Hello, and welcome back to another episode of She’s Busy AF. Today’s topic was inspired by a book I read – so it’s called luckiest girl alive. They’re actually making it into a movie with Mila Kunis starring in it, Reese Witherspoon. I guess she bought the film rights, like before the book even hit the shelves, which I think is super cool. I’m very excited for this movie to come out, but I really feel like I’m the worst at, like, storytelling in terms of not giving you too much, that you would know everything that goes on in the book.

But I will say this, the girl in the book went to Catholic school at some point. So that is what inspired this whole episode, because there’s like one sentence in the book where she’s like “my Catholic school, like guilt Catholic guilt, Catholic work ethic, like really shown here.”

I was like, “Ooh, that’s a really good point.” I kind of always attributed my, at least what I feel is a strong work ethic, to just being the way I am. Having ambitious parents, always feeling ambitious, and taking on projects and everything. I didn’t realize that Catholic school probably had a lot to do with it until recently.

So I went to Catholic school. If I wasn’t clear by now on and off, I went to a couple different Catholic schools growing up, but they taught me a lot. I’ve (let me just say) been to every type of school – I’ve been to a boarding school, public school, private school, Catholic school, like you you name it? I’ve been there. We moved a lot when I was growing up and no, my dad was not in the military. My mom was not in the military.

My dad was just chasing better career opportunities, which is also really awesome. He’s in the restaurant industry and just kind of climbed the corporate ladder there. So we just went where dad took us, and a lot of times it was like trying out different schools, and maybe my parents felt like that because the areas we were in, Catholic school would be the better decision. I just went to a lot of different Catholic schools.

So besides the fact that I basically had to learn fashion as an adult because in Catholic schools and in private schools, you wear uniforms typically. So like what is fashion? I don’t know. I wore the same outfit every day. I know I struggled with fashion up until I think recently because I was able to stop and do some more research and look at things around me, and figure out that doesn’t actually look good, Lauren.

But I will say like if you went to Catholic school, you probably struggled with fashion too. And I would just love to hear that I’m not the only one, so let me know! But I really do attribute my work ethic to Catholic school. So I don’t know, maybe it’s something about the rigid structure and routine and it’s just carried through my entire life. I remember also guidance counselors being so involved in everyday schooling.

Mrs. Neman, I remember was one of my guidance counselors. I think it was like fourth and fifth grade. I’ll never forget her. She was super involved, but really what Catholic school instilled in me was integrity, honesty, discipline, fairness, and accountability. I just feel like Catholic school teachers care a little bit more. Having gone to all these different schools, I feel like I can say that. I’m sure in different areas of the country, public schools can be really great and like they could embody what a Catholic school teacher really is.

But once you’ve been to Catholic school, it’s really hard to know that. So these are all things I look back and, and I’m like, yeah, Catholic school taught me that. To most, these are kick-ass core values. You might be listening and thinking like, oh, like that’s something I cherish as well. These are things Catholic schools taught me. So to me, it’s what I see every successful business harnessing to some extent. In my opinion, the strongest recipe for a strong work ethic. Why am I talking about work ethic today? Why is that so, so, so important?

Businesses with a strong work ethic are, I believe, innately more successful. They do a better job of avoiding PR nightmares. They typically attract workers who are motivated and productive. They can help ensure long-term profitability, and ensure contractor and employee retention a little bit better because their work ethic works together and cohesively, like peanut butter and jelly, to catapults business success.

So look at it this way. Companies with poor work ethic are bursting at the seams with drama, miscommunication, a lot of like sh*t falling through the cracks. So with that being said, a lot of stuff falls through the cracks. I can look back at different corporate companies I worked for, and just based on like the drama, every day I went in, it was like, “oh God, who did what to who today?”

Those people are not possessing like a strong work ethic because they’re so focused on the drama, the day-to-day, the little things that are going on. They aren’t focusing on their work or the things that they need to be doing for their clients or to like continue to grow the business. They also typically do a terrible job of retaining loyal clients and customers.

Because of this, if there are organizational issues, they are not as hidden from your clients. As you might think, whether you are a solopreneur or whether you work for a corporate company with a huge team, or you’re somewhere in between – if there are issues, if there is tension, trust me, your clients, your customers, they notice. They see that, and a strong work ethic can help avoid this. So I have a couple of tips for you to develop a strong work ethic, or to further develop your work ethic to be a strong work ethic.

Stay Focused.

Number one, stay focused on the task at hand, both for your business and your clients. I like to do this by setting realistic timelines for work and be open about communicating those to my team and to my clients. Very, very important that you are completing the tasks at hand, deliverables that you have set out to complete. Whether you are a product-based business and you’re just shipping on time, or you are a service-based business and you are delivering certain things, make sure you are delivering it to the fullest extent to everything that you promised from start to finish.

Being Timely and Efficient.

