and life you love.

I'm Marie, this is Greg Patterson.

Hello.

And, if you didn't know, Greg's the one who does this hair and we happen to be really

good friends.

And when we do call-in shows like this, we like to hang out.

It's a good time.

It's a good time.

So, let's do this.

Hello.

Hi, is this Betsie?

Yes, it is.

Hey, it's Marie Forleo and you are on our live call-in show.

How you doing, woman?

Get out.

Yeah.

I don't think I could be better right now.

You're my hero, so.

Oh great, well I wanted to tell you, you're here with myself, all of Team Forleo and Greg

Patterson is right here next to me.

So, tell us your question and we will do our best to help you out.

Alright, I'm up, okay.

So, I am a self-employed artist.

My medium is oil paints.

And, I have a 3-1/2 year old.

Her name's Olive, and I have a husband who has his own business, which is really taking

off.

He's about two years in so he works a lot.

And, we have a dog, a cat, a house, a yard, all the things.

Yes.

We live in Boise, Idaho.

So, life's busy.

I create my paintings for juried fine art fairs, so I have to travel to those.

I can only do a couple, two or three a summer, given my husband's schedule.

So, anyway, my line of work takes me...

It keeps me in the studio painting for those shows.

I also do paintings on commission and then I have a line of my own art greeting cards.

And, I know there's potential to grow there.

I have some wholesale accounts locally.

It's just a lot to balance, right?

Right.

So, I find it really difficult to prioritize my many various life commitments and grow

my art business with balance and with grace.

I still want to be a good mom and be available to her.

So, anyway, I'm pretty hooked into the social media world, and I noticed that people like

the hashtag #hustle.

I've even used it.

I frequently see entrepreneurs talking about bootstrapping and neglecting sleep succeed.

I don't...

I do not want to suffer to succeed and it defies my spiritual life.

Yes.

And, I can't really afford to neglect sleep right now and still be a present, compassionate

mom to my daughter, who at three needs a lot of energy.

She can suck the energy out of a room really fast, in a good way.

So, let me get to my point.

I'm really looking for a new outlook on success or maybe how to redefine it at this point

in my life and my career.

So, my question is, what are some tips for structuring my life to achieve success with

grace and do you have some role models or a role model I can relate to?

That's it.

Yes, okay, so I love this question, Betsie.

I think a lot of people can relate to it.

First thing and I know you've already mentioned it, but I don't know if you've clearly defined

it or articulated it for yourself.

The first thing you need to do is define what success looks like for you at this particular

stage in your life.[a] You were talking about the fact that your daughter, Olive, is three.

That there's a couple of different components to your business.

You have the house, you have the pets and you have a husband with a fast-growing business

himself.

So, my suggestion, first and foremost, is to take some time, carve out an hour or two.

If you can get yourself out of the house, someplace in a different environment where

you can just sit and be by yourself and really write down, for you, what does success mean.

I feel like it's a really nebulous term and most of the time we've adopted definitions

either from our family, from society or older versions of ourselves that may not be true

to the person that we are today.

So, that's step number one.

What does success mean to you?

And, that might look like spending a certain amount of time with your daughter every day.

Making sure that you're there with her either when she wakes up or when she goes to bed.

But, I would encourage you to make the specifics of what success looks like and feels like

as concrete as possible.

None of us are ever going to be perfect as that, but I think that's going to give you

a North Star of your own to follow.

And, once you have that it's going to inform the rest of your choices.

I know you mentioned that you spend some time on social media and you've seen the hashtag

Hustle, right?

I know.

Where it's like, work your face off 24/7 and then basically you're dead, which by the way,

I do not prescribe to that ideal either.

Thank you.

Most people I know spend actually way too much time on social media.

These things ... You can't see me right now, but I'm holding up my iPhone.

They're designed to be addictive.

And, social media sites, they are run by people who's entire job it is to keep designing and

redesigning that app to get you addicted to it so you spend more and more time on their

app.

So, it's their whole job to steal more and more of your attention and you have to set

clear boundaries so you're not in there that often.

That's the other place where I feel like, if people recognized time they actually spent

on their phones or in social media they would throw up.

I did a little test with myself.

I think it was last year where I downloaded an app that would calculate the amount of

time that I spent on my phone and I am nowhere near as bad as some folks that I know, and

it was disgusting to me.

So, that's the second thing I would tell you.[b]

The third thing I would tell you is that once you have your definition of success, and you've

curbed your social media or your iPhone habit, the next thing that you need to focus on is

really being clear on your top priorities[c].

