Laura Kåmark
Hey everyone. Welcome to the Be Bold Make Waves Podcast, a show bringing you inspiring stories of women who are growing and scaling their business. I’m your host, Laura Kåmark, a website and tech integration specialist who works with online business owners who love their work and not their website. Join me as we have incredible conversations about business mindset, productivity, and of course, the website and tech behind the business. Let’s go ahead and dive in to this week’s episode. Hello, and welcome to today’s show. For those of you who don’t already know me, my name is Laura Kåmark. I’m a website and tech integration specialist who works with women who love their work, but not their website. I am so excited today because you know how somedays you feel like a superwoman like you can do all the things and still end the day completely energized. And yet, in just a few days later, getting out of bed completely deplete your body battery by half. And all you did was wake up, it leaves you wondering if you will ever find the consistency needed to grow a successful business. Entrepreneurs like us are realizing the importance of ditching the hustle. I’m so in favor of this, in order to build sustainable businesses without burnout. This is why I want to bring you guys my guest today, who is here to help us. She is on a mission to tackle the taboo and bring more flow into our lives as entrepreneurs. Tiffany, welcome to the show. I am so excited to have you today. Can you please share with everyone a little bit more about you and what you do?

Tiffany Souhrada
I am so excited to be here. Um, so I much like you started out in web design. Which actually brought me to burnout. Just I was I wanted to do everything perfectly, I wanted to be consistent and show up. My energy was not there. So it led to burnout. Probably about 18 months after launching my business I completely burned out could not take another client could not do anything. And I knew that there had to be a better way of doing this. So I’m kind of on the periphery of the coaches and the mentors that I was following was a who is now my mentor Sasha Washburn, who really talks about building a business in flow. And for me, that was like a huge lightbulb moment of wow, yeah, looking back, I could see that my energy at some times was really high, I could burn the candle on both ends. And then there were a couple of days each month that I wanted to take a nap in the middle of the day. But I wasn’t letting myself do that. So it took a little bit of time. But I really dived into that. And I realized how much support women need to ditch that hustle, mindset, but also really start to understand that our bodies, our cycles, our systems are very different than the masculine. And we have been brought up in a society that favors that masculine 24 hour androgen cycle. And that’s not what our cycle looks like. Our cycle is, for most of us a 28 day cycle. For some of us who are still menstruating, it’s a our menstrual cycle. For those of us who aren’t menstruating, we still see it with the moon cycle, or even just seasonal cycles, and really diving into that to really bring that energy to our businesses.

Laura Kåmark
Oh, I love that so much. It is something that has fascinated since I first heard about this whole, you know, having to to kind of tracking your energy levels with where you are in your cycle. So can you tell us a little bit like, if this is the audience’s first time kind of hearing about this, like where does someone start? Like how, what does this all mean?

Tiffany Souhrada
So the first thing to do, I mean, we’re all entrepreneurs or most of us are entrepreneurs. So we understand that what we track and measure gets improved. That’s what we can change. So very first step is tracking it, track your cycle, track your energy, track what you’re eating, tracking what you’re craving, because that’s going to help you smooth out your cycle. But also track what feels easy and when it feels easy. So I don’t know paper. What did you do today? Was it easy? Was it hard? Was it something that you procrastinated on? What was your like feeling of doing those activities in your business? Each phase of our cycle has different strengths, just like each season, you pull different things from those season that energy of those seasons, your cycles the same way.

Laura Kåmark
And so what are the different phases of our cycle.

Tiffany Souhrada
So there’s four phases, you have your menstrual phase, which is when you are actually bleeding when you actually have your period. And for for most women, that’s between three and four days, three and seven days, sorry. After that, you go into your follicular phase, which is a lot like spring, where you’re starting to come back your energies coming back. That is that phase where you your body is getting ready for you to ovulate. So getting ready for pregnancy, and then you hit ovulation. And that is like your peak energy. That’s your summer season. That’s where all you want to do is do. That’s your super woman phase. And then after that, when your body’s like, Oh, no pregnancy, where they go, you go into your luteal phase, which is that fall like you’re you’re heading back into winter of your menstrual phase. So your energy starts to go down. So that’s you’re really kind of that you’re starting to turn inward. That’s that phase where your energy starts to deplete. I also include in there a deep luteal phase, which is for most people, just most women just before their period starts. And for some of us, it’s like a brick wall where all of a sudden, you’re like, there’s no energy here. But that’s still like you’re still not quite at your, your period. But you’re almost there.