With that being said, it’s a good segue into getting stuff done timely and efficiently. If you say you’re gonna do something by this timeframe, do it. If you don’t give a timeframe, which you should, whether you are in product or service, you need to be giving a timeline for completion or at least setting some expectations around when they can expect to hear from you, and do so timely and efficiently. If you cannot complete things on a timeline, just make sure you’re communicating with your client and telling them that.

If there’s gonna be a shipping delay, make sure you’re telling them that. If there’s going to be a delay because your grandmother died, or something happened and you have to push the project or someone else has to take it on, you need to be communicating that with your clients so that they know. A strong work ethic proves that.

Don’t be Late.

For the love of all things good. Don’t be late. That kind of goes hand in hand with being timely and efficient. But I’m talking about meetings. If you say you’re gonna be somewhere at a certain time, be 10 minutes early. Always trying to be early, I feel like there is such thing as too early. That’s like 15 to 30 minutes. Always be 10 minutes early. Always. It’s something that I’ve practiced my whole life.

If my mom’s listening to this, she may get upset, but my mom had a lot going on with me and my sister growing up and she wasn’t always timely. It was just something that I remember, being when I was younger, like those stick out to me. Those times that she was late to pick me up from school, really stuck out to me. It’s something I’ve carried through my life. But like I’ve been either right on time, or 10 minutes early, because you just never know what could happen. What hold up in a parking lot. There could be what technical difficulties you’re gonna have getting on zoom.

You just never know. So always plan to be at least 10 minutes early to where you’re supposed to be. While this world is ever-changing, professionalism really goes a long way. Emails are still very much a thing. Learn how to write one, learn how to respond to one. I am happy to give some free tips on this, if you are listening and you’re like, “Hey, I don’t know anything because I never worked in corporate America. What’s the best structure for an email, please advise.”

It’s like, you know, all these terms that you see on corporate America TikTok, but there is a structure to a good email. There’s a way to communicate well. There are certain things to bold, to underline, to comma. Knowing how to write a good email is really going to help your work ethic, and your business as well.

Practiced Professionalism.

And be professional, just be professional. Don’t curse around your clients. I mean, obviously, be yourself, but be professional in how you deal with them. You wouldn’t necessarily treat a client the same way you would treat your friend. You wouldn’t get mad at them. You wouldn’t say certain things. So just trying to exude professionalism with everything you do.

Maintain a Healthy Work Like Balance.

Lastly, probably the most important thing to a strong work ethic is the work-life balance in. There’s a really good reason for this. If you don’t have a strong balance, and I don’t necessarily believe that there is such thing as a pure harmonious life balance, I think it’s something you have to work at every day. I think every day even looks different, right? So, if you have a strong work ethic and you have a strong (what you feel in your heart is a good work-life balance) balance, then you won’t end up being resentful.

If you just work your butt off 24/7, you typically get to a place of like, what am I doing? I’m burning out. I don’t love this. Then it will bleed into all the other areas of your business, and how you deal with clients, and we do not want that. So take a break for me.

What that looks like is I take off Fridays for the most part. I really try and make those, make sure those days I’m not taking client meetings. I’m not taking client night calls Mondays and Fridays. And then during the week, that’s kind of when I load everything up so that I can ease into my week and ease into my weekend. This way I feel like I have a little bit more balance and structure, and can choose to do things on those days if I truly, truly want to.

If I’m tying this back to Catholic school because I know you’re probably like, “how does this relate to Catholic school?” There was a fall festival every year with, I mean, I think that’s just a thing with Catholic schools. They bring in the carnival, it’s like a fundraiser, there’s food, there are rides, there’s so much to do. I just feel like it was this fall festival that’s not really tied to Catholicism in a way that you would probably think.

But I really think it was their way of like breaking things up, loosening the mood, having a way for the kids to like come together and have fun and be kids, you know? The other way I like to look at this is “City’s Day.” So those were the random days that we were allowed to wear whatever we wanted to school. Obviously within guidelines, like we couldn’t risk spaghetti straps, and had to be tasteful, but it was our chance to not wear a uniform and come to school and just be a little free. I really loved that. I loved that about Catholic school and it really taught, it taught me that there needs to be a balance. You can’t just be strict and regimented and routine all the time. You need to be able to be flexible.

So to recap, here are my five tips for developing a strong worth work ethic. Number one, stay focused on the task at hand. Number two, make sure you’re getting things done timely and efficiently. Number three, don’t be late. Number four practiced professionalism. Number five- do not forget to create a work life balance.

So that’s it for today’s episode. If you’re watching on YouTube, please subscribe to my channel. If you liked this and want more weekly tips like this, leave a comment. And let me know if you identify, if you went to Catholic school, if you are listening on the podcast, same thing, shoot me a message on Instagram. I’d love to know if any of this relates to you. And if you went to Catholic school, what did Catholic school teach you about life? I’d love to hear it. So that being said, I will see you on the next episode of She’s Busy AF.