Ep #325: In Need of a Reset?

Stacey Brown Randall: How are you doing? It’s September. There’s only four months left in the year. And I don’t know about you, but I am in need of a serious reset. So let’s talk about it.

Hey there, and welcome to episode 325 of the Roadmap to Referrals podcast, a show that proves you can generate referrals without asking or manipulation. I’m your host, Stacey Brown Randall. My journey from a business failure to a successful business now 10 years in, I know generating referrals naturally and consistently has made all the difference. Working with clients around the world, we leverage the science of referrals, protect relationships above all else, and help you build a referable business.

So it’s September, and I don’t know about you, but I feel like I’m coming into this fall season a little bit behind the eight ball. It could be because we had a very busy summer, which is actually unusual for us as a family.

My children have always seemed to have busy summers, but that’s because they’re at day camps or they’re at overnight camps. And that’s been like, but Norm and I didn’t go to day camps, right? We didn’t go to overnight camps throughout the entire summer every week.

You know, when your kids are younger, and if your kids are younger right now, or you had kids who were younger, you know when they’re younger and they’re not really truly self-sufficient and you really can’t leave them alone during the summer, you put them in camps, like mini kind of camps.

And so sometimes they’re overnights, but most of the time they’re like day camps, right? Oh, you’re gonna go to cooking camp this week. Oh, here you go, you’re going to soccer camp this week.

And then they get a little older and they hit like their teenage years, those middle school years, teenage years, and they kind of age out of camps. And we’ve had a couple summers of that, right? I mean, I’ve got, I’ve have boys, my boys are two years away from graduating high school. So we’ve been out of a camp summer experience for a really long time.

But even in that case, without having, like, feeling like, you know, oh, we’ve got to take the kids to this camp or that camp or whatever, Norm and I never had these summers that just felt very, very busy. And then this summer was very different for us. And it’s just unusual.

You may have super busy summers and you’re like, this is all we know. But for the Randall household, all we know is actually more lazy days than anything else, I would say.

Now, in fairness, the beginning of our summer is filled with a lot of baseball. And it has been for years and years and years. But once that settles down, usually the rest of the summer, just kind of like, you know, I don’t know, sails on by, like it’s just not busy.

But this year we actually, not all of us together, all five of us, but I’ll talk about it from my perspective. I had eight trips. Four were on plane and four were by car. Two were purely business. One was a combo business plus family trip. And the rest were actually like trips. I don’t know if I would use the word vacation for all of them, but they were trips.

And it led to a very go, go, go kind of pace. And what for me, it would be sometimes it felt like I was traveling every single week, or sometimes it would feel like I would get back and I would be traveling for a week or part of a week, have a week at home, and then I’d be traveling again.

I mean, in August, I remember I like headed out to Dallas, came home two days later, headed out to Orlando. And it felt like the summer kind of just zigged and zagged like that for us. And I hit this point when, like, two of my kids go back to school middle of August. The other one doesn’t go back until the end of August.

And then I did my, actually my ninth trip, technically in the summer, I guess you could call it that, when I was a chaperone for, I guess not a chaperone, I was more of a working volunteer at two of my kids, like a two-day overnight they do at a Young Life Camp as part of their school experience that they have for where they go to school.

And so I went and like served meals. three meals a day for like two days, two and a half days. It was a very long field trip, I guess, for me, so to speak. So technically that would have been my ninth trip.

And I just came back feeling like I needed a reset, more so a reset in all areas, not just business, but a big part needing that reset in business and just like the ability to like reorient myself. So I decided that that’s what I would embark on is just giving myself a little space to just do a reset.

And I thought maybe you’d want to know what that process looked like. So if you do, keep listening to this episode. If you’re like, I don’t need to know how you do a business or a life reset, Stacey, then you can just move on and come back and join us next week for the next episode that we put on.

But just for you to know kind of how it is when I do the podcast episodes, I typically batch produce. I usually can get out three really easily, and then that fourth one every month, or if there’s a fifth week in that month, it may take me another time that I sit down to batch the last one or the last two, depending on if there’s four in a month or if there’s five episodes in a month.

So when August rolled around, like when July, at the end of July, I was like done with the August episodes minus like the last one of August, but I was like done. And then I got that one done right after I got back from some travel. And so all the August episodes, and this is typically not always, but typically what happens is that they’re done at the end of the month prior or the beginning of the month.

