Energy Crue
Welcome to 'Energy Crüe', the podcast that dives deep into the heart of industry innovation, entrepreneurship, and personal growth. I'm your host, JP Warren, and each episode, we embark on a journey to uncover the passions and motivations that fuel industry leaders. We're not just talking business here; we're exploring the personal drives, the triumphs, and the challenges that shape today's pioneers. Alongside these inspiring conversations, I'll be sharing my own story - the battles with imposter syndrome, the pivotal mindset shifts, and the lessons learned throughout my entrepreneurial voyage. As a certified coach, my goal is to empower you, our listeners, to break free from the barriers holding you back. Join me as we navigate both the professional and personal landscapes, learning and growing together with 'Energy Crüe'
Energy Crue
Work-Life Balance: Do your HOME/WORK
Embarking on the entrepreneurial journey back in the last quarter of 2021, I stumbled upon an uncomfortable truth about the so-called "homework" balance. As I share in this heart-to-heart, the realization struck me that the fulcrum between professional success and nurturing family ties isn't just about financial provision; it's about our emotional presence and the memories we craft. Join us as we venture into the often turbulent waters of maintaining a dynamic equilibrium between building a business and being there for the moments that matter most with our loved ones. This episode isn't just a reflection, it's a call to action, urging us to reassess and recalibrate the scales of our daily lives.
This conversation is a candid exploration of the delicate dance between career ambitions and family life. We discuss setting boundaries, such as phone-free hours, and the importance of integrating family into our schedules with as much intentionality as our business meetings. Hear how creating shared experiences and building memories take precedence over amassing wealth, and how these strengthen the bonds that support us through the peaks and valleys of entrepreneurship. This episode is a reminder that while work demands our relentless attention, family moments are irreplaceable treasures—a testament to the pursuit of harmony over balance in the personal and professional realms.
by and welcome to a new Energy Crew podcast. I'm your host, jp Warren. I wanna thank everybody out there for tuning in to Energy Crew podcast, a show a podcast where it kind of doesn't have its own, doesn't know its own direction or personality. We've had energy leaders on talking about energy policy, talking about what got them started in their companies. We've had entrepreneurs come on discuss what drives them, the goals they've achieved, the visions that they dream about and that they achieve in their story. Behind that we have marketing gurus come on from midnight marketing to people that are just kind of out there doing their own girl marketing.
Speaker 1:We have a lot of great leaders on the show and lately we've been kind of diving into subjects that might help people out there, even if it's one person out there. These are either personal stories, personal tips, personal tricks that I have gone through, probably from hard lessons learned, and also from just from conversations I've had with people, just some, whether it's a themed conversation or whether it's just an observation. I'm noticing that we're kind of falling into, I think, one of these things whether it's February 2024 or are we back or have we kept any of the resolutions or the promises that we made to each other in the beginning. So anyway, it's a wide variety of subjects. I'm hoping it kind of can help elevate people's mindsets, change people's perceptions and help people kind of control what they can control and kind of have a better approach to themselves and how they take on their day. So I wanna thank you all for tuning in. I wanna thank Execfru, the executive development program that is designed with nine modules of holistic leadership approach that I designed as a certified coach. It sounds really important. It is just something that I believe that can kind of help elevate leaders and help with themselves and their leadership styles and how they again tackle their day and lead their team.
Speaker 1:So today, if you wanna learn anyway, if you wanna learn more about that, you go right to ConnectionCrewcom, which is this yeah, that's fine. If you're watching this on YouTube, all right. So today we're gonna be discussing the important topic that is something that we always I feel it's always brought up out. There is the work-life balance. It's not even work-life balance to me. I don't even know if I'm gonna define it that way, I'm just gonna call it. How about homework? Okay, I just thought about that on the spot. That works, let's call it homework. Are you doing your homework? Dang it. I feel like I should have thought about this before I went live, because that's a great title list Are you doing your homework? Okay, anyway.
Speaker 1:So the goal of this podcast and of this discussion today, this conversation today, is we always say I feel like a disagreement. At a lot of homes and I think a line that is said at every home whenever a spouse or a partner kind of starts, there's a disagreement or some heated attention started, it's like I'm doing this for you, I'm working, I'm doing this job for you, I'm putting these hours in for you. You think I wanna go here? I'm doing this for you, I'm doing this for the team. Well, I listen.
