TRANSCRIPT: 

 00:00

Hello and welcome to the sales show.

 

00:06

I'm Maree Kirkpatrick, your sales and business strategist. I'm a mom, a wife and a multi business owner. Myself with over 15 years experience in sales and business, I have worked with startups all the way through to multi million dollar companies, I have seen the good, the bad and the ugly. I love helping service based businesses make an income as well as an impact. Let's jump into talking about all things sales and business.

 

00:33

So I would love to welcome you all back to the sales show with Maree Kirkpatrick. Today we are talking to beautiful Jaeger, and Sammy and I have known each other for a little while, and we have had some absolutely brilliant chats about life, love relationships, business, mindset, journaling, like all the parts of life. And I thought it was really, really important to get Sammy onto the staff show today, because I really believe that she's got such a beautiful way to look at mindset and give practical things that you can implement into both your business and life. Live that life by design. I know that I talk about it a lot as business owners. It's really, really easy to get caught up in the grind and the hustle, and sometimes we forget what it's actually what is bigger purpose that we're doing this for, and why we start our business in the first place. So let me introduce you to the beautiful Sammy Yeager. She is an entrepreneur, co founder, integrator, coach, speaker, author in the making. Can't wait for that, and a co host to the date forever podcast after sammy's live here at crossroads, he hit the wall, picked herself up again, and began leaning into creating and living her own fueled up life this time by design, and I think that that's where Sammy and I really connect along that same basis. Sammy is deeply passionate about how our relationship tracks quality of our lives, and she's an advocate for the UN Global Goals, and knows that we all have a role play in creating a better world. Welcome to the sales show. Sammy, so good to have you here.

 

02:09

Thank you for having me. I am looking forward to this chat,

 

02:13

yes. Well, I know we have a lot of chats, but this will be a fully recorded chat on the record. Chat on the record, absolutely so I would love you to tell us more about your journey and how you got 25 today.

 

02:26

Yeah. So as my bio kind of alluded to, in early 29 and or end of 2018 early 2019 I hear it like burnout, physical, mental, exhausted, very little capacity left for for anything, and it had taken me, sort of like three or four years of pretty intense compounding growth and focus on my career and at that time. So that led me to that place. So I was general manager at a training and education company. I was leading a remote first team, so we had team working across all time zones, and being the person steering the ship I was on a lot and working a lot more than what I should have been, and I didn't have very good personal or professional boundaries, but I was also being really motivated by what I was achieving in that professional space. So at the beginning of 2019, just before I turned 30, I quit my job with no plan and no idea what I was going to do with my life. I went on to freelance for a couple of months. I was lucky, because I had a pretty well networked community of business owners, so I got to pick up a few cool projects. And then I went on a big overseas adventure with my husband, Nathan, where we spent a few months in Europe. Had an incredible trip, and then as we were approaching the deadline for Nath to go home and go back to work, I had a bit of a panic realizing that I didn't want to go back to my life, because I didn't really have much of a life to go back to. So I left Nath in Madrid airport, and he flew home to Australia, and I flew to Lombok, Indonesia, where I spent the next sort of two weeks crying and grieving and doing some really hard looking in the mirror about what I had created. So that's kind of the very compressed story to the fork in the road moment. But from there, I went from employee to freelancer to entrepreneur, and I've gone on to start three businesses since then, one that I've just sold, which is really exciting. Yeah, thank you. My first big exit, yeah, so I that what I really realized was, like, I don't know what, but not this. And I needed to create a set of tools for myself to use so that I didn't just go home and create more of the same, I wanted to be far more intentional. I was really sort of starting from scratch in a lot of ways, and I'd realized just how much I had damaged my relationship with myself to even know what it was that I wanted to create. So from there, I've gone on to create a framework that I use, and I've been lucky enough to share with 1000s of. People through speaking and our podcast, and I'm currently writing a book about the framework. So, yeah, that's where, that's the very short story to how I ended up here on this podcast with you. Marie,

 

05:11

yeah, chatting all things burnout. I know that I've been in that burnout stage, and I remember someone's like, I just kept thinking, I just need that holiday. I just need that break. And someone said to me, wherever you go, there you'll be. And I was like, Oh, I don't really get what that means. Let's go on holidays. And I remember going on holidays, and it didn't change anything like I got home, and I was like, oh, man, I'm still exhausted. I'm still knackered. I'm still running away from whatever it was. That

 

05:38

was exactly my scenario. At the 20 end of 2018 I was I was done. I was like, I need a break. I'll have a couple of weeks off over the Christmas break. It'll be great. I'll come back in the New Year refreshed, ready to go. And I yeah, I resigned 10 days into the new year because I was like, I cannot do this again for another year waiting for two weeks of holidays. Yeah,

 

05:57

I think you and I are both on the same page about creating that life that we don't have to necessarily escape from. It's about having all elements of our life in tune, aligned and on track to where we're going, and purpose, purposefully on track, you know, not just any other people, despite what that looks like. Tell me a little about what is a fueled up life in your eyes, and how did your methodology come about? Yeah, so

