How to Beat Burnout (& Fall Back In Love with Your Business)

I am obsessed with pricing and I always have been, which is kind of scary. I remember the first time I sold Shrinky Dinks door to door at the age of 4. Yes, seriously. I can literally remember the “high” of charging 15 cents for these pathetic little shrunken plastic numbers that I made in the toaster oven at home and put on a string. They were barely cool to the touch before they were speared with a hole, strung and headed off to the direct sales department. (Essentially that was me putting on my tennis shoes and going for a walk around the neighborhood.)

What I found was that I loved sales and I loved pricing. I was fascinated by deciding what to charge and then actually asking for that amount. Even by today’s standards, 15 cents was ridiculous for what I was selling. However, I probably made the sale like every time, because:

a) The neighbors felt sorry for me

b) 15 cents was a small price to pay for keeping me off their door step, at least temporarily

And here was the thing. The whole endeavor was pure profit, because my Mom was paying for the Shrinky Dink materials! This was a total win/win; my only cost was my time - time to make the Dinks and time to parade them around. I always came back empty handed in terms of “jewelry”, but full of change. I even got tips. (Now you’ve probably seen plenty of my blogs on accounting for your time, so you know I’m not minimizing that super important component.)

Exactly How Do You Beat Burnout and Fall Back In Love with Your Business?

So what is the net/net here and how can you apply it to your business?

You’ve got to flat out LOVE what you do. I LOVED making Shrinky Dinks: The creativity, the trial and error, watching them shrink, everything. I could not wait to get those things out of the oven and go and talk to my customers. This leads me to my 2nd point.

I liked talking to people. Shocker. I loved answering questions about what I was doing. I liked the whole part about peering over Mrs. So and So’s shoulder to see who was in the living room and what she was cooking for dinner. I liked the small talk and answering questions about my family, “Yes, my Mom is doing great!” (Not so great evidently that she had a four year old wandering around the neighborhood peddling to the neighbors, but she was great in other area, I think.)

I loved selling. I had no problem handling objections because I was a fearless 4 year old! After all, it didn’t matter if the whole world liked what I did, I was an artist! And everyone has different taste in art so not everyone will like what you make. I learned that early on from my Mom who is a real artist. Plus, at that age, you just dust yourself off after a little rejection and go and play tetherball or eat ice cream. And then you just get back on your bike and sell again another day when you feel up to it!

Beating Burnout & How to Love What You Do Today:

How I channel that into what I do today:

1. I am at my natural best creating (these days I create crazy cool events for VERY interesting clients for The Party Goddess! and creating interesting pricing strategies and formulas for other business owners for The Profit Goddess!)
2. I still love to talk, so I do that via my blogs, on Twitter, Instagram, in my book, and every time I give a talk or am part of a webinar. (More on that below.)
3. And I still love to sell, thank goodness, because if you can’t sell, or don’t have someone really amazing to sell for you, your Shrinky Dinks can cure cancer, but if no one knows they exist or can get them in their little paws, you’re toast.

So here is my challenge to help YOU beat burnout:

Ask yourself:

1. What did you LOVE to do when you were 4? (Make a list of 5 things).
2. Of the things on that list, what do you still love?
3. Now, how can you get back to doing at least 3 of those things as much as possible in your business? The end result is that you really will create a life that you love.

Now what?

Give me some of your fav activities AND strategies in the Comments section below and if you’ve totally lost your way, you can vent about that too!

Make it a great day!

xx Marley

How to get more:

P.S. And if you need help with your pricing or taking your business to the next level, I’m your girl! Just email Hello@thepartygoddess.com and let me know where you’re struggling.

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