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Reevaluating Priorities and Strategies – Happiness in business comes from aligning professional responsibilities with personal values and aspirations. As life stages and circumstances change, it’s essential to reevaluate priorities and strategies regularly. By being flexible, open to change, and intentionally implementing practices that nurture personal well-being, entrepreneurs can create a fulfilling and successful work-life balance.

In this episode, we will go over:

• How reviewing and regrouping leads to strategic growth and progress.
• How to reevaluate priorities and work strategies for enhanced productivity.
• Specific questions to ask and things to think about as you review your year.
• Constant evaluation and adaptation in entrepreneurship is crucial for ensuring you’re living the life and building the business you want.
• Empowering yourself with intentionality to shape a purposeful future.

Review your year, regroup, and create your future with intention. Don’t get caught up in the way things have been. Be intentional about what you want it to look like and how you can create that. – Alessandra Pollina

Connect with your host:

I would love to hear how this helped you! Comment on this episode’s Instagram post and share how this inspired you. If you have any other tips or ideas leave a comment under the post for this episode on our Instagram page @quotablemediaco or shoot me a DM. You can also connect with us at our Quotable Magazine Instagram account @quotablemagazine.

For any show ideas, to submit a guest to the podcast, or if you have any questions, please visit https://quotablemediaco.com/podcast.

The resources mentioned in this episode are:

• Join the free virtual workshop on creating your 2024 visibility strategy on Thursday at 12:00 p.m. EST. Sign up here for a chance to win fun prizes and get valuable insights for your business.
• Subscribe to Quotable Media Co magazine for exclusive content, industry insights, and valuable resources to help you grow your business.
• Apply to join our contributor network for Quotable Media Co magazine for 2024. If you’re interested in writing regularly and becoming a regular contributor, check out the link in the show notes to submit your application.
• Leave a review for the Quotable Media Co podcast on iTunes or your preferred podcast platform. Your feedback is greatly appreciated and helps us improve the show.
• Connect with us on Instagram at @QuotableMediaCo and @QuotableMediaCoMagazine. Share your favorite episodes, tag us in your stories, and join the conversation with our community of female entrepreneurs.

Transcription

Welcome to Quotable Media Co, a female entrepreneur podcast, the show by and for female entrepreneurs who are building and running thriving, successful businesses while living life to the fullest. I’m your host, Alessandra Pollina, owner of Quotable Media Co Media Co Co A PR and media company. After more than ten years building a PR agency, I’ve learned a lot about business and entrepreneurship, but the most valuable things have always comes through conversation with other women who’ve been in it, too. And I want to share all of them with you because we’re stronger together.
00:00:31

So fill your coffee cup up, sit back and listen in.
00:00:37

Well, guys, here I am finally. If you listen to the last couple of episodes, I know I alluded to and or you could tell I was congested for so far this whole fall and winter and it set me back a little bit. But we are going forward with some more recordings. I’m pretty good now. I think I sound pretty okay, but yeah, definitely has been a weird fall.
00:01:03

Ignore my voice, but I’m not letting it stop me. We are going to still do some good episodes. Yeah. I missed you. I’ve been thinking about some things for this as we go into the end of the year and everything, and I wanted to check in touch base, talk about some stuff I’ve been thinking about for the end of the year.
00:01:21

And actually, before we even jump into that, I also wanted to let you know if you’re listening to this episode live, I’m hosting a free virtual workshop this week. If you’re listening to this live, it is this week on Thursday at 12:00 p.m.. EST, a virtual workshop on creating your 2024 visibility strategy. So if you’ve been thinking about pr visibility for your brand, yourself, your company for next year, how to really ramp that up, how to really have a plan that you can stick to every month to make sure you’re getting in front of more people, make sure you’re building your brand, building your awareness of your offerings, and building up your reputation. You should sign up for that.
00:02:08

I will put the link in the show notes. It is completely free. 1 hour. Focus on your business. Put together a plan so you can jump into the new year fully ready to go with building your brand.
00:02:19

So I hope to see some of you there if you join live too. I’m going to be giving away some fun stuff, including a little list of some of my favorite go to media outlets that you can get featured in really quickly. If you’re live, you’ll get that. I’ll share that at the end. If you can’t join live.
00:02:37

