How To Fall In Love With Your Business (Not Just Run It)

The following is a transcription of Episode 11 of The Peaceful Entrepreneur Podcast! Click here to listen on all platforms!

AMY: Welcome to the Peaceful Entrepreneur podcast, where together we are finding peace in the process of everyday business ownership by improving one step at a time, how we think and what we do. I'm your host, Amy Stout.

Welcome to today's episode. You are in for a treat. This is kind of a no-brainer, but of course a way to find more peace in your business is to figure out how to love what you're doing every day. But figuring out how to do that is the hard part.

So today, my incredible friend Vicky and I break down all of the ways that we have found to fall in love and stay in love with our business. We cover topics like being intentional, trusting yourself, having boundaries, being self-aware, setting your priorities in the right place, and honestly so much more. And I am so excited to write down all the different quotes from Vicky from this episode because she shared so much wisdom.

So if you are feeling the roller coaster of ups and downs, loving your business one day, dreading it the next, this is the episode for you to figure out how to consistently love your business. Let's jump in.

All right. Oh my goodness, Vicky. Oh my goodness, Vicky, I'm so excited to have you here today and have this conversation with you.

VICKY: Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here today and just talking about intentions and amazing energy within our businesses.

AMY: Yes. So Vicky and I connected on Instagram, which I mean, it's just another, another one of those stories where you meet someone on Instagram and you just get along perfectly. So I think, I think we do need to tell the story of how we met.

Do you want to do the honors?

VICKY: Yes, let's tell the story. So we just connected on Instagram and just having a friendly conversation and how did it start Amy? You were basically, we were just--

AMY: I think I saw that you were in Halifax maybe.

VICKY: Yeah, well, I think we were just having that conversation of like, oh, where are you based? Like where, tell me more about your business, where are you based? just like really early on introduction, right?

And I shared with Amy that I was in Halifax, Nova Scotia and Canada. And Amy was like, yeah, that's amazing. We have actually a church who's stationed in Halifax right now, right?

AMY: Yes. Yeah, my church had literally just sent out a new group of people to start a church up there. And I think I told you the name of it.

VICKY: I think you sent me the Instagram of it, right? Just to check it out. You're like, I don't know if this is your thing, but here it is if you want to check it out.

And I clicked on it and I was scrolling down and literally the first picture that popped up, I was like, that is my apartment building. (laughing)

AMY: Yup.

VICKY: Yeah, and--

AMY: You had like literally met some of the people at the church, like days before.

VICKY: Literally, like my basically neighbors in this apartment building that I just saw them move in. And I was like, that's literally them on that first Instagram post that I stumbled on. It was crazy.

AMY: The world is so, so small.

VICKY: Oh my goodness it's tiny.

AMY: Yeah, it is. So that just, that started us off on a fantastic foot. And then we have just gotten along. I feel like our businesses have a lot in common, even though they're different. They were founded on a lot of the similar things. And so, and I've always loved like, ever since then, I love watching your stories. You have amazing stories.

VICKY: Thank you.

AMY: It's so you. And so tell us a little bit about you, your business, so that we can kind of know your background, know where you're coming from.

VICKY: Yeah, so I am an online business and marketing mentor. I help women entrepreneurs establish or elevate their business through marketing and sales strategies, of course, working on mindset and foundations of their business as well.

But that's what I do. And I originally started my business as a virtual assistant, but I started pivoting to social media management and then started doing social media intensives, which really just snowballed from there.

And I found a huge passion for business mentorship and coaching in general, and I ran with it, right?

AMY: I love that. I feel like there's a group of us who started as virtual assistants and turned into something else. I would love to just get a bunch of people together and make like a graph of like where people branched into. That would be so interesting.

VICKY: That would be amazing. I feel like, you know, starting off as a virtual assistant and being able to really find yourself and knowing what you're really passionate about because we start off more general in a way.

AMY: Exactly.

VICKY: So yeah, it's really amazing.

AMY: It is. And actually your Instagram story. So obviously since your marketing mentor, you're amazing at marketing. And on one of your stories, you said something about like the phrase falling in love with your business.

