Optimize and Thrive
Download MP3Hello, and welcome to the Service Based Business Society podcast. I'm your host, Tiffany Ann Bodger. On our weekly episodes, we will dig into everything you need to know about scaling your service based business without losing sleep. With my experience in creating over 7 figures per month and a passion for marketing, finance, and automation, this show will provide tangible tips and techniques for scaling your business. Let's get started.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Hello and welcome back. It is season 4 and had anyone told me 3 seasons ago that this would this would have turned into such an amazing adventure, I honestly would have laughed. And I touched on it a little bit at the end of last season, but I really wanted to highlight today that the business journey, the entrepreneurship journey is really one to celebrate the milestones, celebrate the bumps and turns. You know, each time we have a guest on the podcast, I typically ask, you know, how did you get into your business? How did you get into this line of work?
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:When did you know that, you know, your whatever is your zone of genius, your passion, your business, however you phrase it, how did you know this was yours? This is a question I ask over and over again and I actually discuss asking this question often before a guest even before we hit the record button. And the reason that I do that is is because I think it really shows a wide range of getting started stories, if we want to call it that. You know, this season we will have some incredible guests and they will start from all different walks of life. And I think it just really highlights that you can start from anywhere.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:That having a business takes more than an idea. It takes that entrepreneurial I have an idea but it also takes so much more. It takes the ability to execute that idea. It takes that ability to actually convey, explain, and sell that idea to someone else. And then it takes the ability to repeat that while still making money and not losing your sanity.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:I know that actually sounds like a a tall order. As I'm as I'm saying it, it sounds like a tall order. And it's one of those pieces that should really not be underestimated. The business journey is a tough one. And one of the pieces that I often talk to our clients about is that when you are starting a business, it's very different than what you see as a giant or you think of as a giant corporation.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:You know, the decisions that companies like Amazon, Apple are are making are very different than a lot of companies. They're different than the decisions I'm making. They're different than the decisions you're making. And ultimately those business decisions are reflective of where you are, who you are, what your skills are, what the skills of your team or lack thereof are and that is truly an interesting piece that's part of the journey. Because not only do we all have different ideas, we all also have different attributes, different skill sets, different things we're good at, different desires to work, different desires to sleep, different desires to spend a certain amount of time with family.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:This season I'm gonna share a little bit because I am looking to add back some time in the gym. Now this isn't gonna turn into a fitness podcast because I am in no means qualified to offer any kind of fitness advice. However, here's where this can be helpful to you. Whether or not you are interested in adding back a little more time in the gym or whether you're interested in adding back more time making dinner, adding back more time with the kids, adding back more time catching up on the house. It doesn't matter what it is.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:It just matters that you want to find time for it, but you don't want it, whatever it is, to slow down your success. You don't want it to get in the way. And so systematically, I have, over the time that I have been an entrepreneur, really tried to solve each piece. So you've heard me talk in previous seasons that at one point that laundry was going to be the death of me. And you may laugh a little bit about that but it truly was.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:When I came from corporate, and this is a bit of one of those moments that I'm gonna share, we had a full time nanny. So I left super early in the morning. I got home late at night. I had young kids and we spent all sorts of time together in the evenings, on the weekends, doing all these things. But to be honest, during the day I spent a lot of time away and did from when they were very young.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:We had a full time nanny and there were certain things that that person in our lives that that childcare provider, the person who is helping at our home, that they did. And I will never forget when I left the corporate space and we decided we were not gonna have a nanny and I was going to make the time in my business to also take care of our kids and be a little more present as a mom, the 1st week comes around and I will never forget my son middle son saying to me mom I'm out of pants! And me thinking well that doesn't that doesn't happen. Oh wait oh wait that would be me that's me I need to make sure those pants are washed it just it had fallen off my radar and it wasn't something that I did you know? And so we were super fortunate then and I'll be honest when I say I feel more fortunate now to get to wash the pans but for a long time the laundry was going to be the death of me.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:We are a family of 5 Young kids, sports, growing up, mess, you know, all of those things. And it was a lot of laundry. For a long time I had no idea how I was going to get it all done. I've spoken on previous seasons and the laundry was something that I tackled. I can now say our laundry is no longer a problem.