 

06:23

for me, living a fueled up life is about being really intentional, about taking time, energy, money, resources to add fuel back in. So for me, there are eight specific tanks that need fuel, and I now have a lot of awareness that if I neglect one or two of them, they will they will start to run empty. If I don't ever make a deposit into the bank account and I continue to withdraw. It's the same idea, if I drive my car for forever without ever stopping to put fuel in, it'll break down on the side of the road, and recognizing that me and my life are the same. If I don't ever stop to put fuel into my different tanks, I will hit empty. And if anyone has experienced burnout or even got close to it, you probably know and or can recognize that it's not somewhere that you want to go back to. Because I wasn't just, like, a little bit tired or a little bit exhausted, like I couldn't function properly. I was highly stressed. I wasn't sleeping. I'd ended up in a hospital a couple of times with testing for all the things and not finding anything. Yeah, proper clinical burnout. So for me, those eight fuel tanks I already mentioned, one of them was my relationship with myself. So acknowledging that that sets the tone for every other relationship that I have, and without a really strong footing in that relationship, I'm not going to be able to show up and serve my marriage or my relationship with my friends or my family, or in some cases, people might have that with their kids or clients or stakeholders, whatever that might be. So first one, my relationship with myself. Tank number two, my romantic relationship. So that's with luckily for me, that's my husband, Nathan. Tank number three, relationships and network. So the people that we surround ourselves with, tank number four, our humming household. Tank number five, career and business. Tank number six, wealth and lifestyle. Tank number seven, the world and tank number eight, the future. So I live pretty purposefully to these eight now, and I set annual goals around all eight of these fuel tanks, and then I check them at least once a month. And then I check in seasonally at the change of the seasons on that annual plan, and those annual goals around those eight different tanks. And for me, that's what creates my fueled up life, is the ability to notice pretty quickly when one of my tanks needs fuel.

 

08:40

Yeah, absolutely, I've always said that I don't want to be a highly success winner with a broken marriage or a broken relationship with my kids or unfit and unhealthy and overweight. And I even remember getting to a stage where the only way I knew how to celebrate was with food and alcohol. So the more successful I got, the more weight I put on. And I was like, well, this isn't in the more boozy drink, yeah, you know, like, oh, we just had a big win. Let's go out and have a champagne and a really nice bill. And then you're like, Well, why do I feel so sluggish and exhausted and grateful and all that sort of stuff? So tell me, how do you feel, like creating and living that fueled up life impacts a business owner and a sales growth perspective?

 

09:19

Well, yeah, I want to jump into that, but I know we're on an audio first medium at the moment, but I want to call out that you've got a poster behind you that says success. And I can't quite read everything, but I think it says family, relationships, health, happiness and wealth and wealth. Okay, cool. So you can't again, you can't see it on mine, but I've got one right above me. And for me, success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it. So when I call out attention that you just said, you know, like, I don't want to have a successful business at the cost of all of these other things, which is interesting, because it's like, well, how do we define a successful business? Yes. Like, is it even successful if it's cost you your future, your you know, your house is dysfunctional. You don't have relationships with your parents or your siblings or your, you know, your college peers or your business peers, whatever. Like, yeah, is that actually success? Like I have? You know, we all get to define that for ourselves, which is part of the exciting part. So I've already forgotten your question, because I went on a rant about defining success for ourselves.

 

10:25

That's okay, but I 100% agree with you. And I think maybe even five years ago, my one of my defining factors of success was money and wealth,

 

10:34

which is true for lots of people. That's the only measuring stick they have.

 

10:39

And I think also from a sales perspective. And being in so many sales roles, your success was determined by dollars in the bank, how much you had brought into business, how much you generated, and all that sort of stuff. And I remember once, when I'd landed a big client, the money hit the account. And I remember being in the shower thinking, this should feel different, and it just didn't. And I was like, man, what does success really mean? And then I know you and I have both done a lot of work with Mel brown around finances and wealth creation and all that sort of stuff. And she's a very, very successful businessman. The way that she does life is not what I thought really successful people did or wasn't like she's not always focused on spending a whole heap of money and living a lavish life and all of that sort of stuff. She does a lot of giving back. She's quite conscious of where she puts her money, how she spends her money, how she invests money. It was a really big turnaround for me, because I thought, holy cow, I want to get to that level of success of three big businesses, but I also it's not what I thought it would be when I thought it would be like, Yeah,

 

11:47

isn't that so interesting, though? Because, like, you've picked up that idea of what success or financial wealth is like, or what a millionaire or a multi millionaire like looks like. How do they behave, how do they dress, what do they eat? How do they fly? How do they Yeah, or do all of those things, yeah, travel, all of it. I think it was I picked this up. I think it's from Tim Ferriss, like, around wealth. He might not be the originator of the covid. Where I first heard it is that to be wealthy, you can either desire less or earn more? Yeah, all right. And it's like, Am I willing to do what it would require so that I could fly a business class every time I get on a plane? For some people, they absolutely are willing to do what it would take. And that's like, they value that. And I'm not saying there's a right or wrong, but for me, like I'm I would rather have more white space in my calendar than have that financial exchange of flying business internationally. It's really

