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Genecia Alluora: This episode is brought to you by ALLUORA, a Singapore brand trademark, the best seller in health and beauty in TikTok, Singapore. Number one skin brightening and dark spot serum. Get 10 % discount on your first purchase. And free shipping worldwide. Shop online at Alluora.com.

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Genecia Alluora:Hi, I'm Genecia Alluora, founder of Soul Rich Woman, the number one leading female entrepreneur network in Southeast Asia, supporting 1 million women to own and love the F word. Fabulous, freedom, financial independence, and happy family. Alone, you are strong. Together, we are unstoppable. So go to soulrichwoman.com. Grab your free five day online program, Money and Me, how to get anything you desire. Welcome to my show.

[00:00:50]
Genecia Alluora: Hi, and welcome to another episode of Soul Why, secrets of the Soul Rich Woman blueprint. I'm honored to spend this time with you, no matter where you're listening, whether it's on your way to work or you're sitting in your office working on your business dreams, or even if you are driving around in the car with your kids, sleeping at the back of the backseat, I have been there many times. So I love seeing your pictures and videos of where you're listening to my podcast. Send those things to me. I love seeing it and I love hearing from you and your AHAs.

[00:01:29]
Genecia Alluora: Today's topic, I want to talk about nine most common self care mistakes entrepreneurs make and how to avoid them. Hey, gorgeous, I've got a confession to make. I sometimes just drink milk for lunch, don't drink enough water, and I've procrastinated very often and frequently about leaving the house. I started my business to give myself more flexibility and abundance. But I'm the first to admit that I let my self care go down the rabbit hole all the time. If you are in the same position today, I want to inspire you to change a few habits. Together, we can make a commitment to create an amazing, soul rich woman life in all areas. I'm up for it if you are. So let me ask you a question. How far do you go to get that shit done in your business?

[00:02:27]
Genecia Alluora: As an entrepreneur, you've probably done some pretty insane things in the name of getting the job done. Whatever that you did probably make complete sense in the moment. After all, you did it to build your business, to meet a deadline, or to avoid letting someone else down, right? Now, Sir Richard Brenson once said, entrepreneurs work 100 hours a week so they don't have to work 40 hours for someone else. Yes, I agree. However, we can't live like that forever. It's just not sustainable. So look, there's nothing wrong with a little side hustle or hustle when you need it. But that kind of logic is exactly why you find yourself doing bizarre things like eating food or dinner or lunch over the sink or in the car as you rush from one client appointment to the next. Pulling all nighters and sacrificing sleep, then only getting dressed up if you have a webinar.

[00:03:33]
Genecia Alluora: And even then, it's probably business dress on top and PJs on the bottom. Or going to conferences around the world where all you do when you arrive is attend a conference in a generic hotel and then fly home. You know what? I've done all these things at least once, if not twice or many more times in my business. Hey, Soul Rich Woman, this is not cool, okay? To treat ourselves like that and not the cool to treat yourself like that. Self care isn't just about getting manicure and facials, or even getting your hair colored, or hair done, or even just getting your Botox or your fillers. It's about giving yourself the time and space to live your life as a well rounded person. It's about treating yourself the way you treat a best friend, your best friend. Now, entrepreneurship makes it way too easy to ignore self care. If most of us are honest, we'll admit that we weren't super hot at self care even before we started our businesses.

[00:04:47]
Genecia Alluora: Let's face it, our culture and society just doesn't encourage us as women to take care of ourselves. I mean, that's another thing. But look at me, for example, I'm now working, running TikTok live streaming, and I have to do the live stream every single day, sometimes up to 16 hours a day. And this is not sustainable, but it's a necessary evil because when we are just starting out on TikTok live, especially now in Southeast Asia, where TikTok is picking up, and in Singapore, where social commerce, specifically in social commerce, is on the rise, this means that if you stream, you do a live streaming, shorter hours, you may lose out. So streaming longer hours for the time being, as the current moment, a strategy that is still sustainable. However, it's not sustainable in the long run. Just listen to my voice. I have lost my voice and I'm speaking with a very respy voice. Even now, as you're listening to my podcast, you can hear how my voice has changed over the last couple of months.

