Welcome to my weekly Facebook live show. I'm Jen Buron, I'm the founder of generation PR and the creator of the profitable PR pros community. Um, and apparently I'm the alpha in the house to this dog because she is refusing to go outside unless I go with her. It's raining. So anyway, uh, let me know, who's here. If you're watching on replay, keep us posted here. We'd love to know who's checking in. Um, today's topic is one that it literally was like a resounding, um, you hear that that's the dog , um, like a re uh, UN unify unified response where every single person felt burnout. And obviously we knew that. I mean, it's a very rare, very chill person who would go through a whole year, especially the last two years and how stressful it's been and not feel a sense of burnout, but, um, we wanted to support in a way that would help people hold on one second. Kev, can you come get her NOLA? Daddy's coming? Um, we wanted, she's just like pawning at the door up here.
Go, daddy's coming. Sorry guys. Uh, she won't go outside in the rain. We're trying to figure out how to make her more comfortable. Hi, Nelson an hour. Um, anyway, so, uh, we're gonna talk about burnout as a PR pro, and I think, um, you know, there's a lot of ways that people talk about by that people talk about burnout after the fact, um, we're here to try to help you set up your business and your life for, um, the ideal situation where you're gonna not, uh, like you're gonna prevent burnout. Sorry. I get a little distracted when there's like chaos in my office, which is exactly what's happening right now. Um, did you leave her up here? Right? sure he is. Um, so we are gonna teach you or talk about ways that we can prevent burnout. So it's like a preemptive strategy so that you can set up your business the right way and be, um, be in the ideal situation for you. It's like, I feel like we're all really putting in a ton of work in our businesses. And if it's gonna stress you out and make you crazy and make you kind of hate life, then I don't want that for you. So let's build a business that will make you feel lit up and like just excited every single day. Take this dog outside Ryan. Oh my God. Ke he opened the door, let the dog out and then shut the door.
Okay. This is why I'm frustrated. My kid begged for a puppy begged for hi Kelly. Thank you for those beautiful flowers. Kelly, do you hear this chaos? So he BES for this puppy and we got him a puppy and he will not interact with her, um, will not interact with her. Oh my God. You guys I'm on Facebook live. This is kind of an unprofessional situation we're dealing with over here. I know, I know it's infuriating. It's so frustrating anyway. Um, so that's really annoying, but uh, yeah, no, I know. So the kids are home. I sent my other one out on a sleepover, um, with my besties son, his, his bestie, and they're willing to take him for most of the day, which is nice. Um, cuz it's raining. All I can do is on devices, puppy, life. Hi Claire. It's so nice to see you.
Um, yeah, but the crazy thing is he doesn't ever wanna do anything with this dog. He doesn't wanna play with her. It's insane. Um, and Nelson, yes, I did see that. That is so exciting. That's amazing. We are in a very similar situation where we signed two new clients. One, one started on Monday and the other one is starting January 1st, both have signed contracts, five close to five figure retainers for each contract. So you guys, things are bound, you know, bouncing back. I just feel like we're getting more qualified inquiries and we're converting more of our proposals into, um, leads to landed. So it's like we have a whole program called leads to lead, to landed. We're converting more of our leads into landed clients right now, which I gotta say we had kind of a dry spell from, uh, April until probably November where yeah, I know.
It's awesome. We're so excited. Um, a new skin care collection. Um, I have some samples here and uh, a baby monitor like a really cool tech, you know, tech enhanced baby monitor. Really good. Hi Gail. Um, so I'm excited because we have, we get to kick off the year with some good, you know, retainer income, but um, and we still have our existing clients, but we wanna, you know, build consistent, predictable recurring retainer rep revenue, which is our entire goal of this whole world of content we have created for you. So it's funny. Like I normally on a Facebook live would be so embarrassed for it to be like a total show. Like it's been, but I know all of you and all of you are so forgiving of me and I see people coming on and off and it's like, well, they don't, they're expecting perfection and this aint it.
Um, this is just like a sort of a casual thing, but I'm so excited for you too Nelson, great work. That's huge. That's a ton of revenue for your business, big deal. And it just shows me also that, um, Nelson's in Canada and Toronto and it just, um, and on Toronto. Yeah. Um, and it just goes to show that I think things are turning around and you know, I don't know what OCNs gonna do, but I think brands are starting and companies are starting to reinvest here. So, um, so burnout, let's talk about this because we know that when you're an entrepreneur and you're doing all the things, so maybe you're handling clients, developing pitches, developing media, lists, all of it, you know, growing your business, there's so much on your plate. And I know that that recipe for serious burnout and especially right now with the holiday season, the end of the year, um, and you know, all of that coming to, to a head, it is kind of the time of year where everybody just feels totally pushed to the limit.
So it's a good time to kind of take a step and think about how you can prevent burnout so that you can set yourself and your business up for a healthy, happy, and successful new year. Um, like I said, you know, these are ways that we can help you strategize to build a business that will be more POS, a more positive experience for you. Okay. So before we get into the tips, cuz I think I have five, we're gonna talk about what burnout actually means. So it's what happens when we experience a ton of stress over a long period of time, or even like a very condensed, heavy period of time where you're are doing a lot of, um, really intense long hours, all of that. And then it shows up in ways where it impacts us emotionally, mentally, even physically. I mean it is stress, but it's that stress where you can no longer handle it.