 

12:45

interesting. And as my wealth has increased, it's been interesting of what I thought beforehand, before that wealth came in, what I thought I would be spending money on, versus what I actually truly value. And for me now it's literally time with my kids, time with my husband, time out with myself, like I booked a staycation happening next weekend, just for a little bit of like, I need to refuel my own take at the moment, there's lots going on, so I find it really fascinating. So back to the question that I originally asked you was, how do you feel like creating and living that fueled up life helps business benefits for great growth, sales

 

13:25

perspective. Okay? Absolutely. So I think one of the things that getting clear about your fueled up life allows is clarity. It's actually understanding what type of business it is that you're aspiring to create and why that is because I think there's people who want to create a lifestyle business, and they might have, you know, somewhere between four and 10 team. Or there's people who genuinely want to scale, and they want to have teams of 3050 they want to have multiple locations. They want to be a globally recognized brand, servicing, you know, global economy all the time. They want to have multiple products, they want to be investing in research and development, they want to be innovating, they want to be leading their industry, all of those kind of things. And then there's people who are just like, No, I just want to work for myself, or I want to want to have the freedom, the flexibility that piece. So I think getting clear about what your fueled up life looks like outside of business. And I, like I said, one of those tanks is absolutely career and business. And recognizing that opportunities don't just happen, we create them. You can't hit your north star if you don't know where it is, you don't know what it looks like. And what is growth? For growth's sake, I think it's cancer. I think you end up building a business that maybe you didn't, didn't want, or wasn't actually going to meet your needs or your aspirations outside of that container. What about your other seven fuel tanks?

 

14:50

Yeah, I always say to people when I start working with them, it's great to want to increase your sales and grow your business. But what does that mean for you?

 

14:58

Yeah, like, what

 

14:58

is that legacy? What is an extra 500k in your business look like? Not from a sitting in the in the bank, literally. What does it look like? Obviously, know what figures on the screen look like, but I mean more. What does it mean for your life? What does it mean for the world around you? What is that bigger impact and income look like for you? Because for me, the people that I work with, it's not just about them getting filthy rich and fatter and all of that, you know, and living that kind of luscious lifestyle. Yes, for some people, that's what they want. But for me, and it's taken me a while to get to this place, especially business, I remember having a chat, if we go back to Mel Brown, I remember having a chat, saying to her, what do I do with the property my business? Just like, whatever you want to do. And I was like, oh. And so it

 

15:43

was kind of like, commission, Maree, you can do whatever you want. You're the boss. But

 

15:47

it was like, what do I really want more money for? What does that look like? What is that lifestyle? What is that bigger picture for me? And then once I knew that I was going to allocate profit to domestic violence shelters, women and all that sort of stuff. The drive was bigger because every new client that came on board, every dollar that came through the business, was getting allocated somewhere. And it had such a big purpose. Yeah, I think that's really sexy.

 

16:15

I think that's really sexy. It one of the most impactful things that Nathan I have done together as a couple around our fueled up life. And you can do this on your own. You don't need to be in a romantic relationship to do this. But was to imagine what those future lifestyle numbers are, and not just like the logistics, like, how much is my house going to cost and how much do I want to have in the bank for retirement, but like, what do you actually want your lifestyle to look like and feel like? So some of the things that we went through is like, okay, in my big dream life, and where I would love to go is like, I'd love to have a little bit of budget set aside to celebrate Valentine's Day, our wedding anniversary. Go big on my birthday and on Nate's birthday. I would my love language is giving and receiving gifts. So I would love to have a dedicated gifting budget where I know that when the people who I really deeply love, I can I see something that I know like makes me think of them immediately. I don't have to hesitate to buy that. I've got money set aside for that, you know. And then there's things like, how much would my ideal clothing budget be? I would love to be in a position where I only buy sustainable brands, and that's, you know, that can be a really conscious and ethical consumer in that way, and what would that genuinely cost? And how often would I like to buy a luxury handbag that's going to last me 10 years, like the one that I currently carry every day I've had for 10 years for me, that was worth investing in. But like, what does that really look like? How much would I like to spend on education and personal development every year? How much would I like to spend on travel, and what type of travel, and how many trips, and then what would the support team around my house look like? So, you know, I would love to not ever do my laundry. I it's just like, one of those things I don't like and I'm not good at, and I would just love for that to for me to not think about that. Like, what would that actually cost at a weekly level? Get really clear about it. And saying, like, how much would I like to spend on upgrading my sheets or my linen or my towels, like we went granular, to really understand, like, what would it actually cost to be getting the the massage every, you know, month that I want to have, or the those you like, you said, the little staycation, however often you want to have it, you know, the girls weekend, the guys weekend, the romantic weekend away because we want to, or an artist has come into town, and that's, you know, we want to spend money on those memories, not things like, it's really powerful to think about like, what does my like wealth, but actually lifestyle look like if I'm shooting for it,

 