[00:06:04]
Genecia Alluora: So entrepreneurship makes it way too easy to ignore self care. See, I'm one very good example. Even when I'm starting out another aspect of my business, which is building the skincare business. So for you, at least as an employee, although you get natural inbuild boundaries between work and time and not work time, there are often a lot of other things or other, maybe not a lot of other advantages to working for someone else, but at least that your boss would notice if you didn't shower for a few days at a time. Once you start working for yourself, though, no one else is responsible for your boundaries. That makes it so much harder to keep yourself from working 24/7 because there's just so much to do. And it often seems natural to prioritize your business now and figure that you look after yourself after once you become successful.

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Genecia Alluora: But trust me, when I say that, I struggle with this stuff too. Even though I don't have to work as hard now as when I first started my business. And I accept that because I found myself growing another aspect of my business outside of Soul Rich Woman, which is a product based business, and that's why I'm working extremely hard on it, right now. So this topic came about because of me going through this shit right now. So self care is really a mindset problem rather than a logistical one. Nine most common self care mistakes that entrepreneurs like you and I make. Now, if you watch TV ads or ads on your YouTube, you could be forgiven for thinking that self care is about which brand of shampoo or air freshener you buy. The truth is that self care is about looking after yourself at a deep level in a number of areas. There are some fundamental self care mistakes I regularly see business owners making as well as a soul rich woman.

[00:08:17]
Genecia Alluora: Physical. Number one, skipping meals, eating way too much junk food, or constantly hitting the caffeine to get you through the day. Number two, going short on sleep, working late into the night if you are morning person, or getting up way too early for clients if you are night owl. Number three, ignoring your body's need to pee because you just need five more minutes to finish this job. Emotional. Number one, discounting your inner alarm bells and taking on clients that you really don't want to work with. Number two, regularly standing up your friends or family to meet a business deadline. Number three, giving up your hobbies and other non work interest because you just don't have time. Hey, I love my business as much as you do, but I think we both can agree that the business shouldn't just be our only hobbies. Spiritual. Number one, neglecting your meditation, journaling, or other spiritual practice. Number two, forgetting to take time out to connect with whatever form of spirit or source that takes for you. Number three, feeling as though you need to do everything yourself and refusing to allow the universe to help.

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Genecia Alluora: Sounds familiar? So the take away is you are your business. Now, here's the fundamental truth, gorgeous. You are a soul rich woman, and there's only one resource that your business truly can't do without, and that's you. If almost anything else in your business breaks down, you can find a way forward. I mean, I'm sure there's a way. There's a will, there's a way. It might be a pain in the butt, but you can do it. If you drive yourself to the point of fatigue or just to the point that you can't do your best work, it's a lot harder to bounce back. And this is at the edges of burnout. So just be aware, balancing is important, and yet burnout is like something that's going to jump at you if you keep focusing on the wrong things. I've met many entrepreneurs who have had to abandon their life's work because the universe practically forced them to rest with a major health problem or an accident. And I don't want that to happen to you. That is why deferring your self care until you become successful is the quickest way I know to burn out.

[00:11:04]
Genecia Alluora: And the paradox is that it actually stops you from being successful. Much like refusing to pay yourself until you're successful, it's pretty much a similar concept. In fact, you might even be able to combine self care and business together. Consider that a suggestion. For example, I take quarterly business retreats with my girlfriends. We drive for an hour to a spa talking business about the whole way. And then we have massages separately with our minis and paddies together and end the retreat with a nice lunch. Or for me, sometimes I also take in between spontaneous runouts. Like I go to the bird park in Singapore, I go to the zoo, I go to Universal Studios Singapore. I basically do stuff out of randomness in between breaks where it's not scheduled. It's something that allow myself to run free and allow myself to rest in between without just trying to put myself on the bed and say, No, you just need to lie down and need to sleep so that you can prepare for your next live streaming, your next Zoom webinar, your next coaching. No, I give and I give myself permission to do crazy stuff in between, even no matter how my partners view me or how people see me because my sanity is important to run the business.

