544: Seizing Opportunities Through Decisive Action
Brought to you by: Pet Sitters Associates. Use ‘Confessional’ at checkout
Have you prioritized your personal life over your business? We recently took a spontaneous long road trip to preserve a piece of our family's history. On this podcast episode, we discuss how having clear priorities simplifies decision-making and enables decisive action when time is limited. The importance of follow-through and finishing what you start, even when motivation wanes, should be a central theme in our lives and business. Finally, we highlight how self-care is essential for sustaining personal and professional success, ensuring you can show up as your best self for your business and clients.
Main Topics:
Setting Clear Priorities
Acting Quickly
Following Through
Practicing Self-Care
Main Takeaway: Sometimes, action taken right now is better than waiting for those perfect conditions that may honestly never come.
Links:
ProTrainings: For 10% off any of their courses, use CPR-petsitterconfessional
Give us a call! (636) 364-8260
Follow us on: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter
Subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, & TuneIn
Email us at: feedback@petsitterconfessional.com
A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
pet sitter confessional, clear priorities, act quickly, follow through, self-care, business goals, travel challenges, family history, decisive decisions, mission alignment, client trust, long-term planning, personal well-being, spontaneous trips, future self
SPEAKERS
Collin, Meghan
00:02
Hi, I'm Meghan. I'm Collin, and we are the hosts of pet sitter confessional, an open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter. Thank you for joining us today. Thank you also to pet sitters associates and our Patreon people for supporting today's show. Whether this is your first episode or your 544th episode, we appreciate you coming along the ride with us. If you've enjoyed listening to the episodes and want to give back, you can go to pet sitter, confession.com/support,
Meghan 00:26
to see all of the ways that you can help. This past week was a bit chaotic for us. We used to live in the Dallas Fort Worth area, and we used a birthing center when I gave birth to both of our kids. They have a tradition there that each baby that gets born gets their footprints on the wall so both of our kids have their feet up on the wall there, even though Noah, our second, was technically born in our car. That's a story for a different day. But last Sunday, I saw a social media post talking about how they were moving locations. When I shared that with we both kind of looked at each other and knew exactly what the other one was thinking. We had called them on Monday and found that they were moving in one week. So we knew what we had to do after that. We wouldn't have access to the building after that one week, as soon as we hung up, we knew we just had to get there to see our baby's footprints one last time. So Tuesday, we covered a few of our afternoon visits, and then we started driving. We live about nine hours away, so we knew that it would be a lot, especially with our two kids. They're seven and nine, and to think that we started the podcast when they were one and three, that's
Collin 01:29
crazy. Don't want to think about that. No, thank you.
Meghan 01:33
But it was nine hours, one way All told, it was about 31 hours of a trip. But we got the photos that we wanted with them next to their feet. We got to tour their new building for the birth center, which is super cool. They're able to serve a lot more moms and babies now, which is so cool. And they actually made a wallpaper out of the footprints from the old building, and they put it in the new building. So they're really bringing that history with them. So anyway, this trip got us thinking a lot and crying a lot, reminiscing about my labor both times, but we had some lessons from this that we wanted to share. And the first, the biggest one, was to have clear priorities. We both knew we had one mission, to go see the footprints one last time, to get pictures in front of them, to do a little trace of them, and to think back of, Oh man, that was a crazy time, and we were nervous and didn't know what to expect, but we got through it. You know, we didn't need an Eisenhower matrix or to vote or the, you know, the way we usually solve things is to pick a number one through 10 on where we fall on that category, one typically being no and 10 being Yes. We're going to do the thing. But we didn't need that in this instance, we both knew that this involved our kids history and was a core part of our young family, we were able to cut through a lot of the clutter very easily. And the same is true for businesses. You're when you have clear priorities, they don't just help you with motivation. They help you when you have a lot on your plate and you need to be decisive. Say, No, this isn't important to me right now. I have this big, hairy elephant in the room, and I know I need to deal with that. It's very clear. I don't need to worry about X, Y, Z. I know that taxes are due and they're coming up, and that's what I have to focus on.