You can still sign up and we’ll send a recording, but you won’t get some of those fun things that are only for people who come live. Because I want people to come live because it’s an interactive workshop. I want people to be there for it. But you will be able to follow along separately if you want to get a replay later. So anyway, today I just felt called to kind of discuss something that keeps coming to mind, which is like, review to regroup.
00:03:07

I don’t know. That’s not a great word name. I don’t know what I’m going to call this episode yet. But that’s kind of what I’m thinking about is just like really reviewing the year, reviewing how things are going, regrouping on it all. And I feel like there should be like a third word and then planning going forward.
00:03:24

I don’t know what our alliteration would be for that, but yeah, just thinking about as we’re coming to the end of the year, there’s a lot going on in my business. I know there’s a lot going on for everyone in general. There’s just like a lot. But one of the things that keeps coming up with all of it for me is I’m just feeling the need to kind of review everything, which is something that I try to do at the end of every year anyways. I really do try to do that regularly.
00:03:52

Every year at least. But especially this year, it’s just feeling really important. I don’t know. I feel like it’s especially important right now. I feel like I’ve been talking to a lot of people, too, who kind of feel that way.
00:04:04

Like, this year has just been really a lot. A lot of people are saying, me feel really burned out after this year. Feel really exhausted right now. Just really, just a lot in all different ways. So I won’t go through all of it.
00:04:22

And I’ve done an episode, too, where I kind of touched on some of this. Just kind of like the idea of I’ll have to see what it was called when it was a while ago, but I’ll see what it was called. And I can direct you there in the show notes, too, in case maybe you want to listen to that too. Kind of a longer episode than this is going to be more about.
00:04:40

Kind of like how important I think it is to try to reinvent the wheel sometimes. People always say, don’t reinvent the wheel. But I think it’s really important to really do a deep, deep review every once in a while into different pieces of what you’re doing, whether it’s your business or how you’re specifically offering your services or anything in between, and just not being too caught up in like, well, this is the way we’ve always done it, right? So this is the way we’ll continue to do it. I’ve done a whole episode on that, like how I think it’s really important to make sure that we are actually innovating every once in a while.
00:05:12

And of course, we have templates and certain ways of doing things, but every once in a while, there are just new things that come up, right? There’s new technologies, there’s new ways of doing things, but also just paying attention to what you really want in this moment, I think it’s important for life, too, and I think I can’t remember if it’s that same episode or not. I’ll try to check, and if it’s not, I’ll link to a different episode. But I’ve talked also about how I think it’s really important to really check in with yourself. Like, is this actually what I want still?
00:05:41

Maybe it was my five year plan, but now that I’m actually moving towards it or getting up to that five years, is it actually the way I want my life to be right now? Or am I just still building towards what I thought I was going to want five years ago? Right towards those goals that I set five years ago, but they’re not actually aligned with the way I want to be living my life anymore right now. And right now is important. The way you want to live your life now is all that matters.
00:06:05

So, anyway, I think I have other episodes about that, but I just kind of wanted to talk about it a little bit more.
00:06:13

Wanted to really just think about as again, in the context of the close of the year, just reviewing where things are, how things are feeling, how things are going, where we might want to change things and what we might want to double down on or what we really want to do in the fresh new year, whatever that looks like for you. And honestly, this is personal and professional for work and just in your life, thinking about how you want to spend your days and more immediately, like how do you want to spend your holiday season? We still have time. We still have time for this year, and then we also have time to plan for next year. And I think it’s really important to think about.
00:06:54

I don’t know. I think the holiday season is especially worthy time to be thinking about it. I know personally and again, for others, or even not just in general, think about how it’s been. How have the last few holiday seasons gone for you? What do you feel like maybe had been different?
00:07:08

Or do you wish could have gone differently? Do you feel like because we have that control, we have control to go into it intentionally this year and so we should, right? Like maybe last year you were overwhelmed, you didn’t have enough time because you were wrapping up so many things at work. Or maybe you didn’t have whatever, didn’t have enough just intentionality going into the season, and things started getting away from you and you’re like, oh, I’d never had a chance to do this. I never had a chance to do that.
00:07:39

