Mom Owned and Operated

Time Management to Prevent Burnout in Business with Kylie Clark

September 13, 2022 Rita Suzanne Season 3 Episode 32
Mom Owned and Operated
Time Management to Prevent Burnout in Business with Kylie Clark
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Show Notes Transcript

In this episode of the Mom Owned and Operated podcast, Rita Suzanne and Kylie Clark discuss raising a family, running a business and remembering yourself.

Kylie Clark is a Certified Director of Operations, Business Mapping Strategist and Founder of Frazzled to Freedom Consulting, living the good LIFE in Arkansas where the weather can change as fast as her kids' moods. 

Kylie ditched the rat race in favor of finding her own way towards time and financial freedom. Now Kylie helps online service providers do the same by creating business plans that deliver clarity, direction and TIME while scaling your business without burnout. 

You can find Kylie on her website, on Instagram, on Facebook and on LinkedIn

Grab Kylie's FREE Time Management Trello Board

Listen to more interviews by visiting momownedandoperated.com and apply to work with Rita at ritasuzanne.com/apply/

Rita Suzanne
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Listen to more interviews by visiting momownedandoperated.com and apply to work with Rita at ritasuzanne.com/apply/

SPEAKERS

Rita Suzanne, Kylie Clark

Rita Suzanne  00:01

Welcome to the mom owned and operated Podcast, the podcast about moms and for moms, where we have candid conversations about running a business, raising a family, and remembering ourselves. I'm your host, Rita Suzanne, a single mom of four, digital strategist and provider of no nonsense business strategies and tactics. Hi, this is Rita Suzanne. And today I have my guest, Kylie Clark with me. I'm so excited to chat with you today. Kylie, please tell everyone about you and your family and your business.

Kylie Clark  00:37

Hi, Rita, I am so excited to be here today. Thank you for having me. Um, so I of course, I'm Kylie and I'm a certified Director of Operations, a business mapping strategist and founder, Fred Brazel. To freedom consulting, frazzled freedom consulting is actually a two for one service where we offer business mapping, which is business planning and financial planning. For our clients that are needing to do a major overhaul on how they run their business in the day to day, they are more established in their entrepreneur journey, and they have hit the wall on how much time they can keep giving in their business. They're completely overwhelmed and ready to make some changes.

Rita Suzanne  01:27

Yeah, so how long have you guys been in business?

Kylie Clark  01:31

I have been in business since the beginning of 2020. I believe. Shannon's probably about the same. I have an extra rash like that. Yeah. So personally, I am born and raised Arkansas girl, I have three children, one who speaks to be 17. As much as that breaks my heart. My daughter is 16 to be 12. And my youngest son is fixing to turn six. And I've been married almost 15 years to my very best friend postpones me rotten. I have one farm baby who rules the roost.

Rita Suzanne  02:09

And okay, so let's start by talking about some time management stuff. Because that's what everyone needs. Right? They're overwhelmed. They come to you. They want some business mapping. What what do you do? What do you start with?

Kylie Clark  02:26

So time management is very near and dear to my heart. And I don't really care what they call it, I don't care if they call it work life balance, or harmony or integration or flow. I don't care what it's called as long as you get it, because nine times out of 10. By the time my clients find me they have done everything else in the books they have hired multiple people, they've hired coaches I've hired but bought every template under the sun. But the problem is, is no one asked where they're going, what their specific vision is in their business. Is it more important to have freedom and flexibility and purpose? Or is it more important to hit eight figures in the next year? And invest 80 hours a week? Where do you want to be in your business? And so you can take all the templates, you can do all the Google rabbit hole searches that you'd like to do. But if you're not really doing it for you and your business, you're not going to get the answers that you're looking for.

Rita Suzanne  03:43

I think that's super important that a lot of people look for just very general solutions. And even a lot of coaches provide very general solutions. And I think that customization is super important because like you said, like nobody else has the situation that I have, right? And so what works for this person over here is not going to work for me and maybe my definition of balance is not the same as yours.

