Our core values shift as our lives change. What are your values now? If you’ve been feeling misaligned recently, maybe it’s time to revisit what you truly want to prioritize! Be honest with yourself. Give yourself permission to rest. Acknowledge what you really want and need to prioritize.
In this episode of The Pollen Podcast, we catch up with Diana’s adventures in her nomadic lifestyle! She shares her lessons from her journey, including avoiding becoming a bottleneck to her team, plus her insights on time and energy management. Diana also reminds us to check our priorities and core values. Different stages of life will come with different values.
Listen to this episode and be encouraged to give yourself permission to listen to yourself!
Create your own creative entrepreneurship story of clarity, professional confidence, and profit. Join Diana’s 90-day group course Camp Clarity and learn everything you wish you already knew, like how to land dream clients, harness the power of social media, and make the money you deserve. Learn more here.
🔥 Here are three reasons why you should listen to this episode:
Learn more about Diana's programs for creative entrepreneurs like yourself.
Get an inside scoop on what the nomadic lifestyle is really like for an entrepreneur.
Why a regular check-in on your core values is an amazing reset for you and your business.
📘 Resources
Achieve the life, career, and clients you’ve always wanted (and fully deserve!). Join the waitlist for Camp Clarity!
Join the waitlist for the ASCEND Mastermind, a four-month immersive mastermind for entrepreneurs who are ready to scale their next mountain. ⛰️
Want to have one-on-one coaching support from Diana? Check out the brand new Voxer Coaching Container.
Attract your dream clients with my free masterclass!
Access other courses from the Diana Davis Creative
🎧 Episode Highlights
[02:23] Catching Up with Diana
Waitlists for both Camp Clarity and Ascend Mastermind are currently open!
Camp Clarity is for entrepreneurs who need to align and find clarity on their workflow, social media, and boundaries.
Ascend Mastermind is for entrepreneurs who want to expand their business.
Diana is also opening a new one-on-one coaching container via Voxer. This coaching relies on messaging, and you’ll be able to have daily support.
[05:03] Diana’s Adventures
Diana had little expectations about the nomadic lifestyle. This kept her open-minded.
When she traveled to Rome, she felt overwhelmed with solo traveling. As with new experiences, it seemed impossible at first.
Diana loves meeting new people and getting to know their stories. Listen to the full episode to hear about her adventures in Paris, Rome, and Chamonix.
When people reach a certain level of success and freedom, others may assume they’re just lucky and don’t consider their hard work.
Diana: “There’s luck and alignment, and I really believe the universe puts things in our path when we’re supposed to receive them. But also, I worked really hard for this. I’ve worked really hard for this.” - Click Here To Tweet This
[15:05] Lesson on Being a Bottleneck
One lesson Diana learned from her nomadic lifestyle is how to not become a bottleneck for her team.
Living a nomad life allows Diana more freedom. Her mornings are for herself, since her clients and staff are asleep due to time zone differences.
However, she has difficulty working from 4 pm onwards.
The time zone differences limit scheduled calls and create communication delays.
[18:37] Time and Energy Management
Diana’s current nomadic lifestyle challenges her energy between living on vacation and work.
Her lifestyle doesn’t have a routine, and she never feels grounded.
[21:58] What are Your Core Values Now?
We don’t always have the same core values throughout our lives.
For Diana, it’s currently spontaneity, adventure, travel, fun, and connection.
Ask yourself: what are your core values and what do you want to prioritize?
Your answer may change next month — just reprioritize!
Diana: “Tap in, ask yourself — what are your core values right now personally, not even in business? […] Where am I at right now? And those core values can change a month from now.” - Click Here To Tweet This
[23:18] Diana’s Takeaways
Be able to say yes but also be able to say no when necessary.
Be clear with your boundaries and let clients and teammates know.
Give yourself grace. Set aside time for yourself to recharge and rest.
Diana: “Customers are always right. But you can’t pour into your customers and your clients unless you have the energy and you feel rejuvenated and you’ve stepped away from your business for a second to really see what it’s like to come at it from a creative standpoint, to really come at it with a lit flame and be inspiring again.” - Click Here To Tweet This
Enjoyed this Podcast on How Your Values Shift?