Whatever it is, I feel like that happens sometimes, especially around this time of the year. And maybe this year you want to make more space or hire different help in different ways to get things done at work so you can spend more time with your family or whatever that looks like for you. But we have the chance to make sure that that’s not the case this year. So thinking about that can be really important on a personal side, but also from a business owner perspective. I mean, that’s all true, too, I guess.
00:08:07

Everything’s connected. I ended up talking about work anyways. As a business owner, there’s really no way to separate. Sometimes, even when I’m trying to talk about a personal example, it ended up being about work and hiring more help or thinking about what you want to do. But you know what I mean, personally or professionally?
00:08:25

Let’s just take some time to go through what we’re doing and why we’re doing it and what we want to be doing. What do we want our day to day to look like? What are the weekly deliverables for our clients or our customers, and what are the responsibilities on us when it comes to those things? What are the responsibilities on other people when it comes to those things? How are you working with your team?
00:08:50

What are you outsourcing? All of these things I think are really worth questioning and thinking about at this time of year.
00:09:01

That was kind of a weird segue, right? But I’m thinking about, I was trying to say be really intentional going into the holiday season, but also looking ahead into some of the bigger stuff with your business. I think that right now is a good time to think about what we’re liking, what we’re not liking. Basically, one of the things we’re thinking about a lot, too, is in the nitty gritty of the services, like what are we offering to clients that are what’s actually bringing us joy. And sometimes we get into things that aren’t as much.
00:09:37

We’ll be doing stuff, and we’re like, why are we even offering this service? Or why do we even do this thing? Sometimes when you really think about it, you’re like, I don’t even like doing this, and I’m the one who runs the company, so why are we doing that? But it’s like one time some client asked if you could do that as part of what you’re doing for them, right? And you’re like, well, I don’t want to say no.
00:10:00

Or it’s something we can easily do, even though it’s not our normal thing we offer. Or you saw somebody say on Instagram that this was a good way to make a lot of money or something like that. You’re like, yeah, let’s add that as a service, whatever it is. You know what I mean, though? I feel like we’ve all been there where sometimes we look back and we’re like, why am I actually doing this?
00:10:22

We’re actually offering a service that I hate. And if we focused on the things that we are known for or love or enjoy doing, that would just take away so much of the friction in our day. Right? So whatever that is for you, thinking about what that is, just being aware of it and becoming more aware of it. And maybe it’s something you still do want to offer, but somebody else does it.
00:10:43

Or maybe it’s something you completely outsource to a whole different company, so you’re not really even offering it at all, but the client’s still having it, whatever it is. But think about not just what you like to do, but also, are you doing something that you don’t like to do? Because sometimes those things, I feel, like, almost, like, creep in and we aren’t even as aware of them somehow. But, yeah, thinking about, how do you feel about what you’re doing? What are you enjoying?
00:11:05

What are you not enjoying? What could be done differently? What could be done by someone else, or vice versa? What could you be doing that you weren’t doing right now? One of the things I’ve noticed recently was I had outsourced a lot of things that I actually like doing because, I don’t know, I think I got kind of caught up in sort of two things.
00:11:23

Kind of caught up in the idea that you shouldn’t be doing some things, like whatever people say, like the insignificant things or the smaller things, things that aren’t the money makers. Whatever I feel like, people are always like, you should outsource that. Or if it’s only going to take somebody else this much time and it’s going to take this much money to outsource, but it’ll take you this much time or whatever. There’s all kinds of different rules and things that people say, but if it’s something that you love to do, I think we should take that into consideration. Sometimes I find that the things that I like to do are not the things I’m doing because of insert whatever reason here.
00:12:02

And I’d rather spend my days enjoying myself and liking what I’m doing and getting to do the fun stuff. Right? Sometimes. And maybe there’s other ways to make the other things happen, too. I don’t know.
00:12:13