Speaker 1:There is some truth to that. There's obviously some truth to that and you know we're all working for our own personal goals, our own personal levels of content and satisfaction, hierarchy of needs, whatever it is, but a lot of it, I feel like the vast majority, would be to provide for ourselves and our loved ones and our families. You know some. Obviously some people view why they work very differently, whether it's freedom, whether it's they don't either on the boss, whether it's security. But at the end of the day, is providing for yourself and providing for your families. Yeah, there's truth in that 110%. There's truth in that.
Speaker 1:I think there is a certain valid point that I think needs to be acknowledged. Of course we're doing this for our families, like we'd be crazy not to be doing this for our families. However, it becomes that point of bullshit if we want to say that when it becomes it kind of we use that truth as kind of feeding into our ego to justify treating our family like they're not priority. And that doesn't mean treating them poorly or, you know, talking smack to them or anything like that. To me that's not putting them first, that's not making them feel like a priority when you are there with them. And again, this is a personal story for me from my entrepreneurial journey on the realities that I face and kind of what I saw and kind of the feedback that I got. That was pretty realistic, to kind of put me in my place, which is kind of, I guess, an inspiration to have this conversation today. So, again, it's having that truth and having that, I guess, understanding that yes, we are doing this for our family, but stopping it before we actually use that as an excuse to prioritize where our family is on our priority list, so think about that. All right.
Speaker 1:So my experience with this is you know, obviously you start a company in 2021, q4 2021, really is kind of one of those things is. I don't know if I was out of options or I know why, but you start a company in 2021 and you really, it is one of those things where I've never run a company before. You know, the past seven and a half years of my career, I was in sales, which was pretty much as a corporate sales person. You know it wasn't bad. I wasn't really going over financials, I wasn't really strategizing, I was just doing my job and I really enjoyed it. I think you know I'm very fortunate for the teams that I used to work with. You know, people over at PENERGY can't thank them enough, but you know this is one of those.
Speaker 1:You know, starting your own company, you do spend. You know you don't have an office. So what becomes your office? You're home and it's my home, is still my office, which I'm actually. One of my goals is to find a workspace outside of my home, because what happens is, you know, once you start working in your home at your own company, you start wearing every single hat. So you focus on marketing, accounting, hr policy, ideas, vision, strategy. You are the CEO, coo, down to the mail, clerks hats when you have your own company, and it should be that way. That way you learn everything about your company before you start delegating or hiring people on. So, you know, throughout.
Speaker 1:You know, probably, you know, I would say about two years. You know I was very head focused on work. I would really focus on work weekends, you know, and we didn't. You know, my daughter has, you know, two homes. When she was with us I would still kind of like use these. She was like oh well, she's, you know, playing the video game on her iPad. I'll just, I'll work now, I'll get on my computer. Well, what happens? She is done, I'm still on my computer because I started something. My weekends slowly became consumed by work. My weeks were all work. And then, you know, once I've get leave my office from working in my office there was no separation, there was no mental separation between home and office. So I would carry that work in me to the living room, to the kitchen when I was bringing it up, bringing it up, bringing it up.
Speaker 1:So the conversation started kind of started dwindling or started eroding with my wife and I where I noticed that I was only talking about work. You know it's, and if you're out there, it's all you have to do. It's your company. Well, if you're around someone that you care about, that you love, and all they do is they start talking about one subject nonstop 24, seven for two years straight kind of gets pretty old. So there's this little self realization. There's this needs to be a disc.
Speaker 1:I realized that there needs to be a disconnect from my home and where I work, so that I'm not bringing it so again. It's controlling the conversation with your spouse. It's re-engaging in those series of kind of interesting discussions that you share. And actually I got to a point where my wife and I and I hate admitting this, but I felt whether it was ego, whether it was like I'm doing this for my family I felt that my life is more important, so I would prioritize what I want to talk about. Then, once I was done, I would subconsciously or consciously kind of shut down and not kind of give her the attention, respect for time of day, and whether she knew that or not, I'm sure she did. Sometimes it's still laid that subconscious disconnect, all right, and so again. So it's being conscious about what you're going to your family discussing. Is it complaining about work? Is it bitching about? Is it talking about this, talking negatively about someone? Is it always about work? So that was one thing, you know. It got to a point where I didn't even realize this.
Speaker 1:You know, when I was growing up, you know my dad, you know obviously he was very successful as a company, you know did great, still working to this day. I wish he'd retired, but he was always working, he's always on his computer and he still is on his computer to this day. And that's the kind of hard wire enemy just works and you know that's. But that's not something you know. Look, if I had my daughter, you know full time, you know I wouldn't feel as bad if I was on my computer as much. However, my time with my daughter is half, so that means when she's here I cannot be behind my computer, I cannot be engaged into something else because I don't have the luxury of having the full year with her. So again, this is something I really didn't notice I was doing, but I started being on my computer a lot and I never knew I was. I was. I was turning into my dad until it was literally like probably like 18 months into starting my company.
