🎙️ Val's Vibe - Episode 21: “Yes, You Can Have It All (Mostly)"

How do you say yes to all the opportunities that light you up — without losing your mind, your time, or your sanity? In this energizing episode of Val’s Vibe, Valerie Saunders shares her real-life approach to balancing multiple businesses, leadership roles, family, and fun — all while living life with intention and zero regrets. 

She spills her personal tips on time management (spoiler alert: no lists), the art of strategic multitasking, and why it’s okay to be like 7/11 — open 24/7 on your own terms. Whether you're a business owner, a serial “yes”-sayer, or someone just trying to juggle life’s chaos with grace, this episode is packed with practical wisdom and heartfelt perspective. 

💡 “You don’t have to do it all — you just have to feel in control while you do your all.”

Transcript

 Hey everybody, this is Valerie Saunders. Welcome to another episode of Val's Vibe. Today I thought we would talk about something that we probably all wrestle with. How do you say yes to everything that you wanna say yes to without basically losing your mind, your time, or your personal life. We all of course, wanna grow our business.

We wanna show up for our people, we wanna take vacations. We wanna hit that happy hour. And of course, we don't want to miss our kids extracurricular activities. But with the right approach, you can get close to having it all. So I thought what we would do today is talk a little bit about time management honoring opportunities and just basically living life with no regrets.

Just a little bit about myself. I am a terrible delegator. I also don't like to say no to opportunities. I do have three jobs. I have my title company, my mortgage broker business. I also have my position with the National Association of Mortgage Brokers. And. I like to do a lot of other extracurricular things and also if opportunities come my way, I just don't like to say no.

So in order to do that, I have to practice really good time management. And also be a really great multitasker. So I thought I would share with you some of the things that I do in order to try to accomplish those things. And so we're gonna start off with lists. I do not do lists. I know that some people are keepers of lists.

Everything needs to be on the list. In order to accomplish it, make sure that you don't forget anything. But my philosophy is not everything needs to be on a list. You know, I do take notes in notebooks or I will, if I wake up at 3:00 AM and something pops into my head, I will email it to myself so that I don't forget.

However, I do not keep lists. So this is my go-to trick. If you can accomplish it in other, in, I'm sorry, if you can accomplish it in less than five minutes, just do it right now. Don't write it down. Don't save it for later. Just knock it out. Whether that's responding to an email or a text message, scheduling a dental appointment quickly sending out doing a social post, whatever it is.

If I can do it in less than five minutes, I'm gonna do it right away. Then it's gone. I can clear that item out of my mental space. I can reduce feeling overwhelmed by trying to accomplish everything on a list. And then of course, I always have a lot of little wins throughout the day. Number two. Time management.

Of course there's no one size fits all. What happens to work for me might not work for you, and that's okay. The real win is figuring out what does work for you. Some people like time blocking. From 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM I am not gonna take phone calls. I am not gonna look at emails. I'm going to work on these tasks, whether it is speaking to my customers for files doing my social posts, whatever that is.

Personally I don't necessarily set aside a certain amount of time each day for a time block, but I do try to mentally carve out a space for what matters to me. I will definitely take time to do emails, client calls even just. Watch my guilty pleasures which currently is Law and Order.

SVU. Shout out to Law and Order, SVU but if time blocking just feels too structured or overwhelming, then just skip it. Don't feel pressured to fit into a system that doesn't fit into you. Productivity is not about perfection, it's about momentum. So what I do to be productive is multitasking, and I know that we've been told that multitasking is the villain of productivity, but the real truth is multitasking is a skill.

It's not hereditary. It's learned. So if you're not great at it, don't worry about it. You, you can train your brain to handle more than one thing at a time with intention. And here is how I do it. So, I would recommend you start small, pair a mental task with a physical one. Maybe that is listening to this podcast.

And loading the dishwasher at the same time. Also practice focus switching. Give one task 10 minutes. Then switch gears to another task that helps build your brain's flexibility and also use timers. You can do checklists, you can do or I'm sorry, use tools. You can do timers, checklists, voice memos, whatever it is you decide that you wanna do.