Like I'll tell my husband I'm at the end of my rope. That's my way of saying to him, I cannot, there's not one more thing I can take on right now. I'm burnt out and I'm at the end of my rope and he knows, okay, it's time to step in and you know, take some things off her plate. So there's a lot of ways you can know that you're starting to be burnt out. It's like that physical, mental feeling of exhaustion. You, you start to be irritable, really upset at anything very minor. It's just, you don't have that. Um, you know, that kind of emotional bandwidth to handle things. Hey Natasha talking about burnout, I'm sure you can relate to this topic. Natasha is battling COVID. Um, she is immunized and boosted and she is battling COVID for the third time. Um, she is immunocompromised and it is no joke.
You guys, um, burnout equals my middle name. So, and she's, you know, finding the energy to work when she can, but um, she's shared her experience with it so that we can all kind of understand what that reality is, but I'm so happy that you're here. Um, the other thing when you're in burnout is there is this sense of dread it's like, tell me if this resonates with any of you. It's like you get the email from that one client or you just cannot deal with them and you feel a sense of dread or the phone rings. And it's someone that you probably should have a conversation with, or you have to talk to them about something and you do not have the bandwidth to, oh, Nelson is saying, what can we to help you, Natasha, that's awesome. This community's the best. Um, you know, that feeling of, of dread, they all that also companies burnout and imposter syndrome when you're burnt out, you're like, what am I doing?
I can't handle this. Why did I bite off more than I can chew? Clearly I'm not, um, equipped to handle this or I'm not as experienced as I thought to handle this that's imposter syndrome and it's re it's reasonable. It's just that feeling of burnout creeping in, in a way. Oh my gosh. Look at that. oh, in the middle of the night she had a random burst of energy. Um, emailed a bunch of broadcast producers. That's so funny. Aw. What? Oh, they'll see you. That's that's good. I'm glad you're optimizing your energy. That's actually one of my tips here. So, um, yeah. Anyway, imposter syndrome dread, um, being just mentally and physically exhausted. That is burnout. So, uh, day 14 of Natasha's. Um, it's crazy. Uh, so we're gonna talk about five tips. So we're setting it up, moving forward and it's being strategic about how you're building your business so that you can avoid or prevent this.
Are you taking her out? Okay. I, I taught my puppy to ring a bell when she has to go to the bathroom. It's the cutest thing ever. She'll like paw at the bell at the door, bump her nose into it and we can hear it throughout the house. So she just rang the bell. So cute. So we'll open the door, although it's raining and she doesn't wanna go out. Um, okay. So five tips tip number one. You're gonna try to fill each day with joy. I know it's so cute. I'm my God. It's the cutest thing ever, um, to fill each day with joy. So it's like loving what you do and that means not doing the things that you don't love to do. So this is why we talk about nicheing down. Only work with clients that let you up. Um, if you have clients on your roster that make you feel a sense of dread, when you get those emails or the phone call from the client or the meetings start thinking about how you can reframe it for them or get them off your a roster, because that will build up and get you to a place where you're burnt out.
Oh, she wants to come in here now. Um, so you wanna love the work you're doing. You wanna love the clients you're working with. This is why we always say me down and only work with clients that totally light you up. I want you to love what you do every day. That's how I feel even almost 17 years later, but that's why we really focus on this inside the agency accelerator it's to help you avoid burnout, building your business strategically by nicheing down and being really intentional with who you serve and how you surf them. You guys, Do you hear this? You guys,
Mommy. Mommy's there.
You're ruining. Mommy's live. Daddy. thanks, Ken. Um, anyway, so you know, this isn't something I'm gonna, I say go take a hot bath and everything will be okay. This is like long term strategic planning to build something that makes you feel energized and not zapped. Um, so try to fill each day with joy, meaning you love what you do, taking a little break, um, you know, trying to reframe your energy. Sometimes I'll turn on music and just sort of dance, like an idiot around the house and that's okay. Nobody can see me except now the dog is like, what are you doing? But that makes my energy level go up. And I also just love the clients we're working with. And I'm super excited about the new clients. And it's because they're in niches that I love beauty and cosmetics. Um, it's skincare brand and I love the founder.
She was a former MD and she started this, you know, skincare company and had a similar conversation with her dad about him saying, what the hell are you doing? Why did I pay for medical school? Which is why my dad said, when I said, I'm gonna start a PR agency. He goes, why, why did you go to Los school? Why did we, you know, pay for law school? And this is flaky and you know, um, you know, scary to them, right? So, but we have that connection. I'm really excited about her. And I know we'll really enjoy working together. I got a really good feeling from that client. Um, so love what you do. Niche down, work with clients. You love. Do you work with the clients that you love? If you don't love SEO, don't do it. If you don't love writing newsletters, don't do it.
If you don't like writing, oh my God. She's so fabulous. If you don't like writing, um, social media content and creating content and having that feeling of consistent stuff hanging over your head. I don't like that feeling. I don't like that at all. That's how I felt when I was an attorney billing hours. I just felt like there was something hanging over my head every single day and it was never done. That's what social media makes me feel like I won't do it. So that's how I avoid burnout. And that's what I want you to start thinking about. What do you love? What lights you up? What kinds of clients? Um, what kinds of services? And then just slowly get niche down, get strategic and just ditch the other stuff. Okay. And so every day you feel filled with joy and excitement and passion for what I know, it sounds really simple, but it's, it's a strategic, intentional thing that you're doing to build your business.
