.

That’s the way things have always been. Building my business hasn’t been any different. I’ve been getting signs since June that I was nearing the wall of exhaustion. At first, it was just my body telling me I was tired.

It’s normal – I’m working hard. Just keep going. A short while later, I had an inkling that it wasn’t healthy to take my phone to bed to “Facebook”, but still I kept doing it. Don’t I have to be on Facebook twelve hours a day to make it work? The weight I was putting was a clear sign that I wasn’t eating well. Unless you consider A&W hamburgers gourmet cuisine. It was making me lethargic.

In September, I knew I needed a vacation to regroup. I’d worked through the summer ignoring the exhaustion and the tears. And then I launched Manifest Money Bootcamp. That did it. By November, I hit the wall of exhaustion. All I could do was sleep. Since I was sleeping so much, I started spending every waking moment working.  I would wake-up and crawl of bed into my office to turn on my computer. Just push through.

And then I did the unthinkable. I LOST IT WITH A CLIENT.

All she, the beautiful and amazing soul did was ask me a question in response to her Manifesting Booster. I don’t think I saw the words on the page. I jumped to conclusions. Immediately I got on her case (on Facebook of all places). She was brave enough to call me out on it. I was mortified. What the hell was I doing? What was happening to me that I was getting pissed with a client?

As soon as I stopped and caught my breath, I knew what was happening. I’d hit the wall of exhaustion. Not an excuse. It’s just my pattern. LOSING it with a client was my SIGN from the universe that it was time for me to stop. I’d ignored all of the others. It’s said that the universe sends you sign, each one bigger than the previous, until you hear them.

My business was like to a gigantic hole. One I couldn’t climb out of. Or at least that was the story I told myself. Blowing up meant I had no choice but to climb out of the pit of exhaustion. I learned a few things along the way. I thought you might enjoy learning from them, so I’m sharing them here:  

#1 Facebook was killing me.

What started out as a tactical tool to promote myself and my business had turned into an unhealthy addiction. The thing I’m not proud of is that I wasn’t managing my time.  It’s the number one commodity I have.

If I don’t manage it, no one else will. Successful entrepreneurs manage their time. I was spending hours giving away stuff for FREE on Facebook. If I’m spending all my time giving away stuff for free then I’m not actually making money. Successful entrepreneurs don’t attempt to do everything alone. They have teams. They delegate. 

No one builds an empire alone. It takes a team. If I spend all of my time trying to do everything then I have a problem Solution #1: I’ve decided to do partial automations and so some manual social media.  I will still spend 45 minutes a day on Facebook for the next month.

Solution #2: To make most effective use of my time, my posts will tied back to my overall strategy.  At the end of the day, Facebook post should funnel people into your offerings. If they don’t, they don’t do anything for you.

Solution #3:  I’ve pulled what I am giving away for FREE on Facebook and incorporated the Manifesting Booster as a more affordable offering.  I’ve also done this in the context of my business strategy and funnels (which are in the process of being redesigned).

Solution #4: Building a team must be part of my strategy.  I’d been pushing back on this, thinking that I could do it all. Here’s the thing: it’s not because I can that I should or that I must. It’s actually ineffective. To that end, I started to work with a VA for a few hours. This turned out to be way less expansive that I originally thought and is well worth the investment. I also started having my house cleaned on a bi-weekly basis. It raises my vibration, so is wealth worth the price.

#2 Self-care isn’t an option.

I’m going to keep this section very short. If I’m burned out, I’m going to kill my business. Either I’m not going to attract clients. Or I’m going to lose the clients I have. I’m also going to be pretty miserable. That’s not the freedom I was looking for when I decided to follow my dream. Solution #1: Book a vacation. Mexico, here I come. Solution #2:  Go the gym. I’ve also built my schedule to block time to go the gym. This is no longer an option. Solution #3: Plan for vacation time and long weekends in 2016.  If I plan for it, it will happen.

Getting called out by a client was the best thing that I could have happened to me.

If she’s reading this blog post, I want say Thank You. You did more than you know. You put me back on the path of least resistance.

For that I will forever be grateful. Because of you, I’ve taken my power back Hopefully, you’ve learned from my melt down lessons and also picked up a few tips on how to take care of yourself WHILE running your  business. 2016 is looking brighter and it’s going to rock!

If you have any suggestions or would like to share your experience with exhaustion comment below and let me know!