the bossbabe podcast - 16. How to Push Through Fear, Avoid Shiny Object Syndrome and The Correlation Between Burnout and Profitability with Dr. San Ludhra

Episode Date: June 12, 2019

In this week’s episode, co-founder Danielle Canty is connecting with multi 7-figure business owner and investor, high performance executive leadership trainer and award winning mentor, Dr. San Ludhra. During this interview, they dive deep into cultivating a company culture for success, delegation, burnout and shiny object syndrome. Dr. San Ludhra shares her own journey in becoming a phenomenal businesswoman, how to push through fear with sheer determination and make a tangible difference to people’s lives. They discuss the importance of mentors, holding your values and operating a lean business model. Together they are also touch on the correlation between burnout and profitability, the relationship between health and performance and the detrimental effect that shiny object syndrome can have on your business. Join our free Instagram growth training where we'll show show you how to grow your audience with ideal, paying followers in just 30 days. www.bossbabe.com/ig-growth  This episode is sponsored by the Insta Growth Accelerator. A 12 week accelerator designed to show you how to grow and monetize your Instagram account. www.instagrowthaccelerator.com 

Just start. Stop striving for perfection. Drop the fear of judgment because you're going to be judged anyway. These three things I would say are so important. Just do it. Do it afraid. Yeah, just do it afraid, but yeah, just do it. One thing I can say for sure, now looking back, definitely I will always, always invest looking at the entrepreneur. Welcome to the Boss Babe podcast, a place where we share with you the real behind the scenes of building successful businesses, achieving peak performance, and learning how to balance it all. I'm Danielle, co-CEO of Boss Babe and your host for this week's episode. I am so excited about this conversation you're going to hear next because I am joined by an absolutely phenomenal businesswoman. Dr. San Ledger is not only a medical doctor but she is also a multi-seven figure business owner. She is an investor, She's an award-winning international entrepreneur and just all-round boss babe. The takeaways from this episode are absolutely epic. Honestly,

if you are an ambitious woman wanting to make a change in your life, this will be such an amazing episode for you to listen to because we chat everything from burnout, overwhelm, shiny object syndrome, and how best to delegate to should you take investment and growing a company and the importance of cultivating the right culture in your business. I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know Sam because sometimes you just meet people in your life that you just really connect with. And for me, Sam is one of those people. She is intelligent and wildly successful, but also super down to earth and so generous with the way she shares her knowledge and experiences that she has learned along the way. So I know you're going to have so many takeaways.

In the episode, Sam talks releasing the fear of judgment and just going for it, which is why I've picked this Boss Babe quote to represent the episode. A dream is a wish your heart makes, but success is the result of sheer determination. Because my personal takeaway is that if you do want to make things happen and to achieve certain things in your life, you have to retain your focus and avoid shiny objects and push through that fear, like push that fear aside. It's so important to get to where you want to. And speaking of pushing through fear and pushing it aside, by the time you've finished this episode, if you've been on the fence about joining us on the Insta Growth Accelerator and you've let your fears stand in your way so far, I promise you'll be looking at things differently after listening. So if you are ready to take

action and it's appropriate for your business to grow and monetize your Instagram account, then come and find out more by finding us at instagrowthaccelerator.com and learn how to generate consistency in your brand and your content so that customers will engage with it. Learn how to cultivate those warm needs and excited clients and those brand evangelists who share your mission on your behalf and also learn how to attract new followers in the first place that actually wanting to buy from you. We have created a 12 module program with step-by-step video tutorials, workbooks, insights and the behind the scenes of how we have built our bossbabe.inc account organically. We are giving you the exact strategy that we have used to grow

to 1.3 million followers. So if you are ready to invest and push through that fear, take a look at instagrowthaccelerator.com or if you have any more questions, just DM us at IamNathalie or Danielle Canty and we wait to hear and support you. A boss babe is unapologetically ambitious and paves the way for herself and other women to rise, keep going and fighting on. A boss babe is unapologetically ambitious and paves the way for herself and other women to rise, keep going and fighting on. She is on a mission to be her best self in all areas. It's just believing in yourself, confidently stepping outside her comfort zone to create her own vision of success. I am so excited for this interview, Sam. You are such an inspiration to me. And because I feel like our journeys have been quite similar from doing the vocational degree, you do medicine and me