Um, so tip number two, also build a schedule that will serve you. So that's what I love about being your own PR pro, is that you can set your own hours. That is why it is ideal for moms. Um, I ran my business while I had two newborns that I was nursing, um, exclusively breastfeeding, my, my older son for almost 13 months. Um, my younger son, he couldn't take the milk anymore, but probably six months. And I was able to work. I was able to continue to earn income. I decided the level of energy I had to put into my business. And during that period, it was about maintaining and just keeping where I was. But working for yourself, setting your own hours, that's really ideal about what we do. I mean, look, Natasha got a little burst of energy in the middle of the night and sent some pay pitches.
You can even booming those emails to go out in the morning. So maybe clients don't see that you're working all hours, but it's for me also, it's setting a schedule where I have downtime if I want. So I typically don't work or at least I don't make myself available on Fridays. So that's my time to catch up, to, uh, get organized to, uh, Natasha calls them CEO days, um, working on your business. She does them Mondays. I take it as like a chill time. If I have errands to run or, um, things that I need to catch up on. That's what I'll do on Fridays. Sometimes for me, it's recording the podcast or building out content for the program. That's what I do Fridays. So there's no meetings on my schedule. There's no client calls. There's no conversing with the team. I love that. I just had a call with one of my one-on-one coaching students and she doesn't work past 2:00 PM and she doesn't wanna work Thursdays or Fridays and she's building her business to do that.
And obviously she has a large team and she's making tremendous revenue, tremendous revenue, like more than 200,000 a month because she has niche down. Also, she is the go-to expert in her niche. Um, has dozens and dozens of clients. None of them care that they're all competing because they're going to her for her expertise and her contacts that's leveraged right there. And she has a team that is executing for her and she has built her business that way. So she can have afternoons late afternoons, Thursdays, and Fridays off the cuz she has three small children. That's what it's all about. That's what you can do, right? Um, no, it's, it's amazing. It is absolutely amazing. She is just also a total go-getter and like you give her marching orders and she will text you an hour later and say, it's done. What, what do I do next?
So, um, you know, she's worked hard to build it that way, but set it up. That's how I set up my business too, so that I could take a break and be a mom, a new mom with babies. That's my, how my business was five years in, in, you know, like in progress before I was able to do that. Um, not before I was able to do that, but when I had kids, I had my business for five years. It was set up like that. So think about, you want your ideal schedule to look like you can back into your hours and say, you know what, in order for me to avoid burnout, I can't be on at all times. I cannot be on. And that means that I have to choose when my energy is there to support what I'm doing. And when I feel like I need to take a break and catch it in advance.
So for me, it's like, I know that weekends are, are gonna be full on because my kids are home. We're running all around. Um, and I want a little day myself. So I take Fridays and that has really helped me avoid that feeling of just never climbing my way out. Um, and the other thing to is structuring your days around your energy level. So what works best for you? This stubborn dog does not one of those, not a leash anywhere that would help. Um, I mean, I can't find it. There's a brand new leash, but it's really long. It's for training. It's in the bedroom. It's wrapped up in a plastic it's pink and black. Um, let's crazy. Sorry. Uh, think about when you have your best energy for me, it's mornings, I wake up, kids are off to school. I feel pumped, clearheaded energized.
If you sit down to reply to emails, mindlessly, you are wasting your energy. You're wasting your bandwidth. You can go through your email triage really quickly. Um, but spending time going through newsletters and you know, client nonsense or change that you're on, that are just like back and forth, back and forth where you're not really needed. That is a waste of your bandwidth quickly triage, get back to clients immediately with something like I'll get back to you later today. Or I've I, I see your email. I just wanted to let you know, focus then on what you need to do. And that's using your energy for focused work, getting in your flow, state, creating strategies, doing your writing, whatever it is that you need to focus on. That's when you should do it. Not in the morning like me, whenever you feel your energy, sometimes it's at night when you put your kids to bed and you get that second wind in the middle of the night, like Natasha does, she doesn't have kids, but she felt her second wind.
Um, I used to have a second wind after I put my kids to ahead. Now I do not. Hi. Um, so I do it in the mornings and that's where you build, um, your, that is where you build your best work day is around that energy. If you feel a CR like you have energy right after lunch, and then you crash at three o'clock, first of all, you should examine what you're eating and find foods that energize you, separate discussion, drink a lot of water, but you should time your day to reflect your energy level, start to pay attention to it if you never have. But that will also mean that I have certain things that I do at certain times. I'm always here at a lot 11:00 AM, because I know it gives me time to do a little bit of work. So I'm clearheaded in the morning.
Hopefully get my family situated. If they're home, take a shower or put on a little makeup and then have the bandwidth to sit here and still have the energy. If I jumped on it, one, I'd be like, because I'm so tired. Um, and Samantha's saying, do you have someone who manages your email box for certain things? Yes, I do. Um, customer service on this side of the business Miranda does it. Um, and she's doing outreach to specific people that we need for things and follow ups. And if we get new client inquiries and it's not really, for me, we have a process where she'll manage it in my Gmail, but she doesn't work on my agency side other than referring out new business leads to our community for our agency accelerator plus community. Um, and I will literally forward something that I don't wanna deal with to somebody on my team and just say, I can't handle it.