Kylie Clark  04:15

Exactly. I am have actually read several posts over the last couple of weeks that are Daming work life balance or anything of the sort as unrealistic and fake and unattainable. And I'm here to tell you it's not because I live it in my life. I mean, this is what I have built my business around for and the reason that I think that they are saying that is it's because they picture work life balance as a 5050 structure one size fits all and it's anything but work life balance to me, could be completely different than what work life balance to you would look like. And that's why you have to have a customized plan, you have to have your own boundaries, your own time management process, your own business plan that's going to align with where you're trying to do. My idea is, for my business is 10 to 15 hours a week, I schedule my meetings on one day I do in house work on one day, I do client work on one day, you know, and so you have to really prioritize what's important to you. At that moment, if you sit down and you have your your list, and this is what I'm going to do today, you're going to save time, because you're not finding the next shiny object to go down the rabbit hole to find out about or you're not going to instantly respond to that email as soon as it pops up. Because you have a timeframe, you have that time block, okay, I want to check my email at this time each day. So it kind of gives you that release that you need to say, I heard my email go off or out that part that text message, but I'm gonna check it when I have time to check it

Rita Suzanne  06:19

out. Why are your notifications even on Friday. But my my thought, as you were, as you were speaking, is that maybe they don't think that work life balance is possible because they have never been able to achieve it. Right. And the fact is, is that you have achieved work life balance I have Now eventually, finally, after all of these years, and it is possible, but maybe for them, it's just not possible. So they shouldn't, I think make these blanket statements of it's not possible, it's just not possible for you.

Kylie Clark  06:55

Oh, and it's not even that it's their priorities are different. Their priorities are, hey, I'm going to make eight figures in the next 12 months. And I'm going to add six more launchers. And I'm going to try every different strategy in the book to make this happen. Whereas most of the people that come to me they're looking at, I'm looking for stability, I don't want to be the next Guru, I don't want to be the next person that made a million dollars in the last 10 minutes. You know, I want stability, I want to be able to take time with my kids, I want to go on vacation, I want to have purpose in what I'm doing in my life, I want to feel fulfilled. And what they don't realize is most of the time, once you start aligning everything like that, the money comes and it may not be the next 10 minutes, but it's going to come and you're going to feel happy about it, you're not going to grit your teeth, thinking oh my gosh, I'll have to complete XY and Z. No, it's not going to feel like work because it's something that you truly are passionate about. It's your zone of genius. It doesn't feel like work because it's so easy. And that's and that's the thing. And that's where I started. The reason I started my business was because I was burned out in the in working nine to five and being the person to do it all. And it cost me my health for for several years. And so when I started my business, I chose flexibility and freedom over money. And I still live by that to this day. Money is always nice, and it's always helpful. And I mean, we're here we have to have money to keep going. But it's it's you you found after a while that those clients that don't align with you are not worth the money. They're not worth the stress.

Rita Suzanne  08:59

Yeah, because I think that if you sacrifice yourself your, you know, time and or like your health, then I mean, what's the point of doing this, most of us started our businesses and when I say that I'm I'm saying entrepreneurs, small business owners who have you know, smaller businesses because we wanted to be at home with our children. We wanted to, you know, to be there for them as they were growing up. I know that's why I started my business so that I could be home with them because I would cry when I would drop my kids off at daycare, you know, because I have went through five years of infertility and I wanted my kids so bad, but I still had to work you know, so it was like I have to come up with something I have to find a way that I can be with them. But then when I created my business I wasn't there with them. I was in the house but I wasn't there.

