Finding Proof with Dr Tess Crawley

Staffing stress? You’re not on your Pat Malone!

Many of you have recently brought on your first staff members, and I hear you. YOU. ARE. STRESSED.

Building a team can be a truly exciting and rewarding time in any business, but it often comes with traumatic growth on the part of the business owner. This isn’t because you’re a bad leader or a bad business owner …

You’re a great “technician” (skilled clinician, in the case of most of my clients), with no training on how to recruit and retain staff or how to build a great team culture.  You’re so great at what you do, that you’ve built a wonderful reputation and are now swamped with work. That’s why you’ve recruited staff to help out.

Trouble is, you can’t sustain your usual work load AND manage your team. Something’s gotta give!

And that triggers fear. Big time.

Clients mean dollars. Fewer clients means fewer dollars. How will you afford to reduce your client load so you can support your team?

What if I told you that most of my business coaching clients move from this state of fear and end up in a place where they not only see fewer clients themselves, but their practices generate MORE revenue to support business sustainability?

What if I also told you that a mark of a successful business is when the business owner is paid a salary but is not the primary source of revenue?

These are things we’re not taught how to do at uni.

I remember my early days of practice ownership, bumbling about in the dark, figuring it all out by trial and error (or more accurately, error and error!). I’ve gone from traumatic growth to consolidated stability to strategic growth over the years.

It’s no accident that my clinic’s team culture was recognised as a finalist in the Allied Health Awards last year. Or that we’ve been awarded contracts worth over a million dollars.

Team culture, team stability, and team ambassadors all feed into business success and reduce burnout risk for you and your team … And it’s all achievable, without having to resort to dark magic!

I’m running some training on exactly these concepts … And here’s where you can find out all about it:  https://bit.ly/NurtureCourseInfo

Remember, we all learn how to do this, hopefully you’ll avoid some of the mistakes I made early on!

Much love,

Tess x

Why exactly am I so excited? Well some of it is a secret for now, but here’s what I can tell you … EXCITING NEWS! In addition to new online courses (announcement coming next week), I’m putting together a series of in-person events in Melbourne!

It’s been such an incredibly long time since I’ve been able to run workshops, and I can’t wait to get back into that space again.  I’m planning something incredibly spoiling … think stunning views, expert catering, and a whole day of indulgence (which is how I think of time spent working ON our businesses instead of IN our businesses).  If you keep your eye out, you might see a sneak peak of the venue when I inspect it next Wednesday!

What’s coming? … Workshops and working days … I’m planning at least a couple of events for the second half of this year. At least one will be a training day (think CEO Mindset on steroids) and at least one will be a working day (think No Quarter on speed!). They’ll be priced at around the $440 per head mark for a one-day event, and $880 for a two-day event. There’ll be a maximum of 20 people per event. 

SO … if you’d like to be added to the waitlist for these events (I know you want all the details, be patient!), shoot a little email to my assistants Jess & Josie ([email protected]) to be first in line for a place at the table (literally) … we’ll add you to the priority list once all the details are on hand. I am genuinely so excited to be back in the room with you (and to meet some of you for the first time). The very thought of it makes my heart sing! 

Much love,

Tess x

This week I’ve been speaking about this with my Like A Boss members (in BIG detail) and also introduced the concept to my No Quarter members. The key issues everyone is weighed down by seem to be: (i) A need to work “smarter-not-harder” after our past brutal couple of years; (ii) The need for several changes to how their businesses function in order to achieve this (time management, fee structure, recruitment, etc); and then (iii) complete overwhelm at how much work needs to be done with so little time and energy.  

But here’s what’s a given … no one will achieve anything if their diary doesn’t have dedicated time set aside each week for them to work on these things. Hence the diary reshape. And that triggers a cascade of fear: 

What if I can’t afford to take that time away from income generation? (Cue: fee structure discussion) 

What if my clients can’t get their preferred appointment time if I take time away from client work? (Cue: discuss guilt-induced over-availability)

What if my team think I’m slack for not seeing enough clients? (Cue: discuss the role of being the boss)

Most business issues can be addressed in an orderly structure fashion when we have time to focus on them. But time doesn’t grow on trees. We need to TAKE it. We need to make it happen.  So, have a look at your typical week. Identify how many hats you wear each week (business owner, client service provider, partner, parent, etc) and make sure there is a structure within your diary to support you to reliably be able to know which hat you’ll be wearing when, AND when you’ll reliably have time to work on your business (and no, NOT at 11:00 at night or on weekends!).  Meanwhile, please be gentle on yourself. Rome wasn’t built in a day.  Much love, Tess x

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What’s it like to be a member of Like A Boss?