Speaker 1:I would hear my daughter say you know, daddy's on his phone all the time or daddy's on his computer all the time hey, look at me. Or she draw a picture on me on my computer. You know, I saw that. At first I was like, oh, that's cute, you know daddy's working all the stuff. Then I started seeing that and I started realizing. You know, we used to listen to cat. You know, the cat Steven saw cats in the cradle and kind of like I would explain hey, that's why we're going to zoo together, that's why, that is why I'm, that's why I'm taking work off for you. Like, you're gonna grow up and you know I started not practicing what I preached.
Speaker 1:I noticed that I was being consumed by work. I was focusing on work, even if I was around my family. Hey, I'm with my daughter. She's on the couch, you know, next to me. But I got my computer with me or I got my phone in my hand and I think that's one of the easiest telltale signs to make someone not feel that you're there to be around them. So you know, you start hearing that, then you start realizing like, oh my gosh, well, I am turning into my father. Well, again, not a bad thing. However, I wanted to be, I guess, more close to my daughter, and so I, you know it's a conscious effort to okay, well, let's put my phone up, let's put my phone up during the weekends of my family's year, or let's put it out of the room. And not only that, let's put on, do not disturb. And I think putting your.
Speaker 1:I think it's so interesting when it comes to phones in this day and age, like we have this belief that, just cause we have a cell phone, you have to pick it up whenever it rings, or you have to respond or you have to check it. I think that's bullshit. I think we are not slaves to our phones. I don't think we're slave to our phones. I don't think that you owe anyone an immediate pickup, especially if you're engaged in the conversation, especially if you're spending time with your families and your loved ones.
Speaker 1:I do think that it's okay to put your phone on, do not disturb, and it's okay to get back to people when you want to get back to people, I'm fine with that. So I think I'll always get messed with when I have my phone on do not disturb, which is 24, seven and oh, can never get old. They don't say no, it's like oh, your phone's always on, do not disturb, always on, do not disturb. Well, of course it is. I'm not being rude. But the same time is, I know myself, I know that phone is a source of, it can be a source of constant anxiety, especially when it's always going off. So I'm choosing to set a boundaries for myself and I think that's an easy trick for you too, to set boundaries.
Speaker 1:It's okay to have your phone on do not disturb and if you're uncomfortable with that, try it out for a block of time. Or maybe you check it for a block of time every hour, then slowly kind of separate those times where you check your phone. It's a lot more liberating, it's a lot. You're more engaged with your family, you're hanging out with them, you're not on your phone, you're not checking your phone, you're putting them in the center of your attention, not on the side of your attention. When you're always looking at your phone, and it's again, it's okay not to be a slave of your phone. All right, let's see what else is going on. So yeah.
Speaker 1:So I remember it kind of got to a point too where it's like I realized I had a problem when I was so I think it was addicted to work as an entrepreneur. I have this feeling again. It goes back to my posture syndrome where it's like if I'm not working, it's gonna fail, if I'm not dialed in with something it's gonna fail, and I don't care what it is, but it usually takes in the form of content or emails or something like that. So I would always find myself spending time on figuring out a way to create another email for direction or to create another piece of content for this. So I remember it was one time my daughter was about to go to her other home for like 10 days, for an extended period of time I think it was like before spring break or something like that and she was leaving at two or something like that two in the afternoon. Well, I get up, she gets up, we have breakfast and all that stuff, but I get on my computer immediately and I spent my entire morning until about 12, 30 or one o'clock, stressed out, building some content that I actually never used and I knew I would never use it.
Speaker 1:Subconscious, I just was building it, just to build it, and my wife sitting there. She's like think about this. Like you were literally not spending the last six hours with your daughter in the next 10 days because you're voting. Like that was such a wake up call to me because I was like, well, I'm doing this for you, I'm trying to do this. I'm like time out, hold yourself accountable, jp. It's like no, you're not.
Speaker 1:Well, yes, you are doing it for, but at the same time, it's like you can do both. It's not mutually exclusive words. Like I can be a I have to be a successful business owner and be a detached dad. You can be mutually inclusive. It doesn't have to be separated. And that was kind of a shift that I had to do internally was to realize I could be successful in my companies. But I can also be doing the work at the house.
