Young and Profiting with Hala Taha - Tina Wells: The Elevation Approach, How to Achieve Work-Life Harmony While Still Crushing Your Goals | E239
Episode Date: August 18, 2023A few years ago, Tina Wells came to a crossroads in running her market agency. She was living the dream of growing her seven-figure business, but she was also on the express train to burnout. Tina had... to either find a way to make more money or figure out a new way to work. She decided to close her company. It proved to be the best thing she could have done, and she discovered that what she truly loved was creating content. In today’s episode, Tina will share what she learned about achieving work-life harmony and share some techniques that will help you meet your goals without sacrificing joy. Tina Wells is an entrepreneur, bestselling author, brand builder, and creator of the Elevation Tribe community. Tina has been creating opportunities to help others launch, grow, and lead companies for decades. She is the author of best-selling tween fiction series Mackenzie Blue, and its new spinoff series, The Zee Files. Her most recent book,The Elevation Approach: Harness the Power of Work-Life Harmony to Unlock Your Creativity, Cultivate Joy, and Reach Your Biggest Goals, was released earlier this year. In this episode, Hala and Tina will discuss: - Her start as an “accidental entrepreneur” - How she fell out of love with her marketing career - The challenges of being a Black female entrepreneur - Work-life balance vs. work-life harmony. - How to maintain a work-life harmony - How decluttering can transform your efficiency - Ways to create rituals for yourself - Recreational activities to recharge you - Choosing joy over happiness - And other topics… Tina Wells is the founder of RLVNT Media, a multimedia content venture serving entrepreneurs, tweens, and culturists with authentic representation. Tina has been recognized by Fast Company's 100 Most Creative People in Business, Essence’s 40 Under 40, and more. For over two decades, she led Buzz Marketing Group, an agency she founded at age 16 with clients like Dell, The Oprah Winfrey Network, Kroger, Apple, P+G, Johnson & Johnson, and American Eagle that Tina connected with her network of 30,000 buzzSpotters® and 7,000 “momSpotters”, all influential millennials and passionate end-consumers. Tina is also the author of several books, including the best-selling tween fiction series Mackenzie Blue, its new spinoff series, The Zee Files, and the marketing handbook, Chasing Youth Culture and Getting It Right. Resources Mentioned: Tina’s Website: https://tinawells.com/ Tina’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tinawells/ Tina’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/tinacwells Tina’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tinawells/ Tina’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/twells17 Tina’s latest book, The Elevation Approach: Harness the Power of Work-Life Harmony to Unlock Your Creativity, Cultivate Joy, and Reach Your Biggest Goals: https://www.amazon.com/Elevation-Approach-Work-Life-Creativity-Cultivate/dp/0593580249 The Elevation Approach Course: https://tinawells.com/the-elevation-approach/ LinkedIn Secrets Masterclass, Have Job Security For Life: Use code ‘podcast’ for 30% off at yapmedia.io/course. Sponsored By: Shopify - Go to shopify.com/profiting to take your business to the next level today Factor - Head to youngandprofiting.co/factor and use code profiting50 to get 50% off! Pipedrive - Go to youngandprofiting.co/pipedrive and get 20% off Pipedrive for 1 year! Lumi Labs - Go to Microdose.com and use code: YAP to get free shipping & 30% off your first order More About Young and Profiting Download Transcripts - youngandprofiting.com Get Sponsorship Deals - youngandprofiting.com/sponsorships Leave a Review - ratethispodcast.com/yap Watch Videos - youtube.com/c/YoungandProfiting Follow Hala Taha LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/htaha/ Instagram - instagram.com/yapwithhala/ TikTok - tiktok.com/@yapwithhala Twitter - twitter.com/yapwithhala Learn more about YAP Media Agency Services - yapmedia.io/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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off. What is going on my beautiful young and profiting family?
Today we're talking to Tina Wells, an entrepreneur, best-selling author, and creator of the Elevation
Tribe community.
Tina has been creating opportunities to help others launch, grow, and lead companies
for decades now.
In today's episode, Tina and I are talking about how to achieve work-life harmony
instead of a work-life balance using tactics from her latest book, The Elevation Approach.
She'll break down how decluttering your space, creating rituals for yourself,
nurturing your relationships and prioritizing recreation can help you become
more productive and live a harmonious life.
Without further ado, let's dive right into my interview with the brilliant Tina Wells.
Tina, welcome to Young & Profiting Podcast.
Hello, thanks for having me.
Young & Profitors, today I'm joined by Tina Wells.
Tina Wells is an entrepreneur, best-selling author,
brand builder, and creator of the elevation tribe community.
She's the author of the best-sellingen fiction series, Mackenzie Blow, and its new spin-off
series, The Z Files.
The most recent book, The Elevation Approach, Harness the Power of Work Life Harmony, to unlock
your creativity, cultivate joy, and reach your biggest goals was released earlier this
year.
And so I want to talk about how you initially became an entrepreneur.
You call yourself an accidental entrepreneur.
You actually started your first company at just 16 years old. It was called the Buzz.
Can you give us that story? Talk to us about how you ended up being a business owner at such a young
age and the success you had with it for two decades.
Oh goodness. I mean, you've already hit that I was an accidental entrepreneur, but I was a really curious kid and curious teenager.
And I decided as a teenager that I wanted to be a fashion writer and back in the mid 90s
that was the dreamiest job you could have.
And probably like every girl, a teenage girl during that time, I was reading Teen magazine
and 17 and one day I was reading 17.
I stumbled on this tiny little ad that a newspaper for girls called The New Girl Times was looking for
editors and writers and so I applied and I got a call that I was going to get hired as a
product review editor and I was just like amazing and I hung up the phone and I'm like I don't know
what that means but I'm going to figure this out.
And of course, it meant that I got to try
really cool products and give my opinion.
And once I started sending clips back to companies
thinking them for the product, they'd always say the same thing.
If I send you more stuff,
will you keep telling me what you think?
And that's when I realized, okay, I'm on to something.
And yet put the connection that I could get paid for it
that came a bit later.
I was just enjoying being a teenager, getting tons of free product every week.