Laura Kåmark
Meeting. Yeah. So I years ago, tried to start tracking this on like my Google Calendar. But what happens like if my cycle kind of changes around a little bit, not necessarily every month, but sometimes it will switch? And I’m like, Oh, do I need to go update my Google calendar of like, where my tracking is, and have move it all around? Is that like, what’s kind of how does that work? So it does,

Tiffany Souhrada
like there’s it’s not black and white, each phase of your cycle is going to fluctuate a little bit, depending on your hormones and how your body is your body’s in a period of change, that might update it a bit. It’s not going to drastically change it until you really kind of get into that perimenopause phase where your period may get much longer or much shorter. Or if you’re in a phase of life, where you’re dealing with a lot of stress, because stress can definitely impact our periods. But for the most part, it’s, you know, within most women, it’s between 26 and 32 ish days. So understanding one your body, your energy going into it so that you can notice those changes before you hit that, oh, I’m three days early this month.

Tiffany Souhrada
Understanding like

Tiffany Souhrada
when when you over ovulate, knowing that in your cycle will really help you be able to adjust your plans instead of you know, adjusting them two weeks earlier, rather than when you actually get your period is helpful. But also just I think understanding that it’s not a perfect science. And your energy levels are going to fluctuate in general. But doing as much as you can to support yourself is where you know, watching what you’re eating, watching your exercise. All of those things impact how you’re feeling throughout your cycle. And the more you support yourself, and support your cycle, the better you’re going to be able to feel throughout the entire cycle. And there’s ways in your business using technology and automations that can help so that when you do have those days that all of a sudden at two 2pm It’s nap time, but you haven’t sent an email out. But having those systems in place with a template that you don’t have to go in and think about what to put in that email is always really helpful. Having a booking system where you don’t have to go back and forth and try and find a time to the point where you just want to throw up your hands and say forget it. This appointment is not worth this frustration or this level of you know, sometimes when you’re in those certain phases of your cycle, you just don’t have those, that patience to work with clients. So knowing that to kind of be like okay, I need to limit my bookings during this phase, or I need to limit to client interaction, I’m not I can’t do that, that front facing stuff that I can do the back end stuff. Oh,

Laura Kåmark
I love that. Yeah, I’m a huge fan of automations. And having a lot of those systems in place for the back end to make everything run so much smoother and easier on the front end. So yeah, I want to talk a little bit more about how we can use this in for an advantage for our business. Like, what should I be doing in my business in like my difference, different phases of my cycle.

Tiffany Souhrada
So in your menstrual phase, that’s really like your big picture phase. It’s winter, you’re thinking about all of the things, that’s a good time to declutter. And just get rid of the things that don’t necessarily feel aligned. But it is definitely that inner focus that, you know, big picture thinking. As you go into your villa philic your phase you start looking outward, you start looking at your creativity, your content, what what can you play with creating lists, and really starting to get ready for that doing phase, which is your ovulation phase, which is just go out and do all of the things. Your ovulation phase is also like your peak verbal skills. So really good time to have those hard conversations, to do video to schedule those podcast interviews. Really just understanding like, Okay, this is my doing phase, this is the phase where I have that extra energy. This is what I’m going to do my launch, this is what I’m going to run that webinar. And then as you go into your luteal phase, your energy starts to decrease again. So it’s really good time for that evaluation that review. If you aren’t on, you know where your period and you know, your your cycle is ending at the end of the month, maybe doing your tracking and your data reviews during that luteal phase not necessarily with the calendar month but with your cycle. So that you can really because you have that analytical thinking to really kind of go in and review what worked, what didn’t work. It’s another phase that’s really good for list making. The one thing I do say is do not go shopping during your luteal phase, it is a very easy phase to spend some money in.

