Strategy & self-care with Kasey Drier
Amidst the craziness of running a business a lot of things can fall by the wayside. Self care is usually the first thing to go along with your sanity haha. This year started off strong for Dazey which is amazing, but took a toll on me in other ways. I had a to-do list miles long and didn’t know how to handle it. I started to feel major anxiety but kept brushing it aside to get stuff done. I was starting to feel the beginnings signs of burn out, something had to be done.
Luckily Kasey Drier came to the rescue! Kasey was our very first Biz Babez member and became so involved in the community straight from the beginning. Taryn, my Biz Babez business partner, and I quickly began to rely on her and made her our Community Manager. She’s part genius, part camp counselor, and a F/T self help coach for boss babes. Kasey was literally made to do this job. She’s helped shape Biz Babez so much that Taryn and I basically consider her our third founder! We are now working with her on a new Biz Babez project, Bizzy, and she’s become an irreplaceable member of our team.
Kasey graduated from Stanford with a degree in engineering and worked doing project management for a fortune 500 company for many years. She herself went through burnout and realized while she was very accomplished, she wasn’t happy. She dramatically changed her life and is now a self care and strategy coach for female entrepreneurs!
Kasey has been working with Taryn and a few of our members on coaching and it has been helping so much. I thought it was so cool, but had been skeptical it would do anything for me. I was still deeply in denial that I needed any help until I word vomited all over her when we were getting coffee one day. The advice she had was incredible. She takes a very practical engineering approach mixed with some new age practices. It’s great for me as someone who isn’t super 'woo woo' but could use a little more meditation in my life! The very next day I told her I needed to actually hire her to help me manage and plan for Dazey as well as myself! We had two coaching sessions, one with just her and I and then one with my little team. I told her all I had on my mind and on my plate and she was able to write it all down and make a game plan on what my priorities are and how to get them done. Sometimes as a self employed person you really just need someone else to tell you what to do for a change! With her experience managing large teams for big companies she’s well versed in business planning. On the other end of the spectrum is learning when to relax and take time out for yourself. She taught me some great ways to prioritize my self care and make a lifestyle that’s sustainable over time. They were transformational and such a huge help to my business, schedule, and sanity.
As you know Dazey is all about transparency so I decided to share with you guys exactly what Kasey and I worked on and talked about during our coaching session. I hope by sharing this it can give you guys some insight on how you can better prioritize self care and manage your to-do list! We hope to do these “Private Goes Public” sessions on a monthly basis as I learn with Kasey! Also everyone in the world should hire her haha ;)
Below read Kasey’s notes and stories from our sessions along with some photos of her around Biz Babez. We also got some group shots of the 'Head Babez' I thought would be fun to throw in!
Kasey tells ALL:
Ladies, I LOVE Dazey LA! I love what it stands for; I love how it started; I love how it’s operated, and I love its founder. I found Dani, or rather Dani found me, through one of her famous Insta-story advertisements. She smiled at me through her big glasses and said something along the lines of, “You’ve just been targeted for this ad, because you believe in female empowerment and I think you’ll like my brand, Dazey LA.”
I followed her account, and it’s been love ever since. About two months later I became the very first member of Biz Babez, a Pinterest perfect workspace for girls who gram and female business owners who want to work for themselves, but not by themselves. I’ve become so obsessed with Biz Babez that I’m now the Community Manager and Strategy Babe. (BTW, we have BIG plans for Biz Babez, more details coming soon!).
One day Dani and I went out to a casual coffee at Verve, right around the corner of Biz Babez. As fate would have it, it turned into a mini-coaching session. Which makes sense, because I’m a self-care coach and business strategist who helps boss influencers, like Dani, set outrageously audacious goals; meet them, and IMPROVE their well-being along the way. One thing led to another, and the next thing we knew, we were working together to help Dani feel more energized; carve out more room in her day to do the creative and content work that she breathes for, and set DazeyLA and Biz Babez on awesome growth trajectories.
Sounds impossible, huh?
I promise you; it’s not. But, I understand why it seems that way. We’re great, especially in the U.S., at selling the idea that excellent business achievement has to come at the cost of sleep, sanity, health, and relationships. The funny thing is, and the thing that I help my boss clients reframe, we often have to narrow our focus; say no more often, and do less to make a big impact and big bucks! And that’s precisely what I’m helping Dani and Dazey do. It’s a privilege, and I count it as a blessing every night before I go to bed. (For real: every night I say 108 things I’m grateful for on my mala beads and Dani and Dazey are always two of them!).