We often think our core values will be the same throughout our lives. This is simply not true! There are stages in our lives where we need to prioritize certain things over others, and that’s okay! Never feel guilty or ashamed of wanting something. You do you. Embrace what you want and need at this moment. Give yourself permission to take a break and do what you want!
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Transcript
Diana Davis: There's luck and alignment, and I really believe the universe puts things in our path when we're supposed to receive them, but also, I worked really hard for this. So in our masterminds, the Ascend Mastermind, we had an amazing conversation about luck that we've all had people, especially men, think that somehow we lucked our way to the top.
Welcome to Pollen, the podcast for creative entrepreneurs. I'm your host, Diana Davis, multi-passionate creative, business coach, Gemini, manifesting generator, matcha drinker and travel junkie. I'm also the founder of Diana Davis Creative, where I went from a six-figure photography business to coaching creative entrepreneurs like you. If you want to have a career and a life you love, you're in the right place.
On this show, I'll be coaching on all things creative entrepreneurship, and you'll hear stories from fellow creative entrepreneurs that will show you it is possible to do life the way you want to. They'll share the nitty gritty of their journeys, like the real shit, and how they are doing it differently. I'm stoked to have you along on this journey. Let's go.
All right, an episode of Pollen recapping my lessons as a business owner, being a nomad in Europe for six weeks, I am still a nomad. I am coming at you from Denver though. I am staying in a friend's house. I still only have my storage unit, and I'm here for my retreat, which I'm super excited about. I'm actually so excited about. My team is flying in on Sunday, and we are having like a little team night and then, driving up to Steamboat the next day.
Everyone is arriving. We're going to be coaching and swimming and hiking and all sorts of fun stuff. I'm just so excited to squeeze people in real life. It's been such a crazy few years as we all know in the world, which is so insane to think about the entire world went through a collective experience. Okay, a couple of things going on in my world, Camp Clarity waitlist, as well as Ascend Mastermind waitlist are open. Those are two coaching programs.
One is a course more for entrepreneurs who are just needing to show up confidently on social, figure out their pricing, figure out their boundaries, figure out their client workflow, maybe revamp. I always say with this one, it's either a rewire or a jumpstart. You could be in business for six years and have 250,000 followers, which we've had both, or just be starting out, but something is maybe not aligned, and you're ready to rewire or jumpstart your situation.
Ascend is for my entrepreneurs who are a little bit further along in their journey. They are landing clients. They are bringing in cash, but they're ready to expand. They're ready to ascend. They're ready to get themselves out there into the world more to be featured more, to develop new products and services, all of the above. So, those two waitlist are open. Both of those are happening this fall slash winter again.
They have my heart. I love my programs so much, and I've been doing them for, let's see, Camp Clarity over two years now and then ascend, that'll be a year in like September, so soon. So, the other thing that's really exciting is I am opening up a few spots for a brand new one on one coaching container, that is Voxer only, basically messaging back and forth. It's like a walkie talkie app, if you've ever heard of it or never heard of it. It's super amazing.
I do it with my own coach. She's in my back pocket. I can talk to her anytime, and it's just so valuable to have someone be answering your questions as you have them, instead of needing to be waiting for an official zoom call, etc. Of course, we're gonna talk about boundaries in a second. But, one of the big things is, let's be real, I'm not going to be at your beck and call and be answering the minute you have a question, so let's just get that out of the way now.
But, it is a space where you get to have daily support in your business, which is really, really special. So, I'm only taking a few people for that. You can apply in the link below or on my website, but let's get to it.
So nomad life, I think this experience was more transformative than I could have ever imagined, and I really, really go into experiences in situations with no expectations. I try my best to just go in kind of flatlined, and I don't know whether that's sad or like, good. But honestly, it always makes the situation amazing, because I don't have this grandiose idea of what things have to look like. It's more of a, maybe we take away no expectations and say we're just open-minded, right, just totally going in open-minded. So, I feel like that's what I did with this European trip.
The first two weeks, as you know, if you listen to Mike and Emily's Lemon Grove episode, I was with some good friends, and it was more of a vacation, which was magical. That did have a little more expectations, because there was a lot of planning. We've been anticipating this trip for a long time. It was amazing. But, the journey really started when I went to Rome and did the solo thing.