VICKY: Yeah.

AMY: And I was, I believe, I was prepping the first season at that point. I hadn't even announced the podcast, but I was prepping and had the whole first season prepped. And I was like, well, I know what my second season, I know what episode of my second season is gonna be about.

So I immediately like swiped up on that story and was like, can we do an episode about this? Because that is so key to being a peaceful entrepreneur is loving what you do and having a peaceful daily rhythm and not dreading your work, not getting the Sunday scaries, all of the above.

So I'm really pumped to have this conversation with you today.

VICKY: I know when we were like, let's do a podcast episode this I was so excited because I feel like you know it's not talked about enough right? The highs and lows and we talk about the highs a lot but let's talk about the lows leading up to the highs and all the intentional work that we have to do and all the maintenance that we have to do to stay in love with our businesses because it tests us every single day.

I feel like as entrepreneurs there's always another test. We're getting tested every single day of running our business and what we do.

AMY: And that is quickly becoming a sub-theme throughout this entire podcast so far is let's talk about the real stuff because social media is always such a highlight reel. And I am so not about that.

Our whole first interview episode on the first season is called you're not alone. And it talks all about comparison and burnout and all of the different struggles that we go through as entrepreneurs. And Beth and I were literally like, we are so frustrated that all of the marketing online is like, you can earn six figures by working 10 hours a week. And I made $1,000 a week off of this one Etsy product. And like that's, I don't blame people because that's what they have time for in their real or in their TikTok, but it's misleading. So that's a lot of of what this whole podcast is about.

So you're right on brand and you didn't even mean to be.

VICKY: Yes, I think it's just like part of being intentional within your business is really figuring out what you want out of your business. And I think this is something that we both really relate on is just the real and wrongness of what running a business or what being an entrepreneur is.

AMY: 100%. Well, let's go ahead and jump off of that into how in the world do we figure out how to love our businesses and love running them, love being in them every day and not just let them run us or just let life pass us by. And because everyone wants that and I've gone in and out of seasons of loving my business and seasons of not dreading it, but just like not being as excited about it.

So I've experienced both of the feelings, but I haven't really quite harnessed how do I intentionally get there on a regular basis.

So share with us your wisdom on how we fall in love with our businesses and stay in love with our businesses.

VICKY: So I felt the same way, like going through cycles of really high highs and really low lows. And at one point I just got really frustrated with it. I was like, oh, we're dipping again. Or, oh, we're climbing again. And it felt like there was like a lack of control, even though I was in the driver's seat, you know? I run my business.

AMY: Yes.

VICKY: It just feels like that attachment between yourself and your business because our businesses are our babies. We built this from ground up, we're passionate about it. But I think part of falling in love with your business is realizing that your business is your canvas, not a part of you. Like not it's your own identity in that way.

So I think one of the major things was being able to detach my self-doubt and leaking that into my business. Right? So letting your business run the way it runs and having all the structures and strategies and all the things that you've built up.

But of course, throw in the real the wrongness, the conversations, the, you know, your creativity, what lights you up into your business as a canvas, but doesn't mean like your sad or you're feeling some type of way and your business has to directly reflect that.

AMY: Yeah, absolutely.

That, yeah, that jumps right into the first thing that came to mind when I was thinking about this question, which is just the concept of being intentional with your mindset in your business and setting yourself up for success.

I'm going to have to write that down that your business is your canvas, not your identity. That's such a good one letter.

And I need to remember that because it is our baby and it's so easy for it to just become who we are. And it's like, like you're saying, like your worth and your self-identity and your self-doubt, it gets all, it can get all muddled up.

It's like how your business is doing is how you're feeling and how you're feeling is how your business is doing. And it just gets all messy real quick.

VICKY: Exactly. I think like part of falling in love with your business is also embracing the the tests that you are faced with every single day of your business, right? Oh, no, like my creativity just went out the door when creating this graphic and you know, not letting that trickle and become from a one day problem or a one hour problem to a one month creative block.