Kylie Clark  09:53

Big thing too because I think all of us when we started our business even when starting moment the best you intentions, I found myself at my computer 24/7. And I couldn't really say I was accomplishing anything, I was just there. And so you know, you have your children that Hey, Mom, I need this Hi, Mom, I need that you're like, Okay, five more minutes, five more minutes. And it's not until you finally wake up and you're like, oh, wait, I'm not doing what I said I was going to do, I'm actually making everything a lot harder on myself. And so by the time I found the D O certification, I had already found my problems of doing all of that I just didn't know how I was going to fix them. And what after listening to Napoli, I was like, this is exactly where I'm going to be. Still didn't know exactly how I was going to help others doing that. And that I don't know, some of you may have heard my story of how I came up with frazzled to freedom. But it was the end that it resonated with me, this is why I'm here, this is what I'm going to do for others, I'm going to help them build their own version of what their vision of their business looks like. Because when we started our business, it wasn't because we were so excited to do the mundane day to day tasks that you have to do to make a business function. Now we were picturing, hey, I want to be on the beach with my kids, you know, with a little fruity drink and umbrella and my kids are going to be building sandcastles, and my business is going to be running itself in the background, you know, and allowing me to live a comfortable life. And then we found ourselves every day in front of our computer. And once you realize that, you can have it, you just have to have it structured, it has to be a main goal for you in your life. You can you can do tiny tweaks each day. And that's what I tell people all the time. It doesn't matter if you're just starting your business. And it doesn't matter if you're an established business owner running a 567, multi figure business, it is never too late to start implementing time management and start one step at a time. You can start today with your boundaries, what are my boundaries going to be yet? What is it that really annoys me? When this happens, a lot of times it's communication because I have 12 different ways that people are going to connect to come to them. And so they feel like they're on call 24/7. So okay, I'm going to narrow this down on my team members are going to contact me this way. And my clients are going to contact me this way. I usually recommend anything task related status in the pm in the project management. A lot quicker way to get things done. Everybody knows where to go to find it. Um, another issue is boundaries. They say what they want, but they never implement what they want. And it's something so simple, that will take you five minutes and save you a lot of headache. With my clients, I have a how Work page. So this is what you can expect when you when you sign on with me. I work Monday through Thursday. And these are my business hours. And these are my contact hours. And this is my turnaround time. And you know, I lay everything out for them. So there's no confusion, everybody knows what to expect. And so you know what to expect. There's, there's no miscommunication. So my time management board that I have shared with you, it hits on a lot of this and I've actually added loan videos to help people walk through because if I'm going to give something to my potential clients, or people that's just in a bind, and really just need something to do now I'm going to give it with value. And so walk them through with questions, feel free to add your own questions that pop up. But it's a good starting point where you can build your own plants for things to do today. And delegating is another huge thing. Most people don't delegate because they don't know how to delegate or they don't feel like if they do delegate, they're going to get it done correctly, and they'll just have to do it again. So they might as well just do it yourself. And there's a lot of helpful tips on delegating that goes mainly back to SOPs. And so there's just so many things

Rita Suzanne  14:52

I love I love SOPs because you know it when you bring somebody on your team or somebody leaves your team then there's A lot of you know, there's a lot less of that downtime where somebody has to learn the new thing. And so, I love that I want you to tell us some strategies for time management that you love and recommend, because I know you say that, you know, some of these things you there are so little they can roll into and gain momentum. And I love that. So what is maybe two or three little things that you would recommend for some time management?