Collin 03:10
Yeah, in those priorities come from understanding who you are and what you want your business to be and where you want it to go, so that when things come up, when opportunities arise, when situations come up, when you get asked questions, when you're asked to sponsor something, or you have an opportunity to buy into a business or hire somebody for your business, you don't have to sit around and think about that for too long, because a lot of times we can sit on a decision, but we had clear priorities, so it allowed us to know exactly what we had to do, and then everything fell into alignment behind that one singular, crystal clear mission for us and in our businesses. Again, when we have that priority, when we know the one thing, not the 12345, thing and not everything, is a top priority, when we have the one thing that we're after, and that can change from time to time, like we have this month's priority or this quarter's priority or this year's priority, then we can get everything in alignment behind that, and that actually helps us increase our efficiency. Allows us to accomplish it a lot faster and know and be decisive in our decisions
Meghan 04:18
well. And we did have to move some things around, some business things, some personal things, but we were able to say that this is incredibly important to us, and basically, other than mission critical things, everything else is going to fall along the wayside. We can reschedule it to a different day, but we we need to do this for ourselves, which leads us right into another big lesson that we learned of be quick to act once we had our mind set. We had a clock ticking. We only had one week to get there, and we knew that they were open nine to five, Monday through Thursday. So we had to think through exactly how we were going to accomplish this again, by setting aside some things for another day. But we needed to plan quickly and act quickly, even though there were a lot of unknowns, where would we be sleeping? What would we do about meals? We knew that we needed to solve those but the biggest thing was just getting out the door. Often in business, we may not know the answer, but we are really passionate about doing this thing. I really want to help out this rescue, and I don't know exactly how to get there. I need to plan the steps to get there, but I do need to act quick, because they have been overflowing lately with dogs and cats, and they really need to get them to their forever homes, or we
Collin 05:24
know the answer, and we have that passion, but we push it off to a better time. We wait to work on some things that maybe are second or third priority, because they're just more immediate. How much time do we waste in our day responding immediately to emails when the email could probably wait another 24 hours. It doesn't have to get done right there, but our number one priority does right the best, the best time, the most opportunity may never come, and we wait too long for it, and we keep pushing it off and push it off, acting quickly is actually not the same thing as being rash or haphazard in our decisions or just blundering through one thing or another. For us, we had to think and double check our plan. We were cross checking times and double checking our calendar and looking at Close and Open dates and planning out the travel times with everything. But by acting quickly, we were actually able to keep our motivation and keep us moving forward, instead of sitting back and waiting or deciding, you know, we'll sleep on this, we'll do this tomorrow. In business, it's not just having that clear priority. What that clear priority allows you to do is to act quickly. It gives you that motivation. It allows you to say yes, and what do I do now? And yes, and let's keep moving forward and figure this out as we go along. We'll never know all of the answers. You'll never have it planned out exactly what needs to happen or to be exactly the right way. Sometimes, in order to get get change, in order to make things happen, you have to just start doing something. The more you push and change and act, the more data you get back into your life, the more data you get back into your business, which allows you to change and adapt as necessary. And now you've learned something else about that
Meghan 07:06
well. And as we're going into 2025 this is the perfect time to think about the goals that you have for next year. What is your mission? Are the things that you're doing in your business or want to do in your business aligning with your mission and where you want to go?
Collin 07:20
And that's actually a good point. Megan, a lot of us spend time planning for 2025 and what do we do? We wait until January one to start doing it. If you have a plan, if you have a goal for 2025 there's nothing stopping you from starting right now or today or when you can get to it. But we don't have to wait. If we're insanely busy and we just don't have it on our schedule, we don't have that time, sure, then we can schedule it in later. But if you have the time to start working towards those goals and doing some extra planning right now, do it, and it'll put you that much further ahead for those goals that you have for next year. Before
Meghan 07:56
we get to our third lesson, we'd like to talk to you about our friends at pet sitters, associates as pet care professionals, your clients trust you to care for their furry family members, and that's why pet sitters Associates is here to help. For over 20 years, they provided 1000s of members with quality pet care insurance. Because you work in the pet care industry, you can take your career to the next level with flexible coverage options, client connections and complete freedom in running your business. Learn why pet sitters Associates is the perfect fit for you and get a free quote at pets@llc.com you can get a discount when you join by clicking membership Pet Sitter confessional, and use the discount code confessional when you go to check out, check out the benefits of membership and insurance, once again at pets@llc.com so this whole trip was a whirlwind. Our energy was up. We were a little bit nervous and emotional, and that drive down there, they would seem to fly by. And then we get there, we accomplish our task, and then we have to make the nine hour drive back. So the third lesson is that follow through is hard. We had already accomplished what we wanted to we're now making the arduous trip back. We were all a little tired and cranky. It had been a long couple of days. The only motivation at that point was to sleep in our own beds. We needed to make it back by bedtime. And the fact was that this part of the follow through of our decision to go get the photos was that we have to get back at some point. We can't stay in Texas forever. We don't live there, although I wish we did again. It was nice. Finishing a project is tough, especially when we're already thinking about the next thing. It actually would have been really easy to get frustrated with everything and spoil the experience that we had. Sometimes, when we start a project or a new service, or we want to rebrand and increase our marketing efforts go in a different direction with our business, we get really excited and energized. And then sometimes it takes longer than we expected it to be, or maybe as expected, we're just not really ready for it to be done yet to finish it and to complete it. We get shiny new object syndrome, but then the it loses its shine, and we want to try something else, and we kind of flit in between tasks. But there is something to be said for actually finishing something that we start. It really says something about our character and our integrity, that. But even though something is hard or harder than we expected it to be, we are still resilient enough to get through it. We can do hard things