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Genecia Alluora: So what does this mean for your money mindset? Well, one of my mentors says, How you do money is how you do everything. I pretty much found the reverse to be true. How you do self care will bring up stuff around your money mindset and your beliefs. Are you worthy and deserving of self care? Will the money stop if you take some time out of self care? If you are resisting investing money on self care, what else in your business are you resisting spending money, these much needed money? Is your self care routine economy or is it going upgrading to business class or are you really living a little bit more luxuriously? Where can you make this step by step upgrade today? Is your lack of boundaries and systems in your business making self care more difficult? Finish this sentence right now for me. Come on, let's play along.

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Genecia Alluora: When I take care of myself first, my business will... When I take care of myself first, my business will... And this is the type of reflection and exploration we do in the Soul Rich Woman boot camp program and community. If you want my support to work on yourself, to work on your relationship with money and the beliefs. And habits you have around spending and receiving money, and message me, come, come, look for me on TikTok, Instagram @geneciaalluora. Well, if you have Facebook, look for me as well. Now, what self care strategies could you start using today? There are a few practical ideas for you to try out. Five, ready? Number one. Implement no working days. For example, I will take Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays out of my coaching calendar so I can finish up my administrative work, catching up with my podcast, do batching for my videos on TikTok, and have some space for creativity. This allow me to get some breaks to have some space also for myself.

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Genecia Alluora: So my coaching days are Mondays and Fridays, and then in between, I'm doing all the other stuff. So you can implement no working days. Okay? So you can actually make sure that you do this as well. Oh, and another example of no working days could be I take Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursdays, and then I schedule, as I've mentioned, play dates in between the hours so that I'm not constantly needed to be on screen all the time, like on video, and I'm not necessarily needed. Okay, and that can be done. Or your non working days could be like a church day or just a sleep in day. So get something that's something feasible for you in your own culture, in your own lifestyle. Number two, get clear on your working hours. Oh. My God. This is really a big one for me. I used to wake up really early in the morning to do coaching. Like 5 AM, I will wake up to do coaching, and my last coaching client will be around 11 PM, Singapore time, because I get international clients as well, like from the US, from Canada, from South Africa. I do a lot of coaching internationally, in case you didn't know, because our podcast is being listened to in 150 countries. So yes, I do international coaching.

[00:16:38]
Genecia Alluora: But this wasn't really good for me or them because I wasn't usually at my best peak state. So it's okay to say no if an arrangement doesn't work for you. Plus, if you sleep or you work late at your computer, you can have a knockoff effect on your sleep. I don't tend to sleep as well when the last thing I do is on my computer. I tend to get my mind with the computer and I tend to go into this round and round circle and it took me longer to fall asleep. So usually what I do is just get clear, clock out and stay off. Number three, implement boundaries with your clients. Tell them when they can reasonably expect a response from you and win them off instant gratification. So you can use work tools like Skype, Asana, is a great tool, Asana, a great project management tool that I personally use with my clients and my teams. Perfect. Number four, invest in some help. Hire your first assistant and actually get them to do things for you. Start whatever task that stress you out the most and give yourself the permission to do the work that feels good.

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Genecia Alluora: Okay, lastly, upgrade your soul rich woman. This is a bonus tip for you. Surround yourself with women who are kind to themselves and who will inspire you to treat yourself like the soul rich woman. My dear, this is your time and you are ready for the next step. Okay, I would love to hear from you, really. Write to me. Send me an email, hello@soulrichwoman.com. Write to me, what is a recent self care practice that has helped your business grow? Yes, so I look forward to hearing from you, my dear.

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Genecia Alluora: Hey gorgeous. I can help you to build your dreams. Now you can work with me in my Money Mindset coaching program and mastermind community, Soul Rich Woman. The more you surround yourself with inspiring, successful and supportive people, the more you'll feel safe to dream. Let's clear all the old stories, beliefs and sabotages that are stopping you, holding you back and making you go round and round in circles and not allowing you to create your soul rich life. Fabulous freedom, financial independence and a happy family. It's fun and practical that is soulrichwoman.com. Or simply email us at hello@soulrichwoman.com. So come and join us.