EP 10: How to Find Rhythm in Your Everyday Life with Alexis Greco
Mary Harcourt 0:04
Welcome to Ready Set, blow a podcast where I interview the person behind the brand. We're going to talk about what it took to get started, and the lessons learned along the way, and the advice we have for you on your own journey. I'm your host, Mary Harcourt, founder and CEO of Cosmo glow. Today, we're hanging out with Alexis, she has taught over 1000 female entrepreneurs all across the world, how to use systems to create a thriving home and business of their dreams. It's a life in rhythm. Today, she'll be sharing some tips for automation, and how to set yourself up for success in your home and work. Let's get started.
All right, today I have Alexis and she comes to us from the rhythmic home. You truly believe that there can be a rhythm between your home and business? You have my attention? Tell us? What is rhythm? And how do we add more of its our lives?
Alexis Greco 1:02
Yes, rhythm is what I teach women how to do specifically Women in Network Marketing is who I work with. And I teach them and show them how you can be successful in both home and business at the same time. So it's a it's a rhythm, it's a cadence, it's a flow, it's a way that you do things. So you can be present in both areas when you need to be.
Mary Harcourt 1:26
And especially as entrepreneurs, it tends to be a lot that you're taking on without a predetermined clock out time and clock in time. And there's a lot of run over. When it comes to just you know, entrepreneur and finding that rhythm in your life. There was a really cool thing that you said prior to the US recording, I want to bring it up because I thought it was so touching. And we asked what your goal of the show was. And you said I want to add a spark of encouragement to move the needle in someone else's business.
Alexis Greco 1:56
I love to specifically speak to the woman you may feel that weight of how am I supposed to do at all, I have a business goal I'm trying to meet, I haven't figured out what dinner is yet my husband still doesn't have folded clean underwear because we haven't done laundry you know, in three weeks, my hope is that after these few minutes together, that you can walk away with something tangible, some meat and potatoes at least a first step to go in the direction of your rhythm. Because what I teach is not perfection, and my rhythm is going to look so different than yours, Mary or someone else who's listening. But that you can start to find that flow of doing things in a way that you truly can honor your priorities in your values. And you can also be successful in your business at the same time.
Mary Harcourt 2:49
So where do we start with that, where's like step number one in predetermine how we can get these rhythms, the flow, adjust to it all and make it all work.
Alexis Greco 2:59
I was just talking with someone on an Instagram live right before we recorded this. And I gave the example of just imagine that you are in a corn maze. And it's thick, and there's all these things going on. And you can't really tell you're right from your left. And if that's what you feel like you're in the thick of it, you're in the overwhelm of trying to get everything done. Imagine that you hop into a hot air balloon, and you lift above the field and you can see then everything that's going on. And so if that's where you want to start, you're like I want to know how do I find rhythm, you first need to get some perspective, you first need to take an aerial view, if you will, of your cornfield of everything that's going on. Because then you can look at everything and say, Okay, this piece of the puzzle is here, this piece of the puzzle is here. Let's move this let's take this off the table. And then once you see how you want things to look ideally, from a higher perspective, you can get down on the ground in the nitty gritty in the day to day things and start to figure out what that looks like. And so your tangible strategy your meat and potato for Okay, so how do I get in a hot air balloon? I believe it's by getting everything out of your mind, onto paper. And I mean, everything personal, professional and in between. So you can look at things in a black and white perspective. And then you can make the decision on how you need to move forward.
Mary Harcourt 4:28
I love that. I mean, I'm the first to say when I feel overwhelmed and I just can't catch up and feel like I can't catch a breath. The first thing I do is make a list of like what am I stressed out about? What am I trying to accomplish? Because when you feel like there's so many things, so many things, many things, it's taking up all your energy, but you're not making any forward progress. And so getting that all out I can be the first person to attest to and say it really does help because then you can come up with a plan of action like what really needs to get done today. What can get done next week. What can wait until I just have a free day and what slight precedent is going to be something I could take care of every single day. And I'm going to add that into my calendar and schedule.
Alexis Greco 5:05
Yeah, that's so true. And I think it's something we usually do, right? We feel overwhelmed. So we grab a sticky note or grab a piece of paper and we get everything out on paper, right, you write your list, you might even number it, what's the first thing you need to do? What's the next thing you need to do? Something that I work with my clients on, and I teach specifically, in my little corner of the internet, what I talk about, I call it a mental walk. And so let's say you do get everything out on paper, right, you're like, Okay, feels good. I can't say for sure. But there probably are other things happening in your mind that you are still thinking of as tasks to do as things that need to happen. And so I'd encourage you to take a mental walk after you get everything out on paper, you're like, Alright, I think I got it all. If you work from the home, I'd encourage you to mentally walk the interior perimeter of your home. And so maybe you start in your kid's bedroom, you're not actually in their bedroom, you're just thinking through it, and you walk through the perimeter of the room, and you're going, Okay, we're going into summer time, I need to pull the winter clothes out, I need to put summer clothes in, you don't go into it, you write it on the list. And then you write we need to buy a second set of sheets, because we have guests coming into town that are going to stay on the bunk bed, you write that down and walk through your entire home that way. And the reason is, is because then you will truly, truly get everything out of your mind. And onto paper. I always share its you know, those moments, you're in the shower, and you have that genius idea, especially if you're a serial entrepreneur, and you're always thinking of these things to do or ways to make your business better. I believe one of the reasons those things happen in the shower or when you're just driving is because you actually have a chance to breathe. Mentally, you actually have a chance to think
Unknown Speaker 6:56
it's a very good point, I feel like shower thoughts are so crystal, they're so organic,
Mary Harcourt 7:01
they're so you're just in there, having some hot water, I turned mine as hot as I can sound like a little lobster. And then I'm finally kind of like oh my god, this, this, this, that and the other and then I'm kind of like ready for my day because I just got started with all these ideas in my head. But it truly is getting you to a place where you can categorize and have these thoughts of hey, how are we going? What's our plan of action? What's next? What are we doing, versus trying to go at it blindly without that calm? Sometimes you can't access like what the next thought process would be? What systems do people need for small businesses, the self employed for running a home? And then how do we start them?
Alexis Greco 7:39
If I were to talk from a high level, what systems do you need? I would say, What things can you automate in your business? What things can you delegate? And what things can you eliminate. So let's say you look at your list and you realize, oh, these four things, I don't really need to do them to move the needle in my business, you could just eliminate those off your list or you could delegate them. But delegation and automation is a really great place to start. And even if you don't have the budget to hire someone, you can use your Gmail account and you can actually schedule emails for free. So if you are someone in your business, you're consistently sending emails, you could schedule those for free. I like to use a service called Project broadcast. skipio is another similar one like that. You can it's like 10 to $15 a month. So it's a very low entry level. But let's say you like to wish your clients a happy birthday. And that's just important to you. But it always slips through the cracks. Because you know, life, you could go on there, record a voicemail, and then schedule that to every single one of your clients on their birthdays, you record the voicemail one time, and they use. Yes, yes. So like in Project broadcasts, you schedule it as a voicemail template. So it could sound something like hey, it's Alexis, Mary, I just wanted to wish you a happy birthday. Listen, I like doing birthday week. So I don't know about you, but I just want you to and I was thinking about you today, etc, etc. Save that in your voicemail template. And then you can go through and schedule that to all your clients, to your team members to whoever or you could hire someone to schedule it for you. And you know that for the next quarter or a year, whatever. Every single one of your people were hear your voice on their birthday. That's a very tip of the iceberg system that you could do to live out your priorities. If it is a priority for you to make people feel important, but it just gets lost in the shuffle. Sometimes, you can now keep it a priority and focus on the other things that do really move the needle in your business.
Mary Harcourt 9:49
Okay, so I'm so impressed by that. I'm like mind blown. I didn't even know about that. And I consider myself half techie. So I'm already impressed when I set that up. But what else do you have? I like what more can we do? Because that was so good, you have to have a whole stash of these little tidbits.