You already know what works to put you into a better frame of mind.

Do more of that.

And if you can’t find motivation, override it and take opposite action.

* Don’t feel like walking? Go anyway.

* Not in the mood to talk to anyone? Call a friend.

* Feeling miserable? Watch a movie that always makes you laugh.

You get the idea.

You know what works for you. It’s just that sometimes we just can’t be arsed, right?

Decide. Then do.

Best wishes,

Tess x

p.s. If you need help with your mental health, my team at The Crawley Clinic (Melbourne and Launceston) can help - www.thecrawleyclinic.com.au - as can our colleagues at Crawley House - www.crawleyhouse.com.au

One of the main stressors in modern life is not having enough hours in the day. Trying to juggle working from home and remote learning for those of us in lockdown magnifies the problem. It stirs up the background noise of stress around getting things done at all (let alone on time).

How’s your email inbox looking?

What about your bills?

How are you juggling remote schooling?

I find the biggest time bandits in my day are common to most people:

* Distraction (including constant interruptions)

* Procrastination (including social media)

* Perfectionism (not getting anything finished unless it’s “good enough”, or not starting because it “can’t” be good enough)

* Overwhelm (too much to do, no idea where to start)

What to do?

Use apps to simplify your day AND remove any apps from your line of sight that will interrupt your flow

* Electronic shopping lists

* Voice messaging and voice-to-text apps

* “Hide” interrupting apps (social media, email, etc) off the front page of your phone (in a folder is best) … even better, remove them from your phone completely if you’re brave

* Use Google plug-ins like the Facebook “newsfeed eradicator” so you can’t doom scroll when you’re working

* Pomodoro apps like “Focus” to keep you focused (cos there’s nothing like a deadline, right!)

Structure your week into blocks so you can be focussed on certain things on certain days (this is my absolute sanity saver). Make sure you add uninterruptible time. I have a day each week where nothing is allowed to be booked in, so I’m free to think, plan, focus, or even (gasp) take a day off.

Take control of your time in simple ways to feel organised and less overwhelmed. This will help you balance your time at work and at home … even in lockdown!

Best wishes,

Tess x

p.s. If you need help with your mental health, my team at The Crawley Clinic (Melbourne and Launceston) can help - www.thecrawleyclinic.com.au - as can our colleagues at Crawley House - www.crawleyhouse.com.au

“Why am I so tired all the time?” This is a question I hear all the time at the moment … and one I often ask myself! You might have seen media articles talking about ‘fatigue’ and ‘languishing’, but what’s it all about? And why can’t we just “pick ourselves up by the bootstraps” and soldier on like we used to? 

Well, let’s stop for a minute and think about all the things we’ve been dealing with for the past couple of years … and don’t forget to include the 2019 bushfires. We’ve not had a break since.

* Bushfires

* National lockdown

* Work from home

* Remote Learning

* Closed borders

* Lack of proper holidays

* Rolling lockdowns

* Vaccine rollout

* Delta

* Inability to plan

* Protests

* Interrupted education

* Earthquake

* Interrupted goals

* Uncertainty about the future

Think of your coping resources as being like water in a bucket … the impact of even one of the things we’ve had to deal with over the past two years will poke a hole in the bottom of that bucket. Now imagine that before you have the ability to repair that hole and refill your coping bucket, each of the other stressors from the past two years starts poking holes in your bucket. What happens to your coping resources?

They run out of course!

And this is the key with the fatigue we’re all feeling. We’ve not had the opportunity to stop the holes being poked in our coping bucket, let alone repair the damage and fill that bucket back up! We’re at risk of burnout on a grand scale.

What do we do about that?

* Take mini-breaks each day

* Get fresh air when you can

* Focus on the things within your control and let go of the things you have no influence over

* SELF-COMPASSION big time - you’re doing your best

* Pick your battles

* Get professional help if you need it AND don’t forget a medical check up (I know from personal experience that this fatigue is NOT helped by low iron levels!)

Be kind to yourself and remember … Rest IS doing something.

Best wishes,

Tess x

p.s. If you need help with your mental health, my team at The Crawley Clinic (Melbourne and Launceston) can help - www.thecrawleyclinic.com.au - as can our colleagues at Crawley House - www.crawleyhouse.com.au

We all need to feel seen and heard, especially when times are tough. We need to know that when we’re struggling, others see our pain. This provides validation that what we are experiencing is real. We also need to know that our reaction to difficult times is not “crazy”, but a normal response that anyone in the same situation would also experience. This helps normalise our response and take some of the self-judgement out of the equation.

