Spoilers for "Encanto" if you haven't seen it yet!

Like most of the internet, I have recently discovered "Encanto," a magnificent film by Disney and one that should be on your must-watch if you haven't seen it already. Take that spoiler alert above seriously - I'm spoiling parts of the movie for you if you haven't seen it yet!

If you have seen and fallen in love with "Encanto" like I have, proceed!

The movie is so full of wonderful lessons for a beautiful life. But what about our businesses? Here are three really important lessons from Encanto for you - you magickal business owner!

You Have to Rest

How many of us struggle with the tasks of running a business, being a good friend, getting our workouts in, journaling our morning pages, eating well, getting good sleep, being a parent, a spouse, a partner, a sibling...Phew! I'm tired just writing that.

Luisa feels the same pressure. "I'm the strong one, I'm not nervous," she claims. She talks about how she doesn't ask about how hard the work is or how heavy the burden is. She just carries it. But...

"Under the surface, I feel berserk as a tightrope walker in a three-ring circus."

Eek! Her song's lyrics actually include a reference to the straw that breaks the camel's back.

By the end of the movie, she learns to take a break - oddly with the help of the donkeys she hauls around all the time (love that for her!). She really does learn that when she can "shake the crushing weight of expectations," she can free up room for joy, relaxation, simple pleasures, and more.

I invite you to reflect on your business from the past few months. What's draining you? Where is the external pressure coming from? Also, where is the INTERNAL pressure coming from? For me, internal pressure comes from the societal norms and gender roles that we all grew up around. The laundry is never, ever, ever put away at my house, whether it's mine or my partners (we've always done our own laundry) and you know what? It's ok. If it's out on the couch for three days, laundry doesn't serve my higher purpose, so I can let it go for a bit.

What isn't serving your higher purpose? What can you let go of?

The Things You Ignore Aren't That Scary

So, leaving the prophecy about Mirabel aside, Bruno's predictions were all pretty little. He could tell Pepa would freak out on her wedding day and let her know it was going to rain, but that's ok. Goldfish die if you look at them sideways and a middle-aged guy with a gut? Yeah, no big surprise there.

Sometimes we just know things about our business or our lives. "It's a heavy life with a gift so humbling," Dolores sings of her Tio Bruno, and if you're really in tune with your intuition, you may come across things that feel super heavy to acknowledge. You may also feel like the "bad news" is a bigger deal than in reality.

Does criticism sometimes feel really heavy? When you get feedback from a customer or client that's negative, do you want to run away from it like Bruno ran away from his family?

Sometimes little things feel huge. The next time you receive a negative review or criticism, I invite you to remember this simple truth: The Problem Isn't the Problem. This is something I discovered years ago. Often when we receive negativity or anger from someone, it has more to do with what's going on in their lives than it does with your interaction. Especially here in 2022, we have all been in a societal pressure cooker for years, and you never know what's gone on before your customer interacts with you.

That's not to say you should just stand there and take abuse! Do no harm, but honey, take ZERO shit.

There's a Filter on Everything

"I'm so sick of pretty, I want something true, don't you?" Isabela asks her sister after accidentally creating a cactus instead of roses. How many of us have felt the pressure to be perfect or pretty or Pinterest-worthy? The answer: probably all of us at one point or another.

Please remember that there's a filter on everything. That filter may be literal as in an Instagram filter, or it may be the internal filter that we put in place before getting online, creating a blog, or sending out an email. Most of us don't reveal it all to our audiences and clients. That's what makes it so interesting and novel when someone does! And even then, those moments of sheer imperfect honesty don't flood their feeds. It would feel too vulnerable to do so.

Remember that someone's social media is showing the highlights and that their website is a facade - it doesn't show the late nights, the major roadblocks, the missed deadlines, the failed sales calls...whatever you can imagine. It also doesn't show the team of people they have behind them. It doesn't show how they don't do it alone.

Do you need support in your business?

Send me a message via our Contact page and let me know what's up!