And actually our shorthand and Kelly, I think knows this. And Natasha knows it for can't handle is candle. , I'll just be like, candle cannot handle this candle. And sometimes we'll just emoji a candle. Um, shorthand can't handle cannot handle this. Don't wanna deal. I don't, I don't wanna get involved in this in any way, forwarded it with a candle emoji. And that's how like roll out. I, we call it the tuck and roll. I just get out of the things I don't wanna do. Um, so candle and then I'll send it to somebody. So yeah, I do have, um, Miranda, like anytime somebody emails, um, it looks like it's coming from me, but it's from her and she'll sign it saying this is Miranda Jen's integrator. Um, but she's in into my Gmail and we sort of have a triage for where messages go.
Um, that's the other thing you can do is like sort your Gmail inbox definitely use, um, you know, boomerang or one of those other apps. Yeah, right. You gotta have a way to tuck and roll out of the things you don't love doing. And for me, it's email forward it candle and everybody knows. Got we got you, we'll handle it. Um, so focus on your energy level and really pay attention to that and work into that. You know, it could even be days of the month where, you know, you're not gonna be feeling and great typically women. I mean, listen, you know, we have energy levels around how we're feeling on a monthly basis. So, you know, plan around that if you, if you can be strategic, but for me, it's like, I know my energy is high in the mornings. I know that after three 30, when my kids come home from school, I'm not gonna have, have a lot of focused attention.
So that's when I'll do like little easy stuff, like replying to quick emails, um, you know, simple stuff that I can just bang out with, not a lot of focus. So, uh, you know, um, let me see, this is the other one. Okay. Um, also boundaries, huge, huge, huge one. I can't believe I almost skipped past it cuz I rolled up. But if you want to spend time with your family or take time in the evening for yourself or have nights and weekends where it's just off limits, um, you need to set your clear boundaries when you're on and when you're off work. And one of the factors that leads to burnout out is this extreme pressure from demanding clients, having access to you all hours of the day and nights and weekends. So maybe you don't give them your cell phone number. You know, maybe you meet over zoom and they don't have number your number to text you and you let them know in advance.
Um, I'll reply to your emails in, um, you know, when I'm next available in my office so that they start to get the sense that you are on it and you're gonna get your work done during normal business hours. And beyond that they don't have access to you. So you need to let them know kind of right from the start. You're not gonna be like, well, I will not be responding to you. And these are my only available hours they get from when they're hearing from you. Or if it's at the end of the day, you know, I just wanted to let you know, I got your message. I will get back to you tomorrow when I'm back in the office or when I'm back online. Okay. Um, if you work from home or whatever, you know, back online or whatever, so that they get the sense and awareness, they are not gonna be bothering you.
And I'll tell you, I don't have clients that bother me nights and weekends at all. They don't, they don't expect to hear from me. It's been way more than a decade. And I'm just like, Nope, I'm out. I'm not, this is not how I want my business to be. I wanna be with my kids. I wanna take my phone, tuck it in a drawer, be present and checked in to them. At least let's say, I know it's gonna sound like not a lot of time, like 15 minutes where you're just eye level and interested in what they're interested in and being present and just being mentally and physically where you are like, I am here, I'm gonna be here. Okay. Um, yeah, listen to that. Natasha said, this love, this took me a while to learn because I'm a people pleaser, right? That's where they get ya.
, that's where they get ya. Um, and I just don't reply anymore until my, um, office hours. So Samantha's saying who handles media inquiries if they come in the evening? Well, that's different because, um, you know, for, for sure if the media is contacting you and it's a really short lead, then you would want to get back to them right away. Um and if it's something you need to loop your client into immediately, like it's a, like it's a, an interview. Give me a scenario where that would happen. But media contacting you is one thing, because that's gonna be a one off thing. Clients won't come to you. Um, and if a media, uh, like if they reach out to you, sometimes they're just playing catch up and working late, say, is this urgent? Or can we get back to you in the morning?
Um, okay. So Nelson says, my phone is on until 11:00 PM. So the media can reach me, but it sounds like it, you don't have clients calling you, right? So the clients are not, you know, reaching you all hours. So there that boundary there, um, if it's a media inquiry super late and it's timely, you know, reach out to the client, um, evening interview requests, um, and some for evening shows day of, is it like day of get here now kind of thing then? Yeah, absolutely. Um, not all types of clients have that 20 for seven new cycle, uh, need my, my clients are brands they're products speaking up. Okay. Here is I just need a couple hand. So it's, this is my new client. I mean, there's not gonna be, I put all the skincare stuff downstairs. This is just hand, hand, hand cream. They're not gonna have a burning need at, you know, six clock at night or, or later than that.
That's just not the kind of, but Nelson, it sounds like Samantha, those types of clients yes. Do not make it the norm for clients to have access to you. If media contacts you. And it's a quick turnaround, like that night, reach out to clients and be proactive, but do not let, um, Nelson saying he takes their calls. We don't, I just will not because that will, I've had clients that have done that and you give them an inch and they take a yard. Uh, COVID specific GA uh, media request late at night. I trained outlets to text me if it's after hours and urgent. That's awesome. I love that. You said I've trained media outlet. It, um, otherwise they'll know to email and I'll reply in the morning. That's great. Um, that's great. She's intentional. Kelly has seven children, two hands, seven children. So she has to be really careful with her access, you know?