Tiffany Souhrada
Really, yes.

Tiffany Souhrada
If you ever go back and look at your credit card statements, you’ll probably see that you spend a little extra money during that phase.

Laura Kåmark
Yeah, I’m going to check that out. Because I know we had talked previously. And we were talking about some course that I had bought, and you were like I program I join your like, I’d be curious to know what phase you were in when you bought that. And I meant to go back and check it I will because that’s absolutely fascinating. Yeah, that those those barriers

Tiffany Souhrada
of do I really actually need this? And then a lot of times, like if you think about it when you purchase something, and then you go into your menstrual phase, which is a decluttering phase, that buyer’s remorse, when it wasn’t necessarily something that you actually needed.

Tiffany Souhrada
In there, done that. For sure, you’ll have

Laura Kåmark
Oh, I love all that. Okay, so now how can we work in flow to like help us prevent burnout? We talk a little more about that.

Tiffany Souhrada
I think the first thing is really figuring out what your flow is. Everybody’s going to be a little bit different. Everyone’s cycle runs a little bit different. And the first thing like I said, is tracking is sitting down and figuring out okay, what is easy in this phase? What is difficult? And then seeing okay, this is a difficult task for me in three out of the four phases. I hate responding to emails, okay, I need to in my ovulation phase set up templates so that when I get those commonly asked questions via email or direct messenger, all I have to do is pull out my template, customize it a little bit and hit the send button. But because I did it during my ovulation phase, I know that what it says is good. Boundaries, booking systems, how many times are you so you just give in because you don’t have the patience to hold your boundaries. So that’s another really good booking systems. They are great for working in flow, because you can just send like, say, Hey, this is my availability, booking. You can also use the booking system to

Tiffany Souhrada
really kind of

Tiffany Souhrada
enforce those boundaries and give yourself that extra bit of space start During your deep luteal, menstrual phase where you don’t have that energy to present yourself forward. So really just kind of

Tiffany Souhrada
using that,

Tiffany Souhrada
as a web designer, building out your processes, so that during your follicular phase, which is your creative phase is when you’re doing the site map, the planning the design, and during your ovulation phases, when you’re pulling it all together, you’re doing the doing, and then you’re presenting it at the end of that phase. And then you kind of have where you have those verbal skills to present it to your clients. And then you have that luteal phase where you can be a little bit more analytical about what changes might need to happen. And then giving yourself a break during that menstrual phase, and then coming back to it, you know, planning out your processes in a long enough cycle, so that it fits with those your phases. But also considering your clients cycle. If you’re working with women who have a cycle, consider their phases as well, making sure that you give them if they’re providing the copy, or they’re providing the design and you were just building it out, give them the time and space that they need to work within their cycle. So that there isn’t that feeling of rushed on their end, because they’ve been able to work in their creative phase, they’ve been able to get things done in their time and space. Um, business coaches are kind of, you know, in that same boat, you know, service providers who meet with clients, yoga instructors, take the time and space to plan out your classes. So that during that those creative phases, do your promotional stuff during your ovulation phase. And then during your luteal on your menstrual cycle, pure yoga teacher teach classes in flow for yourself, you know, really, or really get to know your your clients and teach classes in flow for them. So that it just, it makes life easier. If you’re really just taking thinking through what it is that needs to happen when and knowing

Tiffany Souhrada
you have a plan.

