At May’s Healthy Business Hub, Lola Hoad shared with us How to be Your Own Boss and Still Look After Yourself plus we had TWO fabulous Pop-up promotions. Anita from Youjuice Limited truly spoilt us with complimentary shots and goody bags containing seriously healthy breakfast pots and Lucie from Wild Alchemy brought along cultured drinks and nut snacks. It was lots of fun!
~ Lola Hoad at HBH May 2018 ~
For this event we invited Sophie Turton, Director of the Joyful Web to come along and share her thoughts on the evening.
We’re delighted to share Sophie’s write up:
It’s true. A healthy business starts with you. That doesn’t mean you have to work harder, put in more hours, down countless cups of coffee as you plough through client work, never delegating, or lunch breaking or holiday taking.
A healthy business means a healthy you. It may sound counter productive, but focussing on your health and wellbeing is actually one of the most important things you can do to help your business succeed. Taking time to just be, swapping all those hours on for time off, and investing in your mental and physical health should all be key features of your business plan.
So, why is it still so hard to step away, without the internal fray?
For many of us, it’s a question of guilt. That pesky, fruitless, yet oh so persistent emotion that tugs on our subconscious. We feel like to be worth our salt in business, we need to work all hours of the day. That to make money means to give up our free time – after all, everything comes at a price, right? We literally sacrifice our life for our livelihood.
This was the topic of the most recent Healthy Business Hub, organised by the mega babes over at Brighton and Hove Therapies. The talk for the evening was given by work/life balance advocate and all round powerhouse, Lola Hoad. Lola learnt the hard way when she burnt out in her early twenties while trying to run a successful design company single handedly. First from her living room, then from an office, and finally, from a hospital bed.
Lola learnt the hard way so you don’t have to. Here are her top tips for looking after your health and happiness, so your business can thrive and so can you:
Set clear office hours
Make sure your clients know that if they message/email/call/send carrier pigeons outside of your stipulated office hours, they can expect not a sausage back until the next time those hours roll back around
Put your out of office on whenever you damn well please
This is all about managing expectations. Your business is there to provide an amazing product or service. It is not there to be at your client’s beck and call 24/7. See point number one.
Take a break
This is so important, yet so many of us simply don’t bother. Taking a break every 45 to 90 minutes actually increases productivity.
Treat yo’self
As Lola said, “guilt persuades us we should ignore our needs and take on other people’s.” We must spend time and money on ourselves in order to fully show up and be able to give ourselves to our business and to others. First, be in service to yourself.
Set boundaries
Make it a rule that you never work on the weekends, or that you take every other Wednesday (or better still, every single Wednesday) to spend time at owl sanctuaries, or with loved ones, or under the duvets with a good book or a hot slice of human. Everyone’s boundaries will be different, it’s all about figuring out what works for you.
Give yourself grace
It’s ok to not always be ok. You’re not a failure if you don’t always nail it first time round. Be kind to yourself and give yourself some room to make mistakes. You’re human, it’s inevitable.
Remember you’re a bad ass
Ok, so this one’s from me, although I’m sure Lola would agree. It’s so easy to get caught in an imposter-syndrome-meets-paralysing-fear-meets-what-the-hell-am-I-doing-this-for-anyway spiral of doom and totally lose sight of why you started your business in the first place. When this happens, and believe me, it will, pay close attention to the language you use when you speak to yourself. You’re doing something miraculous just by showing up and driving forward whatever fandangled idea your wonderful brain dreamt up. Remind yourself how courageous you are. You’ve totally got this.
Are you struggling to remember your why? Having something of a business identity crisis? The Joyful Web works with heart-led businesses just like yours to help you market with purpose.
Thanks Sophie for sharing your take-aways from the evening, it was great to see you.
~ Sophie Turton at HBH May 2018 ~
Pop Up Promotions
This event was also made special by TWO pop-up promotions; Anita from Youjuice Limited who offered us complimentary health shots and goody bags with seriously healthy breakfast pots and Lucie from Wild Alchemy who brought along cultured drinks and nut snacks.
~ YouJuice at HBH May 2018 ~
You can find Youjuice Health Food Cafes on North Road (near Wagamamas) or find them at No 17 Montpelier Place and 48 Brunswick Street East.
~ Wild Alchemy at HBH May 2018 ~
Lucie from Wild Alchemy brought along cultured drinks and nuts to sample and buy with a 15% discount, as well as lots of useful take-away info.
If you’re wondering where to find Wild Alchemy products, they’re stocked at all the YouJuice sites and can be found at Lewes food and farmers markets.
Join us for the next Healthy Business Hub where connections like this happen every time.
We’re very excited about our next event where Becky Rui will be talking about Find the Courage to be Visible with Your Brand. Click on the link to book your ticket.
We’d like to say a heartfelt thanks to Cat Plummer who did a brilliant job of compering on the night. Cat is a great person to know as her professional role is a Financial Empowerment Coach. If this is of interest keep checking in on the HBH Facebook Group because Cat has financial empowerment workshops coming up in September that we’ll be telling you about.
Thanks to Sarah Agnew our Social, Content and Photographer for taking the photos.
And finally a massive thanks to all our Hubbers who attended.