In this episode...

Laura Hargrave: Welcome everyone here at Boss It. We would love to hear from you. Join us in our Boss It community by heading over to our website, bossitclub.com, and join our mailing list. As we grow, we will be launching our community of fellow Boss It BFFs, and we want you to be a part of it. 

Okay, Sophia Noreen, let's dig into this. I can't wait to tell them all about how we got here.

Sophia Noreen: Welcome to the Boss It Podcast. My name is Sophia Noreen and I took an Etsy startup and launched it in big-box retailers within 12 months. As a creative with an entrepreneurial drive, I left my full-time career in healthcare to find better harmony between career, family, and self-care. We believe you can have it all. Yes, you can launch and run a successful scalable business while maintaining harmony in all aspects of your life. We believe we can learn from each other and draw on many experiences to create the best life possible. During each episode, we will share proven life hacks that will keep you on top and striving every day.

There should be no hesitation. Make a plan. Take action. We are here for you!

Sophia Noreen: Welcome everyone here at Boss It, we would love to hear from you. Join us in our Boss It community by heading over to our website, bossitclub.com and join our mailing list. As we grow, we will be launching our community of fellow Boss It BFFs, and we like you to be a part of it. Okay, Sophia Noreen, let's dig into this. I can't wait to tell them all about how we got here.  

Sophia Noreen: Welcome to the Boss It Podcast. My name is Sophia Noreen and I took an Etsy startup and launched it in big-box retailers within 12 months. As a creative with an entrepreneurial drive, I left my full-time career in healthcare to find better harmony between career, family and self-care. We believe you can have it all. Yes, you can launch and run a successful, scalable business while maintaining harmony in all aspects of your life. We believe, we can learn from each other and draw on many experiences to create the best life possible. During each episode, we will share proven life hacks that will keep you on top and striving every day. There should be no hesitation. Make a plan. Take action. We are here for you.  

Hello, everyone. Welcome to another fantastic episode of the Boss It Podcast. I'm going to be your host today. My name is Sophia Noreen if we have not met before. And I am so glad you are tuning in today because we are talking about a very important topic. A topic that I feel many people could take these tips and tricks and apply it through many domains of their life, and that is transition. How do you manage transitions like a boss? And the reason I think this is so important is because change is constant. That means your transitions from one state to the next will be constant. So best to really hone in on these skills, these transferable skills, so you can use them not only in your side hustle or your business but also in your personal life or in your career if you're still working on your 9-5. So I am going through a transition right now, and that's the reason why I felt that this topic was extremely important for me currently. And I'm going to share with you a few tricks that I'm using as I go through my transition. So let me tell you about that before we dive deep into the tips and tricks.  

Basically, right now, I am taking on a new position as an Interim Executive Director for my family health team. It's a nonprofitable organization that is funded by the government in our country, Canada. And it helps improve access to primary care. What that means is access to funding, access to health professionals such as pharmacists and dieticians to those individuals who may not have benefits so they can access it without needing to go to a hospital. So primary care being, if your family doctor is like, you need to see a dietician. You don't have benefits, great, here as a dietician. Who's going to help you out with your diabetes, for example. So that's a very, very basic example of what our family health team does. And we work in conjunction with physicians, with doctors at the hospital. With home care, where people that come into the hospital. For those home care professionals that go into the home to help you access care. 

And so, it's a great opportunity. I have been working as a manager part-time in this organization for three years. I went into my part-time career. I transferred into a part-time career because I wanted to manage my home life a little bit more seamlessly as the girls were growing up. But I also wanted to save a little bit of energy for my side hustle, which now is growing. So there were two reasons why I took a step back three years ago. And now, I feel like I am able to take on more. More because the girls are older. The business now is running itself, primarily, with a team. You could say that I am exploring at the moment on what to do next with my path. Now, some people would be like, why are you doing so much stuff? Why is it that you have decided to take on this job? And I'm saying Interim Director because I have not yet applied for it. I'm covering for my boss who's recently left his post. Primarily because I want to make sure the team transitions well to the next director. Be it me or someone else. And it's also an opportunity for me to feel out the position and see if it's something I really want to do. Because let's face it, sometimes you get into a job or career, or even in your business and you realize, oh man, this was not exactly what I had signed up for. So this is a blessing I feel for me. And that's why I've decided to take that stab at this opportunity right now.  

