The Foundational Principles of Effective Leadership

Plan Better EventsSmart Event TipsLeadership InsightsPodcast

Dec 8

With Guest Elyse napolitano, Principal of Elyse Napolitano Coaching & Consulting

Elyse Napolitano is a certified coach and the Principal of Elyse Napolitano Coaching & Consulting. In her practice, she helps hundreds of clients build inspired teams while living their creative purposes. After completing her coaching certification and founding her practice, Elyse co-founded the nonprofit Bay Area Business Advisory Consortium and served for two years on the Board of the San Francisco Chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth. She also spent 15 years serving and leading teams in creative agencies, nonprofits, and startups.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

Elyse Napolitano explains the significance of “sprezzatura entrepreneur” (business coach extraordinaire)
How Elyse structures her strategic coaching process
Three foundational coaching principles you should know
Navigating the future of work
Elyse’s sources of inspiration, and how to overcome burnout
Why Elyse restructured her business

In this episode…

In dynamic hybrid or remote work environments, it’s often difficult to adequately separate the personal from the professional. So how can you structure your business and personal life to be a more effective leader?

Sprezzatura entrepreneura (business coach extraordinaire) Elyse Napolitano coaches her clients using three fundamental principles. First, she says you are your own most important client. By addressing your needs and putting them before your clients, you can serve them more effectively. Protecting and prioritizing your time and creativity is also crucial to avoid costly burnout. Lastly, identify key objectives for each client interaction to ensure you’re capitalizing on beneficial opportunities and creating meaningful contributions.

In this episode of The Kennedy Events Podcast, Paige Buck sits down with Elyse Napolitano, Principal of Elyse Napolitano Coaching & Consulting, to discuss coaching principles for entrepreneurs. Elyse explains the significance of the term sprezzatura entrepreneura, how she structures her coaching process, and how to identify and reduce burnout.

Resources Mentioned in this episode

Sponsor for this episode…

This episode is brought to you by Kennedy Events.

Kennedy Events creates stress-free conferences and events, providing expert management and design for all your corporate event needs — from in-person to hybrid and virtual events.

To learn more about our services, visit our website at www.kennedyevents.com and schedule a consultation today to find out how we can guide you in making your event successful.

Transcript

Below is an AI-generated transcript, full of all sorts of amusing foibles and mistranslations. Take it with a grain of salt!

Intro 0:04

Welcome to the Kennedy Events Podcast where we feature top marketing, communications and future of work leaders and share their biggest takeaways and insights. We love these conversations and hope you will too. Let's get started.

Paige Buck 0:24

Welcome to the Kennedy Events Podcast where we uncover the future of bringing people together through the eyes of industry leaders, whether that's retaining top talent for business, attracting your ideal partners, or retaining your best customers. We learn from professionals who have been there and done it so you can too, and I'm your host page back. past guests include Kim Alpert of Udemy and Sara Razavi of Working Solutions. Today I have Elyse Napolitano, a visionary and growth strategist to the entrepreneurial movers and shakers of the world, over the past two decades, at least has helped hundreds of clients, have fun, make money, build inspired teams, all while living their creative purpose. As principal of her coaching practice the sprezzatura entrepreneur Ooh, that Z actually worked. I'm proud of myself there. She works with lusty entrepreneurs to bring their visions to life answering the question, what does inspired growth look like from a business in this particular season of my life, her superpowers are helping companies craft a Smart Growth Plan, energize a brilliant team and facilitate offsite experiences that inspire uplift and lead to lasting impact? Before we dive in Elyse, today's episode is brought to you by Kennedy Events, Kennedy Events, create stress-free conferences and events, providing expert management and design for all your corporate event needs from in-person to hybrid and virtual. You can learn more about us at Kennedyevents.com. So Elyse, hi.

Elyse Napolitano 1:59

Paige hi. I'm so happy to see you.

Paige Buck 2:03

I am so happy to see you to and I love I love now saying this Brett's a Torah entrepreneur, and that name is new to me, I had to look up the definition that I found, studied carelessness, as the as the phrase that stood out to me, and it goes on to say like, especially as a characteristic quality of style of art or literature, but tell me why you chose that word.