18:35

and how good is it? The business can give you that vehicle to get you that income and sales. I remember when I worked in corporate many, many, many, many years ago, and I used to be so driven by being able to increase my income and so that would come through bonuses and commissions and stuff like that. But now as a business owner, it's literally me in the driving seat that decides how much I get to earn, yeah, and the ability to be able to help more people scale their business without restriction, without losing that love of their business, the lifestyle and all that sort of stuff as well, which

 

19:12

is super interesting to compare. So you and I are both business owners and entrepreneurial spirit like I really am going to have a portfolio career. I'm always going to have a few different balls in the air. But then when I compare to my husband, Nathan, who is an employee, and he's he, you know, he thrives in that certainty and the regularity and, like, the consistency all of those things. And when we've mapped our like, income projection over the next sort of 10 years, like, you know, we see Nate's like, incremental like, Oh, he's probably going to pitch for a, like, a bigger promotion, and these little incremental pay rises, and, you know, at this kind of level, he'll probably qualify for some of the bonuses and those kind of things. But then mine has got, like, you know, 12 different line items of like, well, I'm probably going to make some money consulting. I'm probably going to make some money on a board. I'm definitely going to make some dividends from this business. Just, you know, I'm going to make some money from private coaching. I'm going to get some sponsorship for this, like, the line items just look so different, and it's, yeah, like that incremental versus like, compounding kind of growth. And it's really exciting to be in control of that and deciding, yeah, I love

 

20:14

that sales and sales as a skill set, I'm a huge that it is such an empowering skill set, because once you know how to sell, you will never struggle for cash. I say to my clients, if you are struggling from a cash flow perspective, what is it that you need to sell? Who do you need to serve? Who do you need to help? What do you need to put out there to increase that cash? And once they get the hang of it, it's like, oh, that was easier than what I thought it was. Having a conversation with a lady the other day, she was like, Oh, I'm in that bit of a slump. I don't really know where I'm going, what I'm doing, what it is that I'm supposed to be helping people with, from a business perspective. And I was like, okay, cool. Had a bit of a chat. Less than a month later, she has generated nearly $4,000 mm, she's gone from like, I don't know what I'm doing. No money to Oh, yeah, nearly four grand

 

21:04

making some liquid I love that, and I that's part of why I resonate with you. Because you want to get money into the hands of women, and that's the skills gap thing, where they have the technical capability to create transformations, but not necessarily the ability to communicate and sell it in the market, which is definitely something I could absolutely work on. But I think the step before that is that relationship with self. Thing that I was talking about is like the true stepping into an owning, like I'm worthy of putting that offer out there. I know my shit. I can't I believe in myself. I believe in my ability to transform that for those clients, and people are always going to struggle with with that self worth piece or the selling thing if they don't believe the first part. Yes,

 

21:50

and same with pricing and stuff like that too. There's a lot of pricing strategies that I teach, but at the end of the day, if I'm sitting there saying to you should be charging $5,000 for that. And you don't believe it in your body. You can't get your mind across it. You can't get your head around

 

22:05

1. You don't feel like it's worth it, or you wouldn't pay it. Yeah, absolutely.

 

22:10

People will really struggle to show that value, or you'll see them stumble over their words and their pricing and stuff like that. What I love is seeing people get to that stage of being working with them, of wow, like, this is too freaking cheap. And, yeah, this is a freaking bargain. Like, people should increase my rates. Yeah, people are stupid. They don't buy this. And so for me, it's like, that's where you want to be. It's like, I know that for every single person that I come in contact with, my goal, whether they work with me or not, is to move them at least one or two steps. What advice, what tip, what strategy, what idea can I give them that makes them go, oh, yeah, maybe that's better way to do things,

 

22:52

yeah. And I had this, like, really lived experience of this recently, because I, like I mentioned earlier, I made that transition from employee into freelancer, and then from freelancer to actually, like a grown up business owner, but I was recently looking back at some of my freelancing projects that I did in that first stage, and how I like I was, like, giving stuff away for free, man, like I how deeply I undervalued the output, but also myself, like I just did not have the confidence or understanding of what I what my skills, capability, the mountain of knowledge and value that I was standing on, let alone how to communicate it to a client like they got very lucky, like the the people that I worked with in that first year, like, got some bargains. Oh,

 

23:37

I hear you even when I look back on like old invoices or packages that I put

 

23:42

together. Like, that's embarrassing, how cheap I sold myself, Yeah, but how

 

23:46

good is it for those people that kind of got us in that stage? Like, they would be, yeah, party time.

 

23:52

There's also merit in that, right? Like, I learned a lot about like, how I like to deliver, what I like to deliver, the types of clients that I do want to work on the length of projects that I like to work on, the size of companies that I like to work with that I probably wouldn't have figured out if I wasn't, you know, throwing a do a bit of spaghetti at the wall kind of approach.

 

24:10

Yeah, I think life's too short to be working with people that you don't enjoy working with. And I know when I say that to people they I think a lot of people like, oh, that's just the sales chip saying that. Yeah,

 

24:20

yeah. No, that's like my success definition part like liking what you do and how you do it like and who you do it with.