Alexis Greco 10:05
This is another scheduling thing. And we'll stick on the project broadcast because it's fresh in my mind, if I am talking with a customer, and let's say she says, Oh, I can't do XYZ right now, because I have knee surgery next week. You know, I, as as we finish our conversation, I will schedule a message right then for her to go to her next Tuesday and say, Hey, Mary, I'm just checking up on you, how was your knee surgery doing? And I think androids might have a capability to do that iPhones do not. But you can use project broadcast like that, to create that kind of system. You may or may not be familiar with Calendly, those who are listening. So that's a way you can schedule, you know, appointments, sessions, parties, whatever with your clients. And if you are struggling to know what you need to talk about on social media, like you're like, I don't know what my people want to hear. Or maybe you want to set up a master class a webinar, and you just are not sure exactly what's going to hit with your people in the industry, if you will, behind the curtain, those things are called pain points, right? What are your ideal clients struggling with? So you can talk about them? Well, let's circle this back around to Calendly. In the questions that you ask them, right name, email, phone number, ask them their pain points. Now, you're not going to say what are your pain points, but what you are going to say is, let's say I sell skincare, Mary, what's one of your biggest struggles that you have with skincare, she's going to fill it out for you. Or you're going to say if you had the best skin in the world, how would that make you feel, and she's going to fill that out for you. So let's say you have 10 people come to that webinar or 20 people come to that master class Calendly will take all of those answers, populate them onto a spreadsheet. And you now have 10 to 20 topics to talk about, you know what your people are interested in. Not to mention the fact that Calendly will also send multiple reminder emails or texts, and they will send a follow up email for you. So if you bring these people to your master class, and you want to invite them to join your program, or to purchase your product, in the follow up email, you could say, Mary, it was so great to have you here today. Here's the link I mentioned at the end of our event tonight, please let me know what questions you have. I'll be in touch with you. So in one fell swoop of sending someone a calendar link, you're not only building your email list, your text list, because we know social media is a rented platform, right? It could be taken away at any day, you do not own that information. So you are now building your email list building your phone number list, you're collecting pain points, you're collecting topics to say hey, would you love to have skin that feels so clear that you can go to the pool without makeup on? You now know this because Mary told you this. And it's reminding people it's following up with them. I mean, I could, I could nerd out even more on Calendly. But those are the systems that you can use in your business. Okay, so let's talk repurposing content. This is something that can be so beneficial no matter if you sell a product or a service. But if you find yourself going, I don't know what to post today. I don't know what to talk about today, you can always pull from your Calendly pain points. But let's say you did a training on Zoom or with your team or you did a masterclass. If you are strategic in that one, you record it but then you also turn the transcript on that transcript, you could then pull quotes from it to be quote, graphics, you could pull sections of it to be an email, you could pull set bigger chunks of it to be a blog, you could screen record some parts of it to upload as an IG TV or upload as a real or upload as your stories. And so I you just took one hour, shall we say at a normal zoom that you already have scheduled? And you just produced enough content for a quote graphic, a blog, a set of emails and igtv reels, I mean five or six things. So think through how can you repurpose what you're already doing. You can stretch it out and make it go so so far.
Mary Harcourt 14:44
I love that. Um, we do quite a bit of that as well. And it is once you get the hang of it. It feels so foreign at first because you're like okay, I feel like I'm just copy pasting, copy pasting. But you're, you're editing it for us. It's like a little if it's more sentence heavy that we use it on LinkedIn. If it's more just a statement, we're gonna go to Twitter. And all of a sudden you're on all these platforms. And it wasn't like you logged into each one of the platforms and recreated like, you're sitting there today going, what am I going to talk about today, I have to come up with a statement. It was all there. And it's so easy once you grasp it and get the hang of it. So I do encourage everyone to repurpose content and make it go way further, because you are already doing it the first time. And it can go so far. So we talked about systems, what kind of how they work, but how do we create them?
Alexis Greco 15:32
Well, one of the things I alluded to before was, you know, my rhythm is not going to be the same as yours, yours will not be the same as mine. So if you're thinking, Okay, this sounds great, but what do I start with? How do I begin with this, what I would encourage you to look at is become aware of areas in your business or in your home, that there are points of tension, that there are points of friction. So a story that I like to share is three of my four kids all what they love orange juice first thing in the morning, and I love being a mom, but I'm not a morning mom, like I'm not up in there cooking breakfast and doing all that. And so each morning, they would go Mommy, can we have orange juice? Mommy, can we have orange juice? And they would ask me, because they're not old enough to get it? Yeah, they're little. And when you have multiple of that, it became a point of tension for me. So the way I discovered that rhythm, that system was I now feel their orange juice cups the night before. So they're in the fridge, they can open it, and they can get it right away. So you can do the same thing with your business. Where are points of friction? Where are points of tension, do you always find that you drop the ball on following up with people to confirm an appointment, and then ends up being a no show. So you can look at that and say, that's where I need to start, I need to start with a system there or rhythm there. So you can certainly use you know what we're talking about. But look at your own business, look at your own home, see where there's some sandpaper going on, and then work around that to create a rhythm.
Mary Harcourt 17:09
I love I'm gonna go back to booking system because that's such a, like focal point. I think anyone in the beauty industry and probably anyone that has a business that requires a service where you're going and filling out somebody occupies that hour of your life. Event booking system is so recommended because we've all started from nothing. And if you guys are there right now, and you're just getting out of esthetician school, you just went out on your own, and you're thinking that you can handle it. That's great for now. But the goal is to get busy, right. And so you want to get as busy as you can as fast as you can. And the best way to do it is use of booking system going back to what you said before automate, it helps you automate your life because now you can send somebody a link and say, Hey, book yourself in instead of saying, What are you looking for? What's the services? How much do you charge? How long is the service? What's your address? Do you have free parking, just send them the link and all of that on there. And once they're in there, for the first time they've met you, they enjoyed their service, you can pre book them. But if they say, Hey, I have a busy life, I just don't have my calendar in front of me, I have to look at my kids schedule, you can send them home and say I'm gonna send this to you and your email. And when you get home just rebook the next appointment. And if you find a time that works for you go ahead and book the next two or three, because my schedule does fill up. And all of a sudden, you took all of those little text messages that you would have spent talking to your client, and let's be real, it's usually early in the morning or late at night, when you're finally getting done with clients and wrapping up your day, you go and sit down and get back to everybody. And you can just eliminate all of that by giving yourself a booking system and letting your client go in there and book themselves for and you might have to walk them through the first time. But after the first or second time, they should be able to take care of themselves and you just automated that part of your life. So a booking system is so helpful and easy, and usually pretty affordable, that I do encourage anyone to get a booking system.
Alexis Greco 19:02
And I think if I can add just a little something depending on the type of system that you have, you could because yes, I think you should say hey, I'm going to email this to you check when you get home that type of situation. You could even back it up a step farther, because if they have 1000 emails or they don't check their email, often you could set up a key word where you could say, Listen, all you need to do is text the word schedule to my business line and it will automatically send back your link that does everything that Mary just mentioned. So if it's a Tuesday morning, and she's like I need to come in and have XYZ service done. You have now trained her I use that term loosely but you've trained her to go oh, let me text the word schedule. It'll automatically send back the link. So you as the professional you're probably still working with another client offering another service, but you can have this automation working for you in the background. So I love it. Everything you just said,
Mary Harcourt 20:01
Yeah, I love that as well, if they want to do a you got a tech or tech schedule, too. How would they set that up? Is that something through their booking platform? Is that a Google thing?
Alexis Greco 20:11
Well, I don't know, every booking platform out there. But if you do use a texting service that has the capability for keywords, I mean, honestly, you can also use if you book people through Instagram, there is a program called many chat, and you can it's a paid service, it's pretty inexpensive, but you could set that up. So they DM you the word schedule, it automatically sends back your link. So you set up what you want it to say. But you could say, Hey, this is Mary's Instagram bot Assistant, here's the link to schedule, let me know if you have questions. So they could be DMing you at two o'clock in the morning, or on a Friday afternoon when you're working with other clients, but it's still working in the background for you, you could do both a key word in many chat.
