What are Your Office Hours

Kris Plachy: Hello and welcome to this episode of Leadership Is Feminine. I am Kris Plachy and I'm thrilled that you're here. Thank you for tuning in and let's go ahead and get going on this week's topic.

So, hi, hi. I have been busy, very busy. The last several weeks I was traveling all over the place. I was in Miami for a client's birthday, then Rhode Island for my Sage CEO retreat, and then I got a cold. All the things in between. There's been a lot of stuff going on and I know for those of you who follow me and have been paying attention, I know you know that we've made some changes. We just launched our final How to CEO program. It's an amazing group of women. We're having a lovely time. I'm so enjoying all of them, and we're really just at the very beginning of it, so it's gonna continue to be a good time.

Let's see, we did our first How to CEO in the fall of 2020. So we're two and a half years into what we've been doing and I am not what I would call a creature of habit, so I am always seeking how to make something better, keep up. You know, the cool part about the way that we offered How to CEO un-really intentionally was to design it to support women in a time when we were all a train wreck, right?

Like, it was such a difficult time, it people couldn't go anywhere. Everybody was on the zooms. It was the perfect storm. And I'm so incredibly grateful for access and the assets to create this program and provide the support that I provided ongoing to these women during this time. So many great things have come from us doing that work. Most importantly, the women that we've worked with have changed their lives.

One of the women just did the Sage retreat said, "Everything's changed how I think, how I make money, how I live my life, the kind of shoes I buy, the relationships I have in my life." Everything has changed because a powerful woman, in her case, chose to invest in herself.

It's always very hard for me to take credit for my client's success. Maybe it's because I also don't wanna take credit for your failure, but that's rare. It doesn't happen very often. But regardless, I like to think about myself as a partner and as a guide, as an ally, as a amplifier, and really as your possibility partner, that person that even when you can't find it, I can find it and I can help you believe in what could be next for you and what you're capable of.

I think that even very, very, very, very, very successful people need to have that person in their lives. I think we all need a few of them. And like on a Instagram reel I just recently made, I have been the rock behind her for a very long time and I didn't do it on purpose. I just kept working with and supporting and being the sage for powerful, successful women. And I love to do it.

So How to CEO has really created a space for the women that I've worked with to double, triple their income, personal and business, otherwise create more freedom in their lives. The women who've come to Hawaii with me have changed their lives just by making a commitment to come, get away and make that investment in themselves. So I'm just an incredible advocate for women investing in who they are.

And I also think at every time in your life, we all have these inflection points. We all need different kinds of support. And so I'm not for everybody. And what I've learned through this journey is there's a real sweet spot where I think I do my best work for my clients, and those are those clients who really are at that point of hitting a million dollars. The wheels are starting to come off. They've got a successful business, but they're really just not sure how to take it from there to 10 million, from there to 5 million. A lot of my clients come in around 3 million and we get them to 5, 6, and 7 million, right?

But it's not about the revenue. I don't sell that you make more money when you work with me. I just know that when you step more into your greatness, you do. You figure out how to negotiate and navigate your business differently and your life differently. And ultimately, mama, that's what I want for you is this ease.

One of the things we did here in Rhode Island is I met a woman, she just happened to reach out to me and I met her and I thought, "Oh, you're really fun." And she was close by. I'm like, "Why don't you come to the Sage Retreat in Rhode Island?" And so she did, and it was great to meet her and she is incredible and successful, just sold her business and is doing so well and figuring out what her next big thing will be. And it's also cool to play in possibility.

And one of the things though that she said when we were all sitting around in the room having a chat, and she said, "You know, gosh, if I had still had my business, I never would have been able to do this. I never would've been able to take a weekend and come do this kind of thing with you ladies."

And the women in the room said, "Yeah, we felt that way two years ago too, but now we can and we make more money and we work less hours."

One of my other clients when I was in Miami, told me, she said, "Yeah, I worked 40 hours last year."

I'm like, "Wait a minute."

She's like, "Absolutely. It's been amazing."

She worked 40 hours last year, y'all, that's a big change from 60 to 80, which is what she was doing when we first met.

So I just, I feel a little horn toot-y, but I'm trying to really emphasize that I have met so many incredible women over the last two and a half years, and really over the course of my career that I've really decided I know how to help you.

And here's what I know. You don't need more shit. You don't need more workbooks. You don't need more worksheets. You don't need it. You need guidance, advice, support. You need a space to listen to yourself, talk about yourself and your company. I just met a potential client today who said, "It's just so nice to be able to talk about me, cuz I'm so busy all the time talking about everybody else."

So I have figured out you being on a Zoom is not gonna change your life. What's gonna change your life is immersing yourself in a decision to accept there is so much more possible for you than the way you think it is right now. And what I know you need is an ongoing cadence of that, to support you.

And so I'm incredibly excited about what we are building for you cuz we're coming into the next generation of support for female entrepreneurs. And I think what we're building is going to be the game changer for women like you listening because you know, we really have two factions of clients right now. We have those of you who listen to this podcast religiously, and I've never met you. And then I have women who have hired me, done all the things, still work with me and still listen to this podcast religiously.

All my sage clients, they sit around talking about the podcast, I'm like, "Hello, I'm in the room." But they love the podcast, right? So that, I find that so entertaining. Like, hi, I'm here. So there's this juxtaposition. There's those of you who are out there and you love it, but you haven't initiated, you haven't gone to a next level, and I think that's because that next level might feel either uncomfortable or unapproachable or like too much work. Because the client I work with doesn't really worry about paying the money for it because she makes good money. So that's not the issue. It's time. Usually it's commitment, it's, "Can I follow through?" And we're gonna mitigate that.