doing chiropractic, but both now resonating with the term entrepreneur. And there are so many things and topics that I want to talk to you about on this podcast. But before we get stuck in, I wonder if you would give the listeners a bit of a rundown of how your medical and then entrepreneurial and then investor journey got started. So I started off my career as a medical doctor and I started off working in the NHS and progressing my way through that. From a very early age, I knew I wanted to go into a career where I will be making a tangible difference to the lives of other people. So adding value and enhancing the quality of life. At that point, I didn't quite know what speciality I wanted to go into. But what I did know was that I wanted to go into a caring profession

and medicine was a choice that came about and I pursued a career in that direction. And so like obviously it's what five years to be a doctor and then you graduated and like how long was it until you kind of set up because I know and the listeners't at this stage, but know that you set up some amazing clinics. So what kind of like inspired you to do that? So working in the NHS, I found that time was of essence and quality was always compromised. Shortness of staff and obviously funding was a major issue where quality and the deliverables were concerned. I decided at that point that it would be an absolutely wonderful thing today to start a business whereby quality is of optimum levels. And the standard of care is excellent and also incorporating really fast turnaround for treatment and results.

So I wanted to create a one-stop environment, a luxury environment for clients to attend where they can have their investigations done, the results provided promptly and all within a very comfortable, relaxed surrounding with experts from all over the world in various specialities all under one roof. So that's what I wanted to create and that's what we went on to do. So okay, you're making this sound like really easy in the sense of like you finished medical school, which is one amazing achievement in itself and secondly then you're like do you know what I think I can make better health care for people here so I'm going to set up these clinics like what was going through your mind at that point Sam were you scared

were you worried were you like I'm not even sure I would know how to start on the scale that you then grew to so just talk us through that. I think a lot of it came down to a little bit of naivety and passion and sheer determination to create something that really will be of outstanding quality and to be making such a difference and I think you know led by that and sheer determination I think that really sort of spurred me on to create what I did. And eventually, obviously, there was a lot of strategy and guidance involved. But initially, it spurred from the fact that I just wanted to create a massive impact and to provide luxurious surroundings for my clients and patients and offering a service that you know that we still do today. So what do you feel was like the point for you where you're like right okay I've got my plan

did you raise straight away did you kind of go right I want to do this I'm going to bring some investors on board or like I've got this business plan I'm going to bootstrap it how did you get started from that point of view? I was quite fortunate. We didn't actually take any investments at all at the beginning of the business. So I bootstrapped my business all the way up until it got to a point where we wanted to branch out and diversify internationally, even into different arenas. So it was predominantly, mostly, all of it was self-funded wow because now you're

an investor right so do you kind of look back now with a different perspective going oh I wish I'd take an investment or do you feel that was a really important thing for you to go to without doing because I feel like nowadays there is I'm saying nowadays because I feel like there's a lot of investors out there and we get certainly get pitched at boss babe a lot but I also don't know whether it's just kind of like the circles that I find myself in these days and perhaps that's why but do you feel like it's important that people consider bootstrapping rather than going straight for investment or do you feel like it's something that is unique to a business what are your gut feelings on things like that that's a great question I think it very much depends on the arena and the industry one is operating from but I really think that if possible

to have your startup and to grow the startup as lean as possible and if you don't require the investment and funding then it's better to not to go down that road and to self-fund the whole project if possible to a point where you really do need further investment so my answer to the question is to definitely bootstrap it yourself and have a lean as an operation as possible let's take a quick pause to talk about my new favorite all-in-one platform Kajabi you know I've been singing their praises lately because they have helped our business run so much smoother and with way less complexity which I love not to mention our team couldn't be happier because now everything is in one place so it makes collecting data creating pages

collecting payment all the things so much simpler one of our mottos at Boss Babe is simplify to amplify and Kajabi has really helped us do that this year. So of course I needed to share it here with you. It's the perfect time of year to do a bit of spring cleaning in your business, you know, get rid of the complexity and instead really focus on getting organized and making things as smooth as possible. I definitely recommend Kajabi to all of my clients and students. So if you're listening and haven't checked out Kajabi yet, now is the perfect time to do so because they are offering Boss Babe listeners a 30-day free trial. Go to kajabi.com slash Boss Babe to claim your 30-day free trial. That's kajabi.com slash Boss Babe. Oh, I love that other words like lean operation because I feel like

it's really a lot of vanity around like oh my goodness I have a million dollar company a million pound company or multi-millions or you know a hundred thousand whatever that looks like but actually you know we've had conversations before where we spoke about it doesn't matter what your revenue is but the important thing is profit because you can have a million dollar business and 995 000 in expenses and your business is not very successful or negative as it is in some cases you know so i think that's really important and so you were growing this business you're bootstrapping it what were like the key things that you really felt helped you develop your company into the company as today?

