Purposeful Social Selling

Grounded in Gratitude Ep #142

Dec 19, 2022

The holidays are always crazy busy and crazy stressful. But there is one thing that can take the craziness down a few notches and bring everything into focus. And that, my friends, is gratitude. If you’re having a rough patch, like so many do during the holidays, it can be hard to feel grateful. Whether you’re short on funds, your loved ones aren’t close by, or for whatever reason – there is always something to be grateful for. And sometimes, this change in perspective can be just the bit of magic you need to make this the best season ever.

In this episode, Kristen shares a personal story about the first Christmas she spent as a newlywed and how even the humblest holiday can end up being the one you’re most grateful for.

Here are a few highlights:

  • The importance of focusing on what the holiday season means to you
  • How gratitude makes a difference in how we move through life
  • Why gratitude can be the antidote to comparison
  • How reflecting on past accomplishments can help change your point of view

Just like how we have bad days and good, good years and bad – this can also include the holiday season. If you’re struggling this season, it doesn’t have to mean that next year will be just as rough. Hopefully, soon you’ll be able to look back on these hard seasons and feel gratitude in your heart for how far you’ve come. Focus on those who mean the most to you, and cherish the time you have.

The biggest event of the year is back again! Business Reboot for Social Sellers is the brand new, highly anticipated training series to end your 2022 with a huge bang. Join Kristen LIVE December 26-28 for 3 days of intensive training to help recession-proof your business and show you how to turn your social selling business into a real financial asset. Click here to join in.

Thanks for listening! Do you have a question about network marketing? Kristen can help! Drop your question here, and she just might answer it live on the podcast: https://Kristenboss.com/question

Connect with Kristen:

If you’re ready to learn the simple process of running your social selling business online, you have to check out Kristen’s live group coaching program! The Social Selling Academy: www.thesocialsellingacademy.com

Transcript for Episode #142 Grounded in Gratitude:

Kristen Boss (00:05):  Welcome to Purposeful Social Selling with Kristen Boss. I’m your host, Kristen Boss. I’m a mindset and business coach with more than 15 years experience in both the product and service based industry. I believe that social selling is the best business model for people wanting to make an impact while they make serious income. This is the podcast for the social seller who is tired of feeling inauthentic in their business and desires to find a more purposeful and profitable way of growing their business. In today’s social media landscape, in this podcast, you will learn what it takes to grow a sustainable business through impactful and social marketing. It’s time to ditch the hustle and lead from the heart. Let me show you the new way.

Kristen Boss (00:48):  Hey friends. Welcome to another episode of the show. Today we’re going to rewind it a little bit. We’re going to be talking about gratitude, and I’m going to share a little bit of a personal story from a holiday season from 10 years ago that I still hold close to my heart every holiday season that I want to share with you. And before I do that, let me make a quick ask of you. If you have not left a review for the show or a rating, can I just ask that you do that for us right now? It just takes a moment, but it helps the message get out. It helps more people find the podcast and it keeps us up to date. So I would just so appreciate just a rating and a quick review. It doesn’t need to be long, but if you love the show and if you could share it with a couple of your friends, I would so appreciate it.

Kristen Boss (01:37):  All right. With that said, let’s get right into the story I want to share with you today. So the story comes to 10 years ago, my husband and I, we were newlyweds. We’d been married about six months, and we were living in this one bedroom apartment in Pasadena, California that was really close to the seminary where my husband was going to school. And it was actually on campus and there was no air conditioning. And I don’t remember if there was heat or not, but it was a really old apartment. I think it was in the seventies. And I remember really digging deep to find gratitude in that season, loving that apartment. And you guys, I love decorating for Christmas. It is my favorite. I love going to Hobby Lobby every season. Heck, I’m the person that buys Christmas decor at Hobby Lobby in July. Because it’s so great.

Kristen Boss (02:34):  My husband loves to joke. He’s like, how many Christmas trees do we need in a house? And I’m like, well, we have a bigger house now. So I see a lot of room for Christmas trees, and it was a huge selling point to have a lot of storage space in our current house, because I was like, yes, now I can have even more Christmas decorations. So knowing that about me that particular Christmas when we were newlyweds I had gone to Target to buy some ornaments for our little tree that we got for our apartment. And I really just wanted to make our apartment really Christmasy and warm and cozy, which is kind of funny, creating a warm and cozy apartment in Southern California because it doesn’t get colder than, I don’t know, maybe 60 degrees on any given day. And now I live in Colorado where it’s the other night it was zero degrees, it was freezing.

Kristen Boss (03:21):  So anyways, I’m wanting to make this really special apartment. I want it to just feel all seasonal, go to target, come back with a bunch of ornaments. I think I maybe spent $150, maybe a hundred. And I come there and I’m come home and I share it with my husband. I’m like, look at all these decorations. And at the time, you guys, I was not great with money at the beginning of my marriage. And it’s funny because now I really enjoy talking about money. I love talking about money mindset. And at the time, you guys, it was not good. And so my husband was like, well honey, we don’t have that in the line item for a budget. We can’t do ornaments. I was like, what do you mean we can’t do ornaments? It’s only a hundred dollars. I’m the queen of saying it’s only $20.