 

24:27

Life is way too short to be working with Muppets. And what I also realized was, if I wasn't working with people that I enjoyed working with, other parts of my life would take a hit on that so my health, my energy levels, my relationships with my kids, my husband, because I'd be like, Oh, I'm so exhausted from that vampire energy of like, These people don't light me up. They don't excite me. I'm not in it, yeah? Where now I feel like I'm one of those little puppy dogs that's like, you can't wait to hang out with your clients. Yeah? It gets to Prince down the street with a little. Ugly towel with my tongue out, going, I can't believe I get to do this for real life, you know, yeah, how

 

25:04

good. But I think that's, well, there's like, the there's trust yourself to say no to those things, and that can be the mindset piece of staying in abundance and that I, you know, I think like to think of myself as being a nice balance of, like, quite pragmatic and looking at the numbers, but then also a little bit woo, woo with the universe and trusting that, you know, if I fill my calendar to the brim with clients that are wrong, how on earth am I ever going to fit the right one in there? So there does have to be white space, and that can be really scary, like to dip into that, like, scarcity, and that's really common for, like, any kind of, you know, entrepreneur, freelancing, self employed, like that feast and famine kind of roller coaster that you can end up on when you

 

25:47

have the sales process nailed and you're really clear on what how to sell, what it is that you do when the right people come in, you know? And you know that this is what I need to do to get them across the line, rather than having some of those ideal clients come in, but your mindset isn't sorted or your sales strategy and process, isn't it, and the

 

26:05

cost is so deep, like when you say no to say yes to the wrong client, like I did this last year. I took on a project that probably took about three months. Yeah, I made some money, but it hurt me and so many of my other tanks in the process. And I like, it was only about a week or so after the project had ended, I actually had a panic attack, and I've only had a couple of those in my life. And I didn't connect it to that client at the time, but it was definitely something that contributed to like, oh, this. I, I've, I've definitely gone astray from my own north star here. I said yes to something that I shouldn't have. It's not my highest and best use anymore. I undercharged for it. I was resentful about it. The client was in a challenging time zone, like there was just so many reasons why I should have said no and I Yeah, clearly had had a dip into either trying to people, please, someone else who thought I thought I should say yes to that, or maybe the the scarcity mindset, of like, oh, this is what if I might not get offered a project like this again, or Yeah, but it hurts so bad. And if I could go back and, like, whisper in my own ear, I'd just be like, don't do it. Yeah, don't do it.

 

27:11

What tips or advice would you give to people when they have those moments of scarcity or that kind of challenge comes up of like, how am I going to Yeah, like, why can't I just take everyone at the moment and then I'll sort it out later. What would your advice, or what

 

27:29

one of the best things I think you can do as an entrepreneur is to build out your capacity plan. I've had the great pleasure of working with a lot of visionary, orientated leaders and business owners and founders, and one of the common traits of people like that, and maybe as a listener, you might resonate be like, Yep, I'm definitely I've got 100 ideas before breakfast, is that you're often very optimistic about what you can achieve in a short period of time and almost underestimate what you can achieve in a long period of time. So there's gotta be a way to calibrate your optimism with the reality, and that's a very different skill set, which is why we often talk about fast growth or entrepreneurial companies needing two types of leaders, like the visionary and the integrator, the big picture thinker and the small picture thinker. So if you don't, if you don't have the luxury of hiring that person and you are sitting in both of those seats. I think one of the very best things you can do is to build yourself a capacity plan and get really crystal clear about how many weeks a year do you want to work? How many of those are you taking out for? You know, attending retreats or conferences or personal development things. Take those days out of the capacity plan. Figure out how many hours a week or a month you need to spend on the administrative side of your business, and then how much time you actually want to spend in delivery. And then the other part, how much time do you need to spend in sales. And if you've got a beautiful sales system, hopefully it's even less time. But then get really clear about your capacity and what you can genuinely say yes to, what you can say no to. And it can be a tedious thing to build, but once you've built the asset for yourself, you'll use it again and again and again, and it will help you sense check how much is my day rate actually? What's it actually working out to how many hours like am I or am I quoting this proposal and then ending up that I may as well have worked at McDonald's, which I've definitely done to myself multiple times, like where I would have been better off in a minimum wage project, but without the being confronted by your own capacity and your own cardhold facts about how much time you have, like we all have, 24 hours in a day. You cannot negotiate your way to 25 hours or 26 hours share. You can optimize some things and and make things more efficient, but you still have the same 24 hours. And how many of those do you actually want to use in a day, week, month, quarter? And I think that's part of like the fueled up life is getting really, really clear. And. Are not necessarily what your perfect day looks like, but what is your perfect order look like over 12 weeks? Like, you know, how often are you exercising, how often you having sex? How often are you going on dates? How often are you spending time with your kids? How many solo dates are you going on? You know? What projects have you worked on that are just purely for your your soul and that contribution to the world? Like you talked about those domestic violence shelters. Like, is that something that you'd you'd be happy to do once a year and spend a couple of hours or a day? Or is that something you want to do quarterly? And get really clear about that, and then reverse engineer the capacity plan, and then you can get clear on how much you need to sell and buy when that was going to

 

30:37

be my other thing. When I talk to people and they'll be like, I want to be earning 100 grand or 200 grand a year in their business. I'm like, great. How many hours have we got available? What are you selling? How much are you selling it for? So you need to be able to sell 20, 3050, of this package. And then I'm like, but if it takes 10 hours a month to deliver that,

 

30:56

how many can you actually? Yeah, it's

 

30:57

not going to be feasible. So I love that perfect and so tell me how you feel like the relationship with yourself impacts people from a business perspective.