Did you feel like you had certain qualities as a person that helped you or were there certain skills or mentors? Like what do you attribute it to? Excellent question, Danielle. I think for me, it's a combination of all of those. Definitely certain attributes, personality attributes are very helpful when you're growing a business. So you really do need to develop very thick skin, need to be very determined and focused individual, and have that propensity to see things to the end. And I do think I kind of do harness those attributes. But also, I think, equally, what's really important is the right guidance. When I started my business, there were very few successful female entrepreneurs in the medical space who I could have sought guidance from.

But I did have other entrepreneurial guidance along the way, which I think has led to a lot of my success today. And so who were those key people that really guided you? So I've had a few mentors. One that has made a massive impact has been Jay Abraham and Alison Brown have been a few of the key mentors and there have been others along the way and also I think my mom she's been a fantastic mentor I don't think we give enough credit to her immediate family and friends who can you know really guide us as well so yeah credit to her as well. That's so true and my mom and dad always brought me up saying things and I feel like this has really helped me be the person I am and how I do business is that you treat others how you expect to be treated yourself or you want to be treated yourself and I feel like sometimes we look for mentorship in like the technical side

and don't get me wrong like that's so invaluable and can help speed up your progress so much but actually there's mentorship around us and a daily basis from certain people in our lives like whether it's our grandmothers or our grandfathers or our mums or our dads or siblings, like the lessons you learn on the life journey is just so, so important. And I would really encourage, I think sometimes in business, people lose sight of that. They just come so fixated on the money side of things. And actually it's really important that you hold your values you will meet people who will maybe perhaps challenge you or will perhaps maybe carry out their business and you wouldn't and I think it's really important that everyone maintains their values as they move forwards in business.

Absolutely I think also in addition to what I've already said I think the other factor that really helped me growing my business to what it is today was you know to have a fantastic team and the culture within the organization I think that's absolutely imperative and so underrated so it's really it's impossible to grow epic big impactful businesses without a successful team behind the actual entrepreneur the culture is really important within the organization really really important so true and do you think there's some like key culture values that businesses should have or that you found have worked really well for you I think it's really important to regularly check in with your team you know revisit what your values are look at your

p and l statements together and discuss you know if things are not going where they should be discuss it with the team incentivizing the team really helps to create a culture where they feel that they're very integral to the growth of the corporation itself. So treating them like entrepreneurs, treating the team like entrepreneurs rather than staff per se, and giving them the freedom to make the decisions within the industry, I think that really, really helps. Completely. In fact, Kay, who's our head of marketing, she's absolutely amazing.

And she really resonates with an entrepreneur. So she's been personally successful working within big with an entrepreneur so you know she's been personally successful working within big corporations and working up the ladder there and I think that's a really interesting point to like put to our listeners because some of them will be entrepreneurs but some of them will be working up the career ladder and such and I think there's just such amazing things that everyone can bring to the table whether they own the business or they work within it and like being part of that culture and influencing the development and the success of that business is just so important so one thing that I personally I think have always felt quite challenged by which

I'd love to discuss a little bit today you are obviously an entrepreneur but you started as a doctor and you know, you've practiced before and I think you're still practicing, right? I do, yes. And I want to talk about burnout because I feel like this word is kind of thrown around a lot. And I think sometimes we don't even really understand what it means. And we talk about adrenal glands, but really not knowing what we mean by adrenal glands or what really is responsible. But I think I'll open the conversation

up by saying, San, does burnout exist? And is it something that we need to look out for? And how do we avoid it if it does exist? It definitely does exist. There are signs and symptoms we need to look out for. So first and foremost, a lot of what I witness at the moment is overwhelm. Really checking in with ourselves, you know, do we feel frazzled? Sometimes there are psychological symptoms, sometimes there are physiological symptoms. Symptoms like sleeplessness, inability to go to sleep, hot flushes, cold flushes, anxiety, blood sugar, insulin resistance issues. There are a huge array of medical symptoms that are associated with burnout and there are lots of studies that have been done on this and what's really important