Kristen Boss (04:10):  It’s only this. So I was like, what do you mean that we can’t have these ornaments? And you kind of just sat down and showed me, he’s like, babe, you can have the ornaments, but it means that we won’t be able to give gifts for Christmas. It’s either ornaments or giving gifts. And another thing about me is I love giving gifts. Giving gifts is my love language. I love the experience of shopping. I get all excited when I look at an item and I think about the person I’m giving it to. And I think about the look on their face when they open it. I love giving gifts. It is so fun for me. It’s a creative process. I just love it. And so here I am with two things that I really love. Decorating my apartment and spending money on gifts for people I love.

Kristen Boss (05:00):  And it got to the point where I had to make a choice. And that day I went and took all of my Christmas decorations, a hundred dollars. It was that tight. We a hundred dollars of returns to target. And I remember feeling really sad and humbled and disappointed that we were in the place where we had to choose literally between ornaments and gifting, someone gifting our loved ones presence. And I remember that year we weren’t even in a place where we could do fancy gifts. It was just, I remember it being pretty simple that year, and I think I made some gifts that year. I think I made mugs that year. And I just remember that being really hard for me. And I had to really find gratitude that season. I had to really remember, okay, what is the holiday season actually about? And it’s very easy to get caught up in consumerism and the planning and the parties and the shopping and all the fun and the ugly Christmas sweaters and your kids’ programs that you’re doing and getting to that Christmas party and getting out your holiday cards on time, which reminds me, we got to get ours out.

Kristen Boss (06:14):  And so I think it’s just very easy to get caught in the chaos and lose the calm that you can create around the season and to lose sight of what’s important. And it’s not even giving the gifts but we, it’s so easy to get lost in our own consumerism. And so as I’m sitting here 10 years later I do remember when I had returned those ornaments at Target and it was just heartbreaking for me. I remember telling myself, it’s not always going to be like this. It won’t always be this way. One day you will be able to afford ornaments and gifts. It’s just not that way this season. And my husband and I were kind of in a season of between, I think we knew that he was going to be shifting jobs. And that’s actually when we knew, when we found out we were going to be moving to Colorado was actually 10 years ago.

Kristen Boss (07:11):  And it’s our engage-iversary as well, I think how long, 11 years. 11 years is our engage-iversary. So Christmas is a very special time for me, but this year as I was hanging the stockings and decorating my tree, I really thought back to that Christmas. And I find myself feeling a lot of gratitude for that Christmas feeling, gratitude for the experience of returning ornaments and really digging deep with gratitude and what’s the holiday season really about? And so maybe you’re, you’re where I was having to choose between ornaments and gifts, or maybe you’re in a place where gift giving is tight this year, or maybe you are wishing that you could give more and give better. And instead of beating yourself up and looking at what you don’t have or what you wish you could have, or how you wish your Christmas could look, or how this holiday season maybe isn’t panning out the way you thought it would.

Kristen Boss (08:20):  I just want to encourage you to look around and find something that you can be grateful for. And I know that sounds, it can sound trite, it can sound cheesy, but it really does make a difference. Gratitude makes a difference with how we move around in the world. And I honestly think gratitude is the antidote to comparison. And it’s really easy this time of year to be following all those Instagram accounts. And guys, I get it, it’s easy to look at other people that seem to have all the Christmas crafts and the recipes and the ciders and the perfect house. And it’s just so easy to think, man, I need to get it together and I’m so far behind, or I don’t have a nice Christmas, or I can’t have a Christmas like that. And we just get caught up in this comparison trap and it takes away our joy.

Kristen Boss (09:11):  It takes away the focus from what actually matters. So think about who matters and who’s around you this season and why they’re important to you and why they’re meaningful for you. Think about, you know, listen to this podcast, likely because you are working an online job on the side. You’re either selling a product or a service online. And think about your clients, think about your customers, think about the people who you are serving now. And I’ve just been thinking about how much changes in such a short period of time when you’re faithful in your service and you’re consistent and you’re grounded and you’re always filled with gratitude. And what would it look like to be filled with awe and delight as you look back on all the things you’ve accomplished this year? Instead of sweeping them aside and saying, yeah, but I didn’t hit that bonus, or I didn’t hit that paycheck, or I didn’t hit that revenue goal, or I didn’t get that number of clients, or we didn’t hit that goal.

Kristen Boss (10:09):  It’s so easy to beat yourself up. But I want to encourage you to look at your year and think about, well, what am I grateful for that we have accomplished, that I do have, that I have done? And get out of the comparison trap. Because when you focus on what you are thankful for, it truly allows you to enjoy the season so much more and your business. So that’s my encouragement for you today. And if you’re in that place where you’re choosing between ornaments and gifts, like I had to at one time and there were other hard seasons, but I just remember that particular moment in time. I know what helped me was saying it’s this isn’t forever. It won’t always be this way. That’s why you are growing a business. That’s why you are serving people. It’s because you do desire change, not just for yourself but for others. So think about that. Think about how you are facilitating growth and change not only in your life, but in the lives of others. So I hope you think about the things you’re grateful for. I hope you don’t lose sight what actually matters this season. And I hope you enjoy your holiday season. We’ll catch you in the next episode.

Kristen Boss (11:25):  That wraps up today’s episode. Hey, if you loved today’s show, I would love for you to take a minute and give a rating with the review. If you desire to elevate the social selling industry, that means we need more people listening to this message so that they can know it can be done a different way. And if you are ready to join me, it’s time for you to step into the Social Selling Academy where I give you all the tools, training and support to help you realize your goals in the academy. You get weekly live coaching so that you are never lost or stuck in confusion. Whether you are new in the business or have been in the industry for a while, this is the premier coaching program for the modern network marketer. Go to www.thesocialsellingacademy.com to learn more.

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