And when I got to college about two years later, I'd really grown a more sophisticated
operation.
His air quotes.
You know, I had friends helping me.
I was doing big surveys.
I was like giving reports based on what everybody thought about things.
And I had someone give me a call and say, I want to tell you something really important. I just got
your report and I want to tell you that what you and your friends did was better than market
research. I paid $25,000 for you have a business called market research. So I'm going to tell you
go figure it out and of course this luck would have it. I was taking intro to business with the head of the business department at my university.
I went to see her during office hours and she said,
why don't you take an independent study with me and let's see if we can make this a business.
And it was a lot of hard work over many months to figure out just how to structure and build
this into a research agency.
And really, as they say, the rest is history.
But I was really grateful and lucky to run that company for over 20 years.
And like you said, work with some of the biggest names and really expand beyond
research into influencer marketing.
And it was the best time learning about product and launching product.
And now I'm talking to you and I'm launching product
and still doing product.
It's so cool. It's so cool how you took a little idea that you had when you were 16 years
old and it sort of just like evolved into a real business and ended up being your career
for decades. But on your website, you know, I was doing research, of course, read your
book, like did your website, all your stuff. You actually said that you were living the
dream, growing a seven figure business,
but you were on an express train to burnout.
And you actually started to dread your work.
And you dedicated so many years of your life
to this idea that you had when you were a little girl.
So I'm just curious, what made you fall out of love
with what you were doing?
How did you lose the passion and why it used to feel
that you were experiencing burnout?
I remember during the summer, for many years, I ran a program at Wharton at the Wharton
School at the University of Pennsylvania called Leadership in the Business World.
And so I would take rising high school seniors through a month-long process of building a
business and launching that business and then doing competition.
And I had a friend come in as a
we had many guest speakers and a friend came in and he said something that was so game changing for me
where he talked about his decision to leave his career and said I'd realize I just was really good
at it. And I didn't even love what I was doing anymore. And I started to question myself
I know and at that point 20 years in right It was very easy for me to run that company.
It was very easy for me, even with that job at Wharton,
which had been so challenging five years before, right?
I'd never done that.
And I had another friend say,
if you don't wake up every day as an entrepreneur,
feeling a little bit scared,
you may not be doing the thing, right?
Even in your business now,
if you don't wake up feeling like
I'm being challenged, you're probably not moving forward.
And I realized I got to a place where I wasn't challenged
anymore, but more importantly, I think I had just decided,
well, I'm good at this, and so I'm just gonna keep doing it.
And that was not, you know, in my late 30s,
really how I wanted to live my life. And so it was a lot more
deep work, deep questions, a lot of which show up in the book to get to the place I am now to say,
what do I want my life to look like? How do I want to live? And then how do I start to design that life?
And do you feel that you being a young black entrepreneur woman, which at the time 20 years ago really not common. Do you think that
also applied more pressure to you and led to more burnout?
You know what's interesting? I could say yes. I can answer yes to that question now, given
I'm in a completely different field, but I think I was really lucky to grow up in marketing
and I was also in youth marketing.
That is a place where it is all about culture,
what's emerging and what's changing.
And so I think I was just really fortunate.
Like think back to the mid 90s
and a 16 year old calling you
and telling you about this thing she was doing.
Like there aren't many industries
where that would be accepted at all.
Marketing and especially youth marketing at that time
was an incredibly inclusive community.
And so I think I was really fortunate.
Now if you ask me that today, I would say,
whoa, manufacturing is completely different.
I think my life is harder because I'm a black woman
in many ways I do.
And it's a little unfortunate to say that, but I can't speak to working
within an agency, right?
I was running one.
I was doing something so unique at the time and also so needed.
So I think a lot of that natural stuff that you're talking about that might have come along,
I was in a really unique position to not experience that.
You know, when I came into the room, I was solving a really unique position to not experience that. You know, when I came into the room,
I was solving a problem.
I was helping, you know, marketing team understand
a customer more.
And so I came in and also commanded a lot of respect
in that room.
It's a very different situation than I saw with some
friends at the time.
You know, we'd get together as girlfriends
and talk about work challenges and I would hear them. describe their experiences. And I was just floored,
floored by, you know, if I were in banking, it might be a little bit different, right? And so
or different industries, but I was in an area that wasn't conservative, that was always looking
for what's next. That was about trends, about driving culture. And so I feel incredibly lucky that I was
able to be in that really creative field. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. So when you ended up leaving
your company, you shut it down. What did you feel like when you shut that? I couldn't imagine,
like I'm running my company now. I have 40 employees. It's doing well. I can't imagine shutting down
my company and what that, because you must have had to
like, of clients and it was a big risk.
So what did you feel like when you were actually shutting your company down?
Yeah.
So it's interesting that year that was 2019.
I remember opening the year and just being in what I know can probably recognize as like
a very depressed state.
And I just like crying every day.
There was a lot going on that I didn't quite understand.
And then I kind of just got through it, you know,
and I'm like, oh, it's just the winter.
I'm just unhappy because it's winter
and I like the sun and I need to see the sun.
And then spring came and I started really like
high velocity going into client campaigns again.
And then in the summer, my dad got sick,
and then he was very sick to the point of
terminally ill through the summer.
You know, had this amazing life-saving surgery.
And I remember during that time,
like spending so much time with my dad,
and just understanding how happy he was with his life,
that no matter what happened,
it was very content.
And I remember thinking, I'm not.
And if I were in this position, I would have so many regrets
and I'm not one to have regrets.
And I'm like, I would actually at this stage feel like I wish
I had done this, I wish I had done that.
And I really, I decided that I was going to take a sabbatical.
I'd sold one of my book series to Audible.
And I thought, OK, I can take some time off.
And I ended up, again, a huge reveal of my book series to Audible and I thought, okay, I can take some time off. And I ended up, you know, again, a huge
redale with my dad's help. Finally got a little bit of time off.
Went to Yellowstone. I was like finally in a place to relax. And I thought, I never want to go back to my agency.
And I couldn't believe that was the thought, right? It was not.
I don't want to work with the people I'm working with. I'd loved my team.
It wasn't that it was, I don't want to do what we're doing.
