Deliberate Traffic Control
Your "potential" is what makes you happy, healthy, and financially secure. I am not interested in living up to anyone else's "dreams" for me, nor am I interested in "scaling up" to a level that hijacks my time off/constantly training new staff. I do what fits my health. Period.
The minute my business starts to push on my gym time, streams will be cut.
If someone else wants a bigger scale business, they can go build their own.
If undercutting my potential safeguards my sanity, disability, do-not-disturb time off: so be it.
My business is also digital-only and by design to fit around multiple lanes. I am not someone who wants to be "on" 24/7.
With a disability, you need to switch off your mind more often from business more seriously... so you should only be focussing on as that convert and genuinely interested prospect and honestly honestly not just anybody because you're recharge time is precious so you can't know everyone and you cannot do everything... which means your professional relationships are going to be centred around the work itself and around your expertise and that's going to be enough for the right people. You don't actually need the rest as much as you're told. Energetic alignment magnetizes what's right for you!
My strong sense of self is not here to appease or impress anyone. My business has "on" and "off" hours and my private time is cherished with only 6, not 7 days to get everything done due to a mandatory crash day for insomnia. I refuse to allow my business development to follow me on personal private time and my ads/acquisition activities are done online, I separate my gym time from business time for mental sanity as that's my personal time to recharge. I no longer film my workouts either.
I leave space for "inspiring" at scale which is not "teaching" 1:1, that is not scalable and it's debilitating to think of how that would fit in my schedule and my need for managing my disability first, I do not have time to grow a team... Online content, drop-shipping and digital products are the extent of my availability which is designed to resonate with the right people.
We are all free to find a menu that suits us and respect ourselves first while we build our lives/businesses. This is designed a lifestyle business, not a clunky/heavy operations business that drags down my personal time.
If anyone doesn't understand this line of thinking, I would invite them to try to build their own business from scratch, and then let me know how they feel about protecting their personal time after that.
I am not in the 1:1 coaching or teaching business, I'm in the content business and in the drop-shipping business, that statement is very freeing mentally and lowers administrative costs.
My energetic alignment and sanity is more important than scaling because if I cannot do the basics correctly, there's no point in adding anything. I'm here for the people who respect the limits of my availability and how I'm able to show up. That extent (online plans, online videos, online instructions) will be right for the right people.
I don't tolerate added stress for no reason that disrespects the core priorities in the process.
Again, every menu is designed to cater to different people with varying needs, it's about finding what's aligned for our unique needs and my business needs to respect my own health condition.
You don't have to be available to show everybody the steps, the right people are going to be inspired just by you doing your thing and they're going to look into the steps in a manner that resonates with their own unique situation. There's no need for overexertion at all.
Inspiration by example will be enough for the right people as well as showing up through the content because we can't be everywhere and this is a way to show up on a "one to many" basis. We all have obligations, but we do what we can to uplift. ✨
My goal is to be an example of fitness so others are inspired to do their own research, that's all I can do via showing up through content (aside from selling actual digital solutions, but the inspiration is via the content itself).
If I can "spark" someone to keep going, start, or level up their health: I did my part. The "how" and steps are up to them.
Less social platforms = more longevity for me. Everyone works differently though. I am not worried about missing out on more views when I see the data and which ads truly convert serious leads (not the ones who are looking to leech off of others who work hard enough).
You living your life as who you are and being an example of health is all you need to do, it doesn't take much more than that to inspire the right people (to start their own journey themselves) and then content it's just a bonus and it is scalable and requires zero extra bandwidth (which is not unlimited, regardless of loving what you do as some think that passion means your brain should be in business mode non-stop and you should not mind putting in more hours, well personally, I do mind as my health is high maintenance with a disability that has a daily rest requirement that doesn't scale back).
Travelling is exhausting for me and being on video too much is exhausting for me as well so that's why blogging (still photos) is my first choice of content creation, and my sponsors don't seem to mind it. It's about conversion and preserving (not scattering) your energetic alignment as otherwise, you stop making good business decisions without time and space to think.
A baseline that allows for present and future stability for myself and my scholarship and moving at a peaceful pace and content creation (blog/marketing photos/inspiration) that respects my energy levels in the process is where it's at and maintaining my privacy on time off (so not being in business development mode or thinking about it when at the gym for *mental recharge* purposes, not using my brain which is still work even if I love it and this preserves the concept of a mental wheelchair).
I love my health more than my business which is why any additional work must be deliberate and not having time or logistical capacity is something I welcome anyone to look at in whatever way they please because I genuinely don't care to live my life according to anyone else's thought process but my own (that would be a waste of my self-awareness and inner work).