Um, and I think that's a really great solution. So she's strategic and, and intentional about it. Um, you know, just set those boundaries that are right for you. My boundaries might be different than what is reasonable for you, but I still think Samantha that, um, you know, media, a request can come in late, but you shouldn't open up the door 24 7 to clients. Um, that's just, you know, and Nelson says until 11, if he's online until 11 and then he's. Um, and what about weekends Nelson? Um, okay, so that's step two, number three, hire a team to help you obviously, I mean, come on, but I want you to think about your PR journey in the next year and consider what your life could and would look like. If you could outsource your work and delegate to a really great team, you trust them, you really trust them.
Um, so you don't need to be, um, yeah, so you don't need to be, um, micromanaging micromanaging is like stupid because it's a waste of your time. If you're gonna micromanage everything, then just do it yourself, trust your team, hire great people. Um, you know, do a quality check or like a review at 90% of what the work is what's done. And then, you know, put your 10% and make it perfect JIT, put your touch on it, but think of your hours as the CEO in your business and how valuable those hours are, um, thinking about your hourly rate and what your time is worth. I look at my time and I look at it like it's a thousand dollars an hour. Let's say, um, clients don't call me on the weekends, but the media do. And if it's a really good opportunity, I'll reach out to a client.
And if it's urgent, like arranging TV, radio, um, or an interview for Monday. Yeah. So that's an urgent situation and it's only you reaching out to them and not them coming to you in terms of clients. So that's, that's great. I think that that works really well. Um, probably doesn't disrupt your weekends too often and it's exciting, cuz there's are really good opportunities if it's radio or TV. So I like that. Um, anyway, so if, if your time is worth $250 an hour or $500 an hour, a thousand dollars an hour or whatever it is, um, there are certain things that are not gonna be worth your time, like building media list or doing your accounting or things that just feel like you're working in the Dru zone. Like you don't like it and it sucks the life outta you. This is a recipe for burnout.
And if you can pay somebody obviously a lot less than that to do those tasks, like possibly, you know, like Miranda does customer service and she's amazing at it. And she knows how I would. Um, yeah, you need to increase your rate. Oh my God. Yes. For sure. Natasha says one 50. Yeah. Based on your skill level, Natasha Jack it up, um, or, you know, you sell a bundle of hours. If it's something like we do coaching for me, it's uh, you know, we do like one, one zoom call in boxer. Anybody can, can do it with me and that's at the thousand a month. Um, you know, so that's how I prioritize my time. If I, if I'm doing, uh, like something, you know, building a media list or like creating a graphic that I'm not even good at, I'm spending an hour to do crappy work.
Um, you should, yes. Natasha increase your rate by a hundred dollars an hour. Yeah. This is just what it is. Right. Um, nobody will, nobody will question that you just have to confidently be like two 15 an hour, four hours, a thousand dollars minimum, blah, blah, blah. And then that's your rate. I promise you the first time you do it, you'll be like, why didn't I do this sooner? Um, anyway, so if that is gonna to drain you and you're gonna do like not a great job of it and you can pay somebody like a hundred an hour or whatever to do that thing, think of all of the time and money that you're, you know, saving and actually saving by actually spending the money for somebody to ease that burden from you, you know, creating social media, 10, all of that writing pitches, you know, following up on pitches, tracking samples.
No, thanks. I don't wanna do that reporting. We have a process in place. That's my reporting process and the team does it. Um, uh, Natasha does consulting. Um, but she does work on retainer if that's cert, if I'm correct about why you take an hourly it's consulting and she crushes it for people who come in for consulting and then sometimes they come in as retainer clients, um, which is a good strategy for you if you want to get your foot in the door. Um, yeah. Yeah. So, uh, you know, bring someone in and I know that it, it sounds scary, but it is really the best way to prevent burnout is having a team. You can. The next tip is gonna be talking about taking time, vacation breaks, whatever you need a team in place to be able to do that. And we cover a lot of different strategies in the agency accelerator when it comes to scale.
And it, we have, um, you know, finding team members, the legal and financial concerns involved and onboarding and offboarding team, team members and everything in between. So it's just easy. Um, and you have a process and a process to find them and bring them in, and then you train them in your way, you know, or you get, have, give them access to the pitch lab and let them learn how you are using that program to serve your clients and save yourself time and bring in a team so that you can just do the things that you love and not do the things and outsource the things that make you feel dread and suck the life outta you. You know? So think about how you feel when you're doing certain tasks in your business. And when you're like this sucks, I hate this, or I'm the bottleneck.
And here's why anytime I'm the bottleneck. I know it's because I'm doing something I don't like. So find a way to out source that, bringing a team. Um, for me, the team does all the pitching, all the media lists. And now I have somebody that's a very senior level. That's doing client strategy and project management and client, um, like client services. So, and we're moving towards a model where I don't even get on calls anymore. Um, client calls, which is great. I have one client, I never talk to them. And they're just so happy. The team's who doing a great, a great job. We raised their rate, adding services and they're just happy. So it's good. You know, um, that's three hire a dream to help you. One of my early mentors said less gen equals more money. I was really air to hire someone cuz I wasn't making the income.