I just think it’s worth thinking about and paying attention to and one of the other things, too. Personally, for example, I feel like I outsourced a ton because right at the beginning of COVID basically I had a small child and everything was really hard. We were suddenly all at home, still had all the client work to do, and suddenly felt like I had way less time or like brain space and stuff. So I ended up hiring more help than I ever had before, outsourcing more things than I ever had before, and just got really used to that kind of, I think, yeah, just got used to it and loved everybody who was doing all the things. So that’s a piece of it, too.
00:12:56

But when it came down to it, it’s been years now. My son’s back in school. Everything’s calmed down so much compared to that time period. And when I really looked at things this year, I found I’m still not doing some of the things that I would like to do because I had gotten used to paying someone else to do them basically. Right.
00:13:15

But when I really think about it, I’m like, I actually wish I was still doing those things. There’s things that I like to do. That’s why I started the business is because I like some of the things that I do. So I don’t know, I think that’s really worth thinking about. Like, are there things that maybe you accidentally outsourced or outsourced on purpose, but now you change your mind or different things that you want to do in different ways?
00:13:38

And also thinking about how are you going to make sure that you’re offering the absolute best service for your clients or your customers too, like, reviewing that because there might be new, as I kind of touched on before, new ways of doing things, new tools you should be using.
00:13:56

It’s just worth thinking about, like, what should you be focusing on from a strategic standpoint? What should you be offering and how should you be offering it? And just, like, really digging deep into that and seeing what makes the most sense for right now and for what you want to be offering, to be able to be the best in your field and thinking about what you should let go of and how do you want to structure your days and what is important for you to be able to actually be doing right now. And this is one thing, too, that I think I touched on in that other episode I was, like, alluding to at the beginning, but every season is so different, and that’s not necessarily season of the year, although sometimes that, too. But every couple of years or whatever it is, it depends.
00:14:41

But especially if you have kids or if you’re in charge of, you take care of someone else, you have other responsibilities that are other people that you are not always in charge of everything about and just the way things have to go change all the time. Seasons of life, right? Things change. They have different needs. Schedules change, hair needs change.
00:15:13

What makes sense for you last year might not make sense for you this year. Maybe you’re. Yeah, I mean, we don’t have to go into the specifics, you know what I mean? But all of those things can change, and it’s just really worth being aware of those and thinking about how you want your days and your weeks and your months to run this time right now, this next year, I mean, and right now. But, yeah, I think that also, as those seasons change, it might mean that there are times when you’re more motivated.
00:15:44

There might be times when you really want to do more and you want to take on more. And there might be times when you feel like doing less, and that also can be fine. Maybe something changed and you don’t need to be working as much, but you’re just so used to it. And you could be working less hours or less days and still be making just as much money or still be building your business just as much now that you’ve kind of gotten it running more smoothly or whatever. And who says that you should be working five days a week, nine to five?
00:16:18

You don’t necessarily have to just because you can. Just because you got used to it, just because your kids are in school or it’s what you started out doing. Because when you were first building the business, you really had to grind and you got used to it. But let’s think about if there are ways now that you can do your same work in less time? Are there ways you can build other things into your day and into your week so that you can be more efficient and so that you can enjoy your time more?
00:16:47

I think those are all things that we really overlook a lot, too. We feel like we have to be working a certain amount of time or a certain amount of days. And sometimes when you really look at it, you could really be more efficient. And that is something to celebrate. That’s not a bad thing.
00:17:05

Let’s think about that. Stop right now and think about that. Are there ways you could cut down your time and, yeah, one of the things, too, is that I’ve been thinking about, too. I mean, a lot is what makes sense for me. I feel like I had a goal, for example, I had a goal this year for a certain amount of personal care time, basically.
00:17:32

Like self care. I don’t love that term. I think that whatever that means for you, I guess. But personal care time, literally, self care could be anything. But literally taking care of my actual self and not just, I don’t know, we don’t need to go into that.
00:17:48

But I. I feel like that’s something that I really wanted to prioritize this year, and I really didn’t stick to it at all as much as I had planned, for a variety of reasons, which is fine, and we don’t need to go into it now. But I just felt like it was something that was really important to me. And it’s something that, when I started thinking about the year, I was like, I really didn’t do those things. I really didn’t stick to that.
00:18:15

