274. Sustainable Success

Hello and welcome to Mentoring with Geraldine and the Bite-Size Podcast. How the devil are you? We’ve had a bit of a theme going on, haven’t we? About collaboration, maximizing our presence online, diversifying, and enhancing our services. But what I thought we should think about today is sustainability because when we think about sustaining our success, we’ve got a couple of things that we really need to think about.

The Dance of Self-Care and Business Growth

One of those is self-care, and the other one, of course, is business growth. But with sustainability. We also have consistency. So let’s talk about those three things. Now, consistency is making sure that, well, we’re doing the same thing if we’re doing that thing right and we’re doing it well.

So, if you enjoy and are good at the one-to-one consults, then you need to keep those in your armory. That’s something that you need to do, right? So I don’t have many new client spaces, but I enjoy the one-to-one consult. So I do have spaces. I do take on new clients, but not a lot. But that sustains me, and a lot about me. Okay. So it’s who I am. I am that consultant. I am that person who supports people in their well health, should we say.

Business Sustainability through Consistency 

So there’s sustainability there and consistency. So the consistency as well, so within the mentoring. So here we are in November, I’m about to have Black Friday, so that’s at the end of the month. We’re calling it Green Friday, obviously, as much as we can because Black Friday in Australia, of course, has all those connotations, but you’ll see it’s called Black Friday for everybody else who’s not really aware, as well as Green Friday.

So that sustains my business monetarily over the coming summer. When I’m not going to see those one-to-one clients, so they’re sustaining there with yes, business growth, because it improves my business growth. I share more openly. I tell people pediatrics is my pediatric courses are on sale and all the things around pediatrics that sustains you as the practitioner because it means that you can move into another area.

You can be. Looking at diversifying, okay, because your sustainability is all about ongoing success but stability within it, right? So when we’re sustaining that success and trying to balance that self-care and that business growth, we have to really think, how am I going to do that? If we enjoy one-to-one practice, then it might be, well, what I’ve always done is leading up to my holidays, I have larger weeks when I’m seeing more people.

Because I’m not going to see people while I’m away, so I have to cram everyone in. So there’s a bit of organization leading up to it, there’s a bit of juggling, making sure that I can get everybody in, that while I’m away, all I’m doing is perhaps sorting out some prescriptions here and there. And so I’ve got that sustainability, I’ve got the capacity to self-care.

Yes, I know I’m going to work really hard for a couple of weeks, seeing a lot of people, organizing everything, doing everything, but then I know I can go away. And everything’s sort of not necessarily taken care of, but everything’s under control. Everything is as it should be in my business. Where is the self-care in that?

Well, that is the holiday. So, we’ve got to think, where is my consistency? That is maintaining who I am and the sustainable side of my business. Where is my consistency? Is it in one-to-one consults? Is it in developing a program to run alongside this one-to-one consults? I’ve got the academy. So I have people that I see on a regular basis that sustains me also emotionally because I see people.

The Power of Community and Connection 

I connect in a community. I have a group of people I can talk to and that is self-care in and of itself. I have networks. Do you have a network? You know, my Monday groups are the people doing the 90 day program. That’s the one-to-ones with me and we build their business together. They’re also in the Monday clinical group while they’re on the 90 day program.

Many of them stay on after they’ve done the 90 day program. And that’s where you really get that community. And there is not one person in there who doesn’t believe that that community sustains them and helps them in practice, not just to answer the questions, but to know that there are other people in the same boat as them that they see on a Monday and they chat on Messenger with.

The Business Horizon: Growth and Sustainability 

So when we’re balancing this growth of our business, the sustainability of our business, is it going to carry on? Where are we headed? I’ve talked before about those visualizations, about where are you going and what are you doing with your business? Where is your business going to be in six months, one year, five years, 10 years time?

How are you going to sustain that momentum? How are you going to support yourself? In what way is that momentum going to keep you motivated? I got to a point, probably like the relationship seven-year itch. You get into that relationship seven-year itch with your business. You get to a point in your business and you’re like, I’m just doing the same old, same old. What can I shake up? What can I do?

And that’s what a lot of people go through. I’ve been in it. Shall I go and do something else? Shall I change business? Shall I do something else? And that’s when often we’ll go, okay, let’s go and study something. Let’s learn something new. Let’s bring something in.

And that’s when it’s worth talking to other people and going, is this thing that I’m thinking of studying? Going to support my business. Is it going to support me in my business? Is it going to enhance my business? Is it something totally off the wall that means that I can’t claim it back through tax?

Because any course that you do has to be relevant to your business for you to be able to claim it back. So if you’ve got a complementary medicine degree, then you can do a master’s pretty much in any complementary medicine subject. But if you’ve done, say, nutrition, and then you want us to do a master’s in counseling, you wouldn’t be able to put that through your tax because it’s not the same.

Counseling is different from nutrition or naturopathy, although you did a small portion of that in your study, that’s not considered the same thing. So, we have to think, is this going to enhance what I do? You could do a massage course because in naturopathy you learned massage, so you’d just be extending that. That would still work because massage is considered naturopathy. Does that make sense?

The Art of Future Thinking

So, what we’re thinking about when we think about our sustainable success. What are all of these components? What are we balancing? What do we enjoy doing? How are we making sure that we’re looking after ourselves? Where is our connection and our community? Where are we going with this business?

So there’s some things to think about today about that sustainability of business. Do know that I’m quite busy at the moment because I’ve had the retreat. That was really full on, it was absolutely brilliant, the in-person retreat. I’m speaking for ATMS coming up, and then we’ve got the virtual retreat in the academy as well.

So there’s a lot going on with me. So am I going to burn out at the end of all of this, you know, and I’ve got the Black Friday. No, I hope not, I’ve been doing this intensively for many, many years now, and I know that I’m going to work hard now. I know that I’m going to be exhausted some evenings, but I also know that I’m looking forward to my break in December.

When I’m going to be able to take that break, I’m going to be able to go and visit my son who doesn’t live in Adelaide, be able to catch up with family and friends. So, I’m planning, I plan so far ahead in my business and that’s what you need to start doing as well. Where is your plan? Have you planned? What are you planning into the future and how far do you plan? I plan my year ahead.

Alright, I mean, I know that sounds like, wow, she plans the year ahead, but if you’ve got children, then you’ve planned the year ahead as well anyway because you know when the school holidays are, you’re thinking about taking a holiday, you know, you’re going to take it in July, when are you going to take it?

Conclusion

So you realistically are planning ahead as well. Does your child do a summer sport and a winter sport, or do they just do the same sport all year round? You’re planning, so just start incorporating those business plans to make yourself sustainable, to be able to give yourself that time for self-care, and be able to really balance your business growth with supporting yourself.

So reach out. I’d love to chat with you, and if you need help, there’s the focus call that you can always connect with me. There’s lots going on, but I’d still love to connect with you and find out how I can help you more. So, the link is in the show notes. And the usual thing, if you listened all the way to the end, maybe it was really good, and you’d quite like to give me five stars.

And don’t forget… that make sure you follow, subscribe, so that you regularly get these into your podcast download every week, and you get notifications that another one has come out, especially for you. So have a good one, and I look forward to catching up with you really soon. Thanks so much for joining me today.

Don’t forget to rate, review, and subscribe. And subscribe to the podcast for the weekly episodes. If you’d like even more support and learning, then the Academy is for you. Here you’ll find part two of the herbal discussions, more clinical learning and case studies to support your clients in practice.