Case in point for this episode, it’s Friday, August, what is today’s date? 30th. This episode will drop into your earbuds, into your AirPods, onto your favorite podcast listening app in four days.

My poor editor. I just want to give a quick shout out to Chris for putting up with me because this is not normally how I try to do it with her. This is not our agreement, but she does know how to extend grace, which I really appreciate because she should have had this last week, and it didn’t happen.

Or actually she should have all of September’s now and she’s just getting the first one for September and it’s four days before it’s supposed to drop into the podcast app. So apologies to Chris, apologies for that.

So I can tell, I can feel it in my very being that I just need some space and some time to do a reset. So this is what my reset will look like. And if this is helpful great let me know I’d love for you to come back and share it with me that this was helpful for you, and you appreciate it kind of hearing.

But I find that there are periods of time during the year where it’s not just that I’m in need of a reset but like my body feels like I’m in need of a reset. And I feel like those times are always at the beginning of the year. Always when fall is starting and it’s back to school season.

Sometimes heading into the start of summer. Sometimes I feel like I’m limping into the start of summer. Just kind of depends on how everything’s gone with business and with my kids. And then of course at the end of the year.

So I know that’s interesting. You’re like, you’re like, you need to reset at the end of the year. And then at the beginning of the year. I don’t know what that’s about for me. But my end of year, I mean, like around Thanksgiving, I feel like I need to do like a reset for December.

And then of course, I do my goal setting for the next year, or actually, if you’ve been following me for a long time, you know, I do this actual reverse goal setting process. But just like rechecking in on that usually happens in December.

So for me, I feel like I always need a reset like in January. And then because now the kids are back at school, we’re getting going with business. So it’s kind of like I just need that reset in January. I need that. Usually, I can make it towards like May, right, as we’re getting ready to head into summer, needing another reset.

I always need one in August or September as we’re getting back into school. And then usually right as the heavy holiday season Thanksgiving starts, I always feel like I need another reset, plus that’s also when I start doing my goal setting.

So those are kind of the moments where I feel it physically as well as mentally and emotionally, that it’s just time for a reset. But this time, of course, because of the summer I’ve had, I’m feeling it even more.

So what I try to do when I’m doing a reset is I do what I call a massive rain barrel. That’s always my first step is like get everything in my head out. I call it a rain barrel because I think about it. It’s like a brain dump, obviously, but I think about it like a rain barrel. And I think about like all this rain dropping from the sky and I’m collecting it in a huge barrel.

And the droplets that are dropping from the sky, all these water droplets that are dropping, are things in my head that I probably need to do. They’re tasks, they’re projects, they’re ideas. And so I just like to get them out of my head. And I find the best way for me to do that is with sticky notes.

And so I will grab a pack of sticky notes, I will sit down, and I will just literally let the rain pour, let the droplets pour out of my brain. And it’ll be personal stuff, it’ll be business stuff, it’ll be a combination of anything, and I just get it out.

Sometimes it depends on where I’m sitting as to what actually is triggered more. So if I’m sitting in my kitchen at my island and I’m doing this, a lot of house stuff and personal stuff and kid stuff will probably come out in addition to work stuff.

So sometimes I’ll like move locations. Because when I’m sitting here in my office, which is outside of my house, I have just a different perspective. I’m like looking around at things on my walls and on my desk and like currently right now on my floor and looking around at things being like, oh yes.

And it allows me to think about, of course the things that are like already on my to-do list come out and I let those, I obviously capture those on sticky notes, but also, it’s new things that are popping up. It’s like, oh gosh, I don’t want to forget that. And so it’s one idea, one task, one project, whatever it is, it’s one thing per sticky note.

Now, when I’m feeling it, I will try to have different colors. The personal stuff will be on one color and the business stuff will be on another color. Sometimes they come to me so fast, and I’m trying to write so fast, I’m not paying attention to what colors I grab. And then I am one of those people who will go back and rewrite them on the correct color.

It’s an extra step. I should probably not do it, but I can’t help myself. And then I can visually see, in writing, with a crap ton of sticky notes in front of me, all the things that I want to accomplish.