Mary Harcourt 20:56
I absolutely. I love that. And definitely use the text message feature. It's, you know, some people I don't want to spam you a little text message to remind you of your appointment is never going to be seen as spam. If it is they can take themselves off. But I can't tell you how many times I have it on my calendar to go to lashes at 330. And it's in my head, I purposely didn't put makeup on I know I'm going to get lashes and all sudden it's like 245. And I always get a text that's like we have an appointment. I'm always, oh my god, oh my God, and it was on my calendar, I put my day based around going to that appointment. But somehow if I didn't get that reminder, I would have worked right through it because I get so invested into what I'm doing that at that time. So when you turn these little text messages on, they become so helpful. And that cuts down on all of your nose shows or hey, I'm running late, or I totally forgot. And I'm 15 minutes away, can you still take me moments. And that adds more automation to your life. So definitely turn on the text messages as well. All right, well, the name of the show is Ready Set glow. What can someone do now in their business to set them up for success later?
Alexis Greco 22:00
There is a quote that says sometimes you have to slow down to speed up. And I always use that as my foundation. And so if I was in a one on one conversation with someone, I'd ask you, where do you want to go? Like, where are your goals, and then set your rhythms up around that. And so one of the things you can do, just like you mentioned, like, yes, you might be going back and forth with people right now. But that's not how you scale. And so if you start to think big picture of well, I want to be booked with clients from sunup to sundown, whatever you want that to look like, how do you grow that? And so let's say that is what you want to do you want to have, you know, nine, I don't know, eight to six full of clients, well then thinking, Okay, well, if I'm gone that much with my clients, what other things need to be happening in the background, and you could even talk about your home, maybe that looks like you start interviewing for a housekeeper to see how much it is for someone to come clean your house. I have something I call her my home assistant. She is kind of similar to a mother's helper, but she will come in and she will fold our laundry, unload our groceries, prep our food. So you do have to think business. But also remember, you are the common denominator between your personal and your professional life. So you can have things killing it on the business side. You also want to give yourself that benefit on your personal life too. So just think, do I need to hire help? Do I need to automate things on the home side to get me to where I want to go?
Mary Harcourt 23:38
Absolutely. And that was one of my first lessons when I had a salon I would work 1011 12 hour days. And it was always like I would give myself a day off. But then that day off became Oh, now I have to go to the groceries and do laundry all day and clean floors and straighten up and do all this stuff. And I was so exhausted that it was the same as not getting a day off. And I did the math and realize that I work enough hours to let someone come into my house and they did our laundry and they cleaned our house and they clean better than I could ever clean. Let's be real, but they were so appreciative when they're becoming like great lifelong friends. Because they were that's what they enjoy doing. They're coming to work every day doing what they love. And cleaning is not what I love. I love doing episode lashes and running a salon. And it added so much balance into my life to be able to outsource that and they did a much better job than I ever would. So I would definitely encourage everyone to do the math on that and figure for me I used to always say I would much rather go lash all day long because that was my happy place. I can hang out with my clients and talk and we can listen to the radio all day or podcast and I can have a great quality of life by outsourcing that. So it truly does come back to looking and seeing what you can outsource.
Alexis Greco 24:50
You're going to work one way or the other. You just have the opportunity to decide how am I going to work am I going to do lashes or am I going to clean toilets you get to decide
Mary Harcourt 25:00
Exactly. And I think it's so important to to figure out what you love doing. I mean, the girls that were at my house, they love cleaning, they would reorganize my closet, they had their music on, they sing, I come home, and they'd be laughing. I mean, that's what they love to do. And I love not being able to do they're not having to do that. So it's taking an inventory on your life and figuring out where you can get the most happiness from. Um, so let's talk about that, too. It's super common in the beauty industry to get overworked and kind of just burnt out what advice do you have for people who feel like they're having they hit like a lull in their business?
Alexis Greco 25:35
Again, this is going to be something that I feel will be different for everyone. But if you feel yourself if you're already there, or maybe you feel that coming on, you know, that feeling, you're like, I'm starting to feel tired, or I'm getting a little bit more snappy, you know, like, you can feel it coming on. One of the practices that I love to recommend to my clients is to just keep track of two things. And that is one, where did you light up today? So just, it could be in a note in your phone, it could be in your journal, whatever you want it to look like, where was something that happened today that you were like, I could do that for the rest of my life. And never, you know, regret that. So where did you light up today? And also, where did you lean in? Where did you have to be like, Oh, I do not want to do this. But I have to do it anyway, type of situation. And the reason you can, the reason I recommend you doing that is because after a couple of days, or a couple of weeks, or a couple of months of doing that, you can look back and see, every time I do XYZ task, I hate it every time I do that. And so then it doesn't become this reactive to I'm burned out, I don't know what to do. I guess I can't do this anymore. You then are in the driver's seat to be proactive about it and say, You know what, I know that every time I do XYZ task, it ends up burning me out. So what can I do moving forward to not have to do that anymore?
Mary Harcourt 27:02
Yeah, absolutely. That's great advice. I love that. So tell us a little bit about your business, you have the business of the rhythm in the home, or rhythmic home, I should say, what do you do? And how did you come to owning your own business?
Alexis Greco 27:15
So I work with female entrepreneurs, and I help them find rhythm and their home and their business, I really believe you can be successful in both areas. And I don't mean like, Oh, that's so cute. I mean, like, you can create a thriving, thriving business, and, like, still be a great wife, and still be a great mom and a great friend. And so how that came about was I had spent 15 years in network marketing. And I noticed as I moved into leadership, and I started leading meetings, speaking at Fall retreats, going on conference calls, training all of these women, women would come to me afterwards and go like, how do you do that? Like, how do you have all these kids and your husband travels. And please be sure it is not because I imperfect, because I have so many flaws. But I realized I looked back and I had a systematic way of doing things, I would start the dishwasher and start the washer and then sit down to work for 30 minutes. So by the time I was done, they were done. You know that sound of productivity was something I made sure I was doing, I would make the orange juice the night before, I would schedule voicemails to my clients. And it when you take these little things because they seem as an individual, they almost are insignificant. But when you begin to weave them together, they create this support system, or what I call the rhythm to get you through those seasons that might be more challenging than the others. And so here we are today, now I get to talk about it. And I could do this all day long, and I would never get tired
Mary Harcourt 28:58
of it. Which is what makes for the best entrepreneur or you found your passion. You found something that makes you happy. This is what you love doing. You're clearly a striver, you've been top 1% And a lot of your companies, what is the secret for hitting goals that you feel like really worked in your life?
Alexis Greco 29:16
This is so funny. This is the third time this has come up in conversation in the past 24 hours. I would say one of the top three reasons as to why I'm able to hit the goals that I'm hitting in my business is because I prioritize the time that I'm not working. For me that looks like if my kids are home and running about like I'm not working. I do not work weekends and I rarely work nights and it almost seems counterintuitive, but I prioritize what I call margin. It's the white space in your calendar. It's the breathing room, and I believe because I do that. I stay a sane mother. You know I I stayed as sane entrepreneur, I prevent that burnout because I give myself the time that I need to not be on to be off. And I think that is probably one of the top things that has contributed to my success.
Mary Harcourt 30:15
I love that. I mean, everyone needs off time. And I definitely notice in my life, but I don't give myself enough of that it suffers. And I almost like snap like a rubber band where it's like, okay, no, no, I'm just, I meant to work tonight. But I can't even I don't even have the energy because I'm just burnout. And I'm going to take this night to recharge, where I think what you're seeing is a little bit more if you plan for a backup, then you hit burnout, a lot less. Yes. Because
Alexis Greco 30:39
imagine I've been there when I think the day goes sideways. And I'm just like, I'm just gonna get everything done tonight. And that month's income goal, that month's profit goal hinges on me working that night. And then I get to that night, and I'm just not there. I'm just like, I just cannot do this right now. Because I didn't plan the entire month beforehand. So then you get I would get into this cycle of frustration, because I didn't want to work. But shame because I knew I had to work. And then I felt it was just all of this ball of emotion. But what if instead of getting to the point where it feels like your only option is to throw in the towel. What if you gave your space time to lay on the towel every day or every month? Right? Like you just give yourself that breathing room.
Mary Harcourt 31:28
So we talked about your business, how you started all of this stuff? Let's take it back off from the start. And what challenges have you had along the way that makes you the entrepreneur that you are today.
