Listen To This If You Feel Like You Don’t Have Enough Time

Hello, my friend. Before we get into this one, I want to just share with you that this is our 100th episode of the Modern Hairstylist podcast. I cannot believe that we have gotten this far in such a short amount of time. I cannot believe how many of you have shown up so big for this podcast, shared it with your friends, put testimonials on here, and how many of you have listened to these episodes and went and taken action and made big changes in your business, therefore making big changes in your life.

I am so grateful to have the opportunity to have a platform such as this one in which we can share these resources and these tools with you to empower you with everything that you need to make the absolute most out of this industry and this beautiful career that we're in. And you tuning in and you sharing this and you supporting this in any way just means the absolute world to me, and I wanna just give you a big heartfelt thank you. So, thank you so much. I love you so much.

Thank you for tuning in to the Modern Hairstylist podcast. And without further ado, let's get into this episode. Happy 100th episode. If you've ever said the words, "I do not have enough time for this.

I don't have enough time to implement this education, take on another thing onto my plate," whatever it may be, then this is the episode that you may not want to hear, but you need to hear. Now, you know I am all about working smarter, not harder. But here's the caveat. There will be seasons where you have to work smart and hard, especially when you need to make major changes because something isn't working, or you want something different to happen, or you want to reach your next level of growth.

Hard work and doing it in a smart way, they live simultaneously in those seasons. So, if you want things to change and you want things to actually happen for you, you need to put in the work. And although you may not, quote-unquote, "have the time," you need to make time. And the other thing is, too, is that you may not be prioritizing the way that you're spending your time, which may make it feel like you don't have time, or you may not be spending your time in things that are actually strategic and actually helping you in the long run, which may make you, again, feel like you're doing so many things all the time and it's always holding you back from growth.

So, not all uses of your time have the same value, because there's certain tasks and certain ways that you spend your time as a CEO that will ex- exponentially grow the business. And then there's other ways that you spend your time that will just continuously hold you back, make you feel stuck, make you feel stalled in your growth and in your business, that will always make you feel overwhelmed and always busy and keep you in this cycle of working 24/7 for what? Feeling like you're working your ass off for what, right? And then on the, on the flip side, you may want to work smartly, right?

You may want to implement strategy, but you aren't working hard enough, you aren't putting in the short-term sacrifice for the long-term gain to actually make it happen. My friend, you can have everything that you want, but you need to be smart, strategic, and put in the freaking work to set yourself up to have it, okay? So, that's what we're gonna be diving deep into today, is if you feel like you don't ever have enough time to focus on the things that grow your business the most, to implement the course that you took, to do all the damn things that's important for your life and your business, then this one is for you. Let's get into it.

Let's go. What's the tea, friend? My name's Hunter Donia, industry business educator for hairstylists, but my friends just call me Hunty. Whether it be growing your clientele, making more money, or automating and streamlining your systems, in the next 20 minutes or so, you'll be hearing realistic, actionable strategies to create a beautiful career for yourself behind the chair.

So, if you're ready to get into it, welcome to the Modern Hairstylist podcast. Now, I wanna start off this episode by saying that, you know, I understand that people have real circumstances, right? Like, people have real-ass things going on in their personal life. Um, you know, people have children.

People get into accidents, and, and, uh, and people take care of family members. Like, that is absolutely valid and 100% something that will make you feel like you do not have any time nor energy to actually make anything happen. But in spite of all of that, you're maybe in this current circumstance, right, where you are just trying to stay alive, where you're trying to stay afloat, and you're just trying to get everything done all in a day. And y- you're never going to break out of that cycle unless something happens, right?

Unless you do something. Like, you have the choice to do something. And sometimes that looks like short-term sacrifice. Sometimes that looks like waking up one hour, two hours earlier to get something done.

Look, sometimes that looks like working an hour or two later to get something done, and that can be temporary. Maybe that's a, that looks like saying no to something in the, in the short term. Maybe that looks like buying back your time, right? Investing in a cleaning person or a nanny or, um, s- a caretaker, to be able to invest in the short term to gain a bunch of ROI in the long term.

And that looks like ROI in time and money, because money is time. You're never going to be able to gain the money that you want or the time back that you want or the energy that you want back unless you invest it first. That are, that is just the rule of life and the rule of capitalism. If you don't invest money, if you don't invest time, you're never going to get back money or time.

So, if you feel like right now you don't have any time to invest, right, to be able to get back more, then I'm going to encourage you that you may just have to make some freaking time. You may have to sacrifice. And you may have to look at how you are spending your time on the daily...... and see, is there anything that I can streamline here?

Is there any- is there anywhere where I can buy back that time? Is there anything that I can just straight up say no to? Kishshana Marro, who is an amazing, uh, speaker, uh, within the business space, she spoke in-person at our, at our in-person event for our members in Philadelphia over the summer, and i- she... I forget what she specifically said as far as this concept goes, but it was either, like, "How do I automate it, delegate it, or just get it off of my plate."