And if I could do the thing I love, it would be more of content.
And content was always on the back burner for me.
I've been very successful with my books.
I realized when I took a pause, that work was actually way more profitable for me than my agency.
And so, you know, I talk about a lot of these principles in my book, right?
Knowing your numbers. And when I started to get curious to know my numbers, I said, okay, I love my agency. And so, you know, I talk about a lot of these principles in my book, great knowing your numbers. And when I started to get curious and know my numbers, I said, okay, I love my team.
I love when we get to make content that tends to be really successful. We tend to do really well
financially from that. Okay. So what we need to do is stop working for other people and solely work
for ourselves. And that was to your point, the scary moment. Because then
it becomes, how am I going to support this team? What's that going to look like? And you start asking
all all those questions. Yeah, it's so interesting what you're saying, because you could build a
company really big. You could have a lot of employees and make a lot of revenue. But if you're not
making profit, you could be just spinning your wheels and doing all this. I mean, I'm experiencing very similar things
in certain parts of my business.
It's like, we're just spinning our wheels,
managing all this stuff,
uncertain areas of our business,
not making a big profit.
And then other parts are really profitable.
Like you said, the content part of your business.
So then your business actually didn't shut down.
It transformed into supporting you writing books.
Is that what happened?
It really transitioned into this interesting content machine. So it was like you said,
sometimes as entrepreneurs, we're so busy and we're closing business and doing the thing
and servicing business that we're not actually taking that reflection to say,
did this to what we wanted it to do. And so I was, for example, really well known in the
industry for my influence
or business, but what happens in influence are, oh, we're going to delay launching the
campaign. Oh, we want to redo. And then things that should have like a fixed price tag
all of a sudden start expanding. And you're like, what happened to the profit? Whereas when
you sell a book, you sell a book, right? And so that's a sale and you sell the book, whether
you're awake, sleeping at the office, not at the office, right? You so that's a sale and you sell the book, whether you're awake, sleeping,
at the office, not at the office, right? You can move that product. And so it was finding that time to really reflect not on what I love, what I didn't love, but really by the numbers, what was working
and what wasn't working. And at that time, I was serving on a few boards and I was able to,
as I was in the process of looking
at this for other companies and being really good at it, I took a moment to say, wait, I
have to do this for my own businesses and look at where I can do better.
And it was a hard decision to come to, but I had to take that leap and say, you know,
and plus the sabbatical helped, right?
So knowing I was going to get some time off, which you know, and plus the sabbatical helped, right? So knowing I was gonna get some time off,
which I really need.
And I think all entrepreneurs need to really challenge themselves
to remove themselves.
I had a friend years ago challenged me to take summers off
and I thought he was crazy.
And I started off dipping my toe in that pool
and like, I'll take two weeks in August.
And then I'll take all of August.
That felt really good.
And then I moved to the place of like
from 4th of July to Labor Day.
I'm not in the office.
And what I realized was I was able to be really strategic,
come back well-rested, but during that time,
I did a lot of the strategy that really helped me look at
what was working and what wasn't working.
And so by the time I'd gotten to the place of saying,
this business needs to transition. I am done with agency. That was a very easy thing to do
because I understood the numbers and really understood what was working and what I wouldn't
do again.
Yeah. And I'd love to stick on this concept of an agency business because when you're
first in entrepreneur, the easy thing in my opinion is to start with an agency business,
right? You start with an agency business, right?
You start with your own skills, then you teach other people how to do those skills, and
you basically sell talent.
It's really expensive to run.
If my own experience is like, when you add new clients, you're adding more talent.
And it's like constantly, you have to basically build a bigger team in order to satisfy more
and more clients where the book approach to your point is scalable.
You don't necessarily need to add employee, employee, employee as you sell more and more clients, where the book approach to your point is scalable. You don't necessarily need to add employee employee employee as you sell more and more books.
So talk to us about the importance of sort of moving to a scalable model for you.
I want to be clear to the listeners and say, I could not, would not be in the position
I'm in right now.
I would not be selling, you know, shipping half a million units of product to target,
had I not mastered my agency business.
The skills that I learned, the skill of marketing,
the skill of building a target market,
understanding product, market fit,
all of those things that I learned as a marketer
has really helped me almost supercharge my ability
to be in manufacturing.
And to do in a year or two years time,
what might have taken other people five, six, seven years
because they came in with a skill set.
So just know if you are in an agency business,
it is not for nothing.
You are learning really important skills
that will help you.
And the goal right is to take those skills
and say how do I create something scalable.
I've gone from books, right,
to doing 14 books in partnership with Target
to now moving into elevation by Tina
Wells with Target, which is a home office line of products and that I was like wow I design it once and then I can
ship 30,000 of them and that's awesome, you know, and so it was a different way of using the skills that I love and also really
Looking at what I was good at one of the things I decided up front was I wanted to keep a smaller internal team.
I really was able to study manufacturing like where do many people make mistakes?
What's the difference between selling to a traditional retailer versus doing a D to C business?
I decided early on I wasn't going to go D to C because in my mind,
I was almost doing the agency thing again, right? Like staffing the business.
And then we know that a lot of times that is where you lose some profit.
And I remember looking at financials of a D to C and I noticed something really interesting.
Moving from I want to say like 30 million in revenue to like 40, they did like 30 with
12 people and they did 40 with 72. You know, you're like,
okay, is the juice worth the squeeze? So I was able to bring a lot of that life experience into
this business to say, what is the very best way I want to run it? And then also back to our earlier
comment about burnout, I'm not going to compromise my work life harmony. So how do I really have those
two things coexist? And I feel like I figured it out.
Obviously, the book, the elevation approach has been what allowed me to do it. But I think for all
business owners listening, we sometimes have a tendency to look at everything with rose colored
glasses. And I think when you're really charting the future and where you want to go, it's incredibly
critical to say, okay, what is my bottom line, where am I, what is
working, what is not, and just be really honest about that.
And it's okay to start something and then eventually pivot it into something else.
It's okay to evolve as you have.
My business is constantly evolving because I'm trying to always figure out how can I be
the most profitable, work the smartest, and just be smart about doing business and being an entrepreneur.
Because sometimes the easiest thing to do is not necessarily the best thing to do for yourself.
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So let's talk about you writing books for tweens.
How did you decide that this is your niche,
this is your thing,
and why did you start writing books for tweens?
It's funny, I like most things at that time in my life.
I didn't decide.
People just showed up with opportunities,
which is really great, you know? I made it in my life, I didn't decide. People just showed up with opportunities, which is really great.
I made it in my early 20s, back when magazines
were where you found out about any and everything,
I was really fortunate to be in a lot of them.
And so I was getting a lot of calls
and I got a call to do some marketing
for a publishing company.
And this was back in the day
when marketing companies were building brands
like Sisterhood and the Traveling Pants
and Gossip Girl. And I was back in the day when marketing companies were building brands like sisterhood and the traveling pants and gossip girl
And I was in a similar business and the publisher said to me at the time you know you do this thing
Why aren't you writing books and I said at the time because I'm really busy with my marketing company
I don't have time for a side gig
Eventually made time for it and realized just how delightful the age was. And as a researcher, I just started talking about the
tween customer getting to know that tween girl.
And I really fell in love with her and fell in love with that life stage of,
you're not a kid anymore, but you're not a teen and all the uniqueness that really
happens. And I have now written maybe 17 books for that customer.
And so I love that girl.
I'm working on something new right now
that I'm really excited about.
And it was just one of those creative things
I decided I was doing for me.
Now on the flip side, I'm still a marketer.
So I will tell you, it's great to know that every day
someone is aging into my books, right?
Where you write an adult book,
you've got to be timely, you want to write something and I hope the elevation approach is something
people will come back to and revisit for many, many decades. But with kids' books, I know
you could stumble into McKenzie Blue, which is now 14 years old. And kids are still starting
to read that series every day, you know. and so it was very different than I think my marketing career, which was focused
on new now, what's in, how to sell immediately.
The books are more about how do I create this great little grade fiction that will last
for a very long time.
And adult books are really different too.
And then product, you know, it's about selling, selling, selling now, but about building
brands that will also stand the test of time.
That's so interesting.
I love the fact that you're saying that it was this evergreen product and people are
always aging into being sort of eligible to read your book.
So that's a really good point.
Let's talk about the elevation approach in your new book.
So in your new book, you distinguish between work life life, balance, and work, life, harmony.
What's the difference between the two? I think what I experienced, and for any of your listeners
who are like young and in that moment where you're like, I want to crush my work. It's all about work.
Balance says, if you are working your buttole, often you're grinding, you got to add all the play
to equal out the work so that you're
fully balanced. And I realized I was just in an exhausting cycle of trying to make sure I
just as much play as work. And I don't think that's realistic. Harmony is more of like creating
your favorite meal and deciding what goes on the plate. It's not about filling that plate up,
right? It's like, no, you're just going to have the appropriate amount of stuff on there for you,
but you're deciding what those things are.
And so I felt like that was a better approach.
I think sometimes we talk about, well, you work too much, you work too much, and we forget
about the idea that younger generations are actually doing the work that they love,
right?
Like, younger people, which I love about younger generations, is they're not willing
to compromise on their work.
They'll work hard, they want it to be profitable,
they're going to make money, but they're not willing to compromise.
And I think that's great.
But what that means then is that you need to find harmony,
and that is really how you define it.
I don't think it's how many one else defines it.
You know when you're heading towards burnout,
and I also think it's unrealistic to think that
there aren't going to be seasons
where you are feeling more of a grind than others, right?
There are some days when you're working out
and you know some workouts are a little bit harder
than the rest for covering days.
And that is okay.
And I think that Harmony says, if you know,
let's say you're about to graduate from college or you're going through an exam period, I remember those exam periods and they were
grueling, but if I could schedule a couple hours to have dinner with my friends, right, it
would always make you feel a little bit better.
And that is what I'm kind of offering you in the elevation approach is to say, here's a
guide to getting through things and to actually completing them because what I was doing was getting burnt out in the middle, right?
So there are four phases in the elevation approach, preparation, inspiration, recreation,
and transformation.
And what I was doing was, I was great at research.
Obviously, that was my skill set, right?
So it's great at researching an idea, great with building my network and socializing it.
And then instead of taking a break and just letting everything settle,
what I would do is go right back into the hustle,
and that's why I could never finish anything.
And when I incorporated recreation,
what I started to notice was it was easier to get to the end.
I was actually giving myself a little more stamina
to get to the finish line, and I was just doing it,
and things were becoming easier.
And that has really been the big breakthrough for me.
So you mentioned just now that there's four phases to your elevation approach, its preparation,
inspiration, recreation and transformation.
Before we get into those steps, I know it's important to actually set a goal or goals,
right?
So talk to us about your guidance for goal setting.
That's a big part of how we set up the book to my writing partner and I
is just really like what you want to accomplish. What I often say is obviously I'm a business owner,
I built businesses so I'm writing for you know, watch apreneurs what I call them. I'm obviously
writing for that group. But I'm also writing for people who are just saying I'm trying to do
something big for my family. I remember a couple of years ago,
I have a brother who lives in Italy.
My dad had met my youngest nephew
and my mom had a vision that our entire family
was going to go to Italy in the spring
and it was a huge undertaking.
It was a lot of planning, a lot of people
and families to organize.
And she just kept, it was like she was like,
here's what's happening in nine months
and here's everything that has to happen up till.
And so I find that even if you have an idea,
I need to do a renovation, I need to do this.
You still have to go through this approach
and through these steps.
Even if you are like, I wanna learn to play a new sport,
I wanna take up a hobby.
It is literally the prescription to get you
to the other side of realizing whatever that dream
or goal is that you've set for yourself.
So, the purpose of the elevation approach is basically to help you complete any goal,
is that right?
Exactly.
Cool.
So, in terms of the goals, to your point right now, you're talking about a trip to Italy,
it's not just career related, you're talking about any sort of goals, right?
Any sort of goal, and what I hope I'm giving you is the toolkit,
and you decide what tools you need from the kit, right?
So you might say, I don't need all the exercises.
I don't need all the stuff.
But if you come to a place where you're like,
I can't seem to get to the next step.
What I hope is that you can go back and say,
okay, what is broken here?
That is prohibiting me from realizing this.
I think we also have to give ourselves just a little bit
of grace to say, maybe you had a goal before
and that's changed, but sometimes you think,
oh my goodness, if I could have only opened that bakery,
my life would be different.
What I hope to also give you is a playbook to go through that
and maybe you run the numbers and you're like,
oh my goodness, if I had done that,
it would have been the worst thing ever. I'm so glad I didn't do that and now you can
free up that headspace to focus on the thing you really want to do in this current season.
And then why is it important that we need to pick a goal that doesn't feel like work?
I wanted to be fun for you to do it, right? And I think that that goes back to the harmony piece, right? I want
you to feel good and I often say there would be nothing worse to me than having a goal finally
getting to this great achievement and being too tired and too burnout to enjoy what I've built.
And I think for so many entrepreneurs, you don't want to burn out before you get to realize all
that you've worked for. If we're going through entrepreneurship, we're willing to take all the hard things
that come with it because we know at the end, there is going to be this awesome reward,
hopefully, that's really paid off. And there's nothing worse than being unhealthy or too
sick or all the things that can happen, you know, issues with mental health because
you didn't take care of yourself along the way.
That makes a lot of sense. Okay, so let's move on to the first phase of the elevation
approach. It's called preparation. It's about the art of getting ready. And you mentioned that decluttering
is one of the principles that we follow in this phase. To talk to us about the different clutter we
can find in our lives. Okay, Nis, there's not just the clutter that we all might see in our homes,
right? There's digital clutter,
which is a big one for me, calendar clutter. I even have like, desktop clutter with my computer.
Clutter can hide in all these different places a couple of weeks ago. I was starting to get this
feeling of overwhelm. I'm going into manufacturing a new line and we're just starting to ship the line
out to retail partners and I'm like, oh, like the panic is already building up. Because now I know how hard it is to be in manufacturing.
And the first thing I did, Hollow, was I went and declutter a space. It was like second,
I didn't even know what was going on until I like figured it out later. I'm like, what's going on
with me? I just feel the need to get rid of stuff. And I realized, oh, I'm processing what's going on. And then once I did that, the next principle is get curious. It automatically
seemed to open up space to start asking questions. And then the know your numbers piece, I just
kind of rolled through my steps very easily. But I was at a place where I was like, oh, you know,
my summer is looking a little light. What do we entrepreneurs
like to do? Add stuff to our cat. Like, oh, I can do this. I can do that. And then I'm like,
I need to stop right now because my fall is about transformation. And how am I going
to get to completing things if I don't take a pause right now? So I even have to like
coach myself through the breaks, which I will tell you will probably be the hardest
piece for a lot of entrepreneurs to listen to, right? Because we don't really see ourselves
taking a pause at certain times, but it's the most important part, I think of everything,
because that's when all, you know, you can get the downloads and you can really sit with all
the information you've gathered. And so decluttering though really signals that you're ready
to kind of take it to the next level.
So that's why it's important.
Yeah, and when it comes to decluttering,
I know myself that when I'm in a bad headspace,
that's been like my apartment will get the messiest, right?
And then I'll realize, I'm like, what's wrong with me?
Why is everything so messy?
How can our clutter tell us that there's actually something
unaligned in our lives?
The clutter is always the first signal for me.
And one thing I want to say is, you will sometimes
identify that there is a problem,
and it may not be a problem you can solve at that moment.
And that's okay.
Sometimes just the awareness and being able to self-sue
then say, I know this doesn't look the way I want it to look, but I'm traveling
like crazy for the next two weeks. And as soon as I'm done, I'm going to do A, B,
and C. Sometimes just like telling yourself that strange, as it might sound,
we'll start to alleviate some of the stress and how you're showing up, right?
To give yourself a little grace and say, I know why. The worst thing is to have a
bunch of clutter and have no clue why that's happening. Then you need to
do a deep dive and say, why is this going on? Or, you know, if you're a parent and you're
like, oh my goodness, it's the last two weeks before the school year is over and it's chaotic,
but I understand why that's happening. Then I think we can help ourselves cope to get
to a little more downtime.
My last couple of questions about decluttering is, why do you feel like decluttering actually
helps us be more effective?
What does it actually do for us when we declutter our physical spaces or mental spaces?
I think it opens up, literally opens up space that you can fill with something that's
going to serve you better.
That's why I go from the decluttering into the next part, which is getting curious,
right? How do you make space for a new idea to learn something new, to do something new? If you
can't even physically or mentally focus, because you're like, there's that. There there's this,
meeting invites are popping up and you're trying to watch a video, read an article like,
those two things are competing versus where you're like, I've got a little bit of a white canvas.
What I'm saying is get yourself to a white canvas
where you can then start to add the colors.
I understand.
So it's like removing the distractions
so you can think, be curious,
have big thoughts and aha moments
like you were talking about before.
So talk to us about quantifying our goals.
What are the questions that we need to ask ourselves
about quantifying our goals?
Yes, so when I talk about know your numbers. I think especially as entrepreneurs, we
immediately pivot to the idea of finances, right? And I think that's absolutely,
should almost go without saying that as entrepreneurs, we need to be tracking those numbers. But
I found that the numbers I really needed to understand were related to my health.
And that was really at the heart of my burnout
in some ways, I thought I was working out
and doing things that were helping me with stress
and it wasn't, I needed to find other practices
to help with stress, but I also wasn't really committed
to sleeping and I need to sleep like seven and a half hours.
Like I will be so efficient all the other hours of my day if I can get my seven and a half.
But, you know, if I don't have that,
it's, I don't function well, right?
So I wear my aura ring every day
and I think it's important to not lie and cheat, right?
So I was definitely the one who'd be like,
I feel like I slept well.
So I think I got enough sleep.
First is every morning looking at a sleep score
and saying, oh, I really didn't sleep
as well as I thought or I really shouldn't have been watching Law N order for an extra hour, right?
Like that accountability, really I noticed helped me show up. Even if I have the busiest of days,
I was ready for that. What I'm eating, how I'm eating, all those things, like having accountability
around that. For many of us, right, how many steps we're walking. And then I like to gamify it and make it fun. But one of my doctors, she says all the time, oh my goodness, you love
data. I do. Like I love understanding all the numbers I can to see how I function best and show
up to do the work that I love to do. And that is really the goal of knowing your numbers. How do you
show up best for your team? How do you show up best for your family? For yourself? And the way to do that is to understand
that unique mix of numbers
that are really important to helping you do that.
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Okay, so let's move on to the second phase of the elevation approach. It's
called inspiration. How does inspiration play into work-life harmony?
And so I mean,
as in our relationships
are the most important thing we have, right?
I think, especially as entrepreneurs,
they always talk about your network,
coming from your network, right?
So, cultivating an incredible network is important,
but I really believe in doing it in a very authentic way.
You know, I don't believe in collecting people
and business cards and relationships. I think whatever relationship you decide to engage in, you have to be committed
to nurturing it. But in this part of the book, I really help you start to kind of categorize
your relationships. So you know exactly how much energy those relationships should have, right?
And I think one mistake we make is calling everybody our best friend, right? Oh, they're my best friend. Well, if someone is truly your best friend
there's a specific set of
Things you've probably committed to each other and you cannot have that commitment with every single person you encounter, right?
So understanding how to manage those relationships understanding what it means to have a personal board of directors
I talk about why you need frontors more than mentors, especially at
this life stage. I think all of my elevation, my biggest life changes have come through
a group of peers who understood where I was and kind of held me accountable. And so,
that section is really focused on managing your relationships, taking everything you've learned
in the preparation phase, making sure you go then and socialize the idea with the right people.
And I talked to you about who those right people are.
I think there are certain moments in my life
if I had gone to people who I call cheerleaders,
they might have said,
you're amazing, do this thing versus going to my peers,
my friend tours who held me accountable and said,
you're not doing the thing only you can do
or you're not showing up the best you can.
Right, that's really, really critical.
And so that phase is all about figuring out
how to properly manage your relationships.
So the inspiration phase is actually
about managing relationships.
Do I get that right? Yeah. Yeah.
Okay, got it.
And then you also say we need to create rituals in this phase.
So what's the importance of creating rituals and what's your guidance around that?
Think about those times where you naturally might be out of harmony.
So really busy season for me or for anyone like a book tour or you're launching a new
product and you're on the road.
How do you bring those things with you that are really important?
I found creating rituals for me,
even around like my packing, my unpacking,
if I like listening to a certain morning show,
making sure when I'm traveling that I have access to that,
I love listening to audiobooks.
I can do that anywhere on the world, right?
So things that really ground me,
if I'm traveling a lot, now I'm going into a season where
I'll be traveling a bit more in the fall,
but getting those important dates on the calendar for with my supper club, making sure we've got
our once a month appointment. So those things become rituals. And for people listening
who are like, I don't really know what my rituals are. I give you a guide to helping you figure
out how to create some. It's funny. I had realized looking at my numbers with my health,
I was getting concerned about how travel was starting to weigh on me.
And I like quickly started a new ritual for when I land what that needs to look like, right?
And how I need to get myself acclimated to a new place.
And now I'm like, okay, I have a travel ritual, things that have to happen when I'm just
landing.
And so you'll create new ones.
But again, you're going to go through some exercises that help you figure out what rituals make the most sense for you.
And so you've a part of your book that's called Make Deposits Before With Draw. So what do you mean by that?
Yeah, so that is in the Inspiration phase. And so I know it's funny. Like you said, oh, inspiration is about relationships. So after you have a big idea, the goal in the next phase is socializing.
That is when you are engaging the most with people.
And I talked to you about exactly how to engage.
This is to bring an idea to fruition, right?
So let's say you wanna plan the ultimate trip
to Disney for your family.
You probably should go talk to someone who's planned
a trip to Disney for their family, right?
And sometimes we make the mistake of going to a cheerleader You probably should go talk to someone who's planned a trip to Disney for their family, right?
And sometimes we make the mistake of going to a cheerleader who's like, you absolutely
should do that thing versus talking to the person who's like, Disney in August with
three kids.
Oh my gosh, here's what you need to know, right?
So I want you to understand exactly who you need to engage with.
And then when we talk about the deposits and withdrawals,
that's really focused on the how.
And you want to make sure that you're engaging
in relationships where both people really feel valued
and feel like they're getting something out of it.
And you don't want one-sided relationships.
So you don't want to constantly call someone for help
and you're not offering or be in the other position
where you feel like, why am I feeling energetically drained
from a certain relationship?
It could be that you think you're getting more out of it than you actually are, right?
And as entrepreneurs, we really have to manage our time and our energy.
That has honestly been very hard for me because I would love to talk to everyone,
give advice to everyone and do and see people and, you know, I was researcher,
so I love getting to know people, learning about people.
But that also sometimes takes a toll on me on my health and even my creativity, right?
Like if I need to make sure I'm in a space to dream up, I'm working now on this kind of my time and am I reserving the energy I need
to get this type of work done,
which is a little bit different than when I,
you know, have an executive hat on
and I'm making decisions and reviewing data
and looking at that.
It's very different when I'm trying to like,
dream something up for kids
or dream up a new product line.
And that's why I ask you to look at deposits
and withdraws because it's about measuring what you have
truly bring
your big ideas to life.
That makes sense.
Recreation is the third phase and I'm curious to understand why recreation is an important
part of elevating our lives and how we can actually design this recreation effectively.
Goodness, I mean, when we started the conversation talking about burnout, my burnout happened because
I didn't have this in place. I think this is always going to be the hardest part for entrepreneurs
to embrace. If I'm very honest, it was the hardest thing for me to embrace and what I started to
realize, of course, I do what I do. I test it. And when I started to see how much better I was
reacting to situations, how much faster, Honestly, how fast I work now?
I realized it was absolutely the most important thing. And there are just some days where
you probably start to feel, I feel like this is going in a very bad direction. And then
that 15 minutes, that hour, whatever your form of recreation is somehow just kind of gets
me back on track. And it allows me to do what I need to do to finish the thing I started.
And so it is so critical.
I live my day like the elevation approach
and so my mornings of preparation,
my afternoons or inspiration,
I always find time in my afternoon for recreation.
And then I have to work,
I do a lot of development in Asia.
And so I have to work into the evening
and I really need that recreation because it helps me drive for the rest of the day for transformation.
Yeah, I know that whenever I take time to like work out, I feel more energized to like get more
done after I give myself that time, even just doing like a stretching for 15 minutes or something,
that doesn't even feel like work, but feels relaxing for myself.
Why does recreation not necessarily need to be scheduled?
Why does it need to be unstructured?
Is it how you describe it in the book?
My personal experience was, I thought I was like nailing my workouts.
I was so into like, soul cycle, all the things.
And I had been at a retreat of all places in Utah.
And you know, after I had this massage, the feedback I got was,
like, I can tell you workout, and that's not helping your stress.
And I think for a lot of us, we feel like,
oh, we're doing the workout, it's helping our stress.
I realized workout was what I needed to do in the preparation phase, right?
Part of knowing my number is same as making sure you're drinking water,
making sure you're sleeping a certain amount of time.
That is just what I needed to do to make sure I was prepared for my day.
Or recreation is if you've got to think about it a little more as play, right?
So think about it's like you were starting something new.
Maybe there's fitness benefits, but it's more about decompressing and taking a little
bit of time away from what you're doing.
You can go back and be fully ready to crush it, right?
Because you need that energy. What I kept missing was I needed a little more energy to transform and I didn't have it.
After I've been so inspired and I couldn't figure out how to get to the other side.
You also say that it's important to get out of your safe zone when it comes to recreation. Why is that?
You also say that it's important to get out of your safe zone when it comes to recreation. Why is that?
I think what I've learned is when I get out of my safe zone and go through that exercise,
allowing my mind to open up to something new, right?
When you allow your mind to open up to something new, it's not like you're opening up in a
controlled way, right?
You're allowing yourself.
You're flexing that muscle.
And as entrepreneurs, we need those new ideas to come.
We need those fresh concepts.
Like you said, you've gotta always be evolving.
And so part of what's great about recreation
is it's a natural way to make sure you're always evolving
and always just open to something new or interesting.
And taking time to read for 15 minutes
about something you're just curious about, right?
And not closing yourself off to anything new,
right? You don't want to become that type of person who's like, I don't care about AI, I don't
care about I don't want this. I don't want to know about that. It's like just learn even if it doesn't
apply to your business because you're flexing that muscle of being open to newness. And that's what's
great about recreation. Recreation could be playing a game with a child for 10, 15 minutes, right?
And I always encourage, definitely encourage in the book to watch how kids play and watch how there's
like no outcome, right? They're not playing for a specific outcome. They're playing because it's
fun. I'm just out here walking because it's fun, you know? And that's where you really want to get
where you're just taking a little bit of time
to have a different experience.
Another point in this section of the book
is this idea of choosing joy over happiness
and the fact that joy in happiness is actually not
the same thing.
Can you help us understand why we need to prioritize
joy over happiness and what your distinction is with that?
I think joy is a state.
I can tell you there are times like I'm going into a time
right now where I'm going to be
dealing with a lot of customs agents.
I've been doing the little shipping a lot of stuff and it is just not what I wake up to
do, but I find so much joy in it.
And joy is about saying, I am engaged in something right now that is not my favorite thing
to do, but I still am showing up.
Happiness is like, I'm eating ice cream,
ice cream makes me happy, so I'm happy. What happens when the ice cream goes away? Are you now unhappy?
You know, so you don't want an outside force to be able to control it. And I think especially
is entrepreneurs, when there are so many people who are taking their cues from us about how good the
day is going to be, you want to make sure that you have as much control as possible over if you're
showing up feeling good or not. Happiness means on your way to work, you get a ticket, you're
unhappy. You know, joy is like, that wasn't great, but I still have a smile on my face.
And I figured out how to still keep it moving. And I think especially for people where
how you show up can affect so many other people. It's really, really important to figure
out how you show up can affect so many other people. It's really, really important to figure out how you create joy.
So, talk to us about transformation and the last step of your elevation approach.
Transformation is really about everything coming together.
And I think one of the things I really focus on in the book is this idea that you could change what you desire
and that you could get to this place and say, oh, I thought I wanted this
thing and maybe I don't want the thing I thought I wanted.
And that's okay.
You know, it's okay to get to the place of saying I decided to pivot and then I can go
through the process again based on what I pivoted to.
And so, you know, transformation also asks you to make even more time for reflection
to really talk about
what's serving you, what's not, which is really hard.
I think I went through that process of really pivoting my business and how I work, and
it was that honest conversation about what is actually working and what it's actually
not working.
And I know if anybody else finds it hard, sometimes it's hard to say goodbye to something you
really love, but it's also not serving you in this current place in your life. So I think what would be helpful for my listeners so they can really just
tie this all together would be for you to walk through an example of somebody having a goal and
using the elevation approach to tackle that goal. Yeah, so let's say you are opening up your first
agency, right? Because we talk about agency businesses being easy to start.
In preparation, you're doing all the research, right?
So one, you're decluttering, your space could be your calendar,
could be your computer, like I'm ready to go full on
into diving into this.
And then you get curious, right?
So you start researching different businesses,
how they work, what industry you're gonna go into,
or you're gonna be in person, virtual, only, right?
You're just doing all the things. And then you get to knowing your numbers, right?
You might go on to the IRS website, figure out what tax returns or profitability looks like
for agencies like yours and start to figure out how you're going to get there.
And then you decide it's feasible.
You go into inspiration, right?
And that's all the things around meeting people, getting to know them, finding resources.
And then you get to recreation and you're going to take a little break and you're going
to do something.
I don't care if you go away for two days, do an overnight, go to a theme park, you're
going to do something that gets your mind off of it.
Then you're going to come back to transformation and say, I'm ready to pull it all together.
I am going to launch that business.