Alexis Greco 31:40
One of the things that comes to mind. And I had mentioned to this to you before I remember being in leadership at one point in my network marketing company. And so if that's an unfamiliar space to you, I was the one who was leading the weekly meetings, training the consultants teaching them how to sell teaching them how to recruit, because I was the top 1%. And there was a season in my business that I no longer had that title. And so the next week that that came around, I had the option to one, not show up to the meeting, because I wouldn't be the one up front or show up. And so I sucked up my pride. And I showed up at that meeting. And instead of leading it, I sat in the audience. That was probably one of the most challenging times of my entrepreneurial life, because everyone saw me sit down and not sit up front. And so I knew that their eyes were on me. But I also knew this is okay to sometimes take a step back, I had to swallow my pride. And I relearned how to continue to be humble as a leader. And it really gave me a unique perspective, because I went from leadership to being quote in the crowd of people. And I got to see what it was like, again. So when I stepped back into leadership, I was able to bring those lessons and what I had learned from that and just share those with the women in my community. And you
Mary Harcourt 33:14
said before earlier, sometimes you have to slow down to speed up. Do you feel like sitting down and being a part of the audience is what made you want to kind of pivot and take leadership in your own company?
Alexis Greco 33:27
At that moment? No, but it was one of those moments that I thought, hmm, there's something to this. And I realized, I did not like being told to sit down because I knew what was inside of me. So it was one of those moments where I had to lean in it was hard in that. But I also realized, I want to be the one that is 100% in charge of my own deal. I had no idea what that would look like because that was several years ago. But I'm actually just making the connection as you said that that Yeah, like that was one of the moments where I thought this will not be again, I will be the one to call the shots.
Mary Harcourt 34:12
And I think it's so interesting. Sometimes your biggest pivots in life come from a pain point. And you don't know what at the time because our hurts and you're going through and experiencing it. But you can look at that time in retrospect and be like, Oh, that really did happen for a reason I was meant to do more and look at you now you're out encouraging all of these women and business owners to have balance in their life and career. So it was all meant to be. So you have a quiz that calculates how much money we left on the table. Tell me about this. And then how do people find that quiz?
Alexis Greco 34:47
Okay, so the reason I developed this you can find me on Instagram. It's Alexis T Greco and it's just in my bio there. It's a free 62nd quiz. This is why I developed it to tell you how much money you're leaving on the table below. cuz I have been around enough female entrepreneurs, that we may say things like, Oh, I just got in business to buy a new pair of shoes or do this and we say it so gently. I know behind most women, you're like, I'm ready to bring the money and fill it up, right? Like, I'm here to make a profit. And so I knew that speaking to women in terms of money, particularly entrepreneurial women, that can flip the switch for us, when I can show you that you are missing $20,000 a year, because you are not slowing down to take time and figure out what rhythms work for you, that's going to catch your attention. And my goal, like we shared in the beginning, is that you would know you have the capability to do these dreams that you have to run these thriving businesses. And if it takes a free quiz, to get catch your attention and be like, listen, listen, all you need to do is these few things. And it can change the game for you. It's worth it. So that was my mentality behind creating it, but it's just linked in my Instagram bio. And it will rank you on where you are in having your rhythm and it will calculate for you how much money you are leaving on the table.
Mary Harcourt 36:19
I love that. And we brought this up before but I'm just gonna read bring it because it's such a good point is your automate, delegate and eliminate and coming from personal experience, I started as a solo esthetician where it was just me and I swept the floors and did the laundry and booked all these appointments via text message and all of that. And it really like going back to the booking system, it really did take make a difference when all of a sudden I got a booking system, it really did make a difference. When I had a whole cleaning crew come in and clean my salon once a week, it really did make a difference. When I realized I wasn't effectively working on Instagram, I was scrolling, not posting. And you start to see what you can eliminate what you can delegate what you can automate. And it does take some time slowing down to get all of those in line. But you almost can't scale sustainably without doing that. So I've right on board, I want to take your quiz. I'll take it after we do and see but it's such a great topic to talk about. And I think we as women, we are service providers and almost kind of sit back and want everyone to be happy forgetting that we also have a business and a family to take care of. And we need to make all of those ends meet and make sure we're taking care of ourselves as well. So it's a lot to balance and juggle. But you know, it's been great to talk to you. I feel like you have a lot of input on this. And everyone should go take your quiz, follow you on Instagram, say hi. And just check in because you have a lot to offer. Do you have a business, you're on these podcasts, you're helping women, your goal is to help others find rhythm in the business. But what is the meat and potatoes when someone signs on to work with you?
Alexis Greco 37:50
So my signature program that I have is called my signature program. It's an eight week foundational course. And so when women come into that we work through your home and your business, and how do we get them to work together in a way that they complement each other. And everyone comes in with different scenarios, different situations in both of them. And so I'm able to work with those women in a group setting, but teach them okay, this is going on in your life. What if we tried this? What if we tried that and it is designed to give you that foundation to give you the building blocks to get the foundation of your home to get the plywood up in the driveway poured and the sheet rock on to know. Alright, this is what it's going to take to create a life in rhythm. And so I walk with you through that to get you started.
Mary Harcourt 38:43
I love that and is it just a course? Or do you also offer private one on one coaching and classes you can go through? Or is it primarily the eight week course that you offer? So that's
Alexis Greco 38:52
a great question. It's primarily the eight week course that I offer. Now occasionally I do open up one on one availability of coaching with my students who are in the program. And the reason for that is because I know they have their foundation solid. So we are able to kick it into high gear and really make it worth their while in those sessions. Awesome.
Mary Harcourt 39:15
And then what would you say is the biggest struggle that people coming to you and taking your course are facing.
Alexis Greco 39:21
The number one word that I hear from women is overwhelm. I'm overwhelmed. I've had one woman described it to me. She said I feel like I'm in the ocean with no life vest in sight. But another woman said it feels like Monday turns to Friday every single week and I have no idea what happened. And so that is how most women connect with me. And if what you're coming to my Instagram page for or my course whatever that looks like is perfection. I am not your girl. That's not what I'm teaching here but I am teaching you how to weave together these seemingly insignificant things. that will hold up the things that are important to you, the way your home runs the way your business is growing, because together it really it can be a reality.
Mary Harcourt 40:10
And so what do people say after they've gone through your course,
Alexis Greco 40:13
a lot of women do see an increase in their income. So I had one woman, she sells a product and she went from around $1,700 A month after working together for five months, she was seeing upwards of $9,000 in personal sales a month, so she more than quadrupled. We have an incredible network of women. So just like you said, like we're in this to make a profit, there is something special about female entrepreneurs in the way that we support each other. I had a mom of four who's a full time hairstylist, her husband works crazy hours, she said, every day, I use these simple systems, and they just bring such peace. They just bring such calm to our every day. And that is what does it for me whether you have children or not, I know that if I have the opportunity to teach you something, even here on this podcast, or on my Instagram, and it can create this ripple effect. I do not underestimate what that can do for children, and for team members. And where that can go like it gives me chills to think about that. So that's what women usually say,
Mary Harcourt 41:28
I love that and circling back, what would you say your biggest piece of advice to women in the situation that feel a little overwhelmed is if I was sitting
Alexis Greco 41:37
in a coffee shop across from you, Mary and you were like, I just can't Alexis Monday turns to Friday. I'm just overwhelmed. I would lean in and I would lock eyes with you. And I would just say I get it. I know. I know it feels like that. And I can't tell you that everything is going to get better. But what I can tell you is that step by step, there is a way so that not every day has to feel like this. There is a way to do it. And that's what I work with women on.
Mary Harcourt 42:07
And now would you say the starting starting point of that is just going back to figuring out what you don't love doing in your jaw in your work in your home life what you love doing, setting up systems, automating it delegating what's not working for you, and then eliminating what's just causing you to be a little heavy weighted.
Alexis Greco 42:27
The order will depend on the client. But the very first thing I encourage you to do is get up in that hot air balloon is to figure out what are your intentions? What are your priorities, and we need to make sure that what you're doing on an everyday basis is aligning with that.