is to have a more conscious awareness about what our bodies are saying to us. Checking in with yourself regularly and noticing how you're feeling is really, really important. So burnout does exist and it is proven and there are lots of studies to show that. So who do you really think is susceptible to burnout? Entrepreneurs particularly so. And I think because we are so adamant, there are studies to show that we have a cluster of different personality traits to fit into that category, which lend as well to experiencing burnout more so than perhaps other professions. entrepreneurs you know young mothers lawyers as burnout can be experienced by professionals in

all arenas and stay-at-home mums and and children as well so if I think okay I think I'm suffering from burnout what should I do like should I be really kind of thinking obviously ideally we're trying not to get to burnout but if I'm starting thinking well I'm not really sleeping very well I'm feeling like very anxious all the time what is my step story go to the doctor do I like go online like what do you do next I think it's really important to really focus on what could probably be causing it yourself first checking with yourself check your symptoms avoid going online because that can lead you into a rabbit hole of hypochondria and it's really not a good idea I would suggest looking at making the list

of all the things that are probably stressing you and if you're an entrepreneur look at what you're probably doing far too much the problem we have at the moment is what I call the shiny object syndrome. And we're so drawn to do so many things, but all at once, not successfully completing the tasks, leading to complete overwhelm, leads to burnout. So I would say go back, check in with yourself to see if you're doing far too much. Make a list of two to three things that really will move the needle either in your business or in your career or in your life that particular day and focus on those three things really narrow your focus and focus on things that will make the difference that's so true I think just kind of like giving yourself that time sometimes and in actually, I did this exact thing today. I sat with myself and I was

like, right, what am I doing that's actually causing me far more stress than is necessary? And I asked myself, do I actually need to do this? And I've shared this with our listeners before. I'm very much a little bit of a yes girl. Like I'll definitely be like, okay, I'll try and people please. And I'll try and get things done. I always want to try my best and one thing I've learned as being an entrepreneur is actually there's so much power in saying no whereas I used to think saying no is a negative thing now I see it as actually a positive thing because when I'm saying no I really am leaning into what I need to be doing absolutely yeah and I think it's like one of those things isn't it almost if you're saying yes to too many things, you're becoming overwhelmed,

you're working towards burnout. And then the reasons you started all this journey in the first place, they're not going to come into fruition. I think as women generally, we're sort of more apt to say yes to things. A lot of people, especially when they're new in the entrepreneurial space,

they almost have a fear of saying no. It's like a habit. You've just got to cultivate it say start saying no to what doesn't serve you know serve the higher good for example the factors that are going to move the needle in your business learning to say no allows you to say yes to things that will actually help more exactly I'm sure you've done the same sound like I actually when I find like I'm saying yes a lot so you get like lots of opportunities I wrote down criterias of things that I say yes to and things I say no to so that when I'm feeling in that oh my goodness I'm not sure what to do

then I go back to the facts that I wrote when I was kind of like in a clear mind and going okay does it fulfill this or doesn't it and then that helps me make the decision on whether I should proceed or not because I think you're completely right anyone who is trying to grow a business or maybe work up a ladder your gut instinct would say yes I'll do it because you think okay that will take me one step closer but actually sometimes that's not always the case no I totally agree with you a lot of the times what really helps us to outsource and delegate certain tasks and I think a lot of entrepreneurs don what really helps us to outsource and delegate certain tasks and I think a lot of entrepreneurs have a massive fear around doing that so the sooner we start doing that we sort of automatically lend ourselves to feeling more empowered to do things that are

more productive. Totally and what are your tips around delegation because you've obviously learned the art of delegation very well Sans because you can't get to the position you're in without delegating so what are your tips around like delegating? To reduce burnout you need to delegate obviously within the business so professional services but also what's really important is to delegate domestic services as well so if you're a parent or a mum what's really important is to delegate domestic services as well. So if you're a parent or a mum, it's really important to see if you can get some help with your children or see if you can get some domestic care, sort of getting a cleaner in once, twice a week to look after that side of things, allowing you to do things which are more important, like spending time with the children or maybe reading a book, perhaps indulging in some self-care. So that's really, really important. In the business, it's equally important to delegate things that you're A, not good at, B, have zero interest in, and C, that

doesn't inspire you or bring out the genius in you. So it's really, really important. These are the three things that I really think I look for when thinking what to delegate yeah because I think it's like really easy to get caught in the trap of doing things that you don't actually like doing and take you twice as long because you don't enjoy them we do this quadrant where we kind of like in the top left corner it's like what am I good at and I love doing and then in the top right corner it's like what am I good at and I love doing and then in the top right corner it's like what am I good at and I like and then the bottom side it's like okay what am I doing like I'm good at but I don't like and what am I terrible at and I don't like and like looking at what you're kind of filling in that day or looking at what activities

