Discover practical tips and insights from Brandy Stamper on how to feel more energized as a female entrepreneur by maintaining balance.
IE 409: How to Feel More Energized as a Female Entrepreneur with Brandy Stamper
Brandy Stamper is a leadership and executive coach who helps women uplevel their leadership in a way that is fun, sustainable and fits for them. She works on a number of things, including, rising with clarity, leading with connection, and thriving as a confident leader.
You can find her website and blog here: Brandy Stamper
What unique challenges do female entrepreneurs face when it comes to maintaining energy and avoiding burnout?
It is all of the things but for females there is this idea of good girl conditioning and if you are a mom, there is the “super-mom” role.
Society, our friends, our parents, and others push the idea of being a “good girl.” This is someone who takes care of everybody else. puts themselves last, and has to work really hard to do all the things.
They can handle everything. They are great multi-taskers and do not need to take time for themselves. They are a people pleaser. It starts from a young age and we are conditioned for that.
When we decide to open our own business and do our own thing, as a female entrepreneur, we have this good girl conditioning happening. We feel like we have to do and be everything for everyone.
We do this so much that we give our energy away to other people. We don’t reserve that for ourselves and we hit the point of burnout. If we realize we are there, we know we need to do something but we often don’t and then stay in the burnout loop. We get a little better and then we are right back in it.
The biggest challenge for female entrepreneurs is understanding why you are doing what you are doing, finding strategies to help you maintain your energy, and get out of the burnout loop or stop it in its tracks before it goes too far.
Why are you doing what you are doing? Is it giving you energy or it is going to suck all of the energy from you? You feel like you have to do it because it is what is expected of you. You need to find the ways to decipher why you are doing what you are doing.
How does the intersection of gender roles and societal expectations impact the energy levels of female entrepreneurs?
When we think about gender roles, typically, women are socialized to be the caregivers and nurturers. Things that are said to little girls on the playground are different than what is said to versus little boys.
If a little girl falls down and skins her knee, she begins to cry. In most cases, we say “Honey, it’s okay. It’s just a little scratch. You’ll be fine.” Our tone is sweet and nurturing.
If there is a little boy in the same situation, we say “You’re not bleeding. You’re fine. There’s no bone showing. You’re okay. Get back up and get at it.”
That is where it starts, the conditioning to be a nurturer. It’s okay to show emotion versus a boy when we tell him not to show emotion because it shows weakness. This is not true.
This is where it starts and then there are societal expectations of being “responsible” for the home duties if you are a woman.
If you have children you have to take care of all the things for the children. You make sure your house is spotless when people come over when that doesn’t matter.
In females, that creates distraction with all of the other things that are happening that we don’t focus on the pieces that truly matter and bring us that energy. We should be delegating other things to bring our energy back and put us in our zone of genius.
We are too busy thinking we need to do everything for everybody because we do it best. In the end, even if we do a really good job, it doesn’t really help us thrive.
There are a lot of things that happen when we are young. What we see and things that happen with our partners also affect that.
Things that we are doing, like folding towels, may not be as important as spending time in our business or with our kids. Those are the things you have to start assessing and looking at, almost like a life audit.
You have to have conversations with your partner about who is going to take on what roles, when you are going to let things slide, and figure out what ways to maintain balance at home.
What are some practical strategies for managing stress and boosting energy levels throughout the day?
One strategy is to do an audit of what you do during your day. From the moment you get up to the moment you go to bed, write down everything you do.
Take those things and decide what are the things you absolutely need to do that no one else can do and figure out what things other people in your lives could do and put those on a separate list.
Go back and look at the list again. Sometimes, we think we have to do things, like make a nutritious dinner. Is that true? Do you have to do that every day?
Break down the list even more. Your list of what you absolutely need to do is going to be fairly short compared to what you think you have to do.
Then, you take the second half of the list and figure out what you can delegate or give responsibility to others. You can teach your kids to do their own laundry to save your energy.
You have to have tough conversations with yourself, which can be hard because we have to dig deep to figure out why we are feeling this way.
Where is that coming from? Are you trying to live up to the expectation of being the perfect mom?
How important is self-care in maintaining high energy levels as a female entrepreneur, and what are some effective self-care practices?
Self-care is important because we tend to give our energy away to other people all day long. By doing that, we diminish ourselves.
You have probably heard you cannot fill from an empty cup and that is true. When you get to the point that you are always exhausted or burned out, you are not giving your best self to the most important people.
But you are just as important and you are not giving your best self to you either. It is really important to incorporate self-care.
Typically, self-care is thought about as getting hair done or having a spa day. Self-care is really about doing things that bring you joy. Happiness is fleeting. You can do something that makes you happy but that goes away.
Joy is a constant state of feeling connected and alive, like you are being impactful. Effective self-care practices are things that bring you joy, raise your vibration, and raise your energy.
What brings you joy?
Brandy enjoys sitting for 5 minutes before the kids get up and meditate. She does affirmations of how her day will go. That gives her a sense of ease, centers her, and helps her be ready.
This may not be what others do because that practice would not bring them joy. Finding those small little joy injections that you can do every day, that you feel really good about, is important.
It can be listening to a podcast or reading a book, or anything that brings you joy every day. It is a daily practice and not just a one-time thing because that is what helps bring you energy and recharge you for the days or weeks that are really hard.
How can female entrepreneurs create boundaries between work and personal life to prevent energy drain and maintain balance?
We usually roll our eyes when we hear the word boundaries. People don’t always know how to set boundaries.
What is a boundary for you? What does that mean to you? Boundaries look different when we are talking about your dominant leadership style. Boundaries are vastly different for different types of work styles.
Look at the things in your life that feel like they are draining you and why they are draining you.
If you feel like you are putting in a lot of time at work and you want more time with your children or partner, you may need to set a boundary that you are going to stop work at 4:00pm and spend time with your family afterward. You let your clients know that at 4:00pm, you are done for the day and emails will be returned the next day.
You have to figure out what works for you and what a boundary means to you. Many female entrepreneurs try to do everything for everybody and do everything for their business.
Part of being a leader is moving from the doer to leader mindset. Part of that mindset is establishing a boundary to figure out what you can delegate so you can work in your zone of genius and have your energy and balance.
You may need someone else to do your social media or come clean your house. You can spend the time you would normally use doing those things toward something else. Boundaries look different for everyone. Doing the life audit will help you assess where boundaries are needed.
From Exhausted to Energized Freebie
The From Exhausted to Energized guide is packed with practical tips and simple strategies to help you manage your time better, set your boundaries, and prioritize your self-care. It will help you boost your productivity without sacrificing your well being.
This guide is perfect for anyone who is overwhelmed or on the track to burnout. It gives you actionable steps to help regain balance and take back your energy.
Action Steps:
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