I had a goal of setting up certain rhythms for how to do certain things regularly, and I didn’t stick to it. And I can think about still starting to do those things now because the year is not totally fully over, but also thinking about how to make it more of a priority for next year. And, yeah, I think that it’s fine to start today. I’m not someone who’s going to say, I’m going to wait till January 1 and then start doing these things. It’s fine to start today.
00:18:47

That’s kind of my motto on most things, right? Start now and then expand on it more later. But, yeah, that’s just one of those things that I’m just illustrating. Like, it came up because I started thinking about these things. I was like, wait a minute.
00:19:01

That was something that was like, really, I said I wanted to do. I was aware that it wasn’t happening, and again, it was like, a variety of different reasons, and it was choice, but in thinking about it, I was like, this is actually something I really want to double down on the importance of next year. This is something that is really important to me, even though it didn’t look like it. If you really look back to how much I stuck to it this year. But, yeah, that’s something where I was like, I want to change that.
00:19:28

I want to see a change there. So I’m thinking about those kinds of things. Like, what are you realizing you wish you had done more of this year? What are you wishing you had stuck to this year that you thought you might do but you didn’t and thinking about what you want to change. And for me, it might be like deciding to build in an hour a day to do something that’s important to me.
00:19:49

Or it could be building and getting a massage every month on a certain day of the month or something that you can put right into the calendar and have it as a thing that you’re going to do. And if that’s important to you, don’t feel like just because it’s during working hours, you shouldn’t be able to. Right? Because why not? If you build it into your schedule and you build your tasks around it, you know, okay, one less hour of work this week or this month isn’t going to make or break as long as you plan things around it and you know, you’re still going to get all your tasks done in other times of the day.
00:20:23

Let’s not feel guilty about that, okay? I feel like that’s what we’re striving towards as business owners is being able to build in the things that we want to build in the things that we want to have be our life. Like, this is your life. And if that’s the way you imagine your life being or, you know, you’re going to feel a lot better and be able to then perform a lot better, that’s also very worth it. So thinking about what those things are that you want to build into your day, that you want to schedule actually into your calendar and then build your workday around, I think is a great place to start with these kinds of questions.
00:21:01

Another thing in thinking about this kind of review, especially on the work side, is that’s really big for me, is what meetings are necessary. Because I feel like at the end of every year this comes up and I’m like, I just feel like it’s a big one for everyone. But there are ways you can cut back on meetings and there are ways you can streamline some of your things internally at least. Sometimes. I feel like we get caught up in a lot of internal meetings more than we sometimes need to, and sometimes they serve their purpose and actually help us be more efficient.
00:21:34

And it’s great, and it’s good to have a certain amount of face to face time, for sure. But sometimes I think they don’t. And sometimes they can be a big time suck, especially meetings with clients, too. So just being really cognizant of in which instances they’re helping and then in which ones they’re not can be really helpful. And that can be worth bringing to your clients in the new year and being like, hey, this is like our new.
00:22:00

We’ve overhauled our system or our policy, or how we think that we can best use our time on your project and change it up if you want to or if you need to, or if you think it’ll be helpful. And same thing internally, like, hey, guys, maybe we’re not going to do this and that other kind of meeting just as an internal team every week or something. Maybe it can be every month or whatever makes sense, but just being really thoughtful about it, what is actually getting accomplished in meetings, and is it the best way to do it? I’m not saying just scrap the meeting. Maybe there’s another way to do it.
00:22:37

Maybe there’s a collaborative document or whatever makes sense for you and your projects, but just question it. If there’s one thing you can do for me, it is just question, why are you having these meetings and what are these meetings for in each and every instance, and seeing if it’s necessary or helpful. That’s a big one. And then I think also, too, thinking about your actual hours. Kind of alluded to it before.
00:23:03

Do you need to work nine to five? Do you need to work five days of the week? Do you work up better at different times of the day? I find that sometimes I can bang out creative stuff, sometimes really well at night. I don’t know why, but I’ll sit here for an hour at the computer during the day and just not feel inspired for something that’s maybe like our creative marketing stuff, usually.
00:23:27