I wanted to my very first year. And he said, you will never be able to scale your business by yourself. Never. So hire someone and watch what happens. And that first year of having a team I experienced, how is this gonna look? Quantum growth is that backwards. Quantum growth, hockey stick. Um, so it really does help. And then it really eases into tip number four, don't be afraid to take breaks, vacations time away from your job. Um, I know that when you work for yourself, the thought of time away is really overwhelming. And I know, uh, this comes up over the holidays too. When you're on a retainer basis, you might feel like you need to deliver services constantly. Like they always have access to you and you're never taking a break. They're gonna question sometimes they'll ask for not often it's never happened to me, but sometimes, um, usually individuals will say, well, if you're not working the second half, can I have half my retainer?
It's so annoying. So the answer is no you're, you know, frontloading, you're working on strategy. You're just not reachable during that period. Whatever you have to say, the answer is no, you don't give clients a discount. Um, you deserve to have a break and you shouldn't on retainer. Have to, um, give back money for that. If you can front load and set yourself up for success while you're sort of off. Um, and the reality is you need to have time away from your business. It's essential to avoiding burnout. So if you hire a team that will help you easily transition and set yourself up for a vacation or um, a day off or a long weekend or whatever, and you'll feel really good about that. And you can plan ahead. You com communicate with clients and the other key here is, um, oh, that's awesome.
Well, I mean, it's not awesome. You have COVID but Natasha said having COVID the last 14 days has made me realize that my clients are more concerned with me and my wellbeing over their PR needs. It's been awesome. They have all been so supportive. Yes. That goes back to number one. Nicheing down working with clients that light you up, working with clients that you have a great rapport with so that they get it. And they're not gonna be like crappy to you about it, about being sick or having a baby. I had a client who was like really mean to me about having a baby. And I had a client like literally my second born, she showed up at house with a gift under the guise of like, I wanna shower you with a baby gift. It was literally her. You guys are gonna laugh like her second, um, seconds, like stuff that was, um, damaged, rejected by retailer.
I know because I've been in their warehouse, I know what this stuff looks like. It was a basket of seconds and she like, look what I brought you. And then she proceeded to stay in my office for four hours for a strategy session. And I was nursing my son. I had a nanny here because I had a nanny for my older son. She was running around the house with the screaming baby. My younger son had colic and I couldn't nurse him because this lady was here and would not leave, oh my God. It was like the worst. And she wanted to assert her, her dominance and be like, you know what? Like, don't get too comfortable thinking that you have this time to yourself. You don't we're here. You need to be checked into us. And that was how it, how it went. And that was horrible.
Um, eventually I realized I did not have to be under her thumb. And once I started to just, you know, not say yes and, and you know, you say jump. I say, how high life got a whole lot better? And then I had another client who was really crappy to a team member when she had a baby. Um, and she had a baby with like horrible complications and was hospitalized and was almost, almost died. And my team member and she was still answering emails and this client was a monster to her. I fired them. Yeah. Hi. Nice to see you, Alicia. Um, or Alicia, how do you say it? Alicia with a Longie or with a ish. Tell me, um, so yeah, that was horrible. So I fired the client, um, because I couldn't, she was like, I can't work with them. They're horrible. Anyway, so you need to remember too that, um, this is the thing, and this is what Natasha is probably getting at with her clients is that when you plan ahead, you communicate with clients and you are only working with clients that understand that PR is big pick.
Sure. It's a long term strategy. It's not granular. Like what happens on a daily basis? Why did you fire your client? Nelson tell us it feels really empowering to fire a client. Honestly, I did. I fired a client this year, too. Really good client, great results for them. They paid their, you know, really good retainer, but they were, they hired a new person who was our point of contact and she was horrible and they hired, that's the one who hired the other PR firm. Hi, why do you need another PR firm? Oh, well you guys are doing such a great job. We thought, you know, one firm is great. Two must be double the double. The awesome. We're like, no, that's not how it works. That was just a nightmare. So, um, yeah, if they understand PR is big picture, it's a long term strategy.
It's a long term play. They won't care what's happening in the nitty gritty. Oh God, it was such a mess. And that is a great way for you to be able to handle taking time. They'll get it. You know, nobody's stressing that Natasha's sick. They just care about her as a person and say, get better, do what you need to do because she does great work. And it doesn't matter when and how it's going to get done and the results are gonna speak for themselves. Um, you know, and it's long term, it's not, what did you do every single day? That goes back to number one, take time in your business. But also being able to do that is hiring a team and working with clients that you love and believe in. And then the fifth one is gonna be all about boundaries, setting those boundaries, learning to say know, um, I know that we often feel as PR pros that we need to be on all the time.
And that definitely leads to burnout. Um, and also checking and answering emails as soon as they come in, it's like a, like a Pavlovian response. You see that, like I have an email right now and I so wanna look and see what it is. I don't, there's nothing going on right now, but that one in my inbox, I'm like, I gotta clear it out. I gotta get rid of it when that is how you are responding to things. First of all, you're giving somebody else priority over your time. You're allowing them to be in charge of you, your, um, priorities. You're allowing somebody in your inbox to say, this is what you need to focus on now. Not what you wanna focus on, but what they're telling you to focus on. So you've lost control. Um, and you, you know, you have to set those boundaries and learn to say no, that means maybe turning off those notifications.
