Plan Like a Rebel

SO excited to bring you an conversation with my friend Ashley Burnside, Mad Scientist Email Marketing Specialist at The Punk Project!

In this episode we talk about Ashley’s journey of self-growth and discovery, and how she uses her introversion and nerdiness to help her clients NAIL their email marketing.

Ashley is a Rebel through and through. using her Strategist persona to combine what she knows with how she can make her plans feel really good to execute.

SO excited to bring you our first interview of August with my girl Alice TJ of Alice TJ Coaching. She is a Relationship Coach and Communication Educator who helps people intentionally create that “fuck yeah” type of love we all crave.

In this episode we get insight into something Alice and her partner Ryan do together regularly to make sure they get focused time together on the regular (hint: it’s a WALL CALENDAR, y’all - you know we love a Wall Calendar over here).

Our big to-do is digging into the guts of what it takes to bring your whole self, pretty/ugly/sexy/sparkly/boob sweat and all into your relationship with yourself, with your partner(s), with your business…

BASICALLY you gotta do you before you can do anything else.

Which is what we’re all about, people.

I had so so so much fun hanging out behind the mic with Alice and I cannot wait for you to meet her!

Make sure you click the link above to follow her on the ‘gram and connect - her stories are hilarious and SUPS helpful.

I had the pleasure of sitting down with Alyssa Cairns, co-founder and all around badass of momHIVE, a community and coworking space for moms and entrepreneurs in Grand Rapids, MI.

She shares with us her story of big life changes, and the challenges that come with being a mom and an entrepreneur.

The idea for momHIVE began in February when Alyssa voiced her desire to have a space to do focused work outside of her home, and she was met with a massive amount of interest from other moms needing the same sort of space.

Between that post in February and opening day of the momHIVE space was just 5 short months - a time in which Alyssa got a crash course in what it really takes to open a brick & mortar business, how to listen to what the community really needs, and being able to deliver on it all while (mostly) keeping her sanity.

Alyssa is JUST the type of Rebel I wanted to have on to show you that even your biggest wildest goals can happen when you lean into your natural tendencies, listen to your audience, and trust your inner voice.

Perceivers are SO intuitive, enviably so by the rest of us! If you’re a Perceiver, you just always seem to know what your next move should be.

If you ask them what their next project is, they’ve got it all mapped out in their minds. They’ve got all the ideas, and what is perhaps so intimidating to others is that they seem so SURE of them all.

When it comes to goals, that superpower helps Perceivers make sure they’re setting the right goals.

But if you aren’t a Perceiver...how do you know if you’re setting the right goals?

Entrepreneurship gives SO many of us that shiny object syndrome. Everywhere you turn it seems like there’s a new trend - batching, A/B scheduling, courses, digital products, YouTube channels...when you are still trying to get your business feet underneath you it can be hard to figure out what your next goals should be to help you grow and profit in a way that you can feel aligned with and good about.

Because the only thing worse than setting the wrong goal in business, is setting the wrong goal AND not feeling like you’re able to show up and put in our best effort because it’s so not you.

Feelers are more likely to be people pleasers than Strategists or Perceivers, which means a few things. First, it’s hard for Feelers to put themselves first, and their goals are often based on how they can provide and care for the people that mean most to them.

This means for Feelers, your best goal setting strategies are going to include selfish self care, setting and enforcing boundaries, and regularly checking in with your needs along the way.s

Let’s talk about what I mean when I say selfish self care.

If you’re a Feeler, incorporating self care into your everyday routine might feel impossible. Because in your mind, every minute is spoken for from the moment you open your eyes in the morning to the moment your head hits the pillow at night.

Your plate feels full AF. And it is full. I won’t deny that. Between your kids, your partner, your work, keeping up the house, running errands, trying to be a stand up human being and hopefully getting sleep somewhere in there, it’s tough to figure out when you could feasibly fit anything else in.

If you tuned in to last week’s episode, I talked a lot about simple self care, meaning simplifying your self care routines so you’re not necessarily taking up more time, just using it differently and enlisting some extra help to make it happen.

For you as a Feeler, that’s only part of the equation.

Strategists are notorious overcomplicators, perfectionists, and control-freaks. Which means when it comes to goals, your best bet is going to be focused around simple self care activities, setting fewer goals, and building in simplicity reminders for yourself along the way.

If you’re a Strategist, incorporating self care into your everyday routines might feel super overwhelming. Because in your mind, you’re going from zero to a two hour morning routine that you can’t feasibly execute - meditation, morning pages, exercise, oil pulling, reading, coffee, showering, doing your hair, doing some household work, all at your leisure before the kids wake up and the daily chaos begins.

And so what you do you? You just don’t do any of it. You’re an all in or an all out type of a person if you’re a Strategist.

That’s why the emphasis on SIMPLE self care.

See by simplifying the routines, you’re able to go all in on it, the way you are naturally wired to do.

Goal setting feels hard and big *that’s what she said* but honestly, they’re only as hard and big as you make them. Simplicity goes a long way for you strategists out there and the three month goal planner is going to help you execute on that simplicity in a way that feels natural to you.

So look, I've seen a lot of folks talking about goals recently, but I mean, none of them are The Goal Designer #justsaying⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

There's a lot of fear mongering, intentionally or not that you probably wasted the first half of 2019 and how the hell are you going to make the last six months count.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

To that I say, FUCK. THAT.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Every day counts whether you're working toward your goals or not. Every day is valid. Every day has meaning. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

That's why my goal setting process is different.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Huge, special Rebel welcome to someone I’ve known since I was 9 years old, my former teacher, Sandy Schwartz!

She’s been teaching for 30 years, she’s a mom, a grandmother, and a well-rounded perspective to end our Summer Like a Rebel series on.

Sandy is a Perceiver rebel persona and she gives us the low down and some awesome tips on how you can do Summer like a Rebel.

It’s been raining a lot here in Michigan, so all the outside plans you were excited to check off the list and do keep being thwarted by rain or storms. Too windy or chilly to swim. Can’t have that bonfire if the wood is damp.

Traditional advice here would be to have backup plans for your plans.

But you’re a perceiver! You don’t do backup plans. You do what your gut tells you to do.

I’m here to tell you to embrace the shit out of your gut. Your gut doesn’t let you down, friend. It’s the rest of the world.

Your work this summer isn’t to have backup plans to maximize the fun-having. It’s actually to do the work on your disappointment and expectations of anything and anyone that isn’t you when plans change.

That’s that whole WTF thing. Willing to be Flexible.

We are just 10 short days away from it being officially Summertime in the US on the day this episode goes live, which means most of the people I know are shifting from the stale winter energy and the workerbee energy of Spring into the sweet slowness of the Summer season.

Since we’re talking about our Feelers out there today, let’s quickly go over the bones of this Rebel Planning Persona.

The Feeler wears her heart on her sleeve, is people oriented, conscientious of others, and has a creative side that she downplays but secretly wishes she had the courage to show the world. She bases the decisions she makes and the planning she does on how it will make others feel about her.

As a Feeler, your natural tendency is to give away your time and energy, oftentimes to your detriment. Because of this, you need to be careful of how much of yourself you give away, and you also need to be in tune with your motivations behind it. Are you doing it altruisticly, or are you hoping to get something in return? And if that’s the case, are you making your desires and expectations clear?

Each of the Rebel Planning Personas has a Plan Like a Rebel strategy - for The Feelers, that is to P-Y-T - Protect Your Time.

Feelers, during the Summer months, your go-to move is to spend a lot your free time coordinating and making plans that make sure everyone is having a great time this Summer. Everyone except for you.