Kylie Clark  15:29

Time management? Um, okay, so my first thing I like to throw out there is over documentation. And people look at me like, I'm crazy when I say that. But when you go into your project management tools, especially when you have a team, and you have multiple people coming in and out of these tasks, and there's multiple questions. If you have, like, I'll use an agency, for instance, if you have an agency, and so you have a lot of different balls up in the air, and you have a team member working with a certain client, and they are supposed to check their emails twice a day, well, in your project management hub, if you have it set up correctly, because you need to have your own hub. And the client needs to have their own hub. And I can't stress that enough I've had so many have come into the business, and they don't have anything in the club. So you have no proof of what you've actually completed for the client, if you do sever ties. So anyway, do that. So if Sally comes in, and she checks three emails, and there's a high priority email that she has sent to that client, then she needs to come back to your main business hub and say, Hey, I checked the emails and I sent a high priority email to the client and put a timestamp with it. Project management when they come in, and they need to see what's being updated on this task. If it's been done, if it's done, been done correctly, or client says, Hey, I missed this very important email. Now, shall Sally send it to you at this time. So Simas after a day, you know, after the day or Sally's out sick and Susie has to come in and check, they know exactly where it's been left off, they know exactly where to pick it up. The SOPs for H SOP for that task, I put it inside the task card, I use click up. So I put it inside the task card. And that way, you don't have to go to Google Drive, you don't have to go anywhere else. Because all of the information you need for that client and how to complete that task is right there at your fingertips. But as for you, as a business owner yourself. Something I would start today is I like to do theme days in my schedule. So Monday's will be a team meeting and my in house days. So I like to have everything started off. Everybody knows what we're going to have accomplished for the week, and everything's delegated out. And then the rest of the day, I'm going to focus only on the things I need to get done within my business. And that's usually a no contact died for me. Tuesday's any client work that needs to be done, I get that done. Thursdays are my podcast or connection calls, client calls, any camera facing things that I need to make happen. And so I just have different things I work Monday through Thursday. And that way, I know exactly what to expect each week. I know that if something pops up, which day would be better. Okay, this is the day that I have a little more flexibility. I schedule myself care throughout the day. So if I want to take a 30 minute walk, I'm gonna add that to my schedule, that's going to be a non negotiable. I'm going to schedule my lunch each day. I lay out in the pool for an hour in the mornings. And that's one of my destress times and I listen to a podcast or usually music. While I'm out there. I spend time with my grandfather and my my dad every single day, I am out there on the farm, helping them or my watching them. So it's just all about what's important to you, and how are you going to make that happen?

Rita Suzanne  19:32

Right. And I think that that's the most important part like how to avoid burnout. How do you get balance all that stuff is managing your time you have your delegating tasks, you have your goals laid out, you know, you know exactly what you're doing. I think that for me in the past I wasn't delegating very well, right. I had no clear goals set up in mind and I was working nonstop all the time. So I used to do theme days too. But what would happen to me is like, Oh, I set this day up this Tuesday is supposed to be all about me building my business, and then a client emergency would come up. And I would feel like no, I have to work on my client project, because I didn't get as much done, as I should have before them, what would you say? If that was continuously happening with your clients,

Kylie Clark  20:24

um, usually, you're in reactive mode, whatever, whenever that happens, and the reason that is occurring in your business is because there's a missing link somewhere within whether it's a sop, whether it's a boundary, whether it's, you're not giving enough time in an area that you need in their business. And sometimes it's not even you, it's your clients working in reactive mode, and all of a sudden, they have a fire burning, because they were doing it last second. And so that's something I always look at first is, I have have X, Y, and Z to do and I need, I have my schedule that I need to complete. But like you said, my client, just message, I have a fire going, and I've got to be the one to put it out. Why do they have a fire? Fire? Is that their fire? Because then we need to have a discussion of

Rita Suzanne  21:18

my problem now.

Kylie Clark  21:20

And so we need to have a discussion on how are we going to prevent their problems becoming your problems? Yes, you work with them. But that does not mean that you are on call 24/7 for them.

Rita Suzanne  21:33

Right. And I think a lot of service providers struggle with that, though, because they feel like they need to do whatever their clients ask them to do, they struggle with setting boundaries. And I know that before I quit design, that was one of the things I think that was causing an issue for me, not that I wasn't setting boundaries, but all of a sudden that I was, and it became like, she's no longer I don't know, agreeable, or thing, right, she's no longer a team player