That can be a very overwhelming feeling if you don’t have a process to deal with now what could be dozens and dozens or maybe even a hundred sticky notes in front of you. So the very first thing I do is I separate personal out from business.

Again, if I’ve been good doing the rain barrel and I put them on colors, that’s really easy. If not, I have to separate them out business from personal.

Now, I usually set a timer when I do this. I give myself about seven minutes to do it, and I see what comes out, and then I’ll walk away from it. I’ll come back, and I’ll usually give myself another round of seven minutes.

Will things pop up later? Yes, and I’ll just make sure I make note of them and write them down. So 14 minutes, because you can do this for an hour, but you will probably go insane. At least I think I would.

So from my perspective, it’s like, OK, just put everything down. Everything’s out. Everything’s great. And from that perspective, now I’ve got them separated personal and business.

The very next step of what you do is really important when you are looking at your personal sticky notes on one side of the table or the floor or the whatever, right? And all the business stuff on the other side. So this next step is really, really important once you’ve separated business from personal.

Stacey Brown Randall: Hey there, pardon the interruption. If you’re a longtime listener to this podcast, then you’ve heard me mention my Building a Referable Business coaching program. But did you know the coaching program is only one of the three ways to work with me?

You can dip your toe in and get started with my starter course, called Your Next Five Referrals. It’s an online program that gives you the basics that you need to have in place. In fact, it’s the things I wish you would have in place before you start working with me in either my Building a Referable Business Coaching program or at my highest level, which is my VIP program.

Links to all three ways to work with me, Your Next Five Referrals starter course, the Building a Referable Business Coaching Program, and my VIP Referrals in a Day experience are listed in the show notes page for this episode. Okay, now let’s get back to the episode.

Stacey Brown Randall: So the next thing you wanna do when you have your sticky notes separated between business and personal is look for the things that are clearly in the future.

Like, if I happen to write down that I want to renovate my bedroom, that is so not happening anytime soon. I dream about it, I would love to have it happen, it’s not in the plans, it’s not happening. So it clearly goes into a future pile. And I just stack them up.

So I just take the things away that are so very clear, like in the future, because sometimes I don’t know what’s gonna come out of my head when I do a rain barrel. So I will grab the things that are clearly future and I will remove them and they get their own little stack. I just stack them one on top of the other.

The next thing I look for is I start figuring out what are the priorities. Now, this is where it can get a little hard because sometimes everything feels like a priority, but in reality, everything is not a priority.

I find when I do the rain barrel, the things that are already on my to-do list, like to do tomorrow or next week, they don’t come out in a rain barrel because my brain knows, well, those are already captured. So those aren’t the things I think about.

And so, and sometimes as I’m doing this, I do allow my brain to just wander. Because I could grab an idea and have three or four thoughts about it and I’ll just jot those down on that sticky note within that one idea. So I do give space for my brain to wander. I’m not sure if that’s a good way to do it or not, it’s just kind of how it works for me.

So I do feel like the sticky note process of getting everything out of my head and down on a sticky note does also sometimes like little ideas will bubble up and they’ll percolate in my head and I do like to capture those because there is no way I’ll remember them 15 minutes from then and I know it.

So once I’ve got the future set aside and then I’m looking for priorities. I know those priorities aren’t probably like I need to record a podcast episode for tomorrow. It’s not because that’s already on the to-do list. But then I look at kind of like what’s next.

And after I’m paying attention to what’s next, then I can start putting things in some type of order. So I got the priorities, and then I can figure out what goes into order. And I like to look at things of like, hey, I’m gonna try to accomplish that this month, that is next month, and then anything past that is probably in the future stack.

For me, the rain barrel allows me to do a reset because it gets everything out of my head, it gets everything down in writing, on paper, in a movable way where I can move things around, and then I can decide how I want to tackle it.

The other thing that I do as part of a reset is I do a lot of cleaning. I do a lot of organizing, a lot of throwing away, a lot of cleaning.

I knew that I was in desperate need of a reset when I found myself one morning sitting down in front of my kitchen, I mean, sitting down in front of my bathroom vanity and I was reorganizing the shelves.

I was like, oh. This is just like a tell all sign for me when I start organizing things and I start cleaning things out and reorganizing things and start thinking about all the new containers I want to buy at Ikea or even Target to get that area organized. I’m like, oh, I’m in need of a reset.