are kind of going into these areas and then starting with that bottom right corner of actually I don't like this and I'm not very good at it and someone can do this far better than I can so let's delegate it. Absolutely but you know it takes time to get to that stage so initially as a newbie entrepreneur it's quite normal and natural to feel overwhelmed because you are sort of doing a lot of it by yourself but it's okay to delegate a few simpler tasks to free up your time to allow you to focus on the profit producing activities which is really important that's the really important thing so making a note of what activities are stopping you from making profits in your business so that could could be, for example, doing a domestic chore

when you should be making that sales call. That's so true. That's like looping really nicely into shiny object syndrome. And you mentioned it earlier, and I think it's really a topic that we hear a lot about. I feel like shiny object syndrome has almost got worse because with the advancements in social media and as always having this kind of insight into other people's quote unquote perfect lives, it makes us think that the grass is greener and often and most of the time it definitely is not. So how have you seen shiny object syndrome affect entrepreneurs previously? Because I know you mentor entrepreneurs as well. Like how have you seen shiny object syndrome affect entrepreneurs previously? Because I know you mentor entrepreneurs as well. How have you seen it had a negative effect with people that you've

worked with? I've seen shiny object syndrome basically affect people's profitability in their business to a point where they've stopped trading as a business. They have had no option but to close their business because they're not profitable anymore. They've gotten themselves into so much debt. They've bought course after course after course. They've bought a software package after software package after software package, but none of it's actually generating any income. The shiniest CRM system and a funnel system and this and other tools, which are fantastic, but you don't need all of them all together at the beginning. So going back to what I was saying earlier, it's really important to keep things simple

and keep the business as lean as possible so you know the shiny object syndrome it can be very very detrimental to the business yeah and I think for me there's like two sides of shiny object syndrome as well there's that side that you just spoke about with regards to you know bolting on CRM softwares or different aspects to your business and getting lost in all the processes and procedures but also there's this shiny object around like what products you create because it's all very well sometimes it's going hang on a minute there's a gap in the market over there I can see it I'm going to try and fill it but then that's sometimes meaning that you neglect

what you've already built and if you just double down on that part of your business perhaps your business would be more profitable than just taking it into this new area and trying to grow that do you agree with that i mean i'm just saying that from some of my own personal experiences sometimes i'm like oh should we be doing this or should we be doubling down i think it's really really important to find out where your genius is find out if you've got a program or a product or a service that is doing really really well it's really important to leverage that first leverage that at least in 30 to 40 ways prior to diversifying into other products and services so it's really important to to do what you do and do it really really well rather than diversifying your talent

launching new products new services all of the time and really not being a specialist at any time it's really important to be preeminent in what you're doing so be known for something rather than everything completely do you mind if I ask you a personal question about your businesses yes of course so you obviously had your clinic in London but then you chose to go international right so where was your first one that you set up after London both of them were in London the second one was in Sheffield then we were in Manchester I love this all that adding on so what made you decide actually do you know what to to scale this isn't shiny object syndrome this is actually what we need to take the business to the next level

so like how do people differentiate whether they're getting shiny object syndrome or actually know that does need to happen to advance their business any tips when I started the business I had certain revenue and profit markers already in place the financial points where I needed to hit for certain practices thereafter right from the start I knew that once we had hit that point that would be our call to move on to the next because every business that we opened thereafter was self-funded we didn't take an external investment for any of them. We grew the business to a point where it was flourishing, profitable business. We didn't diversify industries or launch new products and services.

We could have done, but we took what we had. We replicated it in different countries where there was a massive market for our service so you knew what you had you had the model you had the formula it was a case of putting it in those new locations exactly so it wasn't a different product to fit a different country it was essentially the business was exactly the same but there was a demand it wasn't a case of chasing the next big shiny object and so when you're asked to invest in companies and you're looking at companies and is there certain things that you look for within the founders is it all about the business or is part of it actually like hang on i really believe in these people or they actually get it.

They haven't got shiny object syndrome or they're pacing it right. Like, is it multifaceted when you're looking at businesses moving forwards? Oh, absolutely. And, you know, as an investor, I've made some grave choices. One thing I can say for sure now looking back, definitely I will always, always invest looking at the entrepreneur. There are several things that are really, really important, not just the business, not just the business, but their ability. It's really important. What I look for when investing in a business is the entrepreneur's ability to sell the product.