So really like being intentional is facing in the moment of like, it's okay, I can walk away and come back to it in an hour. And again, not letting, you know, how you feel directly affect the way that your business runs and how you support your clients and let that have that domino effect. Right?

AMY: Absolutely. Yes. A big thing with intentionality that we've already been talking about a little bit is boundaries. And it's funny because I actually recorded an episode for the podcast about boundaries and decided to scrap it because it's such a big topic and there's no way for it to be encompassed in one episode.

So I scrapped it and I decided I'm going to do a series because it's just, there's just way too much, but let's talk in this specific context.

What are some boundaries that you have put up or how do you think about boundaries in a way that helps you love your business?

VICKY: I totally agree with you how boundaries is just like a huge like subgroup of your business. When it comes to boundaries, it's important to recognize that there are so many different boundaries involved. And I like to kind of, in this stage within my business to break it down so it's more easily digestible and reflective.

So instead of just boundaries I'm like what are my non-negotiables right? What are my business and life rituals and what are the boundaries that avoid me from having leaky energy within my business right? So dividing it in that way helps me approach it differently in the different areas that I have.

AMY: That's good. Can you share a couple of examples?

VICKY: 100%. So something that I set as a boundary or a leaky energy that I had was I used to wake up in the morning as soon as I woke up. It's just like this gasp of I need to check all of my socials, all of my, you know, messages from my clients.

And it's just like, you're waking up with already a huge wave of anxiety, right? Of all the things that you need to do. And just jumping right into it. An hour on my phone, you know, getting back to all my clients while I'm still in bed, and I haven't taken a sip of water.

I haven't gotten ready and felt good and, you know, had my coffee yet. So that in itself, I recognize that I need to create, you know, a way for me to sustainably fill my cup first. So I'm able to, you know, pour my energy and my passion and my support for my community and my clients.

So at this stage, I have a morning ritual and like a hard start to the day. So in the morning ritual, of course, it's going to look different every day. Like some days you're just like, okay, I'm feeling more cozy. It's a rainy day, you know, but you know still just practicing ways to fill your own cup first and this is going to look different for everyone but for me personally I like to get ready.

I like to just do skincare or light makeup especially working from home like just want to get cozy right? And I wanted this like this perfect spot for me where it's not like I have to get glammed up every single day.

And I also don't want to be like super slobby every day because that is where you know I just I had that phase and I was just like wasn't feeling confident myself. So I wanted that fine line of like business casual chic and running with that right. So being able to have like that that perfect sweet spot.

And a lot of that comes down to reflecting and being really self-aware with what's working and what's not. So that in itself is like one of the rituals that I have within my business is to prioritize myself first before serving anyone, right? Putting my time into anything.

AMY: Yes, that's huge. I like that you use the word ritual rather than like to-do list or checklist or whatever. I like the word rhythm too, which is the same concept, but just like you said, reflecting coming up with something that's going to work really well for you and then putting it into play.

And I think something cool about the ritual/rhythm concept that I found is I've also done the whole social media when I first wake up thing and had to cut it out. So I'm right there with you.

And I still have my phone on my nightstand for an alarm, but I have basically replaced it with something else. So that's one thing that can help is if you want to stop doing something, what can you replace it with? So I replaced it with my Kindle. I just pick it up and start reading my book instead of scrolling because I still need something to wake my brain up.

But the other piece is even if you don't want to make that switch, because social media is borderline, like it could truly be an addiction. So you're not going to want to stop doing social media first thing in the morning, probably, even if you know it's good for you.

So something that I've found is if you have discipline for long enough, it will turn into a rhythm that you don't really have to think about anymore. And just like there is a point that you'll get past the hard like, "I don't want to do this, but I have to." And it'll turn into something that you want to do because you'll see how much healthier you are and you'll feel so much better that now I'm like, "Please take my phone a thousand feet away from me at all times. I don't want it."

Because I've practiced taking space and like six months ago, it was two feet from me at all times. You know what I mean?

