Are you creating your business around your life? Or, are you creating your life around your business?

The importance of creating my life around my business, and the consequences of prioritizing my business over my health and relationships, was a lesson I had to learn the hard way.

It’s a lesson I don’t want you to learn the hard way.

I had to go through a serious period of burnout in my business before I realized my priorities needed to change.

From a revenue standpoint, things were going great. Behind the scenes, things were not going well in terms of my health.

I realized I needed to start creating my business around my life. When I made that mindshift, everything started to change for the better. My physical and mental health and my relationships all improved.

Not only did those things improve, but the health of my business also improved dramatically, because I was prioritizing myself and my personal life first and then the business.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• The most important step in getting your priorities right
• How to earn more while working less
• The three things you should be optimizing in your business
• Why the revenue you generate is not tied to the hours you’re working
• How to identify and prioritize your most productive time of day

Links & Resources

• Neill Williams
• Neill Williams Coaching
• DM me on Instagram
• Visit my YouTube channel
• The Art of Online Business website
• The Art of Online Business Podcast website
• The Art of Online Business on Apple Podcasts
• Check out my Accelerator coaching program

Got A Question You Want Answered On the Podcast?

Ask your questions or let me know if there is a topic or guest you’d like to hear from in the comments below or click here to visit my contact page and submit your question there for a chance to be featured on one of my upcoming Q&A episodes.

Follow The Art of Online Business on iTunes and/or Stitcher

Please support the podcast by giving an honest Rating/Review for the show on iTunes!

Right-click here to download this episode

Other Episodes You’ll Enjoy:

Behind-the-Scenes with My Wife, Amy (Episode #400!)

BONUS: How to Get More Done In Less Time w/ Neill Williams

Quick Tip: Working Harder & Longer Isn’t the Answer

[00:00:00] Rick
What’s up, my friends. Welcome back to another quick tip episode here on the show. Hope you’re doing well. Thank you so much for coming to hang out with me today.

I want to dive into this concept that I talk about quite a bit here on the show, but I also realize that I never really dove—is that the right word—dove into it before.

[00:01:08]
Like, taking a full episode to talk about it. This whole concept of, are you creating your business around your life? Or, are you creating your life around your business? I want to share my own personal experience with this, and why and how I learned this the hard way.

[00:01:32]
I really want to encourage you, if you’re not already, to be prioritizing. It sounds funny, because you’re like, “Well, of course people want to do that.” But, I see so often the opposite. We want to be creating our business around our life. Our life is our main priority. Then it’s about the business. So, we’re going to dive into that here today.

[00:01:55]
You’ve likely heard the saying, Well, if you have a team or what have you, you’ve likely heard this saying, “It’s not personal, it’s just business.” Well, we’re going to flip that on his head. We’re going to say it’s not business, it’s personal. Because we’re prioritizing the personal.

For those of you who know me,

[00:02:16]
and for those of you—we have thousands of new listeners—welcome everybody. Thank you so much for tuning in,. Make sure you hit, you hit that subscribe button, or follow, depending on what podcasting app that you’re listening to. Or, if you’re watching this on YouTube, make sure you hit that subscribe button.

[00:02:32]
So, my family is everything to me. The day I’m recording this it’s early November tomorrow, and the next two days we’re taking my daughter to Disneyland. When this episode comes out, she’s just about turning three years old. So, this is her first time at Disneyland, and we’re taking a Tuesday and Wednesday in the middle of the week

[00:02:59]
to ake off and go to Disneyland. We’re surprising her with this trip. My wife, Amy, is—she’s a Disney fanatic. I am not so much a Disney person. However, I’m so excited to be able to experience Disneyland through the eyes of my three-year-old daughter, Maya. So, that’s what the priority is for me

[00:03:23]
as I have built, and continue to build, my business. In January, 2022. my business turns eight years old. Early on in my business—I’ve talked about this here in the podcast before—I prioritized the business over everything else. I prioritized it over my own mental and physical health, my relationships, my relationship with my wife, Amy, you know, the most important things in life.

[00:03:56]
Right. And if I’m being honest, it wasn’t until about four years ago, after going through a really serious period of burnout in the business that it became. Super clear. It became abundantly clear that if I wanted to serve people in my business, if I wanted to serve all of you, listening to the show here for a very long time and my customers, my members, et cetera, that my priorities needed to shift because what I was doing simply was not sustainable nor was it making me very happy.

