Candice Chavez Photo
Every year in the days before we reach Pyrois Media’s anniversary on May 31, I sit down and reflect on what the company has taught me in the past year. This year I’m shaking it up a bit to kick off Pyrois’s fourth year in business with a rebrand but since that decision came from lessons I’ve learned over the past year it fits here.
Without further ado, here are the four things I learned this year and a few things that will be changing at Pyrois Media moving forward.
Consistently Evaluate Goals
The further I get into being a business owner, the more I’ve learned about making sure I’m reaching goals and milestones I have for the company. I sit down often and look at my short-term goals and long-term goals for Pyrois Media and try to figure out how to reach them. This process doesn’t have to take all day or even an hour – since I do them regularly, I can look at them to see how we’re doing in 15 minutes or so.
Sometimes this task bursts my bubble when I’m thinking the company is on the right path until checking my sheet but it’s also a big help to stay focused. I used to check my goal sheets and evaluate every quarter but these days I try to at least do it monthly. That makes it so if I do get off the path I intended for Pyrois, it’s easier and quicker to get back on.
Hit Reset
The above evaluation has led to some changes in plans for Pyrois moving forward. The good thing is that whenever I reflect on said changes, I always find that I like them better than the path I was going down before my change in direction.
My most recent evaluations led to a rebrand over the last few months with both a new logo and a new website (feel free to explore after reading this blog!). It also includes a change in Pyrois Media’s aims regarding the equine industry. Pyrois Media is known as a horse racing company for obvious reasons since that’s where Pyrois started but now it’s time to reach for another goal.
When I sat down six months into starting Pyrois Media back in 2018, one of my goals was not just to be a horse racing company because I want to help grow the whole industry, not just one sector of it. I decided that the best course of action to do this was to get Pyrois running well in one discipline before fully expanding into others. Pyrois Media is still heavily involved in horse racing, but this year is a lot about returning to my roots in the performance horse world. If you’d be interested in using Pyrois Media’s services, feel free to give me a shout!
Find Your Perfect Organization System
You often don’t realize how much your system of doing something can improve until you find a new way to do it. I’m an organized person but after getting mad about spending way too much time on in-company tasks that stress me out, I’ve taken it to another level.
One of my first moves in our third year was to automate certain things, a move that immediately made life easier. I won’t bore you with other things I’ve done to create an organization system that works for Pyrois Media, but I will say that finding a system that works for you removes a ton of stress from your life and leads to a more productive day overall.
Focus On Yourself
Last year I wrote that I learned about how important having a schedule is and I’ve tried to stick to the schedule I put in that blog. Due to a few injuries and some family matters, this past year was also a lot about learning to allow myself to take more than just a day off every few weeks.
Because of the injuries and the procedures that went with them, I was forced to mostly take time off work for days at a time. Even though it wasn’t for the greatest reasons (I would definitely have rather been on a beach somewhere), it did help me realize how important breaks are.
When I worked in Australia someone mentioned how Americans “live to work” while the rest of the world “works to live” and that stuck with me though I haven’t always followed it.
After four full years in business and being in a place where everything (mostly) runs smoothly, I’ve started to finally practice what I preach to others. A lot of this year will be striking up a balance of not feeling guilty if I sign off after I clear out my to-do list to do non-work things, even if it is the middle of the day. This doesn’t mean that I’ll be unreachable or not willing to pick up a last-second project – but it does mean that I won’t consistently be adding to my to-do list to “get ahead” because I’ve learned that the to-do list will never be finished if you don’t force it to be.
For those of you who have been with Pyrois Media from the beginning – whether it be as a client or just a supporter, your support means the world to me. For those of you who have recently discovered Pyrois Media, welcome and thank you for joining us!
Want to learn more about Pyrois Media? Visit our ‘About Us’ and ‘Services’ pages. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me at Melissa@PyroisMedia.com.