Um, I think even, you know, um, some of the new computers and software have those do not disturbs where you won't get email, um, and you know, maybe eliminating things like social media apps from your phone. So you don't see those little notifications, but not checking emails and answering them as soon as they come in, even at night. And on the weekend, we just talked about this. Um, that was such a lesson from this pandemic. I went 300 miles per hour in 2020 until I hit such a bad wall. Like I did not need to overextend like that. So now I just say no, if it doesn't serve the client or me yes. Saying no. And, um, you know, most of the time these emails are not emergencies. You don't have to answer them if it is like, you know, a rare opportunity. Definitely. Um, that's also gonna light you up and be like, look what I did.
I did this great thing, but in order to avoid burnout and deliver a may amazing, really great stellar PR services, you need to rest, you need to rest. And maybe Natasha is getting sick because she's, overexerting herself, you know, um, working late and stuff. Um, that means setting your boundaries like stopping work each day. That means checking emails and answering emails and, and your phone not working on the weekends, except for these rare emergencies, not working while you're on vacation or out of office. Um, you know, it's boundaries that you will have that work best for you to have the right balance and your life of work. I call it integration, work, life integration. Yes. My doctor told me to stop working so late. He totally yelled at me. You need to rest. I mean, rest is like obviously the bare minimum that you can do to get healthy. But, um, you know, if you're working on a vacation, it's not a vacation, it's just, you're physically in an inconvenient place to work. You're sitting in an inconvenient place to work with spotty wifi. Don't go on vacation. I don't care if you have an ocean view, you're still working.
You need to really, really unplug and decompress. So, um, know that boundaries healthy, normal, necessary. You just need to make sure that you are communicating them and sticking with them. Um, and your team members know they can backfill you and maybe you just send them a candle. You're just like candle. Can't handle this. Um, and clients too know that you're, you know, you're, you're out of pocket, but your team is there and they're brought up to speed. And here's what we've done. You know, just feel confident to take it. Nelson says because it was during the last time, late August in Ontario, Canada and vaccine passports were being onboarded by the province. My client had a passport ready to go. And because the media was take, uh, talking about it so much, he expected tons and tons of mainstream media to be wanting to interview him constantly practically on a daily basis.
Oh, I told him that it doesn't work that way. His expectations were way too high. So I decided to end the relationship. Yeah, that sounds good. That's where, like, what he's saying is what I always say too. Expectations don't align with what reality is. And if you cannot reframe their expectations or set them a appropriately at the beginning, and some, some clients just cannot ever get aligned, then it's never gonna work. And they're always gonna be, um, they're always gonna be disappointed. And Samantha, I work on vacation too. Sometimes it depends if I'm out of the country, which obviously I'm not like, oh, I'm out of the country all the time, but I did go out of the country a couple years back and I just didn't answer email. But if I'm somewhere I'm with my family and I could just pop in for half an hour when they're off doing something else, or it's like, you know, late at night or early in the morning when I'm just kind of on my own, it sometimes actually clears my head, but I'm not working.
I'm just checking in triaging and getting out. Right. Tuck and roll. Right. So she said, I've been Le learning about sleep more this year. Yeah. Continued sleep deprivation can permanently damage your brain. I get at least eight hours of sleep a night. Although the puppy is not allowing me, um, the ability, what? So Kelly just said, Natasha, I'm on week two of pneumonia because I don't rest. Like I need to, I struggle so bad with this. I hope you're feeling better, Kelly. That's serious. Did you, um, COVID like, how did you get pneumonia? That's horrible. Is this like walking pneumonia? Which I don't even know that that sounds better than whatever other pneumonia, but that's really serious. I didn't know. Um, yikes. How can we help you? This is, oh, you guys, what are we doing to ourselves? Um, yeah, sleep is so important. My husband and I are very aligned.
I just did a, uh, Insta story about how I set up the bed. because I hate top sheets. I just feel like I'm tangled in this like giant top sheet that just hangs on the floor and it like pulls me down and it's all wrapped up or sometimes he'll grab it and he'll roll himself up like a burrito and tug it under his chin like this. And then, um, yeah, Kelly, my God. And then I'm like laying there with no blankets on me. And so I ditched the top sheet and I got us individual. So we have a cow king. I got individual twin, an extra long, um, down comforters. So they're little. And it's like, we each have our own and I can wrap myself in it. We call it our little pods. He'll say, do you wanna come over to my pod?
And I'm like, no, I'm happy in my pod, but it really helps us sleep better because if we're moving around in the middle of the night, we don't wake each other up and it's been, um, oh Jesus, yeah. Doctors are yelling at people for not taking care of themselves. Workaholic, super struggle. Hey, I'm going to rest and not work today. So she and her husband both got pneumonia from sinus infections. Yikes. Hopefully you guys can knock it out soon. That's horrible. Both parents with seven kids feeling lousy. Yikes. Um, everyone buy a barefoot dreams, blanket. It calls your name. It makes you want to wrap yourself up and take time off. Yeah, Natasha just got one and her, her boyfriend stole it. And so she had to buy like a whole second blanket. Um, and when I had my first client, the challenging client who showed up at my house with all the baby stuff, their biggest competitor was bare dreams.
Yeah. So I'm very familiar. Um, and they're very soft and cozy. So do what you have to do. Take time, set those boundaries. Um, the other thing too is knowing what you want your business to feel like knowing what kinds of clients you want to work with, allow you to say no confidently when something does not match. When it doesn't align, you can easily say, say no, and it's not hard to rationalize it. You just know this ISN for me. I just know it I'll get things, things that come along and I'm like, Nope, clear, no for me. Um, so, uh, if you have it niche down, that's a huge cause of burnout saying yes to every client, every opportunity, every project that arises every service they're asking you for, um, you tend to say yes, even though you probably, we don't enjoy it. So remember no is a complete sentence.