Collin 10:08
well and making sure that you're finishing that project and leaving nothing on the table so you don't go back and wonder and question, oh, maybe if I would have actually done that, it would have turned out differently. Or what would my life be like? What would my business be like when you're in the project, when you're doing the thing, a lot of unexpected things are going to come up. You're going to get delayed. It's going to be more costly than you anticipated. It's going to be it's going to take longer, more people are going to have to get involved, or maybe you don't start seeing the results that you thought you would have done by the time you got in the middle of it, or towards the end of it. But the follow through is all about closing that out, finishing the race. You'll know you gave it your all. And importantly here this is what this is. It's you are owning all of the consequences, both good and bad, for your decision. You are taking responsibility for starting that path instead of copping out and just quitting and moving on and doing something else. Finishing means I knew this, or maybe I didn't know what I was getting to when I got started, but I'm going to see this through to the end, so that I leave nothing on the table, and I know better for next time. And you're again getting more data, more information, and you you are building your character, and you're staying true to who you are and what you stand for. I mean, when we started this trip, when we were driving down there, we were solely focused on getting there to get the photos, and then getting in the car, turning back around and pointing back home. That was arduous. That was hard, but that was part of our commitment to getting the photos. It wasn't just getting there, it was also getting back home. All of that was included. All of that was part of our decision to go there and spend 31 hours driving to Texas and coming back. Whether it's that rebrand that Megan mentioned, or maybe that new service that you're offering, what is the follow through that's going to take to make sure that that is successful. Technically, our trip would not have been successful had we just stayed in Texas, because that would have been a completely different version of the trip, right? We had to come back. That was it. That was what it meant to be successful. Is, yes, you have to get photos, but you need to get home. Yes, you need to start the service and you need to start marketing it, but then you need to see it through and market it to its fullest until you can get that first client, or
Meghan 12:25
maybe you've promised something to your employees. Yes, we're going to have a Christmas party this year. Or yes, I'm definitely going to be ordering new T shirts or hats or whatever it is. But no matter who we have made a promise to, whether it's an employee, a client, or even ourselves, we want to keep that. It shows them that we're going to do what we say we're going to do. The last lesson that we really took away from this crazy trip is that you are human and you have to take care of yourself first. We are business owners, and obviously we have obligations to clients, but at the end of the day, if you don't take care of yourself and what you want, then you're not going to be able to serve your clients to the best of your ability. While we had the mission of getting the photos, it wouldn't have taken place if we didn't take care of ourselves. We knew that we couldn't drive through the entire night. We needed sleep, so we had to eat and take breaks. We had our kids with us, so we had to make sure that they were taken care of too. It would have been possible to have pushed past our limits and beyond, but it wouldn't have made for a good experience or a good trip, and we would have barely crawled back home. Because a lot of times our personal life and our business life are intertwined. We have a lot on our plate, more than most people who just have a nine to five. Whether you're busy during the holiday times or you've got a big project that you need to undertake, it can be tempting to push past your limits, because we think it'll help us get to our goal faster. If we just get there, then everything will be fine. The grass is greener, and that does sometimes work or is necessary, but if we want to be consistent or be ready to take on the next big thing, we have to listen to ourselves, as we tell our kids all the time. We have to listen to our bodies. Something that Collin and I are trying to work on is getting a better sleep. It's a really small example, but the sleep that I get tonight really helps me with how I function and how not cranky or cranky I am tomorrow. We have to think of our future selves, which means that our current self has to be selfless, something that it doesn't really want to do at all. We want to be selfish. We don't really want to think of the future or the next thing. But in order to take care of ourselves, we have to know ourselves and ask ourselves the hard questions of, what do I need in this moment? What am I going to need tomorrow? What am I going to need a week from now? What things can I do that will help prepare me in order to be a better person and then be a better business owner in turn, because your business needs you at your best, which means taking care of yourself well, and
Collin 14:44
just speaking of business practices of thinking long term and building better habits. For this, we have a client who's taking a very long trip in a couple months, but that we're needing to get the dog used to us coming and going from the house. It would be very easy for our. Selves to just neglect pushing regular visits on this client and not making that a requirement, because that's hard, that's confrontational. That means that we have to be constantly reminding and making them work with us for this long term success and goal. But what we have to do is think of ourselves and our employees in five months or six months when this long trip is happening and go, What does future self need? They need to be working hard right now so that that trip goes easily. And so whether it is planning in your business and going, future self needs something. I need a plan. I'm going to need money for my marketing efforts, or for that class that I want to take, or that coach that I want to work with, or the gear that I want to invest in. What does that mean for my current self and my current business? Or it's in our personal lives of Well, tomorrow self needs sleep, so current self has to say no thank you to staying up late and watching another movie or scrolling more on Tiktok or Instagram. It's about making sure that when we that's one way that we invest in ourselves. You invest in your current self by reading, listening, getting education, practicing, going and getting business to education, all that good stuff. You also invest in your future self by making sure that you're okay. Today, we
Meghan 16:19
had a lot of fun on our trip, and are really glad we did it. We would love to know if you've done something kind of spontaneous like this, you can email us at Pet Sitter confessional@gmail.com or look us up on Facebook and Instagram at Pet Sitter confessional, thank you for listening today. We appreciate you. Thank you also to pet sitters associates and our Patreon people for sponsoring today's show, and we will talk with you next time, bye. You.