Yes, they can explain the product, but are they able to sell that product? Are they able to sell me that product? If they can sell the product to me, it's going to be a good investment. Another really important thing that I look for when looking to invest in a business, and the person particularly, is do they actually look the part? A lot of the time we're pitched as investors and they just simply don't look the part and they don't act like the part, they don't look like the part, they can't sell the service of the product.

So these things are really, really important. They've got to be likable. So as an investor, when I invest in the entrepreneur and the business, I've got to like the entrepreneur. I've got to feel that there's some kind of rapport because I'll be spending time mentoring them, consulting them to grow the business because we're vested as well, you see. So that's really, really important. Other things I look for is to see if they have a very compelling reason, you know, why they are doing what they are

doing. Often I find entrepreneurs who have had a rough ride and have got a compelling reason to do what they're doing, plus they can sell the product, are the ones who will probably invest in. And without a shadow of doubt, they are the ones who produce and go on to create multi-million pound businesses. Without a shadow of doubt. That's amazing. So if you were to kind of like think back to yourself now. So, okay, I'm going to flip this a little bit. So I know you didn't and you bootstrapped. But let's say now, Sam in her 20s was stood there and she was talking to

you now like, okay, what three pieces of advice would you give me for growing my business or where I want to be? And I'd love for you to like give three bits of business advice you wish you knew and then three bits of health advice because I do think it's really, really important. And I know we've spoke about this a lot, like this whole know you're only successful as you're mentally and physically capable of being so I think I having this kind of two-prong approach to it would be really interesting so the three things you wish you knew or the advice you would like to give to business-wise what would that be oh one just start definitely just start secondly I would say stop striving for perfection thirdly I'd say drop the fear of judgment because you're going to be judged anyway I wish I'd known that because the anxiety associated with that predominantly as an early stage entrepreneur, particularly for myself, was massive.

You know, the fear of judgment, the fear of failure, the fear of, oh, it's not good enough. Perhaps I should work a little bit harder, perfect the services a little bit more. These three things, I would say, are so important. Just do it. Do it afraid. Yeah, just do it. I literally got goosebumps hearing those. I relate to those so much. And I've definitely, definitely felt all of them. Like that fear of thinking, oh, what will people think of me if I do this?

Or like you said, that perfectionism. Like, oh my God, it needs to be perfect before I start. And then realizing actually what was perfect in your head wasn't perfect for everyone else you need to tweak it anyway so it's better to get something out there and then tweak after absolutely because we're going to be tweaking it all the time you're constantly tweaking it and you know even with our ourselves and we're developing all of the time what my business was three months ago is not what it is today. And it's definitely not going to be what it is in a year's time. So it's constantly developing. And it's just the nature of the beast.

And it's understanding that, you know, dropping the fear of judgment and just going for it. People are going to judge you anyway. So just go ahead and do it. The sooner the better. Do it. Just do it afraid. Everybody's afraid anyway.

Yeah, exactly right. We're all in the same boat that's what I love about these conversations yeah is that everyone's suddenly listening realizes that oh I'm not the only one that feels this way and nobody has it all together nobody has it all together you know we're always learning everybody's learning I've really kind of judged us on what we have going on within our business and what setups and what operations and I'm like oh my goodness we could do this better we could do that better and then I work with other companies and who I'd put on pedestals and who are really like large and I'm like oh hang on a minute we actually do that better than them or hang on a

minute they don't have those perfect either oh it's okay that it's not perfect yes yes absolutely and so what three key bits of advice would you give around health and business because I think that's also really important do you feel like looking back like you shouldn't have worked so late at night or got up so early or you should exercise more you should look after your sleep or diet like what bits of advice would you give back firstly I would like to say that so many entrepreneurs are focused on balance and I would really like to hone in on the fact that I don't believe that there's any such thing as a work-life balance per se so with that in mind i think it's really important to understand that although we can't get a complete balance in that respect we can however manage our health around our businesses what i