[00:04:31]
Here’s the thing. I was making a lot of money. In the business in the first four years of the business, we hit seven figures. And so from a top line revenue standpoint, the business was extremely successful and healthy from that perspective. Right. But you know, I call this sort of the iceberg, the fact, right.

[00:04:54]
You only see what’s going on above the water. You don’t see what’s going on below the water. Well, again, I’ve talked about it before here in the. There wasn’t a whole lot of good things going on behind the scenes from a health standpoint, for me, right? And so once I realized that, look, this is not, and this is my voice talking to myself, right.

[00:05:15]
As I look, this is not sustainable. This is not something that I can continue with. The way that my priorities were around the business, around the health, around the sustainability of what I had begun to create. Right. And I needed to really remind myself. Of why I started the business in the first place I was in the corporate world for just about 13 years.

[00:05:42]
I, when I was in, online marketing and online advertising, for years I was, selling online advertising and I wanted to get out of the corporate world. And in, not that I remember this. specifically, but September 30th, 2012 was, was the day I left corporate. And I have never looked back since I’ve never, well, I shouldn’t say that I did question it for the first couple of years, my online business, even though it was doing really well.

[00:06:11]
But I needed to remind myself of why I created this business. In the first place. And that was to, you know, back then, it was like, I want to write my own rules. I want to work my own hours. I want to create something that I’m the boss of. Right? Like I want to work with people that I want to work with when I want to work.

[00:06:32]
I basically want to do what I want to do when I want to do it. And I know that so many of you can relate to that rationale for why you started your business and then likely you evolve from. you know, your why’s your impact, et cetera. And that’s the same thing that happened, to me. So I need to remind myself of that and I needed to, I realized that look, I needed to start creating my business around my life.

[00:07:00]
And now. The other way around, and I’m gonna explain to you here in just a second, what exactly that means. And so what I made that mindset shift that’s when everything started to the change in the shift, my, my health improved my both mental health and physical health, my relationships improved because I was prioritizing those things first.

[00:07:27]
And then. It was about the business after that. Whereas for so many years it was, it was the flip, right. It was business all day, pretty much every day. And then the leftovers, if you will went to the personal side, Of business, right? And you all y’all know the, on airplane, put your oxygen mask on first, before you do it for somebody else, it’s the same concept.

[00:07:50]
Like you can’t, you can’t have your business, you can’t have your life, meaning your relationships, et cetera. And you can’t show up for your audience and the people that you’re wanting to help. If you’re not taking care of yourself first. Okay. And so when I reminded myself of all that and made that shift, everything started to change.

[00:08:13]
Now, it didn’t happen overnight. It wasn’t like snap, you know, snap my fingers and like, okay, cool. Everything’s hunky Dory again. Right. It took time. But soon, not only did those things improved, but the health of my business also dramatically. Improved because I was prioritizing myself and my personal life first and then the business.

[00:08:41]
And especially now things really shifted again, three years ago when my daughter was born. Right. Then it’s like, okay, I want to spend as much time as possible with her. And then the business, is what’s focused on. Next, if you will, are around that. And I’ve created my schedule around doing just that. And I’ll share more about that here in just a second.

[00:09:06]
When people join Accelerator. the first thing that I have them do is do a time audit. So if you’ve never done a time audit before not going to lie, it’s kind of a pain in the butt. However, the result of your time audit, hold so much gold because you get to see where your time is being spent and how long you’re spending doing.

[00:09:30]
Said tasks, right? So basically the time audit is you take three to five business days that are normal business days, quote, unquote, not things where you’re like, you know, doing a launch or. doing a special, you know, maybe it’s like a batching day or anything like that. Not that sort of debt, not, you know, normal business days.

[00:09:50]
And what you do is you start tracking everything you do during the business day. From the time you start in the morning, till the time you start in the evening, or if you. Late at night, whatever it is, whenever you are working, you are putting down, oh, I did this task from this time to this time. And it took, this is what I did and took me this long.

[00:10:11]
And so you’re just going to make a big list for each day three to five days. And I don’t care how you do it, whether it’s on your, you know, old school pen and paper, Google doc Evernote, Notion, iPad, whatever it is, right. Or download an app or something like that. It’s tracking the amount of time of what you’re doing.

[00:10:31]
Where is your time and energy going? And then also how long things. Taking you, right. Another key thing there that I would add to that exercise, I just sort of snuck it in there is, as you are tracking what you were doing and how long each thing is taking, I would put a note on like what your energy level was.