 

31:06

I think for one of the things that it has felt very, very true for me is that the stronger I have been in my own relationship with self and certainty of valuing my time, my money, my energy, my expertise has been how easy it is to set and hold boundaries with clients, with team, with the market as a whole. Yeah, I think that's definitely something that's when I've been unsure or wavering in my own self worth, then I've let other things slip, like compromising on over, delivering on something that I sold, those types of things,

 

31:47

yep, adding things to packages that weren't in there in the first place, yeah, or

 

31:52

responding to queries, or in a, you know, in an unreasonable time frame, or outside of hours, or All of those kind of things, like not holding strong on when I am or aren't available, you know, those kind of or adding in extra project meetings, or whatever the delivery scenario might be to a client. But then also, like, commitments with myself, like, if I've said, you know, I'm going to carve out Friday morning to go have a surf and then a clarity break, take myself a coffee and do some journaling, and then my relationship with myself is wavered, which is when I probably need that thing the most. Then I know that I'm probably at most at risk of giving that few hours up like so it's kind of for me. I've found that when I I've let a couple of things erode out of my what I know I need to add fuel to my tank. Then I'm more at risk of letting more things fall out. And then, yeah, it getting emptier and emptier and emptier. And then you're in the cycle of burnout, right? Yeah. And then I start compromising boundaries and over delivering and undercharging and yeah. And so it continues.

 

32:55

And what if people are listening to this thinking I'm feeling exhausted. Maybe I'm not at that complete burnout state, yeah, but I know I'm sitting in that, what I call the mess state, like it's alright, yeah, life's not terrible. I'm tired. I'm not energized by anything. What would you tell them to be doing?

 

33:16

Sometimes that's a worse state to be in than when things are actually on fire, because when, when things are like, I don't know if I can swear  Maree, but if, when things are proper, fucked like, you are in enough pain to make change when you're in the like, little bit of discomfort, it's why you see people stay in jobs that they're like, Ah, it's alright. It pays the bills, or, like, the relationships. Like me, yeah, things are okay, like, but it's not good enough that you're raving about it, and it's not bad enough to motivate, do motivate change. So I think that's kind of like, the meh stage is actually quite dangerous to be in. But what I would invite is to go and do a tank check, because sometimes we're like, oh yeah, I feel a bit shit. Maybe I need to go on a little staycation and spend, you know, in go get a massage and maybe do some retail therapy, or whatever your love language for yourself is, when, in reality, the thing that you actually need is to sit down and build that capacity plan, and that would actually add a lot more fuel to your career and business and your wealth and lifestyle and maybe even your humming household tanks. But it's not maybe where you go to you don't realize that that's actually where you need the fuel, which is why, for me, this tool is so helpful, because I can ask myself with a lot of ease, like, which tank actually needs fuel? Is it Sammy tank right now? Is it actually that my house is in utter chaos and all of my systems have gone sideways and I can't focus because there's laundry and dishes and an empty fridge, and then there's empty fridge, so I'm ordering Uber Eats, and then I'm not nourishing myself properly. And maybe I would if I spent two or three hours fixing my home environment, that would help dictate my performance. And then, you know, so for me, being able to do a really clear diagnostic of which tank actually needs fuel is where i. For most of my like, okay, something's not working. Get clear on what it is. What specific thing is it? That's, you know, if you went to the doctor and they were like, what's wrong? And you're like, I don't know, everything hurts, like, they can't help you. Whereas, if you like, Oh, it's my left elbow and it hurts when I make this motion, you can go about fixing that. Yeah,

 

35:18

absolutely. And so you check in every month to your Yeah, yeah, awesome. So I

 

35:23

do a, like, a very intentional, like, check of the tanks that I write down, I give myself a score out of five my husband, Nathan, I do this together, and then we compare our tanks that we share. So like, our humming household, we live together, we romantic partners, but we're also housemates, and we're also business partners, so there's some tanks where we have some overlap, and then we discuss if, though, if we're really far apart. So if I've given our humming household a two out of five, but Nate's given it a four and a half out of I'm like, hold on, what's going on? Why am I having such a crap experience in our home? But you're having a great experience, or vice versa, or sometimes we're both bang on the money that things aren't working or things are working really well. And we can get clear about, like, Okay, what do we need to do to keep it rowing like this? This is working. What is it that's working? And examine, like, the success as well as the gaps. Yeah. So I do it very intentionally every month. But if I find myself, like, a bit flustered, and I'm like, one of the telltale signs for me is, if I've got free time and I'm not quite sure how to how I want to use it, that generally is like, oh, okay, something, it's not obvious to me what's working or what's not. So then I can just do a quick check. It's a bit like the savasana sort of idea in yoga to do the top of the head, down your head, down your shoulders, down your arms, down your abdomen, down your legs, down your toes, the all the way full body scan, and you'll probably find out that most of you feels pretty good, and that's only really only one or two things that maybe have had you off kilter, thinking that things are far worse than they are. So I just use it as a diagnostic tool whenever I'm feeling a bit misaligned. I