I will say like, the first night, going to dinner by myself, was a little nerve-wracking, just because it was daunting. I was looking around kind of analyzing people realizing I was going to be on my own for the next few weeks, and seeing dates and friend groups and families, and really no solo travelers. It was daunting. It was a little overwhelming. I was thinking I'm never gonna meet anyone, how is this gonna work.
Even as far as like dating, it's just all very daunting. This is all new, right? So, I think this can be a lesson with clients, getting clients, dating, getting friends, finding new connections, it can seem impossible, and then all of a sudden, it happens. You're like, wow, that came out of nowhere. The client fell from the sky, or I met my partner on a train I almost missed or whatever.
So, I realized that mutual friends are really, really cool thing, both in Rome and Florence. I had friends introduce me to their friends, which was really life giving and fun to meet those people. You know you're gonna have some sort of connection because you have a friend in common. You have some sort of core values that are similar, and then, just being open to having conversations with people, going into a tattoo shop.
I got a piercing and meeting someone there and just having a conversation and asking where they're from and learning their story. So, I think my favorite part of Europe and this nomad journey was meeting people. I met people from all over whether it was American, they were going to school in Rome, or it was a traveling Argentinian tattoo artist or a new friend from Berlin on a retreat, or someone local to the city that could show you around or someone who used to live in the States, but now lives in Paris. You realize they actually grew up kind of in both countries and you never knew that about them and you get to see them in their element. It's just so special.
So from the Amalfi Coast, well, really it was Venice, to Slovenia, to the Amalfi Coast, then my solo leg started in Rome and then Florence, and then I went to Chamonix to the retreat. If you've been following along, Chamonix was probably the highlight place like I could live there.
It was absolutely stunning. The mountains are insane. If you haven't been to the Alps, like there's nothing like it. I paraglided in Chamonix, and that was magical. What's so funny, this could be a whole episode, but the pilot, they call them the tandem paraglider with you. He was hearing my story, and I was telling him that I was proceeding to travel for probably at least a year, going to Australia and New Zealand, which I'm doing in November and December, and just all these places, and in his French accent, he was like, “oh, you lucky girl.”
I was like, I mean, yeah, there's like luck and alignment and I really believe the universe puts things in our path when we're supposed to receive them, but also, I worked really hard for this. I've worked really hard for this. So in our mastermind, the Ascend Mastermind, we had an amazing conversation about luck, and also kind of the idea of being specifically the lucky girl, that we've all had people, especially men think that somehow we lucked our way to the top.
One of my clients is in the food industry has worked in many restaurants, really hardcore, a very male dominated industry. They kind of go, “so who would you sleep with to get here,” because you're not like vicious and come across as really aggressive, and so they think like, Oh, she's too meek to be here. She must have slept her way to the top, or she must have just had gotten lucky.
She must be traveling, because she has a trust fund that her parents set up for her. That is so far from the truth for both people that I'm talking about myself and my client and anyone in my programs, and there's also nothing wrong with getting a leg up. I totally understand that. But when someone assumes that's the way it is, it's just like we can correct them. I worked really hard to get here. Yes, there's always a little bit of luck.
There's absolutely privilege. I absolutely had a leg up even just by having supportive parents. They didn't support me money wise, but they support me. My mom is the most supportive person ever. Like, I lend her to my friends all the time. I could tell her how much money I made in a launch and she's happy for me. So, I've always been supported in that way, and I know not everyone is and there's privilege involved, for sure.
But when someone says, especially as a woman, that you got lucky, let's just correct them. So, that little tangent but paragliding in Chamonix was amazing. That was a highlight. Then, I went to Annecy and actually got to meet my clients, Julia of Groundwork Club. Again, she met me in Florence, and then, we had a little, like, three day, four day situation in Annecy, which was so fun, and just to get to hear her story, like she's French, Italian.
Her mom is French and her dad is Italian. They spoke both languages in the home growing up. She always learned both. She's lived in both places. She knows both cultures. She knows English. It's just not America. America is amazing, and the grass is always greener. But man, people have cool backgrounds over there, especially because each country is so different. So, that was really fun.
Then, I made my way to Paris, and it was actually a situation where a friend was supposed to join me and it was a whole thing and it fell through. I wasn't originally planning on going to Paris. It wasn't even on my list. I was thinking Tuscany or Switzerland. Paris was already booked, and I just flowed with it. It was actually maybe besides like Chamonix, France’s scenery, I think it was my favorite part of the trip.