Laura Kåmark
I love all of that so much. I think there’s gonna be some changes I’m going to be making in my business. I actually this year, at the start of the year, or in December, I blocked off one week, every month on my Google calendar. And it’s set on repeat till the end of time. And I’m calling it my SEO week. And I’ve always wanted to implement that in the past. And I would try to keep time blocked off. But then I wasn’t good about like holding that boundary that I was setting with myself and I would let let other things get scheduled. So I would be curious during that seat when what would be your advice for when I should schedule that CEO week and maybe let me give you a little more information on what my plan is during that week. My plan is to work on my business, get caught up on bookkeeping, do some content creation and like batch posting things. Just getting caught up on anything that like right now I’m in the middle of my CRM. This is starting my CEO week right now. And I also have a summit presentation I’m going to be writing and pulling together and recording. So with all that stuff like that feels like a lot of creative things that I need to but also I need to be taking a lot of action. So am I thinking that that needs to be my luteal phase week.

Tiffany Souhrada
So the creative phase is that follicular phase okay. That’s and then ovulation is that doing phase and they’re the ones they they’re right next to each other. And it gets it depends on what your energy looks like during your menstrual phase and your luteal phase. Um, you know, for me, I take the end of my luteal phase beginning of my menstrual phase off because during the other phases, I can do stuff while also seeing clients. So I do a lot of that big picture thinking when I take my week off. So for you it actually sounds like that follicular phase where you’re like, Okay, I need dedicated time to content creation to the doing the planning that the actual, you know, those parts of the process, not just the big picture thinking or the list making, reviewing, evaluating. So for you, I would actually look at like, depending on how it fits within your cycle if your cycle you know, is Like, like where you kind of feel that transition on like a Wednesday or Thursday. That’s great, because then you can plan it so that that week, because not all of our cycles line up to a calendar week line up to. So just using that kind of okay, I need to look at the end of follicular B, the beginning of ovulation to kind of see where I have that, that creative energy.

Tiffany Souhrada
I love that.

Laura Kåmark
I love that so much. So for women who are either like on birth control, so they’re not getting a period or for women who are no longer menstruating. How do they use the moon’s cycles to track like, what is how does that translate? So

Tiffany Souhrada
the new moon is like your menstruation cycle. So that’s that winter phase that’s big picture. Really kind of reset. So New Moon reset. And then your follicular phase is that like waxing moon. Your ovulation is the full moon if you think full moon, big energy. And then your waning moon is the luteal phase. So it kind of goes, you know, heading back to that new moon. And, again, nothing is like perfectly linear. So like, I think a lot of times, the best way to figure it out is to say, Okay, I’m gonna just start tracking start looking at this is another bit of information for me for my business. Also personal life, because those big energies like okay, if that’s what I’m going to play in the family vacation, because I’m going to be in a really good headspace for that. But so that’s kind of that that’s how it lines up. You know, if you were to use the moon, I mean, some people especially once they head into that perimenopause, menopausal you know, phase of life, the moon cycles are going to be a stronger cycle for them, they’re going to feel that energy shift with the moon versus someone who’s in the middle of, you know, their menstruation, you know, age range, where that’s the dominant cycle for them. But there’s other people out there who, who don’t necessarily even feel the moon, but they feel it seasonally. So it doesn’t necessarily work for you know, the daily day to day stuff, but they can plan big picture okay, quarter one winter phase, I’m in that big picture thinking I’m you know, there is some more that day to day and then the summer is when they’re going to do their big watch for the year because that’s that doing energy that comes from summer. Oh, I love that

Laura Kåmark
so much. Like it’s, it’s so interesting, because we are we’re all so connected to to the moon and the, the weather around us where it affects us. I know. I mean, I you know, I’m in California, we get a lot of them time. Like it’s, I don’t do well when there’s not a lot of sunshine because I’m so used to all that vitamin D. Constantly. But I mean, I hear about it from my friends who live, you know, in the very cold snowy places of the world, where they’re, they struggle with like the seasonal

Tiffany Souhrada
is a seasonal seasonal depression. Sad.

Laura Kåmark
Yeah. Where it’s, you know, it’s cold, and it’s not a lot of fun.

Tiffany Souhrada
I know last week, we had very great cloudy weather here. And it was it was a tough week. Like it was just us like I did not want to sit at the computer. I did not want to do anything. It was definitely one of those weeks where I’m like it is a minimum viable Action Week. So doing the absolute minimum I can to get through.