learned and i still do really really advocate the importance of sleep. Sleep is fundamentally important. I think, you know, initially as early stage entrepreneurs, remember candle at both ends, but there does come a point where you're not as productive cognitively and physically if your sleep is compromised. There are lots of studies to show this now. I really would encourage having really honed in sleep hygiene and a nightly sleep routine that's tip number one just touching on that one sec before we move on because I love this what would you class as a good like sleep like routine you said sleep hygiene what do you mean by that for, it would include really having no digitals 45 minutes before bed. I've now started to actually not have my phone in the bedroom, which has taken a little bit of time

and effort. But I think, you know, it has really helped the quality of my sleep. So when I get up in the morning, I'm not reaching out for that dreaded iPhone, checking social media and checking emails or whatever it may be. Now it's a lot more controlled and I have that quality morning routine as well. So the sleep routine starts for me an hour before I actually go to bed. That would include switching down all of my digitals having a bath journaling it doesn't always happen so it's not something I do religiously every single day there are days where I probably will miss one or two off that list but at least I'd also have an idea of what I should be doing yeah the blue light is really important isn't it like so so important i mean people probably see

me on instagram actually because i have like these red blue blocker glasses but they're full on red lens and it makes doing anything very difficult because you can't really see that well it's like really really impacted my sleep and i haven't quite got my phone out of the room but i've got it on aeroplane mode that's a brilliant start yeah because it eradicates the is it emf yes i've heard that's really really important so good tips there and what's tip number two diet so by that i mean really eating optimally for your body type eating optimally what feels right for you so i don't condone any particular nutritional plan for people because obviously that's very bespoke but definitely

try to avoid sugary foods avoid caffeine as much as possible however I don't say eliminate it completely because there are studies to prove that a certain amount of caffeine can help with cognitive function and personally speaking I am a bit of a coffee fanatic so I do love my good quality freshly roasted coffee in the morning diet is really important and hydration equally important if not more so there's loads of studies actually that hydration actually increases your productivity absolutely it does so I'm obsessed with having like a glass of water behind my desk all the time and I too see the importance of diet as well like we really cut sugar out of our diets and that made a massive impact on my energy like the lack of

crashing so rather than having like lots of carbs at lunchtime like I try not to have carbs throughout the day and that really helps me kind of avoid that sluggish feeling in the afternoon that I was sometimes getting before and because I work with the guys on PST so they're eight hours behind me like I have a lot of meetings coming into the afternoon so I have to be on like peak performance then yes absolutely and what's your third tip Sam third would be definitely embracing the great outdoors getting yourself out and moving in nature it's really really important oxygenatingygenating your lungs, you know, throughout the day. I think especially entrepreneurs, we get bogged down behind a laptop.

And, you know, before you know it, little movement has been done and very little exercise. And that will affect your general mental well-being and performance. That's really, really important to structure in time during the day where you are a moving and be outside it's really really important and those are the three things that I do daily and I encourage my patients and clients to do as well yeah really good like foundational like tips that I feel that as entrepreneurs you're the foundations of the business. And if we're not functioning well, then ultimately it's very, very difficult to build a good solid business on top of that. So these have all been amazing. I feel like there's been so many takeaways. I've like made so many

notes, and honestly, you should see my piece of paper next to me. Thank you so much for joining us on this podcast. It's an an absolute pleasure tell us where can people find you if they want to get to know you a little bit more oh absolutely they can find me all over social media so it's san ludra on instagram it's dr san ludra on linkedin and sanludra.com website so yeah thank you so much we'll put your links as well in the show notes so thank you so much to everyone listening and thank you san for being so knowledgeable and sharing your knowledge with our listeners it's my absolute pleasure thank you for having me if you enjoyed this episode we would love it if you subscribed and left us a review

let us know what you enjoyed what your main were, and who you'd like to see appear on the show. As a special thanks, we'll send you a copy of our Boss Babe 25. Now this is an awesome resource. It's the 25 essential things that you need for personal and professional growth. We've included everything from must-have products, to books, to rituals. This guide literally covers it all, and I know you're going to love it so if you want your copy simply leave us a review and then send a screenshot of your review to podcast at bossbabe.com we love bringing you experts and interviews from other successful business owners so they can talk about their experiences and share information tips and what has worked for them however remember that the opinions or advice of our guests and as the host should not be taken as personal actionable advice and is given

as general information and education only please always remember to consult a qualified professional before implementing any medical financial legal or other business advice to ensure it will work for you or your business boss babe is not responsible nor liable for your decision to implement anything you hear on the podcast please listen and act responsibly the opinions of our guests do not represent the opinions or views of boss babe danielle canty or natalie ennis personally and are meant as information and general education only