A Side of Syrup Podcast - EP 001: How to Say Yes Less

It all started by judging a Baskin-Robbins Master Taster Contest.

That’s where I started learning where the rubber meets the road. And that even if 75 opportunities come your way, you don’t have to say yes to everything. Especially things that won’t serve you. Learn how to take control of your own decisions and path by empowering yourself to say yes less.

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Show Notes:

Shannon Pfeffer got her start in Chicago working at PR and advertising agencies. She was really dedicated and open, so she got asked to do ALOT and OFTEN. This led to a lot of burnout and missing out on life. Once she took control of all of the yes’s in her life, things started to change.

Syrup isn’t just a framework, it’s a lifestyle. A proven method of balancing all aspects of your life so you can thrive.

Taking care of your body - especially your skin - through fitness, products, and the food you ingest are huge game changers.

Don’t let yourself be last. It’s okay to put a lot of things first temporarily, but don’t make yourself default on the back burner.

Resources:

Connect with Shannon:

Website: thisissyrup.com

Instagram: @syrupcoaching

Facebook: www.facebook.com/syrupcoaching

Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/syrupcoaching

Syrup free resources: thisissyrup.com/resource-library

Full episode transcript:

Hi! My name is Shannon Pfeffer. I'm obsessed with understanding the how and the why behind feeling good and translating that knowledge into strategies that help you live better.

Each week we'll dive into conversations about food, fitness, stress, career, and family. We'll learn from each other, feel more connected, and we'll explore ways to design a life you love.

So what are you waiting for? Keep listening for tips, tricks, and fun facts about feeling good, looking good, and living better. And don't forget to bring a snack. This is the A Side of Syrup Podcast.

When I look back at my career, spending close to 20 years, I often look back at the moment, that mattered most, the highs and the lows, not only dictated what I did next, but what I learned and didn't want to repeat again. The highs were countless, and I still have pinch-me moments of... Did that really happen? Things like creating a runway show for a brand new designer at New York Fashion Week and closing out a project well done with a few too many cocktails and a late-night swim with my entire team in Miami Beach. And I can't forget randomly running into Steve Aoki and The Cobra Snake on a street corner in Las Vegas during CES and hanging out with them all night... Yep, all of those things really happened, but with the highest were the lows or Why am I doing this, this will never help me get to X, Y or Z, there are a lot of these, as I'm sure there are with you and your career, or wherever you are in your life journey. But the one that always sticks out to me is judging a Baskin-Robbins master taster or ice cream contest.

Stay with me here at First, listen, judging an ice cream contest sounds completely awesome and no one should have any complaints about it, but here's why it's a low... Not a high... When I first started working, I didn't know I could push back on tasks, I did absolutely everything that was asked of me, and I didn't know how to do it... I figured it out, or if I really didn't know how to do it, I did it all wrong. And turned it in and talked about it and learn how to do better next time, because I kept saying Yes, I got put on a project after project, and fun fact, a hard-working intern and associate is a gift to any advertising or PR agency. With all my saying yes is, I got asked staff a Baskin-Robins ice cream master taster contest. This is where once a year, ice cream of fashion ads from the Midwest get to prove themselves to a room full of media, they know every single flavor of Baskin Robbins has to offer, and they could taste it and know it blindfolded. To witness what I did for the next hour with some of the most disgusting moments of my life, similar to a hot dog eating contest, contestants were shoving ice cream into their mouths at an alarming rate, and one participant actually refused to use a spoon and later ice cream on his hands and used his whole tongue to look each flavor off, looking his whole hand and sometimes arm clean between each flavor.

There were 31 flavors. Initially, I was also supposed to wear an air-conditioned ice cream come cost you while doing this, but I'm surprisingly very tall and it couldn't fit into the costume that would have been bonus so extra. I may not have made it 20 years in the field at the end of the event. In August in downtown Chicago's epic human-y, I walked back to my office and back to the other work I had to get done, so confused by just happened and making a mental note to not say yes to everything, so I wouldn't end up in that situation again. Granted, this was not even close to a bad work situation, just one I knew I didn't wanna be in again, it didn't serve me, and it certainly didn't dictate where I wanted to go in my life. This moment, although I was probably 21 or 22 years old, was the start of balancing my yes's, especially in the workplace.

