Ep 9 - Cause for Celebration

 Well, hello, everybody. We're down to our episode nine. And this is what I think is a really good topic today, which is cause for celebration. I think  us as a trio have gone very far with all of our sessions. And I want to introduce you again to our wonderful panel that we have on this podcast, Lizzie McCaulay.

Hello!  Sam Winchh. Well, hello there and Nikki Cali. And look, if you want to know who we are, you'll see all the details in the show notes. I just want to get on with this episode because I think it's a really cool one to access and acknowledge with respect to celebrating the wins, the challenges that we might go through when we're trying to build a package and an offer. 

I'm going to go straight to you, Lizzie, because you were the number one person and you've taught me this. From very beginning to be your own cheerleader,  share, share with us what this all means. Well, we, yeah, we've, we've covered it in, in some bits and bobs along the way through the episodes, but you know, if, if you love, if you love, love what you've brought together, then that love, love, love is infectious as well.

Right. You've put your heart and soul into it. Last, mirroring back onto the standard of quality and the care and the kindness. to yourself that you would give to others and put that into the work that you do. So celebrate, there's a lot of growth in producing something like this, whether it, whether it's a course, whether it's an ebook, whether it's a series of videos, like it takes time and care and attention and a little piece of ourselves to Goes with each thing we create, doesn't it?

You know, it's, it means something to us. So to complete that thing and send that piece of us out into the world is a super, super big deal and I really honestly do believe that that is a hundred percent cause for celebration,  it's something.  But I personally think I don't do very well, that I get so caught up in the busyness of life and business and entrepreneurship and whatever else.

There's always a next thing, and like, maybe that's me, right? There's always a new shiny thing, but there's always a next thing. And so often when I finish something, I just, I, I move on to the next thing. Like, cool, tick box, done, check off. I go, all right, now what's next? And I power on forward. But I think that I'm not great at pausing and going.

Wow. That was a big thing. And I've even like recently I finished this huge client project. It was a delivery that was spanned about a year and a half. It was like 36 huge accredited units. It was this massive, massive delivery. And I finally hit send on the last one and I messaged a friend and I was like,  Oh my God, I hit send on the last one.

She's like, cool. How are you celebrating? And I went, Oh I don't know, like I click send and I just move on to the next client project. She's like, no, you idiot. No, I needed someone to call me out. Right. And go, hang on, you did a thing like pause. Stop. You  be proud of yourself. You did a thing. And I, I know I'm not great at it, but I've seen it in my audience as well.

Right. We just power them forward. And we're not great at going, Whoa, I did that. How cool is that?  Yeah. You need those little wins, don't you? And it's just, and I, you know, something I'm learning. Along this path is, you know, I, I shouldn't rely on other people's appreciation of what I'm doing  to feel like I've made a win. 

And to celebrate, I think one thing I've learned is celebrate,  I'm laughing because this is like the most simplest thing, but I've, you know, taught, I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I've taught my daughter to, you know, and my son is going to be doing this as soon as he's old enough, but do your bit.

In the morning, because at least if you've had a crappy day, by the end of that day, you can celebrate that you've actually achieved that one thing. And I think it comes down to, you could be building massive courses, whatever it is, programs, but celebrate those wins that are along the way. Just like you, your learners have to celebrate a win that they've achieved a task or whatever.

You've got to do the same for yourself, how you celebrate that. I think the number one thing I share with my, you know, Anyone that I  help coach or whatever, even friends, family, it's just. Have a board up next to you or an image or a checklist of things that you want to do that will help you celebrate, like go for a massage or go for that long walk or Nick off for a weekend and with the girls, whatever it is like write that list and have your little bucket list of celebrations.

So when you do go through things and you know, you achieve things, tap yourself on the back and actually do them.  Do you think that comes partly into And any one individual's measure of success as well,  because it's different for everybody. If that, if the thing that you create gets you closer to the version of success that you are aspiring to, then, then surely that's a massive cause for celebration.