Elyse Napolitano 2:28

So I mean, one thing you know about me is that my Italian heritage is something that I really enjoy celebrating through cooking and reading and visiting Italy. And so I really resonate with my Italian roots. And that word, of course, as Italian as as you said, it's fun to say that cetera. But what the image that comes to my mind, you read that longer definition said, especially as a quality of art or style, the vision that comes to my mind, the picture is like a woman walking down the street, wearing just a fabulous outfit, and just enjoying the weather smiling it you know, people passing by. And, you know, when you see that, and you and I, you know, both know, when we put on a beautiful outfit, and we're going somewhere that matters to us. That it's it. It's studied carelessness, right, that we chose each thing, specifically for the way it made us feel the resonance. And yet, the overall look is just something that kind of fabulously fell together. And so what I'm wanting when I'm helping my clients is for them to feel like that person walking down the street. So they they hold the pieces together in a really mindful, meaningful way. And each one resonates for them, and has them feel fabulous when we're talking about elements of their business, and how they're running their business, and that the outward appearance is of a beautifully put together style or art, this is your art your business, right is your life's work. So that's kind of I like having that image that's where we're all going is to like having this fabulous feeling. And having your your entrepreneurial endeavor be your art,

Paige Buck 4:21

but also like the energy underneath that doesn't have to be something you and I were talking about briefly earlier doesn't have to Instagram where they or maybe it is on the surface and behind the scenes we know there's there's real life happening and there's space for the real life

Elyse Napolitano 4:36

to happen. Yeah, so I'm gonna move my head a little to the left depending what the viewer says. And there's concrete being poured in my backyard right now. And as you know, we talked before this call, I was having trouble finding a place to do the podcast from because my I'm in the middle of painting my kitchen the house is pulled apart. There's paint in my hair somewhere. I don't know if you can see it, but At, no, I would normally at least put on a pair of earrings for this type of event or Experience podcast with Paige. But I'm in the middle of a lot of deconstructing and rebuilding here. I'm in the middle of what would not look at all Instagram. And there's a sanding happening inside my house. So from a noise perspective is kind of like where can I be? And so we know that that we know that there's always mess behind the scenes and how are we moving through that mess. And to me, that's where you bring stress petsitter back is its you cultivate that feeling, even when you're in the middle of a messy part of the growth.

Paige Buck 5:45

So I'm guessing some of that looks like making peace with it. Not trying to live up to the comparative Instagram experience.

Elyse Napolitano 5:57

Like I don't look like that right now. My Backyard doesn't look like their backyard. Yeah, right. There's this culture we've all cultivated. of, you know, you can have this lifestyle business, right. And I do think that's possible. And I've absolutely had times during my life, when I felt like I had a wonderful lifestyle business. I'm in the middle of not only repainting the kitchen, but disassembling my business and reassembling it because it got to a place where it didn't feel very spread, spread cetera. But I think we go through seasons. And one of the things that I really liked to talk with my clients about is right growth. Yeah. So along with the Instagram ready, everything. There's also this sort of cultural addiction around growth. And when we talk about our businesses, we tend to talk about how well they're growing. And so I like to talk to my clients about seasons. So are we in a stabilizing season or growth season? If we're in a growth season? What does right growth look like? Because as you said, you know, my backyard doesn't look like their backyard, or whatever it is, right? We all want different backyards. Right. So what is right growth for me? Or are we in a deconstructing, and rebuilding phase, so thinking about things in terms of phases, which gives you a lot more freedom to be in the mass? We're not always gonna be Instagram ready.

Paige Buck 7:30

And we're not always going to be I think, you know, we here in the Bay Area are surrounded by that, an extra layer of that, like Silicon Valley, you know, be 10x your business, this is scale, you're looking for the hockey stick, you know, when is that going to happen? And again, that kind of comparative, like, if I'm not doing that, then I'm doing something wrong. Or if I don't have like VCs knocking on my door, you know, which doesn't happen in most businesses, in most industries, most of the time, it can be confused, just like Instagram can be confusing, like, Why doesn't my life look like that? That all around us in our business lives can look confusing. So those are the seasons, you name it, we're

Elyse Napolitano 8:18

I'm sure there are as many seasons as our colors of the rainbow. But the ones that I've sort of honed in on that I talked my clients are about are stabilizing the business, which is I have as much business as I want. Right now I have the kind of projects I want right now. And I'm honing systems. Growth is I want to increase the number of clients or projects that I'm working with. I'm deconstructing is going up, getting off the dance floor, going up to the balcony, looking down and saying, Okay, what's really working here, what's really not, I'm starting to pull some things apart, and then obviously, rebuilding. Now, they're not so clean, right? They can all be happening.