So, I do a lot of organizing in the office. I do a massive cleaning in my office. In addition to organizing in my office, I’ll make new folders with new labels. Yes, I am a label maker kind of person. That may not surprise you at all. But I’ll just reorganize everything, and I’ll create plan of attacks.

And then sometimes I will end up on pieces of paper, like, writing down, okay, here’s the things that I want to make sure that I accomplish. There’s not a hard and fast, I have to do it this way. This is just how I naturally kind of move through it.

So I do the rain barrel, massive brain dump onto sticky notes of everything in my head, personal and business, and then organizing that. And then I do some serious cleaning and organizing. And that is going to be in my office, but it’s also probably going to happen in my home as well.

I’ll do massive organizing of a closet. or an area of the house. I do try to stay out of the kids’ rooms when this moment in me is happening, because I show no mercy and have zero sentimental value. I’m like, nothing is sentimental to me, and I will toss everything.

So I do try to keep myself out of my kids’ rooms, because I will probably get rid of stuff that actually matters to them that I just don’t think has any value, and that’s not my place. So I try to avoid their bedrooms when I’m in this mode.

But I usually give myself, you know, this isn’t something I’m giving myself three days to do. I don’t need to go away to do this. Just give myself a morning and knock it out. Maybe in the middle of it I’ll go for a walk, probably treat myself to a Starbucks, right? Maybe I’ll treat myself to something else.

So I just, and if I need to like do part of it and then walk away from it because it’s getting like heavy and like, oh my gosh, I’m so behind, I walk away from it and maybe I’ll come back to it the next day.

I don’t have boundaries with this type of process that it can only be done Monday through Friday. If this is something I do on a Saturday morning before anybody else is awake, or I’m doing it at a different time because all the kids are at sleepovers and Norm is doing his fantasy draft, then I may pop into the office and do that too.

So from that perspective, I don’t have hard and fast boundaries as to, oh, it can’t happen on a weekend. It’s just whenever I’m going to get it done, because here’s what I know, and here’s what I hope for you.

At the end of a reset for me in my personal life and in my business life, at the end of a reset for me getting organized and having a clear plan of action, what I know is how I’m gonna feel. And so when it happens matters less, that it happens matters most.

So if this happens late one evening, great. I try not to watch television, like I never try to watch television or be on my phone while I am doing this. That is a big no-no because I will get distracted.

And besides, you’re on the clock. You’re doing a seven-minute round and then a seven-minute round, and maybe you’ll do a third seven-minute round. But once you’re on the clock, you can’t really be distracted.

Some people ask me this question, do you listen to music? If you don’t have the television on or anything, do you listen to music? I don’t, but I like silence.

Other people, like I couldn’t clean the entire house without any music on and clean it in silence and I’m totally fine. I’m totally fine lost in my own thoughts and in my own head and sometimes thinking about nothing literally.

Like my husband and my daughter can’t go a minute without having music on. So I think that’s up to you. I find music distracting because I want to like sing along and so that’s why I don’t do it. But again, to each their own, how you want to do it, make it work for you.

But that is how I do a business reset. And I have very much felt like I was in dire, dire need of that after I’m coming out of the summer that I have had and heading into getting my kids back to school. It feels like back-to-school season for me as well, even though my summer was very busy with work stuff too. It was very busy.

I’ve got a number of new VIP clients that I’m working with. I just got to spend time in Dallas with a VIP client. I’m headed to Florida twice for two different VIP clients. I get to go to Miami, and I get to go to Boca. So I’m very excited for that. So September is going to be a busy month in and of itself.

And the manuscript is due October 1st for book number two for the next editor that I have that I’m working with, my publisher. And so while the manuscript is not done-done October 1st, but it’s one of our deadlines for me to have a rewrite done so it can move to the next level of editing.

So September is going to be busy in and of itself. So I’m excited for that. Well, I mean, I’m partially excited for that. It actually sounds like a lot of work now that I’m saying it all out loud. But this reset was really important for me, and it was really necessary. And hopefully this episode will help you as well.

The show notes page for this episode can be found at StaceyBrownRandall.com/325, which is where you’ll also find the links to any resources mentioned.

We’re back with another great episode next week created with you and your needs in mind. Until then, you know what to do, my friend. Take control of your referrals and build a referable business. Bye for now.