I spent the first part of my career, as I mentioned, with my ice cream master taste or story, in the fast-paced world of PR and advertising strategy. I fed off the roller coaster of agency life, working on the future of one of the agency's biggest clients, totally made up, the fact that I had to cancel dinner with friends, again, prepping and pitching my first Super Bowl spot meant missing out on a vacation again. And pressing the new leadership team meant ending up in urgent care after working three all-nighters in a row, again, everything I thought was moving me forward was actually holding me back, I was successful, but unfulfilled, surviving, certainly, but not thriving, and quite honestly, sick all the time because I made everything and everyone in my life a priority and put my well-being last...

My aha moment actually started in a test kitchen of one of the biggest brands in the world, where I sat with the company's head dietician, making one of their best-selling products. It was a simple product. One, I thought I only had a couple of ingredients on that should have a couple of ingredients, but I stood next to her and added one teaspoon of sugar after another, and another, and... And another, until there were 20 teaspoons of sugar in something that the average person thought and was marketing it to, that this product was healthy, it was nowhere even close to that. It took one second for that moment of realization to hit for me to change how I perceive food and health, and I'll never look back. From that point on, I started a quest to read the research, investigate the claims, and genuinely understand package food, food marketing and what is ultimately good for us versus what we're told is good for us. Once you realize that there's no turning back, a change in habits and health naturally led to a focus on the rest of the body by starting with finding fitness that felt good to me, routines that struck that perfect balance of getting sweaty enough, feeling strong enough, and then limiting those day-to-day testers, those moments where I kept saying Yes, not only at work, but to those around me because I couldn't miss out or I needed to be a part of something or it had to be seen somewhere, all of that just slowly faded away and didn't matter anymore, 'cause I started feeling so much better.

When I said, No, and put up those boundaries. And then I shifted them to actually taking care of my body's largest organ, your body's largest organ to your skin. Once I started putting on the right products, healthy products, reading those labels, looking at those claims, I not only felt better, I look better to... Over the last 20 years, I've grown up a lot and I have created systems and strategies to feel great... No matter where you are in your cycle. Right now, I'm a mom of three very young children, and as I've grown into being a mom of three, I've realized the importance of nursing everyone in the family, and by everyone, I also mean the parents, being a present parent requires so much more than just physically being there for your kids. It's also taking the time to care for yourself. Over the past nearly 20 years, I've created strategies and systems to feel great, and I can't wait to share them with everyone, because it's easier than you think, it takes less work than you think, and just like me, once you have that aha moment, there is no turning back, when I started taking care of myself properly and nourishing myself inside and out, limiting these...

Yes, moments in life, it really made all the difference, and it allowed me to start living my life the way I wanted to and needed to... And this is what I want for you too. So if you've been away for a minute, come back, this is where it gets good. I want you to be able to limit those yeses in your life and start living the life you love, waking up each day to a life that excites you, motivates you and feels in your control. To get you started, I've included a design your life boost, a formula to get started building the life you want, it's all in the show notes for this episode. Go to this syrup dot com, p001 episode one. So today, you've heard my story, but this isn't really about me, it's about listening to your own story, where are the moment that you say yes too much? Think about it for a minute. It may not actually be where you think... Why do you say yes in those moments? Is it to please someone else? An obligation, something you feel you must do for some unknown reason, is it checking something off a list or a box or a bucket list perhaps.

What would happen if you said no? Full stop. No, no explanation on why. Just say no. It's really freeing the amount of control you can create for yourself by setting up these boundaries of what you let in and what you don't... The formula in the show notes goes through questions like these where you can really explore where you're thinking. So it's important to have answers to these questions, because if you say yes without knowing why, when you say no, without a reason behind it, and you can be wishy-washy, you could be the person who's in the middle who gives everybody... And maybe, personally, if I say maybe to anything, it usually means no, but try to stay in that camp of Yes or no... At least 10 opportunities this week. And see what that does for you. See how it shifts things. It could be very small. I'm not talking about a grand major change, but these small things that we all do for ourselves add up to that grand major change, so practice it, try it. Get back to me. Let me know how you're going, how it's doing. And once we start there, can keep building and keep going, I keep Designing the Life You Love, I hope you all learned a lot today...

I know I did. I also got some good laughs and memories from my flashbacks... Wow. And maybe I'll go for some ice cream tonight, who knows, maybe you might do it without a spoon. Anyway, thank you for tuning in and thank you for being here. First episode. Done and done.

I hope you enjoyed this episode of A Side of Syrup. If you love this episode as much as I did, head on over and read, review and subscribe so you never missed the next one. Also, if you know someone who would love this episode or podcast in general, send it to them to... Thank you. New episodes go up on Tuesdays. Thanks for tuning in, I can't lead to hang out with you again soon.