Mary Harcourt 42:44
That wraps up today's episode. For more information on our guests. You can find them at Mary harcourt.com under the episodes tab. You can always find me on Instagram at Mary Harcourt underscore and at the Cosmo glowlight I hope you enjoyed today's episode and many more to come
Welcome to Ready Set, blow a podcast where I interview the person behind the brand. We're going to talk about what it took to get started, and the lessons learned along the way, and the advice we have for you on your own journey. I'm your host, Mary Harcourt, founder and CEO of Cosmo glow. Today, we're hanging out with Alexis, she has taught over 1000 female entrepreneurs all across the world, how to use systems to create a thriving home and business of their dreams. It's a life in rhythm. Today, she'll be sharing some tips for automation, and how to set yourself up for success in your home and work. Let's get started.
All right, today I have Alexis and she comes to us from the rhythmic home. You truly believe that there can be a rhythm between your home and business? You have my attention? Tell us? What is rhythm? And how do we add more of its our lives?
Alexis Greco 1:02
Yes, rhythm is what I teach women how to do specifically Women in Network Marketing is who I work with. And I teach them and show them how you can be successful in both home and business at the same time. So it's a it's a rhythm, it's a cadence, it's a flow, it's a way that you do things. So you can be present in both areas when you need to be.
Mary Harcourt 1:26
And especially as entrepreneurs, it tends to be a lot that you're taking on without a predetermined clock out time and clock in time. And there's a lot of run over. When it comes to just you know, entrepreneur and finding that rhythm in your life. There was a really cool thing that you said prior to the US recording, I want to bring it up because I thought it was so touching. And we asked what your goal of the show was. And you said I want to add a spark of encouragement to move the needle in someone else's business.
Alexis Greco 1:56
I love to specifically speak to the woman you may feel that weight of how am I supposed to do at all, I have a business goal I'm trying to meet, I haven't figured out what dinner is yet my husband still doesn't have folded clean underwear because we haven't done laundry you know, in three weeks, my hope is that after these few minutes together, that you can walk away with something tangible, some meat and potatoes at least a first step to go in the direction of your rhythm. Because what I teach is not perfection, and my rhythm is going to look so different than yours, Mary or someone else who's listening. But that you can start to find that flow of doing things in a way that you truly can honor your priorities in your values. And you can also be successful in your business at the same time.
Mary Harcourt 2:49
So where do we start with that, where's like step number one in predetermine how we can get these rhythms, the flow, adjust to it all and make it all work.
Alexis Greco 2:59
I was just talking with someone on an Instagram live right before we recorded this. And I gave the example of just imagine that you are in a corn maze. And it's thick, and there's all these things going on. And you can't really tell you're right from your left. And if that's what you feel like you're in the thick of it, you're in the overwhelm of trying to get everything done. Imagine that you hop into a hot air balloon, and you lift above the field and you can see then everything that's going on. And so if that's where you want to start, you're like I want to know how do I find rhythm, you first need to get some perspective, you first need to take an aerial view, if you will, of your cornfield of everything that's going on. Because then you can look at everything and say, Okay, this piece of the puzzle is here, this piece of the puzzle is here. Let's move this let's take this off the table. And then once you see how you want things to look ideally, from a higher perspective, you can get down on the ground in the nitty gritty in the day to day things and start to figure out what that looks like. And so your tangible strategy your meat and potato for Okay, so how do I get in a hot air balloon? I believe it's by getting everything out of your mind, onto paper. And I mean, everything personal, professional and in between. So you can look at things in a black and white perspective. And then you can make the decision on how you need to move forward.
Mary Harcourt 4:28
I love that. I mean, I'm the first to say when I feel overwhelmed and I just can't catch up and feel like I can't catch a breath. The first thing I do is make a list of like what am I stressed out about? What am I trying to accomplish? Because when you feel like there's so many things, so many things, many things, it's taking up all your energy, but you're not making any forward progress. And so getting that all out I can be the first person to attest to and say it really does help because then you can come up with a plan of action like what really needs to get done today. What can get done next week. What can wait until I just have a free day and what slight precedent is going to be something I could take care of every single day. And I'm going to add that into my calendar and schedule.
Alexis Greco 5:05
Yeah, that's so true. And I think it's something we usually do, right? We feel overwhelmed. So we grab a sticky note or grab a piece of paper and we get everything out on paper, right, you write your list, you might even number it, what's the first thing you need to do? What's the next thing you need to do? Something that I work with my clients on, and I teach specifically, in my little corner of the internet, what I talk about, I call it a mental walk. And so let's say you do get everything out on paper, right, you're like, Okay, feels good. I can't say for sure. But there probably are other things happening in your mind that you are still thinking of as tasks to do as things that need to happen. And so I'd encourage you to take a mental walk after you get everything out on paper, you're like, Alright, I think I got it all. If you work from the home, I'd encourage you to mentally walk the interior perimeter of your home. And so maybe you start in your kid's bedroom, you're not actually in their bedroom, you're just thinking through it, and you walk through the perimeter of the room, and you're going, Okay, we're going into summer time, I need to pull the winter clothes out, I need to put summer clothes in, you don't go into it, you write it on the list. And then you write we need to buy a second set of sheets, because we have guests coming into town that are going to stay on the bunk bed, you write that down and walk through your entire home that way. And the reason is, is because then you will truly, truly get everything out of your mind. And onto paper. I always share its you know, those moments, you're in the shower, and you have that genius idea, especially if you're a serial entrepreneur, and you're always thinking of these things to do or ways to make your business better. I believe one of the reasons those things happen in the shower or when you're just driving is because you actually have a chance to breathe. Mentally, you actually have a chance to think
Unknown Speaker 6:56
it's a very good point, I feel like shower thoughts are so crystal, they're so organic,
Mary Harcourt 7:01
they're so you're just in there, having some hot water, I turned mine as hot as I can sound like a little lobster. And then I'm finally kind of like oh my god, this, this, this, that and the other and then I'm kind of like ready for my day because I just got started with all these ideas in my head. But it truly is getting you to a place where you can categorize and have these thoughts of hey, how are we going? What's our plan of action? What's next? What are we doing, versus trying to go at it blindly without that calm? Sometimes you can't access like what the next thought process would be? What systems do people need for small businesses, the self employed for running a home? And then how do we start them?
Alexis Greco 7:39
If I were to talk from a high level, what systems do you need? I would say, What things can you automate in your business? What things can you delegate? And what things can you eliminate. So let's say you look at your list and you realize, oh, these four things, I don't really need to do them to move the needle in my business, you could just eliminate those off your list or you could delegate them. But delegation and automation is a really great place to start. And even if you don't have the budget to hire someone, you can use your Gmail account and you can actually schedule emails for free. So if you are someone in your business, you're consistently sending emails, you could schedule those for free. I like to use a service called Project broadcast. skipio is another similar one like that. You can it's like 10 to $15 a month. So it's a very low entry level. But let's say you like to wish your clients a happy birthday. And that's just important to you. But it always slips through the cracks. Because you know, life, you could go on there, record a voicemail, and then schedule that to every single one of your clients on their birthdays, you record the voicemail one time, and they use. Yes, yes. So like in Project broadcasts, you schedule it as a voicemail template. So it could sound something like hey, it's Alexis, Mary, I just wanted to wish you a happy birthday. Listen, I like doing birthday week. So I don't know about you, but I just want you to and I was thinking about you today, etc, etc. Save that in your voicemail template. And then you can go through and schedule that to all your clients, to your team members to whoever or you could hire someone to schedule it for you. And you know that for the next quarter or a year, whatever. Every single one of your people were hear your voice on their birthday. That's a very tip of the iceberg system that you could do to live out your priorities. If it is a priority for you to make people feel important, but it just gets lost in the shuffle. Sometimes, you can now keep it a priority and focus on the other things that do really move the needle in your business.
Mary Harcourt 9:49
Okay, so I'm so impressed by that. I'm like mind blown. I didn't even know about that. And I consider myself half techie. So I'm already impressed when I set that up. But what else do you have? I like what more can we do? Because that was so good, you have to have a whole stash of these little tidbits.