[00:10:53]
Right. maybe it’s like, One to three or something like that, that you rate yourself. Okay. Because what we’re trying to do is in a sort of a side note is that we are trying to prioritize the highest leverage activities that you as the CEO of your business should be focusing on during your highest.

[00:11:17]
During the day. Right? So for me, it’s early morning when I hit like two, three in the afternoon, I’m starting to buy brain starting to decline. And so for that for the day, because started early, I have a three-year-old daughter and it’s just a long day. You know, those of you with kids and you totally know what I’m talking.

[00:11:36]
While also running a very successful business. Right. And so what I’ve been seeing recently with new Accelerators coming in and reviewing their time audit when we review the time audit, I’m seeing a lot of this. Like I saw one the other day that somebody is working from like eight 30 in the morning to like 10 30 at night, straight through Monday through Friday.

[00:12:00]
And. You know, a few breaks here and there during the day, but holy cow, that is not sustainable. And it’s like, well, wait, where’s the, you know, where is the personal side? Where are you taking care of yourself? Where’s the self care. Where’s the family time. Where’s the whatever. And unfortunately, this has been sort of a common trend that I’ve been seeing recently.

[00:12:24]
And it really drove me to do this episode for you. To sort of remind you if you will, that if we want to be showing up as our best self in our business, we need to be prioritizing what’s most important in our life, in ourselves, in our family, in our relationships. And then the business gets, then we scheduled the other, you know, the business time.

[00:12:49]
Okay. And then we can structure our business to support. In this, right? This is one thing by the way that we help you do inside of my Accelerator coaching program. this is for Accelerators for online course creators and online coaches who are more established in. There are business. And when I say more established meaning minimum, you’re doing at least seven to eight K per month in revenue from your online business.

[00:13:16]
And we’ve got people in accelerate who doing multiple millions. And so if you’re looking to take your business to the next level, but you’re not quite sure what next steps to take. Right. You’re likely feeling overwhelmed in your business. You’re not sure where to go from here, essentially, without adding more hours to your day, because you’re already working a ton of hours.

[00:13:42]
We help you create more profit, more impact by the way for profit, because everybody talks about top line revenue, which is all well and good. We obviously need that, but it’s really about. How much of that is actually going in our pocket. How much of that is actually going in the bank? So that’s, why the profit is so important, but yet, so few people will talk about it.

[00:14:02]
Well, that’s one of the key pillars of Accelerators. So it’s more profit, more impact because we are all about helping businesses who want to have a positive impact. And the world in whatever way that looks like for you, we help you increase your impact, right? So more profit, more impact with less hustle.

[00:14:24]
And that’s really one thing that we’re talking about here right now is setting our business up, which is a hundred percent possible to be working no more than 25 hours a week or less. While increasing profit while increasing impact. Right. And I had one person recently say, is that actually possible to be doing that at 25 hours a week or less?

[00:14:48]
I have a ton of examples that. Answer that question as a big fat. Yes. Right. And my, I am one of those, examples. That’s what I do in my business again, because we are creating our business around her life and not the other way around. And by the way, we do those three things through optimizing your sales and marketing, optimizing your systems and processes and optimizing your mindset.

[00:15:16]
So if this sounds like something that you’d like, our. And helping you achieve in your business, go over to learn more it’s application only, and you can apply@theartofonlinebusiness.com forward slash Accelerator. And so if you are feeling this overwhelmed, if you are feeling this, yeah, I don’t have enough time for myself.

[00:15:36]
Right. I don’t have, I want more time with my family or I want more, more time for my friends and relationships, whatever it might be. I want to encourage you to kind of stop and re-ask your. Why did you start your business? What was the primary reason that you wanted to do that and look at how maybe you are prioritizing the business over everything else.

[00:16:02]
And so with that said, I want to share with you some steps that you can be taking to start to do this and to start. Look at this in your business. Okay. And so the first thing that everything starts with, and I’ve been talking about it already here is our mindset, right? I like to say that 80% of the success of our business, right?

[00:16:26]
The whole 80, 20, 80% of the success of our business starts in our mind, starts with our mindset. And so the first thing that you need to believe is that. The amount of time that you work is not tied to your revenue potential. Right. this is something that one of our Accelerator coaches, Neil Williams, who’s actually a former, Accelerator.

[00:16:50]
Now she’s a master life coach and she is our, business mindset and productivity coach with an Accelerator. She talks about this all the time, right. That the amount of money that you’re able to generate is not tied to the amount of time that you’re working. Right. So that’s first, that’s one thing.

