Episode 372: The Dark Side of Work-Life Balance
Business owners often find themselves struggling with burnout and seeking balance in their lives. It’s crucial for entrepreneurs to recognize the signs of burnout and prioritize self-care.
In this episode, Adam discusses the importance of taking time off and regaining balance as a business owner. By empowering the team to make decisions and manage the business in the owner’s absence, the business can scale effectively and achieve sustainable growth.
Adam talks about the impact of burnout, how self-care has evolved throughout his career, and the key qualities needed when building a reliable team.
Show Highlights:
- Prioritize self-care and energy management to avoid burnout and enhance business performance.
- Reflect on personal strengths and weaknesses to build a team that complements your skill set.
- Delegating tasks to trusted team members can relieve stress and boost productivity.
- Focus on strategic thinking and impactful decision-making to drive business success.
- Serving a larger audience and maximizing impact is crucial for long-term business growth.
Links Mentioned:
Know more about Dr. Lance Haggith’s work on his website at https://lancehaggith.com/
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Transcript:
Please note this is a verbatim transcription from the original audio and therefore may include some minor grammatical errors.
[00:00:00] Adam Stott: How the you as a business owner take yourself from being in a dark place to getting the time back, getting the balance back and really affecting and building your business in the right way. Let’s dive in to how do you take time out and get away from a dark place as a succeeding business owner in this episode of business growth secrets.
[00:00:23] Jamie: So you mentioned something earlier a minute ago there about burnout, which many other business owners struggle with. Have you ever experienced this? You know properly and how have you manifested it for you
[00:00:35] Adam Stott: so that’s a good question have I ever experienced it properly um not in the way that other people have so for example I’ve done a couple of interviews on the podcast and maybe you can link there was one really good podcast interview I did maybe we can link it to this one um.
[00:00:53] With a great guest who talked all about burnout and they really burned out. So they got to the point where they couldn’t get out of bed, couldn’t walk, like literally we’re just totally gone. And I actually talked to a guy yesterday who was, um, a good guy. Uh, he’s a, he’s a trainer and he’s got a training business, but previously he burned out.
[00:01:12] He had a ton of tattoo shops and stuff. And he was telling me all about how he burned out. And I don’t think I have burned out in that way, but I have definitely got to the point where. And I know in myself, if I’m getting snappy, if I’m getting aggressive and I’m getting like, aggy and I’m feeling irritated, it’s probably time for me to take a break.
[00:01:34] So that’s kind of my, my self regulation. If I really feel like I’m being like that, and occasionally I’ll tell you the truth, you know, if I’ve worked for three months straight and I haven’t had a break, I’ll definitely get like that. So for me, it’s like every, at least once a quarter. I’ve got to go and have a reset.
[00:01:53] I have to, you know, I think it’s very, very important, but I don’t think I’ve suffered burnout in the way other people have described burnout to me. Um, but I’ve definitely had moments where I’ve gone very, very far.
[00:02:04] Jamie: And would you say that your approach to self care has evolved throughout your, your career?
[00:02:10] Adam Stott: Um, more. So now, um, the, one of the things that I think is super important is health. Um, I’ve definitely had times where I’ve neglected my health throughout this journey over, you know, 15, 16, 17 years, um, where I’ve not looked after my health, definitely a hundred percent. Uh, but I think now, uh, that’s definitely the forefront of my mind.
[00:02:31] And, and one of the things, another one of my mentors, Damien always says is the energy management, Is just as important as time management. And I think that having the energy to be able to go and make an impact on your business is very, very important and looking after your energy. So know what energizes you.
[00:02:47] You know, everybody has different things that energizes them. And this self care comes to you understanding yourself and understanding. What energizes you know, what energizes me is I like going away or like seeing new places. I like doing exciting things. I like being around fun people, having fun, that stuff kind of energizes me.
[00:03:07] So I’ve got to line that up in order to stay energized.
[00:03:10] Jamie: Yeah. Yeah. Eating the right foods, exercising enough and all of that.
[00:03:14] Adam Stott: Hey everyone. podcast. We’ve got a free training that I’m doing right now online from the comfort of your own home called stand out brand. What this does is it shows business. to get noticed on social media, stand out, get more leads and get more sales.
