Introducing... The Shower Genius®

For far too many years, I put off taking a vacation. I actually took my 5th anniversary trip with my husband in our 16th year of marriage... yes 11 years overdue! As a business owner, there was just never a good time. I am sure you can relate...

Always feeling that you need to do more, be more, accomplish more. It just never felt like I did enough. I would go to bed with a huge to do list every night, feeling like I would never get to the place for which I was striving. I would put all the fun, celebratory, exciting stuff in life on a pedestal that I would magically arrive at one day and everything would be perfect.

Well, I hate to burst your bubble... but that never happens for most of us. Instead we get exhaustion, overwhelm, anxiety, and even depression and hopelessness. My thoughts were always...

"If I can just get that new proposal done, if I can just reach our quarterly sales goal, if I can just hire the right person, if I just had 40 hours a day, then it will all work out!"

In 2018 I was out for surgery. My doctor said 2-6 weeks for recovery, of course I heard TWO WEEKS and that is what I expected. While I was laying in the hospital getting prepped for surgery, my anxiety was pretty high. I wanted to just get up and walk out of the hospital and say that I could not have surgery right now because I am too busy.

My clients and my team need me. I was worried that something would go wrong and my team would not know how to handle it. I was worried that a client would be upset that I was not at their event. I was worried that I would not wake up and how would my husband deal with all of this... and on and on and on.

The reality is that I was out for 2 whole months! And I had been suffering with these health issues for decades. Every doctor I saw told me I was perfectly healthy. I thought I was crazy until FINALLY someone listened and worked for months to help me figure it out.

Over the months after the surgery I lost 45 pounds and started working out at the gym again. I was setting routines and boundaries for myself at work and because I was feeling better and sleeping better, I had more brain power and was more productive when I was working.

The extra energy gave me creative ideas to grow the business, develop more systems and delegate to my highly capable team. And the business doubled within the year. 2020 would have been double our best year.

BUT the reality was that we lost as much to the pandemic.

On March 30, 2020 I founded The Realize Foundation which is all about how Human Connection can Reduce Suicide Rates.

I dove head first into research and was struggling to find my way and purpose, but I definitely had the passion.

My revelation through all of this was that I always put myself last. Heck, I was more worried about my business than my health when I needed to have surgery. I was more worried about sales and clients than I was about my family.

What my time off in 2020 & 2021 taught me is that for decades I did not have healthy routines or boundaries. Every day I had a different schedule. I never ate or slept at the same time. I would get up at the last possible minute to be somewhere because the lack of sleep ruled my life. All of the things I thought about doing as a morning routine were always pushed aside for something that was 'urgent'.

After spending so much time meeting and talking to people about mental health, it dawned on me that my own mental health issues were tied to the lack of control in my own life. I started a business to have more control of my life and time, but it yielded the opposite.

Then it happened...

During 2021 while working on reinventing myself, I was having such incredible creative ideas while I had soap in my hair. By the time I would get to my desk, they would vanish. I would try and try to remember what that life shattering idea was that I had 30 minutes earlier and it was just gone.

So, I decided to put a whiteboard in my bathroom...

This gave me a way to remember all my thoughts!

What it also taught me is that the more I slowed down, the more creative my thoughts were. The more solutions I came up with... the more problems I was solving.

If we can create more 'me time' in our lives, we can be more creative. In turn, the creativity can change our businesses... and our lives!

At the time I thought The Shower Genius would be a podcast; conversations with other entrepreneurs about how we can incorporate more self care in our lives.

And then it morphed into a methodology that I could teach to others so they could experience positive change.

We are driven. We are high achievers. We are leaders. We are hard workers.

We are creative. We are reaching for the stars. And it is possible... to have a fulfilled life!

If you are interested in learning more about The Shower Genius Methodology, schedule a 15 minute intro call with me here.

I look forward to learning more about you!

Deana