Do clients really always come first?

Are the customers really always right?

Nope. I’ll be the first to tell you that prioritizing your clients over yourself is the quickest way to burnout, resentment, & demise of your business.

I’ll also be the first to tell you that the customer is almost never right. I’ll be the LAST person to tell you to take the “smile & nod” approach to running your business.

The more rested you are, the better you can show up for your work.

The more fun you’re able to have in your personal life, the more rejuvenated you’ll feel when you show up to work.

The more money you have, the more money you can give. The less stressed about money you are, the less stress you’ll bring into your business.

You can do both. You can give to yourself *and* give to your clients. But you have to be the top priority.

To the untrained eye, it can look like I must run a selfish business where I abandon my clients, don’t show up for them, and me-me-me my way through the week. That couldn’t be farther from the truth.

The more skewed the balance was in favor of everyone BUT me, the LESS I was able to hold space and show up for my clients.

The more I allowed the scales to tip in my favor, the MORE space I was able to hold for my clients.

Giving to yourself can come as a byproduct of several different things:

✅reducing the number of ways people can work with you/consolidating your offers

✅finding a price point that matches the work load you can realistically AND consistently maintain for years on end *without* sacrificing your sanity & health

✅creating & sticking to business policies that reflect your personal boundaries

✅staying in your integrity. All of your yes’s mean YES, which means all of your no’s mean NO.

✅planning for down time while also planning for potential busy seasons of business.

✅creating and sticking to a strategy for “free stuff.” You can’t save everyone and you cannot help Aunt Karen or Cousin Betty for free forever… point them in the direction of your free content & save your time and energy for your paying clients AND yourself

Unless you sell door mats on Etsy, don’t run a door mat business.