How did you sleep last night?

I slept hard last night. Like sawing logs snoring hard last night. I was exhausted after an incredible day yesterday.

It started out just as you would expect with a day full of meetings: my four-year-old didn’t want to get out of bed, my husband left early to head to the office, and I was at home trying to poke a sleeping bear. Needless to say, I ended up being 20 minutes late to my first Zoom call. With a day of back-to-back meetings planned, I braced myself for a day of constant tardiness and exasperation.

I got straight onto my next call from that 8 am call I was late to, and things changed. It was a bi-weekly meetup of some of my fellow StoryBrand Certified Guides from my training cohort. We spent over an hour together, sharing successes, generously giving advice, and throwing out a few wackadoo stories.
They say to surround yourself by people who inspire you. These are my people.
I hung up with my cohort energized by their recent successes and excited to try a few things based on their suggestions.
[Rub hands together] Okay, I got this day!

Fast forward a bit to time to drive half an hour for another meeting. I have two options in front of me: a new, air-conditioned truck, and my ‘98 Jeep with the sides off. I’ll take the Jeep, thanks. Scarf down lunch, throw my stuff in my backpack, and hop in the Jeep (running a little late, of course).

I learned how to drive in a 1998 Jeep similar to the one I own now. My dad and I would load up and drive the back country roads where we lived, me trying not to grind gears, and my dad trying not to pull the oh sh!t handle off the roll bar.

We would take the top and sides off the Jeep in March and not put them back on until October. There’s not a lot of talking in a Jeep with the top down, so we would just drive. That’s where I learned to do my best thinking. That’s where I learned to love the wind in my hair.

So on a day like yesterday, naturally, I chose to drive with the wind in my hair. I spent the next half hour breathing in the fresh air, enjoying the views on my drive, and thinking of new ideas for content and things I can offer my clients. It was a productive drive. Pull in, take some quick notes on my phone so I don’t forget all these great ideas and head in.

I was one of the first people there. I misread the calendar invite and ended up 20 minutes early. Whew. Check emails for the first time of the day.

Then the meeting started. It was filled with great updates. I took tons of notes for ways to support them in the coming month. Towards the end of our scheduled time together, someone brought up what she thought was a small request that started a bigger conversation, which turned into solving a community challenge they’ve been wanting to solve for years. YEARS, y’all. We hashed it out right there, with our meeting running over the time limit, and emails mounting in our inboxes. It was invigorating. One person claimed it was the best meeting they’d ever had. I’d call that a success.

Follow that meeting with a phone call from a client we’ve worked with in the past who wants to work with us again. No business owner is going to complain about a happy repeat customer.

4:00. Time to drive back home, make a quick dinner, and pick up my kids. We met my husband at home, he took over, and I ran out the door, late (of course) to my yoga class. Did I mention that I didn’t have a chance to actually do any work all day? Or hardly look at my email? In the back of my mind, I know things are piling up and that I’ll probably need to work tonight. I hop in the Jeep again. I sit down on my yoga mat and feel my heart slow for the first time yesterday. Everything cleared out of my mind, and I was just there, in that moment. It was a great class. I got home, decided that work will still be here tomorrow (and the next day!), and got in bed. And I slept hard.

As business owners, we know that there is always work to do. You can get up early, stay late, skip yoga, eat through lunch, and any number of other common practices that aren’t recommended. What is it that is holding you back from having energizing brainstorming meetings with your team? Are you worried about sales? Is marketing constantly on your to-do list? It’s likely that simple tweaks to your marketing strategy can make a big impact on how you do business and allow you to have days that end in sawing logs snoring when you go to bed.