Paige Buck 9:05

things all the time.

Elyse Napolitano 9:07

I was gonna say it's like July, and I'm here in my you know, it's July in San Francisco. And it's, I think, 55 degrees and windy. So the seasons do mix together. Not all totally clean, but I like for people to pick a season that they're focused on. And then really pick a check in point, somewhere between a month to three months later, to see how how the focus on that season has gone and whether they're ready to graduate from that season, shift, focus, do a start do a change of seasons and transition but I do like to have people do those check ins because I think otherwise we just get this crazy growth addiction. And so many of us either sacrifice financial wellbeing, or creative fulfillment in our work. Um, that old starving artists kind of mentality or, or we fill our coffers, but we're not filling our souls. And so really, if you're always in growth season, it's really easy to get out of balance on one of those areas.

Paige Buck 10:17

Yeah, I love that question. I'm thinking back to sort of other amazing principles and wins that I've gotten from you. And I realized that it's so so intrinsic now, like, sort of take for granted. Like, that was the least thing. That was absolutely the least thing. Oh, you're making me blush lady. I'm just thinking back to when I was first, you and I had already been working together. And I've known you for a couple of years as my coach, when I joined Maggie and Kennedy Events. And we hadn't formally done that we were just talking about what it would look like. And you suggested that we meet with you. So when we the three of us first met, there was an immediate Aha, about something we needed to learn to do together and agree on before we went forward. That was that really has been a saving grace and a like repeated lesson around boundaries for ourselves. And Maggie still refers to it now, you'll still be like, Oh, my gosh, we took this meeting with Elyse. And this happened. And this is the thing, and it's a story would tell the team about taking care of themselves. And that that success with a client doesn't mean like, you know, selling your soul to them, or, or letting them walk all over you. And that's not about like, whether the client is or isn't always right. It's about like, fuel, like protecting yourself. And you have a beautiful way of expressing this, I think you've like really refined how you express this now? Yeah, what do you

Elyse Napolitano 11:50

tell your Maggie? Yeah, and you and I both know that. One of Maggie's superpowers is her empathy. For people, she's so empathetic. And so when her clients are stressed, you know, she has to really take care of herself, in order to, to be at her best for the clients, because otherwise she can get stressed. So she's not paying attention to it. And that was one of those days, where she was getting a barrage of emails from a client. Yeah. And I don't remember if I said it quite this way. But one of the key principles with my clients, when we get going is this foundational principle of you are your first and most important client. And so starting from that point, there are a couple of things that I work with my clients to make inherent. And I feel very honored that you said some of these things are inherent now because I feel I feel excited to know that our work together how to get good impact.

Paige Buck 12:52

Oh my gosh, so much. So yeah, yeah. So you, you just read this, like, that's the first thing for you is the first protecting yourself as your Yeah.

Elyse Napolitano 13:01

Yeah, you are your first and most important client. And this is, I know, we're all tired of this metaphor. I'm gonna think of a better one soon. But it's the oxygen mask. Right? Yeah, I knew I knew where you were going? Yeah. Because you like Elyse oh, gosh, my only friend who gets out how much I dislike cliches about too cliche on me, and I did sorry, okay. Um, I am, that's my homework assignment, I'm going to think of a better metaphor, but it's like we are of best service, when we're in a great place. We think more creatively, we're less reactive and more proactive, and so we take better care of our clients. So you are your first and most important client, and you want to kind of have a list of what that looks like, um, that you know that you're in keeping those. So for me, it's I did I get to yoga today, you know, am I am I booking client meetings over my favorite yoga teachers time slot, that's a warning sign that I'm not treating myself as my first and most important client. So I have a little list of things. And that's customed to every person, you'll know what your non negotiables are, and what really makes you feel spread to Torah, and then you want to honor it. So your your first most important point, and along with that goes, your time is your inventory. Your time is your inventory, and your creativity is your inventory. So those are your two, and you really want to think about as like, inventory on shelves. Because if you're if you're using that time and creativity up on on something that's really the clients stress. Yeah, it's a it's a very poor use of your inventory. And that's what leads to burnout. Right? So Maggie was in that moment of like, getting this barrage of requests from the client. And she was her lovely empathetic instinct was let me take care of the pipe but she was sending way too much inventory out the door.