Alexis Greco 10:05
This is another scheduling thing. And we'll stick on the project broadcast because it's fresh in my mind, if I am talking with a customer, and let's say she says, Oh, I can't do XYZ right now, because I have knee surgery next week. You know, I, as as we finish our conversation, I will schedule a message right then for her to go to her next Tuesday and say, Hey, Mary, I'm just checking up on you, how was your knee surgery doing? And I think androids might have a capability to do that iPhones do not. But you can use project broadcast like that, to create that kind of system. You may or may not be familiar with Calendly, those who are listening. So that's a way you can schedule, you know, appointments, sessions, parties, whatever with your clients. And if you are struggling to know what you need to talk about on social media, like you're like, I don't know what my people want to hear. Or maybe you want to set up a master class a webinar, and you just are not sure exactly what's going to hit with your people in the industry, if you will, behind the curtain, those things are called pain points, right? What are your ideal clients struggling with? So you can talk about them? Well, let's circle this back around to Calendly. In the questions that you ask them, right name, email, phone number, ask them their pain points. Now, you're not going to say what are your pain points, but what you are going to say is, let's say I sell skincare, Mary, what's one of your biggest struggles that you have with skincare, she's going to fill it out for you. Or you're going to say if you had the best skin in the world, how would that make you feel, and she's going to fill that out for you. So let's say you have 10 people come to that webinar or 20 people come to that master class Calendly will take all of those answers, populate them onto a spreadsheet. And you now have 10 to 20 topics to talk about, you know what your people are interested in. Not to mention the fact that Calendly will also send multiple reminder emails or texts, and they will send a follow up email for you. So if you bring these people to your master class, and you want to invite them to join your program, or to purchase your product, in the follow up email, you could say, Mary, it was so great to have you here today. Here's the link I mentioned at the end of our event tonight, please let me know what questions you have. I'll be in touch with you. So in one fell swoop of sending someone a calendar link, you're not only building your email list, your text list, because we know social media is a rented platform, right? It could be taken away at any day, you do not own that information. So you are now building your email list building your phone number list, you're collecting pain points, you're collecting topics to say hey, would you love to have skin that feels so clear that you can go to the pool without makeup on? You now know this because Mary told you this. And it's reminding people it's following up with them. I mean, I could, I could nerd out even more on Calendly. But those are the systems that you can use in your business. Okay, so let's talk repurposing content. This is something that can be so beneficial no matter if you sell a product or a service. But if you find yourself going, I don't know what to post today. I don't know what to talk about today, you can always pull from your Calendly pain points. But let's say you did a training on Zoom or with your team or you did a masterclass. If you are strategic in that one, you record it but then you also turn the transcript on that transcript, you could then pull quotes from it to be quote, graphics, you could pull sections of it to be an email, you could pull set bigger chunks of it to be a blog, you could screen record some parts of it to upload as an IG TV or upload as a real or upload as your stories. And so I you just took one hour, shall we say at a normal zoom that you already have scheduled? And you just produced enough content for a quote graphic, a blog, a set of emails and igtv reels, I mean five or six things. So think through how can you repurpose what you're already doing. You can stretch it out and make it go so so far.
Mary Harcourt 14:44
I love that. Um, we do quite a bit of that as well. And it is once you get the hang of it. It feels so foreign at first because you're like okay, I feel like I'm just copy pasting, copy pasting. But you're, you're editing it for us. It's like a little if it's more sentence heavy that we use it on LinkedIn. If it's more just a statement, we're gonna go to Twitter. And all of a sudden you're on all these platforms. And it wasn't like you logged into each one of the platforms and recreated like, you're sitting there today going, what am I going to talk about today, I have to come up with a statement. It was all there. And it's so easy once you grasp it and get the hang of it. So I do encourage everyone to repurpose content and make it go way further, because you are already doing it the first time. And it can go so far. So we talked about systems, what kind of how they work, but how do we create them?
Alexis Greco 15:32
Well, one of the things I alluded to before was, you know, my rhythm is not going to be the same as yours, yours will not be the same as mine. So if you're thinking, Okay, this sounds great, but what do I start with? How do I begin with this, what I would encourage you to look at is become aware of areas in your business or in your home, that there are points of tension, that there are points of friction. So a story that I like to share is three of my four kids all what they love orange juice first thing in the morning, and I love being a mom, but I'm not a morning mom, like I'm not up in there cooking breakfast and doing all that. And so each morning, they would go Mommy, can we have orange juice? Mommy, can we have orange juice? And they would ask me, because they're not old enough to get it? Yeah, they're little. And when you have multiple of that, it became a point of tension for me. So the way I discovered that rhythm, that system was I now feel their orange juice cups the night before. So they're in the fridge, they can open it, and they can get it right away. So you can do the same thing with your business. Where are points of friction? Where are points of tension, do you always find that you drop the ball on following up with people to confirm an appointment, and then ends up being a no show. So you can look at that and say, that's where I need to start, I need to start with a system there or rhythm there. So you can certainly use you know what we're talking about. But look at your own business, look at your own home, see where there's some sandpaper going on, and then work around that to create a rhythm.
Mary Harcourt 17:09
I love I'm gonna go back to booking system because that's such a, like focal point. I think anyone in the beauty industry and probably anyone that has a business that requires a service where you're going and filling out somebody occupies that hour of your life. Event booking system is so recommended because we've all started from nothing. And if you guys are there right now, and you're just getting out of esthetician school, you just went out on your own, and you're thinking that you can handle it. That's great for now. But the goal is to get busy, right. And so you want to get as busy as you can as fast as you can. And the best way to do it is use of booking system going back to what you said before automate, it helps you automate your life because now you can send somebody a link and say, Hey, book yourself in instead of saying, What are you looking for? What's the services? How much do you charge? How long is the service? What's your address? Do you have free parking, just send them the link and all of that on there. And once they're in there, for the first time they've met you, they enjoyed their service, you can pre book them. But if they say, Hey, I have a busy life, I just don't have my calendar in front of me, I have to look at my kids schedule, you can send them home and say I'm gonna send this to you and your email. And when you get home just rebook the next appointment. And if you find a time that works for you go ahead and book the next two or three, because my schedule does fill up. And all of a sudden, you took all of those little text messages that you would have spent talking to your client, and let's be real, it's usually early in the morning or late at night, when you're finally getting done with clients and wrapping up your day, you go and sit down and get back to everybody. And you can just eliminate all of that by giving yourself a booking system and letting your client go in there and book themselves for and you might have to walk them through the first time. But after the first or second time, they should be able to take care of themselves and you just automated that part of your life. So a booking system is so helpful and easy, and usually pretty affordable, that I do encourage anyone to get a booking system.
Alexis Greco 19:02
And I think if I can add just a little something depending on the type of system that you have, you could because yes, I think you should say hey, I'm going to email this to you check when you get home that type of situation. You could even back it up a step farther, because if they have 1000 emails or they don't check their email, often you could set up a key word where you could say, Listen, all you need to do is text the word schedule to my business line and it will automatically send back your link that does everything that Mary just mentioned. So if it's a Tuesday morning, and she's like I need to come in and have XYZ service done. You have now trained her I use that term loosely but you've trained her to go oh, let me text the word schedule. It'll automatically send back the link. So you as the professional you're probably still working with another client offering another service, but you can have this automation working for you in the background. So I love it. Everything you just said,
Mary Harcourt 20:01
Yeah, I love that as well, if they want to do a you got a tech or tech schedule, too. How would they set that up? Is that something through their booking platform? Is that a Google thing?
Alexis Greco 20:11
Well, I don't know, every booking platform out there. But if you do use a texting service that has the capability for keywords, I mean, honestly, you can also use if you book people through Instagram, there is a program called many chat, and you can it's a paid service, it's pretty inexpensive, but you could set that up. So they DM you the word schedule, it automatically sends back your link. So you set up what you want it to say. But you could say, Hey, this is Mary's Instagram bot Assistant, here's the link to schedule, let me know if you have questions. So they could be DMing you at two o'clock in the morning, or on a Friday afternoon when you're working with other clients, but it's still working in the background for you, you could do both a key word in many chat.