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:It just gets done. It gets done on a system. It gets done on a system just like in my business. And overall, I would say that our laundry struggles have been solved. But we have other struggles.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Much like a business, when you solve one problem and you grow, you grow into another problem. And then you solve that one and then it's a new problem. And by problem I just mean challenge. There's no problem that can't be solved. They're all just challenges that need new solutions.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:But you have new challenges. So there's 2 challenges in my life around my business that this season I'm gonna work on solving. Number 1: eating out. We eat out too much. I know this is super common.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:A lot of families that are on the road all the time and so, you know, we're always at sports and practices and this and that. It was actually, my son being diagnosed with a number of allergies just at the end of the last season of the podcast that has really made me be better at planning food in advance. I've never been a food planner. The entire time that I went to school in university I worked at restaurants so I always just hate dinner at work. I've never really been a food planner.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:It's been a bad habit for a long time. But my son being diagnosed with allergies the only silver lining that has come from that because if you know anything about food allergies and planning ahead it is it is a challenge is that I have gotten so much better at planning food. I feel like our food, although far from perfect, is much better. I order groceries on Sundays. I ensure that, you know, we have food for everyone who has all these different preferences and allergies and this and that.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:So it's a work in progress. It is much better than it once was. But exercise. Exercise has not been something that I have really actively added back to my schedule since I left corporate. I have been in a couple you know, I was in a car accident.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:I dealt with a bunch of injuries yada yada yada but enough of the excuses this season I'm adding it back. And I'm mentioning this not because I want to overshare on the personal side but because ultimately these are the things that we have to build our business around. It's our life. And so we can talk about solving business problems but we also need to remember that our business must exist around our life. As I just mentioned one of the things that I do is order groceries.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Now here's where I justify it to myself. I used to, when I would go to the grocery store, shop at the grocery store closer to me. It was more expensive. I enjoyed grocery shopping there. The other grocery store: very large.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:I have to cruise all the aisles. It takes forever. And so now if I do the online order, I online order from the further away grocery store that is less expensive. So as much as I have to pay the grocery delivery fee it actually offsets with the lower cost of groceries. These are the things we need to be looking for the optimizations that we're going to be looking for in life to allow more time for life, business, personal growth, professional growth, whatever those pieces are.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:When we look at optimizing life, you have to there is no there is no secret sauce. There is no one size fits all. If you are someone who can pop into the grocery store and in half an hour every week buzz around get your groceries maybe that's not the optimization for you. But that is the optimization for me because while my groceries are being picked out by the person who is in charge of picking them and delivering them, I have folded all the laundry. So now I'm killing 2 birds with 1 stone and ultimately because of the allergies we have multiple grocery stores in order to get all of the things and so more time.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:These are the things that really make a difference in my life. Now let's look at business because that's why we're all really here and this season is all about optimizing life. It's about scaling success. It's about, you know, learning where we come from and using that to grow even bigger, better, more successful lives. Now when we look at business, when we look at this podcast as a perfect example, we say you cannot always predict what's going to happen.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:You know, there's a there's a saying that goes around, you know, what if I fail? And then it says, well, but what if you don't? And so that's that's exactly that saying captures exactly what we must remember. We must remember that, sure, we can fail and you probably will multiple times, but you can also go and be wildly successful. You can do amazing things but we have to keep going.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:We have to show up. We have to keep going and we have to just be focused on where we're, you know, the end result. Sometimes the journey to get there is very different. So often you hear of businesses that started with one thing and it kind of morphed into another. There are so many random businesses out there in the world and ultimately those businesses can be successful.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Those businesses can be successful. They are super random. You know, I think how did you even get into that? So as I said this season we're gonna be chatting a little more with our guests about where did they come from? How did they get into this?