Laura Kåmark
Yeah, absolutely. So I love all that. Okay, so let’s kind of like do a little summary here. We have the four phases. We have our follicular our ovulation or luteal, and our administration. And in our flicky holy Keeler, it’s kind of hard to say, that’s our spring. That’s when like, there’s some new energy. That’s our creative thinking. I get that right. Yep. Okay. And then in ovulation, like we have energy, we’re gonna go do we’re going to implement, we’re going to launch our stuff. We’re going to get it all out. We’re going to cross all our T’s dot all our eyes. It’s like push go time. And then we’re going to start to our energy is going to start to deplete in our luteal phase, and then we’ll really kind of just hit that brick wall in our ministration phase and that’s also just like where we can sit kind of chill relax look look at the big picture and really do some of that big picture thinking big picture planning future planning

Tiffany Souhrada
yeah so like and towards like the beginning of your menstruation phases definitely big picture thinking you’re not doing anything you’re not planning you’re not you’re just thinking as you head into that follicular where you’re starting to get that creative energy. That’s where you start to plan those you start creating those lists. And it just everything kind of just like flows into one another. Like there’s no like delineation of okay, this is the I’m definitely in you know, like ovulation. I’m definitely in follicular Today’s the day. It’s more of oh, okay, that energy is coming back, I have more energy, I’m feeling more creative, I can do a bunch of the different things. And for some women, they do have that deep luteal where it is like a brick wall. It’s like the blast two or three days, or luteal phase. But they’re like, Okay, there is no energy here. And it’s okay to just take a nap. Step back and be like, Okay, I need a break. Because that’s when we push through those phases is when we start heading into burnout, because we’re working against our hormones. And that’s what creates the stress and anxiety and the things that lead to burnout. Because you’re, when you’re dealing with stress, when you’re dealing with anxiety, you’re releasing other hormones into your body, that then impact your hormones related to your menstrual cycle.

Tiffany Souhrada
So it just, you

Tiffany Souhrada
end up in a catch 22 You’re fighting yourself, I think, which is why it’s so important to like, take care of yourself throughout the entire cycle. And there’s so many different ways that we can do that.

Tiffany Souhrada
In terms of tracking,

Laura Kåmark
what would you say? Like, how would you track? Would you be like, Okay, so today? Are there certain questions you would ask like, do I feel energized? Do I feel creative? On a scale of one to five? Where am I falling? And like my creative juices flowing today? Is that like, what are the questions

Tiffany Souhrada
you would ask yourself? So I always start with physically, like, what physically how am I feeling? What is my energy level?

Tiffany Souhrada
Can I get out of bed easily today.

Tiffany Souhrada
Because there are some days that it’s just I get out of bed, I get to the computer, I’m like, done, all I did was walk three feet to the office. And I’m done. The tracking that so tracking my energy tracking what I’m eating. As I’ve dived deeper into this, I’ve realized that what I eat impacts because it has impacts on your hormones, it has impact on your body systems. So there are certain foods that work better with your cycle at certain phases. So diving into that and really noticing my luteal phase. I love sweet potatoes. And really just like diving into that and knowing that, and sometimes I won’t notice where I am until I’ve realized what I want to eat. Because your body has a way of creating what it needs. And sometimes, you know, the potato chip craving is just a potato chip craving, but sometimes it’s because your body needs the salts and the other things that come from the potato chips. So noticing what I’m eating, I’m

Tiffany Souhrada
noticing, yeah, how hard

Tiffany Souhrada
things are. I literally have a tracker that says today i and it’s just I just put like general. So today I did follow ups today I did my social media planning today I did whatever it is that I worked on, on say I created a landing page. And how hard or how easy was that task? Like did it take a lot of effort to do something that during my ovulation phase takes me you know, half the effort just and just really thinking about, you know where I am today is day seven. And this is what I did and this is the effort required in addition to tracking Okay, where’s the moon today? Where’s you know, I have my date, my my cycle day I have what I’ve eaten. Did I move? What kind of movement did I want to do today? You know, some days getting up and going for that walk feels amazing. Other days. It’s okay, I’m going to do a yoga flow. I’m going trying to just really relax into myself. Or I’m gonna take a dance class, I have that energy. And just, I track that, you know, what kind of energy what kind of exercise did I do