 

37:03

love that. I've spoken to a lot of women, whether they're in business or corporate jobs or just other jobs anyway, where they're like the idea of sitting down and taking time out and doing nothing. And even I know this sounds a bit ridiculous, but I saw an episode of bluey the other day that my little one was watching, and the mum was struggling to Go and unwind and relax, and so she opened a book up. She was like, Okay, I read a book. Oh no, I do this. But then she kind of did that. And I see so many women do it, it's like, oh, I

 

37:33

so relate to that. Yeah, I think there's like, so many parts that, and that's definitely a big part that was going on for me when I was overworking in that job, General Manager, yeah, I had a lot on my plate, but I also took on a lot that was probably not mine to hold, especially not to the depths that I was holding it, because I was getting a lot of validation and worth and gold stars from being needed and being given the like, recognition. Oh yeah, did a great job with that. Because the thing like, the thing was I was doing a really good job at my at my job, and I was getting incredible feedback from my my team, our clients, like, we were making gain on gain, like, financially leading the business, but it was costing me in every other area of my life, like, and I just let things like baking, for the joy of baking, just stop. And then I was like, well, I'll just go and buy the cake rather than bake the cake. When it was never about the cake, it was about like, that's a creative outlet, and that's what I enjoy doing, and that's time for myself. And you know, I'm not I'd fallen into that trap of everything needing to be productive and efficient and output and measuring my worth on what I was outwardly achieving, and that can be such a hard thing to break, and it was, for me, it was really hard, but the first step was like drawing some awareness and attention to like, Oh, hey, why don't you like being on your own without stimulus? What's that about?

 

38:57

I remember a couple of years ago, and I'd take the time out. And I remember texting my hubby going, I don't know what I should be doing, or I don't know how to kind of unwind. And he was like, go for a walk, have a bath, get some nice food, get and I was like, why am I struggling with this? And it was when I actually stopped. Once I had the little meltdown of like, why can't I do this? My internal tantrum, and I actually stopped and meditated, journaled on it. It was like, Who am I without everything else going on around me? What does the property look like as a person, as a whole person, without business, without kids, without husband around? Who is that inner person? So yeah, I think it's always interesting to actually stop and take that time for me. I send my clients do a CEO date, but we do it every week, because I think it's so easy for women and business owners with juggling families, if they've got them, business life, relationships, all of it, that what I found was the difference between fit. Something within that first week of things going wrong versus fixing it weeks down the track, would have the ability to make such a big difference to turn around, whether that's sales based or mindset based, or health based, or whatever. So yeah, I think I'll add the CEO. I'll add the eight fuel tanks check in, into that CEO date on a regular basis. That

 

40:24

sounds good. Yeah, yeah. And that, like, those, those things that you observe in yourself, like, avoidance, like, why am I avoiding this? Like, what? What is it about this task or this opportunity or this interaction that I don't want to have? Like, why? Why do I not want to have it? And you know, it probably come back to that relationship with self pace, like, what is going on here that is unhealed or hasn't been observed, or I don't feel confident about, or I'm scared of, or, yeah, huge.

 

40:54

Tell me how you manage your time effectively, to ensure that you're filling up all those tanks and aspects of your life, but also ensuring that your businesses stay afloat and stay driving. So

 