That's a massive win to say, Oh, do you know what I've got? I don't know, two hours extra with my family this week or two hours extra to read a book because I haven't read a book for a year and I really want to whatever like that. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And it's funny that I teach people to do this. Right. But I feel like.

My worst, like it's do as I say, not as I do, like I teach my, my clients to build celebration points into their courses, right? We celebrate well done. You got to the end of that module. Like you implemented your steps. Woo hoo. Like, we're going to move on to the next thing, but let's take a moment to say, well done Like it's something that I actively tell people it's good to build in and it's because our audience does need that little dopamine head of woohoo, I did that one.

There are some, there's course platforms around that build those sort of gamified celebrationary points in. And one of the platforms I know that shoots confetti across the screen, but you can, you can create celebrationary points where they click a button and confetti cannons fire, like fire across the screen.

Because celebration is cool. Right. It's like, we all like to bet that little pat on the back and go, Oh, well done you. You got this far good on you. So yeah, it's something that we natively build into just about everything we do, but I, I tend to forget it when it's for myself.  And you know, you, you brought up something, Lizzie, just, you know, just then with respect to our measure, our own measures of success and so forth. 

I'd love to know, you know, obviously you produce a lot of copy out there and it's not just for yourself, but for other people. What's your level of. Measurement.  That'd be hell, Nikki. What a question. For myself,  like in what, like, let's, okay, let's break it down. Do you mean what's my personal  measure of success that my business is, is doing what I wanted to, or like that a project is, has been successful?

What kind of success are you measuring? So when you, when you're. Whenever you're doing work, we do our work for a reason, right? We do what we do because we love it. And usually we're doing it for other people, but when you've completed a task, just like Sam did, right? She completed a task for someone else, but yet she's the one who completed it.

So she's got to own it. And that's where I'm going. This is where I'm angling because you have to own just because you might've done something for yourself. Yes. Celebrate that. But even when you do something for someone else,  you deserve to celebrate that as well. And that's what I'm pointing out. How do you celebrate?

Or very poorly as well, but you know what I do, like, it's such a minor thing that I, that is the one thing that is the measure of, of a good project for me is when I create something either for my, like, even for myself or for a client, or I encourage them to, and, and the feedback that comes from that piece of work is, I could hear you in my head as I read that. 

It doesn't matter who that's for. If it's my voice, my apologies. If it's, if it's my client and I've created it for them, but someone can hear their voice through my words, fricking fabulous. If, and the pinnacle for me is this is if I have taught someone to trust their own voice and then their audience's feedback is, man, I could really hear you when I read that. 

I crack the champagne. That's like the absolute height of, of wonderful for me. I don't know. I don't aim very high, but that like, that's so gratifying. And it sounds quite simple, but you know, it's not an easy thing to master. So no. Yeah. Does anyone else keep a.  Like a happiness, positive notes folder. So something I was taught early on was to keep a journal of success, which was to write down when good things happen, because when it's crap times and crappy days, or you've had a really rough client or whatever it might be, you can look back to this journal of success and go, Oh no, like this is just one bad day, right?

I've got all of this evidence that supports me in the fact that this client was happy and this one said nice things. And here's a screenshot of this testimonial over here. And like. Does it, it's worth celebrating that sometimes even just screenshotting the nice things someone said and plunking it somewhere so you can find it later is really helpful for those times when you forget about all the things that you've achieved.

Cause we're so deep in something else. You can look back and go, Oh, I did do things. Look at me, I'm not the worst human on earth. You know, that's pretty much it. Yeah. Well, look that admittedly. This is one of the many on the list of do as I say, not as I do things, because I tell that advice all the time to the people who are willing to listen is like, we're really good at being critical of ourselves and not quite so wonderful at  receiving the kindness or remembering the kindness on, as you say, on the bad days.

So it's definitely in my. wheelhouse of advice, but have I got one only for only old ones from previous social media things that I have done, but I really need to come back to it because it does, it makes such a difference, especially lately. Like I had, I had a really, really ordinary week, a couple of weeks back, just life.