As a coach, it’s a good practice to keep my client's information and sessions private. But one of the things that makes Dani so authentic, accessible, and lovable is her vulnerability. So when she asked me to write a guest blog about our work together, I felt comfortable lifting the veil for a very rare and candid look at what it’s like to prioritize your self-care while building two empires. At Dani’s request and with her permission, here are some of her self-care challenges and highlights.
First, Dani is genuinely one of the most confident people I have ever met. It is contagious and inspiring. She has an eye for design, detail, and marketing and the sister know it!
She is also a perfectionist. This personality trait has served her very well and turned her side hustle into the solid foundation of an empire. But, it also makes it difficult to let go of low-priority tasks that someone else can and should do.
That’s why the first thing we did together was discussed her goals for DazeyLA, Biz Babez, and her personal goals AND looked at her To-Do List. It’s a lot easier to let go of control, delegate To-Dos, and just straight up say “NO!” when we look at our To-Do List in the context of our audacious, amazing goals.
Dani and Dazey have HUGE goals. And I have no doubt they will crush them. Together, we prioritized the To-Dos and focused areas most likely to help her successfully achieve these goals. We reduced her To-Do List by about 25% through that exercise alone. But, there were still more To-Do’s than any one person, even someone as badass as Dani could accomplish in one year. So we started delegating.
Dani and Dazey thrive when Dani is spending her time being creative, big picture, and activating her Dazey Ladies across the globe. That made it pretty easy to figure out what needed to stay on her To-Do List vs. what things were ripe for delegation.
Once we got a sense for what we needed to get off Dani’s plate and onto someone else’s, we met with her DazeyLA teammates. One of the many things Dani has done well over the last year is to build a kick butt team. When we took a collective look at the things that still needed to get done and needed a new, non-Dani owner, as magic would have it, the activities aligned with strengths and growth opportunities for her team. Not only did Dani shrink her To-Do List, but she also increased her employee engagement. That is what GREAT LEADERS DO! Way to go, Dani!
Okay, so we slayed her To-Do List, what next? We added a new To-Do to the top of her list: sleep! Luckily, Dani is a pro-sleeper, so we didn’t have to make any drastic changes to her sleep routine.
However, despite getting enough sleep, and loving what she does, she didn’t always feel a spring in her step when it came to waking up. There’s nothing wrong with not being a morning person. But Dani wanted to feel more energized and excited about getting up in the morning. She admitted that she dreaded getting ready for her Dazey Everyday Instagram Stories. She also felt guilty that even though she loves Biz Babez, sometimes she still just wanted to work in a local coffee shop.
You wouldn’t believe the number of influencers and goal-crushers I work with who love being ready in the morning but don’t love the act of getting ready! Dani is in good company. Fortunately or unfortunately, getting dressed; doing her hair, and putting on makeup is part of Dani’s job. So rather than resenting that, I encouraged Dani to start owning that. I suggested that she think of getting ready as “clocking-in” it's part of her job….she’s getting paid for it! It didn’t reduce the amount of time she needed to spend on the activity. But it made her feel better about it, which is more than half the battle!
Finally, we addressed the guilt. I wish I got a dime every time one of my sweet clients said, “I feel guilty,” “I have to,” “I should,” or “I need to.” I’d be a wealthy woman if I did. Guilt is the nastiest energy vampire in the human feelings spectrum. It makes us feel bad and overcompensate for the silliest, most ridiculous things. Don’t get me wrong; I’m as guilty of experiencing unnecessarily guilty as the next boss babe. I am consistently working on it with my coach and therapist. That's why I am so passionate about helping my clients banish it!
It turns out Dani is allowed to love working quietly at a coffee shop and at the bustling Biz Babez. In fact, she prefers working at a coffee shop in the morning to help her clear her head and start her morning on a creative note. Then she loves getting an energy injection at Biz Babez in the afternoon when it’s time to collaborate and create content. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. She doesn’t have to be at Biz Babez all day, every day. It doesn’t mean she loves the community or the concept any less. The relief she felt when we determined this was instantaneous and very palpable. It was such a fun and rewarding coaching moment for me!
I’m so proud of and inspired by Dani. She is such a courageous woman. She is living her brand and carving a name for herself. It is a treat to be a part of her journey.
There are so many other things that Dani and I are working on together. This will not be my last post. But, it is the end of this one.
In the meantime, if you’d like to work on your self-care, here are three options:
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Follow me on Instagram for actionable tips and tricks @kaseydreier
- Take a deep breath
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Sign-up for free 30-minute self-care check-in with me (offering specially for friends of Dazey!)
Until the next blog, be well lovelies!
Love, Kasey Dreier
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