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Because even if I reflect on my own journey of entrepreneurship I never wanted to be an entrepreneur. I think I actually really am not an entrepreneur at heart And I think I've grown into 1, but I don't think that was my natural tendency. But then on the flip side, sometimes I think, oh, I did some very entrepreneurial things very early on. So ultimately it comes down to embracing that journey. When I was 11 I decided that I wanted to host a summer camp.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:So, you know, I was an avid reader my whole life and I always read books and whatever about people who enjoyed and loved summer camp. So I was an extremely competitive horseback rider. That was my whole life at that time. My entire life goal was to go to the Olympics and I wanted to host this summer camp with all of these people and their horses. So this is a pretty, you know, ambitious plan for someone who is in their, you know, early teens.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:I did not host summer camps at 11 and 12 but by age 16 I did host summer camps. And so we had, you know, a farm a facility that we could do that. And so we, you know, set up all of the accommodations that were required for the horses and the people. We set up the meal plan. We set up all of the entertainment and all of these people and their horses kids and their horses came and stayed for 5 days.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:That is pretty entrepreneurial when I think back to it. That required a fair bit of organization and planning and coordinating insurance and food and accommodations and entertainment and training and all of these pieces. And I think that's pretty entrepreneurial. But then I got started in the corporate world. I I inevitably left, the horse world because I was in a very serious car accident and could not ride anymore.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:And my dad my entire life had said don't put all your eggs in one basket. And I said I'm going to the Olympics. That that was the only goal in my mind. And he said that's not really realistic. You need to do other things.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:But I wholeheartedly believe that had I not had that level of passion for what I was doing there was no chance. There was absolutely no chance that it would ever happen. And sure things happened. The journey changed. The way that we measure success has changed, but ultimately that passion it didn't go away.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:I just transferred it to something else. So I made a big change. I went back to school and I dug into business. So now instead of being super competitive in a sport now I'm super you know I'm using that competitiveness for business, for success, for wanting, for that achievement level and and not just for myself but for any business that I've been a part of. I want businesses to succeed.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:I love the passion. I love the journey of entrepreneurship mostly for others. And I think that that is why I originally never thought to start my own business. I love being the person and even when I started my business, I always said I'm backstage while you do your thing. And that is the part of business that I loved but being my own business I realized that I as much as I want to be backstage in other people's businesses I cannot be backstage in my own business.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:I won't have a business. So time to level up that growth again. Now instead of being backstage in my business, hey, we're gonna have a podcast. We're gonna have a YouTube channel. We're gonna talk on social media whether my friends, family, you know cousins, aunts, uncles, prospective clients, high school friends whether they see me or not.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:I'm just gonna do it. The thing about being visible is that as soon as you are visible people talk. Recently I picked my son up from a play date and I think I shared this story last season in that, you know, my son had talked to this this friend of his and their parents about me and my business. When I picked him up, you know, several months ago she had she had said oh your son is very proud of you. And I said what's what do you mean?
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:She goes well we we got a tour of the YouTube channel and the Instagram and he, you know, he said that you are so good at what you do and if we had any of these, you know, business needs that you would be able to help us out. And she said, you know, I could not believe how proud he was of you, how excited he was for your business. He loves to wear the branded hoodie. He he's gonna be my future salesman that one. He is amazing.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:He slides it into conversations. But overall the part that warmed my heart so much was that he was so proud of me. But it didn't come that that that warm heart first came with panic. You saw the YouTube channel. You saw the social media.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Oh gosh, I feel so exposed, so visible. Because when you're talking to others, business perspective clients, you don't really think about it. But at the same time you are putting it out there and other people are gonna see it. Some of those people are gonna cheer you on. Some of those people are gonna talk about you.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:And ultimately, the only way that you can just do it is just keep going. When I first left the corporate space, I did lots of marketing on lots of places, but I didn't on LinkedIn because I felt like LinkedIn was full of people from my past life, my corporate life. And while there were great prospective clients on there and there were people that I had amazing connections with, I wasn't quite ready to be out there on LinkedIn yet. Now we post on LinkedIn all the time. It just shows that through that growth, through that journey, through personal growth, through professional growth, you can make a big diff like it makes a huge difference in your comfort zone, in your ability to scale your success.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:The journey of entrepreneurship and business is one that will always keep changing and there is no status quo. What works now may not work next year. It might not work because of the environment that you conduct your business in. It might not work because there's new technology coming out all the time. It might not work because you don't want to do it anymore.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:It might not work like there's so many reasons why it might not work but there's so many reasons why it can work. And this season on the podcast we are really focusing on how can we optimize our life, optimize our business so that we can have more life? You know, it's interesting. One of the other pieces of the marketing that I have shared in our agency branding along the way is scale your business without losing sleep. It was a tagline that we talked about very early on.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:It's still in a couple of places. We have phased it out most places because at the end of the day I do lose sleep sometimes. I do give up sleep sometimes. Not always just because my business needs me to but because I often will decide that, hey, I I really don't want to miss that practice for my son. He wants me to be there.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:He wants me to watch. I want to be there. I want to watch. And so instead of working then I can work a little later when he's sleeping. This is very common because, you know, if we go back to the beginning of the episode we decided that we didn't want childcare anymore.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:So, you know, but that means that I run 3 businesses. I have 3 kids all, you know, 6th grade and younger and we don't have any childcare support. So you can imagine that at times that can be really busy between school drop offs, school pickups, client meetings, sales calls, creating content, creating the podcast, all of these things. Our schedule is chaotic, but I wouldn't change it for anything because it allows me to be a mom and what I would consider a great mom who is there for her kids now? Am I the mom sometimes playing on her phone playing on her phone in the you know finger quotes?