I can feel it in my chest like I'm smiling so big right now. I just felt good there. The minute I stepped in Paris, my first solo night, first solo dinner at this amazing, I think it was called Dalia, D, A, L, I, A, in the second district, this amazing Mediterranean place where they were so nice to me. French, especially in Paris have a reputation from about disliking Americans and I just didn't experience that. My whole thing is like, don't be an asshole. Don't be a bro.
Don't be like a football loving American, just douchebag and maybe they'll treat you like human. So, that's just my opinion. But, everyone was super nice to me, and I had an amazing meal and just the feeling of being in a city again, just felt good. It just felt like New York, makes me feel and so Paris was a really good experience. I also met up with friends from Instagram, friends from New York City, friends that I've never met in person but I've had zoom calls with.
I've met up with strangers. I made friends with bartenders. It was a blast, and I have truly never been more present, maybe ever. So that was a wild feeling, and something to really tap into. But, my biggest lessons in business or maybe just takeaways, first of all, being the bottleneck of your team is a very real thing. So, I think one of the hardest things for me, but also an amazing thing, it was very double edged sword, was I woke up, maybe 6, 7, 8 o'clock, depending.
I'm not gonna lie to you, there were a few days where I partied a little too hard, and I was really grateful. I didn't have client calls until way, way, way later, as you do in Europe, mostly in Rome, just keeping it real. But, I would wake up in the morning, and everyone in the US, which is 90% of my people are asleep. So, it was like I was able to live this life in the morning until around 2, 3, 4 o'clock, where no one needed me.
No one was wondering where I was. No one needed anything, and I could go live a whole day, before I went to work. I would stand up paddleboard. I would go for a hike. I would explore Paris. I would explore Rome, book my tour for the Vatican, and then, go work later. But, I will say I do not work well, from 4pm onwards, like I just deplete, I like deflate. I can't look at a screen anymore.
Even if it's the first time I've looked at a screen all day, it's like, just that afternoon slump. Maybe, I need to talk to one of my nutritionist clients about this. But, it's just one of those things where my brain is like done for the day, so that was very difficult. I feel like I showed up and I coached and I did really well, like I am so jazzed by my containers and my clients, but it wasn't easy.
It wasn't easy, because there was only a few hours, maybe from 4 to 10, which is quite a few hours now that I think about it, but that we were all awake at the same time. So not only scheduling calls, less calls are able to be scheduled, which is probably good for my boundaries and burnout. But, my team would have questions at like, 2am that I couldn't answer right away, and they knew that.
That's a big thing is like communicating that like, hey, you're welcome to come on at this time of your day, because I want my team to have a flexible schedule, but you have to know I'm not going to be able to answer until the next day, and so things are going to be delayed. So, we really need to be on top of it if there's something that's timely. So, that was a big thing, how to not become a bottleneck for your team.
Because if you do have a team, you probably deal with this a little bit, like they're doing the work, hopefully, you're training them in a way where they're proactive, and they're three steps ahead of you, and usually, they're waiting on you to either approve something or get them materials or whatever the case may be. So, that was definitely just like a working lesson, and we're still dealing with that. My team is amazing, shout out to Alexandra and Maria. I just couldn't do without them, and I have such a big heart for them.
They're incredible women. So, that was part of it and just like the timezone situation, and then, just boundaries and time management and energy management, which I talk about a lot. Like I said, kind of same concept of you're spending a lot of energy, almost being a tourist or living a vacation, and then trying to pick up the energy again for work. There was a night specifically I remember in Florence where I had a full day already.
I had woken up at sunrise because it was so freaking hot. That was the other thing in Italy specifically, you had to get up early and take advantage of the morning or you just couldn't handle it. It’s so miserable to be out in like noon to two or really even later. So, I woke up at sunrise and hiked to this little town outside of Florence that was recommended to me by one of the mutual friends.
So, I had gotten up early and had walked for an hour, hiked for an hour and then, had a full day and then worked and then went to a Kiante tasting with this friend. She invited me out there. I took the train out to Kiante area and then they drove us to this Kiante tasting. So of course, we had some wine, and then the next morning, I had booked a photoshoot for myself with a photographer named Windy, who was in the States, or she's from the States and was in Florence.