So what I wanna give you for purposes of this podcast, cuz I always do wanna give you some value. I don't wanna just talk about my business, although it is kind of fun to talk about my business. I love change. You guys, I don't necessarily love change when it comes to my doorstep unexpectedly, but listen to me, if there's anybody, I say this with total humility and ownership, but I know it's true. I rally, I know how to rally.

So there are things that happen regularly in my life and in my business I wouldn't choose. But listen to me. That is not gonna get me off my game. Being able to manage change is good news for all of us. We have to be able to do it. You cannot get stuck. You cannot trap yourself in the way things have been, simply because it's uncomfortable to do something new.

But I wanna talk to you about your office hours. I know that's kind of random, but stay with me. So, the more I talk to people and the more I talk to clients and the more I notice myself- so this all came up for me because I got a new iPhone. And what is that, the cobbler's children have no shoes or whatever that expression is, right? So here I am, a leadership guidance and empowerment coach for female entrepreneurs. And I probably could benefit from some of my own advice.

So nonetheless, I get this new phone. Well, for whatever reason, this time when I got this phone, it didn't bring over like my mail app. And it didn't bring over my Slack login, all the things that I normally use to communicate with people all day, just phone and just messages. And to get the mail on my app was not complicated, but it was like a couple extra steps and I didn't feel like doing it. And so then I just decided I'm not gonna have mail on my phone for two days.

So what I said to my husband over the course of those two days is I'm like, "Okay, I am now aware of how much I checked my mail, because I keep clicking on the mail app and there's no mail. It's just the little like thing like exchange server Google, like you have to pick the mail app application that you would use." I'm like, I just am realizing what an automatic impulse that is to check my mail. And so then, when I was on a walk, I was thinking about office hours and thinking, I don't have office hours. I have hours. I sit at my desk, but I do not have office hours because if I had office hours, I would not check my mail after 5:00 PM on the weekends before 7:00, 8:00 AM I wouldn't do it, but I do, and I'm on to myself.

So it got me wondering. I wonder about you too. What are your office hours? Do you turn that off? Do you have mail on your phone? I sort of had this realization that I don't actually need to have mail on my phone. I could actually just go to my computer and check my mail, not all the time.

So then I went two days without it. But I also realize how much people expect you to respond via mail, all the time. Now, that could be a little chicken and the egg-ish. Because maybe, if I didn't respond quickly, people wouldn't be expecting me to respond quickly. Does that make sense? But I do think it's an interesting conundrum that we've created for ourselves that doesn't even count the phone calls, the text messages, the socials. Do you actually turn off?

I know there's a few of you out there who are listening who are like, "I, of course I do. Oh, hell yes, I do. I have." Like, you're very good at it. I have a lot of respect for you. I'm gonna work on it because I know you can identify, we can all feel that. Like there's not even just fomo. It's like, "I'm gonna miss something, a big deal, something big's gonna happen, I'm gonna miss it." Which is ridiculous. I run a company that advises women. I'm not a surgeon. So it's a little silly.

But of course, I have all the thoughts too, like, "Well, what will people think if I don't reply over the weekend? And will they think I'm ignoring them? Will they think I don't care? Will they think..." I don't know. I could make all of it up. I have no idea. But I am practicing other parts of this and I've gotten better, like on vacation. I'm really good about it, and then I'm currently sticking to it with the whole latter part of 2023, July to December.

I refuse to book anything because my kids are going away to school and I don't know what their lives will look like. Which in turn impacts me because my daughter plays soccer. I wanna go watch her play. My son's gonna move into an apartment with a friend. I wanna go visit him. I wanna help him. I wanna make sure he has groceries.

I wanna do the things that moms do cuz we love our kids and I know that if I plan something, I'm gonna interrupt my ability to be available. And right now that is my priority. But that doesn't mean I'm not, every day, like, "Should I be scheduling something? Should I put something on the calendar?"

But I'm honoring it, and I'm not doing it easily. It's not like, "Oh, it's not a big deal. Well, second half of the year has no dates on it." No. I'm concerned, but I know it's the right thing to do. It's the whole reason I started a company in the first place. It's the whole reason I wanted to be an entrepreneur was to have the kind of flexibility that honestly, in many ways, I have denied myself for years, in my own company.

So I ask you again, love, what are your office hours? Do you honor that vision that you had for yourself that you wanted to be flexible, that you didn't wanna work 40, 50, 80 hours a week, that you weren't gonna create a job for yourself. Have you created a job that you're trapped in? If you created a business that you're trapped in, my goal is to connect with and support women, before you get to the point that you're just trying to do the fire sale to get out. Because I know we can fix it if you want to. There are people who fight for their limitations. There are people who come into our space and other spaces with all the drama and all the challenges, and they just wanna keep fighting to keep the problem. That gets tougher to help.

You have to believe in the possibility of something that you never experienced before, that you've only seen in others, or that you've only dreamed about. You have to believe in it. So what are your office hours? Do you like them? Would you like to change them? Because allegedly, if it's your business, you can do whatever the heck you want, that's legal.

All right. Thanks for tuning in today, everyone. I can't wait to continue to share more and more cool stuff with you over the next few weeks.

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