[00:03:31] So if you want to make more money in your business, head over to adamstop. com forward slash SOB. That’s adamstop. com forward slash SOB and join us on the free three day workshop stand out brand.
[00:03:46] Jamie: So what advice would you give to business owners that are actually feeling guilty about taking time off?
[00:03:55] Adam Stott: Yeah, that’s a really, really good, really good question. Actually, what advice would I give to them that are feeling guilty? I think, I think one of the things that’s important is, whatever you’re doing, let’s say you’re, you’re going into work tomorrow and you’re imagining that, oh, if I took that, that day off and I went out and I went to see, You know, sports day of my son or whatever it was, or, or whatever is that random Tuesday in your office or whatever it is, you’re never going to remember it.
[00:04:27] You’re never going to remember that random Friday afternoon that you, you went to work. It really isn’t a bookmark or an important part of your, your life, your journey, your story. So I really feel like you’ve got nothing to feel guilty about. I think it’d be much, much better. I actually believe strongly that it is better.
[00:04:50] To go and take some time to be strategic and reflective and have thinking time than it is to just work. Because what I see a lot of the time, I see lots of different things talked about. I don’t want to be repetitive. I’ve talked about time stacking in the past, about how people stack time in the wrong way and end up in a bad place because of it.
[00:05:09] And, and I feel that most people could do with some, some, some more reflection time. I was watching a great thing about Warren Buffett actually, um, yesterday and Warren Buffett, um, people often want, he also has been at some points in, in history, the richest man in the world. He’s 93 years old. And do you know what he does every single day?
[00:05:35] He spends five to six hours a day reading. And he’s done that his whole life. So what he does is he goes to work in the morning and he reads and he reads for six hours straight. No one disturbs him. No one calls him. All he’s doing is reading to retain acumen. And you know what he said, his wife said a comment about him, which is with Susie Buffett, who’s passed away.
[00:05:59] But she, she said the comment about him. She said he reads for six hours every day and he is giddy. About his reading, and he’s laughing to himself as he’s reading because he’s like, I’m the only one that knows if I read for six hours a day, I know more than everybody else. And I win more than everybody else.
[00:06:20] I can’t believe everybody’s not doing this. And he’s actually in a place of shock that everybody else doesn’t do it. And he doesn’t understand why other people don’t do it. It’s such an entrenched habit that he does when he does his six hour reading before he does any work. Yeah. That’s all he does every single day, which I think is incredible.
[00:06:37] Right? Yeah. I think that that habit, um, and we are a creature of our, our habits, that creature, that habit that he has cultivated allows him to know more about the stock market, know more about business, know more about the way things are done than anybody else, which gives him his advantage. And he calls that his core advantage.
[00:06:57] So why am I bringing that up? The reason I’m bringing that up is because you said, um, I think many people go into work, they think they’ve got to go into work, they open their laptop and they sit there and they do three hours of crap that makes no difference. You’d be better off doing one thing that makes the difference than doing a hundred things that make no difference.
[00:07:18] So you’ve got to look at what’s going to move the needle enough, what’s going to be the thing that makes the difference. And I’m often like that. So I’ll come in, I’m like, Is this thing I’m going to do going to make the difference to the business or not make the difference? If it’s just day to day tasks, I’ll get someone else to do it.
[00:07:36] The things that I should be doing is the thing that’s going to make the difference to the business. I even say, well, why are you doing what you’re doing right now? Well, I’m doing what I do right now. Because there’ll be a business owner watching. Hopefully you’re watching and this is making an impact on you and you’re going, actually, you know what, I’m sure there’s some other stuff Adam can help me with and we might end up having a long term relationship in the future based off of this conversation.
[00:08:00] Now, the other thing that’s important is if this was just a conversation with me, me and Jamie, for example, let’s say you, you know, you were a client and you come to work here, let’s just say this conversation was just me and you, I’d make an impact on you and that’d be great. Thank you. But let’s say the 3, 000, 4, 000, 5, 000 people that end up watching this have had an impact on 000, however many it be, has been able to make that impact on that many people, is a very good use of your time.