Paige Buck 15:01

Yeah, and I want to extend that metaphor a little bit, because I sometimes think I know I'm guilty of this, when I'm talking with other business owners and other entrepreneurs, people on teams in large companies can start to feel like that might not relate to them. But I feel like we apply this with our teams individually and together, absolutely, I still want and no, I will get the best from and be like, in integrity with the people on my team, if they too are taking care of themselves first, protecting their themselves as an asset, and their mental space and their creativity. And and otherwise, if you are just reacting to the random thing that your boss or your colleague is asking for, instead of pausing and saying, let's come up with a better way to do this together. So then you're just sort of like taking a baseball bat to your inventory.

Elyse Napolitano 15:58

Like, oh, there you go. That's

Paige Buck 16:03

just like what inventory, I just bashed everything on the shelves. Yeah. And I've seen that happen. And we've probably all seen that happen.

Elyse Napolitano 16:12

Yeah. So, um, you are your first and most important client, you know, what things you want to do to keep yourself well, your time and your creativity or your inventory, and you have to know how to protect and nurture those. The third principle that I work with my clients to make really inherent is that we work on honing and then really honoring a matrix of things that we're looking for in any project that we take on. So again, I'm gonna just, I'm just gonna, you know, make a little side eye on our culture here and say that we have this norm around thinking of the transaction as I do a service and you pay me. And so we tend to think of money being the exchange. But I encourage anyone who is working with clients and projects, any entrepreneur, to create their own list of criteria that they want to think about, aside from money, so yes, the client is going to pay you. But for me, I'm always really curious about what kind of relationship I'm going to have with the plan? Will it be a joyful relationship? will I learn new things, either by what they're doing? Or by the work that I have to provide for them? So is there an opportunity for me to grow and learn? What is the relationship? Like? am I contributing to something that's creating worth in the world aligned with my values? So what is my client up to so much fun to work with you and Nike, because you were creating these beautiful, you know, events, that were really meaningful experiences for people and starting with deeper questions, then what color? Was the decor gonna be? You know, really? What was the feeling going to be? How were people going to be inspired, uplifted? What were they going to take away? That was going to stay with them? And so having those kinds of conversations with you was really exciting for me. So my list is, am I going to learn something? Am I going to enjoy the relationship? Is it good for my brand? Does it work in you know, within my work hours? And then of course, am I able to deliver the value for my client? That makes sense for the monetary exchange on both sides?

Paige Buck 18:31

Yeah, absolutely. And I can remember, I think, again, this is more inherent for us now. But we did at one time have this enumerated and some of the things on our list were like, if it like, even if this project isn't going to make us as much as we, as we might want from a similar sized project, is it going to, like scratch a creative edge that some member of our team has, like, this gives this person a chance to lead a really creative project with a lot of design components that we wanted anyway, like, come on in? And that, you know, there's even been ones that have been like, we will get to do a project in a new space or in a new city, like, yes, just keeping things fresh and fun for us. Right. So

Elyse Napolitano 19:18

then you start to think about your projects or clients like mosaic picture, right? Yeah, like that. One is the highest paying one, but there's, you might be getting other cool things.

Paige Buck 19:28

What have you found? Like, there's a lot of discussion right now and have so much I think energy and really lovely like curiosity going into like, what will the future of work look like? Or Or how do we, you know, more pedantically like level set on we're working virtually, are we being productive? Are we communicating effectively? When do I need to be together with you? And when can I work effectively? With us like ping ponging? Have you been working with teams through this big, like sea change? And what are some of the things you've had to help them navigate?

Elyse Napolitano 20:13

It's an explosion of questions as you just named. And I think the answers are going to be pretty unique team by team. The, the one thing that is clear across across the board, no matter what you do is that people are really having trouble separating work from life. And, and having that boundary fall away, can be pretty overwhelming. So I'm really trying to help people figure out what makes them most effective. And then how so how do they name that for themselves individually? And then how do they as a team start to create norms for their teams? Um, I think that, you know, I've, I've used a metaphor with some of my clients around being a sports team. So people will do their workouts individually. Right. And they are training on their own and then they come together for practices and scrimmages and to play and really think about what is training that can be done individually. And where do you need to be on the field? And really just get clear definitions for that? Oh, no. And then like, when

Paige Buck 21:32

is when does training need to look like I'm extending that again, to be like, training me to look like a scrimmage? And this is where I'm like, it still needs to be synchronous work? Can we at least get on Zoom together? And like, you know, do what is with kids parallel play? And I'll periodically pop into you. Yeah, yeah.

