The Ice baths are taking over!!

I have a brilliant client who's secret sauce and super power is her relatability. She works in an industry saturated with quasi guru content creators all fighting to squawk the loudest and clamour for attention.

Sound familiar?

Her most recent proposal for wellbeing support services to a mid sized company with ~70 staff had her competing with an ice bath guy. True story.

Would you want to jump into an ice bath with your team mates? I sure wouldn’t!

Look, I’m not against ice baths per se. If they’re your jam, ka pai, you do you. There's research there and blah blah blah.

Coming back to common sense - wellbeing for the workplace, who really wants to do ice baths with their work mates? Sounds more like a frat exercise or retreat reset experience than it is an initiative that will impact the overall wellbeing of a workplace.

So, to my point - currently, in both business and in life, we're running the risk of removing intuition in our quest for optimisation.

The creators and gurus are often spouting a bunch of hype that just simple isn’t fit for purpose for everyone’s life or business.

Today, I’m inviting you to be part of the tide pushing back

There’s a bunch of us pulling a big middle finger to the business narrative that is full of secrets, magic formulas and unlocking 7 steps to transformation. All in 4 minutes a day. But somehow all those 4 minutes add up to a life full of shoulds and a mental drain that takes the joy out of a week lived and worked well.

Here are some of the lessons and thoughts from both my client and I being mightily pissed at our industries. You might choose to use some of this in your business strategy if you also want to start doing business on YOUR terms

Be really conscious of the role social media plays in your business model.

The content creators of the world are there, but does it mean you need to be? Think like your customer, and see if they even will find value in seeing you on all the things, and then combine that with your own values

If you don't want to show up on all the platforms, but feel you need to then bring it back to why you’re doing things. If you need to, rethink your business model and create something where that's not needed and you can instead play to your strengths

One thing the creators and gurus aren't telling you is that there is a whole wave of people choosing to move off platforms as they become increasingly aware of the negative impact they have on wellbeing. If you do business in Aotearoa, it's as often about who you know as it is what you know. Its ok to leverage relationships and be a bit more old school! (That's also why I love LinkedIn so much and choose for it to be my only social platform for business now)

Create your playing field

The playing field helps you know the rules of your game. Does your business need to work within school hours as you have teens you want to be there for and need to haul round town? A day a week for an aging parent? Time at the gym everyday? No work on weekends? Enough $ for a trip home to see family each year? Want to sell in 5 years so you can retire and grow cacti on your new homestead?

Be clear on 3 - 5 rules and work to create your business to bring those to life (most days, let's be real on it!)

NB - some people call the boundaries, but a bit like vulnerability and authenticity, I resist the terms as they are so overused and have lost meaning in all the generic waffle.

Use your gut logic and intuition more.

Damn the 5 am club and morning journalling routine. If today calls for a snuggle under the duvet with your dog keeping you warm for another hour, then do that. You know you and sometimes a mental health day for your business is the best move you can make. If you have the urge to call that client from 5 years ago to check in, do that. Do the things with an action bias that you know works for you.

If you have the privilege of space, leverage it.

If, right now, your family wealth and wellbeing is largely intact, but you need to reset your business because there’s so much up in the air at a macro and economic level - then do that. Unlearning business hustle is fricking hard. Turning away from social media will help this mental cacophony loads..

Beware of all the shoulds.

Damn the shoulds. What do you want to be doing? Is it commercially astute enough to solve a problem and be monetised for it? Do that! (My only disclaimer here is that please keep an eye on the money side of things and be an adult about it, that's my only should!)

So there you have it, a an offer for you to pull the middle finger to your broken business industry.

Optimisation has it's place, but when the only thing you care about is a well optimised life or business you're going to remove heart.

Deeply care about metrics and ways to improve, that's how you learn and build something that's sustainable and will last the distance (which applies to both wellbeing and business!) , but hold that alongside the humanness we need to bring joy and purpose to our life and work.

How can you bring more intuition and heart into your business and have an impact for the good while shaking up your industry?

New here? ?? Kia ora! I'm Alana. Known for my "straight up the guts" pragmatism and perspective for better performing businesses (and saner business owners). Follow along for real talk, weird analogies and practical ideas to create business results you'll love that blend heart and head to help you tune into the gut logic you need for a better performing business. No ice baths in sight ??

If you'd like to have more intuition dropped into your inbox every week, here's where I share 3 tips for boosting your business performance and mojo. It's better for you than scrolling on Tik Tok and probably will use up less of your time, too!

Here's to better business performance - on your terms!