Please Take Care of Yourself and Your Family

My mom was in the hospital last week.

She’s fine, she’s home. She’s been having some health issues that we’ve been working on. She’s had several procedures to fix the issues, but it was bad enough that we took her to the ER.

While there, I started a totally different version of this week’s issue of the Email Marketing Ecosystem newsletter.

But after urging you to share your story and your real-life situations with your subscribers, in short, to be human in everything you do, it just felt disingenuous to write about something else.

Because we all end up with days like this, whether it’s a trip to the ER for ourselves, or a loved-one.

We all have times when we’re distracted from what we know we “should” be doing by someone or something we love, and we’re worried about.

Last Thursday was one of those days for me.

And it brings up a subject I don’t think we talk about enough as business owners, our priorities.

One of the advantages of being a business owner is that you (theoretically) have more control over your work schedule. You can disappear for a bit if you need to.

However, we all know the truth; If you don’t do the work, the work doesn’t get done. Especially if you’re a solopreneur, or the person at the top, from whom the rest of the work flows.

I think a lot of times, we feel pressured to keep going and prioritize our businesses first. It’s what pays the bills, keeps us going, and if you have employees who rely on you, keeps their bills paid too.

But because of this, we can push ourselves too hard.

I say this as someone who has done this in the past, to my own detriment. I’ve had to deal with those consequences and look seriously at my personal priorities, as well as my business priorities.

Now that I am caring for my aging parents, my priorities will need to change again.

That’s why I’m going to do something a bit crazy here…

I’m giving you permission to take care of yourself and your family first.

Most people you deal with will get it and give you grace to deal with the situation.

I say this having worked with many wonderful clients, customers, team members, and vendors over the years, who “got it” when things went south and were supportive of my decisions.

Will this be true all the time?

No.

Some people can be jerks. Some may have deadlines they can’t adjust, even if there is an emergency.

But generally speaking, people are compassionate. Many of them have been through similar situations (whatever your situation may be).

I give you permission, because so many of us are very bad at doing that for ourselves.

So please, give yourself permission to stop, breathe, and take care of yourself and your family first. Especially when emergencies happen or unexpected circumstances arise.

And thank you for giving me grace this week, to write about this situation, and to take the time to be with, and care for, my family.

I’ll have a longer, more business-focused issue next week.

Finally, this week you get pictures of my wonderful family. At the top you see my parents, sister, and I standing in front of the house my father lived in as a teenager in Pittsburgh, PA. The picture below is of me and my mother at Warner Bros. Studios.

---