Elyse Napolitano 21:55

Go ahead. No, I

Paige Buck 21:56

was gonna say you really named that. There's so much that so much that's happening with that like blurring or breakdown between work and personal. And for some people, they're thriving in it, like the blurring has been incredibly helpful, because it means I can go watch my child's soccer game. And but then it's like reconstituting what, what new rules or parameters need to be put in place?

Elyse Napolitano 22:22

Right? Yeah, every team is gonna have a different comfort level with structure and fluidity. And every person is and then as you and I have always talked about, we have introverts and extroverts and extroverted introverts and introverted extroverts. And we all have a different need to gather, right? So to me, it's really taking stock of of how you work best and really thinking about whether you're really thinking about what follows that second principle of taking care of your time and creativity as an you know, as if it's inventory, and then figuring out how to talk, talk about that as as a team, and look at ways for the team to get team play. And for individuals to get individual training time. Yeah,

Paige Buck 23:12

I really love that. I love that where what's Where are you looking to for inspiration and light on things like this?

Elyse Napolitano 23:22

Hmm. Gosh, that's such a great question. And I feel ill prepared in this way, or am I looking to for inspiration, I feel like the the I'm not doing a lot of external reading. As like, I know, I'm have it's been. It's been watching my clients, and even my family, you know. For our listeners out there, I have a 12 year old daughter and a nine year old son, the 12 year old daughter missed school terribly when we were doing remote learning. And really, we had to really work with her on keeping her spirits up and keeping her on our jet. One year old. His he was just as happy as could be his reading scores soared. As math scores soared. Because he was built to learn from him he would go jump on the trampoline, he would do everything asynchronously. He did his own thing. He invented things. He had cardboard and scissors and glue gun in the backyard all day long. And he thrived. So if I think what I I don't have a lot of communal resources, although I'm going to take this as a homework assignment page. But what I'm seeing is that this is a great time for us to all really check in with what does help us thrive as individuals and And how are we talking about that on whatever teams we're on?

Paige Buck 25:03

Yeah. And I think, you know, you don't have to pick this up. This isn't like, well, at least you need to go read five books, because you couldn't answer that question by pointing to five business leaders who were all written up in, you know, the Harvard Business Review last month? Because what I see is you, I mean, I think we both do this, like speaking in metaphors and illusion a lot. But you, you see patterns and things. And you. So like you said, listening to and watching what's happening in your clients, work lives and their teams and your family and, and seeing trends emerge from that, that shape what you share with people. Yeah,

Elyse Napolitano 25:43

that's I mean, that's what's got my attention right now is watching how people are trying to rebuild because it's, it's gotten messy. And I think the bright side of that, is there's this real call to action to check in, on what does have us thrive. And then talk about that.

Paige Buck 26:02

When, when you're very clear for yourself, when I hear you and others, like you say, what was the phrase you use? Like, you're just like, you're no go zone, right? That wasn't the word you use, but like can negotiate your non negotiables, you wouldn't be breaking a commitment to yourself, or crossing your own boundary, if you scheduled over that yoga class that you cherish. Where do you start with people who listen to that and go, Hmm. And you ask them, What are your non negotiables? And they're like, I don't know. Like, I just like, I, I reached down into that, and I pull up blank space and nothing like where do you start to learn what you need for yourself? If it's already gotten so blurry, that you can't see those anymore?

Elyse Napolitano 26:54

Yeah, that's a really clear sign of burnout, right? If you can't name if you can't call to mind, a 15 minute to two hour long activity that actually restores you, it's just a really good sign that you're in burnout. And so it should be, it should be top of mind, oh, I could walk the dog or take a nap or dance for 10 minutes. Or listen to my kids read out loud or read out loud to them. Or, you know, if you can't spill, fourth Paige, what would be so fun for you if you just had half an hour. And if you can't just, you know, adlib extemporaneously say all the fun things that you can think of, then there's a really good chance you're in burnout. And where I would start is pick some practice. Think back. Did you like to draw? Did you like, what did you like to do when you were when you didn't have to pay a mortgage? Right? And, and start, one of my clients was really deeply burned out. And we went back to his childhood. And now what he does is he he's added this coffee table to his space. And it has, I'm gonna say 5000 piece puzzle. I don't know if it's 5000 pieces. Maybe it's fewer than that. But it's this endless puzzle. And whenever he notices himself getting stressed, or feeling like he's over, over on the client side of the fence worrying about their worries, he sets a timer for 15 minutes, and he works on a puzzle to nuts. And that has been truly His words, it's really completely changed his experience of his workday is to have this puzzle there that he can go to and it's really soothing. So I would say pick something and start playing with it. Mm hmm. That's,