[00:17:08]
Starts with the mindset is understanding that that’s the case and recognizing it and starting to believe that that that is possible, which leads me to the second mindset is that the mindset of possibility, right? Opening up possibility, the belief of possibility that really anything frankly, is possible for you in your business.

[00:17:32]
Okay. I have people in Accelerator, for example, who are working 20 hours a week, who are doing multiple seven figures because they have built their business around their priorities of time with their family time, you know, for themselves, et cetera, it’s doing their hobbies, et cetera, et cetera. They have structured their team.

[00:17:54]
They’ve structured their workdays, et cetera. But you got to believe that whatever you want for your business is, is possible because if you don’t, then you know, it’s not going to be possible, frankly, because you’ve got to believe that first. Okay. Now then from an attack, Emma said, statical, a tactical, a tactical standpoint is your schedule.

[00:18:18]
Okay. and what I’m talking about here is, you know, how many numb, how many days a week do you want to work? How many hours per day do you want to work? When during the day do you want to work? And I would really encourage you if at all, possible to find your flow time in the day. Meaning when are you at your highest energy level?

[00:18:40]
When are you, when is your brain most turned on? to doing the highest leverage activities in your business. Find that time if you don’t already like, so for me again, it’s morning time, early morning time. I love it. I put get myself in that’s when I get way more done in less time, because that’s my flow time.

[00:19:01]
That is when my brain is most turned off. And so if you don’t know what that time of day. It is. I would encourage you to start to notice. When are you most engaged? When are you, when is your brain most turned on during the day? For a lot of people, it is that early morning time, but I’ve heard, you know, from other people it’s like late afternoon for them.

[00:19:23]
I’ve heard other. You know, late at night, I am so not a night person. but whatever works for you. Right. And so figuring out how many days a week do you want to work? Do you want to take Fridays off? I have a buddy of mine who has a very successful business who work, who takes, Mondays and Fridays off.

[00:19:41]
He works Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday works about 1520 hours. usually like 15 hours a week, although. He just moved and childcare, you know, is different. So I think he’s doing three different three days differently, but he’s still only working three days a week because that is how he has set up his business.

[00:20:01]
And then for you, it’s like, okay, what days? And then also, what hours, how many hours a day, when do you want to work the hours? Maybe they’re spread out over the day. Maybe you work in different chunks during the day, right? Because that’s what works for you. Cool. And then the next thing after, you know, scheduling and your.

[00:20:18]
Figuring out when your flow time is, is you want to schedule it and you’ve heard this before. I know, but it’s so important. It’s something that I wasn’t doing for years is you’ve got a schedule in your calendar for the upcoming week first. What are your non-negotiables right. So that is when you’re scheduling in your.

[00:20:39]
workouts, or your walks, or your time with your family, or whatever. Coffee with so-and-so, whatever. You’re scheduling those personal and those self-care things first in your calendar. Those become your non-negotiables. After that, then you start to scheduling your business stuff. Prioritizing, obviously, your highest leverage activities, since you’re the CEO. I call these the key three, right?

[00:21:10]
These are the top three, maybe four things that you are responsible for, that you’re focusing on as the CEO in your business on a daily, weekly, quarterly, and so on basis. Prioritizing those things during your flow time. So, that is just sort of, I mean, that’s kind of high level, but I really wanted this to be a reminder.

[00:21:35]
Maybe a kick in the butt, if you will. If you’re prioritizing business over your life, it’s not sustainable. When you flip that on its head, your business, it sounds counterintuitive, but your business will grow as a result of your doing that. Your business becomes more healthy because you’re becoming healthy first. Mentally, spiritually, physically, et cetera.

[00:22:02]
Your business is going to improve as a result of those things.

So, prioritize life first, business second. Create your business around your life.

I’d love to get your thoughts on this and what you think about this. For my audience, this is not anything really new, but this might ruffle a few feathers, like, “Oh, wait a minute.

[00:22:26]
I need to be focused on the business first? Okay. That’s cool.”

I’d love to hear from you. Shoot me a DM over on Instagram @RickMulready. Or, if you want to leave a rating and review over on Apple Podcasts, let me know what your thoughts are, in a review. I’d love to hear your thoughts, or leave me a comment

[00:22:44]
down below if you’re watching on YouTube.

All right, my friends, thank you for tuning in today. I hope this was helpful for you. I know it’s been for me and so many of our Accelerator members. It’s a game changer.

So, until next time my friends be well and I’ll talk to you soon.