Loving what you do means protecting your time off so you can show up properly on time "on" and sustain what you have built.
Adding value at scale = content. It is general enough as personalized advice can't be given outside a client-practitioner relationship in nutrition/personal training for those who actually value professional boundaries. It also helps people get a sense of brand personality.
And...
Scalable digital products that do not require my physical presence and solve problems for others seeking that style of solution at scale and minimal ads on platforms that convert protects my rest/sustainable longevity.
Your mind is your control centre. For me, scattered energy stops my ability to think clearly and the core/baseline priorities need to be handled correctly as nothing extra makes sense, certainly not speculative ROI. I guard my mental recharge time.
You can have ambition, but not be willing to get there by any means necessary other than the methods that respect your disability first and foremost and that's what has changed.
I also chose an online fundraiser as a method to give back, which doesn't require my physical presence either so that my disability is handled and I don't pour from empty.
Boundaries do not infringe or take anything away from anyone (this concept doesn't disrespect their rights, it doesn't put them down, it does not harm them, it simply preserves your wholeness and health), they protect you: my biggest lesson in burnout prevention.
Self-care has to be more sophisticated with an invisible or invisible disability (we have more to manage and more to lose), and I don't really care what anybody wants to think about it and if they want to think that it's lavish or crazy, they're not the ones funding my future, funding my security and paying my bills. Essentially, whatever uplifts my spirits, reduces needs for total time off, and makes sure that I can remain in the workforce and a business owner is what's going to have to happen and I am not on this planet to manage perceptions. Those who don't comprehend it can simply mind their business and keep it moving.
Guarding your peace and personal time isn't the same as looking down on or insulting anyone (it's not harming others), this is about allowing yourself to have guaranteed quiet time to recharge mentally and the right ones will respect this (you don't need to tolerate impositions on your private time off, everything - except dependents - should stay in its lane and not expect access to what doesn't belong to it in the first place).
Side-note that sort of ties in:
True recovery from trauma means letting go completely of the illusion that we can—or even should—meet everyone else's expectations, needs, wants, and fantasies of who we are or ought to be (be it who we are as a person or what we offer as a business).
It involves letting go of the unattainable goal of being everything to everyone or even trying to (that sounds like extreme exhaustion and insanity because people have their own filters and those change daily). That’s just not feasible logistically or mentally and it's similar to the concept of accepting your limits as normal, rather than being irritated at their existence...
No one who genuinely cares for you as a human is going to be bothered by you having limits, it's not logical to have no cap on your capacity.
Choosing deals wisely:
I would be confused if any business deal was less than a reciprocal two-way street. Who would expect you to labour for speculative ROI and since when is someone's "word" enough to make it make sense? It's a two-way street and if a brand doesn't approach it as such, do not work with them, they're seeking to exploit by trying to build fake relationsh*ts so they can exploit and take advantage of your loyalty if you're stupid enough to fall for false promises of future rewards as if you have no bills to cover in the present moment to keep your business running.
The manipulative angle of acting like someone's best friend just so you can sell them something is actually crazy. There's a way to be personable and efficient and respect people's time, you do that by getting to the point and admitting that you're trying to sell something.
You respect their wellness by respecting their time and the fact that people have limited business hours, you don't approach people like a best friend when you're literally trying to sell them something. It's insane to me.
Professional business relationships can be personable, but they form based on the mutual business need and we show respect by respecting people's time so they can tend to their personal life/wellness by getting to the point (respecting efficiency and the limited nature of time) and adding genuine value through the work itself (the purpose for the deal in the first place).
Fertile soil and equally yoked means the vision of both parties are advanced by the deal, like with Forbes and Adobe having set the standard for brand deals that are focused, clear, and direct. Thank you for the beautiful collaborations that my heart cherishes still to this day.
You should have your own goals and they should have their own and you should meet in the middle, which is why you're working together, if the brand deal does not support both sides, you have no business working with them. You're not an extension of anyone else.
I think we realize that the people who are bothered that you have your own needs and goals in an equation are the ones who are just mad that they couldn't exploit you. We don't work with people like that (those who disrespect that business is offering a service for money). We leave them in the dust. We leave them in the past, exactly where they belong.
I choose boundaries and authenticity, the freeloading children (cry-babies mad that self-respecting experts do not work for free past the point of offering an abundance of free content on blogs) can go play somewhere else and play someone else who doesn't have life experience to discern that these duplicitous fools and vision-hijackers would never do the same for you if the roles were reversed.