So you can say that this exploration phase will be a good opportunity to see if this is really what I want to do. And I'm being really, really honest with you guys. I am at that stage in my life and in my business and in my career trajectory that I have to make a choice. I know the business is growing year over year and it is going to hopefully continue to grow. And I will have to ask myself, do I have the stamina to keep going on both sides of the coin? Do I have stamina to continue the business and also continuing to work another job? Now, of course, there is a point in your business where you hope the business will fund itself. That's the whole point of the business. Correct? That you should be able to step away from it and it should be automated, and it should be self-fulfilling. It should be able to pay you back as an investor. And it should also be able to generate its own fund to propel its worth. That is the ultimate growth. That is the ultimate goal. And currently, we're almost there but we're not there yet.  

And so, for me to step away from a career that is generating a healthy income, it is risky. And that is the reason why I'm doing this little exercise to see if I can actually sustain both simultaneously, the business and the career, to see if the business could offer a bit more cushioning financially for my family, and also to help propel the business without going out to the world of investment. We have been investing our own income in the company because we want to own as much as possible. So again, not the whole point of the episode, but I thought I'd give you a good update on where I am at in the business so you go on the journey with me. And now, I really want to talk about the transition.  

So obviously, we talked about that change is constant. And you have to have a good transition plan, be it in your career or be it in your business, or be it in your personal life. And I have a few key strategies that I'm employing right now as I transition into this full-time position that is definitely a heavy workload. And I need to keep the business running too. And it's our busy season right now for the business. So we are all up in a hundred percent propelling with sales and supply chain management and of course, managing our retailers. So not a light season that we're entering concurrently. So the transitional tips I'm going to tell you about now are vitally important if not more so, because we're going into a heavy selling season for the business.  

Okay, so I'm going to offer you three pillars for the transitional tips. And the first pillar is preparing your self. Now, what I mean by that is your mindset and your ability to reframe your situation. And what I mean by that is, as you ensure a new phase of your life, in your career or in your business, you're going to be going through a lot of mindset tricks and shifts. Meaning, you are going to have to be very patient with yourself. You'll be learning a lot. Taking in a lot. And you will feel mentally exhausted. And so, what might happen is you're like, why am I feeling so tired? Or why can't I figure this out? And this dialogue may run through your head. And I want you to take a moment and ask yourself, why are you putting yourself in this situation where you're not giving yourself the opportunity to learn, or you're not giving yourself the opportunity to be kind to yourself? The reframe here is I have just entered an exciting new part of my life, new faith, new transition and I need to really, really be patient with myself. Give myself the grace, give myself the understanding. And I would say, if you're entering a new role, for example, be it in your own side hustle or in your business or as a student even, or even in your professional life, giving yourself the opportunity to say, hey, I'm brand new at this and I'm taking a minute to catch up. And you can phrase it however you wish to whomever you wish to get that messaging. But you can play the card, I'm the new kid on the block. You're allowed to do that. And I think a lot of people don't give themselves that opportunity, and I'm guilty of that as well. So I have been really stepping back and even telling the team, I'm going to get to that in a minute. But even letting the team know that they're going through a transition and they need to be also patient with themselves. But I'll get into more of that in a minute. Again, focusing on yourself, your mindset and reframing to allow yourself the grace to be patient with yourself. And do not expect a hundred percent perfection from yourself. You should never do that but more so during a transition.  

The next tip is preparing your family and your supports. When you're going through a transition, there is going to be repercussions. It's going to be essentially you. And when you have hit that wall and you feel like I can't do any anymore, it's going to be your family and your supports that are going to have to back you up. And they need to have expectations laid. So when you go through a transition of any sort, you need to have an open dialogue with them and say, hey, I'm just letting you know that I'm going to be working a couple more hours a week because I'm trying to get my side hustle off the ground. Or I'm trying to study more for my test. Laying that expectation, having that open communication and dialogue is vitally important because now they know, okay, she's going to be busy. But that's not enough. Not only do you have to have that dialogue and of course, be open and transparent. You also have to be able to ask for help and delegate tasks to your family and your supports. If you don't have anybody living with you, for example, that's okay. Even just having that opportunity to have that support externally, even delegating the act of, hey, I need help perhaps with meals prep. Do you mind helping me find a few recipes this week to find for grocery shopping? That's a very simple example. And I'm just saying that not everybody has to be living with somebody to look for supports. Even that mental burden of what am I going to eat tonight, somebody else helping you with that could be not only fun for your friends or your family, but another thing that you don't have to worry about while you're going through this transition. When it comes to your family who may be living with you, asking for more help, delegating your tasks, because sometimes we assume that they know that we need help. Especially for my moms out there who have 5,000 tasks going on at once, we almost assume that the kids or the spouse or the partner understands that something needs to be done in the house because it's not done. But unless you tell them to do it, unless you specifically say, hey hon, can you load the dishwasher, wash the dishes or get the laundry done. These are very simple domestic tasks, I know. But sometimes not everybody understands that they need to be done. They expect you to be doing it still even though you've already told them that you're busy doing something else. So take it from my experience. You need to be specific and you need to delegate it. So I know some people are probably like, are you kidding me? But I'm not joking. You do have to be very specific. So that is my second tip. When under your supports and family, not only do you communicate openly, you need to be able to delegate and state very clearly what you're asking them to do. Which brings me to my next point, setting expectations. 