Paige Buck 28:41

I mean, that's beautiful advice. That's That's an awesome success story of just like a little win of changing something. It's not like, well, I hired a coach, and now I'm running marathon. And yeah, you know, I, what I did was set another big aspirational goal. And I'm just going going going,

Elyse Napolitano 28:59

yeah, yeah. And on that note, I want to say, I want to say something else, which is the teams that are having the most success with the virtual experience, or any experience really are the teams that know how to have fun together. Mm hmm. And so, um, as a result of this person's, I mean, he and I brainstorm this together, but we went back to childhood, what did he used to like to do by himself. So we went back to childhood, and that's what he came up with. And as a result of this, I, I have a team that has a game board, and they have listed their, their non negotiables. So one person after she drops her kids off her school every morning, she has a 15 minute meditation, and so ever, you know, so everybody has a list of five things that they do every day to take care of themselves. And when everybody on the team gets to at least four And then they get they. So they, they did a collective drawing made into a puzzle. We had the puzzle cut. And now they all have pieces of the puzzle. And they're mailing it. Uh huh. Business Owner. So every time everybody gets bored, then somebody gets a mail a piece of the business owner, she puts it up on the wall, she's making the

Paige Buck 30:23

puzzle. Oh my gosh,

Elyse Napolitano 30:25

I don't love her. But I mean, it just came from a lot of brainstorming and playing. And they're just having so much wonderful fun working virtually because they have this game they're playing to take care of each other. Right?

Paige Buck 30:35

I absolutely love I hate the word gamification, but I absolutely love the the shared leaderboard and you know, inspiration from one another and honoring each other spaces like that, because I think that is what's making. I cringe whenever I hear stories of like, people not making space for one another's things, or D prioritizing that, or, you know, I've heard of, because my cat today must have jumped up here five times, he's just decided this week that he needs to sit next to me. Never before Never before has this happened. What I heard early on during COVID have a boss who truly resented and had asked his staff, please don't have your cat in the room. Because I can see how distracting it is for you. And then I resent it. And I was like, I I'm so glad I have. I'm so glad that's not my experience. And I thought my team's experience of one another. And I don't need that around me. But it's great that you're like, you're seeing so many examples of people finding unique and special ways to, like support one another.

Elyse Napolitano 31:50

Yeah, I think I would rather work with people who have had their thing, right. charism Mm hmm. People who are starved for recreation or not much underwear.

Paige Buck 32:06

So you've kind of disguise yourself as being like a deconstructing phase, so that your business like serves you and you're not a slave to it? And do you have a sense of where it's going? Now? Like, what what the the deconstruction is gonna lead to?

Elyse Napolitano 32:24

Hmm. So how am I bottom line? This answer, let me, let me take a breath and bottom line. I got to a point where I was really doing well on my principles, treating myself as my first and most important client, treating my creativity and my time as my inventory. really honing and honoring my list of criteria for bringing clients in and then training the clients what it looks like to work together successfully. So they had all that information, right? I was doing really well. With that. And I, I, I let the mosaic get too big. So I got too busy. And I didn't notice that I was loving the heck out of all my clients and feeling financially rather successful. And I was taking care of my time, technically speaking, if you looked at my calendar, but I got so busy that I felt like I was running to yoga. And when you're running to yesterday, pay attention,

Paige Buck 33:38

or when in the last five minutes of yoga, you're like, how much more time do we have to remain and savasana? Before I can throw my sweatshirt and run back?

Elyse Napolitano 33:48

Yeah, a friend of mine told me that, you know, he would go to yoga, and then skip shavasana every time so you can get back to work, right? And I think it's teacher finally called him on it. But we do that right? We skip the rest. Think of it as a workout. And then we're like, I don't have time to rest. That's, you know, we were busyness on our sleeves like a badge of honor. Oh, 100% Yeah. And so I found myself doing that. And so I decided to take some time off and put everybody on pause for a month. And I'm really starting from scratch with my wheel of business. Uh huh. Um, what does it look like? And so that's where we are,

Paige Buck 34:34

and will you know, when you hit capacity?