That was at 7am. So, it was basically just this full, full vacation month, six weeks, whatever, of crazy, but also specifically in that, like, 24, 36 hours was a lot. My body burnt out, like I was sick, just with like, kind of a lost voice, and a little bit of a scratchy throat, most of the retreat in Chamonix, which was kind of a bummer. It wasn't COVID. I tested so many times, and it was just like my body was done.
So, I think a huge thing around traveling is the boundaries. You're always getting up and moving to a new place. You're packing up. You're never really grounded. You never really get a routine. I was eating out almost every meal because I didn't want to buy groceries for three days, most places I was like three to five days. Just not working out, because I was walking all the time, and I wasn't really able to find gyms or places that I wanted to work out until I got to Paris.
Paris was a two week stent, and that was really nourishing. I just got to like, be there for a while and like dig my heels in, meet some people even go to some restaurants twice. It was just really nice. So yeah, just being the bottleneck, showing up like on social, I didn't do that quite as much. I mostly posted a lot of my vacation stuff like I could have been promoting the retreat more etc, should should should, right? But, again, we live.
One of the amazing exercises that I'd like to leave you with, that a coach recently talked about to me, is what are your core values right now? Like, we don't always have to have the same core values. What are they right now? Mine are spontaneity, adventure, travel, fun, connection, and it's not downtime and relaxation, and even like really health. Like maybe, I gain a few pounds from being in Italy for two weeks, like, God forbid.
Maybe, I'm not getting as much sleep as I, quote unquote, should. Maybe, I'm burning out a little bit in my body, but God, it was worth it. It was so worth it. So, I invite you to just tap in, ask yourself, what are your core values right now, personally, not even in business. Like, what do I want to prioritize? Where am I at right now? Those core values can change. A month from now, we can go okay, where are we at?
Are we still at the same spot or are we kind of now prioritizing routine and health and maybe like finding a partner or whatever? So, takeaways, boundaries, energy management, really important. Saying yes, a lot, but also being able to say no, when needed. Then, also telling your team, hey, this is where I'm at. I'm off the grid today. I will answer your questions tomorrow, or here's what the timezone is going to look like.
So if you need anything, you might need to go to your other teammate and ask them first. Just setting those parameters with your clients and your team, and also just like giving yourself grace. Grace, maybe, for the few extra pounds, for the pasta, for not working out for not having such a packed schedule with work, for taking a day off to go adventure, and that doesn't just mean when you're traveling. That means every day, like take a day.
I dare you to cancel your calls in the middle of a week, like on a Wednesday. Just tell them a week before, hey, I'm going to take a day. I would love to encourage you to do the same. Let's reschedule this, right? My retreat’s coming up and I have a lot of people coming that have calls during the week and that's kind of the whole point why I did it during the week. I'm like hey, I get it, your calls are really important.
Customers always right, but you can't pour into your customers and your clients unless you have the energy and you feel rejuvenated and you've stepped away from your business for a second to really see what it's like to come at it from a creative standpoint, to really come at it with a lit flame and be inspiring again, right? So, I dare you to cancel a day of calls. I dare you to cancel and reschedule a photoshoot just to like, have a permission slip to other people, and also give yourself a permission slip.
Break a rule. Be a rebel. Be respectful, of course. But, people will understand, I promise. The Europeans have it right. When I was in Paris, everyone was just gone. Just notes were on the doors of very successful businesses, saying yo, we're out of here. Check back in September. In America, we would never do that. We would go okay, we'll just pay you a time and a half to work this holiday.
We would never shut our doors for two weeks or more. What a loss of profit. Oh my god. But, they know they need to rejuvenate like they get it. In France, just everyone does it because it's like the sheep herd mentality, right? Like you give permission to one person and it gives permission to another and another and another, and then everyone's doing it. In America, we don't have that permission. We have a lot of societal pressure.
So, this is just one of those brain to microphone episodes. I hope you got something out of it. I hope you enjoyed the journey. I'm here if you want me to elaborate on anything, personal stuff, business stuff, travel stuff, but please go do me the biggest favor, would love you forever for it. Please rate and review this. That would be so so helpful. Share it on social and tag me. Let me know where you're listening from. I would love, love, love to just say hi. So, see you next time.