Mary Harcourt 20:56
I absolutely. I love that. And definitely use the text message feature. It's, you know, some people I don't want to spam you a little text message to remind you of your appointment is never going to be seen as spam. If it is they can take themselves off. But I can't tell you how many times I have it on my calendar to go to lashes at 330. And it's in my head, I purposely didn't put makeup on I know I'm going to get lashes and all sudden it's like 245. And I always get a text that's like we have an appointment. I'm always, oh my god, oh my God, and it was on my calendar, I put my day based around going to that appointment. But somehow if I didn't get that reminder, I would have worked right through it because I get so invested into what I'm doing that at that time. So when you turn these little text messages on, they become so helpful. And that cuts down on all of your nose shows or hey, I'm running late, or I totally forgot. And I'm 15 minutes away, can you still take me moments. And that adds more automation to your life. So definitely turn on the text messages as well. All right, well, the name of the show is Ready Set glow. What can someone do now in their business to set them up for success later?
Alexis Greco 22:00
There is a quote that says sometimes you have to slow down to speed up. And I always use that as my foundation. And so if I was in a one on one conversation with someone, I'd ask you, where do you want to go? Like, where are your goals, and then set your rhythms up around that. And so one of the things you can do, just like you mentioned, like, yes, you might be going back and forth with people right now. But that's not how you scale. And so if you start to think big picture of well, I want to be booked with clients from sunup to sundown, whatever you want that to look like, how do you grow that? And so let's say that is what you want to do you want to have, you know, nine, I don't know, eight to six full of clients, well then thinking, Okay, well, if I'm gone that much with my clients, what other things need to be happening in the background, and you could even talk about your home, maybe that looks like you start interviewing for a housekeeper to see how much it is for someone to come clean your house. I have something I call her my home assistant. She is kind of similar to a mother's helper, but she will come in and she will fold our laundry, unload our groceries, prep our food. So you do have to think business. But also remember, you are the common denominator between your personal and your professional life. So you can have things killing it on the business side. You also want to give yourself that benefit on your personal life too. So just think, do I need to hire help? Do I need to automate things on the home side to get me to where I want to go?
Mary Harcourt 23:38
Absolutely. And that was one of my first lessons when I had a salon I would work 1011 12 hour days. And it was always like I would give myself a day off. But then that day off became Oh, now I have to go to the groceries and do laundry all day and clean floors and straighten up and do all this stuff. And I was so exhausted that it was the same as not getting a day off. And I did the math and realize that I work enough hours to let someone come into my house and they did our laundry and they cleaned our house and they clean better than I could ever clean. Let's be real, but they were so appreciative when they're becoming like great lifelong friends. Because they were that's what they enjoy doing. They're coming to work every day doing what they love. And cleaning is not what I love. I love doing episode lashes and running a salon. And it added so much balance into my life to be able to outsource that and they did a much better job than I ever would. So I would definitely encourage everyone to do the math on that and figure for me I used to always say I would much rather go lash all day long because that was my happy place. I can hang out with my clients and talk and we can listen to the radio all day or podcast and I can have a great quality of life by outsourcing that. So it truly does come back to looking and seeing what you can outsource.
Alexis Greco 24:50
You're going to work one way or the other. You just have the opportunity to decide how am I going to work am I going to do lashes or am I going to clean toilets you get to decide
Mary Harcourt 25:00
Exactly. And I think it's so important to to figure out what you love doing. I mean, the girls that were at my house, they love cleaning, they would reorganize my closet, they had their music on, they sing, I come home, and they'd be laughing. I mean, that's what they love to do. And I love not being able to do they're not having to do that. So it's taking an inventory on your life and figuring out where you can get the most happiness from. Um, so let's talk about that, too. It's super common in the beauty industry to get overworked and kind of just burnt out what advice do you have for people who feel like they're having they hit like a lull in their business?
Alexis Greco 25:35
Again, this is going to be something that I feel will be different for everyone. But if you feel yourself if you're already there, or maybe you feel that coming on, you know, that feeling, you're like, I'm starting to feel tired, or I'm getting a little bit more snappy, you know, like, you can feel it coming on. One of the practices that I love to recommend to my clients is to just keep track of two things. And that is one, where did you light up today? So just, it could be in a note in your phone, it could be in your journal, whatever you want it to look like, where was something that happened today that you were like, I could do that for the rest of my life. And never, you know, regret that. So where did you light up today? And also, where did you lean in? Where did you have to be like, Oh, I do not want to do this. But I have to do it anyway, type of situation. And the reason you can, the reason I recommend you doing that is because after a couple of days, or a couple of weeks, or a couple of months of doing that, you can look back and see, every time I do XYZ task, I hate it every time I do that. And so then it doesn't become this reactive to I'm burned out, I don't know what to do. I guess I can't do this anymore. You then are in the driver's seat to be proactive about it and say, You know what, I know that every time I do XYZ task, it ends up burning me out. So what can I do moving forward to not have to do that anymore?
Mary Harcourt 27:02
Yeah, absolutely. That's great advice. I love that. So tell us a little bit about your business, you have the business of the rhythm in the home, or rhythmic home, I should say, what do you do? And how did you come to owning your own business?
Alexis Greco 27:15
So I work with female entrepreneurs, and I help them find rhythm and their home and their business, I really believe you can be successful in both areas. And I don't mean like, Oh, that's so cute. I mean, like, you can create a thriving, thriving business, and, like, still be a great wife, and still be a great mom and a great friend. And so how that came about was I had spent 15 years in network marketing. And I noticed as I moved into leadership, and I started leading meetings, speaking at Fall retreats, going on conference calls, training all of these women, women would come to me afterwards and go like, how do you do that? Like, how do you have all these kids and your husband travels. And please be sure it is not because I imperfect, because I have so many flaws. But I realized I looked back and I had a systematic way of doing things, I would start the dishwasher and start the washer and then sit down to work for 30 minutes. So by the time I was done, they were done. You know that sound of productivity was something I made sure I was doing, I would make the orange juice the night before, I would schedule voicemails to my clients. And it when you take these little things because they seem as an individual, they almost are insignificant. But when you begin to weave them together, they create this support system, or what I call the rhythm to get you through those seasons that might be more challenging than the others. And so here we are today, now I get to talk about it. And I could do this all day long, and I would never get tired
Mary Harcourt 28:58
of it. Which is what makes for the best entrepreneur or you found your passion. You found something that makes you happy. This is what you love doing. You're clearly a striver, you've been top 1% And a lot of your companies, what is the secret for hitting goals that you feel like really worked in your life?
Alexis Greco 29:16
This is so funny. This is the third time this has come up in conversation in the past 24 hours. I would say one of the top three reasons as to why I'm able to hit the goals that I'm hitting in my business is because I prioritize the time that I'm not working. For me that looks like if my kids are home and running about like I'm not working. I do not work weekends and I rarely work nights and it almost seems counterintuitive, but I prioritize what I call margin. It's the white space in your calendar. It's the breathing room, and I believe because I do that. I stay a sane mother. You know I I stayed as sane entrepreneur, I prevent that burnout because I give myself the time that I need to not be on to be off. And I think that is probably one of the top things that has contributed to my success.
Mary Harcourt 30:15
I love that. I mean, everyone needs off time. And I definitely notice in my life, but I don't give myself enough of that it suffers. And I almost like snap like a rubber band where it's like, okay, no, no, I'm just, I meant to work tonight. But I can't even I don't even have the energy because I'm just burnout. And I'm going to take this night to recharge, where I think what you're seeing is a little bit more if you plan for a backup, then you hit burnout, a lot less. Yes. Because
Alexis Greco 30:39
imagine I've been there when I think the day goes sideways. And I'm just like, I'm just gonna get everything done tonight. And that month's income goal, that month's profit goal hinges on me working that night. And then I get to that night, and I'm just not there. I'm just like, I just cannot do this right now. Because I didn't plan the entire month beforehand. So then you get I would get into this cycle of frustration, because I didn't want to work. But shame because I knew I had to work. And then I felt it was just all of this ball of emotion. But what if instead of getting to the point where it feels like your only option is to throw in the towel. What if you gave your space time to lay on the towel every day or every month? Right? Like you just give yourself that breathing room.
Mary Harcourt 31:28
So we talked about your business, how you started all of this stuff? Let's take it back off from the start. And what challenges have you had along the way that makes you the entrepreneur that you are today.
