As an entrepreneur who’s built profitable and purposeful companies through my lifestyle brand, Actress with Style, and my personal branding consulting service, The Billionaire Blogger Society, the single most important lesson that I had to learn to ensure the success of my businesses was to take care of myself first.
If I wasn’t full within myself then I would have nothing to give to my audience and to my clients, and before my business could flourish, I had to learn how to first flourish from within. Through building an arsenal of self-esteem building and self-care practices, I was able to show up for myself and my business in a more healthy, productive, and effective way.
What was born of this newfound mindset, is my first book, Sugar Pills: 10 Ways to Awaken Your Inner Power. For this experience of personal and professional growth, I wanted to share with you how to grow your bottom-line through healthy self-care practices. Be sure to comment on which insights speak to you and share your own story of self-care and securing the bag.
1. Secure the bag through inspired action
The only way that you’re actually going to make money doing what you love, is by doing it! One of the biggest hindrances to building a profitable business is by being paralyzed by fear and never getting started or by starting and then stopping the moment you hit a road bump. The way to get over this business building block is by building up your accountability, both to you self and to your team.
Self-care Tip: Awaken the Power of Accountability
The way to transform your vision, dreams, plans, and strategies, into a real life manifestation and accomplish your goals, is by holding yourself and your team accountable. Be accountable to show up for yourself, to think out of the box, to take risks, to learn from your mistakes, to not be afraid to fail, and to make sure that you surround yourself by people who are really there to support you and to cut dead weight when needed.
At the end of the day, the only person responsible for your success is yourself, so you have to take accountability and responsibility for your actions and decisions, and most importantly, for how you spend your time.
2. Secure the bag by not settling for less than what you deserve
You have to remember that you’re running a business and not a charity. One of the biggest obstacles that I faced when building my brand was people asking me to work for free or at a discounted rate. If I had continued to devalue the work that I did for my clients, I would have never been able to quit my “survival job” and become a full-time entrepreneur.
The trick to not settling is to build up your self-esteem and self-confidence so that you’re so secure and grounded in who you are and the value that you provide for your clients, that you’re unwilling to disrespect yourself and your business by working for free.
Self-care Tip: Awaken The Power of Having Standards
Having and enforcing standards and boundaries is one of the most effective ways to activate your power. We condition people on how they treat us, so if you don’t have standards and boundaries in both your personal and professional life, then you can find yourself being stretched too thin, not fulfilled, exhausted, and worn out, because people will take from you as much as you’re willing to give, so you need to establish boundaries in order to protect your time, energy, and space. The best way to show people how you to treat you, is by example. The way you treat yourself is the number 1 indicator of how other people think that they can treat you.
Questions to ask yourself: What do I expect of myself, in terms of honesty, trust, respect, and accountability? What do I expect from other people, in terms of honesty, trust, respect, and accountability? Then make sure that your actions are in alignment with those expectations.
3. Secure the bag by building an unstoppable team
The quickest way to manifest your professional goals and dreams is by building a team that believes in your vision and is equipped to do their jobs efficiently and effectively. The bottom-line is that your business and your brand is only as strong as your people so it’s imperative to be mindful of the employees that you hire and the friends and associates that you surround yourself with, because they will determine how far and how quickly you grow.
Self-care Tip: Awaken the Power of Your Circle
Beware of the company that you keep. There’s a reason why the saying, “Birds of a feather, flock together,” always rings true. If you want to know where you’re at in your life and more importantly, where you’re going, just look around at your inner circle of friends. It’s super important to be able to trust the people that you surround yourself with and also make sure that you are surrounded by people that not only encourage you, but also are at a level that you aspire to be at.
You don’t want to be the most successful person in your circle and you also want to be with people that add value to your life. Take an inventory of who you have in your life and involved in your business and write-out what value they add to your life, business, and bottom-line.
4. Secure the bag by having a vision for your life
If you don’t know what you’re going or what your endgame is, then you’ll continually to be lost and unproductive in both your life and career. Set goals and milestone for where you want to take your business and actually see yourself succeeding in those areas. You won’t be able to grow your business if you don’t have a clear understanding of what you’re trying to create. The trick here is to dream big and not limit yourself and the expectations that you have for your business because the only boundaries that your business has are the boundaries that you create for yourself.
Self-care Tip: Awaken the Power of a Vision
“Before the world can see it, the mind must imagine it.” You must know
what you want your life to look before you can create it. The power of
visualizing your success and life is paramount to manifesting those things into
your reality. The best part is, visualizing and having a vision is 100% free
and you can do it right now and start transforming your life.
Also, the vision you have for you life is a great checkpoint for how you move through your current circumstances and the decisions you make, you can ask yourself, “Is this in alignment and in service to what the greater vision for my life is?” Use your vision as a compass for daily actions.
When visualizing your life be sure to feel it. Feel what it feels like to cross the finish of your goal, to buy your dream home, ride in your dream car, have healthy and happy relationships, making your first million, or whatever it is.
5. Secure the bag by respecting your elders
Just because we live in a digital savvy world, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a wealth of knowledge, wisdom, and insights from those that came before us. The best way to implement a profitable plan to build your brand is by creating a blueprint based successful strategies from established entrepreneurs and business leaders. This means being strong and vulnerable to ask for help, advice, and guidance when needed.
Remember: even though it is your business, you do not have to build it alone.
Self-care tip: Awaken the Power of Mentorship
Learning from someone who is has done what you’re trying to do is one of the most invaluable resources that you can have. The trick is to find someone that you can trust and that genuinely wants to help you win and achieve your goals. You can learn from their triumphs as well as their mistakes and they can insights on how to reach your goal quicker, how to adjust your mindset, and how to up-level your circle.
I’ve had trouble finding someone to be my mentor. I would reach out to people and for whatever reason, it never really worked out. So I turned to YouTube and watch people that I admired during their interviews, masterclasses, documentaries, and videos. If you can’t find someone to be your mentor in-person, then search for their personal and professional stories online.