Elyse Napolitano 34:40

It's such a great question. I

Paige Buck 34:41

struggle with this. So I'm curious.

Elyse Napolitano 34:43

It's such a great question. Um, gosh, Paige. I love that. You asked me that. Well, I know when I hit capacity, I think I think I'll tell you very transparently where I'm stuck as the I think I need about Out 10% fewer clients than I had. But I was being so careful with my filter that I love all my clients. But I want them all. And so that's why that's just to be totally transparent. That's why I put everything on hold for a month. Because I really need to go to the balcony and look at Can I scale back how I work with my clients? Are there people in phases where it's a great time for a pause, and we're just, you know, we're just running along because we're running long. So I really want to stop the action and take a look. And that's where we are.

Paige Buck 35:43

Right? So you think that capacity looks like 10% less than it was and then you just kind of keep checking in with yourself. I love it. I love it. Well, I It's funny because my I know the I felt like I know some of this about you. But so I'll just pick one of these questions which is lightly kind of like lightning round or quick, quick. Before we wrap, like one thing that you do to get centered or get grounded.

Elyse Napolitano 36:14

Hmm. One thing I do to get centered or get grounded. Every morning after I dropped the kids off from school, I just take a look at my calendar. And I say a little blessing over every meeting that I have. I'm like Oh, I get to see Paige today. And then my daughter's name is Ellery Ellery has a funny thing she doesn't she calls it Ellery cocker spaniel.

Paige Buck 36:36

And it's a wiggle.

Elyse Napolitano 36:40

And so I have my calendar open for a few minutes. I just sit and take a look at all the meetings. I do a little blessing. Well Ellery cocker spaniel. That's what we do. That's what

Paige Buck 36:49

I love it. I love it. It's also like a story framing because you could so easily be like, Oh, crap, I have that thing. But no matter how much I love that person, I have that thing today. And instead can be like, I get to have this thing today. And and now I'm gonna do a little Cocker Spaniel, shimmy. Pretty happy. tail wag. Love it. Elyse, where can people learn more about you and Brett's at her entrepreneur?

Elyse Napolitano 37:13

Huh? Go to Elysenapolitano.com.

Paige Buck 37:17

We will put it in the show notes. So you don't have to be able to spell it. It'll be right there for you.

Elyse Napolitano 37:23

Call me on the phone. If you want to have a chat. Yeah, cool. Um, you can put that in the show notes. My phone number is 415-298-2172. I love chatting in here. And people are up to I want to say this is you're not asking me this question. But where can people go to learn more? I want to say if you ever need a coach or anything at all, and you look at my website, and I'm not the right, Coach, please call me. I know all the good coaches and all the niches. Yes. So if you need a coach, and it's not me, please call let me give you 20 minutes of my time to find out what you're up to. I feel really protective of the coaching profession because anyone can hang up their shingle and say that their coach, and they don't need to be have any particular education or certification to do that

Paige Buck 38:07

sometimes even when they do they. It doesn't mean anything anyway.

Elyse Napolitano 38:11

All right. So I feel really protective about people getting to really solid coaches, know what they're doing and know how to do it and are going to uplift you in the process. So call me up.

Paige Buck 38:25

That alone is an amazing resource. And thank you, thanks for everything you shared. This has been awesome.

Elyse Napolitano 38:31

What a pleasure. I'm delighted. Thank you!

Outro 38:39

thanks for listening to the Kennedy Events Podcast. Come back next time and be sure to click Subscribe to get future episodes

Ready to Learn More About What the Kennedy Events Team Can Bring to Your Event?

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PAIGE BUCK

Paige Buck is the co-owner of Kennedy Events, a large-scale event management company based in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City. Our team creates stress-free conferences and events with a positive impact, which allows our clients to resonate with their audience. Kennedy Events specializes in producing flawless product launches, award ceremonies, fundraisers, and multi-day conferences while keeping our eye on retention and engagement goals.

About Kennedy Events

Kennedy Events began with one goal in mind—to produce high-level corporate events with just as much strategy as style. Maggie founded the company in 2000, found her match in Paige, and in 2011 the two became official partners. Since then, these two resourceful and brilliant creatives have pooled their strengths to build one one of the most the most sought after corporate event companies in San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles.