The Business That Lets You Breathe

Speaker A: Sam? Mhm? I want to describe a feeling to you, and I think you're going to know this immediately. You finally get a quiet moment, an open afternoon, a morning with nothing scheduled. The thing you've been craving for weeks. You know what I'm talking about, right? And instead of thinking into that, instead of actually resting, this uneasy little voice shows up in your head and says, you should be working. You're falling behind. Everyone else is grinding right now and you're just, you're just, you're just sitting here. So you can't even enjoy that rest. You just, you literally, you feel guilty throughout the entire thing. And then you go back to work more tired than before because the break wasn't even a break. It was a guilt session. And most likely with better scenery. If that's you, I want to give you something today. I want to give you permission. Yes. But more than that, a whole different way of thinking about rest. Because rest isn't the, the reward you get after you build your business. Rest is part of how you build a business worth having. Let me show you how this is going to be great. I'm Karina Calhoun. Come sit with me on this one for a minute because I want you to really, truly dial in. I want you to dial in. I want you to fully understand what's happening. I want you to get it. I want you to get it. Welcome back to the table. Quick. Hello. If you are new here, I'm Karina Calhoun. I am the founder and CEO of uh, of Warcry Consulting Solutions. I build business systems and automation for service based business owners. Okay. The people who are brilliant at their craft, but yet buried, buried under everything it takes to run their business. I am, um, a confidently bold introvert. I believe in structure over hustle. And I am, um, genuinely glad that you are here. Now. A few weeks back, I told you a story about a beach. If you don't remember, go back to previous episodes and you'll. I talked about that. I, uh, talked about stepping away on a trip and coming home to a business that had kept running without me. And I told it to show you that a business can run without you at the center of every single moment. Today I want to go one layer deeper. Because that beach story wasn't really about the trip. It was about something a lot of us are terrible at and myself included because I had to make me rest. It's about rest. It's about stepping back. It's about letting yourself breathe without the whole thing collapsing. Uh, and without drowning in guilt while you do it because here's what I've come to believe, and it took me a long time to learn it, really, the hard way. A business that only works when you're running on empty is, uh, not freedom. That's not freedom. It's a beautiful cage. And the whole point of everything that I build, everything I teach on this show, is to get you out of that cage, not into a nicer one, but get you out of it. So today we're going to talk about why Rest later is a lie. It's a lie. Your energy is your most valuable asset. Did you know that? How you actually build rest into the structure of your business so it doesn't cost you anything. And why a business that lets you breathe is the definition of freedom. So let's start with the lie. Let's start with the lie. Here's the lie almost all of us bought at some point. Grind now, Rest later. Raise your hand if you were told that. Raise your hand. Raise it high. Push through this season. Sacrifice. Run yourself down. And then once you've made it, once the business is big enough and stable enough and successful enough, then you'll get to rest. Rest, as they have put it, is the prize at the finish line. What I want to be honest with you about how that lie really played into my own life, because I lived it as hard as a person possibly could. When I built this business, started building this business back in 2018, y' all know the story. I, uh, built it in cracks. I helped manage four departments in corporate America. I built War Cry on two 15 minute breaks. Literally going down to the lobby and talking on the phone and, you know, handling business, getting clients, responding to DMs, doing all of the things. And I also did it on a one hour lunch break, going and sitting in my car for an hour, scarfing down my lunch. Every scrap of margin I had, I, uh, poured into building this. And during those same years, my dad was ill. He was terminally ill. So picture all of this full corporate job, a brand new marriage. We were still brand new marriage. We were building a blended family. I go from one kid to three. I was learning how to be present for this new family. A, uh, father who was literally fading away, and a business I was building in stolen moments. Because as a, ah, c. As a corporate, um, leader, I knew I was still in moments. There was no rest in that picture, though. There was no margin. I was running on empty, but then calling it dedication. And I told myself the whole time, this is just a season. This is Just a season. Push through your rest when you've made it. Grind now, rest later, honey. Oh, my goodness. Here's what I've learned. Later never comes on its own. It never does. If you build a business on the premise that you'll rest once it's successful, baby, you. You build a business that only functions when you're pushing it, which means the more successful it gets, the more it needs you, which means the rest you were promised keeps moving further and further and further down the road. You don't grind your way to rest, y'. All. You grind your way to a bigger, heavier version of the same trap. That's literally what you do. I almost built myself, and I was very close to it, to be very honest with you. The same beautiful cage. A business that looked like success from the outside and felt like a machine I could never step away from on the inside. And I want to name something for y', all, and I'm. I'm a hold your hand when I say this, because I know some of you are in the thick of it, genuinely right now. You're in the thick of a hard season right now. I know this. I'm not standing here telling you that hard seasons don't exist or that you should never push. Sometimes life asks a lot of you, right? And you carry it. And that's real. What I'm telling you is that always empty cannot be the operating system of your business. A hard season is a season. It has an end. But if running on fumes is just how your business works, permanently, by design, then something in the structure is broken, y'. All. And no amount of pushing harder will fix that. Pushing harder is what will break it. Okay, So I had to unlearn that lie. I had to stop treating rest as the reward, waiting at some finish line that kept moving, and start treating it like it was something that belonged in the structure right now, in this moment, not later, now, built in. And that shift changed everything about how I run this business and honestly, about how I feel in my own life. Because here's the deeper truth underneath all of this. You didn't start your business to build yourself a job, and especially a job that you can never step away from. You started it to be free. And a version of you that's permanently depleted cannot enjoy a single thing that that business was supposed to give you or can offer you. So let's talk about why your energy matters so much. And. And I want to even so much more than, uh, most people pretend it does. Yeah, it does. Let me. Let Me make a case that I think a lot of business owners have never really heard, your energy is not a personal luxury. I'm gonna say it again. Your energy is. Is not a personal luxury. It is a business asset and arguably your most important one. And running it into the ground is not noble, y'. All. That's not, uh. Oh, my goodness, look what I did. That's. That's not this. It's negligent because you're depleting the very thing your business runs on. Here's why. I, uh, want to explain it like this. Think about what people are actually paying you for in a service business. They're not paying for a product on a shelf. They're paying for you. Your judgment, your care, your attention. The way you show up for them. The irreplaceable human part that no system and no tool can ever, ever replicate. That's the actual product. That's the thing. Now think about what happens to that product when you're exhausted, when you're running on empty. What's the first thing to go? It's exactly that. That care gets thinner and thinner and thinner. Your patience gets shorter. The creative, thoughtful, present version of you, the one your clients fell in love with, gets buried under fatigue. Period, point blank. You start being phony. And, uh, not because you don't care, but because you have nothing left to give. Depletion doesn't just hurt you. It. It degrades the one thing your clients are actually paying for. And here's. Here's another truth, y', all, and I want you to sit with it because it really reframes this entire thing. How it feels to work with you is your marketing. It's the real marketing, the kind that actually spreads. Not your logo, not your social media posts, not your ad copy. The felt experience of being your client, that's the marketing. When someone works with you and it feels calm, it feels attentive, it feels cared for. When nothing falls through the cracks and. And they feel genuinely seen. That experience is what they talk about. That's what gets them telling their friends and those friends, friends, and so on and so forth. The experience, y', all, is the marketing. So follow that logic all the way through. Arrested, present, you delivers a better experience. A better experience is your best marketing. Your best marketing brings you more of the right people, which means in a very real and listen, unsexy way. Protecting your energy is a growth strategy. It's a growth strategy. Resting is not the thing you do instead of building your business. It's part of building Your business because it protects the actual product. And, uh, here's the flip side, the one that should light a fire under you at least just a little bit. Post check. When you're depleted and the experience suffers, that spreads too. People don't usually announce that they had a, uh, mediocre, rushed, distracted experience with you. They just quietly don't come back, I've done that. And they quietly don't refer you done that too. The cost of running on empty isn't only. It's not just your own exhaustion is the quiet erosion, if you think about it in those terms, is the erosion of the very reputation that your business builds on. So this is not indulgent, y'. All. You're not indulging. Protect your energy. Protecting your energy is vital. It's key. Protecting your energy is protecting your product. It's, it's protecting your experience and it's protecting your reputation all at one time. The question is how you actually do it without feeling like every hour of, ah, rest is an hour of lost business. And that comes down to structure. It literally comes down to structure. Let me show you. Here's the key that changes everything. Rest cannot survive on willpower. If you plan just, let's just put it like this. If you plan for resting and it doesn't let me. Okay, let me say it like this. Because when you're planning, you're resting, and you say something like, um, I'll try to do better about taking breaks, you gonna lose every single time. You gonna lose every single time. Because the business will always be more urgent than your rest in that moment. Willpower is not a strategy. Structure is. And I, I had to learn that the hard way going to the gym when I started my gym life, it, it. Willpower is not it. Structure is it. Because willpower is going to say, um, not today. Structure is going to say, it's on the calendar. Get going. Right? So we're going to build rest in. So it doesn't depend on you being disciplined in a tired moment. Now I want to walk you through it. First and foremost, decide what closed actually means, and then make it real. A lot of business owners are never truly closed. I used to not be guilty as charged. There's always a phone in the pocket, always a message that that could come in. Always a, uh, uh, uh, just that little, hey, the availability is there. That means you're never full. You never fully exhale, right? So pick your boundaries on purpose. What hours are you genuinely off? What days? And then, and this is the important part, set up your business so that being closed doesn't mean things fall apart. I had posted recently on social media about my office door. So I'm currently in my office. My office is one of our extra bedrooms and um, it's across the hall from our bedroom. So I close the door when, when war cries close during business hours. The door is closed in here. Ain't no reason for me to have the door open. Is, is closed and locked. We don't pull the thing down and everything we, we closed, the closed sign is up. And so listen, set those boundaries. Set those boundaries. This is exactly where systems come in. When someone reaches out at nine at night, a system can catch them, it can welcome them and let them know when you'll respond. So the lead is held right? And the person feels taken care of. And you don't have to be awake to do it. Clothes only feel safe when you know nothing's slipping through while you're gone. Structure is what makes the boundaries safe. Now second, the second thing, protect your rest the way you protect a client appointment. Whoa, that is, that is literally shots fired. You would never know. Show a client right. So put your rest on the calendar with the same seriousness. Block it, name it, defend it. If it's not scheduled, it's not real, y'. All. It's just a wish that the business will always steamroll. And the business is going to steamroll it. I can tell you that without a shadow of a doubt. I'm telling you from experience, if you built in the whole business in, ah, 15 minute breaks like I did, sometimes I say it and it just dawns on me again. And 15 minute breaks. You already know how to protect small windows fiercely. So if you know how to do it, you. You know how to protect small windows fiercely. Use that same skill for rest. Now guard that window. And then third, let your systems carry the business during your off hours on purpose. This is the piece people miss. The reason rest feels so expensive is that we believe the business only moves when we're personally pushing it wrong. Not necessary. But when your capture and your follow up are running on, uh, structure, the business keeps the promises to people. Even when you're not there, the reminders still go out. The new person who found you still gets welcomed. The relationship still gets tended to. So stepping away stops costing you momentum because the structure holds the momentum for you. You don't need another app to make this happen, y'. All. By the way, let me tell you that you need a business that's actually built to work without you standing over it, looking down on it. That's the difference between buying more tools and building real structure. And then fourth, and this one's about the long game, okay? Trust that a well served client becomes your quietest, most powerful engine. When you protect your, your energy. You show up, present, and deliver an experience that actually feels good. Those clients don't just, they don't, they don't just stay. They actually send people to you without you asking, without you grinding for every new lead. And, and that referral engine, the quiet one built on gen like genuine care, is what actually lets you step up and stop hustle. I hope y' all are getting this because you don't have to keep hustling for attention, which means the more you protect your energy and pour it into a real experience, the less you have to chase clients, which means even more room to rest. It compounds in the right direction or once. So there it is. Define what close means and make it safe with systems schedule and defend your rest like a client appointment the same way you do with clients. Let your structure carry the business while you're off and pour your protected energy into an experience so good that it markets, uh, itself. That's rest built into the structure, not leftover willpower, y'. All. And that's what makes it sustainable. Now let me bring this all the way home for you because this is the most freedom shaped conversation we've had to date. I want to say this as, as plainly as I possibly can because it's a whole heart of everything that I do. Freedom is not just a business that makes m money. Plenty of people have a business that makes money and are absolutely miserable. They're chained to their business. They're running on empty. They're unable to step away for a single day without everything falling over. That's not freedom. That's a good trap. It's a well paid trap. Freedom is a business that lets you breathe. A business you can step away from to be at the school event. A business that keeps its promise to people while you take an actual vacation. A business that doesn't collapse if you, if you get sick or maybe if you just need a slow week or you just want a quiet morning that belongs to you and nobody else. I like, I like water. So if I can go sit by some water, I'm good. Freedom is when the business serves your life instead of your life being the fuel that the business burns. Burns. Let that sink in. And here's the thing that I really need you to hear. Especially if you're tired right now, maybe tired in a bone deep way. I have been there. Building rest into your business is not you being lazy. You're not lazy. It's not you lacking ambition. It is you refusing to build a cage, even a golden one. It is you insisting that the whole point of this thing, the reason you started it, was to have more life, not less. So protecting your energy is you keeping faith with the person who started this business in the first place. The one who wanted to be free. Remember that person? And I'm gonna tell you, I almost missed this. I built the early years on fumes and told myself it was just the season. And I nearly designed a business that would have needed me depleted forever to keep running. What saved me was structure. The same thing I was building in them. Um, people's building and. And the m. People's job in corporate America. The same thing I was doing there is what I needed. That's what saved me. Building the systems that let the business run without me at the center. And then having the courage to actually step back and let it. That beach that I told you about, that a few weeks ago. The reason that trip mattered wasn't the sand. It wasn't the sun. It wasn't the virgin pina coladas. It wasn't the mufongo. It wasn't. Oh, all of that was great, Great. But it was proof that I'd finally built something that let me breathe. That let me be gone and be okay. That's freedom. And it's available to you from wherever you're starting, no matter how tired you are today. So here's my invitation. Stop waiting for permission to reset. Stop treating it like it's a reward at the finish line that keeps moving because y', all, that finish line keeps moving. Build it in now. Protect your energy. Protect it, protect it, protect it. Protect it like it is an asset. Let structure carry what doesn't need you. And build the kind of business that gives you your life back instead of consuming it. You didn't start this to run yourself into the ground. You started it to be free. So let's build the business that lets you breathe. Now, before I let you go, let me hold the door open because this table is warmer with more of you added. If something in your story would help the people who are listening, uh, a lesson. A hard won truth. A way you. You found your way through. I'd love to sit down with you on the show. I tell people all the time, you don't need a big platform. You need to. You need to be willing you don't have to figure it all out. You just need. Need something honest and useful and. And. And the willingness to share. So here's how to raise your hand, grab your phone, whatever you need. To start, I, uh, want you to go to podcast.warcry.com you'll see it up at the top. Podcast.warcry.com backslash listen. W A R, K R Y. W A, R Y. I'm sorry. W A r, k r y.compodcast.warcry.com backslash listen. From there, you're going to fill out the guest application. There's never ever a fee. Never a fee. I don't charge you, and you don't pay me. I don't pay you. How, uh, you say it? I don't pay you, and you don't pay me. All right, I need to get some. Get some questions from you. Find out if we're a good fit. We do have lots of applications coming in, so be patient with us. You're going to submit it, and if you're a good fit, you'll hear back from us. Might take us about a week or two. Could be longer. Be patient with us. So here's what I want you to carry with you this week. Rest is not the reward you earn after you've built the business. Rest is part of how you build a business worth having. Your m. Energy is your absolute 100% most valuable asset. So stop spinning it like it's endless, because it's not. Decide what closed actually means, and let your systems make that boundary safe. Schedule your rest and defend it like you defend the client's time. Right? Let structure carry the business while you breathe. And pour your protected, restored energy into work so good that it quietly brings the right people to you. Right? Because a business that only runs when you're in empty was never freedom. I need y' all to hear that and hear that well. Freedom is the business that lets you step away and stay whole, that lets you be present for your life, that serves you instead of consuming you. You didn't start this to build a cage, y', all, not even a beautiful one. You started it to be free. So this week, build a little breathing room in your business. On purpose. You're allowed. You're not falling behind. It's the whole point. Okay, so, uh, I hope you understand this. I hope you get this. I hope this makes sense. Sense to you. This has been. This has probably been one of the most realest conversations we've had in a while. So drop in the comments and, uh, let me know what you think. I'm Karina Calhoun. This has been. Go be great. And until next time, you all know what to do. I will see you on the flip side. Bye for now.