Alexis Greco 31:40
One of the things that comes to mind. And I had mentioned to this to you before I remember being in leadership at one point in my network marketing company. And so if that's an unfamiliar space to you, I was the one who was leading the weekly meetings, training the consultants teaching them how to sell teaching them how to recruit, because I was the top 1%. And there was a season in my business that I no longer had that title. And so the next week that that came around, I had the option to one, not show up to the meeting, because I wouldn't be the one up front or show up. And so I sucked up my pride. And I showed up at that meeting. And instead of leading it, I sat in the audience. That was probably one of the most challenging times of my entrepreneurial life, because everyone saw me sit down and not sit up front. And so I knew that their eyes were on me. But I also knew this is okay to sometimes take a step back, I had to swallow my pride. And I relearned how to continue to be humble as a leader. And it really gave me a unique perspective, because I went from leadership to being quote in the crowd of people. And I got to see what it was like, again. So when I stepped back into leadership, I was able to bring those lessons and what I had learned from that and just share those with the women in my community. And you
Mary Harcourt 33:14
said before earlier, sometimes you have to slow down to speed up. Do you feel like sitting down and being a part of the audience is what made you want to kind of pivot and take leadership in your own company?
Alexis Greco 33:27
At that moment? No, but it was one of those moments that I thought, hmm, there's something to this. And I realized, I did not like being told to sit down because I knew what was inside of me. So it was one of those moments where I had to lean in it was hard in that. But I also realized, I want to be the one that is 100% in charge of my own deal. I had no idea what that would look like because that was several years ago. But I'm actually just making the connection as you said that that Yeah, like that was one of the moments where I thought this will not be again, I will be the one to call the shots.
Mary Harcourt 34:12
And I think it's so interesting. Sometimes your biggest pivots in life come from a pain point. And you don't know what at the time because our hurts and you're going through and experiencing it. But you can look at that time in retrospect and be like, Oh, that really did happen for a reason I was meant to do more and look at you now you're out encouraging all of these women and business owners to have balance in their life and career. So it was all meant to be. So you have a quiz that calculates how much money we left on the table. Tell me about this. And then how do people find that quiz?
Alexis Greco 34:47
Okay, so the reason I developed this you can find me on Instagram. It's Alexis T Greco and it's just in my bio there. It's a free 62nd quiz. This is why I developed it to tell you how much money you're leaving on the table below. cuz I have been around enough female entrepreneurs, that we may say things like, Oh, I just got in business to buy a new pair of shoes or do this and we say it so gently. I know behind most women, you're like, I'm ready to bring the money and fill it up, right? Like, I'm here to make a profit. And so I knew that speaking to women in terms of money, particularly entrepreneurial women, that can flip the switch for us, when I can show you that you are missing $20,000 a year, because you are not slowing down to take time and figure out what rhythms work for you, that's going to catch your attention. And my goal, like we shared in the beginning, is that you would know you have the capability to do these dreams that you have to run these thriving businesses. And if it takes a free quiz, to get catch your attention and be like, listen, listen, all you need to do is these few things. And it can change the game for you. It's worth it. So that was my mentality behind creating it, but it's just linked in my Instagram bio. And it will rank you on where you are in having your rhythm and it will calculate for you how much money you are leaving on the table.
Mary Harcourt 36:19
I love that. And we brought this up before but I'm just gonna read bring it because it's such a good point is your automate, delegate and eliminate and coming from personal experience, I started as a solo esthetician where it was just me and I swept the floors and did the laundry and booked all these appointments via text message and all of that. And it really like going back to the booking system, it really did take make a difference when all of a sudden I got a booking system, it really did make a difference. When I had a whole cleaning crew come in and clean my salon once a week, it really did make a difference. When I realized I wasn't effectively working on Instagram, I was scrolling, not posting. And you start to see what you can eliminate what you can delegate what you can automate. And it does take some time slowing down to get all of those in line. But you almost can't scale sustainably without doing that. So I've right on board, I want to take your quiz. I'll take it after we do and see but it's such a great topic to talk about. And I think we as women, we are service providers and almost kind of sit back and want everyone to be happy forgetting that we also have a business and a family to take care of. And we need to make all of those ends meet and make sure we're taking care of ourselves as well. So it's a lot to balance and juggle. But you know, it's been great to talk to you. I feel like you have a lot of input on this. And everyone should go take your quiz, follow you on Instagram, say hi. And just check in because you have a lot to offer. Do you have a business, you're on these podcasts, you're helping women, your goal is to help others find rhythm in the business. But what is the meat and potatoes when someone signs on to work with you?
Alexis Greco 37:50
So my signature program that I have is called my signature program. It's an eight week foundational course. And so when women come into that we work through your home and your business, and how do we get them to work together in a way that they complement each other. And everyone comes in with different scenarios, different situations in both of them. And so I'm able to work with those women in a group setting, but teach them okay, this is going on in your life. What if we tried this? What if we tried that and it is designed to give you that foundation to give you the building blocks to get the foundation of your home to get the plywood up in the driveway poured and the sheet rock on to know. Alright, this is what it's going to take to create a life in rhythm. And so I walk with you through that to get you started.
Mary Harcourt 38:43
I love that and is it just a course? Or do you also offer private one on one coaching and classes you can go through? Or is it primarily the eight week course that you offer? So that's
Alexis Greco 38:52
a great question. It's primarily the eight week course that I offer. Now occasionally I do open up one on one availability of coaching with my students who are in the program. And the reason for that is because I know they have their foundation solid. So we are able to kick it into high gear and really make it worth their while in those sessions. Awesome.
Mary Harcourt 39:15
And then what would you say is the biggest struggle that people coming to you and taking your course are facing.
Alexis Greco 39:21
The number one word that I hear from women is overwhelm. I'm overwhelmed. I've had one woman described it to me. She said I feel like I'm in the ocean with no life vest in sight. But another woman said it feels like Monday turns to Friday every single week and I have no idea what happened. And so that is how most women connect with me. And if what you're coming to my Instagram page for or my course whatever that looks like is perfection. I am not your girl. That's not what I'm teaching here but I am teaching you how to weave together these seemingly insignificant things. that will hold up the things that are important to you, the way your home runs the way your business is growing, because together it really it can be a reality.
Mary Harcourt 40:10
And so what do people say after they've gone through your course,
Alexis Greco 40:13
a lot of women do see an increase in their income. So I had one woman, she sells a product and she went from around $1,700 A month after working together for five months, she was seeing upwards of $9,000 in personal sales a month, so she more than quadrupled. We have an incredible network of women. So just like you said, like we're in this to make a profit, there is something special about female entrepreneurs in the way that we support each other. I had a mom of four who's a full time hairstylist, her husband works crazy hours, she said, every day, I use these simple systems, and they just bring such peace. They just bring such calm to our every day. And that is what does it for me whether you have children or not, I know that if I have the opportunity to teach you something, even here on this podcast, or on my Instagram, and it can create this ripple effect. I do not underestimate what that can do for children, and for team members. And where that can go like it gives me chills to think about that. So that's what women usually say,
Mary Harcourt 41:28
I love that and circling back, what would you say your biggest piece of advice to women in the situation that feel a little overwhelmed is if I was sitting
Alexis Greco 41:37
in a coffee shop across from you, Mary and you were like, I just can't Alexis Monday turns to Friday. I'm just overwhelmed. I would lean in and I would lock eyes with you. And I would just say I get it. I know. I know it feels like that. And I can't tell you that everything is going to get better. But what I can tell you is that step by step, there is a way so that not every day has to feel like this. There is a way to do it. And that's what I work with women on.
Mary Harcourt 42:07
And now would you say the starting starting point of that is just going back to figuring out what you don't love doing in your jaw in your work in your home life what you love doing, setting up systems, automating it delegating what's not working for you, and then eliminating what's just causing you to be a little heavy weighted.
Alexis Greco 42:27
The order will depend on the client. But the very first thing I encourage you to do is get up in that hot air balloon is to figure out what are your intentions? What are your priorities, and we need to make sure that what you're doing on an everyday basis is aligning with that.
Mary Harcourt 42:44
That wraps up today's episode. For more information on our guests. You can find them at Mary harcourt.com under the episodes tab. You can always find me on Instagram at Mary Harcourt underscore and at the Cosmo glowlight I hope you enjoyed today's episode and many more to come