But whatever that is, it needs to help you keep track without losing momentum and. At the end of the day, if you can juggle, which I kind of feel like I can juggle a lot of things at once. That's okay. Great. But if you can't, don't do it. You're not gonna get a gold medal for multitasking. And there's absolutely no shame in being a single tasker.

Do whatever feels right for you. The goal isn't to do it all. It's to feel in control while you do your all. So, multitasking works great for me, but hey, may not be necessarily right for you. Another thing is to treat your business like a business. So, I am a small business owner. I do own two small businesses.

I have worked my, for myself for many, many years. We all started our businesses to have freedom. So, but freedom doesn't mean we have to stop showing up. I like to call myself 7/11. I'm open 24 7. That isn't because I don't value my time, but it's because I value my clients. I respect the fact that they have, are looking to me to help them with one of the largest purchases they'll ever make in their lives.

So, I have built these businesses and I want them to continue to grow. So if that means that I need to respond on Saturday if it makes sense, I'm going to do it. If it means that sometimes I will answer an email or take a phone call late at night. I'm gonna do it. But I'm choosing to do it. It's not because I have to, but it's because I love my business and I wanna treat it like one.

So, you know, being flexible doesn't mean that. I'm a doormat or I'm a slave to work and I don't have the ability to enjoy myself in free time. I just feel like I'm strategic. I know when I need to bend and I know when I need to shut my laptop and listen to some music. Go shopping, you know, whatever my guilty pleasure is.

Obviously mine is Starbucks, hit the Starbucks. I know when it's time for me to do that. Also saying yes. I said at the beginning of this podcast that I don't like to say no. I don't like to say no. If you hear me say no to something I really don't have the ability to do it. It may be scheduled at the same time as something, another commitment that I've already made, or it may just be something physically outside the realm of what I can do.

So I feel like saying yes to opportunities doesn't mean I have to say yes to everything, but when I say yes, I say yes with intention. I am really going to gut check it. Does this align with who I am and where I wanna go with my businesses or my strategies or goals in life? Does am I going to batch my yeses?

For example, social events, content creation, errands, I'm gonna stack them. That's to me all part of multitasking. So I'm gonna maximize the energy that I give into things. And also if I do say no, I will say it without guilt. Saying no to something that might drain me is really saying yes to myself.

So, I, you probably won't hear me say no too many times. But when I do say no, I'm gonna do it without guilt. And then finally, I. No regrets. We all wanna live our life without regrets. I've talked on other podcasts about my parents and, you know, my dad passed away last year. My mom is dealing with dementia.

She's currently in an assisted living facility. And I was the responsible caretaker of them. But I don't wanna hold back because I've, I've seen them have very thriving lives and then all of a sudden not, so I'm not gonna hold back out of fear or waiting for the right time for something.

If the right time is now. I'm gonna do it most of the time. The right time is now. Take the trip launch a podcast. Call somebody you haven't heard from in a long time. Start whatever thing it is that you're thinking about starting. You don't need to be perfect, you just need to start. We are allowed to build a life that's full of experiences, not just obligations.

Memories. We wanna make memories not check boxes. So, joy should always be part of the plan. So here is my final takeaway for this podcast. You don't need to be on call nine to five. If you want to be on call 24 7, go for it. You don't need to finish every to-do list to be successful. If you don't wanna have any to-do lists, that's okay.

And you also don't need to sacrifice your peace to grow your purpose. So, say yes with boundaries but don't wait to live the life that you're dreaming of. So that's all for today's vows vibe. I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please feel free to share it. Tag me on socials, drop me an email or a comment on this post.

But the most important thing is. I hope everybody just keeps grinding, keeps enjoying life, and you're always making room for joy. And until next time, remember, we're all just out here trying to live life like it's seven 11 open, ready, and always showing up. So thanks everybody. Hope you have a great rest of your day, and I'll see you again on another episode of Val's Vibe.