And I’ve gone through a long stage where I really tried not to work at night. I felt like I needed some differentiation between work time and not work time and wanted to just relax at night and stuff, which is still true. But I have found that maybe once in a while, there’s no reason why I can’t spend one evening after my son’s gone to bed to bang out some of the internal marketing stuff for Quotable Media Co Media Co Co If that’s when I’m feeling inspired and creative and it feels easy and fun at that time. And not to say that I’ll be working 24/7 on those days, but maybe do less other stuff during the normal work time that day.
00:24:03

Maybe that’s when I go for a run or a personal appointment so it’s not an overload of work that day and I do something like that earlier in the day and then in the evening. I don’t feel guilty about working at night if it feels good in that time. Again, I think it’s just giving ourselves that flexibility and not buying into the things you hear people say. Because I feel like for a long time I saw it as a negative thing. Like once you’re successful, you should have really strict boundaries.
00:24:32

Never work at night. And that’s a whole nother episode because I think people get a little carried away with their boundaries thing and what that means and everything. But anyway, I felt like I shouldn’t be working at night, right? Because if it’s more than I can get done during the day, I should either be outsourcing it or not doing it or whatever. But that’s not always the case.
00:24:51

Because what if I just want to do something else during the middle of the day and then do the marketing at night because it feels good? I might just want to sit in front of the tv and be on my computer and get something done and then feel like I have the freedom to do something else fun in the day that I’m not going to want to do at night, like not going to go for a run at night. It’s just not going to happen. So remembering we have that flexibility, right. I think that that’s the important thing is thinking about what your day looks like, think about your week looks like, thinking about your month looks like, and just questioning everything that’s in it.
00:25:24

Reviewing everything that’s in it. How are you spending your time? What does it look like and feel like? Are you loving stuff? What are you not liking that much?
00:25:34

And how could you insert in more of what you do like? And or how can you alter your schedule so that it feels better? So that’s what I want us to think about as we review the year. What is actually making you feel good? What do you want to build more into your day, your week, your life?
00:25:54

What do you want to change? What do you love? Is that all the same things I just said? I’m just trying to run through and recognize what are you enjoying and just be aware of it and think about all of these things. Be cognizant of them as you build your plans out for next year and think about what you want it to look like and what you want it to be like.
00:26:15

And just keep that mindset of you have the power to change things, you have the power to improve things, to create it in the way you want it, whatever that is. So let’s review the year. Let’s regroup. And let’s not just get caught up in how it’s been going and what we’ve been doing and thinking. It has to be more of the same, but really being intentional about what we want it to look like and how we can create that.
00:26:44

So if this has made you think of anything, comment on Instagram. Leave me, send me a message, send me an email, whatever you want. I’m happy to chat through any of this with you, what it’s brought up for you. You can always find me at Quotable Media Comediaco on Instagram. Email me alessandra@Quotable Media Comediaco.com I hope you’ll join me on the free virtual workshop, the 2024 visibility Strategy workshop on Thursday the 14th.
00:27:12

And I thought there was something else I was going to say. Subscribe to the magazine if you haven’t subscribed to Quotable Media Co magazine. That’s something I’m trying to remember to tell you more. And we also actually, I’ll mention this while I have you on here, we currently have applications open for joining our contributor network for Quotable Media Co magazine for 2024. So if you’re interested in writing regularly, that’s our regular contributors who contribute to every issue.
00:27:42

I’ll put the link in the show notes, too. You can check that out and send us your info. If you’re interested in getting involved in that way, it would be very cool to have you on board. All right, and leave a review for this podcast if you haven’t ever done that yet. And I will love you forever.
00:28:00

Thanks so much for listening. For more information, check out the show notes or find us on Instagram at Quotable Media Co Media Co Co And at Quotable Media Co magazine. If you loved this episode, please consider sharing it. Take a screenshot right now and post it to your stories.
00:28:14

And don’t forget to tag us so we can reshare. We love to see which episodes are resonating with you. Also, if you like the show, please subscribe and leave a review on iTunes or wherever you’re listening right now. It means the world to me, to see those. Also, don’t be shy to get in touch with me or anyone you’ve heard on this show.
00:28:31

We’re all about connecting, and our Instagram handles and contact links are always in the show notes and also online@Quotable Media Comediaco.com/podcast Talk to you soon.