Right? Like, "Do I, how do I take this one task that's taking up all of my time, and can, can I put it into one of those categories? Can I, do I really have to be doing this? Do I have to be the one who's doing this?

And if I am the one doing this, how can I make it as streamlined as possible, and how can I gain back as much time with it as possible?" What I highly recommend that you do, if you're in a space where it's really impossible for you to invest any time, then I'm going to highly encourage that you do a time audit and you get really real with yourself about how you're actually spending your time. There's plenty of moments in my life where I feel like I don't have any time to do anything, and when I actually look at what I did throughout the day, I'm like, "Oh, my God. I wasted so much time doing X," or, "I got distracted and I was spending my time on all this other shit that is completely not what I need to be spending my time in to be able to make progress," right?

Or, "I could do this thing so much better," or, "I could, uh, hire somebody to help me with this," or, "I just shouldn't be scrolling Instagram for the amount of times that I did in the day." I think that a time audit would be really, really, um, impactful for a lot of people. So, what I would recommend that you do is, is for a week, literally be very diligent and consistent about tracking your time, uh, uh, make multiple reminders on your phone, and literally just, like, say, "Between 1:00 and 2:00, I did this." And I...

And maybe even write notes about that, how you spent that time and how it felt too. So like, "Between 1:00 and 2:00, I spent time doing my inventory, and then this is how it felt. And I noticed that I wanted to reach for my phone and scroll Instagram, and that's what I did for about 10 minutes to take a break," right? Like, if you, if you get really diligent and, and look at y- the way that you as a human are spending, is spending your time from an outside perspective, it may give you some great perspective to be able to understand that maybe you do have time, or maybe that y- maybe you have pockets of time that you can take back or fill with something productive that you want to actually take care of.

Again, short-term sacrifice for long-term gains. Sometimes you're gonna be in seasons where you just have to make the freaking time, even if you don't have it, even if you feel like you don't have it. We have 24 hours in the day, and I bet you that you're not using all of them. And I'm not saying that you should be exhausted, I'm not saying that you should, you know, completely be out of energy to where you can't do anything, but I do think that coffee, caffeine, and support, and motivation, and working towards the big ass dream that you want to achieve is absolutely important.

I would not have what I have today, uh, if it wasn't for the short seasons that I had in which I would be staying up late as fuck to implement and get things done. I think that self-care is so important, and I preach to boundaries all the time, but it's important to understand that sometimes in order to fully achieve those the majority of the time, in order to achieve the work/life balance the majority of the time and in the long run, the short-term sacrifice and working your ass off, even when you don't feel like it or when you're not motivated to, is sometimes essential And it's the tough news that nobody wants to hear, and I think that as we, you know, as we've moved into the era that we're moving in where we're all freaking burnt out and we're all exhausted and we are al- like, uh, all of our energy is so spent, I think that we are, we're losing this a little bit. That, that, the, losing the understanding that not everything just magically appears and comes to you, and nothing's gonna change unless you actually take action. And I feel like such a boomer right now, right?

'Cause like, I'm Gen Z, you know? Like, I'm a Zillennial. And I feel like such a boomer, because I used to be, like, a kid, and like, when people would tell me this kinda stuff, I'd be like, "No. Like, this is bullshit.

I'm gonna take care of myself, and I'm not gonna do anything that's, like, gonna burn me out." But guess what, girl? Sometimes it's fucking essential. And sometimes, you know, you just have to sacrifice to make it happen.

Because otherwise, you're just gonna be stuck in the same cycle that you're stuck in forever. And I'd rather you go through some temporary uncomfortability to break through that barrier versus always be in that cycle and then always be uncomfortable. It doesn't make sense. So, be comfortable with getting uncomfortable for a short amount of time and working your ass off.

And there are plenty of things that you don't want to do in your business, that you'll never be motivated by, that won't feel in alignment to you, that will absolutely be the game-changer for your business, that will absolutely turn things around for you. So, the motivation sometimes may not ever come. The, the, the time may not ever come. Well, guess what?

You may have to just freaking do the damn thing anyway. And it's important also too that we are very understanding of the value of our time and the value of the different ways that we spend our time. If you feel like you never have the time, it may be because you're spending so much time on all these little bullshit things that actually don't move you forward at all, things that are maintaining you, keeping you afloat, maintaining the business instead of growing you and growing the business. Those are two different things.

There are tasks that maintain the business, and then there are tasks that grow the business. The tasks that grow the business have infinitely more value attached to the time and the tasks that you are completing in them versus the ones that just maintain it, right? So, if you're spending e- if you're feeling like you don't have any time, it might be because... Any time to grow the business, right?

Any time to move closer to your goals. It may be because you're spending so much time on the shit that's just keeping it alive instead of the things that are actually growing itSo, you need to make sure, like we said earlier, how can we delete something that's maintain- that's just maintenance? How can we delegate something that's just maintenance? Or how can we systematize and streamline something that is just maintenance?