Sometimes you say no and explain it, but no is a complete sentence. You there's a lot of reasons to be selective, but especially to avoid burnout, you need to be strategic and focus on work that you love with clients who value you. Um, yeah. And Gail and Natasha Nelson Kelly and, and I, you know, we're all conditioned like Gail is saying to having to be productive every minute of the day. And I have actually, um, I've actually gotten out of that guilt feeling. Um, sometimes when I'm sick and I'm in bed, I'm like, oh my God, I'm so lazy. You know, just so down. But I'll say, well, I feel like I didn't get anything done or like, I didn't, I wasn't productive. But I realize sometimes just zoning out, VEing out, you know, doing nothing is the best use of my time.
It just is. And it it'll reset me. And it gets me clearheaded to think about the things that need my attention. And that would be exciting for me to jump back into right away. So, um, you know, I know we have to be put all the time, but sometimes the best use of your time is just doing literally nothing and resetting. So that's how you can prevent burnout. These are ways to prevent burnout. Um, you know, hopefully you take time over the holidays and you, um, have a nice time with your family. I'm gonna put a link here for, um, a toolkit we've been running for a long time. So a lot of you may already have it, but, um, yeah, I just, I, I see it. I see it with you guys. Kelly getting pneumonia, Natasha getting COVID again for the third time, even though fully vaccinated boosted Erin.
Got it again. No is one of the first words we learned as children. So why does it get so hard to say it is grownups? That's so true. My kid, literally all he says to me is no. Do you wanna do this? No. Do you wanna go outside? No. Do you wanna go for a walk? No bike ride. Do you want bake cookies? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. So, you know, anyway, um, I just, I feel like we are all pushing ourselves so hard. It's just a really, really draining time. I am here to help you, um, make your life you're, you know, bringing in services and coaching and strategies and things that will just help you shortcut the process on a lot of things. But also to remind you, I mean, there's a huge lesson in the agency accelerator all about red flags so that you can, you know, you know, you trust your gut, you talk yourself out of it.
You, well, it could be good or the money could be good or like, eh, anytime there's going to be something that sucks and sucks the life outta you, you know, you just talk yourself out of it. So we have a huge lesson on red flags because I promise you when you're intentional and you can avoid that stuff from the beginning and you build a business like based on what you want it to feel like the money comes and the energy you have around the niches. You love the ability to tell stories in those niches because you care and you're checked into it that comes through. I promise you so, oops. What did I do? Um, that's what I'm here for is to help you build a business on your terms. One that'll serve the kind of life you wanna have. And sometimes we need to be reminded Kelly, you need to take care of yourself.
You need you're, you're no good for anybody, including clients. If you're having pneumonia and you can't do anything and you're continuing to be and Natasha too, um, you know, say, no, no thank you. Or, oh, I'm so sorry. But um, this, uh, doesn't align with our priority. This doesn't align with our priorities. Um, you know, whatever it is, just get out of it, tuck and roll. And Natasha's saying that protect your peace is your mom for 2022. Maybe mine's tuck and roll. get outta whatever we don't wanna do. Um, anyway, I really appreciate all of you guys. I will be here next week. I'm pretty sure. Um, on the 30th. Yeah, I do have a Facebook live. Um, can't wait for, uh, the profitable PR pros mixer on January 6th. Yay. Yeah. Have these mixers. I just wanna connect and get together with everybody tuck and roll baby.
Um, you can pic picture yourself doing it and you can hear yourself like, well, da, da, da, and then you just move on. Like it's what we call with kids. Distract and redirect. distract and redirect self care is not selfish. Look at these guys. We should like print them on t-shirts. Um, maybe with my new cricket, I got that cutting machine. My husband bought me one. It's so fancy and I'm scared of it. I don't know what to do with it. Um, I have all these cool like vinyls and self adhesives. Um, oh yeah. So send me send it, text it to me. Natasha has a GIF to send to me. Maybe we'll post it in the group, post it in the group if you can, if it's not inappropriate. Um, anyway, I, maybe we print tuck and roll or self-care is not selfish on a mug or a t-shirt see what we can do.
We're talking about doing some merch in the new year. I have some big things we're working on. Um, big that, um, I hope I can make happen. I really do. Um, always thinking bigger. So trying to just build more stuff, that's gonna be helpful to you guys. So anyway, have a wonderful Christmas tuck and roll. That's the new everybody in this group gonna be like, tuck I tucked enrolled, and everyone else is gonna go, like, what are you talking about? Love tech and roll. It totally makes me cry. You see yourself doing it? Um, it's just a great visual anyway. Um, you know, guys have a wonderful, um, Christmas take time. Christmas is on a Saturday. Christmas Eve is on a Friday. It's a really great opportunity for a nice long weekend. Um, anyway, happy holidays, everyone. Kelly, thank you again for those beautiful flowers and your note. It just really made my day. You're just so awesome. I'm so glad that we found each other and have a wonderful Christmas guys. I really appreciate all of you. Um, it's starting to pour rain guys. I'll see you soon. Bye.