VICKY: Yeah. I love what you said about not having to associate with, I have to do this, or this is a to-do list.

Because I feel like lingo and your approach to whatever it is in your business, it's important to tread it lightly in a way where when you're telling yourself you have to do something, you're going to dread it, right? Or like, I have to do this. and you're already associating with terrible energy or mindset towards it, and that's just going to be reflected in the whole process. You're gonna hate it, and then you're going to reaffirm and tell yourself that, yeah, this is not something that I like to do, right?

And then we're gonna just start procrastinating it, and it just becomes this domino effect because of that initial mentality towards something.

So when I am doing something that I'm not loving within my business, I try to tell myself like, what are the intentions of this? Right? Like, right in this moment, I'm not loving this, but I do enjoy, you know, for an example, creating content, right?

So in the moment, I might be like, I don't really want to create this graphic right now or I don't really want to do this right now. But then I kind of like have the switch of like, okay, no, we can, we can do it this way, or we can come back to it, or we can, you know, just do it because the amount of love and the amount of, you know, response that you get from people who are genuinely loving and craving your content that, you know, helps them every single day.

That's what's gonna fuel me. So having that like sub or that aftermath, the domino effect of like what are what's the second ripple, right? What's the third ripple effects of this? Is not doing the first task worth it? Or is it, you know, worth it to do it and then have all these amazing aftermath of that one event. Right?

AMY: So good. That's so good. That's, that's hitting on another point of CEO mindset, which I know is something that you also talk about a lot in your content is taking account of everything that you're spending your time on and making sure that it is purposeful. And it is something you should be doing.

And I think that is another key to loving your business is feeling purpose in all of the things that you do. And if you don't feel purpose, how can you find it or how can you outsource or delegate that to somebody else if truly it's not within your purpose to be doing it.

VICKY: Yes, I love that. I think with it kind of, again goes back to intentions of running your business and if you don't love and you don't have to love every aspect of your business, if you have the means—

AMY: We don't live in a perfect world.

VICKY: If you don't specialize in social media management and you absolutely dread creating content have someone else do it for you, you know, outsource is okay to ask for help. It's okay to, you know, you know, be open to that.

Because, again, you have to fill up your cup to an extent. And if if you're acting like an octopus, a million different, you know, buttons that you have to press, it can be so difficult for you to handle it all.

So when you're at the stage in your business where you're like, okay, I really don't enjoy this. And it's me having to do this doesn't make me fall in love with my business. And this has to mean to my limits, pushing me to my limits every single day, you know, outsourced or invest in getting help to shift that mindset.

AMY: Yes. Or like, can I completely cut it out depending on the thing? Because that's totally an option, too. It's like, find a way to enjoy it. Find a way to outsource it or can you just cut it completely?

Because there's been plenty of times in my business that for example social media management was a service of ours for a while and I just realized that it was constantly stressing me out when I had to look over. Even if I wasn't doing the content creating, I still like it passed through me before it went to the client and even just that I was like this just stresses me out. I dread it every time. I'm like, I don't have a passion for this service. Why am I even offering it? Like, let me just cut it and just do the things that I feel passionate and like knowledgeable about. So cutting is also an option.

VICKY: Yes, I think like going back to like intentions, being intentional is just being really self-aware and changing things that are not serving you anymore. Right? And that's where growth and scaling your business, personal growth comes through is being self-aware and quickly changing it.

Like as soon as you face it, you're like, this isn't serving me anymore. Let me reflect on this deeper. Yeah, it's not serving me. I'm ditching that, right? And that changes everything. It saves you so much time. It's not serving you. Why would you spend an extra year doing something you don't love, right?

AMY: That's so good. you're a really good example of that because your business is three years old, but you've already morphed twice. So you're a good example of like, nope, this isn't working. I'm going a different direction.

VICKY: I get told a lot that like, I'm a mover and shaker, you know, just like make it happen in the moment. And it's easier said than done. Like in the moment, there's a lot of like, whoa, how do I feel about this and over analyzing every single different scenario?

But it comes to a point where it's like, you don't know until you try. And this kind of just goes into the topic of like taking action. If it doesn't work out, try again, right? And you learn something from it. And timing is different for everyone.

So you know, if it doesn't work out right now, try again, maybe a little bit later and see if it works. If not, then it doesn't serve you. It's not right for you and try something else.

So I think part of loving your business is being able to trust yourself and trust that everything will work out and you'll know exactly what you need to do to get to where you want to be. Right?

AMY: That's amazing. Yeah, my coach told me, he was like, "Take every no as a not right now." So that fits right into what you were saying.

VICKY: I love that.

AMY: Something that's, I think a little counterintuitive about loving your business is I think it's important to be able to take a break from your business. Because if you spend all your time, even if it's just all your mental time in your business, you're not gonna love it anymore. Like we need breaks.

So talk to me a little bit about how you create that balance and how you've seen that change your love for your business.

VICKY: Yeah, so I used to kind of go through, again, the cycle of highs and lows, and when there's that low, I'm like, oh, I need time for myself to figure out my business, or just slow things down. You don't always have to like fully put a stop to everything, but sometimes you do. It just depends on knowing yourself and what works best for you.

So for me, it's just like leaning more into my feminine energy, slowing things down and diving to things that spark my love for my business again, like creativity, branding, things like that, and just kind of working my way through.

But, you know, sometimes I'll go through these phases where I'm like, okay, I need to take an actual break and refuel myself and not think about business at all. Right?

Like I was at this point where basically it's like, “hi, nice to meet you I'm Vicky Phan", I'm a business and marketing mentor” to random people on the street. And it's just like that doesn't have to just be my identity. There's just like so much more to me than just that title occupation.

And I think it's important to, as you grow your business, learn more things about yourself and pour your energy into personal development because that's what's going to inevitably grow your personal brand as well.

And having more attached to you than how much money you make or what you do. Because again, deep down, you wanna work with people who are humans, right? Like see you as a human and it's a great connector and it's important to be able to take that time when you need it and be really intuitive with that.

So what I would suggest is to take time and do the things that you love that are aside from business, right?

AMY: That's actually, like that can be a take a vacation thing, but that's also a rhythm for me. So I actually still pretty much function on like a nine to five schedule, not super strictly during the week, but I do always take weekends off, like always.

And I also completely take weekends off of social media. Like I don't even open the app, even for personal use. And the thing that you said about just like taking a break and not thinking about business.

I just, I need that on a regular basis because my brain, I love the octopus thing that you said. I always think of it as like juggling balls, that I just have like 27 juggling balls in the air at all times, but also an octopus is a good analogy for it. But I just, I function kind of on all cylinders when I'm on, which is also something that I'm working on slowing down.

But because I do put so much mental energy into my business, which I think I should, right? I need to also take a full stop on a regular basis. So that's been huge for me. It's just taking weekends off. And I know that the Instagram algorithm doesn't recommend that and all of that, but I'm like, I can't let Instagram rule my life. I've got to do what I need to do.

VICKY: Yeah, I feel the same way. I don't very, very rarely I post on or show up on my business account on the weekends. I really take that time off, no calls or anything. Sometimes I'll document what's going on throughout my day. other than that it's just like post and ghost on the weekends at least.

And I find that's really really important because if I'm preaching to my clients, you need to practice boundaries and have these rituals and you know, not spread yourself too thin. So that means you know, taking time for yourself. If I'm preaching this and I'm not doing it myself like, yep, why would anyone want to invest and work with me, right? So I think it's important to take that time off.

And for me, you know, I love, you know, some of the activities that I love to do that fuel me and like other hobbies and such is just like, you know, creating videos or like artsy things and educating myself, a lot of it's on my phone and can be really difficult if it's on your phone and your your business is on your phone.

So what I like to do, and this is like a non-negotiable for me, is to, I've actually created different do not disturb modes on my phone. So basically Monday to Fridays, that's like business mode, right? And a lot of times, like working from home and owning your own business, a lot of your friends and family members might just say like, oh, she's definitely available right now, let me FaceTime her, right?

And it's also like boundaries within the relationships of your everyday life. It's like, I have the time to talk to you, but doesn't mean I'm available, right? Like doesn't mean that I have the energy for our call right now because I'm deep down creating this business plan for my client and I don't really want to FaceTime right now. So I think it's important like to have boundaries and non-negotiables and rituals in your business that reflect everything, your energy, your time, your clients, all of those things. Right?

AMY: So good. That's so good. And that kind of goes into another point that I wanted to talk about is prioritizing and how to set your priorities in the right place so that you can be proactive in your business and not reactive, like reactive to every single text that comes through or whatever.

And we're already kind of talking about this, but it's just important to sit back and look at your daily rhythms, look at your business systems and say, and delineate what the actual priorities are.

Something our business coach had us do was actually write down like the values that are attached to the things that we're doing. For example, like sales and lead generation can be worth tens of thousands of dollars, right? But, I don't know what's something else small. Bookkeeping, it's important, but it's not going to like directly make you a bunch of money.

So you need to focus on the high value items and you should only have, he said, you should only have five high value items so that you can like really laser in. Then you have your mid value and your low value.

But it was just an exercise to prioritize like what are the steps and the actions that I'm taking in my business and how can I arrange my day so that I'm doing the most high value things when I'm most productive and I'm spending my time and my mental energy well on what I have to do.

VICKY: I love that. Prioritizing or even just seeing what is important to you. A lot of times in the early stages of being a business mentor, I was like, being a good mentor is responding to my clients in a minute. As soon as they message me, I need to be on call. And in the moment, I was like, yeah, I'm pouring a lot of my energy, my passion, and my support for my clients. And I thought that was gold. I thought that was the best thing as a mentor to do.

But reflecting on it later, that's, again, teaching my clients subconsciously that that's what they need to do for their clients as well.

AMY: Wow. That's good. That's good, but that's deep, like that's a good point.

VICKY: Yeah. And now, like I, you know, I check my Voxer or my client support, I have Geneva or Voxer that I support my clients in for one on one or group. And I set, you know, time block times to go back in check in with them throughout the day.

So I've time blocked three 15 minute increments throughout my day to respond to every one of my clients and that really just helps me enforce that boundary of having enough time for them to reflect on what their message is and a lot of times they're like do you know what actually like just saying this out loud or just messaging you about it and giving it some time to think about my intentions I just figured it out and it feels amazing right.

So i'm giving time for my clients I'm teaching them to take initiative and be that higher version of entrepreneur that they want to be by making decisions. So a lot of like mentorship is like, of course, I'm guiding you and holding your hand, but I'm not going to necessarily like, you know, piggyback ride you everywhere. Right. Within your business.

AMY: Wow, that is so good. I love that. I love the time blocking thing too.

And again, the cool thing about that is you can tell your clients, "Hey, I check at this time, this time, and this time." So they know when to expect you, and they're not just sitting there like, "When's she going to respond?" So that's also good.

VICKY: Yeah. I think being part of Intentional is like, "What do I want the goal to be?" Right? My goal is to, you know, really create amazing entrepreneurs and amazing entrepreneurial growth out of my clients. I want them to grow and flourish and bloom. But if are my actions or is my support reflecting that?

And in the early stages of me responding in 0.5 seconds, that wasn't reflecting the goal and the intentions that I had. So you can have these these goals and intentions, but it's important to actually reflect on the action or the business moves that you're making towards that goal. Right?

AMY: It is. Yes. I was also going to talk about priorities, setting priorities for yourself now based on the priorities that you have for your business growth.

So like what you want to see your business because you're talking about like what you want your client to see your clients be like, but I'm sure you're also talking about what you want to see your business be like and how you see it being and then you can kind of trace back and be like, "Okay, well, here's what I need to prioritize now to get there."

VICKY: Yes, 100%. I think falling in love with your business or something that I like to say is like becoming THAT entrepreneur and it's just like your own definition of what the higher version of yourself as a CEO, as an entrepreneur looks like. And being able to kind of like reverse engineer, like, okay, this is what I want.

And take these steps back of like, okay, what are the actions towards that? What do I have to do on the daily? What are like the amazing rituals and non-negotiables and boundaries that I need to set to make that happen? Right?

AMY: Yes. While we're talking about reflection, I have a question for you. Do you factor reflection into your schedule? Like do you block times out for it? Or do you wait for it to happen naturally?

VICKY: Well, I don't necessarily time block to reflect because I feel like part of growing is being really intuitive with yourself. So in the early stages of like starting, you know, deeper reflection and analyzing and awareness in my business, I might have done like once a week of just like sitting down journaling, or just like talking it out in a way.

But in this, you know, stage of my business now, I just like to be really intuitive is the first step being intuitive of like, how am I feeling? Right? Am I feeling overwhelmed? Am I feeling excited? Am I feeling really stressed out? And pinpointing what is causing that energy or what is causing those emotions to be happening in my world on a daily, weekly, monthly basis, whatever it is.

And then next is kind of being like, again, diving deeper of what is causing that? And then, you know, what can I do about it? Right, like what are shifts that I can make?

So recently I've been like feeling really disorganized in my business, like, you know, feeling like my emails are all messed up, like just really disorganized in the backend. And, you know, when you're really in your grind and things just pile up and, you know, papers everywhere, ideas everywhere, it's just like a lot of chaos is happening. And I was like, oh wow, I feel really anxious over all the things that I need to do. Right?

And I was like, okay, what is happening? Why is this happening? What do I need to do? So I realized that the systems that I've set up for my business, like my client management systems, my, you know, um, you know, task management, all of those little things. Wasn't my system wasn't serving me anymore. So I'm like, I'm ditching all of this because I'm on a million different, um, platforms to help me manage this. I'm going to condense it and then like integrate all of this into one software.

So again, like being really intuitive is number one analyzing diving deeper is number two and number three is making that shift, making the changes that and you know, getting rid of things that are not serving you anymore.

AMY: I want to talk a little bit more about being intuitive because I feel like I am pretty intuitive but I haven't put a lot of language to it or I haven't like verbally processed it a lot.

So I in my head right now I'm trying to like reconcile like how do you be intuitive but also be structured at the same time because you have, there's space for both.

But I guess my question is like, how do you do that? How do you structure your days and your thoughts and all of that?

VICKY: I mean, I think it's just like thinking out loud too. And you know, if something, everyone is different of course, but I recognize that if something is bothering me, I'm like, oh, I'm feeling overwhelmed. I tend to vocalize that to my boyfriend, my partner. And then I just kind of reflect, am I bringing this up in my head or vocalizing this more than once, more than twice? If so, something needs to shift, something's not right. So there's that way.

Or sometimes I just like see, you know, how irritable I am or how I'm approaching or my self-talk as well. So being able to recognize, oh, that was a negative self-talk that I just had for myself. Why are you like this? And then that's a negative self-talk that in the moment you need to kind of catch yourself in.

AMY: That takes practice.

VICKY: Yeah, but I guess this is like listening to this and having this conversation is for you to plant that seed of, okay, next time I'm having some negative self-talk or feeling some type of way, I can analyze and dive deeper into it. So sometimes I write it down, sometimes I'm just like, I need to talk about this.

And I talk about it to people around me, like my partner, my mentors, even in the DM sometimes, if I'm just having a conversation.

AMY: Yeah, process it with someone.

VICKY: Yeah, you're just like processing it and talking about what's going on. So I shared this on, I shared like a get ready with me one day or like a day in life. And I was like, my systems are not serving me anymore. I'm changing everything, just like vocalizing that way. And then you're gonna work with it. If you feel like you need accountability to be intuitive, put it out there, right? And that's where that real and wrongness comes from. It's just like speaking out loud.

AMY: Yes, I'm gonna plug one of my old episodes, which is all about community and why we're not supposed to do this alone. And if you can set up some sort of relationship for yourself, whether it be a group of peers, whether it be a mentor like you, whether it be a coach, like having, I personally have two other girls who are, We're all on the same level, you know?

And we have a group chat on Voxer that we literally talk constantly on. And we're just like doing stuff like this, like sharing how we're feeling and even asking for input, like, "Hey, I'm feeling like this. What do you think I should do?" Or, "Hey, this happened with a client. How should I word my response?" You know, so surrounding yourself with people who you trust to speak in, in those moments, whatever that community looks like.

Like you said, your boyfriend, I have my husband, You know, like we, it could be whoever, but you gotta have your people that you can go to.

VICKY: Yes, yes. I think part of like, when I not hated my business or when it felt like I wanted to burn everything to the ground and putting out fires everywhere, you know, at that phase, it was like entrepreneurship was really lonely, right? Like I was not putting myself out there. I didn't feel supported with, you know, because I didn't invest in a mentor at one stage and I felt like none of my friends or family could really relate having growing, scaling, supporting an online business, right?

So I was like, do you know what? I'm over this. Like I don't wanna be so lonely in entrepreneurship. I'm going to invest in a mentor that I love. I'm going to navigate more intentional conversations conversations around my business. I'm going to surround myself and put myself out there to really create a community that I can support and also rely on as well. And even like submerge myself with or surround myself with friends who get it because again being a young entrepreneur as well is like for me I was really struggling because other people my age were in university. They were partying. They were, you know, they had different goals currently in their lives. And it was really difficult for me to, you know, find friends that could understand that I was not in school. I was, you know, I'm an entrepreneur, you know, all of these things. So finding your people and being able to support each other in that way.

AMY: So big, so big. Oh my goodness. Well, this has been so fantastic.

And I feel like we've really just thrown out a lot of ways that we can practice loving our business. And I'm sure that you and I will continue to discover those.

VICKY: 100%. I love this conversation. I think like falling in love with your business is such an uphill battle, uphill journey.

But once you do it, and once you start being really intuitive, self-aware and be able to make these shifts and trust yourself.

Trust yourself 110% because you're in the driver's seat. You have to trust yourself. You have to know that you're capable. You have to know that your experience that you have what it takes because if you didn't, you wouldn't have made it this far already. Right?

AMY: So true.

VICKY: You trusted yourself every step of the way. to get to where you are today. So continue to trust yourself and continue to move forward.

AMY: I love that. And I can see why you're such an amazing mentor just from like everything, how you speak and how you encourage and anyone who works with you is I'm sure just so blessed.

So go ahead and share how people can find you and what kind of people you find yourself working with if anyone listening wants a mentor.

VICKY: Yes, so you can find me on Instagram @iamvickyphan. I'm sure you'll tag my Instagram in the show notes.

And yeah, so I serve women online service based entrepreneurs. So whether you're a virtual assistant, social media manager, graphic designer, even mentor yourself, those are the typical types of clients that I work with.

And yeah, whether you're in the early stages of your business looking to establish or you're looking to elevate and scale your business. I support all types of business in that way, so all stages.

So yeah, you can find me at @iamvickyphan on Instagram.

AMY: And you also have a podcast.

VICKY: Yes.

AMY: So we're going to be recording an episode from that one as well. So I will put some info. I don't know if they will come out around the same time, but whatever's going on, I'll put it in the description.

VICKY: Yay. Yeah, so my podcast is the Dreamy CEO podcast and you are, I'm so excited to have you on because we're gonna have the best conversation ever and have a great time on there.

AMY: Yes, I can't wait. Thank you so much for being here, having this conversation and I can't wait to continue the conversation on your podcast and on Instagram.

VICKY: Thank you so much for having me. I had such an amazing time and I loved our conversation today.

AMY: Me too. All right. Bye everyone.

Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. We look forward to connecting with you more, whether that's on Instagram, TikTok, or our email list. We'd love to hear what you thought of today's episode and if you have any additional tips to add.

We will see See you next week with more tips and tools to becoming a peaceful entrepreneur.

Bye for now!