Permission to Indulge: A Holiday Message for You

This is the Entrepreneur School podcast where we believe you can run a thriving business and still make your family a priority. This show is all about supporting you the emerging or early stage Entrepreneur on your journey from solopreneur to CEO while wearing all of the other hats in your life. My name is Kelly Sinclair, and I'm a brand and marketing strategist who started a business with two kids under three. I'm a corporate PR girl turned entrepreneur after I learned the hard way that life is too short to waste doing things that burn you out on this show, you'll hear inspiring stories from other business owners on their journey, and learn strategies to help you grow a profitable business while making it all fit into the life that you want. Welcome to entrepreneur school.

Friends! Welcome to this special holiday episode of the podcast. If you're listening, in real time, it is Christmas Eve, I will be frantically finishing wrapping presents that I've been hiding in my closet for far too long, and getting ready to host family tonight. We have a tradition that we started back when we first became homeowners. In every year, we invite both my family and my husband's family over for appetizers and drinks, and it's one of my favorite family traditions. We have a lot of traditions. On Christmas Eve, kids will be getting new pajamas. We're doing matching with my niece for them. It's so cute, and basically, I'm just excited to enjoy what we've been preparing for for so long. I want to start by saying thank you for taking the time to tune in for a few minutes. This is going to be a short episode, because this is a very busy and chaotic time of year. I'm well, I'm back in another episode, my over committed December, but I've been seeing a lot of people really saying that, Oh my gosh, we're just doing so much like December. So Extra, extra commitments, extra errands, extra everything, like the school spirit days, dentist appointments before benefits run out, like holiday parties. Why did I participate in a cookie exchange again and make 10 dozen cookies sometime in between all of this? And it's just frantic, right? Shopping, all the things, if you're overwhelmed, you are not alone. And so this is a little gift to you this episode, a permission slip, if you will, to let go of the pressure and indulge in whatever brings you joy and enjoy the holidays on your own terms. December really has this way of making us feel like we have to do it all. There's this like invisible checklist of everything that we think that we need to do to make the season magical for everyone else. Elf on a Shelf, come on. Side note, my husband has become the elf master this year, and I am absolutely loving it. So nothing wrong with creating joy in traditions, right? But it can leave us feeling drained and even resentful sometimes, and that just sucks, because that's not the point of what we're doing. So I want to remind you, it's okay to feel tired. It's okay to feel like you've over committed. It's okay to admit that you need a break. And if you're hearing this, consider this your official holiday permission slip. Give yourself permission to indulge in whatever you need. Maybe it's wine and cookies by the fire, cheesy Christmas movies. Maybe it's bundling up and getting outside in the fresh air, carving out some space for family time, or sneaking away to get some moments to yourself. Whatever you like to do, have a bath, read a book, just leave the house and all the chaos or and maybe this is important too. I want you to think like maybe if you feel inspiration, you should. You could work, but do some work if it feels good, and not because you feel obligated, whatever feels indulgent, easy or comforting, go for it. The holidays are a time to give yourself what you need, just as much as you're giving to others. And I know we're very much putting out a lot at this time of year. So let me share a little bit of my plans. What I'm doing, essentially, I've managed to get myself three weeks off work. I think that's just because of the way where Christmas landed and the week. So I'm actually going to Mexico the first week in January, just me and my husband, adults only. Adults only resort. Nobody's kids screaming in a swimming pool. We did a lot of travel in 2024 and it was not restful travel. It was 30,000 steps a day. In Disneyland and in Britain, and we took our kids to both of those places, and they both had a birthday in a different destination, which they were very lucky kids. And so I said, Sorry, you're not getting on an airplane in 2025 and my husband and I are actually celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary this February. So I'm very glad that I have this trip planned. Sometimes it feels like I don't know should we go? Like, what do we want to do? It's hard because you have to arrange childcare and blah, blah, blah, but we're both very looking forward to it now, now that it's getting closer, so that's exciting, and in the meantime, I will be soaking up all of the holiday magic like my kids are on the tipping point of still believing in Santa, and I'm holding on to this as long as possible, because Santa is so special and important in my life, and it was one of the ways that my mom really showed up. So it's one of the ways that I feel really connected to her, being able to create that same kind of magic and experience for my kids. So I will be doing that and also eating all of the treats. I literally had a Christmas cookie for breakfast this morning, and they'll be drinking all the wine because I I like wine. Okay, I do. I probably will have cheese for dinner multiple times. I'll also try to get out to the mountains to do some hiking, and I'll hop on my peloton if I feel like I need to move and burn off some wine. I will also be sleeping in as much as possible. But really what I'm focused on is giving myself the space to recharge and let inspiration flow, because I know that when I do this clarity for my business in 2025 just comes in naturally. Usually, I'm the kind of person who likes to sit down and make a plan for the new year, and I've even hosted a planning workshop before, actually, for like, the last three years. But this year, I'm doing it differently. There will be no resolutions, no specific goal set by January 1. I'm embracing the flow, trusting that the right intentions will come to me when the time is right. And if you're feeling the same way, I encourage you to lean into that. There's really no rule book that says you have to have your entire year planned before the clock strikes midnight on December 31 so maybe January is the month for dreaming and easing into the year, and that is okay. So thank you again for being here with me, not just today, but throughout this entire year, I'm so grateful for this platform, for this community and the connection that we can create here. And my wish for you this holiday season is that you give yourself the grace to slow down, recharge and enjoy the things that bring you the most joy, whatever that looks like for you, I have one more episode planned for this year, and it is appropriately themed around debriefing 2024 so I'll be back in the feed in another week, and until then, I'm wishing you a holiday season full of magic indulgence and All the things that make your heart happy, Merry Christmas.

You did it. You just listened to another episode of the entrepreneur school podcast. It's like you just went to business school while you folded your laundry, prepped dinner or picked up your kids at school. Thank you so much for being here. I want to personally celebrate your commitment to growing your business. You can imagine I'm throwing confetti for you right now. If you enjoyed today's episode, please leave us a review. Make sure you're subscribed and let us know you're listening by screenshotting this episode and tagging us on Instagram. Head to entrepreneurschool.ca. For tons of tools and resources to help you grow your business while keeping your family a priority. You can subscribe to our email list and join our community and until next time go out there and do the thing.