[00:08:30] So always consider that. How do you make more impact? One of the real secrets to success is your, your wealth, your results, and your success will be determined by the amount of people you serve. So one of the things that you should be looking to do as a business owner is saying, how do I serve the most people today?
[00:08:51] What’s the one thing I can do that can serve the most people? And if people went in and asked themselves that question, they probably wouldn’t email. And if they did, they would from someone about a thing,
[00:09:02] Jamie: they
[00:09:02] Adam Stott: would instead go and they would try and connect with more people because you create results based on the amount of people you serve.
[00:09:08] Jamie: Yeah, brilliant, brilliant. Now you also mentioned the importance of having a quality team there to help you with actually being able to take some time. So what qualities do you look for when building a team that you can rely on?
[00:09:23] Adam Stott: Um, I think that what’s really important is to look at, you know, Your strengths, your weaknesses and be aware of your strengths and weaknesses.
[00:09:31] So what are you really, really strong at? What are you really, really weak at? And then look at you really, that there’s two, this, this advice can split in different ways. So I’m gonna be careful about how I answer this. Because one of the reasons being is I will often say to business owners that we work with.
[00:09:48] It’s your weaknesses that are hurting you because what you’re strong at is getting you the result you got. Now, the things you’re weak at are the reasons you haven’t got results. So if I’m talking to a one man army, one woman army that’s watching this, I would encourage you to work on your weaknesses, because if you can’t sell, that’s gonna hurt you.
[00:10:07] If you can’t market your business, that’s gonna hurt you. If you’re afraid to go and talk to people, that’s gonna hurt you, right? These are the things that are gonna keep you stuck, but your question is framed slightly different. Your question is framed in a way that. Adam, like what building a team? How do you build a team?
[00:10:23] Yeah. So my advice for an early start business owner is you’ve got to be able to sell. You’ve got to be able to market. You’ve got to have a business strategy and you need to know how to do it as an individual, because if you don’t, you will suffer. My advice for someone that’s gone past that stage is different.
[00:10:38] You work on your strengths, the things that you’re really good at. And now, because you’re already making money and you’re building your business in the right way. Now, if you really suck at selling, you’re You’re going to start to build a sales team that can do that. If you really suck at marketing, you’re going to build a marketing team that can do that.
[00:10:52] If you really suck at operations, you’re going to build an operational team. If you really suck at business strategy, you’re going to, you’re going to build a business strategy so that you eventually build a team that gives you a cohesive approach to success in every area of your business.
[00:11:05] Jamie: So we just spoke about the qualities of building that team.
[00:11:08] Now, how do you empower that team to make decisions and run the show in your absence?
[00:11:15] Adam Stott: So you have to, so this could go into its own and maybe you can tell us in the comments if you’re watching this or, you know, you can, you can let us know, uh, whether this is something you want to hear us talk about is as your business grows, you, you first build a management team, then you’ll build a senior management team, um, where you have an executive level manager.
[00:11:34] So it grows and you’re building your teams in a very specific set way when you’re building a business. So initially when you’re. a very small business and you’ve got two or three people, you’re usually empowering one person to go and make those decisions or maybe two people. And you’re talking to those, but eventually you start to get your senior team that you empower.
[00:11:54] And after you got to that first person and you get used to delegating for the first time. And let me tell you, as a business owner, when you do that, your life, is going to become so much better when you actually start to be able to move things off your plate and you start working with people it is going to be such a relief for you and you’re going to be so relieved that you’re going to absolutely love it so trust that first person and for those of you that have gone past that stage tell us in the comments what size your team is and if you’d like to know how to scale up that team Tell us in the comments or tell us about what you need to become a better business owner.
[00:12:29] And we’ll cover that on some of the future episodes of Business Growth Secrets. Big, thank you, Jamie. Great questions today, mate. It’s been amazing, everyone. If you like Jamie being on it, tell us in the comments. If not, we’ll get Chris back. You know, and uh, Uh, hopefully we can, we can help you very, very soon in growing your business and hope you enjoyed the episode.
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