I've talked about this tons in other podcast episodes. But setting the expectation that I'm going to be studying tonight or working on my side hustle tonight, is it possible or I would like you to do X, Y and Z. And this is going to be consistently my suggestion asks and hopefully a commitment to you that I'll be doing this so I need your help to do that. And so setting those expectations somewhat like delegating, but when you set expectations it's like, okay, the expectation is that you'll be doing this all the time without me asking you to do it. So I know these are really difficult things when it comes to family supports. But having open, transparent conversations about your wishes and your goals, being able to clearly delegate out tasks and make it single task so it doesn't get complicated. And then of course, setting the expectation that you would like them to do it more frequently or regularly. Those three things will help you during your transition. And my suggestion is to do these things before you start the transition so that way you're not completely burnt out mentally with the new transition. And then you have to now manage a whole other bag of tricks at home.  

Okay, the last domain is preparing your team. And I did start talking about this a few minutes ago about having them set expectations with themselves. So if you don't have a team, no problem, you are the team. So think of it that way. If you are working for yourself, you're a solopreneur, you are the team. But if you are in a team in your 9-5, or you have a team for your business, this is also very applicable. And setting expectations with them is extremely important. So today, I had a meeting with our project managers and I had to set the expectation with them that they also had to be kind to themselves. And I had to set expectation with them that I'm very transparent. And I am hoping that they will be very transparent with me. Meaning, that if they are running out of steam that day, if they have too many projects on the go, they need to tell me because I can't read their mind. And I know when you're early in your career, It's very easy to take on the world and then get squished beneath all the projects that you've started to take on. I want to make sure the team does not burn out during the transition either because they are learning who I am and vice versa. And so, they may need to take a few minutes more or a few less tasks during this transition time just so they don't burn themselves out. So setting the expectation with your team is absolutely vital.  

The next would be, of course, delegating specific actions. If you're coming into a team or you're new to a team, you'll have to spend some time studying who does what. If you're growing within a team, you may be leaving an old role behind, so delegating those tasks off. In my situation, that's what has happened. I have another position that I have left. So now, who do I give that position to? Who's going to take on those roles? So that's one piece that you definitely have to work out. You cannot do everything. So if you're leaving a role, make sure that role is being filled by somebody else. And if you are in a team where you've decided to let more things go because you want to automate a few things, you have to give it to team members. For example, for the business side of things, I am now delegating a lot more to other team members. Because I don't have the time to do it and I cannot do it myself. So on both sides of the coin, be it business, be it career, you have to have to delegate.  

Now, if you're working for yourself and you're like, who am I going to delegate to? Because it's me. You may want to start dividing out your tasks and saying, in the event I get a virtual assistant, which tasks will I give them first? So you can start doing certain columns of tasks. So admin tasks, scheduling, emails, for example, or project management's always a great task. You have a project but you don't want to be managing all the milestones. That's the way of bucket. You may want to start doing an exercise. And even though you are going through a transition and you're the only person, you're the solopreneur, start bucketing your tasks out. Because in the event, when you are ready, when you have the funds coming in, and I tell you guys, even if you delegate two to three hours out a week, it makes a world of difference. So as soon as you can grab a virtual assistant, you'd be surprised how much difference it will make in your quality of life and your enjoyment of your entrepreneurial journey. We will, of course, save that for another episode on how to secure a VA because that's a whole episode and a fantastic one, I'm sure. So I will definitely get it into the schedule. Specifically for this situation, if you are thinking about doing a transition and you're a solopreneur, start doing the tasks list so it will be easier to transition with a VA.  