And , I ended up with some of the nicest. Most meaningful feedback that, that from several different areas unprompted, and it totally, totally turned the entire week around. So you know, it, it matters and see if somebody took the time to say something nice to you, that's another reason to just stop and take a moment and go, do you know what?

Yeah. What I do matters is helping someone somewhere.  That's a really good point. How about you, Sam, obviously finishing off completing courses for other people and all the rest of it. What's your measurement?  Of success. Of success for yourself, yeah. Also, we've, we've learned that I'm notoriously bad at doing this, apparently.

But I do, I am a good to do list girl. I do love ticking something off or crossing something off. And sometimes even just on a daily basis. Have you ever written drink coffee on your to do list? Like Nikki's like the make the bed thing, right? If my first checkpoint is  drink coffee, check, I did a thing. No matter how bad the day goes from here.

I got one thing on my to do list done. I do have a habit of writing down lots of things on my list that are tiny little tasks so that I can get those quick wins. I'm like, look, I am. It might not feel like I'm making progress. Some of these tasks are huge, but if I break them down into tiny bite sized steps, I can see the progress I'm making rather than getting lost in the huge project.

So I am pretty good at making those tiny little checkpoints and make myself feel a bit better about things, but something on a personal level I've been doing for a little while now is I make a habit of going away on a solo retreat weekend once about every six months or so.  Taking myself away. It's my lifeline now.

It's, it's so helpful for just helping me ground myself and, and recognize like how much I've been doing and how much I've been carrying, but those, yeah, weekends away booked into my calendar. Cause we mentioned this in another one. If it's not booked in, it doesn't happen, but yeah, booking a time in like, cool.

I'm away that weekend for me, nothing else. Like for me, I'm going, and that's, that's been really helpful in sort of balancing everything and, and recognizing that, cool, I'm doing things like, look at me go. Beautiful.  I like that. I really like that. And, and I think a lot of us feel like, you know, when it comes to your living a lot, like you've got home, family, whatever it is, there's all these other elements to what you do every day.

Removing yourself solely as a human  is really, really hard to detach yourself and actually, you know, pat yourself on the back every now and then. But yeah, the reason I, like I'll, I think, you know,  cause for celebration, like you said, Lizzie, like there's that level, what, what, what's your measurement of success?

Like mine is, like I mentioned, doing my bed in the morning. That's,  I can do my bed.  But I know for me, if I can see a smile on someone's face after a conversation or whatever, I'm happy. It's like, you know, when you have a chat with a friend and you've helped someone solve their problem, or you've just been an ear  for them.

Like for me, that is my measurement. Personally, obviously I have a different success, you know, success measurement with my business or whatever it is, but I think, you know, we've got to be kind to ourselves as well when it comes for cause for celebration. And I'd love to ask, you know,  I think because we are the. 

Facilitators that like we provide the services and so forth for the people around us that are trying to achieve their own goals. Do you ever offer any advice to those around you on how they should celebrate? Obviously, yes, we're doing this here in this conversation, but is there any particular thing that you'd like to. 

Provide advice on,  on a way to celebrate.  I don't know. See, I think celebration's a super personal thing. Like I've got a friend who loves to like, her, her idea of celebration is a massage. She books herself in, she's like, tick, done my list. Now, time for a massage, which is awesome. Massages is just really aren't my jam.

So like. Not something I would ever have recommended. So I think it's like, what fills your cup?  When I'm talking to clients about celebrating, it's like, there's no point in me saying, you know,  whatever it might be, go away for a weekend. If you're the world's biggest extrovert and the idea of spending a weekend isolated by yourself is your worst nightmare.

It just doesn't work that way. But yeah, I think find, find the things that fill your cup. And Nikki, you made a really good recommendation before about making a list.  Sometimes it's really hard in the moment you get to the end of a huge thing. You're like, Oh, I should celebrate, but I don't know what.