As mental health professionals normalising and validating peoples emotional experiences is a common aspect to our work with clients. It’s not a ‘treatment’ but an important element to laying the foundations for treatment to be effective, because it helps build trust. A fundamental component of the therapeutic relationship.

What if you can’t someone who’ll provide that normalisation or validation for you? Then it’s time to take a step back and provide that for yourself.

How? It involves a big dollop of self-compassion, and consciously tapping into viewing your situation through the eyes of others (not in a critical way, but in a more objective way) … How would your favourite teacher, best friend, respected colleague feel if they were in your shoes? How long is the list of things you’re trying to juggle right now? Would you expect others to be able to juggle that load without dropping any balls?

Normalise your feelings by gently reminding yourself that others experience what you’re going through and need help too … Do NOT minimise the impact on yourself just because “others have it tougher”. Remember, it’s all relative.

Validate your feelings by gently reminding yourself that it’s okay to feel stressed in stressful time, or sad about sad things, or anxious during times of uncertainty.

Be gentle with yourself. These are abnormal times, and big feelings are to be expected.

And of course … it’s normal to need help with overwhelming feelings too.

Take care,

Tess x

p.s. If you need help with your mental health, my team at The Crawley Clinic (Melbourne and Launceston) can help - www.thecrawleyclinic.com.au - as can our colleagues at Crawley House - www.crawleyhouse.com.au

One of the easiest things we can do to improve the moment we are in (which can have the added benefit of refreshing our mood) is to grab a reset minute. What’s that? Something super simple that creates a pattern-interrupt when you’re in a bit of a mood fug.

Even something as simple as changing your posture or vocalising can do it.

* If you’ve been sitting at your desk and feel your forehead  stuck in a frown, stand up and give yourself a bit of a shake. It will reset you physically and refresh you mentally.

* The same with vocalising - Been working silently for a while? Sing. Or yell. Or just speak out loud.

On a technical level changing our posture or vocalising activates different part of the brain than when we’ve been sitting silently in a fug.

Two of my favourites are super simple:

* Kylie Minogue (or any dance-inducing music) plus dancing like a lunatic

* Singing like an opera singer on steroids … ANY song that comes to mind I will turn into an aria. Van Halen? Yep. Due Lipa? Sure.

* Both of these work on two fronts: Posture shift and Vocalising PLUS both make my family laugh (which ALWAYS improves my mood)

My top tip for reseting and refreshing if you can’t be a complete lunatic - and this is one I frequently encourage my clients to do:

* Sit in a sunny spot (in your lounge room, in your garden, doesn’t matter where) and enjoy a cup of tea/coffee (etc)

This involves a posture shift (you’ve moved from wherever you were), a dose of Vitamin D from the sun (and some fresh air if you’re outside), and another great mindfulness trip - savouring the moment.

So, when you find yourself stuck in a mood you don’t want, or in a work-from-home fug, try these little reset and refresh hacks to shake the cobwebs loose and push your mood closer to the direction you’d like it to be in.

Remember, you can choose your mood, but sometimes you need to pull out the big guns. This is a good one.

Now excuse me while I finish my coffee in the sun.

Have a great day!

Tess x

p.s. If you need help with your mental health, my team at The Crawley Clinic (Melbourne and Launceston) can help - www.thecrawleyclinic.com.au - as can our colleagues at Crawley House - www.crawleyhouse.com.au

October is mental health awareness month. I’ve decided to bring some of my top tips for maintaining good mental health. A bit like cleaning your teeth to avoid decay, there are little things we can do each day to reset, refresh, and manage our moods.

Today’s tip is GROUNDING … What does this mean? If we think of how our emotions have the occasional potential to spiral out of control, escalating higher and higher into the stratosphere, it can be really helpful to know how to head off that process and keep your mods grounded on planet earth.

There are many ways to achieve this, and I’ll talk about some of them in more detail in coming days, but simple things like calm breathing techniques, mindfulness, and distraction can all help.

Grounding is often one of the first strategies I teach my therapy clients, because it is just SO useful in so many settings.

Have a wonderful day today,

Tess x

p.s. If you need help with your mental health, my team at The Crawley Clinic (Melbourne and Launceston) can help - www.thecrawleyclinic.com.au - as can our colleagues at Crawley House - www.crawleyhouse.com.au