And then finally, for your team, setting boundaries. When you come into a new career, a new position, or you start any type of new endeavor with your team, you will have specific situations where your boundaries will be crossed. What that means is people may ask for more time from you. I remember when I transitioned into a position and I was on site, I had everybody coming to my door and knocking on the door. And so, when that happens, you don't get a lot done during the day. So I learned the hard way. And my suggestion is that you have hard boundaries of when you will be accepting calls, when you'll be setting time to do certain tasks. And we've talked about time blocking in the past in multiple episodes and chunking your schedule. Use those same notions when it comes to setting expectations with your teams and setting boundaries with your teams.  

Lately, I've been using Calendly a lot. Shout out to Calendly. Obviously, not sponsored, but a great scheduling tool. I do not have time to sit there and ask people when they're free to meet. So I have a blocked off areas in my calendar that I have for office hours or meetings. And I just send out the calendar link, and it works perfectly. So doing tricks like that really, really do help sharpen up everything in your day. And I think if you can apply some or all of these tips that we've mentioned, your transition will be much easier than if you had not. 

Okay, guys, let's go from the top. So we talked about my whole business transition. Me, taking on this new job, this new career. And simultaneously running the business with the team, of course, during our busiest season. So let's see how that goes. I'll definitely give you a recap at the end of the selling season and tell you how it went. So stay tuned for that. And for me to be able to transition through this time period, I have been able to manage myself, my mindset. I'm not going to be expecting a hundred percent from myself. I'm going to give myself the grace to use the "new kid on the block" card whenever I'm running into some difficulties. I'm also leaning on the family for help. I'm going to be asking them for a bit more time, a bit more delegated acts. Setting expectations with them saying, hey, mommy may be working a little bit later tonight because she's shifting her business hours when she worked on the business into the evening. And I may be busy during the day. I may not have as many times off in the day now to be doing any side errands. So whoever's going to get to do those errands. I didn't even talk about that. I will talk all about that later. But having that conversation with your family and your supports, and then delegating out the acts, and then setting expectations saying that we're not going to be available all the time. We are trying to do other things to help propel our self forward, be it in school, business or career. 

And then finally, if you have a team or you plan to have a team, start sending expectations with that team. Make sure that you have buckets of delegated tasks and ask them to do it for you. Give these tasks to somebody else to do so you're not doing everything and more. And then setting boundaries. I talk about calendars. Setting boundaries with your space is important. Having a space that is free of work, could even be a bedroom, very important, very key. And I believe if you add some of these strategies into your schedule, just pick one or two when you're transitioning or even when you're not, I tell you guys, it makes a world of difference. 

All right. Well, that's all I got. And I hope it was helpful. Keep watching and seeing what happens next. You can follow us on Instagram, we're the most active there @bossitclub. Or if you are not catching this on our website, you can always head to bossitclub.com. And if you guys are enjoying these episodes, if you think they're helpful and you know some other amazing bosses who could benefit, go ahead and share this episode with them. Especially if you know that they're transitioning into a new career, a new business, or even when they're transitioning from becoming a student to a career, that's also a very great transition. And these tips can help at that time as well.  

Okay guys, that's all I got for you. Again, you can catch us every week. We drop a new episode on Tuesdays. And remember, make a plan and take action. And yes, you can have it all. I'll talk to you guys soon. Take care. Bye.  

So my fellow bosses, did you enjoy that episode? Now, it's time for you to make a solid plan and take action. But first, remember to subscribe and follow the Boss It Podcast so you receive a notification whenever we drop an episode. Remember to leave us a review on iTunes. Take a screenshot of your review and share it on Instagram as a post or a story, and tag us at @bossitclub. If Instagram is not your thing, no worries. Email your screenshot to [email protected]. As a massive thank you, we will be sending you our top 50 tips for starting and scaling a business. This list is exclusively for podcast reviewers so don't miss out. Now remember bosses, make a plan and take action in all aspects of your life. Yes, you can have it all.

So my fellow Bosses, did you enjoy that episode? Now, it's time for you to make a solid plan and take action. But first, remember to subscribe and follow the Boss It Podcast so you receive a notification whenever we drop an episode. Remember to leave us a review on iTunes. Take a screenshot of your review and share it on Instagram as a post or a story, and tag us at Boss It Club. If Instagram is not your thing, no worries. Email your screenshot to [email protected]. As a massive thank you, we will be sending you our top 50 tips for starting and scaling a business. This list is exclusively for podcast reviewers so don't miss out. Now, remember Bosses, make a plan and take action in all aspects of your life. Yes, you can have it all.