At this stage in your life, and I don't want to put words in your mouth, but it might be

true for you, being a mother might be the number one priority.

Or, perhaps being a wife may be the number one priority and maybe the business comes

third.

And, again, I'm not telling you that you need to tell us right now, but I think it's important

for each of us to define what is the most important thing in our life, no matter what.

What comes second, what comes third and what comes fourth.

Because, when push comes to shove, when people get sick, when things happen that you don't

expect you need to come back to your priorities and align how you're spending your time with

what you say in your heart is really most important.

And, then finally I'll just tell you this, something I like to say to myself a lot.

When you know what's important it's a lot easier to ignore what's not.

[d]So, that means getting practiced at selective ignorance.

Shutting off the TV.

Not opting into family drama.

Not caring about what's going on on social media sites.

Allowing yourself to really remove a lot of the incoming input and information so that

you can focus on only what's most important to you and not feel guilty that you're missing

out on other things.

Sure, that makes sense.

Yeah, does any of this resonate for you?

Yeah, yes it does.

Maybe I'll take a hard look at my social media intake, but I'm pretty good on that front.

Good, that's great to hear.

I post on Instagram and it automatically pushes to Facebook and I don't even log into Facebook.

Good for you.

So, and then I'm out.

I mean, I've got it.

I think the big one for me is re-prioritizing or really taking a hard look at even my own

business.

Within the hours I'm working in the studio I'm pretty proficient.

Yes.

But, I get stuck in that time warp where I go, "Oh, what do I work on next?

Do I work on the wholesale accounts?

Do I paint today?"

And, I know I'm losing time there.

Yes.

And, so I think if I had my roadmap, my North Star, like you mentioned, I don't have to

worry about...

There's no question.

It's like, "Oh, here's my top priority, work on that, go."

You just mentioned something so important and that is a place where many of us can lose

a lot of time, because if we don't know what the highest value activity is, of what we

really should be focused on, then we are stuck in that gray zone going like, "Oh, the wholesale.

Oh, the this part or that part."

And, so just like for you-

Sometimes I literally turn in a circle.

Yes, yes, no, this is excellent.

So just like defining success for what your life is, right?

Having that definition clear for you.

You definitely need to do that for your business as well.

What does success really look like and feel like?[e] This is something, I don't know...

Have you done B-School yet?

No, I-

No, don't, no, no, no guilty.

I listened to it and read every one of her emails.

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

No, that question was not about guilt.

That was just about curiosity, because I was going to point you to resources in there.

But, at some point in the future.

Yeah, I'd love to do it.

Yeah, if it looks good to you, definitely sign up, because one of the gifts that that

program brings to all the participants is helping them really prioritize what success

not only looks like in the business, but how the numbers line up.

So, at some point in the future, if it resonates for you, come take it and that'll help you

create that roadmap for your business.

It does, you're on my list.

Awesome, thank you so much for playing today and keep us posted on how it's all going.

Will do, Marie.

Thank you so much.

If you don't hear it enough, you're amazing and you're doing wonderful things for my generation

and anyone who listens to you.

Thank you, we love you, thank you.

Thank you for being the change we want to see in the world.

Yay, bye darling.

Thank you so much.

Okay, take care.

Bye.

Bye.

Hello, this is Marcy.

Hi, Marcy, it's Marie Forleo.

How are you?

Yes, hi Marie.

I'm wonderful, how are you?

I'm so good.

I am here and you are here on the MarieTV Live call-in show.

What's your question and how can we help you today?

Oh my goodness.

Okay, so my question for you is, I'm a portrait photographer and I'm in year four of my business.

And, I took B-School early on and so I felt like that really propelled me forward.

And now my business is going off.

It is blossoming and I have been scaling up.

And I have an amazing client base and I just opened a photo studio this year, which has

been a dream of mine since I started.

Uh-huh.

So, my question is, I have been able to do all this while also taking eight weeks off

a year to travel and that's really one of my reasons for being an entrepreneur.

But, how do you or maybe others that you've coached manage your workload while also taking

time off to travel?

I don't have an assistant.

It's just little old me, so I know I need an assistant.

And, then if you have any other ideas, I'd love to maintain a flourishing business and

also an adventurous personal life.

Yes, and just can I just say, Marcy, congratulations on your growth.

We're giving you little confetti bombs right now.

It is so awesome.

Thank you.

Yes.

Yeah, you're welcome.

I also want to congratulate you for this too, because so many people start businesses and

they don't pay attention to their personal life, or their other dreams.

And the fact that you've carved off taking eight weeks off a year to travel and that's