For example, in pre-visit pathway, we teach you how to streamline and automate and delegate all of those little measly bullshit tasks that have to do with your client communication, right? And your client experience. We completely automate that stuff. And we make it amazing for you and the client.

Like, you can onboard a client, make sure they're booked for the right thing and the right time with a click of a button, with no communication manually, like at all. And tha- those little things that don't seem like a lot, they freaking add up, right? Those emails that you may miss, getting back to a, a new client and their e- their questions for you, right? Or an inquiry.

Those little things that you miss and you forget about and that you stress about and that you have to spend a lot of time working on, those things will add your time onto your plate, and you'll never be able to actually implement anything or spend time or get back time to be able to grow the business. For example, if you've ever invested in a course and you feel like, oh my God, I just do not have the time to freaking watch this and implement it, et cetera, et cetera, well, did you make the time to do it or did you go into it willing to sacrifice some time to make it happen? Whenever anybody comes in the pre-visit pathway, I always recommend to them that this is now your number one priority. And the reason why is because you may be in these other things and you may wanna impleme- implement these other strategies, but without what you implement in pre-visit pathway, which is getting back more of your time, you're never gonna have the time to do anything else, right?

There are plenty of things and other strategies and other education out there that is going to help you so much, but if you haven't first bought back your time, then you're not gonna be able to ever make it happen, you're never gonna be able to pour into it what it deserves to actually grow and be effective for you. So, if you go into something like program or a strategy or something like that that is to that, that is designed to automate and streamline, then w- you need to make sure that that is your number one priority because your time should be your number one priority. And you may have to sacrifice to make it happen. Sorry if I sound like a broken record, but I've sacrificed a shit ton to get to where I am, and I am in a great place.

Trust and believe. But it's taken a lot of sacrifice in the beginning, but now I am, I have a great work/life balance. I have people who help me. I have systems and, and, and automations in place that completely streamline my work so I can just focus on the things that grow the business the most.

And the things that are gr- gonna grow your business the most are education, focusing on overall strategy, being able to focus on your numbers and learn. And the little things that where you can go out of your way where you can offer extra special high quality client experience, that is the stuff that will actually grow the business, but all of the mundane bullshit day-to-day tasks that you are taking care of right now are holding you back from those high value tasks. So, it's absolutely essential that you prioritize getting those off of your plate. And that's what we teach you within my programs.

If you're waiting for more time to magically appear one day, it's not going to. You need to create it or you need to buy it back and to create time, maybe wake up a little bit earlier, stay up a little bit later, make time in your schedule by shifting things around, streamline something, make it easier, get rid of the bullshit, stop focusing on what is just urgent and start focusing on what is important, 'cause there's a difference. Ask for support, ask for help, lean into resources. And buying time might look like ordering takeout instead of making a full meal every night for a short amount of time, hiring a babysitter or paying someone to clean your house to give you uninterrupted time to work on setting up your business systems, getting grocery delivery.

Also, if you have ADHD, all too often timeliness can be a really big, um, uh, demon of ours and it will make us feel like we don't have any time when, in reality, we are just distracted as hell and we are not prioritized. I'd re- I'd recommend that you, um, look into my other podcast episodes that have to do with ADHD, specifically 10 ADHD coping mechanisms for entrepreneurs. Um, that one's really helpful. So then of- then also too, like, when you go into whatever you have to work on, how have you set yourself up for the most success for how you're working on it?

So, my friends, you're gonna be stuck in the same cycle of I don't have time to do that unless you actually do something about it, right? You're never gonna be able to grow the business and hit your goals unless you actually do something, unless something actually changes. So, do you really want something if you're not willing to sacrifice for it? Like, do you actually want it?

'Cause if you actually want it, I think that it'd be worth sacrificing for it and I'd set myself up for the most success to be able to get it done and put in the time for it, my friend. All right? So, I know this was a short one. I know this was an intense one, and I'm very direct in this.

But I hope that it's helpful. I hope that g- it gives you the kick in the ass that you need. Of course, take care of yourself as well because if you don't take care of yourself, then you're never gonna be able to do anything. But taking care of yourself doesn't just look like short term, um, taking care of yourself.

Short term self-care looks like massages, watching TV, relaxing on the couch, taking a nap, but if you don't take that energy and you don't put it into long term self-care, the things that actually help you, such as doing the work that you need to freaking do that you know you need to do that'll actually help you, meal prepping, whatever it may be, then it's all gonna go to waste and you're just gonna be stuck in this cycle of misery and depression and not hitting your goals. Tr- and I speak from experience, okay? This is not me just, like, calling you out and gaslighting you. This is, like, my life, like, we've all, we all go through this, especially if you have ADHD.

Okay. So much love. I hope that you enjoyed this episode. Peace out cross cow.

Bye bye.

End of transcript. © 2023 Hunter Donia LLC.