I feel excited and ready to go. And then you kind
of make it happen, right? And then the good news is you can always, let's say, you're three months
in, you have transformed, you're in the business and you're like something feels off. What's great
about instant elevation is you can look at those 12 principles and say, what do I need? Do I need a
new ritual? Am I not making time for recreation? Like I was supposed to, you're tracking your numbers, right?
So you can go to your numbers and say,
does anything feel weird here?
Maybe you look at your calendar and you're like,
oh, I see it.
I'm really over-scheduled and I'm not making any time for A, B and C.
I gotta get that on my schedule.
Or everything is so cluttered here.
I gotta figure out what to do.
My wardrobe, I need this, right?
So that's the goal is after you've transformed
is to then go back because it's a constantly evolving thing.
You're never going to just be in a place
where you are in complete work by poverty.
We're always going to be figuring out
how to maintain that meal that we love so much, right?
And realize, oh, this is missing
or I forgot to add this this time.
And so what's great is after you've read the book,
now you can go back and pinpoint.
And then once you know what's up,
you can grab that tool from your toolkit
and kind of get yourself back to where you need to be.
I love it.
I love learning today about your elevation approach
and how we can live more of a work life harmony
instead of a work life balance.
So really appreciate that.
We are not interview with two questions.
The first one is,
what is one actionable thing
our younger profitors can do today
to become more profitable tomorrow?
I would say hands down, get curious.
Look at emerging technologies,
always be aware of where trends are going
and things are headed.
And don't be scared,
because the more you know,
the more you can decide how you're gonna use those those technologies. So especially if you feel scared about something, move in
that direction and get yourself into a practice of really not approaching anything with fear. I think
to be a great entrepreneur, you've got to be fearless and the best way to show up and be fearless
is to have knowledge, right? The whole idea, knowledge is power. Definitely means more today than it ever did. And so I would say hands down, get curious.
I think that is absolutely fantastic advice. And my second question for you is, what is your
secret to profiting in life? And this could go beyond business and finance?
I think my secret to profiting in life is, again, not being scared of being in a state of
knowing my numbers and looking and being
really honest about what's working and not working. And the only way you can do that is
you have data that you're accountable to, not this idea. I think we were kind of profitable
this quarter. No, you need to look at your numbers and know exactly what you spent, how you
spend it and be accountable to that. And so whatever that is, you know, know your numbers and be accountable to those numbers.
And I have to say, like as an entrepreneur, for three years now, when you know your numbers,
sometimes it leads to really tough decisions.
You might have to let people go, let clients go.
It's hard.
It's hard to make decisions that are going to benefit you positively in the moment, but
it's good for the long term.
So, I definitely agree that knowing your numbers is very important.
That's great.
And you know, you know this.
Once you do it and you see what happens on the other side and that you're creating goodness
and allowing other people to thrive, it places that might be better for them too.
It feels hard, but once you do it and realize that it is the thing to do to continue to grow,
again, it becomes just like any other muscle, it gets a little bit easier over time. Totally agree. Where can our
listeners learn more about you and everything that you do Tina? The first place is of course where
you went to get this great interview, which is Tina Wells dot com. I have a weekly newsletter you
can subscribe to. I often post on my Instagram, which is at Tina Wells. And of course, you can find my books, my products,
at TargetStores and Target.com.
Amazing! Well, thank you so much, Tina.
Thanks for joining us on Young & Profiting Podcast.
Thanks, Hollett. It's been great!
It can be exhausting trying to balance your life with work,
especially as an entrepreneur.
Things can get out of hand quickly, and burnout can sometimes feel like it's just around the
corner. That's why I loved hearing from Tina Wells about what she has learned about taking
a step back and reorganizing her life and career in order to find a more sustainable approach.
According to Tina, it's not enough to pursue a work-life balance. You need work-life
harmony.
Harmony is not just about making sure that your plate is full and has a balance of things.
It's about crafting your favorite meal and deciding what goes on that plate and in what amount.
And that's also why we have to pick goals that map onto that vision of harmony that we've established.
There's nothing worse, says Tina, than achieving a difficult goal only to be too tired or too
burned out to appreciate what you've achieved.
You want to be able to enjoy the fruits of everything you've worked so hard for.
Tina devised what she calls the elevation approach to help others pick and complete the
right goals and achieve that work-life harmony.
Three cap there were four main phases to that approach. First, preparation,
the art of getting ready, and also the act of decluttering our lives. We can all get swamped
in email clutter, desktop clutter, calendar clutter, cluttered homes. But if we take the
time to declutter both our mental and physical spaces, it can create the space we need to
learn something new or have a big new idea or launch a new course of action.
The second phase of the elevation approach is inspiration and a key part of this is learning
to manage our relationships better, whether that's finding our own personal board of directors
and mentors or ensuring that we're making more deposits than withdrawals in our interactions
with others so that we're not forming one-sided relationships.
Tina calls Phase 3, Recreation. Just taking 15 minutes away from work to do something recreational can also open us up to something new or better, or just recharge our batteries.
Finally, the last phase is Transformation. That's where everything comes together.
Maybe you accomplish your goal, or maybe it just dawns on you that you need to pivot to something else. Thanks for listening to this episode of Young and Profiting Podcast. If you
listen, learn and profited, be sure to share this episode with your friends and family. It would
really mean a lot to me if you helped spread this podcast by word of mouth. And if you did enjoy
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We've got over 4,000 reviews because we've got amazing fans that took the time to write
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So thank you to everybody who sports the show by writing us an Apple Podcast review.
We never charge, we never have any sort of subscriptions. We do this all for you,
our listeners. And if you like watching your podcast, you can find us on YouTube. I've got all of
our episodes up on there. You can also find me on Instagram, Adia with Hala or LinkedIn by
searching my name. It's Hala. Taha. I want to shout out my amazing production team, my executive
producer Jason Amelia, our assistant producer,
Furcon and his sham helping us with guest outreach, Greta, and Sean helping us
with research, Critty and Grema helping us with ad-ops. You guys are amazing.
I've got such a big amazing team and I love everybody at my gap media family.
Thank you guys so much for all your hard work. This is your host, Halataha aka the podcast princess, signing off.
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