41:07

I'm a big fan of living and dying by my calendar. And what I mean by that is that I have reoccurring calendar invites for myself for a lot of things. So, like you said with your CEO, day, every day, I've got a about a 90 minute block in there that just says move. And for me, that's something that I absolutely need for my relationship with myself, is to move my body and I my mental, physical, emotional, everything, health sort of deteriorates if I start to let that, have it go. So it kind of comes back to that capacity plan thing, but having the vision, visual cue and reminder that that that's not just going to happen, I need to prioritize that, and I know that if I don't do that, you know, especially a few days or even weeks in a row like that, there's going to be consequences to that. But I've got reoccurring calendar invites for all sorts of things, like a money date with my husband to make sure that we check in on that those wealth and lifestyle goals regularly. We do a bit of a hybrid between what we've learned with Mel Brown and my financial adulting plan and also Barefoot Investor, because we were doing that rhythm before we did Mel's program. And then I've got a lot of like reoccurring things where I will commit to I hosted a lunch with my girlfriends once a season. So organize like that. So that goes in the calendar well in advance, things like on Thursday, my groceries get delivered, I have a reoccurring subscription of fruit and veg that arrives. So, you know, I've got a time block in there where I know that I'm going to have to open the box and wash the fruit and veg and put it away like there's no point pretending that that hour is just not going to exist, so I've just got like a little humming household block in there. And so things like that really helped me to manage, like what I can realistically say yes to and what I need to say no to. And that's not to say that I don't move the blocks of time around, and sometimes they need to nudge up or down or left or right or whatever. But the reminder that those commitments to myself and my life are just as important as chasing opportunities or those other things. Because for me, I don't, I don't really believe in, like, the work life balance. I think that kind of creates this idea that, you know, on the old visual set of scales, that they're meant to be, they're meant to balance. And I just don't really believe that I'm looking for harmony, where I can move, you know, pretty fluidly. And one of the joys of being a business owner is that I get to design it like, if the weather's great in the middle of the day, I want to go take my dog for a walk, then I don't want to cram it at 6am or, you know, eight o'clock at night when it's dark, like I want to make it work for me. So I do think it's a dance to find a system that works for yourself, but calling a lot of awareness to how I spend my time, my money and my energy. For me, it's about regularly, like checking in on it and observing how I'm doing it, so that it's by design and not by default.

 

43:57

What about and I've been guilty of this plenty of times in my life, and I'm sure that there's other people listening that have had similar experiences where you go, yeah, I'm going to plug it all into the calendar, and then the notification pops up, and you're like, Yeah, ignore Yeah, time to move or time to, you know, unpack stuff or sort something out. And you go, Yeah, I'll do that later. How do I keep your brain? So I'm

 

44:23

still guilty of that. Don't get like, I'm not, I'm definitely not perfect. And there's things that, like, if a if a girlfriend calls in, we're having a good chat. I'm like, cool, like, you're available. I'm available. That was a rarity in itself. Like, I'm happy to move you know, my intent to do this, but I'm also trying to hold myself pretty accountable to, like, the things that I have committed to. But like, you know, there's a block in my calendar for this Thursday where I've got, like, Sammie Jaeger marketing initiatives 9am to 1pm like, I still might move that to Friday or to the Wednesday afternoon, or I might move it later in the day, but I don't let I don't. Really let myself delete things out of the calendar, even if I have to move it to next week. I just don't, I

 

45:05

don't really, know, ignoring, yeah, it's not, it's not really

 

45:08

ignoring. It's just rescheduling or rejiggling, rejiggling it like, and I also will add in that, I, you know, so that I don't get to the end of the day and see, oh, it's like, I didn't achieve any of these things. Like, I'll go in and put in what I what I did in that time. Like, if I happen to have, you know, got stuck into, like, creating content, and I'm sure lots of business owners will relate to this, like, that's a that's a tedious task that is never ending. But if I get in flow of like, Canva and creating things and whatever, like, I'll just acknowledge in my calendar that that's how I spend three hours. Like, I don't, you know, I don't lie to myself about it. Um, I don't know if that is helpful, but so I know a lot of people do like time audits, and they use, like, different apps and things. But for me, I just, I find it quite cathartic to be like, Okay, what did I actually do today? Quickly, just acknowledge, like, that's how I spent my day. Yeah, it might have, might not have perfectly been to plan. But how boring would your life be if, if everything, like, everything went bad and just, you know, everything anyone ever said you knew that they were going to say it like that would be really, really boring. You know, if you plan to go for a surf and the surf was perfect every time, like, Well, yeah, might be good the first few times. Yeah, all

 

46:22

this again, predictable, awesome. Well, it has been brilliant to have you on the sales show today. Sammy, I have loved our chat, and it's actually given me a lot of things to implement into my regular check in on myself and life and making sure that I am living that life by design. And as you say, that fueled up life. If people want to know more about you, where can we find you? Yeah,

 

46:48

my home on the internet is Sammy jaeger.com maybe just check the show notes for that spelling. But I also hang out on Instagram as Sammy somewhere, Sammy with an eye, and I've got some free resources on my website. So if you want to do a tank check, there's a free downloadable resource there for you. And same if that day that I mentioned where I make a plan for the year for my personal life, that annual game plan agenda is there for you too, so you don't need to start from scratch. But yeah, I just encourage people to reach out, like, if something in this episode has resonated like slide into my DM. I'd love to chat. Yeah, just reach out. Awesome.

 

47:25

Thank you, beautiful lady. Thanks, Maree. Until next time, I look forward to seeing you or hearing from you. If anyone's got any questions, reach out to podcast at Maree kirkpatrick.com otherwise, we will chat to you soon. Bye.

 

47:41

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the sales show. Please share it on social media for your friends to see, and make sure you tag me at Maree Kirkpatrick so I can personally say thank you. If you would like to show me some love, leave me a review on Apple podcast. I'd love to hear from you. Email me at [email protected] and if you would like to work with me further, or see any of the free resources mentioned on today's show, they can be found at Maree kirkpatrick.com I truly hope this podcast provides useful information and so much value to you so that You can build a business With impact and income you