Speaker 1:And again, that is going to putting in the work, doing your homework. And what does doing the homework look like for you in your home? Even if I'm gonna challenge people out there, even if you think things are fine and dandy at the house, homes can always use a little more TLC, all right, they can always use a little more attention. Your homework can always be a little bit more, I think, as we go on, we think that our home's the place which is kind of come in, plop down and not really have to show any attention or affection or prioritize our family, especially if work's going on, because they're gonna be there, but you're home, they're always gonna be there, but time passes, relationships take time to build, and you don't build. Once this company sells, then I'm gonna spend time with my daughter, then I'm gonna really connect with my wife.
Speaker 1:Once I do this, what if that's 10 years? What if that's 15 years? Those relationships that you had the potential to have time to build? You're gonna pick your head up, or I'm gonna pick my head up. My daughter's gonna be 20, we're not gonna have a relationship. And I'm gonna wonder why, man, I did all this for you. Why don't we have a relationship? Because it takes time, because I did not prioritize her when she was younger.
Speaker 1:So I challenge you out there to start doing your homework, start putting boundaries up. A simple boundary is realizing that you are not a slave to your family. Oh, I gotta get it. I gotta get it just in case. Just in case. Do you really, though, do you really? And if you and it play the what if game, what if I don't pick up my phone from 11 till three today? What if I just put my phone away and focus on my family or focus on my home?
Speaker 1:So, again, putting boundaries up, and that boundary to me is putting my phone on, doing not disturb and being okay with it. Accept it all, right. What else do I have down here? Provide same level, yeah. So hey, look, if you are that hard of a worker or you are that consumed with work and really getting the job done, don't you wanna put just the same amount of effort in the work? That matters your family At the end of the day? We always say work's always gonna be there, your family won't, and that's just. It just hits home because it's so true.
Speaker 1:So, again, organize your family, organize the time with your family. If your schedule's chaotic and you live by your schedule, why don't you block out some time for your family? Block out a date? Or look, this is for you if you have family. Again, if you don't have family, replace that with yourself. You gotta take care of yourself and kind of be connected to yourself. So, again, go back to families. Plan your dates, plan activities. Again, it doesn't have to cost cash, it can be experiences. Experiences matter. Cash doesn't. At the end of the day, you don't remember the present you got for Christmas when you were eight years old. You remember the experience you had with your family, the experience you had with your dad, your mom, whatever. So, again, take time, plan your dates. My wife had a great idea not that long ago. She said okay, well, every day you gotta plan three things your health, personal, professional. I was like that's a great call. So put a little priority into planning, whether it's a date, family time excursion or just something out of the house together where you can bond, even if it's as silly as going on the family walk.
Speaker 1:All right, get creative with kids. You know, as an adult, you know you take them to the park. You don't want to play, you're going to watch them play, as you know you're going to be an important observer of them, using their imagination, I think. Take part in that. If they want to have a movie night, make it creative. Build your whole, build your whole evening around that theme. You know, is it ratatouille? Cook together, then have like a French meal or whatever that is. Anyway, whatever it is, think creative, play with the kids, use your imagination with your kids. You'll find it more fun and so will they, and that's just leads to better bonding.
Speaker 1:Involve you One thing that I like doing I involve my family as much as I can in my work. You know I try to bring my daughter in to understand kind of the podcast, or I try to help with the marketing my wife. Bring her in with exec for getting her sir. But anyway, just bring them in, involve them a little bit to show them what you do. That way it's not just work taking them away, but maybe they can peer inside to see the passion, what you're, what you're pursuing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, reconnect, I think, showing your family some priority and and just realizing one day we are going to be looking up and the relationships that we're going to, that we're doing this for it's going to be. It might be too late. So again, prioritize your family. Do your homework, even if that's blocking one thing out a day, one thing at one big thing a week or something like that. Your family's your family, or your personnel, or your time is your time. So make it your time, make it your family's time.
Speaker 1:So thank you all for tuning in to Energy Crew Podcast. Know this a little bit off the subject, but I do know that having a healthy work life balance as a business owner at the end of the day, this is why we're doing it and if, if it's not a happy house, it's going to be a very difficult go to achievement. So what is that saying? Achievement without fulfillment is futile. So again, hope everyone has a great day out there. Put your energy in the right place and be kind and and prioritize your family and prioritize yourself. All right, put that phone away unless you're listening to Energy Crew Podcast, the number one podcast Later y'all.