And then you've got that decision fatigue of now deciding on what to celebrate and now working it all out. But if you've got a bucket list of celebrations, like, Oh, I could do this or do this or book him for a massage or whatever it might be that decision fatigue is taken away because you just look at your list and pick one as opposed to having to work out what you want to do right now.

So I loved that idea of yours of like, make a list. What's good for you? What fills your cup for celebration?  I suppose that helps with scale as well. Right? Because.  You know, maybe it's a small win and it needs a small celebration or maybe it's a small win and you've got time for a big celebration. It doesn't really matter but we can sort of pair scale with scale.

Scale of the  job done with scale of the ability to to acknowledge it.  You know, like our last episode, we were talking about execution mindset and so forth. And I think this relates very heavily with that as well. It's like that reward that you give yourself as well. And how you reward yourself is, you know, like you said, Sam, very personal.

And that list. That I have is based on when I achieve something. All right. And it's that part of execution. All right. I don't get that unless I do this.  That's my form.  That's the cause for celebration for me. As long as I get this done, then I can get, you know, you've created your grownup version of a star chart.

Yeah. 

You will get the lolly when you finish the page of writing, though. Well, I've got a friend who does that. She lines up like chocolates or lollies along the top of, if she's got a big pile of marking to do or something, she puts one at the top and then each time she finishes a marking, she can have a lolly like lined up along the top of the keyboard.

So hey, whatever floats your boat, right? That's habit stacking, right? Isn't that just total atomic habits kind of stuff? Yep. Yeah, finish one document, have one lolly. Finish one document, have one. I have no self control. I'd have eaten all the lollies on the first document, but good on him.  Well, I, you know, we're, we're going to be wrapping this up, but I think like. Like you said, Sam, it's a personal choice on what it is, however, it is that you celebrate. And like you said, Lizzie too, it's that certain measurement of success on how you're going, why you're going to celebrate  and when, when that's going to sort of trigger that celebration.

What is the  call of action that you would like to share for our audience to sort of take on after this episode,  after listening to this episode?  Homework.  Yeah.  Make the list.  Why not? Sit down, make the list of, of,  Even if you made it into columns, if you're a spreadsheet kind of  person and you can do like little wins and big wins and medium wins and have sort of answers for what you would like to do.

To acknowledge your progress I find if, if I end up with a pocket of time where I could do something pleasant, I spend the entire time going, well, I couldn't do this, or I could do that and could do this. And then the moment has passed and  life resumes. So have, have the least. I  think my piece of advice is take a breath.

Like it's so easy to push onto the next thing, but just force yourself to stop and take a breath and go.  I did it and especially it's hard if you've just launched a beta version, but you're already thinking about the changes you want to make for the next round. It's very easy to push onto those changes because you might not feel that the beta should be celebrated because it's not the final version, but it should be celebrated.

Like take a breath and go, cool. I put my beta version out and thought, how cool was that? Like, okay, like go me. So yeah, take a breath.  And I, and I'm going to take a.  Leaf of your advice there too, Sam, with respect to the small wins along the way. I want to share like on my list, I don't have like have a coffee.

I have eat lunch  and, you know, ticking that off by having my lunch. I actually gave myself time to feed myself, but I also stopped. So those little moments, you know, they might seem mundane to put on a list, but put them on there because they're also. Self worthy, helping you progress.  So those little things just that you can put on your list of things that you do for a day.

I know I'm not, I'm not a huge checklist person by any means, but I have reminders all over the place.  I add school drop off to my list because I did it and I feel like I deserve a tick for it. I know you feel like you're adulting. I'm an adult. I actually picked up this.  Too bad if you don't tick it off because 

that's what  I've had a ball today and I really hope you've enjoyed this episode on cause for celebration, refer to our show notes and please do leave a voicemail on how you know, you're progressing, how you celebrate your wins, even one thing that we probably didn't mention too much of, but also the challenges that you might come across.

  So on that note, thank you so much for listening. Lovely having you girls around. You too. See you ladies. Bye.