Kylie Clark  22:08

is doing it after you sign on with a client. If you start out that way, then I know what to expect. But if you all of a sudden, here are my new boundaries, here are my new work hours here is this and this and this, that is when you're gonna have a little bit of resistance. So that requires a call. And you're going to turn this around into why this is positive for them. This is why you're going to love my new how I work schedule, because I'm able to invest these solid hours only to you. And so you just kind of turned it into a positive. And you're exactly right, we turn into Yes, people at some point in our business. And no matter if we've been a US person our entire life, or now we're an entrepreneur, and we're kind of getting a little bit of the scarcity mindset because we are dependent on them, or living our lifestyle. And we can fall into that. And so the thing that I always say is don't put all your eggs in one basket, diversify, even if you have this amazing client, that gives you zero problems, you don't want them to be your only source of income. Or you need to be able to invest enough back into your business to keep people coming to you. I'm not I was having to think maybe you were having that conversation or not. It wasn't as I'm not one of those that goes into DMS and constantly markets myself are people that come to me through my post and wanting to get to know me and make a connection. And so that's another thing I found that really burning people out is you're constantly reaching out, they're constantly doing the work to make people come to them. Whereas if they they got straight on their goals, and they chose one form one or two forms of visibility that makes sense for them like not what the next guru says not for how so and so grow their business, what feels most comfortable to you and what makes sense to you. Knowing what to prioritize if you have problems with setting goals. Brandon up what what do you need to make happen in the next month or even quarter? What do you need to make happen? Write those down. Now let's pray orgasm, from most important to least importance, type that top number one priority. And you're going to make a plan for what steps need to happen to complete this project. There is your plan, only focus on that until it's complete. And then you go to number two. And that's where our VNA kind of steps in as women and we have to note, we have to do all of it, if I have three priorities, I have to do all of them at the same time, because then you know, I'll get it done faster. And that's not true. It's already been proven time and time again, if you focus on one thing at a time, you are not only going to complete it earlier, you're going to give tons of value with it and be happy with happier with the result than having to do all three and you're just, oh, I have to get it done by the deadline or I'm just sick of it. I'm just gonna throw things in there.

Rita Suzanne  25:56

Okay, so you mentioned briefly about your freebie that you have for everyone. Tell us a little bit more about that what's included in it? What is it.

Kylie Clark  26:06

Um, so I have a Trello board that is specifically focuses on time management, boundaries, time blocking, self care, delegating, and so I have long videos, it's kind of walks you through gives you a few prompts, your mission vision values, whether you have those already set in your business, or you just need to kind of redefine them. I have prompts in there for that. If you decide that you'd need some of that back and forth, you need more strategy and brainstorming and help with prioritizing your next three goals. Reach out to me, let me know that you're you came through Rita's podcast, and I will reduce the price for you. And if you think hey, I just I need 30 minutes, I just need 30 minutes to kind of clear my head and get a little bit of clarity on what my next goal should look like or what I need to do to delegate in my business or time block in my business. I'll send a link to Rita so she can share. And well I'll do a complimentary 30 minute call for a clarity session. Nice.

Rita Suzanne  27:25

Okay, so where can everyone find you online so that they can connect with you or see what you're up to?

Kylie Clark  27:32

I am a little bit of everywhere online, not by choice. They will platform favorite platforms, probably Facebook, and not only will you see a little bit of business, you'll say a lot of personal my personal life. And that's how I like to keep it I am very much a authentic person and like to be comfortable with any relationship I deal with.

Rita Suzanne  27:58

Yes, you are. And then your website is

Kylie Clark  28:01

Lea clark.com.

Rita Suzanne  28:05

Anything else that anybody needs to know, I feel like I'm missing something. Where else are you online?

Kylie Clark  28:10

I'm on LinkedIn, I'm on Instagram. But Facebook is probably Yeah, LinkedIn and Instagrams business only. Because I'm working on

Rita Suzanne  28:23

that's where that's where you're gonna see all of Kylie and I can attest to that. She is amazing. Thank you so much for joining us today, Kylie. It's been a pleasure.

Kylie Clark  28:33

Thank you so much for having me.

Rita Suzanne  28:38

And there you have it. I want to encourage you to remember that being a mom who runs her own business is not easy. We all struggle, but just keep moving forward. And don't forget to make time for yourself. As moms we are usually the first thing to go to the bottom of the list. If your business is overwhelming you and you need real solutions, not just some sugar coated suggestions apply to work with me at ritasuzanne.com/apply