Go a little behind the Semper Sarah LLC scenes to hear a bit of Sarah’s personal background, more of her business story with commentary on social entrepreneurship and business advice, plus get 12 tips for better health. It’s a dynamic “three-fer!” 😉
Personal background goes until about the 10 minute mark, then business-specific story begins.
Business advice starts around minute 20.
Health tips begin around minute 33.
To review the 3 business related tips..
1. Don’t’ be a nerd squirrel
2. Engage in informed risk-taking.
3. Make a schedule but be willing to deviate from it.
Then the video cut out for a bit 🙁
So, here are my notes from that part of the presentation:
In addition to incorporating SEMPER into your health and business, I’d say…
1. Don’t be a nerd-squirrel – Avoid shiny-objection obsession – one of my business partners and I call this being a nerd-squirrel. You’re on track, then BAM! Some new exciting academic or business related thing opportunity appears in front of you. Have you ever done this? I know it’s easy for me to think, “I can do this, so I should.” However, every time I take the proverbial “step back” and simplify, my business grows. When I remember, “Just because I can do something, doesn’t mean I need to.” Sometimes I have this fear of not doing enough, so simplifying sounds scary to me. The truth of the matter is that simplifying almost never means that things get dull, rather, that my efforts get more focused. There is still tons to do, but what simplifying helps me do is close the doors that need to be closed and allow space for others to open.
When presented with a new business opportunity, I also ask myself, “Will initial excitement morph into long-term stress?” We obviously don’t always know for sure the direction things will take, but taking a breath can be really powerful. Being excited about what you do is a huge part of being an entrepreneur. We don’t quit our full time, secure jobs to work ourselves into the ground if we’re not excited about what we’re doing, right? But that kind of leads into my second point
2. Engage in informed risk-taking. Be pumped about what you do and willing to take risks for the cause, but don’t be reckless. Be a lifelong student. You never really “arrive.” Embrace imperfection…welcome it by finding joy in the journey instead of fearing the unknown. One of the best moves I made was running my first JRWIB about 10 months ago. Knowing what I know now, I knew nothing; but I knew a lot at the time for where I was, and took action based on the information I had. Key point here is be willing to find clarity through action. I find myself repeating this to myself and my business coaching clients a lot. Ideas are great, and a starting point, but there’s never any guarantee about the outcome. It’s like in the Marines we were always told to go with the 80% solution; if you wait for the perfect situation or all the information, you’ll never act, and you’ll get overrun. I see this happen with businesses. Which leads into tip three…
3. Make a schedule. Then be willing to deviate from it. It’s the difference between strategy and tactics. I schedule strategy sessions with myself on Monday mornings. We had these in the military with staff meetings, briefs, debriefs galore. Give yourself a foundation from which to work. Perfect segue into talking about the health and wellness tips because self-care is not selfish because it helps you be more effective and efficient at work.
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