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Yeah I am Sometimes we're at the park and I'm sitting on the bench and I'm playing on my phone air quotes. Because I'm I'm working I'm getting back to the team I'm, you know, responding to a quick email I'm adding a quick post I'm doing those things but I am still there getting some fresh air enjoying that time. So whether you have kids whether you don't have kids whether your kids are grown we all have different parts of our life, you know? Last about 6 months ago, 5 months ago, we got not one but 2 puppies. Long story there.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:We'll chat about it in a future episode. We were originally getting one. It took 2 years to convince my husband that this was a good idea because, you know, we're busy. And in the end he said how about we get 2? Then they have each other.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:It honestly has been such a blessing because they it it number 1 they want that to to cuddle on the couch. They want that time. And so where perhaps before I would say I'll just go work a little more. I'll just go work a little more. Now I take the time and I go and and get out of my office and spend more time with them while the kids are sleeping.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:You know we we do more things out, you know, we go for more walks. We do more things, you know, outside. We get to the park. We we go not just to the park with the playground but like the parks with the trails and the hiking. All all great parts of the area that I live in.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:And so they have added Have they added complexity? Have they added time? Have they added all of this? Yes. Do people think we're crazy because I have 3 businesses, 3 kids, and 2 puppies?
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Yes they do. Are they right? I mean a little, but I wouldn't change it for anything. All of these pieces add. They fill the bucket.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:They add to the joy. They add to what I consider a great life. Is it a great life for everyone? Would everyone want this life? No.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:I can think a lot of people would think this is a little bit crazy. In fact when I talk to my mom she often says, It's too much. It's too much. This is what she always says. I say oh yeah blah blah blah this is what we're up to and she says it's too much it's too much.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:And I said okay you're supposed to say you got this. You're fine. You got this. Go girl. Not it's too much.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:At times it is too much. But 90% of the time it is it is great. That is life. That is business. That is building a life around business and building a business around life.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:And then you may say, oh, she said, you know, she's she's looking at that the wrong way. At the end of the day, without my business, we can't pay for life. You know? It's, we we were able to go on a on a trip, to a different country for my son to play in a tournament this summer. Well things like that.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Those those take money and money comes from work and so, you know, the kids very much understand that, hey sometimes we need to work and sometimes we can play hard. You know work hard play hard. Our life and my business have truly become an amazing part of our life. And to be honest at one point I I didn't want this life. I know that that is hard to say but I didn't really want to be an entrepreneur.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:I liked corporate life. I liked being in the boardroom. I liked the structure and the ease. At times, do I think gosh what I wouldn't give for a quiet office for a full week with no interruptions? I do every once in a while because that is where my brain loves to be.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:But that's also why I work late at night when everyone's asleep because then it is quiet and I do get no interruptions. So, you know, this podcast episode isn't so much to say you know this is the business tip for this and this is how we optimize that. It's it's to really set the stage for the entire podcast season where we're gonna talk business tips. We're gonna talk about how to optimize business. We're gonna talk about optimizing your life.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:We're gonna talk about how to make more money. We're gonna talk about how to build the life that you love, which includes, of course, your business. If you're not enjoying your business, if your business is causing you great stress, if now when I say great stress I say it like that because your business will be stressful. You're you know, it's it's kind of like when people are pregnant and they say I'm creating a whole human. As someone who is not I I was not not good.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:I did not enjoy any of my pregnancies. I was very very sick and that was the part that in my mind I thought I'm growing a human. When it comes to business you're growing a business, a whole business, whether that has team members, whether that doesn't have team members, whether, you know, it's a big business or a small business, you're growing a whole business. A business that's going to pay for your, you know, place you live, pay for your car, pay for your vacation, pay for your food, you know? That's a thing.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:One would argue that it is perhaps harder than growing a human. And I feel very qualified to say that because I found growing humans very difficult. But growing a business is difficult too. This season we're going to talk about the different parts of growing a business. We're going to talk about how easily we can be pulled in different directions, why different things matter to us at different times in our business growth journey.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Because this podcast is here all about scaling success. We are here to make money. We can't shy away from that. Profit is not a dirty word. When we did our big rebrand in January, talked about it right at the tail end of the the podcast season.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:We were talking about the rebrand. We were doing all these things. Our business our our bookkeeping business is called Path to Profit. Because no matter what, no matter what you use it for, it is required to grow your business. It is required to be able to build this life you want.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:So we're going all in on success this season. Our guest lineup is incredible. I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am to share these guests their stories with you and also some of these great business tips. We have had an amazing break. We've worked with so many business owners.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:We've seen so many things that are working and we're gonna share some of those pieces with you. We're gonna share what we're seeing, the mistakes that we keep seeing business owners get bogged down with. We're here. It's season 4, and it is all about scaling your success. While we are all out of time for today, if you can head on over to the Spotify or Apple Podcast app, click the 5th star, and leave a written review.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:It really does help the show. Until next time. Have a great week.
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