Tiffany Souhrada
that all just, it’s

Tiffany Souhrada
I’m actually in the process of setting it up as a freebie for people to get that resource. But it’s really just for me at like, I have, it’s like, my day in the picture in pixels. It’s just little squares that I color in. And that’s how I track you know, and you can go in as deep or as, I recommend not staying at the surface level, but going in a little bit deeper. But you can go as deep as you feel like you need to in order to really learn about yourself. And that’s, and that’s the first thing to do is learn about yourself. Oh, I love that so much.

Laura Kåmark
This, I love this conversation. Tiffany, this is so fascinating to me, I love finding ways as someone who is always trying to be more productive. My husband, I just had a conversation the other day is like, sometimes you’re trying to be too productive. We’re driving back home, and we’d stopped to get like a coffee. And then we were gonna go get gas. He was doing something I’m like, why are you doing that right now? Wait until we’re pumping the gas. And then you can do this thing. Like, I think it was changing out of like snow boots and flip flops. I’m like, don’t do that. Now. Let’s go get coffee now. And then when we go to when the gas is pumping, and we have nothing else to do for like three minutes while it pumps, then you can do something else. It’s like, you

Tiffany Souhrada
know, trying to learn to be productive. I’m like, I just want to be efficient with my time.

Tiffany Souhrada
Yeah, and as entrepreneurs, I think that we have to, we’ve learned that very early on is that you need to be efficient, especially if you want that balance of life and work and utilizing time as best as you can, I’m guessing apparently carries over into every element of your life. Definitely does.

Laura Kåmark
Oh, my gosh, Tiffany, I could talk to you all day long about this. I do have one question that I ask everyone who comes on the show. And that is what is one piece of advice you would give to someone when they’re first starting out in their business that would help them be bolder, be louder and make waves.

Tiffany Souhrada
So this is like my motto in my business. And it’s I remind clients all the time. The world needs your gifts. Don’t let technology hold you back. Because for so many people, that is the one thing that they get held up on. And technology is so supportive of you and your business. Reach out, talk to someone have a business bestie that can, you know, encourage you that yes, you can do your own tech. You don’t need to love it. You can outsource it as soon as possible. But you can do it Don’t Don’t be afraid of the technology.

Tiffany Souhrada
Oh, I love that.

Laura Kåmark
i Yes, that speaks to me so much. Something. Yes. So much. Hit me. Can you tell our audience? How can people how can people work with you? How can they find out more about you? How can you help? With all the work that you’re doing now? How are you helping people.

Tiffany Souhrada
Um, so I do work with clients on setting up their tech. So that to support them so that they can take time off. But I do also work with clients in a coaching capacity working with them to help them really get in tune with themselves learn their cycles, and figure out what that flow looks like for them. Mix of business coaching and period coaching so that they can really dive into that. And the best way really right now is to follow me on Facebook, Instagram.

Tiffany Souhrada
And website is coming soon.

Tiffany Souhrada
As I’ve pivoted I’m in the middle of a big rebrand. So that should be soon on the on when they’re listening to this. It may actually be by then.

Laura Kåmark
Wonderful. Well, I will link all of your links in the show notes. And thank you so much for coming on the show today. This was such a fascinating conversation.

Tiffany Souhrada
Thank you so much for having me.

Laura Kåmark
Thanks so much for listening to this week’s episode. Be sure to check out the show notes at Laurakamark.com/podcast. And if you’re ready to turn your website into a marketing machine, get more sales, save time and simplify the back into your business. Grab my free resource power integrations for your websites. Head on over to Laurakamark.com/power. Thanks so much for listening. We’ll see you next week. Bye now.